#relationships-between-statements

[thepersonalwords]

Statements don't exist by themselves. Just like people, they are in relationship with one another.

Patty Houser, A Woman's Guide to Knowing What You Believe: How to Love God With Your Heart and Your Mind

[vivitalks]

i'm sure this post has been made before but the "the list of people i trust and things i believe is down to no one and nothing" to "i trust angus mcdonald entirely" journey that taako takes in the span of roughly one in-fiction hour during lunar interlude reunion tour is so important to me. adventuring partners and friends who have saved his bacon more times than he can count? nah fuck em. organization that has protected him and given him a purpose and fresh start? new stone of farspeech who dis. this nerdy ass boy detective? "angus i trust you implicitly and here's the 100% exact truth as we understand it"

[meteortrails]

Every Day I think about the tension between okarun and jiji after momo almost gets got by the evil eye. like there are so many scenes immediately following that where nothing is even said or really indicated but the vibe shift between them is PALPABLE. and it’s so interesting to me bc we as the reader know that from okarun’s side this is in large part bc he’s beating himself up about how he needs to be stronger to be a better guard dog, but none of this ever really gets made clear to jiji so he just sees his crush hurt at his hands and one of his best friends gone distant in the aftermath. and the added dimension of the momo of it all really fascinates me bc like, it also ends up kind of being this moment where it becomes sort of obvious that momo will almost always come first for okarun in a lot of ways. like you can just feel how in these moments jiji feels like an outsider looking in at the two of them, and how that hurts him.

[smartzelda]

Sorry guys I gotta speak my truth on this one

I'm not kidding when I say that I think that blaming shit media literacy from fans on shipping/shippers avoids the actual root of the problem to throw people you can easily throw under the bus (simply because it's not unpopular to consider people who post about ships or ship characters in media as having lesser or derivative tastes by default)

And here's why.

I think when you blame people who are "shippers" or "consume media through shipping lenses", the true root of it all is a mindset problem.

In actually, putting on shipping lenses can be helpful when trying to analyze a piece of media. When analyzing media you're supposed to approach it through a number of mindsets and put on different lenses (both to deepen your personal understanding of the media, and to pick it apart and see what you can find there (whether intentional or not on the author's part)), and different ships can be some of those lenses

When it comes to ships between main characters (for those who are genuinely willing to see what the narrative is showing with their relationship and what it's doing), there are times when analyzing it from a shipping lens may be helpful. As someone from KH fandom, I have seen people come to deeper understandings and pick canon apart in the process of analyzing a relationship that is genuinely integral to the story (platonic or not). I've also seen people get into rarepairs of characters who barely interact or who just suffer little screen time, and I've seen them come to better understandings of those side characters and how they potentially fit into the world of the media simply because people are now focusing on these characters and how they fit into the narrative.

Frankly, I resent the idea that the only way to truly objectively analyze a piece of media is by turning off the part of your brain that gets excited over relationships and individual characters. Don't get me wrong, that is a way to approach a piece of media and a valid one at that, but the truth is that we cannot be free of bias.

For instance, I was watching House MD with my parents circa last year. At some point I started heavily tuning into what was going on with House and Wilson's relationship. My parents, on the other hand, were largely watching casually. They're not thinking of character relationships or getting heavily invested in most characters, they're watching because they like watching. One of them in particular did try to analyze things that were happening in the show as they happened. However, when it came to the scene late in the series where House threw out Dominika's letter approving her American citizenship, my parents could understand that he was doing that because he didn't want her to leave, but not much beyond that. I ended up explaining to them that House's fake marriage for Dominika was an explicit parallel to when Wilson was living with House in the early seasons. Both situations started with House being none too happy about it but ultimately letting them stay, spending a considerable amount of effort getting them to leave/getting this situation to be finally over so he didn't have to deal with it anymore, and then by the time a piece of news comes through that would mean the person in question actually leaves, House hides this news as long as he can. Because he doesn't actually want them to leave and has grown attached. And by doing this he became a self fulfilling prophecy. By reacting to the truth of Wilson and Dominika leaving him the way he does, he seals his fate and they ultimately leave anyways. Maybe I ship Hilson, but becoming open to how their relationship was handled allowed me to transition to doing character studies and recognizing patterns/parallels that I wouldn't have noticed if I didn't particularly care about the characters or their relationship.

