#this post is very salty if you disagree with it just ignore it

[iniziare]

ignoring aventurine's blatant gay coding is really something

Other things have had me a little salty this morning, so in case that influences my perception of how you intended this, my sincere apologies. Either way, forgive me for being serious for a moment, but I want to use this as a PSA to make a point going forward on this blog.

I have nothing against opposing views, and I have nothing against people disagreeing with me, but what I have something against on principle, are potentially snarky messages like this one that seem to have only one aim, which is to try and taint my character by making insinuations that are wholly unfounded (that you think me to be anti-LGBT?) and based on something that you genuinely cannot draw any such thing from. Now whether Aventurine is 'gay-coded' as you so put it, or a bisexual man (on which note: it's real saddening to see that in 2024, in-house fighting against bisexuality's mere existence still reigns supreme, good job, you're really making admirable strides) doesn't matter for what I'm going to touch on. Although out of respect for the character himself and the person who wrote him, I can't move on without noting that you may want to reread some character stories, some dialogues (particularly things said by the Harmony to him, for instance), to see whether that seals your faith in your claim, or diminishes it. Either way, I want to remind you: being bisexual doesn't reduce the significance of being drawn to the same sex.

Alright, continuing what I was saying: messages like these don't accomplish anything, outside of making you feel like you're on a pedestal; is it cold up there? I don't envy you. In all seriousness however, in all my years on any of my blogs, I have always aimed to be canon-strict with my portrayals, with which I set myself up for something that I deem imperative for myself in RP: to be criticized by the masses. I have always tried to engage with my follower base, I have always encouraged them to come to me if I'm wrong on something, I value people trying to poke holes in my logic. And if you succeed in proving that I overlooked something, I will happily admit it, and stand corrected. In that, I aim to say that I thoroughly enjoy debate and discussion (based in rationale, and not feelings), which I think are fundamental to our society even outside of Tumblr. If someone disagrees with me, my notes are open, if you want to question something that I think or have posted, my askbox (as you've learned and have made use of) is open. But all I ask is that you open a line of healthy debate with me, and not send something that is entirely baseless if you don't even substantiate your claim in your same message. But also, what I don't understand is that my post doesn't even directly diminish the popular Aventurine/Ratio ship in the fandom, it instead simply expresses frustration that not more people see the depth of the Aventurine/Topaz dynamic, and recognize it as a good ship as well, because there is a lot within the game that aims at a definite potential there. Granted, yes, that comes with having to acknowledge that Aventurine may just be a bisexual man who is also into women, but if that's something that doesn't sit quite right with you, then maybe the issue that you're pointing at me, should be returned to you, the one who initially pointed the accusatory finger here.

Again, if you want to have a conversation about this and tell me why you think that I'm wrong by substantiating your own claim, you're very welcome to, and I'd be happy to engage with you. But until then, this is all that I have for you. And before I might get a 'why do I need to substantiate my thing, Sae', it's nothing against you personally, and instead it's the simple 101 of debate. You disagree with a point that I make? Then it is up to you to tell me why you disagree, so that I can give you a fruitful counter that you can then do something with.

Regardless of the intention of your message, anon, I wish you a good day, and I hope that it's raining less over there, wherever you may be, than it is over here. I'm not motivated to go get my groceries!

[ruby-red-inky-blue]

hello! i mean this in the nicest way possible because i'm sure you're not trying to be mean but some of the things in your reblogs/tags recently kinda come across that way. i don't really like rebelcaptain fics or art where they have babies either, i agree that i don't think they would. but reblogging a post from someone who clearly does with additions saying you think that's wrong, or publicly talking in the tags about a specific post you think is "so wrong" when you could just block it silently, those both come across as pretty mean to the people who make those posts or share their headcanons. again, i don't mean to imply at all that you're trying to be hurtful, but it does kinda come across that way.

Hi anon, I’m sorry if it comes across as mean. I certainly don’t want to make anyone feel bad. But I do think I’m allowed to speak my opinions on a neutral topic so long as I a) don’t use any language that is hurtful (and I don’t think that simply saying I disagree with someone’s headcanon, however popular, qualifies as hurtful) and b) I don’t come specifically TO someone’s blog or someone’s post to shit over it in the tags. I wouldn’t do that. I’ve had others do that to me and it’s annoying at best and very hurtful at worst, especially when it’s someone’s art that they’ve poured their heart into, and I think it’s perfectly alright to ask people don’t do that. So… I didn’t!

These were the tags in question btw

And hey, yeah, just shutting up about something that annoys me but other people enjoy is free, and maybe I should have been the bigger person and done that. But tbh it was late, I was tired, and I’m not doing so hot right now, and I got a little salty on main - again, while making sure I don’t spoil anyone’s fun on the post in question but just by saying a thing in a separate post on my own blog, because people are allowed to enjoy things that I don’t! And I’m allowed to say “that’s cool but it doesn’t vibe with me at all”. That isn’t trying to be hurtful, anon, that is simply stating a fact (and honestly a boundary, because the idea of having children isn’t a happy thought for everyone! It can be upsetting to people for a multitude of reasons and I’m honestly tired of people ignoring that).

On the off chance this came from the op in question, btw, I’m very sorry you took offence, I obviously wasn’t dissing your hard work, skill or creative choices, but simply saying I didn’t love this one in particular and got a little upset that the post kept popping up on my dash and reminding me of an uncomfortable topic.

Oh, and if this is about the other headcanon post I made yesterday - you may be right I used a slightly too strong adverb? Small crime, I think, we’re all too passionate about fictional people here. But I did honestly feel like I was taking part in a discussion that people invite when they post their headcanon in the fandom tag, and op reblogged my post and didn’t seem to take offence either.

[tarashima]

I'm honestly just gonna come out and say it, and I don't mean to dismiss anyone who disagrees with me (with some exceptions, but I know those people don't follow me, even have me blocked).

But I've despised and been deeply disappointed with the Revolver event in Duel Links. So deeply that I doubt I will ever pick up the app again.

Keeping rant under read-more.

While there were things that I genuinely enjoyed, like the music during Rev's duels, hearing Shunsuke-san again, Rev's beautiful sprite and receive a lot of goodies (like gorgeous sleeves and icons ♥), there were a lot of things I actively disliked, and those were too many to save this event and make it the funny experience I'd hoped for ever since VRAINS world was released (even announced, let's be real).

The writing felt off from the start, with a lot of things that were strange, especially since the story of VRAINS world has been marketed as a follow-up of the anime, a s4 we never got (or just second half of s3). A follow-up for me meant Revolver would take off where he ended: guarding the network and make sure everyone stayed safe, actively stopping something like the Lost Incident to ever happen again.

Seems like the writers, as well as the localisation team, had forgotten all that and instead went with Revolver's s1 persona, once again making him the antagonist that needed to be defeated to protect the Ignis (or well, just Ai). Not only that, they also took away any kind of character development Revolver went through during the last half of the anime. Something that was only made worse by the localisation team, who amongst many things made the deliberate choice of changing lots of Playmaker's dialogues about saving Revolver to be about Ai instead, as well as changing LOTS of Revolver's dialogues over all.

Another example of a thing that deeply pissed me off and completely crushed me with disappointment was the reference to the rain duel between Revolver and Soulburner. The writers wrote it as it never happened, while also simultaneously saying it did, in fact, happen, as they told the two variations paralleled with each other. Then they had it ended with what seems to be the shitty dub-dialogue (let's stop pretending it ever was a dub, it was nothing but a parody) and no conclusion for either of the characters. And I'm sorry, but what in the actual hell?!

They've created nothing but plot holes that won't be easy to fill in the future, telling a story that is such a disservice to Revolver's character while also not portraying him properly, not even in the original Japanese versions (I've seen so many Japanese and Korean fans being confused about this event as well, some even going as far as outright saying "I'm glad I still like him despite this"). The fact that there are people out there judging Revolver's character and actions based on this event is disgusting, and once again makes me say that you're all free to hate him as much as you want but this isn't even Revolver, you're hating a version of him that didn't exist in later canon. Calling it post-canon is an insult.

Even worse, all the other characters have felt like post-canon versions, with at the very least decent writing, yet it still making some sort of sense.

I saw nothing of that here, and I'll be forever salty about them messing it up so badly. You can use his second avatar as much as you want; if you deliberately keep him stuck in the season 1 mindset and actively ignores that s2 and s3 (except the last duel between Ai and Playmaker, as well as bits and pieces of the last duel between Revolver and Soulburner) happened, you're not giving Revolver a post-canon story. You're making up an antagonist to fit your purposes and only uses Revolver's face for it. And that's such a disservice to his character and I'll never forgive the team who worked on this event (except Shunsuke-san and the music composer, they did an amazing job ♥).

I still finished the event completely as well as maxed Rev's level (something I haven't done since DM and maxed up Yuugi), only because I love him. But the sadness I feel about all this can't be ignored.

Again, I doubt I'll ever pick up Duel Links again after this, and I said as much in the survey afterwards. I usually try to keep a somewhat friendly tone when filling in surveys after events, but this?

Ohohoho, they got to hear how badly they messed up. And I was not nice. Because they didn't deserve it.

I'm done. I hate it. Get the fuck away from me. I was afraid this would happen.

I'm sticking to the merchandise in the future. At least they know what the fans want/never thought they want but definitely wanted and appreciated. TCG bros can keep their rotten excuse of an app.

Also, as much as I love Borreload Datastorm Furious Dragon, you can't fucking label it SR when I got 10 copies of it, and wasn't alone in doing so. I've gathered less of NORMAL cards that I did with Borreload. Morons...

Oh, and I might as well mention how much it actually irked me to constantly put up with not only Varis but also Roken Kogami when those aren't the names that should be used. Again, it's not a fucking dub, it's a joke for people who the creators deem stupid. Burn it to the ground for all I care and never talk about it again.

[burstsofenergy]

Naruto Characters and Hogwarts Houses

Rock Lee

Disclaimer: I want to make this really clear, this post is representing just my opinion. I invite you to reblog, comment or contact me when you disagree with me!

