#which is why this is such a dumb post like im literally trying to claim this anime

[hella1975]

my friend watched banana fish and im actually.... kinda annoyed about it

[01zfan]

i just read the whole statement about the boycott and lemme just say my two cents (agreeing with you btw)

suju fans had to buy stocks to make sm listen to them. lemme say it again. SUJU FANS HAVE TO BUY STOCKS to make sm listen to them. yes this was decades ago but it still applies do yall really think sm will listen if it doesnt benefit THEM.

like lets not be dumb buying trucks trending shit and even this boycott wont do shit cause it doesnt affect sm

yall also need to remember that KOREA literally the KOREAN public likes riize theyre not fans they just listen to them do yall really think they, who really only care about the music.

if yall really gaf about seunghan why yk do the things that could make him money like idk stream the songs hes in? making his post the most popular one?? streaming his fancams??? but all yall do are things that could be easily ignored like the boycott will not even be an issue center 5 has like fee active artists as much as i remember but no here yall are discrediting everyone else in riize cause of sm mismanaging one member like

yall claim yall are ot7 but hate on sungchan substituting seunghan's lines, think that wonbin cannot be a good lead vocalist in riize even though wonbin is better in being a vocalist, thinking riize as a whole has a weak vocal and dance line and being the weakest in sm without him like all of them cant sing or dance i feel like half of yall just even care about seunghan cause yall have a savior complex and want him back which yeah he should but talking bad about the other members just to make him superior isnt it like lets be serious???

(also feel like the only reason yall came to the conclusion of boycotting is cause its the buzz word today to boycott something)

SAY THATTTTT YOU SPILLED…i believe alot of ot7s are secretly seunghan solo stans/akgaes because they only will uplift other members of riize when it relates to seunghan positively…like i see so many ot7s trash sungchan and call eunseok fake unless they drop little hints about ot7 and sudden theyre the best members in riize😭. also i see sohee only get mentioned alot on twitter when ot7s project onto him or wonbin when they try to group them together like wonbin isnt more than enough on his own?

also when siren dropped the amount of discord and shadiness towards the members of riize was like actually astounding lmfao. i think it just shows that this boycott/movement isn’t impacting anyone except the boys. like i just imagine them looking in their comment section on tiktok or intl briize reaction to siren and being disheartened seeing what their “fans” are saying about them.

i just hope that this boycott is resolved soon so riize can have the best comeback ever but with their popularity in korea im sure it’ll be a successful comeback regardless heh.

[geneticcatalyst]

as promised, an exploration of my one pet problem in fandom, or: misinterpretation of jby's first death (ft. zzs)

heres the thing. i occasionally see people reference what seems to be a misconception of the (english translation) text in qi ye. both the fact that its a translation and the metaphorical phrasing make it pretty clear to see why they got the wrong idea, but i firmly believe its still the wrong idea. i am by no means calling the people who got this mixed up dumb or bad, i am simply leaning over their shoulders going 'wait no bestie pls read that again pls read that one more time!!' because this is one of my favorite books and this thing is a key piece of one of my favorite things about it.

i said i was gonna pull screenshots for this post but i think it will be a little while before i get to another reread and i can't ctrl+f the google doc so im just gonna whip this out from memory. if anyone does have this particular passage on hand feel free to pop it in here. the rest of the context/explanations are just from my cursory research, im not chinese or a historian.

cards on the table. the only thing i love more than unhinged gay romances is unhinged platonic soul mates. its catnip to me. i go feral every goddamn time. and i havent stopped losing my mind about zhou zishu and jing beiyuan since that first qi ye scene. what do those guys have going on? not even sure they know but it's A Lot. ive got like 18 other unpublished drafts trying to work that out slash losing my fucking mind at the lengths they go to about each other. that relationship is at the center of both novels even if the spotlight isnt on it. so I admit that my readings are colored a bit by how much i like that they like each other!

which is why im shocked baffled and, ok, lightly salted, to see a few people make the claim that zishu (personally) tortured/killed beiyuan in his first life.

so what the text says is that after helian yi stopped trusting beiyuan (after su qingluan's accidental death), he was basically put to death. but even the emperor has to have a half decent reason to execute someone. the text describes these reasons- ten of them- as zhou zishu's masterpieces. it also refers to them as great shames to beiyuan's standing. what's happening is that helian yi has zishu frame beiyuan for treason or other betrayals against the emperor/the country. it isn't specific as to what, but it doesn't really matter, because its all fake and zishu is really good at his job. so yes, it is fair to say that zishu is the INSTRUMENT of beiyuan's death, but he didn't kill him, he just laid the groundwork.

the text goes on to another slightly confusing line where it says something to the effect of that when each of these accusations were read out in court, each line drew blood from jing beiyuan. that's a metaphor! it's just saying that his reputation was torn apart and ultimately his fate is sealed, despite the phrasing there are no literal injuries happening.

also, i may not have the timeline perfect on this part, but in zishu's introduction in the beginning of the novel, the narration tells us outright that while zishu is partially responsible for beiyuan's death, he was like. cool about it. in what seems to be the first and only time he ever steps out of line or goes against helian yi's command (!), after setting all this up but- if im remembering right- before the news actually breaks in court the next day, zishu warns beiyuan. now this admittedly doesnt do a whole lot because the only other possible option (cut and run) isn't a very good one, but it's the only thing zishu can do. he doesnt have to, but he does it anyway (!). of course beiyuan doesnt even consider doing this, he's stubborn and heartbroken, but he really seems to 1. appreciate the risk zishu took here to try to give him a chance and 2. not hold the whole set up against zishu or take that bit personally.

so what actually happened at the end of beiyuan's first life? he was sent the 3 chi of white silk. the text does explicitly say this once, but if you're not familiar with the practice it may not click. receiving the white silk from the emperor is what happens when you're too high ranking to execute like a commoner but you've fallen from grace and are being politely asked to hang yourself in order to clear your name. and of course beiyuan, stubborn and heartbroken, does. yes, it's a forced suicide, but it isn't a murder.

anyway, its in that secret conversation, where zishu secretly meets with beiyuan seemingly to try to convince him to save himself and beiyuan outright refuses, that beiyuan promises that if theres a next life (ha), they'll get drunk together. and of course against all odds, there is and they do.

the thing about the idea that some people might think that zishu killed beiyuan is that after that nothing between them makes sense. even if it was at helian yi's request, i just cant see that not permanently damaging the friendship, i don't think beiyuan could immediately pick back up being best friends in the seventh life with that memory in the way. why would zishu go out of his way to warn beiyuan one day if he was perfectly capable and fine with killing him the next? why would beiyuan not only be happy to meet zishu again in the seventh life but also go out of his way trying to save zishu's? none of their other interactions really make sense if you believe there was a murder done there. idk. it clouds the whole throughline of the story which is that they have a bond!

i think maybe people think it is in character due to the other ruthless murders, and they're not wholly wrong, but that's the kicker for me. zishu will murder all kinds of innocents no questions asked, but he's suddenly trying to give an out to his coworker and drinking buddy? hello? thats insane, and that's the point.

furthermore, if you think maybe it would make sense for helian yi to have beiyuan violently killed (since it keeps fucking happening later), i actually have to become helian yi's lawyer for a moment here and say that that doesnt make sense either. helian yi is sitting on a throne gained by shadowy means but he's the Good Guy Ruler and that reputation is important. hes not a cruel person and he may have become paranoid but he still has a shared history with beiyuan. plus, even the emperor has to abide by a certain amount of decorum when he wants to have people killed, especially when that person is also a high ranking member of court. beiyuan's status is basically second only to the royal bloodline, he's essentially the prev emperor's godson, as well as a previously close confidante of helian yi himself. the white silk was regarded as a privileged, dignified means of offing someone. helian yi is perfectly within social acceptability to do this to beiyuan with the pretext of beiyuan's disgrace. but it would be pushing the boundaries for the good and just emperor to suddenly have one of his top advisors and members of high nobility brutally killed like a common criminal. he could probably do it, but it would reflect on him and his reputation too. he could do it in secret, but would have to cover up the disappearance of a prominent court figure. it just makes sense to use the white silk as the neatest, most acceptable legal justice channel here. maintain emotional detachment, be polite, everybody's honor gets honored and such.

so that's the ted talk. theres even some beautiful fanart on here of white-haired first life beiyuan holding the white silk! he wasn't tortured or outright executed, and he chose to obey rather than escape or fight the false claims of treason even though his friend tried to give him the only out he could manage. to interpret things differently really skews the character motivations and plot for everyone- beiyuan, zishu, helian yi- in a way that warps the story out of believability, imho.

[gehtsis]

im a dad lance truther with all of my heart but honestly i think there isnt enough talking about silver and his wackass aunt aka The Best Dragon Trainer In The World(TM) Clair

so HERE ME OUT HERE: okay so the fight against silver in victory road already confirms that he had to go with clair's whole nonsense in the dragon's den. he already knows shes a sore loser and Oh Brother Is He Gonna Tell That To Her Alot. of course this was during the little inner battle that silver was going through when lance first told him "uhhh hey kiddo! stop being mean to your pokemon! ):" so his answers to the elder were mixed. by a lot.

clair was more or less expecting him to fail the trial because "haha lol serves you right for beating me you redheaded brat" but the elder forced her hand to give him the badge because leauge rules. and from there on out this weird psedou-rivalry between a 19 year old gym leader and a 12 year old where clair constantly tries to find a way to get on silver's nerves and silver just views her as this cyan-haired annoyance that really wants to piss him off formed between them

fast forward to post mt. moon fight in the postgame. lance offers silver a place to live in while he undergoes training in the dragons den (aka super secret sneaky adoption because lance looked a bit into silver's history and he thinks the kid needs a hug and therapy) and as a result silver has to see clair a LOT, which is midly annoying for him and INFURIATING for her. clair goes headfirst into complaining to lance with things like "this kid smells can you kick him out" and lance just outright tells her just WHY he's there in the first place. once the realization sets in, clair just goes "oh fuck hes just like me" and that says everything. from the constant grind to becoming the "best/strongest" to the very details of being unable to accept losses. their issues may stem from different sources and beliefs, but its still the same. clair tries to proves to everyone that shes the strongest so that she can finally get out of lance's shadow; because as long as Mr Bigshot Cousin is regarded as the "strongest dragon tamer" in his current champion status, clair is practically stuck. grounded to base one where people rarely look at her at the same amount of respect they do with lance despite everything she built herself from the ground up to. blackthorn gym leader? pff, literally who? and silver aint all that different, in a way.

a kid left on his own by his own father, who, despite claiming to be the strongest, got so pissy after a few losses that he skipped region entirely, not even thinking about what he left behind, besides his own kid and the beliefs that he oh so graciously followed after. pokemon are tools; not friends. strength means everything. there is no place for weakness in this world, its do or die. and silver, despite having scorned his father for all of that hoopla, followed those ideologies like your average run of the mill grunt. if he wasnt strong enough to bring his dumb stupid dad back, how the hell is he gonna survive out there?

things eventually die down between the two; with clair trying to Not throw hands with silver for once n' trying to get on his nerves and silver actually seeing her as a person who deserves as much as respect as lance (or, hell, any strong and skilled trainer) and not picking a fight with her. after lance more or less officially adopts silver as his weird feral sneasel of a son, clair finally embraces him as her small, cool and stubborn nephew

tl;dr clair and silver throw hands before having a "woah just like me fr" moment and deciding to settle their differences like two proper people and not emotionally stunted teens

[the-pobble-terrarium]

AND NOW ONTO RD !!!