Likewise, I've seen mutuals complain about how people who don't like or don't care about certain characters often overlook these characters (what they're actually like and their place in the narrative), while the mutuals in question (by default) are able to come to deeper understanding of what the writers/story is trying to do because they care about this funky guy

You can't eradicate bias when you're engaging in media analysis, but you can consciously put on a range of lenses and observe the media through different povs with the goal of understanding the media better or bolstering your reading of it. And those lenses/povs can include focusing on specific relationships or the perpective of certain characters

And this is why I say it's actually a mindset problem. Shippers and people who have this one blorbo they like a lot aren't inherently terrible "fandom brained individuals" who are the root of media analysis problems. The problem only arises when people's readings/analysis of a piece of media are inherently restrictive/narrow and self centered. Your problem is with people who view a piece of media through a ship they like but don't keep an open mind about it, and whose "media analysis"/views on canon cannot be split from fanon and their comfortability levels. These are the people whose "media analysis" starts and ends with justifying their fanon as canon, whose views on media revolve around sorting characters and relationships into categories they personally enjoy rather than trying to understand what's going on.

Here's another example.

Here we have a fictional ship we'll call uhhhh...Blanebin. this fictional ship I made up on the spot for characters that don't exist named Blane and Corbin

Person A is super into Blanebin. They're part of the main cast of characters and canonically childhood best friends, so person A (as much as they enjoy fanart and fic) is also enjoying analyzing how narratively important to each other they are. Recently, Corbin started dating another character in canon, but Person A is enjoying watching how Blane is reacting to this. "Is this potentially a tell that Blane is jealous or is having complicated feelings about this? What if he was, how would that contextualize his behavior this season? Here's what I think based on how Blane dealt with explicit jealousy last season in a different situation". It's not impossible that person A is still missing further understanding due to their obsession with Blanebin, but at the end of the day this obsession has allowed them to start picking through the characters both in and outside this relationship. It has allowed them to see potential subtext and theorize on what might happen next with these characters' relationship. Not to mention that with addition of Corbin dating someone else, instead of trying to erase this fact or state that Corbin canonically isn't into that person, Person A is trying to factor in how Corbin's current dating life affects his relationship with Blane (irregardless on personal views on the nature of Corbin's relationship with the person he's dating).

Person B is also super into Blanebin. They really enjoy fanart and fic of the characters, love obsessing over their moments together, and just feel like there's really something between the characters. To person B, every moment between them is just further proof that the writers are ship teasing them. But Corbin getting together with someone else this season? Oh that pissed person B off. They cannot believe that even though Corbin and Blane are CLEARLY gay for each other the writers had Corbin get with someone else this season. Perhaps, they think, it was even a decision specifically made to spite fans. How evil of the writers to tease a perfectly good ship and then have them not get together first? They must have been just doing those teases to get views from Blanebin shippers those scoundrels. To Person B, since Corbin started dating someone when he obviously has some chemistry with Blane (even though the series is far from over) means that Blanebin can never get together now and Corbin x person he's dating is ruining Blanebin by existing. In fact, they think, this is terrible writing for Corbin to be dating someone else because they don't like that relationship and don't see the point. Obviously if the writers were good then Corbin would have started dating Blane instead because this was supposed to be the Blanebin show.

Person C despises Blanebin. Don't get them wrong, they've always enjoyed the character's childhood friendship, but they actually have always thought Blane would have been better off with Victoria. They have a lot of moments too! But they're tired of seeing people ship Blanebin. Corbin just got together with someone else, so obviously that's not gonna work out. Plus Corbin and Blane totally has always given person C bro vibes. In fact, person C thinks, sure Corbin and Blane have a close friendship, but people shouldn't be shipping them. Person C likes Blanetoria and Blanetoria can't be canon if Corbin is in the way of it. So Person C likes to read Blanebin as siblings anyways. Sure they're canonically friends, but obviously their friendship turned into brotherhood. This means that nothing can be in the way of Blanetoria and Corbin can keep dating the person he's already canonically dating. Actually, now Blanebin just straight up makes Person C uncomfortable. Don't the pesky shippers understand that Blanebin are sibling coded because they're childhood best friends and that they're important to each other because they're brothers? It's obvious to anyone with eyes.

