#i'm realizing all of my favorite characters are male which interests me

[batrachised]

Now I would love to know who YOUR favorite LM Montgomery character is?

This changes with the day, the hour, the moment lol because she wrote so many fantastic characters, and similar to your experience, as I get older, I identify with more and more of them! My favorite character often becomes whoever I happen to be discussing at the moment (Barney is so rich, Dean Priest is a universe of complexity, Mrs. Rachel Lynde is Mrs. Rachel Lynde, Mark Greaves is a personal comedic favorite--he'd definitely have a tumblr account, and the list goes on.) When I was little (are ya'll ready to be surprised?) I would have said Beverly from The Story Girl. Idk man, I just really liked him! He seemed cool! I always wanted to know more about what happened to him and Sara Stanley!

Now, though, I'm going to take a brave and wild stab at pinning down who it is. Walter Blythe is forever at the top of the list, and because Jane of Lantern Hill is on the mind, I'm going to add Andrew Stuart. Walter fascinates me in being a standout male character amongst the rest and his need to, as I just read in an academic article earlier, keep his feelings secret from the rest of the world! Andrew Stuart is just delightful. His story imo kind of hints at the grown-up novel LM Montgomery sometimes talked about, in that you know he suffers from PTSD, he's on the brink of divorce, his career didn't go anywhere he wanted it too, he's estranged from his daughter, he's arrogant and sometimes not self-aware, he married '~above his station', he has the worst mother in law in the known and explored universe but his own family is also far from great - his background, although never fleshed out in full, is practically dripping with more Serious Adult Topics. I reread Lantern Hill for Jane, but there's another novel peeking through it that I would have liked to see.

Also, Uncle Benjamin.

[demonslayerunhinged]

*cw: this theory deals with child sexual abuse and has mentions of suicidal ideation and eating disorders.

*If you or anyone you know is going through this, you can find resources here, here and here as well as a list of international hotlines.

Obanai is probably the second most hated character in the fandom, and just like Sanemi, he’s one of the most misunderstood. I think the hate he gets from the fandom is unwarranted; he’s accused of being a dick, a horrible person, a simp and a character who only exists to be Mitsuri’s love interest. All of which is unfair, sure he’s prickly and unapproachable, but he’s not as bad as the fandom makes him out to be.

So, in my quest to draft a defense for our favorite snek boy, I reread his backstory and in doing so, I realized something sad

Unhinged theory

Obanai is a sexual abuse survivor

Let me explain:

Obanai’s backstory and aspects of his character mirrors that of someone who’s been through sexual trauma. The evidence I'm going to present is a combination of my own knowledge about these matters and information I got from forums and websites for male survivors of sexual abuse. So let's examine them...um spoilers

The snake demon

I believe that the snake demon is a metaphor for a sexual predator. Her inclusion in the family could also be a metaphor for how these predators insert themselves into family units-or most of the time are family members themselves-and abuse the children for years and even generations. Obanai's relatives sacrificing their babies to her could signify the real life actions of families who are unaware or, turn a blind eye to, or sometimes actively participate in the abuse of their children.

The sacrifice in exchange for wealth speaks of how families in real life ignore the abuse of their children to maintain the wealth and status they obtain from being related to and associated with the abuser.

Even her decision to wait, ordering the cutting of his mouth so he would look like her, could be interpreted as her 'grooming' him in a sense.

Even her design has a certain sexual, predatory aspect to it that's different from the other demons.

His relatives

Obanai describes his family members as being 'disgustingly' affectionate and bringing him lots of 'greasy' food that made him sick. Food in media is often used to depict love, affection, connection and sex, and Demon Slayer is no different.

There are plenty of instances where food and the giving of food has been used to denote friendship (Tanjiro giving Zenitsu, Inosuke and Genya meals in an attempt to bond with them), connection (Giyuu wanting to give Sanemi ohagi), love (Tanjiro's love of cooking and the satisfaction he shows when his meals are enjoyed by others) and pleasure (Mitsuri's large appetite). I'll make a post about this later.

With this context, we can interpret their bringing of rich foods, their overbearing attention and affections as them objectifying and even being sexually inappropriate with him.

The sexual abuse

Non-physical.

The first instance of abuse is non-physical, but that doesn't make it any less important. Being constantly visited by the snake demon in his room at night, Obanai described his feelings of terror, being paralyzed and watched. His body would break out in a sweat, and he would be unable to fall asleep.

His descriptions of the experience and his body's reaction to it reminded me of some survivors' stories I read, where they talked about how in the initial stages of the abuse or when the abuser was first introduced into their lives, their abuser would give them unwanted attention, would stare at them in a way that felt creepy, gross and wrong.

Some had their abusers come in to their rooms, maybe under the guise of 'checking in on them'. They described feeling terrified, freezing up with the hopes that the attacker would leave. Some would take measures such as sleeping with the door locked or with a heavy object against it, sleeping with a sibling or parent, sleeping in a hiding spot that the attacker knows nothing about or not sleeping at all.

Physical.

The specific age that the snake demon plans to 'eat' Obanai is never stated, but from what we've seen so far and in the sexual context, we can assume that she's waiting until he hits puberty. Some studies state that the average age of victims of female sex offenders usually falls around 14 years, but there are cases where the female predator waited until their victim reached sexual maturity before they carried out their abuse, like in the case of Mary Kay Letourneau. Here's a video that breaks down an interview she did before her death.

Obanai was 12 when he was dragged out of his cell to be subjected to what I believe is the first physical abuse. He had his mouth slit from ear to ear, with the blood collected and fed to her. The snake demon decided to have him live a little longer, which again, fits into my theory of her wanting to wait until he reached puberty.

Bodily violation, violence and blood are common allegories for sexual assault used in media and in Obanai's backstory we see it being used when his relatives drag him from his cell, literally pin him down, cut his mouth and feed his blood to the snake demon. The act of feeding on his blood could also be a metaphor for the snake demon sexually abusing him.

His escape and the resulting fallout

Obanai managed to escape, and although he was tracked down by the snake demon, he was saved by Shinjuro Kengoku before she could kill him. His cousin's response was to blame him for all that happened, asked why he ran away, and said that he should have 'allowed' the demon to eat him.

This could represent how some victims are rejected, ostracized and criticized for speaking out against their attacker, exposing the abuse to the public and getting help. Their families would say 'you should have just let it happen', 'you destroyed the family', 'why did you run away, tell people?' and place the blame on the victim.

Obanai's reaction

There are three aspects of his characterization that are similar to the common reactions noticed in adult survivors of sexual assault, especially male survivors.

His appearance.

His behavior.

His beliefs.

His appearance

Obanai has a small frame that he hides with his baggy uniform and haori. I can tell it's baggy compared to that of the other slayers because of the width of his pants vs the width of his lower legs. Desexualization or hypo-sexualization is a common response among some survivors of sexual trauma, this usually involves wearing clothes and taking measures to make themselves look 'unattractive'.

'But this side feels more comfortable for me, like the baggy clothes I wear, which hide my body, and the long sleeves which reach past my wrists. I promised myself no man would ever touch me again, and whether it was a moment of triumph, or a moment of defeat, I still don't know.'

'I'm thin, shy. I seem easy to dominate. I've grown a beard. That's helped a little. I dress in baggy clothes, covering as much of my skin as possible. That makes me feel safe.'

This not only helps regain a sense of control and power over their body but also serves as a protective measure against sexual advances so they don't get abused again.

In Obanai, given his history of receiving unwanted, suffocating and 'disgusting' attention from his female relatives, it would make sense that he would want to dress in a way that makes him unapproachable and hides his body from the opposite sex. We can see his attempts to desexualize himself in the picture below:

His behavior

'Iguro has difficulty with girls. Due to his experiences growing up, he was unable to conquer his fear and animosity. Plus, the firls who joined the Demon Slayer Corps often put on brave faces because of their sad backgrounds, so he felt sorry for them, making him uncomfortable in a different way.' - Taisho Whispers, official English translation.

'Iguro-san isn't good with women. Due to his upbringing he has a fear and disgust towards women. (I couldn't overcome it easily. The women who joined the Demon Slayer Corps have painful stories of determination. I felt sorry for them and I didn't get along with them in a way that was different from the way I got along with my family)' - Taisho Whispers, direct-sort-of-shitty translation via Google Translate.

Male survivors who were victims of childhood abuse by female perpetrators often talk about how the abuse greatly affected their relationships with women or lack thereof. Some going so far as to say that they became afraid of women, being around them and how sometimes being touched by women would trigger panic attacks and remind them of the trauma.

Here are some quotes posted in a thread on the Male Survivor forum. Full thread here.

'Once that happened, my genophobia became more intense. I couldn't ware short trousers in summer, could never go swimming, got paranoid if I touched a woman's arm or even brushed against one, would always stand at a distance from female friends, and would literally leave the room if anything explicit was discussed.'

'I have started to have strange, deep discomforting feelings as I remember some of the assaults and I have gotten to a place where touch from a woman makes my hair stand up, makes me nauseous, and gives me chills and feelings of dread.'

Obanai has similar responses when he finds himself in proximity to women. We're only told about it in the main manga, but it's shown in the Gakuen. I know the Gakuen takes place in an alternate universe, but aside from the events, the behaviors of the characters are based on their actual personalities in the main manga, so we can safely say the reactions he displays in the Gakuen is canon to his character.

His beliefs

Adult survivors of sexual abuse often struggle with feelings of guilt, rage, and shame. In the manga, Obanai talks about being held back by the decaying hands of his family members, which could represent the long-lasting effects of sexual abuse and how some survivors carry these burdens all through adulthood or throughout their lives.

There's also the thoughts about himself that echo the heartbreaking thoughts shared by some male survivors.

Guilt:

"As the member of a filthy family, I too was corrupt. My sins were deep, so I could not live a normal life"

Rage:

"With no other outlet, I turned all my rage on demons in a grudge of intense hatred. By risking my life for others, I felt as if I could in some way become a slightly better person."

Shame:

"Unless I die and come back in a different body in which this filthy blood does not flow, I have no right to be with you."

Suicidal ideation(mild):

"By risking my life for others, I felt as if I could in some way become a slightly better person."

"I want to die defeating Muzan." (He's the only character that I know of that outright says this.)

He also kind-of expresses his feelings of being weak during the fight with Muzan:

"I've accomplished less in this battle than anyone! I wish I could deliver a more effective attack."

While this quote isn't exactly definite, a feeling of being weak, or being 'less of a man' is also a common experience shared by male sexual assault survivors.

The scar and It's symbolism

The scar is a physical manifestation of the lifelong effect that sexual abuse has on its victims and the stigma it carries. For Obanai, it's not just a painful reminder of the trauma he suffered at the hands of his family, but also a reminder to him that he's like his attacker, the snake demon. The bandages he wraps around his mouth symbolizes not just his attempts to hide his trauma, but also his inability to talk about it due to shame and fear, which is unfortunately an all too common experience of male survivors.

