#it’s bc he’s like u know. not a 2 dimensional person

[consigleire]

i’ve talked about this before but my biggest peeve with ppl consuming vincenzo is the recurring comment about him not being violent enough or not being “mafia” enough like ONE: the man is in a foreign country where he can’t manipulate or control the cops, the legal system, or its citizens to the extent that he could in italy and within cassano territories. TWO: though he was a part of the mafia, he was a consigliere first and foremost - a lawyer, an advisor. violence was just an added trait when things needed to escalate to that point or be handled in such manners. it was a tool, not a necessity. THREE: the focus was on his ability to strategize and take down enemies and get what he wanted without the blatant use of violence. he sees himself as evil and as an antagonist, but one necessary to take down other evils deemed unsuited for the world. he can’t do that if he’s arrested. it’s about the game, it’s about getting what needs to be done, not about boldness in the sense of useless show and tell.

[mourninglamby]

tbh I think dsmp fandom is just a microcosm of the abuse fetishism that’s been ramping up online in fandom and on social media for the past 10 years or so. cdream is definitely an interesting villain in the sense of how deeply fucked up his actions are, but I think to an average viewer he performs like a generic ‘charismatic’ villain in the actual videos. People lament that they want him to be sympathetic so he’s not so one-dimensional, but if they thought about his actions for 2 mins they’d realize he’s not just a generic Disney villain but much closer to a stalker serial killer. But fandoms have always done everything in their power to uplift a villain character by either fetishizing their villainy or trying to make them seem sympathetic, fandoms have seemingly always done this if a villain character is serving a majority of the spectacle and intrigue for the story regardless of what their actions are. And this isn’t even getting into the fact that every streamer in the rp had a parasocial fanbase that wanted to make their favourite streamer be the “hero of their own story”. And the streamers were willing to do anything in the rp if it kept the viewers watching as we’ve seen. Like, it’s bitter to say this but dsmp was doomed from the start to attract some of the most abuse apologetic people on the internet just by virtue of poor timing, how poorly written dsmp was, and the fact that the streamers already had parasocial fanbases ready to misinterpret what they view in the vods as long as the interpretation of their preferred blorbo remains in tact

I literally can’t add anything that wasn’t said better by u. Like idk if I should even post this bc I know so many people are Not ready for this conversation, and will either flat out deny the truth or spin it like we’re crazy for picking up on this. But this is such a good summary of the bigger picture issues present with dsmp, inherent to the dynamics of fans and celebrity. Sadly I do think there’s some merit to the story but most of it is so heavily personalized in my own idea of canon that it feels counterproductive to bring up. This is a huge factor into why I’m so fascinated with dsmp. Ugh… thank you for sending this. It makes me happy I’m not the only one thinking about this stuff and that smarter people than me can put it into words.

[lemongogo]

hello it’s the anon (or one of the anons) who tried to sell u on dungeon meshi and I’m so delighted you also loved mithrun’s story because GODDDD IT GETS ME I was and am absolutely devastated and entranced by that scene

YESS!!!!! UESSSSSS thank u so much for getting me into it btw .. ive genuinely had so much fun w dunmesh. a top series for SUREEE

mithruns story has to be one of my favorites bc, aside from senshi's backstory, it was one of the first sequences that really touched on the horror genre imo. like yeaah you had a few elements sprinkled here and there leading up to ch.62, but nothing quite as intense as his. and while i personally dont know much abt the mythology or symbolism associated w goats (e.g. baphomet), i assume its very deliberate (!!) and id love to look into why that is (on the lookout for mithrun meta 🫡)

the VISUALS THOUGH??...brah.. the picture of consumption and greed..the gradual degradation of his perfected reality , his sense of self , into smth distorted and unrecognizable .to be left w a life devoid of desire and have 2 deal w the realization that a similar fate potentially awaits laios, marcille, and thistle as the winged lion's intentions are laid bare. like its crazy.2 me. it serves its purpose so well and i think its made mithrun into a really fascinating character . i like that the monsters in dunmeshi arent like..avoidable ? if you know what i mean. even characters with a strong sense of self-preservation find themselves victim to their desires at one point or another. despite knowing the nature of magic mirrors, he still chose to look into it that day and chose to indulge in the demon's offer . rly great humanization at play imo

man. and the way the demons grow as they feed on their hosts. I LOVEE IT..ntm the physical aspect of Actually Being Devoured by said demons..yeah

this page in particular .brh... just so good idek what to say . and i find it cool, too, how the demons arent confined by the panels they occupy. their existence as inter-dimensional or otherworldly beings allow them to reach over or outside the page while mithrun and co are confined to the world they exist in

rly love this guy.tbh.

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 2

Propaganda Under Cut

Elizabeth Midford

She started as just a cutie fiancée trying her best, turns out she's also a swordfighting genius, very under pressure to perform feminity in the Victorian Rose type of way. Fandom crucifies her bc she's Ciel's fiancée and they want him to be with his butler, Sebastian, the demon he sold his soul to for revenge

anime was a shitty canon divergent adaptation that butchered her character down to her "cutesy silly girly" persona, which obviously made the 2008 anime fans hate her with a passion (nothing wrong w being girly I'm just saying the adaptation made her super one dimensional) anyways fujoshis used to treat her as a villain because she's the fiance of Ciel,, who as u might know already was HEAVILY shipped with his butler, Sebastian back then (now it's kinda looked badly upon, nice tbh that ship sucks ass xD) She's a bit similar to Misa Amane from death note in the way she was treated. (Like an obstacle the yaoi ship must overcome rather than a person)

she's my silly little rabbit! i could gush about her character but i'll keep it short and just say that she's really well written and one of the best characters in the series. anyways she's ciel's fiance and she's like, rightfully annoying as any other 13 yr old girl would be but the fanbase fucking crucified her for even existing. she gets demonized for being 'annoying', but then ciel gets yaoishipped with an even more annoying guy. there is 100% an argument that lizzie/ciel is weird bc they're cousins (i personally don't ship it) but that falls flat when her detractors then ship the 13 yr old ciel with an eons old demon who Canonically looks like his father. the anime also never reached her main character development until years after its peak and that was only in a movie, so she really got the bad end of the stick here. not me though i had a giant crush on her when i was 12

Katara

Katara is constantly mistreated by the fans in favor of the Zukka ship (Zuko × Sokka.) They make her out to be mean, homophobic, and completely out of character just to add drama to the Zukka ship. In reality, Katara is very compassionate, and would never act that way toward anyone. 

Zutara was a popular ship but when zukka got popular over covid during the atla renaissance there were a million posts about how zutara was problematic while zukka was perfect usually for racist reasons. Meanwhile katara and sokka are siblings so it didn't even make sense. They did not have to be so illogically rude to her to ship zukka and it was weird

Katara is FANTASTIC I fucking love her to pieces she is so cool and yet the entirety of the ATLA fandom treats her like garbage because she “talks about her mom dying too much” (even though she BARELY does & also was parentified from a young age due to her mother’s death) and, of course, because she’s a more feminine women when compared to her counterparts. Even in the show itself she’s mistreated: she’s ALWAYS shown cooking for the rest of the gaang, doing their laundry, any ‘womanly’ task. She ends up with the guy who kissed her twice without her consent & who she never showed any real attraction to and apparently (despite being a badass warrior-doctor!!!) after the show ended she just… settled down in the South Pole and had a bunch of kids and never did anything else. She didn’t even get a statue :( Anyways during the ATLA renaissance, despite Zutara actually not being canon, people felt that Katara threatened the sanctity of the new almost entirely baseless yaoi ship, Zukka. Unfortunately for them, due to the fact that Katara and Sokka are siblings, the usual anti-Zutara arguments didn’t work as well. So they resorted to just… slaughtering her character. If she was lucky, they’d just make Katara a background character, wingwoman, &or throw her together with her canon love interest. If she was unlucky they’d do anything from make her homophobic (??) to killing her off! Fuck’s sake, she never even got a token spare-the-pairs wlw ship! Sorry for getting so heated, that whole debacle made me FUMING MAD.