Sure, ships are involved here, but is the root of this problem shipping? Character A isn't as knowledgeable of other characters in the plot due to this lens they're using, but at the end of the day they're dedicated to analysis. Their love of the characters is pushing them beyond what they like or dislike to try to understand what might be happening through their lens. Not perfect, but they are slowly broadening their horizons. But Person B and C's problems here are their restrictiveness. What is or should be canon to them is tantamount to what they personally like or find comfortable. Is person C actually analyzing the this fake show when they decide to "read" Blanebin as basically canonically siblings (and this all of their moments are totally a bro thing) just because they don't like Blanebin and the idea of them getting together over Blanetoria makes them uncomfortable? Is person B actually analyzing this fake show when their "analysis" of Blanebin goes only as far as asserting it's being ship teased and deciding anything short of canonizing Blanebin is a targeted attack or "bad writing" because it's not what they wanted personally to happen?

This is what I'm talking about. This is the mindset. Shipping isn't the problem. The problem is when people marry fanon and canon to the point where they have a vested interest in superimposing their fanon over canon as "a reading" and trying to make "collective decisions" on what is canon (or what canon is trying to say) based on what does or doesn't make them uncomfortable. The problem is people being restrictive and centering their own likes and dislikes in the conversation, so they can only interact with canon "analysis" wise by deciding what is canon or should be canon "as obviously agreed on by everyone". You can't simply claim you like media analysis. To be able to analyze media and bolster your views on any given canon, you must be open to looking at it through multiple povs, to studying characters without trying to pretend things you don't like don't exist or do like do exist. There is a balance that must be kept between trying to keep objectivity and putting on specific focus/bias based upon the lenses you're putting on. You have to be willing to try to figure out what a media is doing or saying, not saying you're trying to figure out what it's saying while in actuality trying to define the narrative around what people believe it's saying in ways that suit you.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[possamble]

What are your headcanons about Marcille's mom if you have any? It's interesting that what drew Donato to her was cause she lived the history he studied, or that was said somewhere at least. She must've had an interesting life.

so this was going to be just a normal answer but then I realized I have a Lot of Things To Say. so here goes, a compilation of what we know for a fact from the canon, what I've extrapolated from the visual cues and details, and my theories based on all of that.

Things we know for a fact about Marcille's mother because they were explicitly stated in the manga and supplemental materials:

She was a court mage for a Tall-man kingdom at the southern part of the Northern Continent

Donato, a court historian, fell in love with her because she had lived through the history he was studying, and he courted her for 17 years (age 15 to 32) before getting married

She was a cheerful person who rarely showed extreme emotion and took things as they came

She always cooked a huge meal for Marcille on her birthdays

She remarried a gnome after Donato's death and a short distance away from Marcille's childhood home

Pipi, Marcille's pet bird, was actually older than Marcille and originally belonged to her mother (bird died at 62)

She was extremely heartbroken when Donato died and ultimately ended up instilling a deep fear of mortality in Marcille with her words

the only time she showed extreme emotion in front of her family was when Donato could no longer eat his favourite dish near the end of his life.

She scolded Marcille for being cruel to ants (implying she can have a stern side when needed)

Things that are explicitly shown but mostly through visual cues

She has a very distinctive style of dress always involving a ribbon choker (mirroring Marcille's habit of always wearing a matching choker with any of her outfits that don't cover her neck)

She was almost stereotypically good at housekeeping and traditionally "wifely" things (very frequently depicted wearing an apron or doing some domestic chore when not at work, seems to have been an avid cook).

She knits? (also, note the affectionate smile as she's looking at Donato and Marcille reading a book together in the full panel)

She was as excited for Marcille's milestones as Donato was.

She didn't tell Marcille much about elven food

(there are a couple things that this panel in particular implies:

She lived a good deal of her life (if not being born and raised) in a mainly elven country in the West, implied by her knowing enough of an elven region's cuisine to prefer Tall-man food over it

seems to have a pretty carefree and casual demeanour overall, if this is how she replied to Marcille asking her about it (sounds like she never gave her culinary preferences that much thought to begin with)

slightly related to number 2, it seems like she and Marcille had a fairly casual parent-child dynamic (especially in comparison to the Toudens' memory of their father)

(local elf tastes Italian food once and never goes back))

However, she seems a lot more... serious in most of the other times we see her? Almost like the very stereotypical archetype of a graceful elf.

Subsequent conclusions about her personality:

Usually pretty carefree and cheerful at home, has been a loving and attentive parent throughout Marcille's childhood (while not being so doting that she didn't discipline Marcille).

Slightly more conjectural theories on her personality:

Had a much more graceful and professional personality at work, which would explain the more serious portraits we see of her.

