#I think there’s very much a difference between just not caring abt a popular thing n being weirdly bitter about it

[theywontletmebeprincipal]

how do people who hate every single popular thing just because it’s popular live like that. like genuinely. it must be so miserable n exhausting

#I think there’s very much a difference between just not caring abt a popular thing n being weirdly bitter about it #n a lot of people on here cross the line into weirdly bitter about it in a way that’s so confusing to me #actively having an aversion to somehting not bc you don’t like it or just don’t care but bc you think it’s too mainstream is so strange #makes no sense whatsoever #like you aren’t super cool for being a hater about something you’ve never engaged with you’re just kind of annoying #lame as hell to shut yourself off from possible cool experiences just bc a large amount of people also think they’re cool #such a childish mindset to have. it’s very ‘I don’t like pink because other girls do’ <- can attest from personal experience #not to mention mainstream is totally subjective anyway n literally any tiny indie project can blow up #like. I played fnaf before it got popular for example. I’m talking week one fnaf. look where we are now #it’s a pointless semantics game like just have fun. engage with what you think seems fun #civil disk horse #I guess

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

ok so i was actually kinda surprised to find that looking at the ao3 stats and adjusting for how long ofmd’s existed (a year and a half) vs how long the stucky fandom’s been around (coming up on a decade), not only is gentlebeard on par with stucky but it actually beats stucky for amount of fics written. but i’m making a prediction now just based on how i’ve observed fandoms to work: i do think the gentlebeard popularity will peter out faster than stucky did

i’m not saying bc i think gentlebeard is worse or the ofmd fandom is weak or anything, i’m saying this bc in fandom it seems like the white masc queerbait ships* have like, an absurd amount of longevity that goes way beyond the general fandom surrounding whatever media said white masc queerbait ship hails from. im thinking abt the protagonist/rival ship from the TERF wizard series that nobody decent talks about in public anymore. before we all cut jkr out of our lives, people were still churning out fics abt the main character and that racist blond kid pretty regularly. and another example, we have those scientists from pacific rim that are more popular than any of the main characters from that movie. it’s been years and the newt/hermann fandom is still going strong.

and i say “newt/hermann fandom” intentionally, bc that’s the thing that i think actually gives these ships their longevity: when there are fans who are primarily invested in a piece of media because of a noncanonical masc4masc queerbait ship, they’re not really fans of the media itself. i mean, some of them might be, but if they are then that’s in addition to being fans of this alternate queer interpretation of the media in question. they’re a fan of the fandom mass hallucination that the fans collectively and collaboratively invented of a romantic/sexual/homoerotic relationship between two guys who on-screen might hug like once or twice (or sometimes even never)

and i’m pretty sure the reason this sort of fandom phenomenon tends to have so much longevity is bc the fans have already created this whole extensive romantic storyline using what is often some pretty minimal canonical material to work with. so when the movie franchise or the tv show ends and the shippers no longer have any new canonical material to work with, they can keep going for years because really, they were already making shit up from the start.

so compared to that, gentlebeard is way different bc everything the fans might have invented on our own the show pretty much already did for us, and anything the show didn’t do yet is probably coming for us this season (or in s3, fingers crossed). i’ve mentioned before how a lot of fanfiction seems to fall on a spectrum between “fix” and “expand,” and by the end of ofmd i doubt there’s gonna be a whole lot that gentlebeard fans feel like they need to “fix.” versus stucky, where there’s so much that needs to be fixed that you might as well just throw the whole canon out.

i don't really mean any of this as a criticism or an attack on fans of queerbait ships like this, im just pointing out fandom trends that i've noticed. i myself have been deeply invested in stucky, newmann, and the gay wizard boys at different points in my life. like there is something very fun abt putting on slash goggles and making queer content out of nothing. personally though, now that we're in an age where we're getting canon queer content, im not so engaged in a lot of the ships i used to care so much about, but i don't think it's inherently wrong** for people to still enjoy some classic fandom queerbait ships. it's just a very different thing from enjoying canonical queer ships like gentlebeard

*im using “queerbait ships” loosely to include popular gay ships in media that was never in a million years going to make these characters gay.

**a clarifying point: i don't think it's inherently wrong, however there are a lot of problematic elements to this kind of fandom activity, namely the way a lot of these queerbait ships will dominate a fandom while other characters who are important in canon get completely sidelined (and yes, the sidelined characters are often women/poc). also, less importantly, when people's primary media consumption revolves around strip mining canon for shipping content, this absolutely destroys their media literacy and critical thinking. again, im not saying this to attack ppl who engage in fandom primarily through fic/art of noncanonical gay ships, i myself have done the same thing. but i think ppl who do should also make a conscious effort to also engage with fan content that centers women/poc, or at the very least need to be aware of the issues around this kind of fandom activity.

#txt #meta #mine #og #ofmd #our flag means death #gentlebeard #pacific rim #mcu #stucky poll #fandom crit

[p1nkc4tb0t]

OK GUYS IMMA GO ON A RANT ABT THE NOVEL UNWIND, OK? OK.

HOLY SHIT.

guys it was so fucking good i swear.

ok so yeah, warning spoilers n shit. yeah.

ok so i really like the concept of the whole Bill of Life thing, unwinding especially.

like holy smokes was it good.

OK SO IK ITS NOT THE MOST POPULAR NOVEL I DONT THINK SO FOR MY MOOTS WHO R SEEING THIS THIS IS THE GENERAL CONCEPT: since abortions r banned pretty much, ppl either “stork” unwanted children or “unwind” children when they became unwanted. like the story starts off abt three unwinds, being unwound for completely different reasons. Connor was like, a troublesome kid and his parents just didn’t want that so they signed the orders to get him unwound. i missed why Risa was unwound but im pretty sure the state house just didn’t have much room for her anymore(she got storked there i think. she really didn’t grab my attention at the beginning sadly). Lev came from a Christian family, and churches make everyone sacrifice one of their children for God by unwinding them second they turn 13, Lev being one of them(it’s considered an honor)

OK SO the concept of storking is that, the mother delivers a child, doesn’t want it, leaves it at some person’s doorstep and then it’s “finders keepers.” however if they are caught they have to take the kid back and legally obliged to keep it. same with the finders keepers situation, got storked and ain’t no one at ur doorstep? legally obliged to keep it like it or not. however Connor’s parents once got storked and passed it into the neighbors house, and the baby rotated for a week and back to their house, but already sick and dying. Connor then gets traumatized and further on in the book he’s so overridden with the memory that when a bitch got storked she yell at them (Connor abd Risa) to take it back even tho the kid wasn’t theirs.

the concept of unwinding is that legally between 13-18 your guardians can send you to a harvest camp where you’re taken apart and given these parts to those who need it. like for example: you got unwound, taken to a harvest camp, they take your hands and give it to a guy who lost his across the fucking continent. ppl literally stopped trying to cure things, just replaced faulty organs with healthy ones. and no one really knows what’s going on in those harvest camps. do they kill you off immediately or do they wait and wait for weeks on weeks to get to you while you never know when’s your last day.

SO ANYWAY

I really like Connor’s relationship with Hayden, and tbh if they would make them canonically in love i’d be the happiest person on this planet. but again that would cause even further complications w the plot so i get it ig. but at the same time i don’t. Connor never really struck me as a cishet dude even from the beginning of the story, and though him abd Risa r a very good pair i’d just kinda like it more if they paired him up with Hayden. cuz first of all it would add on to tge reason he got unwound in the first place. abd like, i want a gay protagonist in a horror book is that really too much to ask?

same thing with Lev and CyTy, tho i see them more as moirails. yk, homestuck. heheh. no bc they’re so caring for eachother it’s crazy. but again i don’t see them in a romantic relationship, i just rlly like their dynamic. live laugh love how Lev was willing to go through with CyTy’s shit and vice versa.

Hayden and CyTy gotta b my fab characters frfr. anyway so CyTy’s name is actually Cyrus, but he has an eighth of a brain of a kid who got unwound and his name was Tyler. so like, he sometimes does things that Tyler would do but himself won’t, leading them to Tyler’s parents’ house and it actually made me tear up.

ALSO RISA IS AN EMO GINGER. NOT DEBATABLE. I DO NOT CARE IF IT CAN NEVER B CANON, I LIVE FOR EMO GINGER RISA.

