#it's never explained what happens to his sister in canon but it's heavily implied that it's not good

[anotherandomcollection]

[prologue] Dear Diary...

──────────────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────────────── ≻─ ⋆✩ pairings: arlecchino x gn!reader ≻─ ⋆✩ warnings: some angst?, childhood friends to strangers to lovers, canon typical violence, mentions of death, slowburn - not beta read ≻─ ⋆✩ spoilers?: 4.6 (Arlecchino's story quest) ≻─ ⋆✩ synopsis: this is a series I'm writing - its in the form of dairy entries written from the reader's POV through the years.

this is just the prologue of how it all begins and provides insight on the background (on the reader) I made up :) There's no date for the diary entries but they progress forward.

≻─ ⋆✩ author's note: this was an idea that came to me in a dream (shower thoughts) /j I'm not too sure if this is a format that would be enjoyed, but I hope it is <3

≻─ ⋆✩ word count: 1.4K

[prologue]

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Dear Diary,

I'm leaving. I'm leaving this godforsaken house - I'm probably going to sneak off during my next mission. It's a solo mission, though I think it's just a ploy from "Mother" to get rid of me. My left leg is still injured and the Doctor says I may never fully recover, I have a barely noticeable limp, but anything short of perfection is frowned upon in the House of the Hearth (of course it is; the "Marelle" games should be enough of an indicator).

I don't know why either, I've been good - though perhaps she doesn't approve of the friendship Clervie and I have forged (not that she has any motherly rights to decide that). Or perhaps with Peruere - she is probably the next "King", with the highest potential or whatnot.

I'm scared to leave as well, just the idea of leaving is heavily frowned upon and is punishable with death. Even if I don't die on the mission, if I am caught, I will die. I'm not sure if even Archon's can tell me what happened to the other's who tried to leave. "Mother" keeps a strict tab on everyone and who knows what in the house. Any secrets being spilled… I pray for them. I pray for mercy, because I know the Doctor has none.

I'm scared to leave, scared about the future too. I don't know how to leave when this house is almost all that I remember. "Mother" clothed me, fed me and has given me a roof over my head. No matter how hard I had to work for it, I was given a shelter. It scares me that I don't hate this place as much as you would expect me to… It scares me to leave everything I know and all the people I cherish for this.

The battle for "King" starts soon, I probably won't be around for it. I'll either be long gone or dead, if the mission from mother goes according to my plan, I'll be on my way to Sumeru. If it doesn't… then I suppose mother's plan to get rid of me would have succeeded (archon's know I am not in mission ready condition).

I know its selfish to leave Clervie and Peruere but I cannot stay. I will die. Perhaps I could have stayed in another time or another universe where this "orphanage" didn't exist.

I'm leaving them a letter, but I have planned to make it look like I have died, or imply it, at least then I won't be the villain in their eyes for abandoning them here to suffer at the hands of "Mother". Painfully Hopefully, we will never cross paths and I will never have to explain myself. I'm not sure if they would understand.

I don't know how to live with myself anymore, not with the things the house has made us do. We are children and… I miss my family. I see glimpses of them in my dreams and memories - it was so warm. It had actually felt like a home. I think I had an older sister and a younger brother but I cannot clearly remember. I wonder what happened to them (if they even exist). I hope that I could have had that in another universe, but alas, I cannot in this one.

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[there is a letter left to Clervie and Peruere, hidden in a spot only the three of you know about]

Hi Clervie and Peruere,

It's me, I'm sure you know my writing by now and I'm sorry that I cannot see both of you one last time. I'm leaving on my mission and I will likely not return. "Mother" plans for me to die - I know it so because I am not currently mission ready and she's been sending me on so many. I'm barely pulling through as it is and I don't think I will make it back from this one.

I will miss both of you and I'm sorry it will end this way.

I will miss watching the sunrise with you, Clervie, and I hope that you see the aurora you so wish to see one day. I'm… sorry that it has come to this and I hope you continue going to watch the sun bleed orange-red in the sky and turn the horizon into a mix of orange and purple and pink (like your hair!).

Peruere… I will miss our shared love for insects. I left you some sketches I made of Bambi. I will miss our walks in the garden trying to insect-watch and then having to hide when our caretakers come looking for us. I really did enjoy them.

[in the same envelope, there are some old sketches of the spider - several sheets of the insect in several positions and all carefully drawn and the pages carefully preserved]

I'm sorry. [next to it is a scribbled out line, too scribbled to even make out what the words mean]

[the letter is only read by one of the people its addressed to before it is thrown into the fireplace and turns to ash]

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[the writing in this entry is shaky, tear drops are splattered on the page]

Dear Diary,

I heard Clervie died through the grapevine. I don't know what happened and I hope Peruere is doing alright. I only know she died in the battle for "King".

I don't know how to unpack this yet.

I'm scared

I thought I could maybe see them in the future. I don't know how to live knowing one of us will never get to grow up. It hurts so much. It hurts so much more than I thought this would...

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Dear Diary,

I got into the Sumeru Akademiya - under the Darshan Amurta and it specialises in biology. Particularly, I'm going to study insects! Which is probably more accurately called Entomology.

There's a new harbinger, Arlecchino. I don't know who that is, but I hear they are the new head of the House. "Mother" is dead. I hear the house has been taken over by a new "Father". I pray for the children each night. I hope the "Father" is nicer but the archon's know that is a stretch too far past reality. "Mother"… The Doctor… All the harbingers do is hurt and hurt.

I know first hand what both "Mother" and the Doctor does. Sometimes I wonder how they live with themselves. Perhaps both of them are crazy.

Perhaps it should satisfy me, that the person who tormented me and all the children is gone but there is none. It feels hollow and as terrible as it sounds, I… miss the house. It wasn't home, no, but there was some semblance of family, forged through sheer fear and understanding. I suppose it stops no one in the battle for King, it stops no one for the battle of recognition and the sheer desperation to survive.

But we all know why we do it.

I suppose we all understand. Understand enough to die without hatred. I wonder if Clervie felt the same. I hope her death was swift and as painless as possible. Archon's have mercy on her soul.

I've changed since the last time, I've changed my hairstyle and hopefully no one will recognise me. My injuries have been progressing well as well and my limp is almost gone. There's still the stress that weighs on me that someone will recognise me. I fear that someone from the Fatui recognises me - especially when they have their claws in every nation.

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[years later...]

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Dear Diary,

I'm going back to Fontaine. There has been an exchange in between both the Akademiya and the Fontaine Research Institute so I'll be going to study the Subdetection Units. They are these small units created by the Institute that monitors all sorts of environment data. It is extremely interesting and I wonder exactly what the units can record. Not only that but they are in the shape of insects!

I think these units are interesting and with some tweaking, it could be possible to track even more data from them. Particularly, underwater. These could also possibly monitor the area by the Fortress Meropide for escapees- The possibilities feel rather endless and I am probably being too ambitious, especially with little knowledge in the engineering behind these specific units.

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Dear Diary,

I think I saw her again today.

[the writing is shaky on the page and this entry is startlingly short.]

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[annierosaart]

Exusiai, Sankta Empathy and why she's unique

With @ouroborosorder's encouragement, I've decided to make a full post about this topic, because it's been destroying my brain for the past month.

Mainly, after reading Guide Ahead, Enforcer's files and seeing all of Exusiai's appearances, I've noticed a lot of implications about her character that are killing me inside.

Those being that she's cut off from the Empathy, like Mostima (and Enforcer! More on that in a bit), and always has been, and that cascaded into an extreme amount of isolation and trauma for her.

I'll explain this bit by bit, because it is. A lot. So, read more!

The Empathy, falling and being cut off from it.

As we know from Mostima, when Sankta fall, they lose not just their patron gun, but also their emotional connection to other Sankta. This is common knowledge of course. But what's less common is the fact that you don't need to fall to lose that connection.

Falling causes it, but we have another canonical, explicit example of it happening without that, and a heavily implied one.

The canonical explicit one being one of the protagonists of the Guide Ahead event:

Enforcer, aka Ezell himself! We find this out through his Post-E2 dialogue:

While this can be interpreted a few ways... The CN text is much less ambiguous;

"萨科塔人能察觉互相的心情，这在我们之间是一种不必特地强调的常识。但是很遗憾，在某个时刻，我忽然发现自己失去了那种同族间的感应。不是身体上的病变，我只是......开始思考。"

Roughly translating to:

"Sankta can sense each other's moods, and this is a common fact among us that does not need to be specially emphasized. But sadly, at some point, I suddenly found myself losing that sense of communion/kinship among my people. It wasn't any form of injury/ailment, I just …… started thinking."

What this is implying is pretty clear. Falling is not the only way to lose that connection, being different enough, independent enough, also cuts you off from it. Which leads me to my next point that ties this all together:

How this relates to Exusiai

It's no secret by now that Exusiai was treated like shit by Laterano. But something that stood out to me about her treatment was that, after Guide Ahead, we learned most Sankta are quite like her. So why is she unique? Why was she treated differently for her actions?

Well.

From the get go, her file reveals that she's different from most Sankta:

"She is different from most Laterano in that she is an unabashed optimist." - File 1

"Exusiai is my polar opposite. She seems to get along fine with anyone, but lets very few people close to her." — Texas

Weirdly specific things to mention, which get even stranger when you read her module.

It feels weird for her to be grilled so hard on something like this, especially when we know that her incidents were all legitimate accidents (as per Texas's record). Why? Because, if she's a Sankta, it should be easy, or at least, easier, for the counselors to believe what she's saying if she's telling the truth.

Instead, they accuse her of lying, hiding something, of being a Sarkaz (racism alert)... Despite the fact that it's difficult for Sankta to hide things like that from others. Because of their connection with each other. So why do they treat her like this?

They even prove her point by hurting themselves with her gift, she never means to hurt anyone, so why do they treat her so harshly?

Because she's never had this connection.

From the accounts we get of her childhood, we know she's been:

Ditched multiple times by her sister and Mostima, despite the fact that Lemuen cares immensely for Exusiai, so, the fact this is a repeat occurrence feels out of character for her. Why would she hurt Exusiai so blatantly?

Has canonical PTSD from the Kazdel incident, enough that she gets upset just thinking about it, and again, no one who could have felt that did anything to comfort her. Otherwise, she wouldn't be so obsessed with getting closure on it.

(Just like a certain phoenix....)

We know the Sankta literally celebrated her leaving, despite the fact Sankta destroy shit daily, just for funsies. She was chased down by the Notarial Hall because???

All of these feel so odd, contradictory, if she was connected to the other Sankta. That's a big if. Because the truth is, it all makes sense if we go with the big possibility that she just... Never had it to begin with.

It explains why she's treated harshly, unfairly. Why she doesn't let people get close, why she's seemingly "gullible", because she was surrounded by people who were "in on it", while she never was.

It's especially emphasized by her record medal, that draws attention to how she makes her own choices, despite seemingly being a "standard Sankta".

This recontextualizes her entire character, because frankly? Her happy-go-lucky attitude is a big fucking mask. We just need to look at two of her lines to see this. Her idle line, and her promotion 2 line.

Her promotion 2 line would only happen in the context of her being trusted, and trusting the Doctor in return, with their life and her own life, respectively.

"Leader… No, savior, I pledge to this gun in my hand to protect you until the very end of this world."

Which comes off as out of nowhere for such an unserious girl, doesn't it? And then, you have her idle line, which only happens when the Doctor is assumed to be asleep... And thus not listening to her.

"…Lord, is this someone we gotta save too?"

We see this mask slip away every time Mostima is involved, when people get hurt, she suddenly turns dead serious, quiet. Reserved. Not at all like the Exusiai we assume her to be.

Closer to a... Lemuel.

Hell, she even canonically drinks the most out of all the PL members. Do with that what you will.

Further proof is her kindness. She's canonically the kindest, most generous member of PL. And we see that a lot, she tries to keep Bison up to date on what's going on, she worries for her friends being hurt, she dives head first into danger for them. Despite the fact none of them are Sankta.

When it's canon that Sankta are just... Cold. Distant towards other races, because of their Empathy with each other. It's only natural. Yet, she manages to be kind all the same. Understanding all the same.

And this all truly comes together when you realize Sankta can just... Lose that connection.

To summarize:

The implications of Exusiai's character, of Lemuel's character is that she's one of the few non-fallen Sankta who also lack a connection to other Sankta, and that... That has colored how she acts around people. How she deals with the Kazdel incident. How she copes.

Exusiai's entire personality is a coping mechanism.

One that falls away when she lets her guard down. One that's deeply unhealthy-- She's broke all the time, she's constantly mentioned getting drunk, she doesn't let anyone in, she doesn't talk about her issues.

She ends up paralleling a lot of Fiammetta's character in a way that I adore. She needs a hug. She needs closure. Someone who gets it. And Fiammetta would.

As a bonus:

Fiammetta is weirdly protective of Exusiai.

(From Mostima's Record)

Fiammetta's medal text weirdly parallels Exusiai's...

Fiammetta says these after seeing Mostima blatantly toy with Exusiai's feelings all night...

Food for thought.

Sorry if this is disjointed, I just. Have a lot to say about her.

[demonsfate]

mun talks about muse // accepting // @iobartach asked . . . 😒 Is there anything canon about your muse that you ignore? 

WOAH BOY . . . a lot. I'll try to do a quick list of canon aspects I ignore!!

❌ Obviously most of the Tekken 6 debacle. As I make very obvious on this blog is that Jin had no involvement with the war, nor any idea it was happening until near the end of that plot. Therefore, Jin is not guilty for those crimes, nor is he a war criminal. That's something that should've never happened to his character.

❌ Due to disregarding TK6's canon, that means A LOT of stuff post TK6 is disregarded. That includes Jin's guilt - my Jin does still feel guilty, but he blames himself for not being strong enough to prevent the war, not for causing it. It also means my Jin is not responsible for the death of Miguel's sister. My Jin doesn't even know most of the TK6-TK7 characters until he met them later (like Yggdrasil when they started rebelling against Kazuya). And Jin's personality of him ever being a Cunt. Jin's usually a fairly nice guy, and uh... nothing like he was in TK6, or the era surrounding TK6.

❌ In the series, Jin has won at least 2 tournaments. I ignore this. On my blog, Jin has won none. I'm unsure if it's canon that Jin is announced as the winner of the third tournament. I think there's a tweet of Harada saying Jin is NOT the winner of the third tournament. But due to how confusing Tek lore is, most people believe he is. But anyway, this blog's fanon states Jin did not win the third tournament, he also does not win the fifth tournament - Abaddon / Devil wins that one. As well, that was setting up for TK6 and I already explained that TK6 is noncanon, and this blog has its own version of it. So, Jin was already out of consciousness by the time Abaddon won the fifth tournament.

❌ Jin's devil is NOT a guardian devil, nor has he ever wanted to protect Jin (beyond selfish reasons) Honestly this was the dumbest fucking retcon TK8 did and I'm still bitter about it.

❌ TK8 also heavily implied that Jin hadn't officially met or was familiar with Devil up until that game. Which is... kinda silly to me? Especially considering that we saw Kazuya & his devil interacting as early as the 2nd game. So like... I feel like Jin & his Devil would know each other long ago. My Jin has, technically, known Devil since they were small children. However, had just assumed he was nothing more than a reoccurring dream, and hadn't officially found out he was real until he was 19. But still, that's many years they've known each other. Jin did not frickin struggle with the devil gene for years without knowing about the Devil's existence ffs.

