#the fact that this even has to be the discourse right now is insane bc there are so many amazing messages in this movie

[thegreatmelodrama]

It is so insanely wild to see people trying to water down or justify Snow’s actions in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes after seeing the movie solely because he is attractive.

[imerian]

Here goes little essay about everything going on with Logan bc i have a lot of thoughts that I want to organise a bit .

I'm not sure where i want to start bc there so much to this whole situation with Logan and Williams but I'll firstly discuss today's fp1.

I hate what media portraying Williams got, yes they fucked up and critique is fair but there much more than just critique online. I tend to believe that the gave logan repaired chassis not bc they disrespect him but bc his car is tuned to alex and tune new one to him is faster than redoing both of them. It may give him some disadvantages that it's too bad. The part that I'm really sad about is that Williams didn't clarify any of this and we never gonna know for sure. It all doesn't exclude possibility of this just being decision but somehow i find it unlikely.

Another part that i have a lot of emotions about is today's crash, i hate it and people's responses so bad bc firstly we never gonna know is it car or logan bc once again we can't be sure with how Williams talked about it, but even if it was logan i can hardly blame him bc amount of pressure on him js insane.

He wasn't ready for f1 when he was brought into it, everyone already said that. Plus he constantly compared to oscar which isn't fair, you can look at their cars for example (bc in this sport they matter a lot, fact that somehow a lot of people forget) or where their teams are. I remember how in f3 oscar told that he was excited to fight with Logan and that shows for me that logan can do better it's just his circumstances that are unfortunate. He's season in f2 also was really good, he obviously couldn't get first place with domination of filippe but he still did his best.

Another thing about f2 is how much pressure he had there because Williams announced him as their f1 driver even before season finished and it put Logan on a spot bc he could actually become that driver only if he finishes in top three. And he did!!

But you can see how than, in his first f1 season and eveb now amount of pressure doesn't go down, he constantly needs to prove himself or he'll get kicked out of sport, same sport that his family sacrificed all for him to get in.

I absolutely don't understand his haters, especially those that compare him to alex at least because comparing them is stupid with this big of experience gap. Same discourse i see about lando and oscar which is also stupid because at the moment lando is objectively better at least because of his experience, and oscar doesn't need to be better than him, he needs to learn and get that experience himself for any comperasing to make sense.

Big problem with Logan is that he can't get that experience to grow as a driver, even alex said that it isn't stange that he crashes that much in his first season bc Williams car is hard to work with. It was Alex that said that, same person that car was made for so i think it's pretty good evidence. Also that was ghe reason why u was very excited to see Logan this year because he would finally have car that made for him as much as it was made for alex. And then the season started :)

In first two races he couldn't prove himself in any way bc of the reasons that wasn't in his control and what happened in Australia is just horrible for him as a driver. But i really hope that his patience will help him to hold his seat for the next year. As much as it sucks right now if him helping the team can improve his chances for the seat next year than it matters most, bc even of he has shit year he could have another one to prove himself ( which i think will absolutely happen at one point or another of his career if it continues)

In the end i want to add that i believe that James have good intentions bc even knowing how negative internet going to be he made that decision in Australia for the team. As logan fan i was very sad about it but i hope that with same good intentions for team he will keep logan that already shows how supportive he is to the team and with their growth it's probably exactly who they need at the moment

[pickypickypeak]

I remember the article that caused the Avantika discourse featuring Milo Manheim as the Flynn Rider fancast. Yk the fact Milo is a white ass man and they love to project their white fantasies as he’s white so bc the Rapunzel fancast has an actress of color, they don’t want her to “steal” the white man’s spotlight

This is smth I just realized lately as Milo is a popular fancast for Flynn and they wanted Raps to be played by white actresses like Meg Donnelly or Sabrina Carpenter so the POC don’t steal the spotlight 🤨🤨🤨

Listen the tangled crowd honestly scares me by now like I feel many of them are white adult women projecting? Aside from the usual alt right bros complaining I mean (I’m curious did the offended 40 y/o men even know rapunzel’s name before the avantika rumors?)

And I know the movie also has a very passionate, non toxic fandom (also thanks to the show) which. Comforts me a little. Like I know the ACTUAL fans wouldn’t be that mad. It’s insane if you think about it. Personally I wouldn’t mind a diverse casting for both characters since that literally doesn’t affect anything. But I think disney is gonna start settling so it doesn’t flop again. So we’re probably getting a white couple, if the movie’s gonna happen. Just my guess

(On a side note I love both meg and milo but that’s the laziest fancast ever come on😂 it’s like when someone said disney hire chris hemsworth and tom hiddleston to play zeus and hades lmao)

[3416]

All of your Mitch rants and raves are spot on, and it's very comforting to see another person who is just SO tired of all these narratives. Please indulge my two-cents for a moment:

Mitch has said he wants to stay in Toronto. The deal for him to waive his NMC at this point would have to be like...the best deal in all NHL history. He isn't some single, 19-year-old kid anymore who is just starting out; he's firmly established in his career in Toronto, and has his entire family/wife/friends there.

While I do think his next contract ask will be in the ballpark of what Auston and Willy are making (as it should be, he's worth the same amount, imo), I also don't think Mitch is super unreasonable. If the Leafs came back to him and said "we really want you to stay, but we can only give you $10m, I really feel like Mitch would take it, as long as it's a decent length and all the details are reasonable, etc.

All the discourse about his last contract was very much his father's influence, which he won't be dealing with this time around. He was also dealing with Babcock as a coach, so of course he wanted to get his money's worth!

I don't think he would settle for a super lowball offer if he knew he could make substantially more on another team, but he's also not a diva who won't get out of bed for less than $10000 a day, y'know?

Sorry for ranting in your inbox, lol.

no, i'm happy to have people to talk with about it!! feels like no matter how much i say, i never get tired bc i'm just soooo tired of the fanbase's narratives getting in the way of actual facts and of fans inability to sort through what media personalities are pitching as an OPTION and what's like. actually happening behind the scenes right at this moment. like no legitimate insiders are giving actual information, and if anything, i think this go around might be more tight lipped BECAUSE of what happened last time. auston and willy extensions were kept pretty under wraps tbh, the leafs know discretion.

i mean. i'm gonna be real, but 10 million would be lowballing him and he SHOULD get between willy and auston and that's not even a real problem imo. if 2 million makes or breaks a team with the cap space free from the jt deal, they're being very unserious and brad's bad at his job. they're the ones who set the precedent this time around with willy by giving into everything. it's legit not my job or any of our jobs to cap manage despite how much we all love to pretend we could build a perfect team, but he's probably not going to take a considerable discount and i don't see why people think he should, lol. HE'S had career years too over the course of this last contract, ones that surpassed someone who is now getting paid more than him. i'm obviously not mitch, so idk what he'd do in that scenario, but i can say it's HIGHLY unlikely he's taking any pay cut in his prime (literally no hockey players do). i really don't think he should be expected to despite this insane fanbase's reaction to his salary and i'm sure the leafs aren't going to approach him like that tbh. it'd be weird business. they might try to get him for a willy number which would honestly be a discount for him, so lol. i think it's less to do with being a diva and more knowing how much you're worth and your comparables in the league (and on your team) and the team you're with knowing what's fair. and that's why i think people are wrong about the leafs mindset in general. i don't think they WANT to get rid of him, lol. i think they're going to look at the market (as they do every year and have done every year since the core was assembled bc it's their JOB to do that) and see what's there, but the options are even more limited now with the nmc. i don't see it a given that the team will be like. oop we can't afford you now. i think they'll pay him and he'll get a raise, lol.

my best guess is EITHER mitch signs a longterm deal with full nmc at 12-12.5 OR he takes slightly closer to willy's deal for a shorter term to try to maximize his earnings and match what auston's doing in that way. i don't know his mindset about it all and wanting security in toronto over all or wanting to maximize the money, but we will SEE. i just hope everything is more lowkey this time around for my own sanity 😭😭😭😭 bc it's already out of control WITHOUT the team and mitch even talking yet.

[nataliaphantomhivesblog]

Hellooo Natalia

love your post btw

I Adore Soukoku so much and i wan’t Them to see that they are litteraly inlove

but i am worried it would be disrespectfull to the authors the characters are based on if they become a thing yk so i Think that holds asagiri back quite a bit which is why i dont think they Will ever openly become a thing

what do you think?

Omg this question is actually a very old one in my inbox, but now that im finally back. I am absolutely happy to answer<3

Alright so, I remember seeing people say that Asagirgi made a comment about not wanting to make any couple canon bc it would be disrespectful but I highly doubt this is a real claim.

Let's start with the fact that if that was the case, then this series wouldn't be made to begin with.

Dazai's introduction is actually distasteful considering the real Dazai Osamu's death.

The real Dazai Osamu died by double suicide with his wife, by drowning himself.

And in the bsd story,the authors counterparts first apperance is...by drowning.

2. Mori as a character, is literally a port mafia leader, a mass murderer AND a pedophile. When this has 0 connotations to the real Mori's life.

I don't even have to explain how this is defiently disrespectful for the real authors memory, now that his name is constantly butchered and dragged as a pedophile in the manga, right?

3. Dazai in real life absolutely loved and respected Akutagawa's works, but his bsd counterpart literally lacks to acknoweldge and abuses Akutagawa.

The real Akutagawa's death actually depressed Dazai in real life, but in bsd, he is portrayed as someone who absolutely disregards half of the things Aku represents.

4. Half of the bsd cast is portrayed as murders, abusers, war criminals or counter opposites to the authors they are based of.

So with all that being said and done, he basically turned many renowned and respected authors to mafia members, killers, or even whole ass war criminals.

5. Rimbaud and Veraline actually had a love affair going on, yet they only kept them as companions in the manga.

Rimbaund and Veraline had a very known love affair, but Asagiri chose to wrote them the same way historians would call lgbtq+ couples as "veryyyyy close besties:D"

6. There's been canonical couples or canonical crushes implied in the manga, but in real life, the authors probably didn't feel the same so it's quite insane for Asagiri to not want to make Soukoku or any other bsd dynamic canon out of fear of disrespect. Unless, he doesn't want to do to the narrative or for homophobic reasons.

