#like. the daddy issues of it all

[willowcrowned]

the thing about qui gon and rael is that like. rael thinks qui gon is the version of him who didn't fail, right? qui gon was the one who didn't have to kill his padawan in the end. qui gon was the one who didn't fuck up in a way that unmade him. and qui gon knows that. qui gon believes that. qui gon thinks that all that's standing between him and the utter destruction of what's left of rael is the bare fact that he wasn't the one to physically kill his padawan. rael for qui gon is a version of himself that he hates. and that's something he can't ever acknowledge

[apotelesmaa]

Raz truly is one of the funniest video game characters of all time. His ability to do platforming parkour is explained by the fact that he was raised in a circus. He’s a psychic prodigy. He thought his dad hated psychics but his dad is a psychic. He broke into a government camp in an attempt to get employed as a secret agent and it worked. He has canonically set squirrels on fire. His grandma is a former mass murderer. He’s addicted to giving people therapy and duking it out with the manifestations of their problems. He saves the day 3 times in the span of a week. He’s friends with a rat. He’s 10 years old.

[falloutnewnobody]

arcade isnt supposed to be twink hot he's supposed to be sardonic down to earth 400 level course professor who really cares about his niche course material and class of eight students despite not sleeping or feeling a positive emotion in years, tries to make sure everyone passes his class, and shows up to the 8pm lecture with two redbulls and intentions to shit talk the other four people on earth who work in his niche subfield hot

[wallissa]

One thing I love about Hughie is that he’s the main character, but in such a “y/n” way. Completely unremarkable, ordinary loser who gets dragged into a life of crime and adventure by accident and whom everyone falls in love with upon meeting him, most of the time for absolutely no reason. Butcher wants to be his manic pixie dream psycho so bad, but then also breaks his own back to protect him. Frenchie and MM would kill Butcher if it weren’t for the fact that it’d make Hughie sad. Annie is a 10000/10 and wants to spend the rest of her life singing cringy teen music with him and and easing her way into pegging him. A-Train ended up with his life hopelessly tangled with Hughie’s and can’t seem to let it go. Victoria spent her breaks sharing snacks with him, knowing he’s murdering Supes — and never stopped trusting him, to the point where she came to him when she had every reason to believe he’d want her dead. Soldier Boy literally escaped endless torture and spent 90% of his newly won freedom trying to impress Hughie by putting on a little macho man show for him. The only person who’s truly immune to Hughie and his “putting his hair in a messy bun before getting sold to 1D” charm is Homelander, who genuinely just hates him. Fascinating character design, all in all.

[charmwasjess]

Still thinking about Galidraan, about the Legends vs Canon treatment of Dooku’s character, namely his exit from the Jedi. 

It’s funny how much it matters to me and improves Dooku’s story that he didn’t leave the Jedi out of growing disillusionment with the Order itself. In the current canon, it’s all framed around a very Padme-esque disenchantment with current political makeup of the Republic, the Jedi being used by the Senate and political machines inappropriately, and how planets with little wealth or influence are left out. In the penultimate moment of crisis, he leaves for Serenno, not because he can’t be a Jedi any longer. Because of a conviction that he could truly make something better. 

And I don’t mean to suggest that he never expresses any criticism of the Jedi or particularly, the Council. He seems to have founded that characteristic trait within the Disaster Lineage. (Ironically, the person in Dooku’s story who should have the most legitimate reason to have a personal problem with the Jedi Order is fucking Sifo-Dyas, who never seems to have considered leaving and literally dies telling the camera he did it all to save the Jedi, but that’s a different post.) But that isn't what compels Dooku to leave. In fact, he remains close with the Order for years afterward.

Why it matters to me is because that detail makes Dooku ultimately betraying the Order SO MUCH MORE FUCKED. 

Because they weren’t an old score he was settling. It wasn't seething resentment that boiled out into revenge years later. They were innocent collateral damage of his decisions. His family. His lineage. His legacy. It makes his treachery so much more personal. He had a wager, power for a horrible cost, and he took the power and paid the horrible cost. Sidious really gets him with:

If Dooku hated them and had always thought they deserved to be destroyed, it wouldn’t have been a true Sith bargain, the trade off wouldn’t have tallied. In the same way that Vader could not have existed if Anakin hadn’t loved Padme and yet still killed her.

If Dooku was just a horrible, conceited, power-hungry ass who expectedly traded the kinda shitty people in his life for a shot at more power, it wouldn’t be a very good story. If he really didn’t give a shit, why would Sidious make that his initiation? But if he does - does care deeply about Sifo-Dyas, does love Qui-Gon like a son, is touched by Yaddle’s kindness and sympathy, begins to see Asajj as a true apprentice, consistently tries to save Obi-Wan out of affection, still considers the Jedi his true family - and yet still dooms them all, how much more tragic and horrible and sickening and real and interesting is his story?