❌ Angel Jin is obviously just Jin in canon. However... I change this. For once, this is a FUN CHANGE. Meaning, I had no problem with how Angel Jin is in canon, I just had ideas I'd have more fun writing! Which my Angel Jin is actually a mix between Jin & Devil's personalities. He's like a fusion! I thought of this just because Jin needed both Devil's powers, and his Kazama powers to become Angel Jin. This made me think it'd be more fun if their personalities mix when they become AJ.

❌ Canonically, Devil doesn't have a unique name and is simply referred to as "Devil Jin." It is unknown if devil has a true name or not. However, I gave him one! On this blog, his true name is Abaddon. This is both to further separate him from Jin, and to show other people that Abaddon is a different character. I also got inspiration because in TK4, Kazuya's Devil said to Heihachi "I'm what you refer to as 'Devil'." Which to me, implies he does have a different name. I believe Harada once said in a tweet that they [the team] didn't know what to call Devil Jin, so they named him Devil Jin, because in English, it sounds like a pun off the word "Devil Gene". Whilst characters are still very free to call him "Devil Jin," it's just not his actual name.

Now this is a list of stuff that may be canon or is unknown due to how confusing Tek's lore is, but I'll list 'em anyway.

✖️ In TK5, during Asuka's [noncanon] ending, Jin accidentally trips, and his face lands in her chest. It stays in her chest for a good minute before he stands up. During this, Jin acted confused when Asuka became embarrassed and hostile. Jin couldn't understand what he did wrong or what happened. And that's just... lmao. Jin may be naive sometimes, but I just don't see him being THAT oblivious.

✖️ Devil is not just Jin's alter ego. This is another thing that's confusing regarding the Tek lore. If the devils are alter egos or completely different entities. But this blog depicts Devil as his own person, he is simply a parasite that was born with Jin. Other than sharing the same body, he is not the same as Jin.

✖️ Devil was born with Jin, I made that very clear. He's also not the other half of Devil Kazuya that possessed Jin after Kazuya was nearly killed. That part of lore was just... illogical and silly imo. It only happened due to the writers not knowing exactly WHAT the devil gene was at the time, and them also thinking Kazuya is Actually Dead. (But then once they brought him back, had to explain WHY he still has the devil gene, too) I place this here just 'cos even though this is technically clear canon, it's very likely has been retconned. Due to multiple factors in future games that contradict this plot. (And Jin's Devil even telling him he was BORN with him in TK8)

There's probs even more ... but this is all I can think of rn! 😅

[jajanvm-imbi]

K so Jacob Hopkins is definitely a descendant of the Wittebane family and this definitely gonna be a plot point in ToH S3

I've seen other people mention this but I wanna add to it. (I'm not even joking I wrote this like 3 months ago and completely forgot about it)

First of all, Jacob was the one to introduce the idea of the Wittebros into the show in the first place. He's the one who gave us context.

He's also the conspiracy theory guy. He's basically the modern day witch hunter. He refers to the Demon Realm as a "realm of evil" and how he can "protect humanity" from this evil. Sound familiar?

Second of all, their appearance.

I think at this point we all understand that the ToH crew make decisions about visual elements very carefully. They choose everything they include for a reason, and that's the fun in watching this show lol.

The reason why were able to safely assume that Hunter is a clone/grimwalker of Caleb was because of their appearance. Even before we saw the paintings of what Caleb looked like, people were able to piece together how Hunter was a grimwalker of Caleb and how Belos was actually Phillip by their facial structure and their hair.

Observe:

Jacob's hair goes back in the same way Hunter and Caleb's does and has the same hairline as all three Wittebanes, but its brown like Phillip's hair. He also has the lil hair strand sticking out in the front like Caleb, Hunter, and Phillip do.

Jacob's nose is most like Hunter's and Caleb's, but it still goes out a little bit towards the tip like Phillip's.

Jacob has Hunter and Caleb's strong jawline and chin, but he also has his lil goatee which could be a nod to Phillip's beard in Elsewhere and Elsewhen.

Jacob has Caleb's eye shape and Phillip's eye color.

Their appearances are all too similar for it to be a coincidence. Like I said before, the ToH team loves to give these visual clues to help the audience piece together what's going to happen, at least with the Wittebane plotline, way before anything is confirmed within the universe of the show.

The fandom was right about Hunter being a grimwalker, being a grimwalker of Phillip's brother specifically, Phillip being Belos, and that Phillip's brother was named Caleb (well that one is all but explicitly stated but it's pretty much canon at this point). I'm positive the fandom is right about Caleb falling in love with a mystery witch and their family became the Clawthornes, and most of these theories were based in visual elements alone (the exception being Caleb's name)

While I feel like its very very likely that Jacob is a descendant of the Wittebanes, its obvious that he isn’t a descendant of Phillip or Caleb. The Wittebros both got stuck on the BI at the same time and never made it back. Its heavily implied that Caleb’s family became the Clawthornes, and its never indicated if Phillip ever had a family of his own or not, I think its unlikely. So what? A third Wittebane brother? A sister? A cousin? My guess is that ToH is gonna pull a Gravity Falls and reveal an additional sibling, (The Stan twins + Shirley who was later revealed to be the grandmother of the Pines twins which explained how Stan and Ford were both uncles in In a Tale of Two Stans) during the backstory episode that explains how Jacob could be related to the Wittebane family. 

Since Jacob is very similar to Phillip, and it’s implied in the season finale that Belos is still alive through the sludge gloop thing and got to the human relam via Hunter’s back, then its very likely that they would team up in the human realm to destroy the BI and “save humanity from evil”. 

The Hexsquad are also in the human realm, and they are undoubtedly going to do research on the Wittebanes to see how the Wittebros got to the Demon Realm in the first place so they can find a way back. This is certainly going to lead them to the Gravesfield Historical Society, where Jacob Hopkins works. And even though Luz doesn’t like and/or trust him for what he did to Vee, he obviously knows a lot on the subject, which could be very useful for their research. He might also be aware of his own ancestry, which would explain his obsession with them.  

Cue Jacob and the Hexsquad piecing together how Hunter looks exactly like Caleb, the Hexsquad finding out Jacob is a descendant of the Wittebanes (a family of witch hunters), Jacob finding out that everyone in the Hexsquad is a witch (except for Luz), Belos is also probably there like a devil on Jacob’s shoulder or something, and conflict ensues for the Hexsquad in the human realm. 

Anyway this is just my two cents on the matter, I am very excited to see how S3 will play out with the very little time they have to wrap up the story. What do ya’ll think? Feel free to add any other observations too!

[memes-saved-me]

Billy Hargrove and implied Queerness

First off this is focusing on his scenes without Steve because we've all seen those and....they're pretty homoerotic to say the least so I will be bringing your attention to the other factors which lead people to believe Billy is gay or interested in men and not so much women. This isn't very indepth but more surface level observations I've made and seen others make.

(TW: Homophobia and slurs discussed)

Season 2

The first scene we get of Billy he is instantly sexualised by those around him. Tina and Vicki taking interest in him based on his looks while Carol watches on rather unamused. This sets a trend for his character and his relationship with his looks and body, but more importantly how he uses it to his own advantage. Of course this was done to play into the 80s bad boy who all the high school girls fall for but what I'll explain later makes it much more interesting.

The next we see of Billy is with Max on their way home. During this scene he insults the looks of the high school girls, referring to them as cows. We then get a very interesting line "Yeah, we're stuck here and who's fault is that?" Which Max replies to with "Yours."

A response that instantly angers Billy to the point he demands she take responsibility for moving to Hawkins. A topic that has clearly been discussed before because Max's reaction implies this has happened before if not multiple times.

In Runaway Max, which isn't confirmed canon and contradicts a lot of stuff but, we are told that the reason they moved was because Billy was completely off the rails to the point he broke her friends arm. Now. Does that make sense in blaming who's fault the move was? If this is the case it is obviously Billy's fault so why does he keep saying it was her who caused this? She clearly liked being in California so why would she do something to make them move. Unless it was unintentional...

This heavily implies that there is an unspoken incident which involves them both. An incident which triggers such anger and recklessness in Billy to the point he almost runs over Mike, Lucas and Dustin because Max wouldn't say it was her fault. Many have then filled in this gap with Max accidentally telling either Neil or Susan about Billy and another boy, which would make sense with the information or lack of information we are given in canon about the reason they moved.

While at Tina's Halloween party we do not see Billy interact with a single girl. He is seen with Tommy and another boy who then approach Steve with him. It would make sense for girls to be drooling over him in this moment, trying to dance with him or following him inside but no. He makes a beeline for Steve and we do not see him for the rest of the party.

Now, I don't know about you but have you ever seen a teenage boy look less interested in his date? Not only is he not interacting with verbally but also physically. He then gets angry when she calls Max his sister and they drive off without a word. It's implied he is taking her home as he they were waiting for Max, meaning he was probably going to hook up with her but if he was wouldn't he act just a little nicer towards her?

I mentioned before that he is the archetype for 80s bad boy and the girls sure are falling, he just isn't catching them. This is the only time we see him interact with a women his age in a romantic way. If you could call this romantic at all.

When in trouble for letting Max run off while watching her, his response is that he doesn't have the time to go looking for her because he has a date, a date we never see or get the name of, this prompts his father to say the line "So that's why you've been staring at yourself in the mirror like some faggot..."

A line that then prompts Billy to snap and argue back after clearly wanting to get out of this situation as fast and smoothly as possible. Where else have we seen anger brought on by a topic? That's right in the car with Max. There is a trend of Billy reacting with anger to conversations or comments he finds personal or as some sort of attack. This is also when Neil becomes fully angry with Billy as seen in his rather shocked reaction at his response to that line.

This also continues the trend of Billy caring about his looks and using them as a shield of sorts, a shield that doesn't work against his father but everyone else he encounters.

Something to keep in mind, Billy is the only character to be called a homophobic slur by a parental figure other than Will. The character he mirrors in multiple ways including having the same full name William, as well as Will being heavily implied as gay or queer. Both of their father's use homophobic language against them, unlike any of the other characters in the show.

The next we see of him after the incident with Neil is also when we see him interacting with another women in a romantic sense. Karen. This is where his use of his looks and body fully come into play. He uses these assets to get information and affection out of Karen to make his father happy and avoid further punishment.

Now this is my own interpretation but Billy is used to using his body for positive attention and doesn't get that any other way. At no point in the series is he treated like a person other than in S3 by Max and Max only. Everyone else views him in an objectified manner or as a bad guy to avoid.

There is a clear resemblance between Karen and Billy's mother which I'll further discuss in the season 3 section but this leads me to believe he is subconsciously or even consciously wanting positive attention from a motherly figure, he just doesn't know any other way to achieve that.

However, it is very clear that flirting with Karen was an act as seen by the quite jarring juxtaposition of these two frames. The mask fully gone once by himself again. Meaning the only time we see him flirt with a women it isn't genuine at all.

Season 3

Now, continuing off the last point, there is countless girls practically drooling over Billy at the pool but he only accepts this attention from Karen. This exemplifies my theory that he doesn't know how to gain positive affection other than through flirting and well sex, but he only wants this attention from an older women who resembles his mother. Except, again he doesn't know any other way of gaining it. He hasn't had a strong positive female influence in his life since he was 10 years old and by the looks of it every motherly figure has treated him as eye candy and not a teenager crying for help.

He has Heather who is very much his age and flirts with him. Yet, he acts as if she isn't even there and goes straight over to Karen to flirt. The way he acts with Karen should be the way he would act with girls his age, flirting and making advances but we do not see a single example of this.

This part I find extremely interesting because it perfectly mirrors his interaction with Karen in season 2, except instead of dropping the mask he puts it on. The way he looks to his right as if she is sitting there as he practices what he is going to say to her is a clear example of his act coming into play as he prepares to meet up with her. His expression very similar to when he leaves the Wheeler home but it shifts to practice the way he is planning on talking to Karen. A complete reversal from their scene in season 2.

A rather reaching piece of symbolism could be that this also mirrors the way Neil cuts off Billy's date in season 2 as the Mindflayer is a literal representation of him being controlled by his father.

I also find it very interesting that he chooses to flirt with Karen very publicly and this might be reading a little too into it but it comes off as trying to uphold some sort of image. Another example of this is Max saying she hears Billy with girls in his room, something that sure is something he would do but when you put this with everything in this post it also comes off as him trying to prove something.

Another thing I find interesting is the way he acts around Karen, all smiles and friendly is very similar to that of the way he acts at dinner with Heather's parents. An act put on by the Mindflayer, just as he does when flirting with Karen. A mask used for underlying means and not what it shows on the surface.

Conclusion

This is all just my observation and he is not canonically gay or queer but the way he acts around women compared to Steve is a very interesting aspect to his character. If they truly intended for him to be this bad boy ladies man then they failed at presenting that.

One final thing, which I have posted about before is the fact Billy does not use homophobic language towards anyone. Even Steve does in season 1 so it would make sense for a teenage boy trying to upstage another teenage boy to use slurs and such to belittle and bully him. Except he doesn't.

I could write a full dissertation on Billy's implied queerness but a unorganised Tumblr post will have to do. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

[solarstellarstar]

A Letter Addressed to No One || dialover OC shortfic

Written by Lady Sakamaki Beatrix

Summary: A letter from Beatrix that doesn't have a clear recipient, but a lot of her personal feelings are disclosed. Warnings: none (the fic is SFW but obviously there's a process of how babies are made- it's only implied and nothing is described) Word count: 783 Author's notes: Lore dump time! I find it really fun to reveal tidbits of my OC's backstories by writing them out in little fics (if you can even call this one) of some sort. If you do actually get to read to the end, I'd like to ask you something: did you see this coming? Note that this is heavily edited from canon like all fanfictions are-

No matter how many times I am going to be told that I'm a "filthy courtesan that not even the best man could silence the greed that boils inside me" by that woman, I simply will not believe it. I am not a courtesan and... I'm certainly sure that everyone is greedy deep down inside somehow.

First things first, let me make this absolutely clear: Karl Heinz is my one and only husband. What I did does not (in no way, shape or form) renounce the love and utmost respect I hold for him.

What I did was simply me being nostalgic. Do I regret doing so? Yes. Do I wish I could abandon the thing that was produced of it? No.

I have made many mistakes during my lifetime and by writing this letter, I hope that it can explain (not justify) why I chose what I did to do.

I originally derive from the Kanemoto clan where my parents housed me and my sister. It was quite obvious who held their favour the most. My sister is a very pretentious woman, but she does have her own fair share of talent. Most, if not all, of the men that sought out our family, were just to request her hand in marriage. For some reason, she had turned every single one of them down.

As someone who had grown by her side all my life, I believe I can understand why she did so. Eventually, constantly being overwhelmed by an abundance of marriage proposals can invite unwanted distress.

So when my parents suddenly arranged for me to marry a man, that just supplied me with many more questions than answers. Why me?Why not... her?

Upon meeting this man officially for the first time, he actually was quite a humorous fellow. Although he was awkward and made me question why I was going to marry such a frivolous person, this man actually made me feel feelings of security and affection even though we never met outside of arranged dates and meetings by our family.

