#I mostly compiled these for fun and because I got curious

[galaxiesovertrees]

aventurine‘s eidolon names and possible references/symbolism they include :

( eidolon names include links to corresponding wikipedia pages. it isn’t the best source but it explains these concepts more in detail than I did ! )

e1 - prinsoner‘s dilemma - a thought experiment in which 2 parties, the titular prisoners, must both make the choice of either trusting the other and not betraying them for mutual benefit or choose not to trust the other and betray them for individual benefit

e2 - bounded rationality - a decision making process defined by trying to achieve something that is just good enough, rather than something wholly satisfactory

e3 - droprate maxing - I couldn’t find a definitive reference to anything here, it might just be a nod to aventurine‘s luck or something along those lines

e4 - unexpected hanging paradox - a paradox wherein a person is told that an event will occur in the future but isn’t told the time of said event. this could be a reference to the role aventurine plays in the penacony tbq and his views on the inevitability of his own death

e5 - ambiguity aversion - ambiguity aversion is the tendency to prefer the known over the unknown. notably, taking known risks over unknown ones. this is most likely a nod to how aventurine is known as a risk taker and could shed insight on how he chooses the risks he takes

e6 - stag hunt game - the stag hunt game is similar to the prisoner‘s dilemma idea. two hunters can either catch one hare individually or catch a stag if they work together. the hare hunt offers less risk and need for trust while the stag hunt offers more reward

#please let me know if there’s anything I forgot ! #or if you have any criticism ! #I mostly compiled these for fun and because I got curious #if there’s any requests I might do more characters ! :] #// #textpost // #theory // #( kind of ) #fandom // #hsr // #hsr #honkai star rail #hsr aventurine #aventurine #aventurine honkai star rail #kakavasha

[saelterlude]

Don't mind me just compiling my favorite lc musical clips so I don't lose them. No particular order. pt.1 (pt.2, pt.3, pt.4, pt.5, pt.6 here)

(Mostly fullcam fancam because I prefer those to focused fancams)

24/01/2024, Ji Xiaokun's birthday, very cute and wholesome, Guo Hongxu got very excited introducing him

5/12/2023, Shu Rongbo and Du Guangyi singing the sofa song together

15/01/2024, Ji Xiaokun tries hogging the sofa, Guo Hongxu and Cai Lu disagrees

29/12/2023, I mostly like this one bcs its zoomed out and you can see how the room spins but if you're curious, it's also the one where Shu Rongbo drags Wu Yihan to the couch

13/01/2024 noon, I found their first performance a bit stiff so it kinda catches me off-guard when on their 2nd perf Wang Yifei slaps Zhu Hanbin's ass

22/12/2023, short one of Wang Minhui hating on a bubble gun

21/11/2023, Xian Donyue yeets Shu Rongbo across the room

30/11/2023, Overthink and Dive Back in Time special performance by Fan Ka and 白鲨Jaws. Also, Teng Chunpeng being hyper

28/11/2023, Ding Xingchen being cute, also he shared some smol kicks and punches with Du Guangyi

28/11/2023, same performance as the above but extended and fullcam, DXC, DGY and Li Zexi shares some funny high-fives, also it's Qian Anqi's birthday.

15/11/2023, Cai Lu introducing the cast after "Qiao Ling Jie save mee" -Guo Hongxu, also Ji Xiaokun is being cute here

23/11/2023, Wang Minhui focused but offscreen, Cai Qi is really having fun singing Dive Back in Time

07/01/2024 noon, have I mentioned how much I love that Cai Qi and Wang Minhui now plays their rock paper scissors legit? They got genuinely frustrated over it and it's funny

21/01/2024 noon, Ji Xiaokun and Deng Xianling armwrestling. Also Deng Xianling struggles reaching the table bcs Ji Xiaokun's dramatic ass pushes the sofa

26/01/2024, Zhu Hanbin focused but I'm just happy I finally found a Jing Yanqiao clip

31/12/2023 night, was hesitant to include this one bcs Wu Yihan was having a hard time, but he did still great and that should be appreciated

17. 24/12/2023 noon, Shu Rongbo and Wu Yihan being cute with the plushies. Also Shu Rongbo accidentally stabbed himself with Xian Dongyue's headband

18. 22/01/2024, Guo Hongxu gotta forcefully remove Shu Rongbo's leg off his. Also Shu Rongbo's laugh when he won rock paper scissor pls he's so cute

19. 30/12/2023 noon, Du Guangyi looks so happy poisoning Shu Rongbo

20. 11/11/2023, the first ever. Wang Minhui and Cai Qi still did the tutting facing each other

21. 25/01/2024, have this one of Cao Muzhi looking very dazed and out of it at first for some reason. Also Zhu Hanbin gotta change the dialogue a bit bcs he unexpectedly won with rock instead of paper

22. 15/01/2024, Guo Hongxu flustered bcs of Ji Xiaokun with a professional camera

I will add more to this list as they come, probably semi-frequently. Especially since Cao Muzhi's birthday is tomorrow so I wanna search a clip of that, as well as one of Bai Zhuoming bcs how come I have none of him? And of Fu Xiangan as soon as he debuts.

Also thank you to @chocolatexiaoshi for helping me complete the schedules!

#link click #link click musical #just a list of clips #i would tag each actors but theres a lot and its 1am #so imma add that later lol #lol finally adding the other tags #cai qi #cao muzhi #shu rongbo #ji xiaokun #wang yifei #teng chunpeng #ding xingchen #jing yanqiao #guo hongxu #zhu hanbin #wu yihan #wang minhui #du guangyi #xian dongyue #deng xianling #cai lu #qian anqi #lc musical list

[fandomfluffandfuck]

As promised I am back with my Top 5 Evanstan (thots) posts from your blog :3c I am once again encouraging everyone to share their faves bc I am nosey and curious what kinks ppl flock to when they congregate here 👀 I'm not as articulate as I'd like to be but just know that I've read these and enjoyed them quite a lot, lol

https://www.tumblr.com/fandomfluffandfuck/692070851740352512/im-sorry-but-ever-since-the-premierewhite-pants

^ this one, chris getting eaten out is 🔥🔥🔥🔥 seb is soooo damn lucky my goddd i wish i could that ass myself lmao

https://fandomfluffandfuck.tumblr.com/post/695694006195224576/request-chrisseb-discovering-the-pleasures-of

^ ughhh fingering is my weakness? and the diff povs?? thank u n bless u for the povs 😩 i love how chris' inexperience is described and how mindblowing it was for him to cum on his own fingers fuck yes

https://www.tumblr.com/fandomfluffandfuck/715988350779129856/lazy-drunk-thinking-of-chris-just-sending-seb-the

^ i'm weak to every post that mentions chris' tits, and the exhibitionism? the sexting?? oh god yes pls the horniness is off the charts + seb deserves to get his hands on those tits 💯🙏

https://www.tumblr.com/fandomfluffandfuck/729306925254295552/stucky-or-evanstan-knot-worship-just-those

^ oh fuckkkk chris didn't even get to split seb wide open in this one but it sure felt like it 😩😩😩 i always love how detailed you write their fantasies, it's like getting fucked twice over 🥴

https://www.tumblr.com/fandomfluffandfuck/736556423124844544/i-was-thinking-about-big-sub-steve-in-pretty

^ the plug + the grinding + those damn panties... i'm dead. you've killed me with this combo 😵 ngl seb fingering himself took me out but the rest.... w o o f, 10/10 would enjoy again

https://www.tumblr.com/fandomfluffandfuck/731212368931127296/httpswwwtumblrcomhiwitch76340626481-just

+ this one, full disclosure i'm this anon lol so it's super extra hot to me :)c i think we can all agree that seb needs to have a hot dentist boyfriend that's willing to indulge in his oral fixation, yes? just imagining another scene where they're already together and they do a lil bit of roleplay where seb gets to sit on a chair again and give into his urge to suck on those fingers.... 🙊

...anyway that's it from me haha, thank u for dragging me into evanstan! it's been an amazing ride and i hope to see all your other (horny) anons again next year :) <3

related to this

Hi again, sweetheart! It's good to hear from you again. I'm so intrigued by this topic, lol, especially because I forget what I write constantly, and yes, it's really fun to know what people enjoy most!

In order of what was presented in the ask 😘

1. Chris gets rimmed by Sebastian

Lmao, I think everyone wants to see that ass, well, more of it than we already have 😏

Aw, I'm always glad to exploit a weakness 😘

2. Sebastian and Chris fingering themselves for the first time

Oooh, yes! I really enjoyed writing that one, mostly because I got to visualize the entire thing... everything about Chris is my weakness, but especially his chest and open flannel shirts framing those tits.

3. Chris sending Seb drunk tit pictures

4. Evanstan omegaverse knot worship

Thanks! I love those details so, so much

5. Chris in pretty clothes

You're welcome, and I will happily take responsibility for planning your funeral.

6. Sebastian getting examined by dentist Chris

Haha, I love knowing that! Well, it's good to know you're not new around these parts 😘 but, definitely, yes. That's exactly what he deserves, he deserves to get his needs met roleplay and all. That roleplay would be so, so fun for them.

I'm so glad you're into evanstan now!! It's always a pleasure (ha) to drag people further into depravity with me. Thank you so much for taking the time to compile this and send it to me! I really, really appreciate it <3

I hope you have a good new year, the clock has yet to strike 12 where I am, lol.

#asks #chris evans #sebastian stan #evanstan #rpf #real person fanfiction #fandomfluffandfuck #lovely people

[6nimus9]

I'm new here , so let me ask , who's rain ?!

Basically. /Nini, no

Because this would be a lot of drawing if I tried to explain stuff about him, I hope you don't mind I do it in text below with some links if you're interested in more depth ✨

Rain is an amalgamation of three main people, which are Papyrus, Sans, and Frisk! Although he is his own person.

A funny comparison I could give is for Steven Universe fans. You know fusions are a mix of people, and are influenced by these people but work as an individual, yeah? That'd be like. Minus the fact he cannot separate!

There was an 'accident' in his world, which would be a normal UT Underground, and because of that he happened and his world broke.

I don't know if I'll get to do an actual comic, or I'll keep it as asks for fun and tell bits of the story (My interactions with him are not canon, of course), or if I'll do little comics to explain important things since I'm mostly busy right now and in the near future... But I'll surely be doing things with him, slowly but surely!

I've got a Masterpost that is compilating a lot of asks and similar for now, so if you're curious about other things, feel free to check!

Thanks anyone who took the time to read and you for sending an ask, I appreciate it 💕

#Ask Nini #undertale #dt!rain #undertale oc #damaged tale

[actualaster]

Okay, I got curious about how the "lloyd shipping dynamics" pie chart got broken down since I knew there were more Lloyd ships than just those in that specific chart, so I decided to check it out for myself. Wondered if maybe they didn't have any fic on AO3, or if there was some other reason to exclude them (plenty of reasons for that depending on the type of data you wanna look at--like if you only look at pairs not trios, or if you only want to know about ships that have more that one fic and such)

I did try to do a pie chart but no matter what I did, some fics just... Never were displayed because it could only display so many entries (especially when they were tiny %) that the smallest slices just.. Got excluded. I tried.

I was also curious how it would break down if you took into account the fact that ship tags are not mutually exclusive and thus fics can have multiple ship tags on them. Why are there two sets of numbers here? The first is "the % calculated comparing the ships to the fics. The second is pure ships. Basically first being "this is what % of the fics are tagged with these ships" the second is "this is what % of the total ships each one makes up".

Anyway, the data and some extra details about what data was collected and how and such below the cut.

Basic takeaways: Colloyd, Zelloyd, and Kralloyd are the Top 3, but Lloyd gets shipped around a bit, with 10 different canonical character's he's shipped with (either via a single pairing or as part of a trio) and several OC ship fics. Popular guy!

First breakdown, what % of the surveyed fics are tagged with each ship?

Colette: 55.30%

Zelos: 33.06%

Kratos: 6.03%

Sheena: 2.08%

Genis: 1.66%

Colette/Lloyd/Zelos: 1.66%

Yuan: 0.83%

Kvar: 0.62%

OC: 0.62%

Colette/Lloyd/Genis: 0.42%

Lloyd/Sheena/Zelos: 0.42%

Genis/Lloyd/Mithos: 0.21%

Kratos/Lloyd/Yuan: 0.21%

Lilia: 0.21%

Lloyd/OC/Sheena: 0.21%

Lloyd/OC/Zelos: 0.21%

Presea: 0.21%

Second breakdown, what % of the total ships does each one represent?

Colette: 53.2%

Zelos: 31.8%

Kratos: 5.8%

Sheena: 2.0%

Genis: 1.6%

Colette/Lloyd/Zelos: 1.6%

Yuan: 0.8%

Kvar: 0.6%

OC: 0.62%

Colette/Lloyd/Genis: 0.4%

Lloyd/Sheena/Zelos: 0.4%

Genis/Lloyd/Mithos: 0.22%

Kratos/Lloyd/Yuan: 0.2%

Lilia: 0.2%

Lloyd/OC/Sheena: 0.2%

Lloyd/OC/Zelos: 0.2%

Presea: 0.2%

I'd be curios how this would change if I included data from sites like FFN, honestly. Or even if I could find some old archives with ToS fic, or maybe DA, or possibly even Wattpad? Mostly because I wonder how many ships I'd find that didn't make it to AO3 (there's at least one lloyd/mithos fic on FFN, for example). However the sheer amount of work that would be to compile the data across multiple sites and try to correct for cross-posting gives me a headache just thinking about so. Lol nope, not happening.

Moving on to info about the data collection, and such...

First up, some base info on the data gathered:

481 fics total, 500 tagged ships total.

All from AO3

Data taken as of March 10th, 2023. Uh... Let's say 7am, -6GMT.

Data was gathered manually by going through AO3's entire 1,461 and manually tallying things up. (Including repeated checks to make sure no new or updated fic posting messed with stuff)

By this I mean "I had a sheet of paper and color-coded the tally marks as I went so I could check every 10 pages that I was getting everything I wanted to include and my math was adding up

(...I still have the feeling I overlooked a few but at this point I've spent way too much time on this already for an informal survey so.)

Counting by hand ensured that I didn't overlook ships for not thinking about them (Kvar/Lloyd, a few of the trio combinations).

(Fun story: I discovered that the Lloyd/Lilia tag, if you click on it, points to the Lloyd/OC tag which is incorrect. For those who don't know, Lilia is a canonical minor character from Dawn of the New World, the sequel game. In DotNW it's revealed that Lloyd proposed to her. It makes some sense in context but yes it's still weird, and yes the fandom had an understandable fuss about it at the time. Also, yes people are still annoyed by it.)

ANYWAY. Moving on from that... For a fic to be included, it needed to meet the following two criteria

Ship must be tagged in the relationships field. So adding a ship in the additional tags field would not get it counted.

Ship was a romantic and/or sexual pairing.

Some additional notes on that:

Ship was marked as implied, mentioned, or any other indication it was not a major focus but was still tagged in the relationship field: included

Ship was indicated as one-sided: included

Ship included a ship event (e.g. a ship week) but did not include a ship tag in the relationship field: excluded

Additional tags made it ambiguous if the author intended for a fic to be considered romantic, sexual, familial, and/or platonic: excluded

Furthermore, no fic was excluded due to content--so you have the fluff-fests and the fucked up darkfic all included in the above data.

Honestly if I were to do something like this again I did learn several things that would make it go smoother, but at this point I have spent over 30 hours over the last... IDK, 2.5 days or so? on what started as idle curiosity because my brain got locked into an obsession spiral and refused to let me drop it so I'm not going to go through and try to do this again anytime soon. At least not unless it's for a fandom with a hell of a lot less fic lol.

Anyway, based on my own data stuff I assume that OP of the pie chart actually used ships for their sample size, not fics because that was the only way I was able to get close to reproducing their results when looking at those ships only? Not something that matters much in this case, however--they did their math based on ships and it all checked out so.

#tales of symphonia #lloyd irving #shipping #lengthy post #sorry no fancy pie chart everything i tried kept eating a few of the ships #tos #anyway that's enough math for the year now i think

[wayward-aeon]

Hey hello!! Im pretty sure Ive seen you around via divine-elixer's post notes, and Ive popped in and out of your blog for the past few months, and Ive been super curious about how you practice "pop culture paganism" bc Ive kinda wanted to get into sth similiar?

I have lots of fun religious trauma from childhood into adulthood and so i was like, fuck it, we ball, im making a new religion -- but im unsure where to start, but I want to incorporate my kintypes into it (aka, Ganyu having a Morax/Exuvia statuette/shrine).

Im also lumine, so like, *waves from the other side of the reality barrier* same hat meme

Anyway, you dont gotta answer if you dont feel comfy, but I'd just like some vague sense of how you go about your practices to see if any of that appeals to what Id want to create or partake in if that makes sense.

♡♡♡ Have a good one!!! ♡♡♡

- @laputian-lilies (kin blog is @twin-wishing-stars )

hi!! i'm always happy to get messages from fellow gen/shin folk!!!

before anything else, sorry for the delayed response! also, this might get long it got really fucking long, so i'm putting it under a cut.

pop culture paganism is great precisely because it can really be anything you want or need it to be. this makes it really great for those who struggle with religious trauma, or have other aspects of life that interfere with more "mainstream" religious practice (mental illness, disability, simple lack of spare time, etc) because if there's anything you don't want to or can't include, just toss it. you're perfectly welcome to compile all the theoretically enjoyable and comforting things about religion and leave the rest on the curb.

ultimately, your practice will be entirely yours. there's no wrong or right way to do it, as long as it works for you.

for me, as fictionkind, a big part of what makes PCP so appealing is being able to feel more connected to the other worlds i've been, lives i've led, and the people i've met along the way. like, a "no need to be homesick if some of home is still with me" kind of thing.

talking specifically in the context of gen/shin, although i definitely wouldn't consider myself a devotee of the archons, some of them were very dear to me. giving them a sort of platonic reverence, more akin to friends sharing drinks around a bar than a worshipper offering libations, helps me feel connected to them. i do also still acknowledge the power they have, so i might invite them to share it with me in times of need.

as an example, one thing i did as an experiment a while back was draft a couple modified versions of the lesser ritual of the pentagram. these were made in tribute to barb/atos and mor/ax, and in place of the angels or divine names, they called upon the Four Winds and the yaksha, respectively. i haven't used either of them in practice, mostly because frankly i don't have much of a practice to speak of these days (thanks, shitty mental health), but i have complete confidence in their effectiveness just by virtue of my trust in the beings to whom they're dedicated.

this is the part where i interrupt myself to say that i recommend anyone interested in PCP reads a bit about chaos magic. chaos magic is all about the power of belief, and there's a heavy emphasis on individuality and carving one's own path, so their resources and anecdotes can be very helpful to us pop culture practitioners building our own systems from scratch.

anyway, i also like incorporating aspects of technopaganism into my personal practice. a big part of this is virtual shrines and temples! i've been playing a lot of minecraft recently, and creative games like this are perfect for building little temples or tributes to any entity you may acknowledge. there's no need to worry about not having enough space or not being able to afford materials, and they never need to be cleaned. i also adore the sort of shrines you might find on folks' personal webpages, and i'd like to make one for myself when i get around to making my neocities page.

this is something we as gen/shin fictionkind have a foot ahead in, because between our personal teapots and the many religiously significant areas in the game itself, we always have a lot of ways to immerse ourselves and connect directly to the object(s) of our devotion. i don't want to call him out, because he doesn't consider himself religious, but a fellow sourcemate regularly offers incense to the temple of pervases, which i think is a perfect example of this. for me personally, i like to sit in the hands of the barb/atos statue in mond/stadt when i'm feeling down, or need to ground myself, or i just want to feel close.

i would eventually like to incorporate more personally significant things into my physical space, but that means spending money, and i'm forever broke, lmao

in terms of more "traditional" worship, pop culture gods are no different from any other god. you can pray to them, give them offerings, ask them for aid, perform ritual and divination in their name, anything that feels right for you!

other than all that, i guess the biggest thing for me is just acknowledging that, even if i may be far from home physically, i will always have a spiritual connection to the places and people that matter to me. i still see them in my dreams, i still hear them in whispers on the wind. and i know they can hear me, too.

i think that's all i have to say. forgive me if its disjointed or not very coherent at times, i'm very scatterbrained these days. thank you for the ask, and i wish you luck on your journey!

#i feel like i rambled on way too much lmfao #i hope this is still helpful...?

[heloflor]

Cartters and why it grew on me as the show went on

Aka “A recap/analysis of the evolution of Cartman and Butters’ friendship, mostly seen from Cartman’s angle, and why it eventually led me to ship Cartters despite their incredibly rocky beginning,” but that’s too long of a title.

THIS POST WAS WRITTEN BEFORE “STREAMING WARS” CAME OUT. AS OF YET, I HAVEN’T WATCHED THOSE SPECIALS SO NO MENTION OF THEIR EVENTS WILL OCCUR. Let’s see how well this post aged in the span of one special, shall we ?