Another struggle survivors often experience is with intimacy, romantic relationships and sex. For Obanai, I believe that this struggle is represented by his eating disorder. The link between food and sex is a well established belief in many cultures, people with large appetites can be seen as having equally high sex drives while people with small appetites have little or no sex drive.

As he grows older, his little appetite is basically him curbing his growing sexual desire, which he sees as ugly, like the scar on his mouth. But the thing is Obanai wants love, he wants to love and be loved, to be intimate with another person, but he feels he doesn't deserve it, after all he's filthy, shameful and probably a predator just like the snake demon. So he starves himself, suffering in silence with the belief that he was disgusting, that no one would ever love him, that he was destined to and deserved to be alone.

Then he met Mitsuri.

In Conclusion, Obanai is way more complex than the KnY fandom gives him credit for. This is a man that went through immense suffering, and it's really sad to see people hate on him because he isn't 'nice'.

Well, that's just how life is. Trauma doesn't exactly make nice people. We can't all be like Giyuu or Tanjiro(bestest boy ❤), a lot of us are like Obanai, Sanemi, and even Shinobu, a lot of us are angry, and why shouldn't we be?

...

*Phew, ok so this one has been in the drafts for a while because I was scared to post such a dark subject matter and also I needed to be really sure I wasn't just talking out of my ass but after rereading his backstory and analyzing aspects of his character, I'm more confident about this.

[clairedaring]

if you're hoping for joe 2.0 to get his 'revenge' in the second half of the series...

warning: mild novel spoilers (but also not really because i'm just discussing things that have been shown in the trailer)

i really think you should either drop the series or give up the hopes of a satisfying makjang revenge storyline in my stand-in instead of setting yourself up for disappointment. because that simply isn't the story that my stand-in is trying to tell.

so what is my stand-in about really?

well, for me i think its a romance tragicomedy drama about an idiotic scum male lead losing the person he loves most because of his own arrogance and refusal to listen to his heart and the series of unfortunate events that happened consequently for our protagonist who was living a peaceful and quiet life as a stunt actor before the scum male lead entered his life.

joe 2.0 and his approach to life

i've mentioned it twice now that one of my favorite traits of joe/zhou xiang is that kindness in his strength where even if he can be choose to be mean or cruel, he simply doesn't because he has such a soft heart and he's weak to see others in pain (joe is my fellow enfp people pleaser okay) (⁠っ⁠˘̩⁠╭⁠╮⁠˘̩⁠)⁠っ which is why even in his 2.0 life, you won't get to see joe turning 180 degree and going around to hurt everyone who's ever hurt him like it's some makjang kdrama.

and while that seems like it could be fun, i think the reason why i loved professional body double (my stand-in novel) so much in the first place is because that very distinction between joe and other rebirth/second chance at life protagonists that you often see in revenge kdramas/cdramas/thai lakorns.

logically, if my stand-in was a 24-episode one31 lakorn/thai soap opera, joe would be full of hatred and burning rage after his rebirth and started his intricated revenge plot while still falling in love with ming whom he should hate the most.

and yet he isn't (or at least it seems to me so far).

if you read the lyrics 'Die For You' - the opening ost of my stand-in, i think you can have a good guess of what the second half of the story will be like.

Even running away to death can't help. If my heart had chosen to stop at you I'll have to surrender with the confusion I feel. To come back to the same old place. Even if I have to die, disappear and then be reborn But the love is still buried deep inside, even if it's been shattered into pieces Even if my life ends, I can't stop my heart from calling out to you Because this whole body, life, spirit It is yours only, for all eternity.

and even from the trailer of my stand-in, you can tell that joe 2.0 has a lot of internal conflicting feelings about whether he could trust ming again after the betrayal he faced in his 1.0 life. and i feel like essentially the journey of ming proving to joe 2.0 that he really does love joe is very much the central plot in the second half part of the story.

so i'd like to take this part to note how well the series has done to adapt the novel so far. i think a good adapted change they've made is this early realization of feelings for ming in the joe 1.0 timeline. i do think the novel made him realized his feelings a little bit later but my stand-in did well to show within ep.3 what happiness could have looked like for joe 1.0 and ming and i think it rationalizes a bit more more for why joe 2.0 would still have feelings for ming 'buried deep inside' even when he's been badly hurt the first time around. and reading the story i've always found it interesting that they took this route to focus on the re-entangled complex relationship between mingjoe rather than going for a joe-centric revenge makjang plot (i swear if this was your typical thai lakorn, joe would seduce ming while planning to take down his whole family or something).

of course, that's not to dismiss that there's a lot of character growth for joe in the second half of the story, especially in his building of self-confidence, self-worth, the ability to put himself first and the fight for his own happiness above all. but like i've mentioned above, his growth journey is not at the expense of a drastic personality change in regards to the kind hearted joe we saw in his 1.0 life. instead, we get kind hearted joe 2.0 who quickly adapts to his new life and attempts to start anew while conflicted feelings resurface for him as he is pulled back into the relationships he once had.

all in all, my stand-in is still at the heart of it, a love story. perhaps, a dark romance as my friend @dragonsandphoenix would call it, but a romance nonetheless. i think that is what also makes professional body double such a compelling read too, because the progression in the feelings and complex emotions of these characters are so tightly written that it's convincing enough for me (maybe not for others though) to believe that yan ming xiu has/will always love zhou xiang (to the point ymx would probably eliminate anyone else who dared to steal zx from him). obsessive love? yes. do they both need therapy? probably. yet i still believe in their happy ending? of course.

final note/disclaimer: then again, this is just my PERSONAL opinions based on the novel and up til 3 episodes of my stand-in (which seems to be very faithful to the novel so far), who knows maybe they can anger novel fans and adapt it completely differently later on (something i sure hope they don't but we'll seeeee) ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ

[mari-lair]

Let's talk about Natsukane, my favorite rarepair. They barely have anything in canon, so this will be less of an analysis and more of me going disproportionately insane about a ship between two characters with no screen time together. Buckle up.

To start: They are opposite sides of the same coin.

During an official quiz to see what character best matches your personality (full quiz here) Akane and Natsuhiko's results are side by side, following the same path, so they have a lot in common.

Both are the extroverted and passionate kind of people who confess first, both like to exercise, and both have secrets, only differing on the question "Are you stubborn?" which makes sense, since Natsuhiko is usually pretty laidback while Akane is stubbornness incarnated.

Despite all these similarities, the results and 'advice' for each result are very different.

Akane is "Do your best to help your loved ones. Life can be unfair, but keep working hard." vs Natsuhiko's "People trust you. Make connections, they will help you in the future."

Give and take.

Akane is selfless to the point of concern for his loved ones, putting other needs above his own. Take Aoi for exemple: He wants a lot from Aoi, her attention, her love, her hand in marriage, but above it all, he wants her to be happy, always doing what he believes she will appreciate even when he personally doesn't enjoy it, cause if she is happy, so is he.

Aoi drives this impulsive and passionate boy crazy, but when Akane learns that she likes him back, and their kiss gets interupted, the only thing he demands of her is for Aoi to be in his life. His priority is for her to feel loved and safe, not to be her boyfriend.

Natsuhiko is also extremely down bad, but he is more selfish: Most of what he does has the goal to steal Sakura's heart, and he approaches her doing things that he likes (love songs, dramatic film-like dates, etc) not things that Sakura has personally ever shown any interest in. I don't think he even realizes he does that because Natsuhiko genuinely values Sakura and is in awe of her, we see him doing whatever she asks, we see him make tea for her, ask Mei to fix her elephant cup, be willing to 'become a woman' when Sakura gets a male body, and shows his devotion to her many times.

He genuinely pays attention to her. He is trying his best.

We don't have much to work with Natsu and Sakura, so this is more speculation, but it feels like he expects to be loved back, becoming more selfish when he is particularly desperate: Like trying to touch her whenever he can even after being consistently reprimanded for it, and going as far as to try to give Sakura a love potion that would force her to love him back for a day, prioritizing being loved.

Akane is old-fashioned when it comes to love, he'll date expecting it to end in marriage and push away all else, being open about his affection and lack of interest alike. A relationship is a lifelong commitment to Akane, no fooling around!

Natsuhiko also takes romance seriously, but he is no loverboy, he is a playboy.

We don't know if he ever dated or kissed a girl before Sakura, but we do know his love for Sakura doesn't stop him from flirting around. He was even down to kiss Nene for no real reason besides 'cute girl', claiming that being hit is a normal reaction, so he tried to kiss more people before (I'm assuming Sakura is the one rejecting his kisses, but there could be other cute girls he tried to kiss before, who knows?)

Akane doesn't like that.

One of the few times they are in the same panel shows Natsuhiko basking in the attention of many girls while Akane looks done with him.

I am pretty sure Akane has not seen Natsuhiko before this point, so Akane took one look at him and went 'the vibes are off, fuck this guy'. Meanwhile, I doubt Natsuhiko spared Akane any thought, he doesn't care about Akane as a person.

Natsuhiko is a friendly guy but he is detached from his peers, he can find charm in people easily and discards them just as easily: Wanting to kiss Nene, going 'oh well' about her lifespan. Doting on Mitsuba, hurting him when Mitsuba still had no Yorishiro. Not hanging out with anyone from his class, or mentioning a family. He is so detached from people, and supernaturals alike, that he is fine with destroying the world for Sakura.

Meanwhile, Akane judges people easily and grows attached to them just as easily. Reprimanding Nene for being too soft on Hanako, but consistently helping her out, and showing care for her. Forgiving Teru's consistent bullying after he is helped and even growing a reluctant fondness for the clock keepers that ruined his life.

Akane is described as a good person by his peers, and Natsuhiko is a self-proclaimed bad guy. Akane has a belief human lives are fragile and precious ever since he was 12 and nearly lost Aoi during his orientation day. Natsuhiko can't die, and he doesn't care when people die.

They are on opposite sides in every sense of the word but they have a lot in common.

Both are seem as easy to take advantage of: predictable fools who love their crush, but they are smart people who can read others well, and know how to weaponize what they have available.

They haven't interacted with each other all that much so they seem to have this 'predictable fool' view of each other too. Or at least, Natsuhiko does.

Both have brown/red hair.

Both have no self-preservation, and easily forgive or brush off when others physically hurt them. They don't fear death.

They are shields, the guards.

Both are pawns of someone else, Akane's boss is the clock keepers and Natsuhiko's is Sakura, their goals come second to their boss's orders most of the time. They have no interest in each other personally but they work for supernaturals whose main obstacle are each other.