Look, I'm not gonna claim that Asagiri is homophobic, I don't know the guy in real life to even come to that conclusion!!!

But, it's quite intresting to realize how Higuchi, Lucy, Katai, Tanizaki and many other characters have canonical crushes on opposite sex counter parts but then, it's suddendly disrespectful for two characters the same sex liking each other/being together?

More than anything the whole discourse of Asagiri claiming that is probably false since I don't see any real document of him saying it, so it's likely this whole thing was started by someone who couldn't stand the idea of shipping mlm or wlw relationships lol.

Hope this sorta answers your question, sorry for the delay<3

[calypsolemon]

One of the many reasons you're wrong is that no one has ever said that transmascs can't harm transfems. We are equal in the oppression we face and TMA/TME discourse does, in fact, exist entirely as a euphemism, people are constantly using it as a synonym for transmasc without even realizing how mask off it is. That is who you were talking about, literally, and it's insanely disingenuous to pretend like everyone else is weird for noticing your plain English. Right now people are still spreading the lie that the person who coined the term "androphobia" has a fetish for raping trans lesbians, when it was actually him indulging his girlfriend's kink and these same people loudly insist a trans woman's kinks can never be side-eyed for any reason at all. The blatant hypocrisy is just so revolting.

And that's not even getting into the millions of ways this stuff hurts transfems, but I'd be more than happy to educate you on transfeminism unless you're unwilling to listen to a trans WLW voice.

I've quite literally seen people claim that transmascs can't harm transfems. I've seen this take. With my eyes. And I simply cannot bow to the idea that transmascs and transfems are equal in their oppression when only one of those are being categorically picked off this website one by one by staff, and only one of those has a whole widespread popular hate movement centered around ousting them from the queer community and legislating them out of existence.

I am not unwilling to listen to a transfem voice. The only reason why these asks have been answered at all instead of resulting in an immediate block is because it's coming from a transfem. But like literally all you have said so far is a massive "nuh-uh" to me talking about the things I've actually witnessed people doing, tell me I'm saying shit I haven't said, brought up a discourse I didn't even mention (my feelings on "transandrophobia" as a transmasc nb are kinda moot bc I simply don't like to define my own oppression by that term regardless of it's origin), and made a condescending response to my original post. I don't see why YOUR VOICE in specific is the only one I should listen to rather than the many transfems I see openly discussing their experiences with harassment on this website. ESPECIALLY when the post that sparked this discussion in the first place was me talking about my own feelings regarding why I'm distrustful of the rhetoric of rejecting TME because it literally reflects my own experiences with being told I can't define my oppressors. You assumedly wanna make space for transmascs to talk about their oppression, but apparently I can't discuss how my own community makes me uncomfortable with the rhetoric it has decided to recycle without getting "schooled" on a untagged post that had like 6 whole notes before you reblogged it.

So no, I'm not particularly interested in being educated at the university of keeping my eyes closed and not forming my own opinion

[camo1000le]

Give us your Oweddy thoughts!!! I love your art of them so much I want to hear your thoughts <3

Awww tysm 🥺💞 I love drawing them, to the point I'm geniunely worried

I have a lot of specific hcs about them (mostly because I'm slowly stealing them to turn them into OCs for... something) so here's a little rundown in their story! (Let's hope it's actually little!!)

AKA long post weird AU you released a beast (me infodumping)

When they're tiny:

They met when they're 12 at their new school: Owynn moved because of bullying (the kids used to make fun of him bc he was tall/redhead/has heterocromia and even cut his hair, that's why he has it very short now) and Freddy moved to a whole new country (from Spain to wherever fhs happens). Freddy is Mexican while Owynn's dad is swedish (he was not born there)

They find eachother to be very weird but share many tastes and life events, like the bullying and missing a parent (Owynn is more direct and likes to insult his mom while Freddy doesn't talk abt it- Ow didn't even knew he had an adoptive dad).

They form a music duo for the spring event, since they were such good friends maybe they could work together well! Also Freddy acts kinda weird and sometimes forgets they have rehearsals after-hours but it doesn't matter bc he says sorry and he's cute!!

There's a whole drama with Owynn's parents in the middle of that but i wont bore you with that (unless you want me to)

Anyways the event happens Owynn can't come in time so Freddy goes alone and he wins but ow feels betrayed and blah blah blah they're enemies now and he hates Freddy (a 12 years old kid with a lot of mental troubles for that age)

Bc yes Fred is there but Owynn ofc didn't know, even if he actually talked very often with him too. In fact is kinda his fault Fred makes fun of Freddy so much (He's mad he lost his only best friend 🥺)

(Guess who remembers the rehearsals and the songs and owen cursing his mom)

Middle part where we watch Owynn go insane:

Literally. They kinda hate everyone but their dad now.

Moved school again, classmate with Abby and company actually! (Tho y'know abby she's... insane) so they don't talk. Also the Nightmares used to live closer to that school so they bullied him there until Owynn broke all of Onnie's teeth.

They meet Ttrap too: he's older in my AU (while ow is 15 he would be 17), he tries to get Owynn to therapy bc it's really fucking weird/sad he only talks abt Freddy or abt how much they dislike themself so. Yeah. He succeds and Owynn gets... to move schools again, yay!!

Ow starts developing schizoprenia, doesn't get the diagnosis until very later. (Prodomal stage/negative symptoms rn)

Also kinda starts discovering himself (being gay/nonbinary, doesn't really ditch the he/him pronouns until much later). Also dyes their hair purple

I don't have recent drawings of cringy sad 15y/o owen

What would equal the 1st season of the series:

Freddy moves to the HS and says his funny discourse (qué? Que quién soy yo? 🤓) Who would've though a certain kid that hates him was there to see it and died right there.

After realizing they share classroom Owynn pressures Ttrap into changing them to another one, hides his freckles/dyes his hair a darker color/uses normal glasses to not be recognized. Explaining his absence from the 1st season /j

So we have time to look at Freddy. He's struggling, Fred is being annoying; they explode at the camp where Freddy bumps into Owen who tells him to fuck off and never talk to them bc they hate him and Freddy says: "who are you?" to them. :D

Fred facepalms and takes control of the body.

Owynn develops his plan to destroy Freddy's band or whatever. Also dyes his hair again.

2nd season!!

And Owynn is in full delusional mode. The whole 'boss' thing is Eak and Ttrap going along with them so they can decompress lol

He does his little introduction and dumb plans to sabotage that obviously don't work at the end but they're actually very good bc he... actually does know what he's doing (making usagi & loon have trouble/separate golden from the group/the whole Toys thing)

But eventually it doesn't matter/the spring event thing happens ; Owynn gets hit by a car and breaks their arm

The secret 3rd season // last school year

Owynn goes back to lay low, gets his schizophrenia diagnosis so therapy+meds!! Good for them!

Freddy gets the therapy+meds combo too! Fred is chilling now :]

So Freddy now attempts to talk to Owynn but they run away from him to not cause him trouble anymore. And that goes for a while until they talk it out: They'll get time to talk alone, but Freddy also wants them to meet the rest of his band so they can get friends, Owynn accepts; but isn't a fan lf the idea.

Eventually they fall in love again (fall? Ow never stopped liking him honestly) and they date. But it takes a very long time to get there but they're so very lovely <3

ALSO yes Fred and Owynn also fix their relationship, they're besties again <3

[pinkseas]

naur but everytime i word vomit into ur inbox i literally cant remember 70% of it than the core details and the ones you answered the next day so it's kinna funny i wish tumblr lets me save my anon asks than eating it up cus i ain't drafting it like ANYWAY TO UR BESTIE THAT MENTIONED US >> I LOVE GOING INSANE WITH ALY PINKSEAS TOO ur friends are so real!!!!!!! youre insane are you single IS SUCH A FUNNY ASS LINE I WISH I WAS HIT BY IT AND I'D SAY YEA WHAT ABOUT IT

"twitter scares me so bad" as you should it's a shithole for genshin altogether with discourse and mischaracterization and you'd literally cannot stop seeing any of them once you get genshin in ur algorithm and yknow what i realized my only Best fandom experience came from tumblr with undertale Despite its discourses bc its got effective filters and the people are genuinely Good so now i'm thinking of yeeting outta twt and spectating my way here like last time (i am already doing it)

"if i read soulmates it has to be done Right [...] they can’t depend on one another they cant need one another they have to Want. they have to Choose" LIKE NO YEAH THIS IS SO TRUE SO REAL THIS IS WHAT BUGS ME ON SOULMATE AUS when it's almost not by choice and they have to work on accepting it like they're forced into needing it's like,.. a very complicated method here in changing their minds toward the other person Because of the cursed bestowed on them- the point of Choice is so fucking important to me especially when it comes to xiao specifically bc in my rendition of his he's unfamiliar with such things for a long time,.. and even in canon he's a lil troubled about deciding things for himself in the presence of higher beings until he's allowed to IT JUST HURTS HE LOST HIS FREE WILL AND THEN UR SOUL BOUND LIKE WHAT (AND FR specific soulmate tropes where the two ARE given the choice for it are. acceptable 2 me)

"lumine handling intensity well and being much better at identifying her emotions suits her SO well imo" yeah like yea!!EVERYTHING ABT THIS and i think it follows up all the traveler's sass in-game bc she's so fuckin hilarious for delivering lines super well despite having Less lines cus aside paimon taking over the talking she does have her moments and i lov her for it I DO WISH THEY HAVE HER TALK MORE EVEN WITH THE USUAL TEXT CHOOSING i just want her sick ass lines conversing

FKSDFHJSKDFJ ENDEARING IS SUCH A GODLIKE WORD TO ME I WILL KEEP USING IT FOR XIAO EVER its the way you can use it like. subtlely. a lil hidden a lil not Much about his cuteness without explicitly calling him cute its Big Word for the small boy!!!!

your thoughts on qpr makes me feel so much better abt thinking this way bout r/s like YEAH its all abt communication and open with boundaries and there really is something stifling about established r/s BUT IT'S COMPLETELY FINE FOR THOSE WHO PREFER THAT ANYHOW!!