[mamawasatesttube]

do u have thoughts on tim’s autism & how he masks/doesn’t mask around ppl he’s close with? personally i think bart is his vibrating weighted blanket. this ask was brought to you by me yesterday at a concert rocking in place so violently people thought i was on molly peace and love

lord i know i DO have such thoughts but most of them infuriatingly just out of reach at the moment. (<- brain nerfed by a migraine today and also for the past like 2 weeks at this point. augh) lets see what i do got.

in general? tim drake KING of masking. his masks have masks. i dont think he really does it consciously either; i think he grows up just kinda repressing facets of himself depending on his audience and assumes everyone does that. (i don't think he ever gets a formal autism diagnosis or anything as a kid, either. even if a teacher or someone clocked him and mentioned it to his parents i don't think they'd get him any sort of child psych eval. not in the "oh theyre horrible neglectful awful abusive one dimensional figures" way, but in the "sometimes parents take the idea of their kid having any mental health or neurodivergency issues as a personal insult and then sweep them under the rug bc it is easier than addressing any of said behaviors in themselve as well" way. hopefully i am explaining this ok. and you get what i mean. its not like we know much abt janet to begin with but i just dont think jack drake the republican is particularly supportive of nd kids. this is a tangent. anyway)

so to tim i don't think he ever really consciously considers it as masking. it's more of him internally clocking and cataloguing people who are okay to express certain thoughts and behaviors around, in a whole complex categorization system in his mind. very few people get to the category of "fully free expression is allowed" in his head; even his closest friends take yeeaaars to get there. like i don't think that happens until postcanon (postcrisis no flashpoint edition).

bart is def good at being a vibrating blanket. kon is really good at being a weighted blanket (ttk makes his ability to squish people godly). cassie is someone who Gets him really well and makes it easier to communicate even when he's struggling to do so. but even when he trusts them with his life i do think he has trouble actually reaching out or letting them know if he's, like, feeling overstimulated or anything. this is in large part bc he isn't really aware that not every single person has this complicated categorization system of "what can i and can't i act like in front of this person" system going on in their minds at all times.

[intertexts]

goodevening I am no longer in the car and while I was in the car I was thinking about new haven wards so I'm invading your inbox. I mean. mostly just about interpersonal dynamics and not power things so technically this is just thinking about pd. but in the context of worm world.

uhmmmmm sitting in the wards base. I think they spend. all of their time out of costume there. none of them really have. family to go home to (with the exception of . william and ashe but I don't imagine they exactly WANT to spend time at home. considering.) so they spenddd all day every day out of costume with each other. i think william and dakota were paired together first and they just naturally clicked with each other right away because they balanced out each other's energy pretty well. hence the extreme codependency qpr. then vycnent joined and he was a little prickly at first bc he didn't rlly know the city or what he was doing there or what his powers were and maybe he already had a habit of distancing himself from people due to the nature of his powers. but obv he comes around eventually and william has his gay little crush and here they are sitting smushed together in the same arm chair watching a movie on the big tv together. dakota is snoring honk shoo style. then WAYYY later ashe joins and william is the prickly petty one. dakota takes to him rlly fast just bc dakota loves everyone very loudly and easily. vyncent took a little longer but appreciated ashes chill personality so clicked with that pretty quickly. william had a one sided rivalry with ashe for a little bit and didn't trust him. however now they are ride or die emos and will parallel play by sitting leaning on each other back to back on the couch doing completely separate activities and not speaking to each other. the new haven wards literally always have to be touching each other in some capacity when out of costume amazon listing do not separate they have SUCH BAD separation anxiety please

also side note about wibby I have some Thoughts about why his last name is bell and not wisp and I'm going to keep this simple and spoiler free but just know there is MORE to this. eventually. i think it's because. grew up in the worm equivalent of deadwood which is a rlly small town in the middle of nowhere which means it doesn't rlly have a strong Cape Presence. so after his trigger event and his family finding out abt his powers (bc i think they Would) his parents push him to join the wards in new haven, because his older brother david already lives there, so he can just go live with david !! easier to separate his hero identity from his parents who he loves if he changes his last name to the same as the brother he's living with in the city. smile. not going to get too into that rn

side note SIDE NOTE bc I just read about them again. do u think wibby retains some subconscious knowledge about the . extra dimensional trigger event being. I dont think he would Remember it per se but. maybe he gets really weird recurring nightmares about it sometimes. and doesn't think anything of it bc it's just SO weird and incomprehensible. this stance may change once I read abt what those things actually ARE but for now. I like to make my favorite characters suffer <3 NO WAIT MAYBE ITS DAKOTA WITH HIS CANON NIGHTMARES. IDK. YOU KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS THAN ME. WHY CAN MISS MILITIA REMEMBER THEM >:|

NEW HAVEN WARDS... SAVE ME NEW HAVEN WARDS.... ok. under the cut so this doesnt get a mile longer 3

ILL OVER THEM!!!!! DO NOT SEPARATE!!! which means of course i have been thinking so hard about all of the reasons 2 separate them & make them miserable. it's gotta suck also being in school right?? since that's iirc a prerequisite of the wards. and the prt would Not be happy with "three distinctive looking clingy ass teenagers in the school everyone knows the wards go to who look exactly like the wards on tv." lmaoo. high school hell Has to stay its so necessary <33 also. i have many many many thoughts on vyncent & how he grew up & his relationship to both his power & parahumans in general but we will get into that once we also get into wibby!!!!

but. yeah. usually when i think of other media in worm lens i immediately go "alright how can i make this dynamic as unpleasant as possible..." it's honestly really fun 2 Not be doing that & instead just putting them all through the blender in various ways. i mean. they still have a fucking insane dynamic at least one of them has to have brutalized some minor thug for hurting someone i think. it's so fun thinking abt how that desperate extreme codependency translates to on shift where their job is throwing themselves into the meat grinder & getting hurt & shit.

IM. SO EXCITED FOR BELL SHIT. im so hyped. love this i'm sure william living with his brother!! ^_^ is incredibly unpleasant and a miserable experience for some fucking reason i will find out. yayyy <3

i thiiiiink. out of all of them. yeah. wibby would be most likely to be fixated on his trigger event. for sure <33 and also he has an insane memory! even if he didn't specifically remember it i think he would maybe know something. dakota still has nightmares but theyre just normal nightmares :-) several orders of magnitude worse though. of course. also HEYHEYHEY now u know my guys my best friends my rotten cheeses the slaughterhouse nine!!! u unlock [NH WARDS NOTE 1] !! which is. i think dakota's parents would have been killed via being victims of the s9 coming to town ^_^ this will be immediately worse for you after u read some more worm tomorrow!! anyway. anyway. 130 am for mee good NIGHT i loove them i love this dynamic so much thabk u. mac ghostiezone wards in my inbox u know its gonna b a good day!!!

[merlinmerlot]

no hate at all to the syb*lvimers out there but if i'm being 100% honest i Don't get the appeal. i think u guys are inventing a dynamic between them that is actually interesting and not just the 'emotionally unavailable man and his wife who tolerates it'.

like i think their relationship was fun in guardsguards, so i assume that's where most of the appeal comes from, but in later books sybil just becomes a 'the ol ball and chain' joke. she's not even mentioned in feet of clay except in reference to her bed being cold bc vimes literally isn't there lol. and this is all very strange bc pratchett is Definitely capable of writing interesting dimensional women! he just very much gave up after guards guards for sybil, and when she does get a major part later on (fifth elephant) she's still just the 'wife' archetype, and there's not much else really going on. it's clear pratchett wanted to do a 'vimes finds comfort and home in his Wife bc that's his Wife, and he's suuuch an emotionally repressed man but his Wife brings out the best in him or whatever' and i don't know how to explain that i adamantly dislike that. and usually tp would try to Subvert that trope in someway! he literally did in guards guards, and then immediately gave up!

also, and i Am just a m/f hater in general, but a common fandom thing for these two (which i don't think has a lot of basis in the books), is that sybil is the dominant person in the relationship and ahhh look how much of a wifeguy vimes is! which 1. i hate this. making female characters #powerful #commanding with Nothing else going on is not like. feminist writing or whatever. relationships where the woman pegs the man is not automatically #girlpower. and 2. i can only fathom you getting these idea from these two characters if you like, extrapolate from select passages in guards guards.

idk maybe i'm missing some Key stuff from them since i've only read til fifth elephant, but the relationship is not particularly salvageable to me.

