#it contradicts canon too hard to be a headcanon but i think if we try hard enough we can make an au where it’s real

[kenonade]

Ok here’s the promised art dump!! putting the less finished stuff beneath a cut bc its quite a long post <3

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

ok so like i get where ppl are coming from with the “the crew loves izzy” takes but also like. ok. i think that take involves a certain amount of reading very deeply into the text to a degree that is almost reading against the text at some points. it’s like when ppl pour all this energy into an underdeveloped and unportant side character—none of those layers ppl add to the character are strictly contradicted by the text, but it clearly wasn’t what the writer intended for anyone to really focus on. and yeah, death of the author, just bc the writers didn’t intend for ppl to think abt something that hard or care about it that much doesn’t mean we’re not allowed to do whatever the fuck we want. but bc i love analyzing the shit out of this show i do want to talk about WHY i think the textual support for this headcanon isn’t rlly there.

first of all. when archie is like “why are we trying so hard to save this guy, he’s kinda a dick” and jim’s like “yeah but he’s our dick.” rather than elaborate on what makes izzy special to them they’re like “it used to be that the crew all had each other’s backs no matter what and things were better back then” while reminiscing fondly about 1. olu and 2. that shot from season 1 where the whole crew is hanging out except for izzy who’s sulking in the background hating everyone. if this was supposed to be an “izzy’s a dick but we love him anyway” moment i would expect jim to talk about. yknow. izzy. instead to me ot comes across more like an “izzy’s a dick but crew is crew, we stick up for each other even if we don’t particularly like each other bc it’s us against the world” which isn’t as impactful from an izzy stanning perspective but i think makes for, like, an interesting allegory abt the queer community. we all gotta defend the rights of ppl in our community even if those specific ppl are dicks and we don’t get along with them.

second of all. after they save izzy’s life and get caught by ed they all leave the room and then a few minutes later a gun goes off. maybe someone saw ed leave the room before the shot was fired, but either way they think either ed just killed izzy or izzy just killed himself. and then they DO NOTHING ABOUT THIS. nobody checks on the body. they put all this effort into saving izzy’s life and then when their efforts are foiled they do not seem that bummed out about it. the next scene with any crew member in it is frenchie talking to ed on deck, and ed is like “go take the day off” and frenchie is like “oh nice!” and he’s like, confused and a little concerned about ed suddenly steering the ship rlly erratically, but he also seems pretty excited about getting some time off (after so many raids in a row i would be too lol). and THEN!!! in the next scene where we get the whole crew, they’re crowded in the hallway that leads out to the deck and the conversation they have isn’t “oh my god i can’t believe ed killed izzy after we cut off izzy’s leg” it’s “maybe ed’s better now? maybe killing izzy was all it took? he seems pretty cheerful for the first time in ages, maybe ed’s okay?” like literally they think ed just killed izzy and they are more worried about ed’s emotional state than they are grieving a beloved shipmate

then in 2.04 the crew B plot is so blatantly “the crew struggles to trust each other again but after seeing izzy be incredibly sad and pathetic they remember that a good crew has each other’s backs no matter what and so they extend izzy some unearned kindness and make him a new leg” that i’m amazed that other interpretations even exist. like literally they’re all drawn away from screaming at each other with weapons drawn by izzy making some dramatic announcement and then falling and then drunkenly crawling away and refusing their help rambling “youre born alone you die alone” over and over again or whatever melodramatic bullshit he said. like he’s muttering abt being miserable and alone and there’s a WHOLE ROOM OF PEOPLE!!! standing RIGHT THERE!!!! like “oh hey man do you need help standing up? no? no ur just gonna crawl away? um. ok.” and then they all go “well at least we’re not as fucked up as that guy. maybe we should do something nice for him?” like they are literally almost explicitly motivated by pity, not fondness. which yeah, it’s probably fucked up the way they use izzy’s new disability to sort of emphasize how pathetic he’s being, but i think the intention there is not that izzy’s pathetic bc he’s disabled, he’s pathetic bc he’s refusing to accept help. like the crew doesn’t go “yikes 😬 at least we don’t have his issues” abt izzy falling down when his makeshift prosthetic breaks, they go “yikes 😬” when he bats away their hands and goes on a weird mumbling tirade. definitely not the most sensitive way to depict izzy in this mental state, but that’s a different post probably. for the sake of THIS post tho: the takeaway i got from this scene is that the crew is remembering how to be there for each other again. it’s easier for them to let go of their paranoia and stop being so defensive and distrustful when izzy is there as an example of what happens when you’re TOO defensive and distrustful. “the crew makes a leg for izzy bc they care about him on a personal level” did not seem to be the focus of that story arc. to me.

in 2.05 we get our first ever instance of a character expressing appreciation for something izzy said or did or some trait he expressed (except for stede that time in 1.06 when izzy backed stede up on wanting to do a fuckery, which he only did specifically bc he wanted stede to fucking die and ed was taking too long), and it’s lucius saying he loves the shark izzy whittled. but during the entire episode leading up to that scene izzy is either in syede’s storyline where he’s not engaging with the crew or he’s getting snarked at by lucius, and not in a fun teasing way. like during that whole bit where izzy steals his cigarettes and calls him “twatty” lucius just looks so fucking annoyed and then uncomfortable. and then at the end of the episode izzy is sort of offering him advice and lucius is just sarcastically like “that sounds healthy.” and within this storyline, the point of these scenes isn’t rlly abt the developing and deepening relationship btwn izzy and lucius, it’s abt lucius individually coping w his trauma. izzy in this episode kinda exists in a weird place in the narrative, where he plays a supporting role in two different characters’ (lucius’s and stede’s) storylines without getting a central arc for himself. and both of those two storylines are only really about lucius and stede respectively, izzy is just there as this a static character who imparts wise advice. which is a very weird role for him to take, imo, but on top of that it doesn’t rlly contribute any sense of like, actual bonding btwn izzy and the other two.

and in 2.06 they just enjoy the show izzy puts on. they like listening to him sing. it’s all very cute! but also. i would not say that it shows the crew really cares about izzy?? i was in pit orchestra in high school and all the lead theater kids were always fucking assholes but they were also rlly good singers and it was fun to listen to them. i would mouth along to the words being sung by bitches who seemed to be trying to be sharpay evans irl for some bizarre fucking reason. like, cartoonishly mean girls. so like, the crew listening and dancing to izzy’s song doesn’t rlly sell “the crew loves izzy” to me. if anything, i would say that actually a stronger indicator of the crew loving izzy would be wee john sharing his makeup, and it’s a shame that we don’t get to see this happen. i mean that genuinely, i think that would’ve been a great moment to rlly strengthen izzy’s arc and it just. doesn’t exist on screen. and this isn’t like the finale where we know for a fact that they had to force a 40-minute episode into 30 minutes, Calypso’s Birthday has a runtime WELL under 30 minutes. it would’ve been SO easy to add another like 45 seconds of izzy and wee john getting ready together, but the only moment they show us is izzy walking in and discovering drag for the first time. it feels like the focus of this scene is less about a moment of connection between two characters and more about izzy individually having a gender breakthrough—and that carries on with the rest of the performance, too. bc it’s a performance, it’s everyone looking at izzy, it’s izzy a half step away from the crew as he puts on a show. the narrative framing of all this puts the focus entirely on izzy as a solo act, not on izzy as part of the crew. they like his performance, but we aren’t rlly shown evidence of the crew liking him as a person.

and that’s kinda it for izzy and the crew! up until he’s actively dying in ed’s arms and they’re all in the background silently weeping, at least (and btw, speaking from experience but uhhhh it’s pretty normal to cry when u watch someone die even if u have literally no connection to the person dying). even when they’re helping him back to the ship, ed is the one who notices he’s injured, nobody notices until he’s already giving izzy support. and i fully believe roach flips off izzy’s grave marker with fondness, but that’s also like. the only little personal moment any of them aside from ed has during the funeral. they do all laugh at his pinocchio joke earlier in the ep but idk if that one line can carry the entire weight of “the crew loves izzy” on its own. apparently there’s some shots during the zheng v stede fight where izzy can be seen in the background close to jim and archie??? but like, you can’t tell me a background shot of izzy standing near some crew members is strong textual support for the crew loving him. and i don’t think i need to argue abt any scenes in s1 bc literally every single crew member who was on that boat, ivan and fang included, was about to fucking drown him in the fucking ocean.

there is one single scene that gives actual strong evidence that anyone other than ed likes or cares about izzy. it’s the part at the end of impossible birds when fang is crying after ed shot izzy. so maybe fang specifically loves izzy, even tho izzy used to pull fang’s beard a lot and fang didn’t like it bc it hurt. idk.

here’s the thing tho. in 2.01 the writers use dialogue very effectively to tell us about the kraken era. the crew doesn’t say much, but what the do say tells us a lot: we know that archie thinks the kraken era is all normal pirating stuff, jim felt like the wedding raid (which seems like their only raid on a civilian ship and not a military one) was a step too far, frenchie is Not Okay but he’s doing a fantastic job repressing everything, izzy looks tired but the specific thing echoing in his head right before he starts crying in front of the crew is ed telling him “if you can’t do the job, someone else will.”

and we know fang, who’s known ed for decades, has never seen ed like this. and the specific thing he mentions as something he’s never seen from ed before is not batting an eye when ivan died. meaning that even before meeting stede, fang would’ve expected ed to have some sort of reaction to ivan dying.

and the thing about ivan is that we know next to nothing about him. he has very little dialogue in season one. we don’t even know how long he’s been working with ed—long enough to have at least heard about fang having to put his dog down bc “the love of a pet makes a man weak” when fang joined ed’s ship years ago, even if ivan wasn’t actually there yet at the time—but we do know that watching ed tell ghost stories was apparently the most open and available he’d ever seen ed get. so it doesn’t sound like ivan and ed were especially close. ivan was almost certainly less close to ed than izzy was.

if fang expected to see ed have some sort of reaction to the death of an ordinary crew member (who mightve been working for ed for decades, might’ve been working for him for months, we really can’t say) who wasn’t even that close to ed, seeing ed casually and unflinchingly inflict a life-threatening gunshot to his first mate must’ve been fucking earth-shattering. and interpretation is also supported by what fang actually says while he’s crying at the end of 2.01—it’s not “i can’t stop crying, izzy’s hurt” or “i can’t stop crying, izzy’s going to die.” its “i can’t stop crying, ed shot izzy.” more than the imminent demise of a crew member, fang is shaking and sobbing and traumatized because he can’t believe ed would do that.

and if that feels like a reach, just remember what happens after the leg is cut off, after the crew most likely believes ed shot izzy again, this time 100% fatally: the whole crew is crowded in the hallway, and fang asks “do we think he’s… better?”

fang is not sad about izzy. or if he is, it’s dwarfed by how much more sad fang is about ed.

in conclusion: have fun with ur headcanons i am not the boss of you but also there is less canonical textual evidence of the crew loving izzy than some of y’all seem to think k byeeeee

[lettheladylead]

What would you say the most major differences between comics!Goldie (you can specify different comic writers if you want) and DT17!Goldie are?