GUYS THIS BOOK IS FUCKING BEAUTIFUL GO READ IT

i NEED to make a Homestuck Unwind AU

(imma just tag 4 moots i think would find this interesting @hiddencattoes @kovuspams @r3z1l1c1ous @imgoingtoeatyourfirstbornchild sorry guys this felt necessary)

#unwind #neal shusterman #ramblings #various #im going feral #explodes #dawg be rambling

[booksandpaperss]

obsessed with everyone on that post like "not true! there's never more than one woman in the media!" 1. that's literally the type of excuse the post is trying to shut down. 2. that's. still misogyny. like that's misogyny on the creator's end but it's still misogyny. 3. have you tried maybe reading something other than shonen manga and watching something other than a marvel movie, because idk your choice of media could be part of it. like it's actually INSANE to me that you can be on tumblr where shows like spop and the owl house and atla are popular and think there's truly NO MEDIA with good characters. like those aren't the only examples of course it's more than just kids cartoons but. seeing as these people probably don't watch anything without an established tumblr fandom

REAL Also the adamant denial on that post that there’s any piece of media with well written female characters??????

Ppl are also discussing how it’s bc “most ppl in fandoms are attracted to men” like. have u never seen a lesbian in a fandom space.

There’s also been several examples listed of fandoms with shows that have majority female characters and STILL the mlm ship is more popular so that debunks most of the arguments anyways

it’s literally not possible to apply all the excuses ppl are coming up with to every single piece of media??? And more often than not now when female characters are poorly done the male characters are too bc the writing is and all around, or even if it’s just the female characters that’s once again: a different only semi related issue (still misogyny too tho like u said) and not applicable to every show or movie ever??

And once again STRANGER THINGS, which is a very popular well known live action PG-13 TV show has relatively well written female characters (there are some issues but the women in the show are written with care and complexity which is way more than a lot of shows can say, it’s the fandom that tries to take the complexity away) with chemistry yet the most popular ship is steddie, and even byler, another mlm ship, is not as popular as the mlm ship between two dudes that had like 3 interactions, much less ronance in which the two characters in the ship had a whole arc together and one is canonically a lesbian.

And the way ronance and elmax were both voted out on that poll before jopper bc everyone was so quick to sacrifice them.. like Ik it’s Reddit but still this is a FANDOM SPACE I know you guys aren’t choosing a straight ship over sapphics 🤨🤨 the only scenario where I actually prefer a straight ship to a sapphic one is lumax over elmax and that is a rare, rare occurrence

Anyways, rambled, but ur so right and the fact that this is literally a phenomenon in almost every single fandom but ppl are still trying to excuse it for anything other than what it is like come ON.

Oh and fyi this is the post I’m talking abt if anyone is seeing this and extremely confused

#never responded to a longer ask as fast as this lol #booksandpaperss asks

[pinkliker69]

consider: an au where mo ran and chu wanning are idols, popular enough to have merch, where mr whos had a crush on his chu-qianbei for ages buys his plush and likes to pose his and cwns plushies like theyre kissing

literally i always love when charas make plushies of them and their crush/s/o kiss and thats the only reason theyre idols but since im already in this direction. cwn’s like an older generation idol who retired a little before mr became a trainee and ended up as his mentor

mr had always been a fan of cwn since he was younger and had saved up so much of his allowance to splurge on his merch back when he was popular, and his most prized possession is a cute plushie of his idol with a onesie that has cat ears on it…

(mr learns to sew so he can dress the plushie in a lot of different clothing, and if some of them were things like maid outfits and sailor uniforms, then that was between him and god LMAO)

-

anyway when cwn becomes his mentor he is SO FUCKING STARSTRUCK.. but he becomes so endeared by cwn’s cold yet kind personality and quickly falls in love. this is 0.25 mr all the way, i think hes so cute~

later on mr becomes a very successful and popular idol, initially debuting w his cousin xue meng and friend shi mingjing to become san-sisheng (yes 三) but goes solo eventually and as a result of all his popularity too, gets plushie merch.

and mr, despite never really caring much about his merch before, other than if it included his husky motifs and appropriate colours, was super involved in the design and worked very hard to make the design look like it was from a similar style to cwn’s

(i mean he doesnt TELL them he wants it to be in that kind of style but when they brought it up he insisted he was picky abt plushie styles and wanted it to be like the cwn plushie, which he saw before and thought was especially cute in its style! the knowing gaze xue meng sent him throughout that meeting felt like a hot laser lol.. meanwhile mr internally was thinking about how to make a husky onesie for this plush so it can match the cwn one he had)

anyway mr hasnt been subtle about liking cwn this whole time but cwn’s always thought that it was just him as an idol that mr was infatuated with, which he was fine with anyway.

so imagine his surprise when one day he is at the xues’ house and when he knocks on mr’s door and opens it to tell him dinner is ready, he sees his doll next to mr’s in wedding outfits, red robes and all...

-

(thanks for the insp trip but cwn also happens to have these plushies actually.. tho he just keeps them on a shelf standing next to each other :3 he also has all of mo ran's merch, but also xue meng and shi mei's (tho not as extensively as mr) bc those r his precious mentees!!

mr has like SEVERAL itabags of cwn merch too btw. they r the very hardcore 40 sets of the same badge types (and probably limited edition too) literally filled to the brim, bc once mr got richer as an idol he spent so much free time scouring auction sites for old cwn merch

ALSO once they get together and all. depending on whose house they move into (probably cwn's once mr cleans it up), mr buys and keeps a dollhouse at the side of the room where he'll always change the poses and outfits of their plushies and make them all domestic and shit

HE PROBABLY HAS AN SNS ACCOUNT FOR IT BTW... also im a big fan of idol aus where they are a bigname shipper for their own cp. and so he is like this famous cwn fan+ranwan shipper who posts cute pics of his ranwan dolls doing things all the time (sometimes cute, sometimes lewd)

one day on mr's official sns he takes a selfie in his room and some fans spot a familiar looking dollhouse in the bg... and are like hold the fuck up? what r the chances mr plays with dolls.

and to make it more convenient, mr repainted and customized the house to be like cwn and his dream house that their plushies live in... so its very suspicious mo ran has it... hmm 👁️

also im thinking they havent announced their relationship yet, because mr is at the peak of his popularity and cwn doesn't want him to be at the brunt of angry fangirls thinking he was stolen away, but lol. mr eventually announces on his sns that he IS the cwn+ranwan stan

and then xm and sm are like "yeah u've always been insane abt cwn... biggest cwn stan we knew" and the fans r like oh okay thats crazy. and then after that mr tops it off with "ALSO cwn and i are dating!!! so ranwan real <3" and the internet explodes

can you tell i like entertainment au danmei yet? but anyway things go fine in the end, cwn and mr eventually get married the same way their plushies did (mo ran voice: art imitates life <3) and he doesn't ever stop posting plushie pics. ~happy end~

ALSO ALSO considering how often ppl just make fanmerch themselves too. mr def has every single one of cwn. (he only gets himself too if they are a set together) and in mr’s cwn shrine there is an entire section full of pouty kitty cwns 😾

#2ha #ranwan #mo ran #chu wanning #erha #au drabble #yuepost

[koumeowkami]

oh my goodness ur so righr abt the dearvo fan thing . . . just my random two cents but i feel like a lot of ppl rr kinda just interested in mmc bc hes like the "bad guy" out of the whole cast ( since i think a lot of dearvo fans in general kinda push this whole "oh yeah that guy. he has a whole tw list yeah" smth that i Also do not pointing fingers ykyk ) and so he just leaves a strong imprint on ppls memories and no one wants to rlly delve deeper into other charas since its a more niche fandom . does that even make sense. i am sorry for word vomiting in ur inbox JSNBWJJS

no cause you're right !!!!! there has been this mmc craze a couple of months ago on tumblr when so many of my mutuals were talking about him and seriously, everyone was pushing him so much he ended up having the most translated content / complete page on the wiki and it pisses me off.

as someone who helped dearvo spread on tumblr (pardon me for claiming this title but my dearvo presentation post speaks for itself lol), i tried presenting them all in a very neutral way, not putting anyone under the spotlight. i wish everyone would do that as well, since there's no main character in dearvo (of course some characters get more popularity than others but... i feel like the popularity difference between mmc and the others is HUGE).

and i'm not saying it cause i don't like him. "he's popular cause he's silly" well it's not like the others are normal lol... it's a rejet franchise after all. a-tan and joshua also have a lot and i mean A LOT going on but no one cares? lol

#ask #🗝️; liette!

