#mine:meta

[jostenneil]

i genuinely HATE that so many takes on bruce are made to paint him as this entirely self righteous and thereby sort of arrogant person who thinks there is no other way and that it’s his job to be the one to fight crime bc criminals have to be taken care of or bc he’s the only one who can do it bc it just completely obscures how much of bruce’s crusade is driven by compassion and by a deep sense of empathy wherein he wants no one else to go through what he went through. he’s doing it not from a frame of reference where the criminals are the driver he’s doing it from a frame of reference where the victims matter to him and he wants to save them and he’d take all of the burdens upon himself if it just meant he could save people from being hurt. that’s what a batman comic or movie or whatever should be about, rather than repeatedly emphasizing that he’s just waging a war on crime. he’s not. he’s making a desperate attempt to save people, and there’s a difference between those two frames of thought

[deanseths]

Hi 💖 I've had this on my mind for a while but have there been moments in which Dean has been protective of Sethie? I've only seen Seth be protective of his man 😂

Hey! I’m sorry for replying kinda late but I had to watch a bunch of videos to find some protective!Dean moments to show you :)

Let’s start with the obvious:

- Dean, after that Seth saved him for the first time from Miz and the Miztourage, returns him the favour at the end of the same night, and the way he stands fiercely on the ropes as a shield (no pun intended lmao) between Seth and their enemies is definitely Very Protective™ imho;

- Also, during their first handicap tag team match against them, Dean spots Bo kicking Seth while not being noticed by the ref, and his reaction is to get immediately in the ring to save him from the cheater;

- No need to remember what this one is from, but during the night they finally put their fists together, one minute earlier they were literally punching each other in the ring; yet, as soon as Cesaro and Sheamus attack Seth, the camera shifts on Dean seeing red and running immediately to Seth’s rescue, jumping on them as a rabid dog… u know, ‘I’m allowed to hate this guy, but you’re not’ ;)

- At the end of their first match as champs against the Hardy Boyz, Dean crawls to Seth to hug him and to be sure he is ok;

- Seth vs Cesaro: Sheamus and Dean are ringside to support their partners, and as soon as Sheamus tries to take advantage of Seth, Dean is there to remind him that THERE’S NO WAY HE’S GONNA TOUCH BAE lmao

- At the end of Ambrose/Rollins/Styles vs Miz/Cesaro/Sheamus, Kane makes an appearance: Dean’s instinctive reaction is to reach Seth as to tell him NO WORRIES BABE HE AINT DRAGGING U TO HELL AGAIN IM HERE WITH U

- Last but not least, their match in team with Jason Jordan against Sheamus, Cesaro and Samoa Joe: in the first gif Dean suddenly reaches Seth staying alone on the ring, as to say ‘NAH U AINT ATTACKING HIM JUST IN CASE U WERE THINKING ABOUT IT’, while in the second one he knocks out Joe who was going straight to kill Seff, and is immediately onto him to check if he’s okay…

Well, I found these segments in my ‘ambrollins trash’ video folder but I’m sure there have been other protective!Dean moments that I haven’t featured! Hope this helped u ♡

[qveenofthorns]

Brave, gentle, strong: there is only one (no really—I checked)

“When you’re old enough, I will make you a match with a high lord who’s worthy of you, someone brave and gentle and strong.” – Eddard Stark, Sansa III, AGOT

I’ve seen a lot of metas about textual evidence for Sandor being the BGS That Was Promised™, and I started wondering if there are any other candidates. What if we’re all so ~blinded~ by our ship that we missed something else right in front of us? I used A Search of Ice and Fire to check every single Sansa/Alayne chapter for these words (and variations of them) to see if she thinks of anyone else using all of these terms.  

Here are all of the of the uses sorted by character/chronologically (excluding the times she tells Sweetrobin that he’s brave and strong or she tells herself to be brave like Robb):

Joffrey

1. “It was a great honor to ride with the queen, and besides, Prince Joffrey might be there. Her betrothed. Just thinking it made her feel a strange fluttering inside, even though they were not to marry for years and years. Sansa did not really know Joffrey yet, but she was already in love with him. He was all she ever dreamt her prince should be, tall and handsome and strong, with hair like gold.” Sansa I, AGOT

Okay, so I think we can discount this one given the context of Ned’s “brave and gentle and strong” quote, but I really wanted to cover all the bases. It’s also a pretty superficial assessment, moulding him to fit the part in which she’s cast him based on the songs.

