#headcanon heavy--and i don't really know if it's much canon at all. so that's why i'm not putting it the post itself--but i wonder if nadir

[oveliagirlhaditright]

So... I don't really know where to start this meta thing I'm going to attempt to write here? I suppose I'll begin with what prompted me to really think of this and want to write the whole thing: there's a new Buffyverse book that's come out, about a new Slayer (it's called "Sign of the Slayer"), and from having read some reviews for it on Amazon, I guess the MC falls in love with a vampire in it. And I should mention that I'm really not trying to knock this novel here. At all (especially since I'm sure it's a fine book). I mean, I haven't read it, so it's not fair for me to have any opinion on it as a novel at all.

My issue, however, is the whole the Slayer in it being in love with a vampire thing. And it's definitely not the first thing to do it. And that's my problem: that this is sort of starting to become a trend.

I'll admit that I got into Buffy the Vampire Slayer pretty late (namely because I was too young to watch it when it was airing). I think I first watched it and Angel around 2018, or something like that. And I knew from cultural osmosis that both Angel and Spike where characters who were vampires in the show, and ones that would be love interests for Buffy. And I just remember feeling before watching the show, "She's a vampire slayer and she has a relationship with two vampires? She must not be doing her job very well." And I felt like the show would be something like The Vampire Diaries, True Blood, and/or Twilight (Bella doesn't have two vampire love interests. Rather it's a paranormal love triangle between her, a vampire, and a werewolf, but you know what I mean)... when that couldn't be further from the truth.

Joss Whedon himself said that he felt that when he was doing the Buffy and Angel relationship that, yeah, it was a bit of a cliché: but it felt like one he had to do: one, because the chemistry between Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz was off the charts. And two, that it was just kind of too perfect, that Buffy would fall for the one person that she was meant to destroy.

And you know what? I definitely think Buffy and Angel worked, for the most part. Buffy started to fall for Angel before she knew that he was a vampire, so it was probably impossible to halt those feelings even when she did learn the truth. Whereas Angel is taken to see Buffy when she's Called to be the Slayer, and it gives him something to fight for for the first time ever, really.

After a hundred years of just wallowing in guilt because of the things he did after getting his soul, he now realizes he can do more--and try to make amends--by helping her in the good fight, and trying to help this poor girl who wouldn't have much of a chance without him, and who has no idea the things she's really about to face.

And when he sees her parents fighting about her that night (the first night she had to sneak out to slay a vampire), about whose fault it was their child snuck out, Angel sees himself in her--because his own life used to be like that. And he wants to protect her from some of the fall-out of what happened to him.

Then they meet and fall in love (partially because they can understand each other like no one else can, in that both of them are creatures who neither fully belong in the human or demon world. There's a demon in the Slayer, too)... the vampire thing is revealed, and they realize there can never be anything between them and try to stay apart, but can't.

They truly start dating in S2, and are happy, but then they learn more about the curse that was put on Angel that returned his soul: if he ever experiences a moment of pure happiness, he'll lose his soul and become a monster again. Which happens, because he loves Buffy too much (after one night of passion between the two). So Angel and Buffy become enemies, and when he eventually tries to destroy the world she has to send him to Hell.

He does come back a year later (with his soul back, after Willow restored it). And they try to make a go at it again, but they can't ever really be together--and deep down, they know they're kidding themselves and there's no real chance for them--and eventually Angel leaves for his own show, to continue fighting in L.A. instead of Sunnydale (after Buffy's given him the confidence that he really can do good). And they'll have some crossovers after that: always being there for the other, if the other needs them and connected.

It works because their story is tragic... and that they know a Slayer and vampire can't be together. There's also just something so deep and profound, that Buffy and Angel are perfect for each other, in that they'll always put the fate of the world before their own selfish desires--as any good person should--but that's the exact reason they can't be together.

But then, later, they try to do stuff with Spike... And even when I was more of a Spuffy fan, it still worked less for me and I was starting to feel that, "This is giving Buffy a bad look" thing (even if I get how people might argue it instead shows that she realizes the world isn't black and white). Like, writers, if you're saying that Buffy and Angel can never work/should never work because Buffy's a Slayer and Angel's a vampire, why are you almost acting like that's not true of Buffy and Spike, then? And the fact that this becomes Buffy's second vampire lover... like I could accept one, the way they handled it. But two? Really?

There was Buffy and Dracula stuff, of course, too. And Buffy definitely didn't have feelings for Dracula, as she was under thrall the whole time with him. But he's the only vampire she ever drank the blood of. And there was probably supposed to at least be a physical attraction, since originally they'd planned to cast Freddie Prinze Jr in the role.

Then in Boom's first Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU, Xander got turned into a vampire and Buffy wasn't sure if she loved him or not.

And people probably don't count this--and probably for good reason--but Ford was someone Buffy had a crush on before she came to Sunnydale... but in dying of brain cancer (and not wanting to die a slow, painful death), and knowing Buffy was the Slayer, he came to Sunnydale and made a deal with Spike and Drusilla that he would lead her into a trap for them if they changed him. And he succeeded in this... even though she escaped, and they of course didn't get to kill her, so they turned him, and Buffy had to stake him at the end of the episode.

In the "In Every Generation" series, Frankie likes a demon (Aspen, as well. These two Slayers are in love with the same one). But, I guess, at least that's a demon instead of a vampire to make it somewhat different.

And I'm worried the new Slayer in "Slayers" will be in love with a vampire...

I also just know that if the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot show would have happened (if it had been a sequel, instead of a reboot. Because if it would have been a reboot, I would have been okay with Buffy falling in love with Angel again. Even though I would have wanted it to be just Angel. Or Angel and Spike combined into one character for the aforementioned reasons. -shot-), they would have had her fall for a vamp, too.

(I haven't finished reading "Slayer" and "Chosen" yet. So far, I'm not getting the impression that Nina will fall for a vamp, because she's so anti-Buffy, but I could also be wrong. And maybe this could be part of her character development, in realizing the world isn't in black and white as she thought. IDK. I'll keep reading.)

Let's also not forget Faith hitting on Angel and Spike. Though, to be honest, I'm less inclined to count this... because I think we all know she really didn't want them, but Buffy instead.

But, I mean, can we stop? I thought our Slayer Buffy having a thing for a vampire was supposed to be special?

And now, for the heck of it, I'm going to go through any Slayer I can think of who has had a thing for not just vampires (but also those, of course), but a magical being:

The Slayer in the "Girl in Question," who was not Buffy, who slept with the Immortal.

In Buffy season 8, the "Twilight" prophecy is talked about. It seems like a Slayer was meant to have sex with a vampire for this prophecy--this was a part of the next stage of evolution--and they were then meant to evolve even more together (into gods, create a new world together, etc.). This is clearly Buffy and Angel, but I guess there was one point where a group of Watchers had thought it had happened earlier than this--and the prophecy was coming to pass--and they all killed themselves because of it. So was there some sort of vampire and Slayer romance back then (probably not. The comics at least make it clear that Buffy was the first Slayer to ever have sex with a vampire). Unless it was romance between these two (at least temporarily), and it just didn't go as far as sex. Or maybe it was none of this, and they didn't know that part of the prophecy (about Twilight happening because of love because of a Slayer and vampire) at all yet.

Kennedy with Willow, who is a witch.

In one of the Buffy "Tales of the Vampires" comics, this guy and this girl are best friends (it's also pretty clear they like each other). The guy gets turned into a vampire, however... He then finds out his best friend was a Slayer (this is after Buffy activated the Slayers in S7). The two of them are fighting at the end of the story, and it ends on a cliffhanger about who will win. But you kind of get the sense that the vampire will, and that he'll turn the Slayer.

Melaka Fray, at the very least, acknowledges after Angel has this powerful leader moment why her sister Erin thinks that Angel and Spike are hot, even if she still thinks she's a deviant for it. LOL

Satsu with Buffy, who is a Slayer.

Faith with the hitting on Angel and Spike, mentioned above, while surely really wanting Buffy. She also got with Robin Wood, who is the son of a Slayer and has some slight powers because of that. And I also swear there was something between her and Gigi in the comics, who was another Slayer. And that, maybe, the comics were hinting at something between her and Willow in the end.

Gigi: I feel like she and Faith had some feelings for each other (both of these girls being Slayers). And it also seemed like Gigi felt for her one guardian figure (it's been a while since I've read S8). Who was some sort of warlock or sorcerer, who ended up betraying her in the end?

Edit: And, yes. I get why some probably think these relationships work best for Slayers, because Slayers have demons in them and vampires and demons do too, obviously. Or because Slayers have super strength and these beings are strong like them and won't get hurt, and that's fair. (People also find Slayer/human relationships boring, the way they've been portrayed in the Buffyverse.)

But I still think Slayer/human relationships could be done (and at this point, it would actually be more original than pairing a Slayer with a demon): like look at how people love the idea of the Buffy Summers/Dean Winchester crossover ship. It can be done. It just needs to be done right.

[kalfui]

been thinking about aroace alastor a lot, in the sense that ofc this is simply canon and i wouldnt even BE thinking about it beyond a simple "woohoo this is fun, let's think about how that might have affected him and his relationships both whilst alive and after his death and fic and art and the usual joy of character analysis" if it weren't for the fact that it seems to be a flipping fight to just. Have that canon be acknowledged, which is taking up so much energy that it's honestly hard for me to enjoy him as much as I wish, considering this rep is supposed to be For people like me

and I think that's so much of my frustration around all of this, which IS mitigated by just finding a few chill people to follow and focusing on that -- but even then most of my "suggested for you" for this show is alastor x [insert any random main character] shipping/sexual content -- is that this is an offering for people to learn something new and delve into experiences that they may not have thought much about and the ones who know what aroace means, and in particular within the realms of how this character is being written within this particular very-sex-heavy universe (so, not so different from real life), by and large decided to just go "nah." people aren't interested in aroace experiences, and it's weird from a "so you just don't like a large part of this character's canon traits then, do you like the actual character, or just the OC you've made up in your head that happens to look like them?" perspective, but mostly for me it's that a lot of the way people talk/write about this it's like aroaceness is something that needs to be Fixed Somehow, and thank Goodness there's a neat little loophole that we can utilise in the form of "well sooooome aroace people do want to have sex and be in a relationship"

so many of the things I can't help but see, block, move on from, and in the ao3 alastor tag (which, it's frankly wild to me that aroace alastor has to be a specific tag, because so much of it ISN'T that, and even then we have to sift) is either just the equivalent of going "lalalala if I don't think about the aroaceness it's not real" or the even more disturbing "now how do we fix this so that the ace character can still fuck somehow." it's really creepy, and very much how people talk about aspec people irl. it's just incredibly poor taste and shows that this community is still so invisible

people really ought to think more about why this is such an important hill for them to die on that they want to Fix aroaceness in one of the only genre-fiction characters to be canonically such, ON a show where every other character enthusiastically enjoys sex and most of them are in established relationships or various slowburns -- why is the character that is not interested the one that is shipped with every other character to such an extreme?

I feel like anyone writing an aroace alastor that mysteriously can be compelled into sex and a romantic relationship needs to give me a 3000 page essay on the history and philosophy of aspec identities with a special section on aroace representation in media

but ultimately it's just a "look. please be kinder. if you look in our sandbox we have barely any toys, why are you coming into this sandbox to take more of them and then rubbing our faces in it and THEN being rude to aspec people when we say it makes many of us uncomfortable to be sidelined like this?"

I keep thinking of that one screenshot that was going around tumblr of the person who wrote straight brokeback mountain fic that everyone was going WTF about. why is it alright to "headcanon" away canon aroaceness (and mock people who point out its canonicity), but it's largely agreed to be in poor taste to do so with other canonically established queer identities?