You can only imagine how I felt when we found out that he met the unfortunate fate of being murdered. It was really one of the darkest moments I had ever lived. We were only told that by his family, so not once have I ever got to see him one last time. No ceremony celebrating his life was held and his gravestone was nowhere to be found.

Obviously after experiencing such a dreadful loss, I refused to invest any more time or energy into such relationships. I could never love again.

Or so I thought.

It happened when I was still mourning the lost time I had invested into love. "Fantastic, another man that seeks my sister." I thought to myself.

That man turned out to be Karl Heinz.

I will not get into the details, but what happened was like some sort of miracle. Of course, I still had some doubts when I found out he sought out me- not my sister. Why me? Why not... her?

It was like all my grief and sorrow were swept and washed away by him alone. There were a few impediments- but I must not question his choices as I'm sure he has a valid reason why.

Centuries into the marriage and having 2 dear sons, I suddenly received news that my first fiancé was alive.

I am not sure what came over me, perhaps it was desperation for me to live my youth once again (I didn't even question why or how this has come to be) but I immediately set off to meet my first love.

There he was, alive and well. Nothing could make up for all that effort we had lost and was destroyed.

One thing led to another in our reunion and that's how I came to carry my third child.

There was absolutely no way under any circumstances that I would endanger the child by revealing her to the Sakamaki household, meaning I decided to hand the girl over to my sister.

I may have birthed the child but I cannot raise her or love her as my own. As much as I want to love her as the child I had with my first love, she cannot be my daughter.

Which means she cannot call me 'mother' once.

She cannot hold my hand once.

My last wish for my sister is to not make the same mistake I had already made when raising Shu and Reiji. That's all I ever ask for.

My sister decided to give her the name 'Lily', isn't it beautiful? She even has my eyes.

[bedlamsbard]

Putting aside aesthetics and characterization (inasmuch as I can), I have been trying to logic out why Mando Ahsoka feels so different from Rebels Ahsoka (to me, personally; I know many other people feel fine about it), especially in terms of having a character who’s known in Rebels for her “I am no Jedi” line going to a character who is specifically introduced as “The Jedi” in The Mandalorian.  (And who is identified as “Ahsoka Tano, Jedi Knight” on merch -- merch is merch, it’s essentially meaningless, but it’s still a choice that was made somewhere along the line.)

“Shroud of Darkness,” Rebels 2.17

“Twilight of the Apprentice,” Rebels 2.21

This is strictly Doylist and not Watsonian; I don’t care what went on in the character’s life in between Rebels and Mando; I’m trying to guess what was happening in the writers room.

I was noodling through this on Twitter, in case it looks familiar.

My first thought was Dave taking a cut scene from Rebels as canon going into Mando, something he shared on Twitter back in the lead-up to S4.  Looking at this again I’m not sure this was a cut scene or a scene that he wrote that never made it into the actual script. (Certainly I can’t see how it would have fit into the episode.)

Here Bendu specifically identifies Ahsoka as “former Jedi Knight.”  This is also obviously not canon, because Twitter posts aren’t canon, Dave.  (Though that doesn’t mean that he might have taken it as part of his working backstory for the character anyway.)

I was then thinking about TCW and the unused TCW arcs as they existed in 2016 when this aired (with the rough guess that Rebels S2 was probably written in 2014).  There are three Ahsoka arcs that were written and existed in 2016 in some form (”scripts and some artwork” is what Pablo Hidalgo says, and some pre-viz and recordings from the original Walkabout arc that were shown at a couple Celebrations), but which hadn’t made it into S6 (which came out in 2014): Ahsoka’s Walkabout (in its original form with Nix Okami instead of the Martez sisters), the Siege of Mandalore, and an arc which would have taken place between those two, “Return to the Jedi.”  We know about these because of a panel from Star Wars Celebration Europe in 2016 called Ahsoka’s Untold Tales -- I was actually at this panel, but I haven’t thought about it in a while.  Here’s the SW.com liveblog of it; here’s the video.

I remember hearing somewhere that the TCW team had nine seasons or so written, but can’t find the source for that number now.  When S7 was made, there were obviously a lot of compromises made that we’ll never really know about, minus a tell-all memoir or documentary, which probably isn’t coming any time soon.  Knowing that this Return to the Jedi arc existed, I wondered if at one point Dave had tried to get all three Ahsoka arcs into S7 before having to give one up for the Bad Batch arc (especially as we now know there’s going to be a Bad Batch TV show); it’s also entirely possible that at one point in the production process there was the possibility of a full 22 episode season floated, which would have made three Ahsoka arcs in one season less unbalanced.

I went to go look up what the Return to the Jedi arc actually was, since 2016 was a long time ago and I haven’t really thought about this panel since.  My guess is that it had been intended for one Ahsoka arc per remaining season (7, 8, 9).  Pablo Hidalgo says that after the Walkabout arc, Ahsoka would have stayed on Coruscant as “an under-city vigilante of some degree, helping people who can’t help themselves,” and Dave points out that he talked about this with George Lucas, as well.  The Return of the Jedi arc would have involved Ahsoka finding out about a nefarious plot targeting Yoda and working with the Jedi to figure out what’s what with that -- this revealed that below the Jedi Temple was an ancient Sith shrine. (Some details of this were revealed at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim in 2015.)

Ahsoka would have been protecting the holocron vault from Darth Sidious, putting her lightsaber blade through the door while Palps shoots Force lightning up the blade.

“The whole purpose of that particular arc would have been to bring Ahsoka back. She’s not a Jedi, she doesn’t change her decision, but she gets involved in Jedi business again.”

The next Ahsoka arc and the final arc of the series would have been the Siege of Mandalore arc, which “reunites Ahsoka with the clone troopers, with Anakin.”  My guess is that the end of the Return to the Jedi arc would have involved Ahsoka making the decision to go to Mandalore because the Jedi themselves couldn’t get involved in that conflict at the time (especially the emphasis in the panel that Pablo and Dave put on Ahsoka as being “a responsible person” who couldn’t ignore that the war was still going on, and because Ahsoka knew Satine).  (It would be interesting to know when if this arc would have fallen before or after the Darth Maul - Son of Dathomir comics, which are based off another unmade TCW arc.)  This would probably have put as much as a season between this arc and the final arc -- given TCW’s funky timeline that doesn’t mean much, but in terms of audience expectation it helps.

(also, damn, the context of the beginning of Siege of Mandalore in the original concept vs. how it actually happens in S7 is very different -- like, on the surface identical but the emotions involved are totally different.)

Before going into the next part of the panel (post-war), Pablo Hidalgo adds “We consider it to have happened and that’s how we inform the writing in Rebels, because that’s the history that these characters carry in their heads.”

So going into Rebels, the writing team was working with the background that Ahsoka had not only left the Jedi Order once, in “The Wrong Jedi,” but had reinforced her decision not to go back to the Jedi by not returning to the Order during the Return to the Jedi arc.  That explains why in Rebels she’s so adamant about not being a Jedi or being in the Order; it’s a decision that she has made not once, but twice.

Fast forward four years to 2020, where we have the Siege of Mandalore arc in S7.

It’s heavily implied that Ahsoka was planning to go back to the Order after the end of the war, and in fact Yoda treats her as such.

Now, there’s no way to know if this exchange was in the original Siege of Mandalore scripts short of those being released at some point (which is possible but seems unlikely when the character is still in play), but because of the way S7 plays out there is no way to put the Return to the Jedi arc back into the story, which means all the emotional context and Ahsoka doubling down on not returning to the Order is thrown out of the window.  That’s a fair chunk of backstory to take into the Rebels writers room.

(It should also be noted that presumably E.K. Johnston wrote the Ahsoka novel with the assumption that that arc was still part of Ahsoka’s working canon, though she may not have seen scripts for it; I feel like I read somewhere that she had seen scripts for the original version of the Siege of Mandalore, which changed quite a lot between original concept and the eventual 2020 version, as is evident from the novel vs the show.)

Going into The Mandalorian, then, Dave Filoni is not only working without a writers room (as Mando has only had two writers, Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau), but working with an entirely different continuity than what the Rebels writers room was working with.

Trying to backtrack when various scripts were written is an exercise in futility to some extent; I usually guess anywhere from a year to two years out from when the shows air.  (I seem to remember that around this time in 2016 it came out that Katee Sackhoff was doing something for Disney, which ended up being the recording for Bo-Katan in Rebels S4, which wouldn’t air for another year, but don’t quote me on these dates.)  Dave ends the panel by saying that “After the season 2 finale for Rebels I was very adamant that that was it for Ahsoka...in Rebels...but after this reaction it might just be possible...it might be possible to see her again. She might have something to do. Maybe.”  (For those trying to run dates in their heads: the con was in July 2016, the season 2 finale aired in March 2016, WBW aired in February 2018.)  My guess is that they hadn’t recorded for that part of S4 yet (and S4 is so weirdly paced that I have questions about how it was made), but that the initial scripts for S4 had already been written at this point.

Looking back at the Star Wars Celebration Chicago 2019 TCW panel where Ashley Eckstein talks about getting the news about TCW S7 from Dee Bradley Baker (rather than from Dave Filoni, and hoo boy is this uncomfortable to watch knowing that the script for “The Jedi” had almost certainly been written and Dave may have already made the decision not to talk to Ashley about it), there’s still not like...a clear way to tell when that happened.  Except that Dee talks about “wine tasting with the Rebels,” which likely puts it back when Rebels S4 was either still actively airing (2017-2018) or before it had wrapped filming (2017).  (I actually vaguely remember seeing pictures from this wine tasting but I can’t remember whose twitter it was on and going to look feels creepy.)  Probably the scripts weren’t fully revised at that point but they may have been -- still, this was certainly after S2 and could potentially be before S4 had been fully finalized.  We got the TCW renewal announcement in 2019, but the animation wasn’t fully completed yet so didn’t get more than that teaser trailer.  This is only important insofar as it involves which set of backstory was being used for WBW Ahsoka, an episode that Dave Filoni wrote and co-directed.  (Honestly? I think Mando Ahsoka matches okay with WBW Ahsoka but is a little off Rebels S2 Ahsoka, but that’s off my memory of WBW, an episode I refuse to rewatch.)  Certainly with the epilogue he knew he was setting up for something else.

ETA: I FORGOT AN IMPORTANT PART OF THIS TIMELINE AND THAT’S THE RISE OF SKYWALKER because I try not to think about TROS, frankly, but as we may remember Ahsoka is included in the “be with me” scene in the final confrontation.  This always struck me as weird given the “I am no Jedi” thing from Rebels, but she’s the most well-known female Force-user so I had just mentally written it off as easy shorthand and JJ Abrams being lazy about it. HOWEVER, presumably JJ talked to Dave about which prequel era Jedi to include (there’s a note in one of the previous SWC liveblogs about Rian Johnson being in the Rebels writers room at some point).  TROS came out in December 2019, I can’t recall exactly when they did the voiceovers for that scene (if anyone has ever mentioned it), but it was probably fairly late in the process since I believe that there were still edits being made up until fairly soon before the premiere.  (I have a completely different theory that the Lego Star Wars Holiday Special from this year was written off an earlier version of TROS.)  If Dave had already moved towards making Ahsoka more inclined towards the Jedi, with a full-on return to calling herself one regardless of the existence of the Order (as Mando implies), then her inclusion here makes a LOT more sense than it did a year ago.

Anyway this is all very conspiracy theorist, but it does explain something that was puzzling me: Rebels S2 Ahsoka and Mando Ahsoka (as well as TCW S7 Ahsoka and potentially Rebels S4 Ahsoka) were written off slightly different backstories which differed in one very key thing: how committed Ahsoka was to no longer being a Jedi.

Now, this sort of thing happens all the time in anything with an ongoing continuity; obviously TCW makes major changes to how viewers might read or write Obi-Wan and Anakin/Vader in RotS or the OT.  I was just trying to narrow it down in this particular case because until I started thinking about it I had assumed that it was all being written off the same assumed backstory. And many people read Ahsoka differently in Mando than I did or found her perfectly in character, this was for me to track references down about something that was bothering me in hopes of an explanation that would satisfy me.

[kittyanonymity]

Marinette is the daughter of Wonder Woman X Superman

Hey have this!!!! I was inspired by @eve-valution and their wonderful art!

Also like.... It’s really just an excuse for Mari to be ridiculously overpowered tbh; plus.... the aesthetic of this tiny adorable girl accidentally breaking things all the time, and getting super flustered over it. >.> It’s cute, ok? lol

Honestly, my original plan for this was Daminette, and this version is; but I might also make some adjustments for a Timinette version (I love them, they’re adorkable together ok)? I haven’t decided yet. ALSO this is just a basic outline; not the fic itself. I haven’t started the fic yet. Feel free to ask things though!! ALSO THIS AU IS CLASS FRIENDLY!!! 

~ DAMINETTE VERSION~

So in the latest DC animated movies, they’ve been pushing Diana/Clark pretty heavily while implying that despite Clark’s attraction to Diana, he’s still in love with Lois; this is seen pretty obviously when Diana and Clark go on a date, and Lois shows up. Clark immediately puts space between him and Diana and honestly, it’s a little telling. (this is all in stark contrast to the Justice League cartoon from the 90’s/early 2000’s, where Diana and Bruce ((Wonder Woman and Batman)) were shipped pretty heavily) Talk about baby’s first OTP, am I right? XD

ANYWAY THE POINT IS THIS.

Lois and Clark are together, like they’re getting married. (somewhere in the world, Damian is turning one; this is relevant later.) One night, Superman has a ‘moment of weakness’, and him and Wonder woman bang. BOOM! Pregnant.

Diana is rightfully upset, as Clark immediately tells her this was a mistake, they never should’ve done that. He goes back to Lois, and they don’t speak outside of the Watchtower anymore. Diana does not tell him when she finds out she’s pregnant. She goes to Bruce, tells him she’ll be out of commission for up to 3 years.

Bruce is rightfully concerned, but Diana doesn’t tell him what’s wrong. He assures her she can leave; they’ll keep it together out here while she rests in Themyscira. She feels bad for not telling him, but resolves to do it later. Home she goes, to see her mom and the rest of the Amazons!

Her mother is disgusted by Clark’s conduct, but Diana has always wanted to have a child. They know it will be a daughter: it always is, Hippolyta says conspiratorially. The pregnancy is interesting, and many of the Amazons are startled at how quickly their princess can finish her projects. Hippolyta watches on in concern; her daughter has become startlingly creative during these months, and as a previous Ladybug that can mean only one thing.

Tikki will be back in the family soon.

Hippolyta says nothing about this to Diana, not wanting to alarm her daughter.

When Marinette is born with dark hair, and blue eyes there is no surprise. Diana stares at her daughter as if she is the most beautiful thing to have ever existed, and to her, she is. Marinette spends 3 years on Themyscira, learning from her mother, grandmother, and all of her many sisters. She’s an excitable child, with a penchant for marking walls with whatever she can draw. She grasps language easily, and much quicker than anyone would think possible.

But Diana has a duty. She must return to the outside world to assist the league. She thinks of the outside world, how it has taught her, hurt her, but ultimately made her stronger; and she knows that she wants Marinette to have all of that and more. So she contacts an old friend in Paris.