I'd say the biggest difference between DT17!Goldie and her comic versions is the call to adventure. Though every comic writer writes Goldie differently, what's consistent is that she settled down after the Klondike, stayed in the area, kept things simple (sometimes successfully, sometimes unsuccessfully, depending on the writer). Which is fine, but doesn't fit the vibe of DT17 so it makes sense that they did something different.

It's hard to talk about the different comic writer depictions of Goldie because most of them have only written her once, maybe twice. Don Rosa is the exception, of course. Carl Barks only wrote her once, and Rosa's version strays from that a tiny bit (as much as he didn't want it to). I think it's obvious that Rosa wanted to write Goldie as a more present character, he wanted to include her in more things, but he didn't want to contradict Barks' canon so he didn't. But you can tell that he writes Goldie with the idea that she has a whole life of her own without Scrooge.

The writer with the second-most credits for stories with Goldie in them is Marco Nucci, but tbh that's just because he does a lot of Christmas stories. Mostly takes place during the gold rush, the stories don't always fit the Barks/Rosa timeline but they just fit into the setting.

Next highest number of Goldie writing credits is Marco Gervasio, but most of those are cameos. He did write the really beautiful and excellent story King of the Klondike but as for how that comic fits with others................I mean. I love it, personally. Gervasio followed Rosa's thought process - he wrote a story about Scrooge and Goldie, instead of a story about Scrooge that has Goldie in it. It's more interesting and more memorable.

Otherwise writers have only written Goldie stories once or twice, and most of them just focus on the past. Gold rush-era Goldie content tends to be consistent across the board, and repetitive, and often Goldie's role is small. The ones where she has a bigger role we get the basic Scrooge/Goldie content - lots of romantic/sexual tension, lots of arguing, some sort of misunderstanding or lie. And then usually older!Scrooge staring at a photo of her and sighing.

As for present-day Goldie stories, the most consistent things are that she's still very tricky, still very horny, and still very prideful (though less so in Rosa's stories). Tricky, horny, & prideful I think are the big Goldie traits that need to be present for her to feel in-character.

Soooo tl;dr as for differences from DT17, yeah the big thing is the call for adventure. All differences in her personal story and personality can be tied directly to that specific aspect.

Why isn't she more mature at her age? 'Cause she's been running around trying to one up Scrooge instead of settling down and working on herself. Why isn't she running a hotel in Dawson City? 'Cause she's been running around trying to one up Scrooge instead of staying in one place.

We got to know a lot about Goldie's personality in DT17 but not much about her life, which leaves a lot of room for headcanons but also leaves us wanting. But it left enough room that we can pretty easily take content from her comic selves and combine them with her cartoon self without any contradiction and that works pretty nicely for me.

Anyway anyway. Sorry. I keep getting distracted. Adventure is the big difference. Which is fitting since DT17 also wrote Scrooge with more emphasis on his adventuring spirit because they knew that'd be a more interesting story for animation than focusing too much on the money. Good to make them match, and it also stretched out an already iconic love story into 120 years of drama. And also gave us Scheme Team which I am forever thankful for. I miss 'em. I miss Goldie...........

[fayrinferno]

The Escaflowne Movie CD Dramas

Time to share some thoughts about the CD dramas I recently posted (one, two). There’s so many topics I will just make a few sections. This is insanely long and... just insane again. So I'm putting a cut right here.

First of all, this was such a different translation project than I’m used to! Meaning, it was spoken word instead of written and there was no official transcription. That is the difference between these two movie dramas and the series drama (Thought of Jeture). ToJ had the whole script in the booklet, so that would make the translation MUCH easier. The only thing we have for these are the summaries in the movie Newtype Artbook. Anyway, it was a fight but I’m pretty confident with this translation.

Speaking of booklets, sorry about the quality of the pictures/scans. For some reason, these booklets are really deteriorating, dunno if anyone who has the same CDs can confirm, but they are yellowing pretty badly and what is worse, in an irregular way where one page is totally different color from the other. I don’t think the environment I store it in is too bad, there’s not a problem with humidity or anything and most of the other materials are fine but ofc, I can’t speak for the previous owner. Or it’s simply a feature. The booklets are printed on some textured, off-white (possibly recycled?) paper in the first place, so they were never white, but then there’s the yellowing. I tried to fix it a bit in Photoshop but when it’s irregular AND in color, my editing skills come short. BTW, I had a similar problem when I scanned Escabible, I just gave up and made it B&W cause the print was originally green on pages that yellowed with time. Anyway, these cd drama booklets have sparse contents compared to some others (there are only the song lyrics and credits and some non-specific artwork), so I included the scans more or less informatively.

Finally, to the contents. This is definitely more complementary to the movie than the novel which takes some different paths. I believe this one was made so that it doesn’t contradict anything in the movie, although some things leave you guessing. We’ll get to them later. Which may be one of the reasons why it's kind of hard to be in the drama setting and not to feel like “this is just another Escaflowne AU” but realize it is an actual prequel/prologue to the movie. It has all the scenes that you would have in yet another Escaflowne retelling, such as:

sketch of Hitomi’s relationship with Yukari

Hitomi’s suddenly getting isekai’d and realizing it by observing Earth from Gaea

Hitomi meeting Van under dramatic circumstances (though I must say this is probably their most civil first encounter, there’s practically no fighting!)

meeting with other characters like Allen and Millerna (the Van and Allen fight is practically a copy of the movie fight… even bears resemblance to their first series encounter)

introduction to other characters like Folken, Dryden, and Dilandau

I get it, I get it. This was a case of amnesia in the end. But we are just more used to AUs in this fandom, haha. I also get you would want cameos to every character with a semblance of a fandom in a new franchise material. But I can’t shake the feeling they weren’t trying all that hard to tie things into the movie perfectly, although the cd drama is described as its prequel.

For clarity, I still consider the cd dramas and the movies the same universe and the things that happened in the drama as canon for the movie. There is also the movie novel, which I will publish in the future, but that one is another beast and I wouldn’t necessarily say things that are true there are some secret lore for the movie that was just never mentioned. It’s more up to the decision of the reader whether you accept them into your movie headcanon (because some of the novel lore contradicts the movie so how much can you believe the rest of it?) The multiverse is quite insane already but yes, this happens, with other titles as well.

BTW, it is neat they included Dornkirk’s seiyuu in the voice of Orm. This is a pretty mysterious character but he fulfills the role of the deus ex machina for the whole thing, never to be mentioned again in the actual movie. It is through him we learn more about Folken and Van, which would otherwise have to be spoken about by themselves in a voice drama/movie, and yeah, we all know the odds of that. Anyway, he is not human. He is not Dragon Clan, because that’s people like Van and Folken. And yet, he changes into a dragon. Is he actually a dragon god? One of the two who created Gaea? I guess not if it’s the two princes who decide the fate of Gaea instead of him. Perhaps he lost his power or there were lesser dragon gods? Or he’s not a dragon at all; it’s just sorcery of some sort. He says he’s just a sorcerer, after all. But he looks like a goblin. It took me a while to realize and you may not remember either, but the movie also has madoushi or sorcerers, except they don't look exactly human.

Rather, they resemble the series Ispano and their work with on Alseides confirms this. So now I believe this Orm could possibly be one of these guys (maybe before whatever it is that got done to them?) and he shows his true form to Hitomi. And when you think of it, much like Ispano, Orm acts as a sort of “insurance” against world destruction. The topics just keep recurring it seems.

Anyway, I just made some notes about these cd dramas and grouped them according to the topic.

Physical descriptions of the characters

If you introduce a character in an audio drama like this, you have to introduce them through the narrator’s voice, similarly to a book. That’s why Hitomi has to spend more time describing Orm’s shiny eyes, protruding teeth, etc. than she does with the known characters with a known design, who, all with the exception of Van, get just about one sentence. She spends some more time describing Van and although she observes how “beautiful the two look in their fight” (I had to make a note of that), she never spares a second thought to Allen, or any of the other handsome men she sees. No more love triangles, the soulmate game here is too strong! 

Anyway, in this material, Hitomi describes Van’s eyes twice with a word that literally means “see-through”. It felt odd but it is apparently a set expression, unless they tried to involve some double meaning. It’s apparently a synonym of clear/shiny/sparkly/pure/beautiful eyes… you can buy contact lenses that promise to do this for you in Japan lol. I translated the novel as well and there are more strange descriptions of his eyes in there, maybe that’s why it felt so significant. There is also a bit of a difference compared to the series materials, where they would just describe the color in a way you would describe a specific shade of blue or any other color. In any case, however literally or not they meant this, Van has pretty eyes, as we already knew. It was also funny when Millerna described him as cute and connected it to whether he would want to join Abaharaki. Like a cute face was a prerequisite or something lol. But she’s probably on about him being too tsun despite the face.

