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sag-dab-sar · 3 years

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God Relationships & Communication: It's okay to be "Headblind"

One Heart Many Gods by Lucy Valunos Series Post #2

To her credit she notes specifically that people will disagree with some things and that she simply wrote this as a book of suggestions for beginners. I want to talk about this issue anyways so I'm simply using her book as one example among dozens. Because it is a perfect example even if she preface's that the book is entirely her opinions. ... I guess due to that I have to preface this post with: its my opinions as a long time former eclectic polytheist, now a Sumerian Revive/Recon polytheist and Hellenic Revive polytheist; combined with historical precedent

Also as a disclaimer: I have literally no idea what she means by devotional polytheism / a devotional practice versus like..... all other forms of modern paganism/polytheism? She empathizes how her booklet is building a devotional practice and I don't see many differences between what she describes and what headblind (we'll get there) polytheists do. Including devotees.

Essentially the entire premise of the booklet is relationships with your gods and communication with your gods.

Specifically interpersonal relationships, because the reciprocal giving of offerings and receiving of blessings, which Lucy does make note of, can be seen as a relationship. For some people simply worshipping can be seen as a relationship even if they are "headblind". But neither of these two examples are what she is describing and she makes that clear in her book.

The idea she expresses, and what I see all over the internet, when it comes to having a "relationship with [insert God]" is always equated to human-human interpersonal relationships. This is further showcased by every analogy that comes up when discussing the topic as always "how you treat your friends and family."

Each part of the book circles back to it. If you want this for yourself thats fine, do what you want, love and worship the gods as you want; but having a human like interpersonal relationship with a God(s) should not be promoted as necessary or foundational. The number of times I have seen people despairing over not having a godphone, not getting signs, not seeing their Gods etc is heartbreaking.

🔹Headblind🔹

This is a word I learned recently, it basically means someone who doesn't have a Godphone. Doesn't receive signs, feelings, dreams, can't communicate, etc.

Let me make something clear:

Headblindness is 100% okay.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with not having a godphone. You never need anything akin to communication that so many pagans push for. Its not a requirement. Your religion can be just as fulfilling as anyone else's even if you're "headblind".

The fact that an entire new term was coined to describe the inability to communicate concretely with the Gods blows my damn mind.

Seriously, read this post (by @dameaya) its enormously insightful on this topic and since I'm not fully headblind myself it's better to hear an explanation from someone who is.

Comparing what I consider my "godphone", to this book and the enormous amount of posts I've been seeing that espouse the same principle, I'd say I'm probably 90% headblind. If not a tad more considering the frequency of the events is incredibly minuscule, I never initiate the communication, its never a back and forth, half the time I wonder if its the God at all— which usually doesn't make much of a difference anyways. Its almost always regarding their idols & items, beginning/ending their daily worship, and I think 3 times an offering. Very little beyond that, which seems to run counter to the whole relationship godphone descriptions people emphasize.

Seriously, most of godphone experiences I've had come from Hygeia and I'm neither devoted to her nor dedicated anything to her.... she just likes her idol a very specific way. Athena is probably second. Communication plays very little role in my practice and, if anything, there have been years where it was completely and utterly non-existent.

🔹Communication🔹

She says:

A critical component of a relationship isn’t just giving and receiving gifts, which is basically what offerings and blessings are. It is actually talking to each other.

I mean if "each other" means its back and forth or frequent "godphoning", I am missing THE critical component with basically every single God I worship. Including the two I'm devoted to and the three I've dedicated aspects of my life to. Its never frequent and its never a conversation.

How many people in religions that never "died" which have multiple Gods or a concept like it (e.g Hinduism or Shinto) have interpersonal relationships where they talk with the Gods? Keep in mind Hinduism has 1 billion adherents.

Do you think every ancient person had a discussion with their gods?

Did every bride-to-be needed a discussion and relationship with Artemis, Aphrodite, and Hera? All who play roles in the marriage process, and a girl/woman's life in general.

Did every Athenian need an interpersonal relationship with Athena and talk to her?

Did every Isin citizen need an interpersonal relationship with Ninisina and to talk to her?

How does this concept make any sense when you put it in that perspective? It frustrates me to no end because it is so ingrained in modern paganism that people developed a term for people who can't communicate or perceive signs from the gods.

Whats funny from a Hellenic polytheist standpoint what she says isn't the most critical component of the relationship actually is, Kharis (by @verdantlyviolet) the reciprocal giving of offerings and receiving of blessings.

How can you know what your Gods want if you never ask Them? How can you know what They want from you if you never listen? This is a step you shouldn’t skip, even if you choose to incorporate it at some other time or in some other way. There are as many ways to listen as there are Gods.

"How can you know?" Religious tradition. You don't need to have UPG in order to pray or give offerings— ever. You could spend decades worshipping the Gods without ever being told what the Gods want from you. You can learn what those Gods were given, how they were prayed to, etc. If the information is scant in a particular tradition or pantheon due to lack of historical records scraping up just enough info to know about the God is fine, you could also look at neighboring cultures' practices as they may relate.

Then give prayers and offerings in a way you think respects them—no communication needed, no divination, no UPG, no relationship, and you're doing just as good as any other polytheists. Feel free to skip the step, I do every time, I only ever "listen" when the Gods themselves decide to activate my "godphone." Then there is a whole boat load of discernment involved.

🔹Divination🔹

Learning at least one method of divination to the best of your ability is indispensable. If one method doesn’t appeal, try another."

Again, I point to both modern religions and ancient ones. Divination was a profession. Like being a merchant or doctor, the hundreds upon hundreds of people who worshipped these Gods didn't personally know divination.

Now you might be thinking "well we don't have that structure so we have to adapt to the modern day!" My point isn't that we should or shouldn't use divination to commune with the divine. My point is: its not necessary. It can be helpful and fun but no polytheist should ever feel the need to know any form of divination to be worshipping correctly.

I actually find it dangerous to suggest personal divination to new comers. Divination is a skill, as is discernment (by @helvetica12point) that new comers may not have. Thus shoving them head first into "use divination to learn what your Gods want" could be setting them up to feel like they've failed, enforce confirmation bias, or simply become frustrated.

Unless you walked into this path knowing a divination technique already, divination shouldn't be on the list of "Things You Should Start With." It'd be like using the diving board on your first day at swim class.

🔹Interpersonal Deity Relationship Requirement🔹

I say requirement because every pagan/polytheist 101 book or blog post truly emphasizes this as a requirement. As do so many tumblr asks.

...devotion in practice is not simply saying a prayer or lighting a stick of incense. Those are the means, not the end. The end of devotion is connection with the Divine.

and saying a prayer and lighting a stick of incense isn't a connection to the divine because.........?

I fail to see how it isn't.

Ereškigal devotee here. Can confirm: saying prayers (including requests), lighting a stick of incense, and giving her some water is, indeed, a connection to the divine. The only difference in my specific practice is that prayer and that offering are solely to her and Namtar. Yes, it actually is that simple.

But when we zoom in a little past those major points in the Wheel of the Year, however it is observed in your tradition, there becomes a bit of a tangle for the typical Polytheist. We are Polytheists because we have many Gods. How can we possibly honor Them all on a daily basis, particularly if They all prefer different offerings? The answer is, we can’t. At least, not in more than a very general way. Even Gods in the same Pantheon are different and distinct from Each Other, with different preferences.

Their is no precedent to say "they all prefer different offerings".

That's completely absurd. Especially when you add "even in the same pantheon." Do God's have specific offerings they may like? Yes. There may be certain foods or drinks that were given to certain Gods within specific cultus but that would vary from location to location and hinged on what luxury items the people of that location had available to them not the Gods "personal preferences." Ereškigal may enjoy chocolate in my UPG, but guess what the Ancient Mesopotamians didn't have: chocolate.

How much variety did ancient people have in their diet compared to us?

Make sure to minus global food imports. Minus the all-year-round accessibility of most food today. Take into account the amount of, lack of, and location of trade routes. Make sure to remember what the average ancient worshipper could financially obtain and offer to the Gods.

When you start to take all that reality of the ancient world into account, even for the cultures where we have little writings, the variety of food they could offer vs what we can offer is vastly different. Remember, we aren't temples who are being funded by tax systems and empires able to demand the absolute best for the Gods. The logical conclusion is that (non-empire-funded-temples) people gave what they had available to them.

The idea that every single God has different personal preferences and you should stick to those preferences individually is entirely UPG. Which is fine.

But implying that we cannot worship a multitude of Gods at once, because they all prefer different offerings, is not fine. Its simply false and misleading.

I know there are new comers who feel they can't worship [insert Gods] because they don't know the specific offerings yet. Which is heartbreaking.

As for every God having different preferences: want an offering they can all enjoy? Water. Depending on the pantheon there may also be a variety of offerings across the board. Wine for Hellenic or beer for Sumerian. Maybe just a bit of bread for essentially any pantheon that had an agricultural society— including those with scant historical record simply by deduction.

Hellenic pantheon offerings (by @verdantlyviolet)

Mesopotamian pantheon offerings

If you can barely do anything in life water is perfect

Since the whole point is regular devotion and allowing our spirituality to enrich our daily lives rather than just the “holy days,” how are we to balance this? One possible solution is to honor a specific Deity each day of the week, using either personal or traditional associations to choose the day (or if all else fails, divination!) You could also opt to simply dedicate one day a month (preferably the same day each month if possible, such as the third Thursday or the first Sunday of each month) to honoring a particular Deity.

In my own practice, I am dedicated to a particular Deity, and He receives my daily acts of devotion, as well as one day a week where I seek to specially honor Him. Two other Deities who I am also more closely involved with are also honored each week, each on Their own appointed day. A couple more are honored once a month, and still Others only once or twice a year, on holy days that correspond with Them. For me right now, this keeps my practice to a reasonable time commitment and gives me adequate time to prepare offerings, etc. for each Deity without becoming overwhelmed.

The idea that offerings and time have to be given to each God individually is a manifestation of the interpersonal relationship requirement. Due to the individuality and emphasis on "quality time", like a friend, means you have to limit the number of Gods and parcel out your time among them. In this case, you should pick 1 day of the week or 1 day of the month to honor them; limiting the amount of Gods so as to not get overwhelmed.

Here is my hypothetical: If I have an interpersonal relationship with Hera, spend time with her at her shrine, meditating, communicate daily (pretending I could do that which I most certainly can't), offer her specific things she likes that I know of via UPG, give daily prayers specifically to her, the relationship Lucy explains, then that is a devotional practice. So unless I can do everything, or at least half the things, I listed for Hera with every other deity that I want to honor its only honoring them "in a very general way."? I suppose that makes sense since she very clearly explains what she means by devotion is quality time spent together and talking. [I should note she does write a section about chronic illnesses and that we can't always do things as planned etc so she did take that into account]

So I'd do this with Hera daily, but Zeus on Mondays, and Apollo of Wednesdays and Nanaya every 7th of the month and and and ...... that makes it way more complicated than it needs to be. Complicated enough that she constantly warns the reader about how this can become overwhelming. And shes right, having an interpersonal relationship with all the Gods you want to honor would be enormously overwhelming.

I would suggest starting with one or two Deities with Whom you are already relatively close or with Whom you wish to be closer, and focusing on Them to begin with. You can add in Others once you've found your feet! I say this again because it can’t be stressed enough: please resist the temptation to do everything at once and honor Everyone at once.

While you shouldn't do everything at once please find me a historical prayer that only mentions one God— like not even saying "son of Zeus," because that would make it two gods. I have a feeling those prayers are rare and for good reason: polytheism, the Gods are naturally interlaced.

You don't need an interpersonal relationship with the Gods, unless you want one. Even if you have an interpersonal relationship with 1 God doesn't mean you can't still honor 10 or more on a daily basis. Totally possible. Want to have interpersonal relationships with more than a few (as she mentioned)? Probably not possible.

Let me ask again: how is "simply saying a prayer or lighting a stick of incense" not worthy of being called devotion? I mean you probably want to combine the two not just one or the other, and add some water. But prayer, request, offering ...... is great, thats what you need. And it doesn't have to be one deity per prayer or per offering. Meaning you don't need to set up a schedule like the above in order to honor more Gods (you can set up a schedule for your own enjoyment and organization but its not required for the sake of the number of Gods).

Like give me a reason that simple act is not devotion, as she claimed.

Yes, there are libation days for various Gods in Hellenic tradition..... but those days aren't necessarily set aside to do everything I did in my hypothetical-Hera relationship. Yes, I've said that you should be giving your "all" to the Diĝirene but that consists of those 2-3 things just at varying sizes and elaborateness depending on your own life circumstances; an important difference is it can include a dozen Gods if you so desire.

As a side note: I'm not including things like becoming the best version of yourself, following the order, etc. I'm specifically focusing on worship, relationships, and communication with the Gods.

We won’t have the same relationship with any two Gods, just as we don’t have the same friendship with any two humans, and as time goes on and our relationships grow, we will naturally become closer to Some than we do with Others.

Ding ding ding I found a human-human analogy!!! Its in a few other places I noticed.

Let me examine my own worship practice based on the way Lucy, and many others, describe God interpersonal relationships and communication that is so heavily emphasized in the pagan/polytheist sphere:

Do I have an interpersonal relationship with Hestia? No. Do I still worship her? Yes, for 8 years.

Do I have an interpersonal relationship with Hypnos? No. Am I still going to pray for sleep during a bad night? Yes.

Have I experienced signs from An? No. Am I still going to honor and recognize him? Abso-fucking-lutely.

Have I ever had any godphone like experiences with Ĝeštinana? Nope. Been worshipping her for 4 years.

Did I ever receive a sign from Hermes, Hekate, and Apollo Argyieus? No. Am I going to honor them, pray to them, and offer to them as household Gods? Yes.

What about Ares and Ninĝirsu do I have interpersonal relationships with them? Nope. Have I dedicated my career goals to them? Yes.

Do I have an enormously deep connection to The Sun? Yes. Do I have a interpersonal relationship with them? No.

I have what can be described as an interpersonal relationship based on the book (or rather, as close as I can get to whats described in the book; minus the godphone) with maybe three Gods total. Yet, I currently have 8 on my daily altar, 15 if you include the ones on the prayer beads. My breakfast was dedicated to 12 named as well as "The Great Diĝirene and Theoi"

I have never had a communication line with any of them only them hitting me over the head with a feeling, dream, or emotion on occasion. I don't use divination to communicate with the Gods because I'm not skilled enough to trust it, nor do I want to. When I divine something I think its a spiritual tool, reading in to whatever can be called "fate," or "possible fate." Not a telephone to the Gods; and I rarely if ever take my conclusions on the reading as a message specifically from the Gods. I'd rather just worship and leave my requests in the hands of faith. I've been worshipping for 10 years [as of 2021]. Neither interpersonal relationship nor continual communication have ever been necessary.

If you want your polytheist practice to revolve around a few specific deities by developing individual interpersonal relationships that is perfectly fine! My issue is that ever Pagan 101 / Polytheist Beginner info brings this up. That relationships and communication with the Gods have become essentially bedrocks of modern paganism.

🔹Honoring Many Gods🔹

There are plenty of ways to honor and give thanks to a variety of Gods on the daily.

She is right there is no way to worship every God in existence. But its clear from context she means a high amount, above like 3, in a single sitting.

Here are some thoughts off the top of my head:

If you have an altar with many Gods invoke each of their names before pouring out a joint libation or giving a joint offering. Like I said mine currently has 8. And can end up with many more.

My Sumerian Meal-As-Offering prayer honors 6 Gods.

"[Say a Gods name, list one of the qualities you like about them, rinse repeat for however many Gods you want to honor] I bring this fruit and water as an offering to you. I seek your help for the rough day I have ahead of me tomorrow. Thank you." However many Gods you want

"To the Ouranic Theoi on high please accept this libation as my show of gratitude" Dozens of Gods.

"Great Diĝirene sweet is your praise" Few thousand Gods.

