My takes on some of this fandoms most controversial issues lately:
• you can criticize and dislike whatever but you should never be rude and threatening about it??? This is going both to nora haters and to other fans haters
• Omfg sometimes characters don't get development because the narrator who's pov we are reading couldn't care less about their issues? Rings any bells? Seriously
• I get it you come from the anime trenches but just because there's a lot of fetishism of gay boys by women there, doesn't mean women can't enjoy queer books with men protagonists anymore wtf. Kinda sexist. Live and let live.
• yeah Kevin uses alcohol as an escape but that doesn't yet qualify as alcoholism. Alcoholism is a severe condition, seriously. That's like saying someone who's in a bad mood is suicidal immediately.
• I saw several complaints on goodreads that TSC should have had sensitivity readers bcs they dont like how Jean's trauma has been approached. 1. How do you know it didn't have sensitivity readers? 2. You complain when it's not even something you're sensitive to, so let me assure you as someone with shared trauma. It's accurate as heck get lost seriously.
• I'm worried we are glorifying Jean as gentle when in fact half of it is him trying to behave in a way that means he won't be punished for breaking any written or non written rules.
• I do not accept papasan chair slander. Meet me behind Waffle House at the witching hour.
I'm gonna be shitting and screaming and starting fights if Sera becomes a villain. I can't take sibling angst, Sera loves Emily I swear guys believe meeee.
crying because whenever i go to the club i dont get to skip the line, but when my pretty friends come we get in immediately 💀 i would have the fffffattest unrequited crush on sukuna and he would just be fucking all my pretty friends, thats why i like the characters like yuji, yuta, and choso 😭
personally, if that happened to me, i would have shot the club up, but that’s just me 🤷🏼
sukuna is…sukuna is such a bastard. i hate that irredeemable man!! unrequited crush on sukuna is nasty work.
because he would 100% know that you have a crush on him!! crushes aren’t new to him, he’s been getting googly eyes, shy glances, giggles, and love confessions ever since primary school, he can spot a person with crush miles away.
he probably thinks it’s funny how dejected you look when he purposefully flirts with your friends, might even order a round of drinks for them, conveniently forgetting that you’re a part of their little group, too. he stands back and watches you frown and sigh and sink down into your seat, likely already used to this kind of treatment when you go out with your friends.
you’re not ugly, you just have a habit of attracting friends that completely overshadow you, it happens. not to him though, heh.
when he spots you standing in line with your girls, pulling at this and tugging at that, primping here and there, he always has to bite back a grin and swallow a laugh. you’re all dolled up. you always are, it’s one of those shitty fancy clubs after all, but he can tell you’ve put in extra effort today.
your usual fly-aways are smoothed down, eyebrows tweezed or waxed or whatever hell people do nowadays, lashes curled and lips plump, and you’re showing more skin than you ever had. you’re getting looks from the other guys in line -you always do, but you never seem to notice it. probably because you’re always watching him like a hawk- and two of them have already tried to strike up a conversation with you.
well those fucks aren’t getting in here tonight.
he figures he should give you something, half of a crumb to keep your attention and in turn keep his monthly amusement, and when you finally reach the front of the line, he gives you the eye contact you’ve been itching for since you left the house tonight.
“you ladies back again? ‘m starting to think that you’re just coming here to see me.” a lazy smirk settles on his face, and he keeps his gaze on you as he speaks, not able to keep the laugh at bay as he watches you flounder over your words.
one of your friends speaks up, and he can’t be bothered to pay it any attention, not when you look like you’re ready to combust already. “you look different,” he says and gives a faux quizzical look. “you change your hair?”
“oh! u-uh, yeah, i did!” you blurt out how you had styled it that night, and how hard it had been to get it just right, and how you weren’t too sure about it, and fuck you just didn’t know when to stop, did you?
