#veering into headcanon territory:

[astro-b-o-y-d]

Well, I think most of the secrets on TBOB's website have been found at this point, which probably means there's not much left in terms of the book, and by extension, Bill. I was saying this on Discord, but it really does feel like a swan song for his character, like Alex is finally (and literally) closing the book on him.

Which is FINE WITH ME, I'm glad we got the stuff we did but also please stop giving us more lore on him, Alex <3 We've had enough, time to stop for now <3 Let the fans take it from here <3

[oncillaphoenix]

apparently it's having too many feelings about n harmonia hour, folks (it has been for two months straight)

because uh. what're you supposed to do when you've spent your whole life being ok with the pain because that's how a legendary king's story is supposed to go, but then your whole mythology turns out to be a lie and you have to face that your various parents abandoned you in the woods and locked you away from people in an underground castle just BECAUSE. not for any kind of destiny but because they were selfish people. what then

[irlwakko]

OMGGG YEAH I LOVE WHEN KIDS JUST INEXPLICABLY GET ATTACHED TO MAL MORE

i think mal is actually good with kids and is less of a jerk with them solely because of how angry he is about the way he himself was treated as a child

what mal and mike dont want you to know is that the former is in fact BETTER at handling kids without even trying

omg yeah this is my exact headcanon too I feel so understood…….. anon you get me

Mal’s not good with kids in the traditional/stereotypical “good with kids” sense, and I think he’d be reluctant to accept the description “good with kids” (partly because he doesn’t think he is, partly for his Image) but kids like him because he kind of just. never comes off like he’s being patronizing or talking down to them. besides trying not to swear quite as much, he doesn’t really filter himself. so of course also all the kids think he’s SO COOL

and he’s definitely not as much of a jerk to kids but he’s also not like…….. NICE nice. idk. like if both of them came across a kid who didn’t want to brush their teeth or something, Mike would explain the importance of it and set up a sticker chart or something whereas Mal would be like “huh. okay. did you know that if you keep doing that ALL YOUR TEETH ARE GONNA FALL OUT ALL AT ONCE >:) so that’ll be a shame. but do whatever you want it’s your life. and your teeth :)”

but also if a kid hands him a toy phone he’s gonna answer it and have a very spirited nonsense argument with the person on the other side, to the kid’s delight

among the kids Mike works with, Mal’s particularly popular with Really Weird Little Girls and preteens/teens going through their “nobody understands me” phase (which. To get meta for a second I feel like those were the two types of kids who made up his fan base in 2013 fhdksbfkf. i was a Really Weird Little Girl)

[fandumb-whimsey]

A bit floored about how many people like the headcanons, lol. But I always underestimate the amount of interest for things I toss out into the wild. If I think of anything else that might percolate the brain cells, I'll be sure to write it down.

[redxx95]

Exploring Kurosawa's internalized homophobia and compulsive heteronormativity

oh yea baby we bustin out the Big Words for this one 😎

This was supposed to be posted at the end of pride month but Life happened and it got delayed a lot 😩 So yea happy pride month (and happy birthday Kurosawa I guess 😂)

(btw I think I've never mentioned this on any of my other posts but english is not my first language, so if anything I write ever sounds awkward, that's probably why 😅) (also I had to merge a bunch of images to get around the image limit, this post is really long, the word count is at 1930 words 💀)

Hope you guys enjoy the read! 💞

Spoilers for anything up to vol 11

Let me start this by saying that there's no actual textual evidence of Kurosawa being gay (rather than bi/pan), so this interpretation is definitely veering towards headcanon territory. I'm also not trying to establish this as the only Correct opinion and anyone is of course allowed to have their own sexuality headcanons, this is very healthy and valid 👍

Kurosawa's internalized homophobia

The first scene I want to put under a magnifying glass is this one.

Let's examine what's going on here: Kurosawa has just tried to kiss Adachi, whose hesitation he perceived as disgust. Then he pretends it was disgusting for him too, because he thinks that is the average reaction anyone would have, extending this to Adachi as well. The way he says "who'd be into that?" is already lowkey homophobic, but the japanese line makes it even more evident: "普通嫌だよな" (= "Normally, you'd dislike that right?"). Keyword here being "普通" = "normal, ordinary", implying that anyone who would like that is abnormal. So what does that say about him then, who was so happy to get the chance to kiss another man? This is pretty much textbook internalized homophobia, where he has accepted what he perceives to be the general opinion on gay people and has made those values his own, hating himself for it (albeit only briefly here), which is why he internally apologizes to Adachi.

This is not the only instance of him feeling like that, although this next part is slightly more speculative than the more obvious example above.

So we all know that Kurosawa is a jealous, jealous man. It's one of his defining character traits and it's often the source of conflict and comedy alike. But he does not express his jealousy equally across genders. With men he has this strong rivalry where he needs to prove himself better and more worthy of Adachi's attention.

But with women he has a different approach: gently coaxing them away from him, lest they realize what a catch Adachi really is.

So, why this difference? The answer I have is that he doesn't actually believe he can compete with a woman. If Adachi wants to be close with a man, Kurosawa thinks it might as well be him, he's the best option after all. But if Adachi wants a woman, he cannot offer anything and is therefore the inferior option. He believes this even after he found out Adachi's not completely repulsed at the idea of being with a man. Even if Adachi's okay with men, he'll always prefer a woman.

And whenever he imagines anyone else with Adachi, it's always a woman, specifically Fujisaki, which he believes is "his type".

And he at least thinks he's very far away from that ideal. (He's not but that's a topic for a different essay.) If anyone's wondering why he even bothers at all then if he's so sure that a woman will out-compete him, I think the lyrics from the anime opening actually put it best, specifically the last verse:

I have these impatient feelings I doubt this love will come to fruition But still I can't give up this happiness There's a feeling here I can't resist A love like a castle in the sky

So basically, his plan is that he might as well ride the high of his first ever crush as far as it will go, intercepting where he can to prolong it just that little bit further, until it all inevitably comes to an end. (a castle in the sky = an unreachable dream) This plan kind of fluctuates throughout volumes 1-3 as Adachi gives him a bunch of mixed signals, but it holds true most of the time.

Adachi's side

Now I'd like to highlight the way Adachi actually thinks about their relationship, because it serves as a great contrast to Kurosawa's assumptions about him.

Throughout the first three volumes we see him grapple with his newfound feelings for Kurosawa, but he (almost) never puts his gender at the forefront of his musings. The manga makes it very clear that it's his lack of romantic experience and low self esteem that make it hard for him to accept Kurosawa's affections, and not the fact that he's a man.

This second page here being his own little gay awakening, where he realizes that he is not, in fact, disgusted by intimacy with a man.

It's also worth mentioning that when he later introduces Kurosawa to his parents (ch 41), they are immediately welcoming of him, suggesting he grew up in a very tolerant environment.

And it's not like he's completely unaware of heteronormativity/homophobia either, especially after he does his research in vol 8, but he is slightly more defiant in responding to it.

(I love how he just buys that bag he probably doesn't need that's supposed to come with all the wedding magazines, just as this very tiny act of rebellion.)

So now that we can see how different Kurosawa's thought patterns are compared to Adachi's, the next question we should ask ourselves is: Why is he like that?

