#why does she have such little screentime :(((

[daisyachain]

there’s one version of an f/m/m triangle that crops up so often I’m surprised there isn’t at least a tvtropes/vernacular name for it. Miyokichi/Kiku/Shin. Molly/Fitz/Fool. Asuka/Shinji/Kaworu. Futaba/Taichi/Touma. not-really-but-you-could-shove-it-in-here Luthien/Beren/Finrod. Utena/Touga/Saionji is a twisted spun-on-its-head version of it. Specifically comprising:

masculine male character A: either is the protagonist or a character on to which male viewers can project.

female character B: a secondary character and A’s official love interest, often kept apart from A by story/circumstance/gender roles. Shows some resentment of the trials she’s put through by the story in being A’s lover such as being shoved to the side, cut out of his life, or put in danger.

less masculine male character C: another major character, A’s devoted sidekick, feminine and/or conspicuously cold toward women or sexuality, somewhat ill-used by A but not resentful about it, as a contrast to B.

The dynamic is used pretty equally by female and male creators, though probably with different purposes. Outside the story, there’s a clear explanation for how the roles are divided: men are main, women are peripheral. Obviously the female love interest has to be on the margins of the story. Obviously the male main character has to have an ally in-story who can bounce dialogue back. Any human person has to have a best friend (for men, has to be male) and a lover (for men, has to be female). The major character male bestie and the minor character female gf is the minimum character dynamic you need to sustain the main character as a believable construction.

Except within the story, the dynamic begs far too many questions. On B’s part: her other half and love interest uses her for sex once every few chapters and dumps her to go off on another plot-relevant adventure. She’s kept in the dark, talked down to, pushed away, and distrusted. Her place at her sweetie’s side is occupied by Some Dude and no matter how much she puts into their relationship, she’s always going to be a prize for after the mission. Why does she stay with him? What could possibly attract her about this bestubbled grunt machine whose passion for the sword outmatches anything she’s given him?

On C’s part: he gets used as an emotional support crutch, designed to service his best friend’s every need at the expense of his own goals or story. He’s a housewife, he’s a domestic, he does every thankless story task with a smile because he has to provide the exposition/set up the plot/set the plan in action that carries the main male character to victory. He doesn’t have a love interest of his own, meanwhile the most important person in his life is obsessed with a woman he barely speaks to. Why should he care so much about someone who only takes? Why is he committed to this one-way friendship? What does he think of taking the backseat, providing support, submerging his own will for the sake of a person instead of an ideology?

On A’s part: if he’s a red-blooded heterosexual male character who pursues a woman as is acceptable, why does he dig himself so deep in with his designated ally? Through dialogue and because he has to in order to show the audience, he exposes his heart and soul to C and keeps him in his pocket for as long as we are watching, so why then does he cast him aside so easily? He invests the most time and energy into his relationship with C, cultivating love and loyalty there, but he draws the line so firmly in the sand that the audience is sure he’ll never, ever step aside for one minute to follow the friend. Why does he choose a man for his emotional battery? Why doesn’t he communicate with his supposed partner? Why does he choose to use B and C for sex and solace respectively, and why don’t they ever mix?

The gender dynamics wrap around to simple: women aren’t up to being equal partners to a cool guy, so you need a male wife to do everything for you and appreciate the protagonist’s sick abilities. romance with a man is perverse and impossible, so you need a female love interest to prove that the protagonist isn’t gay and fulfil the audience’s needs. But in-between all of that you could ask some interesting questions of the spoke character, A, the male protagonist whose actions are taken as normal. the question being: bro. what’s wrong with you

[frobby]

every single person in the haikyuu fandom has an unimportant fave

[unnecessarilygrandiose]

.

[diseasedcube]

i never thought i'd be missing fushi this much

[crabbunch]

persona games really love to throw out the most compelling concepts for characters that threaten to violently rip out all of your organs and then trip over themselves because. surely women cannot have meaningful character arcs. please i only want to contemplate the horror of having your mind rewritten and complex sibling relationships

[demilypyro]

So I've seen a few too many people on twitter talking about The Kiss Scene from the new Scott Pilgrim anime. People saying it's fetishistic and indulgent, people calling it male gazey, etc. And while the kiss itself is certainly a bit exaggerated, I felt like writing a bit about why I disagree, and why context is important, like it always is. But it basically turned into an extended analysis on the metatextual treatment of Roxie Richter. So bear with me. It's a long post.

What really matters about this scene is not the kiss itself, but what precedes it. Not even just the fight scene just before it, but what precedes the whole anime series, really. And that's the Scott Pilgrim comic book, and the live action movie. Because in both, Roxie is a punchline.

She's a joke. Her character starts and ends with "one of the exes is actually a girl, I bet you didn't expect that." Jokes are made about Ramona's latent bisexuality, the movie especially treating it as funny and absurd, and her validity as a romantic interest is entirely written off by Ramona as being "just a phase." There's a fight scene, she's defeated by a man giving her an orgasm which implicitly calls her sexuality into question (come on), and the movie just moves on. It sucks. It really, really sucks.

The comic fares a little better. It never veers into outright homophobia like the movie does, and while the line about Ramona having gone through a phase remains, Roxie actually gets one over on Scott when Ramona briefly gets back with Roxie. But Roxie is still only barely a character. Like all the other evil exes, she's just a stepping stone towards the male protagonist's development. She barely even gets any screentime before she's defeated by Scott's "power of love." But Roxie stands out, since she's the only villain who is queer, or at least had been confirmed queer at that point (hi Todd). In a series that champions multiple gay men in the supporting cast, the single undeniable lesbian in the story is a villain. She's labeled as evil, made fun of, pushed aside in favor of the men, and then discarded. Her screentime was never about her, or her feelings for Ramona. It was about the straight, male protagonist needing to overcome her. And that was Roxie Richter. An unfortunate victim of the 2010s.

