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dannyphantom-justiceleauge · 2 years

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Transformation/spook AU (whatever you end up calling this) anon:

(this IS getting longer each time lol. thank god there's no ask character limit anymore?) yes to basically all of that, though.

honestly the group being regarded as a threat is par for course. (like, Danny was basically a public menace for a while even when he was trying to help, and even after he got more approval people were still wary of him.)

I like that all of them get their kinda community-specific side friends though. It really is nice to see them getting and making more friends outside of their usual circle. Tucker being a werewolf means his instinct is that he needs a pack, and yes Danny and co are his pack, but naturally I think he would also gravitate toward other werewolves, and they'd be his pack too, so de definitely has two or three close packmates that help him along in his adventures in integrating into werewolf society and also punching out bad guys (honestly? let's do more crossover stuff. Teen Wolf canon characters like Isaac or something!) and just kinda sympatyhize with him. I like the idea that at least one is his cousin, and a thought just popped up that one of them would also be Wulf's descendant (I'm imagining a latino/spanish kid, because of Wulf's Esperanto), and maybe the last one would just be some random (in the case that there's an xover, like I mentioned earlier, probably Isaac or a different one-off TW character).

Sam getting the animal companion though and basically talking to animals like a disney princess... she loves the ability, hates that she's like a disney princess now lol. And a "typical mermaid princess friend" actually makes me think it's basically mermaid Paulina, and Sam is both reluctantly her friend but also eventually grateful for it because it helped her grow past her prejudices against the other A-Lister girls when she learns how to see past mermaid friend's girliness too. I imagine this friendship happened because this mermaid cottoned on to the fact that Sam would become royalty soon (early on when she was just accepted into the clan and not really part of it or a leader in it yet) and decided she was both a good leader to follow (thus becoming a loyal friend too even if she was a princessy type Sam typically didn't hang out with) so she kinda just decided to help Sam learn the ropes and pull off whatever lake-saving shenanigans Sam gets up to every week and eventually they just become close. (H2O has a theme of sisterhood so I can imagine this happens very sweetly. There's also a theme of trios so there's probably another mermaid in on these shenanigans too.) That said, there's definitely probably an "episode" where the mermaids learn the spell to become temporarily human and do so and come to school for a while and are totally awed and naive about human culture and Sam has to spend the entire time trying to corral them into order and keep suspicion off them--and stop them from getting wet or saying weird stuff that would reveal themselves or her to the whole school.

I agree with the Spike headcanon, and I saw a few fics were she was friends with one of the other Weston brothers (which one would depend on the fic), but yeah aside from having very few human friends, Jazz probably also has the smallest other-friend-group because of her feared-and-disliked status. I can maybe see her showing compassion to a brownie or something and them becoming another sidekick-type friend, but yeah I don't think the other fae get close enough to her to befriend her. I do like the idea of her genuinely befriending Johnny and Kitty and maybe Ember though. (Meanwhile, Danny's other-friend-group definitely includes Dora and Sidney bc I hc that Sidney and Danny would become better friends after working out their differences, and occasionally Johnny because they seemed friendly in a couple of episodes. I can see him befriending Ember too. Just give Danny all the teen ghosts as friends ok.)

But yes I totally agree to Val being a forerunner superhero like Bats and Supes and eventually getting recruited by a superhero team. But like the others' communities not really interacting with each other except the occasional crossover, I don't really see Danny and co crossing over to Val's "community" either mostly because they ARE all busy with their own responsibilities. Aside from the "Batman doesn't want to recruit Danny because of his bad press" thing (which, legit, but I think at this point it's been years and Danny has proven to be more good than not, and besides Danny isn't the only hero with bad press so I don't think it'd matter much to Batman), Danny is on his way to becoming king, or learning to be one, or has already become king and is now having to deal with all the responsibilities that come with that, including taking time to study law and meet people and in general split his time between the GZ and AP. Sam is trying to save Lake Eerie from pollution and overfishing/hunting and the occasional ghost sea monster haunting them and other stuff, and helping rebuild the mermaid clan (which btw I think is less of a royalty thing and more of a chieftain thing? I feel like since it's such a small clan it's not really a kingdom so much as it is a tribe, so Chief might fit better than Queen for Sam's upcoming leadership role in this case) and in general mermaids like to keep secret, so I don't think Sam would opt to join Valerie in joining a superhero group to help them stay secret even if she could pass off her powers as a meta or mutant thing (though yes, maybe there CAN be the occasional crossover where she can meet Aquaman, should the situation require Val to call in some aquatic help). Tucker's responsibilities seem very local, and though I'm sure he'd be stoked and excited to join a superhero team, similar to Sam I can see his pack being like "no please don't, you joining will have consequences for ALL of us" so he has to consider that (especially since it's his family, not just other random werewolves, asking). I don't think Jazz would be interested in general (except for maybe becoming a superhero therapist), though Ellie might be (though she seems more interested in just travels than having responsibilities--also I love the idea that "no one is sure she exists" is the reason she's not really known to any community except the Spooks lol). So I like the idea of, if Valerie does take on the "protect humans from human crimes" role, it's something that's just for her for the most part and not quite the "package deal" that you might be thinking. She gets to have all the cool "stop alien invasions and international crime syndicates" adventures, and when she needs the occasional help from her friends, she can ask for it (similar to everyone else in the group asking for help when they need it too). It's kinda like Batman having sidekicks but they're not really seen as part of the Justice League, they're Batman's people who help him. The Spooks are Valerie's people who help her. Yknow? (but yes, when her friends DO get involved, they do write off their powers as meta/alien things.)

But yeah, Val being part of the Science Gone Wrong Crew. They can be part of her other-friend-group, but I especially imagine her being close friends with Blue Beetle and Cyborg? Just, yknow, similar circumstances. One is a superhero via a parasitic creature thing, and the other is a superhero by technology like her. She's in between!

Also, Wes being an alien is hilarious. Would he even KNOW? I love the idea that he would think he's human, all the way up until, idk, he completes human puberty and then has a sudden transformation and learns he's an alien because he's now starting alien puberty lol. I like the idea that he had an ancestor/parent that was an alien like that one person mentioned in the comments (it would really match up with the fact that the rest of the Spooks are half-human in some way too). Imagine the freak out. He would have A Journey emotionally and mentally trying to figure that out and accept that, and FINALLY realize why trying to out Danny and co is a horrible idea because now he's in the same situation where if he's outed Bad Things TM will happen. To him. He only half-heartedly continues accusing Danny and co to not seem off, but he's slowly letting it die down to make it seem like he's naturally giving up at least. The accusation that he's an alien, while frustrating that everyone believes without much convincing, would give him such a panic attack as he realizes the consequences of what would have happened had everyone actually believed him about Danny, because now he's worried about some government coming to kidnap him and put him in Area 51. Like yeah everyone's chill and won't turn him in, but the worry is still there because he has no assurance of this. I think this would be a natural starting point for him to join the Spooks--he goes to them for help about what to do about it and maybe someone to sympathize with him (Tucker being born as he is and gaining his own teenage transformation earlier that year means he's the most likely to empathize!) and also maybe get some help in case some government guys do tote him away, but of course this is after he apologizes.

Of course they do help him out. Danny suggests he uses his Cassandra powers to just tell everyone the truth and then no one would believe it anymore. Wes is just "that seriously won't work" and Danny replies "worked when I tricked you into doing it about me" so the next time someone cracks a joke/accuses Wes of being an alien, he goes full conspirator mode and says "actually I did some digging into my family history and I think I might be! Guys I totally might be an alien! Here's point A and point B, and how I connected them, and I have a whole powerpoint on it!" and. it. WORKS. Wes is so astonished that the immediate response is "oh ha ha, Weston, real funny, that rumor is last week's news, get some new material" or something. Wes wants to slam his head into the lockers, like "WTF WHY DID THAT WORK" and then starts down the rabbit hole of ACTUALLY trying to research his family/alien lineage to try and find out if it's a power his other-half species is supposed to have. (It doesn't. It's just a coincidence. It's funny to think about Wes spiraling like that though.)

But yeah I love this. Having an alien in the group. Wes doesn't seem to have any particular responsibility or have a penchant for fighting, and I feel like since he's the late-addition and not a close friend like the tight-knit group seems to be, that's fine that he's the odd man out. His responsibility can be helping everyone cover their absences/weirdness and be alibis lol. (Wes is not one of those friends who would step in front of a splash for Sam, or stand in front of a bush so Danny can transform with slightly more cover, or etc. But that's only yet. He reluctantly goes "uhg, fine!" and does it, and eventually he'll just do it automatically. Especially after they've started covering for his oddities too--only seemed right to return the favor.) Also given his drive for investigative journalism, maybe he's their go-to guy for general researchy things.

Honestly I would love to see sketches or anything of this whole AU/XOver thing. I feel like if it were a real giant collaboration there'd need to be a discord or something to coordinate lol. Or an AO3 group? However that'll work. If you do plan on writing any side of this AU tho do post it! I will be happy to give more ideas and stuff :D

the wariness will definitely be something they will always deal with, even once they're known as members of the justice league. there's just a darker edge to them and their past. and even if they establish a place in their individual societies, they still started as outsiders. they still associate with the other.

i ironically don't actually know teen wolf that well so doing that crossover myself is a bit tricky for me. but i don't mind a cameo. for tucker i was imagining a female cousin around his age and maybe a sorta little brother type cousin. like he's young and hasn't changed yet but knows about being werewolves and stuff and really wanting to be included in their adventures even though he's baby. i am all for a latino descendant of wulf and them definitely having a family reunion at some point. i also wouldn't mind having another girl who can kick his ass when he acts stupid. i think there's actually a pattern of toxic masculinity in werewolf media, sometimes as a criticism of it, but i want some strong ladies. my brain now jumped to ginger snaps, but those were a darker breed of werewolf than i really want. idk. we should also probably think of names for everyone. but i'll probably have and easier time naming them when i sketch them.

the main crew are definitely tucker’s official pack though, much to everyone else's confusion. you also made me think that tucker will have complaints about how everyone smells. danny smells like ozone and death, sam like fish, jazz like flowers but specifically in a way that makes him sneeze. he doesn't smell great either to be fair. but it is an ongoing thing. the main irony being that when he goes and hangs out with other werewolves, he smells like his friends, so he stinks to them. i think the fact that his official pack isn't wolves is one of the things that makes him weird for the wolves. they might be tolerant of other monsters but you don't just go and pack bond with them. keep your pack among the wolves. that kinda thing.

sam isn't complaining about her powers really. she loves purification magic and being able to talk to fish and work with underwater plants. she just is annoyed that being a mermaid doesn't fit her aesthetic. that she's suddenly spending all her time on the beach or underwater. that she's at risk of getting a tan. that her weaknesses are much more prominent on land than her strengths and that she sometimes ends up holding her friends back when they suddenly have to deal with her having a tail. i think at some point danny and tucker get her a tricked out wheel chair. explaining why she needs one is tricky, they've never been the best liars, but shenanigans can be had with it.

i was actually imagining the mermaid princess to be more like yue from atla than paulina. that might make her a bit to similar to dora. but again i see her having a core of strength and being incredibly regal and capable when the moment calls for it. i don't think she'd be as naive as dora. i see her as a very strong character but one who embraces and uses her femininity in a way that sam doesn't. sam might be for feminism but she tends to look down on girls who like make up and being pretty. paulina to an extent is pretty shallow but sam isn't exactly that deep herself. she could afford to be less antagonistic to the other girls in her life. so the princess character, i'm thinking merrin as her name, would be more mature than either of them. she matured under the responsibility and pressure she's under and really came to own how she presented herself. so she might look like a Paulina or Ariel on the surface, but underneath that is an iron spine and a terrible amount of frustration.

i think their friendship would be mutually beneficial. merrin might go into their friendship initially manipulative, because she recognized sam's potential to be a leader and thought she could get a break. so she would be subtly pushing sam into the roll in public and teaching her politics on the way. and that would make their relationship more contentious in the beginning. but gradually, as they get closer and merrin has more opportunity to loosen up, it becomes more apparent that the mermaid has a lot to complain about and they have fun bitching about things. sam's helps merrin work out her frustration and just have a life outside her duty. sam meanwhile is maturing about her female relationships, seeing the value of femininity. she's also using what she learns about politics to get her way more on land. passing laws that protect ghosts and animals and the lake.

you're right about them needing to be a trio, though i would argue the fish companion could count as their third depending on how smart we make them. but i suppose we could have another character. i think i mentioned a merman who is considerably smaller than sam but who's flirting with her a lot. he might learn to respect her and get humbled and more helpful as the story progresses though. like character development. he's also really scared of danny, who is not only huge compared to him but also a bloody ghost. wtf. for some reason i'm inclined to call him hector.

either way i'm down with the absolute shenanigans of the mers getting on land and running around amity causing their own brand of chaos and also encountering ghosts and seeing why sam is 'like that'. just having them in the school would be wild. the populars would immediately try to latch on to merrin because she's beautiful and elegant and mature. but she's also taking the opportunity to be immature and messy since none of her subject can see her here. so she's going to say some mean stuff and feel incredibly proud of herself.

aside, mermaids are also known for singing. so i think it would be interesting to have her accidentally pull siren shit on land. i'm debating if singing should be one of sam's powers. it might be one, but she refuses to use that power because her voice doesn't suit the kind of music she likes. she wants to sing metal or punk and she has a voice for choir. i'm also going to go with the head canon that danny can sing well and that ends up being some common ground between him and merrin. danny accidentally getting pulled into a siren trio with ember and merrin. sam and tucker having to break them up, because while they're having fun, they're getting out of control. i don't think either danny or merrin set out to hurt anyone but sometimes you join an accapella group and things happen.

i like spike, a lot. i'm a punk so having characters i con project onto is fun. i'm less inclined to give jazz another side kick though. i could see her maybe almost making friends with a brownie, and it following her home to help clean and take care of it, as brownies do. only for it to be chased out within the day by the pure chaos of the fenton security system. she was so close and yet so far. on the other hand keeping with the theme of jazz making friends with people (and creatures) aesthetically darker than her. i could see her accidentally befriending a dark sithe. a member of the court of shadows. like someone genuinely kinda evil, and who assumes jazz is also more evil than she is based on her power level. they don't help her reputation among the fae. misunderstandings ensue and yet jazz still manages to keep her head and be manipulative enough to escape unharmed from the sithe's manipulations and possible attempts to literally kill her. now i'm imagining jazz somehow inherited jack's oblivious plot armor. where she's naive and friendly enough, to just duck at the right times and dodge all shots accidentally. doyle is loosing their mind. i'm going to call the dark sithe Pantera after my black cat.

i could also see her befriending a pooka. i could see them as a mute character that usually only she can see. for shenanigans. she's not as close with them, but they're one of the nicer fae she's in contact with. the pooka also likes to play pranks and tease people, often invisibly behind their back when only jazz can see them. they go out of their way to make jazz laugh. they're going to be named harvey and are a giant rabbit, because references.

and yep, at this point, danny has been a halfa and hero for more than a year. he's teamed up with his share of ghosts over that year and has a lot of contacts and friends within the ghost zone. i could see him having another episode with sidney where they end up actual friends. now i kinda want sidney to reveal some hidden useful skill that everyone, especially his bullies missed. danny seeing past the nerdiness to the brave and plucky kid the sidney really is and they form a genuine friendship. bonus, danny getting a bit nerdier through proximity and tanking his own reputation in the process. dora probably doesn't leave the zone as often now that she's queen. but they remain good friends. amorpho, wulf, and cujo also count as good friends. i am into danny getting close with kitty, johnny, and ember though. i think it starts with him giving a bit of grown and letting them out of the zone so long as they don't hurt anyone. could also see them sharing music. danny learning the music from the time they died, vs the music he likes now. they're all kinda edgey just in different ways. i also want the punk ghost trio to be a bad influence on him, but in a fun way. because lets be real, danny has gotten really stuck in the goody two shoes act since dan. letting him have some fun and be a bad boy is totally valid as far as i'm concerned. also i just want him riding a motorcycle.

you've made a good point about keeping the human heroes as mainly val's thing. it's much more balance. i might have jumped the gun because, obviously, i'm a superhero nerd. you're right about everyone being busy as hell. i like chief sam but also like sam being a princess just aesthetically. she is going have to build her kingdom, and work mainly in the water though. danny becoming king is happening so he might also be getting training for that at this point, possibly via clockwork shenanigans which takes him all over creation. i know you said tucker is more local but i'm actually going to say that while the werewolf community is relatively small, they move around a lot. the have established territories but they can be pretty freaking big and they travel a lot within them. so tucker leaving town to interact with his family and settle things within the larger territory. which would also give him a larger opportunity to deal with other monsters. he's still the team tech guy though. probably doing some man in the chair stuff. you're right about jazz minding her business. she has school.

but yeah having them be her people and occasional come on missions especially when it concerns their 'thing' such as a rogue vampire or killer whale. val just being able to say i have a guy for that. and having this smug look. in part because she kinda has a guy for everything. her friends are freaking versatile.

aquaman: i can't settle issues in the great lakes because it's technically not my domain and it would anger the mers there. val: oh don't worry i know someone

some of the heroes do end up wondering why her friends aren't part of the league, but they have a life. i think there's a bit of irony in she almost never summons phantom to handle ghost problems because she can handle most ghosts, so the supers probably don't even know she's friends with phantom now. it would have to be a big world threat to bring him in and it would probably blow some minds. in the mean time, any of her other friends showing up, they leave quite an impression for how little they're actually around.

i also think batman goes down a rabbit whole researching her and her friends. initially it looks simple for jazz. ghosts are kinda while but he gets protecting your town from the threat. and her civilian live isn't overly complicated. she was a nice girl who's dad lost his money due to a ghost attack and she ended up taking up ghost hunting on top of a fast food job. she's pretty much a normal person as far as heroes go. but then he looks into her friends. and everyone has a secret life and just keeps getting wilder the further he looks because they're all chaotic and involved in things all over the place. danny is doing stuff all throughout time. that might actually mean batman doesn't put together fenton is phantom. maybe he just assumes phantom is his ancestor, and that's why they look alike. the lab accident and the ghost hunter parents is weird enough though....

actually! batman figuring out that the lab accident gave dany ghost powers but not putting together he's phantom. batman inviting fenton to be a superhero and put his powers to good use, unaware that danny is already a very busy hero. danny being too dumb to refuse because joining the justice league would be so cool. danny having to train his ghost powers in human form and getting a new suit and secret identity. val having to cover for him and finding this entire situation ridiculous. especially because he's going to flunk out of school at this point.