AND YES SO MUCH ON LUMINE AND XIAO'S SHOW OF ATTRACTION TO EACH OTHER i wudnt even call it attraction i think anything that indicates a romantic tension between them is something i'm not gonna entertain like 'craving' or 'desire' (this word in particular is used very specific) and stuff like that, and it's a big fact that lumine's attachment feels like its the same to everyone Except aether,... even after she discovers his abyss persona she still begs for them to go back home too. it's unbeatable even to xiao, or at least, xiao has a different treatment to kindness for being so Similar to her (breaks down) "i feel like seeing each other constantly would be a detriment i think it’d make them both feel really weird." like RIGHT????? IT JUST FEELS OFF THIS WAY and it's not a good portrayal of xiao's desperation not wanting to lose someone else anymore. but even then, idt he shows that notion much or at all than his self-sacrifice tendencies, which is an entirely different topic. this thing about xiao's attachments and morals is a complicated thing to tackle altogether...;;,,

"no bc i characterize lumine as LOVING nature so bad" and u are absolute fucking RIGHT to think that, and for me she just likes exploring in general and is a bit of a reckless daredevil so long she has her glider and its the only condition. its stupid it's silly BUT IT MAKES SENSE shes just a constant headache to xiao in looking after her testing through the terrain but /pos

"i am So Grateful to you for sharing your thoughts i am so giddy over us being on such similar wavelengths" AND ME TO YOU TOO IT'S BEEN SO GOOD TO JUST SPILL EVERYTHING I HAVE IN MIND and get comfortable even on stuff im shy to reveal on unpublished asks cus ur reactions even if not agreeing there's still some reassurance anyway and i dont mind that or feel rejected at all when 98% others is what we just. have connected brains on KDJFHSDKJFH AND JEEZ I RLLY DO CAN'T HELP MYSELF WHEN THE BRAINWORMS INVADE WHEN I REPLY UR RESPONSES TOO it takes over my fingers like a parasite i gratefully let em

and ouuouh ur interpretation of the two's development starting in inazuma is so sweet and it makes sense bc of how dangerous the region is bc in my silly lil bran it made sense to have it After the chasm since it's the quests centering his arc AND I STILL CANT BELIEVE HE HAS HIS OWN ARCHON INTERLUDE,.. this made me loving all the peeps of the chasm gang too and i wish they did Something after the quest ended like UEUEUE TRAUMA SHARING SESSION FOR PPL WHO ONLY MET FOR 3 DAYS LETS GO

so like i start from sumeru bc of the points bc of this and bc i love slow development So Much im practically immune to slowburn did u know. all those fics do Not affect me even if i reach its 30th chapter of them being reluctant to opening up. ""zhongli encouraging him to take more time to himself, lumine taking him on little trips guiding him out more and more and more often" is THE CONCEPT EVER YOU HAVE ZHONGLI INVOLVED idk if you dig this but parental zhongli has me on the floor so id like to think he's another important figure in xiao's life aside lumine too he's just that warm hand on his back encouraging Out of his comfort zone and obligations and lumine's the hand that pulls him Along to see the new things of the world. like zhongli is such a dad,.... doing dad things a grandpa to liyue but i also cant help but have him having an attachment to xiao knowing they share a life even as a master-subordinate r/s (cus in my interpretation zhongli never felt that way than thinking he just wants xiao to Live, too,.. sobbing crying shitting)

"taking baby steps in leaving that part of his life, never quite letting go but letting the ties that hold him to liyue loosen, never forgetting his contract and his duty but understanding that there’s no longer an obligation to fulfill it, that he does it out of his own wish instead. i just. idk. idk !!!!!! at the core of it i think im obsessed with them learning how to live again and doing it together" i got no words. i ran out of brain fuel but my body is convulsing folding in on itself liek MY LIEGE YOU ARE!!!!! U R SO,........ LIKE OSBFGKJFGHDKJGH YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA this is THE XIAOLUMI AND METHINKS,....... THE XIAO ARC IN ENTIRETY AS WELL CUS I BELIEVE IN HIS INDEPENDENCY (with a little help and support from ppl who cares bout him) i just akjdhaskejjksfhsdfkjhdsjfhkjdsbvadhvbjhkv

using a read more thingy just for the sake of anyone on mobile

NOT REMEMBERING ASKS IS SO REAL i forget what i say so often even when i Can go back and check how the fuck am i supposed to know what ive said when i Can't

MY BESTIE THAT MENTIONED US >>> SO REAL i think its been more than a few at this point actually which is very funny to me. shan if ur reading this i am holding u so close to me in my little arms. youre insane are you single is the best line ever especially when you are Dating The Person Who Says It my response every time is "no but i could be😏" i find myself far too funny its awful

we are Shaking Hands in terms of being on tumblr experiencing the undertale fandom that's so real of us undertale was the reason i got a tumblr in the first place all those years ago... you should ABSOLUTELY spectate here i literally never see anything i don't want to see i live in my perfect little echo chamber it's so <333

"even in canon he's a lil troubled about deciding things for himself in the presence of higher beings until he's allowed to" GODDD YEAH YEAH YEAH YEA H YEAH YEAHY HEA YEAH !!!!!!!!!!!!! do NOT force this boy into situations he does that enough by himself thank you very much

"even after she discovers his abyss persona she still begs for them to go back home" no bc its just. On Another Level Genuinely. they've been traveling together with no one but each other with god knows how long especially depending on personal headcanons, they're used to going through entire worlds and moving on theyre used to not getting super attached !!! its a little different in teyvat i think because theyve lost most of their power and they're trapped and alone for the foreseeable future but. that still doesnt change the past and their habits yknow ?? its something i try REALLY hard not to think about actually because (with the exception of a very specific au which i am currently writing for) unless they're just. trapped on teyvat Forever i CANNOT imagine lumine staying there once she has the ability to leave and i CANNOT imagine xiao ever leaving. it makes me So Sad genuinely i simply refuse to acknowledge its existence

"xiao's attachments and morals is a complicated thing to tackle altogether" SO REAL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IM SO GLAD U THINK IM RIGHT ABT THE NATURE LOVING it just feels right tbh and "shes just a constant headache to xiao in looking after her testing through the terrain but /pos" also so real <33333333 lumine and her silly little glider. god. i love them both so bad

i do like to think of the chasm as post-inazuma but thats because in my head w/ their development inazuma is like. The Next Step almost, where they're close enough in liyue but the fact that they continue to be close even once lumine has left really hits. and then they've been a bit closer and become familiar with one another in quite a few ways by the time the chasm happens and then i get super self indulgent with the chasm because i am so silly like that <3333 in terms of slowburn and the way you've described their growing closeness it does make SO much sense to swap it tbh i love the thought of the chasm being like the start of things and the way that'd bring them closer before inazuma and. mfgnmhfnmf god. GOD.

"i wish they did Something after the quest ended" no bc in my little brain they get together once every month or two just to have a meal together and talk and keep up with each other they are Friends Now

"parental zhongli has me on the floor so id like to think he's another important figure in xiao's life aside lumine too he's just that warm hand on his back encouraging Out of his comfort zone and obligations and lumine's the hand that pulls him Along to see the new things of the world" this is the most perfect accurate thing i have read in my entire life for starters i LOVE parental zhongli like. idk not FULL parental not too much but def him being a more parental figure in xiao's life especially compared to other interpretations of their dynamic i just. god. it is So Important to me that zhongli cares for him and looks after him just in those little ways. the warm encouraging hand on his back vs the hand pulling him along is PERFECT thats such a fucking amazing way of putting it i love everything abotu that the image is so clear in my head

o(-(

^^^ me dead on the floor thinking about zhongli and lumine being such important figures in xiao's life... i like to think that a Lot of the characters in liyue are important to him in different, small little ways i just don't know their characters well enough to fully describe how but like. idk baizhu qiqi yanfei ganyu yknow ?? i know next to nothing about yanfei but i might have to try and write her for this honestly we'll see how it goes but i REALLY want there to be at least one character other than the few i have now who he ends up talking to even if its just smth rly simple... if nothing else the chasm crew is getting an honorable mention on god

idk i just. xiao has done so much for liyue for so long i really love to think of those very few who know him trying to do little supporting things for him, too it's so important to me

okay and now !!!

i am also gonna answer the Other Ask but without publishing it naturally it will simply live comfy cozy in my inbox <333

THAT ONE SHIP "it mischaracterizes Both characters in the pair altogether for the sake of romance" you're so real for this idk i dont MIND seeing it but it has never felt in character to me and i feel like this describes exactly why ?? idk maybe its just the xiaolumi brainworms eating away at me but like. i Get It

what you said about like. your personal hcs for him in regards to that trauma and how he processes it that is SO fucking valid, i def understand getting anxious about certain self-indulgent hcs im the same way both with the sillier ones and heavier ones but i can promise you that if nothing else i will Never judge you for even the most self indulgent ridiculous shit EVER. like the way you described it all is so valid and so easy to picture and a really good way to interpret/believe he'd deal with everything but even if you were to have the most ooc headcanon or anything ever just for fun just for the sake of it i simply would never judge having fun is the Most Important with these things im so srs

we have diff interpretations of how he'd deal with things like the yaksha's deaths and zhongli dying but i think a lot of the points we both have are still pretty similar, ESPECIALLY with him not knowing how to handle it and ESPECIALLY especially with the shock factor. the way i write him or would write his reaction to that would definitely be him just sort of Shutting Down emotionally because its too much and too overwhelming and so he kicks into like. i cant call it work mode its not really a job. but he fully focuses on fighting and finding out who couldve killed rex lapis and like. he turns his attention to things that are familiar and easier to deal with and he buries himself in them the way one would bury themselves in their work to ignore emotions yknow? and then there'd be the shock factor of "oh he Is alive" and then there's this massive pit of grief with nowhere to go because logically, reasonably, rex lapis is alive, there's nothing left to grieve. he shouldn't still be upset <- man who refuses to let himself process and feel his emotions when the emotions dont stop existing just bc he ignores them

that being said that's definitely a Pattern With Me Specifically like in the barbara fic ive been working its built off of canon but i take it SO far just bc i can :sob: and i enjoy it way too much to want to Not do that yknow? girls who struggle to process and Actually Feel their emotions writing characters strugglign to process and Actually Feel their emotions so that she can process and feel them vicariously through them <3 or something along those lines idk at this point its less that and more "wow this is really fun to write and its smth im familiar with so its easier to write as well"

my cat meowed and i stepped away for like 2 seconds to pet her and immediately lost every train of thought ive ever had in my life hopefully i wasnt gonna say anything else LMAO but no yeah self indulgent hcs and ways of interpreting characters >>>>>>>

i keep reading and rereading the way you described xiao's response to grief i am OBSESSED its so easy to imagine its so easy to see like oh my god. ohhhh my god. based as hell it suits him so well

i cannot think of anythign else to say back to the trenches i go <- finding scenes where i started in the middle or left out the endings and filling those parts in now that i dont know what else to write. its been really nice actually ive gotten a lot done just with that LMAO