I doubt they'll have more interactions, but what we have is enough to have fun.

The broadcasting club clearly considers Akane the weak link of the clock keepers, so imagine Natsuhiko was tasked to get Akane's trust, coach him into destroying the yorishiro, playing the long game, similar to how he and Sakura were chill waiting for Mitsuba to find a Yorishiro.

Akane is the most stubborn of the two, and he sees Natsuhiko as untrustworthy, so I can't see him falling for his 'reliable and kind senpai✨' charade, but I can see him being arrogant enough to fall for the 'this guy is a dumbass' vibe Natsuhiko emanates in waves. Akane has the disadvantage of caring too much too fast, people show him kindness and he is unconsciously inclined to reply in kind, people are insensitive to others and he gets angry, so he isn't that hard to approach or drag around if you learn to ignore his complaints. They can have a lot of 'bonding time' regardless if Akane actually vibes with him.

I think Natsuhiko would have a detached respect for Akane. Cause while Natsuhiko isn't a kind person, I do believe he appreciates kindness.

Take Mitsuba's surprise party for example: The party was clearly Sakura's idea. Natsuhiko is more interested in pleasing Sakura throught it than in cheering up Mitsuba, using the party planning as a way to bond and celebrate with Sakura.

But despite having no blush, no comment, no spark in his eyes when he looks at Mitsuba being happy, he does seem to feel a hint of something that makes him ask Tsukasa to chill.

So kindness is possible it simply doesn't come easy for him, is not something that has a big sway on his decision. He likes being a bastard way more, look at how happy he is to do Sakura's evil schemes!

So Akane would be a pain in the ass for him. Maybe even pluzzling but mostly an annoyance that's prone to getting violent when Natsuhiko says 'the wrong thing', be it verbal violence or a punch in the face.

And Natsuhiko would absolutely say the wrong thing.

He is a decent liar, very disarming, and hard to read. But he is also careless, he may be able to make someone like Kou lower his guard even when the young exorcist's instincts go "You are sooo suspicious" but Akane isn't dismissive of these things. (compare how Kou was able to dismiss Hanako's murder after seeing the ghost do a good deed in chapter 9 while Akane still eyes Hanako harshly to this day)

Will Natsuhiko put effort into looking like he is Akane's buddy? Will he take him on friendly hang-outs at the broadcasting club? Yes. Will he stop being dismissive about other people? Will he stop flirting with many girls? No. Even if Natsuhiko gets swept by Akane's passion and genuinely tries to help, like offering Akane a love potion so he can 'get' Aoi or taking him to have a 'glow up' in the mall, it wouldn't work, cause their approach is too different. Who he is and the 'kind and reliable senpai' image he wants to sell clash.

So we have a lack of trust that doesn't go away, for every nice thing Natsu shows, he has an equally bad trait. Either Akane doesn't drop the 'yo you suck' attitude or he finds himself relaxing, only to be slapped in the face the next day at the reminder Natsuhiko may be able to disarm him with idol songs, bad love advice, asking Akane for his assistance, but he is still not a good person.

Speaking of disarming, here is a tiny tangent: Natsuhiko is the only character who gets a comment on how he smells, not even Ao-chan and Teru, who are complemented in every way possible get comments on their smell. This means Natsuhiko must either wear supernatural perfume or have a natural smell that attracts supernaturals.

And I do think it's only supernaturals that he attracts since cats, who are heavily associated with yokai in Japan, love Natsuhiko, and Tsukasa says he smells 'yummy'.

Plus when he is walking with Nene, a delicious Kannagi, every monster has its eyes on Natsuhiko. They want to bite him, not Nene.

Assuming any supernatural finds his smell appealing, it would confuse Akane to think Natsuhiko smells real nice when no one else does, cause he hates the guy? What do you mean he is not wearing a strong fancy perfume and only Akane thinks he smells nice? What is going on? If he directly asks wtf is Natsuhiko's problem, he would not be helpful "Another victim, fallen for my irresistible wise senpai charm-"

They are a walking headache to each other.

The plan to get Akane's trust won't work in the end, no matter how much information on supernaturals Natsuhiko shares, or how many tea parties they attend to, so the inevitable betrayal would end in violence. Threaten Aoi, create a trap, make Akane be in serious danger so the other keepers are forced to show up and save him.

Perhaps, when Akane is dying and Natsuhiko looks down as he bleeds and resists and fights he realizes he does feel something more than apathy and frustration for Akane. But alas, it is not worth figuring out if is respect, admiration, care, or whatever, it's a bother regardless but still worthless since it would always end like this.

Now, let's slap a crush into this mess.

Natsuhiko's type is calm and quiet, harsh on the outside and kind on the inside. A beauty that feels unapproachable.

Which is both the complete opposite of Akane (Akane is loud and stressed 24/7) and spot on (Akane is harsh in his bluntness but kind at heart + he is a popular boy that others naturally orbit towards)

Natsuhiko getting a little crush on Akane would be a nightmare because he would not notice he has a crush. He has a strong belief boys can't like other boys, needing to 'become a girl' to excuse still having feelings for Sakura after she gets a male body.

So he wouldn't notice whatever positive feeling he got is a crush, but he would still be unbearable. Probably call him Akane-chan cause that's a feminine name. Cute.

Akane wants him dead and it has nothing to do with his bad guy vibes, it's mostly cause Natsuhiko flirts a lot. He insists it's nothing but he got that flirty vibe that is very punchable, like calling him 'kitten' and adding 'no homo' if Akane bluntly rejects him. Respecting his space when Akane is on edge but trying to test his luck and be touchy the second Akane shows any signs of lowering his guard, casual bro stuff like noggies. He will need a character arc cause Akane is sure he is either unbearable by nature or his ulterior motive is to go on a few dates with him and discard him after ike the playboy Natsuhiko is. He doesn't take his 'fondness' seriously at all but being harsh is pretty attractive to Natsuhiko, makes the rare signs that Akane cares appear all the more soft.

Imagine Akane saving Natsuhiko in a panic when he 'sacrifices' himself to a big beast (akane doesn't accept others pulling the 'I will die for you' card on him, not even other supernaturals), only to kick Natsuhiko back into danger the second this immortal and sturdy guy starts to swoon about how "Akane-chan is so kind, worried about me <3 " . That's the vibe.

Natsuhiko pays more attention and is more influenced by the people he like, so he would actually make an effort to figure out why Akane is so hardworking, and tries to be kind, to do little things to help him, which serves to confuse Akane but make him a bit more willing to accept his company. They are still a headache to each other but there is care, and way more confusion involved, since Natsuhiko may have to experience a lot of trial and error but his attempts to get closer to Akane and make him happy are genuine. Akane is way more indulgent than Sakura, so while he won't drink any suspicious love potion and things of sorts, he can be dragged to Karaoke and easily manipulated with a pathetic 'Akane-chan, I need your help pls :(' cause he has a helping complex. (Unless is after he catches Natsuhiko doing something morally reprehensible, in that case, Akane will not tolerate even breathing the same air as him and go full judgement more.)

Akane doesn't know how his life has been spiraling but he blames Natsuhiko.

Their difference in morals will always be cause for complications, but if it's in a canon universe it's worse, cause Natsuhiko will have to betray Akane, and hurt this strange new love that keeps him at arm's length but has shown signs of believing he can be 'less of an asshole' becomes an actual dilemma. Something he isn't used to.

Akane being the one to fall in love would be a completely different vibe, easier to imagine in a messier part of his life, when the clock keepers contract is still new and everything is more confusing, maybe he hasn't figured out that the accident with Aoi was staged to recruit him, so he isn't as wary and hateful of the supernatural world yet, relieved to see another fellow human familiar with supernaturals, since Teru is someone worthy of respect but still very violent and closed off.

Akane would also have a crisis and push aside the idea of being intrigued by this strange upperclassman, who smells nice and hides many secrets, cause the idea of falling for someone who isn't Aoi will destroy him. He is extremely stubborn and loyal. He will snuff the crush out by force, avoid him at all costs, be more susceptible to manipulation, althought not noticibly at first..

What if Aoi doesn't exist, what if is just Natsu?

Then he can be openly devoted, and the appeal is to ask the question "What would happen if Akane fell in love with a bad person?" How much is he willing to forgive, and change himself. What made him fall in love? What is a line he can't cross (ex murder) and how does he deal with Natsuhiko crossing it?

Akane is selfless and prioritizes making him happy, so Natsuhiko would feel kind of bad. He is so used to being ignored, that he says whatever, and being treated with respect or awe is so out of the norm?? He does have a conscience.

Natsuhiko admires love, and it is convenient that Akane will sacrifice his happiness for him and ask for nothing in return, but it leaves a heavy vibe you know? Like, it's cute that he'll blush if he casually puts his arm around Akane's shoulders and drags him close, as he does with his kouhais, but Natsuhiko is not a fan of the soft longing stares. He will make him do tasks though, if Akane is so happy to help, he can buy him sodas and sing his praises.

Let's light up a bit with simple mutual pining, no other crushes, no supernaturals.

They are both too bold and hopeless for pining, a confession happens one week during this scenario and any issue is solved with the power of love. Natsuhiko is having a crisis about liking a boy? No worries, Akane is more than comfortable with cross-dressing, I will never get over how he got offended they didn't let him crossdress if it would let him stay by Aoi's side in a volume cover, and Natsuhiko is easily swayed, this much devotion would make him accept Akane with or without a skirt. Is hopeless romantic to hopeless romantic communication.

As an established couple they are unbearable. They call each other "my boyfriend <3" and giggle about it like losers, and every daydream Natsuhiko has become true. Does Natsu want to be missed? Akane will mention how he wishes they lived together and how he longs for him in class and if asked he will write a song about how much he loves him. Does he like romantic dates? After taking Akane to three of those, Akane is already the one surprising him by preparing a candlelight dinner. Any gifts they give each other are well taken care of. There are hearts permanently floating by their head. Outsiders are horrified.

Natsuhiko wanted so bad to be the knight in shining armor, the reliable senpai, but Akane was built to be a worrier who doesn't vibe with asking for help, he is the one taking care of Natsu 90% of the time.

Imagine Natsuhiko daydreaming of having Akane run into his arms scared of an approaching storm, only to be startled by thunder and instinctively jump into Akane's already extended arms. That's the vibe.

Akane would find it cute too.

Marriage may scare Natsuhiko, or at the very least make him uncomfortable, a forever is a bit reckless right? Let's just enjoy the moment, haha. So Akane drops the proposals, but he still daydreams about it. His fear of marriage can make Akane possessive when Natsuhiko winks at any cute girl, but he knows Natsuhiko has fun with it, and that he loves Akane the most, so he is very forgiving.

Bonus: Their height difference is pretty nice. Natsu is a full stair step taller than Akane.