Fast forward to current year, and the new anime series is announced. Everybody sits down to watch the new series expecting another retelling of the same story, and.... hang on, that straight male protagonist I mentioned just died in the first episode. And now it's humanizing the villains from the original story. And there's Roxie, introduced alongside the other evil exes in the second episode, and she's being played entirely straight, without a punchline in sight. No jokes are made about her gender, no questions are made of her validity as one of Ramona's romantic interests. The narrative considers her important. In one episode, she already gets more respect than she did in either of the previous iterations of Scott Pilgrim. And this isn't even her focus episode yet... which happens to be the very next one.

The anime series goes to great lengths to flesh out the original story's villains and to have Ramona reconcile with them. And I don't think it's a coincidence that Roxie gets to go first. While Matthew Patel gets his development in episode 2, Roxie is the first to directly confront Ramona, now our main protagonist. This is notable too because it's the only time the exes are encountered out of order. Roxie is supposed to be number 4, but she's first in line, and later on you realize that she's the only one who's out of sequence. She's the one who sets the precedent for the villains being redeemed. She's the most important character for Ramona to reconcile with.

What follows is probably the most extensive, elaborate 1 on 1 fight scene in the whole show. Roxie fights like a wounded animal, her motions are desperate and pained. Ramona can only barely fight back against her onslaught. Different set-pieces fly by at breakneck speed as Roxie relentlessly lays her feelings at Ramona's feet through her attacks and her distraught shouts. And unlike the comic or the movie, Ramona acknowledges them, and sincerely apologizes. And the two end up just laying there, exhausted, reminiscing about when they were together.

Only after this, after all of this, does the kiss scene happen. Roxie has been vindicated, she has reconciled with the person who hurt her, the narrative has deemed that her anger is justified and has redeemed her character. And she gets her victory lap by making the nearest other hot girl question her heterosexuality, sharing a sloppy kiss with her as the music triumphantly crescendos.

It's... a little self-congratulatory, honestly. But it's good. It's redemption for a character who had been mistreated for over a decade. And she punctuates the moment by being very, very gay where everyone can see it, no men anywhere in sight. Because this is her moment. And then she leaves the plot, on her own accord this time, while humming the hampster dance. What a legend. How could anything be wrong with this.

[lunecosm]

— sunday x gn reader

In which no one believes you and Sunday are actually dating.

crossposted on AO3 ft. gallagher, aventurine, firefly, robin, sunday fluff, established relationship, everyone thinks reader is just being parasocial about sunday lmao, not a lot of sunday screentime for an x sunday fic oops

You took a sip of your drink, leaning on the bar. “So…” Gallagher started, getting you to look in his direction. “Anything happen with you and your ‘boyfriend’ lately?” The sarcasm in Gallagher’s voice didn’t evade you, but you chose to ignore it and answer in earnest.

“Yes, actually. We had a lovely dessert date the other day. Sunday got a strawberry sundae—heh—and I got a banana split. It was really good, actually. We were thinking of visiting again,” you smiled, thinking about your recent date. You chuckled a bit, remembering how Sunday flustered when you wiped a bit of ice cream off of his cheek.

“Uhuh.” Gallagher looked at you with clear disbelief with an undercurrent of… was that pity?

You deadpanned. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Gallagher sucked in a breath and set his drink down. He leaned in like he was about to deliver some devastating news to you. “Listen, bud—”

“Don’t call me that.”

“—I hate to break it to you, but just because you happened to be in the same restaurant as Sunday does not mean you were on a date.”

You stared at him. “You can’t be serious.”

Gallagher’s face contorted. “What’s that supposed to—No way you actually think that constitutes a date.”

“Wha—no! What do you take me for? I’m saying I’m telling the truth about us being on an actual, normal date. Not that…stalker stuff you’re insinuating.”

Seemingly giving up, Gallagher leaned back. “Whatever you say.”

You grumbled, “I’ll prove it to you, I swear!”

“His hair is so fluffy, Aven. I want to fluff his hair so badly.” You held your hands in front of you, mimicking patting the soft, blue hair of your boyfriend. “Ugh, and his wings! They look so soft.”

Aventurine nodded along. “They do, don’t they?”

You put your head in your hands. “I miss my wife, Aven. I miss him a lot.”

Aventurine laughed and pat your shoulder. “If you miss him that much, maybe you should start taking fancams or something.” You snickered. “Maybe I should.”

“Here’s a start for your fancam adventures,” Aventurine leaned in with a sly smirk. “Did you see that interview he appeared on recently?”

“Yes I did!” You clasped your hands together, stars in your eyes. “Whoever was in charge of lighting really knew what they were doing! He was practically glowing,” you gushed.

Aventurine grinned. “Right?”

You dramatically leaned into his side, pulling a hand to your forehead. “He’s just so pretty, Aven! I can’t take it.”

Aventurine chuckled. “He is rather handsome.” Deciding to match you in your theatrics, he put a hand to his heart with a little flourish. “I envy whoever manages to score him. Why, I might just keel over from heartbreak at the loss!”

“Well, I guess you should get ready, then.” You crossed your arms, shooting a smug look at your companion.