(CW for ableism, slight homophobia)

Rainbow Dash was the absolute pride and joy of her family. Ever since a young age she had been a strong flier, her proportions made her incredibly aerodynamic, and she had perfect wing ratio. For all accounts and purposes, she was the golden example of the ideal Pegasus. In her younger years, it didn’t take her long to climb the social ladder in school. She was one of the popular kids, and she knew it well. Rainbow Dash never really cared for the hierarchy Cloudsdale pushed, though. Her parents always said “any pegasus is a perfect pegasus” and she lived by that rule. Which is why, out of all her peers who mocked and shamed the short little yellow filly with small wings, she was the one to befriend her.

Rainbow Dash came to learn this little filly, Fluttershy, was one of the kindest ponies she had ever met. Flutters, as Rainbow Dash nicknamed her, made a habit of noticing the small things- the little bugs that fluttered through the sky, the shape of clouds, birds that perched on lamp posts. She had an incredible ability to pick up on Dash’s mood too, even when she thought it wasn’t obvious. She always put others before herself, even to her own detriment, and it baffled Rainbow- it baffled her how anyone could berate and belittle someone so caring over such small things.

She quickly learnt, however, she wasn’t safe from her peers scrutiny either. Rumors began to spread that Rainbow Dash was hanging with schools resident punching bag, and Rainbow quickly understood just how cruel kids can be. Three of her best friends, Hoops, Dumb-bell, and Score approached her after school one day, and promptly told her to stay away from ‘that flightless meatbag.’ That she was a ‘loser’ and ‘lazy’ and that those bad habits would rub off on Rainbow. Dash was, understandably, shocked that these friends she’d known for years, these friends so kind and caring to her, could be so harsh and cruel. Not wanting to lose such close friends, Rainbow promised she’d stay away from Fluttershy, but in reality she merely kept their friendship hidden from the public.

As Fluttershy knows all too well however, secrets can’t be kept forever- and the rumors just got worse when people discovered Rainbow Dash was hanging out with Fluttershy in secret. They claimed Fluttershy was her “filly-friend,” that Rainbow was just as much of a loser as she was, a coward and an idiot for hanging with such a low-life. This level of venom towards her punched Dash in the gut hard. She spent most of her days during those times hiding from her peers when she could, and it gave Dash a crushing glimpse into the life Fluttershy lived almost daily.

When Rainbow Dash discovered the starter of these rumors, however, she was furious.

Her closest friend, the foal she had known since flight-school, the foal she had spent her ENTIRE LIFE with- entrusted the best. Dumb-bell. HE had started the rumors.

That day she found out, she got into a massive fight with him, and had found out who he really was. She broke her friendship with him, with all his posse, and declared then and there that YES. She was Fluttershy’s friend. She would STAY her friend even if it cost her her status and she would NEVER stoop down to his level. After that she stormed away with Fluttershy, and didn’t look back when Dumb-bell called to her.

And unfortunately, her Loyalty to her friend DID cost her her status. She became the schools second punching bag, sited as the pegasus who “had it all and gave it up for literal garbage.” Rainbow was tough however, and though it hurt hearing how much everyone suddenly hated her, it fueled her to try harder, be better, PROVE that she was still the best, whether they liked it or not. And this rage and ego fueled desire to push herself beyond every limit she had would lead to her biggest regret. (Im gonna reblog this with the rest, post is getting laggy from so much text)

[thewarnerbrothers]

uncommon (?) hc time. upon rewatching some of the og series and reboot ive become fairly certain that the warners (even the youngest) are, in fact, inteded to be teens. in this bulleted list i will

no but really

when i was younger i used to think 'huh these kids act weird for their age sometimes. its like theyre not even really little kids.' as much as i coo over their cute shenanigans, i can't really see them as anything 12 or under?

the warners are all at least teens. here's why

[youtube countdown video intro music]

their ages are never actually explicity stated in canon

their heights are pretty much meaningless. the tiny toons cast are meant to be teens yet are often half or even a third the size of bugs bunny. he's also small for the record, like many other adult toons

playing child or childish roles on the in-universe show is similarly meaningless. older kids/teens are easier to direct than younger ones (though the warners are difficult at times lol)

they constantly break character and the fourth wall in ways that betray older sensibilities, taste, and knowledge

having pitched-up voices isn't an age-specific thing for toons

in the reboot their voices aren't even pitch-shifted, making them sound older

the teen-level potty humor and dirty jokes (do you remember being 13? i do. if you think some of the innuendos in animaniacs are bad, i can guarantee you real middle schoolers were/are far worse)

wakko drinking grog. his 'liquorice' [liquor-ish] problem. also stating he'd 'try anything once' (bet he enjoyed woodstock lol)

i think people mistake wakko's wackiness and earnesty for stupidity and youthful ignorance. fanon really flattens him to just being 'the dumb cute puppy' sometimes

i don't think a case really needs to be made for yakko. he's the archetypal teenage boy character in many ways

dot is just as bad as her brothers LMAO

the warners all flirt like teens

they've referenced going on 'serious' dates before

literally just watch the show. what 9-11 year olds consistently act like that lmao

this part of the series bible (which as a whole i don't consider entirely canon but the bible is obviously is the basis of the entire og series)

personally, i dont care what tom said in that podcast episode. i relistened to the part where he claims they're '9, 11, 14' or whatever and it sounded like he threw those numbers out on the spot LOL. the actual show gives an entirely different impression imo

not to mention its boring always being beholden to word of god

[as a sidenote, the hc that the warners are actually fully grown adults playing children is really fucking funny to me. imagine being a dwarf toon, sounding like chip and dale's chipmunk voices, and you run around the rest of your immortality getting away with murder because everything thinks you're a cute kid. like baby from WFRR but rubberhose. big 'woman who played a 9-year old in orphan first kill' energy too]

in the end it doesnt matter a ton to me? im still gonna play around with their ages in fic like always. this new teen hc mostly informed how i see wakko and dot now, because they start making a lot more sense in my head

ive also started taking a liking to the 'wakko and dot are twins' headcanon but that's for another post

[aemiron-main]

Sooo I’m very confused

Could you maybe explain to me what this whole Dani situation is about ? What exactly happened?

Im not following them anymore because from what I’ve seen , they are in the wrong. I might dislike Henry but that doesn’t mean that searching for reasons for his actions is wrong. Is that even what they said ? Im literally so confused but also kind of sad … why can’t we live in peace on the byler tag hahaha 🥲. ( also is she for real calling gay Mike truthers bi phobic ? That would be fucked up)

Have a good day !

HELLO, ANON!!

Sure! Basically, it started with Dani making a bunch of posts/answering a bunch of anon asks about how much she hates Henry and hates the theories around him/thinks theyre dumb or whatever.

But what the actual issue was/what bothered me more than any of the Henry hate (since I’ve come to expect that atp) was Dani making comments about personality disorders and “people who just want to kill” in a way that was weird and vague and not medically or scientifically accurate and came across as pretty ableist and rude & making comparisons to real-life mentally ill people using that same sort of language/lack of actual medical info & continuing to perpetuate stigma & inaccuracies about personality disorders instead of even doing a bit of research. The other big thing that bothered me was Dani saying that Henry analysts/people like them would likely “forgive IRL rapists” which is a weird and untrue accusation to make.

And exactly!! You don’t have to like Henry, nobody does, but like you said, trying to understand him/search for reasons for his actions isn’t wrong. Dani seems to have an issue with people analyzing him & people who don’t think he was born evil as a child & also people like me who have been analyzing Edward Creel and who think that there’s a solid chance that Henry might not be Vecna. And yeah LMAO it’s definitely confusing and upsetting but alas, it’ll pass and the world goes on!

And oh yeah, Dani’s been throwing the biphobia allegations at gay mike truthers forever. Even though she’ll claim she has no issues with gay mike truthers, one way or another, she ends up tossing false biphobia accusations at them.

Thanks, anon! I hope you have a good day too!

[raveneira]

Ugh...are ppl really this dumb?

Warning: Anti KawaSumi/BoruSara post, dont like dont read.

Are idiots really believing Sumire is gonna pretend to like Kawaki because of the omnipotence bs? let alone that she might actually start to like Kawaki while pretending? gah yall are delusional...the same ppl who claim to like her character dont even understand her character at all if you believe that bullshit.

Wtf sense does that even make? just because Kawaki swapped lives with Boruto doesnt mean they literally swapped everything about them even down to their romantic feelings, theres no telling how much of their memories are altered, that remains to be seen since we’ve only got a glimpse through Sasuke but that doesnt account for everyone else.

But lets say it is a complete swap and everything that applied to Boruto now applies to Kawaki, wtf does that have to do with Kawaki? HE knows her feelings arent for him so whats your point? if anything Sumire pretending to like him will just piss him off cuz 

1 he knows she doesnt actually like him and 

2 because hes not fkin interested

Plus despite popular belief, Sumire is not a good actress when it comes to hiding her feelings [literally everyone knows despite her attempts at hiding it], she is always sweating and nervous af, Kawaki would see right through her if she tried to play the 'Kawaki-kun' card because you cant fake romantic feelings [in the Narutoverse, Sakura tried and everyone saw right through it even the ppl who werent in on it] so he'd catch on that shes fakin it regardless.