"Mighty Olympians, awe fulfilling, — Hestia, Zeus, Hermes, Aphrodite, Ares, Hephestos, Hera, Artemis, Apollo, Poseidon, Demeter, [Dionysos]— I say hail to you. Please be with me today as I [insert task]" 12/13 Gods.

"May the Annunaki of Heaven, upon their thrones, possessing mighty power, give me strength for this task. I shall praise you always" around 100 Gods.

"All the Theoi" "All the Diĝirene" "All the 'iluma" recognition of all in your specific pantheon.

Of course the rebuttal is that she said this "How can we possibly honor Them all on a daily basis [? ...] we can’t [...] At least, not in more than a very general way."

My point is, the "very general way" is more than enough to be a devout polytheist. A devotional one even.

A single offering or libation can be given to many many Gods. Prayers can include many many Gods. The idea that each has such specific preferences that you need to give individual specific offerings has no basis outside of Cult Centers. Again just give some water. Sure you aren't specifically building a relationship with all of them, but thats not necessary for offerings, blessings, requests, worship, ....being a polytheist.

🔹Final Thoughts🔹

God relationships & God communication should be opt-in aspects of polytheism/paganism. Not opt-out. And when the two are presented as fundamental I have a serious problem with it. In our current community and beginner guides forget opt-in / opt-out, the whole "option" part of it is abandoned.

In closing: Worship the Gods even if you never feel them. Have faith in the Gods even if you never get a sign. Trust the Gods even if you don't know divination. Become a better person even if the Gods don't ring you up to tell you exactly what to do. Do things in the name of your Gods without them giving specific guidance.

If you want an interpersonal relationship with the Gods that's cool too. Just stop pushing it as foundational.

-🔷🔷🔷-

One Heart Many Gods Book Series

Post #1 - Is Polytheism Really That Tough? | Author & Book Info

Thats it for this book, I had other post ideas for the series but honestly they wouldn't be particularly enjoyable to write and these two posts got across my major talking points in regards to the book. So yeh....first Book Series done 😅

#paganism #polytheism #hellenic polytheism #levpag #helpol #book series #one heart many gods #michibooks #mypractice #-awaits the possible storm of anger-#this took me like 8 days to write #love me please #long post

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yzafre · 2 years

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How big is BotW’s Hyrule, really?

I mean you see comments about how BotW’s map is X many times bigger than Twilight Princess, or this game or that game, but somehow my brain just... can’t really understand that? So I decided to try and compare it using a different aspect: time.

Join me for a completely pointless exercise as I figure out exactly how big the BotW Hyrule is. And not just how big it is for us, but also how big it is for the characters. Is it that much bigger? (spoiler: yes! ...but also, no.)

If you just want the data/math, it’s available here, but more explanation on my Very Scientific™ process below.

So how are we doing this?

So I'm wanting to get a sense of the size as a denizen of the land might experience it. I'm looking at three things:

Your "average" trip versus a "full Hyrule" trip. So like, what's a trip your everyday guy might take to visit their friend in the next town over, and what's it gonna take to get all the way across the land. Also, to simulate an “immersive” experience, we’re following the roads. Mostly.

On foot vs horseback. C'mon, if you've got the chance, you're not gonna want to walk on a long trip. Also, we’re not using speed-boosting here. No rolling/sprinting on foot. No carrots/spurs on horseback. Just the fastest they can go without constantly pressing buttons.

"Real" time versus "relative" time. Real time being how long does it take me, the player, to navigate Link from Point A to Point B; Relative being more "how much of Link’s day does it take to make this trip". One helps us understand the technical, 3d-space size, the second helps us understand how big of a space it's supposed to represent.

So, we're gonna need some other Zelda games to compare BotW to. The 2d games are out, unfortunately, since top-down maps just frankly treat space differently, and WW and SS are out because their world maps are just. Like that.

That leaves us with OoT and TP to compare it to. Coincidentally, the other games that have horses. Let's go.

Ocarina of Time

So, first we gotta pick our trips. The OoT map is sort of set out like spokes on a wheel, so there’s not any obvious incremental trips. I went with Lake Hylia - Castle town for the longer one, and the Gerudo Entrance - Castle town for the shorter, in deference to that one gossip stone about the Gerudo going to get boyfriends. Also, used the 3DS version, since I knew I had an end-game file on there.

There’s no in-game clock, so I took the Very Scientific method of timing how long it took from the morning rooster sound to the night howling sound (and vice versa), assigning clock times to those points based on how I felt about the sky box, then dividing.

Then I realized I was an idiot, and there’s 24 hours in a day.

I ended up with a rough average of 6 in-game hours per 1 real minute, and from there filled out the table below:

[Description: a table charting the time it takes to go from the desert entrance to castle town, and the lake pen in front of lake hylia to castle town, both in our world and estimated game-world time. Conclusion is desert to castle town takes 6.96 game world hours on foot, 4.54 hours on horseback. Lake to castle town takes 8.89 game world hours on foot, 5.93 on horseback.]

The map is fast and super-condensed for the player, but Link is walking almost all day! On the other hand... You can get from any one community to the other between sun-up and sun-down.

Also, the roads in this Hyrule are bad. Just, so bad. Who’s maintaining these things?

Twilight Princess

So, Twilight Princess. I used the trip Link was supposed to go on at the start of the game for the “average” trip, taking him from Ordon Spring up to Castle Town, then extended the run to the northern entrance to Zora’s Domain for the full trip. In hindsight, not exactly a fair comparison to OoT since it starts outside of Hyrule Field, but... eh.

This one has longer day-night cycle, and no convenient way to force time along! I spent a lot of time waiting. Using the same Very Scientific method from before of assigning times to sun-up and sun-down, I estimated 1.45 hours per in-game minute. Very necessary, since I’m pretty sure the in-game clock doesn’t progress at all in Ordon/Faron.

Again... there are 24 hours in a day. You can just wait a full day and divide by 24. It should not have taken me so long to realize this.

All put together, you get this:

[Description: another table charting the trip times. Ordon Spring to Castle town takes 5.54 game world hours on foot, 3.64 on horseback. Ordon Spring to Zora’s Domain takes 9.72 game world hours on foot, 6.81 on horseback.]

A bit hard to compare, since it’s formatted differently, but to Link this map is actually around the same size as the OoT one. Fitting, since he’s a direct descendant of the Hero of Time. Usually the equivalent trips are longer by around an hour.

This Hyrule is very well laid-out. Roads take the quickest path to each place of interest and are well maintained. This traveler approves.

Breath of the Wild

Aaand, the big one. The giant map. I did, uh. I did a lot more runs on this map, just because there were more variables to account for.

First off, we have an in-game clock. Thank god. No estimating here, we know exactly how much game-world time Link was running for. On the other hand, the real time got a tiny bit skewed by my opening the menu to change outfits, double check my map, replace weapons, ect. ....Eh, Link also got way-laid by a lot of Yiga (A LOT OF YIGA), it’ll probably even out. Maybe.

Look, I never promised complete mathematical accuracy, this isn’t Game Theory. Did you see how I first tried to calculate time earlier?

SO. Average trip, Kakariko to Hateno. You can use the camp-fire to start at exactly 5AM. I used the Royal horse for the horse-back run, because it’s surprisingly on the slower end of horses, and also it’s what I already had out.

Full-Hyrule trip, Hateno to Rito Stable. I marked the times I reached the stables along my path. For horseback, I actually did two runs, one with the Royal horse and one with the Ganon horse. Again, see the link above for the speed-reasoning on those two, and also it’s what I had in my stables.

Also, remember at the very beginning when I mentioned we were “mostly” following the roads? Yeah, here we are. To finish it of, and for my own amusement, I did two “gremlin” runs. More like normal play, ignoring roads, climbing and jumping off of things. No food, elixirs, or Revali’s gale allowed (setting grass on fire for the updraft is free game, though). One of these was entirely on “foot”, the other used wild horses I ran across.

Here’s the data:

[Description: two tables, charting multiple trips across Hyrule. Conclusion is Kakariko to Hateno takes 10 game-world hours on foot, 6.5 on horseback. Traveling from Hateno to Rito stable takes 40.17 game-world hours following roads on foot, 21.08 following roads on the royal horse, 15 following roads on the ganon horse, 22.92 ignoring roads without using any horses, and 18.5 ignoring roads if you take advantage of wild horses.]

Sorry if the image is hard to read, tumblr won’t let me use HTML to add a table to the post. The actual spread-sheet is linked here. This took a while to finish! Going across the entire map on foot took 40 minutes of real time! On the other hand, grabbing a wild horse for half the journey while running wild across Hyrule is faster than taking the roads with the Royal Horse on the roads. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Also, Link did not stop to sleep. Or let the horse rest. That seems unsafe, and your average citizen would need to add to the travel time, but we’ll allow it because he’s a feral child running wild.

Lots of roads. So many roads. Not necessarily efficient roads? On the other hand: so many mountains, they don’t have much choice. Definitely the most scenic trip.

Results

SO HOW BIG IS HYRULE IN BOTW? Pretty big! But not, like, that big.

Okay, to explain: if you’re looking at real time, getting all the way across Hyrule on foot in Breath of the Wild (taking the roads) take around 6 times longer than it does in Twilight Princess. For players, that’s huge! That’s a lot to explore!

But in in-game time it’s only 4x more. Still big! But, you know. Not crazy.

Let me put it another way: let’s say on your trip across all of Hyrule you’re going to walk for 10 hours a day - 8AM to 6PM. Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess could both be done in one day, but Breath of the Wild would take just over 4. It’s still more! But it’s not like. A lot more. This trip isn’t taking you a week or longer, is what I’m saying.

You can say that the trip from Kakariko to Hateno is roughly the same as crossing the entire Twilight Princess Hyrule, though.

Again, if you want to reference all my data, the spreadsheet can be found here.

Who cares about this? I don’t know, probably no one! A couple fanfic writers, maybe. But it’s here, recorded for the future.

Have fun.

#loz #zelda #botw #TP #OoT #why did I do this?#who knows!#the whim took me and I had nothing better to do #yza talks about a thing

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shihalyfie · 3 years

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The Kaiser wasn’t very good at being a villain (and that’s the point, actually)

Ken’s journey of redemption is generally well-documented overall, and it was explicit enough in the series that there’s only so much you really need to explain it, but due to the blurred boundary of what was supernatural influence from the Dark Seed and what was Ken’s own emotional problems wreaking havoc, it’s somewhat more difficult to bridge that gap between the Kaiser and Ken, and how they can be the same person.

The easiest way to understand it comes from both directions. One is that Ken, even in his normal element, is much more assertive than he’s often given credit for -- it’s just that the Kaiser is a (fragile) manifestation of that very carefully cultivated to channel that in all of the wrong directions. The other has to do with the fact that the Kaiser is actually really terrible at being a villain, and the persona itself is very fragile and difficult for him to maintain.

Rewatching the first half of 02 shows multiple indications that, for all he seemed to be the stereotype “evil genius”, Ken was forcing himself into the mold. He was never cut out for it from day one. Even from the beginning, Ken’s actual nature as a lonely and inherently kind eleven-year-old child was tearing apart at the Kaiser persona, and the fateful episode 21 was not so much a single turning point for him as much as it was the last straw in a series of things tumbling down for him.

Before we continue: While all of the meta on this blog is only possible thanks to support and input from a handful of friends (whose names will not be disclosed on account of privacy requests), this one in particular arose from a long and extensive discussion with said friends that I am extremely grateful for. As always, I hope I was able to convey your points well.

Well, firstly, it’s important to understand that, much like nearly any other character in this series, Ken’s surface demeanor is a bit deceptive. The Crest of Kindness has the original Japanese name of yasashisa (優しさ), which has a secondary meaning of “gentleness” (lost in translation, but still apparent with the bubble metaphor in 02 episode 23). That also ties into the secondary meaning of “kind” -- it’s not just about being naturally “soft”, but actively choosing to be gentle with others even when you’re theoretically capable of not doing so. (For those of you who have seen Appmon, the entire point of that series was about what it means to consciously and deliberately choose to be kind, and, in fact, quite a few parallels could be made between Ken and Haru...)

The contrast between Daisuke and Ken goes far beyond just the surface. Daisuke’s surface demeanor is abrasive, but he’s not actually very good at being assertive until push comes to shove, and he otherwise tends to bend easily to others or get overwhelmed; in contrast, Ken has a more polite demeanor and for the most part seems non-confrontational, but has much stronger control of his emotions and is more easily able to be assertive than Daisuke is. (Of course, both of them share the common point of being like-minded when it’s something that really matters, but Ken is much better at imposing his will and getting what he wants done before Daisuke ever gets to that point, which is what fuels the whole punchline of Daisuke and Ken’s Shopping Carol.)

So, the point is: Daisuke is kind out of instinct and just “naturally” being so, but Ken is kind because he consciously believes in treating others well and not causing conflict, and not causing pain to others.

That’s not to say that Ken’s behavior is out of suppression or anything! It’s not a case like Takeru, who’s trying to push complicated emotions down while pretending they’re not boiling under the surface, nor is he like Hikari, who’s compulsively pressing her emotions down out of a desire not to burden others. Rather, even as early as 02 episode 26, he’s very straightforward about what his issue is and what he thinks about it. Ken’s “shyness” during the latter half of 02 is largely due to shame and hesitation from not knowing the other 02 kids well, but as the series goes on and as we go into post-02 material, he indicates that he’s perfectly wiling to be vocal about what he thinks without necessarily fighting any compulsion to suppress it. For someone who claims he doesn’t know much about his own heart, he arguably seems to have the best grip on understanding himself compared to a lot of this cast!

So in essence, the main take-home here is that Ken is theoretically capable of being strong-willed and assertive, and is very good at choosing when he wants to be assertive and when he wants to hold back. And he likes seeing people get along, and he wants everyone to be happy, and he doesn’t like seeing people be hurt or hurting others, and under normal circumstances, Ken has very good control of his emotions for the most part and quite a lot of self-awareness. That’s why Ken is the one to get the unique designation of this Crest; everyone in this cast can be said to be generous and supportive of others in some form, but there’s a difference between being a “natural” doormat who defers to others by default (Daisuke being a very good indicator of how this kind of mentality has a flip side of lack of self-esteem and high insecurity, and Tamers’s Takato being a good indication of how “being deferential” doesn’t necessarily preclude you from having tendencies towards selfishness or cowardice), versus choosing to be kind by understanding everything and still being gentle out of a belief that it’s the right thing to do (again: see Shinkai Haru). And it’s why Wormmon says in the 02 episode 23 flashback that Ken’s kindness can be used against him; being “kind” in this way requires a lot of mental fortitude, strength, and guts, all of which are things that could easily be very bad things when applied in the wrong direction.

This means that all the Dark Seed really needed to do in order to turn him into the Kaiser...was make him lose grip on that self-control.

Actually, Ken says it himself in less-than-subtle words in Spring 2003:

…It was revenge. But who was this revenge against? Did I want to triumph over the ones who made fun of me? The ones who looked down on me and used me? But… In the end, it was revenge against myself. I couldn’t do anything but deny the kind of human being that I was.

So in other words, the Kaiser persona was, effectively, a self-loathing eleven-year-old boy throwing a massive tantrum. A lot of the Kaiser’s actions in the first half of 02 are honestly rather petty -- he’s basically upset at the kids spoiling his holiday in 02 episode 6, he attempts torturing Daisuke out of a petty grudge over a soccer sliding tackle in 02 episode 8, and everything to do with expanding his territory and eventually (hopefully?) becoming ruler of the Digital World is frankly very sloppy. For all he’s said to be a genius, his genius only seems to extend to book smarts, and his “tactical planning abilities” never really expand beyond that of a soccer field sort of affair; his way of locking down control on other things is basically just “brainwash it harder” or “whip it harder” and applying harder brute force instead of doing something in the long-term like, say, trying to rule with charisma and recruiting allies.

(Again, bringing Appmon back into this, seeing Cloud in action will give you a much better example of a charismatic human villain who’s actually competent at his job. Or, heck, you can even look back at Savers’s Kurata, who at least was savvy enough to pull strings with people in powerful positions. Or even the Kaiser’s predecessor Saiba Neo from V-Tamer, who may have been openly sadistic but still had the sense to align himself with background power. Really, compared to all of these folks, the Kaiser is downright pathetic.)