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Tl;Dr : Like every Cartman relationship, his friendship with Butters is a very interesting relationship to explore, especially on Cartman’s side given how much he grew to appreciate the blond and let him get close to him, on top of slowly learning how to be a “decent” friend to him, leading to them becoming best friends starting with S17.

Though, the relationship still has tons of baggage from all the trauma Cartman subjected Butters to. And while Cartman has been shown to become a better friend towards Butters, it does leave the question of how much is Cartman capable of changing for a friend and, as a result, how healthy can their friendship become.

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First things first, as said in this post, I’ve known South Park for years, watched the full show almost two years ago and recently got back into the fandom as a lurker, looking up meta.

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So, when I got back into South Park two years ago, I found myself starting to ship St//yle and Cartters (and for some reason I really like those relationships as one-sided, or as I like to call it “Stan and Cartman pining after straight guys” but that’s not the topic here).

While the former didn’t surprise me since I love the “best friends to lovers” trope, the latter really did. I mean, I don’t like Ky//man due to how abusive it is, and yet here am I shipping Cartman with the kid he had tortured the most throughout the show.

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Although, I actually don’t want Cartters to be canon, or at least not now. I’d much rather see them focus on growing a healthy friendship, or at least as healthy as someone like Cartman is capable of, before even considering the idea of a romance.

Fun fact about that actually : when I got into SP back then, I didn’t look up Cartters stuff because I felt weird about shipping it. But back in February, when the interest for the show came back, I jumped right into that ship.

And after seeing many posts about this relationship + thinking about it a bit, I realized that they do have a meaningful relationship (that has no right being this wholesome for someone like Cartman but I digress). That’s what we’re going to talk about here.

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Btw, I hope I’m not stepping on anyone’s toes with this post since I don’t intend to actively participate in the fandom…

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This post will be cut in three main parts :

Firstly, the evolution of their relationship throughout the show, specifically how Cartman grew fond of Butters, with a few precisions on some episodes. This part is the longest and literally makes for about half the post

Secondly, a few words about what I interpret their sexualities to be, in particular talking about Cartman and his obsessive behavior.

Finally, what the two currently think of each other with a few ideas on how their friendship can develop + one last part about my opinion on other Cartman and Butters ships in case people are curious.

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Oh yeah and because I don’t want to make too many SP posts, some stuff won’t be that related to the topic but it’s still stuff I wanted to infodump about. So expect this post to be a bit off-topic at times.

Btw, a lot of stuff here was already said by other blogs before, but I still wanted to “compile” all I learned about these two and their relationship, on top of adding my own views on it.

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Have a Google Doc version since it’s probably much easier to read

VERY, VERY LONG POST AHEAD ! I’m talking close to 20k words !

(Oh and for those asking, the dots in-between paragraphs are due to my blog theme doing weird shit with spaces. Since this post would be way too bothersome to read without spaces, I’m not taking chances.)

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1. The evolution of their friendship

  Alright so, despite being a show that prides itself on comedy and satire first and foremost, South Park has quite some character development there and there (Stan and Kyle’s friendship, the 4th grade going from the whole class being bullies to only two of them, stuff like that). And one of the things that evolved is the relationship between Cartman and Butters, which was also impacted by Butters’ own character development.

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Speaking of which, a quick side-note about Butters’ character development to make it shorter afterwards (yes we’re starting off with something off-topic, that’s how much this post derails 😓) :

- In seasons 1-3, Butters was a non character. He was just prop that could be used there and there. Sometimes he was a bully, sometimes a victim. His name wasn’t even Butters back then.

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- Season 4 and especially season 5 is when Butters’ personality started to take form, with him being at the bottom of the social ladder, being viewed as the lamest kid in class and being bullied by everyone else.

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- Seasons 6-11 are basically the “Butters torture” seasons, with Butters being the punching bag of the show and always getting in trouble or suffering due to others. We could see him try to stand his ground there and there, but he always immediately fell back to being compliant. A good example of that is the phone call in “Majo//rine”.

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- Seasons 12-15 is when Butters starts standing up to himself, with the best examples being “Butters Bottom Bitch” and “Super Fun Time”. He’s still a victim that gets taken advantage of by the others, but he’s slowly growing. He’s also starting to be more of a douche/bully like in “The List”.

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- Season 16, more specifically “Butterballs” and “Going Native” is when Butters became the kid we now know him to be. A gentle and sweet kid who’s also an unhinged piece of shit that can go apeshit at any point. He’s also the only bully the grade has left along with Cartman, and grew to be quite the corrupted businessman. Like, compare him trying to do telemarketing in “Kenny Dies” (S5) to his ability to copy Cartman’s tone perfectly in “Go Fund Yourself” (S18).

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Now, onto the relationship between the two :

So, when the show started, their relationship was absolutely horrendous, there’s no denying that. Cartman was constantly messing with Butters for shit and giggles and got the kid tortured and almost killed quite a handful of times. Seriously, if I were to make a “top 10 worst things Cartman has ever done”, most spots would absolutely be stuff related to Butters (not the first 3-4 spots tho. Stuff like using Cthulhu, the Tenorman incident or the therapist’s wife murder are in my eyes much worse, especially the Cthulhu stuff).

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At that time though, there are already three notable things about Cartman :

1. The way he’s constantly thinking about messing with Butters specifically, plus the way he always seeks his help despite having kids like Clyde who’s just as easy to manipulate, does show that Cartman already had an unhealthy obsession with the kid. Yeah, Kyle isn’t the only one Cartman’s obsessed with.

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2. While I don’t consider “Awesome-O” to be a Cartters episode per say (Cartman was only being nice out of desperation for the tape, Butters had no idea it was Cartman and expressed anger towards the kid at the beginning), it is worth noting that Cartman never tries to get back at Butters for showing the tape to everyone.

And yes, the show doesn’t have that big of a continuity, but Cartman doesn’t even threaten Butters about it at the end of the episode. He just accepts defeat, as if capable of feeling some sort of “respect” when someone is doing something vengeful and clever, at least enough respect not to get revenge for it.

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3. In “Douche and Turd”, there’s that moment when the kids are in the gymnasium and Cartman insults Kyle, with Butters quickly parroting Cartman’s words before the two share a glance. In that scene, Cartman raises an eyebrow while smiling, as if thinking “I can use this”.

Makes me wonder if this is the moment Cartman realized Butters would always help him with his schemes, hence why he started latching onto that kid instead of asking any other gullible kid.

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Then, a few seasons later, we get to “The Death of Eric Cartman”, the episode with the ending that made me go “sigh…I’m going to start shipping these two, aren’t I…?” (although, despite seeing potential, I was barely into the ship at that point)

In this episode, Cartman thinks he’s dead because everyone is ignoring him, but Butters didn’t get the memo. As a result, the two spend the whole day together with Butters helping Cartman “move on”.

By the end of it, there’s that speech Cartman gives Butters about how the two of them became friends. And while Cartman immediately takes it back upon realizing he’s alive, it doesn’t change the fact that he seemed sincere when he gave that speech.

As a result, it really feels like this episode was the key moment when Cartman realized Butters isn’t that bad and can be kind of fun to be around. It feels like it’s past that point that Cartman starts softening up, at least a little bit.

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Following on this, you have “Smug Alert”, in which Cartman ends up trusting Butters with his life…sorta. Cartman goes into San Francisco with Butters being his only contact and way out, trusting Butters to pull him back once he reaches Kyle.

Btw, about that, can we take a second to appreciate Butters in this episode ? No because we always talk about Cartman saving Kyle, but not only did Butters help as well, he was just as much in danger as the two when the storm hit ! And Butters didn’t even particularly like or care for either of them at that point. He could’ve easily left them both to die, but he didn’t !

But yeah, long story short, between Cartman trusting Butters with something so important + him asking Butters to keep secret at the end, it seems that this episode really cemented Butters as Cartman’s sidekick/second-in-command, with Cartman not only going to him for any task moving forward but also letting him know the important details of his schemes, growing his trust for the kid.

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Then you have “Tonsil Trouble”. It’s not that big of a moment but it is worth mentioning how Cartman doesn’t immediately kill Butters right after the boy kisses him on the cheek in public. And on top of that, later on, Cartman asks Butters’ help to get inside Kyle’s room despite Cartman himself admitting he’s done it many times, meaning he doesn’t actually need help.

Tbh, I could definitely see Cartman feeling lonely at times during his schemes, and since Butters is quick to agree to help, he’s probably using it as an excuse to have some company. “Jewpacabra” is another good example that further fuels this headcanon.

Oh and after that, when Kyle says that Butters told him about sneaking into his room, Cartman gets mildly annoyed about it and doesn’t try to get back at Butters for it.

Again, not really big moments but it does seem like Cartman is at the very least seeing Butters as useful enough to tolerate and keep around, even if he gets annoyed with the kid.

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After that, you have “Super Fun Time”, another episode that’s pretty big when it comes to their relationship. This episode is the first time Butters really stands up for himself against Cartman, tho it’s a bit sad he’s only doing it in fear of punishment.

In this episode, there’s one moment I especially like : when they arrive at the “Phun Time” place, Cartman tries yet again to pry Butters off in fear of people calling them gay. After some struggle, Cartman lets out a “Jesus Christ” while having an expression showing that he’s actually understanding that he’s not getting out of there. And after that, he stops arguing about the hand and even tries to include Butters in his activities.

Basically, Butters sets a boundary in this episode and sticks to it, forcing Cartman to work around it instead of blasting his way through it like he usually does. That’s why I like this scene so much, it’s the moment we see Cartman realizing he has to compromise this time around if he wants to have his fun. In other words, Butters holds a bit of power over Cartman, as little as it might be, and it’s great to see it.

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There’s also the moment when they get back and see the police. Butters starts crying about how much trouble they’re about to be in while Cartman tries to calm him down so that they can sneak back in. What’s interesting here is that Cartman seems to feel genuine guilt about making Butters cry. Or at the very least he seems to be aware that he’s responsible for Butters’ tears and isn’t happy about it.

In any case, we see Cartman being capable of feeling some sort of regret after hurting another person.

For those asking : what makes me say Cartman shows regret is the sad expression he has after Butters “punches” him + after Butters explains why he’s not letting go of his hand.

Hell, while you could say that the first face is out of surprise from Butters punching him, Cartman was arguing about the hand in the second moment but immediately stops and caves to Butters’ demands, really making it seem like he feels guilty.

(Btw, it’s off-topic but Butters is the absolute MVP of this episode. Him throwing Cartman at the armed guy in frustration was especially delightful to see ! Stan showing off his dorky side was great too !)

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Last thing about this episode : I’ve seen people make jokes about how Cartman spends the entire episode bitching about holding Butters’ hand, but then the very next episode is “The China Problem” which has Cartman holding Butters’ hand while the kid is taking a bath. And joke aside, I do find it interesting that Cartman went so quickly to Butters and even trusted him with a gun.

Basically, despite SP not being about character arcs, if you view it from a “character development” point of view anyways, the fact that those two episodes are back-to-back really makes it seem like Butters’ badass actions in “Super Fun Time” left an impact on Cartman, hence why he would trust the kid with a deadly weapon or why he’s so disappointed about him shooting guys in the dick.

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Following this, in seasons 12-14, you have a few moments that aren’t particularly big but show Cartman being more chill. For example, you have his reaction to the “hickey” in “The Ungroundable”, which was pretty tame coming from Cartman. There’s also him being the one holding the gift in “Eat, Pray, Queef” when the 4th grade boys visit Butters, or Cartman being more sad than angry in “The Tale of Scrotie Mcboogerballs” when Butters tells the main 4 off.

Along with that, you have Butters growing more confident but also becoming more of a bully, which likely brought the duo closer by making Butters not be at the bottom of the social ladder anymore, all the while getting on Cartman’s good side (obviously him always being present in Cartman’s schemes helps as well).

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Then you have another important episode : “Poor and Stupid”.

Thing is, while Cartman can be very pathetic at times in front of the other kids, he’s also a very prideful person. But in this episode, there’s that scene where Cartman ends up in the hospital due to his own stupidity. And while he’s here, Butters is by his side, still encouraging him and comforting him, not once showing any negative judgment for what happened.

As a result, it feels like this episode is when Cartman realized that he can open up emotionally to Butters, which is seen later on in “Cartman finds Love”.

On top of that, there’s the fact that Cartman got rid of his plushies in “1%”, and said episode cemented that the plushies were Cartman’s emotional support. So once they’re gone, he needs another way to get support.

And yes, I know in “The Return of Chef” we see Butters at Cartman’s house to comfort him, but he barely approached the guy + Cartman didn’t confide much in him that time around.

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And finally, starting with seasons 16-17, especially 17, Cartman and Butters became best friends, with Cartman especially showing a lot more appreciation for the kid than you’d expect from him.

Btw I say especially S17 because, while Cartman is nicer in S16 as well, this season also ends with “Obama Wins”, in which Cartman tries to kill Butters for betraying him so that’s a big yikes. The fact that it was the last time he tried killing him doesn’t make it any less ok.

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Now, since their relationship hasn’t evolved that much since S17, let me give a compilation of moments from post-S16 episodes in which we see Cartman being a softie for this kid :

- Informative Murder Porn : The kids learn about their parents playing Minecraft through Butters explaining how his dad killed his mom. As he’s talking, he’s crying on the ground, with both Kenny and Cartman by his side putting a comforting hand on his shoulders. So we get to see Cartman trying to comfort Butters, aka trying to be there emotionally for him.

What’s also interesting here is the facial expressions. While Kenny is looking at Butters with a saddened expression, Cartman has an eyebrow raised. My interpretation of this, especially compared to the crying scene in “Super Fun Time”, is that the reason why Cartman is raising an eyebrow is because he doesn’t feel bad for Butters.

After all, Cartman is either a narcissist or a sociopath. Either way, it means he has incredibly limited empathy/sympathy/compassion. In “Informative Murder Porn”, Butters is crying due to something his parents did, aka something that has nothing to do with Cartman. So Cartman is physically incapable of feeling bad for Butters. Hence the mention of “Super Fun Time” since Cartman was responsible in this case and felt guilty.

But despite not feeling bad, Cartman still cares about Butters, so he puts a comforting hand on his shoulder nonetheless because he wants the kid to feel better.

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Another thing about this episode I’ve seen people point out is the fact that Cartman only takes the lead after seeing Stephen losing it, making it seem like he’s doing it for Butters (and possibly Stan since we see Randy messing around as well). But tbh it feels like a bit of a stretch ?

Idk, Cartman’s a bit weird being so helpful in such a situation in which he has nothing to gain from (the kids are worried about their parents killing each other. Cartman only has one parent, and as protective as he can be, I don’t think he views the men his mom sleeps with as any more threatening than usual in this scenario). Maybe he just likes the feeling of being in charge, especially since in this case he’s taking the leadership away from Kyle ?

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- The Magic Bush : While from an “episode” standpoint, I’m neutral on this one, I absolutely adore it from a “Cartters” standpoint. The entire episode is just Butters getting angry at Cartman, shoving him against a bathroom stall twice and in general yelling at him, and not only does Cartman let him get away with it, he also keeps helping Butters up until the end !

Hell, throughout the entire episode, Cartman tries to get himself out of trouble. But at the very end, Butters is still unsatisfied. And Cartman, who just spent days trying to wash his hands off, is willing to put himself right back into trouble just to make Butters happy.

And, again, Butters spent the whole episode yelling at Cartman and getting violent ! So this ending shows how Cartman’s “this is the last time I’m helping you” lines were all empty threats.

All-in-all, this episode is just Butters being the one taking the reins of this relationship for once and it is incredibly satisfying to see him able to get away with being so angry at Cartman !

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Another thing I find very interesting about this episode is the fact that, on a regular “Cartman and Butters” episode, Cartman gives orders and Butters follows without much questioning. But this time, Butters actually gets angry at Cartman’s scheme and starts doubting him.

That’s another fact about this episode I love : Cartman doesn’t just keep his scheme going to protect himself, he also has to prove that he’s trustworthy.

Sure, Cartman does his thing and when Butters questions it, he explains himself and tells Butters to trust him. But the important part is that Cartman does make things better for Butters. He tells Butters to trust him and then has to deliver on that trust. I really, really like that this episode took that direction.

In a way, I feel like this episode could be a step leading Butters to trust Cartman a little more when things go wrong in their schemes.

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Btw, it’s worth noting that at any point Cartman could’ve thrown Butters under the bus like he did so many times before. But he didn’t. And I think that’s also why him proving himself trustworthy works so well here. Instead of trying to screw over Butters, he’s trying to keep the kid by his side and help him, even if it means getting his hands dirty again right after getting away with his dumb idea.

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Oh and something very important I almost forgot : around the beginning of the “third act”, when Butters shows up at Cartman’s house to make demands, he points out how miserable the whole thing is making him (probably as a way to scold Cartman since, again, Butters’ here to make demands).

And when he does, Cartman asks Butters what’s wrong and listens when Butters starts ranting, quickly caving in to his demands. Cartman actually tries to be there for Butters on an emotional level, despite Cartman himself being terrible when it comes to emotions on a non-manipulative level.

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- Grounded Vindaloop : While there aren’t that many interactions between them as it’s more of a “main 4” episode, we do have quite a handful of moments in which Cartman shows actual concern.

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First of all, there’s the prank itself. Cartman in the past has been absolutely horrendous towards Butters and used to have a kick out of torturing the kid in the worst ways. As a result, the prank he pulls in this episode is very tame in comparison (hell even Stan points it out).

All Cartman does is make Butters believe he’s in virtual reality to have a laugh and make him do a few chores. And yet, Cartman refers to this prank as “the height of Butters torture”. To say Cartman toned it down with his pranks would be an understatement.

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Then, you have the scene when Butters goes apeshit.

Side note : A funny thing I noticed about Butters being unhinged is how the main 4 realize it one after the other. Stan finds out in “Butterballs”, Kenny in “Going Native”, Kyle in S20 and, in this episode, we learn in the cafeteria scene that Cartman has known for a while now given how he says the prank is a way to put Butters back in his place.

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So when Butters punches his dad, Cartman doesn’t find it hilarious or laughingly thinks about how much trouble Butters will be in. Instead, he understands that Butters is about to go apeshit and immediately tries to calm him down and bring him back to his place.

Also, while Cartman is obviously worried about getting himself in trouble, there is some concern for Butters as well :

When Butters says he hit a lamppost, Cartman tenses up in fear, only calming down when Butters says he’s back up. Same when Butters screams, which also has Cartman calling Butters’ name twice with the second time being in a very small voice.

Then, the next scene is in the hospital. But since Butters was in “the bad part of town” and only Cartman knew about it, it gives off the impression that Cartman was the one to call an ambulance.

On top of that, when Cartman shows up to scare Butters into silence, literally the first thing that comes out of his mouth when he appears is “are you okay ?”, showing concern for Butters’ well-being.

Then, a few minutes later in the episode, you have Cartman being pissed off at Butters by thinking he’s an AI messing with him. And yet Cartman still talks about helping Butters out.

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But more importantly, there’s that scene near the end of the episode. Stan, Kyle and Cartman are in Butters’ room with Stephen being furious about their presence. Stephen then proceeds to take his belt off, implying he’s going to hit his son with it.

When this happens, the other three look for a sec before Stan goes back to his phone call and Kyle follows suit immediately. But Cartman doesn’t. For a few more seconds, Cartman looks at the Stotches with worry before finally getting back to the phone call.

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Compare that last scene to that one episode in S6 in which Cartman prank calls the Stotches parents to get Butters beaten up for shit and giggles.

In the span of 12 seasons, Cartman went from making Butters suffer for fun to showing genuine worry seeing the very same action he once happily caused.

That, right here, is growth. Cartman at some point stopped seeing Butters’ suffering as funny and even starts showing concern at the thought of Butters living in an abusive home.

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- You’re Not Yelping : There are only two moments in this one but the first is pretty big.

Basically, we see Cartman abuse his power as a yelp reviewer to get free food. And early in the episode, we see him give food to Butters.

But the thing is, in their dialogue, there’s no indication that Cartman is asking for any money or service in exchange. Cartman here is straight up being a good friend to Butters for the sake of being a good friend, going through the trouble of going to a restaurant to get food Butters genuinely likes without asking the kid anything in return. It might be a small moment, but coming from Cartman, this is big.

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As for the second scene, you have the fact that he goes to Butters for emotional support and listens to the kid’s advice, which in a way shows that he values Butters’ opinion on top of seeing him as someone he can confide in.

(And it makes me realize I didn’t mention in “The Magic Bush” how, at the very beginning, Cartman insulted Butters’ bird video but was still able to catch the “drone” part, showing that, to a certain degree, he was listening)

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- Safe Space : There’s just a small moment at the beginning I want to talk about. When the episode starts, we have Cartman playing victim and asking PC principal to get a kid to filter the comment section of his social media. Cartman probably knows it’s a very mentally draining task to do.

At first, you have Kyle, Cartman’s worst enemy, who is asked to do it. Then, you have Wendy, who Cartman also butts heads with quite a lot. Finally, you have Butters, who can’t refuse due to his trauma with punishment.