danny: do i need to graduate when i'm going to be king val: no one wants a high school dropout to handle politics. danny: the ghost zone begs to differ

it proves unsustainable and Fenton decides to just be her sidekick when he has time, but otherwise sticks in amity.

blue beetle and cyborg are a cool combination for her. not just because they got powers in similar ways, but also because they're all heroes of color. gotta stick together and have each other's back. just in general they have vibes. i also like val being half in love with wonder woman, because same. training with a strong female hero is everything to val. i think we also need a hero good at challenging her and keeping her level. val isn’t perfect and i think it’s be healthy for someone to challenge her decisions and stubbornness. she’s a little too similar to bats for them to disagree enough to be proper foils. i’m kinda torn on having her foil in the league either be flash or superman.

flash would be a good foil because he’s not really the type to punish his villains. he does his best to get to know people and help his villains get help. he’s a lot looser and fun. i imagine his goofy personality would get on vals nerves cause she takes her job very seriously. he’s also the result of a science gone wrong. he might be a little too similar to danny though. and on the one hand that could emphasis certain point and be used for jokes. we all ready have danny serving as a foil so it probably wouldn’t be as effective as it could be.

superman pulling his innocent golden boy thing though has potential though. they are so inherently different and sups is impossible to hate, so i see val struggling with the fact that she isn’t good enough. she’d probably enter a mental compensation with him. to be as good, to be as heroic, as him. and the fact that she’s loosing is driving her up the wall. especially when he comments about how some of her methods aren’t very heroic. she’s a fighter first and foremost. superman has mad a career out of pulling his punches. val has always been fighting extra hard. essentially she’s jealous. had the potential to let her grow in different ways. i think batman would point out that no one can match sups and that she should be herself. but it still niggles at her. sups plays oblivious but i see him knowing and just affectionately teasing her. she gets better about her jealousy. and even becomes a better hero from the prodding, but she has a mild grudge.

wes would get his own fic in this series of his adventures and the first half being devoted to him discovering his powers and facing the consequences of his actions. like the others would be all about exploring their different worlds and going on magical adventures. and then you have wes, going through a rough puberty and realizing he’s been a jerk to the only people who could possibly help him. fantastic. good shit. it’s a who emotional journey probably full of trips and hiccups and backsliding and denial.

bonus points if his older brother, easton, is in the know and trying to help and ease him through it. but wes is having a conniption because he 1. didn’t notice his brother was an alien and 2. his brother didn’t tell him this was going to happen to him. easton points out that it might not have happened. it skips a lot of people in the family line. it skipped kyle.

kyle is going to be positively oblivious in this. he doesn’t believe in anything paranormal. his brother being an alien is out of the question. it’s really a rule fo the funny situation. is he dumb? is he actually totally aware and just committing to a bit? is he just missing everything by sheer coincidence. who knows... but wes hates it.

so there can be some focus on the brotherly relationships. easton trying to be a good big brother but also being the type who explains nothing and who really doesn’t understand his little brother. kyle being affectionate and great but not understanding anything that’s going on. i think he would probably be the type to give good advice anyway. like the situations he’s imagining or even using as reference are totally normal and have nothing to do with the situation at hand, but is still somehow the perfect advice for the situation at hand. like wes ends up getting pulled into one of the superhero situations and meeting other aliens for the first time, and kyle just takes it as, ‘oh you’re meeting knew people? other conspiracy theorist. bro that’s great. here’s how you make friends.” and wes is going on a riff on how he has no idea what species they are or if there’s any sort of grudges or racism between alien races. and kyle is like “oh they’re foreigners? i knew this swedish exchange student. miscommunications happen, but so long as you’re both trying, things will turn out fine, my brother.”

wes is struggling. but so he eventually gets outed as an alien, and has his character development and panic attacks and so on. he’s a fun character because he’s neurotic enough to act in extremes. going into paranoid isolation, looking everywhere for bugs or white vans. and he’d be trying to train his powers as fast as possible so he’d have a way to defend himself.

when he finally goes to the spooks for help they present a united front, that’s both intimidating and pretty gay because none of them know how to sit like a straight person. i don’t have strong feelings on their sexualities, but not straight is a safe assumption. even works in with the history of monsters being used as metaphorical stand ins for lgbtq people. there’s narrative groundwork for it, and also i’m just queer and down for character i like also being queer. anyway, they spend a whole chunk of the night teasing him and making him grovel for all the trouble he gave them. they don’t make it easy for him and force a litteral verbal apology from him.

but they do help him in the end and relax somewhat afterwards. i don’t think they’ll trust him for a while yet.. he burned a lot of bridges and has a bed habit of not respecting boundaries. that would be an ironic way for him to prove useful actually. he’s stupidly good at observation, so he’s usially the first to know when someone’s or something is off. he is actually weirdly attentive and good at sensing mood changes and problems. like it’s still creepy initially. like why do you know how many times i blink dude? but still it proves useful over time.

i could also see wes, having discovered how effective his cassandra powers are, just... telling the truth to cover for them. it’s like, if no one’s going to believe him anyway, he might as well develop the blunted delivery ever and tell people he told them so when they finally catch on.

star: where is val anyway? wes: she joined the justice league and is away on a mission star: hah, yeah right, nerd wes staring into the camera blank faced and soooo tired

the sad thing is he might get in trouble for lying and making up stories. he is the most honest person in amity at this point. pity him.

his adventure mainly involves figuring out his powers, reluctantly getting involved with the spooks, and yes covering for them. he’s neurotic enough that i can see things getting pretty chaotic for him just dealing with his civilian live and being surrounded by so much paranormal stuff. he probably would be motivated to regain some of the friendships he’d ruined by being so obsessive. i could see him trying to regain popularity at some point, trying to escape the conspiracy theorist title.his relationship with his brothers and his improving relationships with the others can also be it’s own thing. now i’m imagining wes getting pulled on random adventured into the others lives (because no one else was available) and realizing he’s in way over his head. there are also several solid moments of “i could have died. i could have died so many times.” lets be real, if his friends weren’t heroes, they could all individually one shot him out of existence. that realization is only starting to sink in.

he eventually settles in the man in a chair role. tucker had started there, and then later jazz. they all have their techniques and such. tucker covering tech and hacking, jazz mental resources and emotional well being, and wes research has it’s benefits. but i could also see some initial tension. mainly because tucker doesn’t want wes reading his files.or messing up his desk set up.

i’d like for wes to eventually find his place with them, despite the rocky start. val would eventually start introducing him to the aliens in the league and they’d start trying to determine where he’s from and they can eventually have adventures with that. but for the time being, wes is his own worse enemy. he is his own antagonist and honestly that’s valid and relatable of him.

i don’t know if these posts have enough traction yet to produce a fic series and i don’t really want to put the leg work in for that. but i ma having fun just brainstorming with you, so lets roll with that. - Hestia

#dpjl #danny phantom #spooks au #transformation trio au #justice league #i'm starting to take the sheer length of this as a challange #how long can we make it

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desertdragon · 2 years

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👤 for Yugiri? Oh and also for a NPC whom Vaste is friends with.

Meme

I get to talk about the wife first 😮‍💨; also like I DM'd you I'm gonna do 3 just for fun

NOTICE: I recommend anyone who's gonna read this do it either on the iPhone tumblr app OR on my blog site in desktop (it's my actual url when you click on my icon or that page crease a post does when you hover over the top right on the desktop dashboard) or viewing my blog page on a phone browser, I DONT advise reading this On the tumblr dashboard because it's too long with Read More removed, your feed will break

I have marked Trigger Warnings for sections in Bold along with -'s they are intended to be skippable if needed

So I change a lot about Yugiri's future and her present, but not her past. Her past is exactly the same as normal; she was born and raised in Sui no Sato, she has both parents and two brothers, she was daring and reckless taking trips to the surface lands out of curiosity, and her meeting Shun who would become Hien is what changed the course of her life. She sacrificed it all to do what she thought was right. In this part all I do is try filling in for whatever isn't accounted for from a character perspective. The emotional, important details and minutia and all that shit.

Anything in this tag already has my essays or observations on Yugiri as she is. I'd like to compile some of that while focusing too on how she changes in my AU and what her future then is like. As a notice that tag will also be updated whenever ideas strike and I post them too.

Building on the stuff I've written before, I think Yugiri's ability to have compassion while still setting her boundaries, as well as being raised in a stable isolated society, all makes her a great person to see the value in something socialist. The whole reason she attached herself to Doma was because its colonization and the stories she heard from Shun's royalist perspective angered her so much as a child at the injustice; as well as the nobility and resolve she saw among the warrior class. It was an emotionally driven decision as the foundation of how she perceived justice.

A few people in the fandom agree that Yugiri needs to learn to live for herself, rather than as a tool or the eyes of someone else. I've even seen a few fanfics where this was attempted, with Hien either being accepting or not talked about. The need for independence is correct, but I feel people see it in a shortsighted way. None of those depictions took into account the grander moral, social, political, and further emotional nuances it would be attached to beyond pitching the concept's basics. Living for herself would completely tear up her world!

Though to be honest I'm a little glad? I don't trust this fandom and most fandoms to wipe their ass without burning their houses down somehow; so I'd rather get shallow basics than more fake deep rhetoric that's full of misogyny, racism, and bootlicking. As if the game story itself wasn't full of enough bootlicking as is.

So then coming from that, how should we discuss Yugiri in terms of her personhood and relation to Vaste? Her relation to Doma needing to evolve? This is sort of the fun part about writing for characters canon forgets exist because it's mostly free game.

I've failed to write this subject with any narrative consistency (which I'm gonna fix when I write the novel length version of Vaste's entire life because just short fiction like I've been doing is getting me nowhere) BUT her relationship with Vaste was under crisis at least twice. Both were huge character building moments that had her reevaluate herself and her life.

Neither time had anything to do with usual couple arguments or disagreements or just growing apart since 1. They're the types who work out how they feel between each other with consistency and enthusiasm for communication ie. They don't do that petty hold it in until I explode on the person I love because they should be able to mind read type shit & 2. I don't think they would grow apart because of how strongly they feel for one another and the sense of trust they formed by again, consistent empathy and communication!

What strained and almost fractured them came from morality, beliefs, and ideals. The first time was when Vaste confessed how much evil she had done while working under the Scions & Alliance. Obviously all sides involved in that share the blame, and yes Vaste was abused and manipulated in multiple ways, but she still did the things she did. She still killed countless unarmed civilians, she killed kids and at times child soldier conscripts of the Garlean army while in the field. She still upheld and represented governmental dominance. Even if there were times she stopped mid act and instead tried to covertly save these people or be defiant, it doesn't remove the times she didn't save them and didn't resist the oppression she worked for.

This is the first major split I take from canon regarding Yugiri. The game at no point meaningfully considers or explores the purpose or reality of being a soldier or government servant, despite its emphasis on politicking, war campaigns, war crimes, and even bio weapons like Black Rose. The game is extremely pro establishment, and when it does mention things like rape, murder, colonization etc. when done by soldiers serving a government, it's in quiet throwaway lines OR it's explained and resolved in the most stripped down form, then these simplified nuanced issues can be solved off screen or with one act. Or its ignored. Even slavery which is a topic present with Copperbell Mines, Beast Tribes, the Arcanist class, & Yotsuyuu's stories is simplified as either what Bad Eggs do, as a natural cost of economic success, or something that largely impacts One Person, rather than the systems of oppression they are.

If I go by base game Yugiri, no way would she stay with Vaste I don't think. If I wrote Vaste as close to how the game portrays the WoL and these topics, then she becomes a caricature- the typical hero who commits war crimes and serves the government with her activities never questioned and never even explored. She would be all of this, without meaningful impact or consequence (TW: Rape Mention in passing):

^ Redditors realizing this is the same issue superhero comics and comic movies have, where instead of someone with immense power and unlimited resources helping humanity’s betterment as a whole transcending petty borders, they become tools of State interests and propaganda agents

Also it's almost as if even in our fiction governmental organizations and their ally organizations still are only designed to benefit their own agendas, and any good they achieve for the public and human rights is pure coincidence or part of a public relations image, wow, surely this has no real life basis :^)

A Vaste and Yugiri written under normal game constraints would be very difficult to have last OR it could last but be hollow; it would require Yugiri to be even more of a blinded hypocrite than she already can be, and it would require her compassion at the core of the character to break. This wouldn't be a bad thing (it is still a character and has potential to be complex- think exploring Yugiri's Worst Self) if it weren't for the fact that it wouldn't be written in a mature way. It would be written as her and Vaste being unflinchingly in the right for this behavior because they fight for the "Good Guys".

Instead Yugiri would undergo a crisis weighing the evil of mercilessly killing, exterminating really, down to kids. The sheer level of blood on someone’s hands for that is too much, especially again with how Yugiri’s nature includes looking out for the helpless. Then you pit that against how it was ordered by a government body; by a united government body who sheltered the Doman refugees, and the fact that looking at how she herself is a government agent, she was taught you have to serve with undying loyalty.

But how do you serve when something so disgusting is asked of you? Isn’t there a point where as a person you have an obligation to resist when inhumanity is expected of you?

Then you combine this with how it forces her to examine her own sins in a similar vein. What about the things she’s done for someone higher than herself? Could she have stopped during some of her own killings? What exactly were some of the reasons for that behavior? It couldn’t all have been just, especially once we see that Hien is fine with pardoning sex traffickers because they share nationalities, how he doesn’t question the system that enabled it. It couldn’t all be just when working for government interests inherently means advancing one group’s desires over others, by any means necessary. There’s also no feasible way everyone she killed could have been bad people worthy of death.

The issue within her becomes complex, as much as what made Vaste do what she did is complex. How angry can she really be at her when Yugiri has killed just as thoughtlessly, just as much to appease other’s need for power they disguised as righteousness? Why was she measuring herself by these easily manipulated metrics, which then proved she’s so capable of ordered violence like a dog on a leash? Why does she dehumanize herself as a tool? Fuck, what about the subject of political prisoners?

I imagine she had to take time for being alone physically and mentally. She tries arguing against the feelings it all stirs in her mind, the things she held back by the skin of her teeth. Then the longer she's left with herself, she realizes she can't look at the people she's followed, she can't look at Hien, without being reminded of dead people. She can't look at them and not have her morality question itself, she can't look at any action Doma takes without questioning everything it's trying to stand for.

When the lines that used to seem simple become blurred because Yugiri is forced to see her mirror in someone, it opens her character down one avenue of gaining independence. Ultimately the goal is to face this mirror and either reject it in denial of her own evil, or accept it and change into someone better.

Which goes into the second crisis- abandoning government bodies altogether. Leaving Doma behind, seeking no masters but herself, walking away from her lords and their laws. Once she reconciles change on the individual level, it has to impact her relationships and groups too. Its the test that cements her commitment to being someone new.

Also when I say that I don’t mean Vaste is phrasing it as a test for her lol, I mean from a writing perspective. Vaste would continue fighting for what she believes in regardless of anyone else, she stops being people’s tool; though the loss would hurt her for sure. I think its the exact quality Yugiri gains by finding conviction in herself and Vaste’s example. Having conviction in yourself allows you to die on your own terms, succeed fueled by your own initiative. I’d love seeing Yugiri become that person, especially because it feels both natural and necessary.

It would still be a shock on some level for her to take this second step, but she would do it with less hesitation. She’s flexing her freedom for the first time in years; that childhood spark for daring never died beneath the surface. It was just sleeping. Once she regains it and throws off whats holding her back (ie. the royalist brainwashing and its components) she’s unstoppable. She’s calmer but less distant, she questions everything but also accepts facts as they are. Her anger is tempered and focused and it has always been an extension of her capacity to love the world. She begins awakening to a sort of enlightenment after liberating her mind.

Fighting Hien and besting him in a duel is the symbolic breaking of the final shackle. Everything that could and did hold her back, every doubt, it all comes to the point of no return. She will have her own future or die trying. She faces it with unbreakable determination as much as she does sadness.

They were friends once, and in the bottom of her heart I think she will always care at least for Shun the boy regardless of Hien the man. But that relationship is finally not enough to stop her from seeking her own justice. They were also master and retainer, such a relationship can never be equal by its definition. The old growth has to die for the new. She wants people who will stand beside her not in front.

She’s remade her identity before this because it felt right, I think she’ll be alright.

I want it clear too how much it is a relationship of equals between Vaste, herself, and their friends. If she opposed them she simply wouldn't have followed them, and I don't think she would let herself be strung along what Vaste wants to achieve just because they're together- in fact they would probably fight to the death if Yugiri remained loyal to what she already fights for. No amount of good relationships, fear of being alone, or crazy good dick is worth being a slave who lacks any independence for lmao. She comes to them because she believes in them as much as they do her, because they all see her and put her back in touch with humanity.

I say that because I've seen so many people including other women make their WoLs literally a dependent accessory with zero personality that doesn't revolve around their male NPC love interests and pretend it's sexy like congratulations you're upholding misogyny, here is your Woman Hater medal 🤡🏅 thank you for continuing to devalue us all as cum socks and emotional labor props, they write with this tone unironically in full seriousness (TW: NSFW, Misogyny):

TW: Suicide mention

Emotional vulnerability is so so important too. Yugiri comes off as holding hers back because of the dehumanizing nature of her position and training. Its really clear whenever she’s upset, emotionally strung, or expressing kindness and gratitude, in the Japanese even her speech mode changes. I want more scenes like the riverside talk in Stormblood, which was really the only time (besides another single one later in EW which I will not spoil for You specifically, though my followers should know since Aislinn @/lettersnorth mains ranged melee) where she knowingly allows the player past her facade.

With the gift of hindsight that conversation isn’t just contemplative and sad watching her self esteem fall, I think its one of the signs for when she goes to assassinate Zenos later. It has this air of tense finality to it even though she’s not openly saying anything suicidal; regardless of how the player chose to respond to her musing, its clear whats happened before this moment still weighs on her with what comes after. The fact she fully resolved to kill or die trying when dying was 99% certain proves how little her life is worth to her. Its eerie coming back to that cutscene for me. She’s lost everything since she left Sui no Sato and what she has left she sees no future for herself in it; she focuses on what it means for everyone but herself. And if she dies then that’s just how it is.

This is uncomfortably reminding me of myself and Vaste ahahaha.

When she grows past this I think she’d be sensitive to reading when someone is going through the same lows. Especially after being with Vaste and seeing how suicide also impacted her. She pulls from their shared experience on it and is the first to discourage people or open herself to listening. Its double serious for her, coming from the mentality of “I am disposable.”.

