#i dont have a problem with shipping i just think it does the show such a disservice

[quietwingsinthesky]

sometimes interpreting media through a shipping lens enhances it, on occasion even beyond the author’s original intent, but sometimes, you do have to accept that your ship was not in the heads of anyone making the source material and trying to force it to fit into evidence of your ship will severely hinder your ability to discuss the actual text.

[waywardsalt]

with my phantom hourglass replay, there are two things i noticed;

a possible theme you could glean from the game is action vs inaction, and i think it's especially prevalent before you even leave mercay the first time, with oshus frequently urging link to not go after the ghost ship, then to just wait until the broken bridge is fixed, and seems reluctant at every turn while link and ciela are more than eager to go and do something about this problem, and the people of mercay in general talking about things and their problems but never seeming to act on their fears or desires, as well as the mention that due to the ghost ship, very very few people are still sailing around, while linebeck is one of the only people we see in the game actively going after the ghost ship and still sailing around. i might make a longer post just talking more about the action vs inaction in phantom hourglass but i just noticed it a bit and thought it was a bit of an interesting sort of theme you could find in the game.

linebeck moves so fucking much. i think he moves more than any npc in the rest of the game. not just in his intro cutscene where he is very animated, just in how much he moves when just standing in his little idle post, it's damn near distracting when the camera is focused on him, he moves a lot. i don't think i've really acknowledged how much he moves, and it really gives the impression that he's antsy or eager to get going, both of which fit him pretty well with how he acts.

[zevranunderstander]

remember that one post thats like "yeah there are gay characters in disco elysium. but if you want to play the game just because there are gay characters in it, this is not the game for you" and thats exactly how i feel about black sails

[sleepymccoy]

I've been seeing more posts exalting the positive impact McCoy plays on the triumvirate and it had me wondering what would Spock and Kirk be like if McCoy had simply never joined up?

(I am ignoring everything but tos canon, and I am fully making this up lol)

I like the pov that Spock is more comfortable in himself because McCoy needles and pushes him, but never tries to force him to change. So, Spock knows one human who will hear the most Vulcan stuff he has to say, will disagree and fight him on it, but will ultimately say it's alright that you think that. It's nice to have friends who listen to you without making you change

Spock also gets to learn what McCoy's thought processes are and understands what humans want through that. While a lot of their interactions are about what being Vulcan is like, a lot are also McCoy giving Spock a clear example of what being human means.

Can't find the gifs, but I'm thinking of scenes like when McCoy has a drink while Spock complains and McCoy's like, "you don't have to drink with me Spock, but at the very least dont disapprove of me" which is a clear instruction on how to spend off duty time together. Even the wish me luck scene has a "how can I grant you what I don't understand" which is also, hey, Spock, I'm human. Remember that.

And all of Galileo! All McCoy does is walk around and inform Spock why humans are responding the way they are

I think it helps Spock learn how to interact with his colleagues. He learns what he can expect of them, and what's too much.

All that's to say I think Spock'd be a right asshole to work with if he didn't have McCoy holding his hand and helping him chill tf out

And then Jim! I mean, we know that the Spock and McCoy bickering is how Jim thinks through problems. It also means that Spock and McCoy can disagree with Jim without directly challenging their captain's authority which would help the chain of command feel solid

On top of helping Jim make decisions, he's an old friend. He knows everything. And McCoy makes him eat, I know his Yeoman does as well but I feel like McCoy's thing of "I eat when the crew eats, that means you" is pretty unique. And medical command has the capacity to give orders to the captain like no one else does, but McCoy wields it as a friend not a colleague and that's gotta be helpful to him

Of course, part of why Spock and McCoy work is because Jim is there to show Spock not every human will jump down your throat, but that's for another post.

I think a Jim without McCoy would be all work no play. I think he'd be thinner, he'd have a terrible habit of falling in love then actually being devastated that he chooses the ship because he doesn't get the chance to relax and laugh onboard as he does with McCoy

I don't know, I'm sure other people will come up with other ideas but I'm just thinking today. I wonder if, without McCoy, would Jim and Spock even be friends? Or would they just be remarkably productive colleagues who like get each other but don't actually spend time together

Please feel free to add to this if you have thoughts, mine are very unformed

[yennas-stuff]

E/riels say that we deny that Elain feels any attraction towards Azriel and that they are just supporting her in what she wants. That Eluciens don't listen to what she wants.

First of all, all Eluciens notice these interactions between Azriel and Elain. Nobody is denying she likes and probably feels attracted to him as of now. What we are noticing as of now, though, doesn't have to have any baring on the endgame pairing. We are just questioning the sustainability and depth of these feelings when faced with a mating bond and, basically, an immortal life.

To put it in the simplest terms: Does the crush you had in college have any impact on your future relationship with your spouse? Nobody will deny that the previous feelings or attractions were real. But it doesn't change the endgame. Nothing is set in stone (except for the mating bond that stays with you forever).

If you add the inevitable nature of a mating bond and the fact that you can live for hundreds of years... Feels silly to think Elain and Lucien wouldn't even try to explore it.

And about what Elain wants... We don't know it. Her actions only signify some surface level attraction and playfulness. It also really disappoints me when people only see Elain giving Azriel gag gifts as her showing romantic interest in him. It was supposed to show us her true character and her being capable of being fun and playful. But E/riels take it away from her and make this small indication of her personality into something about a man.