Barristan Selmy

1. “One knight wore an intricate suit of white enameled scales, brilliant as a field of new-fallen snow, with silver chasings and clasps that glittered in the sun. When he removed his helm, Sansa saw that he was an old man with hair as pale as his armor, yet he seemed strong and graceful for all that. From his shoulders hung the pure white cloak of the Kingsguard.” Sansa I, AGOT

This one is also an extremely obvious no, though it is still interesting. Despite being old, he seems like a knight from the songs and we see the Kingsguard cloak for the first time in a Sansa POV.  

Sandor

1. “She stepped backward and bumped into someone. Strong hands grasped her by the shoulders, and for a moment Sansa thought it was her father, but when she turned, it was the burned face of Sandor Clegane looking down at her, his mouth twisted in a terrible mockery of a smile.” Sansa I, AGOT

This is after she first sees Ser Ilyn Payne, whom she finds terrifying. Her initial response to Sandor’s touch is positive and this won’t be the last time she backs into him when she’s afraid.

2. “Sandor Clegane scooped her up around the waist and lifted her off the featherbed as she struggled feebly. Her blanket fell to the floor. Underneath she only had a thin bed gown to cover her nakedness. ‘Do as you’re bid, child,’ Clegane said. ‘Dress.’ He pushed her toward her wardrobe, almost gently.” Sansa VI, AGOT

This is the first BGS occurrence since her conversation with Ned. She’s depressed and suicidal and hasn’t bathed in who-knows-how-long after his death. Joffrey has demanded she get dressed and bathe or else “his Hound” will do it for her. She still asks that Joff leave her alone and doesn’t move, at which point he orders Sandor to get her out of bed.

3. “‘Here, girl.’ Sandor Clegane knelt before her, between her and Joffrey. With a delicacy surprising in such a big man, he dabbed at the blood welling from her broken lip.” Sansa VI, AGOT

Not only is he being gentle with her here, he also just prevented her from committing a murder/suicide.

4. “‘True knights,’ he mocked. ‘And I’m no lord, no more than I’m a knight. Do I need to beat that into you?’ Clegane reeled and almost fell. ‘Gods,’ he swore, ‘too much wine. Do you like wine, little bird? True wine? A flagon of sour red, dark as blood, all a man needs. Or a woman.’ He laughed, shook his head. ‘Drunk as a dog, damn me. You come now. Back to your cage, little bird. I’ll take you there. Keep you safe for the king.’ The Hound gave her a push, oddly gentle, and followed her down the steps. By the time they reached the bottom, he had lapsed into a brooding silence, as if he had forgotten she was there.” Sansa II, ACOK

The serpentine encounter is the perfect example of the walking, talking dichotomy that is Sandor Clegane. “Iron fingers” catch her wrist and prevent her from falling down the steps and he makes a joke about how she’s trying to kill them both (something to consider for the future, Sandor: you’re the one lurching out of hidden doorways in the middle of the night, so maybe that’s part of the problem). She says he’s hurting her but he doesn’t let go of her wrist. Then he makes some inappropriate comments about her body and asks her to sing him a song about knights and fair maidens (because he’s a closet sappy romantic like that) because she likes knights. She says she likes true knights and then we come in at the quote. So we go from scary drunk who’s holding her wrist too tight and coming on to her sexually (the only time he ever does) to immediately realizing he’s way out of line, going back to gentle touches and promises to keep her safe. He also lies to protect her from Boros Blount on the very next page. I think it’s fairly safe to say his brooding is primarily about two things: kicking himself over how he just acted, and the “keep you safe for the king” part (he knows Joff well enough to realize that the king is the biggest threat to her safety). In a Daenerys ACOK chapter, she says of Jorah, “Sometimes he thinks of me as a child he must protect, and sometimes as a woman he would like to bed….” I reread that chapter the other day and couldn’t help but think of SanSan and this scene in particular.  

5. “The Hound pulled her to her feet, not ungently.” Sansa III, ACOK

This is at the beginning of the scene where she’s beaten and stripped by Boros Blount. While he’s gentle with her in that moment and does tell Joffrey to stop later, his inaction on this occasion is the biggest regret of his life and he cries about it on his “deathbed.”

6. “A stab went through her, so sharp that Sansa sobbed and clutched at her belly. She might have fallen, but a shadow moved suddenly, and strong fingers grabbed her arm and steadied her.” Sansa IV, ACOK

Okay, so I’m kind of convinced that Sandor spends all of his free time stalking her (because he doesn’t know how to handle the fact that he has positive feelings for another human being?). He’s always lurking in shadows, only to pop out to save her from falling. How often does he hide in the shadows near her that we just never see?