You cannot fake this, she cannot look at Kawaki and pretend to feel the same love and gratitude that she had for Boruto and be convincing she just cant, because everytime shes looked at Kawaki since finding out he killed Boruto she has been nothing but scared and nervous around him.

Now that he has everyone out to kill Boruto, do you honestly think shes gonna be able to look Kawaki in the eye like she loves him when she couldnt even look at him before without getting ptsd flashbacks? get tf outta here man.

If anything I see Sarada being able to fake it more than her, she never feared Kawaki nor Boruto so she’d be able to look him dead in the eye without flinching if she had to, but we all know this writings not that generous.

Shes better off just not even trying to fake that, its not like Sumire acted that much different around Boruto than she normally did so she could just be casual with Kawaki and nothing will look off, and if by some very VERY unlikely chance, Kawaki asks her if she likes him just to see the full extent of Adas control, its not like she would just confess that she does cuz she hasnt even confessed to Boruto yet, that and she told Kawaki to keep it a secret, so if she fked up and said yes to try and 'pretend' shes inlove with him, Kawaki would have to be stupid af not to know shes unaffected and playin him.

Sarada pretending to like Kawaki is even more unlikely than Sumire since she never had feelings for Boruto from the get go [not confirmed ones anyway] so if she truly did have feelings for him then now would be the time to reveal it because if Sumire feels like she has to 'pretend' to like Kawaki to not expose shes unaffected by Ada who, as these fools claim, KNOWS Sumire and Sarada love Boruto, then Sarada would have to pretend too.

So now would be the best time to confirm it once and for all, lets say Sumire pretends but Sarada doesnt, Ada should get suspicious and ask something along the lines of 'whats the matter? I thought you liked him too?' of course it depends on the context of the conversation but you get the point, she'd question why Sumire is reacting while Sarada isnt, which would confirm Ada did indeed see that Sarada has romantic feelings for Boruto.

But if they dont do that and continue to leave it up in the air, then Im gonna laugh cuz these bozos swear they winnin when they keep bein left in limbo just like everyone else, which for the ‘main couple’ and the ‘obvious endgame’ is highly suspicious, Naruto was able to make Sakura and Hinatas feelings known so why not Sarada? literally nothing changes if they do, so to keep leaving it up in the air when it doesnt need to be is legitimate cause for question because why NOT confirm her feelings? it doesnt ruin the suspense because we’d still have to wait to see how Boruto feels so why not just confirm Sarada’s side already? thats the part yall dont wanna talk about because yall know its suspicious, so you brush it off with ‘well they dont need to cuz its obvious’ or ‘Mitsuki/Ada already confirmed it′ when they are the LEAST reliable ppl to go to for romantic confirmation.

In fact, I’d say the fact that those are your biggest and only real go tos for proof her feelings are confirmed actually makes BoruSara look that much more flimsy because these are your sources.

If those are your sources for proof then those are some sorry excuses for hard evidence.

Anyway this isnt about BoruSara as much as it is about the delusion theory that Sumire is actually gonna try to pretend to like Kawaki, let alone be successful, or even more ridiculous, actually fall for him in the process.

The notion of Sarada pretending too is even more ridiculous, but if she does then atleast yall will finally have some actual hard evidence that she does infact like Boruto, but if not then keep relying on these half assed sources from ppl who dont even understand their own feelings, but you think they can clearly understand someone elses.

This headcanon of yalls isnt a legitimate theory based on any canon fact other than ‘their lives are switched so she has to fake liking him’, its just a last ditch hope to keep an ACTUAL dead ship alive because yes, ksu really is dead but this aint the post for that convo.

Whether or not KawaSara is dead [because I know yall gonna bring it up] depends entirely on how the timeskip kicks off, but ksu died before the timeskip even started but again thats a topic for another day.

If Im wrong Im wrong but I’ve been right so far in regards to Sumire and Kawakis relationship so I dont doubt Im gonna be right again because SOMEHOW me, a non fan, understands Sumire better than alot of her supposed ‘fans’

[trickstarbrave]

i have a lot of thoughts about "problematic" media and the dumb fucking "pro-ship vs antis" discourse that are probably disjointed bc i am half awake

for one i wanna preface this with: i think it is good actually to critique problematic elements in any media. movies, games, comics, tv shows, even fanfiction. if you think me saying something is "problematic" means i think it should be outlawed and banned and i personally want you, a fan of that thing, to die and i support suicide baiting you, you are just as braindead as the people you claim to hate. you are annoying. this post is not for you and is in fact also about you. you are a tar pit.

there is a vocal minority of people who do in fact see any depiction of something bad and think it has to be condoning it. they are genuinely few and far between, but they are VERY vocal, and typically very young. but i think after looking at how these people thing and present arguments, i really understand why they think this

depiction, if you are something with any critical thinking skills, does not inherently condone or condemn its subject matter. it can condone it, yes, but it can also condemn it. typically a story is mature enough to depict certain things, it is doing so for a reason and has a lot of nuance and shows if it condemns or condones it in indirect ways. for example in a very clear cut way: slasher films show a killer murdering people. they are screaming and dont want to be killed and try to stop him or run away. it is supposed to make you, the audience, feel bad and go 'well i wouldnt wanna get killed'. but at no point does someone look at the camera and go "killing people is wrong and should not be condoned. people dont like being killed".

this gets a bit more messy in other topics that are commonly normalized or go under the radar like racism and abuse. ultimately i think many stories that are "problematic" arent really done that way on purpose, hence why i dont believe in attacking the people who made that story for these things. a lot of times these things sneak their way in subconsciously or by pure carelessness. example: i do not think all of the designers for skyrim are racist white supremacists who intentionally made this story to be a perfect recruiting and radicalization tool for white supremacists. skyrim is a story about fantasy pop culture vikings in fantasy pop-culture viking land where you kill dragons. however there are also elves, which oppose the fantasy pop culture vikings and the vikings hate, and a civil war where many of the fantasy vikings want to purge and non-pop culture fantasy viking out of magical fantasy viking land. that shit is like catnip to white surpremacists. they love that shit. ultimately skyrim is just written badly. at no point was that the INTENTION behind the game, but it has been used to radicalize a lot of white guys and also is still beloved by white supremacists for these reasons.

ultimately that example is one most people im talking about wouldnt even get though, because it requires a lot of thought, understanding of how white supremacy operates, how we even got the concept of "vikings" in our larger pop culture (it was nazis, lol) and that those concepts are wildly inaccurate, etc. instead these kinds of critiques go after very overt depictions of subject matter or literally children's media.

and i think there is a very real reason why they do this i have come to realize: not only do they not know how to critically think, actually trying to think critically even in the slightest is mentally exhausting to them. by this i don't mean "ha ha they are stupid and lazy" i mean they genuinely dont understand critical thinking. at all. like they lack media literacy entirely. ive heard dumb takes from these people like "symbolism is trying to hide/bury the themes of a story" or "because the abuse in this story is metaphorical it doesn't count". they dont understand the parts of a story and why they are utilized as literary devices and actively resent having to think about the things presented to them.

this is a larger cultural issue. i see it beyond just self aggrandizing, black and white morality faux activists. you can see it in spaces of pretty much any political view or in any community: a lack of understanding of how to break down information and stories to evaluate it. we all have a tendency towards bias and they familiar and things that make us comfortable, but these people are on a whole other level. thinks like metaphor are seen as nothing more than lies and detraction used to obscure information rather than help build information up. understanding nuance, personal flaws, deeper intentions, and how you actually convey complex information is completely beyond them.

they live, ultimately, to just drink up content and media while having to think as little as humanely possible. they crave exciting stories but with extremely simplistic meanings and those stories just don't exist. because confronting these topics means rethinking their entire world view, be they extremely insular "leftists" or right leaning morons. it means admitting maybe they are not always right and perfect in more complex ways than simple mistakes a 4 year old would make. even when people like to bitch and moan that "depicting something doesn't mean you inherently condone it" they don't give examples on how you can tell. they don't talk about how personal biases can contribute to a story condoning it when the author does not consciously believe it. unconscious biases aren't even necessarily harmful, but going unchecked they can evolve to full on bigotry, born out of a refusal to admit you can be wrong about things and things are allowed to make you uncomfortable without being a personal attack on you.

because again, this thought pattern exists to preserve the ego and to think as little as possible. admitting things have nuance means admitting EVERYTHING can have nuance. that maybe the people who hurt you are not all irredeemable monsters or that you were the villain in someone else's life. that people you love to attack for moral superiority are complex individuals with their own lives and experiences.

this thought process is ultimately AGAINST accountability too. things are bad because they are bad. there are no pieces that give it nuance, the existence of them is either morally good or morally bad. which means if you think of yourself as morally good, as we all like to, that means you can never, EVER admit to doing something "morally bad", intentionally or not. i saw it recently with mods for a community refusing to admit they did something racist (attacking a black woman and making her life miserable) and would instead rather burn the community down with them while whining about they feel "unsafe" because people said that behavior was unacceptable, wanted them to apologize to the person harmed, and put steps in place to keep it from happening again. which is basic accountability. but that requires thinking about your actions, why they happened, that it doesn't make you an irredeemable monster who can never be better ever, and accept responsibility for what you did.

it is protection of biases and your own beliefs rather than challenging them. to think critically we need to know how to break these things down, evaluate them individually, how they work in a larger whole, and why these things are being told to us. maybe people refuse because they are comfortable in their biases. maybe people are comfortable in their biases and dont like acknowledging them because they dont understand critical thinking and media analysis. maybe its both. i dont really know.

all i know is it is annoying and maybe we really need to by and large teach people literary analysis and critical thinking skills from the ground up. because i cannot keep looking at the same brain dead takes in every community about how symbolism exists to obscure and metaphors are actually lies because "why not just be literal" and watch people make the dumbest moral arguments on both sides of any debate

[dxncingwithastrxnger]

I posted 5,199 times in 2022

That's 2,652 more posts than 2021!

