#i love when the fandom makes a bunch of theories i'm having the time of my life with jjk manga i swear

[torgawl]

still on the topic of the leaks, i saw someone on twitter say yuuji might have swapped souls with kusakabe here and that actually makes sense?!

yuuji is like a cursed object and steeped in sukuna's ce and we know from gojo that receiving attacks from your own ce seems to deal less damage so it might just be that yuuji is resistant or at least partial to less damage than anyone else when it comes to cleave and dismantle.

no idea how soul swapping actually works and if the idea "the body is the soul" still applies or if, independently of yuuji being in there (if he is), kusakabe's body and technique would still be kusakabe's regardless - which would mean this can't apply - but it's still an interesting thought. and it would explain kusakabe's sudden heroic antics (if this is true i should've known!!!)

[rallamajoop]

An absurdly detailed analysis of That One Soldat Photo

Hang around wintersberg fandom long enough, and you'll likely run into a popular crack-theory that, since Heisenberg obviously thinks that building a set of huge, yellow-painted signposts is a good way to point Ethan to the Stronghold, maybe it's Heisenberg who's been leaving all those handy, yellow-painted supply crates all over the place for Ethan to find! It's exactly the kind of fun nonsense I'd enjoy if it didn't feel folks are starting to take it a little too literally (by which I mean I have now read multiple fics in which it's played completely straight ‒ and, like, people do get that it's just a crack theory, right? Like, why would Heisenberg have left so many yellow crates around his own damn factory? Look, you don't have to explain every last game mechanic, not everything is lore!)

But as anyone reading my own fic would know, I'm guilty of echoing the idea that Heisenberg-was-leaving-stuff-for-Ethan myself ‒ just not because of any yellow-striped crates. No, I'm way more interested in this one weird soldat-photo you can find in the village ‒ long hours before you'll ever see your first Soldat in the flesh...

Very creepy. And if you turn it over, you'll find a clue to a puzzle you'll have to solve in order to progress.

(And of course, when you do look out the window, odds are you'll get jump-scared by a lycan just when you're focused on the numbers, because RE8 loves that sort of misdirection ‒ but I digress.)

Anyway, the code you can see out the window will open a safe containing a jack handle you'll need to move a vehicle in the village, as well as the M1911 pistol (which will very likely be your go-to handgun for the rest of the game). The game is full of conveniently-helpful clues like that (heck, most games are), often with no obvious Watsonian justification. And there are other photos around the village ‒ Luiza has a whole photo album ‒ but photos of experiments created by Miranda and her lords don't generally turn up outside their own territory.

For a player exploring the village for the first time, that photo is a lovely little bit of foreshadowing, hinting at monsters and factory stages to come. But on replaying with full knowledge of Heisenberg's later attempts to get Ethan on his side, that Soldat photo is just enough to make you go, huh... did Heisenberg leave that for Ethan? Like, on purpose?

You can find another copy of that photo later, in Heisenberg's factory, along with his notes on his early series Soldat experiments. Which doesn't really prove anything beyond the fact that assets exist to be reused... but it does at least make it pretty canon that Heisenberg has photos of his Soldats sitting around.

Possibly also significant: both the clue photo and the factory documents are tagged 'geekmemo' in the game files. Most everything related to Heisenberg in the files is labeled 'geek'-something ‒ it seems to be an early nickname for his character that lasted well into production. Everything in the factory is geek-something, even the model for the passageway from the altar to the bridge is labeled 'pathtogeek'. Considering that so many soldat-related assets are already labeled 'geek', maybe that 'geekmemo' tag doesn't really tell us anything we don't already know ‒ but it certainly doesn't work against the idea that Heisenberg wrote that 'memo' himself.

Besides, it's not like there isn't precedent for this kind of thing. RE7 had a whole mechanic where you'd have to find 'treasure photos' pointing out the location of a few rare and useful items, all with "I hid something here" written on the back. We're never explicitly told who left those photos lying around, but it's obviously Lucas: he loves playing games, he loves taunting prisoners with the possibility of escape, and who else would it be? The complete population of the Baker mansion is like 6 people and a bunch of semi-sentient mould.

Over in RE8, there are a lot more village resident who might have left that clue lying around. Like it or not though, Heisenberg is very much RE8's equivalent of Lucas: the family's wildcard show-boater who loves making Ethan jump through hoops for his amusement. So how does the game let us know it was Heisenberg who left this particular clue? Well, who else would leave a message on the back of a Soldat photo?

There's may be additional supporting evidence Heisenberg could be involved ‒ most notably the location, being a locked-off cul-de-sac labeled 'Workshop' on signs and maps. The area is full of metal junk very much like you'll later see lying around the factory.

The workshop location does have other relevance ‒ it makes sense that you'd find the jack handle in the village workshop, whether Heisenberg was involved or not. But it also stands to reason that if there's anywhere in the village proper where Heisenberg might hang around and leave clues for Ethan, the workshop is it. And you have to admit that leaving Ethan useful stuff in a safe along with an easy clue that will likely get him jumped by a lycan is 100% more in-character for the guy than just leaving useful stuff out in the open, even if it doesn't really prove anything either.

There's one more weird-little does-this-mean-anything detail: there are three dead crows near the safe too.

It's not the first time in the game you've seen dead crows (there were a bunch outside the village, and I've talked about what that might mean in the context of Miranda's cult before). But I don't remember finding any others around the village itself, other than in this one spot. And instead of being hung from trees like a ritual sacrifice, these ones are just dead ‒ messily, and with blood everywhere.

Now, maybe it doesn't mean anything, but is there anyone in the village more likely to vent his frustrations by violently killing a few of Mother Miranda's avian avatars than Heisenberg? I'd think not.

In conclusion: I still don't think all those yellow crates have anything to do with Heisenberg. And I still don't know for sure whether the RE8 development team wanted me to assume that Heisenberg left Ethan that photo, jack handle and gun. I don't know if we're supposed to read that Heisenberg keeps a workshop in the village and sometimes kills crows out of spite. But the evidence sure does point that way ‒ and it's as valid an interpretation as anything else you might take from this game.

[roo-bastmoon]

Fanservice Couple Sucks at Fanservicing

Hmmm.

Jimin's Album: Here's a super secret hidden song "for the fans" with lyrics that mimic things Jimin said before specifically about Jungkook, with Jungkook providing background vocals that were never discussed when marketing the album, and listeners have to wait through dead air to get to hear the song and shine a light on the invisible lyrics engraved in the album and it's not uploaded onto Spotify or for digital sale because.... fanservice.