[gothsuguru]

HI HELLO IM BREAKING INTO UR INBOX W TEARS IN MY EYES…………… 😭😭 i just read all ur tags on my sugu fics and when i tell you i CRIED YOURE SOO??? so so SO sweet and thoughtful????? I HOPE YOUR DINNER WAS THE TASTIEST EVER bc ur tags made my whole weekend <333333 literally every single thing u said made me go YES YOU GET IT like… im just gonna mention a couple things phsjdhs IM REALLY SOSO GRATEFUL <333 

FIRST OFF just . everything u said abt my writing in general??? is soooo unbelievably kind??? T_T like abt the setting and prose and etc!!! i got soooo happy every time u said u felt like u were really There LIKE THAT MEANS SO MUCH…. ”it’s like i’m living inside your words” ARE U TRYING TO KILL ME </3 sob. thank u :’< 

and aaa im so glad u liked all three fics even though theyre a bit different!! 🥺🥺 i just rlly feel like u understood what i was trying to convey w certain characters and lines and stuff and it means soooo much??? SUGU IS A DEVOTED LOVERBOY YESYESYES U GET IT!!!!! U UNDERSTAND!!!! ”devoted” & ”intense” are the PERFECT words for him i cant tell u how much i agree. AND SOO NURTURING YES WE’RE SO LINKED he’s so mother he’s so husbandwife <333 IM JUST NODDING ALONG TO EVERYTHING U SAY like genuinely. food as love was the theme for that particular fic hehe im so glad u noticed!!! 

AAAA AND UR TAGS ON THE CHILDHOOD BESTIES FIC ……. thats probably my fave sugu fic out of the ones ive written ngl i was sooo happy to see that u liked it 😭😭😭 U GET IT U DO… like their love could be platonic or romantic but it doesnt rlly matter bc they just love each other sooo much. HE’S A GHIBLI BOY YES i’m so glad u see the vision <33

IM SORRY THIS GOT SO LONG i just need you to know that i see you and i love you and i appreciate you <3333 tysm for reading my silly lil fics and taking the time to write such thoughtful tags!!! 🥺🥺 im tucking them all away into my heart hehe. wishing u the most wonderful weekend ever !!!! mwah mwah mwah <33

OMG PLEASENDNDNDND your writing is literally SO stunning methinks you have the best rendition of suguru out there… like it’s so TELLING how much you love suguru (and satoru bc TRUST i’m gonna be in the tags of those fics too) and also i just really like how much personality you give to the reader as well! like everyone just is so fleshed out & 3-dimensional like they don’t feel like Just Characters In A Story they feel like real people & honestly magnificent writing to me always makes me feel like i’m watching a movie - and your writing does that! as i’m reading i’m envisioning everything like a movie & that’s the best compliment i can give fr <3 again it’s a testament to your beautiful dialogue, scene setting, storytelling, and YES PROSE!!!!! THAT’S THE WORD I WAS LOOKING FOR THE ENTIRE TIMENFNFNFNF your PROSE is beautiful 😭 it’s very COZY & PRETTY i love it

& OMG I WAS ABLE 2 UNDERSTAND BC YOU CONVEY EVERYTHING SO WELL!!!!! i was never confused i was Always In It <3 AND YES YOU SPOKE #REAL bc sugu is the ULTIMATE devoted loverboy… & i love how his intensity is just innate to him like he can’t help but love fully and with his whole entire mind, heart, body, & soul! and i also like how it isn’t an uncomfortable intensity or overbearing in a bad way - it’s just like a really nice weighted blanket and i LOVE that. & omg i’ve come to love food motifs so much………. whether it be hunger for something, cannibalism to get to the core of someone’s being, peeling clementines as an act of selflessness/love for someone else, or just sweet soft feeding your lover in bed bc you want them to eat well… that’s some delicious fucking food. & YESSSSSS nurturing caretaker sugu my beloved………. i think i read somewhere i forgot if it was just a random post here but someone said that suguru has such natural paternal instincts and that’s so real… like he’s mother he’s father he’s husbandwife he’s Transcended everything… the ultimate DadMom of the group… i just know his tote bag has bandaids, water, & snacks for everyone and he’s just the One you go to talk to about anything (again just like your sugu <3) OH AND ALSO i really like how devoted the reader is too! i Myself am a devoted lovergirl so i Feel seen

THE CHILDHOOD BESTIES FIC WAS SO FUCKING &/@/$/&//@/&:! why’d i get transported to a quaint town w the boy i’ve been in love since childhood and now he grew into a wondrous handsome man… trust that for Me if it involves sugu i’m immediately going romantic mode like i’m sorry i’m so Desperately In Love with him i can’t be normal <3 that fic is so fucking rich and filled w real problems that teens/ppl in their twenties face! the fear of the unknown but it feels like anything is possible and doable with someone like suguru by your side! AND YES HE IS SOOOOO HAKU-CODED TO ME (my first bf since i was a kid… coincidence? methinks not…) and also i reallllllllly love your fic of suguru going to reader’s apartment to declare war but he instead goes & has tea & cookies instead… i think i read that fic ages ago on ao3 and i could never find it again so it’s so Poetic Cinema that i found it here and that it was YOU and that you created so many more amazing fics… like i’m so well fed omfg & i’m super excited for anything you have coming out next!

AND OMG IT’S ABSOLUTELY MY PLEASURE! THANK YOU FOR CREATING SUCH BEAUTIFUL STORIES THAT I WILL KEEP TUCKED IN MY BRAIN & HEART <3 i will never forget you twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat… for as long as i live 🫡☝🏼 BUT FR!!!!! thank you for creating such wonderful premises for stories! i’m ecstatic to read anything you come out with next <3 mwah mwah mwah

^ me when reading your fics

[ressonancee]

ur sooo real for that post abt having members that are hard 2 write for (i apologize for the ramble this might become i'm high and have a lot to say) .., there is my bias line i love writing for but besides them there are also members who i find rly easy & rly fun 2 write for >_< but there are others that like ... i don't love them any less :3 it's just ... the characterization is hard for me to get :c it's funny cuz u say that joshua is hard for u to write when he's like probably one of my fav members to write for (idk what it is abt him like ... he isn't even in my bias line !?! but i just cannot get enough of writing him) i feel like the member hardest for me to write would be vernon like idk :/ i actually love him so much i've had a fixation on him and wonwoo as of late it's just ...,, when i write i have like certain persona's for the two main interests and then i usually pick and choose member suits the persona the best and i feel like vernon is a very interesting person and it's hard for me to fit him in these boxes like ... he's so emotionally intelligent and gentle but also like he's unpredictable and cutely awkward sometimes and like he's a bit on the quieter side like i don't know if i'm even saying this right but ya i would love to write for him but it would just take me a while

no but forreal like

if i think about it i really love it when ppl use stereotypes that I DONT AGREE with w a member so i think it is funny to pick that apart? like jihoon and his persona and i am like thats my guy he lives in my pocket he is cool and nice and fyi he is really warm!!! and cozy!!!

when i wrote vernon i think it all started bc of his chill persona and yeah he is chill but i like variety i like emotions i like multi dimensional characters so when i pin point that one stereotype i think its get easier for me????

i think i struggle with joshua bc he is very soft and tender and i want to capture that but i still dont know how???? like i think i said that to you when i read isohei joshua has something naive in him that i cant pinpoint it yet?

so for me i like when people put them in box and i try to put holes in it??? trash the box??? put it on fire???? i dont know something like that

[trixstriforce]

hello :) i saw your posts about lu and idk if you were gauging interest in people hearing your opinions. personally i would be super interested in reading what specifically about every lu character is ooc! i am similarly frustrated with the current dominance of lu characterizations in fandom as a ww fan. ive been following for a while i just logged into this side account because i am scared to ask on main :( i hope you do not mind the somewhat bare blog. thank you!

oh my god oh my god oh my god someone wants my opinion??? do u wanna make out???? u do not understand the power u r giving me rn u do not understand how annoying and nitpicky and very passionate i can get specifically about lu bc i care so much about link its unreal and also bc i just like things like linkedmaze, dimensional links, and minaslinkverse better characterization wise bc to me they have shown the "found family links meeting up" thing a lotttt better than lu when i still read it

but to be fair i STOPPED reading around the part where four split due to the way the lu community reacting to the person with DID, a very stigmatized disorder who genuinely just wanted Jojo to acknowledge they messed up in the past and present and didnt like the vauge ass apology she gave making me actually disgusted. ppl talk about accountability then rallied against 1 tumblr user who was uncomfortable bc ppl liked Jojo's comic so she doesnt have to explain that now she respects nonbinary ppl and understands how past things were wrong for her to say we just infer this bc lu good :/ like hey maybe Jojo owned up to it afterwards or something bc she made 2 apologies that would make a YouTuber blush so i was done w/ the community and it was only rlly after that and after i played a few of the actual games + read some mangas i realized wow actually i do not like lu as much as i thoguht i did they butchered my boy, also i feel i should say it literally wouldnt matter to me do what u want in ur au but lu is now a fandom of its own and its influenced a lot of other aus and interpretations of link so i do take issue w/ how ooc these guys end up being