Sabine had left Themyscira many years prior, once Diana had cleared the way for the other Amazons to venture out. She’d fallen in love with a baker, and though the 2 couldn’t have children of their own, they were excellent people. People Diana knew she could entrust Marinette with. Sabine agreed after they discussed it extensively.

Diana would come see Marinette regularly once she was 10, giving the girl some years to mature, and come to terms with her mother’s identity. Diana assured Sabine she’d send any and all support requested, along with letters and gifts for Marinette as she grew. Diana hated to leave her daughter, but seeing as she would constantly be in danger once again, she couldn’t bear to put Marinette through that. Diana tells Sabine who Marinette’s father is, so they can be ready.

Sabine threatens to cut his dick off, which Diana laughs at. Diana and Marinette live with Sabine and Tom for a year, letting Marinette get to know and love them; and then Diana tells Marinette she has to go, the world needs her.

And Marinette just nods, giving her mother a smile.

“I know mommy.”

Good byes and I love you’s are exchanged, and after many tears, Diana finally manages to tear herself away, and she leaves. There is a hole in her heart the size of the Earth, but Diana has a job to do.

This is the world where Marinette lives now too, and she must do all she can to keep her daughter’s world safe.

Clark and Lois get married while Diana is away, and Jonathan is born; he’s only a year younger than Marinette, and 2 years younger than Damian like in canon. Clark is curious as to where Diana disappeared to, asking around, but the only one who knows is Bruce. And when Clark asks, Bruce simply shrugs.

“She told me she’d be gone for a few years. I didn’t press her for details. Everyone needs a break, Superman.”

Clark didn’t like it; he was worried. For her to disappear so abruptly… Surely she hadn’t truly loved him? Clark hates himself as he thinks about it, regret permeating him. He does his best to not think about it.

At least until Diana shows back up, 4 years later, and a little more jaded than she used to be. Bruce welcomes her back with a small smile, and a nod. Diana doesn’t even look at Clark.

And for Clark, it’s enough to just know that she’s safe. He doesn’t blame her for hating him; he kinda hates him too.

Literally none of the League know about Marinette; Diana doesn’t tell fucking anyone.

Miraculous canon happens as normal, only difference is that Lila is fucking gone after the Volpina incident. She’s gone after that, no return, nothing. I hate that girl, and honestly, I just wanna write something where Marinette’s friends love her, without the class drama. I can’t forgive the Miraculous writers for doing that to the students. Chat is still pretty pushy in his pursuit of Ladybug, but not in an exaggerated way. However, it does still cause some eventual complications that he needs to learn and grow from. Minimum bashing should be involved, and it will be centered around pointing out the toxic things he does, and him correcting those behaviors. Adrien is my boi and I love him.

ANYWAY.

When Marinette is 10, Diana shows up to see her. Marinette has known that Sabine wasn’t her real mother; Mari still calls Sabine Maman though cause like… the woman raised her, duh. Marinette loves Diana, even though she doesn’t remember what her mother looks like. Diana always remembers her birthday, and all of the holidays; Marinette has saved every letter, and gift her mother has ever sent her. She doesn’t realize her mother is Wonder Woman yet. Well, at least until she shows up on her 10th birthday. Marinette recognizes her as the heroine instantly, but says nothing; she’s seen movies, she knows secret identities are important!

Over the years, Sabine has kept Diana informed on the progression of Marinette’s… abilities. Look, the girl is a split between the Amazonian princess, and a Kryptonian. God only knows what she’ll be able to do. So far, Marinette has displayed signs of super strength and speed, and most recently flight; she’s got the enhanced senses as well, and she carries ear plugs with her when they go out. Diana is happy to know though, that Marinette has a strong sense of right and wrong. She owes Sabine a great debt of gratitude, and knows she’ll never be able to thank the woman enough for raising their (because yeah, Marinette is theirs now) daughter.

(Marinette goes to school, excited to tell everyone about her 2 mommies and her daddy. Despite Diana not being romantically involved with them…. Yet???? Maybe????? HMMMM)

After Marinette turns 10, Diana makes a point to visit every spring for her daughter’s birthday, and to check in on things. The day of Marinette’s 14th birthday, Diana steps off of the plane, and on her way to the Dupain-Cheng bakery, she witnesses her first akuma. Preparing to step in, Diana freezes when Ladybug and Chat Noir appear on the scene.

Diana recognizes Marinette on sight, and the spots are familiar. She remembers her mother, the stories of Tikki, and the adventures they had, the evils they stopped. She remembers how anxious her mother was during her pregnancy, when Diana could not stop drawing, writing, whatever she could be doing.

Marinette is a pure soul of creation, born of Tikki’s essence, and she is Diana’s daughter, an Amazon, and half kryptonian.

Diana watches her daughter fight, hands clenched at her sides. The Amazon in her demanding she see this through, watch her daughter be the fierce warrior she is meant to be; the mother in her is clawing at her throat, preventing her from speaking with the force of her panic.

And Marinette is an excellent fighter. Diana recognizes many of the moves she used to practice while they were still on the island, and they’ve been refined, polished, and put on display to show the world. It had to be Sabine’s handiwork, teaching her this. Did Sabine know she was Ladybug? No, she would’ve told Diana first thing.

Diana does not intervene, watching Ladybug win, and undo the damage.

Once the akuma is dealt with, Diana follows her daughter as she swings away and finds a quiet place to de-transform.

“My little light, you have exactly 2 minutes to tell me what is going on.”

Marinette jumps a mile, whipping around to see her mother, and then Tikki is smiling, hugging Diana’s cheek.

“Diana! It’s been too long!” Diana gives the kwami a smile.

“Hello, Tikki, mother misses you.”

Marinette is dumbfounded.

Diana explains everything, about how she knows, and why; tells her about Hippolyta, and her connection to the Miraculous. It was the most exciting and stressful birthday yet.

Diana starts making more regular trips to Paris to assist her daughter when she needs the extra help; since Diana is generally fairly good at keeping her emotions in check, it works out. Marinette works extra hard to make sure she keeps her extra abilities in check.

She uses her powers in small subtle ways; using her flight to get a better distance out of a yo-yo swing, but doing it in a way where it’s unnoticeable to the standard eye. Or using her x ray vision to avoid people she doesn’t want to see. She lets herself be clumsy, and careless with her movements in her daily life, making sure none of her friends can ever make the connection between her and Ladybug later on; before Ladybug, she’s clumsy so she doesn’t draw attention to her powers. The only one who knows she has powers is Nino.

It’s hard to explain to your childhood friend why you’re flying after all; he had been there the first time she’d accidentally used this new power. OOPS

All abilities/side effects Mari has:

-Super strength

-super senses (hearing, sight, smell, etc ((is taste usually included in this???? hm)))

-Enhanced vision (x-ray, thermal)

-Flight

-Super speed (bout as fast as Superman if she tries hard enough)

-Ladybug luck

-Martial arts/various fighting styles

-Amazon swordfighting & archery

Side effects:

-Sluggish in Winter thanks to Ladybug things; will hibernate if she gets too cold

-Has bursts of creative energy that keep her up far longer than she should be; usually crashes afterwards; these will stop as she gets older, and gets a better handle on her Ladybug powers.

-Gets sick easily during the cold months

-Kryptonite hurts her, obviously; she gets a wicked migraine, and nausea; usually her vision gets bad too.

Marinette’s personality doesn’t change all that much, really. She’s still undeniably kind, and selfless, always going out of the way for her friends. She’s a bit more vocal about her sense of justice, not putting up with bullies. Chloe gets her redemption a bit early because of this. Marinette is also not afraid to just absolutely throw down and brawl if you’re being a violent asshole. Like, damn. She is tiny, but she will miss you up.

ANYWHO.

With Diana making frequent trips to Paris, it catches Bruce’s eye, and he of course gets suspicious. The French government has been keeping the situation with the Akumas under wraps for about 3 years now, no news escaping the country. Marinette is currently 16, Diana has been helping her deal with hard to handle akumas for 2 years; Damian is 17, and Jon is 15.

So when Bruce looks into Diana’s activity in Paris, he’s startled to find little to nothing about Wonder Woman. An article briefly mentions something called an ‘akuma’ but then there’s no further mention. Instead he finds records of Diana Prince shacking up with a married couple and their daughter.

When Bruce finds a picture of Diana standing with the Dupain-Chengs, his breath leaves him. She is staring at the girl in the picture with such a proud adoring gaze, and he would have to be blind to miss the resemblance. The girl’s age lines up with when Diana left, and Bruce remembers how unusually concerned Clark had been about her location.

He’s the world’s greatest detective, and the pieces are too easy to put together.

SO Bruce Wayne does what Bruce Wayne always does.

Finds a way to get information.

He invites Francois-Dupont to his yearly student seminar, meant to help students get a jump start on their careers. They must prove why they deserve to attend, like all the schools invited, in the form of an essay, accompanied by a video of their school.

Mlle. Bustier’s class is selected as the class to make the video representing the school; Marinette and Alya volunteer to head the project with audio assistance from Nino, while Adrien offers to help with the budget. The class comes together to offer some kind of assistance or another, even Chloe, who goes out of her way to help the class plan. Marinette writes the basic video out, how it should look, what it should say.

But they need a narrator.

The class unanimously votes for Marinette.

“You know us better than anyone, Nette. It’s gotta be you.”

“Everyone knows you here, Mari; you’re the sweetest girl in the school.”

“A WELCOME VIDEO!”

It’s Alya who shouts it, grinning at the class.

“It’ll be a welcome video with Marinette showing a ‘new kid’ around!”

Marinette’s gotta admit, it’s genius; the class agrees, and planning begins in earnest now that they have a better idea for it.

All of their carefully laid plans fall to pieces when their high end camera breaks the day they need to film. Everyone is shouting, stress is high, and Rose is crying. Marinette knows she needs to do something before an akuma shows up, but then she hears a yelp, and she looks over to see a first year stumble back as Kim knocks into her. Marinette’s there in an instant, steadying the girl on her feet, and giving her a smile.

“Are you ok?”

She’s unaware of Adrien watching her with a fond smile, while he elbows Alya; Alya stops yelling at Chloe long enough to look over, and quickly take her phone out, and press record. The classes attention immediately shifts, the tension all but disappearing.

The first year nods hesitantly.

“Y-yes I’m ok. It’s just my first day here, a-and I’m…” The dark haired girl bit her lip, looking at the floor, “I’m really scared.” Marinette frowned for a moment before she smiled, and took the girls’ hand.

“I’m Marinette, what’s your name?” The girl sniffled, rubbing at her eyes.

“My name’s Bridgette.” Marinette nodded, her smile growing.

“It’s nice to meet you. Sorry about my friend Kim over there. He gets a little excitable sometimes.” Bridgette offered her a smile.

“It’s ok. It looked interesting so I wanted to get closer, but I wasn’t paying much attention.” Her eyes fell, and she looked off to the side, but Marinette gripped her hand gently, causing her to look up.

“I can show you around the school if you like. Everyone here is really nice, I promise. We look after each other the best we can, and you can always ask one of us for help.” Marinette gestures to her classmates, who offer Bridgette encouraging smiles. It’d been awhile since they’d seen Marinette work her particular brand of magic. Bridgette’s smile grew, and she finally nodded.

“I’d really appreciate that, Marinette thank you.” Marinette simply waved her off.

“It’s fine! We’ll make it fun!” She turned to her class, missing Alya hiding behind Adrien, still recording.

“I’ll be back in a bit guys. Come find me when you get the camera replaced.”

The camera panned around Adrien’s back as Marinette turned away, and began leading Bridgette further into the school. Alya hurried to catch up, the class following shortly after.

Marinette showed the young girl all around the building, from her homeroom class, and to each individual classroom so the girl would never be lost. And she talked to her, learning that Bridgette had just recently moved there from Italy, escaping her old school and the torment she’d endured there. It burned Marinette to know that someone had been so cruel to such a sweet girl, but Bridgette assured her it was fine since she wasn’t there anymore. Marinette in turn, assured her that no one at Dupont would ever treat her so cruelly. And if anyone did happen to do so, she should come find her immediately.

Bridgette laughed, flushing pink.

“Thanks, Mari!” Bridgette’s gaze grew wistful, “It’s been awhile since I’ve laughed with a friend.”

And Marinette was resplendent in her joy, pulling the girl into a gentle hug.

“We’ll look out for you, Bridgette. You can count on us.” The girl returned the embrace, nodding. After a moment, the two girls pulled back, and Bridgette smiled.

“Thanks for caring, Mari.” Marinette shrugged, giving her a smile.

“You’re worth it, Bridgette, remember that.” She nodded her head towards a classroom, “But you should probably get to class now. I think you’re really late. I’ll have a talk with Mr. Beaumont about why right after my class and I finish this project, ok? Just tell him Marinette will explain, and he should understand.” Bridgette nodded, thanking her again, before kissing her cheek, and heading to her classroom. Marinette watched her go with a smile, and sighed, before turning to head back to her class.

Only to promptly freeze at the sight of them behind her, grinning in glee, Alya at the front, phone held high.

Marinette flushed bright red.

“Guys, what’re you doing?” Alya clicked end on the recording and grinned at her best friend.

“Getting our video of course!”

Marinette was certain she was going to die. Or combust on the spot. God, what if she actually did though, and it was just another damn power to worry about???

Needless to say, she’s embarrassed. But once the class reviews the video, they find it to be perfect. They were able to stay close enough to hear Bridgette’s and Marinette’s conversation, and hear Marinette explaining things to her. Nino took the audio and boosted it in certain parts, and making sure to edit out any personal information the girls discussed during the tour.

The video coupled with the 15 page essay Marinette submits secures their spot in the seminar.

Meanwhile, when Diana hears Marinette gushing about their school being invited to the annual Wayne Seminar, she is immediately suspicious. She finds Bruce within the day, appearing in the Batcave with no preamble; Bruce is waiting for her.

He offers her a drink. And Diana sighs, because he definitely already knows; so she accepts his drink, and they sit.

And they talk.

He asks why she didn’t tell him, he would’ve helped her. And Diana laughs, and it’s surprisingly good natured.

“Bruce, you would’ve killed him back then. Don’t think I don’t know how much you two hated each other back then.” She sighed, “You idiots were finally about to be friends, and if I’d told you what he’d said, what we’d done…” She snorted, “I was quite sure you would’ve killed him.” Bruce didn’t deny her accusations, nor did he accept them.

“What’s she like?” And Bruce watched Diana’s whole body relax, a small smile on her face as she swirled the liquor in her glass.

“She is the best thing that has ever existed for me in this world. She’s my little light, and I will see that this world is safe for her.” Bruce thought of his sons, his daughters, and he nodded.

“And her powers?” Diana’s grin grew broad, and she raised her fist.

“She is strong, Bruce. The strongest.” Again, Bruce nodded, having a drink from his glass as Diana stared him down, “If you hurt her while she is in your care, Bruce, we will have problems. You know this?” Bruce sat his glass down, reaching for the bottle to refill his cup.

“I know, Diana. My intentions are purely curious, I promise you.” He smiled, a small upturn of his lips, “She was the star of their video, you know.”