Jimin's Documentary: Here's less than two minutes of footage of Jungkook singing Letter; the film cuts away from Jikook's hug and doesn't interview Jungkook about it at all, and practically his entire face is covered when he's singing it; also, the paper he's holding is shaking like a leaf, unlike earlier in the day when he was recording for the World Cup, which was the biggest solo performance of his career at that time, because.... fanservice.

Jimin's Live Reaction: Here's Jimin lighting up like a Christmas tree when Jungkook quietly sneaks in the room to watch his live recording before going home; now watch as they awkwardly interact for two minutes--including a tiddy grab and butt smacking, on top of "I love you" and "have fun with ARMY!" but notice Jimin sends Jungkook away, instead of letting him mic up and sit on the chair and react with him, because... fanservice.

Jimin's Commentary: Here's Team Jimin reacting to every remote detail of the making of the documentary, except when it comes to Letter, in which case no one breathes the name Jungkook and he is never heard nor appears on screen, because... fanservice. gosh that sure is odd.

The fanservice isn't fanservicing.

It's almost how like, in their real lives when they aren't working, Jungkook watched all of Jimin's content, or Jungkook mumbled about how Jimin moved his lamp or mentioned Jimin kept coming up to him to say "periri," or how Jimin traveled to NYC and CT for Jungkook's debut and they filmed something but all Jungkook would say about it is "Yeah, he's in.... New York," and then Jimin posted a shirtless picture on Jungkook's birthday but never spoke on it, or how both Jimin and Jungkook just happened to find time to watch the same random anime, or how they went to Jeju together but we wouldn't have known if Tae hadn't posted photos, or how it is heavily implied that they spent Chuseok together based on the whale drawing that Jimin posted and the way Jungkook was quick to tell us that Jimin drew half of it.

Golly gosh, for a Fanservice Couple, it's almost like a bunch of stuff isn't being shared with us on purpose. But why?

Doxxed info? Tampered mail? Death threats? Press scandals? Global debut? Conservative homophobia? Military service?

Who knows, but "lack of genuine closeness" doesn't seem to be the driving reason.

I'm not gonna sit here and scream conspiracy theories about a "private couple." Jimin lives like a hermit much of the time and Jungkook is running around with his same-age friends quite a bit these days.

So as I always say--I cannot tell you that Jikook are dating. I can only tell you we have solid evidence of unique, charged chemistry between them--and tons of hints that they spend more time together than they let us in on. That's it. If there's more, we aren't getting to see it.

And I don't blame anyone who takes the stance "I'll believe it when I see it." I think a fair amount of skepticism and a dedication to the just the facts is a healthy mindset.

But it really makes my teeth itch when Jikook are accused of doing fanservice for the cameras, cause...

Where the hell is all my fanservice?? *grabby hands* WHERE?

Why is it that even TWO SECONDS of them interacting is so charged and fraught that it gets the entire fandom frothing at the mouth?

Jikook DO spend time together but they aren't running onto WeVerse to share it with us all the time, ya know? It leeks out little by little. And that makes it even MORE suspicious than just two bros hanging out in broville doing bro things.

In summary: This Fanservice Couple *sucks* at fanservice in solo era for sure.

[always-is-always]

Insights come, through original content

It's definitely worth the time, to watch as much original content as possible. BIG note to self.

I've watched all four seasons of Bon Voyage, and just finished the four years of Summer Package. Lots of stuff that I have seen bits and pieces of before, in a lot of compilation videos and "analysis" videos. VERY interesting to see all of it within it's original context, in each show.

Yeah, there's a bit of Jikookery as people call it, in some of it. Most of it I had seen out of context, during my first couple of years in the fandom (when I didn't have any idea about anything). There are a few moments here and there that I haven't seen before which are primarily touches, and super subtle stuff.

The interesting thing is how people have taken so many of those moments out of context to support a story that they are presenting, in their compilations or "analysis". Yes, it can be said that other parts of the fandom have done the same thing, for the same purpose.

One of the moments from BV in Malta that everyone has seen comes to mind, here as I type. It is when they are all at a restaurant, and Jimin and Jungkook are seated across from each other. They reach out at the same time, to offer a bite of food to each other. That is a favorite clip that j-kookers love to use, to prove their theory. I mean, I do think it is cute and sweet, and I do believe that Jimin and Jungkook are together (in a closeted relationship), I just think that it's really a disservice when people leave out the other part of that scene. You know, when Jimin is then offering bites of his food to the other members, too. It wasn't just a Jimin and Jungkook thing, like is portrayed in many of the YT videos I have seen...

The other things I noted are how the editing was just so chopped up and discombobulated at times. Like When you see Jimin literally sitting down right next to Jungkook and then suddenly it is edited and next thing you see is Jimin on the opposite side of the group, not sitting where he had just sat down a second before. lol... Yeah, there's a TON of that crappy editing in all of the series and shows. I'm guessing that as they got into 2017, 2018, 2019 that they had to do a lot more editing as Jimin and Jungkook kinda started being more open with their antics. lol...

I kind of understand why people like to create those videos over on YT. There's thousands of them probably, and literally millions of viewers who like that type of thing. I was one who watched a bunch of it, as I mentioned before. It was before I understood what a lot of it was, and before I understood how much manipulation there was.

What's next on tap for me? I'm not sure. There's a ton of content still for me to make my way through. It has been enlightening to say the least. I do see the shift in the way that Jimin and Jungkook were from the early years into 2019, from what I have watched so far. There's so much there that clearly shows that they had particular types of experiences with each other, behind closed doors. I mean, anyone who has ever had a lover would see it in their energy(if you sense or see energy) and in the way that they would touch each other. It is as clear as the sun in the sky.

I can only imagine the complexities that the members had to navigate in their relationships with each other, their communication of how they felt to each other, and in working out HOW to have two members in a close intimate relationship within the group. Talk about a complicated situation. That puts it mildly. No wonder Namjoon had so many moments when they were in front of cameras, audiences, interviewing and such. No freakin' wonder.