[ufonaut]

u can ignore this if u dont want discoursers @ing u but i just had to yell bc im losing it @the connor section of the pride thing. SO much worse than anything i couldve imaigened. imagine being sandra hawke and getting that letter from ur seemingly teenage son. "hi mom how are u btw ive decided i dont want to fuck anyone" like WHAT? cannot believe that actually got published an im seeing nothing but ppl positively freaking out abt it. ppl acting like its rep on par w actual gay characters. nutty

NO PLEASE LET'S TALK. IT WAS DISGRACEFUL. IT WAS RIDICULOUS.

the story completely ignores the fact that connor has been gaycoded since his very first appearance, it ignores his history with the men (eddie fyers, master jansen, his grandfather) who were father figures to him when ollie was pretending he doesn't exist/dead, it ignores the particulars of connor's relationship with his mother and the fact that they just don't share that kinda bond... but hey, that's been talked to death. by me. by other people, i'm sure. instead, i'll say we know the very act of making connor asexual is an act of homophobia but we should get into just how far that goes.

first and foremost:

at this rate, there's no beating the inherent infantilization of characters of colour allegations. and certainly not between connor being aged down and greatest hits such as "i want to tell someone about my awesome day and eat ice cream".

but the real showstopper here is these fantastic words being put over panels of a character created specifically for one of the single most recognisable out gay men in pop culture:

let me put it this way: there's no music meister in comics, he did not exist before neil patrick harris -- a gay man -- voiced him in the brave & the bold cartoon and even meister's origin frames him a certain way ("bullies used to pick on me because i sang in choir/but something very strange occurred when i kept singing higher," he sings in his debut episode). there's also no inherent sexual or romantic element to meister's gimmick, merely an ability to control people through music

and yet, in the press release from hell that preceded this story, the writer notably called music meister the 'perfect villain' for connor. why is that? what are we meant to understand here? arguably, someone along the lines of poison ivy would be more appropriate here (connor's lack of sexual attraction would save the day etc, you get the picture). in the pride special, meister doesn't have a single line of dialogue, there's not a single thing about him that makes him an especially necessary piece of the story or irreplaceable in any way... except for the fact that he's associated with a gay man by default, except for the fact that the narrative seems dedicated to showing gay people as capable of oppressing asexual people (whose silence is an 'aberration' and is 'ruining our chorus', right?).

not to mention, the absolutely insane phrasing of sex involving "sharing" your body with someone but that's a whole other conversation and all i've got to say on it for now is that it makes the author sound wildly christian lmao.

point being, homophobia won and everyone celebrating connor's story is undeniably a homophobe.

[sohotthateveryonedied]

you know what? i kind of feel like im venting in your inbox about how hard it is to be a dc blog in this day and age. like a teenager in 2005 sending an anonymous letter to a teen magazine asking for input. because you're honestly one of the few dc blogs i know that just vibes and doesn't attack anyone or hate on anyone or you know. bc in the past few months, especially since my blog blew up, i've kind of lost hope for the dc fandom because when we're not pointing our fingers and laughing at the batcest people there's wild accusations of people being racists or anti-semitic, there's people just blatantly hating on other people for like the tiniest shit? there's all this fucking hate and even if you don't want to be caught in this giant web of negativity that's being spun, people will say the rudest shit to you, people will get angry at you, people will accuse you of anything, because apparently that's what people like to do? like fuck i've been in this fucking fandom since i was 11 fucking years old and i never would've thought that in the end the people would be sucking the life out of things for me.

your blog is just the best thing in this fandom to me right now and i respect the hell out of you for just, going with the flow, and i'm sending you all the love and good vibes i've got left in me.

(sorry for venting)

(you're the best, cheers)

yeahhh there are a lot of things wrong with this fandom and i hate the fact that no matter how often you point out the insanity (e.g. calling out people for every teeny move they make/making mean generalizations about people who are just trying to enjoy comics and have a good time/creating discourse out of nothing) or how often you try to make peace, there's really not much you can do to change it because everyone has long since accepted the fucked-up dc fandom culture as normal even though it isn't. i'm glad that, if nothing else, i can at least be a little island of positivity and relief from all the weirdness lmao <3

[akari-hope]

Not sure why you think that wlw are more shunned, viewed as predatory, and otherwise demonized than mlm relationships, particularly enemies to lovers dynamics? Sapphics are by and large wayyyyy more well-received than mlm. Sapphics are seen as soft and harmless and lovely even when they’re fighting, while mlm are seen as dirty and emasculated and generally viewed with complete disgust.

i said that mlm are FETISHIZED more in enemies to lovers dynamics than wlw. wlw are more DEMONIZED than mlm in enemies to lovers dynamics. and i gave clear examples of dynamics that reflect this in that post, so i'm not pulling this out of my ass. neither is good. both are bad. they're just different kinds of bad. i'm pretty sure i made that clear but if i didn't, i'm restating it now - NEITHER MLM NOR WLW ARE TREATED WELL IN MEDIA REGARDLESS OF DYNAMIC. THIS IS NOT OPPRESSION OLYMPICS. DIFFERENT PROBLEMS DOES NOT EQUAL BETTER PROBLEMS.

i am, however, a lesbian, and i'm going to be able to speak more coherently and authentically to the sapphic representation and general treatment of women in media than anything else. it's my firsthand experience and it's always going to be easier and more accurate than my musings on the experiences of other groups of people. and given that i have a particular fondness for enemies to lovers dynamics, of course i'm bound to contemplate sapphic enemies to lovers dynamics specifically.

but if we must dance this dance bc you decided to take a bad faith interpretation of my words, women have to do more to be loved in media, and they have to do far less to be hated. this is a fact plain and simple, and if you can't acknowledge that we are not even remotely on the same page. You can look at ANY piece of media and see this is true. the supernatural fandom's treatment of basically any women vs. the kingdom hearts fandom's treatment of kairi vs. the naruto fandom's treatment of sakura. etc. etc. etc. i could name examples all day. these are women who, yes, have shoddy writing, but instead of getting the same treatment of a male character with shoddy writing - immediately getting fleshed out by fans - they get set aside as annoying, bitchy, mary sues, etc. even female characters with GOOD writing will get this treatment, a la lightning farron from final fantasy xiii. male characters with the SAME EXACT TRAITS are often beloved by fans. easy example, see cloud strife from final fantasy vii, who shares a hysterically huge amount of personality traits with lightning farron.

and this is BEFORE we even get into the discussion of being sapphic, or god forbid any other type of minority. traditionally beautiful white cishet women who are feminine and kind are the only women to ever pass for general audiences, and even then it's not consistent. women must be "palatable". versus white men, who are allowed to be dark, messy, gritty, murderers, even genocidal dictators and still be beloved by fans. and yes, the qualifier of white is necessary here - men of color, especially black men, do not get this same generosity from fans, and you bet your fucking ass it goes triple for women of color.

and again, this is BEFORE WE EVEN FACTOR IN BEING GAY OR MENTALLY ILL OR ANY OTHER FACTORS. THIS IS ASSUMING ALL CHARACTERS ARE CISHET AND NEUROTYPICAL.

women are "soft and harmless and lovely" as you put it when they fight...if they're fucking tifa lockhart. if they're feminine and sweet and cute normally, or at least perceived that way. if they look like they're out of madoka magica (and oops not even then, bc you bet your ASS there's insane demonization of miss homura akemi). and also, friendly reminder, that "soft and harmless and lovely" thing isn't a compliment. it's fucking infantilizing at best.

for sheer simplicity's sake, to compare two ships that are on a relatively equal playing field in terms of representation, i'm going to take a look at the general reception of goro akechi/ren amamiya from persona 5 (i'm using ren as his name for simplicity's sake) and madoka kaname/homura akemi from madoka magica.

some brief context for both: both are heavily queercoded, homura is initially introduced as an antagonistic character but it is later revealed to not be the case, akechi is initially introduced as a friendly character but it is later revealed to not be the case, and both homura and akechi have clear and intense struggles with trauma and other mental health issues.

judging by what i've said, from your own logic, surely homura is a widely beloved and not at all vilified character. after all, she's feminine, she's not REALLY a villain, and she's got sympathetic motivations. right? wrong. homura is widely beloved... by sapphics. but even people who LIKE THE SHOW DO NOT ALWAYS LIKE HER. homura was WIDELY hated and discoursed back when the show first aired. you still get people who hate her. and even more frustrating, despite the blatant, you-absolutely-cannot-miss-it queercoding, sapphic fans of the show still have to argue that it's not just "girls being friends". it's not even a true enemies to lovers setup, and you still cannot escape homura being called toxic and predatory.

now let's take a brief look at akechi and ren. like previously stated, akechi is revealed to be an antagonist later in the story. and when he is, he tries to shoot ren in the head and frame it as a suicide. this is, quite obviously, a lot different from homura and madoka, where homura never even directly fights madoka. surely by your logic, akechi would be widely seen as a villain, unforgivable, horrendously terrible? well he most certainly isn't. he's one of if not the most beloved characters by fans. his relationship with ren is more often than not read as romantic, and it's practically treated as canon by a large majority.

and like i previously stated, i am not saying the mlm example i've given is without issues - akechi/ren is highly sexualized and fetishized. it's just a very DIFFERENT problem from the vilification that wlw characters often receive. and i am not saying that mlm are NEVER vilified. i am simply saying the large, overarching trend in fandom is to be forgiving of men, and unforgiving of women.

i simply do NOT see mlm ships get the same treatment in this regard to wlw ships. sora/riku from kingdom hearts and catra/adora from she-ra have...practically the same narrative in many ways. childhood friends separated by a worldwide conflict, becoming enemies, fighting each other multiple times, arguably with intent to kill, eventually saving each other and finding a way to reconcile in order to emerge victorious against the true villain. riku and catra are strikingly alike, as are sora and adora. but riku is once again a fan favorite character. and catra has received backlash after backlash after backlash. i hardly even post about she-ra anymore and i STILL get people in my inbox talking about catra discourse!!

again, i'm NOT saying the script is never reversed. there's not really anything to be won by making absolute statements like that. i'm just saying that i have never seen it, and even on the odd chance that i do it's never as severe.

once again - yes mlm characters face backlash. no one is saying they do not. but it is different backlash. i am specifically discussing the fan reception of wlw characters and ships bc that is my personal experience. different problems do not equal better problems.

i'm tired of bad faith interpretations of my posts. unless you want to have a respectful and thoughtful conversation (which i AM open to), don't come at me with boldfaced accusations.