[zenyuu]

ok so. crescendo disbands bc of multiple reasons, most prominent being declining popularity and sales making it more costly for their agency to keep them afloat. they're a really popular unit but after a while they just kinda become. forgotten in a way? wait ill put this under a cut for easier scrolling

ok i wanna talk abt them more. in my mind they have a really professional air to them? they were brought together by an agency so they dont rlly know eachother that much. even if they get closer they still have a mostly work relationship. their development w eachother only comes after theyve already disbanded.

i wanted this unit to be themed around the moon (yk. crescendo. crescent. as in crescent moon. pls tell me this makes sense) and also have kinda fancy classical music as their genre. their members can represent different moon phases, like Reiko for example. i want her to represent the new moon phase (yk the time when the moon is not rlly visible? bc its shadow is facing us) , shes pretty distant and stoic during her time in crescendo, and also not really the main member most people pay attention to? shes just kinda. there to complete the set. thats it

ok so conflict start. they're under a pretty strict agency, wanting to keep their idols' images perfect and polished. this causes them to stick to the same thing over and over again, never taking any risks with music or image. so after a while people just. got bored of them. the stress of their popularity dropping and the risks of disbanding causes the members to go through a lot of stress. and remember when i said that these guys arent that close during their time here? yea. everyone has their way of dealing with things, some of them get very overbearing, some become more distant. the overbearing ones think the distant members dont care abt their unit at all. and the distant ones think the others are being too controlling and frantic. misunderstandings ensue. the tension and fighting between them affects their performances causing things to get worse. because the only reason why those who've stuck around did was bc of the units talent when it comes to singing and dancing, and if thats gone, no one has a reason to see them anymore. They disband while tensions are high bc their agency is losing revenue and it just ends there for them i guess.

i make sure they all get their happy endings in some time bc while i love making my ocs suffer i cannot handle bad endings.

#yuumi ocposting #oh god this is so long. #i will continue it i prommy #but m brain is tired rn #i hope this makes sense

[cielospeaks]

obligatory event review post since im behind again lol

Story- 1/10. idk the whole idea of giving all the appearances of a country to a person who has a pretty big bias against it is kinda? also the ignoring of canada is weird, since the first event established bunyan was french canadian as well as american? the actual story was really meh, i was actually really insulted by potentially offensive “haha lets laugh at people who died” jokes in the first chapter, but when it was revealed it was all a movie set i was willing to give it a chance. however, the whole concept seems really gross and no. like if the writer has such a problem with tall tales/ect then why not focus on like. actual american folklore/creation myths/ect? rather than just complain. fuck this game company.

Free servant- 0/10. no free servant so :/ i guess ppl consider the gacha servant to be free but thats different. im not a fan of the hyper sexualizing so im not rlly going to roll. which is a shame bc besides that i would enjoy the character a lot more.

Gacha servant- 5/10. dont care, not rolling. kinda too bad bc the kiyo and liz ce is cute af

Event gameplay- 7/10. completely average eventwise. people complain abt the digging game but its way less annoying than that stupid board game node, and less tedious than all the “super hard” battles in like. cf and stuff.

Other- 4/10. myroom is only salvageable for me making one stupid pun. i dont think it really added anything else. ok sure, servant coins for bunyan but i dont use those so :/ but myroom not being the worst thing is fine, and i like fou way home better than the bland and generic white day backgrounds this year and last.

Overall- 4/10.

extremely underwhelming for a gw event but like. compared to white day/ect kinda same old same old. i dont like what they did w characterization but ive felt the comic/series getting more and more unscrupulous esp after 2019 abouts. like the writers just use it as an outlet for nasty/in poor taste jokes, and it shows esp during the april fools games. (this year was def the worst of it oh my fucking gosh). i think between this and the second mystery event go is just unable to make decent movies. they are like dingo productions except it isnt even funny. chaotic film director province charles save us.

and more event reviews bc im behind!

sea monster crisis- 6/10. i liked the sisters, they were cool. their design was def for marketing/getting ppl to spend money but it seemed not as dismissive as the game could be, esp considering they are likened to jeanne in terms of country’s liberators. the free servant was cute, besides the usual shirou shilling, i like both of his designs. the throwbacks to summer 1 were charming, but just made me feel a bit depressed bc of how much i enjoyed the game when summer 1 happened and now its hard to find (popular) servants i dont dislike for some reason or other.

white day- 4/10. heck them for what they did to faraday, got screwed out of a servant slot for more pretty boy op powerful guy fanservice. -angry emoji- i was also thirsty for science bois at the time so i got extra angry lol. the glasses are ok tho. enkidu, katsu, and nemo i enjoyed esp. but the whole event was kinda meh and the ces this year were bad also. i think i just got cus one w the ticket, but even that one was really boring as far as character choice and i skipped the voiced dialogue immediately.

valentines- 4/10. i honestly cant comment. on one hand i like baz, shes cool. and strong in game. but on another hand i didnt really care much for her other asc, they seemed just like “oh baz is cu’s master in fuyuki so i stopped thinking” which. makes sense for this game. also the shipping makes me insecure. but so do other popular cu ships (besides medb prolly, and thats bc shes very unhealthy for him lol). i think the valentines ces were pretty average this year too. i remember thinking ranmarus was cute. and nemo’s was so wholesome. i also really liked ash’s and how down to earth he is.

i skipped the kohan event so yea. skip/10. i dont want to play avalon bc it sucks/10.

#gameblogging #negative

[luobingmeis]

i am once again thinking abt opal telling the spider queen that she doesn’t want power, she just wants her sister

#like the entire vestige storyline had an iron grip on me bc it felt like it was leading up to a corruption arc #like which of the party will turn to evil for immense power #and for it instead to become opal putting the crown on #not caring abt the power it would give her #but bc it would be the only thing that could save her sister #it breaks my heart! it breaks my heart. #like i feel like we saw opal change so much and we saw her go through so much #and like ik on twitter aimee talked abt how she made opal young and very new to adventuring #bc it felt right bc of it being her first time playing dnd #but i feel like exu s1 being the first time opal has ever really gone out on her own is such a huge part of her story #bc she really is this 19yo girl who was so excited to finally be her own person only to be faced with such hardship #and like i’m nervous abt what the crown could do to her but also esp between episodes 6-8 we saw her grow so much #that i don’t think opal will lean into whatever evilness the crown has #like idk i just love opal a lot #with her like. daphne from scooby do/popular girl energy with. so many layers underneath. #like rewatching episode 1 her excitement to be out of her town is so ‘teenager goes to college and is on their own for the first time’ #and it’s so charming #and then we learn abt how opal has wanted to be her own person but felt tied down to ted #AND THEN WE SEE OPAL SACRIFICE EVERYTHING FOR HER SISTER #like the differences between ‘isnt it nice to be alone sometimes?’ and the opal we saw in the finale…… #thank aimee for aimee #exu #exu spoilers

[luminouschaotic]

happy dwarfism awareness month besties !!

so i never actually sat down and made an official post abt this but i’m excited to now !! to start off, here are some of The Basics™️. also this is gonna be a long post just fyi

-dwarfism is a medical condition that causes short stature, among other physical differences. there are many different types, the most common one being achondroplasia (which i have). the main characteristic is an adult height of 4’10” or shorter (i personally am 4’0”. this isn’t something i normally feel comfortable disclosing, but it’s a lil easier in this context)

-the m-word is an ableist slur. do not use it to refer to a non-LP (little person) who’s just shorter than average, and DO NOT use it to refer to an LP under ANY circumstances unless you are also an LP and the other person has told you they are comfortable with it. it was popularized by p.t. barnum, who exploited our disability for other people’s entertainment. some of us are comfortable reclaiming the word, but i personally am not. the best terms to use are person with dwarfism, little person, or LP. also like,,,just don’t make fun of people who are short?? it’s not that hard

-dwarfism is medically classified as a disability, and LPs are protected under the americans with disabilities act (ADA). however, many facilities are still not adequately equipped for our needs. i’ll do a separate post about this bc it’s important and i almost never see anyone talking about it.

how do i interact with someone who is an LP?

i’m lucky enough to have very considerate irls who have never asked me this question explicitly, but always make an effort to make sure i’m comfortable with the way they’re talking to me. i figured it couldn’t hurt to tell you all what i always tell them. it always depends on the person, but here’s the advice i give for conversations.