Sorry for this long ramble..... I've just been thinking a lot about them and about what I have seen in these shows. Like I have mentioned, I hadn't seen much of the original stuff that was on Weverse, sold on DVD, or behind pay walls. I didn't actually understand what the heck "Summer Package" meant! lol... There's a TON of content that I have still to watch. This will be an ongoing thing for me, during these months while we wait for June 2025. There's probably going to be more rambles like this one, to come.... 😁💜

[undertalebabbleblog]

UTDR 9th Anniversary Newsletter Musings

(Here's a link to the newsletter if you haven't already read it: Autumn 2024.) (It's spring right now where I am...) (Eh, oh well.)

First of all, Tori blowing fire to light the candles, very cool, might have to draw that.

Hmm, that's a lot of a certain number... You know what, I don't even have to go into this, we all know what it's referencing.

An interview with Sans, heck yeah!

As I expected, it's a joke, but... uh... just me, or does it seem like it might be talking about something else? Not entirely sure what, but I'm sure there's already plenty of theories despite it literally only coming out today. In any case, it was very amusing and some classic Undertale humour. Also

Jeez, Tori, it's been years, you've already made your feelings about Asgore's actions clear. Give the poor guy a break. (Link to the full interview if you wanna read it: Sans: What do you think about the number nine?)

...Toby? Toby, what does this mean? TOBY WHY DO YOU MAKE THE MOST INNOCUOUS STATEMENTS THAT HAVE SO MUCH POTENTIAL MEANING BEHIND THEM ...This is... ominous, to say the least, given the Snowgrave route and the fact that Toriel might join us in the Dark World in Chapter 3... ...I'm just overthinking this, right? ..........right???

Toby, this is the Undertale fandom you're talking to. Since when have we ever been responsible with Sans or his AUs? You should know better than to trust us with this skeleton by now. *Proceeds to use cup for strawberry milkshake* ....Dammit, now I want to draw him with a bunch of different-coloured eyes... just because...

Never misses a chance to do this sort of thing, does he? (It has my real name in it, which I don't really want to show, so have some badly edited screenshots instead.) I have made butterscotch cinnamon pie before and it was genuinely delicious. Would love to bake one in that Toriel pie tray. ...I wonder how a fish and chips pie would actually taste, though...?

PERFECTION

I would buy every single item of this kitchen merch if I had the money.

*vibrating intensely with excitement*

Very nice, always cool to see unused stuff and concepts.

. . .

*Well, there is a man here. *He might be happy to see you. *What do you think?

...I overthink these things too much.

And finally, we get a letter.

My best friend's favorite number is nine. It's because there isn't a number that's higher. 9. 99. 999. 9999. If everything gets high enough, You become invincible. Nothing can hurt you anymore. Nothing can hurt anyone anymore. But isn't it scary, to think there's a highest number? That, if you made 99 good memories, you couldn't hold anymore. So I don't like to keep count of the flowers we pick, or the times that they laugh, or how many scary faces they make. I just hope we'll be friends for 999 more years.

(Couldn't screenshot the whole thing because it was too big, so I just copied the text. Here's a link to the original: Letter) On one hand, the spacing is kind of reminiscent of what we assume is Gaster. But on the other hand, it's not in all caps, and the language is different, and from what we know of the mysterious scientist (which is quite frankly very little), it wouldn't make sense. There is, however, someone else that would make a lot more sense.

*I'll go get the flowers. *I should have laughed it off, like you did... *Okay, [Name], are you ready? *Do your creepy face!

And most telling of all, "My best friend"...

It's. It's Asriel. IT'S GOTTA BE AZZY OKAY COME ON, THERE'S THE MENTION OF THE SCARY FACES AND EVERYTHING

...Ahem.

My hypothesis is that it's Asriel Dreemurr.

Aaaaannnddd... that's it for this newsletter! I needed somewhere to dump my thoughts on it, and that's kinda what this blog is for, so yeah.

A very happy birthday to my favourite game of all time.

If you have any theories or observations about the newsletter, I'd love to see them!

See ya next time, Pup

[mixelation]

I love Plasticity, and how organically (no pun intended) it flows. Do you have any tips for writing a SI fic?

oh hmm here's some tips (i might come back with more later):

HAVE FUN. by this i mean: write what you want to read. i think sometimes the general fandom attitude is that writers should cater to their readership, and readers will get especially weird about SIs. this is nonsense. SIs are the most self-indulgent form of writing. write for you.

notice when you're not having fun anymore. If you're making yourself miserable trying to piece together a comprehensive theory of chakra.... just don't? you don't need to.

sometimes i see people lament their day jobs aren't interesting enough to be useful to writing fic. then they'll be like "if only i was a scientist or a lawyer or something." this is WRONG WRNG WRONG. the average day of a scientist is super boring. i do write a lot about science but i do, in fact, have to bend over backwards to make it fit in the setting. i have to work hard to figure out how to make it interesting. you could do this with any profession. i promise there's a way to make processing POs for a ninja village interesting, or waitressing in a ninja village, or being a door to door knife salesman. PLEASE tell me about getting a summer job selling knives to ninja.

writing SIs usually involves making a bunch of world building decisions. in theory, anything goes here. but i do recommend taking a few minutes to reflect on how the real world equivalent of whatever thing works and why. this will help you make decisions that will feel realistic to readers and also help you feel out realistic consequences. for example, i'm not saying you need to take a wilderness survival course to write an overnight mission, but i AM saying it would be really funny if your genin OC accidentally attracted a bear

if you find your SI thinking, "why doesn't everyone just do this?" then HAVE AN ANSWER. are there consequences to doing it that way your SI hasn't considered? ARE people doing this but SI just hasn't realized? are there other, more popular solutions? does your SI have some advantage other people don't-- money, support from an OP mentor, a special skill/special training, etc? personally i don't find "no one has thought of this yet" or "my SI is just smarter" to be very compelling explanations UNLESS the narrative has done the work of hyping up why the SI thinks differently.

sometimes i see readers complaining they only want OP characters if they're "justified." i think if you want to write an OP character, you should just write one, but I also think it's worth touching on what "justified" means, because i find people making such complaints do not understand what their own problem is. they mean they want sufficient narrative build-up to whatever OP skill, and for the OPness to feel organic within the world of Naruto. if, for example, your character's backstory is that itachi keeps sneaking back into the village to train them, then you need to put in some time to explaining why the hell he would do that, because it sounds insane. the more insane it sounds, the more care and time you'll likely have to put into it. like you don't need ten chapters about their childhood, but you'll probably need a scene or two to illustrate their close friendship or whatever the reason is.

don't be like me. don't write 15k word chapters. you will cry blood

[chrkrose]

Okay so just a rando ask, I was reading through the posts on your page,, and I came to thinking

If daemon truly abandoned Rhaenyra, why didn't he just run away with nettles? Why did he have to still fight for team black when he could have just flown else where with her? Rhaenyra would have met her own end inevitably. I’m no daemyra shipper, I’m not a daemon fan either it just doesn't add up. He sacrificed his life to get rid of the biggest threat of team green? Wouldn't it be fair to assume it was for Rhaenyra? Or atleast his children.