I got to say I really liked the episode (despite only having watched exu calamity of the exu series) and I think maybe Matt needed a breather after so many fast paced, lore filled episodes.
however, I am kinda bummed that the fcg processing has been put on hold for (at least) two weeks now and that means that, despite them being great actors that truly merge with their characters at the table, their reactions will be much less raw and there’s a chance some of them will forget tidbits of information, emotions they felt when it happened because they (as role players) will have had time to process it out of the game and it might create a dissonance in the game. tbf I kind of felt the difference even between the end of ep 91 and the beginning of 92 but it made sense because technically they were still running and couldn’t afford to process. idk. I have hope that we’ll still see that raw emotion, but I fear it won’t be as impactful as it could’ve been, especially if they’ll have to put the “reporting for duty” hat on immediately when they get to the camp
I think being a little bummed about the sort of unexpected hiatus on the Bell's Hells/Post F.C.G processing is super understandable! As someone who also really did enjoy the Crownskeepers return (hello im still yelling about Opal internally), I'm kind of in the same camp of being kind of thrown/disappointed about not getting to really dig into/sit with the Bell's Hells post-F.C.G loss. Like, LOVED the Crownkeepers, fascinating second half, kind of meh on the specific timing.
I'm holding my reservations about whether they're going to have to keep running/moving once we return to their portion of the story, since hey, until it happens (or doesn't!), we don't know, so I don't feel like getting too in my head about it until then.
That said! I do think that in general the cast puts characterization and staying true to the emotions of the character/story as a very high priority within the campaign. I think you're right that it won't be the exact same as if they had done a big emotional blowup/goodbye/processing scene in the same ep where they lost F.C.G, or immediately after. I don't think that means it has to be less impactful, just that- yeah, they'll have had more time to actually think/process it.
But they're also all professional voice actors who have, IMO, thus far shown how much they think about the inner lives of their characters and enjoy really digging deep into the emotional/interpersonal aspects of roleplay.
My assumption (my hope?) is that with additional time to think about + process a devastating/deeply emotional loss for their character(s), they'd choose to lean into that more, and not less. It wont be the same as the immediate raw reactions, thats true! But i dont think that means it has to be less impactful, even if they (as people) have had more time to process, and will be choosing how their characters, fresh off the loss, react. I dont think thats a guarantee it will be less impactful/emotional (maybe the additional thinking would actually enhance the reactions being true/insightful to the characters vs gut reactions from cast), but it will be different.
But if the cast chooses to lean into the heartbreak/emotions, and the circumstances of the BH in the upcoming ep enable it, I'm sure they can still kick my ass (emotionally), timeskip or not.
In general, I'm cautiously optimistic about what could happen next! Even if I don't love the timing thus far. I think there's still plenty of ways for me to get what I'm hoping for wrt F.C.G/BH. :] There are plenty of ways for me to get let down too, probably, but until it happens, or doesn't, I'm opting to not get too doomery about it. We'll see.
I uh. Hope that helps? A bit? Being bummed about specific things you were hoping for being off the table is totally reasonable. just hoping to lend an alternate way of viewing it, if desired.
(i wrote the sentence: "don't be lamenting your chickens before they hatch" and then went "what the fuck" out loud. i spent 4 hours at work today just doing systems diagramming and my brain is fried. clearly. keeping this here for my own entertainment.)
maybe its the various showdown blogs ive followed but there r a lot of gingers in the media and ive taken it upon myself to sort them into the categories of gingers and redheads, this took me an hour and a half and my eyes r physically burning, my bad if i missed a character or two
gingers
riley williams (we are the tigers)
ocean oconnel rosenberg (ride the cyclone)
caleb widogast (critical role)
itsuka kendo (my hero academia)
donna noble (doctor who)
batgirl (dc)
beverly crush (star trek)
ginger fitzgerald (ginger snaps)
nami (one piece)
mito freecss (hunter x hunter)
wendy corduroy (gravity falls)
alfredo linguine (ratatouille)
william “dex” poindexter (check please!)