-if you think you should bend down to talk to an LP, ASK FIRST. the fact is, the height difference between an LP and a non-LP can be drastic to the point that standing conversation is difficult, especially in a noisy or crowded area. asking “hey it’s hard to hear you, is it okay if i bend down?” is a perfectly ok thing to do !! it shows that you care about us being treated like humans.

-watch your voice !! a very common thing i’ve observed is when my parents’ friends will talk to them and then shift over to me, their voices go up and their facial expression shifts a bit, much like the way one would talk to a young child. you may not be consciously aware of this, so it’s a good thing to check.

-don’t call us cute unless you’re talking to a very, very young child. it’s weird and infantilizing.

that’s all i’ve got for this post, but i will definitely be back with more this month !! anyone can (and is encouraged to) reblog, but ableists will be blocked and bonked over the head with a very large stick :)

#dwarfism awareness month #dwarfism #disabilities #disability advocacy #long post

[dilfhaljordan]

y’know, i think i might’ve realized why so many people gravitate towards batfam instead of flashfam

to the extent of my knowledge, most of the flashfam are related to each other either biologically or by marrying (to clarify i’m talking specifically abt pre52 flashfam rn since i haven’t actually read any of the new52 yet). you have:

barry allen, the flash

iris west, barry’s wide

wally west, iris’ nephew

linda park, wally’s wife

don and dawn allen, iris and barry’s children in the 30th century

jenni ognats, the daughter of don and jeven ognats

bart, the son of dawn and meloni thawne, making him jenni’s cousin and wally’s first cousin once removed (i think so anyways i’m not sure)

owen mercer, bart’s half-brother

thaddeus thawne II, bart’s clone and technically his twin/brother

jai and irey west, linda and wally’s kids

pretty much the only ones who aren’t biologically related in any sense are jay and joan garrick, who imo act like barry’s parents, and also temporarily had bart in their care for a while

of course, this isn’t including people like jesse chambers, max crandall, johnny chambers, etc. bc i’m mostly going through the family tree, however they are very close friends/allies who are generally considered as part of the flashfam

ANYWAYS, like i said, that list of people? they’re all biologically connected in some way, or in linda + joan + iris’s cases, they married in.

now let’s look at the batfam, which is made up almost entirely of non-biologically related people (once again, not taking into account close friends such as babs and steph):

alfred pennyworth, the wayne’s butler and the man who raised bruce (along with leslie thompkins)

bruce wayne, batman

dick grayson, bruce’s first son

jason todd, bruce’s second son

tim drake, the third son

cassandra cain, bruce’s one and only daughter

damian wayne, son of bruce and talia al ghul, and the only member with any sort of blood relation to bruce

talia al ghul, who isn’t generally considered a part of the batfam (thanks to morrison ruining her entire character smh) but was once married to bruce

this list also doesn’t take into account close friends/allies like stephanie brown, barbara gordon, selina kyle, etc. bc none of them are official members of the family, though they are counted as family by most people (including me). again, these are the official members of the batfam

it’s pretty common knowledge that the batfam is the most popular family in the entire dc franchise. the fanworks alone go to show that, and dc isn’t much better when it comes to that. it can be hard to figure out why, since the batfam can be so messed up sometimes, especially compared to the flashfam, which imo is one of the most openly loving and caring families in dc. despite that, the flashfam fandom is like a single speck of dust compared to the batfam fandom, which can honestly be really frustrating bc they deserve more recognition, but i digress

anyways, the main difference between these two families?

blood relations.

okay, let me explain. here’s the thing—the batfam fandom is mostly made up of people that are queer, neurodivergent, mentally ill, or maybe just don’t have that great of a home life. this post explains it much better than i ever could, but the general gist is that these people love the concept of found family since they usually don’t have an amazing relationship or are rejected by their blood family, and the batfam is built on found family. like i said, the only people related by blood are bruce and damian—everyone else is a) adopted or b) close enough to the family that they’re considered part of it (think steph, babs, alfred, etc.)

now, i’m pretty sure that the batfam is the only family that’s pretty much completely found family (with the exception of lanternfam, but hal, kyle, jess, simon etc. don’t fall into archetypal roles like the dad, the brother, the uncle, etc. so i feel like that plays a big role in why the lanternfam isn’t nearly as popular + the fact that most people just don’t really seem to care about them). most of dc’s other families are blood related—and this includes flashfam, which i think it actually the family that has the most blood-related members in it.

here’s the thing—some of the members of the flashfam absolutely do play at least a little bit into found family. take bart, for example—he travelled back in time from the future. iris couldn’t take care of him bc she couldn’t spoil future events for the others (i think so anyways i’m not too sure), wally was nowhere prepared to mentor a kid who was so much like him, so max was the one to take him in, and they ended up having an amazing father-son relationship, and they weren’t related to each other, either.

still, despite definitely having more healthy relationships than the batfam, most of the flashfam is blood-related, which is probably a huge part of why people gravitate towards the batfam—the idea of having a found family that, while dysfunctional and messy, is a family that loves each other, is really appealing towards people who are queer/neurodivergent/etc. not only that, a lot of the batfam members are unintentionally neurodivergent coded, which is another reason for the flashfam not being nearly as popular (though i firmly believe that most if not all speedsters are adhd i mean just look at bart’s 90s solo comic but that’s not the point)

of course there’s also the fact that dc just loves promoting the batfam for whatever reason...most of the dc animated movies have batman + nightwing in them, and god whenever i scroll down to movies that have ‘batman’ in their title on my tv list it’s so goddamn long...batman himself is one of the most well-known fictional characters ever, and while the flash is popular, it pales in comparison to batman. most forms of dc media have the batfam or at least bruce, alfred + dick or damian in them (batman and harley quinn, batman vs robin, the dcamu universe, etc.) while the flash...

i’m pretty sure barry��s the only one to really consistently appear in any sort of dc media that isn’t comics, but the one movie that could be considered a flashfam movie is justice league: the flashpoint paradox and even then i feel like it’s a stretch. other than that, all i can think of if wally making some cameos in the 2003 teen titans cartoon + his appearances in ttg. even in video games, there’s no bart, no jay, no max—only barry as the flash and wally as kid flash, even if the timeline doesn’t make sense

so yeah. that’s my reasoning for why the batfam is so much more popular than the flashfam

#bruce wayne #dick grayson #barry allen #batfam #flashfam #meta #long post #hhhh this took forever to write smh #* #*meta

[syrenblubs]

haikyuu characters with a volleyball player s/o

@txbioglow​ okay so like what if and just what if i were to request nekoma (doesnt have to be all of them <3) boyfriend headcanons w/ the reader-s/o being a volleyball player 🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️ like how would we feel abt that ?? 👀

a/n: i only wrote for characters that came to mind, but ty for requesting <3 im sorry is came out so late i haven’t had motivation to write for haikyuu lately 😔

pairing(s): kuroo x reader, kenma x reader, lev x reader, yaku x reader

genre: fluff

word count: 1.2k

Kuroo

he met you when the school's boys and girls volleyball team were arranging a joint practice

you were the captain of the girls team

being a flirtatious little shit, he tried to hit on you but failed after you gave him a wack on that rooster head of his

you already knew his strength in volleyball, as he was pretty popular around the school

he also knew yours, but didn't believe it until he saw you play during the practice match against his team

completely astounded by your talent, he sneakily slipped his number into your bag, hoping that you'd text him

after that encounter, the two of you would talk occasionally, whether it was in the halls in between classes or after practice when you were walking home, becoming really close within a few months

even after you started dating, your friendship didn't change

he just became more clingy 

on weekends, he'd make you play volleyball with him, depending on what position you play

he'd also make you try different diets with him

morning jogs whenever he'd stay over at your place the previous night

he comes to your games and you go to his

he makes sure that his support is heard by you

and you do the same

after matches you'll end up going off with him to get food together

i would go on but this post is going to get too long

Kenma

you were on fukurodani girls volleyball team, so he acc met you at one of their training camps

you had just finished up practice with the girls and you were passing by the gym where the boys were playing when you bumped into kenma, who was previously looking down at his psp

he quickly apologized and was about to be on his way until he noticed the kirby and pikachu charms on your duffel bag