Another thing we discussed during editing was this “sign of the king” that was shown already at the time of Van’s birth… and wasn’t at the time of Folken’s. At first, I thought very simplistically that it may have something to do with the tattoos (or would they be markings then)? But that doesn’t seem to be the case and they are confirmed to be tattoos for the novel, although it doesn’t seem anyone else from the Dragon Clan would have them there. In the movie, on the contrary, young Dune and even Van’s mother are shown to have them as well, so the meaning of them could have been different. Back to the “sign of the king,” I returned to that part of the translation later and it seems it was something that the seers saw in their prophecies after all. Some symbol of the dragon king that was not specified. Sidenote, I pitied and blamed Dune’s mother at the same time. Poor guy.

This got all about Van again but I don’t think anyone else was given enough description to even discuss? It’s clearly obvious who Hitomi’s love interest is. I would say it makes it clearer than the movie itself, because it has these inner monologues and it’s pretty romantic already despite the two barely knowing each other. I would even say Van’s behavior is gentler than any other iteration (?) But when you think of it, the cd dramas are usually THE fanservice materials, aren’t they? So obviously, they would give most attention to the popular characters and ships… but let’s get to the more pragmatic stuff.

When do the Prologues take place?

The two prologues obviously happen before the movie but how long before that? Let’s check some placeholders and see what we can figure out.

“the winter of my sixteenth year” “not even a spring break yet” “soon, you’ll be a third year”

High school in Japan is three years with the school year starting in spring. So I believe this is happening at the end of Hitomi’s second year. Her age of 16 fits. In the movie materials, her age is described as 17, so somewhere between the two, she also has her birthday. Could it be in December, same as in the series? That would make the window for the drama very narrow, because it’s winter but not yet 9th of December. We can't probably take that date as a reference, anyway.

“is the way to the Mystic Moon closed now?” “yes, for now. But once the moon is full again…”

This is something Folken and Sora speak about in cd 1 when Van deflects Orm. But then it is Van who reaches out to Hitomi first before they can do as they plan. At the end of cd 2, Folken asks Sora to open the path again so I assume these conditions still apply. Then the movie may be one or several months after the events of the cd drama, since they need the full moon. Well, if the Moon works and time passes the same on both planets…

I believe this takes place in a range of one to few more months before the movie. Why? Folken asks Sora if the way to the Mystic Moon is closed. And Sora says, it is, "but once the Moon is full again..." Unclear which moon, but we could assume their moon, the one with the eye. Looks similar to our moon, and if it was the same, it would have been one month. But then, the movie is definitely not taking place in the winter, like this drama. So, when is it?

Let’s look at the placeholders from the movie directly. First thing we have is Hitomi’s watch, which says, SA 18th, 16:15:28. Normally, SA would stand for Saturday, the screen of her watch (or the information on it) even looks pretty similar to existing models of Casio Chronograph/Illuminator:

You may wonder why she would be at school on Saturday afternoon but it was normal at the time of the movie production, Japanese students only had Sundays off. They talk about some plans next day on the train right after the rooftop scene and Hitomi asks Yukari to give her a wake-up call in the morning, which would fit. You see them having a bit of fun and it doesn’t seem the next day yet, they are still in their uniforms. Later at the stairs (although it is not in the subs I had), Yukari says they will see each other at school tomorrow. But shouldn’t it be Sunday next day? Or is what we see already the next day, the thing they made plans for? But why not dress casually, then? And aren't they on the train to/in Tokyo already when they discuss this? I guess this theory is not too likely, then.

It’s actually baffling. Because the scenes also do not follow in a linear way; you see them on the train, there is a shot of Hitomi at the stadium already, then they walk around Harajuku/Omotesando, and back on the train where they are held-off because of an accident at Yoyogi. Yoyogi station is on Yamanote line, the circular line going around Tokyo. That station, Harajuku, Omotesando, Meiji Jingu, National Stadium… it’s all in the same wide area but maybe it’s a bit too much for walking, unless they had a lot of time. I mean it would take them almost two hours just to get to that athletics stadium if they left their school right after the roof scene at 4 pm (according to her jersey, the school is still in Kamakura). But they don’t even have their school bags, Yukari just has a small shopping/gift bag it seems. Did they put them in a coin locker on the station or something? In the novel, they just run away from school (or rather, from an angry teacher), so that would make sense with the bags if they at least had some money on them but it seems too late in the day to do that. But I guess it’s still the best explanation. The sun sets around 7 pm at that time of the year in Tokyo. But that still doesn’t explain why Yukari says “see you at school tomorrow” when it should be the weekend. If she meant cram school, guess she would say that and not school. Maybe there’s something I’m missing that puts it all together. Or they are doing this on purpose. EDIT: I just reread this for possible typos and it came to my mind that the plans Yukari and Hitomi have could be for Sunday AND at school. Yukari says, "you promised, remember?" which made me feel like she was worried Hitomi would just cancel but it may actually be something of a favor to Yukari? IDK, for example, helping her cleaning the club room or something? She DOES use "kureru" which means that she hopes Hitomi will do this "for her". That's a thought...

Anyway, I researched the watch a bit and if the display was really like a digital Casio Chronograph, we wouldn’t know the month from looking at the screen (some models have the full date but this type, only the day of the month). But what can we guess about the month from the movie itself? It's not full-blown spring, otherwise we would see at least one blooming sakura tree, I guarantee it. In similar vein, if it was the height of summer, there would be sound of cicadas (June to September). Late spring/early summer or early autumn is my best bet based on the greenery we see, plus Hitomi and Yukari wearing the summer uniforms (the school uniform would have a version for cold and hot days) and people wearing tshirts and summer dresses in Tokyo. Then it would be about half a year after the cd drama.

But here’s a crazy thing: Hitomi’s watch is shown once again on Gaea and it has SA 19th 17:05 on it. It is the next day compared to the roof scene where it's 18th but also it's still SA… This confused me so much I even checked the settei but I didn't learn much besides that it's her favorite watch and the pattern you see above the screen is an image of an angel that can be backlit in the dark and that she only checks the time once while on Gaea. The settei uses the time from the roof scene btw.

So does the SA stand for month after all? SA for sangatsu (March)? It doesn’t look like March in the scenes with Yukari, I mean, March is the graduation month, remember? Sakuras would be everywhere and they would wear jackets. Could it be then they simply forgot to change SA to SU? That would be the smoothest explanation in fact. Or is there some significance to this? Something something her watch has stopped like that time at the Tokyo Station when she was a child? Anyway, let’s recap the options, since, as usual with the franchise, there is a hole in each and every one of them:

If the roof is on Saturday 18th and the stadium are the same day, then next day we see her watch on Gaea and it’s “SA” 19th… then where did they leave their school bags and why is Yukari telling Hitomi she’ll meet her tomorrow at school if it should be a day off?

If the roof is on Saturday 18th and the stadium on Sunday 19th evening… then why are they wearing school uniforms on Sunday and why are they on a train to Tokyo on Saturday and why should her watch show the “SA” 19th 5 pm after she came to Gaea and slept for some time at the caravan?

If SA is not for Saturday but for the month of March and the roof scene could be any weekday… then why is her watch different from regular Japanese digital watches and why doesn’t it look at all like March outside?

And if SA is neither for Saturday nor sangatsu... then WHAT? I think it could be a subtle “Stop Asking” by the creators, lol.

Or, you know what, her watch did not take the interplanetary travel and the liquid in Escaflowne cockpit too well and broke. That’s my best explanation offer I guess (besides an animation error).

Why does Van not remember Hitomi in the movie if he has already met her?

I consider this the elephant in the room: okay, Hitomi went to Gaea before but Orm used his magic to bring her back and make her forget. But what about everyone else who met her, back on Gaea? Which would be Van, Allen, Millerna, Gaddes, Jajuka, Sora, and Folken? I believe some of their reactions in the movie, but especially Van’s in the beginning, confirm that they don’t remember that encounter.

But how can you erase someone from several people’s memories at once? Even if you erase the memory of her, her actions on Gaea leave some impact… Folken literally swears to bring her back again and he does in the movie. Moreover, in the cd drama, the location of Escaflowne is revealed to Folken through Hitomi’s ancient memories (as Sora spies on her telepathically). The first scene of the movie has Van stealing the armor from Black Dragon Clan’s ship. I believe this ties nicely to the “Escaflowne is discovered underneath Torushina” from the ending of the cd drama. Basically, some time has passed, and BDC dug out Escaflowne, now transporting it to Folken. Meanwhile, Folken is trying to summon Hitomi back because with her and Escaflowne, he apparently has all the ingredients for his plan.

When it comes to Abaharaki, apparently, the cd drama gives us a scene of their first meeting with Van. So, it has not been all that long that he was with the Abaharaki. But since he is with them in the movie, this event from the cd drama is also something that did not get reversed by Orm sending Hitomi back. It’s hard to wrap one’s head around. Allen, Millerna, and Gaddes come across Hitomi and Van because they were apparently in the vicinity and “saw a light”. This is all happening in a “holy land” that bears the name of Arzas, btw.

But if Van wasn’t summoning the Wing Goddess, why would he even go there? Why would Allen come check if there was no light from her arrival from Earth? Of course, the meeting of Van and Abaharaki might have happened anyway, by pure chance. After all, Merle in the movie says they “met on the battlefield”. For the Abaharaki, they “could not take a better look” at Hitomi before she was snatched away by Jajuka and they’ve never seen her again in the drama. So I guess their movie reactions would be plausible even if they did remember Hitomi’s first arrival in the cd drama. But Van is just a big question mark and either their meeting “never happened” or his memory got erased.