wylan can eck (six of crows)
ichigo kurosaki (bleach)
mafuyu sato (given)
gimli (lord of the rings)
akane hino/cure sunny (smile precure)
daphne blake (scooby-doo)
reisuke houjou (mirai nikki)
fiona (shrek)
risa koizumi (lovely complex)
dexter (decters laboratory)
kim possible (kim possible)
cady heron (mean girls)
katheryn janeway (star trek)
shoyo hinata (haikyuu!!)
himaru kenshin (samurai x)
rosetta (tinkerbell)
amy pond (doctor who)
firestar (warrior cats)
rand al’thor (a wheel of time)
kaoru and himaru hitachiin (ouran high school host club)
The writing in part 1 of jojos specifically really gets to me because dio is such a fascinating villain for a story with such heavy themes of nature vs nurture and humanity and what not but also they do the “you disagree with this mans morals. He puts dogs into furnaces” bit and constantly go “he was born evil hes the devil its in his Blood” its so fucking funny. I dont know im genuinely obsessed with how poorly it fumbles its very few themes. And I know thats not the point. But its just a hysterical reading to me.
i feel very frustrated about the trend of giving chil body hair bc if it was any other anime twink i would be thrilled its just that it seems to only be because people are SO afraid of him looking young they have to make him hairy to justify liking him in ships.
meanwhile it does directly go against canon (he literally is supposed to look like a child. this is integral to both his character and his race's lore as a whole and it makes no damn sense that he would be mistaken for a child if he has body hair i mean. cmon.)
and it's like. some men are hairless. some men look young. when youre a trans man in your 20s-30s its especially common to be mistaken for a teenager, even more so if you're not on t. and short. these traits do not make you less of a man or an adult. :/
👀 Gordon amputation HCs? (If you don't mind talking about them!)
Y;HES
ok disclaimer: I am not an amputee! I am not a medical professional! I am not a prosthetic maker! I am not an engineer! I am simply an autistic writer and artist who has had a webcomic with an amputee character for 5+ years and I have done my research- but PLEASE if you like these headcanons and use it as advice for writing amputees I would also suggest listening to other sources, too!
The prosthetic:
-the arm ends about maybe like five inches under the wrist- which makes it just enough to get basic prosthetics going. Something a LOT of people don't consider is how much space you need to get robotics in there!
-This is the case for everyones(?i have yet to see otherwise) headcanons whether they know it or not but he specifically has a myoelectric prosthetic- which in itself is an EXTREMELY high-tech one! What it does is it detects electricity(YES! YOUR MUSCLES HAVE ELECTRICITY IN THEM!) from the muscles under your skin and amplifies them to be movement!
I would actually HIGHLY suggest people do research into these prosthetics because they are SUPER cool but also not as good as you think they are! That being said:
-He cannot feel with it and has to guess how hard he has to grip something! There's research for prosthetics like this, but they're extremely faulty and- if anyone wants to correct me on this that's fine but I'm pretty sure- it would need Constant upkeep and repairs, ESPECIALLY if it could feel like a normal hand.
-at first he only used it when he went out and when he was doing something that might need two hands Because of this- he didn't really wear it much around the house. Not to mention like...he went from losing it, to an immediate gun arm, to suddenly having a prosthetic- whiiiich. Isn't good for the psychological part of a traumatic amputation! So yeah he didn't really like it all too much at first. Don't get me wrong it was a great tool and he appreciated it over no hand especially because he could actually properly articulate the fingers but...it also just. Was jarring.
-eventually, he and Dr. Coomer teamed up to make it more adaptable, and by that I mean a fucking pirate-ass thing where he could swap out his hand for other things like forks or electric screwdrivers or like. Anything. They like to get together to make new hands on the weekend. It's enrichment. With these add-ons he wore the prosthetic more, but sometimes he just. prefers taping a fork to his limb and calling it a day.