Heteronormativity in Kurosawa's life

(yes we're finally getting to the comphet part of the essay 😂)

First let's look at the environment he grew up in. There are not many scenes with his family, but from those that we do have, we can at least make some assumptions about how he must've been raised.

His mother is clearly the authority figure in his life, judging by how she's described as "strong" and how terrified he is at her merely setting down a teacup (while Adachi has a more mild reaction). Her reaction to the news of them dating and Kurosawa expecting his parents to go as far as disowning him for it would suggest that she might just be generally homophobic.

But when they actually go meet her we see this slightly more nuanced perspective.

She's not entirely against it, but she does believe they are making a mistake by choosing to be together, hence why she thinks they might "regret it". There's many hardships that gay couples in Japan face, some of which we even see discussed in the manga, so it's not hard to see why she would be concerned for her son. The way she talks about Kurosawa never causing any problems, but "changing" ever since he fell for Adachi further supports that conformity is what she believes will ultimately lead to a successful, happy life. And that's also why she accepts Adachi later, when he's made it abundantly clear in his speech that they are happier in this non-conforming relationship than they were without it.

To contrast, her other child Mari is shown to have a very progressive stance (see: her pep talk in ch 47) and it would not surprise me if that is the reason she's rarely in japan and is never seen together with her family, save for the one time they're all at the wedding. She might find the conforming environment too restrictive and preferring to keep her distance. (shoutout to naina for this bit 🙏)

So that's Kurosawa's family situation. Now let's check how his social circle holds up.

From what we see of his friends, they never even seem to consider him possibly being with a man.

And his work environment seems rather toxic to say the least.

It clearly dictates traditional gender roles as the ideal. Nobody except Fujisaki even clocks any of Kurosawa's advances on Adachi as romantic in nature, even though he seems to be quite obvious about it (see: ch 34.5). And it's not like dating in general is discouraged at Toyokawa either, as we can see from all the women constantly vying for Kurosawa's attention.

From all this we can conclude that Kurosawa's upbringing and social/work environment is painfully heteronormative and until he falls for Adachi it seems he never questioned the status quo either.

The famous onsen scene, while funny, also reveals the sad truth that Kurosawa, in his 30 years of life, probably never even had the chance to explore his sexual orientation, rather focusing on being "perfect" in his straight relationships.

Speaking of those relationships...

He apparently had a bunch of girlfriends, who all seem to have dumped him pretty early on. His mother's surprise at him expressing a willingness to commit also makes me think he's never brought anyone home either. He also only seems to have a surface level understanding of what a proper relationship is supposed to entail, if his idea of an ideal date is just "what the average person" thinks is romantic. So why were all of his relationships so short-lived? Before I answer that...

Intermission: Kurosawa's smiles

It has come to my attention that this is not common knowledge, so let me explain: There's a way to tell apart Kurosawa's fake smiles from his real ones, without any context clues, just purely visually.

Real smiles: (ch 23, 24, 37)

Fake smiles: (ch 5, 13, 32)

The difference being very simple: Blush = real, no blush = fake 👍 And before anyone mentions it: No he doesn't just blush when he's around Adachi, that last fake smile is actually directed at him. (ch 32)

Edit from the future: This holds true like 90% of the time, but as Toyota's art style becomes more detailed, this doesn't apply as much in the newer volumes. I think there's also new details added that I haven't quite figured out yet so take this bit with a grain of salt. (The images below are still from her early art style though.)

So now that we have this additional knowledge, let's take a look at every instance Kurosawa is paired with a woman.

He's smiling in all of these. Not a single one has a real smile in it though.

I think he's never actually had his heart in any of his relationships, and the girls probably noticed it and that's why they dumped him.

And, of course, the first time he actually falls in love...

... just so happens to be with a man.

Even his friends comment on this, who have known him since high school.

It's almost funny how perfectly this aligns with real life gay people. Having numerous, short-lived relationships with people of the "wrong" gender is one of the more common traits of compulsive heteronormativity. (source: me oof) (but also shoutout to the "Am I a lesbian?" masterdoc, google it if you don't know, it's truly eye-opening)

After dating Adachi

So we have already established that he's far happier when he does finally get to date Adachi, but do any of his other thought patterns change?

Honestly it seems like he throws every single reservation about being seen as gay out the window.

He starts bragging like crazy about his new relationship to anyone willing (and unwilling) to listen, he has no qualms about PDA, he marks Adachi up and down so everyone knows he's taken and the only thing stopping him from proclaiming his love for Adachi to the whole world is the still very much existing societal homophobia. But he is a lot more easy-going about it now than he ever was before.

And I think the best way to describe this mental shift is, hear me out, the date song from volume 4...

... specifically the last 2 verses as a whole, and this section in particular:

"I won't let anyone divide our fraction! You couldn't pry this thrill from my hands when they're cold and dead!"

Horrible lyrics aside, this perfectly encapsulates how Kurosawa simply couldn't care less anymore now that he finally has what he's wanted for more than a year, maybe even his whole life. All the societal pressure pales in comparison to the sheer euphoria he feels at finally having someone that he loves and who loves him back just as strongly, feeling cared for and seen like no one else ever did.

And, you know, just happens to be a man. 🏳️‍🌈

[zapshazam]

idk something really rubs me wrong about the way fandom treats Astarion's reactions to the Halsin poly romance and ESPECIALLY the Drow twins stuff. like yes. i get the kneejerk reaction to feel really uncomfortable once you get the line from the narrator about Astarion disassociating during sex with the twins - it's not fun to deal with! you want him to have enthusiastic fun the whole time and your character at that point is definitely in love with him and he's reciprocating, so i get it.

but..... like.... he's an adult man who is coming to terms with how he views himself his sexuality and his desires. he DOES enthusiastically want to try having a big fun sex party once you've completed his personal quest. healing from trauma, certainly SEXUAL TRAUMA, isn't a one-and-done thing. just because he's ready to initiate sex with you at his grave doesn't mean he's going to be 100% comfortable all the time forever going forward.

it happens sometimes. even at your best and most thriving-est sometimes something happens that triggers you and if that's your defense mechanism? boom, you're far away, you're going through the motions. he isn't having a ton of fun but again, he didn't know going in, it's an experiment.

but like. reloading as soon as you see that line about him disassociating because it makes you feel icky (which again, fair, I get the impulse) is kinda. idk. babying? like he's SO enthusiastic about doing it when asked. it doesn't end the best. for me that just means he and Tav/Durge have a conversation afterwards where he comes to a realization that yes, he's into the IDEA, but probably only with people he trusts and knows aren't only banging him because of how hot he is. all the dialogue during that scene, as sexy as it is, is EXTREMELY objectifying toward Astarion. it fits his story that it would make him uncomfortable once it becomes clear that that's The Vibe! let him come to that conclusion, he's a big boy! you don't have to treat him like he's made of glass - he's a survivor and he's his own person who gets to make these decisions and deal with the consequences. with a partner who loves him and can help him through it! that's that real good shit imo, that's the shit that makes this game's relationships and character moments feel so real even when they have to veer into headcanon territory.