One of the big themes I have with my characters is bonding though shared suffering; I would apply the same logic to Yugiri. Once she embraces the suffering she has endured, has caused, and has seen others carry she can become more understanding as well. I feel like she would see it as a rebirth in her mind as much as it is from a writing angle. She has died twice now; everything after is witnessed by fresh eyes.

Symbolically she may hold a funeral for herself or another gesture in a similar connotation such as reciting the Mantra of Light- if they have Buddhism or its equivalent in this universe. I kinda want to believe they would since we already have a Shintoism proxy. They have a Shinto wedding by the way 😳 Moss knows what it looks like because I wrote a quick prose mock-up for them hffdgdg I have pages of notes just for Yugiri's attire details

Of course this coincides with Vaste's presence itself granting her aether new powers. That was intentional because I love when character growth progresses alongside their abilities and potential. Forcing her to get greater powers also forces her to continue honing her self control as much as her physical prowess. The responsibility expands her good qualities while encouraging continued reflection on her bad ones.

The new sense of greater power also helps her feel less powerless and better able to help others. I don't just mean her fighting skills. Back in SB when she was devastated at seeing Domans shun her for wanting to help them, her powerlessness was mostly from naïveté. She saw these people not from an empathizing human perspective, but as an outsider who wanted to play hero. They were a concept, a picture painted by what her soldier and royal friends had told her- a project in need of saving. Facing the reality humbles her, and I think gaining independence (as well as being open to the perspectives of those around her) after separating from her bubble keeps helping her progress in this.

In terms of her fighting skills through, they aren't just honed, but she's in greater tune with her body and aether than ever. She recognizes the increased responsibility it comes with too to prevent hurting the wrong people in a fight, as well as scaling herself in battle depending on her objective. Her superhuman speed and reflexes are phenomenal; combined with her control over lightening aspected aether, she becomes known as the God of Lightning to those who've witnessed her.

She kills Zenos by the way- I'm sick of her getting bodied every time they've met like she can't fight at all not even landing a single hit. She masters her glow up and blitzes his ass to death. Vaste doesn't kill him because it's what he would want and she also feels Yugiri deserves the satisfaction.

I have things I want to write purely showing off embracing her powers, and what mastery would look like. She's as precise as Vaste, and with upgrades she gets downright surgical. Lighting also has uses besides frying people, like letting her touch resemble a stun gun, or used for cooking and lighting fires if she wants etc.

Also yes I don't think she can cook. Simple things like rice balls or skewering fish over fire? Maybe, but nothing that requires cooking actual meals. From the way it seems she left Sui no Sato too young to have realistically learned much about cooking from her parents. If that changes or I get corrected information I'll reconsider it. For now from what I remember she would've had to leave home permanently as a teenager since when first meeting Shun she was a younger child. Especially since she took years to move up the ranks of her ninja training before she was considered a master.

Point is the game is rather vague about it, so that's what I'm going with. She knows survival skills for the field, but not so much life skills. Life skills take a backseat when your life is framed as disposable. What she can remember from her parents lessons at this point is probably hazy. It would be interesting to think her dad tried showing her a bit on stone masonry though. Since they live under the Ruby Princess there's a good chance women in that community are treated fairer. Maybe her dad would've tried preparing her to inherit the trade alongside her brothers.Those skills would be useful and an important tie to her heritage.

I think she keeps up with it from time to time, talking about stone quality, chiseling, building, different types etc. Most likely she can tell you something about if a stone incorporated building is livable. In the epilogue she runs a dojo for a non lethal version of the marital arts she learned as a ninja, but she also reconnects to stone masonry. Their new village will never be Sui no Sato, but it starts taking influences for every carpenter she helps or fellow stone mason she advises. Her younger son learns from her and continues the trade. She encourages him just as her father did for her; though the tradition it keeps her father alive in her heart.

Stonemasonry also allows her access to working on gravestones for the locals. When she does it feeds into her relationship with death. She gains a greater intimacy with it, with how the dead should be treated, a greater understanding, how she wants to be memorialized when she dies etc. It puts her in contact with the grieving in ways that let her help rather than destroy as she once did. It helps her find peace while contributing to her penance.

Plus it's funny imagining her trying to cook still learning like "Making dinner for my amazing boy girlfriend~" meanwhile Vaste and the others are like "Who the fuck is burning down the kitchen???!" Before they run in to save it (Lewena crying over the cheese being safe, and Mercuo & Syv hugging the wine bottles)

So if I had to sum the transition it's:

- Soldier blinded by power, naivety, misplaced loyalty, lies, and dehumanization ->

- Questioning purpose, re-evaluating loyalty as a concept, reconnecting with humanizing herself, discovering her boundaries, desires, and needs, questioning those around her ->

- Accepting her flaws and free will, doubling down her resolve, realizing she has the power to choose and change her world, acting on this change ->

- Being self assured yet humble, daring yet measured, calm and knowing when to act or when to wait, embraces her identity and personhood, tempered but fluid who knows where her principles lie

And finally everything carries her forward after magic and gods are gone. What she's learning are life skills, reclamation of humanity. Building her strength of character can only leave her a better person. She becomes patient, expressive, strengthens her honesty, solidifies her self worth, knows her wants and needs, sets boundaries, and is empathetic to others without robbing them of agency/objectifying them. Her views on violence calm too, and she matches Vaste's "No killing, violence only when necessary" philosophy. There's been more than enough war for the both of them; more than enough needless blood on their hands.

As a parent later on this tuning toward humanity and the world helps so much too. She's a mom who listens first, is honest without ever being demeaning or cruel, leads by example, and tries to reinforce balance constantly. She would never leave anyone feeling left out or confused on purpose; they will always know they're loved and won't be spoken over. She refuses to let her temper get the better of her whenever it's difficult.

Her kids will not repeat her ignorance nor her own parents mistakes. That's something she and Vaste have on their minds without hesitation. Also we have proof family is important to her because of how much she talks about missing them as is. It's about recognizing the humanity in others. It's about learning to listen to people over treating them like something to save. A reversal of her primary negative character trait.

She's the one who chose the kanji for their Doman/Hingan (Japanese) names too, after talking it over with Vaste. Yoshino's name reflects her being goodness and a blessing, while the boys names I HC are her brother's names, just different kanji. I thought it would be important to her character to honor them like that if she had sons. Ujihide's name is spelled to mean Family Flower (helping to reflect being born during Spring- EDIT: in double checking my research it can also mean the calyx of a flower, which is the green protective layer for an unopened bud, reinforcing a comment in the next section- consider also the meaning Family Protector), while Yoshitsugu's means Inheritor of Justice / Continuing Justice .

* As a side their Zulu names in order mean Peace/Silence, Threshing/Divination (as well as bird wings flapping- which links again to Zulu interpretation of birds as change, another meaning is to extinguish flames, the most common meaning is To Beat), and Victory. The first continues the theme of Yoshino representing hope and blessings as the eldest; meanwhile as the older twin, Ujihide's name reflects protection for his younger brother.

In the old days of both Zulu and Japanese culture twins were a bad omen and undesirable. It actually surprised me over the years to learn how many cultures have hated and feared twin births; there's a lot of negative superstition. If I had to guess the bulk of it comes from twins being a harder birth with a higher mortality rate. And how rare multiple babies in one go is. So when Vaste realized there was a second baby in there she named the older one something to repel bad luck. It's also a slight tongue in cheek joke because it's like his birth divined the coming of his brother after him.

For Yoshitsugu, Manqoba just means Victory or Winner. Yugiri agreed with her that since he was born a bit of a runt compared to his siblings and seemed reserved even as a baby, he should have encouraging names. They don't play favorites, but they do pay close attention to learn what makes him confident and sociable, and when he'd like alone time or to be in his thoughts.

In closing on her I want to write a character who's Vaste's foil, I wanted to fix how the story left her behind and flesh out what she has, and I want yet another example to prove the point that you can only change corrupt systems by stepping outside them. I want to expand a character I like by applying my narrative style.

Right now for Yugiri music, I’ve been listening to Khamsin’s theme off the MGR OST: The Hot Wind Blowing

On a personal note, when it comes to portraying Yugiri I'm very sensitive to avoiding racist stereotypes. I always try being mindful that I don't show/write her as the Submissive Asian Woman or the Cold Scheming Dragon Lady Asian Woman, or the Naturally Smarter Than Everyone Asian Woman. I'm not Asian so I will never be perfect at avoiding these, but I do everything I can when I check my drafts over and over to think about what I include, why I include it, and how the portrayal comes together.

As with my dark skin characters and Vaste I also encourage any East Asians who might find my Yugiri portrayal to correct it if they want. Racism is rampant in fandom and I've even seen people not just hurl slurs but substitute Chinese for Japanese in FFXIV's influences and vice versa; the old "All Asians Look The Same/Are Interchangeable" racist belief. It is beyond offensive and exactly what I wish to avoid, so I advise any non Asians writing Yugiri to be mindful too. If you write a racist portrayal you deserve to get called the fuck out.

The source material gave us scraps; they really are doing another underutilized another interesting dynamic a character can bring while making more for the fucking hollow boring Scions. It sucks, she’s not even the only character they do it to (certainly not the only woman either); in general a lot of the side stuff is better than the MSQ honestly. I also think its so funny that Lyse got more development once she left them, only to get thrown in the Female Character Development Waiting Cell, where she’s still sitting holding her Gucci handbag to this day.

EW was the first time since HW they tried injecting meaningful personality and character development into Scions but I feel like it was both too little too late plus feels shallow after two interim expacs of nothing consistent. Purely from a character writing perspective; obviously they push the story along but that's all they do which is the problem fksdofk (the Twins are in this weird middle ground on that in my eyes though, Urianger is on thin ice)

Anyway time for Estinien

Bestie <3

The biggest thing I love about him is how independent he is. In a game full of people riding your ass over anything to the point of a hollow personality, love seeing someone find a middle ground. His arc revolves around healing and inner peace, above all being true to himself. Yes he can be funny but people get way too caught up making him a meme or rude rather than pay attention to anything else.

He has heart, which is something he guards beneath the rage. Maybe guard is only part of it; he spent all his life focused on anger and revenge I think he forgot it in the back of his mind. It wasn’t as important as killing Nidhogg, and making sure everyone and everything helped do so. The longer it goes on though the more he realizes whats happened to him by drowning in hate; he was never totally blinded in order to do that, whatever he might’ve thought otherwise. He was on the path of losing his humanity. And that fact conflicted with a desire to let go and a desire to hold on.

He shares enough in common with Vaste like this that despite his initial rudeness I think she could tell in his eyes there was more going on. She saw what she was becoming whenever they first spoke. That bonded them right away beyond sharing being Azure Dragoons. He wasn’t in a position to truly help her then because of his own problems, but he would’ve been dispensing advice without realizing it. His honesty continued to be refreshing and grounding too as time passed with people continuing to dehumanize or idolize her.

I love his self reflection, in fact I think he’s one of it not the best at it of the entire cast. The fact that it started not when Nidhogg died but during them being bound together speaks to both the wounded child and unfulfilled man he was beneath rage. The moment he learned the truth of the Dragonsong War, when he felt Nidhogg’s being within himself, he’s been on a journey of understanding. He recognizes Ishgard’s corruption both in the present and the past, which led him to remove himself from an oppressive system while doing penance for his sins and the sins of his heritage in good deeds.

He knows he has a responsibility, and he’s acting on it in tangible ways when he helps Dragons and honors them.

He’s a guide for how I want Vaste to be; a warrior who recognizes who he is, what he’s done, and how he may be part of the community of humanity.

I wanna talk about why I think he’s out of touch at times and not great with socializing beyond Dragons.

It makes complete sense while also explaining how out of touch he is with things others see as normal (including money spending). He picked up the spear at age 12-13 and never put it down; literally and metaphorically training was what he did whenever he wasn't asleep. Alberic probably tried teaching him life skills, but it went unheard if he did. He still has a childlike grasp of things like buying for himself, taking care of himself, others reactions or thoughts about what he might say/do, self care etc.

Of course he’s like that! He never saw the value in being anything other than a tool for his own vengeance! Only years later once he’s come out of revenge can he see he’s stunted himself. I feel as if he’s playing catch up on this too since Heavensward, not just his wandering warrior philosophy. Speaking of that he reminds me of Raiden in Metal Gear Rising, accepting violence and combat as the fabric of his identity, but using it to help the weak and personal atonement. Often times this level of self acceptance when it comes to a negative trait is written so negative action has to be the result. Its nice to see a subversion thats meaningful without being another “Give in to your darkness while accepting no consequences”

Also when he was a villain, I was living for it. I loved when he and Nidhogg shared the role because from a character stand point it made sense. The game had this track record with its villains where they reflected the flaws in the world or society that produced them. Nidhogg reflected the suffering a greedy militant nation will inflict on another race when it stands to benefit; Estinien reflected the despair single minded hatred brings as it eats away who you are and your human essence. Ysayle saw the paranoid murders, rapes, classism and abuses of power rampant in Ishgard which made her side with the oppressed, its foundations built on slaughter of a minority. Yotsuyuu as we know was sexually sold and abused every way by the standards her country upheld, how it viewed women. Fordola is brainwashed, manipulated, and groomed into a reflection of her conquerors.

Really it was a fantastic tradition the Warriors of Darkness then later Meteion continued (I fucking loved Meteion & Hermes actually)- and then people amounted it to memes. Estinien and the others deserve better than that. Heavensward tied his struggles in a way that showed how mental weakness from our faults and deprived needs makes us easy prey for manipulation. Through him it deepened a personal aspect to what Nidhogg and Ysayle were doing; in the sense where the game gave us three characters exploring the failings of Ishgard and war itself. Had the expansion solely relied on Thordan to make its point then it’d be paper thin.

You could see every Heavensward villain/antagonist except for Thordan, and some villains in Stormblood (Yotsuyuu & Fordola) as having It Has To Be This Way fit over their fights

Estinien is great not only for his arc progression and down to earth personality, but because he’s one of the last symbols of when the game was at its best. A time when the game narrative started moving up with stumbles and promise. It took until Endwalker for me to feel even a fraction of that old thrill again. The writers saw they needed a foil character further commentating on when violence becomes senseless; fuck if they didn’t deliver.

His dedication to his agenda first continues to be a breath of fresh air; I want more characters who recognize when they contribute to oppression as he did then take steps doing something about it. I want characters who evolve their philosophy. Every time I see him being a dragon’s biggest fan asking nothing in return its a highlight. Because I remember when he would’ve butchered them all.

He’s my beloved for doing so. The game features mature topics, and characters like Estinien execute on the theme. They better not fuck him up or I’m adding him to my collection. Also him and Aymeric have a thing going on, bisexual husbands. Estinien sees he's fucking up when he does and he learns to correct his behavior. More male characters need to learn that shit, even in general. He loves fiercely. His word is his honor. He understands himself. He is healing. Love this fucking man.

Also I forgive him for anything bad because he worked on it or is working on it so he has always been my babygirl. I see a lot of myself in him too.

So the last bestie is...

Mercuo

I thought about using Gan but I’ve been feeling him ^ lately. Next time I’ll talk about Gan and also his design. Not everyone in the Guardians of Time agreed with or liked Vaste at first. In fact only Weyd, and Syv took a definite positive interest in him on first impressions.

You can argue Lewena somewhat liked her when they first met based on what I wrote a long time ago; however I don’t count it since Lewena’s thoughts were doubts and anxiety. Also she only exposed a glimpse of her powers because she thought it fit the situation while trying to show Vaste a ‘Look I’m special too its not just you’ side. Trying to show her value next to a famous person.

The others had a range of conflicting emotions or self doubts about if she could understand them, because of their low self esteem and differing views. Mercuo’s reasoning made him emotionally withdrawn and externally curt. He didn't dislike Vaste herself so much as the fact that as WoL she's an authority figure, she's allowed the privilege of sanctioned violence. He didn't trust her responsibility nor the role itself because authority betrayed him. He's seen intimately how ripe for warping it is, to the point he questions it's usefulness since it creates an exploitable imbalanced dynamic.

TW: Child Sex Abuse mention

As in his backstory the trauma of seeing the man who became his father figure molest and attempt assaulting children was the final shattering of his faith in authority figures. His parents had already given him up long ago, the priests before he entered the knighthood by and large didn't expect much, and everyone lorded over him because he was from The Brume and a Duskwight. Not to mention his father figure almost got the chance to molest him as well which was further devastating in hindsight.

He has reason not to trust the authoritative individual; he had an idea not to trust the system because Ishgard and poor people don't mix, but seeing it defend his pedophile mentor because he was highborn is the final straw. He puts trust in others when they earn it, and he has every right to. He and Weyd get along because she is genuinely forward thinking as a person and how she sees class systems.

She's seen firsthand the greed of Ul'Dah and the piranha tank it becomes at the drop of a hat. She's seen the neglect of the common man, the bribes, the brutality as policy, the corrupt divided powers. They have similar feelings in common. She had to earn his respect from tireless communication as well as her bearing. The heaps of money for his services was the plus. Vaste has to match that energy and conviction to him; he has to see by her actions she's intent on defying a system.

So first impressions wise he has no idea on any of this so he's on edge. He warms up the longer he spends time around her but the real shift comes when she opens up. Like Yugiri he has a crisis moment in their friendship. How can he feel anything toward a kid killer other than rage? She didn't get upset with him for not wanting to be near her for a time. He spent a long while thinking on it and on how she wants to change.

He thought about how the system broke her down to be capable of it, of how the Templar Knights did similar with him. He was a cop at the end of the day, he'd seen his share of police brutality in Ishgard. Back then though he was too young as a teenager to fully grasp the weight of what he saw and did beyond gut emotions.

In the end what bridged the gap was how hard he saw her trying. She put her money where her mouth was rather than mope but take no action. She started defying the Scions openly, and spoke out whenever she could. He watched her closely to find a grasp on her humanity. Not only that but she came up with the most insane plan he ever heard, killing gods so no one else can suffer as much as they did. This spoke to him, as a Duskwight, as a poor class Ishgardian, as a man.

They became hard friends once they reconciled these differences. If she had been only about her words he would've never changed his mind nor given her trust. If she wasn't serious she'd never have shared with him such a batshit crazy plan either. He understands she's in pain and is paying for it, like he is when he remembers his father figure, how he had to kill him for what he'd done. It's built on compassion and some empathy.

Otherwise though he's a romantic, a risk taker, an adventurer through and through. I don't just mean romantic in that he treats G'azef like a king either; he views the world as full of beauty in unexpected moments. Walking though nature is beauty, walking through towns is beauty, the moment when something gives you a full feeling in the chest is beauty. Hearing others laugh and share stories, joys over drinks is beauty. Sharing pain, is beauty. It's intimacy with the world around you that's romantic.