Now this is just my personal opinion, he loved nettles, yes (she's awesome who wouldn't 😩) but he also bore some love for Rhaenyra (she’s mommy🥰) as well. He chose to let go of nettles to protect her because he loved her. He chose to fight for Rhaenyra because in the end of the day he loved her and wanted to prove his loyalty to her (but wasn’t actually faithful lol)

Daemon in his Katherine era 💀💀💀💅 blurry ass pic

He died for her cause if not for her in the end of the day. Well atleast that’s what I think 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

I don’t believe in the theory that he fled with nettles, it just sort of feels out of character for him, to leave his children, Aegon the younger in the clutches of Aegon ii. Daemon imo would scream his head off if he knew his first born son was captured by Aegon ii, and somehow work up some scheme to get back into the game and possibly overthrow Aegon ii. And it just seems unlikely he survived the fall as well. 

Daemon is a complicated and morally grey character, but like any character he has his merits and he has his flaws. I think his love life would be as complex as he is, conflicted by both duty and love.

I hope I make sense lol, I want to know your thoughts.

Ok, so first thanks for being normal even if you have a different opinion. Usually, I always get a bunch of people screaming at me lmao. It's cool to have rational discussions even if in the end the parts just agree in disagree. Now, back to the points you brought. I still disagree lol. Imo, Daemon didn't die for the cause, much less for Rhaenyra or his children. I'm gonna break down why I think this argument makes no sense whatsoever:

Fire & Blood never implies that Daemon had a close relationship or even cared that much for his children. He didn't hate them or anything, but we have no canon basis to say he was a fatherly type where he thought of his children that much or was willing to make huge sacrifices for them. This is fandom projection 101. So to say he did what he did thinking of his children is a stretch IMO.

Aemond wasn't Rhaenyra's biggest threat at the time. Her biggest threat was Daeron and the Southron army he had assembled. It's canon. "And yet, the greatest threat to Rhaenyra's reign was not Aemond One-Eye, but his younger brother, Prince Daeron The Daring, and the great southron army led by Lord Ormund Hightower." And that was before Ulf and Hugh's betrayal and before Rhaenyra alienated Addam by declaring him a traitor as well. So even if Rhaenyra didn't say anything about that in the letter to Daemon (which I doubt, since she was sending the letter to demand Nettles' death, so she sure talked about the dragonseeds' betrayal), Daemon knew about that already. He knew that without him, she was fucked, because she would have only Tyraxes and Syraxes on Team Black's side, and you can exclude Syraxes since Rhaenyra wouldn't go into battle. He knew all of that. He still chose to die anyway.

About running away with Nettles, a few things to consider. As long as he was with Nettles, she wouldn't be safe. If he runs away with her and Rhaenyra somehow wins the war, she will send for him. He would be a traitor, she'd never forgive that. If Rhaenyra loses, Team Green is definitely going after him. He would be a threat to the throne, they would never let them live. The best way to protect Nettles is to send her away alone. Besides that, regardless of what happened, if he ran away with her, he would never be able to return home and I doubt Daemon was keen on living on the run forever. It doesn't fit him.

It seemed like he was tired of war, tired of the scheming, tired of fighting. Even before I reached the point where he makes the decisions he makes, I felt his narrative shifting, and his time in Maidenpool with Nettles looked much more like a vacation to him and a respite than a mission. He seemed happy with Nettles, and happy with that bubble he created for them, but once reality burst that, he seemed done with everything. This is also sort of corroborated by his dialogue with Aemond, where he agrees he has lived for too long.

The narrative in any way frames his final battle with Aemond as something he is doing for the cause. Daemon might have gone through a somewhat redemption arc, but he's still very much a selfish man and someone who would never go down in any other way than not an epic way because he is "the rogue prince". His showdown with Aemond is written as something about both of them as characters whose arcs are mirrored at every turn, finally culminating in their final encounter, and written as Daemon's big send-off.

The narrative specifically frames his final act as a betrayal through Rhaenyra's lens, further corroborating all that was set up before, something that is narratively satisfying to the reader because at this point she's very much the villain instead of the hero. We have seen her burning bridges, behaving poorly with the smallfolk, and being unfair with allies, culminating in her acts against Addam, Nettles, and Corlys, and overestimating her hand to the point of being arrogant in her certainty that Daemon would come back to be with her after murdering an innocent woman. Until this point, Daemon and Nettles have been written as a romantic arc, one that ends in heartbreak, specifically because of Rhaenyra. So we have this moment of satisfaction when Rhaenyra realizes that even though she did everything she did, and she was so certain she would win, she actually lost. He left her. He betrayed her.

The story leaving the "possibility" that Daemon could have survived and gone to find his way toward Nettles serves to show where his loyalty truly lies, and where his heart is, in life or death. If anything, to believe he went on a suicide mission because he couldn't stand being apart from Nettles is a much more acceptable and logical conclusion of his final choices than the bizarre cope that is the "he died for Rhaenyra, for his children, or for the cause".

Finally, I don't think he loved both because I don't think he ever loved Rhaenyra tbh. Not like he loved Nettles or Laena. An argument can be made that he loves Rhaenyra in the show adaptation (although I disagree about that medium, but this is for another post). But in the book, it's very clear that she's not on top or even second in his list of "women I romantically loved most in my criminal life". I say Nettles comes first because his love for her seemed to come from a genuine place of wonderment and affection, with no hidden agenda behind it. Laena comes close behind because even though we don't know if he indeed fell for her or if he married her to advance politically after his recent downfall from power at the time, he clearly came to love her very much in the years they were together and was happy in their marriage. I say even Mysaria might come first to him than Rhaenyra, he clearly cared for her for a while and was very upset when they lost their baby. The only person beneath Rhaenyra is Rhea because he clearly hates Rhea. In the books, Daemon groomed and wanted to use Rhaenyra to get back at his brother/get closer to the throne and later they combined their shared vision and aligned political ambitions in a marriage that was beneficial to both of them. Obviously, there was physical attraction (and co-dependency on Rhaenyra's part), but love? I don't think so.