Two things worth noticing here : 1. When Kyle shows up, Cartman tells him he thought about him first. When Wendy shows up, PC Principal says Cartman mentioned her quickly. When Butters shows up, there’s no indication on who called him here.

2. When Butters is asked to do the task, Cartman continues to cry and protests, saying he wanted a smart kid to do it. Now, Cartman did mention with Kyle and possibly Wendy that he knows they’re both organized people who as a result are fit for the job. But at the same time, this is Cartman we’re talking about. He’ll take any opportunity he can to get someone to filter his comments. So him protesting at first about Butters definitely feels a bit odd.

So with both those info in mind, it makes me wonder : who asked for Butters to be in the room ? Did they go through a conga-line of students who said no ? Did PC Principal just go “alright since two refused let’s go with your best friend, see if he agrees” ?

No because the fact that Cartman protests with crocodile tears still in his eyes shows that he’s unhappy about the choice. And given the task at hand + his first two choices being people he despites, it looks like Cartman is trying to defend Butters, to protect him from the task. Coming from Cartman, this is definitely big.

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And yes, I know Butters ends up doing the task and Cartman acts shitty towards him. Though, as weak of an argument as it is, Cartman isn’t as bad towards Butters here as he used to be in former episodes. His biggest flaw here is being too self-absorbed to notice Butters’ distress. On top of this, PC Principal being the worst to this poor kid makes Cartman look better in comparison in this specific scenario.

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- Tegrity Farms : The last time we’ve seen Cartman and Butters do a “get rich quick” scheme together so far, which gets me very curious as to how their dynamic will be in future schemes (“City People” doesn’t really count since Cartman wanted to do it alone and was more focused on one-upping Liane).

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Thing is, aside from the punch at the beginning, Cartman and Butters are the closest we’ve ever seen them to being equals here. Throughout the whole episode, they work in tandem, with Kyle awkwardly following them while trying to stop Cartman. Hell, when Butters confronts Cartman after the punch, he outright says that Cartman referred to the two of them as partners !

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Another interesting point is the context behind how Cartman acts here. A while ago, I remember seeing a few people point out how Cartman was the one who told Kyle about Ike smoking, giving off the impression he wanted Kyle to be involved.

Another person pointed out how Cartman relies on Kyle at the end to come up with a plan. So it’s likely he did half-blackmailed half-manipulated Kyle into helping them because Kyle’s a smart cookie.

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With that in mind, think of the context we’re given in the episode. Cartman and Butters are apparently in debt. Cartman is the head of the operation, meaning that he’s the one trying to think of a way out of this. And when you think about it, there’s three ways he can go :

1. Continue the same direction, which is risky. Cartman doesn’t like risk if he doesn’t have a way out.

2. Bail and let Butters take the fall.

3. Have a third person in the team, preferably someone smart to help, who could take the fall if it came down to this.

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Cartman could’ve gone either solution 2 or 3. But from the looks of it, the beginning of the episode explains why solution 2 isn’t an option unlike in previous episodes. Because, when Cartman throws Butters under the bus here, the kid gets absolutely furious and, were it not for Cartman taking a dumb, he probably would’ve punched him.

And it looks like Cartman realizes it. By that point, Cartman seemingly stopped taking his relationship with Butters for granted and clearly values his help. He also realized that Butters isn’t going to let himself be walked all over anymore, meaning Cartman could lose his friendship if he messes up too much.

So when Cartman finds himself in the situation we see here, instead of dumping every issue on Butters, he takes a third person to throw under the bus, making sure both himself and Butters have a way out.

(This kinda makes me think of how someone also pointed out that, when Kyle confronts the duo at Mackey’s house, Butters admits how Cartman told the 6th graders that Kyle was around. And as he’s talking, Butters is smiling. I’ve seen people question why he’s smiling and all I can imagine is Butters thinking “I’m not the scapegoat this time around !”)

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Honestly, this really makes me question how Cartman will act next time the two of them work together to get rich. Is he going to throw Butters under the bus when things get too complicated ? Or is he going to find a third party to use as scapegoat in order to keep Butters happy ?

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- Shots : There’s just one very small moment that I still want to point out : after we see the issue of Cartman refusing his shots and how it’s going to cost him public school, we get a scene in the cafeteria with Butters telling the other boys about the first third of the episode.

Basically, Cartman gets homeschooled, hates his new teacher and the first thing he does once the teacher’s gone is calling Butters to bitch about it.

(Which reminds me of S20 with him disliking the GhostBusters movie and warning Butters about it, but in that case it felt like the only reason he texted Butters was due to Butters’ importance this season with the whole “Weiners out” movement. He probably would’ve texted Kenny otherwise)

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I guess another thing worth mentioning here is how, within the adults, Stephen is the one taking the lead when it comes to vaccinating Cartman. While surprising to see him step up, it does make sense in the context of the parents being worried that Cartman carrying a disease could affect their own children. Since Cartman and Butters are best friends, Butters is the most at risk.

Although Stephen can go fuck himself with his “no parent wants to see their child hurting” line, given how horrible he is as a parent. And on that note, Liane’s punch was absolutely fantastic (and the only good thing she did in this episode).

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- Let Them Eat Goo : Probably the second-best episode from a Cartters POV only, behind Magic Bush. The whole episode just has Cartman being “Butters :D” the whole way through. Seriously.

(Fun fact : I actually saw some random scenes there and there before watching the whole show, one of which being from this episode. So when I stumbled across a clip of the two singing about Sloppy Joe’s, with my only show experience being the first 8 seasons, my first thought was like “So…when did Cartman and Butters become best friends exactly ? How’d that happen ?!”. But then I watched the whole show and yeah, it made more sense.)

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The kids’ plot opens with the two of them happily singing about lunch together, which also shows that they don’t just hang out for schemes, they’re actual friends.

Then, when Cartman has his heart attacks, Butters is the only kid who shows genuine concern about it, especially the second time (I’d say it’s pretty sad that only one person cares but at the same time it’s Cartman so fuck him). He’s also the one taking care of Cartman, with Cartman never protesting about it.

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In general, Cartman directs all his anger towards the girls and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t insult Butters once here. All he does is wanting to have lunch with the kid and sing about food together.

Even after learning from Butters that the whole school lied to him, he never gets angry at him directly, despite Butters clearly being terrified at the thought of Cartman screaming betrayal at him, which makes sense considering the last time he betrayed Cartman was in “Obama Wins” with Cartman trying to kill him for it.

I could say more about Butters’ fear in this episode but I’m keeping Butters’ POV for the third part of this post.

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Lastly, this episode has the third scene of “Cartman trying to be there for Butters emotionally”, and I’d say this one is even bigger than the previous two.

While in the first one (“Informative Murder Porn”), Butters was crying on the ground so it was evident he was suffering, and in the second one (“The Magic Bush”) he explicitly tells Cartman he’s miserable, here, in “Let Them Eat Goo”, Butters doesn’t say a thing. He’s just less enthusiastic than usual.

So not only does Cartman notice, showing he’s been paying attention to Butters and how the kid expresses himself, Cartman also asks by himself if something is bothering Butters !

Cartman, Eric fucking Theodore Cartman, was capable of noticing that something was off about another person, realizing it could be emotional distress and asking the other person about it, very much willing to listen to that person’s problems and see if there’s something he could do about it. Eric Cartman !

Imagine being someone Cartman tries to comfort and being there to listen vent. Let’s just say you gotta be pretty special for this kid to be like that.

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And another thing about it, though it could just be due to the camera moving from one character to the other at each line : everytime Butters is done talking, Cartman seems to take a second before replying, as if making sure Butters said everything he wanted to say/trying to avoid interrupting Butters. But again, it could also just be due to the camera shifting from one to the other.

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In any case, we get to see Cartman noticing emotional distress and being willing to lend an ear without being judgmental/mocking or using it as future blackmail. Coming from Cartman, this is really big.

And when you think about it, Cartman actually hasn’t ripped on Butters in quite a while, or at least not to the same extent he used to.

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- City People : Not a lot to say here aside from the fact that, while their interactions are short, they’re pretty wholesome (way too wholesome from someone like Cartman).

First off, Cartman shows up at Butters’ house with a saddened expression, telling Butters he needs his help as if asking “do you have time right now ?”, or at least it can be read that way.

Also, compare that to the Christian band episode or “Go God Go”. In both those instances, Cartman shows up with a serious expression, tells Butters “I need you for X right now so do Y” without giving him the choice and then expects the kid to do the task without question. In “City People”, he’s being a lot softer and opens up very easily.

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Then, Cartman doesn’t mind the physical contact as comfort (until Butters says something that bothers Cartman) and is quick to tell Butters everything, trusting him to keep it secret.

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He also compliments Butters’ photography skills, which is a pretty big compliment coming from someone who sees photography as an art (as we see mostly in “Cartman Sucks”. Yeah I know, not the best episode to talk about in a Cartters post but you gotta do what you gotta do).

Btw Cartman had literally no reason to compliment Butters, the kid was already willing to help him. He just gave out a sincere compliment because he felt like it.

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Finally, you have the commercial filming scene. When Cartman enters Clyde’s house, he comments on the size and asks Butters’ opinion on it. Thing is, I feel like, was this episode made in an earlier season, Cartman wouldn’t have asked Butters’ opinion or would’ve told him to shut it had he spoken. But here, Cartman wants Butters’ opinion in the video. He wants to include Butters.

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- Credigree Weed St Patrick’s Day Special : Not a lot here either aside from two small moments.

First, you have that scene with Butters being the only kid giving a shit about the holiday. But despite visibly not caring, Cartman still says something positive about it to Butters, possibly to make the kid happy instead of ruining his enthusiasm.

In a way, it reminds me of “Nightmare on Face Time”, with Kenny and Cartman stumbling across Butters and Jimmy, Cartman taking interest in Butters’ clothing and, despite clearly finding the costume shitty, Cartman still says something positive about it. And when he says something sarcastic to Kenny about it, it doesn’t come off as mean spirited or mocking, like he's not saying it and then laughing about it. He’s playing nice to Butters, just like in the St Patrick’s Day episode.

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The second moment is the prison scene with the main 4 using the opportunity to visit Butters. Here, Cartman’s the first one to talk, asking Butters how the holiday’s treating him (I guess Cartman doesn’t want to ask “are you okay ?” in public out of pride or something) and lets out an unconvinced “cool” after Butters answers him.

Also, it might be just due to them being closer to the bars but Stan and Cartman take a second longer to turn around in comparison to Kyle and Kenny. Also also, Cartman spends the whole episode sounding dead inside, and him asking Butters how he’s doing is the only time there’s some emotion in his voice.

(Side note : I kinda love how Cartman clearly doesn’t care about the holiday but still dresses up for the occasion. He’s just that extra)

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On top of this evolution with Cartman softening up over time, I’ve seen people point out how Cartman is a lot more patient towards Butters than towards any other kid.

There are many instances in the show, I think mostly starting around S12-13, where Butters says something and Cartman reacts with mild annoyance, sighing and rolling his eyes before moving on

Examples include the deleted scene of “The Tale of Scrotie Mcboogerballs” (or at least I think it’s from this episode. It’s the thing with the main 5 + Jimmy and Ike making a sentence with random gross words), the garden of betrayal scene in the Black Friday trilogy or their exchange around the middle of “Dead Kids”, to name a few. Were it any other kid, Cartman would be yelling in those scenes.

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Along with that, Cartman lets Butters get away with a lot.

The best examples are the kiss from “Tonsil Trouble” or literally everything about “The Magic Bush”, the latter also showing that, whereas Cartman tends to yell back when someone angry is confronting him (unless the person is visibly stronger/more dangerous in which case he knows to be careful), when it comes to Butters specifically, all he does is gently repeat Butters’ name until the kid calms down.

We see him do it in “A Song of Ass and Fire” and “Where my Country Gone” as well. Btw in that last episode, during the whole scene of Cartman trying to find a Canadian girl for Butters, Cartman acts in a very gentle manner and it’s pretty sweet.

In that last episode, it’s also pretty funny how Cartman, who has been shown to be quite the romantic (“Cartman Finds Love”, “Tweek X Craig”) suddenly doesn’t have time for a slow romance when Butters is involved in it.

Oh yeah and fun fact, in “Let Them Eat Goo”, we see Butters trying to calm down Cartman by gently repeating his name, copying what Cartman does with him.

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Another good episode showing Cartman being a softie is the beginning of “Going Native”, which is honestly very funny.

First off, you have Cartman seeing Butters beat the shit out of Scott before locking himself in the bathroom, and Cartman goes on to tell the other boys about it, as if asking them for help.

Then Butters goes home and has a talk with his parents and, when we go back to the kids after school, they’re all playing outside until Cartman shows up, yet again talking about Butters. This implies that, when school ended, the first thing Cartman did was check on the kid (I mean they were next-door neighbors back then so I guess it wasn’t that big of a trip). And again, he seems to be asking the others for help.

It’s also worth noting that Butters apparently called him fat, which is something that not only usually makes Cartman go berserk (Tenorman, the therapist, that one kid he locked to a pole etc) but is also something Butters almost never says, unlike for example the “fatass” insult Stan and Kyle used often enough for Cartman to now let it slide. After all, we know from early seasons that he clearly hates the “fatass” nickname. He only lets it slide because he’s used to it despite hating it.

But yeah, despite the “fat” insult, Cartman still wants to help Butters.

And the funniest part of this : when Kyle tells Kenny to go help Butters, Cartman gets all passive-aggressive about Kenny’s help, calling him “mister perfect” and telling him to “rescue Butters”. It makes Cartman sound so jealous ! And even Kyle then raises a curious eyebrow, as if wondering what the hell just went through Cartman’s head ! I love this moment and how dumb it is !

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Yet another random thing I didn’t mention in the episodes list is “Sarcastaball”, with Cartman being supportive of Butters and going to him for advice.

And no I’m not including the cum joke as proof of them being close. Sure, it’s a sex joke between the two, which are kinda starting to pile up when you think about it, but in context neither of them knew what it was. Also the other kids drink it as well so…

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To finish up with this part, here’s some of my thoughts on Post-Covid Cartman + a few interesting things about his interactions with Butters/Vic :

First off all, know that I have no pity for Cartman. I know he’s a child raised in a bad environment and whose mental illnesses make him highly struggle with empathy/sympathy/compassion.

But at the same time, literally one of the main jokes about SP is the kids being the smart ones, especially compared to the adults. When Cartman commits a crime, he knows what he’s doing, he just doesn’t care. Hell, why do you think he’s always making sure to have a way to escape consequences ?

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Ultimately, the only thing I feel bad about when it comes to Cartman is the one thing he has no control over : His family life.

Him being raised by a single mom who should have never been a parent to begin with, on top of not only having an absent father but also losing the only father figure he ever had (Chef). After watching “City People” (and being disappointed by Liane’s final choice), I actually wanted to make a post about the Cartmans. Not sure if I’ll ever write it but in any case I’d rather wait until I watch “Streaming Wars” anyways in order to have more to talk about.

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With that in mind, regarding Cartman’s fate in Post-Covid, I don’t feel bad about him being homeless. Sure, I was surprised that someone like him wasn’t able to become successful since Cartman’s the kind of person who will succeed, no matter how little he deserves it (we sure live in a society), but still, I don’t feel bad.

It’s actually pretty interesting tho how a show that usually goes with the “realistic approach” in how characters are handled suddenly decided to give Cartman what he deserves, not what someone so corrupted would realistically have.

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Oh and don’t go telling me Cartman redeemed himself, because he sure as hell didn’t ! If he was reformed, he would’ve acknowledged all the horrible shit he did as a kid, especially to Kyle, and then apologize for it. But instead, he swept it all under the rug and acted like a victim when he was rightfully called out on it.

And he kept that victim mentality throughout the entire special, changing the narrative to make Kyle look bad, and some people actually bought into this act and talked shit about Kyle after the special aired ! Like guys ! This is Cartman we’re talking about here !

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And let’s not forget how he spent the entirety of the first special messing with Kyle by bringing up his Judaism at any chance. Also, while his family do seem to be good people, it’s obvious that they’re not that great.

I mean, first off Yentl seems to have a bad impression of Kyle right off the bat, showing that Cartman lied to her about his childhood to make the guy look bad.

Then, when they show up at Kyle’s doorstep, Yentl tells the kids that everything’s going to be alright before Kyle agrees to house them (btw Cartman using his family to make Kyle feel bad and house them).

The kids are also shown to have a victim mentality, likely spread by Cartman, and are all shown to swear, including the baby. And sure, all the kids in SP swear, but still.

Plus, one of the kids is overweight which, most of the time, is a sign of negligence, especially for a kid that young (he seems to be around 7-8).

Again, I do believe that Cartman’s wife and kids are good people. But they’re definitely not perfect and we can see Cartman’s influence on them.

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Oh and another thing I’d like to point out because it bothers me a bit : no, Cartman technically did not sacrifice his family. Cartman’s family sacrificed themselves.

Cartman was still arguing about saving them and killing Kyle, and it’s Yentl and the kids who convinced him to give up on this plan.

They’re the one who told Cartman it was okay, they’re the ones who promised that there was still a chance for them to meet in another timeline. It wasn’t all Cartman’s idea to sacrifice them, it was Yentl and the kids who stepped up and told Cartman that things were going to be alright, no matter what changes could be brought to the past. Had they not convinced Cartman to agree with Stan and Kyle, Cartman would’ve gone ahead with his original plan.

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Long story short : Adult Cartman is still the same monster he was as a kid, he’s just better at hiding it.

Ultimately, the only genuine thing about him is his love for his family. It’s the only part where he seemed truly honest. Everything else, he was just using people.

Heck I’ve seen people point out how his conversion to Judaism could be due to his former views on Kyle that might have led him to fetishize the religion or use it as a way to cope after “losing Kyle”, things like that.

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Now, with the “Cartman is the worst” rant out of the way, here’s a few interesting things about how Cartman and Butters/Vic interact in the bathroom scene :

1. The fact that Cartman was able to find Vic more easily than Stan and Kyle despite searching for a shorter time actually makes a lot of sense. Stan and Kyle just went where the destruction happened and tried to follow the general direction of where Vic was last seen.

Cartman on the other hand is a con artist, just like Vic. So he probably asked himself “If I wanted to scam people easily, where would I go ?” and immediately knew where Vic was.

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2. I’ve seen people point out in a youtube comments section how Cartman is the only one who was able to “break” the persona Vic created of himself and bring back the old Butters, shown by the “Oh Hamburgers”.

I think the explanation suggested was that Cartman was able to see through Vic’s mask due to being a liar with a fake personality himself.

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3. Kind of a side note really but looking at this scene, I feel like this is the moment Vic recognized Stan and Kyle. Like, earlier in the asylum, he went over their names very quickly and probably wasn’t much interested in them to begin with anyways.

But in this scene, he very much recognized Cartman, and there’s only one Kyle that Cartman is obsessed with. So I feel like Cartman mentioning Kyle is when Vic made the connection between the “Stand and Kyle” guys who knew his child nickname and the Kyle Cartman hates so much and wants to kill.

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4. Something pretty funny : the fact that Cartman at the very least knows that Vic was in an asylum, meaning he’s dangerous to a certain degree, and yet Cartman has no issue immediately telling him about how he’s trying to save his wife and kids.

Like, Cartman, buddy, the guy in front of you is incredibly dangerous and possibly holds a huge against you from all the shit you did to him as a kid. Why are you telling him your weak point you absolute moron ?

Idk, it just amuses me that Cartman still confides in Vic so easily despite how long it’s been since the last time they saw each other.

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5. Throughout both specials, we see three sides of Cartman : his “love my family” side, his “nice rabbi persona” side that he uses to manipulate others, and his “true selfish” side, which is when he acts like he did as a kid.

For most scenes, he plays nice until pushed to a point where his true side comes out, the best example being his fight with Kyle in the church. But in that bathroom scene, Cartman doesn’t hide behind any persona.

When he confronts Vic, he talks exactly the same way he did when they were kids. It’s the only time in the whole episode where he doesn’t even try to pretend to be anyone else but himself. And sure, it can be seen as a scare tactic, bringing back Vic’s trauma to scare him into helping. But at the same time, it is pretty interesting how the only time Cartman acts without a mask is when alone with Vic.

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Alright, that was all I had to say about the evolution of their friendship and whatnot. If you’re still here and reading, I promise the other two parts aren’t as long and I’m sorry this turned out to be so big. I like rambling and get too passionate about stuff ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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2. The duo’s sexualities and genders (and how Cartman is obsessive)

  So, let’s start off by talking about Cartman’s sexuality.

Basically, I’m pretty convinced that he’s bi/pan, and I’m pretty sure it’s canon at that point ?

Like, you had several instances throughout the show of him showing attraction to both guys and gals, with my favorite example being “Le Petite Tourette” due to him admitting in the same scene that he has a crush on a girl and touched dicks with one of his cousins (though the latter does raise the question of how old was the other cousin and as a result how consensual the action was…).

And then you have “Tweek X Craig” with a whole side plot of him denying his attraction to guys, only to cave in at the end. So doesn’t that mean he’s canon queer ?