So Orm changed into a dragon and took Hitomi, her memories, and apparently Van’s memories away. Then what, was Van just left standing there, wondering what happened and why he even went out there? How about Merle, who went with him to rescue Hitomi? She would remember that the Wing Goddess was there, wouldn’t she? Even though she hasn’t seen her in the cd drama. This adds Merle to Allen, Millerna, Gaddes, and Mole, who form a group of characters who knew of the Wing Goddess coming to Gaea but wouldn’t know her face.

Then we have another group formed by Van, Folken, Sora, Jajuka, who had also seen her. Out of all these, Van is the only one who is confirmed to have forgotten. Others may as well remember everything, because they go retrieve Escaflowne and eventually Hitomi. Interesting. So I guess the first group may remember her arrival, they just don’t know how she looks. The second group, minus Van, could know everything. Van was apparently made to forget by some effect of Orm’s sorcery. Either he forgot her face or their whole encounter. That, or it never happened.

Another variation is, only Folken and Sora remember Hitomi. I guess that would make some sense, since Sora seems to be the one ‘in the know’ about everything, together with Orm, and to some extent, Folken. Then again, Van is a pretty strong magic user himself as we discover, so why would Folken and Sora be able resist Orm’s magic and not him?

I guess this could be explained by Orm’s final scene, where he sounds pretty mad at Van. Which is interesting. He’s not cross with Folken who wants to destroy the world, he’s angry with Van cause he is using Hitomi as a tool for his revenge which will just cause her more sorrow. So, does he in fact only seal her away from Van or erase only his memories? Because Van is not ready to lift Hitomi’s spirits and ease her loneliness? It seems Orm puts some hopes of saving the world into Van and is disappointed that he doesn’t realize what he needs to do. Then again, how would sealing Van away and leaving the path open for Folken help? Perhaps Orm meant to seal her away from both brothers but Sora overcame that magic? It’s frustrating that they just won’t.let.us.know.

But I believe Van having no memory of their encounter could be why (besides the obvious resonance of their depressed souls) Folken is the one to bring Hitomi to Gaea in the movie. Van isn’t even trying to reach her anymore like he does in the cd drama, it seems he is 100% focused on obtaining Escaflowne. Which I guess was his mindset in the first place even as he, on his own volition, went out and whisked Hitomi away from Earth, which coincidentally made for a pretty romantic scene but you can still see he’s all about obtaining the armor. I mean it is logical, once he knows BDC has Escaflowne, it means everything to take it out of their hands. It is also sort of parallel to the series when he asks her pragmatically and logically to help him against Zaibach without considering her feelings.

But really, nothing like, “You’re the Wing Goddess? Few months back, I tried to summon you from the holy land of Arzas, using all the magic taught to me by the beast clan but you left me on Read?” Ahh yes that would be uncharacteristic to disclose by this particular character, I get it.

So what do you think? Did Orm make him forget or did he revert Hitomi’s whole first visit to Gaea?

“Ancient Gaea”

What is also pretty blurry is this whole “Wing Goddess lived on ancient Gaea and she met Van then… but she has forgotten.”

Okay, what do we know of this “ancient Gaea”? We know the Wing Goddess as well as “Van” in some form lived there and then. And they were “alike” in some way. Orm calls them “twins” or “gemini” which I do get may sound problematic (I translated it as “two of the same kind” in the end) but I don’t think he means they are related. Also, “dragons” lived on this Gaea. I don’t know, as I listened to this part with the series soundtrack in the bg, I suddenly got the feeling like they talked about the series. Which makes not much sense of course. There is no proof of that. Movie Escaflowne is different, the series one didn’t destroy the world… it doesn’t work. But I still got a nostalgic feeling like that.

Then the last thing we know is Escaflowne actually destroyed some major city… I guess, likely in battle with the movie Alseides, they just laid ruin to this ancient Gaea civilization, whatever it was. In this battle it seems, Escaflowne could have been buried by rubble of what could have been the predecessor of Torushina, which itself could have been gradually built upon the ancient city ruins. That’s all we know. Anyway, I kinda hate when Sora teases like “could we bring back the ancient memories of the Wing Goddess?” Don’t give us hope if you’re never, ever gonna deliver, dammit. Maybe I should deliver in fic form haha (no I will not start another project).

Random thoughts after watching the movie after having translated the drama

Now that I think of it, the movie actively avoids any direct reference to the events of the cd drama. But after giving a proper attention to the CD drama, you see echoes of it in the movie, echoes of Hitomi remembering on some level after all. Like, when they are frolicking with Yukari, and she hears Sora’s song… she immediately understands someone is calling. It’s not “I hear a song nobody else seems to hear” anymore, it’s her immediately understanding that Yukari doesn’t hear it and that she’s being called.

BTW, what I humbly believe the movie subs/dubs could have done a little better was the scene with Yukari at the stadium. Hitomi tells Yukari she’s annoying for meddling in her life. She says “annoying” and “just disappear” repeatedly and there is this transition from when it seems like she’s really calling Yukari  “annoying” and muttering she should “go away” to when you understand that she is talking about herself. Hitomi is the “bad guy” and she’s the one who should “disappear”. If you use “fade away” it doesn’t click so much because you don’t tell another person to “fade away”.

Also, in cd 1, when Hitomi sees Van for the first time and the dragon fossil in the face of the mountain. I got this weird feeling it could be Van just before he takes off to kill everyone on the Black Dragon Ship and steal Escaflowne in the very first movie scene. Because yes, we see the mountain with the dragon fossil in that movie scene (presumably one of the twin gods Van prays to), he prays for the death of his enemies (that he does massacre in the movie opening scene), even the music is the same... because Bird song is the first part of First Vision, the OST for the first scene of the movie.

Or perhaps, for Hitomi's “first vision”, and it refers to this scene from the drama? Of course, nothing gets confirmed here either. Anyway, if she sees Van in real time, what would he be doing at the time she’s under Orm’s spell on the train? Well, apparently, he is aware of Orm’s actions, and with support of the elders from the wolf village, he is trying to intercept him. Which he does later, in the cave. But would his preparation for that be this? Wishing death upon his enemies with the sword drawn and then flying off… idk, it fits the movie scene better.

This post got really speculative so I’ll just stop here but I think I’ll make one or two other posts. One will just have the movie trivia without as much of my speculation. Another will be a bit critical because while I like Escaflowne in all its forms, I did get a bit frustrated here and I should let it out.

[serenewrap]

personally i don’t like the “casanova remus” headcanon for a couple reasons (necessary note: this is not me trying to do discourse it’s just me whining on the internet obviously read and write what you want and i don’t think you’re a bad person for enjoying this if you do) and i’m not really sure where it came from tbh because it seems SOO out of left field to me

firstly, there is no mention of this in jkr canon. while i know a lot of people throw the jkr canon completely out of the window when it comes to marauders stuff which i get because i do it too, but when i first started seeing it i thought maybe i was missing something from the original books, but i’m not?? we know that james and sirius were popular in school, but i never really get the sense that this popularity trickled down to remus (or peter for that matter) and i can’t seem to find anything that contradicts that. and jkr’s remus is so mired in self-loathing in a way he never really unpacks in any way that i have a hard time believing he’s like, this suave heartthrob guy who everyone wants so badly

the other source for the casanova thing seems to be atyd, but even atyd remus (who is of course much different from jkr remus) gains the casanova moniker because he’s the only one of the guys who is able to be friends with girls. this seems to be in part due to the fact that he realizes he’s queer earlier than sirius does. and atyd remus is definitely well-liked, but the casanova thing is more of an ironic bit that james and sirius do because they’re so jealous, and it’s something that makes remus fairly uncomfortable in atyd?? he’s not like, fucking half the castle in the fic and like twerking on tables if anything he’s desperately trying to convince his friends that NOTHING is going on - but maybe i’ve missed something idk

[veliseraptor]

Soft/hard head canons for Shen Jiu 🙌

finishing off the last few of these in my inbox...this is an interesting one because like with other characters I feel like my headcanons for Shen Jiu in particular are less "hard" and "soft" than "malleable and story dependent" outside of, like, what we know textually. but let's see what I've got.

also sometimes as usual I don't know that I have headcanons one way or the other until I run into someone contradicting them, which I think has happened here but struggling to think of something specific...

hard headcanon: While the personality change from Shen Jiu!Shen Qingqiu to Shen Yuan!Shen Qingqiu is undoubtedly pretty drastic (and I really can't think about that plot point too long, it makes me feel Real Bad), I think a lot of the original goods' behavior is more self-fulfilling than inevitable or unchangeable. I mean, this feels like a definite theme in SVSSS generally (and in MXTX's works as a whole) - that people are not definitively and unchangeably Bad, that change is possible for people, even seemingly awful ones. (I mean, the entire arc of Luo Binghe's character transformation, for one.)

I actually think a lot of Shen Qingqiu's behavior was self-fulfilling prophecy - I mean, this is pretty firmly textually canon as of the Shen Jiu extras, I believe. He decides that people are going to hate him and therefore he acts in a way to justify and confirm that hatred. I love a self-sabotaging, self-isolating bitter asshole! I really do. That then calcifies, but not actually as much as I think Shen Qingqiu believes - he seems convinced that all his fellow Peak Lords will hate him forever so why bother trying, but we see in canon that they actually turn around on him fairly quickly when his behavior changes, which suggests to me a willingness to change their minds that I don't think Shen Qingqiu would believe in.

It is so firmly entrenched in Shen Qingqiu's head that he is loathsome and rotten and there's no changing that, that he can't imagine anyone seeing anything else. Given that, his expressed hostility is a way of warding people off at least from seeing any vulnerability, because it's not like he has anything to lose: in his head, he never had their affection or even respect. I think Shen Qingqiu would always be kind of bad at being a person and not terribly sociable, but I do think if he made an effort he would get more of a response than he would expect or believe would happen.