Given that both she and Donato had positions at the royal court, it seems a little odd that she'd go out of her way to do all the housework herself, so maybe she just enjoyed doing it?

Now taping all the evidence together and toeing the line between analysis and fanfiction:

It's clear that she loved Donato very much and was utterly devastated by losing him. But there's one thing that really stuck out to me in what little we see of her:

Doesn't she seem... angry? The way she's gritting her teeth, clutching the tablecloth, and how this is the first and only time we see her eyes opened that wide. In the following panel, you see her being quiet and dejected after her initial outburst. She's still crying very intensely, but her brows are furrowed, and she's not really responding to Donato's affection in her body language.

We're not told the details of how she felt about losing Donato other than that it upset her. But this, to me, implies that she was angry and resented that he was aging, that the end of his life was approaching. An "it's not fair" type of preemptive grief. And if this was the first and last time she cried like this in front of her family, she was either very good at coping in private... or very bad at letting herself feel unpleasant emotions until they become unavoidable and end up overwhelming her.

It's not too remarkable a detail on the surface. It's even reminiscent of what the audience has seen of Marcille. But... when it comes to the big picture, you'd think an elf who voluntarily chose to marry a tall-man and have a half-elf child would have been better prepared for this.

It kind of recontextualizes her cheerfulness to me.

"I'm sure everything's gonna be okay!" (or some variation thereof, depending on what translation you have).

And this is stated to contrast her extreme grief when finally confronting Donato's failing body and eventual death. But I'm wondering if... maybe this optimism was why she was so upset. What if she went into all of it thinking "everything's gonna be okay"? What if she was a little young by elven standards, and just followed her heart thinking that her own resilience would get her through anything?

Of course, only to get completely overwhelmed when she actually loses Donato. She turns into a completely different person. And that's heartbreaking on its own-- but what the audience sees is the effect it had on Marcille. Can you imagine being her, watching your invincible and upbeat mother suddenly lose all the light in her eyes in one go?

I've already made a huge post about how I think Marcille models her "work persona" off her mother, but another thing that stuck with me as I was looking for more details in the manga was this:

copy pasting from the other post i made about it lmao it's like... the second she resigns herself to lifelong pain and terror, there's another portrait of her mother facing her like this. with their heads bowed, in mirrored body language of resignation and despair and sorrow. Except it's posed like Marcille is still looking at her mother but her mother is looking away.

It took me a second to realize, but I think that it's a visual metaphor for the fact that Marcille's mother was the only long-lived role model she had-- and she failed to model healthy grief for her daughter. I don't say this as an accusation or to disparage her as a character, but just as a matter of fact. In her, Marcille was seeing herself older and losing a short-lived spouse or loved one of her own, and all she saw was hopelessness.

But her mother didn't mean to instill hopelessness and terror in her. She wasn't really thinking of how it would truly affect Marcille at all (at least, that's how I'm interpreting her looking down and away from Marcille in the metaphor), she was just sad. And she, in her own way, was trying to protect her daughter and help her prepare for future losses.

What she meant was "loss is inevitable, and you have to learn how to be in pain but live on anyway." What Marcille heard was "loss is inevitable, and you will be scared and hurt for the rest of your life."

Again. Marcille's mother doesn't feature explicitly in the story the way her father does -- but in so many ways, her shadow, her silhouette, her reflection is always hanging over Marcille.

All that to say... headcanon-wise (everything from here on is 100% without evidence lmao), I'd like to think that she matured and realized that she failed Marcille. I imagine her being regretful about it, wanting a chance to fix it but never finding a way to insert herself back into Marcille's life when Marcille is so so so busy becoming the most accomplished mage possible. I imagine her being herself again, now, so many years after her loss and after remarrying -- but with her cheerfulness tempered with a lot more wisdom and the pain of having gone through loss like that. I think the second Marcille actually tells her what happened in the dungeon, she'd want to go running to her daughter again -- if Marcille tells her the full truth instead of just being embarrassed she let things get that far. (oh, the tragedy of her wanting to be more like her mother and an accomplished adult who doesn't need to be babied... being embarrassed to actually tell her mother how much she fucked up...)