320 posts created (6%)

4,879 posts reblogged (94%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@the-ancient-fae

@kohak-u

@matchamenace

@buckybeardreams

@maxipaddy

I tagged 434 of my posts in 2022

#purpleStrxnger - 312 posts

#stranger things - 140 posts

#mileven - 131 posts

#mike wheeler - 108 posts

#el hopper - 93 posts

#eleven - 85 posts

#purplestrxngerasks - 72 posts

#mileven headcanons - 49 posts

#mileven hc - 47 posts

#mike x eleven - 27 posts

Longest Tag: 126 characters

#i have unfinished hizzie fics i need to finish and post im so sorry to the hizzie people who requested/gave me ideas ajakaksjs

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I honestly don't know why I decided to scroll through the Mike hate tag

I knew it would piss me off

I was just curious as to what they were saying about my boy

But, you know, it's all dumb shit

Saw a lot of people encouraging Jonathan to literally beat up Mike in season 5

Like okay, good to know you want Jon to go to jail and Will and Nancy and pretty much everybody to be absolutely pissed at him

I don't wanna rant too much but,,,

What's the point of so many byler shippers hating on Mike??? Like, "Oh my gosh, Mike is a complete oblivious asshole, he should go die in a hole but I really hope him and Will finally get together next season, HAHA" like what??? How does that make any sense to anybody??

Also a lot of people being like, "Oh, Mike and El are gonna breakup and then El's gonna see the "real" Mike for the first time because she no longer has him on a pedestal and she's gonna see how badly he treats Will and then she's gonna be totally pissed at him and hate him so much, lmao" like are you guys serious???

OH and some of my favorites are the ones saying that in season 5, they want literally everyone (yes, everyone. Even Joyce and Nancy and Will and El. Literally the entire main cast) to turn against Mike because they all "realize he's a major asshole who does and says nothing right and treats them all like shit" so therefore he apparently deserves no love from anyone ever

Oh, and don't even get me started on the amount of people claiming they want season 2 Mike back because "he was the best" and "he was the happiest" and "he treated everyone way better" and "he was so much nicer to Will", etc., etc.

If I see one more person claiming that season 2 was Mike's best/happiest season, I will not apologize for my resulting actions

So, anyways, that's the end of my little rant. In conclusion, I should really stop peeking at the Mike hate tags because they always do nothing but piss me off, so yeah, there's that

Have a good day all of my lovely followers and mutuals that I very much love and appreciate, hope you're doing great!!!! 💜💜💜

106 notes - Posted September 7, 2022

#4

what if i write a story about steve and robin, the buckley twins, who share one brain cell, and their adventures of trying to seduce the badass reporter and the emo rocker, huh? then what?

114 notes - Posted August 4, 2022

#3

Okay but

In st5, I NEED a scene between Mike and El where she's responding to his love confession speech and telling him that she does need him and want him and that she always will and that she loves him for exactly who he is, too

I mean, even if it's a flashback or it shows them talking and Mike says something kinda self-deprecating about his and El's relationship to which in response, El's like, "Remember what I told you in the van?" And Mike's just like, "...yeah, but I'm just saying-" and El's just like, "No, Mike. I mean it. I. Need. You. I promise. Okay?"

Like seriously, I need that acknowledgment, it's necessary, man. For the sake of Mike's sanity and self-worth, HE needs it

I mean, honestly, chances are that it DID happen, considering they spent 2 whole days cuddled up in the van together, but still, I want to see it!!! Please!!!

If it doesn't happen, imma write it out

I actually might write it out before season 5

Probably soon

I won't be able to resist, tbh

121 notes - Posted July 22, 2022

#2

Okay, but

Why in hell are there so many people that continuously claim that El needs to be single in order to be independent and become the person she's meant to be? Single and independent are not synonyms. Independent does not mean alone. That's not how it works. They're not interchangeable. You don't need one in order to have the other.

No matter who you do and don't ship, my point still stands. There's so many people that have said it. And among those people, there's so many that claim she needs to be single in order to be herself, to be independent, and use that as their excuse for thinking El and Mike need to breakup, but then go and say that Mike and Will can get together afterwards. Or that El and Max can get together afterwards. If someone needs to be single in order to be independent, does that make everyone else who is in a relationship dependent? Not their own person? Hell no.

And I've also seen so many people claim that El takes after Mike. That Mike is always pushing his likes and interests on habits onto El. That he doesn't let her be her own person and that's what makes their relationship so "bad". That's what makes them have so many issues. Especially in season 3. But no, it's the opposite. They had so many issues in season 3 because El is independent. Because they are two different people. If El wasn't her own independent person, she wouldn't of gone to Max. She wouldn't of followed Max's lead and broken up with Mike. She wouldn't of gone on this whole journey of discovering new parts of herself and as well as exploring all of her relationships with people and then also returning to her relationship with Mike of her own free will and choice if she was not an independent person. If El was solely dependent on Mike and her personality and existence was based on Mike's specifically without her making any of her own choices, she would never have broken up with him in the first place. And in season 4, she wouldn't of argued with him so much.

Mike and El have their issues because they are both 2 different, very independent people who are also both very much teenagers and very much human. But everytime they've had an issue, they've worked through it, just like two people who are in a relationship and want to stay in that relationship do. Some people say that at the end of season 4, they're at their weakest point in their relationship. But no, it's the opposite, they're actually at their strongest. Why would it show them cuddled up together in the hospital while visiting Max if they were still having issues? It's been made plenty clear that if El is mad at Mike, she doesn't want to be around him, so she would definitely not be leaning against his shoulder and holding onto him if she was still upset with him, no matter what was going on around them at the time.

So I've said it before, I'm saying it now, and I will continue to say it in the future. Mike and El are both independent people, even while together. El does not need to breakup with Mike in order to be her own person or to be independent. That is not how it works. Mike and El can both be their own person while also being together. They both are their own person while being together. Just because that person isn't who you personally want them to be, doesn't mean that they aren't their own person or that they need to change some part of them or their life in order for things to be "solved". And El especially does not have to have some "I don't need a man" mentality and lifestyle in order to be her own, usual, badass and awesome self. She's already badass and independent and awesome and incredible and intelligent and unique whether she's in a relationship with Mike or not. Her relationship status does not decide her personality and character and it never has and it never will.

See the full post

132 notes - Posted September 19, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Rules: Tag 9 people you want to know better

Tagged By: @buckywilsonbarnes Thank you for the tag!! 💜

Three Ships: Sambucky, IronWinter, Stuckony (Buct I'm a major multi-shipper so I ship almost everything 😂)

First Ever Ship: Dude, it was during my Twilight phase that I really started shipping so my first ever ship would be like,,, Bella/Jasper, lol

Last Song: Starving By Hailee Steinfeld

Last Movie: Fantastic Four (2012), it was my first time seeing any fantastic four movie, tbh

Currently Reading: Well non-fic-wise, I'm reading Midnight Sun by Stephanie Meyer and Alice by Christina Henry. Fic-wise, I'm currently reading a Sambucky fic called Carry On, Carry On by Fen_Telban on AO3, as well as The Flowers Tell A Story, a Stuckony fic by QJK13 on AO3

Currently Watching: Teen Wolf. I'm on Episode 8 of Season 2 at the moment!

Currently Consuming: Nothing, tbh

Currently Craving: A country fried steak from anywhere that makes one, omg. Literally my favorite meal, hands down. Luckily, we're going to Cracker Barrel for my birthday this month and they have one that's so good 😌

Tagging: @buckybeardreams @sergeantbbarnes @marvelsgirl616 @just-two-kids-from-brooklyn @ace-of-gay @breakablebarnes @peoplealwaysleave89 @olstansoul @we-are-n0t-d0ing-get-help @hallecarey1

You don't have to do it if you don't want!!! Just thought it would be fun 💜

187 notes - Posted February 1, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[literaphobe]

Ngl I'm kinda really worried about noxcrew saying they wanna change dodgebolt so that teams can't use the funnel strat, which let's be real would nerf only Dream and his team cause he's the only one I've seen able to use the strat the most effectively and consistently. Like it's a genuinely hard strat to pull off well. And even then he adapts and changes to let others shoot too, and all his teammates agree to it so it's also unfair to say "it's against team spirit" and I feel like saying it's not entertaining to watch is just a completely subjective viewpoint.

But anyway, I feel like if they do go through with making changes (esp to a game which doesn't actually need any) we're just gonna get another parkour warrior where they decided to make it more difficult for dream to win they had to keep upping the difficulty to try and make it impossible to win (which tbh was a really weird direction to go?? Why make a game and decide that it should actively be unwinnable???) And they'll end up making dodgebolt unenjoyable for everyone

i doubt they’d actually do that since they probably would foresee some pushback + there are a bunch of posts on the mcc subreddit already w hundreds of upvotes detailing why they should not do that and why the funnel strat isn’t as ‘against team spirit’ as they think it is etc etc (side note: i don’t think noxcrew was that serious or trying to shit on dream that much this is more directed at people who are REALLY rooting for the ‘funnel strat nerf’)

i suppose my two cents are that calling the funnel strat ‘boring’ is kind of insulting and also really. dumb! because it misunderstands the strat entirely and ‘entertainment’ is entirely subjective also assuming dream ‘hogged’ the arrows in mcc16 is simply not true

okay so. some people think funnel strat is ‘boring’ because it’s too ‘sweaty’ and the game ends ‘too quickly’. and like mf. that dodgebolt felt like a century. every time a shot was missed bc dream and fruit were so fucking cracked at dodging i wanted to die. this dodgebolt had me SCARED. mcc15 was way less scary bc dream never died. up until this mcc i had NEVER seen dream die live in dodgebolt before my heart was POUNDING :(

anyway. u can make the argument that clean sweeps are ‘boring’ because it ends too quickly. likewise, anyone can claim that dodgebolts like mcc16 took too long and all the missed shots made it hard to watch, etc. u can make anything sound boring. thats how subjectivity works

and then some people are like ‘but some of the ccs don’t like the funnel strat!! get rid of it bc mcc should make the players happy, it doesn’t matter what the fans want!!’ and jesus christ. if a cc doesn’t like the funnel strat they don’t have to use it? dream has literally never forced anyone to do the funnel strat? i’m pretty sure dream’s mcc13 team didn’t plan on doing it if they had made dodgebolt bc scott doesn’t like it. like. come on

and also. the funnel strat isn’t as simple as ‘only the best shooter takes shots until they die’ because it honors feed the hot hand and in order to test the hot hand u have to let the other players shoot which dream DID. bad didn’t get to shoot but that’s because he died right before the arrow got handed to him

people complaining saying ‘all the team members should contribute equally in dodgebolt because that’s how teamwork is supposed to be’ are ignoring the very nature of mcc. every player… contributes and carries at some point. every player gets carried at some point. just because dream gets an ace or some shit n a member on his team didn’t take as many shots doesn’t mean they’re not contributing and that the games they played as a team didn’t matter. sometimes people wanna stand back and dodge and body block for players w better shot accuracies. and that’s? still really important? it’s still vital to the team’s victory? just because it’s not as ‘flashy’ doesn’t mean it has to change

idk what else i had to say on this. but about parkour warrior im sick of people acting like ‘they removed parkour warrior bc it was a bad game n people hated it!’ when what happened was they were so obsessed w making the course unbeatable that when dream kept beating it they kept making it unnecessarily hard in the beginning when they should’ve just done that towards the end if they wanted to nerf dream n that’s what made people dislike it, not that it was ‘a bad game’

