#ship dynamics analysis

[coffeeforozzie]

been having brainrot recently but uhhh

when you think about it, most ot3s in fandoms tend to fall into like, 3 categories (with possible overlap):

"a beautiful trio dynamic, one born out of trust, love, hatred, vitriol. whatever it is, all three bonds are well defined, and are more often than not always seen together, in a perfect, unbreakable triangle."

"fellas, we did it, we established world peace" (peace in question is joining two ships with a common axis together, potentially bc of a prominent ship war or bc you really like both ships so you try to get by)

"6 cans of red bull, 2 shots, a bowl of soggy cereal, and cosmic divination led me to join these three fuckers together bc my multishipper brain is trying to connect every character through my massive metaphorical bulletin ship board, pins and red string and all that, almost akin to a detective trying to find leads in a serial disappearance case, and unfortunately three people aren't paired, and just joining one of them isn't satisfactory, the third guy needs someone. I guess we making triangles now."

but umm anyways.

[shyjusticewarrior]

Love that Tim's endlessly forgiving towards his parents, but when it's Bernard's parents then he's like "aren't you tired of being nice? Don't you wanna go apeshit?"

[creantzy]

Defying God - a parallel between Fyolai and Stavrovensky

The Demons brainrot is taking over, and you know what happens when I acquire a new interest: my brain WILL find a way to connect it to my other interests, whether I like it or not!! And this is essentially what it's about xD I've come here to present a parallel I found between Fyolai (Fyodor & Nikolai from BSD) and Stavrovensky (Verkhovensky & Stavrogin from "Demons" by Dostoevsky). Before I start I want to clarify a few things:

• I don't think these two pairings are similar, I just love picking up any crumbs of connections I can find between my interests, even if it'd count as reaching.

• This interpretation (in either character's case) is in no way "the only true way of looking at it". It's merely one interpretation out of many and I chose to focus on just a few aspects out of the many others there are to explore in these complex characters. 

• Feel free to add onto or disagree with anything I say! I'm interested in your thoughts :D

WARNING: There will be spoilers for Bungou Stray Dogs and Demons.

The reason Nikolai wants to kill Fyodor is because he feels affection for him. Emotions are a prison to him, and he basically seeks the opposite of what his emotions make him want to do. Thus, in the face of affection, which makes you want to be closer and wish the best for your friend, he does the opposite and decides to kill said friend, going directly against his feelings in an attempt to prove free will. But here I want to focus more on the "You want to defy God in order to lose sight of yourself" part, specifically the bit about God.

One part of my interpretation is that Nikolai associates God with control. If there is a God who controls all, how can there be a free will? He wants to go against Him and His creations (the human mind, morality, etc.) to prove that it's possible. But God is very abstract - the idea of God is influential but varies depending on cultures, etc. For this point, I'll use the example of the biblical God, or, more specifically, some attributes commonly assigned to the idea of God:

• omnipotence (all-powerful)

• omnipresence (all-present)

• omniscience (all-knowing)

What I am leading up to is the fact that these traits can, in one way or another, be applied to Fyodor. Fyodor's character represents everything Nikolai wants to defy. Nikolai hates control; he wants to fight the idea of God and prove the possibility of complete independence. Fyodor (though not in a "direct" way) could be seen as a symbol for God. He knows everything, he is always present (metaphorically and sometimes literally, the way he spawns sometimes I swear-), and he seems to control everything. Only few people actually see him, but he pulls the strings behind the scenes, and his power is felt everywhere. For Nikolai, to kill Fyodor is not just a protest against his feelings of affection, but can also be a symbolic act of defying "God", of killing "God", by killing Fyodor.

This is supposed to be very symbolic and not taken literally. I feel the need to repeat this because I personally dislike the notion of Fyodor as a literal God (and disagree with the idea of him having a God-complex), so this is merely about the God-like traits he possesses, like a "substitute" for the idea of God, and how it interacts with Nikolai's philosophy. (I've also exaggerated some points for the sake of simplification - for example, I don't actually believe Fyodor is in control of absolutely everything, etc.)