[mariaiscrafting]

idk how to tell you that now of all times, especially when a legitimate s/a victims assault and domestic abuse survivor has had her information leaked online for thousands to view and talk about without her consent regardless if the accused are guilty or not, is not the time to be cracking the "dreamblr is a dumpster fire lmao and this is amusing to me" agenda. There are better ways to critique the reaction that aren't entirely insensitive to the situation and victim.

hmmmm 🤔

this is a legit point, so I'm gonna answer it as genuinely as possible and take the criticism to heart.

ever since certain people decided to give me piles of shit for legitimately getting angry and arguing over the dream reddit thing, I don't know if yall have noticed, but I've largely shifted the way I treat discourse. generally, I treat it all with humor, even if deep down I'm simply uncomfortable or genuinely angry, I think basically to protect myself. like I'd "laugh" and talk about "eating popcorn" during the andi thing because getting legit angry at people hurt too much. so instead, I'd just push that down and pretend I was laughing at the absurdity of the fans in the situation, because that was so much easier to deal with.

all that to say, yeah, I reacted to this manatreed shit, the very little that I knew about it, laughing because it seems kinda absurd and also to protect myself. the entire situation is straight outta my worst dystopian nightmare for internet drama, and it just generally seems insane to me how people are treating this shit, I can't even explain it or go into it all..so instead of getting angry or expressing all my disbelief, I was like, how can I twist this to be wildly entertaining? how can I glean some entertainment out of this insanity? ah yes, by focusing on how ridiculous dream stans are, including rn. and they are being so ridiculous, for so so many reasons, right? the way they actually started to disown dream when the allegations were first thought to be true, when hes done so much worse shit and also all he did was supposedly tangentially know someone who allegedly committed sa; the way they all fucking wanted to believe this rando's receipts when it was popular, and then the second the tweets saying "stop believing this rando what's wrong with you guys" got like 12k likes, they fucking turned tail and started moralizing at everyone else; the way the exact same people who are like "I feel so bad for this sa victim, stop spreading doxxing info, etc" will retweet and make those threads nitpicking every single aspect of their lives; the very fact that they are nitpicking this victim's life just for the stupidly selfish sake of making themselves feel better by absolving their fave new cc of blame so they can still stan this guy they think is hot and mysterious without the uncomfy knowledge that he might be a predator (as if that's the part that fucking matters in all of this); the fact that you all got so utterly butthurt over dream calling yall gullible, to the point that people were replying w doxxed info on his priv twt, because yall cant stand to be even slightly criticized by your uwu perfect minecraft boy and need to be coddled and babied by him at all fucking times; the extreme and hilarious contrast between the shitstorm transpiring rn and the posts not two days ago trying to look into why the dt were befriending this rando, faceless cc, like yall were on fucking csi or some shit, as if the dt arent just a bunch of trolls who like messing w you idiots bc it's funny to them.

all of this is ridiculous in the way that its painful and unbelievable and horrible and apalling. but I like to turn my incredulity into something I can laugh about instead, because I'm so done with getting angry and sad and frustrated with you idiots. Like, am I fucking angry that people are basically taking this sa victim's dirty laundry and airing it out for the sake of the next cycle of their cc drama wheel? fucking yeah. but I'm not gonna go onto tumblr and start moralizing it bc it's out of my control anyways, what the fuck am I gonna do, make a smiletwt account and start telling people off until one of my virtue signaling rants gets enough likes to be noticed? what a miserable endeavor that would be, christ 🙄 no, dreamblr is within my reach and also blowing up my dash rn, so yeah, yall are what I set my sights on.

[kickingstonesandbones]

What I’ve gathered from the 3 Episodes bc some of y’all seem confused or asked

Disclaimer: For the past 10+ years, I've made it a hobby of mine to thoroughly analyze fictional characters and plots, so I feel pretty confident in predicting characters. There rarely are plot twists that can surprise me. BUT that is obviously no guarantee that I am absolutely perfect at it and never wrong! Nor do I believe that I am always correct, just quite confident in reading between the lines with characters.

There are some theories and posts I've seen (on different platforms) that, I think, are doing a good job of getting the general gist of stuff, but nonetheless, they all seem to be overlooking minor details that can turn around meanings (like the way Hoshino acts). Also, many of you seem to either be ignoring or unaware of the mindset of older JAPANESE generations (of Insanely Rich Families™).

So yeah, I am just going to put statements/theories I’ve seen and go through them one by one. They’ll be obviously marked, so just read the ones you’re interested in? (Also, I absolutely love a good discourse, so if you have something that would challenge my own theories, or would like to discuss something that I haven’t touched up on in this OR want me to elaborate on something, feel free to comment, reblog, or dm me with your opinion or question! Whatever you’re more comfortable with 😊)

#1 Haru killed the woman. (I see this as a kind of side-comment a lot?)

#2 Hoshino feels 'torn' about Haru. // He has turned cold/harsh towards Haru. // He dislikes Haru now. (Why it’s more complicated than that and also different than you think – explained more lengthily than I intended to, but still shorter than I could’ve lol)

#3 Why that entire first scene in Episode 3 exists.

#4 Because of that scene, WHAT really is Suzue to Daisuke now? (Just brain farts, pls kinda ignore this one haha I just wanted that one theory written down to get back to it)

#5 Older Japanese Generations In General... (aka Daisuke’s behavior in Ep 3 explained)

#6 Daisuke and Haru are NOT as close as some of you might want to believe right now.... Yet, at least. Yet.

Extra: I've seen a post where someone wondered whether Daisuke's and Haru's pasts are somehow connected. (I haven’t seen a single post about the 1998 Files and the Parents in this context, for some reason, and was wondering.)

I’ll put a Read More here because this is going to be long, very long.

#1 Haru killed the woman.

Absolutely not true. (I do see people mention that like “he killed her in self-defense” in case you're thinking "well duh, Sherlock.") Choice of words is ALWAYS important.

In Episode 2 when Haru and Daisuke talk on the stairs, Daisuke relays information about Haru. He says, "you misfired and seriously injured the target" when talking about the reason why Haru is not in First Division anymore.

Now, Daisuke does not seem the type to sugarcoat facts, which means he would not leave out "which resulted in their death" at the end, or just straight up say "you misfired and killed the target." Now, 'seriously injured' means that the woman's life WAS in grave danger and she was close to dying, but she DID NOT DIE in the end. She survived. Being shot in the chest does not mean inevitable death. In fact, you can survive injury to any organ (even the brain) EXCEPT for the stomach (bc inner walls are covered in a protein that protects the stomach from digesting itself -> injury that would let the acid leak from it -> acid will burn away other organs -> you die of multiple organ failure bc you cannot stitch up a stomach)

It hits her in the right side of her chest, maybe even right below the shoulder. It’s hard for me to tell the exact position from the frames. But anyway, it most likely pierced through her right lung, which in itself is already deadly enough. But yeah, she did not die. No one in the anime ever even alludes to it.

I think some people believe he actually accidentally killed the woman because Haru was so devastated by it IMMEDIATELY. No, it wasn’t because of that per se. He was absolutely devastated because he. LOVES. PEOPLE. (As shown by his entire conversation with the boy on the train before he gets off and his faith in the good in people in Ep 3.) And it just left him so shaken that he (seriously) injured an innocent person. (In his eyes innocent because someone who is about to shoot you out of anger/other strong emotions is not necessarily innocent to me but that is an entirely different discussion.) Anyway, I think he was most shocked about the fact that he had pulled the trigger on her out of reflex (because he instinctively knew she WAS going to shoot him DEAD in that moment and his body reacted before he could think about it – as his immediate reaction to shooting her shows).

See the absolute shock in his eyes? Like he only realized what he did right after shooting her. Reflex.

 #2 Hoshino feels 'torn' about Haru. // He has turned cold/harsh towards Haru. // He dislikes Haru now.

Yes, but no. I don't quite agree - and I don't agree mostly with the explanations given why (but also parts of the statements). And the reason for that is simply Hoshino's different facial expressions and exact choice of words in the interactions between them. To me, he seems like the type who would have an indifferent kind of face most of the time since I literally screenshotted every single scene with him (solely for this analysis lol), and he does have variation in expression, but only a little bit most of the time. His feelings are kinda subtle.

But before I explicitly explain what I mean, let me define something. 'Being torn' about something in general means that one cannot decide between two things, mostly two opposite (or at least quite different) things. And since some say Hoshino 'feels torn,' it would mean he would have two opposing feelings towards Haru, which I honestly don't think is true. It is just one very complex feeling that manifested over time.

Let me start by how Hoshino views Haru.

Haru is Hoshino's senior (senpai). Hoshino is Haru's junior (kohai). As we can see in the flashback in Ep 3 on the rooftop, Hoshino admires Haru. Like, this baby has complete and utter admiration in his eyes.

(He likely also thinks in that moment that Haru is insane, but that is besides the point right now.) He admires Haru for being able to do things fearlessly that he hesitates about. He looks like he’d like to be just like Haru as well. He looks up to him.

Then, the incident of Haru shooting the woman happens. Haru leaves the First Division and 'gets demoted' to the MCPTF. The two of them only speak to each other with higher level (distant relationship) honorifics. (I have a point about Hoshino calling Haru senpai in the first episode, but I will get to that.) Why they fell back into stranger honorifics will get more obvious in my second main point.