He shows her the video the class submitted, edited to include the class singing the praises of their class president as an intro, before it cut to some footage taken on a cell phone. It followed Marinette around as she guided a younger student around the school, offering advice, and going out of her way to help the girl. The footage ended with the girl’s blushing face before it cut to an outro featuring the Journalist of the class, Alya Cesaire. Alya had said that since Marinette was writing the essay, she knew her friend wouldn’t include her own good deeds, and since Alya was in charge of the video, she’d take care of it here.

And Diana watched her daughter’s best friend proudly declare Marinette’s achievements, and her aspirations; the good she’d done, and the bad she’d prevented, or outright ended.

Bruce pretended not to notice Diana’s tears.

OOF I DID NOT MEAN TO WRITE THAT MUCH OF THAT WOW

Ok so anyway, trip to Gotham gets secured cause of all that. Master Fu will send Kaalki with Marinette as an assured countermeasure against akumas, and Diana promises she will stay in Paris while Marinette is in Gotham. This assures Marinette that between her mom, Viperion, and Ryuuko they could hold their own until she could get there.

To Gotham! YAY!

They land mid afternoon, check into the hotel, and fucking sleep. That’s it.

Next day, they have a guided tour of the Gotham Natural History museum, which is super dope, and everyone is excited; except for Chloe, because even redeemed she’s kind of a brat. I love her. Marinette meets Tim first in this one. Tim is at the Museum because as CEO of Wayne Enterprises he is donating something to the museum. They bump into each other, and she knocks him down.

Tim is kind of stunned cause this tiny pixie like girl just knocked right into him and didn’t even budge, holy shit. And Marinette is stumbling over her words as she apologizes, and helps Tim up, and wow, that is one hell of a grip for someone that size, what the fUCK. Tim is properly dismayed, but waves off her concern good naturedly, saying he shouldn’t have been standing in the middle of the hallway like an idiot; Marinette flushes brighter, insisting she should’ve been paying more attention.

And then Jason shows up, cause like damn Tim, what the hell is taking you so long?

Looks at Marinette.

Hey isn’t she a bit young for you, Drake?

(in another timeline this would probably be a fun Timinette AU, I won’t lie. hmmmmmmm…..)

Tim rolls his eyes at Jason’s antics, offering Marinette a grimace.

‘Sorry about him, he’s deplorable. Again I’m sorry for running into you’

Marinette laughs it off, shaking her head

‘I’m so sorry for knocking you down. I’ll make sure to pay more attention.’

Tim and Jason leave, Jason offering her a wide grin and a little wave; Marinette just shakes her head in amusement, and catches up with the class.

MEANWHILE, SOMEWHERE ELSE IN THE MUSEUM

Damian and Jon are hanging out; Jon has decided to come and pester him since his school, Metropolis Prep, is also invited to the seminar, and Damian likes his friend, he really does, but *god* he is suffering right now. Jon is making comments left and right, and Damian is about to lose it.

‘Ooh, am I making you mad, Wayne?’

Damian glares at his friend.

‘Stop talking. My head is killing me, and I am *this* close to killing *you*.’

Jon just laughs, and Damian rolls his eyes.

After awhile of wandering around, looking at things, they go get some lunch in the cafeteria. There’s a large group of French students taking up one of the tables, one dark haired girl standing while the others are sitting; there’s a map and a notebook spread out in front of her. Damian watches as she smiles at her classmates, writing things in the notebook, while marking things on the map.

‘Oh, that’s cool!’

Damian looks at Jon, ‘What?’ Jon grins.

‘They’re planning on what they want to see while in Gotham.’

‘How do you know?’ Jon rolls his eyes as they get some food.

‘Damian. I have super powers, idiot.’ Damian snorts.

‘Doesn’t explain your incompetence though.’

Both boys miss the wide eyed stare Marinette is giving Jon from her table.

She hadn’t MEANT to hear him, but when you can hear pretty much everything, eavesdropping is inevitable; doesn’t mean she has to like it though.

Also, wow that boy looks so much like her?? How weird.

She and the class finish planning other places they’d like to go, while Marinette turns the list of locations into Miss Bustier for her to review. They had a basic schedule set up, but their teacher had allowed them to see Gotham for what it was before finalizing things.

After lunch, their tour resumes, and Jon and Damian find themselves along the same path as Marinette’s class. They’ve moved past some of the older cultural items, and are entering the room of heroes and villains. Wax replicas of Batman, all of the Robins’, Black Bat, Batgirl, and various big name villains line the walls. Damian was on edge the entire time, not quite listening to Jon’s rambling.

And well OF COURSE something goes wrong, because you can’t have the Dupont kids go anywhere with no problems.

Two Face steps down from where his figure used to be, unloading his gun into the ceiling. He thinks he’ll have an easy time taking this French class hostage.

He is not prepared for these kids.

Alix and Kim tag team a couple of his henchmen with support from Max who has outfitted Markov with some new tech as well. Juleka (who has been tapped for the Lion Miraculous before) and Rose (who’s used the Mouse) take one down, while Ivan smashes two more henchmen together, shielding Mylene. Alya takes the knees out another one while Nino comes across his jaw with a hard left cross. Nathaniel is in front of Sabrina, shielding her when Chloe comes down hard on the henchman in front of them.

Adrien and Marinette go for Two Face, each of them a bit surprised at how the other moved.

And Damian is shocked stupid, watching this French class absolutely decimate one of Gotham’s finest rogues.

Meanwhile Jon is stuck staring at the duo. Between looking at the cute blonde boy, or the dark haired girl who is *WAY* stronger than she looks; especially if she can throw Two Face around one handed, damn.

And Marinette is more concerned with keeping her friends safe than hiding her abilities, and she probably moves too fast, and uses too much strength; her classmates buy her excuse of her extra martial arts classes outside of class.

Damian however does not.

And then the police show up, shocked to find this group of criminals subdued by a group of foreign teenagers.

The second Damian is out of the museum, losing Jon for a moment in the chaos, he calls his father.

“Why didn’t you tell me there was a meta among that French class you invited?”

Damian can practically his father shrug.

“It’s not my business to tell, Damian. Just talk to her.”

He growled as his father ended the call; the man knew something, he knew it.

And thus begins the chronicles of Damian trying to figure out WTH is going on with Marinette; which leads to friendship. Damnit.

This is where the typical getting to know you Daminette stuff will happen.. Including dates, and identity reveals.

The biggest conflict of this is honestly dealing with Superman when he finds out. Marinette has known who her father was since she was 10 years old, when she learned her mother’s identity; but Diana didn’t officially tell her until her 14th birthday, after the akuma incident.

“No more secrets, little light; I will tell you everything.” Diana had said; and she had.

Marinette is glad to have Tom, because wow her real father sounds like a dickhead.

When she officially meets Jon (Damian introduces them), she immediately realizes ‘well fuck, I have a little brother???? And he’s best friends with the boy I have a crush on, shit.’

Anyway, Superman finds out Diana had a daughter, their daughter, after the trip to Gotham concludes, and he immediately heads for Paris as Superman. He finds Diana as Wonder Woman talking to a young girl in Red with black spots, but Superman is set on speaking to Diana as he lands, and starts striding up to her.

“We need to talk.” Diana stares at him dispassionately as he walks up.

“I have nothing to say to you. Leave.”

Clark reaches out for Diana’s hand, only to have his wrist grabbed by the girl in red; who is glaring up at him fiercely. Wow her grip is tight…

“If you touch my mother, I will decimate you.”

And Clark is reeling, because holy shit, this is his daughter; his and Diana’s blood. And Clark just looks at Diana, conflicted.

“Why didn’t you tell me, Diana?” Diana shrugged.

“Telling you would not have changed the outcome. I have always wanted a child, and she is everything I need of this world. Why would I tell you?”

“Because she’s my blood too! She’s kryptonian!” And the girl growls, and then she is hovering in front of his face, blocking his view of Diana. Her eyes are a blazing blue behind her mask, and Clark realizes: she can fly.

“I may share your blood, Superman, but I am not Kryptonian; I am an Amazon. I am Ladybug. And I will not listen to you berate my mother for her choices. She told you to leave, and I can assure you, I won’t be as nice when I demand your absence.”

And Clark is just. Stunned. Because yeah, that was definitely an Amazonian level threat she just gave him; but he’s Superman, and yeah, she’s his daughter, but how strong could she be? Should he push the matter?

Clark watches as other heroes slowly appear behind the girl; One clad in orange, one in green; A fox and turtle respectively. Then there’s the one in black, green eyes narrowed at him; a feral cat, it looks like. Then there’s the one in yellow and rusty orange, a snarl marring her lips; a Bee?? Or a Hornet?? The final two are teal and red, a boy and a girl; a snake, and a… dragon?

What has his daughter been up to in Paris?

Grief swells within him, and he sighs.

“Ok, I’ll-”

Ladybug screams.

“Hello Superman, I am Hawkmoth.”

And that’ll be the final fight of this fic I think! They’ll beat akumatized Superman (batfam Zetas in to help, and so does Jon and Connor), and then Clark leads them to Hawkmoth’s base, and Gabriel is dealt with, along with Nathalie. Marinette and Adrien will both do university in America, with Adrien learning under Bruce about business along with Damian (the 2 become surprisingly good friends after a point), and Marinette accepted Audrey’s internship while she goes to school in New York. She frequently pops over to the manor to see the Batfam.

I’m gonna work on the Timinette version of this next; that ship is so adorkable and I *LOVE* it

There may also end up being a Jasonette version?? I haven’t decided yet tbh

[watchathon]

Stitch Day Special: Lilo & Stitch

In case you’re finding this post just by browsing the tags I’ve used for this post, this is the Watch-a-Thon, a blog where I’m hoping to watch an episode of a show every one-to-two days, with a short blog post where I give my thoughts on what I’ve just seen. Each new point starts with a hyphen and a bolded first word.

- Like so. 

But today? Well, today I’ve got an extra-special post in the wings about a movie, one of my favorite Disney movies, starring my absolute favorite Disney character: Lilo & Stitch!

- I like the variation on the Disney logo. That is the kind of stuff that they just couldn’t do with their new big fancy CGI logo. 

- No clue why Jumba tried to deny that he created an experiment. I don’t much mind since it led to a funny joke, but c’mon, evil genius, you should be smart enough to plead guilty.

- “I would never, ever... make more than one.” *glances meaningfully in the direction of the series*

- “What is that monstrosity...?” He’s a cute widdle fluffball, that’s what he is!

- “Meega nala kweesta!” Canonically, this translates to “I want to destroy”, but that seems a little lukewarm for the reaction he got. Maybe a looser translation is in order...

There could be an entire aristocrats joke in those three words. The whole script to Batman v Superman. The opening notes to “Never Gonna Give You Up”...

Or maybe just “bitch”.

- Blood work is a lot different in space...

- Weird to imagine given the rest of the franchise, but Gantu was once a respected captain of the galactic federation.

- It’s easy to perceive Stitch as a dumb brute, but he’s pretty smart. He connected the dots all on his own, within minutes of his imprisonment, that if the guns are locked onto his DNA, he can use his saliva to trick them. Jumba wasn’t kidding when he boasted of his experiment’s intelligence.

- And not only was Gantu a captain, Pleakley was an expert on the planet Earth. Weird, innit...?

- “Are [humans] intelligent?” “No.” An exchange that only hurts more with every year.

- Love the implication that Pleakley was just suggesting several different relatives to assist with the capture of Stitch from when they were on the deck up until they got to the prison where Jumba was held.

- Now this is what we (or rather TVTropes) call an establishing character moment. A fish floats by holding a sandwich in its mouth, implying (soon confirming) that Lilo was the one to give it the sandwich, before rushing to the hula practice that she was late for, stopping to take a picture of a tourist along the way.

- And then after she arrives at hula practice, she explains that she had to give Pudge the fish a peanut butter sandwich because he controls the weather.

- No clue why the other girls are disgusted by Scrump. I always wanted a Scrump when I was a little lass.

- “Did you ever kill anyone?” Lilo asks the right questions.

- Nani, y’could’ve avoided this if you’d given a thumbs up instead...

- I don’t get the glare Cobra gives Nani after Lilo says that her friends need to be punished. Voodoo isn’t a failure of parenting. In many cases, at least...

- Licking Nani, growling after her capture, Lilo already has a lot in common with Stitch.

- Lucky that Lilo is such a quirky kid. The scene (semi-)explaining why she takes pictures of tourists was deleted, but it doesn’t feel like anything is missing because she already has a few habits that just plain inexplicable, like feeding Pudge, practicing voodoo with a pickle jar...

- Lilo wishing for an angel because of how lonely she is, that’s a sad moment. But also kinda funny in hindsight after she sarcastically names Stitch’s love interest Angel in the series.

- Lord give me the undisturbed...ness, of that frog who watched Stitch get run over by several trucks and only tilted its head.

- If they thought Stitch was dead, why did they keep it in the shelter? I mean, Lilo would probably adopt a dead dog, but she’s the outlier.

- I like how Jumba programmed, as part of Stitch’s destructive tendencies, an urge to steal everybody’s left shoe.

- You can just about pinpoint the moment where Stitch’s heart drops at learning that he’s on an island with no major cities.

- Just occurred to me that the badness level is red, and Stitch’s evil counterparts in the series (627 and Leroy) are both red.

- Ah, David. One of the best Disney love interests, mostly because he isn’t entirely a love interest. There is a mutual attraction, but Nani just isn’t ready for that with everything going on in her life, and David respects that and is happy to be a friend.

- I like how everyone except Lilo heavily suspects that Stitch isn’t a dog. 

- Ohhh, the thought of Stitch having drank coffee. I mean, I’d love to see it, but it’d be Hell for Nani.

- Stitch looks just plain adorable with a lei.

- Well, Lilo, you did tell Stitch he should create something. And he did, he just destroyed his creation afterward.

- Pleakley is a gender-nonconforming icon.

- The first time we see Stitch doing something without even the intention of destroying anything is when he finds the book about the Ugly Duckling. It’s clear that he’s fascinated just by looking at it. And when Lilo explains the story? It resonates with him. Or, well, perhaps he wants it to resonate with him.

- I wish I had an evil koala dog that played records.

- Are we sure that “Meega nala kweesta” means “I want to destroy”? Maybe it means “I was born to dance”, ‘cause Stitch learns about dancing and in less than a minute he’s already an expert.

- I imagine this montage, or slightly earlier, would be when that deleted scene of Lilo trolling the obnoxious racist tourists originally came into play. And I like this scene, but, I do wish that scene hadn’t gotten cut. And I wish that they fully animated it and inserted it into the movie like Warner Bros did with The Iron Giant.

- Nothing cheers me up more than this scene of Stitch and his newfound family going surfing. And especially since Stitch is aquaphobic. He’s very much aware that he cannot swim, and likely wouldn’t survive if he fell off the board into the ocean. But even he eventually gets into the spirit of it, asks Lilo himself to go surfing, and enjoys a nice bonding moment with his family. And David.

- Of course Jumba and Pleakley had to ruin a perfectly sweet moment.

- And so we transition from a heartwarming wholesome moment, to a heartbreaking tearful moment. You can just see Nani holding back tears as she says that she needs to take Lilo home. 

As for Stitch, David probably didn’t even realize that Stitch could understand him when he said that Lilo and Nani had a chance until Stitch came along. But Stitch did understand, and he’s visibly hurt by the idea. He always wanted to destroy, but in this moment, he’s ashamed of how he might have destroyed Lilo’s family.