He sputtered and looked at you incredulously. “I—pardon?”

“I’ll have you know that Sunday and I have been dating for—” Aventurine cut you off, putting his hands on your shoulders.

He muttered something along the lines of, “not this again,” before saying your name somewhat solemnly, his brow slightly creased in concern. “Do you really think Sunday’s your boyfriend??”

You gave him an indignant look. “I don’t think, Aven, I know.”

Aventurine wiped away an imaginary tear. “Damn, I didn’t know you were parasocial like that.”

“I will punch you.”

You skipped down the streets of the Golden Hour, Firefly trailing after you.

“I’m so excited for tonight!” You beamed.

Firefly looked at you inquisitively. “Oh? What’s happening tonight?”

You did a giddy little hop and spun around to face her, “I get to spend time with my lovely boyfriend!”

Firefly’s eyes slightly widened in surprise as she gasped. “I didn’t know you had a boyfriend! Who is it?”

At this point you both had stopped walking, pausing in some random street. You tilted your head and asked, “Eh? I didn’t tell you?” You put your hands on your hips with a proud smile. “Well, I’m dating Sunday!”

Firefly’s expression immediately changed to one you were becoming annoyingly familiar with. She opened and closed her mouth like she was trying to figure out how to break something to you.

Your tone turned flat. “What is it? What’s with the face?”

“I…” Firefly tried a few more starts before landing on, “Listen, I know you walked next to him that one time but I don’t think that means you’re dating…” She trailed off, chuckling nervously.

You slumped, Firefly letting out a little “ah” at the motion.

“Oh come on, I’ve walked—and talked!—with him on multiple occasions. Wait, that’s not the point. Do you not believe me either?” You frowned, beginning to resemble a kicked puppy.

Firefly waved her hands around slightly panicked, “Well, it’s not like I don’t believe you!” She paused and mumbled, “Actually I guess it is…” Shaking her head, she turned back to you. “It’s just… I know you and Robin are friendly and all—”

“What.”

“—but I don’t think that automatically extends to Sunday, y’know? Especially to the degree of a romantic relationship.”

You stared at Firefly incredulously. Bringing your hands up to your face, you sighed. “Why does no one believe I’m being genuine when I say Sunday and I are dating?”

“Maybe because it just sounds so unbelievable?”

You didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “But why though??”

Firefly simply gave you a comforting pat on the shoulder.

You were practically draped over Sunday, lamenting over the fact that no one believed you when you said Sunday was your boyfriend, even after all this time. Sunday pat your head in consolation as Robin tittered. “Well, on the bright side, they’ll have to believe you after tonight!”

You sunk into Sunday’s shoulder. “I guess…”

Sunday pressed a kiss to your head. “Look alive, dear. Like Robin said, they won’t be able to refute it next you see them.” He paused. “Well, I suppose that depends on if they’re watching or not.”

You perked up at that. “Actually, I told them to watch this interview, so they should see it. I expect at least 10 texts the second I show up on screen.” You held your phone up and waved it. “And if they don’t watch it live, I’m gonna send them a recording. That way they have to acknowledge our relationship!”

Sunday chuckled. “That’s so like you.”

At that moment, someone in the film crew alerted you all to get ready. Sunday gave you a squeeze, leading you over to the filming area, Robin walking at your other side. The three of you smiled (yours a little less practiced) at the interviewer as you approached. After exchanging pleasantries, the film crew started the countdown to go live.

“Three!” Robin gave you a soft smile and a nod, which you returned.

“Two!” Sunday adjusted his hold to your waist, pulling you a bit closer.

“One!” You turned your gaze to the camera.

“And we’re live!”

The interviewer immediately greeted the camera. “Good evening, Penacony! Thanks for tuning in for today’s exclusive interview! Today I have with me everyone’s favorite pop star, Robin!”

Robin gave a charming smile and waved at the camera. “Hello everyone! I’m so glad to be here!”

“Charismatic as always! Along with her, we have the esteemed head of the Oak Family, Sunday!”

Sunday nodded and gave a placid smile. “Hello. It’s a pleasure to be here.”

“The pleasure is all mine! And last but not least, we have a special guest! Care to introduce yourself?”

You greeted the camera and stated your name. “Nice to meet you!”

“How charming! For those of you wondering, if you haven’t guessed their identity already… Why don’t you introduce them, Sunday?”

“With pleasure.” Sunday pulled you in and kissed your cheek. “They’re my significant other.”

As expected, your phone started buzzing incessantly, making you grin. You glanced at the screen, seeing glimpses of texts along the lines of ‘YOU’RE ACTUALLY DATING???’ and ‘NO WAY YOU WERE TELLING THE TRUTH’ before they were quickly replaced with more texts and even a few calls (mostly from Aventurine). You smirked, silencing your phone and returning your attention to the interview.

[burnttongueontea]

So, what is the deal with the world’s most conspicuously uneaten Eccles cakes? (A meta)

Well, I wouldn’t say it’s bad writing, not even the on-purpose-as-a-secret-message kind. I agree there is a visual ‘loose thread’ here that the creators wanted us to notice, but I don’t think the meaning has anything to do with Metatron or the eventual plan for S3. I think the eccles cakes are all about what’s going on in this episode with Crowley and Aziraphale, and they’re unsettling in exactly the way they’re meant to be, even if we might not register the full implications consciously on first watch.