(btw I’d like to point out that in this episode you also have Stan being pretty focused on Tweek and Craig’s relationship. While the other boys were just surprised but then moved on, Stan spends the whole episode asking questions like “what make people gay ?” and “if it happened to them, can it happen to me ?” Due to that, I tend to believe that Stan’s canon sexuality is questioning)

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Something else worth pointing out in this episode : in general, Cartman is a huge bigot. We all know that (and looking at the episodes he shares with Tolkien, I sometimes wonder if he even views Tolkien as a human being. That’s how much of a bigot he is).

But in “The Hobbit”, we see him partly defending Lisa Burger after the boys made fun of her for her weight, though he follows by insulting her looks. So from this, we can assume that Cartman is a bigot towards everyone but fat people, because he himself is fat.

Well guess what about “Tweek X Craig” : After the first montage, we see Cartman think about their relationship, with Cupid him showing up, and Cartman proceeds to say something along the lines of “Just because I don’t understand it doesn’t mean I have to be against it”. Carmtan. Eric fucking Cartman said that !

So the fact that Cartman isn’t intolerant towards gay couples, the same way he isn’t intolerant towards fat people, does raise questions as to how he feels towards guys.

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Although, to me, the biggest proof of Cartman’s bisexuality/pansexuality is his obsession with both Kyle and Butters. But I’m going to develop it a few lines down.

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Ultimately, I feel like Cartman is either bi or pan.

He’s aware that he’s attracted to guys, though he tries to deny it. At the same time, I don’t think he realizes that the way he acts towards Kyle and Butters could be due to some form of attraction, though I can’t really bring myself to see his current “attraction” to Kyle and Butters as romantic. But it’s still a form of attraction nonetheless.

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As for Cartman’s gender, I do think he’s cis, though he absolutely enjoys women clothes. But thing is, whenever he cross-dresses, it’s for show (the “insufferable teenage girl” thing in S6, the clip in “Butterballs”, a persona in “W.T.F”, him singing and dancing in “Awesome-O”). So I’d say he’s more of a drag queen rather than genderfluid, tho I do like the genderfluid headcanon.

Furthermore, in “The Cissy”, Cartman pretends to be a trans girl for bathroom privileges. And in that one occasion where he has to pretend to be a girl on a daily basis, he only does the bare minimum, putting a bow on while continuing to show his masculinity.

The fact that this instance in particular is the one time he doesn’t put any effort in his appearance is what leads me to believe that he’s cis, though gender non-conforming for sure.

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Now, for Cartman’s obsessions with Kyle and Butters, because this is honestly something I find incredibly interesting but I don’t want to make too many posts so you’ll have to suffer through reading about it here. I’m going to try keeping this as short as possible by just explaining how Cartman expresses those obsessions and some differences I find interesting.

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- Cartman’s obsession with Kyle is mostly shown through him being a stalker.

He once said he sneaks into Kyle’s room on the regular (tbh “kid shows up uninvited into another kid’s bedroom” is pretty common in SP), in a deleted scene of “Naughty Ninjas” he admits to having recorded every discussion he has had with Kyle for a whole year in case he gets blackmail material, and there are three scenes in which we see him being able to predict what Kyle is going to say (“Kenny Dies” I think when he sends Butters to talk to Stan and Kyle, I think “Obama Wins” with Cartman calling Kyle while he’s talking to Ike and guessing what Kyle was talking about, and a deleted scene from “Grounded Vindaloop” with a phone call between Kyle and Butters)

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A result of that which we often see is Cartman’s ability to manipulate Kyle. If Cartman wants Kyle to do something, he will get Kyle to do it. Cartman knows exactly which buttons to press to get Kyle to act a certain way and is capable of using this on the regular.

I could say more about this but this post is already way too long so I’m putting it in the Ky//man part of the “my opinion on other ships” bonus at the very end. Expect negativity though.

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- When it comes to Butters, there are three things that could be related to Cartman being obsessed with him. From least creepy to most creepy :

1. Butters easily comes to Cartman’s mind. Like in “Fishsticks” when he keeps imagining new scenarios in his head and, whenever someone who wasn’t on the scene shows up, it’s always Butters first. Or how in early seasons he was already often asking Butters for help despite kids like Clyde being around.

(btw, just wanted to say I’m always surprised when I see people say that Butters is the kid who acts the most like a kid when Clyde is right there. I mean come on ! Clyde is the definition of “awkward, impressionable and kind of a loser” kid. Especially in newer seasons in which Butters is a lot more unhinged and corrupted)

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2. Sort of a continuation but in early seasons, Cartman was very focused on pranking Butters specifically. Compare that to Scott Malkinson, who some people call “the new Butters” due to his status as bottom of the social ladder. Cartman doesn’t give a shit about Scott and never goes out of his way to prank him.

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3. Cartman has a huge fixation on Butters’ body, in particular his dick. We can see it through not only his tendency to have Butters either naked or cross-dressing during his schemes, but also a few instances of him trying to take a peek of Butters’ dick like in “Proper Condom Use” or even more recently with “Return of Covid” with how he interrupts Vic mid-piss. Another good example is “T.M.I”.

Then you also have some creepy behavior like him smelling Butters’ underwear in “Stunning and Brave” (btw last time I watched this scene I noticed that Cartman bites his lip while sniffing. Like, please don’t ever do that again kid) or “Cartman Sucks” in which, while I agree that Cartman was doing what he did to humiliate Butters, given his track record, I’d argue it says something that the first thing that came to his mind was putting Butters’ dick in his mouth of all things.

On that same note, when talking about how privacy is gone in “The Magic Bush”, he mentions “your wiener, my balls”. And given how often he talks about his balls (especially when negotiating) + his track record with Butters’ dick, it does make me wonder if the choice of words here was deliberate.

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I’ve also seen a post half-jokingly theorize that Cartman might find Butters’ body attractive, and honestly it does hold water.

The idea is due to the episodes “Douch and Turd” and “Canada on Strike”, both of which have a scene with Cartman using Butters’ body as a way to attract people to his cause. I’d say “Canada on Strike” especially due to some naked shots in the “What What in The Butt” clip + the fact that at some point during the clip we see Stan and later on Cartman sitting on a chair in front of the computer. Compared to Stan, Cartman is really leaning towards the screen.

And yeah, between those two instances and the way Cartman in general tries to get Butters naked or look at his dick, it does give the impression that he finds Butters attractive.

And in the case of the two episodes mentioned, maybe he assumes that everyone finds Butters attractive since Cartman is still struggling with his sexuality. Basically, he may not realize that he’s physically attracted to Butters so he simply believes that Butters is good-looking.

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Btw, I insist on the “physically attracted”. I’m not calling it romantic love in any way. If anything, it’s Cartman liking Butters body but being too much of a mess to know how to express this attraction in a healthy way. All he knows is that he likes looking at Butters’ body, so he tries to do it as often as possible.

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(And I have to be honest, for a while I thought he had calmed down on that aspect. But looking at the Covid special, he really didn’t. It’s just that now that he and Butters are friends, he can’t go around asking the boy to strip. Hell, Butters has enough confidence now to say no and even maybe tell him to fuck off.)

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- On top of those, both kids were victim of sexual harassment and sexual abuse from Cartman, showing how far those obsessions can get. And while you do have instances like “Cartman Sucks” and “Imaginationland” in which Cartman doesn’t seem to realize he’s doing something sexual or at the very least isn’t doing it with sexual intent in mind, it doesn’t excuse the fact that he’s sexually harassing and assaulting those kids.

Then there’s also for example Cartman’s journal in “Fractured But Whole”. From what I remember, there are four sexual drawings and every single of contains either Kyle or Butters in it. I think one of them also depicts Butters with a large dick but I’m not sure and I don’t really want to check that detail, for obvious reasons.

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Another thing he possibly does with both is physical contact. Like, in general Cartman is a pretty touchy person, but he kinda feels extra touchy towards Kyle and Butters specifically I think ?

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As a result of all that, I tend to interpret Cartman’s views on them as some sort of non-sexual lust, if that’s even a thing that exists.

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- Finally, I find it very interesting how, despite both being kids Cartman obsesses over, the way he views them and acts towards them is incredibly different.

To keep it short : when Cartman wants someone to mess with or to blame for his issues/be paranoid about, he goes to Kyle. When Cartman seeks emotional support and someone he can trust and confide into but also work on good terms with, he seeks Butters. Basically, he thrives off of Kyle’s negative attention and Butters’ positive attention. Idk, I just find this interesting.

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Oh and one last thing that I’ve seen being mentioned for Butters in a few fics and it’s incredibly fucked up but at the same time very much in character coming from Cartman : the fact that Cartman is a n*zi, Kyle is Jewish and Butters is blond with possibly blue eyes, aka what a n*zi would call an “aryan”.

So the two kids that Cartman is obsessed over are what he considers to be the worst in humanity and the best in humanity. I both hate this info and find it really interesting from a characters’ POV.

And on a side note, this could also explain his fixation on Butters’ body, in a very, very messed up way.

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Now, a few words about Butters’ sexuality because we’re here to talk about a relationship after all : Tbh, I’m not really sure if Butters is straight or bi/pan ? Like, he absolutely finds women attractive, that’s not even a question.

But when it comes to guys, I see people say that he has bi tendencies but they don’t bring up any examples and the only thing I can think of are the “bi-curious” jokes, in which I’m not even sure Butters knows what he’s talking about ?

Does anybody remember any instances of Butters showing a liking for guys, aside from calling himself bi-curious/bike-curious or looking gay due to Cartman being obsessed with him ? I’m genuinely curious here.

And no, the other characters calling him gay as an insult doesn’t count. That’s not even something I’ll use to justify Stan’s sexuality despite thinking he’s questioning it.

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(For those who are likely confused as to how I can ship Cartters if I don’t see Butters as bi/pan : basically I’m the type to stick with canon, probably a little too much, so I like when my headcanons are backed up by canon. But if Butters turns out to be straight in the show, it won’t stop me from seeing him as bi in fanon even if it’s not canon-compliant)

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As for Butters’ gender, I believe he’s cis.

Speaking of which, because I feel the need to talk about it : my biggest pet peeve about the fandom has to be how popular the “character” of Ma//jorine is.

Now don’t get me wrong, I get it. Butters is a popular character and people project their own gender euphoria on him because they have a golden opportunity to do so. Trust me, I’ve been there (*cough* trans Vin//nie Dako//ta *cough*). On top of that, I’m sure many people simply enjoy her design.

And even without all that in mind, in terms of trans headcanons, I absolutely love the idea of Princess Kenny being a trans woman in a SOT AU. So I’m really not one to talk and can’t blame people for simply having headcanons.

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But it doesn’t change the fact that there are things about Ma//jorine that bother me and even make me uncomfortable, though that’s very much a “me” problem.

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Let me explain (this whole part is going to be in italics so it’s easy to skip if you don’t want to listen to a negative rant about her. And yeah I know this could’ve been its own thing but I’m not making a post just to talk shit about a harmless headcanon) :

- Starting with the biggest problem and the one thing that makes me genuinely uncomfortable : Cartman.

To put it simply, Butters has cross-dressed on three occasions in the show. In “Douche and Turd” with Cartman making him dance the hula, in “Ma//jorine” with the boys sending a spy amongst the girls due to Cartman thinking they have a future-telling device, and the Superheroes trilogy with Cartman forcing Butters to dress up as Courtney Love and take suggestive pictures with a naked homeless man.

You might notice a pattern.

Every single time Butters cross-dressed, it had to do with one of Cartman’s schemes. Worse, the last one (Courtney Love) had Butters protest about it on top of having the other boys calling the plan “taking naked pictures of Butters”.

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To keep it short and to the point : we know Cartman is fixated on Butters body + Cartman struggles with his sexuality. In other words, it’s not Butters who enjoys wearing women’s clothes, it’s Cartman who enjoys seeing Butters in those.

And that’s why it’s making me uncomfortable. When I see art of Ma//jorine, instead of thinking about Butters expressing himself, all I can think of is Cartman preying on this poor kid.

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Also, regarding the episode “Ma//jorine” itself, I’m part of the “Butters was uncomfortable the whole time” crowd.

Like, 1. He was clearly stressed and uncomfortable with the plan.

2. The line “You don’t know how hard it is to be me” doesn’t have to do with his gender (tho I can understand why people resonate with it) but with the fact that this is early seasons Butters. He’s a victim to everyone else. So of course it’s hard to be him ! Imagine having such a childhood !

3. Him having so much fun with the girls yet again comes from the fact that literally nobody likes him, so of course he’s going to latch onto the very first group that’s kind enough to accept him.

4. Once he leaves the party, the first thing he does is throw the wig away.

Ultimately, the only time Butters expressed desires to wear feminine clothes is in “The Cissy” with the tutu at the end, plus the fact that he casually mentions how he’s holding his pee now because the bathroom situation confuses him. But I don’t think those instances are ever brought up again ?

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- Something that isn’t an issue exclusive to Butters and can be found in pretty much any fandom anyways : character feminization.

Basically, the fact that people still try to put heteronormative ideas into gay couples, causing one of them to be the “man” and the other the “woman” of the relationship. As a result, some characters get their personalities completely messed with in a very bad way, especially the characters who end up feminized.

Again, that’s not an SP-exclusive issue. Literally every fandom has this problem. And while the SP fandom is old and apparently knows better nowadays, there are still posts circulating about the feminization of Kyle, Butters and Tweek.

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Basically, for Butters, you have the issue of “Kenny and Cartman are much manlier than Butters so surely he’s the woman in the relationship !” As a result, some people seem to use Ma//jorine as an excuse to make Butters be even more of a girl, which is pretty messed up.

Tbh, I don’t blame the fans of Ma//jorine for this, as this is clearly a minority. Plus, a while ago on the main SP tag, there have been a lot of Bu//nny posts that had both Kenny and Butters wear women’s clothing, in which case I don’t see any issue since both are shown as more feminine.

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All-in-all, I think the biggest issue with Butters is the fact that both Cartman and Kenny had been seen willingly wearing women’s clothes and enjoying it. And yet Butters, the kid that was forced into those clothes, is the one who gets feminized. Again, it definitely stems from heteronormativity, with those people not understanding that guys can be both masculine and feminine.

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Also, guys, a man can take the lead in a relationship and be more masculine while at the same time being gender non-conforming or even being a bottom. Because that’s another issue people have with heteronormativity (I’m talking generally with that last one. I’m not one to age-up characters so I don’t want to think about SP kids and sex stuff . I don’t care that the show itself put those kids in sex situations, it’s still uncomfortable to watch).

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- For those who like her mostly due to her design : there’s that background girl character in the show called Kelly Pinkerton-Tinfurter. It’s that blonde girl with two pigtails, a pink shirt and a scarf.

For the longest time, before learning her name, I called this girl “Ma//jorine-haired girl”. Because let’s be real, while not identical, the hair is pretty similar. You can probably guess where I’m going with this.

For those who like Ma//j for the design only, what about Kelly ? Heck, you can give her more than the one pair of clothes she has in the show. And you can draw her without her pigtails as well (hope this doesn’t come off as condescending since that’s not the intention here…I’m very much aware that using Kelly isn’t the same as using Butters. But at the same time, I find it to be a good compromise).

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Another good thing about using Kelly as Ma//jorine would be the personality.

Whenever people draw Ma//j, it kinda feels like they’re taking Butters’ early seasons personality and add a feminine touch to it. But Butters has gone through major character development throughout the show and is now very different from the kid he used to be in S8-9.

(Imma be honest, I never read a single fic with Ma//j in it, so I really can’t speak for how she’s characterized in fics. But looking at fanart, she does tend to give a “Butters’ pre-development self” vibe)

Oh and Butters also turned out incredibly misogynistic, which I should’ve point out earlier when talking about him not being comfortable with cross-dressing but anyways.

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So yeah, Kelly as a character is a blank slate. All we know is she’s a girl and likes board games. You could easily give her Butters’ early seasons personality and make it more feminine. And that way, you can even have both Butters and Ma//j exist at the same time.

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(also, hope it doesn’t come off as rude but isn’t it usually a fandom thing to focus on side characters, using the fact that they’re a blank state to flesh them out and make them actual characters ?)

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Lastly, regarding the trans headcanons, because I’m very much aware that the main appeal of Ma//j is the trans rep : what if Kelly was a trans girl as well ?

At some point while thinking about Kelly, I looked up the boys at school and found out about “unnamed blond boy with red shirt”

Remember the early seasons episode with the kids in the bus stuck on a cliff ? That boy is the kid who leaves the bus and gets eaten. Apparently, that was his only appearance in the show. But since the whole episode turns out to be a dream within a dream, maybe he’s still alive ?

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On top of that, I found out that, while Kelly’s first appearance was in “Stupid Spoiled Whore”, which was one season before “Ma//jorine”, she had very little background appearances between her first appearance and “Ma//j” and shows up a lot more afterwards. Oh and she’s conveniently not there in “Ma//jorine”, which I’m guessing is due to design similarities.

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So here’s my idea for Kelly : she’s amab who never felt like she fit in with the other boys, hence why we never see her. Then “Ma//jorine” happens and seeing Butters in those clothes give Kelly major gender envy. So she starts growing her hair more, feeling also confident about “imitating” Ma//j due to the fact that the girl mysteriously disappeared after a few days, so it’s not like they’ll run into each other.

Once she feels confident enough in her looks, she starts trying to socialize with a few girls who accept her. You could also imagine that she already had a few “unpopular” girl friends (by unpopular I mean “not part of the main girl group we usually see”) with who she felt a lot more at home than with other boys. Plus, those friends encouraged her to express her gender.

Eventually, she introduces herself to the more popular girls as Kelly and becomes part of the group. Though, it’d be funny if some of the girls thought she was Ma//jorine who came back after a few months, with Kelly playing along because Ma//j was only around for like a week max so it’s not like she pretends to be the girls’ life-long friend or something. This idea of using the Ma//j nickname does feel a bit like shitting on Ma//j tho.

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(You know, on one hand, this is low-key making me consider writing a oneshot about Kelly. But on the other hand, I’m not very big on side characters, including Kelly, so it would feel more like something written to spite people who like Ma//jorine rather than an actual desire to flesh out a side character. So I doubt I’ll ever write anything about her transitioning. If I ever make a long story that has several side characters, I’d absolutely include her as part of the side cast tho.)

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So, very long story short : my main issue with Ma//j is that the way she’s used feels like Butters’ core personality is taken away for a more shy and feminine version of the character, on top of “validating” some of Cartman’s fucked up views. And the fact that there’s a side character that could perfectly fit the mold makes this impression worse.

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3. How the two view each other and how their relationship could evolve

  Alright, so with sexuality and gender out of the way, let’s talk a little more about how the two currently see each other and how it can evolve (not me just realizing now how useless the second part of this post actually is…).

As of right now, the two consider each other to be best friends.

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First off all, I actually really like how their relationship evolved in a “natural” way, if I can say.

What I mean is that, usually, relationships reach a point where they have to talk things out in order to move in a better direction or understand each other’s boundaries. Just look at Stan and Kyle for example and how their relationship grew resentful as the two kept sweeping everything under the rug (please do yourself a favor and go read some analysis about Stan and Kyle’s friendship. There’s tons of interesting stuff !).

But with Cartman and Butters, their friendship grew without much talk. They’re just two guys who kept hanging out and eventually grew attached to each other. Butters is competent for schemes so Cartman kept him around. Then Cartman started opening up to him and Butters proved himself trustworthy. And now, Cartman is trying to return the favor.

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Although, I do think that at some point, these two will hit a wall and will need to talk things off. Because when you look at their relationship on an emotional level, it’s actually pretty one-sided, on Cartman’s end.

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Cartman puts tons of faith into Butters and trusts him pretty much blindly. I’m not sure if this is due to him being paranoid that leads him to trust one specific person, but in any case, the trust is here. Cartman confides in Butters, trusts him during their schemes and goes to him for emotional support.

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But Butters on the other hand…he just doesn’t. Hell, looking at the three scenes of Cartman showing emotional support : “Informative Murder Porn”, Butters is crying on the ground so he didn’t ask anybody to try and comfort him ; “The Magic Bush”, Butters told Cartman he was miserable as a way to scold him ; “Let Them Eat Goo”, Butters didn’t say a thing and it’s Cartman who notices that something’s wrong.

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more it looks like Butters trusts Cartman the same way the other boys do, which is “Cartman is absolutely incredible at coming up with schemes and knows what he’s doing, so if you need a leader/schemer to help you, you should  seek his help. But for anything else, fuck him.”

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Now obviously, Butters does consider Cartman to be his best friend and his attached to him. Just look at his reaction to the heart attacks in “Let Them Eat Goo”. There’s evident concern here (especially compared to like the ending of “Pee” or that one moment in “Stick of Truth” where you have to heal Cartman and Butters is like “how about we let him suffer a little longer ?”).

Also, smaller moment but I never saw anyone point it out : in “Naughty Ninjas”, when the boys want to get rid of Cartman and make a vote, everyone move their heads while agreeing, except for Butters, who as a result likely decided to side with Cartman instead, hence him not moving during the vote.