In the flashback we get in the third episode,

we get a Hoshino who stays on the side, also looking kind of dejected. I do not think that he is disappointed or angry at that moment. He just stares at his senpai in silence. Since he admires Haru so much, I guess he always wanted to be a cop JUST LIKE Haru, so he is... grieving? with Haru. I don't really know how to put it into words, but you could say he is HURTING by seeing his amicable, precious senpai BEATEN. Do not forget that Takei (Haru’s former superior) also puts a reassuring hand on Haru's shoulder. This interaction shows that they DO NOT blame him. (I am saying this bc I've seen people angry about what Hoshino says to Haru in Ep 3, saying "why would he hate him so much now and be so mean" - he doesn't. He absolutely. Does. Not. Hate. Him. He is frustrated and disappointed, but not hateful towards Haru.)

Having explained that, let me get to my first main point here:

I don't think I need to lay out Haru's work ethics for you guys because they're so clearly shown in the anime. So considering those work ethics of his, I truly believe that Haru ASKED to be removed from the First Division (which is why I put gets demoted in '   ' earlier) and be switched to one where he does not need a gun. Hence, he's now in the MCPTF. We do not SEE him getting demoted after that incident, which is why I firmly believe that that was Haru's decision and that he was persistent about it. When he packs up and leaves

he does not seem sour to HAVE to leave the division, but rather that he still seems to dwell over the reason WHY he's packing his stuff up. (You can see turmoil in his eyes. And that he’s lost in thoughts. He seems regretful, but also kind of set on something.) I mean the train scene really shows just HOW MUCH it still affects him

so I am pretty certain that he's thinking about exactly that and that he does not deserve to be a cop because of what he has done in that exact moment, and so on.

My second main point:

My first main point is exactly the reason why I think Hoshino acts the way he does towards Haru. It explains his expression that we see as Haru packs up his stuff.

He does not look angry.

He is hurt. And disappointed.

He feels let down.

In a sense, also betrayed. Like this isn’t reality.

The oh-so-great senpai, whom he has always looked up to all this time, who seemed so amazing, is pulling in his tail between his legs. Giving up. And running away. Just like that. Just because of ONE mistake. One mistake ALL of them probably would've made in that situation if they had been in his shoes. It made him realize that the senpai he had idolized all this time might not be as invincible as he had thought.

And. It. Hurts. Hoshino. To. No. End. (I mean, just zoom in on the pic and look at those eyes.)

I don't think he has ever let Haru know just how hurt he was just watching him leave and accepting the work he'd do in MCPTF (which is literally just desk work and filling in missing men force, as far as we’ve seen), which probably would mean that he let the hurt foster and foster inside of him until it slowly started to turn into coldness/curtness towards Haru. (Also could be that they fought before Haru left, which would also explain some remarks Hoshino makes.) He was hurt, and he somehow needed to show it.

Hoshino looked up to Haru, and was left feeling let down by his former partner. That stings. Deeply.

(I mean you can literally see the small changes in his eyes. His expressions slightly soften and harden. But the words tend to be more direct and harsh. And honestly, that is the result of disappointment and hurt speaking. But nevertheless, he still lets Haru and Kamei listen in (bottom right corner) even though he does look slightly annoyed; probably because he knows that he won’t be able to get rid of them, especially Haru. So the admiration is still there – probably had never left – which can give him moments where he “gives in”. Also, look at the bottom left corner.)

I mean Hoshino probably used to ALWAYS call Haru senpai for a longer period of time because he NEVER ever calls Haru senpai in the anime except for that one time when Haru startled him in the first episode. People in general react out of reflex and instinct whenever they're startled because reflexes and instincts are not a thing your brain CONSCIOUSLY processes. Those are subconscious responses.

If you don’t believe me, here is the other times Hoshino has called Haru – and when he did, it was literally only “Kato-san” (there aren’t a lot of other examples bc he literally only says Haru’s name like four times so far, but when he is NOT surprised, he addresses Haru like this):

(Completely taken aback by Haru just stealing the ear-piece, surprised face, afterwards not even aware that he did call Haru senpai, which he never does again (so far))

Which means Hoshino did not (more like COULD NOT) think about the way he'd call Haru, so that "senpai" slipped past his lips out of pure old habit. (Which goes to show that they used to be really close.) I'm not crying, you are.

.

I also have to bring up that first conversation on the train in Ep 3.

Kato: “That was rather fast.”

Hoshino: “Why are you here?” (he says Kato-san in Japanese, not “you”)

K: “I happened to be on the train. The perp is male. He said he failed the college entrance exam, so his age is somewhere around 19 or 20. I’m guessing he’s from somewhere around Hyogo.”

H: “How do you know-”

K: “I was sitting next to him, until moments ago.”

H: “Any other information?”

K: “No. I only started talking to him when I was close to getting off.”

H: “Understood. We at First Division will be handling this case. Kato-san, please take your leave.”

K: “It’s alright. I’m not a stranger in his light. Let me do it.”

H: “Do you have any authority to be on this crime scene?”

K: “What do you mean?”

H: “Why don’t you ask yourself that question?”

Look exactly at the changes in their eyes in each single picture here. Notice how Hoshino goes from surprised to somewhat indifferent to challenging? Someone might even argue that he looks angry, hostile, or that it’s resentment in his eyes, but considering that he is asking “Why don’t you ask yourself that question?” it is neither of those, because he is challenging Haru to defend himself. But Haru doesn’t answer, and they just stare each other down for a few seconds.

Just by the way Hoshino says it, and the way Haru reacts and how it immediately triggers the flashback/memory afterwards, I think this might actually be something Haru has said TO Hoshino (about himself) back then when Hoshino might've tried to change Haru's mind on leaving the First Division (that he does not deserve to be a cop, investigate crime scenes like that, etc). At least that interaction and just how Haru reacts to it seems to be implying that to me.

I refuse to believe Hoshino did not try at all to persuade and hold back Haru back then (I mean just that pic of Hoshino staring at Haru when he was packing his stuff and leaving the division literally SCREAMS INTO YOUR FACE), so I believe Haru told him at least SOMEWHAT how he feels about the whole thing, and I think Haru probably definitely said something along those lines. Like, he “did not deserve to investigate crime scenes LIKE THAT” (I mean the trauma and the train scene are literally the same hostage scenario with the culprit having a firearm (even if the kid's was a model gun and not real)) nor that he “deserved to be a cop any longer (because cops wouldn’t hurt the innocent).” He might’ve said something like that to Hoshino, which only frustrates and disappoints the latter further.

So in this complicated mess, what is it that Hoshino is actually feeling? That mixture of hurt, disappointment, betrayal and being let down has manifested itself into frustration. Hoshino is frustrated with Haru.

He’ll probably explode (in Haru’s face) at some point in the anime, too.

(I think Hoshino is an interesting character.)

#3 Why that entire first scene in Episode 3 exists

I was so confused about that scene in the beginning and had to check whether I WAS actually watching the third episode lol

The main thing I get from it is that it's entirely about INFORMATION. That is probably entirely because the Hong Kong episode got deleted and instead we'll get that in a drama CD? In Hong Kong, Haru probably would've learned that HEUSC is an AI butler, not a real one, and how to use him. (Among other things.) I mean, he somehow needs to first get to learn about HEUSC before he can use him for the whole train scenario later in the episode? And that hadn't been done yet, and probably would've happened in Hong Kong, but we aren't getting that in the anime so that information needed to be given another way. Which is probably why that first scene even exists. If anyone knows well about script writing for that and how that in general works, and knows more about this, please let me know, I am interested in learning lmao

#4 Because of that scene, WHAT really is Suzue to Daisuke now?

I do not want anyone to comment that it was confirmed that they are siblings or some shit. NOTHING has been confirmed. She still could be his wife. She also just could be his sister. Or a cousin. We will get to know eventually, but as of right now, NOTHING AT ALL HAS BEEN CONFIRMED. REMEMBER THAT, NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU HATE IT.

I, in general, do not really care for ships. So idgaf if she is his sister or wife, but I DO have a theory of my own. And it is all because of how Daisuke's grandmother introduced herself.

DAISUKE'S grandmother. Not THEIRS. Not Daisuke's AND Suzue's grandmother. ONLY Daisuke's.

So this either means a harsh canon awakening for shippers, or it MIGHT mean something entirely else. (And I have 3 points to make here.)

(1) That she does not accept Suzue as a grandchild. Now, she did not look like she harbors resentment towards Suzue and wished she wasn't present at all or didn't exist. Buuuuut.... Suzue might be an illegitimate grandchild? Like, I know that sounds wild, but hear me out.

Children sometimes look more like one parent rather than the other (or a parent’s side). Sometimes, not always, but often enough. Animes in general do not make love interests or parents look almost identical. (But then again, you could never know with the devs of this one lmao) Soooo... It could be that they either look like their father, or their mother. And the respective parent had an affair, resulting in Suzue. And why I believe it would be Suzue, if one of them actually would be the illegitimate child? Because she is younger than Daisuke, and the way the grandmother treats HIM. (Honestly, if Daisuke would be the illegitimate child, 1. Grandma wouldn't claim him 2. Why would the other parent stick around for two more years to have another child with a cheater?) Which could be why - considering the mindset of older Japanese generations - why she only introduced herself as Daisuke's grandmother. And also why she is so immensely strict with him. In her eyes, he would be the only heir to the family. So she has to raise him to be a responsible man whom she can hand over the company to with peace of mind.

(2) Daisuke and Suzue are actually married. So get over it in this case. (And don't you DARE hate on a great character (again) because of that, otherwise I'll only refer to ya'll as salty hoes from them on.)