Rock Lee was the first character that I analysed in regards to his Hogwarts house. I had a gut feeling and began to dig deeper and deeper. In the end I had a whole post written in my head. This is the post! (Or at least the part that survived until I got the time to write this down!)

Rock Lee is a Hufflepuff!

Okay so here are the reasons why I believe Lee to be a badger:

Hardworking

It is an established fact that Lee is hardworking af!

He is physically pushing himself to the limit again and again and never gives up because hard work is getting up over and over again when you stumbled

He also truly believes that hard work will in the end prevail and that if you put enough effort into stuff, you will succeed eventually

He has a dream and even though he is told again and again that this dream won't be achievable for him - through hard work he finds a way to achieve it in the end

Just and Fairness

Honestly, I would argue that Rock Lee is probably physically incapable to hold a grudge. Like Gaara nearly killed him and nearly destroyed everything that made living worthwile for Lee - but he isn't really holding a grudge. (Like just imagine how forever salty TenTen or Neji would be...)

Lee is always viewing things from a point of fairness - he embodies the idea of a honorable fight between honorable opponents. (Again look at the fight between him and Gaara - it was Gaara's duty to give everything he had to the fight.)

Lee has a nearly unwavering belief in justice. His challenges are based on this value as he is always sticking to them. If he fails to accomplish the challenge he is facing the consequences. And while he is all about adjusting challenges according to the individual (again very fair) he is also unwavering when it comes to the consequences.

Loyality

Rock Lee is loyal to a fault. I would argue that the Sasuke Retrival Arc is a perfect example of that. Even though he is injured, he pushes himself to his limiit because he knew this mission could be dangerous and he could not just stay home

Also I would argue that he is also very loyal to the idea of Konoha as a community. In the Chuunin Exams, he is immediately stepping in to help Sakura, even if they are technically on different teams. Sakura is a fellow shinobi of Konoha and therefore will always be in Rock Lee's team. (Konohagakure and its shinobi system are worth a discussion in itself and if this loyality is good or bad is another point entirely which I will ignore here.)

I would argue that Lee could also be placed in Gryffindor. I think that Naruto fits the ideas of Gryffindor very much so thinking about the differences between them, I would argue that Lee is less stubborn. Or maybe stubborn is not the right word. Maybe it's once again a mix of loyality and sincere belief in justice and fairness. Because while Naruto is willing to make all kinds of exceptions for Sasuke, Lee is not. While I believe sincerely that Lee is open to listening why Sasuke is doing the things he has done and compassionate, he is also not willing to break the rules and principles for him.

Yeah so these are my two cents. Or at least these are the points that have survived the hungry void that is my brain and memory sometimes.

[purrincess-chat]

Actually thank you for being open towards pre reveal adrinette. I still do have kind of mixed feelings about how the ladynoir relationship was never acknowledged in transmission but I hope that'll be solved in the next part hopefully? But I've seen too much of negativity towards pr dating and it kind of started affecting my opinions too? Seeing your post was so refreshing tbh

As someone who has been around the block a few times, I totally get what you mean. There are a lot of fandom scholars out there posting their opinions as fact, and it can get difficult to root out how you feel, especially if it's a popular blog doing it or someone you admire and a lot of people are agreeing with them or they're being aggressive to people who disagree. I've seen blogs vague posting about me for simply defending pre reveal Adrinette and responding in ways that completely miss the points of my posts and simply just take issue with me daring to think pr Adrinette is a good thing bc what about their precious side that's getting robbed??? And honestly I don't really care, I'm not a stranger to people in this fandom vague posting about me or hating me or shit talking about me in discord servers. I've been here a while and been through my fair share, so at this point I just shrug it off.

My main advice to you would be to take every post you read with a grain of salt (including and especially mine) because everyone has their bias. For me, I've always loved Adrinette, so even my posts can be considered biased because they're my favorite side of the square, though I do try to be objective. But for me, I don't really understand why people thought Adrinette wasn't going to have something pre reveal? To me it just makes sense, but I've seen so many people being like 'No hate but pr Adrinette is the worst possible choice the writers could ever make and it's so boring and terrible and I hate it with every fiber of my being and what about my favorite side how actually dare the writers write their own show in the way they intended instead of catering to my hyper niche fanfiction ideas.' And like... people can have their opinions. I'm not saying everyone has to like every single thing about this show, I know I don't. But a lot of the posts I've seen have been claiming that pr Adrinette doesn't make sense (it does if you've been paying attention) or is a detriment to the love square (still scratching my head at this one). My favorite argument I've seen is people saying that the show is called Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir so why the hell are they focusing on anything other than their superhero sides, and I just have to wonder sometimes if people are watching the same show as me.

(more salty under the cut, so read at your own risk)

Like? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Stormy Weather was the first episode to ever premiere of the show, and within the first five minutes of that episode if you ignore the opening credits, we learn that Marinette is in love with Adrien. It's basically one of the first things we learn about her, and her love for Adrien has been a staple of the show and the love square dynamic, just as Adrien's love for Ladybug has been. This show has always been about their civilian lives just as much as it's been about their superhero alter egos. If it was only ever about the superheroes it would be very flat and wouldn't leave them much room to develop and grow. That's why the love square has four sides. That's why the love square exists at all. But this show has always included their lives as civilians, idk why people are shocked. Even the opening credits start out with "I'm Marinette, just a normal girl with a normal life." Yes, she's secretly a superhero, but the first thing they tell us about her every episode is that she's a regular girl. And after 5 seasons, I'd assume people would realize that her civilian development is just as important as her superhero development. Adrinette and LadyNoir have always been the leading sides for a reason. This show isn't only about her and Adrien being superheroes, it's also always been about them being real kids with real problems who just so also happen to moonlight as superheroes when the need arises. Yes, it's a villain of the week show, but the plotlines have always run further than that. S5 especially runs deeper than that.

I dunno, maybe I'm biased, but Adrien falling for Marinette always felt more plausible to me than her falling for Chat, and s5 has explored both of those outlets, but to me, the superheroes come with too many strings attached for them to be anything more than partners. Especially after everything that has happened the last season and a half up to this point. Their friendship and partnership is a keystone of the love square. Their dynamic works best as far as focusing on their mission and getting the job done when they're platonic. We've seen numerous times throughout canon that when one of them has feelings, they get distracted and something goes wrong. Their love for each other is their strength and their weakness as Tikki and Plagg pointed out in Transmission. And [SPOILER] as we've seen in some of the later episodes that were released thanks to Gloob's vanity, the LadyNoir dynamic is working out great for them platonically.

I think one thing I haven't seen people talk about (which granted I know people were waiting to watch the later episodes until after Kwamis Choice airs), but LadyNoir is starting to push the boundaries just as much as Adrinette just from a different angle. They're slowly letting walls down and talking about their personal lives, which is something they forbade themselves from doing prior. They're growing closer as friends without any ulterior motive behind it. In the past when Chat asked about her love life, it was because he was fishing to see if he had competition for her affection, and Ladybug rightfully shut him down. Now they're a lot more carefree and open with each other just from what we've seen of them past these episodes. Being friends is benefiting them, and it's going to benefit them when the reveal rolls around. To me, LadyNoir was always meant to be the best friends of the love square, while Adrinette was always meant to be the lovers. That's the impression I've always gotten from canon ever since s1. I knew there would come a day when Adrien loved her back pre reveal. It just always felt like a natural progression for their relationship to me.

And as I mentioned in my previous post, Adrinette needed the development they're getting. LadyNoir is solid, they came back together stronger, so now they need to help Marinette overcome her trauma surrounding Adrien or the reveal will be an absolute fucking disaster. Like could you imagine Marinette moving on with someone she deems as being "safe" only to turn around and discover that he's the very boy she fucked everything up with? How damaging would that be to their relationship? How traumatic would that be for her? And in turn him. Personally, I want the babies to succeed post reveal and just be happy together, so I fully support airing out all of the dirty laundry ahead of time.

Again, take that with as many grains of salt as you see fit because that's just how I've always viewed canon. But even if I'd been wrong, I wouldn't have been disappointed. I'm stoked for any of the sides getting development and getting together because I understand that in the end it will all come together for them and be a benefit to their post reveal relationship. And I'm so excited for that day! So, honestly, I just ignore all of the salt at this point and just watch the damn show. People can feel any kind of way they want about it, and that's great for them. What ultimately matters is what you personally feel about the show. If you enjoy pr Adrinette, that's great! Don't ever let anyone take that from you just because they're salty. The main reason I left the salt life behind is because it was affecting my enjoyment of the show, and I had to learn how to enjoy it again without being clouded by other people's opinions, and honestly, it's been the best choice I've made in this fandom. And I know people are going to inevitably vague post about me for posting this, but whatever. Die mad, I guess.

Though honestly, I'd wait until we see the second half of this two parter before worrying too much about LadyNoir. I can see where people are coming from with how quickly they moved on, but we still have another half of the story to see. And as I mentioned, from episodes that have aired that take place after these, we can see LadyNoir is doing just fine. But again, we will just have to wait and see what happens.

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

Okay -- you know what we’re not talking about enough?

How eventually the main narrative of the MCU shows its imperialistic ideology that they have tried to hide under a very fragile façade of “complexity”. (Guess what? Accountability never mattered.)

Don’t get me wrong - I know that the sole purpose of Avengers: Endgame was to bring us all into the movie theater, which it did, and not to be good or make sense, but the way to bring us all into the movie theater was so paint the product with a glittery progressive varnish while the product was still subliminally feeding us conservative messages. And yet Endgame was so badly written that the varnish went off in multiple points...

The movie basically spells out that Tony Stark was right in endorsing security at the cost of freedom (fun fact: outside the shiny attention-grabbing fatherhood arc that got us all like ‘aww’, there is no character development for Tony, who was convinced he needed to develop technology to save the world and died knowing he had needed to develop technology to save the world).

Thanos justifies Tony’s actions all along, and the narrative doesn’t contradict a very simple reading: Steve has been precious about his little fancy morals while Tony was right in Age of Ultron and Civil War.