[galedekarios]

i'm honestly so confused where the general assumption i've seen more and more comes from that gale is insecure about his looks or body.

he has grey hairs, he has fine lines, he has the odd scar--and he never once mentions or indicates that it's a thing that irks him or something he feels like he needs to hide.

on the contrary, gale seems quite comfortable in his body.

gale has a lot of insecurity in him, but this insecurity is anchored in other parts of himself that i feel like are overlooked in order to project something on his character that... isn't really there.

if you want to dig deep into gale's insecurities, i think you'd need to look into something that instead is very blatantly obvious in the game: being good enough for who he is.

i'm also a bit confused by some of the body type headcanons i have seen that i feel veer sort of into age bias territory, but i'm not sure i've organised my thoughts enough to speak about this yet with the sensitivity it requires.

i honestly feel like this a matter of people on this site needing to learn that people in their 30s/40s exist and that they don't die with shame when they leave the house.

[saintsenara]

Wait why are you not a fan of Snape and Hermione?? 2 nerds who care a socially awkward amount about the things they care about nerding out together at levels of romance people who can be chill and normal about things can’t comprehend?? It’s not one of my fav ships but I can definitely see it!

I headcanon that Snape picks on Hermione being a muggle raised know it all thirsty to prove and lacking self awareness because he was one himself when he arrived at school and James and Sirius picked on him for it! It’s like that you’re most repulsed by the things you’re self conscious of in yourself thing to me. Or maybe a him trying to live out being the “cool” one in that dynamic thing

But when she’s a grown woman and more self possessed like he became too I feel like that same energy ness has potential for love!

Hermione is famously respectful and compassionate enough towards all beings to be more understanding than say Lily Evans of his prickly tender ego if he had another m word style outburst and such a people pleaser she’d keep coming back for more snark as long as he peppered it with the odd encouraging compliment

And I feel like a Snape in reciprocated love could absolutely veer into inventing beautiful and helpful spells to impress his lover or sending “made me think of u 😘” notes with verses of elaborate obscure poetry territory that would be frankly the level of literary and academic courtship our Herms deserves 😌

Is it cause they’d both be the highly strung worrier one and they both need someone to ground them? Or maybe too pessimistic together and one of them needs to be the cheerful one?

anon, i genuinely love this for you - i'm always thrilled to get people explaining their love for ships in the ol' inbox, especially when they're ships i don't instinctively vibe with, and i have been won round to stranger premises than this by a passionate defence of why two characters should kiss.

where i still think snamione isn't clicking for me, however, is that the way you describe both snape and hermione here doesn't align in any significant way with what i personally think would be interesting to explore about either character in a relationship and have them still feel meaningfully like their canon selves.

[i will say, though - because i always think it's worth reiterating my fandom commitment towards being neither a cop nor a priest - that i literally don't give a shit about either the age gap or the student-teacher dynamic. i know that's an objection to pairings like snarry and snamione which lots of people do express. but i will never be one of them.]

the primary reason that i don't vibe with many of the more... sapiosexual hermione ships [by which i mean not only snamione but tomione] is that they hang on the idea that hermione's intellect expresses itself in a way we never actually see in canon.

or, the idea that snape and hermione are intellectually compatible [and that they would enjoy hanging out being nerdy about stuff] is just... not true.

throughout the seven-book canon, the way that hermione shows herself to be clever is that she displays an excellent memory and an enormous capacity to rote-learn. her intelligence is overwhelmingly demonstrated - both in the classroom and during the trio's year on the run - by her being able to regurgitate swathes of information, very usually verbatim from the source she got it from.

she is clearly able to use this ability to retain information to understand the theoretical component of magic in a way neither harry nor ron ever manage, and she is able to use this understanding of theory to work out how to perform spells which are ahead of her expected level on the hogwarts curriculum.

and this is intelligence - and i want to be very clear that i'm not trying to suggest that hermione shouldn't be thought of as intellectual, or that her academic achievements should be devalued. but it isn't the way snape's intelligence manifests itself.

because hermione is never shown - at any point in canon - to be a particularly creative or experimental thinker.

she places an enormous intellectual trust in disciplinary authority - teachers and textbooks - and is frequently rattled when these are revealed to be partial or incorrect, as we see in her shock at hogwarts: a history not mentioning house elves or her anger at harry getting better results by following the modified instructions in the prince's textbook [despite knowing nothing about the theory underpinning them] than she does with the "official" ones.

she also regards the gatekeeping of inquiry which disciplinary boundaries enforce to be a positive thing and she never displays any inclination to step beyond them. she dislikes the spells in the prince's textbook because they aren't ministry-approved - and i must say that i think the idea that she'd be won over by a man creating spells for her is wishful thinking...

she is immediately mistrustful of anything she can't find something she regards as an empirical source for - notice, for example, that she only comes round to the idea that prophecies might be real once she encounters them in the ministry of magic.

even when we see her using magic on her own terms - the jinx she uses on marietta edgecombe, for example; or the protean charm on the da coins - the magic she's using is sophisticated, and is being applied in a way which wouldn't be classroom-sanctioned, but it's not magic which is being used in a way which is removed from the spell's original purpose. the protean charm on the da coins is impressive because it's a flawless execution of newt-level magic by a sixteen-year-old. it's not impressive because hermione is using it in a strange, experimental, or radical way.

[in contrast, the dark mark - which harry notes the coins mimic - is clearly a spell voldemort himself invents.]

snape, on the other hand, is an experimenter. he's someone who clearly sees magic as a creative force which he has every right to shape as he sees fit by adaptation and invention. and he's someone who evidently rejects the logic of disciplinary gatekeeping - one tension in his relationship with dumbledore prior to half-blood prince is that snape evidently retains an enormous intellectual interest in the dark arts [which, as he tells us, are an area of magic which is feared precisely because they can't be neatly contained within disciplinary boxes - they are ever-changing, unfixed, mutating...]

and it's these conflicting views of what magic is and how it should be used and thought about which is the cause of the intellectual incompatibility we see between snape and hermione in canon.

he is unequivocally in the wrong for his dismissive classroom manner towards her - because he is an adult and she is a child. but he isn't wrong in principle that hermione just repeating what she's read in the textbook and refusing to synthesise her knowledge [she always goes massively over word limits! she never gives answers in class in her own words!] isn't actually a demonstration that she understands the material. [and therefore something a good teacher would guide her through conquering... snape having no interest in doing this is his own fault.]

and - from a snamione-specific perspective - it's all the evidence snape needs that, actually, they're not going to enjoy hanging out chatting about academic pursuits. hermione values knowledge like a dragon hoards treasure. snape wants to take that treasure, melt it down, and turn it into new and weird things.

once again, i don't think this a flaw in either of their characters - it's just something which is. and i don't think it's an insurmountable obstacle to writing snamione, because i believe any ship is possible if an author has enough nerve. but it's an aspect of both characters' canon personalities [and hermione's above all] which never seems to make it into snamione fics - all of which, as far as i've encountered them, are beholden to an idea of hermione's approach to academia which is considerably more flexible than we actually see in the books.

of your other points, i'm not particularly convinced by the idea that snape sees his younger self in the teenage hermione. this isn't just for the reasons outlined above - hermione isn't trying to prove herself in the same way he was, which was by creating and experimenting in a bid to be noticed and considered impressive - but also because of the massive gulf in their respective class backgrounds.