[ruby-whistler]

Srry but i noticed in one of ur dream posts u Referred to tommy's cat as hope. I must correct u, that cat was born pussbou and died pussboi. /lh Also tommy killing that cat was nothing compared to dream killing mushroom henry in exile btw just wanna say Also for ur posts about dreams trauma or wilbur manipulating him can u provide links to vods or other proof? Srry if i seem rude i mean that in a "genuinely curious way"

Aaa sorry if my ask came off as rude im just genuinely curious :(((

hi! dw, you don't seem rude at all, and i'm extremely happy someone with a different perspective has found my blog! i really appreciate that sort of attitude and am happy to answer :]

/dsmp /rp

the cat was called pussboy by tommy, but dream only called it "the cat" and then said that "it was hope", which is why it sort of became a symbol (his hope is dead, basically) - that's why i kind of made its name capitalized, because it was more of a metaphor than anything.

most c!dream fans call the cat hope because it's just really nice and really symbolic, and also really sad when you think about it. that's why the name was used in the essay, just to clear up the confusion!

tommy killing that cat was nothing compared to dream killing mushroom henry in exile

i don't really think so? mooshroom henry was entertainment more than anything, and even if it was bad, when watching the stream i don't remember seeing him mourn that much - on the other hand, dream was very quickly and very obviously attached to the cat, with it being his only companion in months of isolation, along with the hope that even when tommy left it would keep him company.

keep in mind c!dream has been deprived of stimuli and human contact for so long it's officially classified as psychological torture at that point.

i don't mean to compare trauma or even compare deaths - because honestly, what c!dream and c!tommy have gone through individually is incomparable and i think neither should be diminished in favor of the other since they're both terrible situations.

that's why i disagree that it "was nothing compared to" - it had an obvious effect on c!dream, and was still c!tommy killing an animal specifically to hurt him, no matter what reasons he had.

when i'm talking about effects people's actions have had on c!dream, i'm not talking about those people. i'm talking about him. :) /lh

as for the trauma, a lot of people agree that a lot of the things he says or does are trauma responses, and hence it's very possible that he's had trauma before he went into prison!

this includes being repeatedly called a tyrant via propaganda by about half of your friends who decided to betray you, trying to keep peace and being pushed deeper into villainy instead, repeatedly being put in between a rock and a hard place in order to make sure the people you care about don't start killing each other, then being betrayed by your closest friends after merely trying to keep peace (sapnap & george) and just in general having no control over your life or image and grasping at straws to gain it back.

i know a lot of people with trauma who heavily relate to certain trauma responses, which aren't always just shaky breaths and flashbacks, but trauma often also manifests itself in extremely ugly and destructive ways, both inwardly and outwardly.

trying to control the people around you is also very often a response to going through trauma, as well as emotional repression which is... rather evident on c!dream during season two. it only seems to get worse with repeated abandonment.

in the end, during the vault scene, the way he acts really just isn't at all the way a healthy person would act, and a lot of his really bad mindsets come from the way he was taught by the world around him.

the character is very reserved however, and since we don't have his pov we can't really say for certain - a lot of people claim it in good faith because they have a lot of evidence for it, and i think they're certainly valid in that.

that is just before the prison, however. from what happened during the prison arc? there is no denying he's traumatized at this point.

he's been emotionally and physically abused by c!sam since the very beginning of being imprisoned, and being in solitary confinement for over two weeks is generally considered psychological (and maybe also physical?) torture. that alone shows up in a lot of symptoms of his mental deterioration while in pandora's during people's visits, and quackity's "sessions" just absolutely drove the point home.

what he's gone through during this arc is absolutely incomparable to anything others charactes have faced before, and it's just plain suffering being endured by someone who is, despite everything, still a human being.

as for the wilbur manipulation thing!! it's talking about the whole vassal scene (though even beforehand a lot of their interactions are pretty iffy), and here's a post about that :]

I also have a small question about the analysis u last reblogged cus it says "why dream needed lmanburg gone rightfully" and like. The house analogy is poor because for one cus the land is infinite. And 2 cus punz's yard was literally larger then lmanburg. And also stuff about dream being a mediator? Can u provide examples?

i wouldn't say it was poor. dream's said a lot of times that he didn't care in the slightest about the land - a lot of his problems with l'manberg arose with the fact that wilbur basically built it on lies and tried to disallow half of the server to come there. c!dream was mad about the division and the fact that wilbur wanted "freedom" to have authority in his lands - over others, as can be seen in this post also.

the table analogy was fitting not because dream was some overlord, but because these were literally friends he invited to hang out and live in a place he wanted to call home. claiming a part of it for yourself and saying people of a certain nationality can't come in is directly opposing those goals.

in the early days of the smp, dream's always been a mediator between his friends - sapnap and george, who would often get into fights and go around killing each other! he would always do his best to stop the conflict, which continued after tommy joined when he took him to court and then later tried to mediate conflicts he was a part of, which resulted in tommy killing him unprovoked, stealing his gear, and starting the disc wars when dream was trying to get his stuff back. later, during pogtopia, he is also most concerned with peace over everything, and this seems to continue indefinitely after.

Today i was thinking about how messed up the final control room was. Like. Dream arranged the betrayal and punz and sapnap killed tommy and tubbo who like. Were literal children and their pals (because the author, wilbur soot, is dead/j but srsly if u take the streamers words tommy said he was 9 during the revolution sooo)

Sorry im gonna ramble about how dumb canon ages are for a second cus like. Streamers can say the characters are one way or another (wilbur saying he is mentally 30-something, etc.) But in the end the characters act like they(or at least their streaming personas) do.

i... honestly don't find it that bad? they were in a war, and the final control room was basically just supposed to end it quicker. the l'manbergians made it clear they were going to fight to the death, so they really left c!dream no other choice. and it's not like he didn't give them chances to give up.

also yeah the 9 year old thing was retconned, because in that case c!dream would've been 14 and i don't think that's true.

c!tommy and c!dream were both young and once again, in a war. the final control room was an attempt to assure victory, which both sides would've taken if possible, but only c!dream saw he had the option.

i do agree the whole child soldier thing was bad but... complain about that to c!wilbur, methinks. he talked naive kids into fighting for his personal power. however, the age argument isn't really valid either way. they had enough agency to sign up for it, and whether or not c!wilbur pushing the intense nationalism onto them had something to do with that is another debate entirely.

Bacl to final control room cus like??? Also fun fact punz took 2 of wilbur's canon lives. And like that probably is what started wilbur's paranoia which later lead to his spiral and i. Many thoughts full of lmanburg today.

i'm pretty sure cc!wilbur said what lead to c!wilbur's spiral was a "dark, twister view of possessions" and "disregard for his fellow citizen whom he claimed to love so much", but i really wouldn't say it was the control room; if anything the sudden loss of power after the elections seems to me like the trigger for his spiral.

I watched the exile arc live and. I feel dirty almost for feeling little to no sympathy for c!dream (srry ive been forgetting to add that aa) because of his actions toward c!tommy and like. The whole probation was so humiliating and unfair and c!dream was planning to frame him for the crimes he and puffy did under the the guise of "pranks" and c!quackity was planning to seize the vice president role.

i mean... to be fair, if you didn't watch the prison arc much yet or only watch tommy's perspective i understand not feeling that sympathetic - however, i encourage you to maybe watch a few prison visits, since they could help you see the whole picture better!

i also watched it live, and i also thought it was terrible, but i share very much the same sentiment for the prison arc because. absolutely no one should have to go through either of those things, you know?

i don't think probation was that humiliating? he was just. being asked to not start conflict with the other factions for two weeks. of course, what happened as a result is in no way justified, but i don't think probation itself would've been bad at all. either way yeah the framing and c!quackity's behaviour was. very yikes, i agree.

Also c!tommy antis are dumb because they say "he deserved exile angry emoji" i dont see u saying that about ranboo. Just say you hate cc!tommy and go. Also people say c!tommy was just as toxic to c!dream and i??? No. One is the victim and one is the abuser and like. :/// man. This part is rambly srry

i wouldn't say they hate cc!tommy? cc!tommy has a persona who people think is annoying at first ( but then they subscribe because he is super entertaining big man! ) but a lot of c!tommy's actions are straight up toxic to certain characters, such as c!funndy and c!jack. he has a very dismissive attitude towards others and their trauma and it does affect the people around them very negatively.

examples; his repeated bullying and behavior towards fundy:

Tommy: “Fundy, I’m just here to kinda let you know that I – if you weren’t Wilbur’s son, you would be out of L’manburg, alright? Just remember – you need to keep that relationship with your father. I saw how asshole-y and bratty you were acting in the courtroom the other night. You need to pull your shit together young man.”

......

Fundy: “I’m wearing glasses…are you making fun of my eyesight?!”

Tommy: “Yes.”

Sapnap: “Your father would be very disappointed.”

Fundy: “Wh – disappointed for wearing glasses?!”

Tommy: “You got glasses, like what are you wearing…”

Fundy: “What do you mean?”

Tommy: “Sapnap, Sapnap, over here. Fundy, Fundy, Fundy, I’m really sorry to say this – I’m just here to publicly denounce you.”

Fundy: “…What?”