[yaut-jaknowit]

Really just all around interested in the background to some of your characters. How Vic and Uihoy came to know each other or a story of how they got together. Which one of those dummies confessed first, etc.

Chance of Fate

Pairing: Uihoy (Male Yautja) x Vic'tao (Male Yautja)

Warnings: racism (BUT it works out in the end)

Word Count: 2070

Summary: These two met longer before meeting you. Their meeting themselves was really rough around the edges. Who doesn't like an enemies to lovers trope.

Author Note: I just realized I wrote this slightly like enemies to lovers... that's my favorite trope too. Welp, dug my grave now I'm gonna lay in it.

Masterlist

Ao3

These two are dumbasses. I assure you. It was dumb luck their lives were intertwined with each other.

First off, there are two major differences between Yautjas (in my world). Those home world born and those born off world (mostly on motherships). I believe there’s a little bit of racism between these groups. Each believing they are better than the other.

I’ll let the story below reveal who is who.

As for Uihoy, he wasn’t always our sweet baby boy. Maybe his older years have softened his hide and heart to Vic’tao and you. Vic’tao… hasn’t changed much. Dynamic and static characters.

Hate to say it, but Uihoy acts a tad bit racist in this. BUT we all know he loves Vic’tao in the end. He overcomes these thoughts he was raised with after learning more about Vic’tao.

In the bustling crowd, Uihoy stalked his way through. Smaller than the average male, he’s able to slip between others to make his way through. No pays him any mind. In this city, he wasn’t known for being a big shot back in his home village. Here, he was just a random male, surfing the crowd.

Not that he minded. Uihoy wasn’t going to be showboating in the city of Kov. Mating season was far out. All he needed was a few items of interest before taking his ship back home.

A city like this had his scales itching. Far too many people, too many smells that forced a headache to rouse behind his eyes. It wasn’t a place he wanted to be but a necessary evil for him. Unfortunately. He needed fabrics from the clans of the coast. Kov was the closest city to sell them, being one of the larger cities on Yautja Prime.

As a male at seven hundred years old and higher status within his clan, his coin pouch was heavy on his side. His shorter, yet bulky build was able to move along the crowds with ease. He came to a halt before a known vendor he’s dealt with a few times before.

Ke’nt, a lanky, tall Yautja with light blue accented with white stood in his mediocre booth. Before Ke’nt stood an obvious young blood arguing with the vendor. Uihoy couldn’t help the roll of his bright eyes at the display.

Young bloods. They always thought they were the shit until someone came in and shoved their head into the pile of stink they created. The purple Yautja has done it countless times. A sight he loved to create.

The yellow and blue, unnamed male slammed his fist down on the table keeping the two from tearing into each other’s throats. “This price for these damned fabrics isn’t what you told me!” he shouted at Ke’nt, fury flashing in yellow irises. “You cannot change them in the time it takes me to grab the coins.”

Uihoy deals with Ke’nt occasionally. What the yellow Yautja accused Ke’nt of was an action he’s been known to do with Uihoy. After time, Uihoy has learned how to ensure this middle aged Yautja knows his place with a nearing elder. Violence is always the answer. Words are never enough.

The shoes Uihoy wears make next to no noise as he struts over to the arguing pair and saddling up next to the unnamed Yautja. Before either of them could vaguely tell him to either bug off or just simply ignore him, Uihoy released a bellow of his dominance. Both younger Yautjas paused their dealings and snapped their heads to find Uihoy at the table.

His piercing eyes were locked onto the older Yautja of the two. “Ke’nt,” Uihoy growled the name in a low tone. “Are you pulling the tactic that has failed on me?” The purple Yautja had his chin level, not showing off his throat nor bowing his head while staring Ke’nt with fire.

Said Yautja grunted his displeasure and stepped back from the table. His mainly white arms spread out. “Come on, Uihoy. You are ruining the fun. A male’s gotta make a living,” Ke’nt explained his reasonings while attempting to calm the situation. Uihoy was a male he loved the money but hated how smart he was. Nothing passed those sharp orange eyes of his. Damn him!

Despite the height difference, Uihoy glared from underneath his brows at the taller male. The other Yautja at his side stayed silent for the time being. But the shifting of his impatient body was growing tiresome. Young bloods.

“Your tricks have failed in the past. I can always find another for fabrics. I come here for mere convenience but I’m not below finding another vendor for what I need.” Uihoy ensured his words were stern, letting Ke’nt he wasn’t fooling around with his tomfoolery. “Now, finish up the deal with original price with him.” Uihoy jerked his head to the taller Yautja next to him. “Then, you know what I require.”

Next to Uihoy, the yellow and blue male bristled. He didn’t need help. He could’ve handle this all by himself! From the corner of his bright yellow eyes, he glowered at this short… elder. Wait, not yet. Close though.

“I can handle this myself,” the young blood snarled to Uihoy. The latter just tweaked a brow up before snorting his annoyance. His clanmates wondered why he never offered to train the unblooded or newly bloodeds. The attitude they snarked at him was top of the list.

A huff surpassed Uihoy’s mandibles. But, Uihoy never paid the young Yautja any mind. His gaze was kept on the blue Yautja before him, a glare making the process speed up.

Another long moment passed before the exchange for currency and fabrics had completed. Now, it was Uihoy’s turn. Said male passed over the same amount of credits he’s paid for in the past. Ke’nt never made a peep about any inflation of prices. He’s learned his lesson over the years.

When a few hundred Nok’s away from the vendor’s booth, Uihoy inspected the fabric in his hand… only to realize this was from the coast. The short, thick whiskers along his jaw bristled as his body tensed.

On the verge of about-facing and marching back to Ke’nt, his keen eyes spot through the crowd a form he saw less than a few moments before. In lanky, well built arms held the coastal fabric he was meant to buy. Great, he thought to himself. Uihoy began his path, picking up the young blood’s scent, and beginning an impromptu hunt. The day becoming longer than he’s wanting.

.

Like the hunter he’s grown up to be, Uihoy found his way through nearly the entire city of Kov. The young blood’s scent bringing him to the public transport off world. His brows raised. Where was he going? But, Uihoy had to stop him before he left or else he’ll never get the fabrics he paid for.

Through shortcuts and alleys, Uihoy ended up towards the end of the transport station. These were for transports back to motherships. An off world born? He’s come across them in passing times but to speak with one… He huffed and hurried his pace before his items were lost among the many motherships that circulate across the universe.

The same flash of yellow had him jogging, dodging bodies. Before the young blood had a chance to slip onto the ship, Uihoy slapped a hand on his shoulder and yanked him back down the ramp. The yellow male snarled and reacted within a fair time. There was always room for improvement.

Claws swiped along the barrel chest of Uihoy. A firm grip encased the offending wrist and prevented said attack. Uihoy kept pushing until this Yautja was trapped to the landing gear of the ship. Chest to chest, swapping body heat. Uihoy forced to look up at the height advantage Yautja snarled at him. “You have something of mine,” he rumbled at the young blood. His hands tightened when he attempted to squirm his way free. Uihoy wasn’t letting him go. Not until he had his fabrics.

Trapped against the stronger male, he grunted while attempting to make his escape. It was futile. With a huff, the young blood settled down and glowered at the male he recognizes. He’s the one who he saw only moments before leaving Yautja Prime; at least, tried to. “What are you pauk-de talking about?” he snarked and raised his upper mandibles.

Uihoy’s hands increased their strength in retaliation for respect from this young blood. His own mandibles twitching as he did his best not to challenge this little gnat and shove his face into the ground.

A jerk of Uihoy’s head led the young blood to glance at the fabric in his hands. This wasn’t what he paid for. Something he couldn’t even afford! “That. That is what I’m talking about,” Uihoy snapped.

Similar to a Xy and a full moon, the trapped male peered down at Uihoy with wide eyes. The latter mentioned Yautja gave a deadpanned expression to him before letting his hands fall away. Uihoy stepped backwards to offer a respectful space between them.

In one hand, Uihoy offered what he had been given back to the yellow Yautja. The other limb held out a free palm, awaiting the item he had paid for. “Give.”

The young blood grunted and placed the silky fabric into Uihoy’s waiting palm. He grabbed what he emptied his coin pouch for and stared down the male before him. “Must have been a mixup,” he tried to ease the conflict after the problem had been solved.

A fight was the last he wanted to deal with. He didn’t want to nurse unnecessary wounds on the ride back to his mothership.

Uihoy snorted and rolled his bright orange eyes at the small comment. “Of course, an off world born wouldn’t have noticed,” he retorted, adding bit into his words.

From the depths of his chest, the young blood snarled and lowered his head, body drawn taunt. “Say that again. I’ll show you how much better we off world borns are compared to the same old, same old borns of this planet.” Now, the fight became necessary.

At his sides, Uihoy’s hands twitched, ready for the fight. “You have no danger while living freely on those ships. We have to fight to survive out in the wilds of our home planet. You have no planet to call home,” Uihoy growled and puffed up his chest.

Despite his smaller size yet bulky build, Uihoy has proven time and time again he’s capable to hold off his own against someone either larger in height or build.

As the offending Yautja goes to open his mouth, the ship’s captain announces its last call. It was the last one for the cycle. He couldn’t miss it.

Standing back up straight, the young blood flexed the muscles in his legs to launch himself back onto the ramp he was shoved off of. Uihoy followed his every move the whole time. The other male pointed at finger down at him. “Remember this face and name: Vic’tao of Loloor Mothership. I can’t wait to wipe my feet on you.” This ‘Vic’tao’ entered the ship, on the safety of a difference territory.

If Vic’tao hadn’t been so lucky, Uihoy would’ve dragged the male back out and teach him a harsh lesson. He’d rather not deal with the authorities if he fought on mothership grounds. Different rules and laws.

He snorted to himself before turning on his heels and following a path back to the private docks he parked his ship at. It was an event he would forget… but the name he would look up once back home in Qav’f. Only to satisfy his curiosity.

These two would keep meeting in passing times before their anger melted. It seems harsh but these are Yautjas we are talking about.

Once the two forgave their rage for another, the two decided to hunt together. When hunt brothers grow close… things could get messy. Feelings are spilt, miscommunication may happen, untruthful words are said but in the end, they figure it out.

During a night of boiling anger that two hurricanes fed into each other, Vic’tao spat out his confession to Uihoy, surprising himself….

Uihoy had known for a long time. Before even Vic’tao had known for himself.

It was Uihoy who fell first but Vic’tao fell the hardest.

[alexanderwales]

Book Review: The Ministry of Time

I picked up The Ministry of Time when I was in Berkley. It was prominently placed, it had a bold and colorful cover, and I'm a sucker for time travel of any kind. When I brought it up to the counter, the cashier told me that it was one of her recent favorites and really brilliantly realized for being from a debut author. The inside cover promises "an ingeniously imagined, hilarious romp through time, space, and the human heart".