hermione is really posh - and, while she's obviously subjected to discrimination at hogwarts on account of her blood-status, she also comes from a family with both the financial resources and the cultural language to make her familiar with the vibe of the elite muggle boarding schools hogwarts is a pastiche of.

the teen snape - in contrast - stands out from his cohort in that he is visually identifiable as working-class [which does appear to be genuinely unusual at hogwarts]. his class background is something which clearly drove a lot of the marauders' bullying of him [i'm sorry to the girlies who think james and sirius targeted him out of some righteous desire to stamp out his prejudice - it was because he was poor and uncouth] and which he still has a chip on his shoulder about as an adult.

this - again - is not an insurmountable barrier to a snamione relationship [as it's not a barrier to thousands of real-world partnerships and friendships]. but it is something an author needs to grapple with if they want to make the pairing - at least, in my opinion - seem plausible. but the standard vibe seems to be that snape would be comfortable in the grangers' home fairly quickly, and that he'd be delighted to have hermione swanning around offering suggestions for how they could do up spinner's end... instead of him resenting this as the unwelcome meddling of people who've never had to worry for money.

i'm also not particularly convinced by the idea that hermione would get over being called a mudblood - especially by an adult man. while i think it's completely plausible that she'd handle this differently than lily [although lily's reaction is entirely justified - and i don't think we should throw the baby out with the bathwater of contextualising the teenage snape and the motivating factors behind his decisions by pretending that cutting off your friend because he called you a slur is a petty, ill-thought-out, or unreasonable move], i don't think that her reaction would be automatically forgiving.

hermione is compassionate towards kreacher when he calls her a mudblood because kreacher is a slave, whose prejudicial views are inextricably bound up in the magic used to oppress him [i.e. that if he received an order to use the term, or to refuse to serve a muggleborn food, from his masters, he would have to punish himself violently if he disobeyed it]. she is not - quite rightly! - compassionate towards someone like draco malfoy when he calls her one, since he is a free person with full agency to choose not to do this.

could she forgive him - or snape - for using the term? sure! absolutely! but i don't think it's a given - and i also think she'd expect a demonstration of how sorry snape was which wouldn't necessarily align with how he'd think he'd demonstrated his regret.

i do agree that - as you say - hermione is a people-pleaser, and she definitely has a far greater tolerance for being treated cruelly by people she wants to impress [especially authority figures - including snape himself] than either harry or ron. and i think this has the potential to introduce an extremely thorny dynamic into a snamione fic - in which the power dynamic inherent in the age gap [which, to reiterate, i think is completely fine for an author to enjoy] is compounded by hermione being unwilling to anger or contradict snape [which is a vibe - as i've said in answer to an ask about harmony - we also see in her relationship with harry... it's also obviously exactly how snape's relationship with dumbledore works.]

on a couple of the more minor characterisation notes, i'm afraid that the idea of snape as a great romantic has never hit for me. it seems really bound up in the way alan rickman portrayed him in the films, which i've always found a bit toothless. i also don't like the trope of "actually snape's really hot" which seems to always accompany it - ugly, odd men to get to bone too!

[what he would be - i think - is a magpie. get ready to be handed odd stones and bits of leaves on dates.]

i also think they're highly-strung in ways which differ enough to mean they'd just annoy each other. hermione is highly-strung in that she flusters easily and is very poor under pressure, but she's actually pretty emotionally stable [and i'd dispute that she's a pessimist - this is a girl who thinks that she's successfully eradicating slavery at hogwarts by knitting hats; she's pretty robust, funny, cheerful, and idealistic]. snape is highly-strung in that he has a hair-trigger temper and is very emotionally volatile, but he's obviously an extraordinarily good liar, very quick on his feet, and very good under pressure. he'd think she panicked too much [and over insignificant things he didn't care about], she'd think he tanked the vibe of a date by taking offence at someone breathing too loudly.

where are they similar? well, they have a shared self-serving streak [hermione is appalled by behaviour from harry and ron she considers perfectly moral when she does it]; capacity for cruelty; tendency towards secrecy; tendency towards pettiness and pleasure in the misfortune of others; loathing of flying a broom; cutting sense of humour; stubbornness; resilience; clear dislike of slumming it in nature; love of puzzles; and a weakness for red hair.

i think you could make it work on the grounds that they'd probably have the time of their lives being haters together - especially, i feel, about rita skeeter.

and - y'know - because love is weird.

[love-killed-the-superstar]

mikey ask game, 8 and 13!

(these answers will be about 2k3 mikey unless stated otherwise because he's ~my~ mikey. i apologise for the length of these answers, it seems i had a lot to say?! i also apologise for how much i bring up fast forward here, it seems that i'm fixated on it really hard right now.)

8. what’s your favorite dynamic of him and any other character? what makes it your favorite?

It's so hard to pick just one!!

i thought a lot about this, but i think splinter? he's exasperated that his son can be a bit lazy and distracted from ninja training, but still had him specialise in nunchaku, showing that he believes in his ability to master a difficult weapon. splinter surrendering in the battle nexus so that mikey could advance was so heartwarming and honestly makes me emotional to remember. in the first turtle titan episode even though he doesn't understand why mikey admires superheroes so much he acknowledges that his intentions are noble and he needs to follow the path truest to his heart. veering a little more into headcanon territory, i do think that being the most openly affectionate, baby mikey was a master manipulator in terms of melting his rat dad's heart. i can picture him climbing onto splinter's lap every time he sits down and being the most reluctant to go down for naps. and in a particular au i'm cultivating that delves more into mikey's potential romantic life, i think he would go to his father for advice. splinter may not be well versed in romance outside of his soap operas, but he will always be here for his kids when they need him.

(this, of course, makes me very bitter over the flanderisation of their relationship in fast forward. ff!splinter might as well walk around wearing a shirt that says "i hate my lazy video game addicted son" and it breaks my heart.)

honourable mentions for other characters i think he has a great dynamic with: leo, silver sentry, klunk, serling, angel, april, renet and turtle titan ii.

13. what’s something about mikey that nobody seems to talk about that should be talked about more?

tbh i think a lot of people love mikey and have analysed him in just about every way possible and what i end up saying is probably not the most groundbreaking take, but here is something that i've thought about a fair bit but haven't really seen from anyone else?

in fast forward, mikey is depressed. it is handled by the narrative about as delicately as a bull in a china shop, but it's there.