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Another thing regarding Butters’ side and him being attached to Cartman, as weird as it is to say : him being around Cartman is a pretty good thing for the kid. Because Butters is unhinged and full of rage from his parents’ bullshit (to put it lightly). As a result, hanging out with Cartman not only gives him an outlet to express the mean/angry side of him, but Cartman is also able to prevent Butters from going apeshit, at least sometimes.

And I think that’s also why Butters considers Cartman his best friend. Cartman is someone Butters can be at his worst with. Given his family situation, it’s probably freeing for him, making him feel a bit more in control of his life.

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But while Butters genuinely cares and likes Cartman, he still doesn’t trust him (rightfully so honestly). More than that, Butters is still terrified of Cartman. Recent examples show that, like the second half of “Let Them Eat Goo” and his scene in “City People” (when Cartman pushes Butters’ hand away, Butters keeps his hand close to his chest in a defensive way, before dropping it since Cartman doesn’t show any sign of aggressivity).

Tbh, I absolutely adore that we get to see Butters be so scared of Cartman still. I think it has to do with the fact that obviously Butters should be scared of Cartman after all the horrible shit the boy put him through.

And what I like about it is that, being a comedy show and all, Matt and Trey could’ve easily just gone “well they’re best friends now so Butters isn’t scared anymore”. But instead, they acknowledge that Butters was traumatized and, as a result, is still afraid of Cartman.

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On that note, I really hope that “Butters is scared of Cartman while Cartman keeps acting friendly towards him” is a thing we’ll keep having in future episodes.

It’s honestly really great in “Let Them Eat Goo” to see Butters being so worried about Cartman calling him a traitor, only for Cartman to spend the entire episode being friendly with him. I just really like the evolution of Butters’ fear in this episode and how he slowly calms down the more he realizes that Cartman won’t hurt him. It’s very endearing to see.

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But yeah, going back to that “they’ll need to sit down and talk at some point”, this is what I mean.

Butters was heavily traumatized by all the horrible shit Cartman put him through (made worse when you consider that what led Butters to get so close to Cartman in the first place is the fact that his parents are incredibly controlling, so of course an authority figure like Cartman would allure him).

At some point, Cartman will have to realize that what he did wasn’t ok, and that Butters isn’t going to just forgive him like that. Cartman is on a good path right now but he needs to keep going if he wants that friendship to be healthy. Cartman also really needs to be called out for his creepy predatory behavior.

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This whole thing is also why I like to imagine Cartters as one-sided on Cartman’s end. As someone who isn’t particularly fond of portraying abusive relationships, I’m really not a fan of the idea of Butters liking his bully without the bully actually acknowledging his actions. I feel like it also undermines Cartman’s abuse by having Butters forgive him every time in the name of love or something.

(Don’t get me wrong, I can still genuinely appreciate Cartters fics that don’t really go there, but I do feel like Cartman is let off a little too easily most of the time. Then again, most fics take place in their teenage years so I can sorta understand that feeling of “it’s all behind them now”, tho I still wish there was more acknowledgment.)

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Oh yeah and a few other reasons why I like one-sided Cartters with Cartman being in love :

- I like portraying characters as disasters and Cartman being a bi disaster who also struggles to accept his sexuality is very endearing

- Cartman liking someone who doesn’t like him back makes him miserable. I like when Cartman is miserable

- Butters doesn’t strike me as being in love with Cartman in the show, especially due to the episode “Scause for Applause”. In this episode, Butters acts as Stan’s hype man and pretty much acts the same way he does with Cartman, save for having a bit less admiration. So if he views Stan in a platonic way, he views Cartman in a platonic way. And given all the hurt Cartman caused him, it would take quite a few years for romantic feelings to grow.

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All of that is also why I said in the intro that I don’t want this ship to be canon as of now and would rather see their friendship grow healthier. Especially since I do believe it could get better if the show wanted to go that direction.

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After all, if you were to show someone who doesn’t know shit about SP the seasons 17-25 and asked them to describe the duo’s friendship, they’d probably say “they’re best friends. Sometimes Cartman’s an ass but when is he not.” Because, as of right now, Cartman and Butters are in a pretty good place. BUT that’s only if you ignore all the trauma from the early seasons.

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As of right now, there are two steps that they need to take in their relationship, which both boils down to “Cartman needs to keep getting better so that Butters can learn to trust him”.

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The first step is that Cartman needs to stop throwing Butters under the bus during their schemes. This, to me, is the most important part right now.

That’s also why earlier I mentioned how curious I am for their next “get rich quick” scheme given how “Tegrity Farms” turned out, with Cartman making Butters the scapegoat at first but then blackmailing Kyle into helping to use him instead. It does give the hope that Cartman may start using a third person in most schemes.

But then again it is Cartman we’re talking about. Plus, the show isn’t always consistent with its characters. So we’ll just have to wait and see.

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The second step is just Cartman continuing to be nice to Butters like he’s been since S17. That’s where the “Butters being afraid of physical violence” comes in, and why I want it to continue.

If Cartman keeps going the way he’s currently going, I hope we’ll get to see Butters slowly learning to drop his guard around Cartman, because Cartman would have deserved it for putting actual effort into this friendship and proving himself to not have any desires to hit Butters at every turn like he used to.

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Then, once those two steps are done, it would be time for them to unravel all the trauma from the past seasons and work through this. It’s at this point that they would hit a wall and need to talk things out in order to keep their friendship growing.

Obviously this would never happen because this is SP, I know. But if this was a show that focused on character development, this is how I could see it work.

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There is, however, one last issue with this. That issue is Cartman’s desire to change.

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I mentioned earlier when talking about the Covid specials how the only thing that was true about Cartman was his love for his family. And that brought me to learn one thing about Cartman : he is capable of love.

Cartman can love someone, he can bring himself to care about someone else other than himself, or at least to a certain degree. Like some have pointed out before, Cartman could have easily destroyed the time machine or time-traveled to kill Kenny or something. But instead, he let his obsessive hatred for Kyle consume him. He didn’t just do it to save his family, he was also being selfish.

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But this aside, we do see Cartman capable of being nice to one person specifically, while remaining a manipulative asshole to everyone else. Now the question is, can he do the same for a platonic relationship ? After all, Yentl was his wife. Butters is only a friend, obsession or not.

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Don’t get me wrong, Cartman did become nicer to Butters as the show went on. Hell, comparing obsessions and love interests, I tend to say that Cartman with Heidi = Cartman with Kyle and Cartman with Yentl = Cartman with Butters.

What I mean is Heidi and Kyle are people Cartman is incredibly manipulative towards and tried/tries to change for the worst, while Yentl and Butters are cases in which Cartman is the one changing for them.

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But still, as much as Cartman might care for Butters and want to be a good friend to him, how much is Cartman capable of caring for Butters ? And as a result, how much is he willing to change ? That’s the main issue here.

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Cartman can’t change unless he wants to. You can’t help someone if they don’t want to be helped. Cartman is a narcissist/sociopath. He’s capable of affection, empathy and even love, but to a limited degree.

And because of that, when it comes to his friendship with Butters, while he has shown huge progress as the show went on, there’s no telling how much this progress can continue before hitting a limit. And there’s no telling how much this limit will prevent their relationship from being healthy.

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Ultimately, I don’t think their relationship could ever be 100% healthy. Cartman is a huge control freak and I don’t think he’s that capable of change.

That being said, Cartman and Butters could become equals, or at least as close to equals as Cartman is capable of.

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As of right now, the closest people to be equals to Cartman are Kenny and Wendy, mostly due to them not being afraid of him. Wendy especially knows how to avoid being manipulated by Cartman and I do think the two could become equals if Cartman had any sort of respect for her (which he doesn’t).

As for Kenny, it’s a mix between not being afraid and Cartman himself having some form of respect for Kenny, and I think that’s what gives me hope that Cartman and Butters’ relationship could be better.

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Cartman grew to respect (to an extent) and care for Butters. So if Butters were to grow out of his fear of Cartman’s actions, while Cartman keeps being a softie to him, they could have a better relationship.

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Although, such a relationship still wouldn’t be 100% healthy, especially if you imagine them growing up to become con men or CEOs together.

But the main difference would be that, while Cartman could still screw up Butters, Butters could also screw up Cartman and get away with it without Cartman trying to get revenge, and as such without Butters having the fear of said revenge.

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It would be far from perfect, nor would it be completely healthy. But given their personalities, this is the best they could have. It might also make their relationship have a more casual feeling to it while still having genuine care for each other. But in any case, I think this is a relationship they would both be content with.

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Before finishing with the “other ships opinions”, here’s a few other things I wanted to talk about but didn’t know where to put, in no particular order :

- Despite Cartman being closer to Butters, he seems to still consider Kenny his best friend. Regarding this, I don’t think Cartman has fully realized just how close he and Butters became.

For example, take the scene from “You’re not Yelping” when he gives Butters free food. I feel like, had anybody pointed out to him that he just gave free food to Butters, Cartman would’ve gone “Hey you’re right ! Butters you asshole come back here you owe me money !”

Looking at their recent interactions, it does seem like most of what Cartman does for Butters is “subconscious”, in the sense that he knows that he’s being nice to Butters but probably doesn’t realize just how much he’s doing for that kid, especially compared to literally anybody else.

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- When it comes to Cartters, I don’t think it’s enough for Cartman to be nicer towards Butters. Butters also needs to become worse, embrace the darker “fucked up and corrupted con artist” side of him.

I honestly don’t believe in Cartman redeeming himself and becoming a better person overall. But since he is capable of love, I do think that their relationship could work if Butters was on the “unredeemable” side as well. Their relationship wouldn’t be 100% healthy and would have a few hiccups, but it’d work for them. Kind of in a “they deserve each other” sort of way I guess ?

That’s actually something I really like about Cartters : In order to ship it, you need to acknowledge how much of an asshole Butters actually is.

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- Cartman’s friendship with Butters is like a double-edged sword to him and I find that very funny. Episodes like “The Magic Bush” or “Tegrity Farms” portray that very well.

On one hand, Cartman now has an incredibly loyal and trustworthy ally. But on the other hand, Butters isn’t taking any of his shit anymore, so Cartman better act like an actual friend if he doesn’t want to lose him.

On that note, that’s also why I really like how much nicer Cartman has been since S17. It’s obvious that he realized how Butters’ growth changed their dynamic, and he’s willing to play nice instead of taking their friendship for granted. And looking at episodes such as “Let Them Eat Goo”, it seems that this dynamic is actually bringing them closer, which is pretty sweet.

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- Now that I think about it, this post barely had any mention of the romantic and sexual jokes between them, which are honestly pretty numerous and present across the entire show. But that’s because I’m more focused on their characters and possible chemistry, especially how they evolved and how they could evolve in the future.

While the jokes definitely influenced/shaped my perception of this duo and can absolutely be used as a reason to ship it, what I’m ultimately looking for in a “shipping mindset” are the genuine moments and interactions.

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- Speaking of “romantic jokes” tho, I’m still not over the fact that, in the Vaccination Special, Cartman makes a drawing of the “Qties” group in front of the school + the adults that joined. And in that drawing, you can’t recognize any of the kids aside from two :

Scott Malkinson, mostly recognizable due to him being in the center with a jacket and what seems to be his tongue being visible, since the drawing has characters with their mouths open and said mouths are colored in, unlike said tongue.

Butters, seen by his short blonde and kinda-spiky hair + the fact that he’s holding a flag like he did during the fight earlier, showing that Cartman was paying attention to what Butters was doing, either during the fight or while watching the news, since he drew some of the adults accurately which shows he watched the news.

But yeah, it just kills me that Cartman fucking took the time to draw Butters accurately while not giving a single shit about the rest of the Qties. For example, Clyde and Red were part of the group. Good luck seeing them on the board.

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- At some point, thinking about the two got me thinking about Scott Malkinson, who some call “the new Butters”. Mostly, it got me thinking about the possibility of Cartman using him for schemes and eventually getting attached to him. But I doubt this would ever happen.

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This also led me to realize that, while people call Scott “the new Butters”, there are actually three main differences between them :

1. Scott is morally good. Butters is morally ambiguous.

2. Scott already knows how to talk back to bullies, it’s just that nobody cares. Butters on the other hand had to learn to stand up for himself, which apparently left a much higher impact on the other boys (just look at their reaction in “Going Native”).

3. Scott is very visibly lonely, as we especially see in “Basic Cable”. When he’s alone, he seems to suffer from it. Butters on the other hand never seemed lonely like that. Even in early seasons, when nobody liked him, whenever he was alone he could be seen playing with costumes or drawing or being on his computer etc. While I’m in no way doubting that Butters was lonely back then (and might still be), he was capable of hiding it.

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And regarding their relationships with Cartman and why I don’t think Cartman would ever care about Scott : The main reason is that Cartman isn’t obsessed with Scott. Like I said earlier, he doesn’t go out of his way to bully him like he used to do with Butters.

Then you also have the fact that Scott agrees to help Cartman because he’s the most terrified of Cartman + he’s so lonely that he’ll accept any form of acknowledgment. Butters on the other hand is in the schemes because he enjoys it.

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You could also say that, with Cartman being paranoid, he only wants one confidant. But then again I don’t know shit about paranoia and couldn’t find something on the internet so take this idea with a grain of salt.

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Oh yeah, and also I like comparing the two with Cartman in “Board Girls”, with the scene where they complain to Mackey and the scene in front of the assembly.

In both scenes, Butters speaks unprompted while Scott waits to be asked to talk. On top of that, when Butters interrupts the first time, Cartman just gets mildly annoyed. But when Scott answers Mackey’s question, Cartman gets angry and yells.

As for the scene with the assembly, seeing Butters speak and Cartman glare at him, causing Butters to cower and walk back to his spot reminds me of that one Halloween episode with Satan throwing a sweet 16 party (around S9-10). When the boys try to summon Biggie Smalls, Cartman is hesitating and Butters insults him, causing Cartman to glare at him and raise a fist.

Makes me wonder if Cartman not raising his hand in “Board Girl” was due to them being in front of an assembly, due to him knowing Butters would back away from the stare alone, or due to Cartman simply not having any intention to hurt Butters because he grew to care about him. In any case, Butters cowers due to fear and trauma.

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One last thing about comparing these kids is that it made me wonder if there’s any chance for Butters and Scott to be friends. And honestly, I don’t think so. While Butters can be very sweet, he’s also a bully, and Scott is a victim of bullying. On top of that, I could definitely see Butters feeling bad for Scott and Cartman dismissing those worries, which with time would cause Butters to stop caring.

So long story short, I think that, as long as Butters is friends with Cartman, he and Scott won’t be able to be close.

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- Episode ideas, one that could help their relationship and one that would be very satisfying :

1. Cartman throws Butters under the bus yet again, Butters is mad and doesn’t want to be his friend anymore, Cartman’s like “That’s fine ! I don’t need you anyways”, Cartman realizes that he’s been relying on Butters for so long now that it’s pretty impossible for him to scheme alone, Cartman tries to get other people to help but doesn’t have the same patience he showcases towards Butters so he can’t stand them when they don’t understand stuff or make mistakes (also they’re not as competent as Butters), Cartman eventually begrudgingly apologizes to Butters and promises to stop throwing him under the bus, Cartman actually has to hold this promise for the rest of the show and starts using other people as scapegoats without growing meaningful friendships with any of them.

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2. Cartman has a scheme idea and goes to Butters’ house to ask for his help, Butters is grounded and insists that he can’t leave, Cartman finds a way to convince the Stotches to let the kid out, the whole episode would have Stephen calling Cartman to be like “alright it’s been long enough now bring Butters back” but Cartman keeps delaying it until his scheme is complete, oh and Butters is having the time of his life being away from his parents.

Basically, I just want an episode of Cartman playing mind games with the Stotches parents, with Butters getting no bad consequence whatsoever. Because let’s be honest here, both Stotches parents have mental illnesses, which would make them weak in Cartman’s eyes and incredibly easy to dominate. And while physical violence against horrible people is cathartic, mental games is where the good stuff’s at.

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To wrap up, here’s my views on a few other Cartman and Butters ships, for those who are curious :

 Cartman

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- Stan//man : completely neutral on that one. Don’t particularly like it, don’t particularly dislike it. I tend to find their friendship pretty interesting due to how Cartman doesn’t really have anything against Stan since he isn’t part of any sort of minority (aside from possibly sexuality but it has yet to be canon).

On top of that, Stan doesn’t react in a way that Cartman finds funny. Stan also doesn’t get roped into Cartman’s schemes easily, unless it’s a group effort. So it seems that they could become closer friends. But the issue is Kyle, due to how horrible Cartman is on the poor kid that Stan is incredibly attached to.

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So yeah, I’m neutral when it comes to shipping it, meaning I don’t ship it but don’t mind seeing ship art of it. And I do find their friendship interesting in canon, though I don’t think they could grow closer unless Cartman stops being such an asshole towards Kyle, which I doubt will ever happen given the need of a status quo (sort of, the show does have character development).

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- Ky//man : possibly my least favorite ship and one that makes me deeply uncomfortable, which probably isn’t helped by the fact that Kyle’s my favorite character and I don’t want to see him suffer like this.

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Okay, positive things first, I’ll admit that I do believe that Cartman’s relationship with Kyle is the most interesting Cartman relationship, and the show absolutely wouldn’t be the same without them butting heads all the time.

Another thing I consider more positive : I can’t say I really see much of a possibility for the two of them having a healthy relationship. But tbh, we are talking about fictional characters.

Not every relationship has to be 100% healthy in media. So as long as you’re aware a relationship isn’t perfect and don’t try to romanticize or fetishize the fucked up elements in it (looking at you, proshippers), honestly you’re good to go. If you believe Cartman can be redeemed and Kyle can find it within himself to forgive him, good for you and have fun making your stories !

(Tbh I do believe that one can talk about anything in their story, including fucked up elements. But if you want to write it with a narrator finding it positive, write it from the POV of the perpetrator or a “brainwashed” victim. I do think it’s possible to have a narrator view abuse as “good”, as long as the story is meant to make the reader uncomfortable about it and/or have elements making it very obvious that the narrator has a messed up POV. Oh and obviously please put a disclaimer in the summary or notes to warn about the messed up stuff)

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Now, onto the negative (yeah, sorry, this pretty much turned into a rant) : Tbf, when I first heard of the ship, it didn’t surprise me in the slightest because this is like, shipping 101. So when I started re-watching, I was basically “I understand why this exists but it’s not my thing”. And then I reached the episode “Gin//ger Cow”…yeah, let’s just say I went from “not my thing” to “NOPE” very quickly.

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So, first things first, my issue with the ship is NOT just the fact that the relationship is inherently toxic with many instances of Cartman being the worst. I mean, I ship Cartters, it’d be hypocritical of me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My issue is the fact that, not only had the relationship not gotten better, it got worse. In early seasons, Cartman saw Kyle as a rival to take down, someone he enjoyed for his reactions. But in newer seasons, with episodes like “Gin//ger Cow” and “Human Centi//ipad”, we see that Cartman is fine with Kyle not fighting back as long as it means that Kyle is an object or a trophy that Cartman owns.

That’s my issue with this relationship. It has gotten to a point where it’s just too fucked up for me to enjoy (I mean, I didn’t enjoy it in the first place because enemies to lovers isn’t my thing, but those episodes made my views on this ship worst).

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On top of that, you have stuff like Cartman being so much of a stalker that he knows exactly what will make Kyle react in which way, leading to him being able to manipulate Kyle into anything. Like, seriously, look at episodes like “Cr//ack Ba//by Association” or “Tegrity Farms”. If Cartman wants Kyle to do something, he will get Kyle to do that thing, to the point where he even mocks Kyle like in “Le Peti//te Tour//ette” or “Oba//ma Wins”.

Then there’s also the way Cartman swoops in and plays nice with Kyle every single time Stan and Kyle fight, which makes my skin crawl because taking someone when they’re at their most vulnerable and playing nice to gain their trust is incredibly abusive and, as interesting as it is to watch, god does it makes me feel bad for Kyle.

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Another thing that doesn’t help is the way Kyle clearly hates Cartman but also sort of needs him due to his desire to be a good person, since Cartman is so obviously the bad guy that it makes Kyle the good guy everytime they fight.

Also Kyle is just so used to the abuse at this point that he kinda normalized it. Which actually makes me think that, if the two were to be separated at some point, Kyle would at first be incredibly happy but then have a phase where he misses Cartman, not only due to the change of status quo that feels weird but also because, without someone who is so obviously the bad guy, it makes it harder to argue with people who actually have a point in their reasoning. Ultimately though, Kyle is much better off with Cartman as far away from him as possible.

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All that being said, there is absolutely no denying that Cartman has some sort of unhealthy obsession with Kyle, which has gotten sexual on a few instances. Like said earlier, I don’t consider it love but it’s definitely there. Though, I don’t think Kyle could ever reciprocate, and for his own good, I hope he doesn’t.