Remembering that Ken fell into the Kaiser persona partially as a desperate attempt to become a “perfect person” like Osamu, Ken “imitated” Osamu’s cruelty to him because he felt that was how he could improve himself to become a “strong” person better than him. But the irony here is that Osamu’s “cruelty” was something that he himself never liked, and mainly came from lashing out at Ken due to feeling like he had a lack of control over his own life. So Osamu was never happy in that position, and Ken, who is indirectly pointed out via the bubble metaphor to be even more fundamentally inclined towards gentleness, is probably even more miserable.

Because everything Ken does as the Kaiser is “unfocused lashing out at everyone”, the Kaiser has less control over his emotions than Ken normally would. Takeru manages to emotionally pin him to a corner by confronting him with enough assertion in 02 episode 19 (this is before he punches him), and correctly points out that the Kaiser isn’t capable of winning with words (i.e. ideologically) and resorts to violence as the first thing he can think of. You’d think that if the Kaiser were actually someone with the self-confidence to consider the other Chosen Children beneath him, he wouldn’t even bother giving them the time of day, but Takeru just happening to be a little assertive is enough to make him lose his composure and start falling apart, and a lot of his shaken “insects!” yelling comes from him seeming pretty desperate to cling onto that rather than being all that confident about his natural superiority over anyone. 02 episode 20 establishes that he’s getting himself in over his head by tampering with the powers of darkness he can’t control, and while, on a plot level, it means that he’s misjudged his own capabilities, on a metaphorical level, it corresponds to the fact that even Ken himself is incapable of getting himself out of the emotional abyss he’s in.

And on the flip side, one of the biggest “tells” that Ken is still miserable during all of this is 02 episode 9, where he’s seen ruminating on the “glory” he’s getting in the real world despite having just decided to leave it all behind. The episode prior, after all, had been called “The Digimon Kaiser’s Loneliness”. The media is using him like some kind of “hot topic”, his parents’ affection (in his mind) is shallow and based only on his achievements, and he has no friends (how much of a role Akiyama Ryou played in his childhood is unclear, but either way, he’s no longer around now). With no emotional support coming from any direction in the real world, he’s resorting to at least trying to have some “fun” in what he perceives to be a “game”, and yet he’s still not having fun at all.

If you look carefully at a lot of the Kaiser’s actions during the first half of the series, one thing you’ll notice is that there are multiple indications that he’s not quite up to par to being as sadistic as you’d think he’d be. Recalling that we learn in 02 episodes 20-21 that the Kaiser is under the impression that the Digital World is like a game that he can “reset” and the Digimon in it not real living beings, it has interesting implications of the fact that he’s actually very hesitant to physically harm other human beings -- he certainly likes emotionally toying with them, but even when he’s trying to take petty revenge on Daisuke in 02 episode 8, he goes out of his way to set up a trap with Bakemon to torture him rather than, well, actually using the kids as hostages. That’s a hell of a lot of work to do, but he instead uses this extremely roundabout way to get them out of the picture in a somewhat less harmful way, risking having them escape (which is exactly what happens).

And in 02 episode 19, when Takeru confronts him and he ends up whipping him, you can hear a slight “...gh?” in the Japanese audio for a split second right after that, meaning that the Kaiser is, for some reason, having a hard time dealing with the fact that he just hit Takeru, and he does a very poor job defending himself against Takeru punching him out despite ostensibly being trained in judo. (Seriously, if you watch the animation of the scene, he’s just lying there while Takeru repeatedly punches the hell out of him, because he’s so out of it.) Regarding the Digimon, he’s convinced himself that they’re not living beings, but regarding the human Chosen Children, who undeniably are, no matter how much he might look down on them, he has a suspiciously hard time harming them as much as he could...

On top of that, one interesting question that might come up to one rewatching the first half of 02 is the strange “contradiction” of why the Kaiser ostensibly seems to hate Wormmon so much, calling him an unworthy idea of a partner in 02 episodes 10 and 19, and yet does remarkably little to get Wormmon away from him or off his case (he hates Wormmon calling him “Ken-chan”, yet doesn’t really try very hard to stop him). He could have easily locked Wormmon away in a cage or something if he really wanted to -- actually, there’s the question, why doesn’t he slap an Evil Ring on him? Because in the end, Wormmon is the only emotional support he’s really getting, and so it’s likely he unconsciously doesn’t want to lose that. Recalling that Digimon are fundamentally linked to the inner self, the Kaiser rejecting Wormmon for being “weak” is analogous to Ken rejecting his own self for being “weak” and “not perfect” -- which means that the fact he still keeps Wormmon around is analogous to the fact that Ken hasn’t really been able to bring himself to completely let his fundamental nature go. And, hence, it’s why he gets so initially incensed at Wormmon’s “betrayal” at 02 episode 10 (and yet still keeps him around despite that), and is ultimately emotionally destroyed by his death in 02 episode 21.

Although, actually, if you look carefully at 02 episode 21, it’s not quite Wormmon’s death that necessarily does it -- the turning point where he sheds the Kaiser persona is right before that (and in case you have any doubts, the animation puts highlights in his eyes for the first time in the series right at that point). Wormmon’s death is the first major consequence of his actions that he has to deal with, but what actually brought Ken back to his senses was his own realization that Digimon are living beings, that his actions have had permanent effects this whole time, and that he can’t take back anything he’d done.

Remember that 02 is a series that is largely about moving on and accepting that you can’t change the past, and that you have to move forward regardless of that. Ken’s fall into sadism was only possible by driving him into extremely deep-seated denial -- he was already starting to face the potential reality of Digimon being real, existing beings in the real world an episode prior. He says, outright, in 02 episode 21, that part of the reason he came to the Digital World to do all of this was escapism -- and, presumably, under the idea that any mistake he made could be rolled back and redone, unlike Osamu’s death. But the Digital World is not a place you can reset like a game, Ken will have to live with the consequences of his actions again, and moreover, every single one of the actions he’d been convincing himself were relatively meaningless had caused severe and permanent harm, and the entire thing overwhelms him.

It’s also important to point out that this was probably where the Dark Seed had to work a lot of magic to get Ken to embrace this kind of denial so easily -- after all, it’s established in the final quarter of the series that it does have a tangible impact on personality and puts a damper on one’s ability to feel empathy. In the flashback in 02 episode 23, regardless of whether Ken considered the Digital World to be a “game” or “able to be reversed” or not, he clearly still didn’t care and treated those around him with proper kindness (even if he did consider it to be all of that, it probably wouldn’t have been entirely unlike how a lot of us have a hard time picking rude choices in video games). It’s a very complicated chain reaction of events that allowed this to be even possible, and it was so against his fundamental nature that once the denial broke and Ken reached his limit, he wasn’t able to do it anymore. The Chosen Children’s main role in 02 episode 21 was really just cleaning up the massive mess he’d made in the form of Chimeramon, but as far as the whole thing about the Kaiser’s persona completely falling apart and Ken being forced to confront his own self goes, that was pretty much all Ken and Wormmon, in a series of dominoes that had already been collapsing for episodes on end.

The following episodes have Ken treat the 02 team with a certain amount of detachment, and this is often construed by a handful of people as being reflective of Ken being standoffish of some sort. The fact that Daisuke and Ken are often promoted in franchise materials as “rivals” mainly due to them being in the “protagonist and right-hand-man” position such characters are in might tempt you to think that way, but they are most definitely not!! (Considering that even saying that Taichi and Yamato fit that mold is a bit questionable, and neither Ruki nor Jian quite fulfill the expectations of the role in regards to the genre-subverting Tamers, Frontier, which is explicitly said to be deliberately written to be conventional, is probably the first proper execution of this trope in the form of Takuya and Kouji.) Ken’s detachment from the group at this time in the series is something he actually gives the reason for quite directly: he believes it’s his fault and doesn’t want to burden them with what he considers to be his job, and in the end Daisuke ultimately breaks through to him and they become completely normal friends who get along. “Rival” what?

Ken is, at worst, distant during this point of the series, but he’s actually very straightforward about what he wants and intends to do; it’s just that he’s being a bit blunt about it because he’s still drowning in his shame and not sure how to approach them. (Also, consider the fact he was rather lacking in friends or a support group before all of this; he doesn’t have a lot of experience in socializing, either.) So he keeps everyone at arm’s length, and the reason he comes off as so standoffish is because he’s so assertive! He directly and bluntly makes some very strong remarks about how he believes everyone else shouldn’t be getting involved! Again, when left to his own devices and not being manipulated into by a supernatural evil seed into multiple levels of denial, Ken is very in control of what he wants and thinks, and is even very open about speaking his mind.

That’s even when they’re not good decisions, mind you. Ken starts off the climax of 02 episode 26 being very firm about wanting to suicidally throw himself into the reactor in order to stop it, and 02 episode 30 has him consider himself a burden to the team after the fallout with Iori and try to stay out of it despite them very badly needing his presence, which Daisuke (of all people!) rightfully calls him out for being childish about. But he also listens to reason very quickly and acknowledges the others’ point very easily, with Daisuke reminding him in 02 episode 26 that his suicidal recklessness is actually pretty self-centered and short-sighted of him, since it’ll prevent him from doing anything else to take responsibility for his actions going forward, and Miyako, uh, slapping him in 02 episode 30. (But he comes quietly right away as if acknowledging his own idiocy, and never holds it against her thereafter.)

Nevertheless, the point is: you can see that this kind of assertiveness is the same kind of assertiveness he had as the Kaiser, just channeled in a different direction and for a different purpose. But as the Kaiser, he was angrily lashing out at anything and everything and stepping on anything he could just so he could have a show of power; once he comes back to his senses, he reserves that force for it being something he consciously believes is the right thing to do (regardless of whether it’s actually the right thing to do or not).

Because of the fact Ken spends a lot of the last quarter of 02 suffering and parsing a lot of trauma, a lot of people have tended to pin him as constantly sad and being a soft crybaby, but that couldn’t be further from the truth! Despite all the emotional pain he goes through, Ken has a hell of a ton of strength through all of this -- he even flings a well-aimed quip at Oikawa in 02 episode 44 despite being in a completely helpless situation, and in 02 episode 45 he himself is the one who volunteers to open the gate to the Dark Ocean, despite knowing exactly what it entails. That takes a lot of guts, and all things considered, his recovery from being the Kaiser spans only four months and is altogether incredibly fast given what he went through -- it did not take long for him to regain his bearings and get himself back on track. Again, it’s the same kind of “assertiveness” and capacity for action that fuels what the Kaiser did, just better controlled and in a direction Ken knows he actually wants.

This is also why I tend to object to insinuations that Ken would be overly touchy about or traumatized by the mere discussion of him being the Kaiser in the aftermath of 02, because the series itself, multiple times, portrayed him as being very able to talk about his experiences bluntly and honestly, at worst maybe considering it a bit of an awkward topic. He has no problems admitting that it was a thing that happened, especially if it involves discussing it as part of taking responsibility or preventing further damage -- it’s just that he of course doesn’t enjoy it either, and is equally as open about the shame he feels as a result. All of the times Ken loses his composure in the latter half of 02 involve either physical pain being inflicted on him, or a lot more actively vicious invocation of his memories and insecurities, and even then he gets himself back on his feet with a rather prompt amount of speed. Poorly timed of a statement as it may have been, Miyako is not incorrect when she says in 02 episode 31 that he has a certain amount of natural resilience that he carried from being the Kaiser.

All the way back in 02 episode 9, shortly after it was revealed to the group that Ken was the Kaiser, Iori, Hikari, and Takeru all label Ken as someone who doesn’t look like someone who could do something so horrible, and Hikari even says that his smile looks “gentle” (note that this is yasashisou, a word derived from the same root word used for his Crest). So in other words, even all three of them were able to catch on to his actual nature betraying himself even during that awful period of time. It’s still poking through, all things considered.

But we as the audience know he’s putting on that face for the camera, and his eyes are still as dead-eyed as they are for the first half of the series, and when Miyako accidentally makes him laugh during the Christmas party in 02 episode 38, it’s very much framed as probably the first time Ken has been this genuinely happy in a long while. He was never able to be this happy even when “satisfying” himself by stepping on others as the Kaiser.

And that’s why it’s so extremely unlikely that Ken will ever be able to lapse back into the Kaiser persona after the events of 02, even with the Dark Seed technically still inside his neck. He wasn’t enjoying it anyway; the Kaiser persona wasn’t a habit that he fell into out of emotional suppression or even catharsis, but rather him forcing himself into a role he was never comfortable in to begin with. He was never truly satisfied with anything he was getting out of it, and moreover, it took the combination of supernatural influence and a hell of a lot of denial to allow it to get that far in the first place, because of how far against his fundamental nature that was. (Again, for those of you who have seen Appmon: think about what it would take to get Haru to embrace sadism.) Even Osamu wasn’t enjoying being cold; being kind and living your life with positivity is a lot more fulfilling and fun, anyway.

In 02 episode 48, Ken describes the influence of the Seed as “horrible” in retrospect; even if it didn’t involve physical pain and exhaustion the way it did for the Dark Seed children, the entire experience sucked even back then. And while Ken theorizes about the Dark Seed’s influence being countered by the power of love earlier in the episode, when you look at the whole of 02, it’s not just his family’s love -- Ken now has the emotional support of his family, and Wormmon, and his newfound friends, and that’s giving him all of the fulfillment he wanted that putting on a front of sadism wasn’t giving him, and he doesn’t really need anything else anymore.

02 itself is very much about the fact that it’s not a bad thing to rely on the support of others to be happy; the Ken and Kaiser are undoubtedly the same person, but the latter’s existence requires a very specific lineup of events and factors to happen, and one of the massive parts behind that was a severe lack of emotional support or anyone who properly understood him. And by the end of the series, Ken has more than enough strength of heart to accept everything that’s happened and move on, and to stop reaching out to denial and clinging onto the past, and he has emotional support and understanding from a whole new group of friends that thoroughly understand everything he did and went through, and wholeheartedly accept and love him anyway.

He is never going to have a gaping hole in his life like that again.

#digimon #digimon adventure 02 #ichijouji ken #ken ichijouji #shihameta

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yoitscro · 3 years

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HOMESTUCK RAMBLE

The most troubling thing about the Sarah Z situation is that everything felt like damage control, tactical intimidation, and knee-jerked censorship. Right off the cuff of Hussie’s patreon message*.

(*Does anyone ever notice how Hussie only talks to the fandom when some kind of trouble eventually boils over, usually pointing a finger in one direction, versus addressing things earlier or addressing things period? Such as him having the power to speak against the actual anti queer jargon toward his employees prior to them leaving when things got worse? Or him mentioning the concerns of HS2 that people only found out through word of mouth and were reasonably upset about, such as them getting rid of the content warnings, or the fact that Hiveswap Act 2 was released without credits?

Would certainly make me less irritated if I didn’t know that that message is probably going to be one of his only few that he chooses to write and not mention other things, such as the returned antagonism toward fans.

But this is also the same guy who continues to write passive aggressive messages in his comic and game scripts that calls everyone else a loser for still being mad about the racism and ableism. (Seriously, Psycholonials is just a vague post in game form and it’s chaotic as fuck to do things like using riots (racially prominent a year ago) in the toned environment of 2020 as goofy plot points. I thought we were suppose to do BETTER after Skaia Net.)

Idc if he’s not apart of WP anymore. Even then, he certainly left a lot of baggage for other people to handle. It’s incredibly irresponsible.

Anyways.)

Those journals have existed forever. Whether right or wrong, they have. They’ve gone unaddressed despite being known for existing. A big name youtuber giving an auditory version that doesn’t take up all the video probably shouldn’t have been the reason that fans finally got some kind of answer, and it’s blatantly transparent that it was to protect the IP from having it’s name tarnished. As if Homestuck doesn’t already have issues that it refuses to acknowledge after a decade that everyone else has talked about.