5 seasons of being bombarded with trauma-inducing storylines culminates in temporarily dying, going full dragon avatar mode to defeat the demon shredder and then finally they are able to relax, breathe easy, process some of these emotions - but noooo, instead they get ripped out of their timeline and dropped 100 years in the future with no way home and the studio execs wouldnt let them rightfully lose their shit at cody so instead we see the turtles bottle that rage and slowly descend into semi-flanderised madness. /lh

mikey in particular becomes very sensitive to rejection (see: losing his goddamn mind and going on an all out offensive against turtle titan ii, after being talked down the first time he raged out, because raph made One Comment about how his successor is better at heroism than he is), prone to emotional outbursts, especially anger (remember that iconic clip of him beating up cops and stealing their cars because they pissed him off?), loses interest in his ninja training, maintains very poor hygiene/living conditions, grows addicted to video games, and in rare moments of vulnerability (namely in graduation day of 2105) he expresses that he sees himself as lazy, unfocused, a 'goofball', and undeserving when it comes to being recognised for his ninja skills like his brothers. my man's self-esteem is in the toilet, he is craving normalcy after years of constantly fighting for his life, and his dopamine is clearly critically low because he is dependent on all the fancy material goods of 2105 to be happy. his method of coping with the difficult emotions being stranded in the future has brought up, while still maintaining the silly funny guy routine that his family expect from him, is to bury himself in VR. and why wouldn't he, when among the uptick in mikey roasts over the course of this season we literally hear splinter say the words "where did i go wrong with that boy?" THOSE WORDS STAY WITH YOU WHEN THEY COME FROM YOUR PARENTS. THEY HURT.

he's very empathetic to leo's own depression in season 4, being the voice of reason at the beginning of samurai tourist when raph is ready to fight him. we also see at several points in seasons 1-5 that his loud ego is a front and he is actually very aware of his shortcomings, especially seen in grudge match. in a different timeline where 2k3 wasn't neutered following insane in the membrane, i do wonder if the turtles would have been able to explore their turbulent feelings regarding the 2105 situation. since mikey and leo are often paired up for adventures in 2k3, it would be an interesting parallel to see leo recognising signs of depression in his brother and helping him, imparting some of ancient one's wisdom (and, in the great year of 2105 where mutants are equal citizens and cody has money to burn, finding him a good cognitive behavioural therapist).

i don't think the writers INTENDED to code mikey as depressed / struggling to cope in season 6 - i think it was a toxic combo of writing more 'mikey is lazy/immature/irresponsible and needs to be taught a lesson' episodes than the usual season average + thinking it was a funny social commentary gag to make him obsessive over video games. but i saw a lot of those traits in myself when i was deep in a depression hole. the show has already told us that the turtles' mental states have been impacted by the ridiculousness they have gone through. why would mikey be any different?

I DIDN'T MEAN TO WRITE AN ENTIRE THINKPIECE, BUT IF YOU REACHED THE END, THANK YOU FOR READING. AND THANK YOU FOR THE ASKS!

[bookshelfdreams]

sexually assaulted by his peers? did i miss that? 😵‍💫

(content warning: discussions of csa, but nothing explicit)

Nigel. After he recounts the rowboat thing he says "And the horse. When we made you french kiss the horse".

Which - well, assault might not be the entirely correct word. But it's definitely an act of sexualized violence/humiliation.

This is, to my understanding, a well-documented pattern of behavior in environments like this. When people are locked somewhere together where they can't escape each other, have communal bathrooms and bedrooms, and are encouraged to enforce a strict pecking order, the resulting peer-to-peer violence often includes a sexualized element. Especially when said people are children who haven't fully developed social skills and empathy yet, especially once puberty hits (which, since Stede left/finished at 15, happened during his boarding school days). And just like with "regular" bullying, children who are perceived as weak, socially inept, or gender non-conforming (or all 3 in Stede's case) are most vulnerable to fall victim to that.

It's not a huge stretch of the imagination to believe other things in that direction were done to him as well, though that's obviously veering off into headcanon territory. I personally think it's implied as strongly as it can be in a fun little romcom; there's no reason to disbelieve Nigel, and there's no reason to believe the horse or the rowboat were singular incidents. Of course Nigel isn't gonna bring up things that can't be laughed away as "hilarious pranks" between boys, even by an a-grade assface like him.

And it fits in with the general impression a lot of people (including me) have of Stede and his problems - his hangups about his own body, the likeliness that he never had a positive sexual experience. It's an interpretation that's heavily text-based, in my opinion, though again, a lot of it is never actually said. So. Think of that what you will.

But anyway, yes, Stede textually suffered at least some degree of sexualized violence in his childhood, which is sadly not uncommon.

[broodwolf221]

Mythal as Abused and Abuser

This post is about Mythal and Elgar'nan and is very heavy.

CW: Spousal abuse; child abuse; sexual abuse; emotional abuse; physical abuse; controlling husband; negligence; misogyny; canon slavery; murder

Before anything else—not as in primarily, but literally before, initially—I see Mythal as a victim. Of course, she was one of the Evanuris, one of their leaders in fact, and I won't ignore her complicity in their system of slavery. I find it hard to judge just how guilty she was there, simply because of how Solas talks about her, although he's far from an unbiased source. But that's it's own post and not the one I'm making right now. 

I think Mythal-as-a-victim is a POV that is supported by canon but not entirely confirmed, especially since we don't have a lot to go off of. But considering the way Elgar'nan is described, his wrath, his unchecked passion, and that it was in his stead that Mythal became the one Elvhen would go to for matters of justice, because Elgar'nan's justice was destruction… I think it's not a big leap to say that he could easily be abusive in his interpersonal relationships as well. 

This is where it veers more into headcanon territory. Specifically, I think that Elgar'nan was emotionally abusive and controlling towards Mythal, and negligent towards his children. Possibly he was physically abusive towards her as well, but I don't think so, because as awful as this is to say, he would have had far easier targets to strike with impunity. I wouldn't be surprised if he was sexually abusive, both towards Mythal re: coercion and not accepting “no” and towards any other Elvhen who caught his eye. And I’m not saying this to make him as bad a guy as possible, either—I think it all ties in with systems of control and power. 

Andruil feels like… either like someone he was trying to mold into his image, or someone who was trying to mold herself into his image, wanting her father's love and respect. For those who have watched Avatar: The Last Airbender, I actually see Andruil as quite similar to Azula. Trying to gain her father’s esteem by demonstrating her skill. I have a lot of thoughts about Andruil, but this isn’t a meta post for her, so I’ll leave it here for now.

Dirthamen and Falon’Din he may have viewed as threats as they aged. One could argue that Arlathan would have no misogyny, but whether it's rooted in a cultural sexism or his own perception of everyone being weaker, and especially those the least like him being weaker, I feel like he would see Andruil and Sylaise as less threatening. Same with Ghilan'nain when she comes in. Mythal as well. But either Dirthamen or Falon’Din could theoretically usurp his position and he doesn't strike me as the type to—deliberately quoting Corypheus here—tolerate even an unknowing rival.

(Side note: I know that June might be his child as well, but I tend to assume he’s Sylaise’s husband—mostly based on how the Mythal mosaic looks in DAI, because she is surrounded by four children, not five. Dirthamen, Falon’Din, Andruil, and Sylaise.)

I don’t really see the Evanuris as the first Elvhen, so both Elgar’nan and Mythal had other Elvhen they would have known. Perhaps they grew close based on their individual prowess? I could see Elgar’nan pursuing Mythal based on her power, because a part of him desires it. If he cannot claim her power, then he will at least be certain it is on his side. And with her power and his, they could—and did—make a powerful family that could control Arlathan. Now, it might not have been that explicit and intentional, but I do think that he pursued strength in various ways. Strength and control.