- And the Ugly Ducking metaphor comes back, when in this moment, as Stitch is coming back to a family that he fears he may have ruined, he sees a lone duck... before that duck is followed by a big family of ducklings.

- Lilo says that Stitch cries at night. So, it would seem that even before he completely learned how to be nice, Stitch wasn’t entirely emotionless.

- This whole act of the film is heart-wrenching. First Nani gets confirmation that she and Lilo will be separated, then Stitch starts to fear that he may have caused it. Then because of that? Stitch leaves, taking only the Ugly Duckling book with him. And he can only see in himself the page of the Duckling, lost and crying.

- Then Jumba tells Stitch, who’s already in a bad place emotionally, that he was made to destroy, has no family, and could never have one.

- I don’t want to think about what happened to that chainsaw.

- There’s a certain feeling that comes up in the middle of this fight scene, where you realize that a house is being destroyed, a house belonging to a family that was very much at risk of separation. And you realize that this will only hurt their case beyond any repair.

- If the past day hadn’t been bad enough, Stitch is told by his best friend Lilo that he ruined everything, and to get away.

- And so Nani really does have her sister taken away. Now, taken away by aliens is a lot different than taken away by social services. It’s worse. This way Nani knows that Lilo definitely won’t get a loving family, and Nani will definitely never see her again.

- The confusion is visible on Jumba and Pleakley when Stitch goes and comforts Nani with a quote about family. All they know about Stitch is that he was made to destroy. And then, once he’s captured, he does just about the opposite.

- “Ih.” To this day I sometimes say Ih on reflex when asked a yes-or-no question. Guess I watched this movie way too many times as a kid, huh? ...I regret nothing.

- Originally, the big red plane-looking thing was supposed to just be a plane, and it would’ve flown through a city. And it was changed because it was too soon after 9/11. But me personally, I think the big red thing is real cool, and I like it flying through the valleys.

- “Stitch is unconscious.” I like that Jumba calls Stitch by his name here. In the series, he always calls Stitch “626″ but his name is Stitch. And I like the rare occasion when that’s respected by the mad genius who created him.

- I want to believe that Stitch dodged that laser for the sake of the frog he was holding more than for his own sake. Stitch is strong enough that a few moments later, he survives an explosion of a whole truck that he’s lying on top of.

- Stitch proudly calling himself “cute and fluffy” is another thing I just love. Might be reading too much into it, but I like that he can call himself by those descriptors and still have total confidence in his ability to kick Gantu’s patookie.

- My favorite scene in the movie, and the scene I took the picture from.

Stitch corrects the Grand Councilwoman about his name. And when he’s told that he needs to go in the ship (the implication being that he’ll be punished like he was meant to be at the beginning), he doesn’t rebel or try to escape. He only politely asks that he be allowed to say goodbye.

He explains that his family is “little and broken, but still good”, both explaining it to the councilwoman and reassuring Lilo and Nani.

This is the ultimate display of how Stitch has grown. And he grew because, despite what Jumba said, Stitch could find, and did find, the one true place he belonged: With a good, loving family.

- The Grand Councilwoman is clearly remorseful that they’ll have to separate Stitch from his family, but she can’t bend the law for this one case. And she doesn’t, but it just so happens that, legally speaking, Lilo owns Stitch. And, well, what self-respecting Grand Councilwoman would steal a child’s property?

- A lot of people (including middle-school me) say that the stuff with Stitch and the aliens get in the way of the story of Lilo and Nani. I disagree. These two stories are intertwined, both about people wanting to stay with the family where they know they belong. I just couldn’t, at all, imagine one without the other.

- Now this is the kind of ending I love. It’s become common for animated movies, sequels in particular, to end on the two main characters getting separated. But here? Stitch is now a definitive part of the family, and won’t be separated from them anytime soon. Anime? What anime?

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I guess I’ll be doing this on the rare occasion I cover movies...?

Anyway, this is a great movie. A modern classic. And one of very few things that doesn’t just hold up from when I was a kid, it gets better. When I was a tiny kid, I was only interested in the space aliens. When I was in my early teens, I thought the aliens were kiddy stuff. 

But nowadays, I can truly appreciate it. I can appreciate how both aspects are vital to the movie. Lilo and Stitch are both equally important. You can’t have one without the other.

And most of all, I can appreciate the story of Stitch (as well as Jumba and Pleakley) finding a family, and Lilo (as well as Nani) saving theirs from being torn apart.

Lilo & Stitch brings me to tears of both joy and sadness every time I watch it. And I guarantee I’ll be watching it many more times in the future.

...Does it still count as a Stitch Day special if I’m posting after midnight? No, probably not. I thought I’d only take two hours, then I took four and a half. Guess that means I had more thoughts than I thought I did!

[silyabeeodess]

FusionFall Headcanons: Character Ages

From taking the canon ages of the various CN characters within their own shows into account to people noticing the... liberties, the game took to some of the designs for them in the game, I’m well aware that this is going to be a point of debate.  Still, after some consideration, I’d like to cross reference some of these points to come up with at least a general sense of where these characters may be/have been in their lives.  I probably won’t come up with specifics--moreso early/late this or that--for the ages.  Now, I will bring up puberty a bit in this--definitely not heavily, but it is mentioned--so keep that in mind.   

Dee Dee, Dexter, and Mandark

For these characters, I view Dee Dee, Dexter, and Mandark being in their late teens-early 20′s.  We already know based on evidence from the show that Dee Dee is Dexter’s older sister by just a few years while Dexter and Mandark are only about two years apart themselves (as implied by concept art for “Ego Trip” as explained on the Dexter’s Laboratory wiki).  It’s possible that Dee Dee might have at least a year over Mandark and/or for Dexter and Mandark to be the same age, since he is in Dexter’s class as far back as elementary school, but we also have to consider the high possibility that he was held back due to his parents’ lifestyles keeping him from going to school during his early childhood. 

Since Dee Dee lives alone at their old family home and it’s already established that her and Dexter’s parents live up on the house on top of Dexlabs, she’s likely already an adult.  She probably looks after the home not only for security purposes, but due to the massive success of Dexlabs making their family wealthy enough to maintain it and for her to live there despite being fairly young--meaning she wouldn’t have to get a dorm if she chose to go to college or something similar, but still has the liberty of living on her own. Based on how she continues to wear her dance outfit, her maintaining a slim physique similar to professional ballet dancers, and that she still goes to recitals as evidenced in “Dee Dee’s Dilemmas (Part 3)”, it’s also likely that she either studies dance or may even teach it to small children. 

What makes me think Dexter and Mandark are in their older teens is how much of a foothold their companies have during the events of the game, enough so for their tech to be everywhere.  It’s possible that their genius gave them a leg up enough to quit high school and form their companies early, but they’d still need a few years to build and develop them to the extent we see.  

Numbuhs 1-5

For the operatives to still be viewed as official members of the KND (at least to public knowledge), this would mean that they’d have be younger than 13, so they’d be in their tweens.  Given the extent to which the war has altered the KND’s operations, however, they may even be a little older--just with their decommissioning being the farthest from anyone’s mind at the time.  We also know that at the group would remain a part of the KND well into adulthood based on the series finale as the issue stands, supporting this.

Furthermore, for Numbuh One to lead an operation in the war so far from the rest of not only his team, but other parts of the KND, as well as seeing him work with Plumbers like Grandpa Max, it’s possible that the war may take place after the events of the KND finale would--after Numbuh One would’ve experienced space-travel for himself through the G:KND, an expansion of the KND in sequel series that was never aired.  What could also hint to the war being post-G:KND is the mention of bases within Earth’s solar system besides the moonbase--which the KND lose contact with in the official FusionFall comic, but were never mentioned in the actual show.  All of this further points to a passage of time at which the operatives would be a little older than their original depictions, which already averaged at around 10 years old.    

The Powerpuff Girls and the Gangreen Gang

Well, I’m gonna go ahead and say that the girls aren’t five unless the developers of FusionFall took a page from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure in their character designs.  We also have the presence of Pokey Oaks Middle School in-game as opposed to Pokey Oaks Kindergarten from the show, acting as a subtle clue that the girls are at least middle school age within the FusionFall universe, but I’d like to take that a step farther:  

In the show, we were given a general age range for the Gangreen Gang at 14-17 years, with Ace being the oldest and Lil’ Arturo extending that approximation according to his wiki page with a personal age range of 10-14 years.  In FusionFall, we’re given aged-up versions of the girls, but not from what we can tell of the Gangreen Gang.  Still, even if the ages are different, we have to take into the account the likelihood that the group is at least slightly older themselves as, in a sense, they have grown up a bit: They’ve moved on from most of their criminal ways to form a successful band, which couldn’t have happened in too short a time.  

The point above, combined with the possibility given of Buttercup and Ace being in a relationship despite the massive age gap between their TV Show counterparts unless the OG developers had a, ahem, questionable idea of relationships like the kind the PPG reboot has gained attention for, make me think that the girls might be at least in their mid-teens in Fusionfall while the Gangreen Gang and in their late-teens or early 20′s.  

Samurai Jack

Following the route the fifth season took, even if it was made after the game, I’m going to say that Jack is ageless due to the effects of time travel.  Whether or not Season Five can be taken into consideration as far as Jack’s backstory would go in Fusionfall, it works more for the game that he be this nigh-immortal adversary to match Aku.  First off, let’s say that the events of S5 were a part of the game lore: That would mean that, at some point, Jack did defeat Aku, went back to the past, and eventually time passed to reach the events that FusionFall would take place in with Aku potentially coming back in that timeframe similar to how he did after the Emperor first defeated him--only this time, Jack’s constantly ready to take him out again before he can reach full-strength. More likely though-- given that people still remember how Jack defeated Demongo--the timeline hasn’t been altered (barring that he didn’t defeat him a second time within the new timeline that we’d be unaware of).

Now let’s talk about it without S5: We already know that Aku isn’t the main villain here: Fuse is.  Aku’s barely a blip on the radar in the game, mentioned moreso as a potential threat if he ever came out of hiding.  Emphasis on if.  This is weird given that, in Jack’s show, Aku’s already taken over the world.  There is no ultimate evil beyond Aku, but that’s just not the case in FusionFall’s history.  Instead, Jack takes both Fuse and Aku as serious threats, placing his priorities on the former only because he’s the most present.  For Jack to set aside his life’s purpose to help battle Fuse, that has to mean he feels comfortable enough with his chances against Aku.  Not to mention the state of the world looks pretty ok beyond the threat of Planet Fusion, meaning it’s more likely that Jack has already defeated Aku at some point prior to the events of the game, but for some reason chose to stay in the future and continue his long-standing battle with him.  I know this cuts out S5′s rationale behind Jack himself being ageless, but bringing that idea into this as well fits with the context of this eternal battle between a hero and villain, two people who can embody an ultimate good and ultimate evil.

Ben 10 Trio

Given that the gang looks exactly like their Alien Force counterparts, this is pretty much a given.  I doubt they’re that different in an age range with the exception of maybe a couple year: It would depend on how much context you’d take from Ultimate Alien.  That would put Ben and Gwen at 15-16 while Kevin would be 16-17 years old.

Ed, Edd, and Eddy Characters

The characters in Ed, Edd, and Eddy already went to junior high in the show, placing them at least in their tweens.  Granted, they still look like kids in the show while some of them seem to be a little older in the game.  For example, the Kankers look more aged up than the Eds do, fitting both a passage of time and following the fact that girls tend to develop at a faster rate than boys (growth spurts, brain development, etc.) during puberty.  It’s possible that they’re still in their tweens or early teens, with some of them being in their first year of high school within the world of FusionFall.  

Billy and Mandy

Although Billy and Mandy were still in elementary school in their show as opposed to middle school, I’d place them in their tweens following the same logic I pointed out with the Kankers and Eds regarding development.  Mandy looks like she’s still young, but has hit puberty, while Billy looks very much like a kid.  They’re likely in middle school.  

Frankie and Mac

Considering that Mac was only 8 in the show and still looks pretty young in the game, he’s probably still a kid.  Maybe he’s aged up a little, but definitely hasn’t reached his teens just yet.  He’s still got his baby face.

In the show, Frankie was 22 years old, and like Mac I don’t think she’s aged much, so still in her early-mid 20′s. She’s probably devoted herself to running Foster’s Home much like her grandmother.  

Juniper Lee

While she was 11 in the show and the game doesn’t seem to have altered her design too much, I still get a feeling she’s more of a teenager--early-mid teens--in the world of FusionFall.  She just strikes me as being a little more mature, more experienced with her powers and all of the forces she’s dealt with after a while as a the Te-Xuan-Ze.  

Coop

Probably mid-late 20′s.  He was already an adult in the show, but he doesn’t seem to have matured enough to have passed far into his 30′s.  

Flapjack

He’s 7 in the show and based on his personally and appearance in the game, he’s still probably close to the age.  Maybe just a little older, but the same situation as with Mac.

 Ami and Yumi

(Mentioning them since Retro gave them a cameo and I loved this duo as a kid) The show’s wiki places them both at 13.  Their FusionFall counterparts don’t look much older, so they’re probably still in their teens--possibly just a few years older in we wanted to account for time for them to develop as young teen idols.    

[ganymedesclock]

The Pale King was a very complicated guy, but I still side with him over The Riadeance. What about you?

I’m not so sure we’re supposed to necessarily side with either of them. The takeaway I get from the canon endings is that the Pale King was not a wholly positive influence for Hallownest, but neither was Radiance. The ultimate ending of the game via Embrace The Void seems to be Ghost dethroning Radiance, and emerging as Hallownest’s new god, the Shade Lord- but, I’d argue, it’s entirely possible Ghost themselves isn’t destined to be a perfect ideal god, because that doesn’t exist, but they do have a leg up on I think either of their two predecessors.

Gods in the world of Hollow Knight are, simply, flawed entities. They’re individuals capable of flaws and bias. If there’s something that makes Ghost, at a glance, better suited than either the Radiance or the Pale King, it’s their interpersonal curiosity, but even then, Ghost is still an angry, traumatized child who, much of their ascension happens because, in rage, they want to carve themselves into the world and force it to acknowledge them.

My particular blend of hypothesis and headcanon is that the Pale King focused on the Mind, while Radiance focused on the Heart. Not only does the infection pulse and beat literally like a heart when it’s concentrated, but it resembles both cordyceps and veins. In a more figurative sense, though, it isn’t as if people aren’t thinking when they’re in the thrall of the Radiance- rather, they’re consumed by emotions. The people we see in the early stages who can still shake it off if prompted are people having dreams that affect them emotionally. Implicitly, how the Radiance started leaking out of Pure is by being able to act on their vulnerable emotions. Not Pure’s loyalty to their father, not their sense of duty- those things allowed them to hold against her for the longest time- but, no matter how much they tried not to, they grieved, they felt pain, they cried out for their father and for their siblings.

Radiance’s revenge against the Pale King, asserting herself as the rightful god of Hallownest, is immortalizing her rage and grief by burning it into the hearts of everyone around her. The entities most associated with her and her plague are the Traitor Lord (feeling weak, wanting to be stronger, cast out and feeling betrayed by his sisters), the Crystal Guardian (described as seeing “only light” and captivated by rage), and the Moss Prophet (described as luring people into forgetting their ‘duties’, seemingly with emotional appeal- promising succor from the plague, describing Radiance as warm and nurturing). The description for the Furious Vengefly even describes it as imparting courage at the cost of the will. 