(3) We all (read: I) might be interpreting too much into it and it literally means nothing at all, and she just introduced herself that way because they were going to talk about Daisuke because of his new work place and since Daisuke and Haru are partners. For this case, I already have my wig, red nose, and make up ready 🤡

If I am being honest, (1) does not seem too likely to me – just something I randomly thought of. I actually think it’s just simply (3). But I am presenting it for the VERY small chance that (1) could actually be true lmao I bet I will cringe hard at it later

Highly likely: Since Haru would be more involved with Daisuke than Suzue because of work, it could be that she just found it more logical to introduce herself as his grandma, rather than theirs, so yeah… like I’ve said, these are just brain farts and I just wanted to have them written down lol

EDIT: I’ve been made aware that there seems to be an error in the translation. Since it is too much of a pain to add even more pics on mobile, I will just relay the information of the tweet. You can find the link to the tweet in the comments though. My Japanese isn’t that great, so I am dependent on the translation, so errors can occur, which makes me happy when people point something like this out to me. Basically, what Kikuko is actually saying in Japanese is that she’s the grandma, but she leaves out the pronouns - therefore not really saying whose grandma she is - so it could refer to both of them. Like I said, (1) doesn’t seem likely to me anyway lol

#5 Older Japanese Generations In General...

Are strict. Are very conservative. Especially insanely rich families like the Kambe's. Kikuko is NOT strict with him because she has a bad personality or because she is inherently mean or something. (Though she does seem to consider him a bit irresponsible because she calls him selfish)

(Also notice how she asks “so hasn’t he” instead of “he hasn’t been, has he?” which means she always expects him to cause trouble for everyone. This goes to show that Daisuke can never do enough or do good enough for her, which also explains his character a bit since his grandma took care of him since his parents died, but my point here is not to analyze his entire behavior.)

The Japanese have a culture of respect. Respect your elders. Unconditionally. And grandparents of insanely rich families like Daisuke's also demand respect, which means not talking back, or DISOBEYING THEIR ORDERS. Which brings me to the next point (for which I have written this one because y’all might be misinterpreting Daisuke’s behavior, which is exactly what I meant in the beginning with “ignoring or being unaware of the mindset of older Japanese generations”)...

#6 Daisuke and Haru are NOT as close as some of you might want to believe right now.... Yet, at least. Yet.

Sorry to burst the bubbles.

I see everyone going on about them now being partners, and Daisuke trusting his life with Haru’s judgement.

The second part, yes… kinda at least.

The first? Not so much.

Let me talk about the first half of the sentence first. Like the point before this clarifies – unconditional, non-questioning respect, and no disobedience. Which means that Daisuke would NOT go against the orders of his grandmother. By helping Haru with that case and listening to him, being coached, is literally just him obeying Kikuko. (He might also think that it would be better to just follow before Haru rats him out to his grandma for a second time.)

(I do bet though that that will soon change and be genuine!)

Now, with the part about trusting his life to Haru’s judgement… I am not sure whether I can properly explain this the way I mean it, so I just hope it will make sense. I think Daisuke kind of trusted Haru’s judgement on the boy, but also trusted his own judgement just a little more than that. I think he just made logical deductions from what he witnessed inside (reported that a person was down and that they were probably killed by the boy, then it turns out he is doing all that for his sister’s surgery, then it turns out that gun is not real (after causing a distraction) and nobody is actually injured, but then he gets his hand on a real gun (Hoshino’s) and points it their direction in a panic, and Daisuke notices Haru cannot shoot the boy, so he deducts that if the boy knows that his sister will be safe, he will calm down and the situation will be completely de-escalated, so he steps forward and states he will pay for it (he does not really care about spending money as we all know lol) and stands with confidence because he knows flinching or getting nervous – or even blinking – would make it look like a lie and he would definitely NOT want that). Does this make sense? Like, Daisuke is such a calm and collected person, I doubt he would just absolutely BLINDLY jump into something because of someone else’s judgement BEFORE making sure that their judgement is correct by his own observation of the situation, which would be why he stayed behind Haru and just observed until a certain point where he was absolutely certain that it would be safe to do so.

Though what that DOES mean though would be that Daisuke would probably trust Haru’s judgement without being too skeptical about it soon. (I feel like this might’ve been that part in the Episode 3 Hong Kong PV 3 where a person (looks A LOT like Daisuke, so I’ll just assume it was him) was cuffed and Haru comes to the rescue. It might’ve been that Haru judged that person who ended up doing this to Daisuke to be shady, but Daisuke went ahead anyway and got himself in trouble, which was why he ended up cuffed to something, or something of that sort that would show Daisuke Haru’s judgement can be trusted.) [Edit: I used this simply as a theorizing example of how this could be done in another way with a scene that actually DOES exist (though we won’t be seeing that in the anime anymore it is still canon material) instead of having to make something up, and Hong Kong was just a good example to further show my point.]

Extra: I've seen a post where someone wondered whether Daisuke's and Haru's pasts are somehow connected.

In short: Yes, I think so.

In long: (This theory might be a far reach hahah)

The first time we see Haru enter the office of his division, he is carrying files.

'Unsolved Case Files 1998,' it specifically reads. We know Daisuke's parents have died and he says “it was in Japan” when that one day turned his life around (though we do not have any indication of year yet). I assume they were killed (and that it wasn’t an accident at all) and it is the true reason why he came back to Japan (even though yeeeaaars later bc he needed to be trained)

and why he specifically asked to be in the MCPTF BECAUSE Haru is in it (I’ll explain why soon), instead of the First or Second Division - as the superintendent general had suggested for him to be put into, which resulted in Daisuke declining the offer.

But we don't know much about Haru's family. Actually, NOTHING AT ALL. Now, I think that his parents are dead as well, and that their deaths are connected to Daisuke's parents' deaths. The fact that Haru looks through cold cases (or well, at least old cases), which is only briefly shown by showing the files he carried in the first episode, most likely is meant to be some "foreshadowing/hidden info given” kind of thing. Haru is possibly investigating his parents' (or at least a loved one's) death. His parents' death (if none of his parents were police officers themselves and therefore influenced him in that way) is possibly also the reason Haru became a police officer in the first place (even though he tells Daisuke that it is simply to "nab criminals," maybe specifically the criminals who have to do with that?).

Now, I said before that Daisuke asked to be in the same Division as Haru, not the MCPTF (though he names the division, not Haru’s name but you'll know why I'm saying that by the end of this. I don’t think he has immense interest in the division itself but WHO is IN IT). In the second episode, we get to know that Daisuke has a lot of information about Haru. During the case of Isezaki, we get to know during the interrogation that Daisuke obtains information about a person by having HEUSC scan a person's documentation item

or simply by asking HEUSC. 

We never see him doing that with Haru though (I also seriously doubt Haru would hand him any kind of ID, especially in the beginning lol), which brings me to the point that Daisuke probably already had obtained all of Haru's information before he had arrived in Japan; or maybe at the latest after the Bridge incident though I am pretty certain it was BEFORE arriving in Japan, just that maybe he didn’t know the face? Or maybe he even knew the face but didn’t care. (He probably knew more than just about the trauma and why Haru left the First Division, but Haru did not let him speak any further in that scene. It is unclear though, whether Daisuke would've kept talking or that being all of the information he would have delivered in that moment.)

Because Daisuke might already know from the start that their pasts are connected, while Haru is oblivious to it.

So, Daisuke wants to solve the murder of his parents, and he might think that the key to solving it might be by being around someone/doing it with someone who is also connected to it.

(I have no clue whether I am still making sense bc I haven’t slept and worked on this all night, going through the episodes again and again and at this point I am just extremely tired lol)

Like, I know by the fact that we are only 3 Episodes in that this might sound like a far reach BUT I seriously would not be surprised by this. The thing about storytelling is that at one point you would need to introduce the Motive™ of the story. Since animes have very limited time to tell the story in only 20 minutes, at least ALMOST everything in an episode sooner or later needs to give us that information; and honestly? They could’ve started this anime in ANY other way, but they chose to start by Daisuke telling us about his parents. And I honestly just think that it would be odd if that is not of greater importance in the whole story, so I think that that might be the motive that should be revealed within the first half of the anime. The devs seem like the kind of people who would give small hints for something like this (Daisuke’s parents, the 1998 Files) throughout the entire show and then SLAP it into the face of the ones who are unsuspecting in the second half of the anime, ESPECIALLY since they are so secretive with everything lmao I love them.

I am going to bed now, I’m so fucking tired lol

August 3, 2020

[movedthechangingman]

(1) I am watching atla for the first time and I know why zuko redemption worked while other’s (kylo, catara) failed, Zuko always has honor and was shown to care and make good decisions and be a good person even at his lowest points, like when he cared about his crew or tried to help and save a little kid even though the family and the kid ended up rejecting him, he never did something outrageous and he had time to learn and sort out his feelings before making a turn around and join the gang

putting this under a cut!

(2) azuko always acted upon what he believed was the right thing, once he was exposed to the outer world he learned how awful the fire nation was and the chain of abuse he was living in, he by himself made the decision and has 2 season in order to redeem himself while characters like Cassandra (tangled) and Catra had seasons of upping the stakes and acting more and more awful each time and only one season where the narrative are like “they were under someone else control and they were abused” (3) “so they nice blonde best friend who acts more like their sister and who they were abusing and victim blaming has to forgive them for everything bad they did because they were uwu abused too” and it seems many people like that which fine, if this was characterized as a delicate situation, where it could turns bad, which could turn to be even toxic, I wouldn’t have a problem with, but it is framed as beautiful and as good and as “true love!” (4) without the main aggressors Catra and Cassandra putting as much in their relationship as their blonde counterpart Adora and Raps who are forced to act as a matyr till they get fed up with their friends abuse and toxicity and put their foot down yet they always end up forgiving their abuser’s transgressions by the end somehow, it seems like the classic tale of “if he pulls your hair or means he likes you” which it’s most similar to (5) To the honeymoon or the reconciliation stage of an abusive relationship cycle’s, nothing assures you that the abuse won’t continue on but they sell it out as this wonderful and beautiful love story which it’s plain wrong, and I feel that it doesn’t receives as muy flack because it’s F/F but in reality in a relationship one has to be consistently good and reliable and as a bisexual women I feel like they are doing a disservice and it’s worse because it’s directed towards kids (5) and lastly both Wlw parings were being either outright mentioned or hinted at by the show or crew as this characters having a “sister bound” with Cassandra and Rapunzel Being outright being described as sisters in the show and Catara and Adora being described as that by the crew and with them growing having the same motherly figure and having a clear case of golden and scapegoat child, which coupled with the abuse they suffered at hands of their paternal figure and at each other hands makes the situation very gross

i have never seen ATLA outside of the first 3 eps but that is the general consensus ive heard. i have also never seen rapunzel TAS but i watched/read a bunch of spoiler stuff for it but i think my understanding is still loose. i also heard that he wasnt a villain very long idk how true that is though. but youre right from what im reading! i think it is important for your character to have an appropriate amount of time to make up for their actions... its also important with these redemption stories for the character to address the things they did, like not a “sorry for the things or whatever” but “i am sorry i did x , x, and x” etc IMO and there needs to be work put into making things right. and the victim should not necessarily be the one pushing them through that...

like i can say for certain if c*tra was a dude there would be a HUGE discourse about the fact that yeah, she really is that “mean because they have a crush on you” BS and whats most horrifying is that it seems like noelle saw NO problem with how she portrayed that relationship and all the guilt and suffering adra went through bc of ctra was really supposed to be romantic. fcking insane. like if it was just a fandom ship w.e.... ppl always gonna ship characters if they hate eachohter... but the actual creators saying its romantic is SO WTF abuse isnt negated by it being el gee bee tee rep and whats awful is i think people REALLY believe it is. not to mention uh your WLW love interest being an physically + emotionally volatile fascist who canonically does not care that she goes out to her way to aid violent takeover of innocents for a dictatorship is already like. huh.