Of course, it is also possible that they were genuinely in love. But I think that, if so, their love would have weakened over time. Mostly because… he kills her. Mythal’s family kills her. No, it didn’t entirely ‘take,’ but the fact remains that they murdered her. Now, she had apparently fought (physically) with Andruil, and her relationship with her other children is more uncertain, and it is entirely possible that something corrupted them. There are a lot of fan theories about this, and I have some of my own: red lyrium, the Blight, something that Andruil brought back from her explorations in the Abyss/the Void…

But the Evanuris did not turn on each other. They only turned on Mythal. This is one of the biggest reasons I think that Elgar’nan was abusive. Because something had to establish the context that caused them all to turn on her, or to stand by and let Elgar’nan/possibly others turn on her. So I think that, over the course of his children’s life, he showed them, through his action and behavior, that he was superior to Mythal. That his will mattered more. That he would have his way.

Elgar’nan had taught their children to fear his wrath. Andruil had her own reasons to hate her mother. The involvement of the rest is uncertain, but they could have followed Elgar’nan in order to save themselves from being his victim, or their family could have been so corrupt and damaged by this point that they actively participated in matricide.

Mythal meets Flemeth, someone who suffered in a way that mirrors her own suffering. They become one being, someone conjoined to the point of being inseparable, and in their fury, in their need for justice—for vengeance—they are abusive towards Morrigan and acting in a chessmaster position over the whole world—and those who are hurt, who have been abused, who have been taught to fear, are also ones who want control over their life. And what better way to control one’s life than to control one’s world?

Whether Flemythal had many daughters or if Morrigan was the first is… uncertain, I think. After all, parts of her grimoire are clearly faked, so it wouldn’t surprise me if all of it is fake: aside from the things she wants Morrrigan to know (such as the ritual that created Kieran and saved the Old God Soul). Now, quick note on that: I think there might have been something outside of the game canon that confirmed the existence of at least one other daughter? But as per the header, don’t tell me. Also it’s kind of moot; whether Flemythal had many daughters or just Morrigan, Morrigan is the only one we know and can examine the relationship she has with Flemythal. 

Flemythal was negligent, emotionally abusive and manipulative, and dumped a lot of incredibly heavy stuff on Morrigan’s lap. She might have had a particular reason that she did this, but whatever her reasoning or justification may have been, it doesn’t excuse her behavior; she was abusive. But considering her reasoning is interesting in terms of her character. Was she trying to prepare Morrigan for a world that she had grown incredibly cynical about? Was she trying, in some way, to protect Morrigan? To teach her to rely on herself and her power and her knowledge only? That everyone else could fail her, could turn on her, could betray her, as Mythal’s family did, as Flemeth’s husband did? 

Or was she refusing to see Morrigan as a person, was she trying to prepare herself an adequate, powerful vessel? Personally I don’t buy into this, mostly because I don’t know that I buy into the ‘vessel’ thing at all, at least not in the way Morrigan learns to fear it. Frankly, I don’t think Flemythal would ever let her truth slip out. Everything about her grimoire was purposeful. It’s a misdirect. But something caused her to behave the way she did towards Morrigan. (Not ‘caused’ like ‘took away her agency to do otherwise,’ because hell no. But ‘caused’ like ‘shaped and contextualized her choices’.)

I don't view her as a villain. An antagonist possibly, and certainly someone with her own goals that are separate from the protagonist’s, although given how those goals align at times—especially in DAO—I hesitate to say she's an antagonist with any certainty. She's an incredibly complex character, wounded and wounding, who suffered a horrible form of betrayal. Because whatever else Elgar'nan was, he was her husband. She trusted him enough to be with him in the first place. So he still betrayed her, betrayed her trust and her hope, and in that betrayal he killed her. And her family let it happen or participated. I would argue that this is one of the worst betrayals that could happen to a person, having not only a spouse but one’s own children turn against them. One’s entire family betray them.

Why wouldn't she be changed by that? How couldn't she be? She's an incredibly sympathetic character. I feel so much for Morrigan because Flemythal made for an awful mother, but I really feel for Flemythal as well. 

This is also why I can't really see her as the Big Bad in DA4. At least, I hope she's not. Narratively, not all characters who have suffered some kind of trauma need to have their ending being about healing from that, I realize this, but she has lived with this and suffered it—and caused others to suffer—for so many decades. Generations upon generations. I want her to face Elgar'nan and to live. Not to be healed with a snap of her fingers, but to have the chance to live for herself, to find her way to some kind of peace. I don't want a punitive justice solution where the only way to deal with a character who has been shown to be abusive is to kill them off, in general but especially when it comes to someone who's abuse seems to stem from having been abused.

Yes, her actions are her own choice and responsibility. Yes, Morrigan deserved so much better. As did Flemeth. As did Mythal. And I would see all of them with the opportunity to heal, rather than sacrificing themselves on the altar of redemption.

[herefortayloronly]

Since the very beginning, I said it was a mistake to make Colin a "rake" because that's not his character and it's a complete misunderstanding of his character.

Colin is never meant to be the sexy flirty ladies man. He's a little awkward, silly and mild-mannered, if you can recall that's what he was like in season 1 and 2. He's a soft cinnamon roll but we never got to see him be a soft cinnamon roll. People tried to convince others who criticize this choice by saying it was done on purpose, you are supposed to get "the ick", you are suppose to not like Colin's new personality because it's fake!! That people lack media literacy!!! The point is to show that he's pressured to be a rake because society pressures men to be a MAN™ and Colin will eventually learn that he doesn't have to conform to society dont worry!!! It's a commentary on toxic masculinity!!!!!!!!!!

I disagree lol

Actually the thing is I usually would agree with this except there are many glaring errors and inconsistency that suggest that's not what the writers went for. That's not the message and theme they were going for. They definitely did not intend to make Colin's rakish behaviors cringe and icky. They seriously wanted him to come off like he's this suave hot playboy. They wanted us to believe he is a catch and that he is hot and sexy.

1) No one in the Bridgerton world found him cringey.

Now people are gonna say the writers are going for a dramatic irony where we, the audience, are meant to find it cringe but the characters don't. But when has Bridgerton done any sorts of irony ever?? It's not that kind of show and it's not that kind of story. We are meant to find him sexy and hot because the characters, the young debutantes of the ton, find him sexy. What is the purpose of having the people in-world find him sexy if not to signal to us that we are suppose to find him sexy too? Why would a romance show want their predominantly female fanbase to find the male lead unsexy and cringe? When in the history of good rom-coms have you gotten "the ick" from our lead hero?

2) If he was faking being a rake then why do we never see him be..... himself?? LOL

Let's say he was faking it. If he was putting up an act then why do we never see him break from that act? The way he was behaving at that brothel with those prostitutes is exactly the same way he behaved with his friends and family. No difference!

This is probably the most glaring issue with the writing because they spent way too much time dealing with the LW situation and all the subplots that they forgot to really lay the groundwork for Colin. If they truly had the intent to show us that he is just faking being a rake then we should see him when he's not faking it. We need to see him when he's just being himself. We need to see him when he has his guard down but for all 8 episodes I never see that. The only time he really let his guard down was to admit he was jealous of Penelope's writing but that doesn't explain why he started having threesomes. What about his insecurities for his writing all of a sudden made him horny? We just didn't get to spend enough time with Colin to really understand him. Sure we can infer and read between the lines but we're veering into fanfic territory for me. We shouldn't have to headcanon who Colin is because the writers are too lazy to flesh him out. I don't need to be spoonfed but I was definitely not fed at all lol.