I can imagine that some kind of NDA was keeping them from talking about Hiveswap to their kickstarter backers, but the convenience of that expiring once Sarah said something gives me an inkling that the people who’ve actually stuck around to support Homestuck could’ve heard sooner. Not to mention that before this big blowout, people just wanted to know that the game was being worked on period. There was actually no NDA preventing that communication.

People wonder why there’s such a rift between WP and the homestuck community, and it’s stuff like that. The fact that Hussie only comes down to address damage when it piles up to a breaking point, rather than earlier. The fact that if you have one criticism, friends or associates of the people who write their favorite characters will maul you in the name of whatever marginalized group they happen isolate you from.

And at the end of it all, it’s almost like some big, surface level moral, because no one cared 3 days after Sarah’s video. Everyone treated it like usual youtube commentary essays about troubling developments and moved on.

Instead, now, still, everyone cares about the fact that an opinion video about Homestuck was getting legal threats during 4/13. After years of a troubled relationship with it’s fandom, this was the last thing they needed to do. I’m trying to wrap my head around what the favorable outcome was here; to look GOOD?

I can’t even imagine what this stunt looks like to other studios and IP groups. I wonder if Homestuck is secretly blacklisted at this point because so much bad behavior has been normalized instead of having a healthy blend between criticism and sympathy.

BC again, a transphobic bigot sending death threats bc homestuck “isn’t what it use to be”, and responding to that rightfully, isn’t the same as someone thinking that more jarring post-canon content and execution of things like toblerone wishes suck some, and figureheads deciding to insult minors, stir character drama, and call other bulk criticisms from the queer community homophobic or transphobic. That in fact loses support, money, and causes infighting, actually.

I’ve never seen a fandom decline in stable activity as hard as 2019-2020 Homestuck.

This is the part where I say that my caliginous crush from wanting to see this IP improve itself flares up from time to time, but is starting to die down knowing that, unless there’s a massive overhaul on how things are run, things aren’t changing...seriously. There are things HS can do even without Viz Media’s overbearing presence, but it doesn’t want to. Starting a feud on your holiday wasn’t one of those things to do, maybe, actually.

I think it’s telling that it’s actually bad enough that I usually refrain from talking as much as I am now, because some part of me knows that some ex WP member, or a friend of one, is reading this and potentially sharing it in whatever snotty chat to once more emphasize how evil of a person I am for saying what everyone else is thinking, lmao.

I think that if anyone wants to pride themselves in not being “terminally online” and in fandom, they should refrain from putting their hands on a story that’s literally embedded and literally about it’s fandom. Go join a private discord instead, or try a different franchise. Maybe have some self awareness. Just a thought.

Anyways, the trust is tainted. The fallout has been followed by quiet, and the current members are reshaping the ground of this community before the weeds eventually rear their heads again.

#buzzcull #i should honestly just make a tag for long rambles like this #crojournal #that sounds terrible but.#someones gonna think im anti hs with this; nah im just saying it how it is.#again i dont have to kiss ass all the time and frankly i did that a lot in the pass. if i get accused as being a centrist #then i might as well speak one sided occasionally.#also again i have no reason to restrain myself and be nice about some who personally hurt me so :)

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kitkatopinions · 3 years

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While other people have pointed this out before, I think what gets me the most about RWBY is the way having a differing opinion is portrayed? I grew up in a household where…yeah, generally you had to agree, and it’s not healthy. I don’t know why the writers seem to think that has to be a thing? It’s just pushing toxic behavior and it’s made like��even viewing RWBY to make fun of the flaws with friends unbearable. I don’t know how I didn’t notice it earlier, if anything.

This is absolutely one of the most frustrating things about the RWBY group.

Qrow doesn't agree with Ruby and Jaune about stealing a plane. That is framed as absolutely wrong and he is point blank told to either fall in line with what they want, or leave. Before this, Yang, Blake, and Weiss all are very quick to draw their weapons on him when they want to summon Jinn and think he might protest. The idea here is that they only are willing to have Qrow even in their team when he agrees with everything they say, and will even get ready to fight him the moment he really protests. Yang, Ren, and May all protest the actions of the general group or challenge them, only for that to be treated as wrong and surprising and they're treated as problematic at the least, terrible friends at the worst. Falling back in line and deciding that the team is totally right and that Ruby doesn't have to change made May and Yang totally fine. And as for Ren, he doesn't become 'fine' until he not only gives in and decides that Ruby and her team were one hundred percent right, but totally gives in with Nora too in their relationship and decides Nora is one hundred percent right. Emerald, Winter, and Whitley were all considered various levels of bad until they switched to Ruby's side, and on top of that, the writers specifically had Winter give tons of horrible dialogue in her fight with Ironwood that basically says "actually I never believed any of the stuff that I said and acted like I believed in the last volume, now I agree with Team RWBY on literally everything we disagreed about." Ozpin must beg forgiveness for having not trusted Team RWBY with everything within months of knowing them (despite the narrative of the story proving his hesitance well founded over and over and them having Ruby just as free with lies and hesitant with trust herself.)

There's more even than that I'm sure, but the point is that the mentality of everyone agreeing is uncomfortable to say the least. If I'm being generous, I might consider this writing a reflection of their inability to write fleshed out character dynamics and their struggle to write Ruby as a convincing or good protagonist. It's also reflective of their struggles with follow through and pay off. They have people challenge Ruby, but they don't have Ruby actually grow or change and they have her friends instead realize they're wrong. There's no pay off to Ruby being challenged because the end result is still "Ruby is right, Ruby is good, Ruby doesn't have to change how she acts." So instead it just looks like everyone is forced to follow the group mind frame, think and act the way they do.

The mentality of people being bad if they don't agree with or like the protagonist is prevalent in the treatment of Ozpin, Whitley, and Emerald. Ozpin's crime was keeping secrets from Team RWBY. Whitley's crime was wanting Weiss's position as heir and being snide. And yet both of them actually put in more work towards 'redemption' than Emerald, literal murderer who willingly tried to help Cinder kill Penny again mere episodes before her 'redemption.' Because the crimes didn't actually matter all that much. It just mattered that they proved they were on RWBY's side, and Emerald's actions weren't as personally against Team RWBY directly. Whitley made Weiss mad, so he had to prove himself at least as much as Emerald the murderous terrorist. Ozpin acted against Team RWBY, so he has to ask forgiveness and explicitly state that he was wrong and he has to bow to Ruby's will, let her make the standards, let the others make the choices, despite the fact that he has every right to dismiss Ruby as an inexperienced and ineffectual leader doing more harm than good. Emerald didn't even have to apologize, and she didn't even have to admit she was wrong, in order to be accepted.

Just look at the differences in the reactions when Emerald says she 'switches sides' and says 'you've been getting your asses kicked, some of that... by me,' which is as close as she's come to admitting she was wrong or apologizing, versus how they respond to Ozpin starting to admit he was wrong to not trust them.

Reactions to Emerald

Reactions to Ozpin

It doesn't matter that Emerald's actions were much worse, more serious, more deadly, and done with horrible intentions. It matters that Ozpin's actions made Team RWBY mad and sad, and it's treated much more seriously than Emerald's literal murder because of the mind frame carried out in the narrative of the show.

The show acts like disagreeing with Ruby and her goals is literally morally wrong, and anyone who doesn't fall in line with her all the time is in the wrong and needs to either change or apologize or get lost. You're right that it's full on unhealthy. Imagine how much better RWBY would be if people were allowed to disagree, if Blake was allowed to consider it wrong to steal a plane or if she stood up for Ozpin after they all see his memories that are eerily similar to her own past situation. If Yang didn't draw her weapon on Qrow in the snowstorm and instead got angry at Weiss and Blake for doing so, if she'd been allowed as a character to be on Ironwood's side, and then actually see through her concerns about Ruby as a leader. If Winter had been allowed to turn on Ironwood without throwing everything she'd believed in away so there could be later tension between her and Team RWBY or they could get across the message that disagreeing with some things doesn't make you evil. If Qrow had been allowed to be on Ozpin's side, or insist that Team RWBY shouldn't steal a plane unnecessarily (maybe causing the team to go behind his back or something,) or could be on Ironwood's side in V7. If Ironwood was allowed to have a 'save the many over the few' mentality instead of their 'risk the deaths of everyone on the off chance we'll be able to save everyone' mentality without being turned into a puppy kicking dictator. If Ren was allowed to be angry at Nora and to still disagree with the way the group was running even if he felt like he had no choice but to follow them and maybe took to looking to Ozpin as a mentor. If May was allowed to be committed to her demands that Team RWB actually choose something and try to help, and didn't throw it away later to comfort Ruby, instead letting her face hard truths. If Whitley and Weiss made up, but there was still tension and he still was acting resentful of his mother. If Blake and Yang were allowed to actually fight and argue and come out the other side stronger and still committed to each other. If Ozpin was allowed to come back angry at Team RWBY and not apologizing and instead being hurt by their actions and even more hesitant with them and feeling like the world is crashing down around him and expressing all that.

Idk, I just feel like the very worst thing you can do for your cast of characters is have this 'assimilate to our way of thinking or you're wrong,' mentality. Some of the characters don't feel like they have room to breathe and actually be full characters, other characters feel like they're hurting in-show and just acquiescing out of fear of abandonment or repercussions, and meanwhile it's hurting other characters in the originality and development department because the dialogue they have and their mentalities feel so copy and pasted that you can interchange a lot of lines and have it still feel the same.

In short, this is one of the most annoying writing flaws in RWBY.

#rwde #anti rwby #rwby bashing #rwby criticism #rwby hate #anti team rwby #anti mkek #anti rt #pro ozpin

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seattlesea · 3 years

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Perachel Is Not a Bad Ship

It’s really not. It’s actually one of the best-written relationships (romantic-wise and platonic) in any of the series, way better than Percabeth in my opinion (obviously you can think differently). But why does the fandom hate it so much? Because it ‘got in the way of Percabeth’? And yet you go on and ship Percy with Nico, Jason, Artemis, Athena, etc.? Doesn’t that ‘get in the way of Percabeth’ too? I don’t see any of you mercilessly hating on those ships. Honestly, most of the fans only hate Perachel because the fandom and Riordan told them they should and because hating on Perachel is ‘popular’. Guys- it’s 2021. You can stop acting like they weren’t cute.

But anyways, here’s my reasoning-

1. Rachel treats Percy good. Has Rachel ever hit Percy? Or insulted him? Or made him feel like shit about himself? Or canonically lowered his self-esteem? Or turn all possessive and jealous when someone else likes him despite not even being in a relationship with him? It’s even shown that Percy is a lot more himself when he’s around Rachel. He’s more funny, reckless, wild, laid-back, and carefree, while around Annabeth all he thinks about is the right thing to say. It’s pretty clear he’s more comfortable around Rachel cause she doesn’t overwork his mind or treat him badly, and she even makes him feel good about himself.

2. Percy likes Rachel (more than Annabeth). This is most obvious in the first chapter of The Last Olympian, when Percy and Rachel were driving out to the beach. Percy thinks “We'd spent a lot of time together this summer. I hadn't exactly planned it that way, but the more serious things got at camp, the more I found myself needing to call up Rachel and get away, just for some breathing room. I needed to remind myself that the mortal world was still out there, away from all the monsters using me as their personal punching bag”. When Percy was stressed, he called Rachel, not Annabeth. If you find yourself calling up someone to help you relax and take care of yourself, you clearly like them better than someone you don’t. And not only that, but Percy and Rachel probably spent more time together than Percy did with Annabeth. Percy and Annabeth only saw each other during quests- which isn’t exactly a better way to bond with someone versus actually talking to and hanging out with them- and he even said that they spent a lot of time together, plus they go to the same school. Which means Percy only sees Annabeth two months out of the full year but sees Rachel all year round. After The Last Olympian, Percy and Annabeth have known each other for four years. Two months of four years is eight months total. Percy and Rachel have known each other for two years. Every month (plus every single day at school) plus sometimes in the summer is about twenty-four months. That’s triple the time Percy and Annabeth spent with each other, so they obviously know each other better. Another thought from Percy is “I can't pretend I hadn't thought about Rachel. She was so much easier to be around than...well, than some other girls I knew. I didn't have to work hard, or watch what I said, or rack my brain trying to figure out what she was thinking. Rachel didn't hide much. She let you know how she felt.” That alone should be a huge sign that Percy likes Rachel more than Annabeth. He’s more comfortable around her and he’s scared of Annabeth. You shouldn’t be scared of your partner, that’s a clear sign that something is wrong (aka a toxic relationship). If someone has to ‘work hard’ aka stress themself or ‘watch what they say’ around someone, they are obviously not comfortable around them. Percy even states that Rachel is easier to talk to than Annabeth, and he likes talking to Rachel more.

3. Rachel isn’t possessive. The moment Rachel found out that Annabeth liked Percy, she let her have him, cause she (unlike Annabeth) didn’t care about what she wanted, she cared about what Percy wanted and his own happiness. Rachel didn’t disallow Percy to have other female friends and allowed him to do what he wanted, and she didn’t insult and hate on Annabeth just for liking Percy (and yet the fandom roots for Annabeth, the rude, prejudiced one?).

4. Perachel wasn’t rushed or forced. Percy and Annabeth were just the 'male lead and female lead get together' that was predicted to happen since the moment they saw each other, so their entire relationship was just those two being forced together by both Riordan and the fandom. It was too obvious that it was going to happen, so nothing that happened between them before they became an official couple really mattered since everyone knew that they were going to get together anyways. There was no real tension since everyone knew what was going to happen in the end. As for Rachel, she was a sudden twist that wasn't really expected. She met Percy at the Hoover Dam, helped him despite not knowing or believing him, and then they went to school with each other, helped each other on quests, and grew feelings for each other. Percy and Rachel have a lot of chemistry- way more than Percy and Annabeth- and their relationship didn't happen too fast. In The Mark of Athena, it was said that Annabeth had a crush on Percy since she first knew him. I mean- gaining a crush on someone at twelve years old? That doesn't mean anything. It's just a flimsy middle school crush. Percy and Rachel, though, met each other in The Titan’s Curse- when they were fourteen- and started gaining feelings for each other in The Battle of the Labyrinth- when they were fifteen. Fifteen year-olds can definitely start gaining feelings that aren't just sexual attraction and flimsy crushes, so Percy and Rachel's relationship is a lot more plausible than Percy and Annabeth's. Besides, Percy and Rachel's relationship was a more relaxed 'going with the flow' type of relationship that seemed to naturally flow off the pages while Percy and Annabeth's was too forced with too many forced scenes and moments. Percy and Rachel's relationship seemed a lot more natural and content.

5. Percy and Rachel aren’t opposites. Despite the popular saying ‘Opposites attract’, opposites don’t attract, opposites cancel each other out. Besides, that saying is similar to the saying ‘Your other/better half’, but people don’t have a ‘better half’ that needs to ‘complete them’. The thing between similars and opposites is that people who are too opposite will become enemies (like Percy and Annabeth) but people who are too similar will also become enemies (like Percy and Thalia or Percy and Jason), so people have to find someone who’s in between. Percy and Rachel are just like that. They share similar personality traits, like the same things, and would be able to agree on most things while Percy and Annabeth would realistically argue about everything. Besides, y’all can’t act like the artistic painter mortal and the son of Poseidon skater-boy isn’t a cute-ass concept.

6. It’s not just fan love. Honestly, it seems like Riordan was going to make Perachel happen but after seeing how much hate it got, changed his mind to Percabeth (which is why he made Rachel become the Oracle of Delphi and randomly made up the rule that the Oracle can’t date out of nowhere without any reasoning behind it). I mean- did any of you notice that all romantic Percabeth moments only happened after The Titan’s Curse and after Rachel was introduced? Perachel was actually introduced first, not Percabeth. It would explain why Riordan randomly added in a bunch of unrealistic Percabeth scenarios that were on the brink of cringey (Percy seeing Annabeth in the River Styx and not his mom or Grover, Percy only remembering Annabeth and not his mom, Percy and Annabeth falling into Tartarus- which wasn’t that bad as the fans make it, by the way, they over-exaggerated that a lot- Percy turning down immortality only for Annabeth and not his mom, life, friends, etc.) Percabeth came out too forced because Riordan was only writing what the fans wanted. And the fact that the toxic Percabeth fans who hate on, insult, curse, yell at, or even threaten anyone who so much as says ‘Perachel’ take up the majority of the fandom further proves this. It’s fine to think that someone’s opinion sucks and is absolutely repulsive, but hating them because of it? That just makes you the asshole.