"i like those. where did you get them from?" he quietly asked pointing at the charms

"oh i found it at the nearby video game store while buying smash bros. do you play it too?"

from there, the two of you exchanged switch codes, and thats where your friendship began

you didn't see him in person again until he unexpectedly showed up to one of your games

it had been a few months ever since your first encounter with him, and he wanted to talk to you about something

you noticed him in the stands in the middle of your match, but you didn't plan on losing your focus just yet

after you finished, you ran over to him, and he asked you if you could talk him privately

just as you expected, he confessed, and you kindly accepted

cue kuroo in the back hyping kenma up hehe

you still continued to have mini gaming seshs with him, both in person and online

if you play the same position as him, you’ll ask him for tips on how he manages to fool his opponent so easily

though he prefers not to talk about volleyball much outside of the courts

like he did before, he’ll show up to your games whenever he could

unlike kuroo, he tries to make less of his presence known

but you know in his heart he’s cheering you on, making just his presence enough

you steal his jacket sometimes if you forget your own

he isn’t complaining though he thinks you look cute in it

not that he’d ever tell you that

Lev

you and the other members of the girls volleyball team had a good relationship with the members of the boys team, often having joint practice sessions throughout the season

after one practice you were just exiting the gym to walk to the girls bathroom when you heard kuroo call your name

you walked into the boys gym, which you expected to be empty, to see your senior yaku and a tall unfamiliar boy attempting and failing to receive the ball

both kuroo and yaku knew you had superior receiving skills, even if you weren’t a libero. because of this, they wanted you to help the unknown boy, who you now knew as lev, to build up his receiving skills in time for the tournament qualifiers 

you and lev were in the same year, and you had heard of him from some of your classmates as he did stand out a bit with his unusually tall height

and so your friendship with him began. he would bombard you with questions on pretty much anything volleyball related, slowly branching to personal interests and lives over time.

just as your friendship was developing quickly, so were his volleyball skills. he’d also gotten your help on other skillsets, surprising his teammates in practice even kenma

it got to a point where the one who came out of practice earlier would walk over to the other’s gym and wait for them to finish

the two of you kept these little things even after the tournament qualifiers had ended.

after you had started dating (which was not too long after the tokyo qualifiers) he would buy you meat buns while walking home

depending on your height, he’ll tease you to no end. he’ll take your matching water bottle and hold it out of your reach, asking for a peck on the cheek before giving it back

if you get tired after a hard day of practice, he’ll give you a piggyback ride

too bad you can’t give him one because of how tall he is 

showing up to your games?? 100 percent. will do anything to come see you play

Yaku

you met him when your team coincidently went to the same meat bun shop as nekoma after practice

while your other teammates conversed with the nekoma boys, you stood off to the side, zoning into space

yaku noticed this and went up to you

you didn't really mind him trying to talk to you, even taking a liking to him almost immediately

before your teams left, you exchanged numbers

from then on, your friendship continued through late night ft calls and messages

going into a relationship it was a bit long distance because you didn’t attend the same school

but with good time management and planning skills you were able to meet up at least during the weekends

while you both are volleyball fanatics the two of you tend to not really talk about or engage in it when you’re together

except for when tournaments were approaching and that would be the only thing the two of you would have on your minds

regardless of what position you play, he’ll help you with your receives. a l w a y s 

in exchange you give him tips for other skillsets, like setting and spiking, just in case they become of use in a match 

he’ll text you almost whenever he can, from good morning texts to checking up on you after school. before he told the team about his relationship with you, kuroo had suspected something was up when he had seen yaku on his phone constantly. yes kuroo was the one who forced yaku to spill the news on him dating you

he’s very caring of your wellbeing. if you got injured during practice, he’ll first scold you a little for getting hurt, but immediately treat them and take care of you for as long as you need

i have a feeling he’s a great cook so on weekends he’ll make bentos for the two of you to eat at the park (or wherever you would go with him)

#hqradiostation #haikyuu!! #haikyu x reader #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu fanfiction #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu headcanons #nekoma #nekoma x reader #kuroo tetsurou #yaku morisuke #lev haiba #kenma kozume #kuroo x reader #yaku x reader #lev x reader #kenma x reader #kuroo tetsurou x reader #yaku morisuke x reader #lev haiba x reader #kenma kozume x reader #kuroo x you #kenma x you #yaku x you #lev x you #kuroo imagines #kenma imagines #kuroo headcanons #kenma headcanons #yaku headcanons

[mikeshanlon]

i really enjoy the way young royals explores the theme of legacy and how detrimental it can be to have to live up to a legacy or be obsessed with reputation. (analysis and thoughts under the cut)

i think wilhelm resents the fact that he has to live up to the role of being in the royal family and yet is very afraid of ruining that legacy bc of all the pressure. before he was sent off to hillerska he went to a normal school and wanted normal people around him and was content with erik having to take on the responsibilities of crown prince. and when he does have to assume that role he says he can never be erik, that he’s always had to be compared to him and obviously doesn’t like that. but even before erik passed and he had to take on those duties he was afraid of fucking up the legacy of the crown, when he sees that sign in the hallway that says you are in charge of your own legacy after he holds hands with simon, his anxiety worsens. you can tell it’s been instilled in him for a long time that what is most important is the crown’s reputation rather than his own wants. in the scene where him and simon fight about alexander being caught, he obviously wants simon to stay, but he focuses on how him doing drugs will fuck up his family’s reputation if it gets leaked. as much as he cares for simon, his legacy and his duties are like this oppressive cloud hanging over him. 

i do think that wille cares for his family of course but to me it’s different that the sort of loyal unconditional care with simon and his sister/mom. erik and wille had unconditional love, erik understood how difficult being a prince in the public eye was, and wille obviously cared for him deeply and felt like he could to talk to him about issues. his relationship with the queen is much more strained, she wants a tailored, doctored representation of him in the media, he cannot be anxious and bite his nails, she makes all the decisions for him. family is important to wille partially because it has to be bc of how special his family is. he helps his family, he helps august pay his tuition, and then makes a point of disowning august after his betrayal as his new “brother”. but again, because of the royal status and expectations upon the family, that supersedes and colors all of their relationships with each other. it seems to be more a sense of “duty” than unconditional love. especially after erik’s death, wille always has to consider how the crown’s image will be impacted, even though he never wanted to have this responsibility, or even the responsibility of being the “regular” prince under erik. being a family unit that is under constant public scrutiny is going to strain relationships. the queen knows that the anxiety of fucking up his legacy will get to him, and she uses that to get wilhelm to back out of admitting it was him in the video and coming out. wilhelm has to choose between his own happiness and their reputation, is forced to think that denying it’s him in the video is the only way. he loves simon and wanted to live freely, but that pressure of legacy won out.

i don’t know if i think wille necessarily values the crown over his own personal happiness and relationships, like in the way maybe the queen does--i don’t think it comes from a place of “i’m lucky to be prince and owe my duty to the crown, so i do what i have to do to stay that way” (like how the queen said the crown is a privilege not a punishment), but from fear of destroying the legacy and his family. afterall, he still wanted to pursue a secret relationship with simon, i think if he fully valued the crown and uplifting legacy and fulfilling his duties he wouldn’t have tried that. he wouldn’t have made a point to tell simon he loves him. hopefully we get another season because i think with the iconic ending revolution rendition and him looking in the camera, which also parallels the shot of him being forced to apologize/go to hillerska, he is realizing that focusing on legacy is taking away what’s important to him, and he’s going to shake shit up.