He's not shy toward new experiences either, though he won't do things he finds obviously stupid. If someone isn't getting him into a new thing then he's breaking their shell in a heart to heart way to do the thing too. Whereas Gan is obvious and enthusiastic when doing this, Mercuo can be that but also subtle. It's about reading situations, which he's done to survive since childhood. As a side effect it made him good at reading people and their emotions.

He keeps up loyalty to places and people he cares for. Chasing Comet's bar the 'Star Dancer' is one such place. He loves everything there, drinks, food, the company etc. Chasing Comet and Kind Dawn love his listening ear or hearing him jumpstart a good party or wild story. They also know him as one of the few who consistently pays his tab. Whenever they need help he'll jump in if able, which always helps. Comet can see on his face that he does things out of earnest, because it's right; it's a trait she finds is lacking in others. So he always has a home there, even on the occasions he does mischief.

He and K'ali do jockey each other over getting work as mercenaries, but there is respect. They may tease and bicker and be petty but neither does anything genuinely insulting. They respect each other's work ethic, skills, charisma and so on. There's been times where he's seen her off beneath the swashbuckling demeanor and stepped in; either with a word or by paying for her tab.

The times when she's been too distraught inside to remember to shave were his first clue that she's intersex, but he didn't bug her about it. He saw her anxiety over forgetting to upkeep how she presents and had the tact not to treat her any different.

When she finally did confide some in him, he was accepting. He also knows how much she cares for her brother N'ali. He wishes he had a family relationship like that; as time passes he gives that role to Syv somewhat. In any case he sees she has heart even when she's being a shit. Without her around things would be less bright.

The sword to him is so important because despite the painful memories he has using one, it's still symbolic of finding his first calling. Of finding freedom out of the slums and loneliness. Nothing can ever take that half away. He trains to the point it moves as an extension of his body; a skill he's proud of beyond belief. It is both an art piece and a tool of death to be respected. He and G'azef met through the sword too. They fight side by side as each other's embers in the clashes of life. They are in love so thoroughly to embody the sword in one another.

I really like Mercuo. I really like all my characters even when I struggle to fill them out. So moving forward I want to do more little by little.

Also I like fitting him in clothes with huge collars because it makes his head hilariously tiny but it works

#hc #so fitting that i was listening to the Metal Gear Rising OST writing this lol #'I CARVED MY OWN PATH; YOU FOLLOWED YOUR WRATH- BUT MAYBE WE'RE BOTH THE SAAAMMEEE'- narrative foils have done so much for us as a society #nhaama #to live this way

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yuttikkele · 2 years

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pokemon really likes ambiguity and leaving things up to the player/fanbase (you get to chose everything about the player character, there’s like only a few canon couples out of the whole series, etc.)

so, basically, we decide on those little ambiguous details.

and i have not met anyone in this community who thinks red and blue are remotely straight.

so, since we’re all in agreement, we’ve basically canonized these 90s kids as homosexuals

#like if the whole community agrees on something it basically becomes canon #and pokemon barely canonizes straight ships they just like to leave it up in the air #namelessshipping #originalshipping #reguri #trainer red #rival blue #pokemon #pokespe #pokemom red and blue #ack #text post #also shhh the few people that ship one of them with leaf/green don’t exist

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jdrizzle15 · 3 years

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Her Second Return

Just like all of you, and especially my fellow Penny fans, I am absolutely devastated by the Volume 8 finale. I had been in quite a state these last few days, utterly heartbroken, and actually nauseous at times. It feels strange to me to be legitimately grieving a fictional character, but it’s not a bad thing to feel this way. To me, this just shows that CRWBY loves her just as much as us to have written her so well that we connect so completely with her, that it feels like we lost an actual piece of ourselves when she’s gone.

But as you can probably tell by the title, this mega post isn’t gonna be about accepting this end, not in the slightest! Today I want to share canon evidence that can point towards another return of our beloved quirky red headed cinnamon bun! I’m here to spread this hope that I and others in the Nuts & Dolts dolts Discord server have!

I have this separated into many different sections to keep these thoughts organized. With that said, here goes…

A Father’s Words:

In Episode 7 of Volume 7, ‘Worst Case Scenario’ we learn the origins of Penny’s aura, and thus her soul. We also learn that it takes more aura each time she’s brought back. This leaves open an option that could be used at a later point.

Many people theorized that Pietro could indeed revive Penny one more time, which he would absolutely do. But there also lies the possibility that someone else could donate some of theirs, I’m not sure about this as I feel like it’s akin to blood donation where compatibility matters or there's a high risk of altering her, but the possibility is definitely there.

Now, the conversation in Chapter 5 of Volume 8, ‘Amity’ that Pietro and Penny have is an important moment for both Father and Daughter. It was there to show how her death in PvP all that time ago really did have a heavy impact on him and is still affecting him to this day.

Instead of continuing to pretend that everything is A-okay, like he had done for most of Volume 7, he finally lets his true feelings about how it come out to Penny for what is quite likely the first time. Even going so far as to say "Are you asking me to go through that again?" when she offers to take the risk of trying to lift Amity with her power. He wants Penny to be able to live her life.

This entire scene with Pietro established “this is what will likely happen” even if circumstances are much different now, it doesn’t negate the fact that this is a key part of Penny’s story. Scenes like these have a purpose beyond simply making an eventual death all the more heart wrenching. Her never actually getting to live her life makes those scenes basically moot. It makes them effectively pointless from narrative point of view. Unless there's more to it.

Building Relationship:

The build up between Ruby and Penny the last two volumes has been absolutely phenomenal with a definite destination in mind, and this doesn’t feel like that destination. So much of the arc of this season was to help Penny. This girl that our main protagonist absolutely adores and treasures, it would just be awful to throw all of that out for what amounts to an avoidable end. Why use so much of their precious and very limited runtime on deliberately building up this relationship only to end it abruptly, and permanently, when they’re separated?

In my opinion, RT is definitely smarter now than to intentionally set up what was really looking like a budding gay relationship only to kill one of them for good. If N&D wasn't actually going in a romantic direction, why would they leave in all of the romance-adjacent stuff that they got, that's not how ‘just friends’ act. And that is not something you use such valuable time building up for absolutely no pay off whatsoever...

Representation of Hope:

At its core, RWBY has always been about hope. It’s not at the forefront the whole time, but there's been an underlying theme of hopefulness that has persisted since it began. Some describe the show as a Hopepunk, I personally find this to describe RWBY really well. This genre of storytelling is about caring for things deeply and the courage and strength it takes to do so. It’s about never submitting or accepting the way things are. Fighting for what you believe in and standing up for others. RWBY fits all of this extremely well. How does this relate to Penny? She has been shown to be a sign of hope for everyone, but especially for Ruby, the main main protagonist. A prerequisite for a Hopepunk story is the hope.

Her first death in V3 was something that fundamentally changed Ruby. For the first time in the series, we see our main character all but broken by this event. With the loss of Penny, immediately afterwards, Ruby’s hope followed. She made up for it through determination and force of will. We see it affect her multiple times throughout the journey to Volume 7. But upon her return in V7, Hope reached a high point for everyone, the sheer relief on Ruby’s face is plain to see!

In V8 chapter 5 ‘Amity’, Penny literally raises hope by lifting the arena into the sky so Ruby could spread her message. And when she falls, and Amity with her, the connection is lost and hope plummets again. From there things take a very negative turn with the hack begins to take Penny’s agency.

In chapter 11 ’Risk’ is the point in the arc where everyone is reunited for the moment, so two separate hero stories are no longer a thing at that point in time. For the time being focus seemed to be shifted to care about the characters and how they’re going to solve the current problems. This is also where Ruby reaches her lowest emotional point in the season.

It’s not huge, but it’s interesting how connected this is. Before Ruby and Yang share a good cry over learning the possible fate of Summer, Yang brings up restoring optimism and hope to Ruby after the younger sister storms out of the room in frustration. This is where Penny’s scenes take up the rest of the episode. Getting Penny back in control of her own body and safe again is what makes the ending of the episode much brighter, when just 5 minutes before Ruby had been distraught and scared. This then spills over into the group coming up with the plan to use the staff, putting the main group in a much better mood. Of all the things to go right, it’s interesting that it’s Penny.

Things go wrong with the plan in the end and Penny dies. I find it interesting that once again, Penny got them hopeful in their chances of doing something right. Given said plan succeeded but at the cost of Penny of all people, Penny is shown to be the beginning and end of hope for them

The highest and lowest points for hope seem to directly correlate to when Penny’s around. When she comes back again, hope will return too, just like it had before. And because she’ll likely be back for good this time, the second return will probably be close to when Ruby is nearing the complete abandonment of hope. This would be pretty par for the course of the show honestly.

A little aside, but in a sense, Penny also represents Unity. The CCT in Vale fell after her first death, knocking out global communications and the unifying connection it gave. When it was restored for the briefest moment, she was there. Her body connected so she could allow for its launch, her soul lighting the night to hold up Amity with every ounce of her strength. So of course when the Hack succeeds and she falls, she takes global comms down again with her. At a smaller scale - even at the Hack's second last attempt to control her, she draws everyone in the Schnee Manor together. At the start of the volume, Yang states the one thing that they all agree on is not surrendering Penny.

Unity seems appropriate for one whose first song and wish was for but one friend, who would go on to find so many more in the process, and permit for a moment the possibility of all Remnant becoming friends once more. Where she first died, the name of the episode devoted to her story - Amity, "friendship", from the Latin root amicus, "friend" - she almost lives and dies with the very possibility of a united Remnant. It's no wonder she's a priority target for Salem, the great divider, and it seems natural that her next restoration may very well allow the next bid to bring the world together.

The Void Screams:

Moments after Penny's death, we hear a weird scream in the void space. It was a guttural, pained, angry scream, almost like the void space itself was crying out. All the portals shuddered and flickered when it happened.

Some think that this scream was Salem returning, but that happens earlier than Penny’s death, her return is signaled with cinder's arm acting up. We know this because after the arm finished flailing uncontrollably, Cinder said triumphantly "she's back." If it were Salem screaming, it would have happened after she fixed herself, but it didn't.

And I doubt Cinder would have been surprised or unsettled by it considering she was happy Salem returned not long before it. And why would a Salem scream affect the portals anyway, she has no connection to the staff or it's magic.

Another thing to consider is the fact sound is not transmitted through the portals. Otherwise, they would've heard Oscar and the rest calling for them, or the screams of the citizens of Mantle and Atlas. This lowers the possibility of that scream being from Salem even further.

The sound really seems to be coming from something else entirely within the void, and that something is not at all happy. There’s also the fact that Penny was the only person who died in the void space, everyone else was just thrown out of it like Ruby and Co. The only logical cause to me is Penny. Her body was a product (or byproduct) of the same creation magic that made the void space, her blood seems to have been a trigger.

Now I can't be sure about it, but this makes me feel like Penny is almost a part of creation itself? For whatever this thing is to be so angry, that is the only explanation I can think of currently. But all of this could possibly relate to the Narnia allusion of 'the willing victim killed in a traitor's stead' that others have brought up, which will be covered next.

Narnia Parallels:

Atlas has several parallels and references to fictional places (putting aside real world ones like the United States). One of those is that of Narnia, both on the surface and on a deeper level. It is a land of winter year round, where people struggle to survive and there is a present divide between those loyal to the current Monarch and those who are not. James is a parallel to Jadis, the White Witch, a ruler whose thoughts and cares aren’t exactly centered around the actual well being of the people. The hologram table in Ironwood’s office is designed to look like stone, like the Stone Table which features prominently in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. He has a handpicked cadre of special agents/secret police, like how Maugrim and his wolves served Jadis. Another key parallel is how Jadis’s winter sets in to oppress and kill everyone in Narnia, but the Witch provides aid and protection to her loyal followers. She has all the power to spare harm to others, and uses it only for the loyal. As soon as Mantle splits from James and Atlas, no care is taken to protect them from the cold of Solitas even though he has every ability to turn the heating grid back on. His protection is only for the loyal.

Now that the parallel is established, let's look into the details. Starting with how James plays the role of Jadis.

"I had forgotten that you are only a common boy. How should you understand reasons of State? You must learn, child, that what would be wrong for you or for any of the common people is not wrong in a great Queen such as I. The weight of the world is on our shoulders. We must be freed from all rules. Ours is a high and lonely destiny." These are the words Jadis says in the Magician’s Nephew to justify the blood civil war she and her sister had waged for rulership of Charn, before she came to Narnia. She won that war, technically, but only after the last battle had been lost and her sister had marched right up to her so that they were face to face. Jadis’s troops were dead, her followers had surrendered, and the capital was under full control of her sister. But, she still had one card, one ultimate play to win and prove the throne of Charn was rightfully her. The Deplorable Word, a piece of old magic that killed everyone and everything except for her on Charn. It was monstrous, senseless, cruel beyond measure. But it got her that hollow victory. This mindset, the disregard for the people except as tools for her own will, the ultimate ‘aoe’ destructive move that no one had even considered her using, the unwillingness to stop even when by all practical measures the war is over, is a shocking parallel to James. In many ways, he is Jadis in mindset and deed.

Then there is the shared desire for A Thing that both James and Jadis have. For James it’s the Winter Maiden and control over her. For Jadis it’s the Silver Apples from the Tree of Youth. And funnily enough, the Maiden Powers parallel the Apples quiet well. These apples grant power and a life of eternal beauty, but should not be taken or eaten on one’s own initiative. They must be given, a gift granted by another, or only suffering will come from obtaining them. "For the fruit always works — it must work — but it does not work happily for any who pluck it at their own will. If any Narnian, unbidden, had stolen an apple and planted it here to protect Narnia, it would have protected Narnia. But it would have done so by making Narnia into another strong and cruel empire like Charn, not the kindly land I mean it to be.” Jadis’s immortality, and some of her power, come from the fact that she ate an Apple of her own will after stealing her way into the garden where the Tree of Youth had been planted. She gained the eternal life she had wanted and the power along with it, but she did so by taking it and was cursed because of it. Her skin turned pale and her lips blackened as if she were a frozen corpse given life. She will be trapped in a life of misery and hate according to Aslan- oh hey Cinder, how’s having stolen the Power you always wanted working out for you? Cinder had the power she wanted, but she only got hungrier, eager to claim more and increase her might. But in her pursuit she was defeated and humiliated by Raven, had to steal her way out of Mistral, and then suffered defeat after defeat while in Atlas. Only in the end, when she didn’t keep pursuing the Maiden Power, did she get any kind of victory.

The reason these parallels to Narnia are so important is one of the most famous events of the series. The cracking of the Stone Table and the rebirth of Aslan after his death. ‘When a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.’ Well, the ‘Stone Table’ in James’s office has cracked, and Penny strikes me as a pretty willing victim. She has never actually committed any actual treachery or harm, as she was the Protector of Mantle, and fought for its and Atlas’s people until the very end. And because of her death, the actual traitor, Winter, who loyally served James until he had gone too far, was saved. Through Penny’s self sacrifice, Winter was saved. So now Death itself will start working backward.

(Major props to my friend @catontheweb for writing this section, I was getting nowhere with it, if they weren't there this part wouldn't exist!)

Norse Mythology:

The tree we see in the post credit scene gives off some serious Yggdrasil vibes. Also called the World Tree, it is essentially all of creation in Norse Mythology. It connects all nine realms, including the God realms of Asgard, the human realm of Midgard, and the underworld of Hel.

Humans are born from the branches of Yggdrasil. The web of Wyrd is woven for every person once they're born, and their path is set from there regardless of how many times the souls cycle over. But at the end, they're destined to end up in one of the worlds, for a myriad of reasons.

I believe Penny landed closest to this giant tree. She was on the center platform in the void space, so if that space is directly above the island(?) the tree is on, it makes sense for her to fall by the center nearest to the tree. This would not only open up all kinds of possibilities for the volume in general, but it would also create options for Penny.

The whole of Yggdrasil’s representations fit well into Penny’s story. Birth, growth, death and rebirth. We can count Penny’s appearance in V7 as birth for now, her growth is all her development in leaving =the military and becoming a Maiden, her death just happened, and her rebirth would be her revival. And this is a cycle she’s gone through before.

The Norse god Odin and Yggdrasil have quite a connection. In one story, Odin cut out one of his own eyes to gain knowledge from a pool underneath Yggdrasil. The only one that fell whose eyes alone are incredibly significant to the story was Ruby. So, they could choose to have her allude to Odin by having Ruby make some kind of deal with whatever entity likely rules over this magical place. An eye for Penny’s life.

There’s another story about Odin, Yggdrasil and the pursuit of knowledge. Odin so loved knowledge, that he sacrificed himself in a quest to learn the deeper magic of runes. It was believed one could only learn the magic spells from runes in death. So, Odin hung himself on Yggdrasil for nine days as an offering, and teetered between life and death. After he mastered the last spell on the ninth night, he ritually died and all light was extinguished from the world. Odin’s death lasted until midnight, when he was reborn and light returned to the world.

This story doesn’t fit Penny perfectly, but allusions often don’t. So If she really did land near the tree, she could be another loose representation of Odin’s story here. What she did wasn’t for knowledge, but to save her friends and keep Cinder from getting the Winter Maiden power. She believed it necessary that she sacrifice herself to achieve this end. As we established, Penny represents Hope, so her death means the loss of hope. This parallels Odin’s story of his death meaning the loss of light itself. So if this theory holds up, it would make this death temporary, until her rebirth and the return of Hope with her once again.

Alternatively, Ruby has the potential of loosely representing Odin in this story as well. Odin later uses the knowledge of the runes to do many things, but the most relevant one right now is awakening the dead. Both of these stories are about making a personal sacrifice to gain something that is desired. Ruby would absolutely make such sacrifices if it meant saving Penny.

It is said that Odin lived “according to his highest will unconditionally, accepting whatever hardships arise from that pursuit, and allowing nothing, not even death, to stand between him and the attainment of his goals." This sounds like Penny's arc of accepting the WM powers. This is more just a general connection between Penny and Odin, but I found it interesting.

Side Note: I encourage anyone who’s interested to look into RWBY connections to Norse Myth, there’s a surprising amount of things that feel eerily similar to the show. Likely just coincidental, but it’s fun to think about!

(If I got any of this wrong, I sincerely apologize by the way. I researched as best I could, but I admit it could have been lacking.)