I get fandom's not activism, but it sure sometimes can be a yardstick for how much I'd trust people to respect me irl, when I cannot enjoy aroace escapism without being talked over/mocked/yelled at AND having aspec theories appropriated without any understanding of what they actually mean or how they apply -- this history and community is a part of my life, and it's like people are just traipsing mud through it with the lack of respect for it (as lucifer would say "you come into MY house bitch???")

(apologies this got long. you don't have to post if you don't want to, I get that it could be inflammatory and don't want to put that on you, I've just been needing to vent. I just feel like I'm going a bit crazy with how nigh-impossible it is to avoid this -- why am I the one who's having to make all that extra effort to enjoy a character written with my community in mind? don't y'all have enough toys???)

Don't apologize, I absolutely love reading how others feel about this situation, and I completely agree.

I think it's sad how people don't want to think about a characters aroaceness and how it affects them and instead just throw that part of them out of the window. I think it's even more interesting since Alastor canonically thinks that he's straight, but hasn't found the right one yet.

"Headcanoning" a canonically aroace character a different sexuality is so.. I don't even have a word it. Many people "headcanon" Alastor a different sexuality, but keep it canon when it's Angel Dust or Vaggie. Personally, I think it stems from aphobia. Just like you mentioned, people feel the need to "fix" aroace characters, like their sexuality is a messed up or broken part of them. It reminds me of when I used to hear teachers talk about how everyone will someday find love, and the ones who don't will have a huge gap in their heart and be empty. It's quite terrifying just how similar it is. The fact that he, as the only confirmed aroace character, is shipped the most, too, is quite saddening.

It's disturbing how they search and search for stuff to use as excuses when they ship aroace characters. "Aroace people can still date," "It's just headcanons," "Alastor is not canonically aro," and so on.

Ao3 scares me, especially with characters like Alastor. You don't even wanna know how many times I've seen people say, "I know Alastor is aroace, but we'll just ignore that" in fics. Most of the time, they even change his character completely, and he's so out of character.

It also kinda disgusts me with the stuff people say about Alastor, I can be scrolling on Tumblr and a post comes up saying how Alastor would fuck the living shit out of you and it's so fucking disturbing and graphic, I guess this is just how it is generally when people talk about fan favorite characters, but when it's an aroace character too, like.. no, he wouldn't do any of that.. It's so weird. This is what people care about, sexualizing. They don't even seem to care how much of a complex character he actually is, but only how he would be during sex, and it's quite disturbing that most of the time he is the victim to these type of comments.

And, with the amount of hate I've gotten from tiktokers in my comment replies saying how either Alastor isn't aro, how he's just fictional and it's not erasing any representation by shipping him, how aroace people can still date, how Viv allowed them to ship him, and even saying that it's okay to ship him because he's a stereotype and bad rep (???) and whatever else they have to say, I quite literally do not care. I'm not gonna be humiliated into silence, I'm not ashamed about the fact I'm trying to keep these crumbs of representation we have left. "Boohoo, you talk too much about Alastor being aroace," and I'll continue, I think that's a lovely and very interesting part about his character, especially from the time period is from, and the fact he's unaware too.

it's kinda sad how a lot of people don't even know that he's aro, I wouldn't either since all the fandom does with him is ship him. There are so many other relationships people could dive into, Husk and Angel Dust, Charlie and Vaggie, Vox and Valentino, and many more, but yet they go for the aroace character.. Also the fact that since the pilot the character he's mostly been shipped with is Angel, a character who makes a lot of sexual remarks towards Alastor which he very obviously feels repulsed and disgusted by, is kinda just.. where's the appeal when he's clearly disgusted? Is that part of it? I'm glad that there is a side of this fandom where people actually love him for his character and not just because he's attractive.

Other than that, I'm very glad the show itself knows how to show he can have meaningful friendships and platonic relationships with people, such as Rosie, and didn't make him an edgelord that hates everyone and doesn't have friends for some random reason.

Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts with me, I enjoyed reading through it, and again, I completely agree. I just hope the fandom could realize he's a lovely character and that him being aroace is just a part of him like it is of us.

[carlyraejepsans]

Oh! What are your headcanons for frisk? I know we don't know much about them in canon so it's hard to extrapolate but I'm still curious

oh sure! mind, these are all personal headcanon, as there isn't all that much canon info i can go off of, HAHAHA

obviously I don't think frisk had a happy home life, just like chara. but while chara's abuse was more active, i think frisk's abuse came from neglect rather than outright hostility or violence from the people around them. maybe they were a single, unwanted child. maybe they were among the last of many, many siblings. too many to be notable... or missed. so they left.

by the time the game starts, they've already been living on the streets (of the city that became of the village of the humans that chara was born in) for a few years. they get by with their wits. i think they're VERY clever, unnaturally so for their age, and judging from their ability to talk/charm themself into and out of anything in the game, they probably refined that skill for survival (you make yourself liked enough, people are quicker to show you kindness. leftover food, a dry shop window to sleep in at night, some used clothes).

undertale itself raises the question of why frisk climbed Mt Ebott. i like the idea that it was a force outside of themself. like a sudden, SOUL deep tension that would only release if they followed the call. an intrinsic certainty that, somewhere, somehow, someone really needed them. maybe it was fate. maybe it wasn't. maybe they were tied to chara's spirit long before they ever fell (by blood, as a long descendant? by magic? both?) and they were reacting to flowey calling out for them. point is, they felt the instinct, and they followed it.

because here's the thing: in my take on this, frisk desperately wants to be needed. that's what ties them so closely to chara. going with the more literal interpretation of them as a ghost, chara still has unfinished business in the underground. they haunt their former home, much like flowey did, and they NEED to see more of it, they just can't let it go. and they can't do it without frisk. they need them. so frisk goes along, because FINALLY, they're needed. that's why they reset at the end and try again, that's why they keep returning to the underground. but of course, chara isn't the only undertale character who needs frisk. the entirety of monsterkind does, and the entirety of monsterkind gets better thanks to their intervention. flowey, too. asriel, too. that's what resolves chara's unfinished business and allows them to finally let go (i mean... as long as YOU do, too, of course :])

and this is precisely the reason I'm not a fan of making frisk traumatized by their experiences in the underground. having leftover baggage from before they came? love that. but the whole point of their journey, to me, is that they were the single most powerful being in the entire story. the amount of liberties they could take, with their actions, with their words, with their own person, due to the sheer scale of power they had on everything else.. sure there was violence, and fear, and adventures and misadventures and betrayals, but when you can literally control time, i think that was almost euphoric for them.

after the life they used to lead, i like to think frisk saw their experiences in the underground as positive. no more powerlessness. no more loneliness. finally in (shared) control of their life. was it maladaptive as hell? yeah! but it was better than nothing! and if you've been following me for more than a month, you'll know by now that i am obsessed with the idea of a post pacifist, reset-heavy frisk freaking out AFTER their happy ever after, when chara doesn't follow them out of mt ebott and takes the SAVE power along with them (which is... kinda what happens in the game). being back to square one would mess them Up. fortunately, they now have a whole support system of family and friends who love them to make them feel needed and safe. it's gonna take some work, but man. it's gonna be worth it.

[hrodvitnon]

I once joked about this with a meatspace friend, but with the cyclical nature of SIGNALIS and how - according to Adler - every cycle things change or are removed or added, there's probably a cycle where Elster is forced into a party of Replika survivors and everyone has to deal with some level of canon-typical nonsense on top of Elster being Elster.

The STCR on Level 2 is like "No new orders are coming and I'm sick of sitting on my ass, so fuck it" and won't put up with Elster's lone wolf schtick (and also demands to know what the fuck some random Gestalt (Isa) is doing wandering around the facility, and also why is Elster letting her wander around alone?).

The EULR in the Hospital Wing is understandably terrified of dying alone or becoming corrupted and figures she might be safe with Elster and a Protektor; Storch figures they can use a medic; Elster is distressingly tight-lipped when Eule is like "hey, why do I find you familiar?"

The EULR and STAR in the mines join because leaving them to their fates make me sad and of course the other Eule in the party is like "I have Auto-Injectors and Repair Spray for days! I can fix this!!" The party needs another heavy hitter and both Eules could benefit from the company.

The KLBR in the Library is immediately suspicious of Elster's presence but also wants to get to the bottom of all the Everything that's happening, figuring Elster must have something to do with it. She tries probing Elster's mind precisely once and never does it again after it nearly gives her a seizure. Once she recovers and everyone's like "what the hell happened," Kolibri can't even describe what she saw in Elster's mind because she doesn't know what she saw.

(I just really like this headcanon of mine where Elster becomes a little more other with each cycle, a little more off in addition to tougher every time she dies. Maybe she lets Adler deal the killing blow on her so much on purpose.)

The Eules are forced to adapt quickly and don't find the corrupted Replikas quite so scary anymore; more sad than scary. If anything, they're more comfortable because Elster is scarier.

Imagine everyone's reaction to the elevator shaft full of Elster corpses. "WHY THE FUCK ARE THERE SO MANY OF YOU?" "Don't worry about it." "DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT?!"

[kerubimcrepin]

Liveblog - Dofus, livre 1 : Julith [PART 24]

And it's the last thing he would have wanted her to do :(

Once again, want to draw your attention to the fact that Julith doesn't seem to really care about Joris. She just set him and Bakara free to get hit by lasers and once he told her "I will never allow this to happen" she stopped paying attention.

Like, did her love hinge on the condition he didn't disagree with her or what? I am insane about her various behaviours and weird way of loving (AKA she doesn't really love anyone besides Jahash, and she might not really love Joris that much either. because she's like. known him for a day and 80% of it he called her cringe(because she's cringe))

Man, I know ankama didn't think about this all so deeply. They were like "cool lasers go pew pew pew". But I'm the CEO of caring too much. So I will literally do just that.

Anyway, her parenting style (setting him loose under some deadly lasers) reminds me of Kerubim, except she's doing this on purpose. yaay.

Joris has GOT to be in a literal state of shock and dissociation by now. Not even years of therapy will fix this.

By now he's seen roughly 1000 and 6 people die.

I've seen headcanons of him keeping his mother's cape. And while imagining Joris with a cool cape is nice and all, I really doubt he Would Fucking Do That.

Not because you can get it as a cosmetic item in Dofus MMO (you can, but it's dubiously canon imo). I just think he fucking hates her and wouldn't want that thang in his house.

It's just him VS. her now.

There's a heaviness to this. All of them (save for maybe Lilotte) have the knowledge that whoever hits the Dofus will get exploded together with them. But with the rush of adrenaline, inexperience of everyone involved (only warriors actively think "oh I am going to DIE for real this time"), and the "if we don't act now 1000 people will die" of this situation, I really doubt either of them thought too hard about it all.

But I think that once you're all alone with that thought - and it's obvious that it's you, who will have to do it, it sinks in a little better.

He looks so distraught...

Inside me are two wolves: one of them is saying, "Joris is so brave yet so scared. He knows he will probably not survive this, and he's 10, and, and--" and the other says "JORIS JURGEN SUICIDAL HEROISM MOMENT NUMERO UNO!!!!!"

Both of them are equally insane.

I NEED these frames injected into my bloodstream.

One counterpoint I can think to why Julith is so worried about this despite setting him free to roam under the deadly lasers, is that, as the guardian of the Ebony Dofus, she could simply go "Not that one. let that one live. No, you can kill the blonde that looks like my husband, I don't give a shit about her. But the weird little boy? Don't kill him."

But this is just me trying to fix Ankama's fucky-wuckies with my imagination.

It's jojover. Just completely and irreparably jojover.

This scene always gives me chills, more so than any other insanely evil interaction between Joris and Julith.