OK HERE R THE MOST BASIC ISSUES W/OUT GETTING INTO EACH LINK RN:

for one i dont know for me having link as a secret hoarder who would rather DIE than use the full scope of his abilities around OTHER HEROS is just no bc thats fucking stupid levels of wanting to appear normal around OTHER HEROS possiblly the ONLY other ppl to ever understand what u r going through

for me having every single link act like a frat boy/standard teenage white boy who is emotionally constipated is a no??? have u SEEN link he is so sociable and kind and understanding to other ppl WHY r the links like this, so many fics just...make them stew in their issues for angst and not trust the others and be incredibly insecure about the other heros(which is lu canon for at least hyrule and wind i think?) and like ok that is definitely fine for 1 link but why r they all like this in the games link is clearly not like that he wouldn't be this closed off and wouldn't hesitate so much like my dude he just inserts himself into other ppl's lives to make them better than leaves he wouldn't pussyfoot around other heros like what

also another major issue is the mergings just lead to certain characterizations or important backstory for certain links(FOUR. LEGEND.) being completely erased and the nuance of their journeys lost like when u merge links who r canonically 100s of years apart not just in the timeline but in the GAMES? yeah u lose things that make that link special

also bc u mentioned wind waker i found it kinda fucked up that wind waker link was delegated to The Kid TM even tho his entire journey was about moving on from the past to a brighter future and he took on the mantle left behind by the hero of time on his own volition and did what Time COULDN'T do which is kill Ganon but he is constantly underestimated and made into the Kid Who Wants Approval trope specifically around Time which sucks ass ngl he deserves to be an equal him still being a kid while the others got to grow up, including Four who's first journey arguably would have been a better fit for this archtype of wide eyed kid, is just side lining one of the most interesting links especially considering most of the other links were YOUNGER than him when they started

this is all general stuff plus 1 of my issues w/ Wind bc ur a Wind Waker fan bc as a Spirit Track fan i feel a kinship, im gonna make another post for specifically each link breaking down my issues w/ how they r portrayed later bc rn it is 8am and i ment to just say haha ty for the permission but then my inner ranter came out i am INCAPABLE of being normal about lu especially after i actually experienced zelda games bc lu was my FIRST introduction to zelda outside of smash bros lol

toast if u r reading this say rip to ur dms bc i am once more gonna talk to u about a comic for a videogame franchise u only know about due to my rambles and forcing u at gunpoint to learn about link...godspeed comrade

[seisho99]

hihihiii . since i got to tell u abt enstars do u wanna talk abt oxenfree since all i know abt it is that someone has blue hair and pronouns

I WOULD TY MWAH KISSING YOU ok so . blue hair & pronouns is the protagonist her names alex the game opens with her on a boat trip w her childhood friend ren + her recently acquired stepbrother jonas to edwards island 4 a yearly quote unquote bash on the beach that ppl do but literally no one else went except them + two girls (nona and clarissa) and since they caught the last ferry theyre stuck together 4 the night on an essentially deserted island . FUN . neways we learn through exposition that a) throughout the years ppl have reported freaky shit involving caves on the beach with radio frequencies & they brought a radio 2 test them out and b) the islands oldest living resident (maggie adler) died about three days prior to their visit and c) there was a military submarine called the kanaloa that was sunk in wwii that killed 97 people inside OKAY . moving on . theyre playing truth or slap (truth or dare but no dares and u get 2 slap some1 if they lie) stuff happens ren has a crush on nona etc etc clarissa chooses 2 be a cunt and ask why alexs parents divorced & we learn that alex had a brother named michael who died + throughout other flashbacks in the game we see that clarissa and michael were dating, he drowned on a lake trip with alex who was unable to help since she cant swim & clarissa blames her 4 his death its a whole thing they make me insane MOVING ON . CAVES in the caves you do some radio signal bullshit BAM theres . some fucked up floating triangle that speaks in radio voice clips . & is kind of possessing them as vessels . occasionally theres time loops bc theyre trying 2 keep them there as long as possible 4 the possession 2 be successful . FUN ok the triangle is actually a dimensional rift connected 2 all of the people who died on aforementioned submarine that were separated from existence in a void outside of time and space theyre called the sunken okok shenanigans occur everyones on every corner of the island clarissa is the most posessed throughout & kills herself twice but dw shes fine ANYWAYS . after much plot they find maggie adlers plans 4 closing the rifts since she was part of the reason the submarine was sunk in the first place & had been studying them they have 2 cross over to the other side of the rift & tune the radio from there BUT while shes there the ghosts try 2 bargain with alex that theyll spare her & her friends if she lets them have clarissa therefore erasing her from existence & its either that or have that happen 2 Alex herself and then the ending is determined by the player there r several different endings & then at the end when alex is recounting how everything ended how ppl are doing after the island etc etc theres a glitch thing that happens whenever theres a time loop & she starts talking abt how she needs 2 catch the ferry and pick up jonas the whole game is a loop in itself WOO ok . anyways i loveeeee the characters in this game theyre so . teenagers & i love how like !! theyre all trapped by grief alex and clarissa are stuck in this endless antagonism bc thwyre both grieving the same person the sunken persist bc theyre grieving their own lives that were cut short & theres this scene at the end right b4 alex has 2 make the final choicethats just !!!!! the parallels !!!!!!!!! explodes !!!!!!!!!! uhhhh i love this game its 7yrs old now she is like a child to me . heartemoji

[sanchoyo]

tmm new liveblog part...2 !!! ep 7-12!!! got home sooner than expected so we are finishing TONIGHT!!!!! >:3c if u missed ep 1-6 liveblog its here!

obviously, spoilers...for this and the og series since I compare and contrast a bit at the end (I give my final thoughts at the end for the new anime overall, too!) ^^

EP 7

-OHHH the aliens new ship design looks Interesting. I see theyre just floating outside of Earth instead of some kinda inter-dimensional pocket area like they were in the original? Neat. the ship still looks super sparse, which, is weird imo. I get that on a meta level filling it w objects would take time and budget from the team doing this tho. but also I want to see their personal rooms or whatever. what do they eat. what do they do all day when they arent being menaces. -ik it happened in the original but its still very funny that deep blue basically grounded kish hahah. get grounded loser (affectionate) -ichigo's strawberry bento bag is so cute -ichigo BOOKING IT AND LEAPING A RAILING TO THANK AOYAMA FOR THE HANDKERCHIEF LMAO -and then her just awkwardly clutching his back for a full 30 seconds. I imagine he was like 'wtf' -masaya 'i cant figure out my feelings At All bc ive never Felt Them Before Now' aoyama and ichigo 'i feel SO Much So Intensely All The Time, loudly' momomiya are sO Fucking Cute I cant HANDLE anytime they speak to each other. glad aoyama initiated the next date!! -MINT LOSING HER MIND OVER ZAKURO IN UNIFORM. YES. THE GAYS. -cafe mew mews redesign is so cute -zakuro sucking ass at being a server but still being beloved by customers. gay icon -aoyama having an Ichigo Sense whenever shes nearby….I wonder if that has to do with the. U Know. her being a mew and him subconsciously reacting to her powers. am I thinking too hard abt this. maybe. -her goodluck charm is soo cute pls. -ichigo n aoyama smacking the shit out of wasps with sticks together. why was that so iconic -WHY DO the chimera anima ALWAYS fucking knock aoyama down. ik its prob bc theyre after ichigo who is Often Near Him but it makes me laugh every single time. get u a bf whos always a damsel (and also sometimes possessed by the big bad! he has the range) -aoyama lying to ichigo and saying he doesnt recognize her to make her feel ok…bc he sees shes distressed and not ready for him to know….king!!! i KNOW he knows. pls. be less cute u two