On the most straightforward level, this shot is the punchline to a joke set up by Aziraphale and Nina in the coffee shop. Crowley orders six shots of espresso, bound to get him all worked up and stressy. Aziraphale, who desperately wants Crowley to be thinking clearly when he learns about the Gabriel situation, says to Nina: ‘What do you sell that calms people down?’ And she replies: ‘Eccles cakes.’ From this moment on the cakes are a visual symbol of what Aziraphale needs from Crowley right now.

That’s why they get so much screentime as we cross the road and go into the shop. Aziraphale won't leave those eccles cakes behind because he’s still hoping that Crowley will respond to the request they represent: Please stay calm, please be patient and listen to me with empathy.

But Crowley never does respond, and as he storms out we get that close-focus shot of the abandoned plate to make sure the subtext hits home. The cakes are framed sitting in front of the horse statue, brilliantly dressed up in Crowley's sunglasses, to remind us that they were brought there for him and he's dismissing them. (Crowley is the frantic horse who can't be managed!)

There’s another level to it, though, which doesn’t fully become clear until episode 6. The episode 1 meeting in Nina’s café is the first time that Aziraphale and Crowley share a scene in the present-day in S2, which means that the last time we saw them together was when they were dining at the Ritz. As viewers, we quickly recognise the visual language of their partnership: a table for two, a drink, a dessert. It feels familiar. But the food gets delivered and then nobody eats it. On that level, it is a set-up without a pay-off and it really niggles as you watch. S1 closed out their relationship with a happy toast after a resplendent dinner; S2 opens it with a snack that gets ignored. The dynamics of who offers food to whom are also off, atypical. It’s a sign of how things are going to go later on, hinting at the fact their dynamic is dysfunctional right now, even though it might seem OK on the surface.

Which brings me, finally, on to the other thing I’ve wanted to point out…

The punchline is that Crowley doesn’t eat the eccles cakes, but the really subconsciously disconcerting thing is that Aziraphale doesn’t. That he seemingly never planned to, and never orders anything for himself. In fact, we don’t see Aziraphale eat anything substantial in any of the present-day scenes in S2. The only things he consumes onscreen are sherry, tea, and a travel sweet. (Oh, and Manipulation Coffee, which is definitely a callback to Crowley’s disastrous sextuple-espresso.) We see him with food, yes, but primarily he wants to give it to other people.

For me this little detail of S2 – not something you even fully notice until you think about it – is a very telling understated cue in terms of Aziraphale’s post-Heaven state of mind. It's about what amuseoffyre puts so well in another meta: 'the whole series looks like he’s having so much fun doing silly human things, but there’s this brittleness to it.' At first glance, we see Aziraphale interacting with food and assume he is now living the happy Earthly life we wanted for him, but on closer inspection he's not engaging much in the pleasure of eating for his own sake. He gets a quick sweet pick-me-up on his way somewhere else in the Bentley - all alone - and that's it. He's too anxious, too busy, he doesn't have time. Crowley doesn't have time to invite him for lunch.

I find it fascinating that Gabriel gets a squillion cups of cocoa in this season, waxing all lyrical about them, and Aziraphale gets none. Aziraphale's mug becomes Jim's mug, even. And he mostly makes the tea to show Muriel how to blend in. In short, S2 Aziraphale is terribly preoccupied with looking after/managing others, and not taking the time to look after himself. Like the Maggie and Nina match-making, all that kindly treat-offering is displacement, displacement, displacement.

No wonder it all goes wrong.

[bibibbon]

MHA mustard deserved better

Mustard is a character that many of us forget but surprisingly his character really stuck to me for some reason.

Mustard is around 13-14 years old and was part of the training camp attack. His quirk is known as gas and looks very similar to midnight it also has a very similar effect to midnight's. I think that it's such a shame that his story was never explored and that we never got much of what happend to him. We don't even see him in the final arc. All we are told is that mustard is captured by the police after the attack and is then imprisoned to never seen him again.

I think that if MHA wanted to truly and properly redeem villains or explore the idea why villains became the way they are we should of gotten more exploration when it came to mustard. You can easily assume that mustard probably had a horrible life that drove him to villainy because how is it that you become a villain and don't have enough of anything to change out of your middle school uniform. How is it that a 13-14 year old knows how to wield a gun and there are so many more questions like how was mustard treated?

Personally I would have it so that we are shown more about mustard. How did he end up where he is? How did shigaraki even allow him to join? Did he somehow stumble or was in the wrong place at the wrong time and just got swept by the crowd? Who taught him how to wield a gun? And so many other questions to build his character. Mustard felt like an empty character with wasted potential. From the little amount of screentime we can tell that he acts like a child and is a bit annoying like a middle schooler would be but he definitely acts,fights and does so many more things above his age. I personally would be more interested in a tiny arc to explore how society failed mustard. Why is his name mustard anyway? He is one of the only characters who we don't know his real name so does that mean mustard could of been a name a bully gave him?

For some reason thinking about the character of mustard distinctly reminds me of middle school Izuku midoriya. They seem ironically similar in a way🤷‍♀️.

Also can we talk about how after he gets captured nothing really happens. Like where does mustard go? He is too young to go to prison so does MHA have something equivalent to a delinquent center or juvenile detention? Do they just let mustard rot in jail? Does mustard have a family that tried to fight his case? Did the family get any backlash (like toga's family)? So many questions to think about. Was there or could of there been a rehabilitation programme out up for mustard. Like mustard is young and shows a lot of signs that say "society failed me" or something similar so was there or could of there been something similar to that.

I personally think we should of gotten some mustard and midnight interactions. They have similar quirks with similar effects one became a hero the other a villain they don't have many differences I wonder if midnight struggled with her quirk I wonder how she would interact with mustard.