There are a lot of ways this scene gets me (imagine me putting on the tinfoil hat from my Aux Tresors kerulou days. I am about to be that insane): The way she envelops him stops any and all movement of him and his Dofus completely, and wipes out all the sound and momentum.

He is completely helpless against how easily she stopped him and took his only way to save everyone from him.

As he falls to the ground, there's a little sense of dreaminess to it — the cape seems far bigger than it should be, the time before he hits the floor seems longer than it should be — and make no mistake, it is on purpose. Seconds before he falls we are shown the floor, and it seems vaguely closer to us at the first glance, than the distance he falls. It's unexpected, it's destabilizing.

It's like he is dissociating, from the horror of not being able to do this.

It's like a nightmare.

And after doing this irreparable evil, and taking his one way of stopping this evil, she looks at him as if he is a tiny, stupid little thing, that doesn't know what it is doing.

As if it's not her fault that his only choice is doing something that will kill him, just to stop her.

And listen. There's guilt too. Because Joris is the one who allowed her to get the Ebony Dofus back. If he survives this and nobody else does, do you think he could ever forgive himself?

She's making him responsible for this.

They will never get to speak, but Jahash is happy, with what Joris has tried to do.

...Unlike Julith, who was reminded of Jahash by Joris's blue eyes, — I bet Jahash thinks they're similar to Bakara's.

There are so many emotions here. He will never get to speak to this man. This man is happy abotu what Joris has done. This man is the reason Joris's life is utterly ruined.

Is Jahash's smile an "I'm sorry that you have to do this, and see this," or "I'm proud of you," or "I wish things were different," or a mixture of all of them?

Joris will never get to know.

He saw something in her that other people didn't see.

She never really wanted to be a "butcher". Even if she could not overpower that destiny, — after Bonta took away her entire family and future, may I add, — the fact that she tried to begin with is saying a lot.

The look he gives her is something between "please don't prove me wrong" and "this isn't you".

I think she realizes now that there is no future where she, Jahash, and Joris are together and happy.

Four lives, in three generations of this family, ruined and uprooted and destroyed, because of some petty politics that were happening behind their backs.

I truly despise Bonta.

It's quiet. The only sound is his own heartbeat. Nothing seems quite real. He can barely believe that maybe she will stop this madness herself.

There is only one kind of reunion that they may have.

No matter how much she wanted a happier ending.

[pyjamaart]

Breaking Bot (read more for some rambling about mega man fully charged)

Mega Man Fully Charged has been on my mind again lately, which made me realize that there's literally a robot named Chemistryman who worked as a chemistry teacher. Not using him as a Walter White stand-in would be a criminal offense.

I'll have to admit I started getting back into Fully Charged again after seeing some asshole on twitter complain about the character design for the hundredth time. I just can't stand that kind of negativity. I swear to god, Fully Charged is like the Sonic Boom of the Mega Man franchise. Personally, I really enjoy the FC designs. I've probably said this before, but I feel like the redesigns give some of the more forgettable robot masters way more character. Like, do I care for Classic Drillman from Mega Man 4? I mean, yeah, I do, but I wouldn't care as much if it wasn't for his Fully Charged incarnation.

I also really enjoy most of the original robot masters. I already talked plenty about Blastowoman and why I love her so much, but I want to talk about the others this time.

Take for example Chemistryman. Comparisons to Walter White out of the way, I feel like his character was a really fun idea. God knows I had teachers who put me to sleep back in the day. For me, it wasn't chemistry though, it was my economics teacher. I always compared her to a story teller at a Christmas market who would read children stories out of her big fairy tale book. Only that in reality, it was stuff like the minimization/maximization principle. Most of my notes for that class were incomprehensible chicken scratch, because I just couldn't keep my eyes open. In the end, I slept through like half her classes, lol. But I gotta say that I still always got a B or higher in the end. Somehow. I thank god every day that I never have to step foot in a school again.

I really wish Chemistryman got a little more time to shine though. Two episodes is just way too little. I would gladly take three more episodes with him over those gross Gutsman episodes. I know I love talking about wasted potential with this show, but I wish there was an episode that focused on Chemistryman outside of the school setting. I get that his whole character is "boring, bitter teacher", but I'd really like to see what he gets up to when he's not trying to force children to listen to his chemistry lectures. Like having Aki try to talk him into going into retirement for good. And then he tries to find hobbies for him so that he doesn't bore himself to death. I can see him getting into building model ships or something like that, lol.

Now that I'm already writing up a storm again, I might as well talk about some other headcanons I have about the FC bots. Since Woodman was in sleep mode for 30 years after the war ended (I don't know where I got that number from. I rewatched his debut episode, but the exact number doesn't appear anywhere. Oh well, let's just pretend this is canon, even if it isn't.) we got kind of a Shadow the Hedgehog type situation on our hands. All of his friends and family got to live their lives in this new, peaceful world of harmony between robots and humans, while Woodman spent 30 years powered down in a bush or something. Completely forgotten about. Like, why didn't they go look for him after the war ended? I don't think Aki and Suna wandered that far into the forest for their school assignment. If you really think about Woodmans back story for a moment, you realize how fucked up it actually is. 

Now my explanation for this goes into heavy heavy headcanon territory. When Suna calls the principal about Woodman, he warns her that Woodman is dangerous and to get away from him immediately. Now why would he say that? The principal also calls him "ruthless" in that same explanation. What I think happened back then was that Woodman actually planned to assassinate the human armies leader. (Possibly Sgt. Night?) The leader of the robots caught wind of his plan and put him into sleep mode himself, since he and Dr. Light were on the brink of finding a way to end the war peacefully. In my mind, this leader is the FC version of Swordman. Don't ask me why, he was just the first guy I thought of. And then it just stuck.

I know this makes Woodmans back story even more fucked up, but I just love putting my favorite blorbos through hardship. Don't even ask me about my headcanons for Drillman. They'd actually put me in prison.

Now all this culminates after Woodman is reactivated by Suna and Aki. Finding himself alienated from all his former friends and comrades (Maybe the other Mega Man 2 robot masters?), what was he supposed to do? He couldn't spend the rest of his life isolated (and homeless) in the forest, could he? And this is where season 2 could have delivered. But I'm done whining about that. If Capcom doesn't deliver, I gotta write my own season 2. Simple as that.

Anyway, getting back to Chemistryman, since he's pretty old, I imagine that he was already working as a teacher when Woodman was still around. Maybe he even was his teacher at some point.

And since I love having my favorite characters interact, I also thought of a scenario where Drillman wanders into the forest out of frustration over his miserable life, only to meet Woodman by coincidence. In the end, Woodman helps him work through his daddy issues and his body dysmorphia, while Drillman helps Woodman reintegrate and manage this (for him) completely new world of peace. Another great headcanon of mine is that Chemistryman is actually Acidmans father. Just because I think it would be funny. And as Fully Charged has confirmed: robots in that universe do indeed have parents. (Flashback to the time I drew Dr. Light beating the shit out of Drillman's father)

Speaking of Drillman.... For being one of my favorite Mega Man characters of all time, I haven't drawn him nearly enough. That will probably be my next project.

This might also be a great time to tell you that I've never watched Breaking Bad before, lol. Everything I know about it comes from RTGame's Stardew Valley playthrough and the RTVS Half Life parody.

Sorry for all the yapping. But if I don't talk about robots at least once a day, I might die. This is a serious condition.

[shadowxamyweek]

Is Shadow being immortal canon? I thought it was just a generally accepted headcanon by the fandom

...Yes?

The pause and questionmark are not directed at you, they are directed at Sega.

I confess, I'm a bit of a stickler for what lore I consider canon. If it's in the games, it's canon to me. If it's anything outside of the games, including the game manuals themselves... then it's not.

I have such a narrow-bracket view of the story and these characters due to two things:

1: There seems to be a disconnect between the different 'branches' of the Sonic Franchise. There's the Shadow we see in games, there's the Shadow we see in marketing and social media (like Twitter Takeover), There's the Shadow we see in IDW, and then there is the Shadow we see Sega write about in character profiles like on Sonic Chanel and the official Sonic the Hedgehog website. This exists with all the characters to a degree, but I feel Shadow presents an egregious case of it. 2: Sega has a tendency to retcon things or change their language or act like stuff didn't happen and... I don't like it XD But they can't change games that have already been published and played. As such, to me, in-game dialog/play/story/etc is the crowning jewel of truth within the Sonic story.

But that these are *my* paramaters. They do not have to be *your* parameters.

So while there hasn't been any mention of immortality *in game*, there has been plenty *outside* of it. Lots of different official Sega sources say Shadow is 'immortal', but no examples or specifications have been provided in game. There's also plenty of times the whole 'immortality' portion is omitted. Most noticeably, it's not mentioned in the Sonic Channel character profile, nor the character profile provided on the official Sonic the Hedgehog website. At best, it is mentioned intermittently in game manuals and external sources.

(And I know we see Shadow in stasis in 06- I'm aware- but I'll also point out we don't know *when* he went into stasis. Furthermore, I cannot help but wonder if, much like Black Doom in SHtH, Mephiles took a portion of truth and twisted it to scare Shadow. (Also, like.... Shadow was under such heavy security when GUN put him down for an ice nap the first time. Why would they just leave him out and about like was shown in 06? I doubt the truth of what Mephiles shows Shadow.))

I actually reached out to @squid-in-a-party-hat, @fyeahsonicthehedgehog (x), and @forgottensonicfacts (x), as well as some friends of mine like @shadamyheadcanons for help collecting information to provide you with as well-rounded answer/opinion as I can. In fact, Squid has a video on this very subject XD They do a great job of weaving together all the different types of canon (comic, anime, social media, etc) so if that's how you prefer to operate, I really, really recommend them.

Anyway, Here are some game manual examples in chronological order.

SA2 (2001):

Sonic Heros (2003):

And...I want to take a moment to show something interesting between the original Japanese and the English translation. The japanese translation says 'unaging and undying' which gives us narrower guidelines, but the Heros profile is the only time I've seen that.

Shadow the Hedgehog (2005):

Which OUT OF ALL OF THEM you'd think it would be mentioned in his title game but like... *gestures*

Sonic 06 (2006):

Sonic and Mario at the Olympic Games (2020):

Then there are these online examples, stemming from both Sonic Chanel and the Sonic the Hedgehog Website. They are both officially owned and operated by Sega/Sonic Team. Note they don't mention his age or the immortality at all.

Sonic Chanel, 2007:

Sonic Chanel, 2010:

Sonic Chanel, 2022:

This is the character profile put up on the Sonic the Hedgehog website 2024, separate from Sonic Channel but still official.

(In talking to @forgottensonicfacts- I had asked about times Shadow had been called 'ageless' or '50.' Turns out the 'ageless' bit was written in a Scholastic's book and, so far as anyone has found.. there is no official mention of Shadow being listed as '50 years old.' I had been so sure it had been officially listed at one point in time. Really glad to be wrong on that one, frankly, because that would have been daft XD)

So this is what we have about Shadow's 'immortality' that has been put out by Sega themselves. Not the comics, not the media team, just Sega/Sonic Team.

Now... this is where I pick apart that word 'Immortal' and broaden the scope a bit.

Not to be 'that bastard,' but I popped on to the Oxford Dictionary just to get a concrete definition for you and they define the adjective use of the word as being, "living forever; never dying or decaying."

1- Shadow's already almost died. He *would* have died were it not for Eggman saving his sorry ass. We know this. It's a whole-ass plot point in his story because it's due to this he ends up with amnesia.

2- Even though Gerald was tinkering with immortality, that doesn't mean he succeeded. We also don't know how that immortality would look/work/act like.