EP 8: -my god, showing ichigo's crush on aoyama then mints crush on zakuro directly after. really hammering it home. we GET IT they are IN LOVE. -lettuce scaring the shit out of some punks I am Losing My Mind. the fact dudes like that even walked in this ultragirly cafe…pls -supposedly environmentally minded cafe mew mew goes on a cruise, smth that is notoriously Bad for the Environment. lol -aoyama whipping out those environmental facts on the fly..once again I am saying autistic king. -PUDDINGS SIBLINGS!!! CUTIES. and they gave one of them a sort of personality. thats fun -and her lil sailor hat i am crying shes adorbs -not lettuce being infused with a porpoise and getting seasick awww…poor girl -wait are all the girls (sans ichigo) wearing each others colors in dresses…thats so CUTE I love their dresses -lettuce being SO good with puddings lil siblings further enforces my headcanon that shes a teacher as an adult. fuel for me personally -ichigo u got a MAN ON LAND. getting COZY with shirogane on a BOAT. the scandal. (really tho…dancing is fun! esp with nice music! its ok to have Fun queen. I feel like ryou rly didnt even Think abt what he was doing except trying to give his employee a nice lil time since shes not used to this kinda thing) -and also, he doesnt seem to have a sense of personal space with ANYONE, lol -the ocean turning BLOOD RED and the entire shipped being rocked from giant fish monsters. this is my literal nightmare. ur stuck on a boat, nowhere to GO. HELL NO. I will never be caught on a cruise ship. nightmare fuel -the amount of times mint/ichigo fall on each other or crash into each other. dare I say it again. ichimint can still win -PUDDING TART MEETING FINALLY. THEY ARE SUCH CHILDREN. -pudding holding that fish jaw open. her POWER -BRO THAT FISH SNATCHED A CHILD. -lettuce's dive then transformation sequence was def my fav so far. beautiful animation! -did …lettuce just see a glimpse of the alien's civilization going down?? Ohhh the lore..the plot thickens…when she got close to mew aqua too. hmmm!! thats a new mew aqua power! interesting! taking notes! -YESS MERMAID FORM GOOO -YESSS LETTUCE BEING THE FIRST TO FIND MEW AQUA. she looks SO good -PUDDING BROKE THAT FISHES JAW -of course it was regular orange juice…girl did u think he actually spiked it with like. magic. -ryou is such a nice boss sometimes. pls. im not even a huge ryou/lettuce shipper but theyre cute…

EP 9: -aoyama trying to deny ichigo was his gf when the friend gave him tickets but dude. ur friend never said who he thought ur gf was. u just immediately thought of ichigo. shes totally ur gf lol -did not expect to see seiji again. hm. nice surprise hes so involved with mints life ig, just. surprised -mint u absolutely cannot leave for america. what in the world. i feel bad tho bc the mew thing isnt gonna be forever and this would help but also. mint ur RICH rich. u can prob get any job or college u want bestie -ICHIGOS PJS NOOOO THEYRE SO CUTE. her heat shaped chair and strawberry pillow too!! -all the girls gawking at aoyama like hes a zoo animal. i do the SAME THING when my friends tell me they like someone LMAO theyre so real for this scene. nosy queens -then all of them GOSSPING PLSS LMAO -keiichiro side eyeing ryou while all the girls are looking at aoyama. he sus. rightfully so -THE GIRLS ARE SCHEMINGGGG. and it being zakuros plan. obsessed -THIS IS MY MOST FAVORITE THING EVER. THE BEST 4 WING WOMENS IN THE WORLD -MINTS MAN VOICE/CONSTRUCTION COSTUME PLS -nooo old ladies lettuce n pudding…. crying over this entire sequence -ZAKURO AND AOYAMAS ENGLISH. -god they are all such good friends to each other <3 -ive never been so pissed to see kishu. ever. AOYAMA WAS TRYING SO HARD TO WORK UP HIS NERVES AND BEIN SUCH A BRAVE BOY. i hope kishu drowns in the river theyre walking by -god damn aoyama damsel AGAIN its EVERY EPISODE WITH THIS BOY. and I eat it up every single time. pathetic wet boyfriend guy real -kish…u realize if ur trapping them together…theyre gonna bond?? -aoyama clearly not wanting ichigo to have to be a mew bc he doesnt want her to be hurt…oof :( but shes STRONG she can DO IT king just trust her -all the girls attacks look so clean and so nice -either the cafe is SUPER far away from wherever aoyama was going or hes the king of Slow Walking

EP 10: -god damn I love the aliens new ship design SO much. its a creature! -kish is officially ungrounded. good for him I GUESS. -ohh, the tokyo tower stuff! is the season finale going to be a 3 ep long thing?? Very Cool -god damn the tension between aoyama and ryou. lmao -does aoyama just always grab ichigo's wrist when hes nervous? I was joking shes his emotional support cat, but, like, she kinda is -ichigo did u just run off with his jacket LMAO -lord she didnt even kiss him and she turned into a cat -def prefer the old anime's version of cat ichigo. smth abt this new version looks…off?? uncanny?? -oh my god francis IS Back. im Shook. out of all the characters that u didnt need to bring back. u bring the fucked up pervert cat. im losing my mind -ichigo's regrets as shes sinking are so funny im sorry queen -wait her being at risk to stay a cat and becoming more catlike in that form wasnt a super big issue in the og, was it? it seems more dire and time sensitive in this version, in the original it felt a lot more jokey -ppl asking mew mews for help over the government is SOO real. me asf -zakuro on a motorcycle. amen to that brother -from aoyamas POV..ichigo ran off with his jacket, then…he finds it in he river….he must be thinking she just fucking chucked it away LMAO -like he for sure knows shes mew ichigo, though, and noticed the bell?? i mean being a superhero then turning into a cat is a big mental leap ig he'd have no reason to assume its her…the whole sequence is so funny -return of aoyamas dog! my god it acts like like my dog with my cat. being jealous. so real -aoyama sleeping ON THE COVERS and not under them. yeeeep, if anyone watching this didnt see the original this should be the point u realize hes a fucking alien for that one. what in the hell was that toe shot. -his littol jammies tho PLS. if ichigos cat form wasnt so…weirdly uncanny this would be a lot cuter. but also, ichigo, dont kiss him without consent? hello? u know how that feels. even if he does like u back! -the rest of the mews searching desperately, well aware that thousands could die. ichigo, having a crisis bc her crush is cuddling her lap in his sleep. the stakes have never been so high

EP 11: -the aliens posing for the helicopter camera HAHA -no way…mint and zakuro on a motorcycle together….the rituals...they are intricate….. -oh more alien lore -WHAT. did they change it from them being from earth originally??? they…said their HOME planet is no more than dust storms and heat (lava??) now….thats NOT EARTH??? ohhh. interesting. dont think I like that choice…bc them being originally from earth and humans being descended from db explained why the aliens look so humanoid!!!

-perhaps the concept of them being from another planet is a lie the trio was told? (I am def thinking too hard abt it. but also why would mew aqua let her see that? ? activity from a non-earth planet?? why does it suddenly have that power??? its MAGIC WATER.) -oh my god the underground/cave cities!!! fucking line up with my fanfic/headcanons!!! I am Living -PLSSS BABY ALIENS THEY ARE SO CUTE LITTOL PATAOTOES -I do wonder why their planet chose to send (3) children. like its assumed pie as the oldest is prob not older than 17-18? right? and kish is assumedly 15-16, tart is DEF puddings age….they took an entire ship! (that from the one room weve been seeing looks EMPTY, altho maybe thats their. um. special deep blue contacting room?? ?) I wonder how many ships they had to work with, is that the only one? were they entrusting 2 teens and a child with their only ship?? surely not right?? are a lot of the older ppl sick and cant make the trip/fight, or are they busy and too vital to go, so they send the younger ppl so like, child soldiers=less risk if they happen to fail and die?? its like…a Lot of responsibility, so im Wondering. i doubt we will ever get these Answers…but I want them. (and ik the meta answer is they need to be close to the mews age for pairing purposes lol) -so if im understanding correctly, the aliens plan is to kill all humans (who they consider to be ruining the planet, ofc) then…wait on DB? so they assume DB can fix whatever they fuck up with the planet? or the aliens just simply arent affected by the pollution, which they dont seem to be, but they need the planet clean..ish... to grow food, and have livestock, right? interesting. kind of do wonder in an au where the aliens Won, WOULD he have done that, like actually been able and willing to unfuck the pollution stuff? we never really got much insight to him except that he hates humans, so maybe he wouldve? -ohh the aliens going after civilians is SMART. divide n conquer yk. maybe theyve been reading the art of war -boy if u dont shut up with those percentages -kishu stop fueling mints crisis!! fuck off!! im also indecisive as a person so it felt PERSONAL -oh zakuro got CLOSE close to tell mint not to worry rn <3 -ryoukitty…..ryoukittykissy. pls. he just LAYS INTO HER after too. I love how they squabble. they are so funny. masago is my fav but ryouigo is also p good, honestly. I like it for the same reasons I like ichimint...(but ichimint is above ryouchigo bc better colors together, and gay. sorry ryou) -god ichigo dodging that lil birds nest while running was such a sweet little detail!!! and her saying she appreciates life more since becoming a mew and that she wouldnt have met her friends…I nEED A MOMENT IM EMO ABOUT THIS -and her running thru that office. so fun n cute -that one intense rock sounding song they have in the ost that plays as ichigo arrives?? Im obsessed -oh god i feel so bad even knowing whats going to happen. aoyama is gonna just be WAITING. pls no. the secondhand feelings I get from that are so bad. ive been there buddy, being stood up sucks </3