Again, it also doesn’t do justice to Tony’s character at all because he never learns anything. He starts thinking he needs to save the world with his technology and ends being proven right, while Steve was wrong in breaking up the team because of morals they couldn’t afford to entertain.

Our first mistake was dismissing Age of Ultron as Whedon crap that we could ignore because it was so bad we could treat it as an outlier.

Because now that we have the full picture... it wasn’t an outlier. The narrative has been consistent ever since then, even by switching directors/writers.

Steve: “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” Pulled us apart like cotton candy. Tony: Seems like you walked away all right. Steve: Is that a problem? Tony: I don’t trust a guy without a dark side. Call me old fashioned. Steve: Well let’s just say you haven’t seen it yet. Tony: You know Ultron is trying to tear us apart, right? Steve: Well I guess you’d know. Whether you tell us is a bit of a question. Tony: Banner and I were doing research. Steve: That would affect the team. Tony: That would end the team. Isn’t that the mission? Isn’t that the “why” we fight, so we can end the fight, so we get to go home? Steve: Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die. Every time.

Don’t get me started on Steve’s “dark side” because you don’t want to pull on that thread. How they managed to simultaneously have a pretty 100% heteronormative picture and paint queerness as toxic while having no queerness in the picture.

But Age of Ultron just spelled it out. We thought that what Age of Ultron put on the table was what was going to be subverted eventually. But it was never subverted.

Tony was the one who needed to come up with the technology to save the world. Steve’s home was the past with Peggy. The story was never about found family, it was about a team that had its reason to exist as long as the fight wasn’t over, then each of them would go home. (If you don’t have a home, you can jump off a cliff.)

Tony: Pfft! I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn’t wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming. Steve: Tony, I’m gonna need you to focus. Tony: And I needed you. As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It’s too late buddy. Sorry. You know what I need. I need to shave. And I believe I remember telling you, Cap. Rhodey: Tony, Tony, Tony, stop! Tony: That what we needed was a suit of armor around the world! Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedom or not--that’s what we needed! Steve: Well, that didn’t work out, did it? Tony: I said, “we’ll lose”. You said, “We’ll do that together too”. And guess what, Cap? We lost. You weren’t there. But that’s what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We’re the Avengers, we’re the Avengers. Not the Prevengers, right?

Eventually they save the world by literally being “prevengers”, going back in time to get the stones before Thanos and (*facepalm*) defeating a Thanos who had no idea who they even were because he had not met them yet. (Let’s not even discuss how bad storytelling that is, regardless of anything else: the final battle is against... a past version of the villain who hasn’t met them or done the thing to them yet, so the “avenging” is purely one-sided and the villain has no clue who the fuck their opponents are before learning about them 3 seconds before and figuring out what happened. Sigh.)

Obviously the time travel is a fantastic element, but it is still a symbol of preventing the villain from operating. The war has started for them, but not for their enemy -- we need to take the weapon of mass destruction before the enemy uses them... (oops.)

At the end of the day, those five years of mourning (and problems that will be caused by half the population “skipping” five years’ worth of life of the other half) and possibly the deaths in the movie... are because Steve Rogers broke the team up because he was being fastidious about his precious freedom and too high-and-mighty to trust Tony’s judgement.

Sure, the scene I quoted is framed as Tony’s desperate venting, but does the narrative challenge that? No, in fact it plays clever and places the avengers as actual “prevengers” through the time travel thing.

Sure, Steve is given flashy moments that tell us he’s “worthy” and has a great ass and whatever. But does the narrative ever challenge the subliminal, subtle villainization of him operated by those few movies? Although of course, Endgame is written badly enough that instead of subtly framing him like some kind of protofascist gay libertarian, he just has no characterization at all except of affected from a severe case of heteronormativity.

I mean, if I wanted to instill a deeply conservative and imperialistic ideology to a bunch of progressive kids, I’d dangle Captain America in front of them and then destroy him by emptying his entire arc of meaning. Among the rest.

[starsistertarot]

hey! do you have any random imayoshi headcanons or drabbles that you want to share but had no technical reason to post?

OHGOD DO I EVER;;;

I have a lot of random headcanons for this man, since... You know, as everyone now knows, Imayoshi infested my mind.

I'm sorry for the late reply! I've been busy binging Haikyuu, hehehehehe...

Warning; Some swearing, These are my personal headcanons! You're allowed to disagree/Have your own opinions.

Also not proofread and written at 3AM

Enjoy 😃

---

Morning routine headcanons:

Imayoshi goes to bed at UNGODLY hours but he's still somehow a morning person.

Wakes up at 8-9 AM every day even if he doesn't have to-

Can get 2 hours of sleep and somehow function like a no- ... This man is not normal. Forget I said anything.

He loves being alone in the mornings, so if you're his s/o and likes to sleep in, he's in silent paradise 🤌

If you're his s/o and happens to be a morning person; he will somewhat ignore you??? Like; Please don't talk to me unless it's important vibes??

Gives really rude wakeup calls at noon though, so watch out for those 😃

Food Headcanons

He likes his coffee BLACK, LIKE HIS SOUL

Hot or cold, doesn't give a shit honestly-

Hates sweets, like actually hates sweets.

Dislikes chocolate, unless it's dark. (Probably wont eat it anyways)

Prefers salty snacks/not overly sweet desserts.

A decent chef, not the best but won't burn down the kitchen- (Unlike me 🥲)

His specialty is fish 🐟

Likes to eat and cook the fish he caught (since he likes fishing). Makes him feel accomplished (Especially if other people compliment his fish lmao).

Family headcanons

He kinda hates kids, but he's also like "cool those exist".

Only liked his sister growing up, tbh-

Doesn't want kids of his own though

Has or will get a vasectomy when the "family expectations" arise

Aspires to be a really shady uncle however (if his sister or his s/o has siblings)

Bribes them with candy to do his bidding (like the evil mastermind that he is)

Would brag about being the favorite uncle, and everyone is like "HOW THE FUCK-", because in what galaxy would Imayoshi be anyones favorite family member- 😃 ... (except my galaxy, where he is MY favorite family member but shhhhhh)

Relationship Headcanons

He's not really a romantic???

Or he is romantic but not "a romantic" (DOES THAT EVEN MAKE SENSE IDK)

Doesn't mean he doesn't like doing romantic things, he just doesn't do it A LOT

Will bring you flowers on anniversaries (if you like those), out of common curtsey

He's not much for dates- He prefers to cuddle on the bed/couch and watch movies

Would genuinely spend a lot of time with you, which is why his quiet mornings are so important to him.

Dates you as if you've been married for 10 years lmao- Very comfortable, low-key, just enjoying each others company ❤

Childhood headcanon

Tried to kidnap Santa once.

When he found out about Santa, his first thought was to exploit him for money-

He waited all night by the fireplace but Santa didn't show up

That's how he found out Santa wasn't real

Decided to break the news to his sister once she was old enough to understand what a Santa was.

She's still mad at him for that lmao

[certain-death-awaits]

Ages ago you made a post discussing whether Warren was irresponsible and I had disagreed. You had said you were busy, but you'd respond to my response later, but you never did, which I totally get! Life is crazy, I'm terrible at responding to things myself, so I'm not salty or anything at all! But I am still curious what your thoughts are. Are you up for having that discussion? No pressure whatsoever, to be clear, I realize this is old. I'd be happy to try to find the original post if you'd like

[the 2 year old post in question, for context]

You're right! I had the post in drafts, but by the time I had the time to answer it, I thought it would be too late to post. I'm happy to talk about it now. Keep in mind that I love Warren as a character, at least in the original series (I feel Dragonwatch wasn't true to a lot of original characterisations). For the sake of fairness, I'll only be talking about the original series. Using Dragonwatch to defend my position would be low-hanging fruit.

✧ We hear from Ruth Sorenson about how Warren goes behind Stan's back to give Newel and Doren a TV and batteries for it. They tell Seth he also got them high-quality tennis equipment, which must've been a trade.

"Graphite, light and strong", Newel said. "Warren got us our equipment. Back before he went all Boo Radley on us."

They also try to get Seth to trade for wine, which they sell as something impossible for him to get normally because of his age. Maybe they got used to doing this with Warren when he was young. Either way, is trading with the satyrs for anything (especially gold, given the means they use to get it) responsible?

✧ The reason Warren became albino in the first place was because he was carrying out a covert mission for the Knights of the Dawn. This is why he told nobody where he was going when he ventured into the valley of the four hills. He was supposed to remove and transfer the artifact to a secure location all on his own. Even though it was a secret mission, this is a ridiculous thing to do. Removing the artifact without the knowledge and consent of the caretaker is just theft. It makes sense to tell Stan at the very least; the only reason he retired from the Knights was because caretakers aren't allowed to be Knights. It's irresponsible to go in somewhere even a small modicum as dangerous without telling anyone else where you're going and when you'll return.

✧ During the battle with the guardian of the Sands of Sanctity, Warren gets severely injured. He's already been stabbed in the gut, and is feverish; this is an extremely serious injury. He's lost enough blood, it's surprising he's conscious. (To be fair, I don't think Mull understands how fragile humans are. He seems to think getting gored by antlers is easily survivable.) And then he gets bit by one of the guardian's snakes, and hot acidic sludge is sprayed across his chest and legs. Vanessa says he's dying, and offers him a gaseous potion to extend his life. He refuses this, and uses the spear to attack the guardian, using the rod to fall full speed at it for the last 30 feet. Here's a description of the state he's in by the time Kendra gets to him to save him.

Warren was a wreck, facedown, unconscious, breathing shallowly. Heaving with both hands, Kendra rolled him over, wincing as something inside of him crunched. His mouth was open. Tilting his head up, she tried to ignore the snapping sound his neck made, and dumped the potion into his mouth. His Adam's apple bobbed, and much of the fluid leaked out the sides of his mouth.

Clearly, this was not a wise move; had it not been for the Sands, I believe he would've died. Heroic, certainly. But it left Kendra alone with Vanessa. When Tanu arrives, he says Warren must be nearly gone, or he'd be able to move around freely. It doesn't guarantee the guardian will be killed, only that he will be, and the guardian still has another life that Vanessa would have to deal with.