-^this hc is based off of adaptive devices that people make to work with whats left of the limb instead of trying to replace it! They range from other robotics to something plastic and/or 3d printed that just holds a pencil in place. From what I've researched they tend to be more liked than clunky fingers you cant feel lol
-IF THERE IS ANY ADVICE YOU GLEEN FROM THIS: please please please he doesn't sleep with his prosthetic on he SHOULD NOT SLEEP WITH HIS PROSTHETIC ON. DO NOT SLEEP WEARING YOUR PROSTHETIC- this also goes for just chilling out ect. Do you "chill out" in your jeans with a belt on?
-I've said it a few times already but I DO want to encourage other people who draw art or write fics that it's OKAY if his prosthetic doesn't work like a perfect, new hand and in fact is more realistic and something that should be done more often! It's very common to want to write off an amputees disability with "ok now they have a prosthetic they're all better <3" which isn't true at all and it really IS worth it to do some extra research- I might just have an engineering and medical special interest so it might just be me but its SUPER fun to learn things and it makes it more interesting writing how a character interacts with their disability!
The amputation/specifics(WARNING FOR TALK ABOUT GORE, OBVIOUSLY):
-I usually write/draw it being a combat knife because that's specifically what he mentions was used, but realistically it would've been something that could get through the suit itself. Either way, it was a really slow and painful process. Fun fact- while this is like...a debate in the medical field, the forearm is one of the most painful things in the body to break!
-Continuing from that last part, there ARE a lot of nerves in your forearm(ever hit your funnybone? yeah. yowch), as well as TWO bones. Arms and hands are SUPER complex so injuries are...just As complex!
-In the full VOD in act 3, Gordon mentions his suit cauterized it- which if you dont know what that is- it's basically Burning A Wound Shut. I can see this being the case, actually- seeing as the suit itself detects specific things in the body being injured- electricity IS a way to cauterize something. I want to point out that cauterization, however, is AGONIZINGLY PAINFUL and is SUPER DANGEROUS, even when controlled! He's SUPER lucky he didn't go into shock and die in his sleep lmao.
-Oh speaking of sleep. I said this in another post but it was sunset when they betrayed him- and daytime when he woke up. So he was asleep in the garbage compactor for hours.
-It's implied because he keeps talking about how he's still bleeding, but yeah even with the suit cauterizing the wound it wouldn't be fully shut. So he'd be bleeding a lot- ESPECIALLY if it didn't want to kill the nerves in his arm(which makes prosthesis easier in the future, via the myoelectric method I mentioned earlier).
-Because of this Tommy(and later Dr. Coomer and Bubby) had to make him make-shift wrappings and have him lean on them a lot. He lost a Lot of blood and by the time they found a fully functioning medical station it wasn't able to just...give him more. It could give him iron and such but yeah this guy has anemia.
-this is just a really funny note but in act 4 when he's leaving Darnolds lab in the VOD he goes "well I guess I'm able-bodied again!" NO YOU ARE NOT THAT IS GUNHAND. But anyways because of this statement, I think for the first few days after being without his arm hes like. oh im not really disabled though even though he is like. stereotypically disabled. sir
-Phantom pains and nightmares are. A nearly nightly combo.
-Whether they're triggered by something or not, phantom pains in general suck so so so so much. Just so much.
-He actually took a Long time to go to a doctor for his issues. Gordon. Buddy. Look Me In The Eyes. you can get medicine for your pain. you can take physical therapy. please . He wasnt even trying to like...tough it out like part of him was but it was mostly that he just. didnt know and forgot.
-it took him a really long time to trust Benrey touching where his hand used to be, but once they grew close post-rescas him and Tommy became Gordons go-to for phantom pain/itch help. slap my dumb arm thank you
Aaaand thats all I can think of at the moment! I might add on if I have any like. Sudden crushing things I need to say about him and my amputation hcs!