As a veteran of time travel stories, I think they fall into two basic camps. The first camp is the thinky camp, interested in the time travel elements, the layers of cause and effect, the twists and turns that history or characters might have undergone for want of a nail, branching universes and stable loops, the raw matter of causality itself. The second camp is mostly interested in history, whether that's alternate history or historical characters. These are stories where the premise is that modern warship gets transported back to Ancient Greece or whatever and then we just do not interact with time travel in any meaningful way until the end of the book, if that. Sometimes (maybe even often) time travel stories straddle these two camps, but when I read a time travel story I usually immediately clock it as being one or the other.

For the first three quarters of its word count, The Ministry of Time is so firmly in the latter camp that I thought it would just stay there. The basic premise is that the titular ministry has pulled people through time and set them up with "bridges" who are essentially civil servants that live with the temporal "expats" and get them acclimated to the near-future modern world. Our protagonist "bridge" is a British-Cambodian woman, while her "expat" is Graham Gore, a member of the doomed Erebus and Terror mission to explore the Northwest passage. He's very loosely based on a real man about whom so little is known that his character is invented from whole cloth, but there's quite a bit of historical grounding.

Kate & Leopold was a 2001 film about a modern woman who works at an advertising company (Meg Ryan) and gets embroiled in a love affair with an aristocrat from the late 1800s (Hugh Jackman). It's a romcom, and I thought about it a lot when reading this book, which turns out to mostly be a slow-burn romance. It hits a lot of the same beats. Gore is a man out of time and we milk this for entertainment value as we watch him acclimate to the modern world in various ways, seeing the things that he loves and the things that puzzle him. He's also a gentleman from a simpler time, and his nobility stands in contrast to the boorishness of the modern male. A lot of this is stock: I don't read many romance novels, but "man from the past" is a whole genre, whether he's come through to the present or the female protagonist has been sent to the past. I am pretty sure that the first book of Outlander is this, but I only watched half of the first season of the TV show.

(The other piece of media this reminded me of was the Norwegian show Beforeigners, which hits the "past is a different country" and "refugees from the past" theme a lot harder, at least for my money.)

The Ministry of Time does all this far better than Kate & Leopold did. Part of this is simply the writing quality, but there's also at least a little engagement with ideas of colonialism, the horrors of the past, how we assimilate into the dominant culture, and what that means. Gore is well-realized, and our protagonist has a lot of complexity to her, which brings some brushes with identity and living in the wake of someone else's trauma (particularly because the protagonist, like the author, is mostly white-passing half-Cambodian). It's just that this isn't the sort of time travel novel that I like, because it feels like the core premise, traveling through time, gets set to one side while we focus on the relationship between the past and the present, and how fuckable guys from the past are. I appreciate that there's some depth to the female fantasy on display here, but I don't find this particular female fantasy all that interesting on its own. When I realized, about twenty pages in, that this was primarily going to be a well-written romance, I could feel my enthusiasm for it waning.

Aside from the romance between these two, which is the largest chunk of the book, we have a few people from other eras. They're not given nearly enough depth for my taste, but they serve their purpose well enough, and help add another dose of "actually, the past was kind of shit", which I think any work that is flirting with romanticizing the past needs. The two main ones are Arthur, a gay man from World War I who doesn't get enough screen time, and Margaret, a lesbian who comes from the 1600s. I think there's probably a lot to say about identity and queerness, especially because modern notions of these things are not historical, but as with many things, the novel touches lightly on them and then flies off to the next thing like a timid dragonfly.

The best thing about the book, and the reason I kept looking forward to it, is that the prose is really really good. On almost any random page I open up, I can find a passage that delights me. There's a real art to the metaphor and how it's employed, and I really enjoyed most of it, even the ones that maybe made me scratch my head a little bit. Things like "sparrows gusted along the curb" or "I looked into Margaret's face, the sultry peach color of her mouth and her acne glowing with unprinted newness" or "sheepish, excitable expressions, like children caught drawing on the walls". On the prose level, I was a big fan.

The setting for the novel is near-modern London, a city that's suffering the effect of climate change, with blisteringly hot days where they can't do much more than lay on the floor and wait for the heat to pass, and occasional flooding. The ministry itself is a bureaucratic monolith in a way that feels like it's a piss take, but it doesn't go terribly far toward saying anything here. There's a genre that I'm trying to coin a name for called bureaupunk or bureauporn where we focus on huge organizations with matrix management and endless meetings and paper trails, and how that all feels to live with, but this doesn't quite go to that level, even if it gets close. (The ur-example of this is The Laundry Files, for a future post.)

On the plot level ... I hesitate to use the word "sucks", but I had a lot of problems with it even before we get to the last fourth of the novel where it shifts gears from being a slow romance.

To start with, why are they forcing this man to co-habit with this woman in a way they acknowledge to be scandalous from his perspective? Why didn't they select a bridge that would ease him into the 21st century? Why co-habitation rather than, say, a bridge having regular check-ins or something? Actually, why is all this time and effort being expended on getting these people to acclimate to the 21st century in the first place? The novel doesn't really seem to want to engage with this either, and the answers, to the extent we get them, are always pretty vague. Uncharitably, the bulk of the novel is just an excuse plot to get this woman with this man and have them fall in love.

It's not until the last fourth of the novel that it really starts to pick up steam, at least from a plot perspective. There's a mole in the ministry, there are mystery people from the future, there are plots and plans firing off, people are revealed to not be quite who they said they were ... and I enjoyed this part a lot less, in spite of it being ostensibly more toward the type of thinky time travel fiction I'm a fan of. There are two major reveals, and I didn't think that either of them landed, in part because of how weakly they tied into the thing that the novel had mostly been about, which is this central romantic conflict. It's also in this last fourth of the novel that it becomes a type one time travel story instead of a type two one, but the time travel mechanics are never explained, it never matters, and the whole story is worse for it. There's something that a lot of time travel stories sometimes do where they say "well it's time travel, it's confusing, no one really knows" and I fucking despise it because it's lazy shitty writing. Even if you don't have perfectly consistent rules that make sense on a physics level, you need to have rules that make sense on a narrative level, and usually the kinds of authors who write passages like that don't have either.

Prose aside, I think I didn't like this book. I like some of the stock time travel stuff, like a man from the past discovering Spotify, and a woman from the present reveling in a man from the past. I thought the sentence level stuff was great. I thought that some of the recurrent themes of identity and running from the past were interesting, especially the stuff about power dynamics and fitting in with the governmental overstructure ... but I didn't feel like the novel hit all that hard, aside from a single passage midway through the book. The author has some thoughts on growing up with this Cambodian heritage, but I don't think I necessarily got all that much understanding on top of what I could have gotten from trying to write a character like that myself. I got the sense that the author was putting a lot of herself into the novel, sometimes to a degree that felt embarrassing to read, in a way that the novel is explicit about. Sometimes that was embarrassing in a good way, raw and real, and other times it was just confusing, elements of her life put onto the page without enough introspection or background to understand it.

The romance is good and compelling though, I'll give it that. If you like romances, and don't really care about time travel, you might like it.

[violetganache42]

Highlights from tonight's watch party filled with framing, whodunnits, and mystery galore (Sorry about your laptop problems and all our lag complaints, WriteBackAtYa):

"No":

Scrooge and the triplets making an appearance

Mortimer's voice

Mickey being a people pleaser

WriteBackAtYa commenting how we love saying our favorite characters' names whenever they appear onscreen

Me: "PLUS INTEREST?!"

"Duckman of Aquatraz":

Story Blossom: "Would've been awesome if Webby kissed a shark in the new series" spamtoon: "its okay because huey kissed a worm"

ACAB!!!

Even in the original series, Louie is always trying to talk his way out of shit

The idea of Glomgold walking into court blasting Queen's "We Are The Champions" in a similar vein as the "All I Do Is Win" scene

"WHY, BEAKLEY?!"

Duckburg's court and its judge fucking suck

"NOT THE PAINTING!"

Scrooge effortlessly defeating the prisoners in arm wrestling

MORE SCROOGE AND WEBBY MOMENTS 😭💖

Mad Dog being a mama's boy

This whole episode showcasing how prisoners are people too

melcat33: "Mad Dog was like 'this is my comfort millionaire'"

The Scrooge x Mad Dog ship setting sail

This episode also reminding us on why the legal system sucks

Glomgold taking the time to hang up a painting of Scrooge

"McMystery at McDuck McManor!":

Donald fleeing to his car like:

"Literally the oldest person he knows?"

The entire table read of this episode from Disney Channel Fan Fest 2018

Scrooge being a sulking Grumpy Gills. XD

DJ Daft Duck

Godfrey and I being on the same wavelength yet again (To quote Godfrey, "Insert 'Perception Check' by Tom Cardy")

Scrooge being SO against celebrating his birthday that he straight up lagged and froze the Discord stream (Dude, WTF?)

THE BUTLER DID IT

Mist Opportunity

"I hate this already."/"OH, YEAH. :)"/"You can't get that helmet off, can you?"/"OH, NO. :'("

Black Arts Beagle is best Beagle Boy

DT-87

The stream lagging on the part where Scrooge walks into a sliding glass door 😭 (I know it's because of WriteBackAtYa's laptop, but for the sake of levity, let's say it was Scrooge's doing again and he did it because that part fucking embarrasses him.)

Mark saying Glomgold sucks at the whole "trying to kill Scrooge" thing (Rare Mark Beaks W)

THE DUKE IS BACK

"Since when did I have to become the adult in the room? I'M NOT CUT OUT TO BE THE ADULT!"

Huey doing a Scrooge impression

"Don't kill me! I barely lived! #YOLO #FOMO #AHHH"

Duckworth's reaction to seeing the axe fall down to the floor

Duckworth and Beakley's beef with each other

"Clock Cleaners":

Snoozer male stork

Learning A New Hope was paired with "Duck Dodgers in the 24th 1/2 Century" for its screenings

Realizing we were watching the edited version of the short where Donald says "Aw, nuts."

The return of Max's real mother

The Great Mouse Detective:

Me sharing which DT/DWD character would be who in a GMD-themed AU way before the movie started

Us getting excited at hearing Alan Young's voice

Cheerful music playing right after a sad moment (Hiram getting kidnapped) = Last Crash ending vibes

A new server emoji of Mark Beaks getting shot point blank for dabbing

Tokuvivor: "The world's smallest violin" Caroline: "Let me play you a song on the world's smallest violin" Me: "Basil, this is serious."

Learning Vincent Price is in this movie

Sharing a GMD Lorcana card during "The World's Greatest Criminal Mind"

"Flaversham."/"Whatever."

teleportzz: "literally every man in this is so gay so far" puffywuffy8904: "or are they just european" Story Blossom: "Or are they gay AND european?"