When it comes to the whole consent to shipping that a fictional character is supposed to give... It's ridiculous to even discuss it. No Elucien wants Elain to be forced into a relationship. But we do understand her hesitancy. Mating bond is like this ultimate YOU NEED TO TRY THIS. IT'S GOOD FOR YOU sign from the universe that has a very big significance and is sacred to the world she just found herself in. I do notice that she's rebelling against it. And I dont hold it against her. But I believe they will find the way to each other and fall in love despite the mating bond.

My final point to the whole "having a problem with shipping people who are not into each other as of now..." It's an unfinished love story. It's like reading the first half of Pride and Prejudice and saying Elizabeth should be with Mr Wickham because she was into him and she hates Mr. Darcy. The whole enemies to lovers trope is based on getting over prejudices, getting to know each other, and falling in love. It's something that has already happened to the main acotar couples... twice. And Elain and Lucien are not even enemies. They are just strangers tied to each other by forces stronger than them.

[rist-ix]

alright the s3 finale has many problems, but the one im currently hyperfocusing one is how Valtor used the four element spells. Leaving aside the fact that they were by far the most boring and uncreative spells in his arsenal, WHY did the writers pick his targets like that???

Alfea is fine, I guess, its in a forest, fire does do decent damage here. But "Water to Cloud Tower"???? What for???? It's on a mountaintop, water is so out of place here and every shot they show from that attack just feels silly to me. Alfea is currently burning to cinders, and Cloud Tower has a plumbing problem I guess. How dramatic. And no matter how much you suspend your disbelief, dont tell me a part of u didnt think "They could... just go outside..." everytime they showed a witch getting flushed down the corridors.

The cherry on the top is that they already HAD the perfect target for the water spell: Red Fountain is RIGHT THERE!!! It's called Red FOUNTAIN, you could have finally done something with that! There are waterfalls running down from all cardinal directions, what if all that overflowed and weighed the floating construct down, threatening to crash into the forest below! And without their bikes and ships, the specialists cant fly, meaning theres no easy way for them to evacuate once the hangars are underwater. Instead they get tornados, which they combat by throwing bombs at them. What in the Sharknado Logic are you DOING, boys?!

Earth in Magix works alright too, fire and earth could have been used pretty much interchangeably here if u wanna cause mass damage. So just switch water and air around and it everything makes sense again! Cloud Tower is already surrounded by an eternal storm, there could have been so much cool stuff if the weather just went absolutely CRAZY up there, especially with the many branching towers Cloud Tower has.

[ohcorny]

i need to be a hater on main about scavenger's reign or i will explode. i cannot be alone in this.

now that it's being moved to netflix and people are talking about it again, all i'm seeing is glowing praise and absolutely no criticism of the writing. i will gladly agree with anyone that it's visually stunning. like, a+ in that regard no argument. great looking show, and the worldbuilding of the planet vesta is super cool and clearly considered. i like those parts! but that seems to be all anybody is responding to when they praise it.

the character writing is fucking ridiculous. i could point at any of them individually and go "what the fuck is this" but it's been months since i watched it and i don't like arguing a point i can't clearly remember. but it was the most egregious around ursula so i'm going to focus on her. her character seems to exist just to cause problems for no reason, to the point where she's also the only character we get no backstory on. we never see her in flashbacks on the ship, never learn what she did for it or why she was there, nothing about her at all. she is the only one.

and she is the #1 source of shattering my suspension of disbelief. you cannot tell me that she and sam were surviving together for a month on this incredibly hostile planet, working together every day to call the ship down, to figure out how the world worked and what was dangerous and what they could use.... and then tell me she would turn around and treat him the way she does.

spoilers below the cut

she is so hostile toward him all the time for no reason. she wanders off to go look at a weird plant in the middle of a bramble that crushes you if you don't get out the right way, leaving sam alone on the outside with no idea what she's doing or where she is or if she's alive. and when she comes out and he is VERY REASONABLY upset that she did that and isn't interested in hearing about the thing she saw, SHE gets mad at him and says she doesn't need him.

YOU DONT NEED HIM? THE GUY WHO HELPED YOU SURVIVE THIS ENTIRE TIME? THE ONLY OTHER LIVING HUMAN ON THE PLANET AS FAR AS YOU KNOW, WHO IS THE ONE WHO KNOWS WHERE YOU ARE GOING, AND HAS THE CREDENTIALS TO GET YOU INTO THE SHIP? you have been alone with him for a MONTH, he is your ONLY HUMAN COMPANION, and you think you DON'T NEED HIM?? BECAUSE HE WAS WORRIED ABOUT YOU IN A LOUD WAY?

this could be explainable if there was any real tension between them, or if we're given any reason to believe she actually could survive without him, but there isn't! she fucks up with the spores in the very first episode and would absolutely die if she was alone. sam is never anything but a good leader to her and keeps trying to look out for her, and any time he's "wrong" it's because he showed reasonable caution about the fuckplanet. he gets hurt by the egg parasite because he didn't want to climb into a giant animal's egg sac. reasonable thing to not want to do! when he and ursula get into that argument about her disappearing on him, he gets hauled off by the weird emu for the dramatic irony. because he was upset his only companion in the world disappeared. he never does anything wrong. it's never his actual character flaws that he gets punished for, it's only ursula's ~trusting your instincts~ shit that ever gets him hurt. she is ultimately responsible for his death but the show never acts like it.

so much of the show seemed to be drama for drama's sake. do not get me fucking started on kamen's creature. what was that thing's fucking problem. what was kris' fucking problem?

if i have to ask 'what is their PROBLEM' at every other character's choices, your writing is not good.