There's also the tension of her having remarried -- I know that there's at least a little bit of resentment that Marcille harbours about that, because she's childish like that at heart even if she makes an effort not to externalize it. I think that her mother would be aware of that, potentially adding to her sense of guilt and apprehension at trying to reappear/intrude on Marcille's life. I honestly don't think Marcille has met her stepfather -- or even considers him a stepfather rather than "mama's new husband" and kind of a total stranger. I think she and her mother actively don't talk about it in their correspondence, like an elephant in the room.

but, ultimately, I think her mother is on her side no matter what. Ancient magic? Dark necromancy? Sure, she'll feel guilty and like she was partially responsible for setting Marcille down such a painful path, but she wouldn't care. that's her daughter!! she would've moved back west and been petitioning for her at the court, buying a house right next to the Canaries barracks and visiting her every day that she wasn't on a mission. And if her husband had opinions on Marcille becoming a "dark arts user," he either gets over it or it's divorce with him. Yes, she might have had her optimism completely humbled by losing Donato like that -- but she's still headstrong and self-assured and she doesn't care what people think of her. It's her way or the highway and she's always going to be in Marcille's corner.

(She also needs a name lol. I went with Juno, just to be cute about "Marcille"s closest real life equivalent being Marcella, which is the female version of Marcellus, which in turn is a diminutive of Marcus, which was derived from Mars. Absolutely in love with Marcille potentially being named after Ares/Mars the fucking god of war btw)

[dandelion-wings]

Hi! I might be a bit late to the party, but for the kiss snippet ask game: 💜 for Fredrica x Seamus? I thought it could be Jean related enough to fall under your area of interest, but if it doesn't, Jean x Lisa instead please?

You were in fact the only one who came to the party, which is the unsurprising result of having thrown that up during a Saturday afternoon. XD But you are well within the statute of limitations for the meme, and I am delighted to write you those two! (I do in fact write characters that aren't Jean now and then! :P Though I won't pretend she isn't my favorite.) I in fact have a complex and completely baseless headcanon about young Fredrica and Seamus, and this let me delve into that, so it's kind of packed with ~extras~ since I don't know if or when I'll ever get to do that again, but thank you for giving me the chance. :>

---

ETA: Now on AO3!

---

The Ruin Grader wouldn't be such a problem if the goddamn adventurers weren't in her goddamn *way*.

"Get him out of here!" Fredrica snarls, for the third time, at the cowering girl who should never have been out on this job and the blond healer who, to his credit, is calmly weaving Anemo around his injured comrade despite the Ruin Grader stomping closer and the score-mark its eye-beam had left in the rock just above his head. Seamus is the only one qualified to be here, and she's going to tear him a new one for not tearing the Guild a new one for letting these other two take the job--just as soon as they're all safe.

It's a chokepoint for all of them. Short of climbing the sheer walls, which the injured adventurer can't do and his friends don't seem willing to do without him, the only way out is through the Ruin Grader who had pinned them into this narrow space in the first place. It's narrow enough between them and the Grader that it, in turn, is progressing only slowly, grinding its heavy feet against the narrow gap and shaking more stone off with every stomp. And she could get at and under it to disable those stomping feet if there weren't *three fucking bodies* in between her and said feet.

"Sir Fredrica, the eye beam,"  Seamus calls out, looking up from his work. He's right; it's charging up again, and this time it's carved enough obscuring stone off that it won't miss.

"Pull him back, *then* heal him!"

Seamus only shakes his head at her. Fredrica grits her teeth. The man drives her insane.

This is the third time she's run into him in the field in as many months, and it's always in situations like this--shepherding younger, more inexperienced adventurers who signed up for more than they could handle and, all three times, would have died without him there. He's calm and clever and tactically-minded and obstinate, respectfully thanking her for her help when the battle's over despite the fact that he acts as if her instructions are mere suggestions while it's on.

She's lost count of how often she's run into him out of the field, cheerful and friendly, always waving her over for a drink and introducing her to his adventurer friends as 'the best knight in the Ordo' as if Varka isn't winning every honor she's ever tried for and Seamus himself isn't so world-reknowned in the Adventurer's Guild that Fredrica herself recognized his name on first meeting. Cheerful and friendly and just as obstinate out of the field as in it. Fredrica doesn't think she's ever escaped without being talked into at least one drink. Only Varka has ever been able to do that to her before. She doesn't like it. A virtual stranger shouldn't have the same magnetic pull as her childhood friend.

"Go up," he suggests, as if a Ruin Grader isn't about to burn a hole in his stupid heroic back.