Basil's face when Toby sat on Olivia's command

OLIVIA SAYING UNCLE BASIL 😭💖

Hiram and Olivia reminding Puffy and I of Scrooge and Webby (I AM GETTING FUCKING EMOTIONAL ABOUT IT AS WE SPEAK.)

Ratigan upon learning Fidget's list is missing:

Basil x Dawson being the movie's equivalent of DWD91!Drakepad

Story Blossom pointing out how Miss Kitty is basically Goldie

The bar fight scene in a nutshell:

"There is no Queen of England."

Ratigan's royalty drip

WriteBackAtYa: "He's supreme like a taco from Taco Bell"

Basil trying to imprison Ratigan: "Officer, arrest that man!"

The entire Big Ben scene and how well the 2D and CGI animations blended together

Learning that the ballroom scene from Beauty and the Beast was the first Disney and Pixar collaboration

According to melcat33, Basil not skipping leg day saved his life

puffywuffy8904: "and they were roomates" Me: "Oh, my God. They were roommates."

Ratigan's "Goodbye So Soon" diddy playing during the end credits

[yellowocaballero]

obito fic 👀?

HELL YEAH BABY. HELL YEAH. I HAVE JUST POSTED THE 70K OBITO FIC GO READ IT.

Naruto. Man. Very treasured aspect of my childhood. I've written a few fics now that are about an influential childhood media or character, and they always have such a unique quality about them. But I love my BAMF!Sakura fics so much. You Call This A Utopia is for her.

I talk a little bit about the specialness of that useless little girl in the author's note, but #justiceforSakura has always compelled me - on one level, just such wasted potential as a character, but on another level, it was one of my very early frustrations with sexism in writing. I wanted to live vicariously through her, to use her as a self-insert power fantasy like all the boys got to do with all the male Naruto characters, but even if she's a chakra master (!) and genius doctor (!!) who can wreck mountains with her fists (!!!) she was never quite able to make the tween girl readers feel special, because she was never valued. BAMF!Sakura fics were how I was able to have my little kid power fantasies in my favorite good-bad shonen. Today, if I'm reading BAMF!Sakura fic I am spiritually watching Saturday morning cartoons and eating sugar cereal and crying.

I didn't have very strong feelings Obito until I read butter_peanut and realized that one could hypothetically make him the most fascinating fucking character. Naruto fic writers are so creative and magnificent and better than Naruto. I do vaguely remember Tobi being my favorite Akatsuki character, because he had so much personality and was a lot of fun after Naruto got kinda serious. butter_peanut having Tobi say the word "bestie" truly inspired me. After writing him I now understand them completely, because I have happened to discover that he is the funnest fucking character.

I feel insane. Like a precious few people know and understand that Obito is so much fun to write. I love writing insane people and we know this but Obito is truly on another level (he is a villain in Naruto and you cannot match that level in any other fucking series). He is genuinely so unhinged and he genuinely believes that he is a normal person. He is so fundamentally broken and it is so funny.

What caught me about Naruto villains - because this is Naruto, it is interesting in theory and so stupid in practice - is that they are almost all, fundamentally, good people. The goal of most Naruto villains is "create a better world with no war and only love and peace". Which means that you have to be a special kind of nuts to be a Naruto villain, because you are a good person who got so incredibly fucked up and twisted by your incredibly violent life that you are now an evil schemer who is trying to blow up half the continent. The evil in Naruto is on a systemic level, not a person one. You Call This A Utopia?! is fundamentally about this. Except stupid.

Tobi is also one of the most challenging but rewarding characters I've written. FUN FUN FUN. Lots more to say about literally all of this. For now I'll just say that I'm an adult, so these days I gravitate to adult POVs. Obito is the adult's window into a kid's world. But Obito is honestly an overgrown kid himself. Let's see how that all plays out.

[pastelwitchling]

I have a question to pose to the queer community;

(Keep in mind, I'm straight, but I'm also a writer, and I like to think of myself as a good one. Feel free to disagree with anything I say, this is all only based on what I've seen and read.)

I've realized lately that there is a criminally short list of good sapphic stories, and not just in traditional publishing either. I will say that I DNFed Written in the Stars, and I've not seen the best reviews for Delilah Green Doesn't Care, and it just got me thinking that I don't know of any sapphic story that's been on the level of Red, White & Royal Blue or something.

I also read a review for Written in the Stars that said something along the lines of, "The only reason I didn't DNF this was because it was a sapphic story not about coming out, and I really need that." It kind of broke my heart a little bit, not going to lie. Now, I've had ideas for sapphic stories, one of which I'm currently working on, but it hit me that there really aren't many sapphic stories that are on the radar like RWRB or Heartstoppers. Now, I'm not saying there isn't a double standard for sapphic stories -- as I think writing interesting and likable women is trickier than writing interesting and likable men, because women have historically followed a "formula," in which we're written like:

One of the guys (not like other girls)

Manic pixie dream girl

Emotionless assassin (I love Throne of Glass, don't come for me, but you know what I mean), and now:

the adorkable quirky girl

and it's all we get now. Women are one of these four, and that's it. My favorite female characters in books are the unique ones, the ones I have not seen a million times. Writing unique women now, and I say this as a writer, is difficult because you have to be careful not to force these female characters into one of these boxes which we have so often been forced into. It's just the facts of storytelling; female characters take more work to make likable because, historically speaking, female characters are written more to pander to audiences and be blank slates than to be anything like real people that would exist in their world. In order to keep people happy, the female characters have to be totally inoffensive, and the only way to do that is follow whatever archetype is popular at the time. What happens then? All female characters end up coming out the exact same until readers get sick of it. We don't have to like it, but at some point we have to acknowledge it if we're to get more badass and unique female characters (like; Evangeline Fox from OUaBH, Kazi from Dance of Thieves, or Avery Kylie Grambs from The Inheritance Games). I think that's why it does get a little discouraging to read sapphic stories that are popular and find them so... lacking. And all because of the characters. This has been my own personal viewpoint.

So I guess my question is: have you guys also noticed the lack of good and exciting sapphic stories? Or, perhaps, the way people are more likely to settle for any sapphic story, even when it's poorly-done? Personally, I just have not found a single sapphic story so far that does not have: a) poor characters, b) a weak plot, or c) less effort put in than I've found in so many male love stories. And this is often by sapphic writers, and I just don't get it. I go into these books wanting to like them, but that's not a good enough reason for me to actually enjoy a book without any depth.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you also feel like sapphic couples get the short end of the stick? Why do you think that is?

[utilitycaster]

You have a good point. It's just weird that there are so many complains/posts/discussions about Orym, FCG or Ashton and on the other hand, the same people will tell you that "...the CR fandom will always care more for male characters" - well, apparently you do too or why else would you write so much about them and not your favorite relationship? It's just so baffling to me.

YEAH. Wow! It's almost as if you're hostile towards people talking about any flaws Imogen and Laudna have, they'll start talking about the men more because at least they can talk about them! It's almost as if, when you attack everyone who's like "I like Imogen because I think she's engaging with selfishness, which is a theme Laura has explored with incredible depth and nuance with her past characters as well," and claim they clearly hate Imogen, and then turn around and say "I LOVE FCG and Orym I think they're incapable of truly connecting to people because I'm projecting my personal feelings about my right-wing Christian upbringing onto 'guy who is worshiping a chaotic good of freedom' and 'guy who was part of the guard for Keyleth, you know, Keyleth, the character you think no one is allowed to ever question because Marisha got hate in 2017' and they should apologize to Laudna for everything they've ever done but I LOVE THEM" everyone will realize you're a massive hypocrite! It's almost as if, when you make any criticism of female characters taboo, even thoughtful analysis (and yes, thoughtful analysis is subjective, but I promise that the misogynist dudebros of yore do not talk about connecting themes across multiple characters in multiple campaigns; they say Shut Up Dumb Cunt), many people will start talking about the men!

Like...look, I think there are a number of reasons why people are targeting Orym right now, but again, before Orym it was FCG. For a while it was Ashton. Occasionally it's Chetney but usually they just forget about him. Briefly, when Laudna died, it was Fearne for the coin flip. Not on Twitter but on Tumblr some poor coward went to an anonymous vent blog and attempted and failed to start rumors of a ship war. In the end, it's totally fine if you enjoy this ship (and I've had great conversations with a number of people who are like 'it's sweet and cute but I also enjoy the other characters', and I support those people!), but it really feels there is a segment of fans who are less interested in enjoying the ship and more interested in screaming about how not everyone enjoys the ship and that, in turn, only makes it worse, because the reason I don't care for the ship is that there isn't really anything to say about it and there's way more interesting things to be said about the characters as individuals, or about literally every relationship, romantic or platonic. Like, I don't think Orym is terribly complicit - I think he's not perfect in that moment, but who is - but it really isn't about Orym, it's about avoiding the fact that there's not enough canon ship content to frost a mini cupcake and maybe if they throw enough discourse pocket sand in the air we won't notice. Except we are noticing that all they have to talk about is Orym.

[aletterinthenameofsanity]

i am here to ask dw questions! favorite and least favorite series? and which is your favorite and least favorite of the male companions? :)

-ninthdoctorr (sideblog)

Alright, I am so down to answer this!

Favorite series is a tie between 3 and 1. I cannot decide. You cannot make me decide. They are both absolutely brilliant in terms of season arc, character development, and the fascinating companion/doctor relationship. (Plus Jack swings in to contribute to what are far and above my two favorite season finales in the show.) Nine/Rose and Martha/Ten are my two favorite doctor & companion pairings in the show because of the way that they affect each other and push each other's characters forward (both for the good in both cases and the bad in Ten/Martha's case). Nine is my favorite Doctor but Martha is my favorite companion and so it's so hard to choose. So I won't :)

As for least favorite season of the show, well, it would either be Season 7 or 13. Though both have redeeming value (I love the new characters in both seasons- Karvanista, Bel, Vinder, and Clara all have their merit), they're dragged down in different ways. Season 7 has some absolute STINKERS of episodes dragged down by Moffatisms or sexism whether overt or not (asylum, dinosaurs on a spaceship, angels take manhattan, time of the doctor, name of the doctor, day of the doctor) and even though there are some good episodes (A Town Called Mercy, Hide, Cold War, Journey to the Center of the TARDIS), they can't make up for the bad beginning and ending to the season. Then 13 is just...I'm sorry, it's not for me. Jodie is acting her ass off, but there's so many exposition dumps and the villain is threatening but not emotionally tied to the main character (yes, they took her memories, but I always struggle with amnesia plots when they're retroactively fitted in to a character's backstory rather than part of character development going forward, if that makes sense). Plus, the shortness of the season really hurts it, just as it does the 60th anniversary specials (which are a conversation of their own).