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Another thing that I’ll agree with is a post I remember reading that had two ideas for how a relationship between them could work. First idea was Kyle being at his most vulnerable and Cartman managing to manipulate him into a relationship, tho obviously it would be toxic. And the second idea is them never seeing each other for years and, once they reunite, Cartman is a better person and Kyle is able to heal and forgive him, which would bring a healthy relationship that works.

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Though, about that second idea, looking at “Post Covid/Return of Covid”, I’m not sure how realistic it is. Thing is, like I said earlier, Cartman was only being genuine towards his wife and kids while being an asshole to everyone else. And if he and Kyle were to be in a relationship, I don’t think Kyle would be okay with that. He’ll probably want Cartman to be nice to everyone. Problem is, I don’t think Cartman is actually capable of that. : /

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And in general, as much as I love Kyle, I’ll admit I can’t help but think that he’ll be the kind to nitpick or complain about little things a lot, and I doubt Cartman has the patience to deal with someone like that, not helped by the fact that Kyle seems to be pretty fatphobic so he might try to convince Cartman to do something about his diet, enraging the guy.

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So yeah, all-in-all, it’s just not my thing.

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- Ken//man : neutral-positive on this one. I don’t ship it but I kinda like the idea. Again, I’m a huge “best friends to lovers” person so of course I wouldn’t mind this one.

Besides, it’s interesting how Kenny is one of the kids that are the least afraid of Cartman, possibly due to his immortality. Speaking of which, I’m guessing that Cartman being able to remember Kenny’s death or having some sort of connection to him must be a pretty interesting thing to develop in order to bring them closer for the ship.

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Another thing about them that kinda makes me laugh is how one-sided their friendship is, with Cartman clearly considering Kenny his best friend while Kenny doesn’t care about Cartman all that much.

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But yeah, in any case, pretty cute friendship with them being close to being equals and you do have the hope of Cartman being nicer towards Kenny as they grow up, since he clearly cares for him. It’s not enough for me to ship it but I definitely like the idea.

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- Can//dy : my second favorite Cartman ship. Fun fact, when I first heard of this ship, I had an ironic enjoyment of it because the idea of these two together amused me a lot. Then I read a fic with them being friends + thought about it a bit more and, honestly, I kind of love it. Actually, this is probably one of if not the healthiest relationship Cartman could have, at least when only taking into account the people Cartman knows and had hurt.

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I mean, thinking about how people at times compare Kyle and Wendy for being rather similar in their self-rightfulness, I’d honestly go ahead and say that Can//dy is basically Ky//man but better, due to 3 major differences between those two relationships :

1. Cartman doesn’t have an unhealthy obsession towards Wendy the same way he does for Kyle and Butters, which already sets this relationship as healthier than both of them

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2. Wendy doesn’t have as much trauma related to Cartman as Kyle and Butters do.

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3. Unlike Kyle who’s very gullible and often tries to be the bigger person while fighting Cartman, Wendy doesn’t easily fall for Cartman schemes and doesn’t mind playing dirty. Take the Smurf episode for example. Not only did Wendy not react to Cartman’s taunts for most of the episode, but in the end, she played directly into Cartman’s narrative, getting down his level in order to beat him.

This actually makes their dynamic incredibly interesting and gives their ship tons of potential. Wendy is the one person who not only doesn’t fear Cartman but also knows how to play him.

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Then there’s also other things like Wendy in early seasons falling for him that one time, or even episodes like “Pajama Day” with Wendy’s idea being complimented by Cartman for being incredibly manipulative.

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Honestly, Can//dy is a girlboss couple with a lot of potential and it’s a shame this ship isn’t that popular, because it’s honestly really good on top of being one of the few Cartman relationships in which Cartman is on almost-equal terms with someone. All Cartman needs is to learn to respect Wendy on a more personal level.

Overall, their relationship has some serious fun and interesting potential.

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Butters

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- St//utters : neutral-positive. Their friendship in the show is very cute and honestly underrated. Plus, it’s very sweet how protective Stan can be towards Butters at times, like him calling out Cartman in “Grounded Vindaloop”, his anger at the beginning of “Butterballs” (making it seems like he’s the one who wrote the anonymous letter) or him using Butters’ distress in the Pandemic Special, which in a way could be seen as him caring for the kid.

As for Butters, you have him hyping Stan up throughout the entirety of “A Scause for Applause” or him comforting Stan at the end of “Band in China”.

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Though, at the same time, it seems that they’re not that close and are willing to bicker for the people they care more about.

For example, Butters being nice to Stan for most of “The Cissy” but then bullying him when Cartman asks him for support. Then there’s also SOT, in that one scene with all the kids arguing at the beginning of the third day (when you’re tasked with recruiting the girls), with Stan speaking up to defend Kyle and Butters speaking up to defend Cartman. You also have Stan telling Butters to shut it in “The Big Fix”.

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So yeah, like for Cartman and Kenny, I don’t ship it but don’t mind the idea and can find fanart of it cute.

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- Kyu//tters (apparently that’s the name) : neutral. I was gonna say neutral-negative due to their canon interactions but I actually don’t mind the ship in the slightest, even with their canon relationship.

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Because yeah, the thing between these two is that they don’t like each other, and by that I mean Butters has continuously been a huge asshole to Kyle and had been shown to bully him on his own on the regular.

Tbh, as much as I love Kyle, I actually find this hilarious. There’s just something about seeing Butters clearly considering everyone to be an asshole but still acting nice with literally everyone else but Kyle. Like Butters really went “fuck this one guy in particular !” and I love it.

Though, I do think that the reason why Butters acts like that is due to his friendship with Cartman. Since Cartman is always the worse with Kyle, it probably made Butters believe that Kyle is an acceptable target.

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But this aside, I actually wish we could have more interactions between these two.

Thing is, they’re the two people Cartman is obsessed with. As a result, they’re also the two people who know Cartman the most, or at least they think so.

Gotta be honest, I’d love to see a situation of Kyle talking about how to take down Cartman because he knows everything about him, mentioning a preference Cartman has, only for Butters to be like “actually, Cartman likes X more”. Cue a talk revealing that Butters knows Cartman on a much more personal level due to him being Cartman’s confidant. Also, this could probably lead to Kyle having yet another existential crisis.

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Another thought about them and Cartman that could be interesting would be them talking about what they think about the guy.

An idea that came to mind was Cartman ending in juvie/prison and, after a few weeks of happiness, Kyle realizes that he sort of misses Cartman due to how used he is to have him around to oppose. And I feel like, in such a situation, Butters would be the best person Kyle could talk to, because Butters would also feel strange about Cartman not being there. Also, Butters would probably go apeshit on the regular out of boredom because of course he would, I mean c’mon !

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So yeah, I don’t really ship it or even see their canon relationship as a friendship, but despite that I don’t mind the ship and can find fanart of it being cute.

That being said, if I had to make a fic with this ship, it would absolutely be the two of them pretending to be in love in order to drive Cartman crazy. I mean, these two are his worst enemy and his closest confidant, both being kids Cartman’s obsessed with. He would not be okay with it and it could be hilarious.

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- Bun//ny : neutral-negative, though neutral-positive if it’s Bunn//yman. I don’t ship it, don’t mind it for the most part but is a bit annoyed from how popular it is, especially since this fandom is really into monoshipping (each character has one popular ship that +70% of the fandom sticks to, leading to other ships having little content).

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Simply put, my issue with this ship is that I just don’t see any chemistry between them. The only things they have in common is being Cartman’s closest friends and being huge pervs towards women, which isn’t the best approach for a gay ship, even if the characters are bi/pan.

Like some people have said it before, Kenny and Butters are the type of guys who only hang out because they’re both invited by Cartman. And when Cartman leaves the room, they just sit in awkward silence until he comes back.

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To explain a bit more my view on them not being compatible, I just feel like Butters is too extreme for Kenny. While Kenny can be a little shit at times, he’s still one of the best people in South Park and has sacrificed himself on several occasions. So I feel like Kenny wouldn’t be okay with someone like Butters, who takes things up to eleven so easily.

Tbh, I’m still surprised that Kenny in Post-Covid agreed to get money through Butters selling NFTs that ruined hundreds if not thousands of lives, especially since Kenny was working for the better of humanity. Also, I’m surprised no-one ever brings up the fact that Kenny was okay with NFTs, unless Butters/Vic never told him.

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So yeah, their personalities just feel too different on that front. That’s also why I think they both work better with Cartman, including as a trio, since Cartman can be more or less extreme depending on the situation, making him a good fit for both.

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As for their friendship in the show, they’re honestly not that close, and it’s pretty surprising that what seems to be the official SP wiki singles out Butters’ friendship with Kenny (along with Cartman’s) instead of Stan’s, whom Butters acts closer to.

On a shipping POV though, it is pretty funny to see this page call Kenny’s views on Butters “big-bro instinct” in a sense, even comparing how Kenny acts towards Butters to how he is with his little sister. But this aside, they just barely interact in the show unless Cartman is involved.

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One last thing about them, though it’s a headcanon, is the idea that Kenny feels some resentment against Butters.

Basically, it’s due to the fact that, in early seasons, it was always the main 4 together. And with Stan and Kyle being closer friends, Cartman and Kenny kind of latched onto each other as best friends.

Then Kenny died and Cartman tried to replace him. And even after Kenny came back, while Tweek went back to being a minor character, Butters stayed in the front line, mostly because Cartman wanted him to. Which even led to episodes in which Kenny isn’t with the group at all but Butters is, like “Canada On Strike”.

So basically, there’s this headcanon that, for a long time, Kenny resented Butters for taking his place not only in the group (sorta) but also as Cartman’s best friend. Though I like to imagine that, after “Going Native”, Kenny grew to accept Butters and that’s when he started having that “brotherly protectiveness” towards him.

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If you’re still here, thanks for reading such a long-ass thing ! 😅

#South Park #SP #Eric Cartman #Butters Stotch #Cartters #SP Buttman #hey look I'm finally posting again ! #just took me like three months AFTER announcing I would post another two months since the last post #actually it was four months because of course it was #fun fact actually : I already moved on to another fandom #THAT'S how long this thing's been sitting in my computer ! #anyways #I REALLY hope it's not too hard to read #I really went full essay mode with this one #meaning many MANY words are repeated 😓 #Flor talks #long post #REALLY long post #(probably my longest to date outside of fics)

[flyingpurplepeopleprogrammer]

You know, I get some questions often enough that I think I'll just start posting the answers.

Let's start with a classic: "How did you get into hypnosis?"

The short answer? I like brains! That and lots and lots of reading.

The long answer? Well...

It was a long time ago. I can't recall exactly what all happened in what order: there was bad television, of course: cartoon hypnosis and movie mind control. X-2? Telepathy. Matrix 2? Who remembers the scene with the cake? I could list bits of media that are fun with kink glasses for awhile, but you've probably already heard of most of them anyway.

I was curious outside of that, though. There were also encyclopedia artcles about the mind and a grab-bag of probably-mostly-nonsense you could find in books and on the internet about meditation, altered states of consciousness, psychoactives, brainwashing, cults, ritualistic spirituality, BDSM, MKUltra conspiracy theories... whatever. If you can name it, I probably read about it. It's alarmingly easy (or, at least, it was for me) to find your way back to mind control from philosophy, religion, any kind of "why?" question you might go about exploring while you're young and don't know anything.

This was back in pre-video days of the internet and - honestly - I think it was mostly easier to find sources on obscure stuff in the days before youtube and AI generated clutter. I can't really say how much of what I read stuck, but I definitely spent some of my days sat around trying to figure out meditation or getting my awareness out of my head experimentally. It's kind of wild to think back on that, honestly. I can still remember a nice out-of-body experience against a lone oak trea out in a pasture. The dirt around it was always fine and powdery because the horses would clomp and roll by it, and it made the loveliest spot to lay and daydream in a summer heat.

But I digress -

I also worked my way through the EMCSA: first by looking for keywords and themes I liked, then alphabetically - compiling reading lists based on whether or not a given sypnosis caught my eye. Ya boy has read a lot of smut. Hypnosmut - like all art - is mostly rubbish, but you'll find some writers that give wonderfully educational descriptions of hypnosis. That and a few scraps from outdated, untrustworthy papers by Names of hypnosis past and a couple of ill-advised, late-teenaged forays into power exchange and I ended up playing with brainwashing, imagery, and... yeah. I had the tools and opportunity to experiment with some kind of mental play that was hypnokink or hypnokink-adjacent. I can safely say I've been doing this shit since before I was old enough to vote.

Now, nobody should be reading this who's under 18, but just in case you are:

- I cannot stress this enough: do not be like me. I got into a lot of trouble that wasn't good for me and I would've been better off in a lot of ways if this hadn't been the route I'd taken.

- You shouldn't be reading this. This blog is 18+ for a reason. Feck off.

Eventually, like so many of us, I found my way to some shady corners of the internet and made an ass out of myself in ways that - while new and exciting to me-from-the-past - are fairly standard for newbie hypnokinksters. (I'm still out there, btw: Out on the internet, Being an asshat. I don't use this name, though. This Flying Purple People Programmer business is my first foray into not using my usual name.)

When I started out in these spaces I set out to get hypnotised by a bunch of different people because - well - what better way to learn different approaches then to see them firsthand? This taught me a lot about different techniques and - perhaps more critically - what it was like to be hypnotised by a shitty hypnotist. I don't recommend that second bit, but it probably did a good job of encouraging me not to be a dick. I've run into a lot of community folks over the years, but not in a very loud way. That's not uncommon in the hypnocommunuty, by the way: if you've been around for any length of time, a lot of people are floating around who will know who you are and remember you from this event or that website. It's a small world.

Looking back on it as if I had a thesis when I started writing, I think that the best thing I picked up in my adventure was the idea that we don't know what we're doing, really, and that our ways of experiencing things are both wildly diverse and not quite knowable. Hypnosis is a big fuzzy mess in a range of human experiences and hypnokink might not actually have all that much to do with hypnosis. We can be meditating or conditioned or daydreaming or a million other things in the course of our play and often times "hypnosis" is just an aesthetic we dress it up in. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

So. There's me rambling about me. Hopefully that saves me going on for a thousand words next time somebody asks me that question hoping for a gentle conversation starter.

#fppp answers #if there's one lesson to take from this it's that I really really like talking about hypnosis #and might be difficult to shut up if you get me going on the topic #might #if somebody were to make an “I like brains!” version of the I like trains gif I'd award them 1000 internet points

[mommyhorror]

hey we’re mutuals and i see you on my dash a lot and i’ve always wanted to ask. what got you into amberlynn reid? i used to watch videos about her on those tea/hate (whatever they’re called) channels but i never knew much about her. i just wanted to know what the appeal was for you.

hey! love ur username lol

I watch a lot of mukbangs honestly and so like 2+ years ago (🥴 has it really been that long……) I had been watching mukbang channels and then got recommended “cringe mukbang” compilation videos which are really mostly not even cringe (SOME ARE) but it would just have back to back mukbangs in a video and I found that really fun and relaxing to watch. And so I kept seeing ALR, not super often but often enough, and there were comments about her so I got curious. I actually also started following Chantal (foodie beauty) the same way. I kinda fell off w Chantal tho bc idk my personal taste is just a gorl who does normal woman stuff every day and never really changes, like a cartoon, because it’s comforting. Chantal’s storylines get chaotic and scary half the time and idk I guess it’s interesting but also anxiety-inducing and weird to me……. Anyways that’s how I found amberlynn Reid. And because YouTube’s algorithm is so strong like I’ve just been shuffled along through reaction channels and compilations and have found some cool video creators/reactors through it etc. but at the end of the day it’s an addiction lol

the appeal for me is 1) nothing ever changes which relaxes me 2) she talks exactly how I think (mostly) 3) I like the sound of her voice 4) there is endless content 5) supporting women’s wrongs

#ALR posting #gorlworld #youtube

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Hey I’ve been looking through your posts and you’ve mentioned quite a bit about reading autobiographies of several comedians. Do you have any favourites and general recommendations? I’m curious to hear which ones are your favourite and which ones you’ve never talked about before for whatever reason. Also have a nice day :)

Thanks for that, I appreciate the message! Here are the comedian memoirs I’ve read or listened to on audiobook in the last couple of years:

- Look Back in Hunger - Jo Brand

- Born Lippy: How to Do Female - Jo Brand

- Can't Stand Up for Sitting Down - Jo Brand

These three I bought together, and I enjoyed all of them. Look Back in Hunger is the closest of them to a straightforward autobiography, telling the story of Jo Brand’s childhood and adolescence, going up to just when she started comedy. Can’t Stand Up for Sitting Down is part two of that, the story of her career in stand-up. It’s a fair bit shorter and doesn’t cover too much, but there are interesting stories in there. The other one is less of a straightforward story but it does include lots of stories about Jo Brand’s own life; it’s meant to be things she’s learned along the way about how to get by while being a woman.

Like I said, I liked them all. I went through them pretty quickly; Can’t Stand Up for Sitting Down it short, Born Lippy is easy to read quickly because it’s organized into many different sections, and Look Back in Hunger is just an easy read. I’d really recommend Look Back in Hunger if you have any interest in the comedian Jo Brand, and Born Lippy even if you have no interest in who Jo Brand is but just might enjoy a book about someone’s thoughts on life and sexism and feminism and that sort of thing.

She has an interesting story – it can be broadly summarized as a rebellious childhood (there’s some sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll in that bit) followed by years of working as in a psychiatric facility, the latter of which had some unique stories about dealing with violent patients and things. So… that’s one to get if you think that life sounds interesting.

- James Acaster's Classic Scrapes - James Acaster

- Perfect Sound Whatever – James Acaster

Classic Scrapes is a series of short stories about weird situations James Acaster has got into throughout his life. It’s not really an autobiography, but it puts the stories in chronological order so you do end up getting a picture of his life story in the process. It can also be found, if you’re interested, in its original radio form. The stories started as a regular feature he did on Josh Widdicombe’s XFM show, and then he turned it into a book. That link is a compilation of his radio show stories, which I downloaded and listened to like an audiobook a couple of years ago.

Then I read the actual book, and both have their advantages. The actual book is longer, has more detail and structure, lots of stuff that didn’t get included in the short radio segments, and more of his comic voice since he had time to write and edit it instead of speaking mostly off the cuff. The radio show has some of James Acaster speaking like a normal person (you can hear him develop his “comedy voice” as it goes along, but in the early ones he hadn’t yet), lots of fun back-and-forth with Josh Widdicombe, in a few cases the excitement of the stories unfolding as they go along (notably the cabbage story, which is so worth hearing and/or reading in its full form if you’ve ever seen the WILTY episode about it, because the WILTY episode does not do justice to how wild it was), Nish Kumar laughing really hard, and a general sense that the stories are in a more “raw” form. Personally I preferred the radio stuff but enjoyed both.

Perfect Sound Whatever is a memoir about just one year in his life, which was 2017, and was terrible. It started with his girlfriend leaving him (said girlfriend being an “unnamed NZ comedian” but everyone knows who it is and I sometimes thought he overstepped a bit with how much detail he included about her, given that fact, but it’s not too bad). Then he had a psychological breakdown, a bunch of other bad things happened, and that’s the story of this book.

It’s organized around the fact that he dealt with his 2017 breakdown by listening to all the music he could find that was released in 2016. In each chapter, he talks about some different artist or album he found, and uses that to tell another story about the terrible year he spent listening to them. Personally, I think his taste in music is terrible but his writing is good. I think it might be technically a better book than Classic Scrapes, it has a lot of interesting ruminations on mental health and life in general that make you think about stuff. But Classic Scrapes is better if what you want is his life story.

- Just Ignore Him – Alan Davies

I listened to the audiobook of this one all in one day, which I recommend if you want something to absolutely fuck you up emotionally, but be prepared for the fact that it will do that. I’m not sure quite what to say about it because I think a book like this is best approached without knowing the story so the full impact can hit you as he intended, and Alan Davies has said he doesn’t like people taking some of the darker stuff he talked about and discussing it online, cheapened because its stripped of its context. Having said that, trigger warning for death and child abuse. That should give you a general idea.

It's a really well written book. Alan Davies did a master’s degree in creative writing while writing this book, and you can really see that. Almost always in a good way, maybe very occasionally in a “okay I can really see that he’s applying some creative writing tricks here, and those wires should maybe be less visible” way. But most of the time it works well. I was totally drawn in and really emotionally affected by multiple parts of it. Just… if you’re going to get this book, don’t read or listen to it when you have other shit to do that requires you to not be very emotional that day (I haven’t read the book, only listened to it, but I really recommend the audiobook because he reads it very well).

- Moab Is My Washpot - Stephen Fry

This is a story that runs from his young childhood until he started at Cambridge; there are further volumes that cover his Cambridge days and later, but I haven’t read those. It’s supposed to be very, very good. I think it’s considered one of the great comedy memoirs, like how Stephen Fry is considered one of the great comedy figures. And my view on both those things is sort of… I don’t get it. Not that I think he’s terrible! Well not always, I think a few things about him are at least a bit terrible. But mostly I think he’s fine. I just don’t get the mystique about Stephen Fry. I read Moab Is My Washpot partly in the hopes that I’d understand.