7. “She made herself look at that face now, really look. It was only courteous, and a lady must never forget her courtesies. The scars were not the worst part, nor even the way his mouth twitches. It’s his eyes. She had never seen eyes so full of anger. ‘I… I should have come to you after,’ she said haltingly. ‘To thank you, for… for saving me… you were so brave.’” Sansa IV, ACOK

Ugh, I just have so many feels about this interaction. Between these two quotes, Sandor bb gets sad because she’s scared of him and “still can’t bear to look,” so he lashes out. “He is a dog, just as he says. A half-wild, mean-tempered dog that bites any hand that tries to pet him, and yet will savage any man who tries to hurt his master.” Yes, because he is an ABUSED dog and no one has every tried to pet him before so he’s getting very confused. I’m getting side-tracked by the feels so I’ll stop myself here.

8. “Of late Ser Osmund had taken Sandor Clegane’s place by Joffrey’s side, and Sansa had heard the women at the washing well saying that he was as strong as the Hound, only younger and faster. If that was so, she wondered why she had never once heard of these Kettleblacks before Ser Osmund was named to the Kingsguard.” Sansa VI, ACOK

I considered also including this under the Kettleblacks, but decided against it because she’s not the one saying they’re strong. Her attitude here feels similar to her attitude during the first unkiss mention (“these other girls/women are so silly—I have the Hound and what they have is inferior”).

9. “He yanked her closer, and for a moment she thought he meant to kiss her. He was too strong to fight. She closed her eyes, wanting it to be over, but nothing happened.” Sansa VII, ACOK

This one typically gets left out because it doesn’t exactly portray him in a positive light, but I’m trying to include everything, good and bad. I have some thoughts on this re: the unkiss, but this isn’t the place for that. Short version: it would have been very easy for GRRM to write something like “she wished he wouldn’t,” but instead he wrote “wanting it to be over.” I’m not saying she wanted him to kiss her in that moment, but she didn’t not want him to kiss her either (or it could be a “just get it over with” scenario).

Tyrion

1. “Sansa watched him walk off, his body swaying heavily from side to side, like something from a grotesquerie. He speaks more gently than Joffrey, she thought, but the queen spoke to me gently too. He’s still a Lannister, her brother and Joff’s uncle, and no friend. Once she had loved Prince Joffrey with all her heart, and admired and trusted his mother, the queen. They had repaid that love and trust with her father’s head. Sansa would never make that mistake again.” Sansa I, ACOK

“More gently than Joffrey” is a pretty low bar. Overall, not a very glowing review of Tyrion: he’s not a monster, but he’s grotesque, can’t be trusted, and could turn into a monster later.

Osmund Kettleblack

1. “Sansa tried to run, but Cersei’s handmaiden caught her before she’d gone a yard. Ser Meryn Trant gave her a look that made her cringe, but Kettleblack touched her almost gently and said, “Do as you’re told, sweetling, it won’t be so bad. Wolves are supposed to be brave, aren’t they?” Sansa III, ASOS  

If you didn’t have déjà vu while reading this, something is wrong because this is almost EXACTLY the same as a Sandor moment included on this list. (“‘Do as you’re bid, child,’ Clegane said. ‘Dress.’ He pushed her toward her wardrobe, almost gently.”) HOWEVER, I don’t think Sandor would have been so chill in this particular situation. This is as she’s being dragged off to marry Tyrion and seeing as finding out Sansa had married Tyrion made Sandor suicidal, well, that’s a thought for another day. Between this and Sandor #8, I feel like there’s potential for a SanSan meta solely comparing Sandor and the Kettleblacks. (Someone else please write that—I’m only even doing this because I have mild writer’s block on a fic and needed a break.)

Ser Dontos

1. “‘Not far.’ Ser Dontos took her hand in his own and rubbed it gently. “Your friend is near, waiting for you.’” Sansa V, ASOS

This is while she and Dontos are escaping after Joffrey’s murder. It’s mentioned that they take the serpentine steps at one point. See Sandor #4 for another important interaction there.

Petyr Baelish

1. “He saved Alayne, his daughter, a voice within her whispered. But she was Sansa too… and sometimes it seemed to her that the Lord Protector was two people as well. He was Petyr, her protector, warm and funny and gentle… but he was also Littlefinger, the lord she’d known at King’s Landing, smiling slyly and stroking his beard as he whispered in Queen Cersei’s ear. And Littlefinger was no friend of hers. When Joff had her beaten, the Imp defended her, not Littlefinger. When the mob sought to rape her, the Hound carried her to safety, not Littlefinger. When the Lannisters we’d her to Tyrion against her will, Ser Garlan the Gallant gave her comfort, not Littlefinger. Littlefinger never lifted so much as his little finger for her.” Sansa I, AFFC

Wow, so there’s a lot to unpack here but most of it isn’t relevant to this post. However, this is one of the many times she compares Sandor favorably to other men.

