#himself if he doesnt have to fight

[petricorah]

I love "i would kill for you" ship dynamics but what about "i would stop killing" ship dynamic??

I would lay down my sword for you. I would change my nature and go against everything i've known. I would resist the easy way out of solving my problems. I would give up the adrenaline of battle to stay by your side and make tea instead. I'm not sure I know who I am without a weapon in my hand because I've had to fight for so long but for you I'm willing to try and figure this out.

It must be hard. To put down your weapon that's protected you for so long. It's allowed you to stay alive it's kept you from getting hurt--physically and mentally. Because you've never had to worry about a real relationship if you think you'll be dead at the next battle. And you feel naked without it and it feels like you're ripping off an extension of yourself. Are you even whole without it? Are you worthy of being loved if you can't prove it by risking your life? And yet they've found someone who's asking them for something much harder than dying in battle on their behalf. They've found someone who wants them to live. And that's much more terrifying.

[dbzkaka]

I literally dont know how to continue explaining to people that part of the reason Goku decided to stay dead was because Gohan hated fighting.

He didnt know this until cell. He literally had no idea. Gohan NEVER gave any indication whatsoever. Couple that with the fact Bulma pointed out most of people threatening the Earth during that point in time were all people wanting Goku. The saiyans. Frieza. The androids. Doctor Gero. Cell.

All because of Goku. Its not his fault but his very existence consistently put the Earth in danger. He truly believed Earth would be safer without him and therefore, gohan wouldnt be consistently placed into battle.

Because Goku didnt know gohan hated fighting. But once he knew came the very interwoven nature of these threats he brought making his own son fight because gohan felt he HAD to. Not because he wanted to. For goku, protecting the earth always aligned with his own love for fighting. But gohan fought out of necessity, out of the very idea that they couldnt afford to do it without him. He has this power he didnt ask for so he must use it right? Because it would be selfish if he didnt.

But goku... goku thought gohan was like him. Gohan WANTED to return to help fight vegeta. He WANTED to go to namek. He WANTED to stay and fight after piccolo almost died to frieza. Goku didnt see gohan train that first year. Didnt witness what it took to make gohan a fighter. All he saw was his son who now was strong and wanted to join the fight like his dad. And he knows gohan is more powerful than them, knows he can stop cell, FELT IT. Gohan has to defeat cell because no one else can. So he thinks if gohan gets angry enough fighting cell, itll be the answer. Because thats how its always been for goku. And in thirty seconds piccolo makes him realize he's wrong. He doesnt argue back, he listens and concedes and realizes that piccolo is right. And suddenly goku wants to abandon his plan and stop the fight. He made a mistake. He intends to get gohan out. And in the end, he still ended up being right, but it doesnt change what goku now knows. Gohan isnt like him and he doesnt enjoy fighting.

Goku would have NEVER made gohan fight if he thought he didnt want to. You know this whenever adult gohan gets involved in a fight and goku apologizes that he had to. Or when someone suggests gohan for a battle and goku is like nah he's "out of practice," even when they have time FOR PRACTICE. He never wants to force gohan into a situation like cell again. Because cell was a mistake and goku has learned from it. So he never asks Gohan to fight anymore. If Gohan wants in then of course he's in. But he wants his son to be able to choose that. He wants gohan to be HAPPY and if thats not fighting then thats perfectly alright with goku.

So it wasnt just about keeping the earth safe. Or his friends. It was knowing that in the safety of gokus absence, gohan wouldnt have to fight either. There would be less threats, less chances of his son being forced into battle. And sure he also trusted that gohan and the others could keep the earth safe if they had to, but he was banking on the threat level significantly decreasing instead.

And decrease it did. They had seven whole years of peace. Not a single threat. Meanwhile from the moment Raditz shows up to gokus death to cell, it all takes place within the span of FIVE YEARS. The longest they went without a threat was the three year gap spent training for the androids. And they spent every waking moment knowing they were coming.

And then if you look at trunks future... majority of the human population being wiped out by the androids. Majority of gokus friends. His son. All dead. Because of him. Because he defeated the red ribbon army when he was a child. And that very easily could have been their future as well. So Goku does his job in preventing that. He saves all of them. And if hes the only one who ends up dead, well... it doesnt matter. Because they aren't. And he intends to keep it that way. So he stays in otherworld, to keep them safe and to give his son a future that he can choose. If Gohan has to fight, then he can. But at least his father wouldnt be the one bringing the threats to his door.