[rizsu]

mansae, mansae, mansae sunarin, kenma, bokuto, kageyama.

sum. ib ( inspired by ) mansae from seventeen (kpop) !!

suna rintarō

inarizaki student suna — he thinks he's cool & slick when talking to you but he gets a little fidgety because of his overwhelming feelings for you

comes up to you in class like "yo" but it's not just any yo, it's a "yo please let me be your boyfriend i love you" but he's not going to say all that.

you guys are deskmates so he sneakily reaches out to hold one of your fingers saying "damn, it's cold today!"

suggests café study sessions when there's no practice (this is an excuse to be with you)

professional volleyballer suna — oh he's still awkward but a little bolder. we all know suna's the cameraman for ANYTHING so yes, he does use you as his personal photo dump.

definitely has your chats pinned. his screentime is high but when you're available to talk? that goes up to HOURS.

when he confessed to you, it was really sceneric. like you know all those fancy restaurants, 5 star hotel weekends, cute little dates to some garden— i mean he has money so why not spend it??

after any match, he comes over > throws himself face down on your bed > begs for you to massage his back > sleep.

kenma kozume

nekoma student kenma — you are his personal room. leaves everything in your care if he has practice or won't be able to use his switch at all.

kenma the typa man to take years before he confesses. he has plans he cannot afford to mess up. meticulously planned plans.

when his class is over he immediately makes his way over to your class and waits until you're out.

conversations usually go like:

"hey, let's go to the gym" > "what about lunch??" > "we can send lev for lunch i dunno."

he LIVES for the way he can just not talk and yet you two would be in a comfortable silence.

uni student & gamer kenma — drives to your house so you guys can go to university together.

if your courses are different — he waits for you at the caféteria and then you guys go wandering about waiting for the next course

if your courses are the same — sits next to you and you guys end up gossiping the entire class. "oh right did you hear about lev's interview?? it was.. something..!!" #1 lev hater (he loves lev)

invites you over for "just the weekend" but you end up staying the entire week.

kageyama tobio

karasuno student kageyama — awkward. very awkward. i know you guys saw the way he freezes up at anything that's not volleyball.

"uh- damn- hi- uhm, can you help me??" yeah you gotta help him or else he can't go to the practice with seijoh to settle his beef with oikawa.

really shy?? he literally cannot form a proper sentence without having hinata's help from the sidelines. sometimes he goes mind blank while staring at you.

does he answer anyone's messages? hardly. does he answer yours? immediately.

professional volleyballer kageyama — still awkward but not as much. isn't as bold as suna but he doesn't think before speaking and just lets it out. you can be wearing rags and he'd be like "wow you look so pretty.."

has this one pic of you furiously scooping out ice-cream while wearing some powerpuff girls pajamas as his lockscreen and wallpaper.

holds your hand like his life depends. he's asleep? holds your hand. scared bc of the horror movie? holds your hand. walking into the house? holds your hand.

a cutie honestly.

bokuto kotarō

fukurodani student bokuto — he does NOT care! will let you know he likes you and will court you until you give him an answer.

likes it when you massage his head after practice but you have to restyle it ++ tries to fit you in on any trips whenever they're going to practice with nekoma/karasuno/some other school

there was this one time he walked you home since he "lives nearby" but it was like?? 6pm so your mom made him stay over. she adores him.

lets you use his volleyball jacket(?) and loves it when he sees you down the hallway wearing it. whether it's tied around your waist or you're wearing it, he loves it.

professional volleyballer bokuto — made you his personal manager. talks A LOT about you when drunk,, to the point where sakusa had to tape his mouth shut.

"yeah so like y/n's so pretty i just wish—" "please shut up bokuto."

stole one of your perfumes bc he loves your scent and cannot live a day without your scent (exaggeration but you get me).

once bokuto messages you, there is no end. he WILL tell you every little detail about his day and honestly you love it :(

he can SING. whenever you guys are driving about it turns into a karaoke session.

[jerreeeeeee]

actually its kind of crazy how little we actually see the starblaster crew interact with each other. like other than tres horny boys and each of the pairs in that trio, and like, arguably lucretia and thb, barry and lup, and lup and taako, most of the relationships between the crew are only a few lines, if anything? like obviously in-universe they're all really close and griffin says that (time enough to grow indescribably close), but there's a lot we don't see. like, taako & barry, for example, have a handful of moments, lines we can point to that show they are really close (you're my family, taako, can i speak frankly?), but as far as actual screentime, there's really very little.

and even those i mentioned before, like, lup has more screentime with barry and taako than with anyone else, there's the whole little legato monologue about her and barry's relationship and she has (comparatively) a lot of scenes with taako, but also, as a character, she's only around for maybe a sixth of the show, so there's just not a lot of time to work with?

and that's not to mention the relationships we can figure were probably present in-universe, but literally never see, like lup & davenport. and on that note, i actually can't think of any other pairs who don't interact at least once, but still, very rarely. like now i'm considering davenport & barry. who we hardly see but there is the fact that barry cast command on him to drink the ichor. it's one line in the show and the implications are never really mentioned but there's a lot of significance to be wrung out of this one tiny interaction. barry condemns lucretia's methods of stealing agency from their family in the service of the greater good, but when he thinks it's best for davenport, does the same on a smaller scale? barry doesn't have the time to try to convince him to drink, he needs davenport back to himself now, because davenport is someone dependable, a leader, someone who barry knows will be capable and decisive and relieve him of the responsibility he's been shouldering by himself? that barry knows davenport won't begrudge his use of the spell, because he'll see it as pragmatic, necessary, assistance, and forgive him for it? none of that is necessarily supported in canon but it can be extrapolated from, again, kind of a throwaway line.