( credit for transcript: @/findingjoynweirdstuff )

he's also responsible for a big chunk of c!jack's trauma, both with actions and words, and that's why i think certain people might dislike the character, and i don't think that's wrong of them. anyone can dislike any character they want if they don't attack people for liking them, in my opinion.

also c!tommy was most definitely toxic against c!dream in the cell. it's of course understandable but that doesn't change the fact he was constantly hitting and insulting him (without dream doing anything back for a long while until he snapped) which is toxic behaviour.

i wouldn't say he was "just as" though, so i agree with you on that. they're different and they behave differently.

i made a dream blob keychain today. Is it possible to send images if u wanna see? Idk cus i havent used tumblr before. I think that's all for now. Thx for letting me talk :D peepoShy -curious anon (but fr a connoreatspants c!dream redemption arc would be cool)

yooo that's cool! i don't really,,, know if it's possible to send images? try it out and if it isn't i'll try find a way to turn it on.

also, no problem! just please remember this is a c!dream sympathetic blog, and me as well as my followers are uhh,, oftentimes emotionally attached / personally relate to the character, so if you could avoid sending hate on the character (not that you have or that i expect you to, just a friendly reminder) in the asks that would be great! we already see a lot of it unwillingly so, i'd rather not see more, but as long as the discussion is civil i'm absolutely ok with you asking more and with me answering more questions if you'd want to! :)

if anyone else would like to reblog this and add some things i might've missed with my answers, feel free to, just go easy on her (she uses she/her pronouns!) and keep it factual.

i hope u had a good or at least ok time at school today :D

thanks! i gtg now because exam tomorrow but i'm going to try write the redemption essay tomorrow as well because ohhh boy i have a lot of ideas about what all i could write around the concept.

also sorry this was long, i can't keep my tongue on the leash :[

[astro-nova9]

Feelings

Prompt: How did they realize that they had feelings for y/n?

Characters: Katsuki Bakugo, Keigo Takami, Tomura Shigaraki

Warnings:Mild language, suggestive themes if you squint reaaaaaal hard, cannon death mention. 

A/N: ahhhhhh this is my first written post on this blog, i hope it doesnt suck too bad but dont put too much faith in me! Im not pulling from any kind of request list or anything i’m just posting a couple of prompts or requests that i would ask some other writer but i’m too shy to ask anyone else to take their time writing silly things like this out. 

Bakugo Katsuki:

For him, it was slow and quick all at once. He never really put much thought into things as pointless as romantic feelings. He had no desire to waste his time. Just like he never really intended on making friends period. They were completely useless, but he had them even though he never once lifted a finger to try. That's kinda how he feels liking you started too. He never really had to try. You were always there just… existing? Like you’d always be sitting on the couch in the lounge on your phone it wasn't anything different than what you’d do literally every day but he found himself being happy about seeing you sitting in the spot that you’d claimed as your own. He’d find himself wondering if you’d be thirsty too when he’d get himself something to drink, going ahead and getting you your favorite drink, just in case. It wasn't even anything that he actively thought about anymore. Just like how you didn't have to call out for him to slow down for you to catch up on the way to class, he’d stopped walking ahead at all, saving the time and just waiting on you to get there before setting out. The only time he really realized a difference is the odd occurrences you weren't where you normally were when you were normally there. You had to go to class early so he felt lonely on the walk although Kirishima was with him. You stayed behind to train some more with your quirk and your spot on the couch was empty so he sat in his room because there was no point in sitting in the lounge alone. If you weren't sitting with the others at lunch because you had something else to do he’d carry around that damn drink all day until he had the chance to give it to you. It was one of the days when he was carrying around a lukewarm bottle of soda, craning his neck to look for you in the halls after classes were finished for the day when he stopped himself. Why in the hell was he doing all this? Yeah, you’d do the same for him, but what's the point? He didn't even know if you’d be thirsty and the drink was too warm to drink now anyway so why was he so adamant about giving it to you? Since when did he care so much about making sure you had a drink that had way to much sugar in it anyway? Since when does it matter to him that you walk with him to class or you're lounging comfortably in your spot on the couch? It was on his mind the whole day but what tipped him off that there was something different about how he felt about you was when he actually saw you after wasting 20 minutes trying to find you. The way he physically relaxed and the stupid ass smile that pulled at his lips when your eyes lit up as saw him too, taking the drink he was offering and telling him how stupid it was for him to wait for you to finish talking to your teacher. He did all of these dumb little things because he liked to and because he liked you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Takami To be honest it didn't take much for him to realize what his feelings about you were but the fact that he had them were wild to him. At first, he thought it was just the fact that he liked how you didn't seem to bat an eye at him. How you treated him just like he was anyone else. Like he wasn't the number two hero with the weight of the world on his shoulders. You never even called him Hawks, when you first met you’d asked him his name, and that's all you ever called him. When he had bad days you’d never ask him to explain or tell him that's what he’d asked for when he signed up for the hero gig. You’d just comfort him and affirm his feelings. It was like you always knew the right thing to say even if you didn't think so. He’d always thought you were cute and when you started tripping over words or getting flustered because of his flirting or being in your personal space it was nearly unbearable how ridiculously attractive you were. The way you’d never just assume something bad about him or outright reject him made it easy for him to seek you out for comfort. Your arms quickly became a safe place for him to just unload the unnecessarily large amount of shit he had to deal with. It was like you took the negative feelings out of his mind like a sponge the moment he said anything. With a gentle stroke of your fingers across one of his feathers or a soft peck on his temple, they were gone, replaced with warm comforting thoughts about you. He didn't put much thought or energy into how he felt about you until he started catching himself thinking about one very particular thing involving you. His future. He started realizing that he didn't want to deal with anything he knew that he’d have to take care of without you being there at the end of the day for him to run to. He wanted to keep you safe and give you pretty things to see you smile. When he started looking forward to seeing you again before he even left was when he realized the extent of his feelings.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shigaraki It was kind of like love at first sight for him. But love was a strong word to use when talking about anything to do with Shigaraki Tomura, the man who wants to watch the world crumble. So putting it more appropriately, you were one of the first people he’d ever met that he didn't automatically contemplate dusting as soon as he laid eyes on you. He didn't necessarily like you, he just didn't want you dead yet. He didn't get it either but that's how it was. He didn't want you dead though, which for any living thing was a start! He didn't get insanely annoyed when he’d walk into the bar and you were sitting in his chair playing on your stupid little handheld game, just slightly. Just like he didn't get super pissed with the fact that you’d find excuses to be paired up with him on missions. He knew it was because with him you’d have a lesser chance of dying but he didn't really mind, your quirk was useful too. He did get a little ticked when you’d bitch at him about taking care of himself, its not like it was any of your business anyway so he never cared to pay it much mind. What he couldn't explain though was the absolute palpable rage when he saw you captive behind Chisaki. The way he wanted to make every other living thing in a hundred-mile radius stop existing was kind of jarring. He didn't understand it and he didn't give enough of a fuck to care. The fact that a piece of yakuza shit would even consider you was enough to sign his death warrant, the death of Magne and theft of compresses arm made it worse. The only thing he could think of while you were gone was how much he fucking wished you’d walk in and ask him to beat a stupidly simple level on your game because you couldn't be bothered, or that you'd bitch about him not eating anything the last couple of days. Every second you weren't around made it all worse. The second he realized just how much he liked you was when you arrived with Toga and Jin after the whole situation was finished and they’d gotten what they were trying to get. Fuck quirk canceling bullets, he was just glad you were back alive. When you ran to him and hugged him he didn't flinch back but he almost passed out when he had to stop his hands from closing around you too. He didn't want to destroy you, everything else maybe, but never you.

[all-hail-the-witcher]

hot take but i don't ship geraskier in canon/ canon era (at least netflix canon cause that's what i know) and ill tell you why:

-geralt pretty obviously has a lot of self hatred going on and is pretty emotionally constipated. clearly he cares about jaskier to an extent (the elves, the djinn, etc) but i find it hard to believe that he would be able to love someone else like a s/o when he doesn't love himself and sees himself as pretty unworthy of that

-jaskier is the continents version of a fuckboy. he specifically talks about the countess de stael, but its obvious that he's fucked At Least a few people’s wives, daughters, and even some nobility (see ep 4), probably while he's been traveling with geralt (remember, there's a lot of their travels that we don't see). would jaskier really sacrifice this habit that he seems to enjoy for a witcher (especially when he seems to have a penchant for screwing rich people/ nobility and geralt is neither of those)

-jaskier likes the finer things in life (joey has said so himself) (also probably why he likes to fuck rich people) and is a generally well known bard (he plays at pavetta’s betrothal banquet for fucks sake). he's also a viscount (so he claims) and obviously cares about his image. so i find it hard to believe that he would date a witcher because while jaskier is trying to repair geralts reputation, witchers are still pretty unliked and it would probably not be good for his reputation if people found out he and geralt were more than just friends

-jaskiers clothes suggest that they don't see each other very often. now yes jaskier does like nice clothes and stuff but if you were traveling for most of every year with a witcher i would expect that your clothes would get at least a little dirty (sleeping on the ground, monster guts, etc) and jaskiers clothes never appear to be so. furthermore, he never once carries a pack or a saddle bag (gerald, by comparison, always has a bunch of saddle bags, a bed roll, his swords, etc) for the entire show, just his lute. yes Technically he could be keeping them on roach but geralts pretty protective of his horse and probably wouldn't allow it (see ep 2). this leads me to believe that geralt and jaskier probably stumble across each others paths once every few years or so, jaskier tags along for maybe one hunt (or maybe just waits for geralt at some inn), gets some inspiration for a new song, and they part ways. because if he's a traveling bard he obviously has to carry food and clothes and shit (which he's never seen doing) so its likely that all of his excursions with geralt are day trips and they don't see each other very often. 

-geralt isn't fond of humans, especially after blaviken and clearly tries to stay away from them as much as possible. he also probably thinks himself to be a monster (having people scream that at you will do that) and generally only speaks to humans when necessary. granted, jaskier isn't your average human. but geralt probably is still leery of him (esp if they don't see each other that often) so why would he date him (especially if he probably thinks he's going to hurt him)

-geralt isn't one for commitments. all of his partners are prostitutes, or yennefer (but they're only tied together by destiny, not by their own free will but that's a whole other post). he’s aware that 1. long term partners are not the life for a witcher and 2. he'd outlive them anyway. he's quite literally married to his work

-as i stated up top, geralt has Issues and hates himself. even if he were in love with jaskier he'd be 1. too dumb to realize it or 2. ignore it because there's no way jaskier would want him. but more importantly since he hates himself and believes that witchers cannot be happy, he would not explore his sexuality. he probably wouldn't even know he was attracted to men and if he did he'd blame it on his mutations or something ridiculous. he hates himself too much to be comfortable with who he is. 