3- In Sonic Battle (for Gameboy), several of the characters have a healing ability. Shadow is one of them. However, Shadow's healing ability is one of if not *the worst in the game.* Also, in the story itself, he get shot and is down for the count *for a while*.

4- We have not seen any of the characters physically change in game save for the big age up/design shift that happened when Sonic went 3d in Adventure. As such, we cannot personally test/see whether or not Shadow goes through any changes at all, be them aging or just changes to their body.

So... all in all... I feel this leaves a huge amount of room for interpretation.

Maybe Shadow isn't immortal after all. Nothing spectacular, it's just that portion of the Ultimate Life Form project didn't succeed.

Maybe the 'immortality' is his healing factor, and it needs to willfully be employed. As such, if Shadow WANTS to age, they need to intentionally and willfully allow themselves to do so by NOT employing the healing factor.

Maybe the 'immortality', being the healing factor, can wear down/slow down over time, especially due to overuse.

Maybe Shadow can live forever barring any really traumatic physical harm, but their body will physically change over time.

Maybe Shadow is immortal like how Oxford puts it, but there is a way to stop that perminantly if they so choose (like genetic therapy).

Maybe Shadow is immortal in the sense that they will never physically age, grow, or change. Ever.

Truthfully, that's pretty cool! Like, this gives people a lot of stuff to work with and play around with, compare notes, talk- that's the fun part of fandom! And no singular person is right! @shadamyheadcanons has this one that's fun. I personally like the idea that Shadow's 'immortality' wears down over time and gets weird, causing their Black Arms genetics to kick off (like a third eye ooooough gimmie gimmie gimmie.)

I don't know if this was the answer you were looking for. Perhaps I've just confused things further- I've been known to do that XD

Ultimately, what I'm trying to say is- it's whatever you want it to be, and nobody can stop you <3 So go have fun!

[inconspicious-random-thoughts]

The Overlords Alastor Brought Down

We know Alastor raise to power quickly and took out overlords that been dominate for centuries.

I strongly believe they are still alive. Never once when the youtube pilot or Amazon series, has said he killed them. Just they 'disappeared', 'gone missing' and Alastor was the cause and broadcasted their screams.

-Side note, it looked he only used his shadows to take them out. As in the Amazon series lore his shadow was heavy emphasized.

'So if they are alive, where are they?' you may be asking. Well, I think Alastor trapped their souls in a pocket dimension in one of his antique radios. The one centered with Alastor in this picture in the pilot. That radio was made sure to be part of that lore when the production team was considerably less to work with.

Then in the amazon series, That damn radio showed up in Alastor lore again. Dressed up more, adore with branches that look like antlers and leaves. That very radio was also hanging out on the coffee table in the beginning of episode 2. The show has peppered the existence of this same radio in the background. Looking unassuming despite it's more dressier style to be just any regular radio. I wonder if the radio will have a focus at one point if there is enough time.

Those screams Alastor broadcast, its not a recording but play live. The souls trap in a pocket dimension inside his tabletop radio. I also, think he can manipulate their voices to do the laugh track and such.

On another note but somewhat related...

He possibly try to make a deal with them. He couldn't convince the other overlords to sign their lives over in a deal to obtained their power. So in the classic, 'If you are not with me, your against me' He took their souls still in another way to gain their power. Possibly offer the deal again to own their souls to let them out of his radio when he actually need them. Who knows, this is all B/S im spitting out. I don't personally head canon this part as Alastor seem to offer deals, but he never forces it or pressure people into it. He appears to offer it and drop the matter when its declined.

What keeps me puzzled is how Zestial managed to escape the fate. It been pointed out hes been in power longer than the other overlords. Was he just that much more powerful than Alastor that Alastor was wise enough to not make an attempt? Alastor appear slightly on edge when Zestial met up with Alastor right before their overlord meeting.

Carmilla seem to be around before Alastor too and she seem to gotten a pass too. Alastor knew he couldn't go against angelic weapons?

Did Alastor met Rosie before his carnage in Hell and became friends so she got a pass?

I have a small headcanon why Alastor seem to 'spare' a few overlords. I mention in another post, I believe Alastor already sold his soul while alive in exchange for voodoo. Not fully realizing 'Hell is forever' would really entailed. That his body count from his murders also somehow benefit his master in Hell. (Roo? Signs point to Roo for me) So then he dropped, Alastor was still too useful and did a good job while alive so he was granted powers nearly immediately when he died which is unheard of. Which explains why he was so powerful so quickly.

He also was probably commanded to kill a bunch of overlords. His master wanted the chaos of the power vacuum while strategically place Alastor in power position while his master can pull the strings in the background unnoticed.

Just like in life, Alastor carefully selected his targets. He went for the overlords who seem to treat their contracted souls like shit. Carmilla, Zestail, and Rosie seem to treat their soul underlings with some level of respect. Alastor, being a contracted soul, appreciated that so he purposely did not sought after them.

He fulfilled his mission. Created a power vacuum temporarily, getting rid of old overlords that reign for centuries for new faces, while giving himself a reputation and a power position. It benefit him greatly. He left mostly to his own devices. Occasionally his chain his tugged but it was surprisingly far inbetween. But when it is tugged, its in a choking hold.

I really rambled off in the end. I been suffering from this terrible cold for about two weeks and my mind cant focus. I only really wanted to post about the souls trapped in Alastor radio but then I just kept going. Oh well. Hopefully all my thoughts and rambles was interesting.

[mayflowers515]

Smiling Critters AU: Lore Headcanons

Okay, time for some more plot-heavy headcanons I have for the Critters of this AU! This includes plot elements relating to their characters that I have planned as well as some more relationship details like their familial relationships and friendships.

Note: Although this is meant to be a wholesome cartoon AU, there may be some slight dark elements in here, but not as upscaled. I also don't have personal lore planned for everyone yet as of today, but I can update this post when I think of anything else for them (or a part 2? Idk) Either way, here's what I have for them so far!

CatNap has his main scent, lavender, but he also retains his poppy gas like his canon counterparts. He is terrified of the poppy gas and its abilities. He has once seen firsthand how bad the effects of this gas can be, so he tries to what he can to maintain his lavender scent for his friends. His poppy gas replaces his usual lavender scent when he's under high stress and emotion, so he tries to stay as calm as possible.

The above hc is also part of the reason as to why he sleeps throughout the day so much. He feels more calm at nighttime as it's more peaceful for him than in the daytime when there are possible mishaps he may witness that can make him upset. He may not witness any mishaps, but he's so scared of his ability that he doesn't want to take the chance.

CatNap is very calm outwardly, but he still has stress. However, to avoid unleashing his second scent, he keeps all his stress inward. Unbeknownst to CatNap, however, repressing his negative emotions only makes the effects of his poppy gas worse. He has never managed it into anything better as a result of being so terrified and repressing those feelings for so long. (Note about his poppy gas since I keep bringing it up, but it keeps a lot of the same effects that it has in the original cartoon and in Poppy Playtime, but in the AU, an addition to this is that the effects of CatNap's poppy gas depends on his mental state. They can worsen if he feels negative emotions in the moment or can build up to be worse since he has built up his negative emotions in an unhealthy way)

CraftyCorn is of royal blood (may or may not have been inspired by some users already- =v='). She was a princess of a faraway kingdom. However, she wasn't really treated with respect back home, and as a result, she ran away and eventually found her way to the home of the Smiling Critters. She was barely let out of her castle often. Her parents didn't want her outside until she could prove to them that she could be a "perfect princess" for them. They have always been hard on Crafty for even the smallest mistakes she's made. She couldn't even express herself outside of what her parents wanted her to be. When she started to get interested in art, her parents declined her interest, only seeing the mess in the art. Basically... Crafty: "Don't you like my painting? I put a lot of work into it..." Her parents: "Painting is for the desperate, homeless people, Crafty. Not a refined, young lady like you. Now let's get you cleaned up."

Yeah... Her parents didn't have the best mindset either. They would look down on anyone that didn't fit in with their status. This was another reason Crafty wanted to run away. She didn't want to deal with that attitude from her parents anymore, and she certainly doesn't want to think she's above everyone else all because she is a princess.

Since Crafty was barely let out of her castle, not a lot of people outside of her kingdom know of her being royal blood. None of her friends really knew at first either. She is cautious about sharing too much of herself as a result of her status. She didn't want others to think of her any differently, and part of the reason as to why she's shy about certain aspects of herself that reminds others of royalty, such as her singing voice (in her friends eyes, it sounds like that of a fairytale princess) and her house (which is ironically in the form of a tower in canon; Crafty actually does like her home's exterior despite it linking back to her status in a way, but she designs it on the inside where very little sense of regal style on the inside, just so she can keep the personal tastes she's been wanting to express for so long).

I can imagine PickyPiggy having a lot of siblings, with her being the oldest. It's why she naturally has a sort of motherly nature to her personality. She got used to raising her siblings by herself as a result of her parents' sudden disappearance while she was 7-8 years old. To this day, she doesn't know what happened to them... (I have an idea, but this is the wholesome AU, so I won't actually mention in its canon, but let's just say... they weren't looking too hot...) (EVERYTHING IN STRIKETHROUGH IS A RETCONNED PLOT AS OF 3/21)

Bobby BearHug is very small for a bear, though granted she is still considered a cub. But it comes as such a surprise because her parents are MASSIVE. They could easily tower over her if they could. However, despite her parents looking like they would be brutes, they are actually gentle giants most of the time. It's the reason why Bobby herself has her signature huggable personality. She was raised to always love and cherish the things around her, and it shows in many of her interactions with her friends and people she meets.

I do imagine one day Bobby is going to have this big growth spurt and will become much taller when she's older, though-

In contrast to Bobby, Bubba is very large. Not really a surprise there since he's an elephant. What is a surprise, though, are his parents. I can imagine his parents either being elephants affected with dwarfism that adopted him or parents of different species that are just really small. Either way, Bubba's parents are much smaller compared to him, but they still raised him well and respected his interests.

I may do something separate for all the Critters' friendships in the future, but for right now, I can list their close friends to get a better idea of who they get along with the most! The names in bold mean best friend status while no bold means they're very close friends (CatNap = DogDay, Crafty; DogDay = CatNap; Bobby BearHug = Picky, Crafty; CraftyCorn = Bobby, Bubba; KickinChicken = Hoppy, Bubba; Hoppy Hopscotch = Kickin; Bubba Bubbaphant = Crafty, PickyPiggy = Bobby)

Here are the ages and birthdays I headcanon for all the Critters (from oldest to youngest):

Bubba Bubbaphant: 12 (January 16th)

CraftyCorn: 12 (April 7th)

DogDay: 12 (July 17th)

CatNap: 12 (November 20th)

PickyPiggy: 11 (May 18th)

Hoppy Hopscotch: 11 (June 2nd)

KickinChicken: 11 (December 7th)

Bobby BearHug: 10 (February 28th)

13. I do also want to plan something for the Critters' emblems. They may work similarly as Care Bears with having their own individual powers. They of course, can use their scents with these as well. All they have to do to release their scents is tap their necklace emblem two times. This is so they won't accidentally release their scent if something happens like them falling (in the case of if they only needed one tap). In the case of their special abilities, they have to draw a circle on their emblem and tap it to release their ability onto others. Here are the abilities I have planned for them right now:

CatNap = Dream watching. He can tap his emblem then tap the head of one who's sleeping. He can then enter their dreams to then check if it's a good or bad dream. He is allowed to stay in the dream until he gets out himself or the dreamer wakes up.

DogDay = Can light up the way with his emblem by creating a mini sun. The mini sun will follow around DogDay wherever he goes, whenever he needs it. Sometimes this can also affect CatNap's emblem, as it can light up whenever DogDay's is lit up. After all, the moon can't shine without the sun :>

Bobby BearHug = Can open people's hearts to emotion. Either to their own emotions so they can be released in a healthy way, or so that the emotions of everyone are more clear. Can help in the case of arguments and discord.