EP 12: -oh my god, in the og anime kish broke her phone, which is BAD, but this time, a chimera ATE IT??? THATS SO MUCH WORSE IMO. at least with the broken phone most companies have insurance, u could prob easily get a new one!! how do u explain a MONSTER ATE UR PHONE. -god damn kish still is a lil crazy huh. i love that and respect it. itd be boring if he was nice but up until now he rly hasnt been a Huge Menace. but some of the faces hes made so far this ep. Yeah! truly a ManYandere -YESSS THEY KEPT THE BIG OLE MOTHS DESIGN BASICALLY THE SAME. one of the most iconic chimeras for sure -im glad ichigos lesbian bffs told aoyama how bad things were, bc he is hyperfocused on Waiting And Thinking abt Ichigo he didnt check any social media or news outlets at all until now ig. most ppl do that while waiting around these days I think. -sorry ik its serious and im tense even knowing itll be fine but ryous voice coming out of masha made me laugh -'your modified bodies can withstand the pollution!' (that would kill everyone else) ok but would this premise not make for a fun fucked up apocalypse AU?? only the magical girls survive AU…. -ichIGO ATTACKING THE ALIENS DIRECTLY!!!! QUEEN YESS GOOO. GET THEIR ASSES -'GET CRAZY' -ICHIGO 2022 -HYPEST SEASON FINALE -mint making her choice to stay in japan bc of ichigo….ichimint win!!! -sorry, where did tart get BOMBS?? I miss the aliens old weapons, ngl -god the ost is SO good I keep saying it but the moment mint is rising up the tower and everyones covering her?? what kind of epic symphony… -LESBIAN ATTACK!!!!!!! SHE LAUNCHED HER INTO THE SKY!!!! i AM OBSESSED -mint being the first to use the mew aqua rod!!! im so happy for her!! and its BLUE!!!! oh it looks precious. theyre all gonna get to use it arent they!! at some point!! thats so great!!! -tho ichigos fun lil spin in the og series was my fav of course, this is still very pretty -the mew aqua rod being a …masha form… is not my fav new thing tho….I LIKED the implications of it being smth ancient from the og anime! oh well -w- I can still pull more from the og anime than this one for my fanfics hahah -aww, I like the strawberry rods new design! I still like the og more I think, but this one isnt bad or anything!! and the attack was amazing tbh -ryou almost had a heart attack. my headcanon of him greying before 20 is real. -ichilettuce pose near the end. cute -….I was fully expecting the blue knight to show up during that fight. season 2, I guess?? -zakumint momence near the end….sweet -OH M Y GOD THEYRE PLAYING THE SONG FOR THE FINALE. THE S O N G. A slowed version, too!! NOPE. i am weeping. I just got hit by 40000 tones of nostalgia -they didnt have to do this to me. AGH -PLEASEE MY GOD I CANT HANDLE THIS. THEYRE SO SWEET. SO TENDER. he 100% saw her ears and was being polite by covering them. -NOOO HES CRYING TOO. THEYRE SO CUTE. HE DOESNT EVEN PRESS FOR AN EXPLANATION EITHER. -and a deep blue tease! ok! kind of expected as much. OOF THOUGH that my sweetheart got me so good im still reeling. the girls mustve lost their minds when they heard that. im girls.

-overall thoughts:

-VERY good!!! there were times the animation got wonky, but that happened many times in the og anime too, so. eh. this one at least kept mostly stylistically similar, whereas in the og the faces style could change WILDLY ep from ep. this one was more like, quality changes from scene to scene but still roughly the same style. which is fine, I know how budget and time restraints are. its Understandable.

-there were other things I def liked better in the og, too, like the outfits n transformations, but the colors here were amazing, the costume colors esp worked super nice when all the girls were in the same shot, they looked awesome together!

-I love that each girl will assumedly get a turn w the mew aqua rod! and it changes color to suit each one!

-I loved the OST. So Much. def gonna have to listen to each song again

-and all of the masago moments were REALLY cute. idk, ppl who know me know I love them both a lot in the og anime and the ship. but this one, it rly felt like they let aoyama be more..shy?? I guess?? it was CUTE. also he was a damsel far more, which was also cute. really, I love Strong Catgirl GF and Awkward Normie Shy BF. (normie for NOW. season 2 when)

-the pacing was nice (I do like the og animes fillers, but I can do w/out them! it still felt fleshed out enough! things happened at a really nice pace when u watch back to back, not sure how it wouldve felt waiting a week between and digesting them more?)

-I didn't super love the changing of the aliens backstory from earth to some rando planet, or masha being the mew aqua rod?? or something?? but those are SUCH minor nitpicks honestly.

-I loved how scheme-y the girls got together. their friendship is so sweet and the best thing from the show for me. mint being the og and ichigo not being like, The Leader (yet?) but all of them feeling pretty equal standing is Nice. they rly seem like real friends and I love just. how supportive they all are of each other!! I rly do feel like they work so well together by the end of the season as a team.

-im glad they kept the animation pretty silly and let the girls make goofy funny faces!!! like, they were still cute/pretty in a lot of shots, but they kept the Silliness and Antics at a Max Level. they felt their age if that makes sense. I appreciate that

-like I KNEW what would happen, but the OST and lighting/color schemes on a lot of the scenes made me like. Genuinely Feel Panicked or Excited!!! (of course I was excited to watch)

-my god 'my sweetheart' got my blood PUMPING HEART RACING AT THE END I COULDNT BELIEVE IT. AAAAH!!!

-when is season 2 I need it NOW!!! Im still glad I waited to watch, bc now I have fanart to go thru :3 and I didnt have to wait to watch the next ep, waiting for s2 is gonna HURT. I want it SOON.

[starkid256]

so uhh for cringetober day 2 i dont have the energy to draw so ima show all of my ocs that are just self inserts

________________

1 - rubber ball

my first oc! created on the exact day of october 16, 2020 (oct 16 is actually his birthday! since in canon he was 14 when i created him he'll be turning 17 in 2 weeks) he was also my first self insert. from turning into a very shy and timid but happy go lucky 14 year old with an abusive father and a dead mother living with his girlfriend and her lesbian adoptive mothers to a recovering demiboy 16 year old abuse victim living with his aunt with a trans girlfriend (with lesbian adoptive mothers) and a nonbinary partner who love and support him every day. his backstory (which is that his mother dying when he was 7 trying to break up a bar fight and dealing with another 7 years of verbal and physical abuse from his alcoholic father) has stayed SOMEWHAT the same, but altered in some ways.

________________

2 - robin

created somewhere in 2021-2022 and currently 15, robin was/is an oc who really helped me funnel my anger issues into and let that form who they were. originally their whole personality was getting mad at anyone and everyone, but they were also a dr self insert bc i was really into kris at that time and used robin to act out my little kissy kissy fantasies with kris. oh well. NOW they are a fully 3(?) dimensional character whos usually very defensive and pissy about their emotions due to their abusive father and dead friend. still use them to this day, a lot :3

_________________

3 - ben

(i actually have 2 characters named ben lol)

created (recently) off of my roblox avatar, its sorta a stretch to call them a self insert but oh well. as described, subject v 83n was originally a lab experiment used to attempt to make a human from nothing but chemicals and science. some stuff got complicated so their skin tone is multicolored (cyan = head, white = torso, yellow = left arm, green = right arm, magenta = left leg, red = right leg) and their hair is red making them not suitable. they had to be put down humanely so they were tricked and led into a tube and locked inside. they realized what was happening and broke out of the tube and the building as a whole. now, theyre autism incarnate due to being an underdeveloped prototype attempt to clone a human

(they wear a tv for a head as an aesthetic and their facial expressions are linked to the tv bc of fictional universe magic idgaf lol)

________________

4 - starrs connor

wow the homesyuck hyperfixation is really showing with this one. put my whole sburbussy into this.

created recently when i was in the middle of reading homestuck and didnt know that there are drones that hunt you down if youre a mutant

theyre vriskas partner because i have a partner that kins vriska! also is solluxs besite bc idk i thought itd be cool

oh yeah ALSO their "friend", kitten, made them have ptsd because she physically attacked them whenever their emotions were even slightly out of check

anyways i hope u like it :3333

[tarobytez]

disability in the Six Of Crows Duology; an analysis of Kaz Brekker, Wylan Van Eck, and the fandom’s treatment of them.