✧ Warren's decision to confront Stingbulb! Kendra in the middle of the night seemed to me a terrible lapse in judgement. It's true he didn't know she was a stingbulb, but he suspects something of that magnitude. When Seth asks if mind control is likely, he shrugs and says nothing would surprise him. Any way it could've gone might have been disastrous. If it was mind control, there's the suicide tactic. If not that, then she could just make a scene, wake up her parents with screams of "there's a strange man in my house!", and neither Warren nor Seth would be able to give a reasonable explanation. He must've believed she was aligned with the enemy, because if he went in thinking it really was all her, and she sincerely believed in leaking these secrets, they'd have to have a long and involved conversation with her grandparents present. This outcome doesn't necessitate confronting her in the middle of the night.

✧ Peeking at Chalize on the Lost Mesa mission. You already know this one, but I am including it for others who might be reading. From Warren's perspective (not knowing Gavarog's true identity), Gavin warned everyone not to look at the dragon, staking his deal with her on the promise his companions were not to gaze upon her. This was dangerous, and there was no good reason for it.

✧ Warren basically convinces Seth to join the Knights on the Wyrmroost mission in SotDS. Seth fully intended to just sulk about it. Warren certainly didn't coerce him, but he more than encouraged him, and Seth wouldn't have been able to act alone. It should be obvious why this is irresponsible. You can read an excerpt from the book of the part where Warren collaborates with Seth to bring him on the mission here. I've put it in a pastebin, as it's a bit long to include here.

✧ I'm going to double down and say having Raxtus drop Warren so he could attack the harpy was still reckless behaviour. He had all the facts, yes, but none of the facts justify dropping Warren only to dive and catch him again moments later. The initial reason Warren had for wanting to be dropped was so Raxtus could make a speedier escape with Bracken and Kendra. The plunging attack manoeuvre doesn't facilitate that. Its sole purpose would be taking the chance that Warren is able to attack a harpy while falling. The risk is Warren falling to his death, or Raxtus botching the catch- imagine grabbing an arm or a leg and having it dislocate; or the harpy grab Warren and attempt to carry him off.

Now that I'm through with examples of Warren being irresponsible, let's move onto your point on there being a difference in thought process. I don't think there is much of a difference between Warren and Seth when it comes to their decision-making process. Here's an excerpt from right after Seth returns after stealing the unicorn horn.

 "I'm with your grandfather on this," Grandma said. "We love you and we're proud of you. The risks you took worked out this time. But how can we reward such behavior? Because we love you, we must teach you caution, or your boldness will destroy you. "

  "I weighed my options and made smart choices," Seth responded. "I didn't set out to borrow the horn. I only decided to try for the horn after Graulas showed how my skills as a shadow charmer gave me a realistic chance at success. It was me or nobody. What would Patton have done?"

  Warren chuckled. "He would have shaved the centaurs, dipped them in honey, covered them with feathers, and hung them up like a bunch of piñatas. " Kendra, Seth, and Tanu laughed. "I'm just saying. " ...

"Yeah, well, I'll give this stupid horn back to the centaurs before I get left out of the trip to Wyrmroost," Seth threatened. "Good luck taking it from me!"

  "It isn't going to be a vacation," Coulter said.

  "And it isn't about seeing cool dragons," Grandpa growled, clearly losing his temper.

  "Although they will be cool," Warren murmured, earning an elbow from Tanu.

 Tears brimmed in Seth's eyes. His mouth opened as if he wanted to say more; then he turned and stormed out of the room.

  "What are we going to do with that boy?" Grandma sighed.

  "I don't know," Grandpa said. "If he hadn't decided to go after the horn, we'd still be treading water. Maybe he's the only one of us seeing this clearly. "

  Grandma shook her head. "Don't kid yourself. His main interest is still the adventure. Saving the world is a happy side effect. This is all still a game to him. "

  "Patton was the same way," Warren mentioned. "He did a lot of good, partly because he relished the thrill. "

  "I think Seth cares," Kendra spoke up. "It isn't only about the fun anymore. I think he's learning. "

I think this part speaks for itself. And I get the feeling Warren's counting himself among the "like Patton" crowd. Warren and Seth do things for the right reasons, most of the time. I think that their most egregious risks come in situations with seemingly no way out, where their idea presents as an outlandish "so crazy it just might work" option. You bring up the time Seth went into Graulas' cave for the first time in GotSP. He goes in not knowing much at all, which is rash. He doesn't know Graulas will radiate fear, and he doesn't know he's immune to said fear. But he doesn't make this decision out of nowhere. Shadow! Tanu has assured his safety to him. Here's an excerpt from the book, which comes after paragraphs of Seth contemplating whether the risk is wise.

Was sneaking out of the house to follow the shadowy manifestations of Coulter and Tanu into the woods going to be dangerous? Absolutely. The question was whether the risk was justified.

Earlier that afternoon, Tanu had completed his transformation into a shadowman just outside the window. He had waited in the shade on the deck until sundown, when he had ventured off into the woods. A few hours later, with evening deepening, the silent shadows of Tanu and Coulter had returned. Visible only to Seth, they had stood halfway across the yard from the house, allowing Grandpa to address them from the deck. Tanu had indicated that all was well with two thumbs up, and they had gestured for Seth to follow them, inviting Grandpa to come along as well. Through pantomime, Coulter had expressed that he would scout ahead as they traveled in order to prevent encounters with dangerous creatures.

But Grandpa had declined the invitation. He had stated that if Tanu and Coulter could devise a way for him to follow them without Seth, he would consent to accompany them. As he told them this, Seth stood behind him making subtle gestures, stealthily pointing at Grandpa and shaking his head, then pointing at himself, then pointing at them, then winking. None but Seth could see Tanu salute that he had received the message.

The house had been still for some time. If he was going to follow through on the message he had mimed to Tanu and Coulter, the moment had arrived. But he hesitated. Was he actually going to disregard a direct order from Grandpa and entrust his life to the shadowy versions of Tanu and Coulter? If Tanu and Coulter had his best interests in mind, would they be willing to let him sneak away with them against Grandpa's wishes? Hopefully they were certain he would be safe and confident that Grandpa would thank them all later.

What were the possibilities? They might lead him into a trap. He might die or be transformed into a shadow himself. Then again, he might solve the mystery of the plague, restore Tanu and Coulter, and save Fablehaven.

Seth scooted out from under his covers, pulled on his shoes, and started tying the laces. The bottom line was that Grandpa would have been willing to risk his life on the gamble that the shadows of Tanu and Coulter meant to offer meaningful assistance. He would have followed them if he could have done so alone. He simply was not willing to risk Seth's life. To Seth, this proved that the risk was worth taking. If Grandpa loved him too much to let him take a worthwhile risk, then he would bypass Grandpa.

It speak for itself. This is the option that presents itself to him, as the gang seems backed into a corner. They don't know what to do about the plague. Stan seems defeated; he questions if he's fit for his role as caretaker. They contemplate ditching the preserve before the plague claims them as victims, but stand by because they're worried the Sphinx would become caretaker in their absence.

In conclusion, I'd like to go back to the point of my original post. People like to joke about Seth being an idiot, someone who doesn't think things through, while seeing Warren as slightly devil-may-care but ultimately smooth and capable. I'm saying that there's no difference between the two in that respect, but Warren being an attractive adult makes us perceive him as more responsible.

[gffa]

I feel people prop Ahsoka up a little too much. They seem to put her on this pedestal of moral superiority over literally everyone else. Idk maybe I’m just being salty lmao

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree My problem is less that people put her on a pedestal (go nuts with that, if you love her, there’s nothing wrong with doing so!) and more that there’s a specific type of fan who puts her on a pedestal of moral superiority and then uses her to bash on the Jedi Order or other characters.  So, it can be hard not to recoil into, “No, she’s actually got a lot of shit going on and is not morally perfect and people saying she is are obnoxious.” because who doesn’t recoil away from a character when they’re used to beat on your faves?  (Which isn’t the same as saying that those fans are obligated to change or do things differently, because they’re not!  Only that I don’t like it and they’re in no way obligated to give a shit that I don’t like it. 😂) Ahsoka fans have every right to be totally enthralled with her character and to celebrate how much they love her--I love when people love the character they love and want to share that love with others!  Who cares if others think she’s literally perfect, that kind of affection for a character actually warms my heart a lot, when it’s used with love and kindness! And while I don’t think Ahsoka is superior, like a HUGE part of her character arc is that she couldn’t admit even to herself that Anakin might have fallen, that the Jedi Temple on Lothal literally had to shove it in her face to get her to acknowledge it.  Also, she was being snotty in The Siege of Mandalore and THAT’S FINE, SHE IS COMING FROM A SUPER REASONABLE PLACE, she was working through some shit and she’s not going to be perfect about it, sometimes she’s going to be kind of snippy, that doesn’t detract one iota from that she’s a compassionate, caring person. She can be unfair in her conversation with Obi-Wan (ignoring that Coruscant legitimately needs the Jedi and basically writing those people off, because she felt more passionate about Mandalore), she can let her emotions get the better of her in The Wrong Jedi and make mistakes (the Crystal Crisis arc has Obi-Wan and Anakin talk about this and Obi-Wan actually is a pretty reliable narrator in the bigger picture of SW), and none of this takes away from being an amazingly resilient, wonderful person who cares about others very much. But if someone wants to defend her, if they want to yell about how she’s literally flawless, I have no problems with that.  Tell me all about how you love her the most!   But I’m probably going to recoil if it’s only propping her up in service of telling me how terrible my faves are. (Which is why I have no problem with people who don’t care for the way I talk about Anakin’s relationship with the Jedi.  If you feel very tender-hearted towards his character, it’s not going to vibe with you when I talk about the way I see him and the way I see the Jedi, so my posts are better off skipped.  To be fair, I feel the same way about the reverse--people who see Anakin as a victim of the Jedi aren’t ones I really read anymore because what am I going to do?  Argue with the way they see it?  Eh, who cares, it’s not my business, so long as they’re not coming onto my posts to be a dick about it in my face.  The only time I get annoyed by it is when it’s implied that I’m not a ~real~ Anakin fan because I view him a certain way, like, nah, I love my dumpster baby and nobody gets to say whether or not my way of loving him is ~real~ or not except me. These kinds of consideration for other fans are a fine line to walk, you shouldn’t have to kowtow to how others like/dislike things to express your own like/dislike of things, but also don’t be a dick to people and maybe some of you could really get some better boundaries. And, as always, my solution is that I think I’ll attract far more people by telling you what I love about everyone, even if I have my personal faves.  So, anyway, yes, sometimes I roll my eyes at some of the things people say about Ahsoka, but also YOU WILL TEAR MY LOVE FOR HER FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS, SHE WENT THROUGH SO MUCH AND SHE WAS REALLY TRYING AND OH MY GOD SHE WAS THINKING ABOUT GOING BACK TO THE JEDI, SOBS SHE WANTED TO BE A JEDI AGAIN, DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I WANTED AHSOKA TO HAVE THE TIME TO COME BACK WHEN SHE WAS READY?  TO JUST HAVE THE CHOICE TO DO SO OR NOT?  AND THAT THE CHOICE WAS STOLEN FROM HER?  OH MY GOD AHSOKA BABY GIRL YOU DESERVED BETTER!!!!)