2. “‘Forgive her, my lords,’ Petyr Baelish said softly. ‘She still has nightmares of that day. Small wonder if she cannot bear to speak of it.’ He came up behind her and put his hands gently on her shoulders. ‘I know how hard this is for you, Alayne, but our friends must hear the truth.’ Her throat felt so dry and tight it almost hurt to speak.” Sansa I, AFFC

I see two SanSan parallels in this brief passage. Putting his hands on her shoulders from behind reminds me of her first interaction with Sandor and her throat hasn’t been “dry and tight” since the Blackwater. All of the language in the Blackwater scene is highly sexual, but here, those are the only words that stand out and I only noticed them because they’ve been used before.

Lothor Brune

1. “Sober, he was a quiet man, but a strong one. And Petyr says he’s loyal.” Alayne II, AFFC

The only thing I’ll say about Lothor is that Sansa also compares him to Sandor/he triggers memories about Sandor (ex: the incident with Marillion where she thinks it might be the Hound saving her for a moment before she realizes that’s impossible).

Here’s a chart for the visual learners

Conclusion: Sandor is the only man worthy of Sansa, as per her father’s parameters

While, just like Sansa, “I knew the Hound would win,” I didn’t expect the results to be this conclusive. He hits all three points while no one else scores above a two. SANDOR BB IS THE ONLY ONE WHO MEETS MORE THAN ONE CRITERIA. SHE NEVER DESCRIBES ANOTHER MAN AS BRAVE. NOT ONCE. ONLY HIM. She talks about brave men in general, but he is the only specific man she ever calls brave.* And it’s not internal monologue like all of the other instances I’ve outlined—she’s saying it aloud, thanking him to his face. And it’s also worth noting that several of the occasions she describes another man as gentle or strong are callbacks to interactions with Sandor. Knowing GRRM, there’s no way that’s an accident. So SanSan is endgame or GRRM is the world’s biggest troll. Either way, my heart hurts.

*While bravery only shows up once in this analysis, Sansa does frequently describe women (herself included) as being brave and also reminds herself to be brave a lot (that whole weird thing where GRRM writes female characters like actual people instead of accessories to the men in their lives).

[antthonystark]

what hp houses would you put the the mains in?

YES MY FAVOURITE TOPIC

they way i generally define who to put in what house is the trait that not only characterizes them the most, but the traits that they value the most (because let’s be real, they’re all brave and smart and loyal to an extent you know) so bearing that in mind 

honestly it’s so hard b/c i keep changing my mind but one thing i’m beyond certain of is hufflepuff!alec like that boy is the badgeriest badger that ever did exist and i wrote a long ass post about it here and while that was a while age i still stand by 90% of it alec is definitely a hufflepuff (read that post im not repeating myself but it’ll convince you i bet)

i usually put jace and clary both in gryffindor (i think clary has slyth elements though, and i think jace is a strong 40% hufflepuff too) i think the conversation that they had in one of the recent episodes exemplifies why, the one where clary says “i’m tired of being afraid” or something to that effect. i think they’ve both lost things and felt lonely and afraid, and so i think bravery and valour are not just traits that they both exemplify but that they strongly value as well (and lbr both are hot-headed and impulsive as fuck)

simon to me is also a hufflepuff, because again i think he prides himself on being there for people and being loyal, whether it be to his friends or his family or his people - like i definitely think he has gryffindor and ravenclaw elements as well, and he’s honestly one of the hardest ones to sort for me. but if there’s any character in the show that exemplifies “true and unafraid of toil” i think it’s simon tbh

i also put both luke and izzy tentatively in ravenclaw. for luke it’s because i think his experiences and his leadership give him the trait of wisdom and understanding and intelligence that kind of defines his character - but i think its loyalty that he values more as a person than for example wittiness/creativity. and the “earth element” stuff from my meta on alec as a hufflepuff also applies to luke, so i think im 50/50 on luke being ravenclaw or hufflepuff, but honestly bravery applies to him in the same way it does jace/clary but the reason why he resists gryffindor to me is because of the lack of the flipside of gryffs, which is that hotheaded impulsivity that he doesn’t have 