I don't want this post to be too long but I'm just gonna add this. Even the Luke Newton was surprised people found Colin icky!!! And he knew it was a wrong choice for the character but the director and writers have other interpretations clearly.

Now how could they had done Colin differently? Of course I can't make a critical post without actually giving some constructive criticism. First, if they really did mean to make him cringe and icky then we need to see him get rejected. We need to see the ladies turn him away because he is so bad at flirting that they can't take him serious. We need to understand clearly that the people of the Bridgerton world also find him cringe and weird. I personally would love to see him fumbled during sex with the prostitutes. It would be funny to see him try to force himself to make the act work and realize he is completely out of his depth. If he's faking it then we need some scenes where we see his real personality. It would be nice to see scenes where he's flirting and hamming it up at balls and then later at night he goes home alone and work on his writing.

Second, his character would improve so much if we see him have some sort of direction. We know he writes. I kinda hate that they made his love for travel into him having sex across the continent of Europe. Would be great to see Colin's love for writing be about his fascination for linguistics and literature and that's why he travels because he wants to learn about other languages and culture. He could've come back from traveling with a new found love for knowledge and learning instead he came back as a manwhore.

Finally, I said I rewatched Emma (2020) the other day and I had an epiphany. I realized that Colin has "Jane austen's male lead" energy. Now I'm not saying Julia Quinn/Brigderton and Jane Austen are even remotely comparable. They are not even in the same stratosphere. However, Colin has that sweet, mild-mannered, calm and subtle humor personality that a lot of Jane Austen's male leads have, at least the Colin in season 1 and 2 did. They could've played into this in season 3. I need to see Colin chasing after Penelope the same way Mr Knightley chased after Emma all the way to her house after dancing with her. I need to see Colin be all disheveled and distraught when he realizes he's in love with Penelope. I can't believe there is a scene right before the fingerbanging scene where Colin does chase after Penelope's carriage but we don't actually see it happen. We don't actually see him running. Like that's actually a great moment to see Colin fully realize his love for Penelope. Mr Knightley getting all flustered running after Emma's carriage and then missing his chance to tell her he loves her is hotter than Polin's fingerbanging scene! In fact now that I'm writing this there is a lot of what Emma (2020) did with Mr Knightley that the writers of Bridgerton could've done similarly for Colin that would've helped his character a lot more especially with the LW situation. But that's another post I think!

Ultimately, the writing failed Colin. This has nothing to do with the lack of media literacy or people not finding Luke Newton attractive and hot. It's just the writing did Colin and Luke a huge disservice.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk!

I was gonna include some quotes from some of my favorite reviews of the season about Colin but I just really wanted to put it all in my own words but here are the videos that made me finally put my issue with Colin into words. Video 1. Video 2. Video 3.

[triptychgrip]

Would post-canon Viktor ever regret not attending college/university?

Viktor Nikiforov is very obviously a genius; canon makes this extremely clear, especially with respect to his creativity and skill in crafting all of his own choreography. The following veers firmly into headcanon territory (unless I've missed something from the YOI creators), but I don't get the sense that Viktor ever pursued higher education, at least up until the point we see him come to Hasetsu. With how demanding we know the sport to be, it makes it all the more impressive to know that Yuuri pursued getting a college education while juggling the breakneck pace of multiple competitive seasons.

That being said, does anyone think that a post-canon Viktor -- perhaps after deciding to retire after his comeback -- might ever come to regret or feel insecure around his not having attended university?

I'd like to note first and foremost that having a college/university education doesn't somehow make someone a more 'valuable' person; however, this is unfortunately what society at large can often make us feel, whether that's based on the measure of how 'impressive' someone is, or their likelihood to achieve upward economic mobility in the most standard sense (i.e. one where you aren't super super famous and rich by way of having garnered sponsorship and endorsements).

Even with Viktor being a genius, it seems possible that his potential insecurity around this may develop when he starts to look at things from an opportunity cost angle. Aside from the fact of what having a college/university degree can signal in the way of social currency (ugh...I hated even typing that), there may also be an aspect that's more weighty, emotionally: we know that it's lonely being at the top, and that Viktor was used to people putting him on a pedestal. To this point, he may have felt he didn't have a ton of opportunities outside of skating to make friends in a very meaningful way. Would attending college/university have been one means for him to combat some of the building isolation he experienced as he began to lose his inspiration?

To be clear, this might not be something that he thinks about a lot, post-canon, but with the right circumstances, it could be a regret of his that he doesn't even realize he harbors.

As for what those circumstances might be, I imagine it's complex, because as much as Viktor adores Yuuri, this could be an aspect of his fiance/husband's past that he gets jealous of. And what if federation politics had been part of the equation? As in, is it possible that the FFKKR (Russian figure skating federation) tried to dissuade Viktor from considering the pursuit of higher education in a way that the Japan Skating Federation seems not to have, for Yuuri?

It got me thinking about a possible fic concept (and as soon as the seed sprouted in my mind, I told my brain to shut up, because I already have several WIPs going, and definitely do not need to split my attention even further): one where a few years post-canon, Yuuri gets invited to an Alumni Awards Banquet for his university.

At this point, he's perhaps not only an Olympic champion, but maybe he's racked up a few World's or Grand Prix Final titles as well.

In any event, Yuuri is asked in advance to give a speech at the ceremony: something a bit generic, no doubt, but with the loose instructions that he's supposed to talk about how his time in university contributed to his development as an athlete. And Yuuri is reading over the bios of the other honorees, and perhaps marveling aloud to his husband over their accomplishments...accomplishments that he can't begin to wrap his head around, given the other awardees' backgrounds in fields extremely removed from elite athletics.

Now, of course, Yuuri doesn't have any sort of underlying agenda in talking to Viktor about this; he's not trying to suggest that the other honorees are people he suddenly wants to be best friends with (and this is besides the fact that, even with a few years of building confidence in himself, Yuuri isn't suddenly magically going to become an expert at making friends).

But what if Viktor starts to project based on what he's hearing?

They're all going to be together at the awards banquet at some point, and what if he isn't able to "keep up", so to speak, with all of the impressive people they're surrounded by? It's probably likely that a number of people might never have heard of Viktor or Yuuri prior to their attending such a banquet, but even still, at least Yuuri has the aspect in common that he actually went to university. Perhaps the "divide" between himself and his husband begins to feel stark the nearer and nearer the ceremony approaches.

How will he get through the event? Especially knowing that this is not the kind of banquet where the event organizers might be inclined to overlook sudden drunken stripping/pole-dancing...

Perhaps he and Yuuri might need to have a frank conversation where Viktor starts to reveal what's been on his churning mind.

In any event, it's fun (and a little heartbreaking) to come up with headcanons around this, and I am wondering what folks' thoughts are? Or, perhaps you have fic recommendations that speak to this point about potential regret/insecurity?

[mumms-the-word]

Duke Belynne Stelmane and the Emperor

currently reading lore stuff about mind flayers for an upcoming deep dive and anyway here's some depressing content about how the Emperor turned Belynne Stelmane into his thrall (probably)

This is not Hot New Lore or a Brand New Theory by any stretch of the imagination, but hear me out

Remember when Wyll talks about meeting Stelmane? How he only saw her twice, but the second time she was very different? They attribute her changes to a stroke.