[hils79]

Hils Watches Mysterious Lotus Casebook - Ep 25

Our house is getting inspected tomorrow (the joys of renting) so this is my reward for mopping the floors on a stupidly hot day considering it's nearly the middle of September.

Anyway!

He is a good husband. Just ask Li Lianhua

But if you send him home who will make puppy eyes at you and take care of you?

I wish someone would prescribe me medicinal wine

Oh, yeah, I forgot about them. I have minimal sympathy given they tried to assault the women being held captive there. Fang Duobing is a good boy though so he won't just let them die

Me whenever there's a new plot development

When Fang Duobing's mind is on other things his 'must protect Li Lianhua' senses are dulled, which is why Li Lianhua immediately fell into a pit

Is this going to be a thing now? Li Lianhua is in danger and I need help, call on A-Fei and he immediately appears

Ooh is he starting to suspect?

His face when Fang Duobing yells at him 🥺 Is he starting to care for the puppy?

"While you two were running around in a cave looking for me I found all the clues because I'm awesome." I love him.

Oh my god Fang Duobing DOES suspect! And he's going to let Li Lianhua get stabbed to test his theory. Come on, Di Feisheng won't let him get stabbed and he's always nearby

Aww he stepped in at the last possible second and saved him

Test passed or failed depending on which way you look at it. I'm guessing Li Lianhua knew Fang Duobing was there which is why he didn't defend himself

God, I just want to hug him

Clearly he doesn't know what genre he's in

Well at least he just came out and asked

Every time Li Lianhua lies it reminds me of all those memes in the Guardian fandom about Shen Wei and his addiction to lying

You may as well get used to it. He's not going to stop.

I love him

I think your beloved might have a thing or two to say about your plans to kill his beloved

Fang Duobing is more concerned about the interruption to his personal hygiene than he is the fact that a bunch of people have showed up to kill them

Fang Duobing is back in protecc mode, but I think he also just saw Li Lianhua do some sus footwork while he was trying to avoid being killed

Oh no

No one has asked Di Feisheng if he's okay 🥺

Oh now that he's visibly in pain they care

Fang Duobing! You are better than that! How many times has he helped you as soon as you called?

Wait, I recognise this set! I'm pretty sure it was used in Heroes too

I mean the last one wasn't actually haunted. That was kind of the whole point of the case

[destinationtoast]

Toastystats preview: F/F vs. M/M tagging

I discovered something unexpected while doing stats comparing F/F and M/M on AO3. One thing I was initially looking for was whether M/M fanworks were more likely than F/F fanworks to tag dark themes or explicit sex acts. It seemed like yes, they were -- but then I found out that, more generally, M/M fanworks use more tags on average than F/F fanworks. And given that, it's not too surprising that M/M is more likely to use most of the common AO3 tags than F/F is (whether the tag is dark, fluffy, or otherwise).

Still, I found a few AO3 tags that F/F was more likely to use than M/M. And I sorted a bunch of common AO3 tags from "Most likely to be used by M/M" to "Most likely to be used by F/F", shown above. The middle line indicates that a tag is equally likely to be used by M/M and F/F. Some of the darker and more explicit tags do indeed seem to be further toward the mostly-M/M end of the spectrum, but some of the ordering surprised me. (E.g., F/F is more likely to use "Smut," while M/M is more likely to use "Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot." And F/F and M/M are nearly equally likely to use "Trauma" and "Coercion.")

I have a whole lot more F/F vs. M/M data to share soon, but I have questions for y'all first about this data:

does the above visualization makes sense? I'm worried it might be hard to interpret, so if you're confused, can you share anything about why?

are you are surprised by anything about the data?

any thoughts/theories/questions this data raises for you?

Below the cut -- additional explanations that might be useful when theorizing (e.g., about possible factors like background ships), along with raw data for the above graph.

A couple notes on interpretation: we shouldn't have to worry about the fact that F/F is often tagged when F/F is actually a background ship -- I tried to weed out all cases where the F/F or M/M tag of interest could possibly have referred to a background ship. Also, all of the above tags are used at least 1000 times on F/F works and at least 17K times on F/F and M/M combined... so these numbers shouldn't be *too* prone to the noise of really small numbers.

Data used to make the chart

Header: tag name | % F/F using tag | % M/M using tag | A/A is X times more likely to use tag as B/B (A/A uses it more than B/B)

Whump | 0.16% | 0.39% | 2.4

Protectiveness | 0.85% | 1.81% | 2.1

Hurt | 0.93% | 1.94% | 2.1

Kinks | 1.12% | 2.30% | 2.1

Crack | 0.87% | 1.67% | 1.9

Torture | 0.46% | 0.84% | 1.8

Children | 0.56% | 0.99% | 1.8

Gore | 0.23% | 0.40% | 1.7

Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot | 2.25% | 3.72% | 1.7

Not Beta Read | 1.76% | 2.63% | 1.5

Falling in Love | 1.12% | 1.62% | 1.4

Self-Harm | 0.63% | 0.90% | 1.4

Abuse | 1.82% | 2.57% | 1.4

Incest | 0.93% | 1.31% | 1.4

Cuddling & Snuggling | 1.56% | 2.15% | 1.4

Humor | 3.63% | 4.99% | 1.4

Birthday | 0.38% | 0.51% | 1.4

Supernatural Elements | 2.16% | 2.93% | 1.4

Badass | 0.37% | 0.50% | 1.4

BDSM | 3.94% | 5.32% | 1.4

Awkwardness | 0.65% | 0.86% | 1.3

Dark | 0.44% | 0.58% | 1.3

Marriage | 1.78% | 2.36% | 1.3

Light-Hearted | 3.13% | 4.12% | 1.3

Hatred | 0.51% | 0.66% | 1.3

Mythical Beings & Creatures | 2.01% | 2.58% | 1.3

Love | 5.95% | 6.74% | 1.1

Friendship | 5.01% | 5.64% | 1.1

Alternate Universe | 19.27% | 21.27% | 1.1

Holidays | 1.90% | 2.09% | 1.1

Trauma | 1.43% | 1.56% | 1.1

Coercion | 0.37% | 0.39% | 1.1

Horror | 0.45% | 0.47% | 1.0

Comfort | 0.95% | 0.97% | 1.0

Fluff | 23.98% | 24.17% | 1.0

Flirting | 1.20% | 1.20% | 1.0

Hugs | 0.38% | 0.37% | 1.0

Crossovers & Fandom Fusions | 1.56% | 1.52% | 1.0

Alternate Canon | 4.89% | 4.71% | 1.0

Polyamory | 0.71% | 0.67% | 1.1

Smut | 7.04% | 6.48% | 1.1

Slow Burn | 2.54% | 2.26% | 1.1

Post-Canon | 2.32% | 2.03% | 1.1

Romance | 6.42% | 5.49% | 1.2

Drabble | 2.59% | 2.21% | 1.2

Prompt Fill | 0.70% | 0.59% | 1.2

Pre-Canon | 0.77% | 0.59% | 1.3

One Shot | 3.85% | 2.66% | 1.4

LGBTQ Themes | 7.77% | 4.44% | 1.7

Gender Related | 3.52% | 1.45% | 2.4

[lil-lost-mind]