[headspace-hotel]

a friend of mine said that the environment would be better if everyone lived in cities and basically left the rest of the natural world alone... i felt like there was something wrong with that argument but i really dont know enough about it to have a real point against it. i might be biased though cause i love being around nature and want to be able to live rural without killing the environment? idk im just wondering if she's right and how to live in a way that isnt negatively impacting the world

love your blog btw, it's been the thing that's helped me understand ecology for once

the idea that humans Are Bad for the ecosystem—not that particular activities or practices have particular negative effects, that just humans existing harms the environment—is in fact the worst idea ever

I mean, first of all, where does your friend think food comes from?

"Food" is one of the problems. It's one of a lot of problems. Some other problems include "all other natural resources besides food" and "human rights."

It's not just your friend, this kind of thing has been suggested in varying ways by self identified "leftists" a bunch of times, and I genuinely hope they're mostly random laypeople who can't really be expected to know more than they can learn from being terminally addicted to Twitter, because otherwise I will call them "dumber than a sack of hammers" in those exact words.

No offense to your friend. Your friend is a laypeople. And sadly, non-experts end up with ass-backwards ideas about how conserving the environment works, because of all this commonplace nonsense about humans being a cancer upon the planet. I'm not angry about those people, just sad.

But my serious answer is—The world's most intact and best managed ecosystems are found on land owned and managed by Indigenous people, who do what with the land?

LIVE ON IT.

And these groups of people learned to manage and care for the land how?

BY LIVING ON IT.

Conventional (white, Western) intuition holds that human management of an ecosystem should reduce biodiversity, but what science shows—I mean what study and observation and data and more study and more observation and more data shows—is that indigenous land management practices can do better than Nature can on her own.

I mean, for one thing, if you don't live in a place, you don't observe it every day. You don't see how the ecosystem and its inhabitants change over time. You can't learn about it, and therefore you don't know about it.

Disconnection from nature is ignorance about nature and ultimately apathy towards nature, and that's the worst and most disrespectful thing we can do.

And like I hope it's clear that even in the imaginary scenario where everyone lives in a city, even if this was possible (it's not), the city dwellers who are separate from nature are living a silly little lie. You're part of the ecosystem. Don't like it? Go become a rock in space.

The electrical signals moving through your brain right now are rays of sunlight that were soaked up by a plant that grew in dirt. Do you know fruit? Do you enjoy fruit? I enjoy fruit, I'm drinking a smoothie right now! That fruit y'all love so much was pollinated by a bug.

A bug did that for you! Because you're family! Because you're part of this world, because you belong to this intricate and ancient community of living things that need each other, that were shaped by evolution to need each other, and nature cannot abandon you.

But more on the cynical side of things, even if you don't know where the hell a berry grows or how, someone has to grow and harvest and ship that berry to you, someone who has to live somewhere, and you should care who is doing it and how they're being treated and paid, and ultimately you should want for them the same things you want for you.

Urban life is just rural life with extra steps my friend.

Like, @ all the "put everybody in cities" crowd, what is the plan here? Fancy ass indoor aquaponics systems notwithstanding, we're not technologically at a point where we can just, like, build giant multi-story factory buildings where we grow food under special lamps, and even being at that point wouldn't make it a good idea. With all the hype about solar power, you'd think people would look at plants (have been using solar power just fine for like a billion years) and think, "Neat how those things can just make food when you stick 'em in the sunshine."

I'm sorry, I'm never going to be psyched about technological innovations that are like "We took a plant and put it inside."

There is so much I could say here. The brainrot in the wake of "cottagecore" discourse where a bunch of well meaning white people got convinced that farming was racist. The idea that rural people are somehow more complicit in colonialism than urban people, and that rural land is, I don't know, landier than urban land, and the correct and moral thing to do if you live on stolen land is to....what? Live on land that has a protective layer of concrete in between it and your racist feet?

Land ownership is a whole fucked up beast, but you're not cultivating a non-exploitative relationship with land by living in a city. There's just extra steps in between you and the land.

"Homesteading" as seen on cottagecore boards on Pinterest has a lot of white supremacist wet dream mixed in, but listen: It is not only okay, but GOOD, to want to live in close relationship with the land, with the food you eat, with the trees and plants that fill your lungs when you inhale. It's IMPORTANT. It's VITAL.

What has to change is that this relationship can't be based on ownership and dominance. Ecosystem is community and that ain't it.

My ancestors were colonizers, the land I live on right now was violently stolen, the ecosystem that once was very carefully managed so that it flourished with life was ravaged, and I don't even know the names of most of the life-forms that ought to be here. What now?

You belong to the ecosystem that takes care of you. You can't wash your hands of this and run away.