Ambrosius and the Staff:

Ruby told Ambrosius "we kinda wanna keep her around longer than that" as part of her very specific instructions. Then Penny died about ten to fifteen minutes, at the absolute most thirty minutes later in-universe. I don’t know about you, but to me that seems very short to be considered ‘longer than that’. Technically it is, but when writing a story and a character says something like that, you typically don’t just kill the character they were referring to basically right away. It makes sense for a week-by-week watch, but in a volume binge, which many viewers do, it becomes ironic how fast Penny dies after being removed from her robotic body.

The first time we see the staff of creation being used, it's to save Penny. Using the staff of creation to help Penny is a sign of how incredibly important she is.

They’ve even got this entire transformation sequence for her, so it wouldn’t make sense for them to throw all that away two episodes later. In a meta context, it’s a massive waste of time and budget considering the asset creation for Penny.

Penny is a character who has already hopped bodies two times. And now we're supposed to just believe that this time it really is a final death? Just two episodes after we were explicitly told her body isn't what matters, that "Her soul is who she is" and that "the mechanical parts are just extra"? From a writing perspective, it feels strange, like your breaking a promise right after making it. And frankly, CRWBY is better than that, which makes me think this is not the actual end for her.

A possible connection between Penny, Ruby, and the Staff (thus Creation) can be seen in the intro. As Ruby is falling and being dragged down into the darkness, she is shown reaching for the staff. In the void space, Penny is the one with the relic. So with Penny having this strong connection to Creation, and the lyrics “fight for every life” playing as Ruby reaches for the staff, it’s a safe assumption to make, with the knowledge we now have, that the Staff of Creation represents Penny in this particular moment. Which could mean that V9 will be about, at least partially, fighting for Penny’s life.

Musical Hints:

In terms of music, Friend, as a song for Penny, is very dissonant from the episode itself. The song is oddly cheerful for Penny’s recent untimely death, and it overall highlights the wrong parts of death. It’s simply too happy to be a song about losing one of the most, if not the most joyous characters in the entire show. The song also abruptly ends. There’s no outro, and while this could symbolize the fact that Penny died young, it could be that the song itself is unfinished in a story sense.

What do we hear just before the song finishes, though? A progression of notes that sounds eerily similar to the last line of the opening of Volume 8. The notes for “Fight for ev’ry life” and “Who fin’lly felt alive'' share a similar melodic structure, they aren’t perfect clones of each other, but they are incredibly similar, to the point where it seems intentional. Penny may very well be the life that the opening song is fighting for. It is also worth noting that the line “Fight for every life” comes just after “Sometimes it’s worth it all to risk the fall,” which is the exact wording used for the description in the Volume 8 finale. Team RWBY risked the fall, yet, strangely the opposite of fighting for every life happened with Penny’s sacrifice. Perhaps the time to fight for every life has yet to happen, and we will see it come Volume 9.

For another thing, the lyrics for Friend are entirely centered on Penny’s feelings for Ruby, to the point where they read very much like a bittersweet love song. The music itself is incredibly cheerful, as mentioned previously, creating a mood whiplash with the end of the volume. Why would we hear a song about Penny’s feelings for Ruby, sounding like a love song, if her death is supposed to be a tragic sacrifice akin to Pyrrha’s? The song may very well be giving a clue into its future use in the show proper.

If this was meant to be a good bye song, why make it so cheerful and romantic sounding? There's only one part about her dying and even then, it's just too accepting and goes right back into cheerfulness. The song is also pretty hopeful, telling Penny's story in a fairly chronological order. And the part where she talks about sacrifice is quite pointedly followed up by one about feeling alive. It also ends with the super cheerful chorus, the word "alive" being the last... (Remember the episode title: The Final Word)

(I want to thank my friend @shadow-0f-x for writing the majority of this section! I was struggling to choose how to tackle it as I am not well versed in music theory.)

What We Didn’t See:

It is likely that Penny understood Jaune's semblance better than him and figured something out about it’s abilities in the same way that she understood Ruby's semblance better than her. She had plenty of time to observe his semblance up close as he boosted her aura to stave off the virus. Because of that intentionally timed cutaway in the finale, we don’t get to hear her explain herself after her strained “Trust me.” All of that seems really suspicious to me.

Pyrrha Parallel:

Pyrrha and Penny both sacrificed themselves to stop or stall Cinder. Jaune tried to convince the both of them to stop. With Pyrrha, he failed, while with Penny he actively helped her sacrifice herself. Doesn’t make sense for the guy who was determined not to let anyone else do what Pyrrha did, unless of course Penny assured him she’d be alright.

The Moment:

RT including the suicide hotline in the description shows that they're aware that Penny basically committed assisted suicide, seeing it as a noble sacrifice worth doing to save her friends. They're aware, and I believe they're smart enough to condemn that decision to hell and back.

The best way to do that in my opinion is to pull her back into the land of the living and let her witness first hand the consequences of throwing her life away so freely. This would show Penny how her actions affected others so maybe she could learn to truly value herself. To not think herself expendable. It would be bold and unwise to portray this choice as something good, unless it was going to be called upon later and be pointed out for how horrible it really is.

On top of this, Penny was way too content with her death, happy even. There's no way team RWBY is letting her stay content with it. It’s almost as though we're supposed to join Ruby and Co. in calling bullshit on what Penny is saying and doing because no, Penny, this is not how things are meant to work. It's as if Penny was basically saying "I want to die for my friends" because most of the volume had been about everyone else making sure she didn't die. She knows it will hurt them. She knows.

At the peak of it all, a choice like this will totally destroy Ruby. It may very well be her breaking point for Volume 9. Curiously, the moment itself is written like it’s the first choice Penny’s ever made, yet the entire Volume shows this isn’t the case. However, this is the first choice that Penny’s made solely independently and it’s rather pertinent that the choice she makes is a mistake. Outside of giving Winter the Maiden gift and saving the day temporarily, this sacrifice will not have any lasting positive effects. Jaune will be saddled with the grief of killing Penny. Ruby will have to live with losing her best friend and not being able to protect her a second time, and Winter now has the burden of the Winter Maiden abilities, making her a target of Cinder. This is a bad thing, and Penny needs to see the long term consequences.

Transfer of Power:

As we all know, colors in RWBY are really important and get a lot of focus in the show. That means the yellow we see as Penny gives Winter the Maiden Powers was intentional and likely important, no matter how insignificant it may seem. It’s possible that the transfer effect being yellow could have something to do with Jaune’s semblance. When Fria gave the power to Penny, the effect was very much blue, so this transfer should have been green since she was the one giving it this time. The weirdness of this transfer and the focus on color in RWBY really makes it look like something’s up with how that went down.

A little off topic, but Penny saying "I won't be gone, I'll be part of you." makes me think... Winter is smart, so when she gets time to think about what Penny said, maybe she'll arrive at the same question many in the audience came to; if she's literally part of Winter, can they be separated again? If Winter starts questioning that, the possibility of Penny coming back just skyrockets.

Fria actually tells Penny "I'll be gone" before giving her powers up, which is an interesting contrast to Penny telling Winter "I won't be gone". She may have gotten that line from Winter be all philosophical in V7, saying Fria was now a part of Penny, but it hits differently coming from an actual Maiden. S5o it’s possible that Maidens usually actually will be gone, but Jaune's semblance did something to change that.

This could go well with the theory that they won't need to find an aura transfer machine, or build another one, because Jaune will have a semblance evolution allowing him to do the transfer instead. It might actually be that this evolution already happened and the golden light we saw was Jaune transferring penny's aura to Winter in some way?

An observation that I find interesting is when Penny gives winter the powers, not only is the aura yellow but penny completely glows yellow too, and she obviously starts to disappear, but she doesn’t seem to fully disappear, she just glows.

It's possibly a fading out effect and she does fully fade but animation makes bright light easier, and so we don't actually see her disappear because she's dead and not gone. But it does once again emphasize the color yellow here!

And the color is coming from Penny, it does go up Winter's arm a bit, but Penny is clearly the source. This transfer is so weird and I’m not really sure how to interpret it. There's just actually no reason that we are aware of to make the effect yellow here is the thing. Unless it has something to do with either Jaune or Ambrosius, or potentially a combination of both...

Jaune’s Aura:

The way we see Jaune's aura break in the finale is strange. His aura shouldn't be breaking here. It had been long enough since he was boosting Penny, he's had time to recharge, and it didn't look like it was a strain on him at all. Plus, we know he has a lot of aura, so there probably wasn't too much to recharge in the first place.

He has a massive amount of aura, it has never broken before as far as I remember. Even if it has though, that doesn’t make this occurrence any less odd. It should absolutely never be a one-hit KO. We didn't see anything that would've drained it, that should not have been enough to break his aura. Unless he did something - something that would require a huge amount of aura - that we just didn't see. That amount of aura drain is far more than just an attempt at healing would do, Jaune absolutely did something with his semblance that took up almost all of his aura.

Pinocchio Allusion:

As any Penny fan knows, her character allusion is Pinocchio, the puppet who became a real boy. Penny deviates from the allusion by having always been a real girl, as Ruby is quick to point out, but she shares many story beats with her original story including multiple deaths. In the original story, Pinocchio dies from being hung by his own strings due to his poor decision making and he dies. Sounds a little familiar, does it not? This is where his tale originally ended. Readers were unsatisfied with this ending however, so the author decided to change the story by reviving Pinocchio and teaching him to be more careful.

Unlike Pinocchio making all the wrong decisions, Penny often makes the right ones, or ones she thinks is right, when concerning others. While usually a good thing, this has meant Penny almost giving herself up multiple times during V8, her last attempt being successful. This is where Penny and Pinocchio begin to share similarities again. They are both very reckless when it concerns themselves. This carelessness comes from different places, but it ends with the same result of them endangering their lives and even sometimes losing them.

In the Disney movie, Pinocchio dies by drowning after going to rescue Geppetto and washes up on the shore (like the beach in V8’s post credit scene). His father is devastated and takes him home to grieve, but as a reward for his selflessness in rescuing his father, the Blue Fairy returns and brings him back to life, as well as granting him humanity. Penny sacrificed her life as well, and it stands to reason that she should be rewarded for it, much like her allusion was.

Penny got her maiden powers from someone with blue aura and then gave her powers to someone with blue aura. So it could be that not only Ambrosius, but Fria and Winter as well represent the Blue Fairy. It could be set up for Winter helping to bring Penny back to life once more. It’s an out there theory I admit, but it’s not outright impossible either. The Blue Fairy in Pinocchio saved him three times that I know of, so RWBY having three representations does make sense.

Geppetto wished for him to live as a real boy, but it depended on what path Pinocchio took. This is very reminiscent of Penny and Pietro. Pietro wants to see her live her life, and surely with him absent in V8C14 that didn't work, despite Penny choosing. Her father did not see her happy enough to live her life, and will only be able to learn her death through others. But Pinocchio's themes were life and being alive. So the likelihood that this is not her end yet is quite high!

A Girl That Fell Through the World:

Penny could be the girl who fell through the world. The girl in the story fled the consequences of a choice. The only person who chose her ultimate fate was Penny. The others were pushed into the void, but she chose to die. The consequence of her choice is Ruby’s grief first and foremost, which Penny won’t see. The girl who fell through the world does come back though, and the world will be changed severely with Penny’s absence. Alternatively, it could also be Penny coming back to Wonderland or wherever they currently are, as long as it’s unrecognizable to her.

What Returning Brings:

Others might say another return would have no story relevant purpose, but I wholeheartedly disagree. Penny gives a profoundly youthful, joyous, and wondrous outlook on the world and story that we hadn't seen since Ruby in Volumes 1-3(not the end), Penny returning would bring a much needed levity back in after the despair they will undoubtedly be going through. While not necessarily a huge thing in most other shows, for RWBY, a show largely about keeping up hope, an ounce of such relief is a necessity.

As much as I hate saying it, Penny’s death does actually make some narrative sense because she had to pass on the Maiden powers. (They could have done this in a number of ways, and I personally think they chose rather poorly, but I digress.) Throughout this whole volume, we can see Penny seemingly being set up to join the main cast, but would have been too strong with the powers. This also accomplishes ridding her of the burden of responsibility that comes with being a Maiden and lets her obtain the freedom that’s so important to her character.

Once she returns, seeing this grief that her actions caused, particularly to Ruby, will get her to realize more that her actions can have serious repercussions. She made a choice, but that choice hurt the people she loves. She must have known that it would but I’m not sure she ever realized just how much.

I didn’t want this post to be heavy in the shipping department, so I largely left it out, but I am going to say this one thing that could have an impact. If Nuts & Dolts is on its way to being canon, which this volume makes it feel highly likely, this could be a catalyst.

It could prompt an arc for the both of them in which Penny learns to live her life fighting for her loved ones, rather than sacrificing it for them. A relationship could potentially start from there. And Ruby seeing Penny learn these things may also help her to stop doing the occasional but very dangerous and reckless things she does. Ruby witnessing Penny coming to terms with what she did to the people that care about her would actually make her stop to think “wait, is this how everyone else would feel if I got myself killed?” That would be a very important moment of character growth for her.

I’m certain there are other significant things that Penny returning can bring to the show. And there are definitely more sections I could add to this. At this point though, assuming anyone even made it this far, I think I’ve been going long enough already. So let’s just roll into the outro!

As painful and hopeless as it seems, I'm choosing to trust them with this because there is absolutely no way they didn't see backlash coming. The way this finale went makes me think that they calculated for backlash and aren’t jumping into something they don’t have a plan to recover from. Whether this trust is unfounded or not remains to be seen, but I don’t think it is currently. I do think, however, that the cause of this backlash was a major misstep. Now that it has happened though, they have a chance to do something good with it.

I know for a lot of you, trust in CRWBY has been damaged, some even irreparably so. And for those that feel this way, I don’t blame you. My trust in them took a hit too, but isn’t broken completely yet. There are many ways that they can bring her back that would make sense with the narrative, they have the ability to make it right, and after going over all of the hints and general weirdness of things many times, I think they will.

I'm feeling pretty confident now and I really didn't expect that to happen at all to be honest. But discussing and theorizing with the discord server seriously helped get my hopes back up surprisingly fast! It’s actually thanks to all of them that this gigantic post even happened! So thanks a ton my fellow Dolts! And a special thanks to!!

@arcana-amicus

@catontheweb

@cosmokyrin

@gaydontmesswithme224

@jammatown919

@shadow-0f-x

They really helped get this thing across the finish line!

And thank YOU for reading all~ of this! I sincerely wish it gave you some of the hope and confidence that I now have!

#RWBY #rwby vol8 #rwby v8 #rwby spoilers #Penny Polendina #nuts and dolts #mechanical rose #a little #Essay #more like dissertation #I haven't written this much in #probably ever actually #Have HOPE people!

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gardenerian · 3 years

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Wish you'd write a fic where:

Do you do AUs? Because I'd love to see them meeting at either a garden store or a communal garden, one of them knowing what they're doing and thinking the other one is a total idiot but helping anyway.

this prompt is the greatest thing to ever, ever happen to me. thank you! in my canon imaginings ian is MUCH more competent than this, and i think he does a lot of research, but i also made a whole backstory to this that doesn't even appear here but.... this ian dives right in without much thought lol 🥲 anyways:

That giant ginger idiot is gonna kill all his fucking plants.

Mickey sips at his beer and leans back in the lawn chair he'd dragged down from his porch. Mandy sits by his feet, digging holes for her pansies and humming some terrible song as she works.

Mandy convinced him to go in with her on the plot in the community garden after their dad died last year. She'd used a lot of metaphors in her speech - something about turning over a new leaf, finally growing roots or whatever. Mickey partially said yes just to shut her up.

And partially because she agreed to let him grow a weed plant. He eyes it now, the clone from last year's plant growing sturdy in the back corner of their plot.

It's a good spot to drink a couple beers. And if he likes hanging out in the dirt with his sister, and if he likes learning about the plants - what of it? He's fucking earned this. A queer who gardens. Take that.

But that redheaded moron is ruining his afternoon with his arms and his hair and his absolute ineptitude.

He started showing up a couple of weeks ago looking more eager than Mickey has ever seen anyone look about anything. He lugged in 2x4's and bags of soil, and actually fucking whistled as he cheerfully built his raised beds.

Tall, red, and dorky - Ian Gallagher, he learned eventually - started stopping by their plot on his way through the garden to chat with Mandy. They tossed gardening puns back and forth, laughing loudly at their own dumb jokes before swapping basic life details. Ian recently quit his job and was looking for a way to spend his days. He skirted around the details, but for some reason, gardening is what calls to him.

His stupid freckly face splits with a wide grin whenever he talks about it. Mickey wants to find his whole golden retriever shtick annoying, but he kind of gets it. Plants are cool as shit. And there's something in the way Gallagher's eyes linger on him as his laughter dies down that keeps that last fuse of irritation from igniting.

But today he's started planting, and Mickey realizes pretty damn quick that despite Red's enthusiasm, he doesn't have much of a green thumb.

It's all wrong, and it's all going to go to shit. Mickey watches incredulously as Ian plants peppers and cauliflower next to his tomatoes, onions by his asparagus, and radishes with his broccoli.

His soil has too much clay.

It's not even the right time for some of those fucking vegetables.

Mickey rubs a hand over his face and turns his attention to his own plants. The jolly red giant and his nonsensical plot aren't his problem. That tangled mess of would-be vegetation needs a full redo, and Mickey isn't about to take on the responsibility of another plot.

And he's not sure he can stand working that closely beside Ian when he's so clearly destined to become Mandy's next lapdog. It's one thing to nod along from a distance when Ian stops by their plot. But to sit hunched over in the dirt, watching those freckles grow darker and those hands comb through the soil as its scent mixes with something masculine and heady --

Fuck. No.

No, Mickey's going to keep his focus on his own shit. He built this plot and he's not going to ruin his time here by getting tangled up in inter-garden drama. He's just going to tend to his own plants and go about the rest of his days Gallagher-free.

It's when Ian brings his family to see his garden that Mickey loses his resolve. He looks so fucking proud of it, and they beam back at him. The sister takes that freckled, lightly sunburned face between her hands and kisses each cheek, while some curly haired fuck thumps him on the back.

And shit.

Mickey knows what is to take pride in these little patches of dirt. For something he really only agreed to do because of Mandy, gardening has come to mean something solid for him. He grew up in waste and decay. In a loveless, lifeless place.

Now he makes things grow with his sister at his side.

And, god damn it, before Mickey can stop himself he's reaching into his bag for a packet of seeds. He tosses it to Ian as he passes him at the entry to the garden. Ian eyes him in confusion.

"Marigolds. For the pests," he explains.

"For the --"

"Just trust me, Gallagher," Mickey warns, "plant that shit in your beds."

"Thanks, Mick," Ian calls as he turns to leave, and Mickey bites down on his lip.