izzy, i think, is ravenclaw because she’s not only super intelligent and quick-witted, but i think it’s something that she prides herself for and something that’s important to her, because we see how she’s put down by her mother throughout the series as being “lesser” than alec or not good enough because she’s not as obedient etc. so i think colouring outside the lines and thinking outside the box is something that ravenclaws tend to proud of - plus i think isabelle would hold on to her intelligence as proof that she is good enough, so that’s something that she would value. but definitely at least like 20% gryff to me, and some part hufflepuff because of her loyalty and fierce protectiveness of her family 

and then…….there’s magnus….who i have The Most difficulty sorting. i’ve put him in slytherin before, because he’s definitely extremely cunning and intelligent in a very slytherin-y way, and moreover as someone who has faced the amount of adversity in his life to reach the level of prestige and power he has now, i feel like that ambition towards greatness that he has aspired towards and achieved is something that would be important to him. but at the same time, i don’t think he’s an “any means to achieve an end” sort of character either, ya know? i think he also strongly values and embodies the ravenclaw traits of originality, creativity, and individualism, and hatred for ignorance and close-mindedness. there’s this quote i read about ravenclaws vs. slytherins which i quoted here, which says that  “[Slytherins] enjoy elegance and refinement, along with mystery. Where Ravenclaws want to explore mysteries and shed light on them, Slytherins want to be the mystery: great and prominent, but distant from the masses.” which puts me more over the fence for slyth!magnus,  but for me it’s really between slytherin and ravenclaw for him. 

[tooriu]

viktor nikiforov who, at the age of sixteen, was already so good at skating that he was the best in the world. who felt like he needed to hide behind masks in order to make other people happy. who was so used to giving bits and pieces of himself away to the world in his skating that he didn’t know who he was anymore. who had to ask yuuri who he wanted viktor to be, because he felt like being himself wasn’t enough.

[noelacciari]

okay so I’ve been thinking about this (and avoiding tumblr, because discourse gives me anxiety and I just want to be happy)

So because of Shitty’s comments about Jack having a girlfriend and Ransom and Holster always talking about puck bunnies, we all assumed that they did not know, and were being heteronormative bros.

However - if I were friends with Jack Zimmermann, the boy who was famous before he even made it to the NHL, I might have acted the same way. Even if Shitty might have thought that Jack could like boys just like he likes girls, it’s not his place to put that label onto Jack without Jack saying anything to him. Especially since Shitty is known to have people coming out to him all the time. So Jack didn’t tell him, and just because Jack looks at Bitty with soft eyes doesn’t mean that Shitty can decide he might be something other than straight. On top of that, at the kegster, Shitty could have used gender neutral language, sure - that would have been the preferred choice. BUT if he had said “boyfriend” after or instead of girlfriend... Can you imagine what would have happened in a haus full of bros/ kegster attendees??? He could not say something like that in front of a group of people!!! Worst case scenario, someone takes it seriously and he outed Jack without permission. Less worse case - people laugh, go all no homo about it, and make jokes about man’s man Jack Zimmermann having a boyfriend. While Jack Zimmermann’s actual boyfriend - the wonderful Eric Bittle, is standing right there. That would have been Very Bad. (and by people I mean party goers outside of our core SMH group. The boys we know and love would probably not make joke like that... but then again they are college hockey players. Have you met any college jocks lately???).

The same goes for Ransom and Holster. In public (or anywhere someone other than themselves could overhear), I don’t think they would ever talk about Jack liking boys. They know all about the Jack and Parse rumors (they read the fanfiction HELLO), and are most likely all too aware how catastrophic Jack being outed could be to his career, especially before he is ready. So maybe they play up the puck bunny thing in public, just to make sure no one else ever suspects what they suspect. 

So they all suspect something is going on with Jack and Bitty, but they don’t want to assume anything, because that would make them look like even bigger assholes. (What if Bitty is just pining for Jack? What if Bitty has a secret bf that isn’t Jack? What if Jack really is straight as an arrow and him and Bitty are just bros?) The boys + Lardo figure out they are all on the same page after they catch each other sharing looks when Bitty gives some weird excuses to go to his room and skype his “Mama”. They make the bets to try and lighten up the situation, because these are their very best friends they’re talking about and for the first time something as happy as being in love is also downright scary. So they place their bets and they share looks whenever Bitty or Jack do/say something suspicious, and they wait until the day that Bitty and Jack decide to tell them on their own. 