august is definitely the most obsessed with legacy, wanting to carry on his father’s business, being persistent on befriending wilhelm and trying to social climb, wanting power and perfection with being prefect, rowing captain etcetera. he is so obsessed with perfection and reputation he gets addicted to drugs, he fucks with simon and makes him get stuff for parties he can’t afford because good parties will make him look better, he manipulates sara multiple times, he mostly wanted felice because of her nobility, he fucking films wilhelm and simon and OUTS him, his own cousin. he hates that wille has everything he wants but isn’t as interested in preserving and more importantly improving the legacy he’s inheriting. meanwhile august’s familial legacy is dwindling, and he holds on to the last bit of assets and names that he can.... v much sick and a weirdo that shows how harmful being obsessed with legacy is

the queen is of course v focused on legacy and it really breaks my heart and makes me angry that she doesn’t care about wilhelm’s happiness more than their reputation, and moreso doesn’t get august in trouble for literally leaking child p*rn of her kid for the sake of appearances?!?!?! like how is he even remotely trustworthy she is wrong for that! like i said earlier the obsession with legacy puts a strain on their mother/son relationship. she doesn’t even really say anything about wille’s sexuality or his relationship, and barely comforts him, mostly goes in with a plan she’s already concocted without him to fix everything. 

erik seemed to understand and accept his role as crown prince but obviously had issues with it as well, like when he makes the plan for him and wilhelm to run from the press, or when he tells wilhelm to enjoy himself while there aren’t so many eyes on him that care. erik shows someone who has more unconditional love and empathy but still has to focus on legacy and is much more inclined to continue his legacy, but we do see those glimpses over how even the most “ideal” attitude of preserving legacy causes issues.

felice is expected to live up to her mother’s legacy, of being an equestrian, of being the lucia, but she doesn’t want either of those things. her mother wants her to be thinner and straighten her hair, and find someone of nobility to be with. obviously she does find wilhelm attractive lol but i think the main reason she pursued him and definitely why she pursued august was because she was expected to social climb and have royal kids. felice feels the need to portray a false narrative of herself on social media to uphold a certain image of herself. it’s very fucked up that her mom wants those values instilled in her but i love that felice was putting up boundaries and pushing back against her mother and the narrative she’s supposed to live up to. her giving sara the role of lucia and focusing on supporting her friends more in the latter half of the season shows growth and i’m excited to see where her story goes. 

sara is interesting because she seems to want to reject the legacy of her family and being working class and to fit in with the elite of hillerska. sara hates micke, hates that simon contacted him because it’s bringing in this “shameful” and painful part of their past (which i mean is def fair). other than sara’s betrayal in 1.06, i think the scene where she tells her family that she wants to reside at hillerska really exemplifies where she’s at in her relation to legacy/class. after dining at hillerska and living amongst the elite she gets annoyed at eating around the TV, she blames her mother for not leaving micke sooner, she gets angry with simon for caring for her. she wants to lead her own life, be popular and wanted because people want her, not for pity (even though i think simon of course truly cares abt his sister she feels annoyed with his protection and care). felice says early on that she thinks sara doesn’t care what other’s think or having friends, and sara says she still wants friends though. i think sara’s biggest thing is she wants to belong, her and simon moved schools after she was bullied for being autistic so i think that definitely affected her even though she tries to act nonchalant about hillerska at first. we see sara’s longing to fit in in smaller ways at first, like her asking her mom for a better piece of her uniform because hers are “cheap” and already worn out. she gets annoyed at simon for chewing loudly, or her mother sitting casually at the table. as she gets closer to felice and madison and all the other students, the allure of the upper class and their lifestyle draws her in more. so much to the point where she gets very anxious and upset at the idea of her and simon leaving hillerska because he’s having his own crisis and doesn’t consider his pov. so much so that she effectively betrays simon and felice, the people she’s closest to, to make a deal (and make out lol) with august to room there and “be just like him”. personally i think sara’s attraction to august is mostly that allure of the elite and that he seemed to “desire” her when he kissed her because he was being a manipulative dickhead--again that want to fit in and be wanted. and  i think there is a really interesting angle of jealousy and competition in female friendships, even if it is really subtle or not intentionally insidious or anything, sara does slowly start to trying to assume all the roles/fashions/mannerisms of felice to live that life she wants. i do think felice and sara’s care for each other is genuine and one of my fave parts of the show, but i think a lot of people who experienced being a teen girl know how we are always pitted against each other even in our subconscious because of how society treats and values women.

simon seems to be the character that is least interested in upholding legacy and tradition or giving a fuck what anyone thinks (as omar said here lmao) and that makes him a really interesting foil to wilhelm. there could be something said about micke fearing that simon is following in his footsteps, but to me that plot more so reveals how the upper class (august) continually exploit the working class for their benefit, and the trappings of generational oppression. the other thing that can be said is simon signing up for private tutoring and rowing, but again i think that serves to further show that he is forced to “play” by the game of the elites because the school/society is corrupt, and also, that simon has further ambitions outside of where he’s at. he wants to get good grades because he wants to explore new places and avenues. to me simon’s biggest motivations are his passions, the things and people he loves--music, his family, wilhelm. he isn’t loyal to others just because he’s expected to be, or uphold a certain image but because he really cares. he doesn’t watch out for sara because that’s his expected role as her brother to do so, but because he cares. he wasn’t interested in knowing wilhelm because he’s a prince like everyone else, he makes it clear he thinks the royal family are privileged and exploitative, but he is interested because he saw the real wilhelm. he’s out and proud even though his elite classmates are more conservative, he doesn’t care about voicing his unpopular opinions, he has no problem walking away from august’s dickhead behavior or calling him out on his shit. simon doesn’t care if people don’t think of him in the best light. (the only exceptions ig are the drugs conflict and the video, though literally anyone would have a problem with that because it’s much deeper that public opinion and has ramifications and is deeply traumatic--but just adding that before someone is like “well actually!”) i also think it’s interesting that most of the songs simon sings has themes of pushing back against the societal norms, and being remembered in history, plus of course the revolution song motif, and how much those songs affect wilhelm, he seems to connect deeply, like he wishes he could do those things but simon is the one who gets to sing them and actually live them.

#young royals #the way this is 2k words lmfao #i do not expect ppl read to this but when the analytical worm starts gnawing on my rottin brain i must oblige

[catboylupin]

you have rly interesting takes abt wolfstar!! I was wondering if you had any head canons about the Prank like why Sirius did it and what Remus' reaction was?

hello and thank you and i’m So sorry that this has been sitting in my drafts for like Weeks at this point.... i’m physically incapable of doing anything intellectually demanding in a timely matter and this is such a hard topic because, like, i don’t know!! i’m not very well acquainted with the Fandom Mythology surrounding the Prank or the mainstream interpretation of events so i really don’t know what to make of it, especially in terms of sirius’s motivation. here are a few things that i referenced when typing this all out: meta meta/fic fic beautiful art 

the first thing that is interesting to me, and something to keep in the back of our minds when thinking about this, is that when discussing the prank in the shack during PoA, sirius says that “it served [snape] right.” 

also i think that the song hospital by the modern lovers possesses some outstanding post Prank vibes...

ok so re: sirius’s motivation. i don’t know. i think it was a combination of things. i don’t even think that sirius entirely knew why he did it, or what there was to gain. 

i guess the thing to sort out is to what extent sirius factored remus into the equation. was he not thinking about remus at all and how it would affect him and just wanted to hurt snape because he hated him, or was he like “this is for remus and remus will think it’s funny too”?

i think that he felt slightly goaded by snape because snape was being a massive asshole trying to get them expelled, and he also just did not like him at all. like, the most obvious motivation or end goal in sirius telling him is that he just wanted to scare snape so he would leave them alone and also it would be a little funny because hahaha he is a slimey wizard nazi (at age 15/16 do you think sirius would be politically advanced enough to have a ‘punching nazis’ outlook on snape? i don’t know)

and i don’t think that he ever seriously thought that remus would react well (like, how could he? sirius had to have known that remus’s worst fear ever was hurting someone). and he was literally risking the entire school finding out he was a werewolf. but maybe a small part of sirius was like “take that snape!! that’s what you get for bullying my beautiful mysterious friend!! remus will love this lol”

but i think the thing that makes the most sense is that he wasn’t thinking about remus that much and didn’t think he would react well.

and here i where you can start thinking about sirius’s upbringing and how that affected how he viewed werewolves/remus. 

i think that sirius was probably raised surrounded by some pretty intense anti-werewolf beliefs and he dealt with remus being a werewolf by 1. separating remus from the wolf and 2. kind of like romanticizing it. so much of sirius’s attraction to remus stemmed from this sort of fascination.. james was so similar to sirius and generally uncomplicated, but remus, even though he was kind of weird looking, always sort of elicited this morbid curiosity from him. and he saw remus’s lycanthropy as something he could fix, or at least help (see: the animagus thing, my personal headcanon that he was very into taking care of remus during their relationship). remus was his tragic werewolf friend. but remus never thought that sirius understood his lycanthropy the way remus wanted him to, that there was always this sort of tension, a lingering sense of “you think you’re so different from your family, but you’re not really.”  