Days pass. Mickey's weed thrives. His tomatoes are coming along nicely, and he can't wait to turn that shit into pizza. Mandy's flowers bloom vibrant and fragrant; Mickey sometimes sits and count the bees that visit as he's resting with a beer.

Ian waters some of his plants too much, some of them too little. And soon enough, he starts to realize that something isn't right.

Mickey's mending the little fence around their plot when he hears a growled Jesus fuck! coming from Ian's plot. He pops his head up just in time to see Ian throw a pair of pruning shears into the dirt. He kicks at the garden bed at his feet and buries his face in his hands. A stream of muffled curses carries across the garden.

And Mickey's on his feet and moving before Ian's final motherfucker lands.

"Something wrong, Red?" he asks, smirking lightly. Gallagher wheels around to face him and the smirk drops from his lips at the wild look in his eyes.

"I can't do this," Ian breathes. "Nothing's working. I planted those flowers you gave me but they take weeks to bloom and there's... fucking bugs everywhere and that one's all wilted, god damn it, and these are all fried, and--" he doesn't finish the thought, cutting himself off with a groan.

Mickey nods, pursing his lips a little before speaking.

"Well, yeah, nothing's working, your layout's completely fucked."

Ian looks stunned for a moment. "What?"

"You mixed all these fuckin' plants together that don't like each other, man," Mickey explains, "and you're watering them all wrong."

"So you knew this was gonna flop? And you just watched me do this all wrong?"

"Hey man, it ain't my fault you put a bunch of shit in the ground without lookin' into it first. Did you plan this at all?"

Ian deflates.

"No. You're right. I didn't- I just had all these ideas once about how I wanted this to be. I didn't think to check it."

Mickey's quiet as Ian looks helplessly around his plot. "I just wanted to make something work. Something real, something I made, y'know?"

He does know. Mickey is fiercely proud of his and Mandy's plot. He'd never made anything real before, either, never had space to care much about anything other than his immediate survival. It's a surprisingly intense thrill, to tend to life this way. So he supposes it's inevitable that he responds:

"We can fix it."

"We... can...?"

"Fix it, Gallagher, Jesus."

"But it's so late in the season," Ian argues, "I let this go on for weeks, it's gonna be too late--"

"Holy shit, relax, man. Come on, I'll help. There's still time."

Ian nods slowly as he considers. Squares his shoulders. Nods again. And they get to work.

They clear out the graveyard of dead vegetables and worthless soil. Bring in more soil, more cuttings, more seeds. More marigolds. Trips to the nursery, more trips to the nursery when they forget something. They stake, they bicker, they water, they share beers and cigarettes.

Mickey learns about Ian. Ian likes to sing terrible songs in a pitchy voice as he works. He likes to run, likes to joke, likes to play. Sometimes he's a little sad.

Maybe Ian learns a little about Mickey, too. Mickey likes a cold beer after a day in the sun. He likes to talk about his sister. He does not like to have it pointed out that he likes talking about his sister. He likes to organize, plan, execute. He likes to pick on Ian.

And sometimes Mickey thinks that Ian might like what he's learning about him.

There's a hesitancy to it, when the new garden is ready, and Ian presses a kiss to the corner of Mickey's mouth. It's quick, soft, and a little unsure.

But that's okay. There's still time.

#this.... turned into a whole ass fic lol i'm sorry #but THANK YOU it was fun to do #some of this is a little similar to a bigger fic i am working on so if you see some of these themes again.... no you did not #but you did bc i love them #anyways #gallavich #fic #also i literally googled 'plants that don't like each other' for this sfhaklda #this kinda just ENDS bc i realized how fucking long it was getting i am sorrrrrryyyy for this mess help me #🍅 ian #tumblr writing

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sindri42 · 3 years

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What do you think the Reapers were supposed to be all about before the writer got replaced and the ending of ME3 threw out the lore?

There's not a lot that we have that's solid, just a lot of hints and suppositions. So there's no way to really conclusively determine what was supposed to be going on, but we can definitely come up with theories that match the evidence, which the "canon" absolutely does not. So here's what we know:

Harbinger refers to themself as our "salvation through destruction" and the "Harbinger of your perfection". "We will bring your species into harmony with our own" they say, and "Your species will be raised to a new existence. We are the beginning, you will be the end," but also "You will surrender your potential against the growing void."

Sovereign claims they are each a nation unto themselves, that they are the pinnacle of evolution, and when asked who created them or for what purpose insists that they have no beginning nor end

Mass Effect technology plays upon dark energy in a way that is poorly understood by the young races despite their reliance on it for almost every aspect of life

A small but significant number of stars are destabilizing for unknown reasons, aging at a massively accelerated rate.

The mass relays were built for the young races, partly so civilized planets would be laid out upon predictable paths and easily accessible via the "back door" in the Citadel, but also so that the new civilizations would develop along the lines the Reapers had planned for them

it's very rare to have more than a single major race in each cycle; most often the other spacefaring civilizations are either wiped out or made subservient to the rulers of the galaxy

The greatest race of each cycle is used in the creation of a single new Reaper, while lesser races or those with major flaws are discarded or turned into servitors like the Keepers (per the end of ME2; obviously this got retconned in 3).

Between "harvests" the Reapers retreat beyond the galactic rim, sitting quietly in the dark using as little energy as possible for tens of thousands of years at a time.

So, first and simplest assumption, the Cycle is effectively the Reapers' reproductive system. Like all life forms, they have a drive to produce more of themselves, but for some reason they can't or won't simply make a new chassis out of raw metal, and they're unwilling to use "flawed" people as components, which means the people put into it are extremely important. If the larval reaper that Shepherd killed had been allowed to grow up, it would not simply have been a machine with some random DNA inside, it would have been humanity, an entire nation and species flying through space for eternity.

Second assumption, slightly stretchy but with several weak points of support? Mass Effect technology is slowly killing the galaxy. As more people use it in more ways every year, more stars start to die. This isn't an issue that would affect any normal person alive today, the changes are observed over the course of millennia rather than even centuries, but unless something big changes everyone is eventually doomed. And sure, any given individual or small group could simply refuse to use the mass effect, but it's so easy to figure out that you could never suppress the knowledge of how to use it in any meaningful way, and it's so useful and people are so greedy and short-sighted that you could never persuade everybody to stop. And if you tried to do it by force, well, a nation making free use of eezo in their engines and their guns and their shields would wipe the floor with a nation determined to stick to mundane technology.

So, my theory of how things went down? The first race to figure out the mass effect knew they had a problem. Maybe they had already made themselves immortal, so they were more concerned with the long term than most people. Maybe they just had more foresight than most. Either way, they put themselves into a form where they could still think and communicate, likely on a deeper and more intimate level than ever before, but they would use as little energy as possible to preserve their billions of lives. The "pinnacle of evolution" if you will, a machine which had no creator besides itself, a life form which could last forever with minimal resource consumption. And they sat quietly Thinking about how to fix this, for tens of thousands of years.

But while they researched and experimented and contemplated, other life forms kept evolving. And eventually they also figured out the secret to using the mass effect, but either didn't know about the dangers or chose to ignore them. So the ancient... okay let's just call them Harbinger for convenience, had to do something to stop this. Maybe they were too soft-hearted to wipe out an entire species for an honest mistake. Or maybe their research had hit a dead end, and they needed an outside perspective to apply new ideas to the problem. Or maybe they were simply lonely, or the instinctual drive to be fruitful and multiply reared up after being suppressed for so long. Either way, they converted the young fools into another nation-ship hive-mind like themself, convinced them of the seriousness of the situation (to "surrender your potential against the growing void" as it were), and resumed Thinking out in the black.

And when it happened again, and again, they refined their approach over time. The eezo drives on the individual ships of the young races are not only slower, but also massively less efficient than the technology the Reapers have developed, so they gave the Relays away as a gift to minimize the damage each new race would do. They couldn't allow young races to become too powerful to stop, but they wanted to allow them as much opportunity to develop scientific research and understanding as possible in order to be more useful to the ongoing project to save the galaxy, so they learned how to insert observers and infiltrators throughout alien societies to observe things and ensure the Harvest was delayed for as long as it was safe to do so but no longer (and I think you can agree that they were cutting their deadlines really close given how an extra three years brought the council races from 'utterly unprepared, basically a walkover' to 'giving you a serious fight').

So, how would the game end, after you learned all of this? Maybe Shepherd simply accepts the inevitable fate of the young races, like Saren once did, and helps the Reapers to end the Cycle with a minimum of suffering so that they can join the endless search for a real solution. The ultimate 'sacrifice for the greater good', killing thousands of entire species of people in order to preserve life in the galaxy as a whole. Maybe Shepherd rejects the idea that it's worth killing billions of innocents now in order to head off some distant nebulous threat later, and fights back with everything they have... and if you managed to unify everybody you possibly could, this would certainly be more power than the Reapers ever had to deal with before in any past cycle. Or maybe you use a display of that power to force the Reapers to the negotiating table, and then use all the "impossible" things you've achieved and all the scientific progress made over the past few short years, plus a heavy dose of raw charisma and Paragon ideology, to persuade them that if everybody works together they can finally solve the impossible problem, the one that has been stumping every Reaper for millions of years, within the time span of this one final Cycle if they just share the data they have so far and allow the young races to work freely.

#mass effect

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remosdeerica · 3 years

Text

Batshit AU Pt #2: The Grandkids

So I mentioned in the last post Batshit AU Pt. #1 that I cover Dick and Jason's kids but since I've been thinking (read: fantasizing) about the future of the Batfam I figured I'd just do a post with ALL the grandkids!

Just a heads up: this is a LONG post.

First we shall start with the Grayson's:

Mar'i and Jake (Jake is not my original name I've seen it pop up in other media- dunno if it's canon in any timeline but I'm going with it).

Mar'i Grayson: Mar'i is the biologically daughter of Dick Grayson and Koriand'r of Tamaran (aka Starfire). Kori is unknowingly pregnant after one last one-night-stand with Dick before going back to her home planet to take over as queen. Unfortunately, because of Kori's sister Komand'r (aka Blackfire) causing civil unrest to try and usurp the thorn from her, Tamaran becomes unsafe for Mar'i as she is Kori's only heir.

-Kor'i goes back to Earth with an infant Mar'i and begrudgingly hands her over to Dick so she can live with him and be safe from Blackfire.

-Kori of course visits while she can but has a lot of responsibilities on Tamaran. When Mar'i is older she is able to go back to Tamaran to visit her mother.

-A few years later when Dick and Barbra get married, Barbra officially adopts Mar'i. Seeing both Kor'i and Barbra as her mothers Mar'i decides so call Kori "Mama" and Barbra "Mom/Mommy".

Jake Grayson: don't have much of an exciting backstory for him. He was basically just an orphaned infant Dick and Barbra decided to adopt after his bio-parents had been murdered.

Now he have the Todd family:

Because I am a heartless monster I decided that since Roy died in the comics without any sign of Lian and Jason was pretty fucked up about it, I would have Jason adopt Lian because Roy wasn't round to take care of her. So this is basically what happened:

Lain Harper-Todd: 1 year or so after Roy's death, Jason is visited by Jade Nguyen (aka Cheshire) who is carrying an infant Lian. Jade explains that she hadn't realised she was pregnant with Roy's child until after he was already dead and since she is not ready to give up her life as an assassin she states that Lian is better off without her. She then asks Jason if he would be willing to take Lian in as Roy's former partner (read into that how you will).

-Jason agrees, and decides to hyphenate her last name Harper-Todd so that she will always have a piece of Roy with her even if he can't be there for her in person.

it's not that I don't think JayRoy is cute! It's just that I honestly I don't really picture Jason dating anyone in my mind and the thought of him being a single dad is just precious. I'm also allergic to OC's (of my own making) so I usually try to keep to characters that are at least canon in some timeline and Lian was the first to come to mind.

Also I'm a angst-hungry monster so...

Drake-Wayne/Dowd/McGinnis household:

Lol, this family has too many names.

I already went over Terry and Matthew McGinnis' backstory in Batshit AU Pt. #1 but if you are too lazy/ don't feel like reading it I'll try to make sure to cover the important details.

Terry & Matthew McGinnis: A few years down the road, Tim is the current Batman and married to Bernard Dowd (my new fave batship). One night on patrol he finds the boys hunkered down behind an garbage container and approaches them.

-Terry is extremely protective of his younger brother Matt and becomes immediately aggressive, swinging a baseball around and threatening Tim to leave them alone.

-Tim finds it admirable/endearing that Terry is willing to face Batman alone in order to protect his brother and tells him so. He then asks them where there parents and and Matt (trusting Batman) tells Tim that they were killed by the 'Bad Men' who are now looking for he and Tarry.

-Tim is worried for the boys safety and offers to take them to the Police, but Tarry only says that they already tried that and that there are spies in the GCPD who ratted them out to the 'Bad Men'.

-Tim figures out that the boys are in more danger then he first realized and takes them home with him in order to protect them.

-Tim eventually finds out about Project Batman Beyond, an experiment orchestrated by A.R.G.U.S. in order to create the perfect child to usurp the Cowl and give A.R.G.U.S and 'in' with the Justice League and the super-community as a whole. A part of this project is making sure the children are biologically Bruce Wayne's in order for them to also gain influence over Wayne Enterprises.

-Tim realizes that there is no real safe place that he can send the boys and after discussing it with his husband, Bernard, the two decide to adopt the boys.

I think this adoption story is one of my favourites. Especially because I find the idea of Bernard not at all being surprised by his husband brining home black-haired blue-eyes orphans, hilarious.

Bernard: I figured since you are now Batman it was only a matter of time.

Tim: >:(

Wayne-Kent situation:

DamiJon is one of my absolute favourite ships in existence. But since both boys are so young in canon my version of their future relationship truly is creature of my own design, I will explain them a little and then the kids. I'll be quick about it. Promise. (There is also a 2 part series I'm working on that goes into my version of events called "Jon and Damian" if anyone is interested. Jon's chapter is done but Damian's is still in the works).

Jon: he is the one that I really have to explain. I call my version of him "Dark-ish Jon" or 'dark ish jon' for the tags. For those of you who already know the deal (or don't really care) y'all can skip to the *** for the kids.

-basically Jon was kidnapped by Jon-El (Clark's Kryptonian Bio-dad) in order for Jor-El to mold Jon into the perfect weapon for his plan to conquer the universe. They have a machine that Jumps through various timelines so no one can find them, and Jon-El trains/tortures Jon for 2 years.

-Jon eventually discovers new powers that allow him to kill Jor-El and escape but he ends up spending the next several years trying to find his original timeline.

-He eventually meets the Legion of Superheroes that help him get home, but once he arrives home he realizes that for him it has been 7 years since he was kidnaped, but only 2 weeks for his family/friends.

-Because of this he and his family find it hard to adjust to the new situation and Jon ultimately decides to return to the Legion but visit occasionally.

Damian: Honestly I don't think I really have to explain much about Damian for y'all to get the kids but I do want you to know:

He has long hair

He has peirced ears

Possibly tattoos?

He's has more of a slim figure than Bruce's bulky one

He is a fashion icon and kinda has 'bitchy white girl' energy

Bacically he very pretty and looks a LOT like Thalia

And yeah. The two eventually reconcile after Jon is done moping in another timeline and they decide to retire from crime fighting and build a cottage/farm and live in peace.

***

Athanasia: So she is actually Bruce's bio-kid from the Injustice timeline. And for my AU she is still Bruce's biologically and she does recognize him as her father, but because she and Damian are 13/14 years apart and she knows him better she lives and defers to him as her caretaker. I shall explain:

-Athanasia was created by Thalia in a fit of madness after Damian's death. Because of what happened to Damian, and because Athanasia turned out to be a girl (and therefor Ra's would have no use for her), Thalia keeps the little girl locked away and a secret so that no one can harm her.

-Years pass and Athanasia has never seen the outside would. Eventually something happens (will depends on the Fic -because I will get around to writing this shit eventually) and Athanasia is given to Damian (the only other person Thalia ever told her about.)

-At this point Bruce is getting older and most of his current children already have their own kids, so both he and Damian agree that because Athanasia is mostly attached to Damian and doesn't really know who Bruce is outside of being her father, that she will live with he and Jon.

-Athanasia get's older and eventually meets another girl at her school named Carrie Kelley. The girls form a quick bond, Carrie's louder personality complementing Athanasia's more quiet one.

Carrie Kelley: being best friends with Athanasia leads to Carrie spending a lot of time over at her house. This allows Jon and Damian to get to know the girl and become quite fond of her.

-one night after a sleepover at Jon and Damian's house with some of their other friends, Carrie's father comes to the house drunk and carrying a shot gun. He accuses Jon and Damian of being pedophiles because of their sexual orientations and calls them a variety of homophobic slurs.

-It's his attempts at shooting Jon that leads to Carrie calling 911 and having her own father arrested.

-Because her mother had already left and Carrie only had her dad to take care of her, Jon and Damian offer her a place in their home and eventually adopt her along with Athanasia when the girls are teenagers.

So, yeah! That's it for now. I am absolutely obsesses with this AU. I just love the idea of Bruce deciding to take in Dick leading to him having an army of children and grandchildren so large that all family gatherings have to happen at the Manor because nowhere else is big enough.

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keorami · 3 years

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I guess some people liked my previous post about c!Dream's diary so I can post more? At the very worst I'll be screaming into the void which is not that bad honestly It's mostly Syndicate shenanigans featuring Dream. There's a lot of crack, some fluff and little angst, as I think we all need a break right now. Enjoy!

It's kind of long, so I'll put it under a Read More! How did I write this much...

While he feels comfortable enough to laugh around Techno, Dream is too scared to make... any noise really, around the rest of the Syndicate. So the only way he communicates is through a notepad.

He's allowed in the Syndicate meeting since currently they're trying to destroy the prison and he knows the most about it ("I already gave you the plans, Tech, do I really need to-" "Yes.") but he doesn't contribute that much. At most he'll add a detail that he remembered but otherwise it's like he's not even there.

And if you know how the Syndicate really is, you know that they don't stay serious for long. They're basically a more dangerous than average book club.

"Okay, we have a plan. Now we get to the fun part."

The fun part, as Dream would soon discover, is not actually enacting said plan, but actually a... tea party?

No seriously, Niki pulled out some freshly baked cookies, Phil apparently had some tea boiling (when???) and Techno and Ranboo were chatting about... something. He doesn't want to listen in and risk being seen as suspicious. He's on thin enough ice already.

So he just observes.

It's been a while seen he's seen people so... casually. Like friends. He's not Techno's friend. Is he?

It reminds him of what he wanted to achieve. 'One big, happy family'... Look how that turned out.