-jaskier is infatuated with whoever is in front of him at the time. sometimes that's geralt, but most of the time its not geralt. he's very instant satisfaction and would not want to wait around for decades for an emotionally constipated witcher when he could have his pick of (married) women and nobles and whoever else. 

-jaskier? kinda? uses? geralt? its implied in the show that jaskier kinda becomes famous because of his songs about geralt (toss a coin mainly) and clearly uses him for inspiration. the scene in ep 4 when they're in the tavern and geralts covered in guts especially shows this. jaskier calls him “witcher” not geralt, and says “it’s time to repay your debt” as in geralt is somehow indebted to jaskier because jaskier chose to sing about him and make him “famous” when geralt really didn't ask for that at all (see ep 2). jaskier then says “i should be taking 10% of all your coin” as if he doesn't know that witchers often get stiffed out of payment. and then he refers to himself as geralts “very best friend in the whole wide world” which clearly, isn't true. and geralt knows that because  he says “im not your friend” not you're not my friend or we’re not friends, no, im not your friend. he knows he's being used. and he lets jaskier do it cause what else is he gonna do? its a business transaction to him. and also the whole jaskier wishing on the djinn thing like, really? geralt wanted to nap. and probably some other stuff too and jaskier Knew This cause they had just Talked About It and then he took the wishes from him. without asking. so why on earth would they be dating??? 

anyway in my opinion geraskier only works in modern era cause otherwise there's just too much weird canon shit mucking it up. they're close friends in canon and that's that.

[lover-of-trash-and-people]

bittersweet netflix shadow and bone finale (s1 e8) rewatch; accoutrement: white wine with ice cubes in it (no YOU'RE a mom drink shh)

my wine's like fruity I love her

light and darkness title card we love to see it

Inej looking at Alina before she goes below deck to hide <3

okay that 'what can you really do on your own' was like not fun that shit hurted

okay but Jesper's 'not enough'? <3

oh no my baby Zoya's first inkling that Darkles does not really care

omg Helnik just appeared and I remembered how much heartbreak I have to face in this episode

gods I love Danielle as Nina so so much

'this can't be it' said she with her pleading smile with downturned eyebrows MA'AM I-

don't break my dumb little heart

I might hate Calahan's little accent but they're making me tear up

oh gods I literally cannot keep a hold on myself when Dani's accent bleeds through with full force, it's like she comes more alive or smth

'I will keep you warm' SIR WHAT-

I am surprised they showed a leaning in for a kiss so soon but I'm not mad about it

her little eyebrow twitch at 'what are waffles'

when that rando said 'i hunt slavers now' a dread settled into me because I knew what was about to go down

Matthias looking somberly at the stuffed wolf's head </3

I am so incredibly entranced by this exchange between Fedyor and Nina and what it represents, it's very interesting that they pushed up their storyline to match with the timeline

damn it's kind of jarring to be back in the Fold

'REMEMBER WHO'S DRIVING'??!!!! *you better stop* meme, *i am, disgusted* meme, *oh wow, oh wow* meme

Mal you fucking idiot you could never take the crows by surprise

the music rising as Kaz starts explaining his thought process, fucking perfection

haha Mal bitchass Inej caught you

'Because if he isn't with Kirigan's crew, he's with ours' WHEN I TELL YOU I SCREAMED

'And why would we destroy the Fold? It's the greatest weapon we've got' valid point at the moment but you know I don't necessarily agree with your methods

the use of the light tunnel in the show instead of Alina just being a super flashlight in the books is quite an interesting addition as well

is this an inappropriate time to point out how pretty Ben Barnes is

okay I kind of love the depiction of the shadow powers okay sue me

'they are traitors who tried to kill you' why are you suddenly making valid points despite having kind of committed low scale genocide

'i never said I was smart' YES MAL BE THE VOICE OF HIMBOS EVERYWHERE

Kaz's face going from 'can you believe this idiot' at Mal to 'fuck me I'm gonna do the same thing aren't I' at Inej

'For who would oppose us now?' *himbo romantic rival appears out of nowhere and shoots at him* god I love this show

him standing calmly in his ridiculous all black attire after nodding at his soldier to stop the himbo in his tracks, i fucking can't

could she summon light without the Darkling making her after he put the collar on her until the uhm moment in the books? idts but in the show she can hmm

'only because I'm not in the game' you tell him Jesper

not me snickering at 'you'll be seen not as a saviour, but as a heretic' LMFAO

'Shame. I'll have to give that speech again now.' THIS SHOW IS A FUCKING COMEDY AND YOU CAN'T PROVE ME WRONG

YES LET'S FUCKING GO SULI SOLIDARITY

Darkles casually whipping the Cut out like a shuriken or a throwing knife at Jesper because he shot at him lmao I can't

INEJ FUCKING GHAFA STABBED ONE THE OLDEST AND MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE IN THAT WORLD AND THAT IS VERY TELLING OF HER POWER

that moment where you actually think that affected him despite having read the books and watched the show

and then he has to go and fucking say 'it will take more than this' and I can't be help but be a little bit impressed at this old fool's resilience

throwback to when he said 'the king is a child' sir you make some valid points sometimes and it does make it difficult to hate you

I would just like to inform everyone that it is currently 6:09 am IST and I am sipping my second mug of wine while watching netflix sab for the second time instead of doing my three papers that are due tomorrow

I'm sorry but Inej jumping to check on Zoya after she gets knocked over by the volcra? first class display of solidarity and sisterhood as well as Inej's inherent kindness

Kaz jumping in front of a FUCKING VOLCRA AND STABBING IT WITH HIS CANE to save Inej, you best believe love is true, kids

god the volcra are so ugly and gross, they did such a good job with them

they kind of remind me of these creatures (I think they might have been called Hollows or smth) from the Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children movie

STAG VISION TIME

despite my dislike for the callous nature with which the stag plotline was handled, I kind of dig the stag vision scene

'It's just me and you now, Alina. And we're all we need, anyway.' I actually feel bad for this old fool simping for this wonderful gorgeous powerful woman despite lying to her and manipulating her and exploiting her power

okay 'I never needed you' *stabs the bone fragment out of his hand* beautiful power move I fucking love you so so much

alright ben looking like ✨ that✨ not only in physical pain but also emotional pain at what the Darkling clearly considers another betrayal from this girl he wants to give the world and maybe? loves? maybe? or at least has feelings for makes my fucking heart hurt while simultaneously soar at Alina taking back control and reclaiming her power as her own and stepping into her own

'how do you claim such power' okay could have had better dialogue there writers

the fucking score lifting as she says 'you cannot claim what was not given to you' good people my heart is full

one day I'll talk about my defense of the chosen one trope because god damn I kind of love it

hmm I wonder was that brief hesitation that we saw on Alina's face due to her thinking about the 'you chose to betray our people' comment or the 'i was trying to save us' comment because that will define some of her actions in the later seasons (hopefully god if we get some, I honestly don't know what with this stupid brownface debacle)

I'm not saying talking about brownface and pointing out that it is wrong (for further context, I am actually brown) and harmful is stupid btw I'm talking about the incidents involving brownface in question

I don't wanna talk about this anymore but I might feel like I need to and end up posting about it idk

goodness Ivan actually believing in this cause makes me so sad because he too has been victimized by the system that ostracizes Grisha and he has every right to feel the way that he does

Ben actually fighting in that ridiculously heavy cloak and kefta when he's about to turn 40 this year makes me super impressed because I as a 19 year old sometimes wake up with muscle pulls after weeks of inactivity it's weird idk

also I understand that this Mal Darkling fight is completely fanservice and serves nearly no purpose to the plot in general but like I? love it?

'I don't have to kill you Darkling. Your past will do it for me' YES HIMBO GO OFF YOU TELL THAT OLD MAN GODS THAT WAS SEXY AS FUCK

maybe it's because I know Darkles will survive and will come out of it more powerful but I can't get myself to feel bad for him at the moment

Inej and Mal tearing up at Alina's condition made me almost feel something despite it being super obvious she was gonna be fine and save their asses at the last moment

HER POWER

a solitary Kaz in spotted on the western side of the newly expanded fold in his signature all black emo boy look

okay but the crows with zoya and malina is such an adorable team? I literally love them so much?

INEJ'S FUCKING SMILE AT ALINA GIVING HER THE DAGGER AND KAZ LOOKING AT HER AGSGSGSHSJSJSK MY HEART CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE

SHE KNOWS JUST WHAT TO NAME IT WELL GIRLIE I KNOW IT TOO AND MY FUCKING HEART IS LITERALLY GONNA BURST

okay I know they had one interaction but Mal and Jesper would be besties in another universe

Kaz glaring at Jesper when he answers ''course not' to Alina's 'will you still be trying to kidnap me?' tell me one fucking adaptation that got the dynamics between characters this perfectly

okay why do I love that Alina kept the jewellery as maybe a small nod to she has the wits to, um, you know, I don't wanna say steal, but, um, yeah, steal it because she knew she would need money to survive on the run

oh Jessie I love you so much I wish you hadn't said those things on you ig story about the brownface

it's like every single celeb I grow attached to god's like nope that one is going to do or say something problematic (hey btw im not reassigning blame to god for stuff people have done out of their own free will, 'twas a joke)

AAAAAAAH them saying 'the deal is the deal' in the show even though they didn't have to but like they did and I love them for it

Inej literally not being able to not stare at Kaz's face and smile after this <3

'I didn't expect it to burn at all. But it can be destroyed in the end. Just like him' babe you're not wrong but like um just you wait

god Mal being on supportive boyfie mode is well, absolutely adorable, obviously, but I wish we got to see more of him as a person outside of his attachment to Alina

kaz my little demjin I wish you hadn't have had to suffer so much to meet the crows and find your calling

fastforwarding Zoya's arc is also an interesting choice to me

I wish the hug hadn't been done though, it didn't feel earned

maybe Alina awkwardly and half-heartedly (remember, at this point the alliance is fresh and they still don't entirely trust each other) reached for a hug and Zoya avoided her? and then the rest of Zoya's lines followed? that would have made more sense to me at least

I love Sujaya as well, she brought life into Zoya with whatever little screentime and scraps of writing she got

inej asking kaz 'what's your angle?' beep bop bleep morp I sense another incoming embarrassing love confession

'but we do need you' *stares at her face intensely* 'I need you' ah look at the clock, look's like it's time to screech and flap your arms like you're a volcra because you're incapable of containing your emotions

NO YOU CAN'T GO DIRECTLY FROM KANEJ PROGRESS TO HELNIK BREAKUP (TEMPORARY, MIND YOU)

helnik my loves you don't deserve this I'm so sorry for both of you

Matthias fucking smiling ruefully while he says 'this was... just a cruel joke all along' THIS IS NOT FUCKING OKAY

omg hellgate

AAAAAAAAH NINA IS ON THE SAME FRAME AS THE OG CROWS I CAN'T HANDLE THIS

CAMERA PAN FROM KAZ SAYING 'JUST HOW THIS ALL STARTED... WE'RE GONNA NEED A HEARTRENDED' TO NINA OVERHEARING HIM AND LOOKING OVER?????!!!!!! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING THIS TO ME?!