Perachel is actually a really great and healthy relationship and the fandom should stop hating on it just because others told them to or because it ‘got in the way of Percabeth’. You can multi-ship, you know, and you can also stop being a toxic person who hates on people for what they like just like homophobes do.

#perachel #perachel isn't bad stop acting like it is #percabeth is toxic #percy jackson #annabeth chase #rachel dare #rachel elizabeth dare #stop the rachel hate

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thinkingisadangerouspastime · 3 years

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I find it really intriguing how the ATLA writers could have gone a “brotherly love” route with Zuko and Aang, but they never did. Even in LOK, the only thing that I remember Iroh saying about their relationship was that they canonically became the best of friends and that Zuko knew Aang better than anyone, even more than Katara and their children. I find the direction of their relationship a contrast to how often the bond between the male protagonist and the male antagonist that are spiritually linked in other media is reduced to “they were like brothers” and put aside for the respective heterosexual romances of the leads, even though the relationships between the leads often have homoerotic subtext and can be interpreted through a queer lens. I guess what I’m wondering is: would you classify Zuko and Aang’s relationship as brotherly? Do you support interpretations where their relationship is viewed as brotherly? And finally (I’m sorry for all of the questions): why do you think the ATLA writers - who seem to mostly be composed of cishet men - never took the “brotherly love” route and left the nature of their relationship ambiguous?

This ask has been in my inbox for a Hot Minute 💀 my apologies, my friend. And since I haven’t seen LOK, I won’t try to speak on the front. Before I continue, though, @likealittleheartbeat has an AMAZING analysis here about the interpretation of Aang and Zuko’s relationship through a queer-platonic lens that I found to be an incredible read and arguably could answer this ask on its own, lol!

I guess the general “issue” that must be addressed to answer these questions is simply how we define brotherly. That “we” can be divided into the viewers and the writers, only adding another layer of complexity. Because the reality is that we can’t jump into the creators minds and see exactly how they intended Zuko and Aang’s relationship to be interpreted. We can make deductions, e.g. the existence of Kataang and Maiko suggests Zuko and Aang were not intended to have a romantic relationship within canon (duh, lol). In fact, you could even add another division to the “we” - the writers, the viewers, and the characters themselves (i.e. interpretation through the cultural lenses that inspired the show).

All of this is to say that there is not going to be one agreed-upon definition of “brotherly,” lol! Since you seem to be asking for my personal opinions, I’ll go with my personal definition. If anyone has differing thoughts in response to these questions, please feel free to add them in a comment or rb! I think there’s a lot to explore here and my sole opinion is Not the be-all and end-all, lmao.

So, what is my personal definition of “brotherly”? I’m not going to try to make a formal definition, lol, but the gist of my interpretation is a platonic relationship akin to that of siblings. To me, there is a difference between having a “brotherly relationship” with someone versus a “friendship” (I almost used “friendly relationship” but that didn’t feel right jskdfhakdls). I think these two can overlap and/or be the same, but - for example - I have friends who I would say without hesitation that I am incredibly close with, but I also would not classify that friendship as “sisterly.” (Again, these are strictly my personal thoughts, and I encourage further discussion in comments/rbs!)

I’ll take your questions one at a time:

Would you classify Zuko and Aang’s relationship as brotherly?

Personally? Probably not. To me, there is a sense of superficiality associated with the term “brotherly” that in my eyes can be reductive to platonic relationships between men (can be, not always lol). I think with Zuko and Aang, the relationship just runs much deeper than “brotherly” can connote. For one, they are the primary narrative foils of the show! The only relationship that comes close to theirs in terms of narrative significance is Kataang (which is a very different dichotomy, btw, I’m not trying to compare them lol). We have numerous episodes dedicated to the parallels between Aang and Zuko, including but not limited to “The Storm” and “The Avatar and the Fire Lord.” I mean, this is an actual quote from the latter episode:

Do you really think friendships can last more than one lifetime?

We see variants of this line and the notion of friendship itself associated throughout that episode explicitly with Roku and Sozin, Roku and Gyatso, and of course the Gaang at the end, but implicitly we also know it’s about Aang and Zuko, too. Aang says, “Everyone, even the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation, have to be treated like they’re worth giving a chance.” One common take with this line that I’ve seen is interpreting it as foreshadowing for Aang’s decision to spare Ozai - which obviously is a fair assessment - but we cannot also ignore how much it applies to Zuko joining the Gaang. Specifically, Zuko reconciling with Aang.

We all know Aang was the first person to extend friendship to Zuko back in “The Blue Spirit” and tbh, after he saw Appa licking Zuko, you can tell Aang was nearly willing to extend a second chance to Zuko then and there lol. Aang and Zuko’s friendship, them being drawn together, is a relationship that transcends lifetimes, transcends social norms/expectations, transcends a loss greater than anyone can imagine (for Aang) and offers a new opportunity arguably far more than deserved (for Zuko). I think ascribing a qualifier of “brotherly” to their relationship therefore limits this transcendence because of how much their dynamic encompasses.

Do you support interpretations where their relationship is viewed as brotherly?

Of course! One of the reasons I love A:TLA - especially my small corner of the fandom - is how many interpretations that every relationship presents, be it a small “difference” (such as calling Zuko and Aang’s relationship “brotherly”) or a more drastic one (exploring fanon possibilities with rarepairs, let’s go #AangRarepairWeek 😎). So even if this interpretation isn’t one I’m inclined to in the literal sense (i.e. it’s the “brotherly” qualifier I feel I dislike, because I do love platonic Zukaang as much as romantic Zukaang), I absolutely encourage others to make the most of their fandom experience and product/support content that they enjoy!

Why do you think the ATLA writers - who seem to mostly be composed of cishet men - never took the “brotherly love” route and left the nature of their relationship ambiguous?

I will say that we don’t really have any way of knowing the sexualities and gender identities of every single A:TLA writer, lol. I’m not saying they were all queer in some way, of course, but I just want to establish that we don’t and can’t know unless told. If that makes sense 😂

As I mentioned earlier, I have no way of getting inside the writers’ minds to determine their intentions when they were writing Zuko and Aang’s relationship, so all you’re gonna get here are my best guesses lmao! For one, there wasn’t really a need to outright label Zuko and Aang as having a “brotherly” relationship. The existence of Kataang and Maiko again speak for themselves. Most viewers - especially casual watchers - don’t need the show to state “these two only love each other in a brotherly way” to conclude that the relationship was platonic (or rather, was not romantic), especially considering that the show was made in the mid-2000s (i.e. sad but true, most people weren’t watching A:TLA with a queer lens 😔). So I wouldn’t say they left the relationship “ambiguous” so much as there wasn’t need to qualify it further than simply being platonic.

Of course, I do think there is an ambiguity that comes with Aang and Zuko’s relationship, which I love to exploit in my Zukaang fics 😌. Was that ambiguity intentional? Again, I’m inclined to say no. But I can’t speak with certainty and - as I discussed earlier - I truly think Aang and Zuko’s relationship would be limited by being called “brotherly” when their connection runs so deeply and is intertwined so heavily with the spiritual themes of the show. Thus, it’s possible the writers were purposefully emphasizing that spirituality by not labelling them as “brotherly”! But as I said, there’s really no way to be sure.

At the end of the day, I don’t think it matters how someone chooses to label Aang and Zuko’s relationship. I mean, I’m always a little horrified when a person completely overlooks their narrative significance as foils (because I personally can’t imagine dismissing either of their importance to the other), but hey, to each their own. Brotherly, queerplatonic, romantic, and hell, anything in-between - these interpretations are anyone’s for the taking. Have fun with it! 💛

(I hope this at least kind of resembles the answer you were looking for, anon 😂)

#aang #zuko #aanglove #zukaang #atla #avatar the last airbender #atla meta #the avatar and the firelord #amy answers #anon #amy analyzes

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incoherentbabblings · 3 years

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Hi!

I love your content, your love for TimSteph, and I was actually going to ask what you love so much about them. I, for extra credit for English, decided to write an analysis of Stephanie (and why I love her so much), but I just got into comics, and cannot really put my feelings for her in words ... which is odd, considering how much I love her and writing. Also, I was going to do a section on why TimSteph is narrative genius, and I needed help elaborating on that too.

Could you help me out, please? Thanks!

(I feel the need to mention that I have read quite a lot of comics with Stephanie in them, though not all. I'm not much of a comic book fan, but I'm really interested in the Batfamily!)

I'll be very happy to write out bullet points that you could talk about, and feel free to go through my ask and I'll babble/TimSteph meta tags for anything that you think may be worth discussing in your own words - there's like four or so years of stuff there to spark your brain.

HOWEVER!!!! Keep in mind though that much of what I have written is half based on textual evidence and half me just writing what I like/wish would crop up in canon.

For example, yes I like to draw comparisons between Tim being cold and Steph being warm, moon and sun and so on, but there's genuinely nothing in text to hint as this being an actual character trait or symbolism. If anything Tim's stated to be warm several times, more than Steph.

So, and I am sorry to be so blunt, but if I take your request in bad faith for a moment, don't use either directly or indirectly what I've written for your work. Especially without actually going and reading the arcs I talk about. A lot of the time it doesn't hold up under genuine textual scrutiny, and we want to be good academics here! There's Death of the Author and then there's me making crap up because I want to include it in a fanfic. Not the same thing! My blog is called IncoherentBabblings for a reason after all!

I will therefore say this: If you want to write about Steph as a character, I would use the below video as a point of reference. Using the below, you can then go into why she resonates with you the way she does, or why her relationship with Tim is so interesting to you.

youtube

If I were you: focus on her dynamic character development: cynical to idealistic. And use three points in her publication history to do this: her introduction in Detective Comics, War Games, and Batgirl. I am sorry to recommend War Games as something to read but it is important to her character. Use the Stephanie Brown Wiki to help!

That lends itself to a biography of her character, a look at her motivations and values, her role within the batfam, and so on. You can also use this to make comparisons with her peers, specifically Tim moving in the exact opposite direction development wise; Babs and Cass in their approaches to Batgirl; and the other Robins through her similar character progression as Dick, which in turn allows her to be a good mentor to Damian, and finally how her character arc runs perpendicular to Jason's. Does that make sense?

Anyway, let's get going! If I were to write an academic piece on Stephanie, these are the main points I would work through. In other words, this is what I would do. You probably will not need nor want to go into this level of depth, and you will want to make it much more personal about why she resonates with you, which may be different to why I love her. So don't worry about touching base with all of them. This is like... 10,000 word essay level stuff. And don't get overwhelmed. I've taken your request far too seriously is all.

Again, I can't write it for you! You gotta do the reading and writing I'm afraid.

...But I still wrote 1,500 words anyway. Gosh darnnit.

Steph’s Character Development

Always keep three points in her character history in mind – her aged 14/15 in her introductory arc in Detective Comics, her aged 16 in War Games, and her aged 18/19 in her Batgirl run.

How does she change? How does she grow as a character? What events caused these changes? Compare that angry 14-year-old trying to choke her father, to the 19-year-old crying happily on the roof. A lot happened between those two points! Outline the main plot beats.

Steph's Role as a Batfam Character:

Protagonist or Antagonist: Supporting Protagonist

Static or Dynamic: Dynamic (think of her character development - angry to alturistic; she softens in her life outlook and in the way she treats others as the years go by)

Minor or Major: Minor and we all mourn that fact :(

Foil or Symbolic: A foil to Tim Drake (and to a lesser extent the other Robins, specifically Jason Todd)

Importance of the character/Position in Society: Fourth Robin, third Batgirl, own superhero. Tim's girlfriend, Cassandra's best friend, one of many of Bruce's 'children'. Initially introduced just as a one-off character for a small arc in Detective Comics, brought back with the intention of being a supporting character to Tim Drake, and eventual love interest. Eventually gained enough popularity on her own terms to support her own solo comic, but has since returned to a supporting role. The character she supports, at the end of the day, is Bruce Wayne.

Motivation

What influences their decisions?: Stephanie's dynamic characterisation comes in here. Compare her motivations during her introductory arc, versus why she does what she does in War Games, versus why she dresses up at Batgirl - Stopping her father, getting Batman's approval, need for redemption.

What do they value?: Values emotional openness, vulnerability, second/third/fourth chances.

Goals/Hopes/Dreams: No long term goals/hopes/dreams in the domestic sense... Continue to be vigilante. Be respected by her peers. Continue to improve self worth through deeds. Graduate college?

What are their views: Views the justice system and police as corrupt, but still trusts in the inherent goodness of people. Focus is usually on the individual, rather than societal or structural.

Actions

Behaviour, Attitudes, Impact on Story and other Characters, Internal Struggle (Wants versus Needs): This is why I think you are best to look at three points in her story - Intro Arc, War Games, Batgirl. Focus on her Wants versus Needs - Steph's take a very long time to align, but they finally do in Batgirl.

Character development is usually driven by the conflict between what a character wants. The plot forces them normally to confront the fact that what they want is not gonna work out, and what they needed instead takes priority.

Everything usually goes tits up for Steph when she is in the driver's seat of the narrative because what she wants from a situation is rarely what she actually needs to happen. See every time she seeks Bruce's approval. She wants it. She absolutely does not need it. And only as Batgirl do we get that acknowledgement, which coincides with her being at the healthiest point in her life emotionally. Look at what she wants as Spoiler during her introductory arc, as Robin/Spoiler during War Games, and then as Batgirl. Why is she so unhappy in the former two? Why have her wants finally aligned with her needs with her time as Batgirl?

Character Traits

Personality: Cynical but perky. Sardonic but sincere. Think about how she changes over the time. This can be attributed to her different writers, but - for example - is there a universe reason for why Batgirl Stephanie is so much more socially awkward than Spoiler Stephanie?

Strengths & Weaknesses: Link these two together because Steph is a very good example where her strengths as a character can simultaneously be a weakness. Her determination can lead to her making ill conceived decisions. Her empathy can lead to her putting her trust in the wrong people. Her forgiving nature can lead to her being taken advantage of. Her temper, whilst landing her in hot water, can also just as often get her out of it.

Relationships

How do they interact with others: Focus on which characters pop up in all three arcs – Steph and her parents; Steph and Bruce; Steph and Tim. I am chucking Cass out the window here, sorry Cass, but if you’re focusing on these three arcs, Cass doesn’t really fit in.

How others view them: Conditional love/affection from her father and Bruce. Unconditional love/affection from Tim and her mother (though both are not without serious pitfalls).

How they view others: Stephanie has explicitly never loved her father. She has also never explicitly hated him either. What does that say about her? Look at her changing closeness with her mother. What changed between them, and again, what does that say about Stephanie? Crystal got sober, supported Stephanie through her pregnancy, Arthur was removed from their lives, Stephanie makes a conscious effort to be closer to her after returning ‘from the dead’, though continues to lie consistently to her. Stephanie admires Bruce, whilst also right from the get go insisting she does not answer to him. She never quite lets go of wanting that approval.

How does society view them: Her outsider role within the Batfam. She never quite belongs, and at points her closest relationships are actively discouraged from seeing her. Which Tim specifically never entertains. This outsider nature bites literally everyone in the butt during War Games. Her outsider status is still in place by the time Batgirl concludes, due to its largely self-contained nature as a book, but this is less being an outsider more having earned to right to operate independently. Trust has been given and earned.

Dialogue

What does she say and how: A teenage girl in New Jersey from a working class background has a very distinct voice. She does not mince words, nor does she hide what she is feeling. If she is happy, she will say so. If she is annoyed, she will say so. What she won’t do is ask for help when she needs it, due to her background formulating a need for her ‘to do things on her own’.