Also I think that at least one of the reasons he continues to push Yue Qingyuan away so hard despite the fact that he cares very deeply for him is because he wants to see if he'll keep coming back. Even if it's just out of guilt, and that's the last thing he wants, at least he does still come back, and that is, pathetically, better than nothing. Which just makes him angrier and makes things worse. Good times!

soft headcanon: The Ning Yingying question is one that I feel like I have a few different potential reads on - by which I mean to say, the particularities of the accusation that he was somehow inappropriate with her. The firm part of it is that I don't think he actually would make sexual advances on her (or any female students); my read on Shen Jiu is pretty firmly gay but sex-repulsed to the point that he's situationally ace. Where I do have headcanon variations is what, exactly, did happen - whether there was a misread somewhere by Yingying that got blown up as the forming picture of Shen Qingqiu as a lecher became more defined and absolute (i.e. reinterpretation of a past event that maybe felt funny in retrospect even if it seemed innocent at the time, or even something that felt a little awkward or inappropriate at the time but wasn't meant sexually, but that then becomes something bigger), or whether it was entirely false rumor, boosted by Shen Qingqiu treating his female disciples better than his male disciples and being particularly fond of Ning Yingying.

If the latter, then why doesn't she say anything? That seems like a pretty clear answer to me: in PIDW she's very much pushed into a passive role, and Luo Binghe is a strong enough personality with enough force of will that I can see her not feeling able to contradict him, and/or I can see her being convinced that it doesn't matter what she remembers, everything else is true and bad enough that one more thing is just going to ensure that Shen Qingqiu can't hurt anyone else, and/or that it's only fair if upsetting for Luo Binghe to have his revenge.

Basically: while I pretty firmly don't think Shen Qingqiu (original flavor) made any advances on Ning Yingying, I can see a few different ways that situation might have played out leading to it becoming another point against him at the trial.

I also wobble on how far I think the abuse went with Qiu Jianluo - whether it went all the way to rape or just ("just") the threat of it up to the point when Shen Jiu killed him.

[jamieedlund]

What's ur favorite hc for Aaravos?

This is a surprisingly hard question to unpack for a lot of reasons- but I'll do my best to articulate myself (ง •_•)��

I think this spoke for itself but just in case, here is a short elaboration: if I had to pick a favorite, it would have to be this.

He is someone who - despite all of the odds, despite how the world treated to him, despite being ridiculed, subjected to the worst torture known to man(yes solitary confinement is considered one of the most inhumane methods of torture) for over 300 years and had his name dragged through the mud for literal centuries-

-could still smile so brightly and sincerely like that, affirming that he does, with all of his heart, still very much love this world. However twisted that love might be, however difficult it was for him to learn how to use and express that love in a healthy way, it still speaks volume about who he is as a person.

Now if you have the time, allow me to explain bellow. If not, stop here, the question is basically answered 🙏💗 Thank you for reading!

Hello, if you're reading this that means you are willing to listen/read more about my thoughts and therefore I expect you to have a leveled head and a polite attitude to what I'm about to say.

If not then why are you here there was LITERALLY A STOP BUTTON. Please click off this post, what are you doing with your life wasting it hate watching me? 

With that being said, hello! fellow polite person who is reading this - - - Spoiler there is no illust down here because I'm running low on time on my thesis I'm so sorry ;;A;; Here is the elaboration to why this is my default favorite headcanon!

While I am aware of the amount of WILDLY different headcanons that exist out there for him, which are very popular within the fandom and even taken as gospel, I strongly feel that mine isn't really aligned with some, if not most of the hc out there at all.

Personally, I don't even agree with the canon version of in him ss4.

I'm assuming that you are asking me about my- personal favorite headcanon for him so for now, my answer will be: Ignoring the terrible characterization of him in season 4, my absolute favorite thing about him has to be: Despite everything, despite what everyone says about him, despite how the world perceives him

He is

without a doubt

Someone who loves this world very much.

Again this all ties in with what I'm going to present in my thesis, so I can't elaborate on it too much without giving any spoilers to the case I'm going to present for him. But for now, and especially right now at the time of writing this, they just released another vaguely worded and filled to the brim with plot holes short story regarding his past ... I-- hm I sincerely have no intention to keep up with the series... Therefore my hc will definitely contradict vastly with the horrendous plot holes ridden pre-established canon

-which then made the act of answering to this question exceedingly difficult due to the way I personally perceive him.

To wrap it up, all I want to say is, we could have had it all, a character who would make us cry, laugh and want to root for, had they written him with love and care, rather than trying to stuff him into the shoes a villain, which just felt forced and unnatural. Villains who are terrible only to be stopped have been overdone, and for tdp to be another generic show is a huge waste of potential

Wouldn't most of us have killed for, finally, an antagonist who isn't actually the antagonist but rather the very system that these people are experiencing is the actual villain ? ? ?

Best of all, they could have contrasted this with Callum, our protagonist. In Callum's case, despite being portrayed as one of "the good guys" or "heroes", he has all the reason to hate the world. This in turn create a complex narrative about the nature of people - Or in this case, the hero acting morally righteous despite hating the world vs the guy who was deemed evil and terrible by the world and yet still loves it with all of his heart. It could have been a heart-warming story about how two individuals find their way in this messed up world-- but nope~ non of this is canon :DDD

When in the history of television has any shows have a twist with the "hero" and "villain" ditching their role immediately to become a neutral party to reflect all the flaws in the world they live in? ? ? TDP had the perfect setup, but then proceeded to drop all of the balls spectacularly in ss4...

I always try my best to not touch ss4 but it feels almost impossible to talk about Aaravos w/out addressing the disservice that it did to his character. And that is all, I have to say for now~

Sincerely, thank you for reading.

[ohwell-itsme-but-danganronpa]

My headcanon for Maki's sexuality and Danganronpa's "everyone's bisexual" problem

okay, but the fact I'm pretty sure Maki's LHS is about that friend (she tells Shuichi she used to play family with that friend and then in LHS she's like "we used to play family and we promised to become one when we grow up")

like, I'm fully Maki is a lesbian team, she played dad in their family, there's no heterosexual explanation, Kaito is just comphet

Ves: with the way she talks abt him, as a representation of what she's always wanted - to be "normal" - i think it's a fair reading!!

omg, you're a guy and you're being pushy with me, demanding I meet your idea of what a girl should be, what if I took that chance to emulate heterosexuality like I think I am supposed to as you're reaffirming that world-view

"you're the first person that made me feel this way", girl you were coerced into every situation where you were spending time with him and never said a positive thing about him, what kinda way you're talking about

she was shown being protective of him in the later stages but never saying something good about him

token comphet girl to me, following Toko's legacy

Ves: she's definitely sapphic…whether she likes men is hard to decide for me bc of kaito's general aura

Sini: She’s so gay in DRS Her interactions with Kaede and Chiaki?

listen, if you're not willing to see certain things as comphet dr can and will make everyone seem kinda bisexual this is because they make everyone accidentally gay from the beginning and then try to apply as much straightness as they can shove down our throats

salmon mode has a romantic ending for Tenko afaik, so people made cases for her being bi and repressing that side bc of trauma, canon would support that, but I don't, "a nice enough guy can fix her" is literally just another negative lesbian stereotype bc they tried to give her ALL of them

Ves: i have had SO MANY arguments on tumblr trying to explain that 1) tenko is a lesbian 2) tenko is attracted to men 3) this is because the makers of v3 are lesbophobes and her story is about finding a good man to "fix her" like. i feel like it isn't difficult to understand she's not written SUBTLY

Sini: Let’s be real, she’s kind of presented as a lesbian in denial. That’s not what they intended at all, but that’s definitely how it reads to me

[in another conversation] Hina: I'm just making her gay atp

this is a win for lesbian Maki truthers and I will take it, calling her unfortunate thing for Momota comphet is the only way to salvage that mess, the whole thing with her childhood friend and her LHS, and things she told Shuichi all contradict her confession to Momota, she is not in love and this would not be "the first time she felt that way" if she was, and just. immaculate gay energy, not bi, I can believe Tsumugi on her feelings for Momota being in-universe scripted, it was so forced, and she complied with it in a way that had to be pulling strings, just begrudgingly going along with something when her heart is NOT in it

Ves: harumami rights!

one of my fav "this is actually qp now, not doing the sibling dynamic" Amami ships beside amaguji, amamatsu is a bit below, it's the basic default cute option that will be good to see with any dynamic so I don't go for it, seen too much background romantic amamatsu in fics that protag Harukawa fic that seems silly if you judge it by it's cover is doing harumami propaganda to me, I think it's literally titled "ass in an assassin", unless I mistaken it with something else (since I know the title exists, I just hope I associate it with the correct fic)

Ves: ASS IN ASSASSIN IS RLLY GOOD IM PRETTY SURE I HAVEN'T READ IT IN A WHILE BUT I REMEMBER LIKING IT

[mackmp3]

hi mack i have not seen or read good omens but here’s 002 for aziraphale so you can be matchy matchy :))

hehe thanks murph <33 appreciate it

how i feel about this character -

HOO BOY do i have feelings about this character. ofc Aziraphale is so loveable and wonderful & i do love him so much BUT he's complex in a way Crowley isn't. there's this bit of fic that sums it up really really well uhh here's the fic if anyone is wondering

he is so full of contradictions and thinking multiple things at once and mentally tying himself in knots to get himself to do things he Knows are the right thing to do (or even just. something he likes doing) which is such a fascinating thing to watch but also really heartbreaking if i think about it too much. like i love aziraphale and want to give him a big hug but also i want to argue with him sometimes. like in the 1827 minisode he is kinda a dick and absolutely zero-nuances the whole situation, but it's even worse because you can see exactly how he thinks what he's doing is right. i will defend his decision (key word decision!!) to go back to heaven forever because He Is Doing What He Thinks Is Right. he's also such a sweetheart, i too would like to live in a bookstore full of dusty old tomes & wear the same waistcoat for ~200 years.

all the people i ship romantically with this character -

can only be Crowley. there's a fun theory Aziraphale had an affair with Oscar Wilde while Crowley was sleeping through the 1800s but lets be real here he's saving himself for marriage (/JOKING OKAY) it was flirting for fun at most

non-romantic otp for this character -

i really had to think about this one but i think Madame Tracy. i mean there's a reason that of all the psychics in london he ended up in Madame Tracy's head, i just think they'd get along fairly well. they'd have high tea together. scones. but in reality i think he'd mostly rather be reading than making friends. ooh and he'd get along with Newt too i think.