Moving onto Demons:

Pyotr Verkhovensky grew up religious and (assuming based on Stepan's description) with a fear of God.

Now he's an atheist and very anti-religious. He plans to overthrow society, and destroying religion + everything it preaches is part of that plan. But interestingly enough, he picks not himself as the official future "ruler", but someone else: Nikolai Stavrogin. He chooses Stavrogin to be the role of the leader in Verkhovensky's ideal society. But not exactly the "leader" in the traditional sense, because he wouldn't necessarily give Stavrogin all the power. He would simply use him as a "pawn" (for lack of a better word) while himself pulling the strings behind said society. With that, Verkhovensky puts someone else above himself, in a God-like position, but he wants to do it while still keeping full control over Stavrogin. By doing so, he would overcome his childhood fear of God because instead of being controlled by God, *he* will control God.

(Same case here, not the literal God, but the character who he assigns God-like traits to.)

I am undecided (with both Nikolai's and Verkhovensky's character) whether this could be read as a solely subconscious intention or if it would make sense as a conscious one as well. Given that both have a different "main" goal (Nikolai focuses on emotions and Verkhovensky on the revolution) I lean more towards thinking it's subconscious (if present at all - like I said, just interpretations!)

It doesn't help that Verkhovensky describes his vision of Stavrogin's leadership as "hidden": Everyone believes in him and his power, but only very few people are said to actually have laid their eyes upon him. When I first read this part, I was honestly reminded of Big Brother from Orwell's 1984, but eventually realised that similar things can be said about God as well.

While these are parallels, they don't come without differences. Nikolai needs Fyodor dead, Verkhovensky needs Stavrogin alive. Nikolai wants to kill Fyodor for a sense of freedom, Verkhovensky wants to keep Stavrogin for a sense of control. Yet both symbolic goals are bound to fail:

Fyodor turns out to be unkillable, and Stavrogin ends up dead.

At the end, "God" stays untouchable.

[shaylogic]

Never gonna be over how the camera person peeks over Edwin's shoulder here because they know the audience wants to check if Charles is getting jealous about Monty

[aroaceleovaldez]

I was reading a post about CoTG and I realized: Rick has seemingly started to write every character pairing with the exact same dynamic, and he's not good at writing that dynamic and it doesn't make sense for 90% of the characters he writes it for.

It's that very specific dynamic of one half of the pair who is almost aggressive to the other party - "teasing" them constantly/insulting them, affectionately punching/judo flipping/maiming/etc, seemingly almost always exasperated with the other - and said other party usually just accepts this treatment or blanketly views it fondly, and may generally be framed as more incompetent than their partner and a little bit of a doormat (particularly relating to being insulted/teased/etc by their partner).

We start seeing this dynamic in HoO with Percy and Annabeth, as a sort of semi-inconsistent twist on their rivals-to-friends-to-lovers dynamic from the first series. Then the dynamic pattern develops further with Leo and Calypso. Then Magnus and Alex. Then Nico and Will, particularly in TSATS. And now in CoTG, it's Percy and Annabeth again but even more in this direction.

I know people have talked about Nico and Will's relationship over the series rapidly being shoehorned into Percabeth Two™, and it's extremely apparent in TSATS that Rick's doing it on purpose (including directly quoting Percabeth scenes but minorly tweaking them to be Solangelo). But recognizing it as an overarching trend in Rick's later books honestly reminds me a lot of how Rick started trying to apply the "Percy Formula" so-to-speak to nearly every protagonist in HoO (and then try to replicate similar character archetypes with Magnus and Apollo's narrations - moreso Magnus in being jaded and sarcastic, very much trying to be first series Percy. He only sounds unique because Rick failed at making him Percy 2. Apollo is more akin to later-series Percy characterization of being goofy and incompetent. Apollo [and Zeus] even got retconned to give Apollo a more similar backstory to Percy's). Rick seems to have decided that he thinks the audience wants this specific dynamic but 10 times over, except he's not good at writing it the first time because it's a bastardization of the time he did a different thing okay.