It's definitely a good book. In terms of dense, very well written prose, it’s by far the best thing on this list (with the possible exception of the Sandi Toksvig book, and a few chapters of the Alan Davies one). It has interesting stories. He’s led a hell of a life. Done lots of interesting things, made lots of bad choices that lead to bad consequences but good stories later. He’s often interesting about it.

I think if Stephen Fry weren’t meant to be this towering figure in comedy, I’d have liked this book fine. But because he is, I kept finding things that bugged me about it. Like when he’d write multiple paragraphs of complex prose about how we can surely all understand the sort of youthful yearning and impulsiveness that would lead us to steal credit cards or something, and I just wanted to say, “Dude, I think that’s the bipolar disorder. You needed to see a doctor.”

There’s also the way he describes his childhood like it’s normal (I mean, not like it’s normal, there were a lot of odd things about it, but he described it the way anyone else would describe their childhood) and then at one point casually included a picture of his childhood home and it appears to be a mansion. I grew up with plenty of financial privilege, solidly middle class, lots of people out there would be justified to resent the things I take for granted. But I still sort of resent someone who could grow up in a mansion and think that was so normal that it wasn’t worth mentioning.

As problematic as it is to romanticize privilege and everything, it was interesting to read the story of a well-off boy in British prep school then private school in the 60s and 70s. Interesting in the same way that a novel set in a time and place like that is interesting, to see what that “other world” is like. And Stephen Fry writes well about it. It’s a good book. I just went into it already not hugely liking Stephen Fry, and then I found some things to validate that resentment.

- Backstory – David Mitchell

I’m putting this one next because I had a slight objection to it for a somewhat similar reason to the Stephen Fry book, but on a much smaller scale. He spends a weird amount of the book denying that he is financially privileged, as though his target audience is people who watch WILTY and think Lee Mack’s stories of his posh upbringing are all true. He also spends a sort of odd amount of the book denying that he is gay (not a huge amount of the book, but some of it, which seems like more than the normal amount to spend on that), but to be fair, I think at the time there were rumours of him being gay and he was just responding to those.

There’s one bit when he complains about performing in Liverpool, because the Scousers reject so-called privileged Southerners like Mitchell and Webb. They’re angry because they don’t understand, he says, that they’re really not that privileged! Robert Webb, for example, went to a state school. That got to me a bit because like I said, I grew up solidly middle class, and my parents would never have considered sending me to private school. I think I’ve only ever met two people who went to private school, and they were both known as the incredibly rich kids. If your bar for arguing that you’re not really that privileged is one of the two of you didn’t even go to private school, it seems like a bit of a skewed perspective.

Anyway, I was reminded of that because I just wrote that thing about Stephen Fry, but it was only one small part of a book that I liked overall. It’s a straightforward autobiography, from his young childhood, through his Cambridge days, until pretty much when it was written, in 2012. It includes the development of the Mitchell and Webb partnership, their early TV and radio shows (Sound, Situation, Look, Bruiser), Peep Show, and WILTY. It has some genuinely sweet stuff about Victoria Coren, which appears to be a painfully lovely and romantic story.

It doesn’t follow any special structure except chronological storytelling, so David Mitchell just adds his thoughts about whatever’s happening as it goes along. From a comedy nerd perspective, the stories about Footlights are really interesting, as was the stuff about how he got shows commissioned. Some of it was quite funny. Good book overall.

- Mack the Life – Lee Mack

I read this one right after Backstory, as watching WILTY made me decide to systematically watch both team captains’ other TV shows (that is why I have seen every single episode of Not Going Out, which was probably not the best use of my time, but it was summer 2020, what else was a I going to do?), buy their autobiographies, and read them together. I have to say that of the two, I preferred Lee Mack’s. Not that David’s was bad, just that I really liked Lee’s.

Some people have criticized this book for not getting personal enough, which is true. You won’t find much in there about his family or wife or kids, so if for some reason you’re really interested in Lee Mack’s parents or wife or kids, you’ll be disappointed. But I didn’t mind that. This book is mainly focused on his career, including a lot of his own opinions about the nature of the comedy industry and how to break into it. It basically is his life story, does include stuff about when he was younger, but it tends to gloss over everything except his experiences in comedy, which it discusses in a lot of detail. And I was fine with that because I find that the most interesting part.

I also liked the gimmick that he used for the structure of the book. Each chapter begins with a discussion between him and a psychologist who’s evaluating him for ADHD. I assumed when I read the book that he’d made them all up, but read afterward that he says he really did have a psychologist read it one chapter at a time, and then he talked to her about it and wrote down what they said. I don’t know if that’s true, but either way I thought it worked really well. The exchanges with the psychologist were insightful, funny, and found a cool way to show us his perspectives. The whole book was quite funny, actually. It had a higher joke rate than you’d normally find in an autobiography, even one by a comedian.

- It's Not Me, It's You! - Jon Richardson

Well, I’ll start by saying that this was the only book on the list besides the Alan Davies one that made me cry. So... if that’s what you look for in a comedy memoir, then this one’s for you! It was published in 2011, so probably written in 2010, and it is an intense and concentrated version of 2010 Jon Richardson. It’s going to be polarizing, because 2010 Jon Richardson was a pretty fucked up and intense thing, and if you liked that, you’ll like this book. If you didn’t, you will not. It has so much pointless reveling in anger and despair that I’m honestly surprised his publishers didn’t make him punch it up a bit before putting it out there. He’s not even particularly deep about it all. Just bitter, mainly.

I’ve complained a bit lately about the more recent iterations of Jon Richardson, and it’s not even that he’s bad now, it’s just that I had so much attachment to what he was. Ultimate Worrier was a funny show at times, but it was also Jon Richardson dressed up in these perfectly pressed cardigans, reading off an autocue about how weird he is, and it’s like they took all the fucked up things from 2010 Jon Richardson and put them into this neat little package that’s more palpable for light entertainment. Which I guess is a silly thing for me to say because plenty of the version of him that I liked came out on 8 Out of 10 Cats, which is very much light entertainment. 8 Out of 10 Cats is not a good show. But for a little while, Sean and Jon made something good in it. I just… I haven’t watched/don’t plan to watch his recent Christmas sleepover thing, or his mother in law show, or his panel show for celebrity couples. But it depresses me a bit that they exist. They’re probably even funny at times, I don’t know. I’m probably unnecessarily judgmental.

The point is that this book is an undiluted shot of Jon Richardson from before he was folded into a TV-friendly package, and he just fucking hates everything. It’s after 8 Out of 10 Cats but before Catsdown, after the radio show and before any reconciliation with Russell Howard (you can feel that seething resentment all the way through), before acquiring his girlfriend/now-wife and being happy. And it has occurred to me that it might be messed up that I liked him so much better back when he was unhappier. I strongly disagree with the principle that anyone needs to suffer to make good art. And I don’t actually think it was acquiring a girlfriend/now-wife that created the change – I think that coincided with him losing his edge a little (I apologize to Jon Richardson and also to everyone else for using that expression, I can’t think of a better one), but didn’t necessarily cause it. Or if it did, it didn’t have to cause it. As in he could have got married but not had that change whatever it changed in his comedy. Also, it coincided a bit but not perfectly. He was still very good on Cats and Catsdown for a few years after he was no longer single. So whatever went wrong wasn't Lucy Beaumont's fault.

Back to the point again. This book isn’t a straightforward autobiography – it doesn’t tell his whole life story, though it does make some references to his past. I think it was marketed as a sort of zany collection of thoughts about how to date people if you’re a bit weird, but it’s definitely not that. It is Jon Richardson writing about a few days in his life, and along the way, writing in detail all the things he thinks and feels about what’s happening. It feels like a stream of consciousness. I feels like a journal entry. I don’t know why it was published. I loved it but I don’t know if it's actually “good”.

I’ll say this about any list-based post I write on this blog: the things I put earliest on the list will be discussed in the least detail. Because I start by telling myself I’ll just write a few quick sentences about every item, and then I slowly drop that idea as the list goes along.

- The Audacity - Katherine Ryan

This one is a straightforward life story, from Katherine Ryan’s early childhood to when the book was published, which was in 2021. It includes growing up in Canada, moving to England for her job with Hooters restaurant, having a kid when she wasn’t quite planning to, being a single mother trying to break into comedy, breaking into comedy, and then getting with her current husband and having another kid. Those are the broad notes of the story – obviously a lot of shit happened along the way.

Sometimes when I read or hear something from a comedian, I’ll think I really relate to that, and then think everyone relates to that; it doesn’t mean they’re articulating something I in particular have experienced, they’re just describing things all humans feel. This book weirdly made me realize that isn’t true, because I related to very little of it. It was an exercise in understanding someone who grew up very differently from me – not just in different circumstances, but thinking and feeling and caring about different things. Spending her adolescence reading fashion magazines and wanting to look like the women in them, and getting plastic surgery. I sort of look at that as something on which I hold a sort of theoretical opinion, which is to not judge the people who’ve experienced it even if I don’t understand it, but it was something else to actually read the thought process behind it.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t love this book, mainly because of what I said about a lot of it just feeling alien to me. But I also saw her live over the summer, and saw a lot of women in the crowd excitedly asking her to sign books, who clearly had found something that felt familiar in it. I also wished it had more in there about her experiences in comedy – it had some of that, but the comedy-stories-to-dating-stories ratio wasn’t my favourite.

I’ve also found myself disagreeing with Katherine Ryan ideologically a lot lately (not on things like getting plastic surgery, on which we might disagree about whether to do it for ourselves but I agree with her that it should be allowed and free from judgement – I mean I disagree with some shit she’s said like how people who are paranoid about COVID are boring and anti-vaxxers are more fun), so that’s going to colour and bias my perception of this to a point. The book was fine, it had some good stories, Katherine Ryan annoys me these days.

- Monty Python Speaks – David Morgan

The only one on this list to not be written by its subject, this is something someone else wrote about the story of Monty Python. It was really well done. A lot of work went into this, interviewing the then surviving members of Python itself (everyone but Graham Chapman), as well as lots of people who worked with them, like their producers and other actors. It went from the very beginning, how these guys met each other a few at a time at different schools, did things together there, and then were brought together as Python. It covered all the years when Python was active in detail, discussing their writing process as well as the business side of things. And then went into what they all did when it was over (including, of course, Chapman’s death). I found the whole thing really, really interesting.

It didn’t make me like all the members of Monty Python personally, but it wasn’t meant to. They’re not all likeable people, and the interesting thing about a biography written by someone who isn’t its subject is he’s not telling a story that’s biased toward painting them in a good light. He did his best to show the whole picture, the good and the bad, and I found it absolutely fascinating. I highly recommend this to anyone who’s into British comedy history. Or just comedy history, really.

Also, in case anyone’s concerned, it turns out that no one is wrong to think Michael Palin is the nice one.

- Between the Stops: The View of My Life from the Top of the Number 12 Bus – Sandi Toksvig

I’ve put this one last because it’s my favourite book on this list, and one of my favourite books I’ve ever read. Actually I haven’t technically read it, I listened to the audiobook, and I highly recommend doing that because it’s narrated by the author and she reads it so well. It’s very, very good. I made my father listen to this book. I made my mother listen to this book, and she’s not even into comedy.

This book does tell her life story, starting from childhood and going quite a ways into her career, but it’s not just a straightforward autobiography. It’s told via a bus trip through London, which is an excuse to get in some stuff she knows about London’s history in every chapter. The gimmick is that each chapter represents a stop, and she’ll tell us about the history of the things around that bus stop, and then she’ll go into a story from her life that’s vaguely related to it. I found that gimmick delightful.

Sandi Toksvig has a hell of a story – an interesting multi-national upbringing (one that has almost as much financial privilege in it as Stephen Fry, and the reason it annoys me in his book but not in hers is I like her better than him and I’m a hypocrite), cool experiences that came from her father being a journalist, and then a long and varied career in comedy. Including the feminism and coming out as gay back when that was a dangerous thing to do in the public eye (yeah, so did Stephen Fry, but he’s not so great on the feminism angle, and I like Toksvig better).

It's very well written, you can tell this one was made by a properly skilled writer and not just a comedian who decided to write a book (...no offense to everyone else on this list). It's funny and it flows well and I just really really like it. It's good quality writing and it's an interesting appealing story. Highly recommended to anyone who likes anything good.

...Thanks again for the message, and sorry for replying to your simple request for book recommendations with a 4,000-word screed. I do that sometimes. But I appreciated the chance to go on about that, I hope you found anything at all in it helpful, and I hope you have a lovely night!

[chierushi]

Hello by SEVENTEEN

Around 2017, I saw Pretty U (dance version) being shown almost every week at someone’s house. Their kid really liked them. Eventually, the KPop group kind of grew on me after watching it for several times, and they really do have good choreography.

I got curious and searched them up on YouTube. They’ve got more insane dances. They debuted around 2015, and were getting attention by that time, so I’ve got a lot of material to consume. I kept watching their dance rehearsal videos and ended up listening to those songs on repeat.

Simply stating this as a matter of fact: I’m usually not into KPop. It’s hard for me to fancy songs I can’t understand. I also actively refuse viewership to anything mainstream, thinking they don’t need more fans. I prefer to consume less known artists. But in the case of SVT, they demanded to make an exception. They spoke to me through dance, a universal language, and I heard their plea.

Even though I’ve watched their rehearsals a lot of times, I didn’t bother to know their names. Without effort, I could distinguish faces of S.Coups, Vernon, DK, Woozi, and The8 whenever they’re at the center. (There was no way for me to see their faces up close because I didn’t watch any of the official music videos, too. They’re 13 people; usually the cameras were setup too far the whole time to cover all of them) The reasons: S.Coups, The8, and DK have pretty recognizable voices, while Vernon and Woozi have distinct physical features.

Their first singles were pop, to which I lean more into. But around 2019, they became more rock, hip-hop, and EDM. I was probably not yet ready for those at that time, or maybe it was a mismatch of interest. I moved on.

This year, 2022. Most of the people I follow on stan twitter became fond of Mingyu and Wonwoo. While the retweets were mostly about shipping them (it is a BL stan Twitter, of course the gays go gaga over Mingyu and Wonwoo separately, and together, they’re a match made in heaven), Some do include their performances. Remembering how badly I was into them years ago, I muted all possible keywords and specific accounts.

Frankly though, I did check on their discography once or twice during my denial phase. They still didn’t appeal to me, not as much as what happened back then. I let the MinWon content on my timeline and just skipped through those tweets.

A few weeks ago, I saw a video compilation of all their dance rehearsals from past to present…and it got me HOOKED. That was probably either nostalgia or anxiety (I’m having depressive episodes these days) that turned things around. I started watching their performances again on YouTube, and had ‘em playing in the background at shuffle while at work. This time, I’ve got so much more discoveries.

It took me a week overconsuming Going Seventeen (a variety show of some sort that they host) funny clips to be able to recognize who’s who. This is also the reason why I’m dead hyper fixed on them. They’re not Running Man-level kind of variety, and they’re idols, not comedians, but I enjoy their dynamics as a group. It’s fun seeing each of them interact with quiet members, steal the spotlight (and some of them are shameless about this, which is alright! They’re celebrities!), their natural comic timing, etc.

I’ve seen clips of them as teenagers who are trainees, and I think that’s one of their secrets. They’ve been literally living with each other for so long (and as kids even) that they have learned who needs more attention, compassion, and who needs to be left alone on most days. They’ve seen each other’s quirks and have learned to be okay with it. They’ve learned to adjust for each other willingly. Combining family with work is tough, but they manage it somehow. Of course, with unending dance practices, that kind of relationship helped their performance to get to the level of where they are now. When they dance, they move as one. The synchronization is crazy.

All this, I also have to give credits to S.Coups wonderful leadership. He’s always the first one to look out for each of them, yet, you don’t feel the hierarchy. He is bossy, even the members have joked about this, yet they willingly submit to him because respect has been earned (probably also recognizing seniority is an Asian thing). They are so varied individuals, and sometimes you can feel the struggle of some to connect, but it is S.Coups that always makes way, and the members follow. I rarely see that side of him though; he’s always having fun with everyone, even being teased.

I’ve seen this one video of them singing live of mash-up of their songs, and they’re really amazing! They are grouped into three sub-units, but all of them can really sing, dance, and rap with ease; I sometimes question why there’s a need to divide themselves when they can all sing and dance really well.

In October, they will be having a concert here in Manila, and I want to come! It has always been a dream of mine to watch them perform live, but knowing how KPop fandom works, I doubt if I’ll get VIP tickets. As much as possible, I don’t want a seat far from the stage, and only see them on a big screen. I want to see them up close, not breathe the same air. It’s better to watch the stream if that’s the case. Getting into this, I thought, it’s kind of dangerous for someone like me, because I have no kids, no dating life, and I earn more than enough to cover my bills.

Anyway, I’ll see if I’ll have the energy to fight for a good seat on that concert, or if my laziness would continue to topple everything, even my love for Jun (one of the members and my bias). I don’t really have an idea how to end this dump; I think it’s obvious from how poorly written this blog is. But yeah~ I love them.

#chierushiblogs #personal #saythename #seventeen #svt #say the name seventeen

[hyunubear]

HI!!! it’s been too long. i’ve missed chatting with you! i’m doing alright. i moved into a new apartment (i’m not liking it as much now that i live in it sadly) and started grad school. my head is spinning a bit, but i’m staying positive (mostly lol)

how are you??

i’ve never watched an idol survival show. i’ve definitely heard lots of positives and negatives about them, mostly negatives though when it comes to comments about the experiences of groups i’m a fan of now.

i can understand that. i got into monsta x in 2020, and i remember feeling less of a connection when i really dug back into their discography. fatal love is what solidified me being a monbebe along with tracks like destroyer.

that’s so valid omg. i’m definitely curious about how that time was when wonho was still part of mx. reading your tags was so enlightening for me because suddenly things started making sense. i remember watching so many funny moment compilation videos three summers ago and being a bit confused because i couldn’t find similar content that was recent. i’m glad i was able to enjoy vlive content before its end, but what i did see was totally different from what you described from years ago… so formal. i’m not surprised that shifts happened in the fandom too, and it sucks that we lost the ability to enjoy the authenticity older lives provided. (i remember melting over the kihyun cooking moments ☹️ the man he is. i could talk about him all day) no doubt that enhances the fan experience

also, who is mira? i may follow them, but not sure >.< i want to follow all the monbebes

-🚇

It has🥺 ive missed chatting with you too!!! Ahhh moving is always hard even if ur new place is perfect ;;;; congrats!!! Looks like we're both doing kinda similarly jdjfkf i dont think ive mentioned this on my blog before but i also got into grad school and am currently anxiously waiting for my student visa so i can move my ass across the globe...

Yeah 0/10 dont recommend kdkfkd like i totally get the appeal of being with a group from the beginning and seeing their struggles and watching them grow can make the bond stronger but in my case ive always gotten to groups who are already well established and the members are older. Freshly debuting idols are pretty young (especially nowadays) and that is just not for me...

I got a small glimpse of ot7 in 2018🥺 I watched a bunch of mx ray and a lot of interviews and stuff from their promotion era (another thing ive noticed nowadays is the lack of interviews... like weekly idol and similar shows where promoting idols would go to and do a bunch of fun activities and occasionally get mistreated by asshole MCs🤡) and i cherish those memories very dearly. And shoot out was such a good era to experience...

#its so sad that we're never gonna experience those type of vlives again... #but the old ones arent completely lost!!! #a few ppl have created complete archives of them!!! #u can find them if u ask around!!! #i still watch some of their older varieties religiously... #like ILOGU mx in jeju... puppy day... mx daycare... #their appearances on kbob star are so entertaining to watch... seeing them inhale food like hungry soldiers who haven't eaten in months 🤣 #easily 90% of our memes were from their unsupervised vlives and mxray #oh also before i forget!!! #mira is @ nuhoney1hunnit !!! #one of my favourite ppl on the hellsite and also in general <3 #speaking of kihyun cooking moment kdjfkdjdj #remember that time he stirred the food with a pen shaped like a tennis racket? kdjfkfj #tbh i rarely watched their vlives in the end... the were just sitting in an empty office talking and there werent subs #i got the good moments from twt with translations anyway #and i wouldnt have to see trolls in the comments either #it was just not the same... #ask #🚇anon

[gyaruxqueer]

♡ Hello!! ♡

My name is Stars☆, and welcome to my gyaru blog! I'm a genderqueer man in my late 20s starting to explore the world of gyaru after a great deal of research and soul-searching to see if this is the right lifestyle for me--and as of right now, it is! I am for SURE still a baby gal but I feel very drawn to ganguro and feel so at home within myself when I dress in gal☆

My pronouns are it/its but he/him is also super. I have been a kandi kid for what feels like forever and in my heart, rave and gal r siblings♡ I live by PLUR and have always been intent on breaking the mold and refusing to conform to society's standards of beauty and normalcy, so when I discovered gyaru I was naturally very curious about it.