(This is a bit of a along post about my general experience in the qsmp fandom, both good and bad, and it does mention xenophobia but not direct experiences)

I'm happy to see people here being so nice and reminding that we(Brazilians) are welcome here

I was really hesitant about interacting with fandom at first, I actually was there the Brazilians arrived because suddenly tazercraft live appeared for me on YouTube, I joined for a moment but didn't stay long, but I did look about it later. Because Brazilians youtubers/streamers are on a server with a bunch of people from other countries? I was curious about what this would lead to

Didn't regret it, but since then, I was a bit scared of interacting on fandom. Some comments on clips were fine. But then I started using tumblr because of a friend's recommendation, I kept a look on what was happening on lore on general but didn't really interact on fandom. Hence why I created this blog, and also why it took me so long to link this blog to my main one

Because, well, if I got hate for any reason, it would only be a sideblog that I only posted about qsmp. I could just delete it or just ignore them

I am by nature a person who is very shy to talk about my interests, it might have nothing wrong about it but I'm shy, I'm the type of person who goes on asks box on anon because is too shy, even if I'm not doing anything wrong there's this fear of judgemeent.

In the light of the recent events, I am once again reminded that's why I don't use or plan to use Twitter, but still I couldn't avoid but feel... scared in a way, I don't think anyone would like to be treated that way. And even a bit ashamed of saying that I'm brazilian. Ashamed might not be the right word, but there's this feeling wich is similar, and while I'm proud of being a brazilian, I just... maybe invalidate is a more fitting word, it's just feels like my culture is unimportant compared to others.

And this is what it seems, in my understanding, what looks like suffering from xenophobia is, but I imagine it's worse suffering it directly ofc, and ironically, I don't think I ever felt like that for those reasons before. And while I can't talk about how it feels when suffering from it directly, I feel bad for the people who had to go through it(not only Brazilians). Nobody should feel ashamed of their culture or ethnicity

Ofc tumblr isn't free of people like that. After all, no social media will be free from intolerance. But it feels like it's harder to see it. But I can't emphasize enough how it makes me happy to see so many people saying their blog is a safe place for us. After seeing this stuff, it makes things better, for me, at least. It reminds me that my culture isn't less important than any other

And qsmp brought something beautiful, the unity of communities. Because even with those bad things happening, it's not the only thing in fandom, it happens, and any fandom has this, unfortunately. But I love to see every time someone talks about their culture, facts about their languages, to see people motivated in learning new languages. It's beautiful and makes me happy each time

I don't regret making myself part of the fandom, the opposite, really, I've met creators that I would have never without the qsmp. I've met amazing people there, I've found incredible artists and writers. I've had fun

I've found the motivation to learn new languages again, more passion to draw

And I'm thankful to everyone there who is incredibly nice and so made me more comfortable interacting here, even if they will probably never know

So despite everything, I think it was worth it

Was worth reading character analysis and theories, enjoying stories, seeing fanart and animatics, learning new language facts and about other cultures. Was worth seeing people being happy

Again, I'm very thankful for all the people who made me, and I'm going to assume a lot of other people who needed to hear that, comfortable and validate here, I can't express how much this made me happy, I hope everyone coming from twitter have a good time here<3

And a very big and sincere "VAI TOMAR NO CU" to any xenophobic and racist person

I know very few people will see this, or even read everything, but I had to say this somewhere, so yeah, I'm rambling on tumblr again:D

[tio-trile]

you have no idea how happy I was to find your go2 critical posts! I watched the whole thing when it came out and was disappointed. But literally EVERYONE online (especially twitter) was talking about how amazing it was and I felt so odd. I rewatched it today to see if a second watch would maybe be better but it was actually worse, it just solidified my feelings that it was a bunch of nothing with the only notable thing happening in the last few minutes of the last episode.

But I've decided to finally read the book because of your posts and I'm excited about that.

Also want to say something about how the fandom treats Neil like a fucking god and don't you dare say a single negative word about him or they'll come for you. I saw a tweet yesterday saying that they 'wont stand' for anyone criticizing the writing in season 2 (which was terrible). It's so fucking stupid. I hate it. I don't think a creator of a show should be that close to the fandom, I think it makes things weird.

Rant over. Have a lovely day.

Of course a lot of people just genuinely enjoyed the show, but I think Neil being so close to the fandom and SO online might also have contributed to people being hesitant to voice their criticism, if they don't feel it too strongly? For example, after season 1, I did had some critiques, but I just chose not to mention them and instead I told Neil that I loved the show. Which is good, in a way -- general etiquette says "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say nothin' at all!" WHICH IS WHY I NEVER EVEN MADE A POST saying that I hated season 2 -- everything I've said was an answer to an ask, and I'm happy to help like-minded people who want to come and vent. And yay I hope you enjoy the book! I agree that it's getting a little weird and creepy how the fandom treats Neil as God -- I genuinely felt a little creeped out after reading the "we are Job, and season 2 is a test of faith" theory 😬 He really should take some time off the internet. I think it'll do all of us some good.

[zixzs-ajk]

They would play Slenderman together and spend four weeks making theories and playing bad fan games.

Me putting this on Tumblr is the equivalent of putting on foil clothing and climbing a lightning rod, but fuck it, I'm beyond giving a shit about the opinions of terminally online teenagers. Here's the context for this unexpected Nerdly on your feed.