CraftyCorn = Unleashes a paintbrush that can create whatever is desired. However, it needs color to work. So if certain colors aren't there to make the item Crafty wants, it may not work. This is also there so her powers are balanced in a sense.

KickinChicken = Can create any mode of travel necessary (inspired by his motto of perserverence). Can be used for most of anything from a literal star like from Kirby, roller skates, a car, helicopter, etcetera. However, it needs energy in order to fully work. It can only create one thing per day before it needs a charge so it can shine just as much!

Hoppy Hopscotch = Can increase the speed of a process or can make someone else go faster. However, like with Kickin's emblem, Hoppy's power needs to charge. She can know if it's fully charged if there's a storm cloud that appears before her power is unleashed, meaning that it's charged.

Bubba Bubbaphant = Can clear out the clutter in others' minds so that they can think more clearly. He will know if his power worked by the time an idea comes through the person's head with a light bulb.

PickyPiggy = Can be used for storage; it's useful for any resources the group might need for later but can't carry on them. Picky's storage can change depending on her energy at the moment, so if she has low energy, the things she can store will be minimal. That's why she eats a little something before using this feature!

14. Their scents have different ability compared to their emblems, and these abilities are meant to be more subtle in comparison. They can affect certain feelings in people, so here's how it works for all of them in the cartoon AU:

CatNap = Lavender (primary scent) for feelings of sleepiness; Poppy (secondary scent) also for sleepiness, but with the side effects of nightmares and increased negative emotions before being put to sleep

DogDay = Vanilla for increasing relaxation

Bobby = Rose for improved mood

Crafty = Jasmine for reduced anxiety

Kickin = Ylang-ylang for boosted self-esteem

Hoppy = Peppermint for increased energy

Bubba = Lemongrass for reduced stress

Picky = Citrus for reduced fatigue

Alright, that's all I have right now! I have these here since they're more relevant to possible scenarios I may make with the AU in the future. Though it's like a wholesome cartoon, there will still be some bits of lore and some dark elements in there, and I hope it can still be interesting as a result :)

[knightobreath]

Ok I gotta know

What’s your thoughts on that one anon (🐝)’s takes

context 1 and context 2

ohohohohhohohoohohohoh. ohohohoh. Well. Basically they're wrong about what headcanons ARE and how they work as a fan created thing. They also definitely need to examine why they feel the way they do about headcanoning characters as having marginalized identities. I wrote a whole essay on trans headcanons specifically under a similar ask and what I said can be easily applied to other aspects of headcanoning characters as minorities (i actually got a lot of the ideology for that essay from discussions of "blackwashing" in fandom)

some other things on what they said (warning: LONG)

My major issues with their thoughts on headcanons can be summed up with the essay i linked. im not going to be going into that stuff as deeply again because we would be here all day, so the rest is just specifics

"but i really hate it when people change pronouns of characters (IVE SEEN PEOPLE USE SHE/HER WHEN REFERING TO SILVER SPOON. LET THE MAN BE A MAN IF HE WANTS TO BE A MAN.)"

Silver Spoon, and other characters for that matter, are quite frankly not real and do not have actual desires or feelings that you can hurt. Also see my essay on trans headcanons.

"but what makes me the most furious is... people making characters autistic. nothing against autism, i understand that, but do you really need to make paper, fan, silver spoon, pen, etc. autistic just because they have specific interests or act... idk, just the way they act?! its just. it doesnt make sense to me."

Bee needs to examine why they feel the way they do about autistic headcanons. A majority of the times characters are being headcanoned as autistic, they're being headcanoned as that be actual neurodivergent people who seem themselves or their autistic friends in these characters or traits.

There are certainly some issues with certain aspects of autistic (or any other disability) headcanons, like infantilization, but Bee's issue seems to be the fact that there are a lot of characters being headcanoned. Which is just not a problem.

"hc's that dont affect story are fine, but ones that completely flip the story or ignore anything confirmed by the employees."

Headcanons are personal thoughts on the story and do not have any bearing on the story or how you interpret the characters. They are a fan creation like fanart or fanfiction.

"EX: "i headcanon that mic and knife are in a relationship!" that completely ignores the fact that some of the pride month art shows that knife is gay. Cakebrunch (official II storyboarder) confirmed that soap and mic are in a relationship."

Cakebrunch is not a writer and does not have any bearing on the written canon of the characters. Just because he works on the show does not mean his headcanons have any bearing on the canon.

"make as many autistic characters you want, yeah! its great to support autism! but you dont have to make every character autistic, okay? (directed towards people that hc lots of characters as autistic)"

Again, the people who are doing this are mostly autistic or otherwise neurodivergent. And they aren't "making" the characters autistic, they're depicting them as such. No harm in that.

Now for the ships ask.

This is less of my domain, as I'm not really a shipper and don't know much about romance and relationship dynamics but I will try.

Also like nothing against people who don't like shipping as a whole, I totally get it. I was in your boat before.

"i absolutely HATE osc ships. half of them are either "oh these characters dislike each other/disliked each other at one point" and the other half is "these two friends should date because theyre friends.""

and that leaves..... characters who haven't interacted?

honestly, if this was between real people that would be really disrespectful.

Except they're not, so it's completely fine. I have a feeling Bee was in an RPF heavy fandom before this one, this and the previous take about pronouns are common discourse points in those.

EX: Fantube. yeah, they tried to raise shimmer together and built bot, but platonic parents exist and CAN THEY JUST BE FRIENDS?! PLEASE?

Like headcanons, ships have no bearing on the canon and in canon they are just friends.

EX: Nickloon. ok, nickels trying to make up for being rude to balloon all throughout season two. but really? they dont have to date just because theyre friends, yknow. imagine someone saying "oh you and your best friend who you only platonicallly love- you should date!" to you. that'd honestly be rude.

They're not real so they can't experience this. Problem solved.

yeah, some ships are confirmed but thats different. EX: Knickle. offical II storyboarder Cakebrunch CONFIRMED theyre in a relationship. thats an official employee of the series saying that a ship is real. not some random person on TikTok saying that TennisGolf is canon because TB is GB's closest ally.

Again with citing Cakebrunch's fan stuff as canon. Interesting how they cited a storyboarder's fan works twice but failed to mention Balloon being arospec as said by a show creator in the nickloon section. While I have my thoughts on word-of-god confirmation, which I will not be getting into here, it is far more canon than any fanwork.

A lot of the rest of this is just confusion about why people ship things. This is different for each ship and each shipper, and if you're ever confused about where a ship came from you can just ask the shipper. There's usually a reason (and depending on who you ask, a whole essay) as to why a ship came about or how it would work. Sometimes though it is just for fun or comedy, and that's not really a bad thing. We're here to enjoy ourselves, after all.

One last thing though,

and dont get me started on those ships that throw certain characters in canon ships (looking at you, metallic salad/metallic salad + mephone shippers.) because like. why? certain characters have established relationships with others, and your just like "ohh well those two are in a relationship, but mic and knife are a cute ship so how about mic + knife + pickle? makes sense!" like. please.

I don't know much on dynamics and specifics (see: not much of a shipper) but from what I have seen of multiships and polyships, all the dynamics and how the characters would all work together is very much thought about.

Also knickle isn't canon and the people shipping knife x mic x pickle are also aware knickle isn't canon. Nobody is thinking of it like that.

Anyways, time for the conclusion.

Bee anon is fundamentally wrong about how fandom works. Headcanons and ships hold no baring on the canon or your interpretation of the canon. Fandom is a place where canon is transformed in fan works for the fan's enjoyment, it is not a place where canon is determined or changed. You can interpret a work however you please, you can even divorce it from fan works entirely if you wish. Bee also has some things they need to think about in regards to why they feel the way they do about queer and autistic headcanons.

Thanks for reading.

[wheregoodthingsthrive]

Politicizing Saiyans (but not how you might think)

To think too hard about Saiyans is my job. Especially in the context of what I do- I gotta combine my interests or else I will shrivel up like a sad little plant that hasn't seen the sun for five years nor had water in ten. So, what am I combining now? Dragon Ball and political composition, functions, and apparatuses. For reference, I am a political science student (International Relations and Military Force, specifically) so when I got into Dragon Ball, I was not expecting to be able to identify a minimally shown and explored militaristic galactic despot with vassal states with one said vassal state being a really interesting sketch of a government system so intricately avoided, I can't help but theorize and apply what I consider myself to know a lot about.

This is all personal headcanon and absolute indulgence in my own niche interests in the realms of history, world building, and political science. There is no evidence for easily 1/2 of what's going to be in here but that's how it is. This will probably be a yapping session meant to just. Get my thoughts on Saiyan structure (and Freeza Force application) out into words and hopefully (maybe, preferably) talk to other people who are equally insane about Saiyan/DB universe exploration despite having next to no evidence as to why we think the way we do lol (THIS IS VERY LONG)

I. Government Structural Basics

My favorite... Genuinely. The Saiyans are my political analysis DREAM (just without all the math). Some lore -- the first DB content I was exposed to, in full, was the 2018 Broly movie. Not the best start in terms of canonical timelines and building content from the ground up - BUT - it happened. I was not expecting a shonen manga-anime series to have a movie that opens with such a heavy handed demonstration of a tyrannical despot and vassal state patronage. Maybe I am giving it too much credit but the dictatorial, patrilineal passing of power, so seamlessly avoiding any form of deliberation or consultation we see Cold direct and the disillusioned response of the Saiyans is so so so easy to connect to an empire-vassal dichotomy that I simply cannot help myself. A vassal state, a medieval perfected concept, is a state that is beholden to an empire or superior state's power. A great example would be the Ottoman Empire and the lower cradle of S.E. Europe, feel free to go look it up. The controlled Vegetasei/Planet Vegeta encompasses this definition but ALSO it's more enriched one: "a state with varying degrees of independence in its internal affairs but dominated by another state in its foreign affairs and potentially wholly subject to the dominating state". Vegetasei is a fully functioning monarchy (more on this later, too) that is beholden to the Freeza Force with it's time, resources, militaristic strength, personnel, citizenship, and sovereignty. It functions internally with a significant degree of independence, with external function that benefits solely the dominating state. I think its not really a stretch of the brain to see the empire-vassal patron relationship here. Though we do not know HOW Cold overtook the Saiyans, the assumption of force is reasonable, a common denominator in vassal states. Or, possibly, given the Saiyan values and the expectation of the FF, they were absorbed consensually that then delved into tyrannical patronage. I don't know. This is more of a sketch of my general assumptions and thoughts for this section and a spring board for the deeper explorations of Saiyan politics.

II. Vegetasei: The Oppressive Oppressed Vassal State

Now that we've established the relationship at the core of Saiyans and their lizardy occupant, I can get into the specifics. More of my favorite thing to do! I see much discussion of the treatment of Saiyans by the Cold Dynasty but not much on the condition of Vegetasei's internal workings and authoritative structure. Which is strange as I feel the political condition of the Saiyans is just as conducive to character arcs like Vegeta's or motivations like King Vegeta's as the subjugation conducted by the Force is. So, what is Vegetasei's political composition? What makes the Saiyans, especially their prince and king, behave the way they do? Bear with me. The Saiyans are a monarchical meritocracy with values of militarism and rigid, hierarchical social cohesion philosophy. That's a lot of words. Too bad I'm going to make you read (understand) them!