[i-just-wanna-be-called-sparkle]

Oh, I see your new title! Okay, tell me about Mitsuo. Anything you want, your headcanons, AUs, canon, or anything else, here's your rambling free pass!

THANK. YOU. You are a life saver. I have wanted to ramble about this stupid boy for SO LONG.

I’ll try not to ramble for like, ridiculously long, but also I really can’t predict how long it’ll end up being in the end. But where do I begin…?

I’d say I have quite a few Mitsuo AUs, the first one that comes to mind is a one off one where he’s an Imp, absolutely inspired by my partner’s Miitopia game, where Mitsuo is an Imp. I really love Imp Mitsuo in that game, he’s a little brat and he causes problems on purpose and I just adore it, it kickstarted my third wave of Mitsuo Love. It would he fun to do something with this AU but I haven’t thought of much by myself. I do know he usually comes out of hiding in Inaba around nighttime and steals stuff, because again, he’s just a little troublemaker. Narukami tries to befriend him, because it’s Narukami, and I can’t NOT create an AU where they aren’t involved with each other somehow.

I guess that’s another thing I’ve been brainrotting over, not explicitly Mitsuo, but him and Narukami as a ship. Can I call the ship Mitsuyu? I’m gonna call it Mitsuyu.

I really really like this ship. I really love the idea of Narukami trying to befriend Mitsuo because of how he’s portrayed to try and befriend literally everyone, I love the idea of him being the only one with enough understanding and compassion and empathy to get close with Mitsuo and really learn about him. I like how in game Narukami’s willing to go up to Mitsuo on the street and just listen to him ramble, and I feel like Mitsuo has no one to talk to aside from Narukami, so whenever he gets the chance, he just goes on and on and on, and Narukami’s willing to listen. I think he’s got a lot of things swirling around in his head, he could ramble for hours.

I’m worried this ramble is just gonna turn into one about Mitsuyu now, lmao.

Imagine how they’d interact in the Imp Mitsuo AU… Mitsuo would probably be a little shit. Like, he’d just completely mess around with Narukami all the time, maybe be a little flirty sometimes. He’d probably be genuinely surprised when Narukami keeps coming back to talk to him through it all. Next thing he knows, he’s got a genuine friend, and oh no, he’s catching feelings! Because let’s face it, Mitsuo would definitely catch feelings first, I think.

They’d probably hit him like a slap in the face. I think Narukami would come to a more gradual realization of his feelings. He’d be better at hiding them compared to Mitsuo too - Mitsuo’s probably painfully obvious. To clarify, I’m not strictly talking about Imp Mitsuo here, I mean EVERY Mitsuo from any AU I discuss that includes Mitsuyu.

Narukami would be really good for Mitsuo. I already have a post about Mitsuo headcanons, I believe, though I can’t remember if I listed off the headcanon of him being neglected. Couple that with him being ignored or belittled by everyone else around him because of his looks, it’s no wonder he’s so desperate for attention he’d kill a guy. Also sometimes I wonder how he managed to kill Morooka AND hang his body on a roof. He’s still in high school, y’know? Weird boy. But I digress.

Narukami would give him all the attention he’s been craving for so long. Praise, hugs, kisses, all the soft stuff Mitsuo didn’t realize he really needed until he got it. I think Mitsuo would cry when he gets to cuddle Narukami for the first time. Narukami would soothe him, too. I just want them to be soft, Mitsuo needs it.

It’d take a while, but I can see Narukami’s existence in Mitsuo’s life affecting him drastically, by that I mean holy shit Narukami, you just prevented a murder. Narukami would kill away Mitsuo’s feelings of emptiness, he wouldn’t feel like he’s nothing anymore, because he matters to Narukami. As long as he’s around, Mitsuo isn’t nothing. He feels he finally has a purpose.

I also can’t remember if I mentioned this in the Mitsuo headcanons post, but I don’t think Mitsuo would care what you label his gender as, maybe. Not much to it, he just doesn’t care. Maybe he secretly gets happy when someone refers to him with pronouns that aren’t he/him for once. He’s not good at hiding it in front of Narukami, I bet. Narukami likes to frequently switch his pronouns around just to see him smile. Mitsuo doesn’t smile very often, so Narukami cherishes it.

I used to think of Mitsuo’s in-game sprites as completely unflattering, at least, compared to how he looks in the P4 anime. He’s really cute in the anime. But I’ve gotten so fond of him that I actually think his smiling sprite is cute now. Like, when you can talk to him in the shopping district and he’s rambling about the murders, you have the option to either agree or disagree with what he says. When you agree, he smiles. And it totally gets to me. Not only does no one talk to him, I bet barely anyone ever agrees with him on things, either. I can’t imagine how happy he might feel to have someone engage with him for once and actually agree with what he says.

There’s so much untapped potential with Mitsuo, it’s so sad. The most you get of his backstory is through his dungeon, and through talking with NPCs around town about him, and thats about it. It’s a shame that Atlus didn’t flesh him out as much as the other characters. Seriously, through his attention seeking nature alone, there’s so much potential backstory there. What he’s already got is fine, it’s okay, but he could’ve gotten so much more. And most people brush him off because of his looks, too, so there’s really not much Mitsuo fan content out there to consume, along with the small amount of official Mitsuo content that exists.

I think a social link with him would be really cool, but with how everything fits together in P4 like a puzzle, it would never work out without heavy planning and modification. Might be a cool mod though.

I think his dungeon is great, and I love how one floor is the exact same as a floor in Adachi’s dungeon because he’s a mock killer. I like it visually, and I LOVE his dungeon theme. I was so angry when I heard it for the first time because goddamn, it was criminally catchy. I love his boss fight too. He needs to hide behind a video game character, a shield, to pretend to be strong and courageous and mature, when he’s really just a weak, cowardly child with (most likely) an overinflated ego. I like how the dialogue progresses into madness the farther you go into his dungeon, I like the first dialogue of Mitsuo getting “knocked down” by Morooka to represent him getting expelled. Even though there’s not much of it, the stuff in P4 relating to Mitsuo is all really cool and really fascinating.

I think it’d do wonders for his character just seeing more cutscenes with him in them. Like, before Morooka’s murder, you can see him in the background of some of Yukiko’s s-links, stalking her. Maybe it shows a cutscene of him rambling to Rise that one time, or it shows him angrily running out of Marukyu Tofu when the boys go there for the first time, cuz he was being ignored. Maybe there could be a simple cutscene of him being lead into the interrogation room by Adachi and then being pushed into the TV because YES, I AM STILL SALTY THAT HE IS THE ONLY VICTIM WITHOUT A CUTSCENE. I know the lights were off, but… C’mon, Atlus, doesn’t that just make your job easier…?

And look at that, I STILL ended up rambling about Mitsuo for too damn long. So sorry about that, but seriously - thank you for giving me the opportunity. It’s not very often that I get to talk about him, so I really just indulged in myself here. And sorry if the formatting is weird, or if the progression doesn’t make sense etc. I practically started speaking my mind, just seeing where that would take me. And it took me all over the place :’)

[esmeraldablazingsky]

I’ve finally hit my limit on the number of bad takes on the Lan parents I can see before I have to lay out all the reasons I disagree, so hello, I’m Blazie, and in this essay I will justify my visceral dislike of the assumption that Qingheng-jun married/imprisoned/had sex with Lan-furen against her will.

    Warning for mentions of rape (in context of Interpretations I Really Hate) and a very, VERY long post below the cut.

    Before I start going off about the finer points of all this, I want to make sure people are on the same page regarding what we actually know about what went down with Qingheng-jun and Lan-furen. What I say is based off the EXR translation of MDZS, for the sake of clarity, and although I don’t think the exact wording should be too important, feel free to let me know if you think I’ve missed an important bit of nuance or something (the whole story is in Chapter 64.)

    The story we get is told by Lan Xichen, and it goes like this: a young Qingheng-jun falls in love at first sight with Lan-furen, who doesn’t return his feelings, and at some point kills one of Qingheng-jun’s teachers over unspecified “grievances.” Although he’s understandably very upset over the murder, Qingheng-jun sneaks Lan-furen back to Cloud Recesses and officially marries her in order to announce to his clan that anyone who wants to hurt her has to go through him.

After that, he locks Lan-furen in one house and himself in another as a form of repentance. Wei Wuxian speculates that this was because “he could neither forgive the one who killed his teacher nor watch the death of the woman who he loved. He could only marry her to protect her life and force himself not to see her.” 