As for favorite/least favorite male companions...that's a complicated question. If you take Adam out of the running for least favorite, then I think it might be Dan. Sorry, the actor is very good, and he's funny, but he's got so very little character development going on other than his brief moment realizing his worth/leaving in the finale. He's fun but he's not interesting, if that makes sense?

And as for favorite...god, I love each of the male companions for different reasons. Mickey has the best character development. Ryan & Graham are a fantastic duo and their relationship development might be the best thing from Thirteen's era. Rory is a caretaker, possibly the most loyal character in all of the show, and is the voice of reason/kindness in a lot of his episodes which normally male companions don't get to be. Jack's vibes with Nine/Rose and Ten/Martha are unhinged and really need to be studied under a microscope but his tragedy is unparalleled in the entirety of Doctor Who (fight me on that, I dare you). Danny DESERVED to be an official companion because he was the best thing about Season 8 and had a lot of that same kindness/voice of reason as Rory did.

...where was I going with this? Right, I think I'd actually weirdly enough have to go with Mickey on this one? It would have been Rory if it weren't for some of the Moffatisms that kind of bring him down for me (making the Doctor ask permission to hug Amy twice, the lack of agency in his leaving, the sort of...puttering out of his arc in 7a) and just the fact that Mickey's character arc through season 1 and 2 gets better and better every time I rewatch it. The way that he interacts/grows to trust Nine fascinates me, from World War Three to Boom Town to Parting of the Ways. The fact that you can see the tension in him with his love for Rose/the fact that both are nineteen and making mistakes and figuring shit out/and his understanding that she found someone and something better. The fact that he jumps to help her and the Doctor in Boom Town/Parting of the Ways. The way that he finds his confidence and more importantly his purpose in Season 2 and is one of the only people that ever stepped away from the Doctor on his own terms. (Martha and Mickey make so much more sense when you look at them as the only two characters to find their own purpose on their own terms outside of the Doctor...I've written about it in fics because that one detail makes them work so much more for me). I love his dynamic with Jackie and the way they start off at odds but get so much closer to the point that his final goodbye in Journey's End is with her and not Rose. I like his dynamic with Jack. I think Mickey's seriously underrated as a companion.

...sorry for the rambling. You give me an opportunity to infodump about my current hyperfixation and I definitely will! Please feel free to ask more questions- I'd love to answer!

[walpu]

Aventuriene is one of my favorite character and a favorite make character. Honestly, I'm not a fan of male HSR characters. I love Luka, but now Aventuriene scored him higher. Blade and Dan Heng are interesting but I don't super love them, I do like em though. At first I dislike Dr. Ratio becouse he seemed to me judgemental, but then I realise I misunderstood him and Penecony even made me love his character. I know that's lots of fans Sino for Jung Yuan and Sunday, but in my opinion they are to overted and I think their design is boring.

Now here is what I love about Aventuriene. At first, I liked his design but I was also neutral to him. I wasn't fan of his personality but after watching the play troughs (since I'm taking a break from playing the game) I changed my mind. I like how realistically Aventuriene is written. I realize that there still others HSR characters written realistically, but honestly Aventuriene is the male character that is written like a real person, and not just as fan service. Of course that's is my personal opinion and I understand if you have the different one.

I genuinely think that Aventurine is probably the best written character in hsr. Since 2.0 it was pretty obvious hoyo handles his character well, the leaks only confirmed it, but holy shit, they did so good in 2.1. They managed to deliver his story and make him sympathetic but without overdoing it to the point when it feels like a tearjerker. Like, you look at him and think "yes, it's a very realistic trauma response. yes, he has a lot of conflicted feelings about pretty much everything, from his religion to his own life and I would probably feel like that too". Honestly I'm so happy Shaoji was the main writer for Penacony arc even if he caused me a lot of stress lmao

I remember the first time I saw Aventurine's design I thought he looks cool. I also remember me and my friend joking that he looks like he's Reigen Arataka coded. I named him mr scammer and all that 💀 People make mistakes okay. Then I learned he's from the IPC and said yeah you lost me here I don't fuck with capitalists. Then the whole "slave" tattoo discussion started and he caught my attention again, then the 2.0 happened and well.

I like the rest of the male cast too tho and for a very long time Gepard was my favorite, so I didn't plan on pulling for Aven since I already have a blonde preservation bbg. Well, things change 💀 I get yiu about Ratio, I wanted to punch him the first time I saw him but like. Affectionately. He was funny af to me. I like the way they handle his character so far tho and I honestly have a lot of thoughts about his arc.

I think the thing with a lot of hsr characters, both male and female, is that we didn't have enough time with them yet. Which is not a bad thing since the story has basically just begun. It may be more noticeable for the male characters since its fewer of them tho. Plus the Lofu storyline was a bit messy in general tbh, I hope they'll handle it better in the future. Since we now have the POV switch mechanic, there are a lot of great opportunities to let us understand the characters better.

[danjaley]

Get to Know Me - Sims Style

Thanks for the tag @nocturnalazure

Tagging whoever would like to do this - I'm just home from work on a Sunday, so only light tasks for my brain please.

What’s your favorite Sims death?

I've never been the type who enjoyed killing off their Sims, so I haven't been very interested in the various death-types. Years ago I've seen someone reply to this question "the mummy curse, because of the darkening vision effect and the sandy death-animation and ghost". This inspired a generation of my gameplay legacy, but I manipulated it so the Sim turned into a mummy instead of dying.

Alpha CC or MaxisMatch?

Maxis match, especially for clothing. I like the clear silhouettes of MaxisMatch clothing and I think they work best with most animations.

Do you cheat your sims weight?

In gameplay I prefer to achieve weight-changes the natural way. In storytelling of course I make the characters the way I need them.

Do you move objects?

In storytelling always, in gameplay sometimes to decorate.

Favorite Mod?

The technically obvious answer is NRaas because the game is literally unplayble without them. I love how many gameplay mods are being released these days.

First Expansion/Game Pack/Stuff Pack?

For every Sims game I was a bit late to the party and waited until it came with a pets expansion. This and Seasons. The world is not complete without animals and seasons.

Do you pronounce live mode like aLIVE or LIVing?

As @nocturnalazure said, I understand it as "we're live now". It's called "Live-Modus" in German and in a German word that's the only way "live" is pronounced.

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?

I still think the cast of Of Chevalry are the best Sims I've ever made. I don't see characters' faces very clearly in my head, but these really turned out the way I hazily imagined them.

Have you made a simself?

It's my icon.

Which is your favorite EA hair color?

Is this a question for the Sims 2 or 4 players?

Favorite EA hair?

I like the braided updo from the basegame. I use a lot of EA hair actually, especially for male Sims.

Favorite life stage?

Depends. For babies, toddlers, and to some extend children, I wish there were more content and gameplay in the actual game. On the other hand, this makes it fun to make mods for them. Teens and elders I wish were more different from adults, and I wish the developers had gone the extra step and made all clothing available teen-to-elder, like in Sims 4. In my stories I try to show my characters' development in whatever age they currently are.

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay?

I'm not a very good builder. My best own buildings are square and simple.

Are you a CC creator?

I dare say.

Do you have any Simblr friends or a Sim Squad?

I feel really old when I think of all my mutuals who are no longer active. Around 2015 there were so many historical and storytelling Sims 3 simmers! Sometimes I think of their stories and how they might have continued...

Do you have any sims merch?

Until last year there was a cardboard plumbob hanging next to our family-computer. But we finally realized every family member has their own computer now, so we removed that office corner.

Do you have a YouTube for sims?

I do, but it only has a handful of three-second screen-captures from my game. At one point tumblr's video upload didn't work, so I linked them from youtube.

How has your “Sims style” changed throughout your years of playing?

It changed a lot. I always played a historic game, but I was much more eclecticist in the beginning. Of course also new cc came out, and I started using lighting mods and later poses. And I switched from gameplay to storytelling.

What’s your origin id?

danjaley

Who’s your favorite CC creator?

There are many, but the first Sims creator and blogger I discovered was @aroundthesims . Sandy inspired me to start my own Simblr, and what would I do without her custom content?

How long have you had simblr?

Nine years this March.

How do you edit your pictures?

In Photoshop CS2. It used to be Elements but that is no longer working.

What expansion/ gamepack is your favorite?

See above.

[aragarna]

For the fandom ask: the three musketeers ❤️

What originally drew me to it

What I like most and least about it

The character/story arc I find the most compelling

A scene/moment that makes me really emotional every single time

What originally drew me to it

You do realize I first read that book 25 years ago?! I have not idea why I picked up that book in particular then, except for the fact that as a kid, I read as many French classics as I could. But what I do remember immediatly enjoying are two things:

The camaraderie. That strong and immediate friendship. That deep sense of loyalty, and that feeling that together we can face anything. Together, we're unstoppable. You need to cross the Channel and go right into the Enemy's den? Let's go, I've got your back. They didn't call it that back then, but it's totally the foundation of the "found family" trope. Tous pour un, un pour tous.

The other thing that contributed a lot to my love for this book was Dumas' writing style. It's joyful, and funny, and very rhythmic. There is quite often a sort of jubilation in his words. It's classic literature, beautiful and with a lot of flare, but still very readable (nothing annoys me more than a writer that makes it unnecessarily complicated. Words must flow.).

What I like most and least about it

What I like the most is the aforementioned friendship and the sense of adventure (see above).

What I like the least is probably the whole Milady story arc. As much as I love those books, I have to admit that, as a product of its time, the story lacks truly compelling female characters. Yes, there are a couple of female characters (including the Queen, who feels actually more important than the King), and of course Milady. And yes, Milady is an interesting and complex character but she's also, despite being originally the actual victim, shown as a very dangerous woman. One we must not feel too much sympathy for (and well, she did some pretty nasty things to our heroes, so I didn't feel too much sympathy for her...). And I've never really like the Femme Fatale archetype, which really is a male fantasy.

So on the one hand, she's not a character that I liked, but on the other hand, boys, what the hell?! You don't take justice into your own hands like that!! That's just... wrong! And Athos, my friend, really?! For a tattoo?! And you're supposed to be the wise one. So, yeah that whole *hand wave* thing at the end of The Three Musketeers, not their finest hour. (I'm actually quite curious how they're gonna solve that in the movie...)

The character/story arc I find the most compelling

My favorite character is d'Artagnan. He's the youngest one (18 already seemed super old to 12-13 years old me), and when we meet him, he's full of innocence and hope, something I could relate to. I love that he is so full of energy and ideas. Daring and adventurous. Very positive, though he becomes more philosophical and sarcastical as he grows older (I'm including Twenty Years Later and The Vicomte of Bragelonne). But always, all his life, he remains attached to his original three friends. He is the definition of loyalty.