And Rick also seems aware of that too! Because he retconned Calypso and Leo at the end of TOA, probably because he realized how absolutely awful it was reading when they were written with that dynamic of Calypso just functionally hating Leo and constantly being aggressive towards him! The only time Rick's actually made the dynamic even semi-successful was with Magnus and Alex, because it actually fits within their characters, their dynamics with each other, and their environment. Alex beheading Magnus on the regular works out fine because there are no repercussions to that in Valhalla, Magnus will be fine, so it does genuinely come off as humorous. And Alex has been effectively established to be abrasive at times but have her genuine feelings shine through regularly, and that meshes well with Magnus' jaded-and-aloof-but-quietly-very-empathetic character. And Magnus has been established to, yes, not be great at combat, particularly compared to Alex. They are the only time that flavor of dynamic in that form was effective and cohesive.

Percabeth is no longer rivals-to-friends-to-lovers badasses on equal levels with shaky pasts who finally found some form of permanence with one another. Now it's super smart doting and affectionately aggressive girlfriend and her silly goofy 50%-of-the-time incompetent boyfriend who she judo flips/pushes off cliffs/etc - but affectionately~! Solangelo is trying to riff off of the early series "Poseidon & Athena are enemies" dynamic that Percabeth had but with Apollo & Hades being "opposites" but learning to accept each other, except it ends up with Will just coming off as a huge asshole and Nico being retconned to a complete doormat about it - when prior to that those characterizations would be completely contrary to their established characters (even just from TOA!). Calypso in HoO gets retconned from her PJO characterization to being snooty and aggressive, and Leo's false persona gets merged into his just normal personality except he just also becomes a doormat but more goofy than Nico with occasional haha-dark/depression-humor! Which Nico also got. Which was also a bastardized Percy trait that got redistributed.

It's exhausting. Rick write more than one relationship dynamic you can do it I promise

[ships-n-bats]

I'm not really fond of the idea of Amy "toning down" her affections towards Sonic as a way to show she's "grown and matured," because I ultimately feel it removes a core part of her character (that being she's openly affectionate and touchy-feely with those she's close to and isn't ashamed of it). And it's not even a trait that she only shows or directs towards Sonic; she's done so with other characters as well.

And while I do understand why some would find this specific trait of hers annoying or overwhelming, it's still ultimately an important part of her character and is what makes her stand out against all other Sonic characters. It's both a positive characteristic and a flaw, depending on how you personally look at it.

But the other reason I feel having her hold back her affections in some faux attempt to seem more "grown up," is that Sonic himself wouldn't even want or like her doing that anyways.

Yes, Sonic has shown that he gets flustered and overwhelmed with her actions at times, not really knowing how to respond or react to her sincere proclamations of love. But he's never wanted her to stop doing it or tried to take away her freedom to do so. That's who Sonic is and what he believes in, that people should have the freedom to live their life as they please, so long as it doesn't harm anyone or take away anyone else's right to do the same.

Amy hugging him and singing his praises doesn't harm him or anyone else, nor does it prevent him from doing what he wants to do. She doesn't want to "tie him down" like some falsely claim. She understands that he'll always be running, always be going on adventures, and always be stopping Eggman's plans. And nowhere has Amy ever stated that she wants Sonic to change or slow down for her. Quite the opposite, in fact. If anything, Amy just wants to be alongside Sonic, going on adventures with him.

And the same can be said for Sonic. He doesn't want Amy to stop being who she is or to change just to appease others. That goes directly against his own beliefs and views on life. If Sonic were to learn that Amy toned herself down because she thought it was what he wanted, I'd imagine he'd be horrified and want her to follow her own heart, not his.