III. Monarchical

This one is self explanatory but I am a yapper so yap about it I must! Saiyans are a monarchy. Wow. Shocker. But I would like to propose that the Saiyans function as a faux-mixed absolutist monarchy with hereditary expectation but is prone to socially acceptable coup d'état. Let's get some more defining out of the way. A faux-mixed absolutist monarchy is my own proposed hybrid of a mixed and absolutist monarchical structure.

Mixed: a form of government that combines elements of democracy, aristocracy and monarchy ostensibly making impossible their respective degenerations which are conceived in Aristotle's Politics as anarchy, oligarchy and tyranny.

Absolute: a form of monarchy in which the monarch rules in their own right or power. In an absolute monarchy, the king or queen is by no means limited and has absolute power.

Okay. So. We can see throughout many flashbacks to Vegetasei in its heyday that King Vegeta was surrounded by what looks like a council or military posse, constantly. He has a consultative court that, really, has no authority and might just be there for political bluff and show/posturing. We see matters of science, military, and general royal court procedures be present in King Vegeta's assembly. Paragus is described as a "colonel", implying there is a military hierarchy that spills out beneath the king. There is also a blue-cloaked Saiyan who speaks openly to King Vegeta about denying Freeza's request for the prince. Additionally, there are instances of scientists talking openly about the prince's incapacity compared to Broly to the king's face and live. So, given these, it seems these positions are places of legitimate prestige but hold no sway in political construction. Thus, I'd argue there are political apparatuses and institutional bodies placed beneath the king, who will ultimate say over them. I've included what I think the Saiyan monarchy is structured like (it's pretty rudimentary but I am not going for 100% depth*):

*You can see I denote that the presence of children makes or breaks minor positioning in the upper caste of the royal family/echelon of Saiyans. I think posterity is very important. Read more slightly below.

On top of being absolutist, I'd like to argue that the monarchy has "hereditary expectations [and susceptibility] to socially acceptable coup d'état". What do I mean by this? I believe it is pretty easy to assume that the Saiyan monarchy (given its corrupt maintenance) is held by the House of Vegeta/Court of Vegeta, depending on who you ask. I make the assumption on calling it the HOUSE OF VEGETA because of the familial name. Often, royal families are defined by the names inherited by its members (i.e. the Brits). With our prince of all Saiyans Vegeta being the fourth in his lineage, I think it is safe for me to assume this condition. From there, I work under the idea that the right of the king is passed down from parent -> child (assumedly father -> son if we look at what we have so far in canon. I would assume the same value is placed on females and that females can inherit the title of queen/whatever their female equivalent is from their father's or sole maternal parent. That's a whole other essay. Sexual dimorphism does not equal sexism but anyways). So, that covers the standard understanding of familial/hereditary expectations. Right? Sure. Hang tight. I think an important thing to note is that we never see or hear (as far as I know, please correct me if I am wrong) Vegeta call Trunks or Bulla by any term of royal value. Therefore, I'd like to make the argument that even if the royal tie is carried from generation to generation, there is only the expectation of royalty found in blood, not instant ordainment. This is where socially acceptable coups come in.

Vegeta says in the Broly 2018 movie (much to my dismay, this version is so much worse) that, upon the death of his father, "[he'll] never get to be King Vegeta" (paraphrasing). While this is a poorly written throw away line, pair it with how Vegeta never, ever refers to himself as king. Always prince. He will forever be the prince. Even Freeza observes this, albeit with malicious intent. I'd like to argue then that Vegeta, as the son of the king, is expected to fight for and win his position as king or to be purposefully given it by his father but because he can never be properly ordained/crowned as king, he is stuck as prince, dooming his lineage to never receive the rightful processes to accept their blood's expectation. This is how multiple families can compete for the throne. Should a blood-obligated child of the king fail to ascend (either by coup/force or by selection by their father), a rival family or individual can swoop in and compete for the inheritance of the throne. And how do they compete and validate their ascension to a throne that belonged to a different family? Merit. How does a son/daughter usurp, be granted, or claw their way to the throne? Merit. Which Segways perfectly into the next part of Saiyan structure!

IV. Meritocracy

Much like it's empirical controller, Vegetasei is so merit based it almost hurts. A meritocracy asserts that a government is ruled/power is held by individuals "selected on the basis of their ability". Further, "advancement in such a system is based on performance, as measured through examination or demonstrated achievement". A meritocracy also asserts that the accumulation of wealth, power, and influence is concentrated in those who are higher valued by the society itself. This I think is pretty well explained by the privilege and value placed upon those with higher power levels. Their concept of merit (as per Vegeta's narration and understanding of Saiyan culture, excusing any inconsistencies or indoctrination for a moment) is constructed on a few things: pride, capability, born caliber, and execution of these elements. The concept of these merits runs so deep in Saiyan culture that it runs BOTH ways in terms of power capacity: too weak is seen as a weakness that must be exterminated or exiled while also too powerful is seen as a danger to the fabric of society (i.e. the arrangement of power). So, merit is a double edged sword to Saiyan society and this facet of danger is increased by the Force's regime. Merit manifests itself in very different ways (that I will get to in later sections) but the important foundation here is that due to being a meritocracy, there is NO trickle down political or societal gain from the monarchy. There is only a frantic scramble up. If you are too weak, you must scathe by if you have not already been disgraced. Too strong? Either hope it's beneficial to the society or that the Force or the crown does not consider you a threat. Either way, whether you're run of the mill or an outlier in power level, the merit of your Saiyan Traits is what gets you anywhere. What I find interesting is that there is evidence that implies societal climbing while also hinging on NO social movement due to power levels being seemingly fixed at birth (or at least very early in life). I find this interesting-- in the OG Broly movie, we see the explanation that baby's power levels are observed and in the 2018 Broly movie, its implied birth power levels dictate not just what you're going to do, but how valuable you are and if you're even worth keeping on the planet.

I think the best exploration of this can be in Tarble. Despite the dubiousness of his canonicity, I find it particularly insightful that even a prince was not given the chance to be cultivated into a power house but rather nigh instantly abandoned due to two perceived faults in the classifications of merit:

No born caliber (low or untapped PL)

No capability (implied gentle spirit)

I think it also goes to show that the higher up you go in the society, the more a low PL matters to the merit of who the child is associated with. We can get more into this in the social hierarchy part but compare Tarble's position and fate with, let's say, Gine. Very different-- but the common thing is that the traits of merit are not exhibited to societal standards, garnering a societal ruling of less value, paid in either exiling or low-level societal jobs.

So, tangent aside, let's break this down in the last two categories of my aforementioned word soup of Saiyan political structure.

V. Militarism

Y'all could see this one coming. Militarism is classically defined as "the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values." In political science (polsci), this extends into a school of thought called Realism, establishing the "security dilemma". While I do not think the full extent of this sketch of realism 100% applies to Saiyan political composition, I think it matters. Realism is defined by a few characteristics: the world is inherently anarchic, state actors are the main actors, and the security dilemma. The security dilemma asserts that a state must continue to bolster, improve, and better its militaristic prowess and power projection to defend itself and assert its own power as other states assumedly do/feel the same. Sound familiar? Security dilemma literally got the Saiyans slaughtered. Toriyama somehow managed to put the inklings of realism in an anime about a monkey boy who punches things. Anyways.

Saiyan societal structure is ALL ABOUT your place in the MILITARY, both in respects to the internal/domestic and to the foreign/Freeza employment. Let's focus on the domestic for a moment. The Saiyan Armed Forces is spearheaded by the House of Vegeta, maintained as a separate but maintained branch of the FF. The initial description of ranks were "Elites" and "low-class", showing merit assessed structure. It is a seemingly compulsory army, with some form of required service and with no retirement save for types of dishonorable discharges (example: Gine or...dying). The army is the backbone of Saiyan society, functioning on multiple levels of society and with a great menagerie of apparatuses for conducting operations. The army is dedicated to accumulation of resources, no matter the position. This is where the security dilemma assembles itself in the sketch of the army -- its entire purpose is to Saiyan bolstering (until it is commandeered by the CF/FF). The accumulation of planets, races, trade routes, resources (foodstuffs, raw goods, etc.) is the main goal of the army and the main identity-giver of any soldier. They also practice realism in that the army inherently treats ANY opposition as inherently anti-Saiyan (anarchic) and works on behalf of the state solely (state actors). I don't have too much to really say about the military given its pretty self explanatory nature. I think it's a perfect microcosm of the meritocracy and...omg...VASSAL STATE IS BACK!!!! GOSH THE ARMY IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF VASSAL/EMPIRE PATRONAGE.

As defined earlier, the vassal is subjected to the empire with "foreign affairs". The Saiyan army is its biggest hand in the international galactic arena, a force to be reckoned with and a force that is KNOWN for its impartialness in imperial conquest. The commandeering of a nation's foreign muscle is the perfect move for a vassal-owning and -employing empire. The control of the army is the swiftest, most effective move to undermine the Saiyan monarchy, society, and cultural values as the military is, was, and continues to be the Saiyan's "everything". By absorbing the army, the Cold Army/Freeza Force effectively paralyzed the Saiyans, making them MORE than beholden to the empire in that by controlling their strongest apparatus of control, the average Saiyan can do nothing without the FF. Another interesting note (that is a small tangent)-- it's fascinating how the CA/FF manages surveillance given the vastness of space and the hostile/temperamental nature of the Saiyans and their warlike inclination: the Scouters. The establishment that the Scouters LISTEN is so so so smart for a despot empire to put into place! It's very 1984 and establishes some control on the... drum roll please...next section!

Everything in this point is a little more out of my amateur "expertise" as it deals more with sociological domestic policy than military/IR so, it'll probably make less sense.

VI. Rigid, hierarchical social cohesion philosophy

Saiyan social structure is given to us very clearly, by multiple sources, and it seems to be handled with quite the lot of animosity. Social cohesion is "the strength of relationships and the sense of solidarity among members of a community" and is often identifiable by a community's social capital. Social capital is the basic trust, foundation, and interactions within a society permitting it to function. Social cohesion is upheld by the following facets: a sense of belonging, social relations, and an orientation towards the common good. The question now becomes -- Grace, if you're trying to say Saiyans have social cohesion, how can that coexist with animosity and competitive merit? Great question. I would like to posit that Saiyan social cohesion relies on this push-pull of merit, competition, and the pride of a conditional brotherhood rather than the cut and dry, earthly expectations of social cohesion. Let's walk through these real quick! (I must avoid making this another 2k words long). Sense of belonging: Saiyan's are described by Paragus in Broly 2018 as generally untrustworthy. They are backstabbing, power-hungry, violent cages of people. Yet, Saiyan pride (and the merit of it, see the follow through?) is what ties them all together. The sense of belonging perhaps doesn't come from actual, well-cultivated cohesion but rather their species identity in BEING a Saiyan, not BEING IN COMMUNITY. I have a lot of thoughts about how Saiyans are more tribal beings than they'd admit but that's another essay that cannot be tacked onto this one. We much stay focused, brothers. Social relations: Relationships and familial ties do exist in Saiyan society, though they don't seem to manifest in an exact one-to-one way as per Earth standards. I, as per earlier, argued there is power in the blood line and I think that rings true throughout the general society. Looking at how Goku is more often referred to as "Bardock's son" over anything else or how Vegeta is a seemingly patrilineal name, I'm going to make the leap that paternal line determines a lot of social relationships. They are maintained by fatherhood, power levels (a low enough PL can result in the bloodline 'dying', cause of death: disgrace), and a militaristic aspect of brotherhood over blood in most occasions. Orientation towards the common good: Don't let "common good" distract you- a common good can be anything the society agrees is good. So, what do Saiyans conclude as good? Conquest, war/conflict, victory, kill counts, strength, power of the people, power of the Saiyan, power in general. This is once again where merit-competition and cohesion interact- yes, one would want to ascend ranks, to claim victories, to pursue power, but can one do that alone all the time? Possibly. Vegeta sure does think so, but he seems to only act on this value when Nappa becomes useless to him. Use is a common good, purpose is a common good. Your fellow brother, your fellow warrior, etc. has purpose when the two of you can bring forth Saiyan glory. It's a temporary arrangement but one nonetheless.