Wyll: I met her twice. The first time, I was a boy of seven or eight, at a banquet in the Flaming Fist's honour. One look and I was smitten. Chesnut hair that flowed behind her like willow fronds. She floated from one room to the next as if carried by clouds. The second time, Stelmane was...different. Even with the aid of a cane, each step she took was a struggle. Every word she spoke took great physical effort. 'A stroke victim?' I asked my father later. 'No,' he said. 'A stroke survivor.' Not a mere stroke, as it turns out - but the scars of her possession. Gods, what I wouldn't give to drive a dagger through the Emperor's building head. We can never let it do to us what it did to Stelmane.

The last part, the part where Wyll realizes that it was more than a stroke, is conditional upon you calling the Emperor out for possessing or messing with Stelmane, which is when the Emperor literally shows you him possessing her.

Note the glowy purple eyes and then later the mechanical movements, the fixed stares, the way Stelmane toasts the Emperor as if moved by puppet strings. Her gestures are stiff, as if she's being controlled.

Wyll and his father attribute Stelmane's movements to being part of a stroke. Slurred speech and difficulty moving parts of your body are stroke symptoms, so it's a convenient explanation for her change in behavior and her difficulty with movement and speech. But possession?

No, dear readers, I don't think the Emperor was possessing Stelmane. I think he genuinely made her a literal thrall.

(please excuse the horrible quality lol)

From Volo's Guide to Monsters on Mind Flayers:

A thrall-to-be is first rendered docile through psionic means. Using a low-power version of its Mind Blast ability, the mind flayer bombards the victim with energy that washes through its synapses like acid, clearing away its former personality and leaving it a partially empty shell. This step takes 24 hours. Over the next 48 hours, the illithids rebuild the victim's memories and personality, and the victim gains the skills and talents it needs to perform its intended function.

A Mind Blast that "washes through synapses like acid" sounds a lot like a stroke-adjacent experience to me. Strokes attack the brain, causing parts of the brain to literally die (usually due to a lack of blood flow or oxygen). It could explain Stelmane's stiff movements.

The "clearing away" of her personality and the suggestion of "rebuilding" her memories would also be extremely useful to the Emperor. Rather than exerting the mental energy to possess her all the time, constantly keeping her under concentrated surveillance, all he had to do was literally break her and then rebuild her. She becomes a Stelmane that is only partly herself, and empty shell that he can mold as he pleases.

This is veering into headcanon territory, but I imagine if it was just basic possession, she would move a little more fluidly and naturally than she does in the Emperor's memory. She wouldn't be exhibiting movements and speech that mimic stroke symptoms. That, and there is always the potential she could break free of possession.

But if she's a full-on mind flayer thrall, broken and rebuilt? An empty husk that has had her memories and personality pumped back into her, still under the control of the Emperor? That makes a ton of sense to me. There's no snapping out of that. As the Emperor says when he threatens you...she becomes a puppet.

And the fact that he keeps the threat of doing the same to you in his metaphorical back pocket at all times is honestly quite terrifying.

[verfound]

FIC: Evening, Officer (MLB; Lukanette)

Characters/Pairings: Alya Césaire, Luka Couffaine, Marinette Dupain-Cheng; Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Rating: Teen

Summary: It’s been years since Alya has seen her old best friend – since collège, she was pretty sure.  The last place she’d ever expected to run into her again was at the Rolling Stone Records office…in a police uniform…handcuffing her as she broke in for her latest scoop.  What the hell had happened to Marinette?

Author’s Notes/Warnings: Ages back I had this idea of Marinette going into law enforcement and what could lead to that, and this was just a way to explore that.  It’s still one of my favorite headcanons for a Marinette who ultimately decides to not go into fashion.  Can y’all just see the looks on Anarka and Roger’s faces the day she signs up for the police academy?

Anyway.  😂  This particular fic kinda veered into Alya Salt territory, and @rierse got me wanting to throw hands at Alya again with the Wanna Bet updates, and I’ve been needing a writing day.  I swear all the free time is going to the puppy, and I’ve been itching to get something out.

“Evening, Officer”

Alya Césaire was a damn good journalist, if she did say so herself.

She was tenacious.  And thorough.  And willing to do just about damn near anything for a story.  It was something that all of her journalism professors had drilled into her at university, and most of her bosses had valued over the years, even if it hadn’t always been appreciated by others in her life.

It was hard to keep people around when they knew you’d always put your job first.  When you weren’t above using them – your connections – to get a leg up in that job.  When you were…how had Etta put it the last time Ella had spoken to her?  Morally gray.

Lawful neutral, her first boyfriend had once said.  It was one of the reasons Ladybug had stopped trusting Rena Rogue, and it was also the reason that first boyfriend hadn’t been the last.

But Alya was fine with that!  She had made her choices, and she loved her life, and she was a damn good journalist.  She was living her dream, and being a journalist had always been her dream!

Even…even if ‘journalist’ was sometimes a title in debate.

[raayllum]

Do you love Callum's skepticism, temper, and ruthlessness? Do you love his protective nature, his selective loyalty, and how he'll do anything for Ezran and Rayla? Do you love thinking about his potential dark path, or how these qualities could come out even years later in relative peacetimes? Then Snake Boi Callum Week might be the fandom event for you!

Beginning next week on Sunday, the prompts are suggestions built around specific qualities of Callum's character (affectionately nicknamed his "snake boi tendencies") / lines and prompts from the show for a more angsty or protective theme! Since one of the core components (usually) of this kind of focus is an emphasis on Callum’s selective loyalty to Ezran and Rayla above anyone else, Rayllum and the Broyals are the expected most likely dynamics to focus on. However, 'outsider’ pov or examination of how Callum’s bonds with other characters may differ or be impacted by these traits/relationships is more than welcome, as is whump or anything else (so long as it is properly tagged/rated). And if you think Callum's inner circle would include someone like say, Soren or Opeli someday, go for it by all means! Aaravos will, of course, also likely feature prominently but he by no means needs to. The timeline and focus, etc. is all up to you!

Sunday October 29th: Choices / Consequences

Monday October 30th: Power / Politics

Tuesday October 31st: Mirrors (literal or metaphorical) / Magic

Wednesday November 1st: However Dangerous, However Vile / I Would Do anything For You

Thursday November 2nd: Temper / Ruthlessness

Friday November 3rd: More than anyone or anything / Inner circle

Saturday November 4th: Destiny / Chains

Please tag your stuff with #Snake Boi Callum or #Snake Boi Callum Week and make sure to use tags and ratings properly if you veer into darker / possibly triggering territory. We're here, possibly unlike our boy, to have a good time, and that means everyone having the choice to gauge whether to opt in or out of any and all fics. Tagging it accordingly with "Snake Boi Callum" will also help AO3 filter organization. That said: all forms of content - fic, fanart, playlists, headcanons, analysis, graphics, etc. - is more than welcome, and I cannot wait to see all of it!

If you have any more questions my askbox is always welcome! Happy creating and I can't wait to see what everyone has planned!