[tangledinink]

For the Swanatello fam: what does everyone miss most about Donnie during his lake-induced absences?

for donnie, leo will gladly give every scrap of patience and grace and gentleness he has. he doesn't mind explaining things. he doesn't mind telling his brother the same things over and over. he doesn't mind it when donnie forgets or doesn't understand or needs his help to remember or process things.

but he misses the banter. the back-and-forth. the stupid fights and pranks and 'you said's' and 'i told you so's.' and, perhaps a bit selfishly, he misses when he didn't always feel like he had to be the bigger person for him. he misses when he still had the space to be childish and immature and petty towards his twin, and it wouldn't hurt either of them the way it tends to now.

[ swanatello ]

[jorrated]

always wondered what STC would've been like if instead of just making Eggman evil on a single event, it kinda jumbled his brain a lot and make him have brief moments of lucidity as Kintobor. give him the ice king treatment ya know

[sp0o0kylights]

obsessed with your latest steddie au! steve’s relationship with his parents is so emotionally abusive and manipulative and my heart is breaking that nobody seems to recognise that

Thank you!!

I really wanted to focus on how Steve's parents are abusive in a way that is a lot harder to clock.

They're not out there screaming and kicking him out of the house. These people want you to like them, and they lie like they breath.

These are the adults who downplay serious issues, who make you doubt yourself, who smooth things over or even apologize on your behalf as a way to control and isolate you.

If everyone thinks you're terrible, and your amazing, doting, angelic parents are once again swooping in to save you, then your escape routes close up rapidly--which is of course, the whole point. They want their victims to rely on them and them alone.

For a lot of the Party, that's just not an evil they've encountered yet.

Throw in the fact that Steve does in fact, have a head injury, and things get muddy FAST.

It makes for delicious, angst-ridden scenarios and I am delighted everyone's happy to come along for the ride.

[grippingmoving]

[ralseinumberonebiggestsupporter]

hate everyone who says that ralsei fans are stupid for liking a character that's obviously hiding something!!!! he will be evil!!!!!! hes bad boy!!!!! ok and? if hes evil then im gonna draw him being evil if hes good then im gonna draw him being good i dont care. if hes asriel im asriel too i support him

[mishapen-dear]

thinking about 4halo again and dying

they just. they used to be so sweet together. and then the election arc managed to genuinely turn them against each other (and bad is still affected by being caged in the museum) and i would NOT have been surprised if a rebellion had started within the next few weeks after their last fight and. they used to be friends and then they almost destroyed each other

and then the eggs went missing

and there are so many parallels between them, but one of the biggest parallels is how they're both protectors. they both protected the eggs (and, when he became president, forever extended that protection to the other islanders) but the eggs went missing and they had to put all of that aside. Forever was quicker to put it down than Bad was (it felt like only a very temporary truce, from Bad's end), but they put their problems on hold, because their eggs. were gone.

and another parallel. the destruction. both of them with their plans to cause ruin because then, maybe, theyll get their kids back. bad caused most of the grieving arc damage directly, and got aypierre and antoine to help him. he dug holes in the ground. he placed mines everywhere and leapt into them. he started the lavacasting process of the fed building (and was interrupted by admins, so he stopped, but philza and fit were still right to laugh at him lmaoo). he drilled a hole through the side of the federation office from a huge distance away. he has chosen to hurt his friends and himself to get the eggs back. whatever the cost.

forever destroyed the island. or he planned to destroy the island. or he was interrupted just before he destroyed the island or or or. I don't know. but it was big, and it was bad. bad enough that the feds had to step in and forcefully drug him, and kickstart the happy pills arc.

and the happy pills arc..... oughghghgh as fucking awful as it was for their characters to experience i genuinely truly think that it saved them from each other. when he was first told about forever being fucked up bad was still in the "i need to kick his butt" mindset, and was all ready for an excuse to kill forever. and then he saw forever. and the first proposal happened. and bad was angry and he was sad and upset and he was careful. forever tried to kill him. bad decided to save him. forever kept trying to marry him. forever kept taking the pills. forever was so scared of his own anger and all of the damage he could and would have caused to his family that he kept taking drugs that kept him so out of his mind he hallucinated his son was just sleeping safely at his house.