...He doesn't think now is the right time to throw himself a pity party. He brought this upon himself.

When he zones back in, Techno and Ranboo are now having a heated argument about something and he tries his best (and fails) not to flinch. Maybe the pity party is not such a bad idea anymore.

"Ranboo, I ask this in the nicest way possible, but what the hell is wrong with you?"

"Excuse you! I'm normal! You're the weird one!"

W-Would it be rude if he just... left? Maybe they wouldn't even notice?

"I'm the weird one for eating pasta properly?!"

"Everyone knows you're supposed to eat it with a straw!"

...Pasta. They were arguing about pasta. He should have expected this, the Syndicate seems to be passionate about the stupidest stuff, of course they'd have a debate over the right way to eat pasta. That calms him down... slightly. They're still too loud.

Then he replays what he just heard.

Who the fuck eats pasta with a straw?

Well, Ranboo apparently. He can't imagine- actually, maybe...

Oh Prime. The mental image should not be that funny. Ranboo slurping up spaghetti with a straw should not be that funny. Why is it so funny? What had his sense of humor become? Did he ever have one in the first place? He can't help the giggles that escape him.

It's only when everyone freezes and looks at him that he realised what he had just done.

Oh no.

Did he fuck up? Are they angry? Will he get kicked out?

"See? Even Dream finds it ridiculous!"

They... didn't even comment on it. Is that a good thing?

"Ranboo, I'm sorry but no one eats pasta like that."

"Not you too Niki!"

There's a warm cup of tea set in front of him. It has a nice, floral scent that instantly soothes his nerves.

"Here you go mate."

He looks up at Phil who gives him a warm smile in return. It's weird to see that kind of expression directed at him... but in a good way? He thinks?

Niki slides the cookie tray his way and, after a bit of hesitation, he takes one from the bunch. It smells really good... Niki had always liked baking, didn't she? Why is he remembering this now?

He nibbles on his cookie as he watches the argument go from pasta to Ranboo's... interesting... attempt at baking a cake. Which he brought with him, for some reason. Even Dream with his limited knowledge in cooking can tell that it won't taste good. Well, that, and Niki looks absolutely horrified.

"Ranboo! What is that?"

"...My cake?"

He hears Phil mumble an "Is it even a cake at this point...?" that he can't help but agree with. How much frosting did he put on that thing...?

"Oh come on guys, at least try it!"

Niki's face makes it abundantly clear that she won't even touch the thing, Phil is all of a sudden too busy drinking his tea at the slowest pace possible to avoid answering, and Techno...

"No offence, but I'd rather give up potatoes for a month."

Ouch.

And that left him. To be honest, he doesn't want to eat it either, but... they're already doing so much for him, letting him live in the arctic after breaking him out, and they have been the only people treating him decently in a while. He can't say no.

So he meekly raises his hand, and prepares for the worst.

"...Thanks Dream!"

Dream can't tell if Ranboo is happy about someone willing to try his "cake", or getting to kill Dream with it. Well, there can't be a death worse than bleeding out all alone in an obsidian cell right?

Ranboo cuts a piece... which immediately falls over under the weight of the frosting. Dream can tell he's not about to have a good time. Phil and Niki look at him in sympathy.

He picks up the spoon of frosting cake and is about to put it in his mouth when a hand slaps it away. He jumps.

"Sorry." Comes the surprisingly genuine apology from Technoblade. "But I'm not letting you die like this after all the trouble we went through to get you out."

He was joking about the "better way to die" part, you know? Now he's getting genuinely worried.

'It's fine, really, it's just a cake.'

"Dream, I appreciate your sense of senseless sacrifice but this "cake" is just an abomination."

"Hey!"

...At least it can't be worse than poisonous potatoes? He barely remembers what frosting tastes like but it's probably true.

"Dude- okay you know what, give that to me."

He can't, because Techno snatches it away from him anyway. Rude...

"If I eat this and die I'm haunting you Ranboo."

"Wouldn't you still have two canon lives left at worst?"

'I thought Technoblade never dies?'

"I gotta be dramatic, don't ruin the moment."

Dream lets out a quiet snort, and he hopes nobody caught that. If Techno wants to eat the cake in his stead, he can't really stop him.

Dream watches as Techno's face morphs into one of disgust as soon as he puts the spoon in his mouth, and can't stop himself from erupting in his famous tea kettle wheeze. The others laugh with him, and even if the laughter makes his whole body shake and hurts his ribs, he's never felt more at peace.

#dreblr #this started out as a concept and ended up as a one-shot: my autobiography #i took several days to write this yet i still found a way to rush it #i know it's not that great but at least it's done #no beta we die like tommy in prison #i simply refuse to reread this again #everyone is so ooc it hurts #the ending is rushed bc i was getting impatient #this is why i don't write fics #also ranboo totally knew his cake was an abomination but he still wanted techno to eat it

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hey-hamlet · 3 years

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BNHA AU Ideas : Link us All

Also on AO3!

TL;DR:

Users of one for all both past and present can kinda telepathically communicate, something only worked out during the entrance exams when izuku was so scared it went through the link.

Izuku decides to abuse this side effect.

so: in this au, users of one for all can kinda telepathically communicate, something only worked out during the entrance exams when izuku was so scared it went through the link

all might has no idea what to do so he just sits there looking increasingly concerned as the exam goes on, nezu asks him what the fuck and he kinda mumbles that it seems like his successor is unwittingly psychic

the other teachers blanch, nezu just nods like "ah, i see. fair enough"

anyway, pretty similar to canon other than the vestages also chatting more freely with izuku and izuku getting peptalks through his brain from a very dadly allmight

then, the usj: all might gets there a little earlier bc izuku is brain screaming, aizawa is like "hmmmmmmmmmm. successor, huh? couldn't be crazy bone kid, could it?"

and then they vibe, pretty normal sports festival; then the whole stain thing happens

after it all izuku has a breakdown coupled with a really stupid but really good idea

he askes all of 1A to meet after school, they chill in one of the training grounds, and izuku explains part of one for all

"so, i cant tell you much, but my quirk is weird. it was passed from my mentor to me and its kind of - linked us - in a way. we can talk without words, we know when the other is in trouble -" "so, you're basically psychic but with only one person?" "yeah, shinsou. but - what if it wasn't just one person?"

and he explains his bat shit crazy idea

after hosu his biggest fear is one of their classmates unable to get help because no one can find them. and if wielders of one for all, past and present, can communicate mentally? Well

why not make all of 1A past wielders

and he immediately goes back on himself like "I understand if you don't want to, this is weird and permanent and we'll all be connected forever and I can understand why you wouldn't want that I just -"

bakugo just growls out "i'm in" and it doesn't take long for the rest of the class to agree, all eagerly talking about what they could do together and how smart izuku was and he just cries because hes so happy he can help keep everyone safe

A lot of the AU from there is just Shenanigans

Aizawa is unaware of his student becoming suddenly psychic. All Might is not, because hes one of the people they can yell at if they want to. They typically do not yell at All Might because hes just the mysterious mentor, they only find out hes actually All Might after Kamino when Izuku is just screaming into the link for All Might to win.

They use the link 50% to quietly antagonise teachers that aren’t All Might or Aizawa, and a bit to piss off Monoma. They will finish each other’s sentences and it’s driving Mic up the wall.

Nezu worked out what was going on almost instantly and thinks it’s the best, craziest idea anyone has had in his school

And, because they have all held one for all, each other them have a little bit of that strength stored away for times of complete panic. Bakugo at Kamino? Why not throw one of Izuku’s arm breaking punches and throw half of the villains into the next city over. Kirishima in the fight with Rappa? Let’s just say one for all enhanced Hardening is very very Like – rip Rappa’s hands tough.

The school festival act is fucking flawless too. Izuku is like “so I’m fighting a youtuber, give me a minute” and all of 1A nods sagely while Bloodking watches on and shivers faintly.

Psychic dorm children is fucking wild. At this point Aizawa knows something is up but when he mentioned it to Nezu the guy just laughed and laughed to he figures its not too worrying, but it’s really really confusing when your students all leave their rooms at roughly the same time to have a midnight snack party in the common room with seemingly no prior planning.

It’s weirder still when Iida, unprompted, gives him a list each day of students who are feeling sick/injured or out of sorts – with Izuku sneaking up afterwards if Iida is one of those students and left himself off.

You know the “life is so weird this might as well happen?” that Aizawa and 1A at this point.

#link us all au #bnha au #i swear ive posted this here before but i cant find it for the life of me #full au #im gonna start tagging these with that #not looking forward to going back and adding that tag to each full au but oh well

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tea-and-la · 3 years

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So I saw a post earlier...

(I’m gonna paraphrase because I don’t want to tag OP or argue), that basically went like, “If M/ai is toxic and unsupportive as a partner, why do y’all (read: zutara fans) think shipping her with Ty Lee could work?”

Where do I start?

First of all, I’m a Zutara shipper and a Mai stan (mostly in a fanon sense because a lot of her characterization unfortunately got shunted by Bryke into revolving around Zuko.) But even in canon, I love the potential that this badass, goth knife girl had. And I can empathize with the extent that her childhood trauma caused her to repress her emotions.

As SO many Zutara fans have said already, it’s the relationship (not the characters themselves) that's unhealthy. As in, it isn’t beneficial for either M/ai or Zuko. I love BOTH characters, but I don’t think it’s what either of them needed in terms of partners for several reasons; Most significantly because of their struggles with emoting and communicating. Also, the phrasing of that original post neglects to take into account that people act differently with different people. You can be toxic in one person’s life and not in another’s (again, not implying that M/ai is toxic.)

I don’t want to spend this whole meta talking about Ma/iko because I want to talk about my fav sapphics, but I do want to contrast the first scenes where we see them interact (in terms of M/ai’s response.)

Starting with The Awakening, M/ai and Zuko are a newly established couple (after three years apart and without any on-screen acknowledgment of what has changed.) This scene has been analyzed to death over the past few days so I won’t get into it.

But this is the first time Ty Lee and M/ai are reunited:

M/ai, who usually has a stoic expression, almost looks sad in this scene. And then she says this:

I thought you ran off and joined the circus? You said it was your calling.

One could infer many things from that line. That M/ai and Ty Lee talked about their future plans at some point in the past. That it was important enough for M/ai to remember. And that M/ai’s conflicted expression means she realizes that seeing Ty Lee again meant she had to leave a place that was special to her (the circus.) Then Ty Lee responds:

Well Azula called a little louder!

Even though she says it in a cheerful voice, it’s almost an unspoken understanding between them that she didn’t have a choice. I think this is part of the reason M/ai agrees to join, so that Ty Lee doesn’t have to be alone.

Also, M/ai is pretty perceptive towards Ty Lee, which makes sense because they are canonically close. In The Chase episode, Ty Lee is trying to find the word to describe Appa’s fur. Azula walks off and ignores her, but M/ai was listening and gave her the word she was looking for. Ty Lee gets SO happy that she jump-hugs M/ai, and M/ai’s face goes soft. It’s a small moment, but we know that Ty Lee struggles with getting attention since she grew up with identical sisters. Having someone like M/ai as a partner, someone who listens, complements her well.

And don’t even get me started on THIS scene. The emotion on M/ai’s face is truly powerful. M/ai being put first by someone; this girl who values loyalty and yet, was not expecting it. And then, both of them being fully prepared to die in each other’s arms. Arguably one of the most meaningful moments for M/ai.

And finally, MaiLee already have really strong communication and emotional vulnerability. In the Smoke and Shadows comic, Ty Lee opens up about her fears now that Azula is out of prison (something she could’ve told Suki or any of the other Kyoshi warriors instead), and M/ai finishes her sentence because that same feeling resonates in her as well. Because of their shared experience. It’s a moment of vulnerability for them both.

M/ai breaks up with Zuko (in the comics) because she felt he closed off any emotional conversations about his worries. In my opinion, this isn’t something that would exist within MaiLee dynamic. And perhaps Ty Lee’s emotional openness could encourage M/ai to become more comfortable with expressing her own emotions and finding things she likes (rather than hates) about the world.

#this started with a purpose and then i got derailed because i'm in mailee brainrot #mailee #anti maiko #even though i like platonic ma/iko #i just think there's a difference in how m/ai responds to them #i do think she cared about zuko and tried to be there like waiting outside the war room #but she looked distressed when she realized she couldn't comfort him #i just think ty lee and m/ai would balance each other's flaws more #and they know each other pretty well #and i think ty lee would encourage m/ai to talk about her bottled up feelings whenever she was ready #also i just like the sunshine goth pairing

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recurring-polynya · 3 years

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What’s your opinion on pre-canon Renruki?

I think that they already had a romantic or almost romantic relationship back in the Academy, maybe even back in Rukongai, and the reason it wasn’t explicit is because firstly it would have spoiled the endgame couples, and secondly it’s a shonen, so it’s implied.

I think they fooled around when they were orphans in Inuzuri. They grew up together, they were always together in their “teenage” years (however adolescence works for souls😅), I think it’s not impossible that they had their first experience, if just their first kiss and make out session, with each other. When they joined the Academy, they spent less time together due to their different courses, and I think Rukia’s sad expression when Renji leaves for the mission in the real world depicts that (along with worry for him, and maybe even jealousy for his achievements compared to hers). By then I think they were quite intimate, they fooled around sometimes (with the little time they had) and knew the other’s and their own feelings, but never said anything like “I love you”, or talked seriously about the depth of their relationship. If they were “just friends”, as some antis like to claim, they wouldn’t have been so heartbroken, have so many regrets and felt so guilty during their separation. And why that separation in the first place? It’s not a matter of class difference, because Rukia did talk to people of inferior status, like her Squad mates. What’s actually forbidden to people from different classes is relationships. If Renruki was just a friendship, there would have been no problem, but their bond was beyond that. Rukia wanted Renji to tell her to stay with him, but his feelings of inferiority and belief that Rukia deserved better (maybe even better than him) prevented him to do it. Their separation doesn’t feel like an end to a friendship to me, it feels like a breakup. They avoided each other because it hurt so much, and they couldn’t bear to have any relationship other than a romantic one, which was impossible once she became a Kuchiki.

After the Soul Society arc, they got back together. They were physically too comfortable around each other to be just friends, like when he basically hugged her to encourage her to go back to Soul Society when Orihime is kidnapped (and maybe he was also comforting her), or when, during the fight with the Fullbringers, he casually placed her head resting on his thigh. By then they were secretly dating, in my opinion. In the last arc they were always together, it’s so easy imagining them as a couple.

What do you think? Is my interpretation far fetched? I’d like to hear your theories about their feelings, when they blossomed, when they confessed, if they had something going on during their Academy years…

Thank you if you decide to answer!🤍

Well, as you say, Bleach is a shounen, and also I don’t think Kubo was particularly interested in including romance in the story, so I don’t think there is a correct or incorrect interpretation. It’s left to the reader to imagine what they like. I don’t think “spoiling the endgame” has anything to do with anything.

I don’t think your interpretation is “too far-fetched,” although I don’t happen to agree with it. There’s very little to go on in canon, people can fill in the gaps in whatever way makes them happy/makes sense to them. I have exactly 0 interest in arguing with people on the internet about stuff like this. I enjoy reading fanfiction that has wildly different interpretations from my own, I generally love to hear a variety of ideas, although I generally prefer the format of a narrative over Tumblr posts (funny, since I do seem to write a lot of them).

Anyway, here are a bunch of opinions. This is way, way too long, so I'm gonna throw it under a cut.

That being said, you have some really amatonormative ideas in there that I do take issue with. Friendships absolutely can be as deep and important as romantic relationships. I categorically reject the idea that a romantic bond is stronger than a friendship one or that acts of physical affection necessarily imply a romantic relationship. I actually have no beef at all with people who want to read Rukia and Renji’s story as a very strong friendship. I do think it was still reasonable for Renji to avoid her during their separation, even if his goal wasn’t romance. He wanted to see her live a better life, and didn’t want to drag her down. Yeah, sure, if he just wanted to be a casual workplace friend, he probably could have joined Squad 13 and seen her once in a while. But, especially in the early days, it would have been a bad look for Rukia to continue socializing with people deeply below her station, and I feel in my heart that Byakuya would have forbidden her from seeing Renji if he found out she was hanging out with someone from her Inuzuri days, even if it was just casual. Yeah, there exist people who say Rukia and Renji are "just friends" for the sake of other preferred ships, but also, like, so what? Who cares? That’s a lot better than making Renji out to be a bad person or trashing his character. To be honest, I am generally happy to read a fanfic that had some other Renji or Rukia pairing if it actually contained some solid Renruki best friend content (I have found a few 369 fics that do this, and maybe also in the little bit of RenIchi content I have read, so, uh, good job, my gays. This is sometimes touched on in ByaRen fics, but usually not as much as I want, althought I also tend to hold these to a high bar, because if I have to deal with Byakuya in my fanfics, they should have to deal with the Rukia-Renji friendship 😂)

Anyway, you asked for my interpretation, so here it is . These are all just, like, my opinions, man:

Life in Inuzuri just really, really, really sucks, and Rukia and Renji both have a lot of trauma and emotional hang-ups from that time. I think they forged a deep emotional connection during this time that was probably a little too codependent to actually be healthy. They had no models of healthy families or relationships. I also think they were incredibly close to Fujimaru, Kosaburou, and Mameji, and that even if they wanted to have a romantic relationship, they wouldn’t have, at the risk of ruining the more important bonds of the larger group.

In my fanfic, in their last days in Inuzuri, I do have them fool around for a brief period. It coincides with the deterioration of the bond with their last surviving friend, leading to his death. I did this for trauma reasons, because that’s how writers are.

“Communication” is probably the most important theme in my writing, and a thing I bring up all the time is that young Rukia and Renji had a thousand ways of communicating survival-based things between each other, and 0 ways of communicating how they felt about each other.

I did a post on this recently, but their whole gang was incredibly powerless in Inuzuri. They lived on the fringes of society and stole scraps to survive. I think that their number one duty to one another was to survive. In the anime, Rukia swears that she will never leave Inuzuri, that she will always stay with her friends. I think the reason she does an about-face is not just because their friends are gone, but because she realizes that she will lose Renji next, and the only way to prevent that is for both of them to get stronger. Neither of them actually wants to become a soul reaper. They do it for each other.

I think that Renji would have remained in Inuzuri and tried to make a life as best they could, but Rukia knew this was futile, and where Rukia goes, Renji follows.