[while typing this i realised that in the Crowley one i missed that Crowley & Anathema would get along Excellently hehe]

unpopular opinion about this character -

people like to paint him as being completely brainwashed by heaven HE'S NOT STUPID. HE KNOWS WHEN HE'S REPEATING A PARTY LINE WHEN HE DOESN'T MEAN IT. CROWLEY KNOWS THIS TOO. HE SAYS SHIT HE DOESN'T AGREE WITH ALL THE TIME. JUST COS HE FEELS LIKE HE HAS TO SAY IT DOESn'T MEAN HE'S BRAINWASHEDDDDDDD AHHHHHHHHHH sorry i just really hate that one. re: contradicting ideas in his head!! working himself into loopholes for right and wrong!! people like 'ohhh he's so distant in *whatever time period* it's cos heaven brainwashed him after they found out he was seeing Crowley!!!1! HE'S BEING NORMAL HE'S JUST EXTRA TOUCHY FEELY IN 1941 & S2 THAT DOESN'T MEAN HE'S BEING AWFUL EVERY OTHER TIMEEEEEEEEE augh. sorry. anyways. moving on

one thing i wish would happen / had happened in canon -

ough it would have been fun to see him fem presenting. i think he would have a really fun time gossiping with rich noblewomen & getting into court drama heheee

otp -

literally can only be Crowley <33

crossover ship (platonically) -

i think he'd be good friends with Zachary from the Starless Sea - for one they'd hide at opposite ends of the bookshop and read in silence and just peacefully coexist. but they woudl not so much get into situations as try very hard to avoid every situation ever cos they're in the middle of a chapter and don't want to talk to anyone other than like. three specific people. & they both know what it's like to just be someone else's part in the plan/story & have to find your own role in it.

Aziraphale & the Eleventh Doctor was the first thing i thought of but honestly they're too similar they'd drive each other up the wall half the time. the other half they'd be good but the slightest annoyance & they'd be at eachother

headcanon for them -

we already know he can draw really well FROM MEMORY so i reckon he has pages and pages of drawings of Crowley in every ridiculous outfit he's ever worn, smiling and sulking & sleeping & drinking & sprawled over on the couch & he hides them away in a drawer so no one ever finds them but he has them.

baby angel :D

[dykelawlight]

👻🏷️🦋🐬 :3

👻 What is your wildest headcanon?

Oh man I don't know that I have any headcanons that are particularly wild. I tried to think pretty hard on this one and am mostly coming up dry. I guess one that I think at least contradicts most common interpretations of the character is that I think L has gotten out a lot more than we explicitly see in canon? Like he spends an inordinate amount of time indoors but like, he's also been to the club, even if he had a GPS tracker on and security placed around the room for his protection. But that's not that crazy!

🏷 Is there a tag you like to search for when looking for fanfics to read?

Not in particular, no, because people tag things in such different ways. I am prone to the use of "top X"/"bottom Y" filters if I'm just trying to read porn and am looking for a specific dynamic.

🦋 Which character is your favorite to write?

I think Light takes the prize for this one just because his inner voice is so fucking funny to me. Like think of something a normal person would do and then add 17 layers of nuclear overthink through the lens of an idiot who is also a genius and then regurgitate those thoughts onto the page. I have a lot of fun writing Mikami too though just because his perspective on the things around him is so wonderfully warped and I do so enjoy writing borderline-unquestioning adulation.

🦈 Which character is the toughest to write?

L in terms of characters I write regularly; even though I personally relate to him the most, I always get paranoid that his voice isn't quite right, either in that it's too formal or too relaxed or otherwise stereotypical. I never want to run the risk of turning him into like a yaoi archetype of some kind rather than a full person. In terms of characters I don't typically write, Near! There's a reason I've never written him even in like a 3-sentence fic prompt or what have you and it's because I feel like his inner voice totally eludes me. Maybe someday though!

[amtrak12]

Thinking about this post about the mainstreamification of fandom and it was both too relatable and got me thinking about the early days of fandom going 'mainstream'.

I'd argue Community was one of the earliest fandoms to really become -- if not mainstream, then at least highly visible as the show was still airing. But it was so so different to what's happening now.

I think the main difference, other than it was 2010 and again one of the first fandoms to hit mainstream, is that no one treated what the writers said as the gospel truth. Fans and the showrunner/writers were in a two-way conversation with each other, and usually the format of that conversation was "No but...." It was a mutual rejection, while still inspiring a cult level of adulation from fandom. Because Community writers engaging with fandom was just another fourth wall broken, another genre parody in a show chock full of them. The writers didn't purposefully spite the fans (only the haters). They didn't shift to bashing a character because the wrong people loved them the wrong amount. They didn't stuff plot points down the garbage disposal because fans understood how to read foreshadowing. (Of course, Community was a sitcom that didn't have long term plot points to foreshadow, but still.) At most, the writers lovingly mocked the fans ala spoofing the Jeff/Annie S1 Gravity fanvid with their own Gravity edited montages in a canon episode -- which in turn only spawned more Gravity spoof fan vids by fandom. It was a mutual mocking the way siblings poke at each other.

And vice versa, no one in fandom cared whether the writers would ever make Jeff/Annie (or any ship) canon. If the writers couldn't see it, that was their problem! The fans could see it! And wrote a shit ton of fic about it. That was the point. Most people didn't even get upset when Dan Harmon and company claimed the Jeff/Annie shippers were all teenage girls shipping themselves with Jeff. We just busted up laughing because MOST of the fandom was 30+ year old women. Me at 22 was on the younger end. And sure, most of them did want to date Jeff themselves, but lbr being attracted to a fictional character is 90% of shipping. (And some people like myself were subconsciously shipping themselves with Annie because Alison Brie is absurdly hot.)

IDK what my point is here. I guess just that I was there at the beginning of fandom going mainstream and it's hard to regret that exact moment in time because it was fun! And rewarding! And spawned so so many creative works and discussions just like fandom is supposed to do.

But my god is it depressing that it ended up rotting fandom from the inside out. To the point that I try and say a S4 plot point is connected to S6 in a recent show when there's absolutely nothing to contradict this in canon -- and immediately get someone 'well actually'-ing me about what writers said their intentions for those plot points were in interviews and how that meant I was wrong. And it's not even because that fan preferred the writers' interpretation! They hate it actually! But they're so convinced that what a showrunner says is the absolute, irrefutable truth that they refuse to analyze the show for themselves and draw their own conclusions. Oh they'll complain about it all day long, sure. But engage with the narrative on a structural or meta level? Literally beyond them, and I can't wrap my head around that at all.

Fandom is not bound by writer intentions and never has been. Fandom isn't even bound by canon!!! Why the FUCK would writer intentions that can only be found in outside interviews be binding? Why would you slap shackles on yourself and then get mad that the chains cut into your wrists? Babe, look at me! No chains! I am free and happy not giving a fuck about what a show runner said! So why do you think I'm a problem that needs to be solved instead of your new life goal? Join me over here in headcanon land! Please!

[bitimdrake]

There's some bitterness in this, so feel free to ignore it, but I think comic fandom invites the level of inaccuracy it has. The idea of individual readers picking choosing what "counts" as canon is so common, even among dedicated readers, and there is so much vitriol directed at comics by comic fans that there it is such a short leap from "only the canon I like is canon" to "whatever I like is probably canon." I recognize that there are a lot of bad comics out there. (1/2)

But I think any discussion of fanon that ignores the way the culture of comic fandom, especially comic fandom in space like tumblr and ao3, encourages readers to divorce their opinions about the text from the content of the text. Some people think that's a good thing (I'm not one of them). And that's there perogitave. But I don't think its useful to anyone to skate over it.

No, this is all really true.

The expansive and tangled nature of dc comics means that everyone has consumed slightly different versions of canon, and so to some extent everyone having a different view of what's canon is inevitable. And then you add in the contradictions and the different writers with different views, and sometimes there really are moments or issues or arcs that seem like they oughta be ignored for contradicting the rest.

But I think there's a huge difference between, like, "this one issue here and that one issue there are out of step with the rest of this character's appearances so we'll ignore them or nudge them closer" and "well sometimes comics contradict each other, so I can make up whatever I want and declare that equally 'canon'". Which...no. That's fucking nonsense.

I try really hard to avoid the "if I didn't like it, it's not canon" thinking. Sometimes characters you like do shitty stuff; sometimes characters otherwise act in ways you didn't want them too. Sometimes stories are bad but still don't contradict anything.

My constant constant goal with canon is try to be as true as possible to events and to the average aggregate characterizations. And there is absolutely room for debate in determining that, but it's...very different than picking one (1) story (or headcanon!), making a bunch of assumptions from it, and then declaring anything that doesn't perfectly match to be Wrong.

(I ascribe to things along the lines of...Nightwing Annual #2 is not just ooc, but also really really blatantly contradicts the emotions and relationships that were actually present in the era of its flashbacks, so I DO ignore it. Or: Dick being so aggressive to Cass when she came back was weird and pretty ooc, but I'll try to keep it as much as possible, justifying it where I can and nudging characterization as little as possible where I can't. Or: Chuck Dixon is a super conservative dick, so I'll take bigoted views expressed by his characters with a grain of salt.)