I feel like I'm getting off topic, but it's very much on topic actually. What I hope for the future is that we would stop entertaining the silly little lies that imagine we can just...opt out of participation in something that is underneath our every footstep and in our every breath. It would make us feel pure, but it wouldn't be real.

I do think that forcing people off the land that is their home is bad, in general. I don't think those people have to be indigenous for this to be bad—and successfully claiming otherwise is a bit of conundrum, since as far as I know, the political and social phenomenon of indigenous identity has a lot to do with the being forced off your land thing.

Obviously people like me don't have the same deeply central cultural relationship to the land, but the "we should all just go live in cities and leave nature to itself" proposal implies that such relationships are unnecessary or even bad.

I've said this before but I find it weird when environmentalists accommodate indigenous ways of life in their visions of the ideal future as like...a special exception granted because it's like, the nice thing to do for a historically marginalized and violently oppressed group. Not because there is value or merit in those ways of life. Like "Oh I guess indigenous people should be allowed to hunt because it's part of their culture" ????? And it's part of their culture because...why?

Maybe because it's a sustainable way of doing things and has been for millennia???

Like don't listen to me, look at the research, indigenous folks participating in ecosystems and managing them worldwide know what they're doing and the rest of the world should be looking to them as examples. Key word here is participating, because you can't competently manage an ecosystem with your head all the way up your ass with the idea that you're somehow not part of it.

Humans aren't a cancer upon the planet. It's capitalism and colonialism. It's the practice of seeing the world as a disposable resource to be exploited.

Humans lived in the place I called home for 15,000 years. Within the past 200 years, almost every forest was razed to the ground, and almost every large animal extirpated or damn near to it.

"Humans" did that! These humans are so terrible!

But I have to remember.

There are descriptions of this place from before that, and they describe a lush, teeming heaven-like paradise that the adjectives provided by English trembled to capture, so perfect and bountiful that the observers assumed this land was never tainted by Adam's sin.

Humans did that, too.

[wickjump]

i feel so bad for kids in the pr0ship "community"...i came across a cool dreamtale au the other day and at first i wanted to enjoy it.the artist is a minor who has "dr3ammar3 makes me uncomfortable dont talk to me about it" in their bio. but they have a friends tag and all their friends are adult pr0s so they still think its okay. i wish i could get them out of there.

-💻anon

oh man :( i see this shit all the time it’s. really upsetting. especially on tiktok, i block pros and i see so many with LVL13/14/15 in their bio and it makes me sick. once I saw LVL12 and it’s like. I actualyl had to put my phone down and try to calm down from an anxiety attack because those kids are in so much trouble they don’t. even realize it. and it sucks so much to see and makes me actually ill. i was once one of those kids and i almost deadass got kidnapped because of it and it makes me physically nauseous to see kids like that. they’re all victims and i hope they’ll realize that before things get worse for them.

but the pro community is manipulative. even years after exiting the community it still affects how i view things instinctively and really warped my morals before i was old enough to grasp them. this is something im really ashamed of because like. it’s weird. but instinctively i look too deeply into innocent things in shows or whatever and think of it in a ship context before realizing oh! that’s not! given whatever. it’s like years of conditioning i went through and it still affects me. if im honest i only really left when i was 16 and then was ‘neutral’ for a yearish after. i justified that content when i was eleven, it’s difficult for me to try and change that sort of coding now. im obv trying and don’t participate in any of that, it’s just. weird instinctual brain stuff. “what if [fucked up thing] happened” in my mind before i get rid of the thought.

people don’t realize how deeply it can affect you and how you respond to things. i mean, you’re a child in a fetish community (which is what it IS, fuck you). you’re going to view innocent things as sexual because that’s what everyone else is doing and saying and it’s just. eugh. that’s not even considering how my mind warped how i viewed my own assault as a child because of that. anyone who ignores people speaking out about this is just,, really weird at best. people who claim they can support proshippers while ignoring the people who were groomed and traumatized by that shit is,, really freaking gross. proshippers individually might not be satan themselves, just,, really weird, but they still participate and support a community that is actively grooming children.

having participated in the community for as long as i had has like. unfortunately really screwed me up. i know too much about the community and it literally affected how i view people irl at a terribly young age. and it hurts to think how many people in the community still are being or were groomed at some point. i got out, and i’m 19 now. the people my age who i knew and didn’t get out are now adults and part of the problem for other children. it’s a terrible cycle when you realize that.

these questions are fine, discussing the community objectively or asking questions or whatever is chill. i just don’t want to be asked if i support it given like,, everything yk? i like spreading the word about how it actually does mess up people (especially kids), just don’t want to ever have it associated with me. dunno why the prev question irked me so much, sorry ^^

ur chill!!!