I think they purposely maintained distance at the Academy. Just as in Inuzuri, their primary duty to one another is to survive and thrive. They were rejected and mocked for their low origins, and hanging out together would have made this worse. I think it hurt Rukia that Renji made new friends, but on the other hand, they were exactly the sort of people who would help him get a leg up in the Gotei. Rukia’s Academy days were very painful because she saw Renji succeeding, just as she wanted, but leaving her behind in the process. Conversely, Renji got super focused on doing well, with the idea that he could pull Rukia up behind him, except for the part where he never actually told her that.

I feel like I’m in the minority here, but so much fanfic focuses on Rukia and/or Renji being “wrong” in the scene where he tells her to go to the Kuchiki, but I disagree! Everything they have done is in order to get to a better life! It is Renji’s duty to encourage her to leave him behind. He doesn’t want to be an anchor holding her down. Likewise, Rukia knows that if she doesn’t go, she’s just gonna be a burden on him. Their relationship has always been about each of them surviving separately over having happiness together. Up to now, they’ve always managed to find each other again, although this kinda looks like it might be it for them. Do these kids need to go to therapy? Yes! Did they do anything wrong? No!

I think about this a lot, but even if Rukia had turned down the adoption (which… I’m not actually sure she could have), even the offer would have ruined their relationship. Imagine that Renji asks her to stay, and she does. Maybe they even get together at this point. Every rough patch, every time there’s money troubles, this spectre of “Rukia could have been a Kuchiki” is going to hang over them. In fiction, there is often an idea of sacrifice being a one-time romantic gesture, but in my real life experience, this sort of thing hangs around like an unwanted ghost. I can, in fact, envision a scenario where this is exactly how Aizen manages to get his hooks in Renji, by offering Rukia an unseated spot in Squad 5, even though she “isn’t really good enough to deserve it” and “taking care of them.”

I am really fascinated with Rukia’s crush on Kaien/Miyako. Bold proclamation here, but I think there is something developmentally healthy about young people having crushes on the older people in their lives, provided that said older people treat them with respect and dignity and don’t take advantage of it in any way. Crushes are, by their nature of being unreciprocated, a safe way for young folks to imagine the sort of people and relationships they want to have in their lives. I headcanon Rukia as bisexual, and maybe also a little bit genderfluid, and she had these two extremely cool people in her life, whom she maybe wanted to be and maybe wanted to kiss and maybe to have a marriage like that some day. I… like to think that their role in her life healed some of her trauma before their death caused even more.

Fully into headcanons now, but I like to think that Renji had a parallel experience, with, of all people, Ikkaku and Yumichika. Like him, they came from the ass-end of Rukongai, but they stuck together instead of bowing to the social mores of the Seireitei. It is critical to note that they were able to do this through strength. This is literally not a thing that Renji and Rukia could have done, but at the same time, Renji sees this as the kind of relationship he wants to have with a partner. He doesn’t want to look after Rukia and protect her, he wants to fight back-to-back with her and then make out afterwards. He’s still convinced that he needs to go through the proper class channels to see Rukia again, but without their influence, I don’t think he ever would have been able to say “fuck it” and turn on his captain during the Soul Society Arc.

Meeting Ichigo and dealing with his unreasonable need to protect everyone he cares about, personally, was also a huge blow to Rukia and Renji’s “I cannot allow the other person to take any risks for my sake” hang-up. Ichigo has his own traumas, which are entirely different from Renruki’s, but the one thing he had was growing up in a loving family. (Isshin has his problems, but I feel strongly that he always made his kids feel like his love was unconditional). I’m not saying that making friends with a shounen protagonist is a good replacement for therapy, but it does have healing properties.

Entirely off-topic, but I feel like Ichigo is incredibly selfish in the way of Terry Pratchett’s witches: “All witches are selfish, the Queen had said. But Tiffany’s Third Thoughts said: Then turn selfishness into a weapon! Make all things yours! Make other lives and dreams and hopes yours! Protect them! Save them! Bring them into the sheepfold! Walk the gale for them! Keep away the wolf! My dreams! My brother! My family! My land! My world! How dare you try to take these things, because they are mine!

Where were we? Oh, yeah. I honestly think that it is unknowable when in canon Rukia and Renji confessed. I already covered this pretty thoroughly in this post. I hate the idea that they were secretly dating. Renji worked incredibly hard to get his post and I think that both his job and Byakuya’s respect are very important to him. I do not think he would put either of those things at risk like that, nor would Rukia want him to. I tend to prefer a slow-burn approached, and I honestly think they got together during the 17-mo timeskip at the earliest, and more likely post-canon entirely, although I think them confessing in the Royal Realm is the spiciest possible outcome, so that’s what most of my fanfic cleaves to.

#renruki #did tumblr increase number of characters you can have in an ask?#i was honestly surprised when i opened this one and saw how long it was

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radiantmists · 3 years

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pjo + rqg?

(send me two+ fandoms and I’ll give you some thoughts about a crossover!)

Okay, juicy! I ended up spending way longer on this than 10 minutes but I had fun...

The obvious point of meeting is the greek gods being real in both settings, but the challenge with using that approach is that the gods in PJO function as actual characters, albeit powerful ones, whereas in RQG they're very removed forces of nature. They don't have specific interests for which they give quests; they have a sort of general value set and as long as you live by that, you have their favor. And compare the glimpse of Hades we get in RQG Rome with the portrayal of him in PJO-- very different, yeah?

(at this point i got distracted by something and when i came back i didn’t remember where the above was going, so i’m just gonna leave it there to contemplate)

But! I’m now thinking about the rqg cast as demigods, and specifically the fact that Zolf is like, older, which is established in PJO as an unusual thing for demigods and especially kids of the big three. And like, his brother died in a mining accident, so maybe that was Hades or some other god trying to kill him and getting Feryn instead. And so Zolf goes to sea where he’s not constantly harassed by Hades like he would be in a mine, and miraculously survives a shipwreck (or two?), probably thanks to his powers, and maybe one of those wrecks is partially caused by a monster that’s attracted to his demigod-ness so he’s got some more self-blame attached to that, but he’s also got this weird relationship with Poseidon where he doesn’t want to be ungrateful for his own life being saved and his powers, but he also resents him for all the suffering that’s happened around him because of his heritage, and that Poseidon hadn’t shielded his family and friends at all.

So he comes on shore after his last shipwreck, having lost the leg to whatever monster there is, and he decides that now that he’s got no one he’s really attached to, he’s going to just fight some monsters. And one day he comes upon some girl getting attacked, and wades in.

Sasha in this scenario would be a child of Hermes, which I especially like because iirc children of Hermes get basically no powers, they just tend to be sneaky and have the base demigod build. She never knew her mortal parent, and instead got picked up by Barrett, who’s most likely a mortal who can see through the Mist and keeps some monsters on the payroll as well as some demigods to keep them in line. he doesn’t tell her a lot about the grander system, just makes use of her abilities. At some point she’d encountered Eldarion, who’s some kind of minor immortal, maybe a dryad or something, who plays the role of Chiron but... worse.

Sasha gets away, but out of Eldarion’s protection the monsters who work for Barrett track her down, and this is when she meets Zolf. She’s a bit leery of him at first because the other fully-adult demigods she’s met have all worked for Barret and made questionable compromises of morality in order to stay alive, but she’s starting to realize that she genuinely can’t make it on her own, so she agrees to travel with him when he asks. For his part, Zolf is like gdi I can’t believe I’m getting attached to someone again, this always ends badly, but he can hardly leave her to fend for herself either, right?

Within a fairly short window of meeting each other, maybe the same encounter actually, they come across Hamid, who has no idea about any of this myth stuff. Neither of them can figure out who his godly parent is bc he manifests some accidental fire powers, but he really doesn’t seem like any child of Hephaestus they’ve met. Zolf also really can’t leave this one to fend for himself because he has no freaking clue what’s going on and is horrified by killing monsters. He’s not sure how Hamid survived this long by himself.

So they go off together and eventually encounter Wilde, who’s mortal but the Oracle of Apollo. The idea of prophecies and fate has always vaguely infuriated Zolf, plus Wilde is still Wilde, so they don’t get off on a good note, but you also can’t ignore prophecies, so when he says he’s been guided to them and then goes all funny and vomits a poem that, when recited back to him, he scoffs at the quality of, they don’t much have a choice.

The prophecy probably involves them foiling some plot by a child of Hades, which is maybe why Hades has been so aggressive toward Zolf in the past; along the way they discover that Hamid is actually the child of a monster, specifically a dragon, which iirc is a thing in actual greek myth even if i can’t remember it coming up in PJO. (this is how he’s survived so long; monsters aren’t drawn to him bc he’s not a demigod).

hamid, i think, figures this out a bit before the rest of the group, and is very freaked out by how his friends will react to it so he keeps it secret. the secret gets blown wide open soon after they meet grizzop, who joined the hunters of artemis bc she’s cool and because immortality and is now off away from the others, tracking some monster involved in the main plot. i think when they reconvene with the hunters, one of them recognizes what hamid is, and then there’s a whole drama where the others have to deal with the revelation while also preventing him from being killed.

wilde manages to be pretty useful despite being mortal and they all get attached to their squishy poet friend, especially when the fact that he never quite asked to be an Oracle and the way it messes with him becomes clear to them.

azu is a child of aphrodite and probably comes from a place where there is a more camp half-blood claiming, group training structure, but she’s definitely the black sheep of the aphrodite group because while love is important to her, she’s really interested in fighting. when whatever oracle they have tells them an aphrodite person has to go on a quest she’s pretty universally nominated, not that she has a problem with that.

cel is a sorceror person along the lines of medea or circe but less evil; i’m not sure where exactly they fit into the plot though. ed is also definitely a child of Apollo in this, and the things with dyslexia and adhd from PJO canon definitely come into play in his backstory as the black sheep of his own family.

zolf and, to a lesser extent, sasha, tend to come into conflict with grizzop and azu who buy into the whole ‘greatness of gods’ and ‘fate’ stuff a lot more. azu starts to get somewhat disillusioned of all this as the quest goes on and she sees what being a hero actually means. zolf gets into a lot of shouting matches with poseidon, though i think in this universe it would be reparable bc poseidon is a bit more like PJO poseidon who isn’t perfect but is less of a remote dickhead.

i don’t exactly know how things resolve immediately, but an epilogue would definitely be sasha establishing a sort of school/home/camp for demigods that doesn’t push them into roles the way the ones azu and she knew tended to do, and focuses more on giving them a safe place and enough fighting skill to survive, as well as a community who understand, the way zolf helped her.

#rqg #im not gonna tag this pjo because i ended up not using the characters from it much #crossover ask game

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elyvorg · 3 years

Text

So… I was talking about aspec V3 headcanons? Well then, let me lay down the facts.

Maki Harukawa is on the aromantic spectrum. Yes, even though she explicitly develops a crush on Kaito, and no, I’m not trying to dispute that part.

This is basically canon. Let me tell you why.

Maki is aro

For this, we need to consider the conversation Maki has with Shuichi in the first training session in chapter 4, while Kaito has temporarily disappeared to the bathroom. On one level, this conversation exists to be the only actual meaningful indication* that Maki has romantic feelings for Kaito until she goes and confesses them. Someone like Maki wouldn’t care about asking Shuichi if he “liked” Kaede (in that annoying loaded meaning of the word “like” that specifically refers to romantic attraction) unless she was trying to come to terms with the idea that she also “likes” someone else in the same way, and the only plausible candidate for that is Kaito.

But even more striking about this conversation, far more so than the general implication that Maki would only bother asking this if she happened to be crushing on a certain spiky-haired space dork, is the way Maki approaches and thinks about this whole topic in general. Take a look:

Maki: “Well… I assumed you didn’t, because that would be weird. […] Liking someone you just met… especially in a situation like this…”

Shuichi: “… Then tell me… under what circumstances is liking someone *not* weird?”

Maki: “…Huh? I… don’t know. I don’t… really understand what that is.”

I, as an aromantic person myself, fully agree with Maki that it just seems weird to start romantically liking someone you’ve only just met, especially in a life-or-death situation where surely there’s way more important things to be focusing on. But apparently, most people do not find this thought weird at all – love at first sight is supposedly a real thing that can happen, and something something dangerous situations can bring out more hormones and passion???? sounds fake but okay – and so opinions like mine and Maki’s here are very much outliers.

And not only that, not only does the thought of crushing on near-strangers bewilder Maki to the point of disbelief, but she also can’t even come up with an answer to when crushing on someone would ever not be strange and bizarre. Like the whole concept is just alien to her. She can barely even wrap her head around how “liking” someone in that way even works. The very reason she’s even asking Shuichi about this is because she doesn’t understand why she’s feeling this way about Kaito.

This is how an aromantic person would view this kind of thing. It doesn’t sound even slightly like something an alloromantic person would say in this situation. That’s not up for interpretation – that’s just the truth about these views that Maki is expressing. Again: I’m aromantic. I would know.

Even from a character who then does turn out to nonetheless have a crush on someone, these statements are pretty much as canonically confirmed arospec as you can get short of them straight up using the word "aromantic" or a variant.** And, well, obviously Maki isn't about to go calling herself that. From the way she’s questioning this, she clearly doesn’t realise that her perspective is the outlier, so she’s probably never even heard of the term. Besides, she most definitely has way bigger hurdles to be getting over first in terms of her self-acceptance before she's ever going to particularly care about figuring out labels for her orientation of all things.

Aros with trauma are still aros

Now, granted, I severely doubt that Maki being arospec is what the writers intended to convey. Haha, deliberate aro representation in mainstream Japanese media, especially something more complex than vanilla aro, that's a funny joke. What the writers probably meant by writing this conversation I just discussed is to suggest that Maki is viewing things this way a result of her trauma.

But hey, guess what? Even if it is because of her trauma - and I'm not denying that it probably is - that doesn't make Maki any less aro. Some people are arospec because of trauma, and that's equally as valid a reason to be arospec as without. Maybe Maki would have grown up alloromantic if she hadn't been scouted as an assassin, but that's irrelevant, because that's not the Maki who exists now.

In writing this conversation, the writers were presumably attempting to communicate that Maki is so messed up by having been manipulated and abused and moulded into a soulless killing machine that she can no longer comprehend the idea of how or why anybody (especially not herself) would fall in love with someone when they'd only just met, or even really in any circumstances at all. …And in doing that, the writers unintentionally wrote a character who, as a result of her trauma, is aro(-spec). This is an objective fact about the canon story that does not change just because the writers probably weren’t aware enough about aromanticism to actually realise this.

Aros who feel romantic attraction are still aros

So, of course, Maki does in fact come to romantically love Kaito despite this. That fact becomes very important to her, and me lengthily explaining here that she’s actually arospec is not remotely trying to diminish that. But it’s also very important to me that people realise that Maki’s romantic love for Kaito comes from an aromantic perspective. She eventually chooses to embrace those feelings not remotely because it just feels to her like the natural way things should go, but despite every single conscious part of her insisting that this is weird and illogical and doesn’t make any goddamn sense to even be happening at all. She is not going to suddenly fall into all the boring romantic cliches and stereotypical alloromantic approaches to love just because she does in fact happen to be experiencing romantic attraction. There’s nothing alloromantic about Maki’s crush on Kaito.***

As for the specific flavour of arospec that allowed Maki to fall in love with Kaito anyway? This part is somewhat more up for interpretation because there’s no real explicit indication of this in particular, but I personally like to go with the idea that Maki is demiromantic. It feels appropriate for Maki’s character and trauma to imagine that she can only begin to potentially feel romantic things towards a person when she has an emotional connection with them – when she trusts them and knows that they trust her. It doesn’t necessarily have to take very long – she’d only been friends with Kaito for a handful of days before that telling conversation with Shuichi – and she may not even have to have consciously admitted to herself that she trusts them, but she needs to have that bond. She’s normally so guarded and has such strong automatic barriers up during her interpersonal interactions that seeing most people in a romantic light literally isn’t even an option in her brain.

Maki’s confession of her feelings for Kaito does read as rather strongly demiromantic, I think. She makes a point that this is about who Kaito is and what he’s done for her, before even getting to the part where she admits to having fallen for him. And she says she “fell for” him, not that she was always in love with him or anything to that effect. This happened somewhere along the way during their friendship, because of their friendship, and because of Kaito being his incredible trusting supportive self towards her when she needed it most.

Maki Harukawa is demiromantic, and she’s wonderful.

---

[some grumpy Amatonormativity and Aro Erasure 101 footnotes, can you tell I am bitter about this kind of thing]

(* When I say “actual meaningful indication” of romantic feelings, I mean something that isn't just the narrative infuriatingly pointing at things that are actually perfectly platonic in nature and going “ooh look how romantic~!”. Newsflash: worrying about somebody and wanting to rescue them when they're sick and injured and have been kidnapped by someone you think is an evil sadistic mastermind is not somehow proof of romantic feelings. That is a thing that friends do. And on the same note, teaching somebody how to build a crossbow is not some kind of deep metaphor for romance; it is literally just a lesson in how to build a goddamn crossbow. Maki would have done both of these things in exactly the same way if her crush on Kaito didn’t exist.)

(** It's exactly like how characters can be considered canonically confirmed same-gender-attracted when all they've done is show attraction to the same gender****, without them actually needing to explicitly refer to themselves with the word “gay”, or “lesbian”, or “bi” or whatever else. Anyone who tried to insist that was necessary in order for it to “count” would instantly be written off as homophobic. So if that’s the case, then a character explicitly saying something such as “I don’t understand what it means to like someone that way” equally constitutes them being confirmed aro, and trying to argue that it doesn’t “count” without outright hearing the word itself is, guess what…?)

(*** This also inherently means that there’s nothing straight about Maki’s crush on Kaito either, since societally-expected “straight” attraction is allo as well as hetero. I gather that some people in this fandom like to devalue and erase Maki’s crush (and potentially also Maki herself) because they feel that it’s an Obligatory Forced Straight Romance and don’t like that, or something along those lines. Well, good news! It’s literally not that, actually, because Maki isn’t straight.)

(**** …This only applies so long as it actually is very clearly romantic or sexual attraction and not just people deciding platonic affection is totally romantic thanks to the disease that is amatonormativity. Because, you know. That happens. Literally all the time. (Even from V3’s narrative itself; see footnote 1.))

#danganronpa v3 #danganronpa v3 spoilers #maki harukawa #aspec headcanons #character analysis #ramble #amatonormativity #i've always been hesitant to bring this kind of thing up much because i didn't want to ruffle anyone's feathers #but you know what? screw it #i'm aroace and i hate amatonormativity and it's about time i started showing that more on this blog #and if anyone has a problem with that then actually that sounds like their problem and not mine #(with thanks to the previous post's anon for unintentionally spurring this out of me!)

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