Fredrica clenches her teeth harder on a most unknightly thing to say, because he's right. Normally it would take an archer to get a Grader in the eye, but by grinding itself up against the cliff it's put itself at just the right level for her blade.

She scrambles upward, flinging herself over the edge of the cliff and then spinning about, Pyro beginning to limn her blade as she plunges it towards the glowing eye. It flares bright as elemental energy touches whatever it is that makes Ruin Graders run, and then its head sags, temporarily disabled.

It hasn't stopped moving, though, and Fredrica isn't done.

She dashes past the Grader, then plunges back down into the little canyon, a perfect three-point landing from which she rises, pivots, and stabs the point of her blade into the glowing ankle joint in one smooth motion. A step in, swinging savagely into the other leg, and it totters and starts to fall. Fredrica steps backwards, out of its way-

Her heel catches on a rock. She falls, too, tumbling backward, unable to stop herself in time, and watches the massive weight of ancient metal and petrified wood tumbling down on top of her.

Something else hits her first. *Someone* else. Wind rushes around them, deafening her, slowing the Grader's descent, and she and Seamus roll sideways, together, out from under the Grader's shadow just as it hits the ground.

"Thank Barbatos," Seamus breathes as they come to a stop, wide-eyed and more alarmed-looking than she's ever seen him. "I thought-"

Fredrica can feel his weight on top of her--she's always known he had broad shoulders for a man who uses a catalyst, but there must be even more muscle than she'd thought under that green uniform--and the heat that rushes through her has nothing to do with her own Pyro. He's still looking down at her in alarm and concern, breathing hard. She's never been so embarrassed, and she's never before noticed the blue of his eyes, the same color as the sky overhead.

She *has* noticed before this the long, straight, golden fall of his hair, of which he's famously and righteously vain. She's pricked him before, when he's cajoled her into a drink together, about how impractical and dangerous it is in combat, how he should at least wind it into a braid like her own. In this, as in everything else, he remains obstinate. Which means that his hair is falling now around them both, gleaming bright in the sun and shielding her, for a second, from the battlefield.

"You idiot," she tells him, reaches up to wind her fingers into that foolishly loose hair, and pulls him down into a fierce kiss. He makes a startled noise, but after a breathless second, kisses back with equal passion.

Then he abruptly pulls back and rolls off of her, up onto his knees, reaching for his catalyst. A noise from the twitching Grader suggests that it was the first twitch that roused him, so Fredrica tries not to feel rejected, nor frustrated, by that sudden loss of his weight and his touch. She scrambles to her own feet and draws her sword, looking his way.

"Can you Swirl my Pyro for me without hitting the feckless fools over there?"

"They aren't," he starts to say, mildly, then stops and smiles at her and nods. "Of course."

Good enough. She's still shouting at both him and the Guild for this later, but for now, Fredrica leaps back into the fight as the Grader starts shakily to stand, flames flaring around her, a wind at her back, the memory of his lips on hers lingering even as the battle consumes her thoughts.

[littleseasalt]

"forever is a bad dad to richa-" SHUT UP!!!!!

[moon--meeks]

Trying to make any sort of conversation about food fantasy is wild because I was talking about the new event in a friend discord server an I said do you think torta caprese and tokaji have explored each other's bodies and the friends who saw that message an didn't play were flabbergasted by that arrangement of words

[cienie-isengardu]

Bi-Han/Sub-Zero in Mortal Kombat 1 (2023)

Asharat: What kind of son betrays his father? Bi-Han: One who sees his father's time has passed.

Kuai Liang/Sub-Zero in Mortal Kombat 11 (2019)

Sub-Zero: Come and join the Lin Kuei. Jade: Outworld needs me, Sub-Zero. Sub-Zero: Do not let loyalty stunt your growth. 

Frost in Mortal Kombat 11 (2019)

Jax: Thought the Lin Kuei were like family? Frost: Family only ever held me back.

BONUS: NOOB SAIBOT in Mortal Kombat (2019)

Noob Saibot: What did I always tell you? Sub-Zero: To never trust anyone. Noob Saibot: Least of all family.

[composeregg]

Hot take but I don't think third-hand gossip is a great source of deciding whether or not a character is canonically sex repulsed

[lumberwoof]

I've only known them for a chapter and a half but I'm already being decimated by Franka and Liskarm

[anaceshornyblog]

You ever think of Jon and Daisy starving together, so hungry for fear. So they start to feed on each other.