And there's simultaneously a lot of negativity about canon, and a lot of self-congratulatory "fandom is so much better" that I think really feeds into this idea that there's no reason learn or care about what's in comics when you can instead make it up. And dc comics have had MANY flaws, but...a lot of things? about them? are good? There's a reason we get attached to these worlds and characters? I don't believe in throwing the baby out with the bathwater? (and, yes, also many things about fanon are bad)

Which is also why I try to remember to regularly talk about: I like comics!! I really enjoy comics! I complain about a lot of parts of them, but that's because I love them and want them to be better! I think people should try reading comics because there is so much enjoyment you might find if you give it a chance!

...and try to avoid all the people making blanket statements about "ugh comics suck let's just ignore them" instead of actually engaging with the text (and criticizing it, but for the specific things that deserve criticism)

[tolkien-feels]

You speak surprisingly little about him given his fandom popularity, so I'll have to ask about Maedhros for this one! (Love your blog by the way)

Thank you! You know what? You're right, I should talk more about him. Since Feanor is one of my blorboest blorbos his whole family is very dear to me, but I don't seem to talk too much about Maedhros, do I? Let's fix that

one aspect about them i love: He tries. He tries so hard. People in the Silm have a marked tendency to pick a course of action and stick to it no matter what, but Maedhros does his very best to judge each situation individually. I really admire how committed he is to doing what he thinks is right, even if his plans rarely go as well as he hopes

one aspect i wish more people understood about them: This is more of a pet peeve than anything but I wish people would see him as an individual. I feel like we always get Maedhros-and-parents, Maedhros-and-brothers, Maedhros-and-Fingon, Maedhros-and-Morgoth, etc, but never Maedhros, just Maedhros. I would like to have his individuality acknowledged, just in general. Basically please understand he's a full person on his own, no matter how caught up he always is in other people's lives

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character: This is based on literally nothing and might be contradicted by canon tbh but the Vibe I get is that he's uncommonly affectionate for an elf. I feel like he definitely makes a sharp distinction between public and domestic spheres, but in private, he can be disarmingly sweet to family and friends

one character i love seeing them interact with: Good question. I'm trying to think of someone and drawing a blank? It's so rare to see Maedhros interacting with people, he usually speaks at them in canon. I wanna default to Maglor but that feels like a cop-out lol

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more: Curufin!! For sure!! I have so many thoughts about them! They have this complicated thing going on where Maedhros is technically Feanor's heir but Curufin is the one to both inherit Feanor's skills AND to give him a grandson. How does that impact their relationship with each other, even before Beleriand? Please tell me Tolkien. Please.

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character: Ironically for someone called Nelyafinwe, he doesn't really like Finwe. He won't admit that under torture, but he doesn't. He doesn't hate him, but he can't help feeling like Finwe doesn't take as much responsibility for the people in his care as he should, neither as a father nor as a king. As someone who probably takes more responsibilities than he should, Maedhros resents that a little bit

[atsvmi-x]

my personal characterization of eren bc i’ve been thinking about him a lot🥰 this is all modern!au bc canon literally never happened.

these aren’t x reader headcanons but i have more than enough thoughts about eren in a relationship to provide those soon!

General

Loud, brash, and loyal to a fault - you either love him or hate him (or if you’re Jean, you both love and hate him)

Those that he allows into his inner circle are friends for life. He’s easy to piss off but he’s quick to forgive when it comes to friends and family. If that doesn’t apply to you, or you cross those closest to him, he’ll hold a grudge long after the issue is resolved. You’re on his shit list for life.

He wears his heart on his sleeve. It’s literally impossible for him to conceal his emotions. If he’s angry, sad, annoyed, happy, literally anything his feeling you will be sure to know.

The same goes for his opinions. Blunt beyond belief. If he thinks something is stupid he won’t hesitate to say so. He’ll backtrack to soften his delivery if he notices that it offends other parties though.

All of these factors can lead to awkward moments. 99% of the time he’s confident enough in his stance to ignore how others might receive him but the other 1% of the time you might catch the rare sight of his cheeks heating up.

Contrary to popular belief, Eren is actually smart. Not to the same caliber of Armin, Erwin or Hange when it comes to critical thinking and analysis, but it is still above average. That being said, he doesn’t necessarily apply himself to subjects that don’t immediately interest him. However, he has impeccable game sense, making him quite the accomplished athlete.

Anger issues. Clearly. It made him a difficult child... for most of his life (and probably the reason he’s an only child) but as he’s gotten older he’s learned to manage his temper. It’s still easy to rile him up though, and it’ll be a cold day in hell before he backs down from a challenge. But for the most part his attitude is a running joke between those he’s closest with.

He has a strong moral compass and sense of justice. Not in the sense that he’s conservative, far from it. His personal ideology is: as long as it’s not hurting anyone people should do what they want. and anyone that messes with that is wrong. He’s a simple guy

Bad at flirting. He can be super oblivious and when he does catch on, he’s not smooth at all. But he’s tall and pretty so it comes off as endearing 99% of the time. It’s his boy-ish charms that save him every time.

Childhood

Cute as a button as a baby. Poor Carla and Grisha were blindsided when he hit his terrible twos.

Had no friends besides Armin until middle school when his parents adopted Mikasa.

Before Mikasa, he and Armin were the black sheep of the neighborhood kids. Eren easily alienated himself from the neighborhood kids and his schoolmates due to his brash nature. Looking back on it, he still stands with his decision since it meant he found his first friend.

(Armin didn’t fit in for his old soul thanks to being raised by his grandparents)

Super curious and didn’t realize how small he was in such a big world. On several occasions he wandered off because of his curious nature. Would have been a leash kid if leash kids were a thing when he was growing up.

Could technically be considered a school bully for talking down to kids on the playground. HOWEVER, he was smaller than other kids for a while, meaning his haughty attitude resulted in petty school yard fights that he lost most of the time. Still, he never cried and never learned his lesson.

Since we was never against a fight, he made it his mission to take up for Armin. When Mikasa joined his family he did the same for her when their peers made comments about her different looks. As we know, those roles soon reversed with Mikasa taking on a protector roll

To try and find a suitable outlet for his excess...energy...Carla and Grisha signed him up for every sport under the sun. Was pretty good too but excelled at football and track and field.

Teen

Was on a first name basis with administration during his school years for getting too invested in classroom debates. His fired up nature easily boiled over outside the classroom resulting in several fist fights

Got suspended once for said fights, but more often than not Mikasa saved him before he could get into more trouble.

So angsty. Literally a textbook case of teen angst from the loud music, dark clothes, to butting his heads with his parents he was truly a nightmare. (He recognizes this and is forever apologetic to his parents for being so difficult during this time)

Started to grow out of his rebellious phase by his junior year. There was no real explanation for it he just...did. That’s not to say that he was any less combative, he just knew what battles to pick. Good job Eren.

By the time he graduates he’s such a mama’s boy. He’s always loved him mom but now his eyes have been opened to how much of a handful he was growing up. He’s embarrassed anytime she brings up old stories but he knows it’s all in good fun.

He’s also had a major growth spurt by the time he graduates and his years of playing sports have definitely paid off. He’s a total heartthrob by his senior year and unintentionally a heartbreaker. Again, it’s hard to break into his circle, nothing personal.

Young Adult (College/Post Grad)

Commits to playing football exclusively. Not out of hopes of going pro but he just really likes the sport. He’s well known around campus between sports and his personality.

Still, he can be found with any one member of his crew at any given time. It’s rare to find him by himself unless he’s in his dorm room. He’s a total extrovert and gets bored easily when left to his own devices.

BUT he’s not a total party animal. Definitely prefers kickbacks to partying. But he will show his face if someone personally asks him to come.

Smokes and drinks the normal amount. Knows his limits and isn’t a lightweight for either. But under the right conditions (i.e. drinking games, bets, etc.) he’ll over indulge. Far too touchy when he’s under the influence.

Struggled to find his “calling” in school. Most of his friends fell into majors that they clicked with but it wasn’t that easy for him. He probably ends up with a fifth year under his belt. since he didn’t officially declare a major until maybe junior year.

Graduates with a political science degree! 1) He fooled his parents into thinking he’d go to law school which satisfied his doctor dad. 2) While he doesn’t exactly know how, he wants to improve daily life for the less fortunate and he thought this was a good step to do that. 3) He loved being able to argue for a grade during in-class debates

I know we all love streamer!Eren but I really do think he’d end up going down a creative/independent route where he’s not tied to a desk 9-to-5. It really stressed him out to think about doing thing for 50 years and then being able to enjoy life after retirement.

Other

Like previously mentioned, his music tastes were pretty narrow. But as his social circle grew and he was exposed to new genres his musical pallet has expanded. His go to genres are still heavy, but he’s not against asking what song just played if he liked it (unless you’re Jean, he’ll never give him the satisfaction).

I feel like his celebrity crush is Doja Cat. I have no evidence I just feel like he’d be into her.

Baby can NOT dance. if he tries hard he can bust a two step but usually he doesn’t usually put forth the effort though. It just gets worse if he drinks.

Very much a night owl but surprisingly, he doesn’t like to sleep in either. Feels like there’s too much stuff to do in a day to just waste it in bed. He contradicts himself though bc he can spend all morning in bed playing around on his phone (he’s addicted)

[tagthescullion]

so what are those headcanons for maria you said you have?