****Note: I originally wrote this for a tiktok series, which im still going to do, but i wanted to post here as well bc tumblr is major contributor to what im going to talk about

CW: ableism, filicide, abuse

In the Six of Crows duology, Leigh Bardugo delicately subverts and melds harmful disability tropes into her narrative, unpacking them in a way that I, as a disabled person, found immensely refreshing and…. just brilliant. 

But what did you all do with that? Well, you fucked it up. Instead of critically looking at the characters, y’all just chose to be ableist. 

For the next few videos paragraphs im going to unpack disability theory (largely the stuff surrounding media, for obvious reasons) and how it relates to Six Of Crows and the characterization of Kaz Brekker and Wylan Van Eck, then how, despite their brilliant writing, y’all completely overlooked the actual text and continuously revert them to ableist cariactures.

Disclaimer: 1. Shocker - i am disabled. I have also extensively researched disability theory and am very active in the disabled community. Basically, I know my shit. 2. im going to be mad in these videos this analysis. Because the way y’all have been acting has been going on for a long ass time and im fuckin sick of it. I don’t give a shit about non-disabled feelings, die mad

Firstly, I’m going to discuss Kaz, his play on the stereotypical “mean cripple” trope and how Bardugo subverts it, his cane, and disabled rage. Then, I am going to discuss Wylan, the “inspiration porn” stereotype, caregivers / parents, and the social model of disability. Finally, I will then explain the problems in the fandom from my perspective as a disabled person, largely when it comes to wylan, bc yall cant leave that boy tf alone.

Kaz Brekker

Think of a character who uses a cane (obviously not Kaz). Now, are they evil, dubiously moral, or just an asshole in general? Because nearly example I can think of is: whether it be Lots’O from Toy Story, Lucius Malfoy, or even Scrooge and Mr.Gold from Once Upon A Time all have canes (the last two even having their canes appear less and less as they become better people)

The mean/evil cripple trope is far more common than you would think. Villains with different bodies are confined to the role of “evil”. To quote TV Tropes, who I think did a brilliant job on explaining it “The first is rooted in eugenics-based ideas linking disability or other physical deformities with a "natural" predisposition towards madness, criminality, vice, etc. The Rule of Symbolism is often at work here, since a "crippled" body can be used to represent a "crippled" soul — and indeed, a disabled villain is usually put in contrast to a morally upright and physically "perfect" hero. Whether consciously on the part of the writer or not, this can reinforce cultural ideas of disability making a person inherently inferior or negative, much in the same way the Sissy Villain or Depraved Homosexual trope associate sexual and gender nonconformity with evil. ”

Our introduction to Kaz affirms this notion of him being bad or morally bankrupt, with “Kaz Brekker didn’t need a reason”, etc. This mythologized version of himself, the “bastard of the barrel” actively fed into this misconception. But, as we the audience are privy to his inner thoughts, know that he is just a teenager like every other Crow. He is complex, his disability isn’t this tragic backstory, he just fell off a roof. It’s not his main motivation, nor does he curse revenge for making him a cripple - it is just another part of who he is. 

His cane (though the shows version fills me with rage but-) is an extension of Kaz - he fights with it, but it has a purpose. Another common thing in media is for canes to be simply accessories, but while Kaz’ cane is fashionable, it has purpose.

The quote “There was no part of him that was not broken, that had not healed wrong and there was no part of him that was not stronger for having been broken.” is so fucking powerful. Kaz does not want nor need a cure - its said in Crooked Kingdom that his leg could most likely be healed, but he chooses not to. Abled-bodied people tend to dismiss this thought as Kaz being stubborn but it shows a reality of acceptance of his disability that is just, so refreshing.

In chapter 22 of SOC, we see disabled rage done right - when he is called a cripple by the Fjerdan inmate, Kaz is pissed - the important detail being that he is pissed at the Fjerdan, at society for ableism, not blaming it on being disabled or wishing he could be normal. He takes action, dislocating the asshole’s shoulder and proving to him, and to a lesser extent, himself, that he is just as capable as anyone else, not in spite of, but because he is disabled. And that is the point of Kaz, harking back to the line that “there was no part of him that was not stronger for having been broken”. 

I cried on numerous occasions while reading the SOC duology, but the parts I highlighted in this section especially so. I, as many other disabled people do, have had a long and tumultuous relationship with our disability/es, and for many still struggle. But Kaz Brekker gave me an empowered disabled character who accepts themselves, and that means the world to me. 

Keeping that in mind, I hope you can understand why it hurts so much to disabled people when you either erase Kaz’s disability (whether through cosplay or fanfiction), or portray him as a “broken boy uwu”, especially implying that he would want a cure. That flies in the face of canon and is inherently fucking ableist. (if u think im mad wait until the next section)

Next, we have Wylan.  

Oh fucking boy. 

I love Wylan so fucking much, and y’all just do not seem to understand his character? Like at all? Since this is disability-centric, I’m not going to discuss how the intersection of his queerness also contributes to these issues, but trust me when I say it’s a contributing factor to what i'm going to say.

Wylan, motherfucking Van Eck. If you ableist pricks don’t take ur fucking hands off him right now im going to fight you. I see Wylan as a subversion another, and in my opinion more insidious stereotype pf disabled people - inspiration porn.

Cara Liebowitz in a 2015 article on the blog The Body Is Not An Apology explains in greater detail how inspiration porn is impactful in real life, but media is a major contributing factor to this reality. The technical definition is “the portrayal of people with disabilities as inspirational solely or in part on the basis of their disability” - but that does not cover it fully. 

Inspiration porn does lasting damage on the disabled community as it implies that disability is a negative that you need to “overcome” or “triumph” instead of something one can feel proud of. It exploits disabled people for the development of non-disabled people, and in media often the white male protagonist. Framing disability as inherently negative perpetuates ideals of eugenics and cures - see Autism $peaks’ “I Am Autism” ad. Inspiration porn is also incredibly patronizing as it implies that we cannot take care of ourselves, or do things like non-disabled people do. Because i stg some of you tend to think that we just sit around all day wishing we weren’t disabled. 

Another important theory ideal that is necessary when thinking about Wylan is the experience of feeling like a burden simply for needing help or accommodations. This is especially true when it comes to familial relationships, and internalized ableism.

The rhetoric that Wylan’s father drilled into his head, that he is “defective”, “a mistake”, and “needs to be corrected”, that he (Jan) was “cursed with a moron for a child” is a long held belief that disabled people hear relentlessly. And while many see Van Eck’s attempted murder of Wylan as “preposturous” and overall something that you would never think happens today - filicide (a parent murdering their child) is more common than you would like to believe. Without even mentioning the countless and often unreported deaths of disabled people due to lack of / insufficient / neglectful medical care, in a study on children who died from the result of household abuse, 40 of 42 of them (95%) were diagnosed with disabilities. Van Eck is not some caricature of ableist ideals - he is a real reflection on how many people and family members view disability. 

Circling back to how Wylan unpacks the inspiration porn trope - he is 3 dimensional, he is not only used to develop the other characters, he is just *chefs kiss* Leigh, imo, put so much love and care into the creation of Wylan and his story and character growth that is representative of a larger feeling in the disabled community. 

That being said, what you non-disabled motherfuckers have done to him.

The “haha Wylan can’t read” jokes aren’t and were not funny. Y’all literally boiled down everything Wylan is to him being dyslexic. And it’s like,,,, the only thing you can say about him. You ignore every other part of him other than his disability, and then mock him for it. There’s so much you can say about Wylan - simping for Jesper, being band kid and playing the fuckin flute, literally anything else. But no, you just chose to mock his disability, excellent fucking job!

Next up on “ableds stfu” - infantilization! y’all are so fucking condescending to Wylan, and treat him like a fucking toddler. And while partly it is due to his sexuality i think a larger portion is him being disabled. Its in the same vein of people who think that Wylan and Jesper are romantically one sided, and that Jesper only kind of liked Wylan, despite the canon evidence of him loving Wylan just as much. You all view him as a “smol bean”, who needs protecting, and care, when Wylan is the opposite of that. He is a fucking demolitions expert who suggested waking up sleeping men to kill them - what about that says “uwu”. You are treating Wylan as a burden to Jesper and the other Crows when he is an immensely valuable, fully autonomous disabled person - you all just view him as damaged. 

And before I get a comment saying that “uhhh Wylan isn’t real why do you care” while Wylan may not be real, how you all view him and treat him has real fucking impacts and informs how you treat people like me. If someone called me an “uwu baby boy” they’d get a fist square in the fucking jaw. Fiction informs how we perceive the world and y’all are making it super fucking clear how you see disabled people. 