I'm all for Amy growing and maturing, but not at the expense of her changing the very core of her character and who she is as a person. She wouldn't want that. Sonic wouldn't want that. The mere concept goes against the very theme of what the games are about.

[huggywuggysuppy]

Gem Interaction Master Chart

@wildcatcargo thank you for the icons <3 thoughts under the cut:

Main Thesis

-> The less someone understands Gem, the easier she controls them, and she can manage more things/people at a time

-> The more someone understands Gem, the harder the challenge, and the more she grows individually

Certain Patterns Emerge

Gem and the Scotts is so peak bc she's with ppl who understand her the most and the least, and use it neutrally

GIGGS is a healthy mix of support, growth, and challenge

X and Y axis' are the most interesting: Pearl, Skizz, Ren, and Scott

Anytime a yellow group person is added to the situation, Gem's plans and outcomes become a lot more unpredictable

In contrast, pink group stabilizes her into one or two paths

Red group often bring out her greatest hits, and Gem leverages them for beginnings and conclusions

Green group are what Gem uses to set and change the status quo

Blue Group are good pawns to amplify events, although occasionally provide too much noise

Explanations

Pearl's in middle understanding bc she really gets Gem's relationship with other people and then is so clueless about their own duo D;

BDubs would probably understand her a lot if they spent more time together. He stands out in pink group for immediately picking up on what she's putting down, but refusing to budge on his own narrative -- instead assimilating her actions into the plan.

None of the dads misunderstand her maliciously, but neither they nor Gem are getting off this bus, so here we are. They're intentionally maintaining the distance for a variety of reasons. And maybe that's okay

False is working on clocking Gem back, but can't fully dig her claws in since Gem's so good at putting her on the back foot. The best example of this is HC9 "Blood on the clocktower" round 2 (on Gem's VOD channel)

Cub and Gem need to be in closer proximity I think. Mystery Hermit demonstrated Gem's side of things, along with Fight Club proving her interest in more interaction. Permitmaster too... is anyone listening

Oli and Sausage are here bc I love them. Aaaaand they represent Gem's honest delights: bickering with Oli and storytelling with Sausage

Other mcyts I want Gem to interact with more to analyze: JoeHills, Shubble, BigB, Eloise, Keralis. (groups are not 100% solid bc less data)

A lot of less close cc's fall into pink or, especially for elder hermits, blue, because they don't have time/experience to fully see Gem. This is functional for being a cc: quickly digestible and workable for any story. Smoothly places Gem into a position of power, since they miss most of her movements.

Gem and the Clockers hits every group, except the support from blue. Fascinating, since they're also elder (season) hermits.

Personal fav dynamics: all of red and yellow groups. Fans may know I'm a Ren/Pearl/Gem life series team manifester. I like when Gem is forced to act, but has a lot of options in the execution

Conclusion

Gem is incredibly observant and picks up on each intent, value, and change, of everyone around her. What decides her behavior is motive, comfort, and curiosity. Everyone on this list she enjoys interacting with, because she deeply loves social dynamics. And that excitement radiates out and inspires the room.

Always down to explain more in asks/notes :D

[knight-says-oioioi]

HTTYD ship dynamics are usually so unique but the ones that repeat n mirror each other are somehow even better

Funny how twice someone who’s seen as a village outcast and a failure turned success has ended up falling in love with someone who’s been forced to excel and perform as flawless for the sake of appearances n respect but lost their hold in that role as their society changed? Within the same friend group? Twice. Four out of six people.

Where the loser, who was initially only interested on a surface level because they just seemed so cool, slowly learns to look past the image and see the other as a person who’s just as lame as they are. Who becomes immersed in finding all of the other’s flaws but never stops being impressed with them. Respect for the individual and not the image.