All of these things though are maintained by societal structure. It is the rigid social hierarchy that encourages social cohesion and the subversive method of turning animosity into brotherhood and vice versa given the need at the time. The distance of the monarch, a seemingly untouchable governor, seems to imply also that these societal structures are upheld by the populous but made 'perfected' by the monarchy. A monarchy that wants to maintain power will cause controlled discord within its own state so that any transmission of power seems either 1. Improbable/dangerous (highly likely due to FF occupation) 2. Not needed because the leader provides some type of stability. I could argue that the social cohesion of Saiyans relies on a strange form of Diversionary War Theory. Diversionary Way Theory states that "unpopular leaders generate foreign policy crises to both divert the public's attention away from the discontent with their rule and bolster their political fortunes through a rally around the flag effect." I believe this is more of a...Diversionary Social Theory. With the society so folded in on itself for merit and competition, the king can maintain power for his line alone by altering it, looking at different social conflicts (low PLs, Frieza Force encroachment, etc.) rather than surrender powers. Sounds corrupt. I know. That leads me to my final facet of Saiyan political structure.

A little more back into my expertise, briefly.

VII. Corruption

I am sure you all knew I'd get to this to some extent. To say the Saiyans are void of corruption would be a fool's statement. I think there are two main forms of corruption seen in Saiyan society.

Despot maintenance of power

Society-induced and maintained methods of population/defection culling

Despot maintenance of power

A despot is an often tyrannical leader with a monopoly on power. Despotism is the "form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power. Normally, that entity is an individual, the despot, but societies which limit respect and power to specific groups have also been called despotic." In writing this, I've realized that the Saiyans are equally despotic but geez I am too far into this to add ANOTHER section so a definition is all you will have to settle for. King Vegeta is a an active despot. I don't think this is a dramatic statement. He is shown to remove opposition, going to the lengths of infanticide and murder to do so. He antagonizes his specialists who dare question the legitimacy/efficacy of his lineage. He makes deadly errors in foreign policy by stationing snipers at Frieza at the risk (and expense) of their lives. He targets his own son and banishes him as an exile, completely intended to kill him in the long run. King Vegeta is losing 0-2 in trying to not kill babies/kids. I don't have much else on this subsection due to its pretty straightforward nature and political gain. In both Broly movies albeit for...weirdly different reasons...the King argues that the murder of Broly (and subsequently Paragus) is justified because it 1) ensures the social and political status quo, 2) muddles the waters on proving or accusing Vegeta's house in intending to not relinquish power even on correct merit values, and 3) shows how he, in general, is unwilling to admit defeat and hold onto power.

2. Society-induced and maintained methods of population/defection culling

This is touched on briefly in the aforementioned social cohesion section. Culling is the method of killing the population of a wild animal to preserve its maintainability. Saiyans practice this with different principles at its core; I believe it is simply an unsaid, dark reality for the majority of the media due to its reach and aimed audience. However, where we do see glimpses of infanticide with the goal to protect the purity of strength in Saiyan numbers. Goku's PL is a concern. Him being a runt or being behind on schedule seems to be an issue, even if minimally stated. Broly's PL is a threat. Tarble is a royal liability. All of these seem to be justifiable reasons to straight up KILL them (or at least exile them from the population with an understood mortality rate). Now, Raditz seems to be an exception but I'll argue that he serves as a necessary low-PL canon fodder for more powerful members society. That is a more social cohesion point that I could've included but my lanta guys this thing is long enough. The society itself seems to maintain this principle - whether you HC there being a governmental agency observing infants power levels as the OG Broly movie would imply (which is interesting in and of itself looking at it through a bureaucratic apparatus lens). Monarchy perfects, society maintains in striving for that perfection due to merit competition, value of the patrilineal line, and a cohesive idea of Saiyan pride on a general societal level.

VIII. Conclusion

The Saiyans are a monarchical + despotic meritocracy with values of militarism and rigid, hierarchical social cohesion philosophy.

I hope now that we've reached the end, this contributes something of at least SOME merit to the discussions and long text-posts I've been seeing floating around DB tumblr recently. I think smashing my degree and Dragon Ball together might've killed all my braincells but at least I can exhibit to my professor that I understand a majority of what I've been putting thousands of dollars to to learn.

I am not responsible for any typos or misspelling; y'all figure it out.

Takes the heaviest breath ever. I'm going to stop here-- it is finals season and I have a test over US foreign policy tomorrow. Yap session: OVER.

PLEASE INTERACT WITH THIS DB OVERTHINKERS PLEASE.

[jamisonwritestf2trash]

Hello! I like your TF2 headcannons alot, what kind of song's do you think they would listen to? I have no idea if this has been asked or if there are canon answers, but I'd really like your take on it if ever! <33

What's Songs Do The TF2 Mercs Like?

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LOVE THIS. Thank you for your ask! This hasn't been requested yet, so I'm so excited to write it. I'm not sure if there's canon music taste and favorite songs either, but we can just ignore the Canon lmao. Also, mutual appreciation! Thanks for being a mutual 💖

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Also, it's totally not based on songs I've listened to or like, not at all. Completely unbiased. I'm going to give their top 3 favorite songs and why those are the top 3! I hope you like this, and I didn't go too far of the original ask 😭

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Demo -

1. Escape (The Piña Colada Song) Rupert Holmes. They find it funny in an endearing way. He likes the idea of love fading only to reconnect. (Does he choose to ignore the fact that they were both trying to cheat)

2. First - Cold World Kids. The second he heard this song, it hit him like a ton of bricks. He just thinks about every relationship he's lost and how unfairly he must have treated people and just ugh.

3. Problems - Mother Mother. He feels like a disgrace to people he cares about and people he loves. He listens to this music to make himself feel worse, but don't worry the other mercs always try and turn him to cheerful music when he's like that, but sometimes he genuinely likes Problems and First just from a liking music perspective.

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Engie -

1. 9 to 5 - Dolly Parton. Engie is the number one Dolly Parton fan. He's head of the fan club. Speak ill of her, and you'll never speak again. He can also just relate so well with a girl boss, because he is a girl boss.

2. Black Betty - Ram Jam. He loves uptempo songs to work to. He finds he works faster with them. I just think he thinks this song is so great for work.

3. Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy) - Big & Rich. This man. I wanted to be a cowboy so badly growing up! Let's him feel like a cowboy and just a fun song that he really likes playing. (For a while, he didn't know what the implications were. It was super fun when the other mercs caught him singing it and then having the meaning explained to him.)

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Heavy -

1. You're My Best Friend - Queen. He wants to be everyone's friend so bad! He wants someone to listen to this song and think of him. He just wants to be a good friend above all else. (He is! He just doesn't think so.)

2. Count On Me - Bruno Mars. Much like above, he wants to be a friend. He wants to be seen as dependable and caring. Scared he doesn't come off that way!

3. I'm Still Standing - Elton John. Resilient fighting, man! This is his hype song. It especially helps him after a bad match. It helps him remember that he does a lot to help carry the team and he shouldn't be so hard on himself.

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Medic -

1. Body - Mother Mother.

I never really touched on this in my previous headcanons but I think Medic also has some body dysmorphia. It's just not as bad as spys. I also think this man has vivid intrusive thoughts. I feel like this song for him is most of the things he thinks about put into words he doesn't have.

2. Are You Satisfied - MARINA. This. Man. Has. Never. Felt. Good. Enough. He's always set his own expectations of what he should be so high that he can never do anything but fall short. He also feels a lot of pressure from the other mercs and is always scared of disappointing them. He loves to hear someone else sing of the feelings he has.

3. The Dismemberment Song - Blue Kid. I had to throw this in. It was either of this or The Red Means I Love You. He loves both. He thinks their really good inspiration songs to go into surgery humming. Be afraid if this man comes at you while this tune is playing.

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Scout -

1. Get It Up -Mindless Self Indulgence. I don't know why but this song just feels like Scout is singing it. Like I genuinely think that he fucking wrote this song 😭 Likes the beat and the way the singer sounds more than the lyrics themselves.

2. Everywhere I Go - Hollywood Undead. See above. No, but genuinely he loves this song. Gives him such confidence for no reason. Makes him feel so cool. I do think he hasnt done anything like this. Yeah, he drinks,but he's never acted like the song. He just lives vicariously through it. Likes the lyrics more than the song in this case.

3. Without Me - Eminem. He wanted to be Eminem so bad! He wanted to be that controversial white boy who could rap. I think all of his favorite songs are just any white man's favorite song ever. He actually does good rapping the song without lyrics. You'd think it be embarrassing but it's actually not, somehow.

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Sniper -

1. Read Between The Lines - Tom Cardy. Come on, how is he not supposed to love this song. It fits him so perfectly. I definitely feel like he loves this song because he always feels like people should know how to understand him even though he isn't giving them anything to work with.

2. Ballroom Blitz - Sweet. He likes the beat and tempo of this song more than anything. He also likes the entire vibe of the song if that makes sense. He can also imagine "being the man in the back," an imaginary scenario king if you will.

3. Another One Bites The Dust - Queen. Took all my restraint not to make every song a Queen song. Had to keep reminding myself I could make a post for that on its own lmao. No one can convince me that this song doesn't play in his head when he gets a good kill. One time, just for fun, he tried to sync with the claps and was super successful.

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Spy -

1. Money, Money, Money - ABBA. I know this man is like probably 50 or something and has a son and whatever, but sometimes I forget that and think he's a 30 year old classy woman from the 1920s. So, in my mind, he likes ABBA. Likes Money, Money, Money though because he likes the idea of a rags to riches heist plot (that's what I imagine when I hear this song anyway)

2. Royals- Lorde. This man wants to be royalty so bad. He tries to be so classy and dignified, which is funny because you'd think he'd want to be as mundane as possible, but that's neither here nor there. I definitely feel like this song just makes him feel fancy.

3. Vous Le Voulez - ABBA. Yes, I did hc Spy as having two ABBA songs in his top three. No, I will not apologize. This man has definitely killed this song. And! He also dance fought to this song. (Think that one scene in Jumanji, the one with the Rock.)

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Soilder -

1. Party in The U.S.A - Miley Cyrus. I mean, can you really blame me for adding this one? I already added it to shitpost canon!

2. Cherry Pie - Warrant. Dad song! This is such a dad song, just like he's such a dad! This man just reminds me of any middle-aged white dad who grills and drinks beer. And I get that so much when I hear this song. So I'd think he'd like a dad song:)

3. Dragula- Rob Zombie. THIS MAN CAN YELL. He loves to sing (scream?) this song! It's a good song to start with, and the fact that he can have a fun time yelling and singing makes him happy!

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Pyro -

1. drop pop candy - reol, giga. I have this headcanon I never touched on for some reason. Pyro knows every human language that exists. So they love listening to music in other languages!They actually really like how sweet the music sounds in contrast to the actual lyrics.

2. My Axe - Insane Clown Posse. PYRO. IS. A. JUGGALO. 100%! You can't convince me that they haven't painted their mask to look like juggalo fave paint. Definitely would play this song in their head during a match. They just replace axe with fire or something similar.

3. Buttercup - Jack Stauber. They like most of Jack Staubers' music! They really like the different soft sounds and low tone music.

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Okay. I'm posting this hoping everything works! I've had to start this over 5 times and I am exhausted 😭

I loved this prompt, but I swear to god I got such back writers block halfway through just finding the songs they'd like. I'm really sorry if this turned out to be bad. I'm going to go sleep for the years.