Think of famous/important Steph quotes from the three arcs I keep talking about – the excuse me if I don’t jump when you bark, the I really was part of the legend, the only variable you can control is yourself. These show how Steph views others and herself.

When I was writing I Would Have Loved You, I literally made a spreadsheet where I have picked out what I think are pertinent quotes from every New 52 issue featuring Tim or Steph along with a synopsis that explained what they were up to/what the main theme of the issue was. Not saying you should do the same because I’m just that goddamn anal when it comes to this sort of stuff, but the point is – look for quotes by/about Steph which highlight the above things we’ve talked about. You have thirty years to go through!

Author Intention

What purpose does this character serve?: A character that young female readers could get attached to – the every girl/girl next door archetype or a character that young boys could have a crush on – the kind of girl who’s into the same sort of stuff as you, I think Chuck Dixon once said of her, from her initial appearance. Fodder for Bruce and Tim’s man pain in War Games. Batgirl it’s a combination of filling the void for a female lead solo character in the batbooks, but also tonally taking on a much lighter and self-contained book that new readers could jump into very easily, directly compared to the more lore heavy Batman, Detective Comics, and Red Robin books.

What is the author trying to communicate: Steph’s character shows that determination can only get a person so far, a support system and doing things for the right reasons (again remember that want versus need argument) is the only way a person will genuinely succeed.

What is her main theme?: Balancing cynicism and idealism – doing acts for the right reasons, and discovering what these reasons actually are.

...

Is this even usable for anyone but myself? Possibly not!

Still... Go write! And good luck!

#ask and i'll babble #stephanie brown #tim drake #timsteph #dc #anon i am sorry if i misconstrued your intentions #but i hope if nothing else this helps you verbalise why you like steph and timsteph by extension #good luck for your writing!

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achliegh · 3 years

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Golden

Yeehaw Leo… it's all because this song came on one day (I don’t even really listen to country anymore so it really is fate). Leo is based off that song, each chapter is going to be based off a yeehaw song too.

Characters belong to @lumosinlove

Beta: @the-most-slyterin-hufflepuff & @punkkkboi

TW/CW: Smut, terrible yeehaw sayings and jokes, injuries, mentions of past death/suicide, minor character death, underage drinking, mentions of past arrests, cringe

Chapter Songs (listening in order is recommended):

Chapter 15:

Thomas was sleeping, he was having a peaceful slumber until he felt the back of a hand across his face. Waking up startled he sits up. He goes to ask what's wrong but his face is grabbed by Noelle who drags him into an extra spicy kiss. He takes a sharp breath in through his nose and cups the back of her head. Kissing back but still confused. He looks for Clay who sleeps on the other side of Noelle, he seems to be missing.

Then he notices the lump under the covers…. Then it all clicks.

Thomas closes his eyes and smirks into the kiss with Noelle as she whines into his mouth and unintentionally yanks on the hair at the side and back of his head. Thomas blindly starts feeling around for the edge of the covers, when he finds then he tosses them back.

“So cold!” Noelle mumbles on his lips, Thomas pulls away a bit to look down at Clay who looks like he is being suffocated between Noelle's thighs. It was a beautiful sight. “Thomas, please kiss me-” Her breath hitched and her legs twitched for a moment before her ankles locked behind Clay’s head. “I’m so close!”

Thomas doesn't want this to end yet and he knows Noelle has gotten to the point where she can’t get off unless she is being stimulated in more than one place. Trying to make this moment last longer, Thomas would lean in to kiss her but swerve away to kiss her cheek or her neck. Just to tease her. His hand that wasn’t supporting his body was cupping her jaw so she had to look at him.

He was acting like he wasn’t hard as a fucking rock.

Eventually, Noelle's hips were canting up like she didn’t have control anymore. Clay’s arms were wrapped under her legs and he was gripping her hips to hold on for dear life. She grabs Thomas’ face and shoves her tongue in his mouth aggressively. Thomas folds and kisses her back. She climaxes, her mouth falling open, her hands gripping her boys almost too tight, and her legs snap shut but Clay doesn’t mind.

Once she finishes her body goes completely limp and her eyes close because they are rolling in different directions because her body is so relaxed. Thomas is petting her hair, not paying attention at all. Just soaking in just how beautiful she is in her afterglow.

A shocked moan jumps out of his throat as he feels a tight wet heat around his almost painfully hard cock. His hand jumps to Clay’s hair and he looks down to see him looking back up at him with his iconic puppy dog eyes. Thomas tips his head back as he catches his breath from when he was surprised.

Noelle comes back too and sees her boys, she turns on her side so her head is resting on Thoams’ shoulder, she reaches down to pat through Clay’s wild curls, messed up from sleeping. Clay opens his eyes from when they slipped closed after Thomas looked away. He sees the way Noelle is looking at him and he starts grinding against the bed.

He wanted to show his lovers how much he loves and appreciates them, he’s never experienced love and trust like this. He has a thing for being praised by Noelle and he knows this head petting is a way she does that without words.

Thomas on the other hand.

“Clay- fuck you’re suck a slut aren’t you. Got Noelle off and couldn’t help yourself.” Clay immediately flushes bright red and pinches his eyebrows together as the mixture of the silent praise from Noelle and the degrading talk that Thomas throws at him. Clay is being pushed closer to his own edge. He has never came untouched before but he wouldn’t be surprised if they could do that to him. So he doubles down on Thomas as he grinds against the bed harder.

He knows Thomas is close by the way his voice has turned into a whisper. Clay pulls off just in time to get a face full of Thomas. He blinks a couple of times before he is tossed on his back.

“I always knew you were a cum slut but I never thought you’d purposely make me cum on your face.” Thomas gives Clay a tight pull after spitting in his hand and Clay moans louder than he meant to. He flushes again from embarrassment.

“Always so pretty for us, Doll.” Noelle has moved to be kneeling next to Clay’s side, lightly touching his smooth stomach up to his chest and looking at him. “So gorgeous.”

“I’m gonna-” Thomas gives Clay exactly three pulls before he is spilling over his hand and his own stomach. Noelle leaned over and is peppering his neck and shoulders in little kisses before getting up to grab their designated sex towel. It had Daffy duck on it and Clay brought it with him as a joke.

They all get cleaned up and sprawl out on the fresh sheets together.

“I’m going to order food because I’m so hungry I feel my stomach digesting itself.” Thomas is typing on his phone their normal orders from a deli just down the street from them. Clay smiles and laughs a bit from how dramatic Thomas always gets. Eventually the food is out for delivery and the tallest of the bunch gets up and pulls on some sweats.

Clay rolls over to his side and shoves his face into Noelle's boobs because they are his favorite things. Noelle absentmindedly starts scratching his scalp because she feels like it. Thomas comes back and see’s Clay’s face looking way too similar to his O face just from her scratching his scalp.

“Nope, if you do that I’m going to get all hot and horny again. We need to eat, Noelle leaves in five hours.” He sits on the bed and tosses them their sandwiches.

“What are you two going to do while I’m gone?” Noelle unwraps her sandwich and takes a bite while she checks her phone for her flight information. Her, Logan, Finn and Leo are all going to Canada to spend the holiday with her parents. Logan plans to tell their parents about Leo and she knows it won’t go well.

Her parent adore Finn and most likely only accepted Logan for being bisexual because of Finn. He was the perfect all-american boy who was successful… and white. Her parents have come to terms with her dating Thomas but they still bad mouth him in front of her with wild accusations.

She also knows that she is the favorite child from how her parents treat her versus her sisters and Logan. So she gets away with a lot more. But she knows if they knew about Clay they would freak the fuck out.

She doesn’t think this is going to go as well as Logan hopes but she will support him no matter what. So will Sydney and Aubrey. They have had to support each other for their entire lives. Their family dynamic was one of those, you act all friendly and nice when you are with your parents but once you are away from them you can actually be yourself. Oh, and talk shit on the parents because they always think they are right.

“If you want we can go visit my parents, they have been dying to meet you. Yes my mom talked to you when the team was down at Leo’s but they didn’t get to know you.” Clay is already done with his food because the bitch eats fast. “I have a pilot friend who could take us.”

“Really?” Thomas was halfway through his sandwich with his mouth full of food.

“Yeah, he was friends with Wyatt in the air force and flies us to Brazil every year. He’s a good family friend. Super funny too, I think he’d be a good comedian.” Clay smiles and takes the trash from their food, tossing it in the trash before going to get dressed for the day in his normal at home shorts, skipping a shirt and putting on socks because the wood floors are cold. “Want me to call him?”

“Yeah why not, I’d love to meet your parents.” Thomas has a soft smile as he takes another bite. He has met Noelle’s parents but knows they don’t like him no matter what he does so he plans to charm the pants off Clay’s parents.

Clay leaves to the living room to go call, Noelle gets up to get dressed for the day but before she can get off the bed Thomas pulls her into his lap. Just holding her and smooching his face into her neck.

“Worried?”

“What would I need to be worried about?” Thomas kissed her cheek and gave her a squeeze. “Well, I take that back, I guess Leo is going with you guys and I don’t see Maurice taking that very well.” Noelle nods and sighs.

“I’m worried too, I don’t think it’s a good idea but Logan tries so hard to impress Maman and Papa that it doesn’t surprise me that he is bringing Leo. I mean, Leo is rich, respectful, kind and American so he is everything they have ever wanted…. But with him having a criminal record and tattoo’s and the same sense of challenge that Clay has, I don’t expect them to take him in like they did Finn. Also, his teeth are still fucked from when Aubrey dumped him out of the car and he doesn’t really care about it, so it makes him seem like he doesn’t care about appearances. Which they do.” She flops her head on his shoulder and groans annoyed. “I guess I’ll give you updates about how it's going.”

“I’d appreciate that, sweet thang.” He gives her one last smooch before she gets up to get dressed. Clay walks back in as she is leaving, Noelle smacks his ass as she passes causing him to jump and look back as she disappears into the closet.

“He said he could take us tomorrow, he needs to call the airport and set up a take off and landing schedule.” He flops on the bed and narrows his eyes at the ceiling. “There are so many crumbs on the bed.”

Leo had never been on a commercial plane; it was kinda stuffy. It was also cramped, but he was between his boys so he didn’t really mind. Logan had his headphones on and Finn was sleeping with his head resting back on the seat. Leo was very squished, maybe a bit too tall for the seats. He only needed to be squished for about an hour and a half so he would survive.

As they landed Logan took off his headphones and started texting his parents, Noelle was a seat or two behind them so they were all being picked up by their mother, Leo thinks her name is Mary… honestly Logan barely talks about his parents unless he wants to show them an achievement of his so Leo really didn’t know anything about them besides they don’t like a lot of tattoos on a person so Noelle and Logan are both just wearing long sleeves the whole time to hide their newest additions while Leo is wearing his selling black turtles neck.

Saying he was nervous was a bit of an understatement.

They grabbed their bags from the claim and made their way outside, a large white SUV pulled up and Noelle started heading towards it, Logan following next to Finn and Leo trailing behind.

It was cold.

A short woman with a paisley pattern blue scarf covering her hair got out of the large car and ran up to Noelle and engulfed her into a tight hug, speaking quick French to her as Noelle took a second to hug back. Logan was bouncing on his toes a little behind her waiting for his hug. Leo watched as Logan deflated when his mother, Leo was guessing that's who it is, skips over him to hug Finn just as tight as Noelle. Leo stood to the side awkwardly waiting to see how she reacts to him.

He knows she has looked his way because he saw his reflection in her dark sunglasses. He acts like he is dusting stuff off of him as he looks down at his nice jeans, belt and boots that he wore today trying to make a good first impression. But judging from how Mary is dressed in an expensive dress, coat and shoes, he thinks he chose the wrong outfit.

She eventually pulls away from Finn after kissing his cheeks, leaving Finn an adorable shade of red, she helps him get his bags in the car. Leaving everyone else to put their own in by themselves. Glancing at Logan he notices he has his ‘I’m upset but will try to look neutral’ face on. Leo wants to reach out and comfort him but he knows now isn’t a good time.

The car ride was short, into the heart of the city to a nice sized house surrounded by even bigger houses that are almost the size of the ranch. It was a pale blue color with a red door that was glossy and wooden. Leo expected it to be heavy but he wasn’t expecting it to be shut on him before he even entered the house. He opens the door to find a man in a Police uniform hugging Noelle and laughing with Finn while Logan holds Finn’s hand.

He suddenly felt very uneasy being in the house, so he decided to stay standing by the door. Pretending he was invisible, standing with his luggage in front of him. Logan looks at him and raises an eyebrow until he sees Leo flick his eyes from Logan to the man. Logan nods and mouths an apology. Sending a shaky smile back Leo’s attention is turned to the two older siblings walking over to him.

“Hey guys.” He smiles tightly and accepts hugs from both of them.

“How are your teeth?” Aubrey asks light heartedly, as she sips on her glass of plum colored wine.

“Still broken.” He smiles with his teeth this time, already feeling more relaxed now that the sisters were joking with him.

“Don’t they hurt?” Sydney leans forward a little to examine them. “I work at a dentist. I could get them fixed for you.” Leo remembers Logan mentioning how Sydney was a dental assistant and Aubrey was a lawyer. A very successful family: Lawyer, Dental Assistant, Marine biologist, and a Pro-Hockey Player. He shakes his head no when he looks past them to see Logan finally getting some form of affection from his parents, his father is patting him on the shoulder as Noelle follows her mother into the kitchen and Finn goes to take Logan and his bags to Logan’s room. Maybe he should take his bags too.

“Papa, this is Leo.” Logan gestures to Leo and he takes that as his queue to go over to them. He walks over, trying to calm his nerves. Standing next to Logan he holds out his hand to shake his fathers. “I thought it would be nice to bring him along.” Logan doesn’t plan to tell his parents they are dating until after the first dinner together. His father looks Leo up and down with his intense green eyes taking in every flaw of his. Eventually he takes his hand and shakes it, a bit harder than Leo was expecting.

“You a manual labor worker? Your hands are quite rough.” Leo tries to pretend he didn’t see Logan’s dad wipe his hand on his trousers.

“I sell horses down in Louisiana, my family owns a ranch.”

“Your accent is quite thick, ever thought of speech therapy so people can understand you better?” Leo furrows his brows and shakes his head slightly in surprise. No one has ever been that blunt to him before. “It might be better for your… business.” Logan clears his throat.

“He is living with Finn right now in Gryffindor.” Logan notices how his dad's expression becomes one of suspicion and untrust. Swallowing his worry he continues on. “He is a Professional Bull Rider during the summer.” His father slowly nods as he takes in the information given.

“Explains the dirty boots on my floor. Dinner is in an hour.” He turns away from them and starts walking as Leo is looking down at his freshly polished boots, they were his formal boots that rarely ever get worn. “Oh, and I hope you have another place to stay, we don’t have room in the house for you.” Leo looks up to see Logan’s dad staring at him seriously before he starts walking again. Logan is just as confused as Leo and the sister behind them. Before Logan can go after his dad Leo grabs his arm.

“Hey it’s okay, I saw a hotel just down the street I can stay at. I don’t want you to fight with your parents over me.” Logan is looking like he is going to argue back but then he sighs in defeat and nods. Leo looks back at his bags for a second before following Logan down the stairs, following a long hall into Logan’s room. It was quite small, the walls were a boring cream color that doesn’t scream Logan. Wild and vibrant Logan. The bedspread was dark burgundy and the bed was twin mattresses on a queen frame put together. Leo could see them under the short duvet. There was a lot of hand-me-down furniture in the room. Or Leo was guessing it was from how old and beat up it is, all mismatching colors and textures. The carpet was a dull brown and there was a broken closet door.

As he was taking in the room around him, which barely had enough room for them to move around, he noticed the door hinges looked as though they had been taken off and put back on a few times. He didn’t ask about it. He knew family was a sensitive subject for Logan.

“I’m sorry, he doesn’t really know how to be subtle about things.” Logan hugs Leo after closing the door that doesn’t quite shut properly. “I’ve never seen him so mean to a stranger before.”