In this, we can see a glimpse of the possibly more benign, or at least neutral, Radiance who once shepherded the Moth Tribe (who clearly had a will of their own- they were able to choose to leave her, after all)- Radiance as the warm sun who emboldened others, connected to them emotionally. It was her subjects, and presumably, she herself, that pioneered the technique of manipulating and entering Dreams, of reading people’s innermost feelings. Presumably this is exactly how she knows how to siren song people in to the plague, how to haunt their dreams- that Sly might be lured in by dreaming of his students, but Bretta would sooner be captured by the idea that everyone forgot about her, is abandoning her down there.

But Radiance is, in effect, Heart that neglects both Mind and Will- she’s all emotions, and they run on full blast. Couldn’t get over the Moths’ betrayal, couldn’t stand that sense of being outshined by the King. How dare you, how dare you try to forget her, try to live without her, how dare you cut these connections, these veins- you’ll feel every second of her pain, you will bleed for having tried to cut her. At her best, she’s warm and nurturing, at her worst, she’s a vindictive torturer.

The Pale King, conversely, is clearly a scientist- not the empath and mystic the Radiance was. He was an experimental tinkerer- not merely facilitating the growth of natural beings but formulating hypotheses and observations of his environment. Developing artificial constructs. We see his domain- see it as chilly, operating-room sterile, armed and defending itself with a thousand different precise cutting implements. He’s Mind, but, he rejects both Heart and Will. When Radiance uses Heart to attack, the Pale King’s response is to try and live by cutting out the Heart- and speaking metaphorically, that left both him and the Pure Vessel bleeding to death. So at his best, the Pale King is a visionary, an inventor. At his worst, there’s the accusation the Hunter gives him on the description of the Wingmould- did he care? Can anyone tell if he did?

Personally, I think he did care, but viewed it as irresponsible of himself to care- he pushed ahead with the creation of the Vessels, with Pure’s training and eventual sacrifice regardless, and then tried to force himself to stop grieving.

But Ghost?

Ghost is Will.

Ghost is cited as a “pure” being of the void, but they don’t lack emotions any more than Pure does. There’s really no way to explain much of the game except to say they’re driven dually by love for their siblings, Pure especially, and rage at what happened to them. Hornet, who’s the most accurate about what leads to the game’s endings- she outright tells you that you have a choice to face the Radiance directly- also at one point tells Ghost that they could win, “if you had the will.”

In his explanation to Pure, the Pale King states that Will is something the Vessels lack. But that’s preposterous. A creature that has no will merely operates according to pre-set instructions with no investment in them. Even if Pure does everything the King asks of them, it’s clear that Pure is not an automaton without investment- rather, they’re a dutiful child, who loves their father, who wants to live up to this heavy burden of saving the kingdom, and who seems to have never questioned what they were told out of that desire to be the savior.

It’s Ghost who learns enough of Heart, and enough of Mind, and uses it insistently to investigate, to prod, to question, to try and understand. Its Ghost, who tends to focus most heavily on what people want, what’s driving them, what do they feel?

Ultimately, Ghost still has this duality- at their best, they’re the most profoundly in tune with individuality. Unifying the Void under their command still has the distinct shades of Pure and of their other siblings; in the cutscene in Godhome after defeating the Pure Vessel, it’s not as if those children are gone, but, rather, they are coming along with Ghost now- much like what several of the Warrior Dreams state or imply.

At their worst, though? They’re hellbent on asserting their own individuality, and they’ll take wild risks or tear into others to prove it. 

[chromsai]

What's wrong with the Arc V manga? I've never read it and I want the deets.

what’s wrong with the arc v manga? everything, tbh.

everything sprinkled with a big dose of gross. (spoilers) the entire plot of the manga runs on the mystery of yuya’s lost memory and the main villain’s (literal) lust to get her boyfriend back (her name’s eve, btw. take a guess at what her boyfriend’s name is). eve, for some reason that I DONT REMEMBER WAS EVER EXPLAINED (or if it was, it was very vague), claims that yuya has something called ‘the adam factor’ (she also claims reiji has this. why? i don’t know why.) so naturally she pursues yuya, sending her ‘assassins’ after him to defeat him in a duel and “claim” the adam factor back so she can revive her dead boyfriend (who, we later find out, wanted to be dead. with a girlfriend like eve, gee i wonder why). a lot of nothing happens throughout the story (note: yuya and reiji are from the future because reasons— basically the main thing you should know is travelling through time caused yuya’s amnesia, but not for reiji. reiji’s fine, he remembers things just fine.), the other three yuu boys are inexplicably stuck inside yuya’s body FROM THE START (and, surprise, they never separate at all lol, in fact it’s heavily implied they’re dead and just spirits possessing their, waaaaaaait for it, youngest brother: yuya). yuya meets yuzu at the beginning of the story, the yuu boys RECOGNIZE HER, but DECIDE NOT TO TELL HIM ANYTHING ABOUT WHO SHE IS (this is important for later). throughout the manga, there are numerous amounts of ship tease MAINLY between yuya and yuzu (including a grope scene. yup. yuya groped yuzu.), to the point that by the end of the manga, yuzu has a very noticeable crush on yuya. but by then, yuya’s regained his memories via deus ex machina bullshit: he remembers that what he’s been calling his “other personalities” were in fact actually his brothers: yuto, yugo, and yuri (and yes, that is their birth order). blah blah blah, final battle ensues that was a total let down and is just reduced to the usual tropes of “oh the big bad wasn’t really bad after all, just corrupted by some ‘human’ selfish desire, and then they are TOTALLY redeemed”. yuya vs reiji happens, it’s over the top but not in the good arc v way. and then we get to the ending.

so... remember that yuya’s from the future, right? welp, he now remembers that yuzu is his mom. might i point out now that the yuuboys KNEW who she was (their mom) and allowed yuzu (their mom) and yuya (yuzu’s son) to FLIRT with one another. constantly. tease each other. even yuri half flirts with her too.

yuzu’s about to confess to yuya but yuya stops her, tells her they’re fated to meet again (OH BOY WHAT FATE), and gives yuzu his ace card: Not Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon. you know, the card that symbolizes yuya himself. 

bonus: we find out that SOMEHOW, SOMEWAY, even though he’s DEAD, yugo has a DECENDANT (it’s not clear if it’s his son, grandson, great-grandson, whatever. but he looks like an older yugo so...). reiji blames yuya for his dad’s death even tho he knows yuya had nothing to do with it, like the logical man reiji is known to be. sora sucks. sora just fucking sucks in this manga. and he has a sister for his obligatory man pain. shun. shun is there. has one duel. and fucks off for the rest of the manga. he’s at first there being the token duelist masochist and then he completely fucks off. shingo’s there and to it’s shitty credit, the manga didn’t ruin him. he’s just there being shingo, which is fine.

oh yeah, ABOUT THEM YUU BOYS: you liked their personality in the anime?! they cool, right?! cuz they have meaningful relationships, ambitions, and motivations besides each other right! well. guess. what. they all have one personality and that is “Love Yuya” 24/7. they don’t have any other relationships or motivations or ambitions besides Protect Yuya. and that’s it. they suck.

Leo Akaba is a brown man. That is anime canon. what, you thought the manga couldn’t possible make him white?! lmao u thought.

yusho.... yusho.... yusho oh boy. i don’t like him in this. he’s an entertainer turned scientist for no logical reason except “science is fun” *explodes the entire world* “haha it’s fun cuz it’s an ILLUSION”. oh yeah. and he and yuzu fuck. it’s confirmed. disturbingly confirmed. disgustingly confirmed.

there are no other girls in this manga besides yuzu and eve.

there are a lot of other little things here and there that are just gawdawful. but.

yuya.

yuya is just plain fucking insuffferable in this manga. if he wasn’t so cute and good looking (bless you miyoshi-san for your beautiful art, the manga is not worthy) then i definitely would hunt down every single copy of this manga on the earth’s surface and burn it personally. he looks good but that’s about it. actually, i would love it if he would have died in this manga. why didn’t he die. god, why do you forsake us so. yuya in the manga is -130% what the original from the anime is and i do not recognize him as yuya sakaki, rather he is an imposter. just some other character wearing yuya’s face. nothing alike. yuya’s real evil twin.

anyway, sorry. i wall-texted this one. and i’m sure i missed shit here or there but yeah. i hate this piece of shit manga with every fiber of my being.

oh and yeah gongenzaka’s not in it, which is instantly a let down. (but at the same time i thank Ray he wasn’t in here because fuck he dont deserve this nor does any of the arc v characters).

[fuckyeahkagepro]

the Kagepro Momo problem (TM)

Momo Kisaragi: Hi, I'm Momo Kisaragi! I debuted in "Kisaragi Attention" pv (2012) made by Wannyanpuu! Wannyanpuu also designed me generally as "a teenager", but back then /I had no canon age/ for a short time! ----

Momo, early Novels, MCA, manga etc.: "Kisaragi Momo, 16-years-old!"

everyone in Kagepro fandom, 2k12 era: what

everyone in Kagepro fandom, 2k12 era: but you JUST entered high school last spring, you can LITERALLY only be 15,,,,,

MCA anime staffs, at a MCA screening ? event in Japan, according to Japanese translators: We recognize this "conflicting age" setting may be confusing, but,,,,,,

people experienced with other anime fandoms: actually, this kind of conflicting age setting using slightly older ages can happen every so often, I mean, just look at, for example, Digimon Adventures, or Cardcaptor Sakura, or ---

Japanese Pixiv Wikipedia @ Western fandom: anyway, she can only /chronologically/ be 15. This is important so you understand /the timeline issues/ and /the character dynamics/, as well as how our school system actually works when it /doesn't/ have the conflicting age issue,,,,,,,

Kagepro fandom: how old is Momo though

Jin: actually, /all/ of the characters have this conflicting age issue, that includes Hibiya, who she's frequently seen interacting and growing closer with ,,,,

Jin: please pay attention to Hibiya and Momo's developing relationship, I am DROPPING MAJOR HINTS by saying this,,,,,

Jin: "the Shizen-no-Teki-P supports H---m---".

Jin: everyone 4+ years or so down the road will conveniently forget I ever said that in a tweet. Then they'll try to pretend I never said it, even though the evidence was always right there in front of their eyes.

Jin: anyway, Hibiya in the Novels Route goes from calling her "oba-san" and "aun" to just "Momo", this is IMPORTANT, I am heavily dropping hints at you that they've grown CLOSER ,,,,,,,,, -- regardless of where I take this plot

Sidu's 2k15 artbook: so, anyway, Kano is 17 instead of 16 now, 17 being the actual CORRECT age for him (chronologically), Momo, /I won't mention her age/ ,,,,,

Sidu's 2k15 artbook: meanwhile Kido will still have the conflicting age of "17", even though chronologically she can only be "16" if Kano's "17", btw, Kido and Kano and Seto are all supposed to be in the same grade ,,,,,

Jin: this may or may not be for /plot reasons I cannot reveal just yet/, but /any Japanese reader in Japan would understand how our school system actually works/, so,

western Kagepro fandom: Gotcha! /Both Momo and Kido/ are /exactly/ 16 years old, even /though there's no way they can chronologically both be 16 at the same time/ in a real-world based or /even/ this fictional conflicting ages setting !! We'll conveniently ignore that Kido ALSO has a conflicting age of / "17" / officially. Also, it's obviously /Kido's/ age that's wrong, and /Momo's can't possibly be wrong/ (even though /ages were corrected or elaborated on in the past/!)! (Never mind that /[almost] everyone in 2k14 fandom/ understood this issue!)

Novels Route Momo: Anyway, so I'm in Junior High school at the actual CORRECT GRADE for my (non-conflicting) (but also still officially conflicting) age,,,,,

Novels Route Momo + Manga Route 2 Momo: btw I originally /first died/ via drowning in elementary school ,,,,

Hibiya: also, I age /again/ /at least once/ before Momo does, because November 4th [mine] occurs before February 14 [hers], this series takes place in /summer/, remember, so if Ayano becomes 18, i'm Junior high school aged now, and with my own weird conflicting age still ,,,,

the rest of Kagepro fandom, STILL having to explain this issue to new fans who refuse to catch up on newer materials since 2k14-2k15, many /never listening to this info/:

the rest of Kagepro fandom: literally why

Jin: i'm not even getting into the timeline issues caused by /a lack of exact age for Konoha/

Jin: or Takane's non-existant birthday haha

Manga Route 2 Hibiya: i'm just going to casually grow closer to Momo as closer friends at THE START of this Route, as well as with her brother /and/ Hiyori,

Manga Route 2 Hibiya, 2k17: "onee-chan" ("big sister")

Manga Route 2 Momo: what

Manga Route 2 Momo, implied: ('THAT'S WRONG')

Manga Route 2 "Hibiya": bye

Manga Route 2 Momo, falling like Ayano:

Clearing Eyes!Hibiya: haha

Clearing Eyes: also in 2k18, I have a new form now, no need for Konoha's look or Hibiya's body anymore,,,,,

Jin: have fun

the U.S. translation: messes up the "onee-chan" moment. Impact of the scene lost. Better than having to explain Japanese honorifics to a U.S. / Western audience right?

HARUKA, NOVEL 8: btw, time on "the other side" from where I am, it's like not even a second has passed, ahahaaaa ----

[yourwakingnightmares]

Theo Raeken Character Study (Part 2): Theo and Tara

(Please be advised that, out of all these chapters, this will be the least canonically based, with the most amount of speculation and conjecture.)

Whatever else can be said about Theo Raeken, it can’t be argued that the moment he watched his sister die is easily the one that defines him the most; it was when he made a conscious choice to let his sister freeze to death, whether or not he understood the ramifications of that act (see Part 1 for more on that).

And yet, very few things I’ve seen actually look at the relationship between the two. I mean, I get it, there’s not a whole lot for us to work with; the scene of him on the bridge watching her, and what we see in the hospital being the only two time we see the two of them interact.

But, despite this, I think we can still make some conclusions of their relationship, based off of those two scenes, and based off of Theo himself.

(Please note: this post will be drawing heavily from the conclusions of Part 1. As well, canon seems to differ about whether Tara was younger, or older, with some sites/fans saying she was younger, and others saying she was older. I’m going with ‘older’ based off the fact that she looked to be at least prepubescent in the bridge scene, and 11-13 in the hospital scenes.)

Let’s start with the river and the bridge. How Theo ignores her pleading with him, calling his name. Theo never denies that he knew this would kill her -even when talking to Stiles, he never says, “I didn’t know!”, but rather, “I believed them when they told me she wanted me to have her heart.”

So, we could just chalk this up to Theo having a diminished empathetic response... But I believe there’s more to it than that.

If we run with the conclusions I made in the last post, we can start with assumption that, whether neglectful, or abusive, Theo’s early home life was fairly depressing, or emotionally unhealthy. So, we have two possible scenarios with Tara.

Either she was subjected to the neglect or abuse as well, or that she was exempt from it. 