You know I try not to comment too much on negative events, but the awfulness of the fandom is too consistent for me not to say something from time to time. Y’know what they usually call it when a bunch of people feel hate at the sight of love? At least I could harness that old spark of spite I used to have during my Reddit days whenever some unsupervised teenager complained about legs being NSFW. $20 to whomever can successfully post this onto r/Deltarune, lol. (Obviously, don't harass, and don't BE harassed).

DOUBLE EDIT:  An incredibly supportive individual has actually posted this on my behalf! And the post just got approved by a moderator after ~12 hours! They still removed some old non-offending and unrelated posts of mine and I do still fault them for that, but I am super glad to have my assumptions disproven. Maybe things can get better after all?

[janwixler]

Neil with his fans? yes please!

I know very much of the sports fandom and it’s craze. I know most people, middle aged men in particular, don’t want extra info of the players except their skills. (my dad lol)

But teen girls and Boys??!! Oh, they’re The Heart of making sports personalities into literal Celebrities! (I actually idolised many Brazilian football player and actually had a shrine!)

As for the aftg universe, we know that Exy is a relatively new but gradually popular sports. If we fix the timeline correctly, then it’s in the mid 80s when Neil was obsessed with the sports. it's very clear with Neil's own Kevin and Riko shrine, he's much like a fanboy himself too!

so turns out, Exy fandom do exist there on full blast. Judging by Kevin's popularity and Neil's super rise to the fame with pure talent, it would be only a matter of time when Neil becomes as popular as him.

Coming to the main point, How would he react to his fans?!!

At first, he wouldn't even believe he might have some fans. He's always too busy with dealing with reporters as a captain, his first reaction to someone screaming 'JOSTEN!! WE LOVE YOU!!' is like a rabbit hearing a gunshot (Nicky's words!)

The fans often mail him gifts and Postcards and chocolates. Neil give the chocolates to Andrew and keep the postcards in a wardrobe drawer dedicated to these.

When the fans of the front row seats call him to sign a autograph after a game, he's always to worn out to even hold a pen. But when he's in a good mood, being benched for the last half of the game and his team winning, he tells the security to grab a bunch of notes to sign them off. (oh and the girls scream!!! that can surely be heard from outside of the stadium)

oh, the girls, fangirls yes. Neil isn't (obviously) like Nicky; out, loud and proud. He keeps his intimate relationship with Andrew a very secret. in one of the sports banquet, Some girls were crying and screaming at the the audience side of the red carpet as he and Kevin arrived. Kevin told him to keep things professional as he gently smiled at the camera's and the fangirls. Neil scoffed. a few girls were literally sobbing with a notebook in hands and calling out Neil. Kevin told him to sign a few fans as he went to his fan-group. Neil hesitated for a bit and then tried a smile as he reached the fangirls. their screeching noises were deafening. as was almost finished with a third one, a girl blurted out, "Please marry me Neil!! I love you!". Neil finished the fourth one and looked at the direction where the confession came. Flustered by being noticed, the girl who said that still asked a tone higher, "please, Neil?!" upon noticing the girl right this time, Neil gently smiled, "I'm sorry, but I'm already someone else's!" the girls exclaimed shrikes that time were manageable, But Kevin's roaring remarks of the next morning's headlines were not.

paparazzi never really seem to get tired of him. in a store buying stuff with pyjamas on? check. Having occasional convo with Andrew outside the game (a lot)? check. Coming out of a LGBTQ friendly club once in two weeks? check (bonus if Andrew is on sight). Neil meeting up with his former team-mates once a while? check, check and check.

Neil does get celebrity treatment but he refuses to admit. A good looking player with a no-filter comments about opposed team, he is a total banger for the sports drama.

He often asks some fans if there is something he should focus on more. The fanboys just burst out every theory they have. They might not be accurate sometimes but Neil does love a constructive criticism.

Neil is often seen with Andrew but surprisingly nobody questions them and he doesn't mind about it.

the fan accounts of Neil are a absolute disaster. Nicky found about it first. Neil was way too cringed at the contents some middle school girls make and none of these focused on Exy. Neil never once looked him up on the fansites again.

Neil never fails to feel goosebumps when the fans roar their pro team fight song when he goes pro. For the first few years, he and Andrew been playing on different team. So in small match breaks when he goes to Andrew to say how good he was playing, the fans roared in cheers cause they assumed these two were warning each other off. That's when the famous 'Josten-Minyard; formidable foe?' headline started a trend. Neil's freshmen years foxes team made this like a common family joke whenever they see two of them together!

[niinnyu]

A little rant about leaks because I'm lowkey dreading them. And I'd appreciate it if you'd read it (and if not... 👁👁).

I find the jjk fandom's (though it's true for others too) reliance on leaks very off-putting. I know people want to look forward to something in the middle of the week and talk about it, but this just feels disrespectful, while also being at the cost of other people getting to enjoy it as they want to whether you care about getting spoiled or not.

So many people just don't tag leaks and spoilers properly (forget places where tagging doesn't even make a difference). Seeing things trending with the context of previous chapters explains everything. Not to mention people mis-tagging spoilers and leaks interchangeably (you can remove leak tags after the chapter is officially published but not spoiler tags!!) And no, you're not subtle with your 'out of context spoilers' to someone who has all previous context.

But what boggles my mind is why would you want someone to shout the punchline of a joke in your face before any of the setup has been done. You'll have a bunch of deepfried 2 pixel screenshot of screenshot quality manga panels of crucial moments with none of the build up and pacing. Paired with the most lacklustre explainations of what's happening (the phrasing of which can be biased to the leaker's opinions). Translating isn't easy. To convey what exactly something means from one language to another in an effective and in the intended way isn't easy (shoutout to fan translators tho y'all are amazing thank you for your time and effort)

And whether you care about the story or not, heck even if you think the mangaka themself doesn't care about it, it is just so disrespectful to the content that you're consuming. Making comics and manga isn't easy (churning them weakly is insane imo esp when a lot of mangaka aren't even full time artists) so why wouldn't you allow yourself to consume their story the way they've themself laid it out. Where one panel comes after the other. Where one expression has context in the next page. Where a dialogue has weight only when placed with another dialogue. Give the creator(s) this little grace too, because whether you like a story or not, there is still a huge amount of effort and skill, by multiple people, going into it.

And I personally love interacting with the fandoms I'm in, literally sometimes the only source of joy I have (yes ik leave me alone) is interacting with other fans and having my mind blown over their art and writing and theories. And I'd rather not be spoiled unless I'm myself seeking them out or just reading the actual chapter. So this involves me either spoiling it for myself before someone else does it, or spoiler dodging for 5 OUT OF 7 DAYS A WEEK EVERY WEEK.

