Something I think fiction does sometimes is make sex represent the end goal for relationships so often that if two characters sleep together it causes readers to automatically see them as truly in love / that it would solve all problems for the pair to be together forever, even when that isn't necessarily what the narrative is trying to say / depict otherwise.
I am thinking about this because of Guts and Casca... to me they sleep together initially almost as an act of friendship? A way of experimenting with each other and learning about sex, perhaps of distracting themselves from the person they're both more actually into, and of course also because they do care about each other and maybe are attracted to one another on some level, and want to see what it would be like to try to get even closer together. But I think the story also makes it pretty clear that Guts is more emotionally invested in his relationship with Griffith than with Casca, in what you might call a narratively romantic sense... and Casca is shown sort of seeing the futility of her feelings for Griffith and eventually growing apart from him that way pre-Eclipse, even though she still cares for him the most out of everyone she knows (though I don't think he ever feels nearly the same way about her). So getting with Griffith isn't end game for Casca (and she herself eventually realizes that), but I also don't read Casca as a character for whom getting with Guts is the end game character arc-wise, either. I'm not sure Miura even had a concrete end-game character arc in mind for her, to be honest. I feel as though unfortunately she was written mostly as something to be used between Griffith and Guts rather than to end up having her own fully realized narrative journey in the same way that Guts (and maybe also Griffith) will. I want to see her and Guts as friends and at peace more than I want to see them live happily ever after together as a couple, because I feel like that's actually more how they really feel for one another than anything else. Granted, there's a bit of an interesting ironic twist in the story that happens during the Eclipse, where Griffith (unintentionally?) drives Guts and Casca closer together than I think they might have been otherwise with the trauma that he causes them both (even though I think their relationship is probably something he'd be jealous of and read as more romantic than it actually might be and wish to destroy, simply due to his own insecurities and his own possessive feelings for Guts). But I also didn't really read Guts' reactions in the Eclipse scene as Guts being jealous and possessive over Casca in a sexual / romantic sense - I read it more as him feeling empathy for her pain and desire to protect her from harm / from the darker side of Griffith he maybe knew about a bit better than anybody else. I DO care about Guts and Casca's relationship a lot, and find it one of the most emotionally compelling things in the story. But I don't think shipping them together for a happily ever after is really what I'd want for them, nor something that the narrative was actually trying to work towards / suggest to be the best ending for anybody involved? I don't know if I think shipping Guts and Griffith necessarily is either, particularly because of how irredeemably awful Griffith behaved during the Eclipse... but I DO think the story intentionally hinges more around the Griffguts relationship and their emotional journeys / character developments than it does about any other pair/relationship in the series, and that both of them have intense unresolved feelings for each other that come off much more suggestive and stronger than ones of just simply wanting to be friends. And I think all of these characters are pretty explicitly aware of that themselves even in the story as well.
Haha I don't even know what I'm trying to even say here except to work out some of my own thoughts about the main 3 that I care about, I suppose!
88 notes
·
View notes
theres a really nice slightly older (probably late 30s or 40s) straight coworker at my job who i see when i am leaving and she is starting her shift and my partners both work at the same job so she recently asked if brian was my brother because she already knew danny was mu husband and she saw brian with my grandma. (she is friendly with all 3 of us)
i explained we were in a throuple and she was like “omg you do you!!! thats like something i saw on facebook with a lady with two husbands”
me: “yeah thats me”
her: you are a bad woman!!! LOL!!! i cant even keep two guys in the same room
me: it helps that we’re all weird gay people haha
her: LOL!!! you do you girl!!!! live your life!!
she was so delighted it was really cute. im amazed at the amount of support and positivity if baffled reactions we have gotten from ppl from all sorts of different backgrounds and ages in our community here. just wanted to spread a little queer/polyam positivity 🥰
78 notes
·
View notes
Hey so... important thingy real quick pertaining to sharing f/os.
I get it- sharing f/os can be hard for some folks. Whether you get self conscious, jealous, nervous abt it, etc etc. I totally understand- I can open up here and admit that I get really self conscious and a little nervous when I see people who ship with the f/os I am uncomfortable sharing or have selective sharing with. However, that's a normal thing to feel, and you shouldn't feel bad about it at all! It's okay to be sad, or anxious, or jealous, or anything else along those lines. That's why we block and move on, and try not to let those negative feelings hurt us too heavily.
That being said, when it becomes NOT okay, is when you're posting on any of your blogs about wanting people who ship with your f/os dead. Or posting about wanting to cause bodily harm to other self-shippers. Oooor posting about said f/o harming other shippers. Or anything under that umbrella.
Seriously. I feel like it's already pretty obvious that you should never do that in the first place, but those who don't care and want to actively participate in said behavior should just stay in their own damn circle- away from the people who aren't harming anyone; who are just shipping and minding their own business.
We absolutely do not need those kinds of people running around and literally wishing death on folks, whether they think they're being sneaky about it or not. Nobody deserves to die for the 'crime' of loving the same character as someone else.
54 notes
·
View notes
It simply appeared in the forest one day.
The tower, as all bewildered folk referred to it, was exactly 36,000 bricks high, and ten soldiers could easily link arms around its unassuming circumference. Nearest its capped peak was a small, barred window seemingly chiseled out of the grey stone— hardly wide enough to fit through and dim enough that one could not peer inside to determine just what was hidden inside such a strange phenomenon.