[whoopsitswincest]

Okay hear me out

THIS dean -

- with THIS Sam

[emiliagrant]

Buck and Tommy ♡ flirty, kinky and in love

[poppy-metal]

just thought of being scumbag patricks pretty little girlfriend and saying you love him mid-stroke and he groans, puts a hand over your mouth because you dont mean that shit - he's gonna pretend he didn't hear it, cause hes bad for you and you falling in love with him would be fucking awful for you both - doesn't stop him from fucking you deeper though, immediately after you say it. like the words have a lasso affect and his hips crash into yours, not parting this time, just grinding his cock inside - way more intimate than he usually allows. biting his palm, wrestling your mouth from under his palm in defiance like the brat you are so you can pant and whine another breathless "i love you - i love -" he fucks you harder until the words fade out into moans. acting like his balls aren't twitching to unload inside you the moment you said those words, like its just to shut you up, the desperate slam of his hips, and not like the confession means anything.

[sexy-sapphic-sorcerer]

Adam raised a Cain

BBC Merlin, The Beginning of the End (1x08) /// Cut by Catherine Lacey /// BBC Merlin, To Kill the King (1x12) /// Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente /// BBC Merlin, The Crystal Cave (3x05) /// Someday I'll Love by Ocean Vuong /// BBC Merlin, The Witch's Quickening (2x11) /// Cassandra, Florence and the Machine /// BBC Merlin, The Coming of Arthur: Part 1 (3x12) /// The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde /// BBC Merlin, The Coming of Arthur: Part 2 (3x13) /// Adam Raised a Cain, Bruce Springsteen /// BBC Merlin, The Sword in the Stone: Part 2 (4x13)

[whetstonefires]

The reason I keep banging the Jiang Fengmian drum so hard is not that he did nothing wrong--he's definitely in contention for best parenting in this book but that bar is in the ground--but because most of the takes I see about him are so extremely bad.

If you want to slag him off for trying to make choices that would hurt no one, and winding up properly protecting no one as a result, that's valid! That's an interesting and text-based critique, which opens into his parallels with Lan Xichen!

If you want to blame him for being weirdly over-invested in Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng being bffs, that's fair, that definitely contributed to the weirdness between them. If you want to say he was a poor communicator, that he fundamentally misunderstood his son, that he failed to be emotionally available in a way his kids could get much use out of, even that he should have figured out a way to stop Yu Ziyuan from creating such a hostile environment, all of that is fair game!

If you want to tackle how the worst thing he did to his kids was die I am so interested in how Wei Wuxian went on to abandon A-Yuan by going to his death, and how that might be tied to how his primary adult role model tied him to a boat and went off to a fight he knew he was going to lose.

After his parents had already left him like that once before, presumably less intentionally.

But no, instead I keep seeing that Jiang Fengmian didn't care. That he never expressed affection. That he actively participated in Yu Ziyuan's fucky game of forcing proxy conflict onto the boys instead of constantly trying (and failing) to shut it down, or that he ignored her bad behavior because it didn't affect him, or that he fought with her constantly, or that he was too much of an unmanly coward to stand up to her when she wanted something.

All of which are directly in contradiction to every scene he's in, and several of which manage to invert or erase the actual conflicts between him and his wife that were the source of all that tension.

And which are really interesting, because some of the most intractable elements are ideological--Yu Ziyuan is fundamentally a conservative and Jiang Fengmian seems to want to be an egalitarian, which ofc matched poorly with his hereditary authority as patriarch of a large sect.

The fact that the bit where we get to actually see him failing to parent Jiang Cheng consists of him gently and firmly trying to correct Jiang Cheng's ethics when what was actually needed in that moment was reassurance for the well-founded insecurities that were causing him to be a little bitch, only for Yu Ziyuan to charge in and make everything fifty times worse, is so much more interesting than literally any version of this family dynamic I have seen in fic. It's to the point I'm relieved when writers kill Jiang Fengmian off, because it means they probably won't feel the need to character-assassinate him too badly.

The number of people I've seen come right out and say some variation of 'men can't be abused' is killing me here. No, Yu Ziyuan wanting to hurt her husband does not constitute sufficient proof that he abused her first and deserved it! That's not how anything works!

[roselookingatthemoon]

Trans!Regulus Au in which Sirius often sneaked out with Regulus to show him the stars (pre Regulus coming out).