and they both tried to kill each other. and they both failed.

and bad showed phil and cellbit (and tubbo) the item scanner that dapper discovered, which could destroy him, because nothing else was working. because they needed to save forever. because bad was reminded by then that forever was a victim of the federation instead of just a mouthpiece for it. and then when forever woke up he saw bad, suffering, and so excited to see him awake.

and now they're here on opposite sides again with forever projecting his protection urges onto the fed worker in bad's basement and bad frustrated that he isn't being believed and his evil plans of giving ron lemons apology brownies is being interrupted and. look at them. soft "i hate you" and the appreciation room and bad's quiet heartbreak when he learned about forever being missing and the "i miss you" book bad got mad at because it asked him not to torture fed workers. does anyone hear me im so ill about them. do you understand they care about each other so much and the happy pills arc reminded them of that. forever realized bad is colourblind and bad assumed forever was poisoning him and then forever helped bad cheat on another colourblindness test and forever was giving bad flowers and bad was accepting them and accepted that he was colourblind despite his previously constant denial and! i don't know if im being comprehensible and i dont really care i will be honest i just need you to know i am frothing at the mouth like a rabid little beast. they are a TRAGEDY of miscommunication and external pressure but they love so so much. platonic or romantic or qpp they CARE and it tears me to shreds

[villruu]

Fake amnesia with Alex and Jay?

send me a reverse trope and MH characters & I'll write something for it

At first struggled w this one (couldn't decide between who was the fake amnesiac) and then this came to mind and i may do another oneshot about this lmao?

⸻

Alex woke up, for once, not wanting to die.

It was a novel feeling, to be honest. Waking up without having that deep dread rooted inside him, eating him from the inside out, without feeling like he was being observed, like he was about to become prey. Waking up and just feeling… nice.

He could hear the sound of someone in his kitchen, the sound of pots being moved and the old fridge being opened and closed and opened and closed. And, while usually, that would be enough to make him grab the gun he hid underneath his pillow, today, it just merely made him snort fondly and get up, pausing to even yawn and stretch.

How could he be worried, when he knew exactly who was inside his house? He had been the one to invite him yesterday.

The mere memory of yesterday was enough to make Alex smile, feeling giddy and happy in a way he hadn’t felt in ages.

This was the perfect opportunity, the perfect chance to at least make sure nothing bad happened, to at least keep one person alive. He just had to make sure the other didn’t find his computer or where he had been staying, and it would be okay. With no clues, the other would have no other option but to leave.

When Alex entered the kitchen, he couldn’t help the amused snort upon seeing Jay startled and fumble with something at his appearance, probably a pan or a mug knowing how clumsy Jay was.

“You slept okay?” He asked, leaning against the counter.

“Oh! Uh, yeah,” Jay nodded nervously, turning around to pour himself some coffee, “Thanks, by the way, for letting me stay. I, uh, I didn’t know where I would have gone.”

“Of course you could stay,” Alex said, grabbing a mug to pour himself coffee too, “Didn’t have any luck with your phone?”

“Uh, no, not really,” Jay mumbled, fidgeting with the shirt Alex had loaned him, frowning nervously at his shoes.

“Damn, that’s a shame dude,” Alex commented mildly, like he hadn’t been the one to crack open the phone and carefully pry away parts of the hardware so it wouldn’t work, “Was the chip okay, at least?”

“I don’t, I don’t think so,” Jay grimaced, clutching tightly his mug, “I, um, I have no idea why. Maybe I broke it, um, broke it before you found me?”

“Probably,” Alex said, satisfied as a smug cat internally, “Guess you’ll have to get a new one.”

“I, um, I guess so.” Jay frowned even more.

He looked pale under the white light of his kitchen, eyes sunken and bruised with eyebags.

But, Alex thought to himself, if he were in Jay’s situation he doubts he would have been any better.

…Actually, when it had been him, it hadn’t been any better, to be honest. Alex shuddered as he remembered how it had been almost a year ago, waking up one day without a single idea as to what had happened, to where he was, where was Am—

Alex shook his head, and tried to focus on Jay, who now looked at him with some strange expression.

“Any idea what you will do?” He asked, taking a sip of his coffee, “Since you, um, don’t remember the last…?”

“Four years,” Jay reminded him quietly, fidgeting, looking unnerved, “And, um, I don’t know? I thought maybe, um, walking around and trying to find clues? As to why, um, why am I here?”