Where the perfectionist takes interest in this guy almost out of sheer fascination, because he’s a fucking dweeb of a nerd with wayyy too little regard for his physical well being and honestly seems half insane. But they slowly begin to respect that more than anything and are almost jealous of how carefree the willingness for rebellion makes him.

Where these two fucked up individuals mutually decide they’re going to learn how to be people together, so of course it’s a slow burn.

And for bonus points one of them has a codependent relationship with his dragon, is related to Valka Haddock, and is presumably hated by the gods for some unknown reason!

Why are the hiccstrid and tufflout parallels so intense who did this who gave them the permission I need them dead

Underdog x Gifted Kid bullshittery in the year 2025 I cannot believe this

[the-one-that-weeps]

Every time someone in this godforsaken fandom says "I think we've talked about misogyny enough" I want to hit them with a hammer. No we haven't.

We haven't even talked about the deep "Ruikasa&Akitoya Vs. literally everyone else" imbalance enough but imagine all of the people that get pressured into writing specifically for male/male ships simply because otherwise they won't get any appreciation.

Yes it's a cowardly thing but when you see Ruikasa having over 4000 fics and Ichisaki having like 5 in total obviously you're going to be discouraged. Obviously you'll be biased into creating Ruikasa instead of other ships.

And as someone who depends on appreciation in particular to do any work at all obviously that's going to have a lasting consequence. Some people spend 4 hours crying in front of a screen just for 3 people to like their work and leave, it's understandable if they lose passion for creating at all, you guys killed them.

It's even in how we handle m/m ships. You go into a fic that's tagged Rui&Tsukasa(platonic), someone in the comments always goes "okay but when do they kiss". You go to an action-packed longfic, someone always ends up going "okay but when do they kiss".

Fuck you guys. Actually. This is a silly piano tiles game about Hatsune Miku, we should be one of the MOST CREATIVE fandoms in history and somehow people still get mad over two boys not kissing immediately after getting introduced. It's so fucking difficult being a content creator in this fandom because you always end up having to take the same route. They meet they tease they kiss. End of story. "Oh you're doing something "lame" instead? -1 kudo. Bring me my yaoi next🖕"

[qweenofurheart]

hello. my favorite extremely niche dynamic

[actuallyjustabiscuit]

Fuck it

I think I just need to say it

This whole scene to me…

Didn’t come off as flirting

Ok, I promise I’m not doing this to put down any FunnyGummy shippers.

The ship is fine. I like it

But just hear me out on this take, because there’s a specific reason I’m making it.

And to do that, I gotta do a quick analysis on their interactions.

So here’s the deal, it feels weird to call Pomni’s behavior towards Gummigoo in ep 4, namely all her clumsy stuttering and stumbling, as anything resembling infatuation.

The reason she’s failing to play it cool is because she’s suddenly reunited with someone who, not a couple days ago, was previously blown up right in front of her.

Like, I’m pretty sure she was struggling not to just immediately go “holy shit, you’re alive!?” as soon as she realized who was standing on the other side of the counter.

Let’s try walking in Pomni’s shoes for a bit. Imagine seeing someone you just befriended…suddenly get killed…in a pretty violent fashion…and then pop back up again with absolutely no warning.

You’d think the first thing you’d talk about upon reuniting would be something related to that.

But nah, they just waltz in wanting some breakfast like the average customer in this little fast food simulation game that you are being forced to play in.

Now, let’s go back to ep 2

Gummigoo had accidentally stumbled onto the other side of Caine’s curtain, making him question his entire existence. Leaving Pomni the only one available to explain and to effectively shatter his worldview by revealing that he, and everyone he knows, is an NPC. And his reaction to all of this was naturally negative. He goes from panicking at the discovery to being completely dismal over the loss of the reality he knew.

To say the poor guy was going through it would be an understatement.