Finally, I wanted to talk about how the social model of disability is portrayed through Wylan. For those who are unaware, the social model of disability contrasts the medical model, that views the disability itself as the problem, that needs to be cured, whereas the social model essentially boils down to creating an accommodating society, where disability acceptance and pride is the goal. And we see this with Wylan - he is able to manage his father’s estate, with Jesper’s assistance to help him read documents. And this is not out of pity or charity, but an act of love. It is not portrayed as this almighty act for Jesper to play saviour, just a given, which is incredibly important to show, especially for someone who has been abused by family for his disability like Wylan, that he is accepted. 

Yet, I still see people hold up Jesper on a pedestal for “putting up with” Wylan, as if loving a disabled person deserves a fucking pat on the back. It’s genuinely exhausting trying to engage with a work I love so much with a fandom that thinks so little of me and my community. It fucking shows. 

Overall, Leigh Bardugo as a disabled person wrote two incredibly meticulous and empowered disabled characters, and due to either lack of reading comprehension, ableism, or a quirky mix of both, the fandom has ignored canon and the experiences of disabled people for…. shits and giggles i guess. And yes, there are issues with the Grishaverse and disability representation - while I haven’t finished them yet so I do not have an opinion on it, people have been discussing issues in the KOS duology with ableist ideals. This mini series was no way indicative of the entire disabled experience, nor does it represent my entire view on the representation as a whole. These things need to be met critically in our community, and talked about with disabled voices at the forefront. For example, the limited perspective we get of Wylan and Kaz being both white men, does not account for a large portion of the disabled community and the intersection of multiple identities.

All-in-all, Critique media, but do not forget to also critique fandom spaces. Alternatively, just shut the fuck up :)

happy fucking disability pride month, ig

[kae-karo]

Shipping bingo meme: Ayato clearly isn't one of your shipping faves, but I'm curious what the bingo cards would look like for ayato+each member of dckz

HI DEAR THANK U alskdfklsdf oddly enough i do like ayato, but ur right he's not up there lmao dckz-based ships have me in a vice grip sfjlkldsf

ayaluc:

okay, hear me out: two distinguished gentleman turning to a life of underhanded secrecy to keep peace in their land and protect it from harm. act with infallible decorum on the surface. only a trusted confidant (and antithesis to their own personality) is aware of their machinations behind the scenes. they are the same. thus, i think they'd have a but of a sibling dynamic, but in the sense of like. diluc deeply respecting ayato for what he does though finding his duplicity a little...underhanded, ayato finding diluc's approach charming if a bit brute-force. they both kinda find it attractive, though, in a 'the idea of placing myself in danger is very intriguing' kind of way. whores lmao

ayakaeya (sorry that's just funny lmao):

characters who lie and manipulate for the good of those around him, one whose machinations built the foundation of his success and stability while the other had his home and family from beneath him due to machinations he had no control over. there would be SUCH good animosity between them, tension so thick u would need a cleaver just to make a dent in it, but the hatesex is GREAT u know it is lmao

ayachi:

u know what i'm just mad we didn't get to see mr worldwide ajax tartaglia childe as the fatui trying to deal with ayato in his trailer. ahem. anyway, ayato keeping childe as his pet harbinger for murder reasons. for some reason, this only works for me as an ot3 with thoma included - the sweet and gentle man who can make anything happen and charm anyone into making things go his way, the ruthless battlesexual fatui who takes care of whatever can't be handled diplomatically, and the man behind them both pulling the strings

ayazhong:

battle of wits from the start. they're both playing five-dimensional time travel chess and neither has won yet, but they're thrilled to have finally met a worthy opponent. i'm gonna go out on a limb and say i wouldn't go out of my way to ship this romantically tbh, but i wouldn't be opposed either. ayato knows zhongli is hiding something. zhongli drops hints like his fuckin meteor, so obvious that anyone in liyue would've picked up on it by now. somehow, this is a blind spot for ayato. thoma figures it out while observing their very first actual (regular, 3 dimensional, linear timeline) chess match. he says nothing to ayato bc he assumes this is 1. already known by ayato and 2. forbidden knowledge, and if he finds out, he might be in like. celestial levels of trouble

thank u for this one this was fun lmaoooo

send me genshin ships to bingo!

[riphimopen]

i'm watching the Halloweens for the first time these days (skipping the third one and the sixth one bc fuck off obviously) and you're the michael expert in my eyes i wanna know EVERYTHING you think of him and how do you feel about the rob zombie version etc etc <3 thank youuuu

IM THE EXPERT????? OH BOY IM SMOOCHING YOU no youre making the right choices FUCK 3 6 and FUCK rz. ok here we go let me just talk abt the movies first

west coast best coast first movie best movie PERIOD obv im all for expanding on mikes character and shit etc but 1978 said THERE IS A FUCKED UP GUY PERIOD. THATS IT. and i really admired their dedication to lack of detail. like if i was just gonna watch one and done? first movie has mike, jamie lee curtis, and murders, and thats really all you need. plus obv cinematography and soundtrack

H2 is where we get BALLING its got explosions doctors MORE JAMIE LEE CURTIS and ofc...... my favorite plot twist on da planet lol <333 personally i love the sibling twist bc its funny as SHIT. h2 is a good one. ending wild as shit

h3 not real #girl

h4 and 5......... UGH ok i love jamie lloyd sm she a baby fr and one of the best things to happen to the franchise. WE DO NOT TALK ABT THE THORN CURSE OR H6 THEY R NOT REAL overall 4+5 as a package deal are solid and have some good moments, if you can get past the stupid druid shit and the man in black theres lots to expand on mikes character and make you HATE sam loomis

h20 is the FUNNIEST SHIT on the planet. PERIOD LMAOO LIKE??? this was really the Laurie Off Tha Shits movie and i think they were SO brave for that i personally dont keep it main cannon in my little brain but its extremely funny and i love the emphasis on sibling dynamic. its so good and by the end ur yelling like YES thats what horror characters SHOULD have done

resurrection................... GOD well. i wish jlc couldve done the whole thing but she didnt. and mike gets electrocuted in da balls by Busta Rhymes so thats really all there is to that one

now on the rob zombie shit. asides from the EXTREME amount of nudity and sex scenes in that shit, asides from all the other things that dont work w those movies, THE THING THAT IRKS ME IS THAT HE TRIED TO REMAKE JASON. he tried to make michael into a hulking sympathetic giant with an abusive childhood who can talk to his mothers vision and is heavily motivated by his grief trauma and emotions like. We Literally Already Have Jason Thank You. myers is meant to be some batshit 5'10 dude completely off his gourd and ASIDES FROM ALL THE WEIRD MISOGYNY AND VIOLENCE of the rzs, they just do a shitty job of recharacterizing mike

AND LASTLY THE 2018 TRILLOGY..... ok so 2018 was solid. kinda dumb, but we get laurie for the lesbians and bald asf myers. kinda stupid asf to be hyping him up if they're picking up right after the first one, and im bummed they didnt keep the sibling plot, but whatever

KILLS, however. this movie is true to its name and has good kill scenes but thats ALL i can say in its favor. it's muddled commentary on mob mentality and policy brutality completely overshadow any point it may have made about ableism within the horror genre and it ultimately ends up advocating for the police to murder unarmed citizens while simultaneously being extremely preachy in condoning mob violence, encouraging the public to leave things to the cops and encouraging cops to be more violent. BUT: mike takes out all those firefighters and it fucks hard so its ur call to balance

and u want 2 hear what i think abt mike..... ugh i luv u ok. so ive said it before and ill say it again i LOVE two dimensional evil characters who are just SHITTY and villainous and nothing behind their eyes. but since michaels establishment in the very first film, we are given too much of his background to properly categorize him as one of the above. this is a medically abused severely drugged young adult breaking out of a decade and a half of serious trauma and going off the shits one night; one can hardly take a character one meets as a helpless child and condemn it to the label of monster. my design and interpretation of michael are heavily based on my experience with mental illness because, when u really boil him down, he is a mentally ill person who was never given the help he needed and was in fact exploited, abused, and mistreated, and went off the rails bc of it. its largely a critique of the medical field: i hate doctors. the way i see michael is as literally just some guy, some complete rando, who was dealt shitty mental health at a young age, handed over to abusers, and was able to achieve the catharsis and vindication of becoming the monster theyd told him he was bc. well i love rage killing and excessive violence lol

deep sigh anyway thank u SO much 4 asking dont take any of this as law and make sure to formulate ur own opinions ofc donate a billion dollars to ur local mentally ill person AND REMEMBER: horror movies is for laughing and going "AH!" and thats all there is 2 it.