This tumblr will serve primarily as a place for me to compile images of other gals, style and makeup inspo, and occasionally fun little aesthetics and other miscellaneous posts that resonate with me and this particular aspect of my life. Its secondary purpose is for me to talk about my journey as a gal! In time I may start posting selfies but as I'm still starting out and figuring out how I want to style myself I may not do it very often.

This is a sideblog! I will like and follow from @drunkstarscreamofficial , and my personal blog is @mimikyubestie . I also have a Skyrim blog @boethiahsboytoy and a blog for OC posting @starscreams-drunk-oc-blog . If you need anything tagged, let me know! My ask box will (probably) always be open, so feel free to stop by to chat at any time!

Thanks for stopping by! If you've got any questions just shoot me an ask. Have a great day!! ☆Stars☆

Some fun facts about me (under the cut because wow do i love to ramble):

I've known I was queer since I was a wee little lad and I am still exploring my identity (and predict I will for a very long time!).

I am asexual and demiromantic with a preference for men--so I'm also a gay man!

I use a cane to help relieve chronic (undiagnosed) back pain! I REALLY want to save up for a plain black cane and TONS of cute things to decorate it with--stickers, jewels, etc.--to match the gyaru lifestyle. But my favorite one is my orange lava cane that my husband bought me♡♡

At the moment I'm super broke 😭 I work part time in retail but have to pay for my meds and hormones (and my doctors appointments and labs related to them) out of pocket, so my shift into the gyaru lifestyle will be slow as I lack the funds to add pieces to my wardrobe that I want. I will be focusing more on new makeup and accessories than clothes however, as I loooove altering my own clothes and have many ideas of how I can change up my wardrobe just by using what I already have.

I can't wear big dramatic falsies (for the most part) because I need glasses. I can't afford to see an optometrist to get contacts (and couldn't afford contacts anyway😭), so I make do by drawing on lower lashes and decorating under my eyebrows with cute eyeliner stamps or glitter!

My favorite color is orange, but ironically I don't style a lot my outfits with lots of orange! However some of my Signature Looks are ALL orange, so I think that makes up for it ;P

My favorite movies are Pride and Prejudice (the 2005 one), Pacific Rim, and The Bye Bye Man. My favorite movie genre is horror, and I REALLY like comedy and found footage horror especially.

My favorite genres of music are hardstyle, hardbass, happy hardcore, and eurobeat. My favorite musicians and bands are The Sounds, DJ S3rl, Headhunterz, Uamee, and Unleash the Archers.

I did drag for a bit, but after a while wearing a full face of makeup started giving me really bad sensory issues. Now I pretty much only do eye makeup and slap on some lip gloss (and occasionally lipstick if I feel up to it).

I am mixed white (specifically Welsh mostly) and Filipino, though unfortunately have no real significant ties to my cultures :( But I do love Filipino food !!

That's all for now! If you read this far you're a fucking champ 😭😭 Stay safe out there!!

#stars.txt

[thrilling-oneway]

Okay I wanted to make a post about my thoughts on the SIF 2 announcement yesterday. Might be quite long we'll see.

1. SIF 2 was pretty inevitable. I saw this announced coming a mile away. I started playing SIF at the beginning of the end, or at least for the EN server (read: August 25th 2020). Iirc the first event after I started was the Aqours flower crown one with Dance with Minotaurus as the song. So after the old format of 2 SRs, but before the 1 UR + 1 SSR + old event SR format. That weird period where they ran 7 SRs and then a party card (that wasn't released until months later bc EN sucked ass). I've seen Step Up boxes get removed, I've watched unidolised cards disappear, I've watched the UR rarity become a joke. I gave up waiting for new songs to be permanently implemented and I gave up waiting for new Master charts. I was there when EN got shut down. I was there for the Niji sprite R/SRs and the Liella screenshot cards. And most recently when the new schedule has massively slowed the release of content so that we're only now getting stuff that should've been released months ago. This game has been dying for so long and I can tell why now. While I haven't heard any news yet about the server being closed permanently, I wouldn't be surprised if it happens shortly after the release of SIF 2. Tbh I'm surprised the game lasted this long; when the EN server shutdown was announced me and a friend joked about how it wouldn't even make it to 9 years.

2. Is it really SIF 2 if we've had All Stars, 3 After School Activity games and Paradise (if you really want to count Paradise)?

3. On a more positive note: SIF 2!! As much as I love SIF and owe so much to it, the game has really been wearing me out. This seems like such a refreshing change of pace! Obviously we don't really know much yet but I'm looking forward to it. I hope this revives the popularity of SIF too, since I would like to not get bots in an event lobby for once in a while.

4. The card art is definitely catching my attention. We've only been shown a preview of what I'm assuming is Honoka's initial unidolised card, but the art is so pretty! SIFAS has gorgeous card art and old SIF art also slaps so the art for this game shouldn't disappoint. I'm gonna miss the actual card shaped cards that SIF has but I don't mind the bigger landscape cards.

5. EVERY SONG. EVERY FUCKING SONG. IS IN THIS GAME. Oh my days they did it they fucking did it. Finally. Also the remix and solos during events has really caught my eye. I'm assuming solos is just using the preexisting solo mixes for all μ's and some of Aqours songs, but remixes has got me curious. Do they mean like the Paradise remixes that were on that one compilation album? Or the ones from Aqours lives? Or completely new ones?

6. As for gameplay I hope they keep the 9 icon charts from SIF. Not only does the 9 member thing work but also it's such a fun style that not many other games use. I mean I wouldn't mind overly if they changed it to the bandori/pjsekai play style, but I will miss the SIF style. Also I have muscle memory for almost every chart so I just don't want them tp change. And I think it would be funny to watch bandori/pjsekai players suffer at the hands of Hajimari Road, Nico Puri Joushi Dou and Binetsu Kara Mystery etc etc. If they keep the same charts I hope there's a way to transfer data. Also if they change the play style I'll reinstall enstars because I need to be good at something.

7. I don't really have anything to say about the story it mostly likely won't be canon so does it really matter?

8. In terms of events I hope they keep something similar to the original. Especially Companion Match and Challenge Festival. Those are good. Token Collection can die in a fire. I mean something similar to bandori would be fine too. But if it's just like pjsekai marathon events then I don't want it.

9. Boy do I have something to say about team building. Team building and strat has always been a big part of SIF, and I hope they keep it in this game. And preferably closer to how SIF handles it because I still Do Not Understand SIFAS team building. SIF strat is very easily accessible too, you just build attribute based teams and use the right one for the song you are playing. Obviously if attribute merely became an event gimmick I won't be too fussed - that's how it is in all the other games I play - but I would definitely miss team building. ALSO IF THEY USE THE SAME SKILLS AS SIF HAS CURRENTLY I'LL BAIL GO BACK TO FAIR RATES.

#long post #i don't think anyone should ever ask me to talk about love live school idol festival again unless you want something like this long

[sevenkittensinatrenchcoat]

Pas De Deux Analysis: How Are Victoria’s Boyfriends Different?

So, having access to an amazing compilation of pas de deux, which I have already reblogged, so I’m not going to link it here unless someone directly asks me to, I decided it’d be fun to look for patterns. All the toms that dance with Victoria dance with Victoria, but they’re different characters, so how does characterization affect the pas de deux?

I mostly compared Plato/Admetus, Tumblebrutus, and Mistoffelees, because they’re the most common. Plato/Admetus is so common that it was difficult to decide which versions to focus on! I was mostly curious about if Misto was different from other toms in this scene in any significant way, because of course I was.

1. Plato/Admetus (based on London, 1998, and Madrid)

Plato/Admetus tends to be confident in his flirting, but still polite. He headbutts Victoria (headbutting is how cats say “hello”) and startles her. She steps back and he waits for her decide what she wants to do. She goes back to him and they flirt for a bit before The Lift. Since Plato/Admetus doubles as Macavity, who lifts and throws Munkustrap around, Plato/Admetus actors have to be really strong, so the lift usually looks effortless. This is especially amazing in 1998, where Bryn Walters had a taped-up, injured hand and Phyllida Crowley Smith was pregnant. 

2. Tumblebrutus (based on Broadway, Buenos Aires, and Hamburg)

There was less of a clear pattern in these versions, but I think the pacing of the pre-lift stuff was slightly faster. Tumblebrutus kind of charges right into things. Victoria either immediately turns around for the lift or they both take a startled step back before coming together for the lift. The lift itself is a bit more awkward, but I think that’s deliberate. In these versions, both characters involved are supposed to be inexperienced teenagers. They’re both still figuring stuff out and both are still sometimes surprised by Strange, New Feelings. Plato/Admetus is slightly older than Tumblebrutus, so he gets to be a bit more confident.

I’d like to give credit to Broadway 1994 Tumblebrutus for making the headbutt extremely literal.

3. Mistoffelees (based on Paris, Zurich, and Amsterdam)

As I’d previously suspected, the dynamic here is a bit different. Mistoffelees is probably around the same age as Plato in these productions: They’re both allowed to stand with the adult toms during Bustopher Jones, but they’re young enough to have coming-of-age moments. But, Misto was aged down into this role to be similar to Tumblebrutus: a male counterpart to Victoria. However, his dynamic with Victoria isn’t like either one of them.

Misto isn’t as confident in approaching Victoria as the other toms are. Paris Misto (in 1990. We’ve got two versions now!) looks like he’s expecting to be stopped. Amsterdam Misto is a bit more confident. It’s played like he and Victoria are kind of already a thing (and a surprisingly cute couple, considering how much I usually don’t like Mistoria). Paris 1990 and Amsterdam 1992 are both played by Guy-Paul de St. Germain, so the difference between Shy Paris Misto and Already Dating Amsterdam Misto is a little odd, especially since these are both Vienna-based productions, so it’s not like Zurich Misto vs. Broadway Misto for Lindsay Chambers, playing the character differently to fit two very different productions. Maybe it was a few years of experience that led to the change idk.

Anyway, I think the Paris 1989 clip might actually be Tibor Kovats. Bootleg Quality makes it hard to tell, but during the rare split seconds you can see his face, Paris 1989 doesn’t look like Paris 1990. Meanwhile, even if I didn’t look up the casting, Paris 1990 and Amsterdam 1992 are very clearly the same person.

And, of course, I gotta say something about Zurich Misto My Beloved. He’s the most nervous and awkward out of all pas de deux Mistos. He doesn’t headbutt Victoria as much as firmly nuzzle her. She’s slightly startled and that startles him halfway across the stage. From there, Victoria takes the lead, coaxing him back out to do The Lift.

In general, Victoria paired with Misto initiates more than she does with other toms. In Platoria, Plato takes the lead. In Tumbletoria, they’re equally awkward and equally eager. In Mistoria, Victoria is often the one encouraging Misto to not be so nervous.

4. But Wait. Is It Misto or Is It Vienna?

All productions that have Misto in the pas de deux are Vienna-based, but not all Vienna-based productions have Misto in the pas de deux. I’d originally assumed that Vienna paired Victoria with Tumblebrutus like Broadway did, but, we have evidence somewhere that it’s actually Carbucketty she’s with. I’ve long since given up on identifying most of the characters in Vienna, so I wouldn’t know. I didn’t think he looked like Tumblebrutus, but I also had no idea who he did look like.

Vienna had both a Carbucketty and a Pouncival. Amsterdam only had a Pouncival, so he took Vienna Carbucketty’s role during the early years of Amsterdam. The few other productions that pair Carbucketty/Pouncival with Victoria vary. China 2012 doesn’t have much relation to the Vienna-based productions.

So, I watched three Vienna pas de deux with all the Bootleg Quality, Dark Voids, and Editing Choices that entailed. The results: ???

I personally think these versions most closely resemble the Tumblebrutus versions, though Carbucketty seems a bit more nervous and Victoria sometimes behaves more like she does with Misto. It feels like the Misto versions played up certain qualities of the Pouncebucketty versions, which were inspired by Broadway Tumblebrutus.

So, no, I don’t think it’s a Vienna In General thing. Guy-Paul de St. Germain’s Misto seems genuinely shy and very sweet, though the shyness was downplayed in Amsterdam. Zurich Misto is Baby and as startled by his own actions as Victoria is. He’s not used to Just Doing Things and not getting in any trouble for it.

#cats amsterdam #cats paris 1990 #cats zurich #cats vienna #cats broadway #cats hamburg #cats buenos aires #cats london #cats 1998 #cats madrid #cats victoria #pas de deux #cats admetus #cats plato #tumblebrutus #carbuckety #Pouncival #Mr Mistoffelees #Platoria #tumbletoria #mistoria #guy-paul de st germain #tibor kovats #Lindsay Chambers #bryn walters #phyllida crowley smith

[lovetenya]

𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝟏𝐚.

warnings: these are just headcanons mostly focused on them, but the reader is gn, of course!

note: this was suggested, and inspired by this. also, i haven’t written for some of these characters before, so i hope i do them justice!

scenario: ua’s normal childcare professional is out sick, so you’re teamed up with another class 1a student to take care of the ua teacher’s kids while they’re at a hero banquet. all of the kids are well behaved, but most of these guys aren’t around kids much, so it’s a learning experience.

mina ashido.

mina is great with kids because she fits right in with them and will listen to them babble about their interests for HOURS because it truly is interesting to her to learn what makes them happy

and she’ll ask you “wow! did ya hear that y/n? she just said that pelicans can turn their stomachs inside out! isn’t that great?”

she just wants to learn whatever she can from them, because she thinks that they have just as much to teach us

i feel like mina is the type of person who gently inserts self love rhetoric and feminist ideas into her conversations w the kids, because she just wants everyone to be uplifted and for them to notice their strengths without being held back by other people’s opinions

she’s always felt that it was easy to be outwardly excited and to have fun, so she’s really good at getting shy kids out of their shell and helping them to let loose, and will encourage you to open up to them a little bit and be a little warmer

she loves to dance, so she’ll host dance parties with the kids and start something goofy like a conga line and lead them around the common room, making them all giggle like crazy

tsuyu asui.

tsu doesn’t really like the loud noises that kids sometimes make, so she’s more likely to organize a game or put on a movie for the kids to watch to keep things calm and steady

she’d let em pick a nature program or an animal-related movie so that she could chime in & give little facts here & there and make them smile!

tsu is a good babysitter because she encourages kids to be curious about their surroundings, and doesn’t mind at all when kids ask questions about her quirk

she’ll show and tell them whatever they want to know, and will even leap out of excitement sometimes!! she’s so cute!!

katsuki bakugo.

contrary to what other people sometimes say, i don’t think that he’s going to be outright rude to kids or yell at them constantly. yes, i know, he was brash with them in those couple episodes, but he’s blunt—not a bad person. he’s not going to just scream at kids for no reason.

sure, he might get frustrated, but he still wants them to feel safe and protected. that’s what heroes do.

and what better way to keep them feeling safe than teaching them self defense techniques?

he’d be all serious like, “alright, so if a villain has you in a chokehold, what do you do?”

and they’re sitting in front of him, all wide eyed and starry lookin, entranced with what he’s teaching them

“who teaches kids this kind of stuff?” you think. (he does)

i also think katsuki is the kid of person who’s going to cook for them and keep them occupied in that way.

he usually likes making complicated stuff, but he has no problem making it less spicy if it means they’ll calm down for a little bit to eat

while everyone’s eating, you look over to him and see him helping a kid hold their chopsticks, before softly praising them, “there ya go. you’ve got it now.” and giving them a small high five

he’s not someone who’s going to be outwardly soft, so doing things for kids like teaching them things or cooking them meals is how he shows he cares.

tenya iida.

tenya likes to tell and read stories with kids, or help them with their homework if they’ve got any

he’ll do terrible voices for all the different characters and make all the kids laugh

he’ll sit patiently with them and will explain the stories or problems just like a teacher would

and he’ll notice if you sneak them any candy, and will call you out discreetly by holding out his hand for some and saying “what? you’re not going to give me one?”

any and all messes will be cleaned up by the kids, and they’ll be lined up & ready when the teachers are ready to come and get them

kyoka jirou.

i think she’d be better with older kids because they’re easier to maintain and entertain (in my opinion)

they don’t ask as many random questions, which sometimes overwhelm her, and they’re more likely to listen to what she has to say

i can see her being really flustered with the attention they give her, because they think she’s so cool, but she’s still pretty relaxed cuz she doesn’t wanna freak them out

she’ll let them have lots of snacks and would play music for them!!

“does anyone know what this instrument is called?”

“that’s right, good job! wanna hear what it sounds like?”

she’ll show them as many instruments as they wanna see, and tries not to blush too hard when they cheer and applaud

denki kaminari.

if you think kids bounce off the walls with energy, they’re about to meet their match with mr. denki kaminari.

he’s the kind of person to challenge them to foot races and to go way too hard in go fish

and he’d do little pranks where he let outs a little shock when they high five him

needless to say, the kids are exhausted when they make it back to their parents

eijirou kirishima.

he. loves. kids.

he thinks they’re so fun to be around and that they’re the next generation of heroes, and they’re full of endless potential!

he’s 100% willing to be a human jungle gym and will play wrestle with them to their heart’s content while making sure they’re not being too rough with each other

he’d compliment them for the smallest stuff, saying “wow! that was super manly, kiddo!” cuz he doesn’t want other people to question their abilities

he’s not the greatest cook, but he’s helpful, so he’ll help you cook for them!

he’ll encourage the kids to help however they can, and will let them stir the bowls while encouraging them!!

lots of high fives and “woo-hoo!”s

izuku midoriya.

izuku adores children’s curiosity and how their questions never seem to end

he can relate to it, because of course he loves compiling information and learning as much as he can about a topic

if one of the kids was a fan of all might??? they’re babbling together about all might’s greatest moments and they’re demonstrating how the move went and how the villain ran away pathetically

he’s very soft w kids because he knows how weird he is.

he agrees that it doesn’t make sense for someone of his size to be that strong, but reminds them that everyone’s quirk works differently, and that they shouldn’t judge people for their quirk or how it chooses to manifest

he’s so understanding and kind w the kids whose quirks haven’t manifested yet, because he knows how bad it feels to feel like you’re es than average, and assures them that it’ll come soon! and even if it doesn’t, you can still make a difference!

which is all the more reason for him to be as gentle as possible, following around the little ones like a mother hen and making sure they’re not gonna walk into something or put a toy into their mouth

would probably tire himself out trying to keep track of all of them and they would all fall asleep in a big hug pile 🥺

mashirao ojiro.

has a lot of fun with kids, because he’s used to being overshadowed by some of the higher achievers in class 1a

but kids think he’s cool because his quirk is so unique and they can’t help but be fascinated and ask a million questions on what he can do with it

he’s happy to share, because lots of people underestimate him and don’t pay attention to what he has to say

would give them rides on his tail and let them pet it (like denki does!)

hanta sero.

he just kinda lets them do their own thing and follows along to make sure that they don’t hurt themselves

would strap a baby to his chest with some tape just to keep them secure with him

and would answer a thousand questions about his quirk without tiring, because he remembers what it was like to be curious of peoples quirks, and he knows they’re not staring to be disrespectful

i think he’s another one that would cook for them, and feel really accomplished when they’re all satisfied

mezo shoji.

although he’s a badass, that’s exactly the reason why he’s the one most hesitant to deal with kids because he’s afraid that he’s going to scare them away

however, he didn’t account for them finding him to be the most fascinating person they’ve laid their eyes on

he would scoop them up in his arms and carry them around and let them use him like a jungle gym

he’s very very gentle with them because he tends to underestimate his strength and would never be able to forgive himself if he was to bring them harm, but he never does because he’s so careful

shoto todoroki.

shoto never really dealt with kids, so he’s hesitant about everything he does.

he’s seen the destruction that his quirk “causes”, and he’s horrified to thing of what could happen if he gets overwhelmed.

shoto underestimates his tolerance and patience. he’s very good with kids, and is very good at getting them to listen.

all it takes is a little flurry of snow and they’re suddenly at full attention for shoto.

ochaco uraraka.

she likes kids, but she’s not very good at being strict with them

they want to read another story? of course she can read another!

they want another snack? sure! why not?

she tries not to let them walk all over her, but they’re just so cute, and she can’t resist.

she’d make their toys float around the room to make them laugh

and they think she’s a princess because of her “magic” and how she wears pink :)

momo yaoyorozu.

momo is like a mom!

shes great at planning things for them to do and keeping them in line and occupied

games are organized and cooperative, so nobody loses!

although she’s not usually like this, she’s more than willing to give hugs and feel better kisses if someone is to bump their head :(

she would feel terrible if someone got hurt on her watch, so she’s encouraging them the be safe if they’re going to be active!

makes lots of fun little snacks for them to eat, with cute faces and stuff, and doesn’t mind to see her hard work enjoyed by such good kids!

end!

#mina ashido #tsuyu asui #katsuki bakugo #tenya iida #kyoka jirou #denki kaminari #eijirou kirishima #izuku midoriya #mashirao ojiro #hanta sero #mezo shoji #shoto todoroki #ochaco uraraka #momo yaoyorozu #mha x reader #mha x gn!reader #mha x gender neutral reader #my writing #filled request