(i mentioned also like even seagawk and mermista - her constant “uuuugh youre so annoying” about him is supposed to be cute apparently.... like noelle posted a pic of her in a shirt that says “im with stupid” pointing at seahawk and... like... that would be funny if they had healthy communication and she didnt seriously treat him like he was an idiot 24/7... but if this was reversed it would be a huge problem and everyone would flip out.)

i never thought catra and adora were written very sisterly since its undeniable that there was a clear attraction between them in the early part of the show but holy fck if the crew did say that.... ugh... although i agree it is really skeevy that their plot revolves around an abusive mother which i feel inforces the “adoptive siblings arent real siblings” pseudo incest trope as much as i think the interactions between catra and adora were not sisterly in how they were written. if that makes sense

i hate to bring up SU but i think it covers this topic really well w spinel - whos so toxic she literally poisoned people - while steven does set her on her path, he does not make himself responsible for her redemption. we get a snippet of that later ofc - where we see that she is trying to become better while also helping the other abusive characters through their change (which we also see is still ongoing - those behaviors havent been fully unlearned - nothing can be fixed that quickly). and most notably the victim (steven) while tolerating them through their attempts at change and encouraging them, does not forgive them and makes an open effort to distance himself even while his abusers still want him to help them 24/7.

whats bothering me the most is not that ppl enjoy these ships bc no matter what people will and you cant stop them but rather that ppl refuse to admit that something they like is abusive - either bc they want to save face as a unproblematic fandom blogger or bc they are 100% unwilling to take critique on something they like, to the point where now ppl wont accept any criticism on she ra at all as a show even if it has nothing to do w the awful excuse for romance.

[morethanonepage]

🔥 for star wars (or constantine if someone's already asked that)

star wars -- i legit cannot justify any further emotional or especially financial investment in anything star wars related again, for similar reasons as my MCU rant, with the additional factor of: i hate space wizards so much it’s insane. i didn’t before! but the emphasis the fandom puts on force sensitivity (and speculation about poe being force sensitive or han being force sensitive) make me fucking scream. bc it’s symbolic, right? the point of the star war is the chosen one narrative (among other things, heroes journey, blah blah) but one of the better things about the franchise has ALWAYS been that you didn’t have to be THE SPECIAL to make a difference. In fact given how rare force users are, the majority of people who Make A Difference aren’t force sensitive. And then suddenly it’s Rey, and Kylo, and fuck everyone else, because this is The Skywalker Saga. And there’s no way to criticize that without sounding like i’m hating on Rey for being a Mary Sue (I don’t care that she’s a badass -- I like that about her. I care that her being a badass sucks all the air and growth away from non white characters in this franchise and we’re supposed to cheer about it Because Girl).

and this has lead to, imo, this take on both finn and poe that they’re like, Disaster Queers Who Can’t Do Anything (Except, Presumably, Fuck Each Other). Like spare me: these two non-white characters, who at least initially were SO counter to any kind of toxic masculinity (that esp seems to rear its ugly head when it comes to men of color when represented by white filmmakers) and who had flaws but were also COMPETENT HUMAN FUCKING BEINGS. 

i know it’s part of the larger fandom trend of Disaster Gays(tm) but like anything else -- tropes that are kind of fun and harmless when it comes to some demographics (esp white men, who are in general historically depicted as Hypercompetent And Unfeeling, which Disaster Gay Who Can’t function is at least something of a subversion of) are perhaps less so when they’re literally one of the oNLY bits of representation we get? i find it fundamentally frustrating to see poe dameron, a 33+ year old man, who rose through the ranks of TWO military organizations based on both his flying and his LEADERSHIP ABILITIES, who is Leia’s designated successor, relegated to basically just a himbo making googly eyes at Finn.

and honestly frankly I think almost no canon or fanon creator knows or cares WHO FINN IS, beyond his connection to poe and/or rey. which is shitty!!! and it’s part of a fundamental lack of empathy fandom tends to have for black characters, specifically. SO many fandom favorite characters have backstories rife with abuse/being made into a weapon (cf, Bucky Barnes & Natasha Romanoff, right off the top of my head, though surely there are more) and there’s substantial fanon about them but for finn it’s a fucking struggle to find anything addressing finn’s trauma and history or even his competence and courage. 

also i was reminded of this today esp but star wars discourse has now rendered TWO youtuber media critics i mostly liked even though i didn’t agree with all their takes to be collateral damage and i’m high key salty about it

#starwarswasamistake

[leighways]

Y’know, I debated not answering you bc what you sent sounds like the typa shit that attracts unwanted discourse. So if that was your intent (and I mean this with all sincerity): go fuck yourself.

I’m not sure where you got the idea that I’m "still devoted to" C3, esp since the last piece of art I made for that ship was pre-KTGG -- nearly a year ago. That was also the last time, until recently, that I spoke about C3 at all. So ???

I will admit I didn’t answer that ask very thoughtfully when I originally responded -- mostly bc I assumed by now ppl understood my stance on this issue -- so I went back and edited for clarification. However, if you’d read my about page instead of jumping to conclusions, you’d know where I stood.

But since that clearly didn’t happen, I’ll spell it out for you: I used to ship C3. As of right now, I don’t. However, during the time in which I did, I was in the process of building an extensive backstory AU that I am still very much attached to and enjoy creating content for. It was designed specifically to establish Copia as an outsider -- not a member of the Emeritus family -- which has been my view of him since since day fucking one (x).

One scroll through my blog will show you none of this is new. Copia's underdog status plays a vital role in how I draw, write and headcanon him, as well my general attachment to his character. Sure, you can sit there and claim I dreamt all this up for the purpose of shipping, but you'd also be lying out of both sides of your mouth. If my development of this AU was nothing more than ""justification"" for C3, my blog wouldn't be littered with loads of art and comics focused on the rest of the family and their respective dynamics. (x) (x) (x) Not to mention the countless memes and shitposts that have goddamned nothing to do with any of this.

Anyway, for me, an AU only works if you can establish a very clear departure from what's been described in canon. KTGG presented several plot holes I had never previously considered, and these muddied waters made me unsure of how to continue world building. I don't want to publish anything until there are no surprises left, so until we get more official information regarding this lore, I have temporarily pulled the breaks on this project.

Still, none of this is reason to completely dismantle something I've been working on since 2018. Nor does it suddenly make the material itself "problematic". I should be able to keep my AU (C3 storyline or not) without ppl like you accusing me of being some incest-obessed fujoshi simply bc I chose to view the source material in a way you don't personally like.

From last summer forward, every time I’ve been asked about the topic of my AU, the answer never contained any mention of C3 (x) (x) (x) bc I don't currently ship C3. If by "devoted to" you meant "it's on the back burner and also the stove isn't on" then sure, I'm super devoted.

But even if this weren't the case -- even if the amount of currently unanswered questions didn't bother me and I plowed ahead with my story no holes barred, what exactly would my crime be? Why would an AU created to explore the non-canon backstories of Copia (a Catholic orphan) and Papa 1 (his unrelated mentor) suddenly become problematic just bc once in a blue moon a scene appears in which Copia has a boyfriend? Considering all content I've made for C3 sees them as completely unrelated and has also been 100% SFW, what line have I crossed? I know my lane. I'm not mlm (I'm not wlw either, which is what you're trying to peg me as) so I would never create explicit content for a community to which I don't belong. But if you think LGBT+ folks can only make material tailored to their specific identities in order to not be fetishy, then I've got some fuckin news for you and you're not gonna like it.

Anyhoo, I don’t believe for one second that you’re this casual by-standing "outsider" -- not least bc you knew exactly where to find the post where I first addressed the plot twist possibility, but lmfao whatever you say bubs. I also love that you’re on the "outside" while simultaneously in the know about what the fandom collective has decided re: What If Copia Is An Emeritus. You need to get your story straight.

Damn near everyone in this fandom has created some sort of AU -- whether that be a world where they self-ship, a universe in which none of the Papas died, or, I dunno, one full of dragons and dinosaurs :-) The fact that you're specifically honing in on my AU with insane and disgusting out-of-left-field accusations tells me everything I need to know about both you and your motives, so listen very closely: there is nothing wrong with creating an AU that diverts from canon. Despite what you think, viewing Copia as unrelated to the Emeritus family is pretty goddamned normal around here. And considering Tobias obviously wanted us to think of him this way (and let us do so for over a year and a half) it's easy to see why so many ppl prefer that concept to the story we'll probably get.

You are not the boss of me. You are not the judge of my character. You have no authority over me, and you need to stop talking as if you do. Your tone is condescending and sexist -- which is odd, considering you're not speaking to a woman. I'm definitely not a fujoshi, but you quite possibly might be a transphobe. Or is truscum a more accurate way to describe you? :-) Anyways, thanks for that. Getting misgendered in our own inbox? We love to see it.

This is the last time I’ll be addressing this topic. If you have any further questions feel free to call my personal hotline @ 1-800-EAT-MY-ASS.