[jostenneil]

it’s that time of month where i terrorize you all with agonizing twitter threads on all the potential that could have been

[jostenneil]

i think something writers really need to touch on with dick is how like. his expectation that he has to be batman should bruce ever die is not only something that hinders himself but also hinders the other members of the family bc it doesn’t allow them to step into roles they would otherwise want were he not so deeply embedded within his own obligations to bruce. like even bruce doesn’t want dick to have to be batman. i don’t even think bruce (pre dixon era) expects dick to remain forever committed to gotham and the fact that gotham’s collective of heroes expands well beyond what it just used to be in the form of bruce and dick should provide all the more reason for dick to let go. someone needs to look dick in the eye and tell him they have it covered and that he can do what he wants without feeling guilty about it, not just when it comes to the batman mantle but also just when it comes to the expectations and standards he ingrains in himself as a result of how he was brought up, so he can finally, truly move on. he’s just going to keep eating himself alive under the burden of expectations if no one does

[jostenneil]

the depth of the stupidity that surrounds hohenheim as a character genuinely infuriates me you have idiots asking why he didn’t come back for trisha’s funeral or why he neglected his family and let trisha suffer alone as if the reason he left in the first place wasn’t to save the world so he could live with his family happily bc he finally found meaning in living and as if this wasn’t the early 1900s and the part of the countryside that the elrics lived in was shown to be industrially stunted and near cut off from the rest of amestris due to the war to the point communication with other cities was more or less nonexistent like who was going to tell him trisha died who was going to be able to reach him when he was traveling all over the country trying to get everything in place as quickly as possible how was he supposed to predict that a plague would sweep the town and she’d die like there’s no brains in this fandom NONE

[jostenneil]

dick and bruce post-jason are so interesting bc dick goes out of his way to be more emotionally available to the robins that come after assumably as a sort of penance for not being there enough when jason was alive whereas bruce rarely if ever opens up the part of himself that was soft and smiling before jason died and loses grasp on what it was like to try to be a father who loves his children and knew how to show it

[jostenneil]

[crazed gesturing to “well i enjoy critical analysis and being a hater” meme]

[jostenneil]

i can’t believe talia and kory have never interacted i’ll literally eat a chair like both young women who were used by members of their family to larger ends and as a result vested a lot of their own self worth in the concept of usefulness and family loyalty until they met men who were kind and loving but also somewhat alien to their unique brand of trauma and baggage to the point that eventually both relationships fell apart after an abruptly cut off marriage despite the love that persisted in between and both scenarios doing a drastic number on either woman’s self esteem to the point that each realized she had to be able to make it on her own and be able to prioritize her own importance and agency no matter how much she loved her beloved and believed he was her soulmate like i’ll throw myself in front of a bus

[jostenneil]

lex corp era is so much fun bc it really gets down to the root of how talia is someone capable of doing things that bruce and clark just can’t, and it thereby becomes the quintessential display of her anti heroism. bruce and clark can’t just embed themselves within this fascist war machine the way that she does, they can’t just sit there and plot and wait for all of the threads to come together meanwhile it eats away at their core having to be a part of something so fundamentally evil and engorging upon the good of the world. but talia understands that necessity, knows that the opening of being given the ceo position provides the opportunity of a lifetime to take down and dismantle someone truly vile, and she accepts the burden. she’s familiar with playing the part of a cog to a machine and knowing that some evils can only be defeated from within, and she leans on and adapts that personal experience to her current situation marvelously. it’s something that only she can do bc who else knows this kind of playing ground better and who else is going to be willing to steep themselves in filth to ultimately wash the world clean. the daughter of the demon. talia al ghul

[jostenneil]

brutalia is a ship where the more i think about it it really does make me want to push bruce down a flight of stairs because there’s SO much baggage that he leaves talia with to process all on her own but at the same time i will still have these moments where i think about how bruce inspired talia to be brave and take the chance to go against her father to pursue good bc she always had it in her and i think about how talia inspired bruce to not give up on humanity or himself and to always believe he has the capacity to enact positive change and like yeah they make me psycho i can’t believe their whole history is mired in so much tragedy and loss but at the core they’re just two people who inspire each other to be the best version of themselves like ok. okkkkkk. i’m Fine

[jostenneil]

the coolest thing about bart is the irony in his personality bc he’s called impulse due to the whole single synapse theory with translating thought to immediate action and on the surface that paints him as being pretty impulsive but he’s actually a very simple, smart, and subtle person. he’s not super outgoing so much as he is bored by the world that surrounds him, so after some outbursts he loses himself in thought often and that gives way to this side of him that does think and ponder and reflect, which i feel like is rly comforting for neurodivergent readers who are treated as if their behavioral patterns are otherwise abnormal or inconclusive. it’s so nice to have a character who isn’t ostracized by the narrative for his thought process and who we get to see be insightful and endearing in his own, unique way. i love him so so much