sirius could have thought that snape actually knew about remus and wanted to make him prove that he knew, like: “sirius, i know what remus’s secret is, hint hint wink wink” “okay, if you really know then go to the shrieking shack,” like snape kind of goaded sirius into telling him, and sirius thought that he would know better. but that is just such a profoundly stupid thing for sirius to do, and i feel like putting too much blame on snape is being too generous to sirius.

leescoresbies has an interesting headcanon that the prank happened around the time sirius ran away from home and he was thus was very emotionally volatile. and so it was in part a result of sirius’s trauma/anger/joy, and i like that idea, those emotions had to have been a factor. and if you are someone that has a really hard time reconciling with sirius’s shitty behavior as a teen, that’s kind of an easy/ canon compliant way of saying “yeah, he was an asshole, but there was also this other thing going on...etc.” however, i don’t think that was the only reason, or even the main reason. i think that sirius is a deeply flawed person and thinking about the prank from the perspective of said flawed-ness makes his and remus’s relationship all the more complicated/interesting. 

and unfortunately a lot of this sort of boils down to whether or not sirius wanted to kill or seriously injure snape. those were the stakes he was dealing with in this situation. i don’t think that sirius wanted to kill him, just because that’s not really the sort of thing teenagers do, you know. and, as further evidenced by how he treated kreacher, sirius doesn’t always treat those he considers lesser than him with any sort of respect. maybe sirius just didn’t care that much about whether or not he died. he knew on an intellectual level that he was sending snape to his likely death, but maybe he just didn’t make that calculation in the moment? like sirius was so used to not facing consequences that maybe he thought things wouldn’t turn out that badly. 

i can understand, maybe, in sirius’s version of events, in his own reckless, teenage narrative, that he thought it would be okay to hurt snape. but remus? did he seriously fail to make the calculation that he would be turning him into a murderer? what sirius did was such a major, major trespass of trust/friendship in a way that is actually sort of unforgivable.

doesn’t sirius say in PoA “i’d rather die than betray my friends!” ? well, he did : / he betrayed remus..

and i think that remus would be massively upset and i don’t think he ever really completely forgave him.

when did this happen? 5th or 6th year? i think that by this time remus would kind of be relegated to a state of melodramatic, shame-ridden misery that came along with being sort of in love with sirius. and so the prank really tore him apart, because of course it would. remus was so used to being defined by his lycanthropy, used to facing discrimination, and his friends were his one refuge from that. but then sirius who he loved used him basically as a means to an end. what sirius did was incredibly exploitative— he exploited remus’s marginalized identity for personal gain without thinking about how it would affect him. and i think that remus really did care about him enough to want to forgive him. he probably felt like he had to forgive him (his friends were too important for him to lose, and, importantly, there was probably this feeling of “i am a werewolf and therefore i need to be extraordinarily forgiving in order to be perceived as non threatening, and this is just how the world treats people like me and i can’t and shouldn’t fight back”). and those are just such deeply fucked up feelings to feel towards a friend, especially one you admire and have a major soul crushing crush on.

i think that there was a period of time after the fact when they weren’t really talking, remus was very rightfully upset, everyone was angry at sirius... i think that sirius apologized, but sort of begrudgingly. because twenty years later he still thought that snape got what he deserved. 

at times i think that remus was someone who saw his relationships as very transactional. and initially he felt in debt to the other marauders because of the animagus thing and just because they were his friends. and, as dear @direwolf-summer said in this post, the prank changed the dynamic between remus and sirius: remus was no longer the one in debt, sirius was. and that is such an interesting point. remus starts demanding more from him and he finally feels that, even though sirius was really popular and closer to james or whatever, they were on even standing. this is how he was able to be more forward about his feelings— sirius stopped being this precious object who demanded endless patience in order to retain as a friend (or so he thought, this is remus’s insecurity showing). he stopped feeling so bad about having a crush on sirius. he’d be like “fuck you sirius. i’m in love with you. deal with it and you have to be nice about it in order to repay your debts.” like  he wouldn’t say that out loud but it would be in his internal monologue and he would kinda hint at it. 

there’s that line in eclipse and transit where remus says: “You say one thing and do another and half the time you don’t even try to say it, it’s like, I don’t know, like you’re daring me to leave. And everything—every single thing Sirius, it all comes back to January of sixth year, whether you’ll ever admit it or not. Or whether you even realize it” and i think it’s fitting. during fights remus probably would bring it up, and sirius would fail to understand why remus never got over it. like, sirius: “i apologized i was 15!!” and remus: “this is bigger than just that, what you did was emblematic of your flaws as a person and how even though you understand me more than almost anyone else you still don’t understand me completely and it frustrates me!!! and also i feel like you never fully understood that what you did was extraordinary fucked up.”

and i think that remus was so in love with sirius that he did forgive him, or otherwise allowed his love and affection to forget about it. but it was always bubbling under the surface...and that’s why their relationship was sort of volatile, that’s why he was so willing to believe that sirius was the spy (as in, “he betrayed me, why wouldn’t he have betrayed james and lily?”)

now i’m remembering when, in one of the snape’s memory /pensieve / flashback scenes in OotP, sirius says “i wish it was the full moon” and remus says, darkly, “you might.” now, we don’t know if that scene takes place before or after the Prank (before probably? idk), but i feel like it further compounds the extent to which sirius seems woefully unaware that remus is a werewolf and it’s not something he can separate from himself and that lycanthropy impacts every facet of his life. sirius came to understand it as just some fun thing to do every month. his sort of ignorance towards other people’s needs and experiences is also further evidenced by how he treated harry like he was james. sirius has a pretty good track record of taking other people’s pain and making into something for him to enjoy. and he doesn’t do so in a way that is entirely selfish either, i think he really thought he was helping harry and remus. maybe it all goes back to his family and childhood trauma or something (doesn’t everything? “it all started one afternoon in the 1960s..”)

#i have vague thoughts about other things but that's the extent to which i am capable of articulating my feelings #this is all gibberish isn't it? idk. no tldr im forcing you to read all my illegible brain soup #wolfstar #wolfstar meta #the prank #ask #meta #this is the thing i got done today i guess i'm a genius!!! if i finish my overdue econ ia i will be god!!!!!!! #op

[birb-tangleblog]

Hello! I've been wondering what the origins of each of the members of the Brotherhood could be. Like, if they are native to the Dark Kingdom, if they are noblemen/peasants... What do you think?

Hi anon!! Thanks for the ask!

I tend to headcanon that Adira and Hector are both orphans in some way, and probably share pretty similar backgrounds- just with Adira having more social/community support, and at least some people who looked out for her, while Hector was left on his own.

And I think that's prob a pretty common take, but like with Hector in particular (and Adira, to a lesser extent) I think it's honestly just hard to imagine someone with a well-adjusted, stable upbringing growing to be so extreme and intensely dedicated to their cause.

(Like if you assume Edmund or another royal took Hector in, gave him a home, fed him, and made him into who he is, then of course he's going to put him on a pedestal and not want to go against him. In comparison, Adira and Quirin having more external support and a wider perspective gives them more to base their sense of identity off of. And you can kinda see how that plays out w/ where they each ended up.

+ I think Hector having that added emotional baggage to unpack is interesting. ANYWAY-)

So my take is that both Hector and Adira were orphans, who became wards of the DK after someone saw a spark of potential in them and gave them the offer to begin training as squires.

Before that, I think Adira did have people in her life who loved her- parents, extended family, or other members of her culture/community- but they just weren't able to take care of her, or they passed away. Maybe she left so as to not be a burden on them? With Hector, idk if I think his bio parents even died early on so much as they just didn't want him- him being a street kid is my hc.

They lived at the castle (where they met Quirin), received an education, and worked their way up to knighthood/formal initiation into the Brotherhood. I imagine Brotherhood training is... a very encompassing and rigorous process, so that exp prob brought the three of them together, and their bond helped them to succeed. :>

I think it'd make sense if they met as little bby knights adjusting to their new lives, but I'm also very fond of the idea that Adira and Hector knew each other prior? And were this pair of urchins scraping by together. Only ever having each other to depend on really just adds to that childhood best friends, "nothing will ever come between us" dynamic that I'm a sucker for. And it makes for an enduring bond- there's obvs still a lot btwn them even so many years later.