the non-thb crew have presence and are important to the narrative, but most of that comes from thematic significance rather than them as individuals, you know? we hardly see lup and barry and davenport (maybe arguably lucretia too, though we see more of her than them), but we see the echoes of their decisions and their goals and their love for the rest of their family and the way they shape the story.

but actually, even that's not entirely accurate, because as significant as they are in that way, their presence isn't only due to that, they're full characters too. they have personalities and depth and connection, they're not only plot devices. like, maybe griffin needed to explain why lup was missing, and that's why she became a lich, and her needing to be a lich is why she and barry had their romance, but also, if that were all there was to it, the legato monologue wouldn't exist, the best day ever wouldn't exist. those are scenes designed to build lup as a character through her connections to other characters and to the central themes of balance, not to fix plot holes. it's just that all of that character building takes place in a pretty small fraction of the show compared to tres horny boys, who have the entire thing. idk its interesting and impressive how some of the deepest characters and most profound relationships were developed in a very short amount of time

[leikeliscomet]

Racism in the ace community is seen as a joke from the outside and a confusing concept in the inside but it's pretty bait tbh:

Barbie, Wednesday and Elsa are ace-coded but not canon aces but they're widely accepted as ace icons in the community. Lacking genitalia, disliking romance and being single are not inherently asexual yet the community happily claims them as ace solely on those reasons. But Selah Summers? Nah she actually didn't say the words "aroace" even though the director confirmed it so she didn't really count. Abbi Singh? Nah she had a girlfriend and her superpower is being a succubus and it's not like the Imperfects actually addressed the themes of an asexual lesbian South Asian woman and her sexuality or anything. Fei Hargreeves? Well yeah the actress and producer confirmed it but she never said it on screen. Ace characters of colour always get held "screened" for approval to be "real rep" in a way white aces aren't its so weird (this also happens to gay aces but that's another post)

Almost anything involving Yasmin Benoit. The reason she's unacceptable ace rep is because of misogynoir. She's spoken so many times about never dating and not having sex (which mind you is none of our business and she shouldn't need to explain herself in the 1st place) and yet she's "too sexual" to represent the community. Again with the nitpicking, popular white ace accounts were so quick to dogpile her for not-so-good takes but when she speaks about racism? Crickets. When she spoke about sexual harassment? Crickets and not only that but they defended her harasser. The main ace activists that defended her were other Black aspecs.

Not understanding how desexualisation affects POC. Specifically, Black women are excluded from representations of love and sex because we're seen as undesirable. It's common for TV/Film to pair up everyone but the Black girl, or have a rebound Black partner for the non-Black main character who's disposed of when they're ready for their "real" non-Black partner again. This isn't done for Black aspecs benefit. It's a form of dehumanisation. Friendship especially in m/f is needed but exclusively pushing for friendship between Black women and non-Black men when there is romance coded or confirmed and shaming Black women in fandom or in show for shipping the Black female character is not doing what you think its doing.

Not understanding how sexualisation effects POC. Again linking to Yasmin, POC, especially Black people have been sexualised due to white supremacy. The "allosexual privilege" framework fails to acknowledge this because Black people's sexual attraction and sex is seen as aggressive and animalistic. Black people aren't "allowed" to be ace because of this sexualisation and why Yasmin regardless of what she wears or does is seen is too promiscuous.

Not acknowledging ace POC as ace rep. Again, where was the acknowledgement of Selah and the Spades as groundbreaking rep? The first aroace darkskin Black girl as a lead in any film? Sherronda J Brown spoke about Big Mouth's Black ace character and someone said it didn't count just bc they dislike the show. Again with Abbi and Fei the community didn't make noise for them like they did Todd from Bojack Horseman or Florence from Sex Ed (mind you the gap between how they did Florence vs O is jarring in itself) Isaac from Heartstopper was inspirational for many aspecs and I wont take that away but the way he's instantly credited for ace representation when he has so little screentime compared to the others is wild.

Just tired tbh. "Listen to POC aces!" "POC aces are valid!" Prove it then...?

[princesssszzzz]

They’re trying to erase Nettles, Black Aly, and Sabitha Frey……

So…..it’s not only the hatred they have for Nettles it’s also them not wanting other female characters to outshine Rhaenyra. I don’t get how people don’t understand that cutting down other characters to prop up another only makes that character look worse and the writing is obviously weak. All 3 are badass characters are very ACTIVE in the dance. Jeyne Arryn I also consider a CANON strong willed woman, so naturally I’m sure she’ll have as little screentime as possible. If the other 2 are cut they lowkey giving their traits to Rhaenyra and they also stole Baela’s traits. One of the young Rhaenyra scenes from season 1 was ripped straight out of Baela’s interactions in Fire & Blood. It also effects the other characters that have relationships and interactions with them. Jace, Daemon, Cregan, etc. They also ruined Mysaria. She’s not mysterious, intriguing, and self serving like her character should be. They reduced her to a prop that just exist to give Rhaenyra compliments and tell her how she’s different than Aegon. This doesn’t work with Mysaria because why is the so called “champion of the people” constantly giving praise to a high born? She should lowkey be talking shit about team black and team green behind their backs. Why does Larys get to be self serving but not Mysaria? How is SHE a champion of the smallfolk when we’ve already established she has been moving her way up the ranks BEFORE the time skip and she’s wearing fancy dresses? It’s giving Varys from Temu. Nettles is the real smallfolk because the girl is homeless a a😂 so that sucks because I really was interested in Mysaria but she’s out of the question atp. They probably cut black Aly thinking it’ll take away from Nettles outrage.