“Is he mean to people he knows? Like you?” Logan shakes his head and Leo relaxes a bit. “This isn’t really what I expected your room to look like, it’s very” He looks around as he rubs Logan’s back and Finn is still trying to find a spot to put their bags. “Bland.”

“I was never allowed to decorate how I wanted because my parents told me it would be harder to sell when they retire and move to France where the rest of the family is. It used to be my dad’s office space before I was born. They didn’t really plan for me, but they love me and that's all I need.” Logan pulls away and flops on his bed.

“Aha!” Finn has found a place to fit their bags and looks at Leo. “Where are your bags? I found a place for all three to fit.” He smiles so proud of himself. “I tell you, playing Tetris has really helped me in my life.” Plopping his hands on his hips and leaning a little to the side he notices how quiet Leo and Logan both are. Logan is picking at his bedspread and Leo has his arms crossed leaning against the wall. “Did I miss something?”

“I’m getting a hotel room, I don’t think Logan’s dad likes me much.” Leo smiles at him, watching as Finn’s face goes from his smile to a confused frown.

“But I thought they said he could stay over the phone.”

“Papa shook his hand and told him he can’t stay, I think it's because I told him that Leo is living with you.” Logan is looking rather guilty when he looks up at them.

“Lo, babe. It wasn’t anything you said, I just have that effect on people, especially older people.” Leo takes the two sets front he door to the bed to lean down and kiss his forehead. “And I don’t mind, really it's okay.”

“I can stay with you.” Finn sits next to Logan as he speaks, jostling the bed, causing it to squeak.

“I don’t think that's a good idea. You better stay here, plus I think Lo needs you.” he smooches Finn’s forehead as well and pulls out his phone to call the hotel down the street for a reservation.

Dinner smelled amazing, walking up the stairs Leo followed the other two. The kitchen was rustic but sleek, lots of bright whites and khaki. A table is set to the right of the large granite island where all the food is set out. Leo is told to sit while Finn and Logan get a plate of food for him. Logan's parents are sitting on either side of him, his dad has changed out of his uniform to some lounge pants and a t- shirt. His mother was still in full makeup and the fancy dress and shoes from earlier. Leo knew their dynamic immediately. He shifts uncomfortably in his chair as the parents speak to each other in French not knowing that he can understand them.

“C'est un criminel, j'ai regardé son casier.” Leo acts like he isn’t listening but he can’t help but grip his pant leg under the table.

“Il essaie également de corrompre Finn. Vivre avec lui ne me semble pas bien.” It appears the parents have been gossiping about him. Sydney and Aubrey Place plates of food in front of the parents and go to sit across them side by side. Leaving two spaces open next to them.

“Les filles, éloignez-vous de lui. c'est un méchant.” Logan’s dad said, whose name Leo learned from Finn, is Maurice. He waits for Logan and Finn to sit before he relaxes, Logan setting a plate of food in front of him.

What was left he was guessing. There definitely isn’t southern hospitality up here.

“Logan, pourquoi amenez-vous ce... Mec ici. Dans notre maison.” Finn looks around confused and shares a look with Leo, who hasn’t touched his food and is looking rather upset.

“Il parle français, maman…” Logan is looking at his parents with a completely baffled look, how could they be this bold and this rude. Noelle was still missing from the table, her place already having food at it, yet she wasn't there. “Where is Noelle?”

“I’m here! Sorry I was talking to some friends.” Noelle is red in the face as she sits down at her spot, looking rather glowy… Logan cringes at the thought of what she was doing. “Dinner looks lovely Maman.”

Her mothers face completely lights up and she starts rambling on about how she made dinner. While everyone was eating, it was mostly silent. Maurice suddenly turns to Leo.

“Tell us about your family? I would like to know you better before I figure out if I want you around Finn and Logan.”

“Well… my mom works on the ranch selling the horses with me, she was a beauty queen when she was younger.” Leo notices Mary roll her eyes out of the corner of his own. It was irritating. “ My dad was an AirForce pilot but passed away a few years ago.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.” Aubrey sends him a sad smile and Sydney nods in agreement.

“If you don’t mind me asking. How did your father pass?” Maurice wipes his face with his napkin and looks at him sincerely for the first time that night. Logan gives Leo a look that tells him to tread lightly. Leo thinks for a moment before answering, taking a bite of food so it doesn’t seem like he is stalling.

“He died from a gunshot wound, Sir.” The table goes silent for a moment but Leo just keeps eating so as to not make the awkwardness even worse. “We planted a tree for him, a Weeping Willow by the pond he loved.”

“That's very sweet.” Mary says as she lightly pats his forearm in what is supposed to be a comforting way. Leo knows she doesn’t mean anything bad so he stuffs the irritation he feels down.

“Any siblings?” Sydney tries to move the conversation along from the morbid topic of death. Her plate was finished and her napkin was covering it as she took a drink of water.

“I have a best friend Clayton, he's basically my brother.” Leo notices how Noelle stops and sees the slight alarm in her eyes, he knows better than to throw her under the bus like that so of course he won’t mention their relationship.

“Can we see a picture of him?” Sydney smiles genuinely and it makes Leo relax a bit. Talking about Clay was easy, they had so many stories. He could definitely twist them to be more appropriate. Leo nods and pulls out his phone, trying to find a good picture. He lands on one of them in their rodeo grab from last year right after Leo had his face smashed into the poll of Canadian Mist. “Oh he’s a cutie!” She smiles at the picture and Leo gives her his phone to take a better look, she leans over to show Aubrey.

“You have a good looking family.” She passed the phone to Noelle whose eyes softened at the picture but her face stayed neutral, nodding in agreement she passed the phone to Maurice. He sat there for a moment just looking at the picture, Leo wasn’t sure what he was staring at until his mouth opened.

“So it appears your mother was rather unfaithful. Obviously, you are white and I’m guessing your parents are white… yet one of her sons is black.” Leo, Finn and the siblings all sit there in shock, Mary doesn’t even flinch and just finishes her meal. That was the last straw for dinner, Leo stands up quickly snatching his phone from Maurice who was scrolling through his photos, his chair squeaks but he doesn’t care as he walks off towards the basement bathroom that he remembers passing on the way up from Logan's room. Stomping down the stairs and quietly closing the door.

“Papa! He said he was his BEST FRIEND! Someone LIKE his brother! Not his actual brother, ugh you are so mean sometimes!” Logan gets up and follows Leo, Finn is about to join him but he is asked to help with the dishes and is too afraid to say no. Logan bounds down the stairs and looks in his room first, not finding his cowboy there he heads towards the bathroom. He sees the light is on under the door and he knocks. “Leo? Sunshine? It’s Logan, can I come in?”

“One second.” He hears a slight crack in Leo’s voice and his heart just breaks, he hears a bit of shuffling and then the door is slightly opened. Leo had reached from where he was sitting on the closed toilet seat to open the door. “I didn’t mean to storm out like that, I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing? What he was was fucking cruel and you know it.” Logan kneels down on the cold linoleum between Leo’s legs so he can look him in the eyes. Placing his hands on his thighs he dips his head a bit to look at Leo’s downturned face. “I’m sorry he said that and I understand if you want to go home.”

“This is important to you, Sweet Pea. I won’t leave.” Leo looks up at him, his eyes are brighter than normal and Logan is guessing it's because he was either crying or tearing up before he knocked on the door.

“Leo you do so much already-”

“I’m staying Lo, I’m staying because I promised and I don’t break promises.” Leo smiles a little at him and Logans sighs. Leo is so stubborn sometimes, but Logan loves that about him. Defeated he sits back on his heels and rests his head on Leo’s thigh.

“Can I at least make you feel better?” He has an idea of what to do, running his hand up and down the long inner thigh that belongs to the beautiful man in front of him. Leo’s breath hitches for a second. Looking away from where his hand is tracing the seam of Leo’s jeans to see a blush across the blonde boy's nose. “Please?” His hand moves to palm Leo’s slowly growing tent in his jeans and smiles when he sees a nod. Getting comfortable Logan sits on his butt with his legs on either side of the base of the toilet, Leo’s feet set behind his hips.

Logan leans forward and undoes Leo’s belt and jeans pulling them down just enough that they rest on his upper thighs. He can’t help but smile at Leo’s underwear being Canadian themed. Pulling the waistband down he is just about hit in the nose but Leo’s full erection. Looking up to Leo who has his hand over his mouth to keep him from laughing he smiles.

Licking just beneath the head he watched Leo's expression change. Knowing at this angle he won’t be able to take all of Leo in his mouth he grips the base and takes the red tip into his mouth, sucking just enough to make Leo’s eyes scrunch shut as he keeps himself from making a sound. Running his tongue up the large vein on Leo’s cock he feels a hand in his hair and knows he is doing well. He finally takes as much of Leo into his mouth as he can and sucks hard in a way that would be painful to most but he knows that pain just makes it better for Leo.

After a good couple of minutes of this Leo felt like he was teetering on the edge when there was a knock on the door, not knowing if Logan hears it, he tugs his hair lightly in a way he wouldn’t durring sex to catch Logan’s attention. Logan pulls off and is about to ask what is wrong when the door handle turns, luckily for them Logan has a habit of locking the bathroom door.

“Logan? Are you in there?” It was his dad. Logan looks at Leo and gives him a quiet gesture with his finger to his lips as he uses his other hand to continue working Leo who threw his head back and covers his mouth tightly so he doesn’t make a sound. “Logan.”

“Yeah?” His voice is a bit dodgy, like he has been crying, but really it was from having a dick in his throat... but his dad didn’t need to know that.

“Are you crying? I raised you better than that, you need to be a man and come talk to me.” Maurice stomps off back up the stairs. Logan just goes back to what he was doing. Sucking Leo back do to his knuckles where his fist is holding the rest of Leo. It takes about two more minutes before Leo is cumming down his throat. After swallowing it all Logan stands up and settles himself in Leo’s lap kissing him passionately. Leo cups his cock through his pants and lets Logan grind down on his hand until he finishes into his pants. Leo is peppering Logan’s neck in kisses as he is coming down from his high.

Walking back upstairs to a rather quiet house was eerie, Leo and Logan actually find Finn and Noelle outside on the back porch by the heater just detoxing from dinner. Logan walks out first, sitting between them and sighing loudly. He is now wearing Finn’s sweatpants which are much too long on him but are slightly tight on his thighs. Leo follows after he pats down his pockets making sure he has his cigarettes and lighter because a smoke sounds amazing at the very moment.

Walking outside with his cigarette in between his lips he lights it and takes a long drag, moving to sit next to Noelle since there are only two benches outside and they both fit two people.

“You alright?” Noelle looks up from her phone. He was texting her boys and letting them know how everything went with dinner. She looks up to see Leo just staring off into the distance and decides its best not to press. “So, do you think telling Maman and Papa is a good idea after all that?” She turns her gaze to Logan who is resting his head on Finn’s shoulder with the red head's arm around his own.

“I still want to tell them, they need to know that I am happy with the loves of my life.” Leo blinks out of his disassociating stare to look at them. Logan doesn’t seem phased by calling him a ‘love of his life’ but they haven’t said the big three words to each other yet.

“Mind if we join?” Sydney and Aubrey walk over to them on the porch and perch themselves on the arms of the benches.

“Perfect timing, I actually want to tell you something.” Logan shares a glance at Leo, who nods knowing what he is going to tell them, Leo likes all the Tremblay siblings so he doesn’t mind them knowing. He knows they will support them. “You know how Finn and I are dating?”

“Yeeaaah?” They both say it at the same time and in the same way that it's almost freaky.

“We are also dating Leo.” It was silent for a few seconds before the sisters broke into giant grins.

“I told you!” Sydney shouts at Aubrey who is looking shocked but happy. “I knew the second you were getting the yeux de mort from our baby brother after you broke Leo’s teeth!” Sydney laughs a bit as Aubrey turns red.

“I didn’t mean too! Also, I’m happy for you three. You should know I’m bad at reading relationships by now.” They chat from a few seconds before the slamming of the door to the porch brings them out of their delightful bubble. Maurice is standing outside of the door looking like he is about to kill. His eyes are dangerously sharp and his breathing is fast. Walking over to the group pointing to the window behind them… that's open. Logan goes pale and Finn looks down at his hands trying to act like he isn’t there. Noelle, Sydney and Aubrey all just look at each other and decide it's best to leave. Walking towards the door giving each other worried glances.

“What! Did I just hear! You are dating this- this- this lowlife criminal?! Just because he has money does not mean he loves you Logan! He is a leech! He is dirty and will trick you into doing things for his own pleasure!” Storming over to Leo he grabs the collar of his turtle neck and yanks him forward on the bench.

Nose to nose.

“Sir I-”

“I don’t care what you have to say! You stay away from my son and his boyfriend, you whore! You are not good enough for them and will never be good enough for them… You. Are. Scum.”

“Papa! Stop it! He has never done anything to hurt us, and I know he never would! He is not ‘buying’ our love! Stop treating him so poorly, we want him just like we want each other!” Logan stands up and tries to get his dad's hand to let go of Leo’s shirt but just ends up getting pushed away.

“Logan. Stay out of this, I am protecting you because you apparently don’t know how to.” Maurice glances down at Leo’s neck where his tattoo is now exposed from Murice holding the neck of his shirt. “I bet you are covered in tattoos! I should have you arrested for trespassing on my property.” Leo’s eyes go wide and he doesn’t know what to do, he knows if he opens his mouth this will all get worse. So he stays silent. “He doesn’t even have the guts to protect himself.” He roughly lets go of Leo’s collar and turns to face Logan. “He will never be allowed in my house again after this trip, after tomorrow he will be gone and never come back.”

“Then I will never come back.” Logan and Maurice look strikingly similar, nostrils flared, hair curling wildly, cheeks flushed from anger. There was no doubt they were father and son.

“You will come back, because you are family. He is not and never will be.” He doesn’t let Logan respond before he starts stalking back towards the door, footsteps heavy making Leo’s ears ring with every step he takes.

“Leo? Can you hear me?” He blinks a couple times, finding Finn sitting next to him and holding his hand tightly. Logan is gone, probably following his dad to keep arguing. Leo didn’t want Logan to argue with his family over him. “Hey, look at me.” Leo is brought back from his thoughts once again, looking into those copper colored eyes he loves so much.

“I’m okay.” His answer was short and his hands were slightly shaking but he grips Finn's hand tighter. “I don’t want to come in between Logan’s family like this…”

“Baby, it’s going to be okay. Him and his dad's relationship has always been rocky.”

“But… They love you.” Leo is about to continue but receives a rather annoyed look from Finn.

“They only like me because… honestly I really don’t know because I have made Logan do lots of stupid stuff in college they wouldn’t approve of.” Finn gives him a soft smile and kisses his forehead. “Leo, we aren’t going anywhere. I promise.”

“I think I’m going to head to the hotel for the night, I need some alone time after that. If that's okay.” Leo stands up and tugs Finn’s hand to make him stand as well.

“Of course it’s okay, but if you need something you better call or else I’ll bury you alive.”

“Bit morbid.”

“With hugs and kisses.” Finn winks at him causing Leo to laugh a bit as they walk towards the door, Leo is checking his phone for Ubers nearby to take him to the hotel and books one. Not sparing the Tremblay parents another glance, he kisses Logan goodbye after telling him he is going to the hotel. Waving goodbye to the sisters hiding in the hallway eavesdropping on the argument in the kitchen, he takes his bags and walks out the front door.

The next morning Logan is waiting eagerly for Leo to show up for breakfast. When he does, boy oh boy does he make an entrance. Walking in the door with his arms full of shopping bags from the local stores. He is smiling wide and seems to be in a much better mood. He has gifts for all the siblings and of course his boys.

“What's this?” Maurice asks as soon as he sees the mountain of bags under their Christmas tree, they were here for the holidays after all. There were separate piles for everyone and Leo was in the middle of setting up Finn’s pile when the devil himself walked in the room.