Gummigoo was pretty much in a hopeless state. Being burdened with eye opening knowledge is a very lonely experience. Especially when it seems you’re the only one to be made aware of it. It’s not hard to see why Pomni took the time to help him. She was forced to suddenly comprehend a different reality just the other day.

“Feeling like your nothing is kinda normal.” is a wild way to try to relate to someone, but she decided to take a seat next to him because it’s probably the most normal thing she’s heard since she’s been there.

And what’s important to note about their conversation under the map is that with every attempt that Pomni initially makes to help him feel less alone, Gummigoo’s quick to brush it off because none of it is enough to diminish the fact that he’s not a real person, and therefore does not get to exist as a real person. Believing that his friends care about him the same way he does for them is pretty much cold comfort when their roles have been literally coded for them.

Even when she offered him a way out of his situation, he wasn’t immediately keen on taking it. His question, “how does this benefit you at all?” is the kind of question someone asks when they place no real value on themselves as a person. He was so quick to accept that he is nothing, because from his understanding that’s what he would essentially be reduced to once the adventure is over. This is what fills him with dread, knowing his life ends when his purpose as a character is complete. And it’s only when Pomni finally gives him a new role, being her friend, that he begins to respond positively.

He goes from a fake bandit to a real friend, giving his existence some validity.

The show has been doing a great job at establishing that Pomni is the kind of earnest person to lend a helping hand. But, considering how she failed to help someone the day prior, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was placing a lot of responsibility on herself to make sure this guy at least gets a chance to not feel like nothing. Helping him benefits her beyond feeling less alone in this strange new life, it was also a chance to redeem herself.

This time she wasn’t going to abandon someone who needed her.

And then he was fucking obliterated.

Once again, Pomni failed at helping someone. And not just a stranger, this time it was someone she called a friend. On top of that, she didn’t just failed, she practically led this lamb to slaughter. She didn’t know the outcome of course, but it was still her idea to take him to the Circus.

It was her insistence on bringing him along that got him killed

So now she’s talking to someone who may or may not be the same person because he sure damn well looks like him.

And if he didn’t really die, then perhaps she didn’t really screw up again, at least that’s what she’s hoping for

However, this isn’t the Gummigoo that got stranded under the map with her and needed consoling from his existential crisis.

This is just a guy who’s still waiting on his Sausage Bacon Jaffle Combo, and is super weirded out that the cashier girl is crawling around trying to get his attention.

And you can see all the hope in Pomni’s eyes die at that realization.

Additionally, her saying “I…don’t know” feels like it goes beyond the surface level “we met before…but you don’t remember me, so maybe not…”

Because, really, Pomni actually doesn’t know Gummigoo.

She never got the chance to know him. Sure she knows what he is, but who Gummigoo was as a person was what they both were going to find out together.

But this Gummigoo doesn’t have the baggage of knowing the truth, which is what ultimately led him to feel like nothing, and in turn needing the validation that he doesn’t have to be nothing. Here, he’s just a simple customer.

This isn’t her friend. And Pomni has to accept that it’s best that he doesn’t remember her. He doesn’t think he’s nothing, and that’s all that matters.

Alright, so why am I really going over all of this?

Why bother making a whole post analyzing these two just to pedantically point out that their interactions have been purely platonic?

Well to tell you the truth, it’s cuz I’m a little fed up with all of it.

I don’t mean people making assumptions that these two characters have feelings for each other.

Im talking more about the trend of when a girl is shown acting all nervous around a guy, people automatically conclude that she has a thing for him.

But when it’s two characters of the same gender acting the exact same way, you get some annoying commentary about how it’s for reasons unrelated to romance and how they “just don’t see it”

“It’s like people can’t just be friends anymore”

Does that phrase annoy you as much as it does me?

Now, thanks to Gooseworx, we are all in a collective understanding that none of the characters will actually get together romantically. So we are free to ship who we please, with the caveat that we are not to act superior over what will or will not be canon. And this is a good rule.