Uff many, many hcs

So many I’ll actually cut this

(CW/TW: holocaust, wwii, wwi, ptsd, sexism)

Maria Beatrice Name3 Name4 Di Angelo Carminati was born in 1910, has an older sister (very much older) who taught her all about being a suffragette, she got married when Maria was around 10-12 and went to live abroad

Maria’s dad, the diplomat, fought in WWI. When he left, she was very young, when he came back she could barely remember him, it took all of the 1918-1920 pandemic for her to feel comfortable around him again

Signor Di Angelo, imo was an aristocrat, and a Duke at that.. after the war he was “shell shocked” and suffered from panick attacks, making that period of adapting to each other hard on both the Duca and Maria

After that Maria was his little spoiled girl, anything she wanted she got including being a single mother of two bastards of questionable background, but to that later

He travelled a lot for work, and wherever he went he took his wife and younger daughter, he lived in the UK, in France and Germany.. his last post before Nico and Bianca were born was the US of A

In DC Maria met Hades at the tender age of 17, but because we have an irrational love for the god, let’s say he thought of her as “too young” to really try anything, but he was impressed nonetheless. Maria played the piano, spoke multiple languages, and saw through the Mist so clearly that Hades thought she might actually be a demigod

And while not a demigod, I reckon the Di Angelos are legacies, go figure of whom, but legacies (I have reasons I promise).. which is why il Duca and la Duchessa didn’t find it all that strange when Maria said shit like “that woman has snake legs”, but they did warn her against sharing what she saw

Fast forward three years into the future, Maria’s back in Venice, the 1929 crisis made everyone upset, and amidst all that sadness she sees her old friend Hades Lord of the Underworld at some socialite party or other

Maria wasn’t allowed to go to university, but regardless, she made it her business to excell at everything else, and to know everything about everyone, impressing old gossipy ladies, fancy gentlemen, and Greek deities

Like any good spoiled kid, Maria thought “no one was the right one”, a thought pushed by her protective father, but Hades is nothing if not manipulative, so he swept her off her feet..

Quite literally, she had lots of trouble with Bianca’s pregnancy, had to spend weeks lying down and enduring the increasing gossip surrounding her mysterious disappearance of social events

His Grace Di Angelo made it look like an improptu elopement, no one knew Hades, no one would doubt his daughter did get married under God’s good will in a church like a proper catholic girl.. or at least they wouldn’t have the balls to contradict him to his face

Signor Di Angelo was slightly disappointed to see he had yet another granddaughter, he needed a grandson because cheers, sexism, girls don’t inherit, but he was taken by the quiet baby all the same..

To Maria’s delight (and her father’s irritation) Hades did come back, as much as he could, specially during the warmer half of the year

And not two years later Maria discovered (much to her surprise, this time she wasn’t expecting it) that she was pregnant again

Little Niccolò Salvatore Antonio Luca bc luke’s my favourite bible part was born on a cloudy cold January day in 1933 (canon says 32 but I don’t like that)

He was the fuzziest baby Maria had ever seen.. he was cute though, and the moment he stopped looking like an overly squeezed sweet potato, the whole family could see how much he resembled Maria, and as such, the Duke too

Speaking of, the Duke was thrilled.. finally testosterone in the family joke’s on you Signor, the line dies there 🖕🏼, nah I’m kiddin’ but that’s what he’ll think anyhow and like Henry VIII he celebrated his heir

The Duchess loved Bianca, but she never quite liked the boy so much, who knows

Maria’s dad was kind enough to give her a house for herself and the kids, one within the city of Venice, unlike his probably huge house in Treviso

Maria loved Hades’ company.. he was kind, caring, and spoiled her and the children the way she was used to, but eventually she came to the conclusion that she didn’t want to be “the other woman”, so she cut things with Hades.. on good terms, but platonic now

I’m not kidding

I like the idea of her finding a German soldier stationed in the German consulate where her father kept working

There was something about him that didn’t scream bloody murderer and at some point he accidentally confesses that he’s smuggling people out of the Axis territory

Maria thinks she can finally do something to help, and by the time Bianca and Nico are 8 and 6, she’s helping Herr Schindler Von Luden (because I like long names) save people (specially kids) from the atrocity that was the Holocaust

But life isn’t simple, and her bubble of happiness (or contentment for she did live a bloody world war) eventually bursts.. someone gossiped a little to much and idle talk costs lives

It’s 1943 and Herr Schindler Von Luden is sent to the Eastern Front due to suspicious behaviour, and she needs to leave asap

And guess who comes back? Why yes! Our very (not always) lovely King of the Underworld appears one night, tells Maria to pack suitcases for her and the children and takes them all to the US

They spend March-May of ‘43 in DC and then we all know what happens

Herr Schindler Von Luden is heartbroken, the Duke and Duchess Di Angelo are destroyed, and Hades is fucking mad

And our young Bianca and Nico are taken away from everything they know

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

On the Citadel and writing (Star Wars) essays.

I’ve just stumbled upon captures of clones deaths in the Citadel and Obi-Wan’s reactions (easily summed up by “we must keep moving”), and the op was using this as evidence of Obi-Wan dehumanizing them, and I can’t stop thinking about it and it’s making me so (irrationally) angry. 

...

So yeah instead of ranting, I’ll attempt to direct my seething frustration into trying to organize a few thoughts on character analysis. Rule of thumb: text without context is pretext. Or in this case, picture without scene is probably bs. When using a particular frame as a piece of evidence supporting a take, you have to make sure you’re not excluding any surrounding material that could potential contradict that take, or else the analysis doesn’t hold. Quick example: using pictures of Yoda goofing around to test Luke’s patience as evidence that he is insane doesn’t work, because it’s revealed right after that he was playing an act. 

This principle is to be broadened when analysing entire scenes or episodes. You can’t take them out of the wider narrative. 

The post I was talking about continued on to say that this wasn’t the first or the last time that Obi-Wan was careless with the lives of his clones. Unless they were referring to RotS (which isn’t fair or intellectually honest because it was made long before anyone considered giving the clones identities and individual thinking), I don’t see that as being the case at all in canon material. Obi-Wan fights on the front lines. He takes the exact same amount of risk as his troops - he takes more risks even, as established as early as Christophsis (when he tells Rex to retreat with his men while he holds off the B2 super battle droids). 

What the op was probably talking about was the many plans of his that result in clones dying (ex: on Geonosis with the zombie worms, many troopers die as they escape). Here’s what I meant about the wider narrative: TCW is about war. It’s about people dying, and it has to be so the audience can understand the horror of a full scale war. And since it’s still (supposed to be) a kid’s show, it has to be mostly faceless people dying. 

I’m borrowing a quote from @trickytricky1​‘s absolutely amazing vid ‘Your Body and Your Blade’, which compiles scenes of Jedi placing themselves between their clones and enemy fire: “We are shown a war, and in that show, to tell that story, they will kill the soldiers. They will kill the soldiers regardless of whether we think they should have been able to be saved. They will kill the soldiers to prove a point, to tug the heartstrings, to move the plot, to set the scene. But that is far from the only thing we are shown.”

So there, wider narrative. The clones dying in missions led by Obi-Wan don’t say much about Obi-Wan himself. And speaking of Obi-Wan, more on character analysis. Obi-Wan, according to Matthew Stover’s Lucas-approved RotS novelization, is “the ultimate Jedi,” Jedi being supposedly defined by their compassion.

Obi-Wan is the guy who cradles one of his worst enemy in his arms as he dies, the guy who knows like a billion languages and is always shown to be super respectful and/or knowledgeable of other beings’ cultures (the Twi’Leks whose homes he doesn’t want to destroy, the Zygerrian whose culture he uses to buy Anakin time to disable the bombs, the Geonosian Queen, telling the Gungans they live in symbiosis with the Naboo...) and the one who knows the names of the 501st troopers despite not being their general (see The Deserter). Obi-Wan is not presented as dismissive of people or things because he does not understand them, and he certainly is shown to value all sentient life above his own. That does not jibe with Obi-Wan dehumanizing the clones. 

What we’re uncomfortable with might be the show itself not delving deeply enough into issues we as an audience can perceive because we have the benefit of omniscience and hindsight. Just as Yoda and Obi-Wan killing the clones in RotS does not inform their characters but the real life context of the movie’s creation, the same can be said of most problems with clone rights that we are indigned by. (Except in Krell’s case, or Tarkin’s - that’s what dehumanization looks like. And that’s what the show draws attention to, practically screaming “hey, look, these guys are evil for doing that!!!”)

To go back to the Citadel arc itself... Again, context. They’re in the middle of a highly time-sensitive mission, their failure could (as far as they know) mean complete defeat and the end of the Republic if the Separatist invade the Core worlds, and it’s more than probable that the clones who came along volunteered. (The ones we know are all high-ranking officers.) 

With this in mind, Obi-Wan not taking the time to show grief (again with the context that Obi-Wan isn’t one to wear is emotions on his sleeve) says one thing about his character, and only one: he’s a damn leader. As Piell puts it, this is war. You act first, survive first, mourn second. It’s hard to swallow as the audience, because we love the clones and care for them and want other characters to show that they care too, but fan-service can make for poor writing and characterization. 

(And by the way - Obi-Wan carries a clone on his back when they make their way down a cliff. He also personally assists most of the men up and down ledges, he gives out the warning about the blast doors closing... He’s trying to have everyone’s back. Pressing people to move isn’t being cold, it’s being cool-headed.)

To finish off, I’d like say that the “death of the author” principle is great when you’re writing school essays and want to show off (I should know, pretending that I’m smart and know stuff about literature is basically what I’m majoring in). But it can very easily lead to interpretations that - while valid to the degree that you’re entitled to make them and that they’ll probably always be defendable in some way - are not what you were meant to take away from the story. (Ex: the Empire was actually good, the Jedi deserved genocide, the Dark Side is freeing - go crazy, make defending these into fun rhetoric exercises, actually believe them if you want - but it’s still not what Lucas was trying to say.) 

Here’s what JAT (Obi-Wan’s voice actor) had to say about the Citadel. (Borrowed from the amazing @gffa​.)

“He has sympathy and heart for the clones, but at the same time he knows the mission.” 

tldr: the Citadel isn’t an arc meant to highlight Obi-Wan’s flaws (if anything, it’s an Ahsoka arc, and an Anakin arc setting up his future interactions with Tarkin). The deaths we see him walk away from are mostly for shock value, to make us understand what how dire the situation is and to make Even Piell’s death believable when it comes (which in turn is to further Ahsoka’s arc).

So yeah, keep the author alive, try to make serious analysis in good faith and not based on your emotional reactions to character you cherish, but go crazy on the wildy AU headcanons and don’t let people spoil your fun.