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Soldier headcanons tomorrow!

[blubushie]

like another anon already said, i like that your takes are wildly different from the rest of the tf2 fanon and i thoroughly enjoy reading them (saying as someone who doesn't rlly like the way this fandom is nowadays, it's comforting to know im not the only one lol)

Sobbing... So flustered... >///<

I wonder how much of it is like a general fandom thing? Issues just intrinsic to fandom cultures or shipping cultures online? I'm not heavily involved in either—I'm a lore bloke and really don't pay much attention to or heavily engage with fandom all that much. If I've got headcanons or something they're generally things that are lightly referenced/alluded to/"easily" deduced from the source material. I think this MAYBE could be one of the reasons why I tend to go against the grain with fanon. I've got no clue. But I refresh myself on the source material often, so maybe that's got something to do with it. No fandom rabbit holes/slopes to fall down.

I prefer to keep my heavy hypotheses to canon-inspired OCs, like Mundy. Sniper vs Mundy helps me differentiate between ACTUAL canon and details I've added to flesh out Sniper's character as more person. I wonder if a lot of people just forget their headcanons aren't actually canon. Making that differentiation helps me avoid it.

[mrclairdycat]

☆ MORE WELCOME HOME HEADCANONS CAUSE I'M HYPERFIXATING >:3c

So... It's canon that the neighbours pick Wally up and that he likes to be held. Sometimes randomly, other times because he asks. However, I headcanon that Wally asks to be picked up just by putting his arms up: everyone in the town just knows what this means. Eddie, though, forgets about this. I imagine a moment where Wally sees Eddie walking and puts his arms up. The mailman looks at him, confused, then goes:"Oh!" and gives him two high fives before walking away to deliver the mail and whistling. Wally is left there with his arms up. he watches his hands like "👁v💧👁" and then watches as Eddie walks away.

Wally's swirly hair is bouncy. Barnaby loves to just pat the hair and say "Boing bo-boing." Wally hates when people touch his hair, but he likes to hear Barnaby laugh so he lets him do it.

Speaking about Wally's hair, he loves having a hair morning routine every single day, it's a routine that brings him joy, to him doing his hair means starting his day. He's never seen without his hair done, if he couldn't do it the day would be totally ruined, he would have a meltdown (when he has a meltdown he just goes non verbal and stays home all day. Home probably tries to cheer him up, too.)

Polly is very mother. She takes care of everyone in the town as if they're her children. The neighbours often visit her since she's so pleasant, it's like visting grandma's house! Whenever someone visits her she can't help but start cooking them something. The neighbours always so "Oh, don't bother," or "You don't have to really," but she feels like she has to, it's in her mother instincts!

I have headcanons for the character's music tastes: Wally likes soft love or romantic songs: he listens to them as he draws and moves his feet up and down, he hums aswell. Barnaby likes to listen to jazz because it's improvised, fun and nice to vibe to. Eddie likes rock music: he probably stims to it and definitely pretends to play a guitar every time. Poppy likes to listen to pop songs, especially ones made and sung by female artists. Julie likes them aswell, especially the more upbeat ones. Whenever she comes over they probably sing and dance together. Frank likes classical music, especially while gardening, reading or studying. Home loves lullabies, who Wally sings, Howdy likes to listen to the same songs that play at his store, kind of like elevator music and, at last, Sally listens to dramatic music: she loves to immerse in it, imagine scenarios and act as if she's in a play.

Barnaby is a heavy sleeper, and a loud one too. He snores a lot.

Wally often has nightmares that he wakes up from in the middle of the night. Whenever this happens he goes to Barnaby's house, crawls in his bed and sleeps with him. It's the only thing that stops him from having nightmares. Surprisingly he doesn't mind his snoring too, since he likes having someone making sounds as he sleeps. It's comforting to him, because it means they're there. He also thinks Barnaby is very comfy considering his fur and size. The dog is used to waking up some days and see Wally there, it happened many times. Since it doesn't wake him up he doesn't mind it: whatever helps his friend is ok with him. Barnaby also believes Wally's nightmares are pretty standard, but they're actually gorey and dark and are, mostly, about his friends dying and stuff, or waking up one day to a desert town, which is why it upsets Wally so much.

Wally has people pleasing tendencies. He just wants to make friends with anyone he meets, which is why he's so friendly and nice. However, don't be fooled, this doesn't mean you can trample all over him. Sure, he doesn't vocally set boundaries, but if you do something to hurt his feelings he's gonna get his revenge... in other indirect ways. He's also often scared that his neighbours wouldn't be friends with him if he wasn't like this, which is why he often feels resentment. He's wrong though: his neighbours would totally still love him.

One time, as Frank and Julie were playing together like always, she said something like:"Oh Frank, why are you always so angry all the time? Be more like Wally! He's never upset at anything, that man is always so happy," she then started to wonder: "why, I don't think I've ever seen Wally be truly angry at something. Do you think he can't just feel anger, Frank?" she asked. "Of course he can, everyone feels emotions, silly. All of them. I do have to say though, I'm curious to see Wally angry." They organized a plan to make Wally angry and watched inside Howdy's store from the window in secret as they executed it: Wally came up to Howdy and gave him the posters he drew for the store. Howdy acted out the plan:"Seriously? These are so ugly," he stated as he started to make up things to criticize, "I will not accept them, you need to do a better job." He then looked at Wally who had an indescribable look on his face: he thought he was about to yell or something but, instead, he started to silently cry. Everyone panicked: Julie and Frank immediately ran up to the little guy, she hugged him tightly while Frank continously apologized. Howdy started giving him all the apples he had in his store to try and cheer him up... They decided they were not going to try to make Wally mad ever again.

I headcanon Wally to be aroace and poly. He feels strong platonic affection to all the people he makes friends with, he wouldn't like the classic idea of relationships. Why would you love two people differently? to him love should be equally shared!

[goddessofwisdom18]

your favorite character being largely disliked by both the stans and the antis is actually so devastating. where am i supposed to go

there are three main opinions about mor in this fandom:

1. she’s fine bc she’s feyre’s bestie but you don’t really care about her personally (probably bc she’s queer because the stan girlies used to LOVE mor when moriel was semi-canon. i remember. i was there)

2. she’s fine but annoying bc she ~lead azriel on~ (main opinion on the acotar subreddit). never mind that if this was true, it would be as a result of a retcon, because again, pre acowar, moriel was going to be canon. sarah made mor sapphic because we were asking for more lgbt characters. (again. i was there.) and besides, i frankly don't think it is true, because azriel is the fucking spymaster with a million chances of knowledge at his fingertips and mor spent 80% of her time at a gay bar so idk how he couldn't have fucking known?

3. or she’s the fucking worst because she was. idk. mean to nesta. you know who else was mean??? and people love that about her because it's a result of trauma, it makes her flawed and relatable? literally nesta T_T this is not anti nesta i just don’t get it.

4. she's the fucking worst because she… supposedly lied about eris? ?? i'm not even going to begin to unpack this. why y'all IMMEDIATELY take the man's side and think what he's saying is bible… i don't fucking know. learn to decenter men in your life my friend. sometimes women ARE telling the truth even if they're basic or pick mes or whatever.

mor’s traumatized as hell and definitely has as much to back up her occasional cattiness as nesta had to back up her literal life long bullying. but few people will give her a feminist reading. few people will analyze how sarah wrote her story or what that means. few people will even give her credit as a real villain. she’s just an annoying pick-me bitch and that’s the end of it.

think about the lack of grace rhysand gives nesta. think about what that might mean for mor, to whom rhys (and his friends) was a sort of savior, because her life in the hewn city was that bad that somehow dealing with rhysand is better. that was who she grew up with; that was what she was taught to see as good because at least it wasn’t keir.

not to mention that her life is shaped around her survival via her desirability to males. ESPECIALLY as a sapphic woman can you imagine what that would do to her psyche?

but no. no fan posts about her. no headcanons. nothing nada. just me and the mor week posts and the occasional obligatory stan reference bc she's part of the main cast.

i understand being annoyed bc of the double standard in canon between her and nesta's heavy drinking, but even then i see posts all the time about "i would love rhys if it weren't for the narrative's worship of him!" and none for mor because she's just a ghost. she's nothing to anybody. despite being A MAIN CHARACTER!

not to mention but like. generally positioning yourself perpetually in opposition to the paradigm rather than just having values whether they're popular or not is not a great way to go about things. i completely understand liking eris regardless of what he's done - i am a tamlin stan despite the fact that he was very well abusive in acomaf - but the fact that there are antis out there who are so convinced mor is lying, or who want sarah to write that storyline, is so digusting to me. women in groups you don't like, political sides you don't like, women you think are annoying - they still deserved to be believed. don't give into respectability politics. come on now.

[bakapandy]

All right, so I wanted to share this with you, and anyone interested. So there's a little something I've noticed about the sand sibs, which prompted a little headcanon. So you see, I'm a nerd who likes reading the wiki pages of my fave characters, and while reading theirs, I've noticed smth. Now, we know that in the timeskip between og Naruto and Shippuden the characters grow obviously, they get older, taller, and most of them gain weight. The thing with the sand sibs, is that while Gaara and Temari do gain a respectable amount in this time, Kankuro doesn't. Like, Gaara goes from 36 or 35 kg in chunin exams? To 50 in Shippuden. Which yeah, it's good to know the kid has been eating better, but Kank just went from 60 to 61 kg in 3 years. Which led me to believe Temari was behind it. Thinking about what they could've done with their father gone, in the period where they would have started bonding as sibs, I think it kinda makes sense for Tem to put Kank on a diet while making sure Gaara eats 5 meals a day. She'd do it in a "Kank your love of burgers is getting concerning and if we don't do smth about it, you'll end up like the Akimichi kid from the Leaf", kinda way. And like, Kank would dismiss her advice at first, but then start thinking about it, and "perhaps Temari is right" (ofc she always is), so he listens to her, and she takes care of both of them. And just, the image of them coming back from training hungry, and Temari putting a toast with some eggs and water in front of Kank, while preparing a whole meal for Gaara is hilarious. And I think it's true, cause in Boruto, when Tem isn't there anymore, you can see Kank has let himself go again, and has gained some chub (which all things considered, could've come as a result of alcohol consumption, as it was stated in Gaara hidden, that Kank enjoys drinking).

Wanted to bring this up, cause Kishi is consistent with how he draws everyone except Kank. He's the only sib we've ever seen shirtless, in the ep where Sakura heals him, and there he was thin with a narrow waist, but. If you've ever seen the beach ending (an ending where the characters go to the beach) we can see the sand sibs in their swimsuits (it's the one where Gaara is wearing that weird full body piece), and Kank is in the background, but we see him shirtless again, and he clearly has some chub there. Like, Kishi just choose a body type for the kid and stick with it. Anyways, thoughts?

Hmm.....idk I never really saw where this whole "kankurou is pudgey/fat" thing comes from and like it's fine, I believe in body type rep and I like seeing the designs where he does have it, but bringing up this kinda body-shamey response from the sand sibs is reading a bit too much into it I think.

And like....61kg when he's 175cm in Shippuden is like....not heavy at all...it's very average frankly if not lean (61kg is only like 135 lb at 175cm which is like 5' 9", even in part one he's 165cm which is like 5' 6" at 135 lb is still pretty average...) which is why I put very little stock into the weights in general.

My characterization of him is that he's always been on the stockier side and wears baggy clothing...which I guess is where the pudgy characterization comes from...but I mean, it's really just how clothing has weight and fall on the body when it's loose?

idk like obviously this is my style and interpretation but I'd say it's pretty close to how he's typically drawn in canon?