[the-kipsabian]

wrestling fic writers!!

i have decided to be the change i wanna see, so lets do a nice little thing for each other, as a community full of incredible and talented writers. yes this is writer specific only, but thats cause thats where the main problem of people not interacting with creative works lies in this fandom as far as i can tell and have seen people talking about it especially in the last couple of months

if you read this, please add links to your written works. it can be just a single fic youre really proud of, your writing blog, your writing tag, your ao3 account, anything where your works can be found

and if you leave your link here, PLEASE check out someone else that has left their works, and interact with them. leave them a comment, even just a kudos, REBLOG their fic, etc. interacting is the keyword i want to emphasize here, along with building a sort of a masterpost of where to find people writing in this fandom

and if you are not a writer, youre still highly encouraged to interact with this post and share it and show love to the writers in this fandom, obviously!! i think that should go without saying, but adding it in anyways

a bit more about my vision and resources and such under the read more, but thats the gist of it. happy linking and please be kind and supportive to each other!! 💜

nobody is too big or too small to add their things on this list. if you write and post anything in this fandom whatsoever, be it fics or drabbles or headcanons, any companies or any kind of ships or reader inserts or any content whatsoever no matter how 'dead dove dont eat' or hell even if its just meta, we welcome all here and nobody can say that one thing is less valid than another. just please tag your content accordingly, especially if theres content warnings, and feel free to mention what you write, who you write, any info you wish to leave that would help people before they click on your links. but even so, that should not and hopefully will not deter people from interacting, no matter what it is. someones trash is another ones treasure, i promise you

and unless the amount gets really overwhelming, im personally going to be checking out everyone that leaves something here. unless it squeaks me out, but even then, i'll spread the word. and i just wish as many people as possible will do the same, and not just use this as a potential board to only get eyes on their stuff. ofc thats also the point, but you should give as much, if not more, than you get. we need to be kind and supportive of one another (besides, from personal experience, if you show love to someone else, they are more likely to do it back than without you taking the first step, so... pay it forward)

as for resources, heres a few links that should be helpful in leaving comments and feedback. of course everyone does their own thing and no comment is too big or too small to leave, but for those who need them. if you have anything you'd like added to this list, dont hesitate to get in touch or drop it in the post yourself!!

101 comment starters

ao3 floating comment box

kudos html

dont know how to comment? easy solutions

a quick hot guide to commenting (by yours truly)

an overall guide to appreciating fanfic writers

and just in general.. leave people comments. leave them asks about their projects. just go over and gush about their work. i know it sounds embarrassing but writers love nothing more than to hear that someone likes what they are doing. if you find a fic that hasnt been updated in forever, comment on it. it might just be the spark the author needs to continue. while kudos and likes are nice, and just as valuable to some, its definitely in the words the people leave for them that matter the most. im not saying this to put pressure on anyone, its just how it is, and i feel like unless people are writers themselves, and even then sometimes, thats just hard to grasp, especially if the writer is a smaller and less popular one who doesnt get a lot of traffic in the first place

i think thats all. just be nice and considered to everyone, reblog peoples works, this post with others add ons and so forth. and if i find anyone talking shit here or at other writers for something they share, you'll be blocked and im probably taking your kneecaps. be fucking nice. we are all struggling here and we need to stick together

happy sharing and commenting 💜💜

[everyscreentoobeseen]

Hold on, why do yall think Stede's choice to kill Ned was a WHIM?????

First of all, this isnt the first time Stede got someone killed. Chuancy was an accident, but he did use the stun move. All of ep 2 s1 was about Stede learning how to deal with it. He still feels bad but as he told the natives. He dosen't feel bad that Chauncey is dead. His crew was under threat. So he stopped Badminton from hurting them. His bad feelings came from somewhere else.

Nighel Badminton got himself killed but it did make Stede run back home and face his problems. When he does go back home he tells the other rich guys.

"I've seen death. Been the cause of it. It changes you."

He already knows what it's like be a killer!

But everytime it wasn't his choice. The Badmintons were accidents. He never got to actually choose to be a killer.

That's why when Ned Low invaded his "safe space ship", captured his crew (family) and tortured not only them but also The Love of his Life, Making it into a fucked up PERFORMANCE! All his life bullies found fun in torturing him. Why would this guy be any different.

Hell yeah he was ready to kill him.

Of course, this time he gets to choose. This is not him using a stun move. He is now the conducter of Ned's death and he'll be damned if it's not done His Way.

He's not gonna stab him. It's not gonna be messy. It's not gonna be fast like a gunshot or a stab through the head.

He is going to make Ned SUFFER. Force him to walk the plank. Throw his precious violin in his face and let him drown. It's clean. It's poetic. It's outsourcing the big job to nature. Just like killing spiders.

But Ned continues to demean him. "You know once you kill me your a real pirate. Your not an amateur anymore." Even after everything Stede has been through. Not matter how much he's grown, the world still thinks he's playing at pirating.

The Badmintons dont count.

EVEN ED THINKS SO!

"Once you've killed in cold blood. You cant come back."

Well Chuancy's death was cold blooded wasn't it? Stede snuck him from behind. The boat fire that he caused isn't enough either. When Ed burns a boat, it's murder. But when Stede does it it's "quirky". Stede ALREADY considered himself a killer but NO ONE ELSE DOES. (not even the fandom apparently.)

Yes, he wanted to prove himself. But I don't think that was the thought process until Ned brought it up.

Stede did not hesitate on Ned's death until the others made him question himself. He was completely set on making sure Ned wasn't a threat to his ship. He was so sure of making him walk the plank. It was PLANNED from the moment he put the plank down and the other boat left. What's one more death? But then everyone was treating him like a innocent child?? Like he's doing something unlike him?

He HAD TO PROVE to everyone in that moment that he could kill Ned because no one RECOGNIZED that he was ALREADY a killer.

Him killing Ned became a point to make once he realized there was even a point to be made.