Looks like some shitty ship discussions have surfaced in hl fandom again, but I don't mean that here actually xd
I'd like to hear a little bit (or a lot) more about your fav kind of freehoun if you don't mind sharing! Maybe some pre & post rescas headcanons, idk any stuff you would like to tell, and if you want. No pressure
i'm actually really glad i got an ask like this, i have seen some shipping discourse bubbling back up and it's just. can we not? enjoy what you enjoy, at the end of the day none of this is canon unless valve says otherwise, no need for the infighting. anyway, prepare for a text wall with barely any grammar.
pre-rescas:
-i like to think that gordon and barney met very soon after gordon was hired and they got along like a match to a flame (is that the saying?), like barney came along on gordon's first tour of the facility and maybe even got lunch with him.
-since the majority of workers at black mesa are most likely 30+, barney was especially drawn to gordon (not only because he was kinda cute) since there was finally another young and seemingly down to earth guy around.
-honestly my favourite trope is having barney pine after gordon and try to suppress his major crush on him.
-it's kinda sad to say or really acknowledge, but back in the 2000's and early 90's, obv lgbtq+ matters were not as accepted, i mean being called 'gay' was like the worst insult imaginable at the time. because of this, i do think barney would be a little wary of his own gay thoughts, maybe even dislike himself a little because of it. eventually i'm sure he'd grow to accept that he is, in fact, gay.
-when it comes to the two hooking up, i really, really like the idea of their relationship being kept hush hush. it's pretty hot ngl and i think it would be the most plausible for their situation.
-personally i don't really think barney nor gordon would call eachother pet names, or really say 'i love you' without hesistance. i feel like they'd show their affection in different ways, for gordon he'd show his love through gift giving i think. like the occassional snack for a tired barney on the night shift, or a box of donuts if he's feeling generous.
-gordon always makes up excuses for why barney has to visit his dorm room so often. one day it's a faulty tap in the bathroom, or the next a clogged airvent. people seem to believe him because his voice is so monotone.
post-rescase/hl2:
-during the years where gordon is abscent, barney, for the most part, holds out on hope that he will come back. over time, as barney gets older and older and nothing seems to be changing but only getting worse, he grows more cynical. i think that maybe 5 or so years before gordon's return, barney had forced himself to settle on the idea that he was not coming back.
-after taking gordon into his office, he doesn't outright hug him or ball his eyes out, but it's so so obvious that he's feeling a bunch of old bottled up emotions when gordon looks into his eyes. gordon probably does give him a hug though.
-however on gordon's end, i feel like things at the start would be a little awkward. his feelings are as strong as they were back then, as it hasn't been 2 decades for him.
-i like to think that around the time when gordon arrived at kleiner's lab, that's when gordon approaches barney about their past and they maybe rekindle things, just a little. like maybe a longing look or kiss on the cheek.
-honestly there's not really much i can say about hl2 as barney's appearances are so brief. basically i just think that they'd use every moment they had whilst the other was around to get a little closer again, even if they're not outright smoochin' it up or anything.
-HOWEVER, in my happy little half-life, barney arrives at white forest with a group of rebels and he spends a few days in bed all patched up and gordon frequently visits his room and maybe even sleeps there with him, it had been quite a while since they'd met up again, gordon honestly thought barney had been blown tf up after the citadel's explosion.
-they basically just hang out A LOT in white forest and eventually one of them works up the courage to start their relationship up again.
-i think the idea of them once again sneaking away from crowded areas of the WF base so they can have a little privacy together is pretty cute, like they did in black mesa.
-and if we're gonna enter hl3 territory, i think gordon, eli and barney would all set out into the arctic to do combine project borealis mossman stuff, and then save alyx :) amazing writing.
i probably have a lot more ideas floating around in my head but i think this is more than enough lol
thanks for the ask, this was fun to put together!
you reblogged the info post I think! but just in case uhh they're scrappy and get into trouble and they are like a creature to me
you could draw them with any expression or just standing there staring and I'd be so happy I love your art kxhsishz
my attempts... they are so cute. like some characters are just kind of creature-like but pipsqueak is just a 100% full creature to me idk. I love them & all your sketches of them are sooo good. thanks for sending them to me to draw!!