“You said I buy love, so I bought things… with love.” Leo smirks at him and Logan tries to hide his amused smile behind his hand, walking over to Leo and gluing himself to his side. Leo looks down at him and wraps his arm around Logan, giving him a squeeze before they share a kiss much to Maurice's dismay.

“Can I have one?” Finn walks over to them with the rare shy smile on his face, Leo leans forward to give him a kiss as well. The rest of the day went rocky but better than yesterday, with Maurice staying out of the way and Logan being stuck to Leo all day with Finn occasionally joining when he isn’t dragged off to do something by the rest of the Tremblay’s. Leo went back to the hotel that night feeling much lighter. Calling his mother to wish her and the Bruss', where apparently Clayton and Thomas were, happy holidays.

They fly home tomorrow and Leo was excited. Home means he will be watching the Dumias kids with Logan, while Pascal and Celeste go off on a date trip for the weekend and Finn has to fly to Florida for a wedding.

#leo knut #logan tremblay #finn o'hara #james potter #thomas walker #Clayton Bruss #o'knutzy #o’knutzy #lumosinlove #sweater weather #coast to coast

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bumblingbeasblackhole · 4 years

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Why Momo Yaoyorozu would have been a more effective hero as a plus size woman.

Hello all, it’s time for a BNHA rant. A rant in my opinion that is long over due, and that my friends is on one of my favorite characters in the franchise. Momo Yaoyorozu AKA Creati.

Buckle up lads were in for a hefty analysis. (Note the read more) I promise it’s worth the read.

Now, we all know Class 1-A’s vice class rep and resident braniac Momo.

Just in case you’re new here or need a refresher, Momo’s Quirk is called Creation. The basic breakdown of her quirk is that her body uses the Lipids (fats) in her body to create any inorganic material of her choosing.

Now, there’s two key things to remember about her quirk.

First, her quirk requires her to use her physical body reserves in order to function

Second, she has to know how to make those matierals. From bottom to top. That means she has to not only have a design of what she wants in her head but the exact molecular compounds to create those objects as well.

Momo to her credit does this well. She’s been flushed out slightly enough to see various instances where she’s had to improve either on her knowledge of materials and compounds or her speed to achieve the full creation of an item. It’s something we see from her constantly in both the Manga and the Anime.

For example, the first time we are (formally) introduced to Momo’s quirk she creates a few items

A staff for herself, a sword for Jirou, a net to contain the thugs, a thick insulated blanket large enough to cover both her and Jirou, and finally the remembrance of her hero suit.

These items all together begin to wear Momo out as she’s left panting and even tells Jirou that she has a hard time creating such taxing objects on her body. This is stated to the audience the first time we see her in action. It takes her time, concentration, and most importantly her body’s lipid reserves.

This is the first time we see Momo wear herself rather thin. While this in itself is impressive and a great introduction into the character and her abilities and strategic wit in a battle, the rather more harmful implications are yet to be seen. This incident, while foreshadowing her later issues, does not compare to other instances later on the series.

There are three key issues with Momo as she is currently.

Her body/character design inherently limit her abilities as a hero.

The push for her to be a sexy hero/character is ultimately determinetal to her effectiveness as both a character and a hero.

Her intellect is not reflected by the way she operates as a hero. Instead, it is often negated for the sake of her design.

These points seem vague or over harped but I’ll go into detail about them. (Hang in there, this is well thought out and developed, I promise)

But before I get into the key issues and solutions, there’s a lot that’s absolutely fantastic about Momo.

Momo is a great character because she is more than the typical snobby rich girl trope. In fact, she’s not at all snobby. She is the most helpful, kind, and oblivious rich character I’ve ever seen. It’s part of her personality sure, but it’s not the only factor. It’s more or less just a gag for laughs between the other characters.

She is also relatable in the way she has self worth issues, different from Midoriya’s self worth issues. She was never (that were aware of) beaten down or belittled. Her issues sprouted from the way she was confident in her abilities, intellect, and quirk only to be thrown in the deepend UA.

Which idk about y’all, but honestly that shit hits home. If you were ever the smart-kid-who-learned-quickly-and-skated-through-school-only-to-be-out-of-your-depth-with-new-self-worth-issues-when-that-is-no-longer-the-case (or anything similar) than you catch my drift. So score for relatability.

Alas, onwards.

Let’s tackle the first problem.

The way she treats her body now is detrimental to her quirk usage long term.

I’ll explain,

Momo’s quirk functions relatively similar to another hero we are later introduced too, Fatgum.

Now I know what you’re already thinking,

“Bea! She’s supposed to be sexy! She’s supposed to be feminine! Her quirk burns it all so she can look like that! Fatgum has to only store it all!”

On some levels you’re right.

On most though, incredibly wrong.

Momo’s figure is one of the main (and slightly controversial) aspects of her character. I mean, look at her design versus Fatgum’s

See the key differences? I sure do.

Fatgum’s quirk is called Fat Absorbtion. Basically it grants Fatgum the ability to adhere any objects to his body and make them sink into his body fat upon contact with it. And/Or he can build and channel all of the fat in his body into one overpowered and energized punch or attack. (As seen in the overhaul arc) which leaves his body, you guessed it, deprecated and thin. Much like Momo’s, they both use their body’s fat as a tool whether through expelling it or storing it for later use.

I point this out because we see time and time again throughout the series where Momo pushed herself to the limit where she has to expel extraordinary amounts of her body to get the job done. But in reality she only makes a few larger objects. This compared to Fatgum who uses his fat reserves strategically and only in the toughest of battles does he push his body’s reserves to zero. Whereas Momo does this constantly. This is because of her inefficient way of treating her quirk and ultimately, her design.

Let’s discuss some prime examples:

In the training camp arc, Momo makes roughly 15-30 masks for all of Class B students, and half of Class A. Which in itself is a tall order. When we see her again, she’s bloodied, exhausted, barely conscious, worn, and welded to Awase half alive. She even struggles as she makes the tiny tracker she places on the back of the Nomu. After this, in the hospital (pre Kamino rescue) she was unconscious for a day and half due to quirk overuse and dehydration.

Third, in the first movie, My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, we once again see Momo’s fatal flaw as she and a group of Class 1-A students race through the security tower on I-island. She uses her quirk to make cannons of course, a Momo signature, to fend off the security bots fairly early on in the battle. As she continues to make ammo and other items needed to win the battle Momo teeters on the brink of passing out from, you guessed it, dehydration and starvation. Jirou ends up catching Momo as she’s nearly passes out from the lack of fat/substance in her body after making the cannon and ammo.

Then we see the same issue in the second movie My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising. Where Momo is used both to create extra supplies on the island. She passes out after that alone and only wakes up later as the class is regrouping after four villains attack simultaneously. Even after rest and food, we see her later again to make two massive cannons as the first line of defense against the incoming villains. From the start of the second battle Momo is worn out and clearly lacking in lipids to participate fully in a fight. Here, she even keels over and says that she’s at her limit and looks like she’s on the brink of death via dehydration and starvation. Which she very much is.

We also so see this in Provisonal Licensing Exam arc when Momo, Tsu, Jirou, and Shoji are trapped together by a group from another school. Here this is important because the leader of that group has super intelligence granted to her by her quirk (and tea lol) has come up with a “fool proof” plan to beat the group. The bottom line of that plan is simple. Wear. Momo. Out. Which half way works too, until Momo figures out what the other group is trying to do and thinks her way out of that situation. Although, she does use up a decent amount of her body’s reserves before she figures out their plan.

^^^ this scene brings up an extremely concerning point. If a villain knows what her quirk is, and has i don’t know, seen her, then they’re going to do the exact same thing Saiko (the girl in the photo above from the licensing exam arc) attempted to do. Exhaust Momo’s resources.

Now, this has been brought up once in the actual show. During the training camp arc, we see each students training method (designed by Aizawa) in order to overwork and strengthen their quirks. For Momo, that looked like binge eating and creating simultaneously.

This also shows us that Aizawa is at least somewhat paying attention to the drawbacks of her quirk. He may not have been there for some of the more concerning times she’s over worked herself, but it’s not a hard thing to work out just by how she looks and how her quirk functions. He also sees how her speed with her quirk hindered her like in her battle against Tokoyami. However, this is the only time we see this. Plus, this is not nearly enough of solution to the problem. Which in all honesty is simple.

For all intensive purposes, Momo should be a Plus Sized woman.

Not just for diversity or validity of readers. Although it would have been a score for the plus size community since it’s always lacking here for us bad bitches but because it would have been more natural to her character. If she had a bulkier physique or even just a chubbier build she would be way more effective in a battle or even just as a hero.

Her quirk burns the fat in her body instantly while in use. Which means she needs to have a healthy reserve of it at all times, especially since I’m willing to bet her metabolism is crazy fast. Relying on the normal/average caloric intake is irrational for her quirks functionality. Her diet should look more like Fatgum’s where we see him constantly eating in order to fuel his quirk. At the very least, Momo needs to always have foods dense in fats on hand in case she’s in a dire situation where she’s running low on reserves. She would be much more effective that way. I cannot tell you the amount of times I’ve watched a scene where she’s wearing herself out and been exasperated by the fact that she didn’t have even a simple granola bar on her for emergencies.

Hear me out,

Plus size people are extremely capable of doing extraordinary things. As well as also being fit while still having a larger/healthier frame. It’s not all that uncommon. In fact, it’s something that fictional storytelling (an ex machina if you will) isn’t needed in order to cover the realistic applications. There are plenty of people in the word who are of a larger build and are also active, fit, and in overall good health standing.

In real life, Ashley Graham is an excellent example. For those who aren’t privy to this goddess, she’s a plus size model, mother, and fitness enthusiast.

Here’s just a taste of this wonderful goddesses workouts can look like:

(Credit Instagram : @ashleygharam)

Which brings me to my next point

The need for Momo to be sexy is detrimental to her effectiveness as both a hero and as a character.

I know, I know, half of Momo’s whole thing is being sexy, rich, and oblivious. I’m well aware.

But here’s a fun tidbit. Plus size women can be sexy too! Shocker I know! Sarcasm aside, having Momo be a plus size woman wouldn’t hinder her sex appeal if done correctly. In fact, I think it would only make her more appealing, marketable, and effective narratively.

Not that she really needs to be sexy at all, but we will swing back to that.

Remember Ashley Graham? The model I mentioned like a paragraph ago? Well, she’s an example that plus size women can be just as sexy/attractive as anyone else. Which only proves that Momo could still have been an attractive character even as a plus size woman. In fact, it would have been uplifting to see a plus size character who’s whole gag isn’t revolved around them losing weight to fit a societal goal, but instead a character who is plus sized, healthy, and proud. Who utilizes her body in a positive manner. I mean imagine the marketablility to younger audiences! If you still don’t believe me that a plus size woman can still be attractive and show skin like Momo would ultimately have to do in order to use her quirk, check out Ashley motherfuckin Graham doing just that

No matter how they would have gone on to design her as a plus size character, she could have still been stunning. Even if they kept her in the same costume design! Which is garbage but that’s a tangent for another time

But beyond equality and all that good stuff:

Momo being a plus size woman would mean she would have more ability for long term endurance in a battle. As it stands now, Momo taps out of a battle fairly fast. She’s tends to make one larger item and then she’s tapped. Which is highly inefficient in a battle. If anything it seems to be on par with how Midoriya’s quirk affected him in the beginning of the series. He had to sacrifice a part of his body in order to land an effective attack. Sound familiar? Well yeah. Because Momo does the same thing with Creation and she’s had it for years.

Each time Momo over uses her quirk, she’s left on the brink of passing out, if she hadn’t already, leaving her vulnerable and useless in the field alone. Each time she’s pushed herself past her limit she’s had her classmates to catch her when she falls. That’s not practical. Aizawa said it himself in the quirk apprehension test way back in chapter 6 of the manga.

So why is Momo considered differently? Why doesn’t Aizawa say something? Simple. He’s typically not around for these occurrences.

Momo doesn’t have to over use her quirk in simulations. She only does that when there’s real stakes and people on the line. The issue with that is that once she leaves UA, the stakes will always be real, all the time. Isn’t now the best time to nip this issue in the bud? I think so. But also I understand how Aizawa either hasn’t fully caught on, or hasn’t dealt with it. I mean, between villain attacks and our main character constantly almost killing himself recklessly in battle, he’s got a lot on his plate.

The other issue with her “sexy” design is that it negates from her overall character. In all official art we see for BNHA we see Momo typically left out, or hypersexualized. This detracts from her substance of being intelligent and creative. She’s often the butt of the joke when it comes to Mineta’s perverted jokes/schemes as well. Between the cheerleader outfits incident and the locker room scene Momo is constantly written off. Whereas Midnight, a pro hero and teacher at UA, who is known for her sexiness and uses it as her brand, uses her sexuality effectively without diminishing her actual worth as a hero or teacher. But then again Midnight is an adult, who is branded as the 18+ hero. Momo is a student and minor. But y’all still aren’t ready for that conversation yet.

Which brings me to the final point of this long winded rant. (Thanks if you’ve stuck around this long! We’re almost done! Follow me if you don’t already. I write stuff, paint stuff, and theorize/analyze stuff for bnha)

The way Momo is now, Discounts/Negates her supposed intellect

As I’ve mentioned already in this rant, how Momo operates now isn’t working out so well on her favor.

But that doesn’t really make sense considering she’s so fucking intelligent. I mean she’s literally top of the class academically. There is no reason for her to be so brilliant and also so bullheaded in her own quirk use. She shows us time and time again that she has brain power. Her quirk requires she be extremely intelligent in order to comprehend and apply molecular compounds in order to even sort of correctly use her quirk.

So it makes no sense that such simple solutions evade her constantly. Like I find it extremely hard to believe that Momo has never thought, “hmm I’m on the brink of death, maybe I should have eaten more” or “the last few battles left me weak, maybe I should find a solution or ask a teacher,” or even “man, my endurance isn’t all that great. I should work on that,” like anything along those lines would lead her intelligent brain to the conclusion that since whatever caloric intake she’s doing now is far to easy to burn through and perhaps the simple solution is to gain more fatty mass.

It honestly discounts Momo as a character if she’s constantly breaking down when such a simple solution is available to her. Plus on a more lighthearted note, it would be kind of great for Momo to be old money rich and plus sized. I mean it would be kind of ironically hilarious in my opinion.

Okay Bea, so what’s the point?

The point my friends is that female characters can be so much more. Especially Momo. There is always an opportunity for characters like Momo and Ochako (who’ll I’ll be breaking down next/soon) to have more substanse and impact to them than just being the second line of defense sexy characters.

Even in the actual universe that is BNHA, Momo as a hero student has far more potential than she is currently operating at.

Now, don’t get me wrong I understand that Horikoshi has a plateful of characters to deal with and Momo is probably on the bottom of the list, but it doesn’t mean we can’t imagine more for her. Because honestly it doesn’t even really matter if she changes for the better or not in canon, it’s the idea that there’s a character out there who all people can relate to whether it be average watchers/readers, plus size hopefuls, people with insecurities, readers/viewers who just like her quirk/design, or someone like me who saw a character and gravitated to the mostly relatable way she was written.

I love Momo as a character truly, she’s one of my favorites and I heavily associate with her. (Shocker I know, I mean she’s literally my icon that I painted myself) I am in no way tearing the character, franchise, or Horikoshi down. I am just observing what could have been (or could be but probably not) and pointing it out. So that maybe, just maybe, in the future there will be more characters who others can relate too. Other characters who are used at their full inspirational potential. But also, to point out some things that not only round out perspective on a character, but maybe even highlight how worth it it can be to look deeper into a characters through analysis. Hopefully I’ve done at least one of those things through this long post.

_____

Finally, thank you if you read this far into my gigantic breakdown.

Follow me if you don’t already and want too. If you do already follow me, please reblog so that others can read it if they want too.

I plan on doing more character breakdowns for BNHA, I’ve got a few already in the drafts and a cc if you have suggestions or questions. I also write fics for BNHA, so check out my AO3 link on my blog page for that. Also, you can bet your ass I’ll be writing a plus size Momo fic sometime soon. I’m really inspired on the topic (if you couldn’t tell already).

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