The only reason that he felt even a little bad about it was because Ed asked him not to. He felt like he let Ed down. That maybe Edward like Stede Bonnet, Landed Gentry Pretending to Be A Pirate more than Stede Bonnet, Real Pirate. Because he realized how much he's changed. No more Gentleman, now he's just a Pirate.

That's why he Sped Things Up with Ed. He wanted Ed to prove that he could handle not so innocent Stede FUCKING Bonnet. That he wouldn't leave Stede after seeing this new side of him. He gets consent and then goes on to have the man of his dreams after saving him. How romantic male lead of him.

Of course the NEXT FUCKING DAY HE GETS TOLD IT WAS A MISTAKE!!!! THAT HE'S NOT READY FOR "WHATEVER THIS IS".

How on earth was Stede not supposed to take this as "I dont like the you that isn't soft, isn't insecure, isnt in need of protection." That Ed is leaving to become a fisherman because he cant stand Stede being the messy one for once in his life.

Maybe it was trauma. Maybe it was a show of toxic masculinity. But dont pretend like Stede did it on a WHIM.

[queenofthegayships]

Lil mcdanno headcannons not a whole lot of people seem to have.

Steve is the bottom. There is no switching. Steve is strictly a whimpery, needy bottom with a huge praise kink. He's pretty shy in bed, hesitant to ask for something (at least at first he builds confidence as he gets used to being with a man and not in control, but hes never quiet demanding) but he can beg like nobody else.

He's a cuddly guy. Not that he isn't in cannon, but he's a bit more in my brain. Little spoon, head on Danny's chest, buried in his neck, in Danny's lap cuddly. Obviously, only that far when he's in a snuggle mood his normal day to day extent would stick to head on Danny's shoulder pressed against him during the day curled in Danny's arms one way or another at night.

Private mcdanno moments being Steve can get giggly with his Danno, especially since Danny knows how to tease him just right. Or in bed they can have tickle fights that Steve regularly looses.

I like to picture a golden Steve regularly wearing flower crowns he makes himself. Eyes shining with laughter on days off, Ohana BBQ and stuff

When Steve and Danny get married, Steve is wearing white, and Mary walks him down the aisle Danny's the traditional groom.

Steve calls Danny "Danno" as much as Grace does. Steve gave himself to Danny. Danno is Steve's person. He belongs to Danno. His Danno.

Danny is one possessive MF and makes sure everyone knows who Steve belongs to and Steve loves every second of it. Love bites that can be covered with work clothes but shown off should they go out. Though the whole ass island knows about them so I dont think either of them would have a problem with showing them off at work. Arm around Steve's waist, guiding him around. Glares at everyone who checks Steve out.

Years and years ago right after I discovered fanfiction I read somewhere that men that are in positions of power tend to be submissive at home/in bed because they don't want or like to be in control 24/7 and my mind has taken that and run with it. That one thing influenced my entire way of shipping characters and how I look at dynamics. In my mind, the more serious guys are all sunshine smiles and sweet laughs with their family and partners. The Steves of Mcdanno and Stucky, for example. So used to being the protecter, they turn to pudding when they are protected, held, and cherished. Sunshine men and their grumpy humans.

[boyinthevoide]

this might be very obvious or like well known but one thing i think goes kind of unspoken about and i think is really interesting is how when eridan does his whole "fight sollux and kill fef and kanaya" thing, he does not initiate the fight. he doesnt show up with the intention of fighting, and he certainly doesnt show up wanting to kill two people.

(its under the cut because there's a LOT of images, i wanted to make sure as much stuff as possible was in context.)

first, kanaya, because it's short.

when kanaya tells eridan about her plan to restore the troll race, this is what he says:

[Image IDs: two screenshots from returniabound, where eridan is angrily saying "if theres goin to be any sort a hope for our race as the prince of hope i demand to be involved so dont go anywhere without me got it".

End ID.]

firstly, this implies he isn't literally on his way out and stopping to get feferi. this also makes it very clear he didn't start out wanting to kill kanaya, because if he did, he wouldn't've gotten involved in her plan. obviously. she wouldn't be able to go through with it if she was dead.

then, feferi and sollux, because he talks to both of them at once.

the thing is, the way eridan and sollux's interactions work at least to me is that they're both just vaguely annoyed with each other, then when they interact they basically just provoke each other the whole time (i dont ship erisol it just doesnt fit to me). their interactions here follow this formula.

[Image IDs: a conversation between eridan and sollux. it goes thusly:

sollux: "oh GOD it's him. [feferi] can you tell him to go away, i don't even have the energy for this."

eridan: "hey finless this doesnt concern those with mustard sludge slippin through their veins [...] so keep your mouth closed or ill slit you open over my next meal"

sollux: "w/e bro, not interested".

End ID.]

admittedly eridan isn't exactly fond of sollux, and he is threatening him, but eridan does just kind of talk like that. they're both just pretty hostile towards each other.

and to feferi, eridan says this:

[Image ID: eridan saying "all i want to do is have a word with you" End ID]

this is just an honest statement. he has no reason to lie about this.

then, theres the actual thing that causes all the problems.