[jostenneil]

so i wanted to make a more in-depth post with manga panels to kind of build up my defense of why i think hohenheim is really harshly misjudged by the fandom at the large. this isn’t to say i think all of his choices were pristine or free of criticism, but i think people tend to not give him the benefit of the doubt where it ought to be due because they’re often analyzing his character exclusively from ed’s pov rather from the pov of an eventually omniscient audience, and each lens builds a very different analysis and picture of his character (+ as someone mentioned, there are pretty distinct differences in between the way the anime adaptations portray him and the way the manga portrays him). essayed rambling under the cut 

when hohenheim leaves resembool, ed and al are more or less toddlers. it’s expected that their memories of him are severely obscured and that, esp in ed’s case, this is going to impact how hohenheim is viewed by them, regardless of whatever his reasons are for leaving. ed is supposed to be an unreliable narrator to an extent bc he’s operating purely off of obscurity of information and projected grief and frustration, and that’s normal. he was a child when all of this happened, and he can’t be expected to feel completely rational about it. but the thing is, a defense of hohenheim isn’t meant to somehow criticize ed - not even the manga tries to do that. on multiple occasions, hohenheim expresses regret and apologizes to others for not being able to fulfill his duties as a parent 

where i think people tend to go astray in their assignment of blame to hohenheim is in the details of how much he did or didn’t know about what happened to trisha (and then the kids) before finally returning to resembool ten years later, and his responsibility or fault as a parent by way of that. trisha is hardly into her twenties when hohenheim leaves, and she theoretically has her whole life ahead of her. she and hohenheim even make a promise to each other to grow old and die together, so she knows he’s supposed to come back and is never operating under the assumption that he won’t. she just knows it’ll take time. what hohenheim is unable to account for is the sickness that passes through town soon after and takes trisha’s life, and additionally the fact that no one knows how to reach him to let him know. resembool is a small farming town out in the middle of nowhere. the news of a woman dying of illness isn’t something worthy of being projected all across the country to the point that hohenheim might actually hear of it 

additionally, trisha dies in 1904 (according to brotherhood, at least, we aren’t given a specific year in the manga and can only operate off of her having died sometime shortly before the conclusion to the ishvalan war in 1908), and not much happens for five or so years afterward. izumi takes on ed and al as apprentices shortly before the war ends, and the brothers attempt to resurrect their mother sometime after january 1910, according to a photo of them as normal children in one of pinako’s photo albums. mustang visits them shortly thereafter, and ed recovers for a year before applying to become a state alchemist. there’s another photo in one of the albums that shows he receives the watch in october 1911, so at best, he’s been a state alchemist for three years or less before the events of the main story begin. i also think it’s worthy of note that ed initially gives false information to the amestrian military personnel with regards to his automail. he tells them he has it as a result of the ishvalan war. obv, there’s other personnel he and al meet as the story progresses who learn the truth about what they did, but it’s not some publicly known fact, and strangers they meet are surprised and shocked if or when ed and al divulge the story to them 

with all this in mind, hohenheim returns to resembool maybe three years since ed takes upon his state alchemist duties. there’s nothing out of the ordinary about his demeanor as he returns, until he walks to where his house is supposed to be to see that it’s no longer there, and he goes to pinako’s house in confusion. he and ed reunite in the following chapter at trisha’s grave, and hohenheim mumbles about trisha and their promise in a daze as ed rages about him. we also find out that pinako told him about ed and al performing human transmutation. so most explicitly, we learn through this scene that he had no idea of what his sons had done while he was gone (aside from ed becoming a state alchemist), and implicitly, there’s also an impression given that in addition to not expecting to see his house burned down, he didn’t expect to learn that trisha had died either. remember, she was hardly into her twenties when he left. thirty wasn’t an unrealistic age for a healthy person to live to and he always expected he would come back to her and they would resume their lives together. maybe one can argue that he did find out somehow by word of mouth in central city, but why would the public at large be concerned with whether the fullmetal alchemist had a mother or not?  