    A central detail of this story that I think people don’t give the import it deserves is that aside from marrying and protecting her, Qingheng-jun’s other option was to let Lan-furen be executed by his clan. His purpose in marrying her wasn’t just for kicks/out of a possessive sort of love, it was so she wouldn’t straight up die. How she felt about this arrangement isn’t stated, but I’ll get into that in a bit. In addition to that, Qingheng-jun and Lan-furen live separately, which was apparently purposeful on Qingheng-jun’s part, and runs counter to the interpretation that he intended to take sexual advantage of Lan-furen.

Though there aren’t many concrete details in Lan Xichen’s retelling, he does specifically inform Wei Wuxian that his mother never complained about remaining in her house. What exactly this signifies is unclear— whether she was simply putting on a brave face for her sons, or whether she was in fact at all content with the situation— but it at the very least serves to further muddy the waters on how she and Qingheng-jun felt about all this. 

Beyond what Lan Xichen and Wei Wuxian are saying out loud, there’s also quite a bit of subtext in this scene, especially in light of later events and revelations, like Lan Xichen’s confession for Lan Wangji at Guanyin Temple. 

So what is Lan Xichen trying to convey with all this? There’s a lot of memes about this scene, most of which err too far on the side of Himbo Airhead Lan Xichen for my liking, but one that I do find amusing emphasizes how Lan Xichen draws parallels between Wangxian and the story of his parents (Lan Xichen: [flute solo] please use your one brain cell to connect the dots.) If Wei Wuxian hadn’t completely lost his memory of Lan Wangji defending him against his own clan elders, one would assume that Lan Xichen’s story would have had a much better chance of hitting home. 

In hindsight and side by side, the parallels are much clearer— Qingheng-jun, “ignoring the objections from his clan… told everyone in the clan that she would be his wife for the rest of his life, that whoever wanted to harm her would have to pass through him first.” Similarly, according to Lan Xichen in Chapter 99, “for [Wei Wuxian,] not only did WangJi talk back to him, he even met with his sword the cultivators from the GusuLan Sect. He heavily injured all thirty-three of the seniors we asked to come.”

In that context, it makes a lot less sense to interpret Qingheng-jun as an aggressor towards Lan-furen, as in Lan Wangji’s case, the narrative clearly establishes that his actions are to secure Wei Wuxian’s safety. The action of Taking Someone Back To Cloud Recesses is— okay, actually, it’s a little more nuanced than I took into account when I started writing that sentence, so let me go a little deeper into Lan Wangji’s actions and how they relate to his father’s, story-wise. 

My intent is not to dive into the terrifying underworld of novel-versus-drama discourse, but simply put, Novel!Lan Wangji as he is written isn’t exactly the poster child for clear consent. (I’m going to entirely leave off the extra chapters for the sake of everyone’s sanity, so I’m just talking about the main body of the novel here.)

He means well, and I’m sure we can agree that he does actually love and want the best for Wei Wuxian, but his lack of communication on this point means that he accidentally gives Wei Wuxian the impression that he wants to imprison and/or punish him in Cloud Recesses at least twice off the top of my head (pre-timeskip, as we know, and post-timeskip immediately after Dafan Mountain when he actually drags Wei Wuxian back to his room.) 

That all likely has something to do with MXTX’s narrative kinks and regular kinks and all that, and can absolutely be taken with many grains of salt. However, these events establish how easy it is to misinterpret the action of Taking Someone Back To Gusu as an attempt to imprison rather than protect them (much to Lan Wangji’s chagrin.)

Failing to communicate his purpose to Wei Wuxian doesn’t mean that Lan Wangji actually had any intent of hurting or caging him— that was just a misinterpretation on Wei Wuxian’s part, and we, as the audience, find that out in due time— but as written in the novel, it can be really uncomfortable to read. Because of that, many people choose to accept CQL canon regarding Lan Wangji’s more possessive actions or mix characterization from different adaptations, which, to be clear, I completely understand and respect. 

However, Qingheng-jun doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt as often, which I frankly find baffling, because nowhere in the text does it state that Lan-furen objected to being taken back to Cloud Recesses, while even Wei Wuxian clearly objected the first few times. In fact, while we’re on this note, I’ll take it a step farther— I find it baffling that people seem to default to an unsympathetic view of Qingheng-jun, because nowhere in the text does it state that he overruled Lan-furen’s wishes in any way. The text doesn’t clarify a lot of things, actually, and that is part of the point. 

The narrators of MDZS are, in many situations, highly unreliable. This is, presumably, very purposeful! MDZS can easily be read as a sharp criticism of reputation and mass judgment and the concept of condemning people without knowing their motives! And I don’t want to sound mean, but guys… did any of us learn anything from that? Here, I’m going to put it in meme format for a second to convey what I mean. 

MDZS: It’s easy to condemn someone as a villain if you don’t know their story or the reasons behind their actions

MDZS: Anyway, here’s a character whose story and reasons behind his actions you know nothing about

Some Parts Of This Fandom: Ah, a villain 

    Memes aside, here’s what I want to point out. It’s entirely possible to assume Qingheng-jun was a bad person who disregarded a woman’s wishes in marrying and confining her when all you have is Lan Xichen’s (actually very neutral, thank you Lan Xichen for being an eminently reasonable and concerned-with-evidence character) account of what happened. It would also be at least that easy to assume Wei Wuxian was just an evil necromancer if he hadn’t un-died and brought his own story to light, or even to believe that Lan Wangji had somehow tamed Wei Wuxian into submission and being a respectable cultivator if you were an average citizen of Fantasy Ancient China with nothing but rumors to operate on. 

    The thing about Qingheng-jun and Lan-furen’s story, then, is that there is nobody left alive who knows the full tale. Nobody knows what they thought about anything, really. Nobody even knows why Lan-furen killed Qingheng-jun’s teacher. Wei Wuxian asks why, and Lan Xichen can’t tell him, but I think the best answer would be something along the lines of I don’t know, Wei Wuxian, why did you kill people? Your guess on the motivations of your own thinly disguised narrative parallel are as good as anyone’s. 

    So, while it’s not technically impossible to assign darker motives to Qingheng-jun, the cautionary tale of MDZS seems to warn against that exact assumption. 

    I’ve refrained from getting too salty on a personal level thus far, but now that I’ve said a lot of the more logical and story-based points of my argument, I will say that at least some of my annoyance with the interpretation of Qingheng-jun as a possessive rapist and Lan-furen as his victim stems from the fact that I just think it’s straight up boring. Where’s the nuance? Aren’t you tired of reducing these characters to the flattest possible versions of themselves? Don’t you just want to add a little flavor? 

    In a slightly more serious phrasing of that criticism, I find that making Lan-furen a helpless prisoner strips her of whatever agency she might otherwise have. To be fair, she’s more or less a non-character in keeping with the general state of the MDZS universe, but making her a damsel in distress only consigns her more deeply to hapless, milquetoast innocence. 

    It’s perfectly valid to enjoy ladies who have done nothing wrong, ever, in their lives, but like… Qin Su is right there, if that’s your ball game. There’s also really no need to make Qingheng-jun someone who doesn’t respect women. Isn’t Jin Guangshan enough for at least one universe? 

    Anyway, ultimately, you do you. I don’t like arguing on the internet, and will just ignore things I don’t agree with (or write an 1800 word vaguepost) like a mature human being. I’m just saying, if it’s a cut and dry tale of imprisonment and assault you’re looking for… you probably don’t want to turn to a woman who committed a murder and a man who loved her enough to forfeit everything to keep her safe. 

[asleepinawell]

To me the reason why the whole simulation felt so off was because Samaritan doesn't know them. So of course Root wouldn't know about Shaw's scars, even the sex scene itself felt off. The whole ep felt weird but it was supposed to be that way. Of course they had sex instead of decontamination. I mean Shaw is a doctor why would she need Root's or anyone's help for that and she most definatly doesn't need Harold's manual. That's why I'm still surprised people don't consider them canon. -salty

that would be my take as well on why sim!root said that if I had to think up a reason for it to make sense, but it didn't feel like it was intended as a 'thing that was incorrect specifically because of the simulation' line to me the way other things in the episode felt deliberately off which is why it came across as weird, but like I said we probably won't ever know what the writers intended there for sure. I just don't give show runners credit for things (good or bad) that are based on fan interpretations rather than clear canon

the majority of my issues with s5 were: pacing, adhering to the number of the week formula (I know both of those are down to the network but that doesn't mean they aren't issues with the season), some of the episodes in their very short season being pointless (shot seeker), the character development of both reese and finch being rolled back/ignored from where it ended up in s4 (and even from where it ended up in 5x01 for finch wrt TM), just about everything they chose to do with shaw, almost all of the last 3.5 episodes, the themes of 'there's always someone coming to save you' and 'we have more to look forward to than death' being shucked aside for 'everyone dies alone and that's okay as long as we say it in a meaningful montage with music!', and obviously everything involving root x shaw in terms of the ending (and the truly mind boggling lack of screen time they had together...the show gave boring Samaritan agent dude more screen time than the two of them ffs...there's a good post someone made about the amount of screen time they had here).

there were some parts I liked and some episodes I mostly enjoyed (qso, the wedding episode, bsod) but overall it was just a bad season in my opinion. and I'll re-emphasize the in my opinion part since I know social media users have a lot of sudden reading comprehension issues when it comes to stuff they disagree with (not you anon!) and I'm not saying anyone is wrong for liking it, just I really did not

[yurileclercseyeliner]

A Dumb Rant About A Webtoon

Okay so I’m actually super into reading webcomics (I read them on both Webtoon and Tapas), and although this has nothing to do with my blog (I AM considering making a side blog for webcomic content/reviews tho) I sort of feel like ranting about one that I saw. I’m sorry, but if you like Athena Complex this is probably going to piss you off. Admittedly, I couldn’t get far into the comic without being upset about this so I stopped reading a few chapters in, so that may affect my opinion here. This is mainly my opinion though, and if you disagree with me it’s fine.

So I did mention in my Fire Emblem kelpie beast unit post my opinion on mythological adaptation. Essentially, I believe that when you adapt any sort of mythological being into your story you need to keep these two things in mind:

The recognizable features/symbols/abilities: by this I mean what physical features is this being known to have, what are their physical/magical abilities, what objects are they most associated with, etc. You don’t need to have every single thing that is mentioned in the source material, just a decent combination of them that can allow the reader to easily connect the adaptation to the source material.