I’m too old to be making arguments against a ship because at the end of the day these weird little guys are public domain and you can imagine them being together in any way you please because they’re just characters.

So me saying that people viewing Pomni’s behavior towards Gummigoo in ep 4 as inherently smitten are misconstruing their relationship just sounds like I’m putting someone’s beloved ship down for no real reason other than just being weirdly contrarian about it.

And you’d be right to think that way.

But when you get people in this day and age who are so quick to label these interactions as romantic and then have trouble extending the same imagination towards a ship like ragapom, it starts to get a bit grating. That the awkward and nervous interactions between two women can be dismissed as platonic and anything more is just delusion.

Like, even people who sincerely ship them tend to make jokes about how delusional we are to do so. You don’t see that in people who ship FunnyGummy. And that’s a little depressing to me.

Now, I’m not saying you have to ship Pomni and Ragatha romantically. I’m not here to dictate anyone’s tastes or say anyone’s reasons for shipping are less valid than others.

I guess it just irks me that we don’t extend this platonic view just as readily towards straight pairings.

Like, I honestly feel that Pomni and Gummigoo’s relationship is appreciated less because of all the shipping.

Their story is so much richer than just another “love that could never be”. It’s the tragedy of losing a friendship only moments after its inception. Of having to come to terms that someone you wanted to be closer with, is better off living their life separate from yours. You wanted to be a positive influence on them, but it didn’t work out as planned, leaving you both to suffer as a result. And all you can do is wish them well as they leave you behind.

A lot of people like to see this pairing as a tragic romance because their circumstances give them prime shipping material. That her having feelings for him would make their separation feel bittersweet.

But Pomni not being in love with Gummigoo doesn’t invalidate the heartbreak of her having to say goodbye to him.

And it shouldn’t. Because he was her friend, for the brief special moment she knew him. And in the end, she did get to do something for him.

She got to wish him a pleasant day.

[aveimperator40k]

Putting up these beautiful ChroBoom prints has me weeping over Jinx and Silco all over again.😭😭😭

I will never be tired of their relationship and journey together. How it tragically began and how it tragically ended. How they were *everything* to each other.

How they went and evolved from Powder and Silco to Jinx and Silco. How they went from father and daughter to lovers and yet; how they stayed the same.

Because they were *everything* to each other. They couldn't and didn't want to separate the roles they fulfilled for the other. Because they needed too much.

Jinx and Silco *needed*.

That was what defined them. The Jinx and the Dirty Little Thing. The small and unloved. The murderers and the murdered. The victims and the monsters they became.

But they loved. So fiercely, so completely and they were defined at their cores by that devouring love.

They gave each other *everything* and only they could even attempt to fill the gaping holes that existed in the center of their souls.

A duo that came together in a perfect storm of love, codependency and survival. They mirrored each other and became each other.

Jinx and Silco loved each other so much.

I will never be tired of writing them. I'm writing another fic about that journey now and they've torn my soul open yet again. 😭😭😭💣🦈💣🦈

They are truly are what could have been.

A beautiful and poisonous tragedy.

[shyjusticewarrior]

Bruce would be polyamorous if DC weren't cowards

[shaylogic]

Okay analyzing George and Jayden's favorite scene (in case of 2 dead dragons, "I don't want to be a bad guy!")

I saw a post talking about how Edwin turns up Charles' collar and how that is an acceptable Edwardian share of physical touch between men.

Additionally, you could see it as him helping re-establish Charles' Cool Guy confidence with the popped collar look, when he's feeling vulnerable.