I'm not even saying you should only look for official sources or whatever because I know not everyone has access to legal places to read (tho the shounen jump app is there for those interested, but yeah i get it for other publications), but there are better ways to read/hate-readyour fav/least fav manga out there without ruining it for someone else. The wait is juuust a couple of days more. There is absolutely no dearth of fan made content that can't help you last another few days, maybe your new fav fan creator is right around a little wait (ahem check my bs out if you'd like ahem ahem).

I just want to be able to interact with the fandom for more than just 2 days a week, and I don't like my accounts dying because i dissapear 5 days either, and is that a such a bad thing? I come online to have fun, not run an obstacle race y'know?

[vincord]

Because of college and exams, I completely forgot that I was tagged in this, so yeah.

It's so hard to say something intelligible about this year. Milgram definitely made it a little more alive, but I don't know if this is a good thing or not. This is an interesting project that has definitely become a part of my life, but conflicts with people in the fandom have worsened my condition. This post not about that, of course. I feel good on Tumblr milgram fandom side. reading analyses and theories here helps a little to distract from other bad thoughts in your head. not always, but it helps.

I'm not the most social and active person and I have almost no contact with anyone here, so again, I was very surprised that I was tagged. It's kind of like when you just exist and stay away from everyone. I don't know. Again, it's hard to write something.

I don't even know who to tag, really. now I'm tagging not so much to pass the baton, but just to let people know that yes, I remembered them from the whole bunch of people on this site.

@tsuwmya You're definitely the one who makes staying in the milgram fandom so much better. and of all the russian fandom, you're probably the only one I trust and don't treat with suspicion or caution. Я очень рада так сказать что мы контачим я готова писать это каждый раз ты очень умная и с умными мыслями и цумиграм я твой съела в целом хочется чтоб у тебя всё хорошо было((

@roseofcards90 @plan-3-tmars Rlly like u!! I am very happy when I see you by the milgram tag. And from time to time it is quite pleasant to contact you in comments or tags, I would say. Literally remember you as "main kotoko fan" | "main kazui fan". And it's interesting to read your posts about these characters, and from time to time discuss them with you!

@salviadivin0rum too. I couldn't help but take the chance to write again how much I love your art. It's always so airy and soft. + the colors that you select for the art. always so warm. There's something about it all that I've never seen from anyone else.

And since @archivalofsins had tagged me (which I'm very surprised and grateful for at the same time!! Really, thanks) I will say that without you and your texts, being in this fandom would be completely different. Completely different. I don't know how to say it exactly. Clever texts with thoughts that I didn't even think about, which is why a more detailed thinking begins and "oh, this really makes sense" or "oh, this is really interesting. I'll think about it." Your firm and confident position is inspiring. That's all I can write at one o'clock in the morning, huh.

And that's it, I guess. My friends outside of tumblr know that I love them, so I won't tag them here. If I wanted to write something, but I didn't write it, then I forgot. I just hope that the winter holidays will go well to you. That's all.

[lesbianrobin]

what do you think of gay steve? i don't dislike the headcanon in theory, but i feel like it's usually done as a way to make steve & nancy's relationship/breakup less important (and often to make it easier to ship r0nance)

i gotta be honest i dont think i've actually ever read any fic where steve is explicitly stated to be gay and not bisexual, besides maybe my own fic nancy drew and the mystery of the magnetic closet, so idk if i'll rly have whatever answer ur looking for re: other people's intent. in magnetic closet i wrote steve as being a bit uncertain as to his identity, leaning gay, but he also explicitly tells nancy that he loves her and their relationship is still significant to him, so like. like MY motivation wasn't downplaying their relationship so at the very least that isn't Everyone's motivation.

anyway like separately from how people Use It in fic i'm into gay steve! i tend to default to bi steve for like fic and headcanons etc bc it's sorta become the fandom standard and a lot of my bi friends like bi steve and i love my bi friends 💖 but if i'm being honest i do think that you can easily interpret a lot of steve's canon behavior in favor of him being gay if you want to do so, and i think i tend to lean that way when i'm writing him even when i don't mean to. just to like preface all of this i'm gay myself and i am terrible about projecting onto steve so yknow take all of the following with a grain of salt.

so like personally i think he never rly had romantic feelings for robin and he only confessed to liking her because he thought his love for robin Had to be attraction since she's a girl yknow? and in s4 it's implied that he's had a string of casual relationships based entirely on sex and he hasn't been able to connect with any of the girls at all which is a bit 🧐🤨. the way steve flirts indiscriminately and talks about wanting a family in the future makes me think like... i think that his search for love is more about wanting a family/wanting love than specifically wanting to be with a woman. like i think in his mind bc of Eighties Heteronormativity the two things are equated, so when he Thinks that he wants to find the female love of his life he Actually just wants a family. and i fear i'm making it sound like steve is a misogynist who just wants a wife to give him kids which is not my intent. like i think steve has a lot of respect for nancy and loves her deeply regardless of whether that love is romantic in nature or not. the fact that he said he was over nancy in s3 while confessing feelings to robin, dated around a bunch, and then suddenly had feelings for her again in s4 comes off less to me like "steve never got over nancy" and more like "steve is unable to find the kind of love he wants with a woman no matter what he tries and he's returning to nancy because he thinks that he just messed up their relationship with his flaws and if they tried again he could be better and everything would be perfect." like nancy was the closest steve ever came to actually being in love with a girl and as time passes he realizes that he doesn't think he could feel that way with another woman. but the thing is that stancy was just not a great couple yknow but they had these external pressures on their relationship that allow them to look back on it and think well maybe NOW we'll be more compatible and we can be happy. like it's this subconscious belief that being in the right relationship could make Everything in his life right.

idk i think at this point i'm just rambling and i fear i'm making no sense but like i think gay steve is really interesting to think about Because his relationship with nancy was so important to him. like it's genuinely really compelling to explore their relationship through the lens of compulsory heterosexuality and consider like the sort of friendship they might have in the wake of steve realizing that he's gay. i also think it's interesting to think about in the context of his friendship with robin and like how radically different their journeys are while simultaneously being kinda the same.

ultimately though since he's like presumed straight in canon i don't think it rly matters whether people hc steve as gay or bi? like it's kinda just whatever you want.