This factor mainly applies to individual characters as opposed to a full species or classification of creatures (I have read a decent number of mythological adaptations and have seen a mythical species depicted as evil in one adaptation and benevolent or neutral in another and enjoyed both, it all depends on if it makes sense in the context). What are the character’s main personal views, goals, and motivations? By this I mean how do they think and what are their views on the world around them, and what is the context surrounding that? Essentially, what can their main personalities and motivations be boiled down to and why?

After those two factors, I think that you can then go buck wild with any other characterization as long as it isn’t contradictory and makes sense in your story.

Now that I have set that down here’s my deal with Athena Complex. Athena Complex is a Webtoon based on Greek mythology that follows Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and strategy. She falls in love with Poseidon, the god of the sea, and is rejected by him. Fueled by vengeance and a desire to win his heart she takes the form of a high school boy in order to take revenge on his reincarnation. Basically, this entire Webtoon is practically a public execution of a large part of what makes Athena, well, Athena.

First off, I will give credit to Athena Complex for at least getting the symbolism correct, Athena is a goddess of wisdom and war and when in the form of a goddess her design reflects that with her armor, among other things such as her association with owls, so the first aspect that I mentioned is fine.

Additionally there is the fact that they also did heavily tap into the prideful aspect of Athena’s nature. Essentially in the source material Athena is a VERY prideful goddess and will take any opportunity to prove her worth if someone attempt to upstage her, and gets very angry when she fails or is insulted in the process (ie the story of Arachne, the story behind the double flute). This aspect could also be seen slightly in Athena Complex’s Athena’s behavior, which I can also give them credit for.

But that’s where a lot of the similarities end. Tbh a large majority of these issues surround the second aspect, the basics of the figure’s personality and motivations.

First, Athena’s stance on romance. Original Athena...literally wanted nothing to do with any sort of romantic relationship. Seriously it’s one of her main things one of her epithets is literally “Parenthos”, which means virgin. No lovers, no sex, no marriage, no intentionally created children (I say intentionally bc she and Hepheastus accidentally created a child when his snot got onto a torn piece of her cloak, but that’s a different weird story), nothing. She solely focused on the expansion of knowledge and learning. She had no time for any sort of relationship. Making Athena in Athena Complex heavily motivated by an unrequited romantic attraction literally rips one of her main core values to shreds.

And this in my opinion one of the worst offenses, MAKING THE SUBJECT OF THAT ROMANTIC ATTRACTION POSEIDON. Literally one MAJOR thing for the original Athena and Poseidon is that they HATE each other. (Also Athena is literally Poseidon’s niece, but tbh that’s a less heinous crime bc Greek mythology was weird about that shit, multiple gods married their siblings/cousins/uncles/aunts/nieces/nephews/etc., it’s weird. Also in Athena Complex Poseidon acted the main person raising Athena, which is ALSO really fucking weird and concerning, anyway back to why they hate each other).

The Contest for Athens: Basically before the Greek city of Athens was called Athens the people were looking for a patron deity, and both Athena and Poseidon tried to lay their claim. In order to determine who the city would go to, they decided to have a contest of who could give the city the best gift. Poseidon gave the city some horses (for transportation and farmwork) and a small spring in the middle of the city (note: the water in the spring was salt water and therefore undrinkable). Athena gave them olive trees (for food, making oil, wood, etc.). The peoplr decided that Athena’s gift was better and thus named the city “Athens” after her, leaving Poseidon incredibly salty.

The Medusa Incident (TW: possible rape/non-con): So Poseidon was having a nice little affair with a mortal woman named Medusa (you notice how this name is familiar, right? that’s important). It’s a little iffy on whether or not this affair was fully consensual on Medusa’s end due to the sort of victim blame-y aspects to this story, hence the trigger warning. So Poseidon his having his fun and decides to find a nice little place they can go to do the nasty. Where does he think would be a great idea? One of Athena’s temples of course! You know, a literal place of worship dedicated to his rival who is known to dislike involvement in romantic/sexual relationships? Nothing could go wrong at all! They of course get caught, and Athena, being pissed, decides to curse Medusa with snakes for hair and the ability to turn people into stone just by looking at them (see why the name was familiar?) For good measure she also curses Medusa’s two sisters with the snake hair. The sisters are then dubbed the Gorgons and then go live in isolation on a island until they are killed by Perseus (a hero that Athena was helping).

So this Webtoon completely ignores the context behind this hatred and decides to make it into an enemies to lovers story based on unrequited feelings (the feelings of a person for their childhood caretaker too...still weird). I guess they wanted to do enemies to lovers and such based on a rivalry dynamic, but in doing so they erased most of the actual substance behind that rivalry by making it romantic and destroying the characterization of one of the main characters.

I can understand taking creative liberties, but before you do so you NEED to have a full understanding of the characters that you are adapting. If a mythological character is known for a certain practice (refraining from romance) or for having an extreme distaste for another figure (Athena hating Poseidon), INCLUDE IT. You NEED to have all of the bare bones basics before you start taking liberties.

For example, the original Athena:

Goddess of wisdom and strategy

Association with owls, olives, carries a shield known as Aegis

Highly values learning and knowledge

Prideful to a fault

Virgin goddess with no interest in romantic or sexual relationships

Extreme hatred for Poseidon as a result of repeated negative encounters

Those are the bare bones basics, after that you can do what you want.

Honestly I don’t think that this Webtoon is necessarily BAD, but it is VERY annoying when you have the context behind these characters (hence my frustration and inability to make it past 10 chapters). In my opinion, if the author wanted to write this storyline, they should have made their own OCs as opposed to butchering a pre-existing figure’s characterization.

(Also I’m so sorry I know that this isn’t relevant to my argument BUT THE POSEIDON REINCARNATION LOOKS SO BORING HE LOOKS LIKE A BACKGROUND CHARACTER WHERE IS THE FLAVOR????)

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

Ok uhh I’m just being salty here rn but someone literally said the Jedi were evil because they had rules as like laws or something. Uhhh what?! Most organisation if not all of them have them. I laugh cried. And then someone else agreed and then said “ohhh the council didn’t allow Anakin to be himself.” Like uhhh they are soo forgiving of his actions what. I laughed and then I was confused. Anyways feel free to ignore I just woow

Oh, that is such a mood xD No organization, no order, no family and no culture can function without rules. Even animals have rules - social norms - of a sort, according to species. 

And yes I completely agree, the council was very forgiving of Anakin most of the time. Got an old list from another post:

- gets in zero trouble for not answering his comm for hours when he’s with Padmé (… it’s even a major thing in one episode… they’re all waiting for him and he doesn’t even explain himself or face any sort of repercussions) - is not constantly burdened with the mantle of the Chosen One (he doesn’t even believe the Chosen One is a thing prior to Mortis + Mace leaves him out of a potentially universe-altering battle because of his inner conflict) - only gets assigned the hardest missions because he’s the best (tbh Obi-Wan gets the worst missions) - faces zero consequences that one time he lost a droid full of Republic military secrets (his ass would have been sooooo court-martialed in real life)  - isn’t under any particular scrutiny for his relationship with Padmé, despite the Council telling him to his face several times that they know he and “Senator Amidala” are “close” 

+ 

- very often disobeys Obi-Wan’s direct orders - or other Masters’ orders - and is never punished for it - skipped meditation retreat to be with Padmé - indicating that the Order tried to give him space/opportunities for peace of mind - and he was the one who didn’t take them

I’ve got a meta in rough draft form on the interactions between Anakin and individual council members (Mace, Shaak Ti, Ki-Adi-Mundi, Kit Fisto, Even Piell, Yoda, Eeth Koth, Adi Gallia, Yoda...) and so far the results are conclusive: they all love him, or like him at the very least.

Rules and love are in no way incompatible. Seriously, defending anarchy is such a weird thing? You can disagree with the Jedi’s rules but calling them evil for having rules at all is kinda crazy.

[found--family]

You and your stupid posts about Jared, just because you disagree with his opinion on the finale, is one of the reasons SPN family became a toxic shithole. Thanks for that.

good evening smad nonny 👋

y'know you're right about the SPN fandom. it can get unbearable here at times, but it comes and goes, and if you need to step away, or use that block button with no abandon, DO IT. (i don't think disgruntled anon messages will solve anything btw, but if it helps you vent then you do you, and recipients can either ignore or vent themselves). 

also: i don't hate Jared, let me just be clear on that. but as I and others have already said: you can care about someone, want good things for them, and yet disagree with them/not condone their behaviour - meaning his choice of being a part of Walker, as well as his comments in interviews about what Dean "deserved" for his ending (still being under contract with The CW is understandable in that he's not going to say anything negative about SPN's finale, but as others have pointed out now and in the past, he seems to have a far more detached view of the show and the characters than Jensen does, he's not as clued-in to what makes the story truly fulfilling). 

these are salty times my not-friend, and I consider my (very few) posts regarding J*red (not 'Jared'; please note the difference of tags as I use both) and Walker to be among the milder ones. 

it's a convergence of things, by the way: Jared's comments/beliefs/behaviour aside, Walker's content and associations during these tumultuous times is bound to cause a stir, as it should (and that's not even touching on all the drama with the SPN finale being botched in order to try and hype the lead in The CW's new show, OR the discourse surrounding Jared's acting skills on Walker - personally I find it difficult to watch him portray anyone other than Sam because Sam is peak acting for Jared imho; he's never done better, even though there are some laughably ott or head-scratching moments throughout the series, but the same can be said of many actors, and it's not a bad thing, it's just a thing). 

but focusing back on Jared: the spotlight is on him alone for Walker (Jensen isn't there to split the attention, he's off doing his own thing too) which, for a tv series, is new for him. he's playing the main character so most show-related news - especially in the first season - is going to be about him/relate to him, so we're getting to hear more about where he's at on a lot of important issues, and he's going to realise that his stances on social media and his opinions (or those perhaps "encouraged" by The CW) in interviews will be focused on like never before. 

we're not even out of January and things aren't looking good on any front for Walker, but staying silent rather than voicing our thoughts and feelings - as fans, not as random online trolls - about this show and about Jared's harmful words (please remember Always Keep Fighting is very close to his heart and yet he applauded Dean's ending where death was meant to equal "peace") isn't the way to go. 

some matters we need to laugh about, some need serious discussion, and that's just the way it is. if you can't handle interacting with the majority of fandom blogs atm then don't interact with them. keep to your corner. 

i think I'm done for now. i feel better, so thanks. 🙃 

[wxsuthorn]

a sort of organised analysis of The Gifted characters

pt. 1: Pang

(this analysis includes episodes 1-13 of season one and 1-7 of season two, so it probably isn’t completely accurate, but i tried my best. also please excuse grammar or spelling errors that i might’ve made cuz i write these late at night when my creativity sparks lmao)

Characteristics and qualities in the beginning of season 1

Even in the very first episode, Pang already showed some idealistic qualities. He always thought that the school system wasn’t fair, and he always tried doing the right thing (or what he thought was the right thing). His idealism wasn’t as extreme in the very beginning of the show, since he wasn’t as confident in his abilities. He probably didn’t have much interest in changing the school system when he (and the people around him) saw him as a dumb kid from classroom 8. Getting into the Gifted Program was what affected his idealism to the point where it became a fault.