Even more so, I was thinking about Edwin bringing a warm lantern to a cold boy in an attic, and now he's bracing him against the night with the collar's warmth.

~~~

Besides the collar part of this scene, something I've been paying attention to across other scenes is how the friend group directs their attention of listening to and helping support each other.

For example, I already wrote in this post about how Charles actually started to open up to her before the kissing scene about his anger, but she doesn't quite pick up the significance and gets distracted with her issues with David.

That same night after the night nurse violence, Edwin tells Charles he can confide in him, and Charles responds with the polite shield of essentially "same, mate" rather than opening up to him.

Charles' whole thing is about not being able to be vulnerable about himself and to focus on making things easier on others (because his abusive dad trained that into him)

So it's interesting in the collar scene that after they hug and Charles immediately moves the focus to Edwin "what are you worried about, then? " ("how can I help you with what you're going through?"), Edwin responds in avoidant gay panic about Cat King/Charles stuff "Let's get you sorted first"

And!!!!!!

Please rewatch Charles' face journey throughout this scene

He is in the habit of putting others first, and people are all too happy to receive the help. Think again about the scene in the first episode when Jenny tells Crystal that people all focus on themselves. Maybe you get a good day when they think of you for a second and then it's back to them.

Crystal is still working through not remembering how toxic she became in response to her own parents, and she still got some habits of focusing on herself as Jenny points out that she can't begin to recognize and work on yet because she doesn't get her memories back until the end of the season.

Edwin is also preoccupied with his gay panic, so his response to Charles in the collar scene was avoidance, like Crystal not quite recognizing her rare opportunity of Charles opening up to her when he hadn't even done that with Edwin.

I think Edwin and Crystal equally didn't quite fully catch on to Charles' needs, but Edwin accidentally did the right thing in returning the focus to Charles.

Charles seems surprised, but grateful. You can see in Jayden's acting that Charles leaves that exchange feeling a little more seen and loved.

[mrynnn]

Kim Dokja and Han Sooyoung ship

When I read the novel I used to ship Joongdok and thought Han Sooyoung loved Kim Dokja by the end of the novel. Now that I’m rereading the novel to enjoy the side stories thoroughly, I don’t think Han Sooyoung’s love is unrequited. The signs are subtle but I think Kim Dokja is also at least slightly interested in her. after Kim Dokja and Han Sooyoung’s first parting (when HSY ran away leaving her avatar corpse) I could feel Dokja’s panic and sadness at that moment before he could think and Han Sooyoung’s expectations and thoughts on meeting him in the future (that was the first of it)

There was also that time when Kim Dokja was missing Han Sooyoung mid scenario soon after. The two were clearly interested with each other from the beginning and had some sort of tension. While Han Sooyoung’s feelings were comparatively more evident in the novel, we should agree that by the end that she did have some feelings for Dokja. As for Dokja, that dense bastard who didn’t even consider that his companions loved him and even when they showed clear affection towards him, he would get helpless as to how to respond to their affection, I doubt he actually caught on to Han Sooyoung’s feelings for him and actually started liking her without realising it himself, plus all the WOS coming to life and scenarios one after the another, I doubt he even had the time to care about who he has feelings for (and even if he did, his fourth wall or even his own personality would try to self rationalise to convince it to be something else)

The whole Kaizenix arc, the promise between Sooyoung and Dokja that Dokja wanted to read a 3000 chapter romance novel she wrote , the epilogue chapters, the 1863rd arc and literally every arc where both Kim Dokja and Han Sooyoung play a major part and actually spend time together they have some tension between them. Personally, I like their relationship a lot and I think it plays a major part in the story, way bigger then some might realise other like realise cause yk… a female character getting between the more popular male x male ship…

The romance aspect of the story is really vague (except Jung Heewon and Lee Hyunsung, Hades and Persephone and Yoo Joonghyuk and Lee Seolhwa, even 999 Uriel and 999 Yjh)

in general but you cannot turn a blind eye to their relationship.

At the end what do y’all think ??

[bsd-obsessed]

You know, in an alternate universe where soukoku didn’t exist I would’ve been Fyozai’s biggest shipper because fucking look at this:

Oh to be a lonely genius who just found his match and to forget all about your lifelong plans and just be yourself with that person