And as bizarre as this all was, perhaps the most oddest of things was the doorknob located at the base of the tower, with not a door in sight. It would not turn for any of the initial curious who had tried it, nor could it be removed, melted, or smashed. There was a magic here, as uneasy murmurings began to grow; a magic even more ancient than that of the forest itself. A magic that ought not to be remembered, the kind that persists in dreams alone and there ought to remain.
Naturally, the Queen could only send her best to investigate, and General Lilia Vanrouge drums his fingers idly against the hilt of his weapon as he watches the various accompanying mages weave all manner of spells against the unyielding stone exterior, each one more ineffective than the last. The use of magic is taking its deadly toll, and he's seen more than one be pulled away, rubbing uselessly at the spots of accumulated blot as the tower endures their attempts to uncover its secrets and grows all the more reticent for it.
"Perhaps we should simply knock and try the door once again?"
His exasperated attempt at humor falls flat over the heads of the wan and weary mages, and before he can raise his hands in mild supplication, he finds himself pushed by rather desperate hands to the very doorknob in question. And while he certainly meant his suggestion in jest, it isn't as if there's anything to lose by following through. Only, he needn't have wondered— the moment his hand folds around the knob and before he can even raise his other arm to knock, the stones surrounding the doorknob smoothly swing inwards as if greased, revealing the most unpredicted of sights to their wide and disbelieving eyes.
Before them, still and pliant on the stone floor as if a doll that had been tossed aside from play, lies of all things a boy. A human one, Lilia's keen gaze notes despite the dumbfounded surprise, with a shock of pale hair and strangely dressed too in what seems to be some kind of military uniform, one that Lilia certainly doesn't recognize; the garments are a gleaming obsidian, acid stripes of green lancing the fabric. All seems to be as pristine as if newly washed and pressed, no evidence in sight of the passage of time dusted upon the silent figure.
"Is he . . . dead?"
Lilia cannot fathom what possesses him to move so roughly past the other mages at that hushed observation despite their startled and disapproving cries, struck by a strange desire to prove the speaker otherwise despite all battle-hardened instincts screaming at him that something about this macabre scene is so terribly, woefully, wrong. But the moment that Lilia's gloved fingers brush against the boy's shoulder, he's met with a tired gaze of the brightest dawn and a yawned greeting that stills the blood in his already frozen heart, the young man stirring to life as he stretches idly as if falling asleep in strange appearing towers was simply a normal occurrence.
"Oh— it's you, Father. How long have I been asleep?"
152 notes
·
View notes
favourite tag novel, you said? well, i have a few but there are a couple i really love (i'm on anon bc this is a sideblog so i can't post links smh) but anyway:
the little juraj/arber locker room vid. you wrote it like a mix of domestic fluff/romcom and pointing out the size difference even though they're both pretty big guys?? be still my heart. also juraj gives off so many giant puppy vibes and i love him for it
the mcdrai moment after connor gets injured. i've only been in this fandom a short time but i already know mcdrai are pretty popular (one of the reasons i didn't pay much attention as i'm more of a rarepair girlie) but that set and your tags have actually gotten me invested in them?! like, the tenderness? and the way connor seems so stunned by it? plus the oilers video coach thirdwheeling in the bg hehe (anyway, i have a potential new ship thank you)
i'll stop now but if you ever see your tags added onto any rbs of mine (with credit ofc) that's because they're amazing and everyone else should see them too. (ps, i hope the change in your life goes smoothly for you and you feel better soon!)
- @softvikings
i had to just sit down and look at this ask for like. three hours i’m not even kidding and this response still does not convey how deeply touched i am 🥹😭 it’s going in a bulleted list because looking back at all of them made ME feel feral all over again
juraj/arber is such a sleeper pairing to me as in I forget that the montreal canadiens exist (sorry) and then i see everyone on their team and get activated (screaming about juraj paying arber back with dinner for PROTECTING HIM)
as someone who also initially had no mcdrai emotions (rip dylan strome i still love your narrative deeply) i think the experience is universal… they’re so deeply unhinged about each other that i can’t even put it into words but My God Are There Narrative Implications
kissing you (with consent) full on the mouth and blessing you to be in my tags any time you want!!!! peer review and collaboration at its finest 🥰💕🥹
3 notes
·
View notes
my eye is bloodshot and hurts to open when i wqs younger i used to fantasise about removing it adn wanted to do it sooo bad amd ever since i stopped my eye has done nothing but cause me problems. im starting to think 14yr old me had a point this eye is evil its always doing this shit
6 notes
·
View notes
oooooh idea- can the mc have been/be a morphling or alcohol addict or occasionally take pills or alcohol?
I've been juggling that idea around for a while now! I can't remember if i said before the little drabble i did the other night, but Mc is already on some medicine. They've been on it for most of their lives, and their parents really started upping the dosage when they noticed just how unstable Mc was after Ash died. I've also said before that Mc has been drunk before, so its not like they don't have access to these types of things. I just wasn't sure if having the option for Mc to be addicted to something was something people wanted. If you guys would be interested in it, let me know!
15 notes
·
View notes