Before he discovered his potential, he was most likely very confused about his “academic rank”. He was in classroom 8, yet he was in the Gifted Program... but he hadn’t found his potential yet. I can imagine him questioning his worth and how significant he really was; he was also one of the first kids in the gifted class to outwardly express how they felt about the unfair treatment of the ordinary students compared to the gifted students. This was probably because he got to experience both ends of the unequal treatment, unlike the rest of his gifted classmates.

In terms of intelligence, Pang is street smart. In episode one he thought of a distraction to not get caught stealing the test. He also used the egg drop parachute to save his phone. He is innovative and can create ideas and identify problems. In episode one (again), he noticed that Wave was sweating and seemed weak. He also noticed Ohm’s bloody nose and Mon moving a locker full of weights. He was aware of shit... but he’s not very aware of other people’s feelings... at least not fully.

Pang’s friendship with Nac hits different after the pangwave fight but anyways... Pang knew that he didn’t use the cheat sheet, and he couldn’t tell Nac anything about the Gifted Program, so he probably didn’t fully understand why Nac was so upset when he technically did nothing wrong. Nac even said he wasn’t upset that Pang was in the Gifted Program. I think that’s why Pang never talked it out with him and just kinda exploded at him. Even though he may see himself as empathetic, it’s really just him being idealistic. He mistakes his ideals about equality for empathy, when, in fact, those are two separate things. When it comes to individual people, I don’t think he’s very good at understanding them thoroughly enough. Nac’s reasons for being upset with Pang are realistic and valid. He’s in class 1, Pang’s in class 8, yet Pang was the one who got into the Gifted Program. Nac gave Pang a cheat sheet, and even though Pang denies using it, he couldn’t really believe that he got in with the grades he has. And on top of that, Pang doesn’t even tell him what happens in the class. Nac feels used and excluded, but Pang wasn’t paying attention to that. He ended up blaming the unfair system, which was just a factor of the conflict, but never took a moment to look at what he himself could’ve done to help the conflict, or even what he might’ve done wrong. but issokay cuz pang is a smol bean and i love him

Characteristics and qualities in the middle - the end of season 1

Lets talk about Pang discovering his potential in episode 6. He first noticed it when he told Nac to bang his head on a metal bar. This wasn’t the first time he used his potential on Nac, though. In the first episode he used it on him and said something like “don’t talk to me ever again”, and so Nac didn’t communicate with again him until episode 6. This was when Pang used his potential on him saying “why can’t we just talk it out?” and Nac was finally able to communicate his frustration. Nac was blaming Pang for shit he didn’t do and it was unreasonable, according to Pang, but Nac didn’t know the full story. If you look at the way Nac sees things: Pang is in the Gifted Program, Pang used me to get into the program (because there’s no way he just got in without using my cheat sheet), I got punished when Wave provoked me and Pang tried playing hero, as if he was some perfect angel. Pang has new friends, he has no use for me anymore, I don’t need him either, I find new friends, Pang suddenly joins in, everything goes haywire, my anger and frustration towards him explodes, and he just ignores what I’m feeling and tells me that I’m wrong and that I’m an asshole. Like I did something wrong, and he’s perfectly innocent. Lmao Nac is salty af. And he has a good reason to be. Pang doesn’t understand Nac’s thinking, and on top of that, he makes almost no effort to understand. His beliefs blind him into thinking he’s done no wrong.

Now lets talk about his actual potential, and how it affects him. His ego and self esteem rises, but Pang doesn’t notice it. It’s explained in the end of season 1 that the reason Pang lost is because he wanted to do everything on his own because he thought that only he was able to defeat the director. His ideals and his ego are very closely connected. Pang teams up with Wave because he thinks that Wave will be the most useful to stop Director Supot. Now, I don’t think Pang doesn’t care about his friends, but his actions are neglectful. When Pang teams up with Wave, he tells none of his other friends about what he’s doing. He doesn’t tell Namtaan or Ohm, literally his two closest friends, and convinces himself that he’s doing it to protect them. News flash, he isn’t. He’s trying to be a hero. His ego rapidly increasing might be because of how he was constantly ridiculed when he was in classroom 8, and suddenly he gets this power that makes him “superior” to ordinary people. Another possibility is that his ego was already big, but we he only showed it/applied it when he was trying to take down Director Supot.

Now lets talk about the season 1 finale: Pang becomes aware of his ego through the director foiling his plan and humiliating him. This is a big part of his development as a character. Ofc in season 2 he still has a problem with neglecting and doing things solo, but he become a little more aware, and for 2 whole year’s he’s able to somewhat-effectively lead the gifted gang in their fight against the anti-gifted.

Characteristics and qualities in season two (up until episode 7) 

Lets discuss: Ms Darin. aka ms loser. Remember in the beginning of episode 7 where he trusted her cuz of what she said and he noticed her actions (oop remember this trait from before? he’s aware of shit!), but it turned out it was all lies. He eventually got back on track after Third showed him the truth, and was smart enough not to trust Ms. Darin after that. I wanna guess that the reason he started trusting Ms. Darin so easily (other than what she said and did) is because he was in distress from failing Korn and Time. He needed some support, and he wouldn’t let his friends support him because “im a hero blah blah blah i dont wanna worry my friends they dont need to help me with my burdens cuz i can do it on my own :D” season 1 Pang type shit. Ms. Darin was an adult who seemed trustworthy enough, plus Director Supot was gone, and he was the main antagonist in season 1, so isn’t everything only gonna get better now that he’s gone? Plus when Grace said that he sounds like the adults lksdjlkjslfjjsdf THAT HIT ME.

Now I wanna talk about him with Chanon. I’m praying that Chanon is pure and not corrupted because if he is he might’ve used Pang and might do so in the future too... but let’s not focus on that. Pang finally has a mentor-figure in his life that he looks up. Someone to balance out his ego and show him that he can’t do everything on his own. yeah that’s all i have to say about that.

Punn. “You’re done, Pang.” Yeah lets talk about that because holy mcnuggets. Punn knows Pang well enough to know how intensely idealistic and passionate he is. Once the director is gone, Punn is like, bitch u got nothing else to obsess over MOVE ON. He’s basically saying Pang’s existence was so heavily tied with fixing the school system that when eveything’s fixed, he’ll be “done.” It’s similar to Five from the Umbrella Academy, where his whole life was set on fixing the apocalypse that he felt that life had no meaning without an apocalypse to prevent.

Now let’s talk about PangWave... I truly believe that Pang sees Wave as his equal, as his friend, and as a person whom he cares for deeply. His ego and idealism, topped with all the stress he’s going through (by himself), are dangerous towards his relationships. Wave feels used by Pang, and explains how Pang only comes to him when he needs his help, and avoids him when he disagrees with what Pang thinks. Pang is so fixated on his ideals and beliefs that he will do anything to make sure they become a reality. He’s obsessed, and it’s sooooo bad for his relationships with others. It shows that even on Namtaan’s bday, he can only think about “doing the right thing”, because that’s his number 1 priority. PANG JUST GIVE URSELF A BREAK PLEASE TAKE A METAL HEALTH DAY JUST SLKJFLSDKJJD MEDITATE OR SMTH.

I could type for several hours longer but I think this is enough word vomit for this post.

Summary

- VERY IDEALISTIC !!!! TO A FAULT

- He has somewhat of an inflated ego, but uses his ideals and beliefs to cover it up and convince himself that he is a “good person”

- He overworks his brain by never thinking of himself or other people’s emotions and focuses on his idealistic goals and his idealistic goals ONLY.

- He’s very aware of the things’s around him, and is street smart, but he’s not as aware when it comes to other people’s feelings and thoughts.

- He cares for his friends, but his extreme idealism ends up hurting them, and in turn hurting himself and further encouraging him to self-isolate.

- Independent, but this is mostly due to him thinking that he can handle problems on his own and he doesn’t want to get others involved.

- He is becoming more aware of his wrong actions, hence him apologising to Wave about going after Korn without him, but not enough to actually prevent these wrong actions.

- didn’t talk about this much but GUILT!!! I can tell that he feels immense guilt (especially in the latest episodes) whenever one of his friends get hurt and he’s very involved in what got them hurt. However, when it comes to hurting people emotionally, his guilt is tricky to read. At least for me it is lmao. Cuz he doesn’t always fully understand his friends’ feelings because he can’t always admit that he’s done something wrong, but with the recent pangwave fight he definitely felt some type of guilt there. Or maybe it was frustration? idk skjdflajsdfl someone else step in on this one pls

- He needs rest and a mental break. And some therapy maybe? Like please can one caring adult help this poor child.

- His character is actually pretty consistent wow the writing in this show is great.

- a cute boi who needs a hug. Preferably from Wave and/or Ohm.