[Image IDs: a conversation between eridan and feferi, that goes thusly:

eridan: [...] so im gonna ask you this one last time and give you the chance im about to go please come with me

feferi: Go with you? Eridan, you weren't really serious about going to find Jack, were you?

eridan: of course i was and we should do it together

[...]

feferi: Jack Noir is INSANELY powerful Eridan! Please, I don't want to see you doing anything foolish by trying to fight him.

eridan: fight him are you fuckin nuts [...] im goin to join him and youre gonna join me in joinin him too fef come on lets go [...] only thing left to do is serve him and hope he spares us and im extending the invitation to come with me cause even though you dont think so i really do care about you

End ID.]

then there's some more dialogue and feferi resolves herself and sollux to stopping eridan.

[Image ID: feferi saying "That's it. This makes me sad, Eridan, but now we have to stop you. We can't let you find Jack and risk you leading him to us." End ID.]

eridan didn't want this to happen. he wanted feferi to agree and leave with him. he didn't not want to fight sollux but it doesn't seem to have been part of his original plan.

but here's the thing. eridan doesn't kill sollux.

[Image ID: sollux lies against a wall he's just been blasted against. there's blood trickling from his mouth and in a trail down the wall, and there is text on the right reading "KO'D." End ID]

he ko's him.

and that's important, because the move he uses is a very similar/more powerful version of the move he uses to kill feferi and kanaya.

[Image IDs: three images of eridan using hope magic to laser someone. in the first he engulfs sollux with it, in the second and third he is blasting feferi and kanaya respectively with it. End ID]

i have no trouble believing he could have killed sollux, but he doesn't. he doesn't want or need to. maybe it's just energy conservation, or maybe...

[Image ID: eridan saying "im not going to very well kill you am i that would be fuckin unconscionable what kind of friend would i be"]

...he just doesn't want to kill his friends?

because he only turns to killing after this set of panels:

[Image IDs: three panels from homestuck

panel one: feferi stands over an unconscious sollux with a horrified expression. eridan lurks in the background.

panel two: feferi turns to eridan with a furious expression.

panel three: feferi lunges towards eridan with 2x3dent in hand and still looking furious.

End ID.]

maybe feferi didn't want to kill eridan. but lunging towards someone with a murderous look and a sharp object does tend to have that sort of implication. eridan for this whole time is literally just standing there. feferi is the one to escalate it to possible attempted murder.

he then kills kanaya, who only actually attacks after he destroys the matriorb. fair enough! he had no reason to do that! but at that point his ex-moirail/flushed crush had just tried to kill him and he'd killed her, so it's safe to assume his emotional state wasn't exactly stable at this point.

so as a recap/TLDR:

eridan didn't start out the conversation wanting to end up killing/maiming three people. he made a plan with kanaya that basically requires her to be alive, he has every ability to kill sollux in the duel and quite specifically doesn't, and the entire reason he's here in the first place is to protect feferi and keep her alive. he doesn't initiate the fight, and he doesn't escalate it to murder.

basically he would be correct to go "they started it"

[orchestraytedkhaos]

Rexsoka. Yeah, it's my ship. Still.

I mainly just lurk here, reading fanfic and enjoying the memes. But the angst of the last few has given me the courage to dive in and say a few words.

First, let me clear the air: Rebels was when I started shipping Rexsoka. Prior to their reunion on that show, it had never ever occurred to me to ship them. Despite having read the novels.

So, yeah, look, I totally get the opposition to shipping early Clone Wars Rex and Ahsoka. She's a child. He's a child too, arguably, although his accelerated maturation makes everything super messy. The military structure and fact that Rex is basically a slave means its got power issues galore. Then for those in the US, there is the whole 18 year old age of consent thing (noting, for good or ill, it's 16 most other places). I get why this squicks people. It's the SanSan of Star Wars.

But people grow up. Even on TV.

Season 7 Ahsoka is 17 going on 18, and effectively an adult. She's commanded armies, and just spent a year living and working independently. She is also obviously mature and, frankly, animated that way. Rex is a long term friend, they love and care for each other, and by the end of the season, she basically risks everything for him, and he for her. The episodes are also written in a very obviously shippy way, with the gazing, the chats, the meaningful converstions, the hand holding and the tears. Not to mention that sad, moonlit reunion in Tales of the Jedi.

And although I dont think it matters much, by this time, even taking Rex at double chronological age, the gap is pretty mild by fantasy standards. 17-18 and about 26, roughly the same as Buffy and age-corrected Angel, and way less than Han and Leia.

Fast forward to Rebels, and we have two mature adults with a shared history and goals, who love, trust and admire each other, share common interests, and are amongst the most important people in each other's lives. It's a believable and natural thing for that to progress to something more. The challenges to their relationship are things like, for Ahsoka, the lingering memory of the Jedi code and Anakin and Padme's destructive passion, and Rex's rapid aging, status and limited life experiences. It is those kinds of emotional and external barriers and their shared trauma that make the romance so interesting.

Season 7 + and Rebels Rexsoka is classic friends to lovers, and one of the nicest, softest and most realistic relationships in Star Wars. The opposition to it, and moraliatic shaming of those who like is, is something I simply don't get. It's bizarre. There are heaps of ships that are far, far more problematic (including Anakin/Padme) that don't get this hate.

Like, anti dudes, what exactly *is* the problem here? I suspect the it's that some people just want to get their hate on.