Hm. 

No, that would be far too… dangerous. The probabilities of Jay remembering something would be too high. No. That wouldn’t do.

“Maybe you should try contacting your family?” Alex suggested gently, carefully laying a hand on Jay’s shoulder, “Maybe they have an idea as to what you’ve been up to.”

“I… Uhm. I hadn’t, uh, I hadn’t thought of, of that,” Jay stuttered, looking uncomfortable, “I…”

“From what I remember you used to call your parents every weekend back in college,” Alex said, “They probably have an idea. I doubt you have changed much since then.”

“I…um, I’ll think about it,” Jay promised him, avoiding his eyes.

Good. 

The sooner he got Jay out of here, the better for everyone. 

If Jay left, then Tim would forget as well. And everything would be just fine.

And if not… Well, it would be easier to catch Jay off guard if he didn’t remember the last time they had seen each other.

Alex left the kitchen, and did not notice the knowing and weary look Jay pinned on his retreating back.

[fischlcatgirl]

Thinking about childe telling the traveller the reason Skirk trained him in the abyss was because he "awakened it". Which means that Skirks decision was maybe not exclusively but COMMUNICATED to childe to be completely pragmatic. Skirk helps childe for a greater end goal- if this goal did not exist, she would have let him (barely a teenager) die in the abyss. At least the way Childe understands it. Which makes me go soso crazy. Between the likely neglect and being sent to the fatui by his father and being the lowest ranked Harbinger and not coming off as important enough or too stupid to know the details of the Tsaritsas plan in liyue. Do you think he believes he has any intrinsic value at all. Do you think that maybe thats why he's always throwing himself into a fight. This time, maybe, he will finally prove he is worth anything. Do you think that's why he's so obsessed with finding stronger opponents. He's trying to find the losing ceiling. The place where people will see him for what he is, so that he can surpass that too. So that he can prove that he is better, prove to everyone but especially skirk that he deserved to come out. Do you think that childe was told his value hinges on his ability to defeat the abyss. To dig himself out of the hole he created. Do you think that it kills him that pieces of the Abyss live inside him

[completeoveranalysis]

[3]

Ooh here we go! We’re off! Lava Lamp takes the initiative and leaps up to attack. 

I love the shot of Lava Lamp reflected in Syaoran’s eye! It’s entirely unnecessary! It’s directly below a panel that shows the exact same image! It’s perhaps the most meaningful panel on the page! 

The almost lifeless stare of Syaoran’s expressionless glance! The impression that there’s so little going on in his mind that it might as well be a reflective surface! His entire being is this fight, and that’s all you can see in his eye. 

And the fact that his eye reflect’s Lava Lamp’s appearance because his entire existence already reflects Lava Lamp’s everything. 

And then, even as their swords are still locked against each other, he uses one hand to pull out Fai’s magic. Which is absolutely rude and mean to me personally. 

[wrightfamily]

i think an underrated part of the sea salt trio's dynamic in days is that axel chooses inaction when faced with the inevitability of losing either roxas or xion. he takes on a sort of attitude that if things are going to go south, he might as well try to pretend it isn't and try to make the most of what little time they have left. but by saying (and doing) nothing about the situation (unless explicitly ordered to, which was never beneficial to anyone but the top dogs of the organization) he only made things worse; roxas stops trusting him, becomes so angry with him and the organization, that he runs away, has to kill xion, and soon after gets captured by diz and riku. by doing nothing he loses both of them

[southern--downpour]

having upsetting thoughts about the “live” ending

[bonetrousledbones]

im fucking cursed i hate spamton legitimately so much but not only do i have to deal with him being the deltarune sexyman but NOW ive found a fan song for him that scratches my brain in such a specific way i’ve listened to it like 20 times in the past 2 days 

[vulturereyy]

this may be unhinged of me to say but what if the reason Lurien's telescope is pointed at soul sanctum is because he doesn't trust the soulmaster but also because he secretly believes the outcome of the research there has merit, even if he doesn't condone their measures. And what if in his lonely spire he tries to replicate their findings but with himself as a consenting test subject.

[firelise]

I dont think a single being has ever made me more upset than Boston at the end of that latest Only Friends ep, the second he opened his bitch ass mouth i had to stop the video for twenty minutes to compose myself