Nina genuinely being curious as to the status of the sun saint because she obviously still cares

Also, 'But she is a Saint' okay Kaz trying to earn brownie points you have succeeded

DID THAT SAILOR JUST SAY 'GOED MORGEN FENTOMEN' TO MALINA BECAUSE I AM NOT OKAY WITH THEM JUST THROWING THAT IN MY FACE ALL OF A SUDDEN

gods I know I'll probably see them again but my heart is full of sorrow as my eyes drink in the sight of my crows for the last time for a while

I know people were annoyed at the meadow flashbacks but guess what? as a darklina, I loved them

'now that the Darkling is dead' could have phrased that a little differently my dudes that line needed to hold more weight

am I glad that they showed Darkles in this state with his nichevo'ya as a tasty little cliffhanger despite not being entirely true to the source material? maybe but only because Ben Barnes saying 'follow' and the nichevo'ya doing exactly so sent a chill down my spine

well, that's it for now, I'll have to move on I guess, get back to my real life which I'm obviously not ready to do

thank you to whoever actually read these things

I probably should have just made reactions or commentary videos instead but I'm lazy

my tumblr will probably go into inactivity once more as I emerge from my stint in the grishaverse

it was quite short (less than 2 months), considering the length of my other obsessions but it was definitely more intense than the other ones

[babysizedfics]

Poor roman :( but that being said I am heka interested in 5

remus humiliates roman in front of jamal (but jamal is a sweetheart)

vote from this concept voting post!

TWs: swearing, emotional humiliation, arguing, remus is generally pretty mean in this - not "unsympathetic" but his behaviour is not ok, brief alcohol mention but it isnt a main feature

first some background info on remus and ro:

roman and remus' friend groups actually run parallel to each other by pure councidence in that theyre the same age and are both in the local queer scene

usually they only run into each other on nights out and avoid each other like the plague... until one of romans friends and one of remus' friends become a very serious couple and the friendship groups merge

remus tends to hang it over romans head whenever they argue or remus just feels like teasing him that he could so so easily spill romans secret littlespace to all his friends

and while roman claims to not care he also really doesnt want that to happen, especially the specific things remus threatens to reveal (namely him calling his cgs mommy and daddy, and his fear of the dark - which remus knows are romans biggest embarrassments)

and remus never USUALLY actually follows through on his threats, he loves to freak roman out but he doesnt mean to be intentionslly cruel.

but one night theyve had an argument recently and remus is out to hurt roman and finally follows through on his threat to reveal romans secrets. in front of jamal

((the actual incident below the cut))

all the friends are walking back from a night out, and remus hangs back from the group to talk to jamal. roman is just glaring at remus and not saying anything and holding jamals hand tightly. remus hasnt embarrassed him too bad so far, just asking jamal questions and referring to roman as his "baby brother" which is so annoying, but the thing is roman can tell hes building up to something

then suddenly remus smirks when he sees a completely pitch black side street thats theyre about to pass by, and he calls out to everyone "hey guys, there's a 24/7 mcdonalds through here and its a shortcut to the bus stop" and everyones like WOO mcdonalds and redirects to go down the side street

and romans heart pounds watching the friends all filter down the street without a second thought, theres no streetlights down there, theres light on the other side quite far away, but before that its SO DARK. and he freezes in place and jamal is tugged back by it and looks back at him. "babe, come on"

romans starting to feel shaky and he literally cant move his feet. his eyes flick between the street and remus' sadistic cocky smirk.

"whats wrong baby bro? you stuck or something?" remus leers with that stupid stupid smirk

and roman HATES him so so much

"ro, what's the matter?" jamal asks

"i- um," roman stutters, trying to keep his voice from shaking too much at the sight of his friends just having DISAPPEARED into the darkness - how are they okay with that?? "i- im not hungry"

"okay well i am, and remus said it was a shortcut anyway so-"

"i-i -- no i can't"

seraphina, romans best friend, looks back and notices whats happening and quickly jogs over (knowing roman is scared of the dark) "hey roma, it's okay we dont have to go down there" she soothes

jamal is supportive but he doesnt get it. he thinks roman is scared of criminals or smth. "i promise theres no one bad down there, hun. and i'll be right next to you the whole time, i'll protect you" and he smiles and tugs romans hand to pull him towards the side street

romans eyes quickly tear up and he panics and rambles "nononono dont please please i cant i cant" in a broken voice and plants his feet firmly on the ground, paralysed with fear

remus starts cackling "ohhhhh thats right~" as if he just remembered. "my baby brother's terrified of the dark, isn't he?"

"f*ck off, re" sera barks, standing between the twins, protective of roman

"wait, are you?" jamal asks sounding surprised. roman doesnt let himself look at him, too busy watching remus warily and knowing thats not all he has planned to embarrass roman

remus goes on, shouting out to jamal over sera's head "he's petrified!" he confirms sounding delighted. "yknow that massive blackout last summer? he cried like a baby. literally sobbing for his daddy patton to make it go away"

theres a brief silence because no, sera and jamal didnt expect remus to refer to patton as romans daddy - they both know roman calls him dad but this is a surprise.

and that one second of silence drags on for ages for roman, all he can hear is his heart pounding in his ears and remus' obnoxious laughter

he is shaking, frozen in shock rather than fear now. for all of remus' teasing threats at home, he didnt expect remus to actually do it. hes devastated and humiliated that remus told to his best friend and especially his BOYFRIEND of all ppl

and honestly he's not even thinking about the pitch black side street right now because the streetlights on the main road are blurred by tears welling in his eyes anyway

"why dont you just leave him alone!" sera hisses furiously after her mild shock

then jamal bounces back rlly stern to remus "yeah i already know about that! roman told me and it was HIS choice to tell me"

roman stares at him in disbelief but jamal is too busy staring daggers at remus to notice

remus looks suddenly offended and frowns. hes clearly hurt that the others dont think its funny "jeez youre both such bores. im just having some fun"

"youre demented if you think thats fun" seraphina growls and shoves remus away towards the sidestreet. remus rolls his eyes and runs ahead to join the others who are all oblivious to that coversation, howling with drunken laughter in the pitch black and jumping out and scaring each other

"f*cking prick" jamal calls after remus, seething

sera quickly throws a concerned look to roman "you okay?"

roman just swallows thickly and looks between seraphina and where he saw remus join the others in the pitch black. his stomach churns at the idea of remus telling more people. "i-is he gonna--"

"im on it" sera nods and starts turning around "i wont let him tell anyone else, roma, promise" then she runs ahead to keep an eye on remus and to give him and jamal some privacy

after a moment jamal turns back to roman looking so worried and holds his hands and asks very gently "babe, can you tell me how youre feeling?"

and roman is teary but he whispers "i - you stuck up for me"

jamal looks suddenly sad and cups romans cheek "of course i did"

"but you said i told you about it. i- i didnt tell you that i-" roman gulps after his voice wobbles "i didnt tell you about it"

and jamal smiles sadly and goes "i know babe... im sorry, i just didnt wanna give him any more power. it seemed like he's held that over you for a while"

suddenly the tears in romans eyes overspill and he doesnt really know why but he can't stop them

jama gasps a little "oh roman, its ok" and just pulls him into a tight hug

roman clings and sniffles, glad that he can hide his tears from his boyfriend even if it is in his neck.

and jamal just strokes his back and whispers "its ok baby, its ok" **

they talk about it quietly as they take the longer, well-lit route instead. roman admits he would never have told jamal abt his fear on his own - and the reason he's been avoiding staying overnight at jamals apartment is bc the one time he did he got so scared of the dark that he couldnt sleep and was just anxious all night but wouldnt wake jamal to tell him

after jamal finds out hes like baby why didnt u tell me its okay and comforts him about it not being embarrassing or childish. then:

"so you do actually want to stay at mine, its just because its so dark that you didnt?"

roman nods shyly "yeah... im sorry i know its a dumb fear i just-"

"its not dumb ro. i meant to say if it works for you, we could leave the hall light on and the door open. its not like i live with anyone who can walk in."

roman blinks "wait you - really? it wont make it hard for you to sleep?"

jamal smiles softly "no hun, honestly i could sleep anywhere. i fell asleep in the middle of the day in the staffroom just last month"

roman laughs, so so so relieved

"so... maybe next time you come over for dinner you could stay the night, yeah?" jamal says with a smile and a blush. he wraps his arm around romans waist and pulls him in, hip to hip

roman bites his lip and blushes. after a moment he suggests shyly "im free tonight..."

and jamal smiles so big, stops walking and puts his arm up to romans chest to stop him too then angles romans jaw down to kiss him

in the near future jamal promises to buy a plain nightlight and always leaves it on for roman when he stays overnight from then on

**side note: roman could never stand anyone calling him baby before because he felt infantilised at school becaus of his undiagnosed adhd. so he sees it as a derogatory name more than anything. but when jamal says it roman feels so warm and respected because he knows jamal would never mean it in that way. so jamal has "baby" rights basically