The show is lowkey a fanfic I think it’s multiple writers doing this self insert thing not realizing the blowback it’s gonna bring them.

[spacerockfloater]

Hi, I just wanted to say that I wholeheartedly agree with your recent post. It really bothers me how the fandom, especially those who are supposed to be green fans, are turning on Aemond. Don't get me wrong, I loathe the way they handled his character this season, but it's really interesting how for the last two years we had to listen Aegon stans complain about him being ruined by bad writing. Yet, they never turned on him. He was just the writers' victim, according to them (which isn't untrue). However, those same people (you saw it in the replies) are unwilling to extend the same courtesy to Aemond when he's being treated even worse by the writers for the whole f**king season, all that without having a decent amount of screentime or an actual POV (unlike Aegon who actually got a much better material this season). I guess these fans only "liked" Aemond while he was what Aegon thought of him, "a loyal hound he could set against his foes and who knows his place". Double standards much? Let's get this straight, I hate what they did with RR and Aemond burning Aegon is another dirty trick of the writers in order to divide the green fandom. Apparently, TG fans are unfortunately eating it all up. Nevertheless, it's not the reason the greens are in a bad situation because we saw that Aegon and Sunfyre wouldn't be of much help in battle anyway. Sunfyre could go against dragons like Vermax and Moondancer, but that's it. And Aegon is not a great warrior or a leader. Therefore, just like you said, Aemond can't fight alone so him asking Helaena to join with her big ass dragon isn't unreasonable. Yes, she isn't violent and doesn't want to burn anyone, but nether is Rhaena and I can bet she'll get the Nettles arc, ride the dragon and burn things.. So why does everyone treat Helaena as a little fragile house pet? Aemond is right, she can't defend herself and they would tear her apart. But no, he's also in the wrong here (showing him being violent towards Helaena is so OOC I won't even comment on it). And don't get me started on Alicent. She practically betrayed her faction twice, in ep 3 when she let Rhaenyra go. And she could have ended the war there and then, even before RR. Now she goes to Dragonstone to tell Rhaenyra she'll open the gates for her and this is framed as a good thing because her son is awful and she just wants to save her daughter? Yeah, no. However, Alicent is also defended, it's all on Aemond now, he is the evil villain ™. Aegon can be forgiven , Alicent can be forgiven, but Aemond can't? It's ridiculous. The worst thing is that I'm saying this as someone who has loved Alicent and all her children since s1.

THANK YOU SO FUCKING MUCH FOR THIS!

You’ve done it, you’ve said exactly what I have been thinking!

I wish I had something of substance to add to what you said, but I don’t. This needs to be a post of its own.

Aegon was treated horribly by the show. I am a huge fan of his. But now they’re doing the same thing to Aemond and he doesn’t deserve that shit.

Aemond is all that left of the Greens.

This show has butchered every single TG character.

[formyloveoflove]

Characters I Would've Liked to See More than the Faks in S3

I learned too fak'ing much about that family in S3. I loved the Faks in S2. Their increased screentime felt like an over-compensation. Much of the comedy that I loved in S1 came from the staff interactions. The feeling of an ensemble was truly missed for me.

But without further ado and in no particular order-

1. Marcus

Marcus Brooks, I am so sorry that the writers didn't give your story the necessary space it truly needed. You were the only child of a single mother, and you watched her die. I wish we could've seen more of your grief. The little glimpses we saw - your eulogy speech, the way you were inspired to make a dish to honor her, and your thinking about legacy - were so beautiful, but it felt like it had no place to breathe.

The glossing over this tragic loss, the fumbling of showcasing Black Catholic influences (sidenote: did you know that Chicago is home to the biggest African American Catholic population), and the diminishing of his grief were some lows of the season. I would've loved to see more of Marcus dealing with the loss of a parent because no matter how "prepared" you are, that shit will knock you off your feet.

2. Sweeps

If we needed a break from the melancholy of the main plot, I would've loved to see Mr. Gary “Sweeps” Woods go to wine school. It could've been in clips, similar to Tina going to culinary school in S2. Some comedic slip-ups, or maybe somebody else recognized him from his baseball days, or maybe he messed around and got too drunk. Better yet: he and some fellow sommelier get drunk. We've seen this character for three seasons, and we barely see him.

I did enjoy his monologue in Legacy and thought it was very fitting.

3. Manny and Angel

I remember seeing them for a split second in the 30-minute montage S3 E3 "Doors." They are truly the unsung heroes, and it would be good to see them for some comic relief. Maybe they're pranksters? Maybe they could've been the reason the teaspoons and forks were missing. Or maybe they could've been tasked with counting how many come through.

What's their dynamic? What are their personalities? Three seasons, and they feel like cameos.

4. Thee Adamus

One of the things that I wanted from S3 was some more Sydney's mom, and while I was delighted to see she has her mom as her lock screen, I wanted more. I love Syd's dynamic with her Dad whose unyielding support can come off a little worrisome to his baby girl. But Dreamer! Daughter x Practical! Father hits close to home for me. And the Adamus have a healthier relationship with loss and grief, and I want to know more about that process.

When I say more of the Adamus, I mean I want to see why and how Sydney became Sydney. I wanted to see their family dynamics. Why does Syd like to cook? Why is Syd avoidant?