Daisy has statements, and she is a monster, she could feed Jon it would be fine she wouldn’t dream anyway. Jon agreeing to be hunted, and at first they’re worried it won’t work. Does he still count as prey to be hunted, of course as soon as she’s following him the hunt takes over. She can feel the fear pouring off of him in waves, but even still he gives her a good chase.

Until she’s cornered him, kicked him to the ground and her teeth are already in his neck. Another scar to go around, her nails like claws digging into his skin. Jon going limp because he’s caught, he’s caught and there is nothing he can do but be good. Daisy holding him down forcing him to take whatever the she wants, because killing isn’t the only way to end a hunt.

[knifeslidez]

some of you are all "be gay do crime!! im a dykefag genderfuck, you cant put rules on queerness!!!!!" and then turn into raging exclusionists circa 2016 when a relationship is queer in a way you dont understand

[redwayfarers]

nika & romance

thinking abt that alia + romance thing @lavampira did and as it would seem that today is nika romance day (since it's all i can think about) so i'm taking inspo, i hope you don't mind <3

silvairre

minor crush back when he was in gridania. nothing truly exceptional. they're not really in contact anymore, although they bump shoulders sometimes.

minfilia

first love. when nika first joined the scions, he was largely aimless, aside from wanting new materials for his songs; minfilia gave him a sense of purpose, even if the key part - part where he too deeply cares for eorzea and does this out of selflessness - didn't really show up. they became friends, and eventually nika fell in love, though minfilia never really returned his feelings. instead, he was glad to simply serve wherever she sent him, and that was enough. her happiness was enough. unfortunately, by the end, nika started feeling used, yet nurtured his love for her for long enough to swallow his feelings on the matter.

his feelings may have even become more intense simply because he knew, deep down, that he had no chances with her. he never tried anything, never bothered her about it, it just floated unresolved for years before her death. she's still a sore spot, and he isn't really sure whether he will ever entirely finish grieving for her, even if he allows himself some measure of anger she left behind. but hey, what is grief if not love persevering? there is no world in which nika does not love minfilia, in whatever capacity.

lyse

a small crush that would have been if there wasn't artoirel. a love that would've gone very sour, very quickly. best left at a single hookup.

artoirel

another case of nika catching feelings for someone he can't, initially, have. nika's equal in a lot of respects; honest to a fault, not very nice, competent yet reserved. nika doesn't begrudge artoirel for trying to get him killed at first. there's a lot of ease in accepting each other, faults and good qualities, between them. artoirel, thus, began to feel like a certain safety. they bonded greatly over their shared love of music and their shared grief for haurchefant. artoirel doesn't ask anything of nika the same way minfilia did, nor does nika himself look for a superior, even though artoirel outranks him by far. to him, artoirel's rank isn't something that matters all that much, just as nika's status as the warrior of light doesn't matter to artoirel after a while.

instead, what they end up being for each other is a partner and an equal, because brothers doesn't quite cut it. it's the one place in this star where nika doesn't have to be the warrior of light, where he can simply be himself, and vice versa, where artoirel isn't the count de fortemps. they're just two guys of equal yet opposite vibes, and at some point, they allied to try and make sense of their respective lots in life. sense is nowhere in sight, but they're too bound together to undo that alliance now. at least they have each other's company on the road.

[a-a-a-anon]

if i had a nickel for every time a male british comedian i like said that on a childhood birthday a patriarch in their family said they were too old to hug and kiss them bc it's girly/gay i would have two nickels???? which isn't a lot but it's weird it happened twice....

(ade edmondson:)

(jon richardson:)

I went to kiss my granddad once-I would have only been about 7 or 8, but I'd had clearly what my grandad viewed as a landmark birthday. I went to say goodbye, and I kissed my Nana Gwen and went to kiss my Grandad Ron, and Grandad Ron said, "You're a man now. You don't kiss other men anymore." (- meet the richardsons 2.08)

[schrondingers-dumbass]

Have I seen more than ten episodes of Kamen Rider Geats? No,

Is that enough to get a strong grip of its themes and the meaning behind the story it tells? Not Even Close.

That said there is something that feels incredibly and overwhelmingly thematically relevant about the way the opening theme sounds. You’re telling me this story about people participating in hazardous and dangerous events and challenges (all presented aesthetically as a game show) has a theme song that is very heavily stylistically similar to k-pop/J-pop idol music coincidentally? Okay- sure, I’ll buy it.