On one of those nights, Sirius and R* are lying on their backs and look up at the sky filled with stars as they always do. Sirius laughs as he just found the Lupin constellation for the first time. "It's moony!" He says and grins to himself. R* has long forgotten the stars in favour of watching at his brother. Sirius started to grow out his hair. Soon it will reach shoulder length, just as R*'s hair. He doesn't understand, if R* could, he would cut his hair off without a second thought. He looks back up, his mouth opening and closing again and again, as he contemplates how to phrase his next words. How could he describe this lingering feeling deep inside of his chest, to his big brother?

"I think..." It came out broken, but it caught the attention of Sirius, as R* could see his brother's head turn in the corner of his eyes. His own eyes are focused on the stars in the sky. "I'm a boy." it bursts out of him. A secret he had carried in his shoulders for over a year now. He immediately bites down on his lip, afraid to say anything else.

Sirius is silent. R* doesn't dare to shift his eyes from the stars to glance at his brother. This isn't how people describe it. There's no invisible load taken off his shoulders. If anything, there seems to be more pressing down on him, hindering him to breath. R* can feel himself spiral. If not even Sirius excepts him, who will?

"I never told you this, but..." Sirius starts. His voice is calm, his eyes fixed on the night sky again. R* glances over at his brother. A small smile was playing on the older boy's lips. "I always loved Regulus way more than the star our parents named you after. It's the heart of the lion, just like Sirius is the heart of the dog. The lion may not be as cool and awesome as the dog-" Sirius laughs at this part, but instantly turns serious again "-but he is a very, very brave animal. Just like you, brother." Sirius turns his head again to catch R*'s eyes.

This time R* answers the stare as a grin, that mirrors the one on Sirius' face, tucks at his lips. "Regulus." He tests out the sound. The way the letters roll from his tongue. "Yeah, I like that." Regulus looks back up to the stars and when he finds the lion constellation, he feels like the Regulus star ist burning brighter than normally.

And that's how the one person who always was just like a parent to him (way more than his biological ones), gave Regulus his name.

[peabodyandsitcoms]

even if sitcoms are often unrealistic, they sure do hit those daddy issues right on the head every single time

[let-roman-bite-someone]

patton!janus being inexplicably hot for no reason: a thread 🐍🩵

[jeremiahthefroge]

Hey so y'all know how Garroth asks Aph if she's sure about taking in Levin? Because her duties as a lord might get in the way? Do you ever think about how he was raised? And how maybe he's looking at Levin and seeing another kid who might suffer bc his parent is too busy being important to love him, and he's afraid? Because he knows (or at least REALLY wants to believe) Aphmau wouldn't do it on purpose, but then again, part of him still wants to believe his father didn't either? And the way he IMMEDIATELY volunteers to be in Levin's life, IMMEDIATELY steps up at every occasion, gets Zoey involved, ACTIVELY SAYS THAT HE KNOWS LEVIN WILL BE SOMETHING GREAT SOMEDAY TO OTHER PEOPLE?? He's making DAMN sure that kid has people in his life, and that the kid has somebody who unapologetically is proud and enthusiastic about him. I think he's making sure no kid ever has to grow up anything like he did.

[shaylogic]

[tevanbuckley]

this might be controversial, but man am i becoming increasingly convinced that buddie trutherism* is just not (and probably never has been) a very healthy way to engage with this show. *to be clear, by this i don't mean shipping buddie, or hoping it'll be canon, or thinking that it could be, i mean the completely unshakeable belief that it is absolutely going to happen (and to a lesser extent that it's always been the plan).

every single piece of evidence for buddie is evidence of a potential, often very compelling potential, but there is really nothing to suggest some big six season plan or any plan at all.

i'm sure a lot of these ppl (maybe even most) aren't bad, or doing anything out of malice. however, i do think having a large chunk of the fandom make post after post, week after week, season after season going "don't worry guys, buddie's definitely happening because of x, y or z," has helped create the current environment. where ppl have spent so long in a bubble where buddie's been presented as the only reasonable outcome, that they can't conceive of the idea they might've been wrong.

atp a lot of buddie meta isn't a queer reading of the show/relationship it's just straight up lies. no tommy isn't a miserable hater who never smiles at his bf, nor is he a predatory freak preying on sweet baby bi buck, and no eddie wasn't jealous at the wedding, no buck didn't realise he was in love with eddie when he came out to him. truly, after a decade in different fandoms, I don't think i've ever seen shipping goggles this bad.

again i don't think the ppl making meta/analysis about things that genuinely have some queer subtext to them are bad or doing anything wrong. but, when a narrative that you're contributing to is feeding into this much wider ecosystem that's influencing others to harass ppl and peddle homophobic dog whistles in an attempt to bridge the gap between their fanon and canon, at what point do you step back and go, "you know what, i don't think it's responsible for me to feed into this anymore."

and i worry that even the people who aren't hurting others with this kind of engagement, are gonna end up hurting themselves in the long run.