Obviously, if she was exempt from the crap show that was Theo’s childhood, that’s a very simple explanation for why Theo was so willing to let her die; if he was emotionally neglected, or physically abused, and she wasn’t, that would make it incredibly easy for him to rationalize, or justify her death as it ‘being deserved’. Or, in simple terms... Theo had all the bad crap happen to him, now it was Tara’s turn.

But if she was right there alongside Theo as it happened, we would (typically) expect to see one of three things. Either she would become a ‘fellow survivor’ (someone who understood), she would gravitate towards the ‘protector’ role as the older sibling, or that the two would develop an antagonistic relationship, i.e., ‘it’s me or you, and it’s not gonna be me’ mentality.

Let’s take those three things in order, and determine which would be the most likely, given what we know.

Well, right off the bat, I would discount the first one. If Theo viewed his sister as a fellow survivor, someone who’d been beside him through all the bad, it would have been harder for him to watch her die, i.e., he would have identified with her too much to simply watch her die without doing anything.

The ‘Older Protector’ one could definitely hold water though, especially given what Theo says about believing the Doctors when they say Tara wants him to have her heart. If Tara was constantly stepping in to protect, or take care of, her little brother, to a child it would make sense to take that a step further. Why wouldn’t she want him to have her heart? She’s always taking care of him, so if she wanted him to have her heart, it’s plausible to him. But, given Theo’s relatively handicapped empathetic response, it would be difficult to explain this, as having someone who cared about him, who protected him, who took care of him, would have filled the need for an example for empathy, i.e., Tara would have filled the void of someone to teach him empathy, simply by taking care of him.

Which leaves the ‘dog eat dog world’ scenario as the most plausible of the three. They were simply two kids existing in the same hellhole, neither one with a normally developed sense of empathy. This would lead to neither of them having a healthy empathetic response, and -since Tara was the older sibling -could easily lead to her repeating, or mimicking the behavior of their parental figures, and bullying, ignoring, or abusing Theo. Similar to the theory of Tara being excluded from the abuse, this could easily allow Theo to rationalize her death as ‘it was you or me’.

Since two of our theories coincide, allowing for a similar thought process, let’s run with those two (which have the same end result: being able to easily justify Tara’s death, either out of revenge, or necessity).

Next, let’s examine the hospital scene. The scene where Tara rips Theo’s heart out, over and over again.

Firstly, let’s point out that, aside from the initial ‘it’s my dead sister’ response, Theo doesn’t really show any sort of surprise; after the initial moment of panic, he doesn’t hesitate to try and escape. He never tries to reason with her, never says anything like, ‘this isn’t you’, ‘what are you doing?’, nothing. The only thing he says initially is, ‘wait, Tara, don’t’.

If they had had a healthy relationship -or even a somewhat functional one -we would expect to see him horrified at what his sister is; horrified by the realization of what he’s done.

Or... reasoning with her in an attempt to get it stop. But out of all the times we see Theo get his heart ripped from his chest, not once does he attempt to negotiate, reason, or even really beg, aside from his ‘wait, don’t’ one time.

Is it because Theo knows that the real Tara wouldn’t give a damn about him pleading? That trying to bargain/negotiate/reason with her had never worked before? That begging never stopped her when she was alive, why would it when she was dead?

Even when Theo finally surrenders, telling her, ‘it’s okay. You don’t have to stop’, it’s not a guilty look on his face; it’s the look of an absolutely broken person. Granted, yes, having your dead sister rip your heart out repeatedly in a nightmarish hell that you can’t escape would break even the strongest person eventually, Theo doesn’t curl up in a ball and cry; he doesn’t say this while he’s at a door, trying to escape, as a realization.

No, he comes out of the morgue drawer, already expecting what’s coming; he slowly drags himself out, and doesn’t try to hide, fight, or run. He simply waits for her to come in, after pulling himself to his feet. He waits for her to show up, and then says, ‘it’s okay. You don’t have to stop’.

He never talked to her before, beyond one brief ‘wait don’t, stop’; why those words? Why ‘you don’t have to stop’ now? If it was simply guilt, we would have expected that reaction far sooner; we watch her rip his heart out at least a dozen times, and it’s implied that it happened dozens, or even hundreds of time before Liam sets him free.

Even more telling, he’s still not asking for her to stop; he’s accepted that it’s going to happen, and he’s simply giving her permission. Telling her that killing him -which she’s already done, painfully, dozens of time -is okay, and she can keep going.

Clearly this wasn’t reverse psychology (hoping that, by telling her she didn’t have to stop, it would make her stop), since he didn’t react when she tore his heart out again. In that moment, when he finally breaks, he doesn’t beg, or plead, or try to manipulate; he simply gives up, and let’s her do what she wants.

Tying this back into our original suppositions about why he was able to watch her die, we could very easily relate this behavior to the ‘it’s you or me’ mentality; simply put, Tara won, and Theo lost. In essence, Tara (’you’) came out on top, so Theo (’me’) simply gives up.

We could also stretch it to fit the theory that Tara was exempt from whatever Theo grew up with; essentially, the bad thing always happens to Theo in the end, this is simply how it’s supposed to be, or even that this is his ‘punishment’ for the bad thing finally happening to her.

As a final aside, before I end this, I want to briefly attach Theo’s interaction with Liam, during their fight against the Ghost Riders in the hospital. Liam tells Theo that, “I think whatever happened, you deserved it.”

Theo’s response is a tight smirk, as he says, “Oh, is that right?”

If we’re supposed to believe that Theo finally accepted that he deserved Tara ripping his heart out over and over again, that he acknowledged his guilt, why does he reject the idea only a few days after coming back? Clearly it’s not a rejection of empathy; one, he wouldn’t care what Liam thought of him, and two, it flies in the face of his actions from that point on.

Of course, this could simply mean that Theo’s saying, ‘no one deserves that’, but again... it flies in the face of his previous behavior; if he thought Tara was justified in ripping his heart out, that she had every right to torment him, then he can’t turn around and say he didn’t deserve it.

Anyways... Like I said, this is the most ‘subjective’ part of the character study, as there’s simply not enough material to come to solid conclusions using canon. So if you disagree, or think something different, let me know! I’d love to hear it!

Part 1 Theo’s Childhood

Part 3 Theo and the Dread Doctors

[smokedcapybara]

I just saw something talking about how fanfic writers in the Dear Evan Hansen fandom are mischaracterizing Connor in giving him happiness(?) because all we know about him from canon is that he acted like a bully, which is... very much not true, and I’ve grown kinda tired of seeing people assume he’s just mean so I’m making a post about it

I’m going to start by stating that I base the majority of my characterization for Connor off a mix of the computer lab scene and my own brother; I base how others act towards Connor off the other scenes with him alive and how his family talks about him after his death

based off the computer lab scene we know a few things for certain

1. Connor wants to try, at least somewhat; whether it’s a “I’m planning on killing myself soon and want to do at least one good thing before I do” or “I realize that my emotions and paranoia got away with me earlier and this kid didn’t deserve how I treated him so I’m going to try apologizing and being nice to make up for it” or something else entirely, he wants to try

evidence: insisting on signing Evan’s cast even after Evan gives him an out, probably more but I haven’t watched the scene enough to fully, properly analyse it

2. he’s awkward and unsure of how to interact (honestly my brain screams “autism” at how it’s shown but I realize that that may be biased); he stumbles over his words, repeats some of them, stands stiffly, he’s clearly either not used to (positive)interaction - very possible from what we see in other scenes - or neurodivergent in a way that makes interaction hard - also very possible

3. he’s at least somewhat paranoid, his brain latching on any sign that someone is against him - whether they really are or not

evidence: assuming Evan is laughing at him earlier in the musical, his verbal train of thought after he reads “because there’s Zoe”

4. he’s lonely; “now we can both pretend to have friends”: the both in that sentence implies that he, too, has motivation to pretend he has a friend, it implies - pretty heavily - that he wants a friend in some capacity - even if only pretend

now, I don’t know about y’all but those four facts don’t sound to me like someone who’s just mean

and about the bully thing, there’s literally no evidence in the musical of him being a bully; bullies are people who harass others for their own enjoyment

there’s no instance where he was the initial aggressor in the entirety of his three living scenes - and I am counting imagined aggressions like in the computer lab

the breakfast scene: he tried finding a compromise with his mom until he was accused of being high by his father and sister (a scene in which my family agree his father and sister were in the wrong)

the hallway scene: he was literally told he looks like a school shooter. I know I’d be pretty upset if that happened to me, especially if it happened around when I was considering suicide

the computer lab scene: he was more than civil until the letter and his assumptions about that, which I’ve already explained as likely being affected by paranoia

now, moving on to the characterizations based on my brother, I will clarify that that mostly came in when I was writing ‘Stay’ and needed advice on why someone with anger issues might explode at someone seemingly unprompted

I’ve spent my whole life living with someone very similar to Connor Murphy, the only difference I’ve seen being that my brother managed to maintain a natural charisma through most of his life, and also he learned at a young age that making jokes could get me to stop crying after he yelled at me so he never stopped making them like Connor is stated to have in the cut song ‘A Little Bit Of Light’

I spent the entirety of my teen years very bitter towards my brother for the way he treated me, among other things, but recently we’ve managed to start communicating better and talking through those issues

so when I needed help with ‘Stay’ I only hesitated slightly on asking for his help, and he was very helpful

and my brother’s explanation for why someone would behave how Connor does in the musical, from the perspective of someone who spent most his life behaving very similarly to Connor, was very close to point 3 above; the main reasonable explanation for Connor’s behavior is that he struggles to trust that people aren’t against him, especially in moments of high emotion, the most innocent of misunderstandings can be turned into an attack by his brain

from a psychology standpoint, it’s very likely that he has RSD or something very similar

so no

Connor Murphy is not mean because he enjoys it, because he wants to be, he is not a bully

he’s an awkward, lonely boy who wants to try but has a brain that’s convinced  nobody actually cares about him and that will turn the smallest things into an attack

it is entirely accurate that if he were to get the motivation and help he needs he could be better; not completely, of course, but enough

[itsclydebitches]

Speaking of ReNora, what if they didn’t end up together? Nora’s all “I want to be more then friends.” and Ren’s like “Our relationship is too like brother-sister to me, I’m sorry...” ALL of FNDM would lose their godamn minds, but as you said, that’s realistic. (And I’m not trying to troll with that) Especially after “Boop”. So that’s a problem I have with the “ship” songs, even “Not Fall in Love With You”. And even Jeff + Casey have had to say “their JUST songs!” FNDM is like Voltron fandom.

Response under the cut!

It’s admittedly a messy situation, but I think there are a couple of things writers can do to keep their work on the side of realistic complexity vs. queer baiting. One of which is, yes, using their paratexts wisely. If you’re not 100% sure that you’re going to make a ship canon... don’t put that ship into your soundtrack. (Or make it explicitly clear the interest is one sided and be sure to follow that up in the canon, as I think RT accomplished with Blake/Sun.) If you don’t want to make a queer ship canon yet... keep slowly building towards it so the audience knows it’s still coming (as we’ve seen with Blake and Yang) and introduce other queer ships to demonstrate that you’re willing to have that rep at all (as we saw with Iila, Saffron, and Terra). If you’re not 100% sure that you’re going to make a ship canon... make sure your cast knows not to tease fans about it. And when it comes to including conflict in a relationship, make sure the relationship comes first. Meaning, don’t tease Blake/Yang and then make Blake/Sun canon first, even if that might be realistic in some manner. Because yes, then people are going to wonder what in the world all those hints were about. But if you make Blake/Yang a couple first, then you’re free to have them break up later, see other people, whatever. The conflict is still possible, but the fandom has also gotten their ship--the writing has kept its implicit promise--and the thinking now is, “I hope they get back together!” not “Well they heavily implied this ship and then didn’t deliver. I can’t see into the future. I have no idea now if Blake/Yang is even on the table anymore and I’m feeling just cheated enough that I’m not banking on it.”

I’m mostly of the opinion that each piece of media produced--especially in serialized storytelling--needs to be able to stand on its own. Because an author might die, the show might get cancelled, a viewer might quit long before you get to produce the season where such-and-such is going to happen, etc. Because as said, viewers can’t see into the future. Viewers watching volume 1 of RWBY as it airs only know what volume 1 gives them--everything that comes later doesn’t exist yet. And when it does exist I don’t think we can then use that as justification for why early writing retroactively doesn’t have [insert problem here]. Random example, but this is the issue I had with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. There were numerous things that upset me in season 1, choices that I in no way enjoyed watching, and a friend kept insisting, “Don’t worry! They’re going somewhere with this. You’ll view this all totally differently once you finish season 3.” But I shouldn’t have to watch two more seasons of a show in order to make the first one palatable, and if I’d watched CEG as it aired, my friend wouldn’t have been able to make those reassurances because neither of us would have had any idea that the core themes would one day change, or even that the show would last long enough to allow for such a possibility. Keep in mind, this is different from setting up questions you intend to answer, mysteries in one volume/book/whatever that you know will be revealed later on (like Adam’s face). Patience isn’t a bad thing, provided that the audience is reassured--through either hints in the canon or general writing trends--that the authors won’t just straight up drop something without a conveying a reason for that. There’s a difference between changing the viewer’s perspective with new material and straight up trying to retroactively change what once was canon. I think Ozpin is an excellent example of the former. The information in volume 6 radically changes how we see him in volumes 1-5... but his characterization in 1-5 still stands on its own. He functions perfectly well as the lovable, mysterious headmaster. Volume 6 enhances his characterization; it doesn’t overwrite it. 

All of which is to say: do the same thing with your ships. Don’t drop huge hints about mutual interest between two characters and then not give the audience a reason for why that never came about. Blake, say, going through another trauma and explaining to Yang that she’s not ready for a relationship right now isn’t the same thing as Blake suddenly getting together with Sun and unexpectedly dropping all interest in Yang, all without a reason given to her or to the audience. The latter asks that we ignore a great deal of implications across 6 volumes without any explanation. This is also why I think that fans would be justified in being annoyed if Renora fell apart for no reason. If Ren says out of the blue “I think of you as a sister” people are going to (correctly) wonder why his interest in her has been coded as romantic up until now; why we never once saw an inkling of him being uncomfortable with what is a quite obvious crush. Instead, if you want to get rid of Renora, you come up with a reason for why the relationship will no longer work, thereby acknowledging that we had the relationship in the first place. Maybe they grow apart over time. Maybe one of them stupidly pushes the other away. Maybe they’re pressured to separate for some reason. Maybe they just realize they’re young and co-dependent and want to try dating other people, etc. 

Yes, sometimes fans read into ships (i.e. attributing undeserved meaning to simple acts between two people). But fans are also incredibly savvy at reading texts and usually know when a pairing is being set up. If you see that evidence, things that authors have to deliberately work into scenes (like longing looks, overly intimate embraces, stylistic choices meant to evoke the romance genre) and then the creators suddenly claim you’re imagining stuff? That’s lying. That’s queer baiting. When you’ve reached a point where this setup is obviously intentional, but you learn the intent is only to get people invested in the work with the hope that they’ll be queer rep, rather than the intention of giving queer rep, period. Or more simply put: when writers are trying to have their cake and eat it too

In the end, there are absolutely ways of introducing conflict to ships--and even breaking ships up--without conveying to your audience, “You were crazy for thinking this was possible in the first place.”