The recent flashbacks? Yeah, that one on Mandalore complicates thing, but I doubt they had stomping on shippers in mind when they cast Ariana, as I have seen suggested elsewhere. The more likely scenario is that - at about 14 yo when this was filmed - Ariana was totally perfect for the first flashback, and is perfect for playing young Ahsoka going forward. Even setting aside that she is an amazing actress, she's insanely athletic and can duel weild light sabres while knee walking though a twist. She's also already tied to Disney. She wasn't quite right for the part, and, I agree, that does make watching it in light of the fanfic a bit uncomfortable. But, it's not just a shipper issue. Putting an Ahsoka that looks and sounds like that in the episodes with the Martez sisters and Bo Katan is weird af too, and doesn't work. I doubt it is meant to.

Story-wise, the best and only real take is that the flashbacks aren't live action replays. The Mandalore scene doesnt even chronologically match what happened (Ahsoka is so fighting Saxon in that scene, which never happened). They are visions about Ahsoka and Anakin and their relationship, not live action replays. Both remember her as a child caught up in a war. Smoke, the fog of war, flashing lights and dying, faceless clones.

And Anakin and Rex.

What I take from these is that in Ahsoka's mind, and Anakin's too for that matter, Rex is always there for her. Standing in the chaos, calm and confident in himself and in her, and looking badass as heck. With an older Ahsoka it would have absolutely been smoking scene from her pov, and no way was it written otherwise. As an older Ahsoka remembering, it's hot. As younger Ahsoka, he's there as her protector and friend.

Do I do ever think this ship will play out on screen? Not, no explicitly. And, yeah, it probably is harder now because of that vision (although if they ever do film a younger Ahsoka series, they will undoubtedly be casting a young actor for Rex, and Ariana will, by then, be 18). But I don't think that was intentional, and I don't think that much has changed. It was always intended to be an "open for interpretation" relationship, written with the possibility not excluded. And I am good with that. Perhaps I even prefer it. Star Wars has a truly dreadful record with romance and, besides, too often cementing subtle or ust-based ships kill them. I just hope this hasn't, because it's still my ship and I love it.

[doctoratecuddles]

i was just thinking about this but i really wish kc never told us about like endgame barruni

not because of the ship but because it's not interesting anymore when barry or uni get up to shenanigans yknow? you know they have plot armor so now when there's like some intense scene it's really boring because you know it's just for show? like the readers don't need their hands to be held you don't have to tell them everything

also kc can't help but spoil things and it just kills the experience sometimes like we know more about the comic from just the tumblr alone?? NOT the actual comic itself?? (i dont mean the tws + cws those are important and good!) IDK it's weird and if this actually gets published people are gonna be so lost since kit usually has to explain things after each volume because kit can't show that in kits own comic for some reason like there are so many retcons and additions that haven't been seen in the comic idk good luck physical book readers

just thinking about why i even decide to read this comic ig im waiting for it to get better

I honestly wish we weren't told Barry and Uni survive, because that would've made the surgery scene so much more impactful. Who knew if KC was bold enough to kill off her main character in the first chapter? In fact, some scenes would've been a lot more intense and impactful if we weren't warned of certain things. (Such as v4 not having any serious harm, because that scene where Uni locks herself in her room would've been perfect as a way to bait readers into assuming the worst, as well as when Doom was lit on fire). One of the flaws KC has with writing is spoiling plot points for no reason. But it's not too big of a deal considering a lot of other writers deal with it too. Some writers get too excited to keep secrets about their writing, which is simply a flaw they can work on. The main problem is that KC does this too much compared to other writers. It's one thing to leak something that happens, it's another to basically erase any tension while reading because you assured the audience nobody will die.

[squidthesquidd]

What is a fictive and what does "kin" or "f/o" mean? :3, i don't mean any malice, i'm just curious as i've seen these words a few times and i understand if you don't want to talk about it if it irks you.

no problem :D ! we love explaining sys things!

so im gonna write this with the assumption that you dont rlly know anything abt system stuff so this could be kinda long.

so, i have dissociative identity disorder (also known as DID) which means that due to early childhood trauma, our child brain wasnt able to form properly, so it split into several different identities called "alters". a collective of alters is also called a system! and our system name is the "Shoal system" (a shoal being a group of squids)

alters are pretty much their own people! with their own thoughts and feelings and can even have different sexualities and genders. and some can feel like theyre not human :D

"fictives" are a kind of alter! they are an alter based on a fictional outside source, like a tv show, movie, or book. an example of a fictive would actually be me! im a fictive of nightshade malto from transformers earthspark! and while all fictives are different, what it means for me is that I go by the name Nightshade, i see myself as a Terran, and i have a lot of pseudo-memories of being nightshade malto "before" i was in the system :]

we have a lot of fictives in our system, including like- five different megatrons lmao

Now, as for "kin". this can mean a lot of things for different people! for some it just means you heavily relate to a character or an animal, but for others it can be a spiritual thing! where they believe they were this character or animal in a past life!

we have a few alters that kin! none kin characters, but three of them believe they were animals in their past lives and still identify as them (i personally dont know a whole lot this, but i think they are therians?)

and as for F/O, it means fictional other. it's basically just self-shipping :] some of us have self-inserts we ship with fictional characters, but we're not really part of that community 👍