Plus, this was a season about mothers, goshdarnit. More mother content, please.

5. Ebra

Ebra is so funny to me. Like I'm begging on my knees for more Ebra content. He's so cryptic and genuine in a way that only older Black men sharing snapshots of their trauma are. In S1, he's very attentive when it comes to the younger staff members, like when he was sensitive to Marcus gaining confidence in his skills and when he read Sydney's review for the whole kitchen to see.

One of my critiques of S2 was that they just let Ebra fall by the waistside. They didn't fully commit to his journey to accepting change as an older professional. This season, we barely got him at all. I would've had him at least show up to Syd's party. Maybe even via Facetime with the camera all up his nose because he doesn't understand the mechanics just yet.

[autistic-robin]

more dynamics i need to see in st5 for my mental wellbeing

1. el and dustin. that’s it send post. they were genuinely so sweet in season 1 and i miss their mad scientist/test subject vibe immensely. i know el and lucas are going to be paired up this season because of their shared connection (polyamory) to max, but i would love to see more scenes between dustin and el— maybe some lighthearted bonding over their matching leg injuries or daddy issues.

2. mike and robin. i don’t think you understand i need this like i need air. will has already had his gay awakening he doesn’t need a queer life coach!! mike on the other hand is out here in the TRENCHES. this man is down critically horrendously morifyingly BAD for will but is convinced el needs him and that will could never reciprocate his feelings. he needs robin’s gay intuition and advice if anyone does.

3. steve and jonathan. HELLO??? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HELLO???? i know this is pretty much guaranteed to happen in st5 because full-circle character development and hammering in themes and blah blah blah but i’m still gonna talk about it because listen. steve got his shit rocked by jonathan one (1) time and immediately decided “fuck my idiot friends” developed a moral conscience and SHOWED UP AT HIS HOUSE to apologize. he wasn’t there for nancy he had no idea nancy was there!!! he bought jonathan a new camera!!! he was so respectful of nancy and jon even when nancy dumped his ass a season later!!! yet we never get closure between him and jonathan or even a conversation and i’m PISSED about it. matt and ross duffer rectify this or else.

4. hopper and jonathan and will. you see the vision. these kids have never had a stable father figure who truly understands them (i love bob but he was only there for st2 and was sweet but naive) and everything they’ve been through. jonathan DESPERATELY needs to be de-parentified and released from the emotional burden of constantly putting will and joyce before his own needs and dreams, and hopper desperately needs to feel like he can protect his family instead of “cursing” them. will needs a loving father figure who supports his queer identity, and hopper only had a fire lit under him in s1 when joyce mentioned it could have been a hate crime. this is like textbook recipe for healing and closure for these characters.

5. joyce and karen? i just think it would be neat. we know karen’s getting more involved this season and i think she should get to be a little gay for joyce as a treat. we had crumbs of their dynamic in s1 and on a more sincere note i honestly think joyce could help give karen the courage to leave ted or demand better from him moving forward.

6. nancy and mike. if they don’t have a genuine conversation i’ll actually be fuming raging pulling my hair out. i get it i get that they’re both emotionally repressed but GOD i wish we had more moments with them talking about their trauma or empathizing with each other’s survivor’s guilt and crippling savior complexes. all the “max and mike are the same character in a different font” business is very valid and i agree madwheeler is like ten shots of espresso injected directly into the bloodstream HOWEVER, nancy and mike’s traumas and emotional issues are so so similar please let them talk about it!!!!

7. steve and robin???? please for the love of god????? literally what the fuck was happening in s4 they were NOT given enough screentime together. not cool. i want them BACK on their queerplatonic bullshit in s5, fully codependent disgustingly clingy like god intended.

8. jonathan and el. i just want them to be siblings together!!! we got a lot of willel sibling vibes in s4 and some sweet jon-and-will moments, but i would love for them to delve into jonathan and el’s dynamic. this girl is a big reason why will was saved in s1 and we just… never really see the byerses address that? jonathan has a lottt of self-blaming tendencies when it comes to will and i’d love for el to help remind him he isn’t responsible for protecting and saving his brother all the time. conversely, i’d love for jonathan to remind el that she’s just a kid and that the weight of the world shouldn’t be on her shoulders. they’re both really soft-spoken and sweet characters with hard veneers and i feel like they’d pair well together for more emotional scenes.

9. literally the entire byers-hopper family they are the heart and soul of the show and i will never forgive the duffer brothers for losing that in s3-4 in favor of expanding the scope of the story. i miss them.

10. steve and el. i would maim and kill for this dynamic actually. both of them are involved in love triangles and have arcs centered around independency and platonic/found familial love, and steve has his whole mom-of-the-group shtick that could be really endearing paired with el’s plucky weird-little-girl vibe. idk i just think they would be a cute team, maybe paired with dustin or lucas.

11. stoncy and robin. literally give me this team or give me death. i miss stoncy’s iconic end-of-season-1 monster-hunting trio dynamic SO MUCH i would give anything for them to go on a sidequest and really just hash it all out with each other. and robin could offer steve moral support and comic relief— while we’re on the subject i would also kill to see her and jonathan interact!! like they are so similar in that brooding-noncomformist way and i feel like they would either immediately gravitate toward each other based on values OR immediately clash due to their personality differences. jonathan is all quiet and avoidant and robin can be… A Lot (said with love) when she’s not masking like s3. i just think they’d be funny together.

12. this is devolving quickly so scott clarke and the party. no i will not elaborate. thank you for your time