additionally, what i dislike about brotherhood’s portrayal of hohenheim’s return is that it obscures a lot of the conversations he has with both ed and pinako. he’s painted to be far more aloof and bordering on cold in the anime (and admittedly that works for an ed-based perspective of the scene, bc he’s not working off of all of the facts), but in the manga he’s awkward, lost, confused, and remorseful. even the way the final part of this conversation with ed is portrayed is a bit different in the manga bc of hohenheim’s wording. obv from ed’s perspective hohenheim’s analysis of his reasons for burning down the house is an attack on his and al’s wrongs, but taking into account what we know about the series and hohenheim’s backstory as a whole, it’s later easy to see that hohenheim is expressing regret and sorrow bc he knows exactly what ed feels like from personal experience. he’s not trying to chide ed or make him feel bad. he just understands him deeply and is sorry and confused that ed and al had to go through something of this magnitude

later with pinako, hohenheim also wonders why no one guided them otherwise, and it’s at this point that she criticizes him for failing to contact ed and al over the years that he was gone. i wholeheartedly believe she’s right to criticize him, esp since, like ed, she’s operating from a pov that doesn’t account for the fact trisha knew more about hohenheim’s reasons for leaving than she did; but i do think people nonetheless tend to approach the circumstances around hohenheim returning from a bit of a narrowed perspective. we already know per hohenheim and trisha’s promise that she always expected him to come back and knew she simply had to wait. did ed and al know that, though, or could she have predicted she would have died before hohenheim returned? no, and that’s not the kids’ fault. but i also think people fail to take into account that there’s not a lot hohenheim could have told a pair of kids who weren’t even ten years old about needing to be away from home because he needed to prepare for the day a homunculus would swallow their country whole. there’s a clever reference to what happened in xerxes in one of the books ed and al study as they try to learn how to bring back trisha, and they dismiss the story as a fairytale, with ed reasoning human transmutation is forbidden simply bc no one knows how to do it. there’s also the conversation between al and hohenheim later in the manga where hohenheim reveals his backstory and comments that he’d seriously doubt the sanity of anyone who'd so blindly believe him after his prolonged absence, but al expresses that it’s a truth easier for him to accept bc of his own condition. ed accepts it, too, but he’s clearly rattled by it all  

i think a lot of people take for granted whether a pre-human transmutation ed and al would have believed hohenheim even if he’d tried to divulge the truth to them at that age. at worst, it would sound like a ridiculous excuse to get away, and at best, they would still grow up feeling largely abandoned even if they somehow managed to understand that he had a responsibility. i don’t mean to say that all of these abnormal circumstances somehow give hohenheim total grace. he’s made mistakes in parenting, he knows it, he faces criticism from the ones that it’s hit the hardest, and he makes conscious attempts to rectify what wrongs he can. but i also think people sort of blindly assume that he immediately knew about trisha dying and the boys needing him in the aftermath of that, or that him calling in a few times would have solved all problems when he ultimately needed to be on the move constantly to prepare for the promised day in time. hohenheim was housing a little more than half a million souls that he had to steadily deposit around the country, and preparing for and executing that took him countless years. hohenheim and trisha made a promise to each other and it was painful, obv, but it was one they committed to and that neither of them expected to be broken so soon. hohenheim had faith in trisha that she would raise the boys properly until he returned, and she took upon that burden knowing what he had to do and that he would return to her. outside circumstances unfortunately damned them to their fates, and that’s where the series has its foundations

i agree with most people that it’s inaccurate to say hohenheim was a perfect parent, but at the same time, i don’t think being a good parent and being a perfect (or near perfect) parent are quite the same thing. to me, it’s not just about whether you’re there for your children physically but about what you do for them in principle. if he wanted to, hohenheim could have stayed home and damned not just another country (of fifty million people, as mustang later states, versus xerxes’s approximate one million population) but his own family to eternal purgatory and agony within the conjured body of a self-made god. but the truth is that hohenheim loved his family enough to do the difficult thing, and he decided to suffer a few more years so that he could live happily with them forever. his commitment to that endeavor, to me, was the ultimate representation of his desire to commit to his family and overcome his fears about being a monster unworthy of raising them. and ultimately, it didn’t work out exactly as he’d hoped, but it’s the fact that everything he did was for his family that gets to me and that i think people are all too willing to ignore in their assessment of him, in addition to people acting like just bc ed thinks one way, we, the omniscient audience, have to think the same way as well. ed is all of justified in his anger, and it’s unfair that he and al had to suffer through what they did, but i don’t think it’s farfetched to say he eventually would have understood why hohenheim made the sacrifices he did, and that his intentions were earnest, even if the outcomes were traumatic. sometimes that’s just the way life is, and we have to have the courage to move forward in the face of that adversity and strife. it’s the ultimate message of the series, and i think it’s one that applies as aptly to hohenheim as it does to ed himself