And a story arc that I love is actually something that happens in Twenty Years Later. It's more of a scene than the whole arc, but it's one of my favorite. D'Artagnan and Porthos are in England for like, capturing Charles I, who was on the run or something. On the road at night, they encounter some enemies and start fighting, though it's too dark to see who they are. And d'Artagnan gets annoyed cause his opponent is parying all his attacks and he let go an exasperated "Mordious!" and his opponent freezes and they recognize each other - the enemies were Athos and Aramis, who were helping the King - and they just fall into each other's arms. Like, the circumstances that brought us here don't matter, we'll figure things out, but man it's so good to see you. Let's go clean out an inn, and we'll talk.

(I really wish they'd adapt Twenty Years Later for once)

A scene/moment that makes me really emotional every single time

Of all the very emotional scenes from The Vicomte of Bragelonne is probably Porthos' death. I won't give too many details as to not spoil the how and when but damn, I actually remember a lump in my throat as I was reading that chapter. It really felt like I had lost something. Or someone. The book goes all the way to the end of their lives, so, like, they all die, but Porthos', for some reason, is the one that hit the hardest.

Wow that got long! Thank you so much for the ask, my friend :)

[the-savage-garden]

Nitpicking ACOWAR Ch 8

I'm going to have to start posting individual chapter notes for a little while because I got real nitpicky the next chapter. Might still do it after too. Hopefully I'll be able to eventually post more chapters in one post because it's getting ridiculous for me doing it this way.

Chapter 8

-Tamlin gets mad at Lucien and Feyre for retaliating against the weird twins for some reason.

-Tamlin wanted to deal with the twins his way. Tamlin expected better from Lucien but he wasn’t surprised by Feyre’s actions.

-[“That’s the sort of thinking,” I snapped, clutching the armrests, “that has allowed for a wall to be the only solution between our two peoples; for the Fae to look at these sorts of murders and not care.”] Did… Feyre just imply that Tamlin doesn’t care about humans?

-I know Tamlin has a temper but why does it matter to him if Lucien and Feyre sent the Bogge after the twins? In the first book he hated Hybern! This book mentions the 1st one and references scenes but then changes and adds things that weren’t there before! UGH.

-Lucien tries to reason with Tamlin but since Feyre has made sure their friendship is falling apart now Tamlin doesn’t trust Lucien anymore.

-Feyre targets all of Tamlin’s triggers to get him to lash out at her and she doesn’t shield herself. She’s become a manipulator now because of Rhys, I miss her old character from the 1st book.

-[“What have you done,” Lucien breathed, and Tamlin’s face was the picture of devastation as Lucien shoved him aside. He let Lucien shove him aside and help me stand.] This reminds me of something, like a scene from a movie.

-”The sentries—Bron and Hart, two of Tamlin’s favorite lord-warriors among them—were gaping, attention torn between the wrecked study and my face.” Keeping a note of these minor characters' names.

-Feyre and her stupid naming of her paintings. Ugh.

-Useless bathtub scene and Rhys asking how Feyre is doing.

-”Perhaps I’d been too good at keeping those healing powers at bay. “ Haha, you sure are good with your powers, que eye roll.

-Have I said how much I hate possessive male characters yet? Because I really hate possessive male characters! Ick. Tamlin I had been meh about but Rhys? I have no interest in him. He’s a creep.

-Feyre goes on a ride with Bron and Hart.

-Tamlin begged Feyre for forgiveness which she accepted (because she’s a manipulator) but Lucien avoids Tamlin.

-The naga attack after midnight.

-Tamlin will be dealing with the guard that lost the keys.

-”We all gathered outside the barracks the next morning, Lucien’s face pallid and drawn, purple smudges beneath his glazed eyes. He hadn’t returned to his room last night.” I don’t know what this has to do with anything?

-When did Tamlin become someone that punishes people? Is it because of Hybern being there? I’m still so confused by the world-building in this book.

-”...the ropes restraining him groaning as he strained against them.” What is up with this grammar? Is it just me that finds this odd?

-The sentry had apparently fallen asleep, probably because of Feyre.

-“Twenty lashes. And one more, for the Cauldron’s forgiveness.” This sounds more like human punishment than Fae but what do I know? SJM makes the rules around here.

-”I made my move. Slid my power into the bound sentry’s mind and freed the memory I’d coiled up tightly in his head—freed his tongue, too.” Making note of this.

-Sentry says that Ianthe took the keys.

-Wait, did Ianthe cause the naga attack? I thought it was Feyre that did that? Is the book gaslighting me?

-”It wasn’t fear of pain that propelled him, I realized. No, the lashings would have been deserved and earned and borne well. It was the fear of honor lost.” Huh?

-”I kept my focus on him, even as I counted my breaths, even as I prayed that Ianthe would take the bait—” I need to keep this in mind.

-Tamlin is suspicious of Ianthe.

-Brannagh calls them pathetic. For some reason this makes Spring look weak to Hybern.

-When has Tamlin cared about laws and traditions? I guess since the 2nd book.

-”In this … in this, my revenge edged toward something oily, something foreign and queasy. He would heal from the pain, but the blow to his honor … It’d take a little piece out of mine as well.” It’s almost like you’re doing a bad thing, Feyre.

-Tamlin being backed into a corner.

-”And like I’d gambled, Tamlin’s need for control, for strength, won out.” What are you even talking about? Tamlin literally doesn’t have a choice in this!

-”Ianthe was too important an ally to risk isolating. The word of a low sentry … no, it did not matter as much as hers.” Keeping note of this.

-”They had no idea—none—that I’d goaded her into it, pushed and pushed her to reveal just what a snake she was. How little anyone without a title meant to her.” I’m pretty sure this is still on Feyre, it doesn’t matter what Ianthe has done, Feyre manipulated everyone to get the right results to cause all this. She’s putting all the blame on Ianthe so that she doesn’t look like the bad guy.

-”How Tamlin listened to her without question—to a fault.” I don’t even know why Tamlin listens to Ianthe at all.

-”The sentries were sizing up Ianthe, the royals. Tamlin had always been one of them—fought for them. Until now. Until Hybern. Until he put these foreign monsters before them.” It’s almost like Tamlin did it to save someone he loved.

[1010ninetynine]

a masterpost of what i consider gay subtext in Uramichi Onii San - the Manga

not the Anime quite yet. no offense Touko Machida but I simply do not want to deal with two interpretations of the work at this point in time.

Generally Kinda Romantic Subtext Between Certain Characters that I Think Can Be Interpreted Either Way

Uramichi and Usahara I cite this for the near telepathic communication. Say what you will - married couples are known for this shit - and while it's definitely not anywhere close to confirmed that these two characters have strong feelings for each other, imo this was pretty gay of them. But to put it one way - are you really friends if people don't mistake you for a gay couple at times? imo not really.

additionally, while it might be just beginning chapter art...tell me where our favorite bunny is looking? Is he being respectful?

(honestly i do think usahara is straight but yk...this mangaka likes his gay men pathetic methinks so there is a chance!)

2. Uramichi and Iketeru

back when iketeru was in hs and uramichi's age isn't given - but i think they're the same age? anyway the lyrics over this scene are just...gay as hell. And they're helping a child find their mom. That is married couple behavior.

(obviously could just be a joke/not intended. their relationship is literally a gag on not understanding each other because iketeru is too happy for uramichi)

3. Kumatani and Iketeru

there's also some somewhat strong subtext between kumatani and iketeru. Like first, kumatani was the first guy who got the weird shirt iketeru found.

and next, the constant protection of iketeru from alcohol is courtesy of kumatani our mvp

he even protects him from our favorite loser

while not as extreme as his protection of HACHITA THE BABY it is still noticeable that Iketeru is someone he cares about.

and both kumatani and iketeru hid their love life from the camera (as did the whole cast hehe). Kumatani literally says his love life isn't family friendly - which can mean a lot of things, including that he's homosexual. Iketeru says it's too beautiful to be shared - which can mean anything really, even that he's straight and had a normal love life that he ain't willing to share.

Imo this sequence of behaviors can be read one of two ways. First of all, you'd have to be blind to not see the obvious resemblance between Iketeru and Hachita, so the affection and thus acceptance of strange gifts due to their similarity is natural. But also...gay? Hmmmmmmmmmm

4. Uramichi and Kumatani

They kind of just hang out a lot, and Kumatani regularly reads more positivity in Uramichi than is probably there. Not really as showstoppingly romantic as the other three examples of subtext, but imo still quite a nice bit of fun in its own right. They're probably the ship easiest to imagine writing besides kumatani and iketeru and my personal favorite but before we get to that...

The Predatory Gay Man I Must Mention For The Completionist In Me

ok look. homophobic caricature he may be. but i said I would catalog all gay subtext in uramichi and imo on this website gay subtext include gay text (hxh moment) and capellini furitsuke is in fact. gay. and a horrible predatory man the likes of which rival your worst coworker. And probably beat him.

he torments the men around him and forces them to engage in behavior they're not interested in. i cite here usahara and saito's mistreatment but there might be more I missed.

like you can't describe capellini's behavior as anything but horrid and disgusting. i'll call uramichi onii san many things - particularly pro-lgbt in terms of rep isn't close. Still love it in general - and I'm pretty sure the author himself is gay given the ludicrous amount of male character thirst traps he draws - but i don't think he likes that about himself tbqh. But I don't really know him - just go on his twitter now and then.

Finally, the moment I've been waiting for but you all don't realize is coming maybe idk

Uramichi and Kikaku - a mostly one sided love story

This relationship isn't so much implied as it is easily ignorable yet true: it is obviously intended to be read as a love story of sorts, whether it be a gag about how lonely uramichi is and how he needs some emotional connection, or just plain 'he's gay'. This is literally the only guy who gets the door to Uramichi's heart regularly attempting to open treatment, let alone the fact that when Kikaku begs Uramichi to help him out with work he always agrees...maybe more so due to fear than genuine care but still.

there's probably more examples, but these are enough to prove my point imho

he also invites Kikaku to the first end of year party (there aren't any others at the time of writing, specifying in the case of a reader from the future)...or attempts to. Not to Saito Uebu or any other staff member - perhaps because he expects the ones he's closer to already be there, but still - specifically the guy who's only ever bothered him to help complete his work. It's what being horrifically lonely and dick brained does to you (i would know that best).

which leads to yet ANOTHER HEART DOOR SCENE THING

so uh yeah. uramichi's constant giving in to kikaku i think makes more sense if we consider the (slight) romantic inclination he ""might"" have for him.

BONUS: Uramichi and Utano had a moment that was pretty cute but not enough to qualify as subtext in my eyes because they kind of have no chemistry in canon so i still get to title this gay subtext but I also like them