The Flynn book also gave us Maeve! And I'm totally here for her being this figure in their upbringing later on- a matronly lady getting after them for being scamps, but still slipping them extra bread rolls and pulling strings for them on the sly. Maybe teaching life lessons or helping them out socially, too.

Based on Adira's Korean-inspired char design and the presence of Hector's binturongs (which are native to South and Southeast Asia) I actually kinda lowkey HC that one of the DK's neighboring countries or trade partners is analogous to SE Asia? And that Adira's family either moved to the Dark Kingdom from there before her birth, or she's mixed!  (Maybe they moved due to war/sickness/famine  and that's also how she lost her parents?)

Quirin and Hector both have that archetypal DK look, like Edmund- tall, dark hair and eyes, widow's peak, prominent cheek bones- so I assume they and their parents were native to the DK.

Re. Quirin, I've said this but I like the thought of him coming from lesser nobility? Maybe a distant cousin of Edmund's. Or just having a background of more privilege and stability relative to the other two, with his parents there for him, and that giving him a bit more emotional distance from the Brotherhood and moonstone, along with more of an ability to envision/want something else for himself in the future. 

Quirin’s family name is on the side of a building somewhere in the DK, and Hector and Adira are the scholarship/grant kids of the Brotherhood.

(And I think having that bg in addition to being a knight also adds more meaning to him rejecting all of it, and choosing instead to settle down as a farmer later.)

Though, even if his parents weren't nobles and were... craftspeople or merchants or what not, I can still see him being a bit closer to Edmund/having more of a peer relationship with him, and just naturally picking up on court life + focusing on studies/politics more than the others, which eventually leads to him becoming a leader and Ed's advisor/right hand man.

I hope this whole thing wasn't too disjointed lmao. Everything about the Brotherhood's origins is pretty much fanon and personal pref, and I'm p flexible w/ HCs! But I'm always gonna go for the origin story and beats that have the most emotional pay off to me, yk?

I'm pretty picky abt the popular trend of treating the bros as literal siblings, but I do get a kick out of how much speculation and different ideas there are about their pasts- it's prime free real estate!

#as an aside re. pre-series Brotherhood I'd like to say #the timeline is really odd with Ed?? #like he references training H + Q and I want him to be like this paternal figure for all of them #but... THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME AGE... #If you lowballed H + A's age as early 40s or 45 tops #and assume Ed is just really spry/had Eugene later in life #then he could possibly be like late 50s or early 60s #which WOULD line up better #it's... so hard to make the DK timeline make sense I think tweaks/supplementary HCs are kinda mandatory lmao #also pardon me if I ever repeat myself #I try to talk abt diff things even if it's the same topic #but I also don't know who's read which old asks and I have a terrible memory askdfj;adfj #the brotherhood #hector #quirin #adira #text post #my post #discussion and theories

[charmspoint]

THANK YOU FOR SAYING THAT ABT THE BSD MANGA ILY THANK YOU I FEEL LIKE MY OPINION IS FINALLY VALIDATED WHICH IS: BSD has turned meh. I have become indifferent towards the plot due to the fact there are no real stakes - I feel like the OP characters like Dazai will always have a solution with a deus ex machina feel to it, making it impossible for me to care. With the recent chaos happening in the manga (I too gave up on the manga a year or so ago!), I was baffled to find out I could no longer enjoy it. My memory is poor, and I can't really pinpoint it at the moment, but BSD just... doesn't engage me as it used to. Keep in mind I was an obsessive fan of it and analyzed it to the tiniest details, but all of my great love for the series has long died, sadly. But! I am glad to hear you feel similarly about it because, yes, the potential was there, but it got terribly wasted.

Bruh don't I feel it, me and @autumn-foxfire have like monthly bitch sessions about the state of bsd at this point. I was also super invested in it in initial arcs (Up until the guild arc ended) and then slowly started petering off only to drop it the first time around the hunting dogs introduction. Then after some time i was like okay ill go give it a second shot, came to the vampire arc went 'wow this is really fuckin stupid' and dropped it again. Idk will I pick it up again, maybe I'll just stick to being an anime only, even tho I also have problems with some adaptation things but that's BESIDES THE POINT.

Please click under for The Point

The thing about Kafka is: He's really good at coming up with interesting concepts and ideas and REALLY BAD at executing them in any sort of satisfying way. Like, when I say I only like bsd until the end of the guild arc, I don't mean it was perfect. It could have handled it's female cast better, it would have been fun to see more mafia and agency team ups besides soukoku and shin soukoku, I still don't get why shin soukoku is supposed to be a replacement in training since Dazai and Chuuya still work together perfectly and even if they hate each other they hate each other less than Akutagawa and Atsushi AND have way more experience fighting together but that once again is besides the point. The point being those arcs of bsd were SATISFYING. We got introduced to two organizations, seen them butt heads and then have them forced to work together against a common enemy. It's very simple but it's effective and it's satisfying.

And then the rats struck.

While up until then bsd wasn't perfect it was fun and had lovable characters and an interesting plot and engaging dynamics. Rats arc wasn't horrible per say, the idea of the cannibalization was really fun (Though I think Kafka should have used it to get rid of Mori, nobody fuckin likes Mori) but this is where we slowly get introduced to what I think are two main failings of Kafka's writing: That he's unable to handle characters properly and that he likes writing smart things but doesn't know how to write smart things.

Kafka has a very, very bad habit of INTRODUCING TOO MANY FUCKING CHARCTERS. Every arc is a new massive group with like a bunch of members, one of who may actually end up being fleshed out before they are inventiblely replaced by another large group or maybe two why the fuck not. The mafia and the guild left lasting impressions on me and I can still name all the main members but fuck me if i know a single rat aside from Fyodor (AND ILL GET TO FYODOR). Kafka feels like someone who's idea of rising conflict is 'introduce a bigger enemy each time' and it's just so annoying. Chapters and arcs end up centering around these groups of new characters while old characters, who we loved the manga for, just fall into obscurity. He almost had me in the hunting dogs arc by giving Yosano a backstory. I was so excited! I was like!!! finally development for the agency!!! But that barely went anywhere did it. I've talked about this with Foxy but it really feels like Kafka is just BORED of the og characters and is trying to silently sideline them for his new shiny characters. When's the last time we saw Chuuya again, you know, the ex partner of one of the series protagonists? The next predicted mafia head? Is he important? Foxy tells me Dazai's been sidelined too, fUCKIN DAZAI, for a good while I was sure Kafka liked Dazai a lot better than Atsuhi for protagonist and now he's getting sidelined. I know bsd is still really popular in japan but at this point i think it would have been more merciful for Kafka to just end bsd and start a new manga with new characters instead of doing whatever weird metamorphosis this is turning out to be.

Introducing new characters isn't a bad thing of course, but bsd has become mcdonalds of new characters. They are cheap and disposable. I can't feel anything for them because I know nine times out of ten they'll barely make any impact and they'll disappear as soon as the new group slides in. When adding new characters you should do so while knowing what role those characters will play in your plot, what will they bring. If a character is just there to waffle around until they get shoved away they should probably be cut because they are wasting time and space. AND YOU SHOULDN'T SIDE LINE YOUR CORE CAST FOR UR SHINY NEW CHARACTERS YOU'LL GET BORED OF IN COUPLE OF ARCS ANYWAY, ARE YOU A TODDLER???

I still think that bsd could have been SO much better if instead of focusing on the next big evil group they just focused on shifting tension between the agency and the mafia. I mean they've had to team up for the guild and then they immediately got thrown into the cannibalization. It would have been interesting to see them pull against and pull towards those ties made during the guild arc when they are forcefully pitted against each other again (and decide that killing mori would be in everyone's best interest). Instead we got, idk I already forgot what the rats arc ended up being about, atsushi and aku team up again yadda yadda yadda, Chuuya gets done dirty and never recovers, Fyodor ruins Dazai

SO ABOUT FYODOR. As I said, Kafka strikes me as someone who REALLY likes to write geniuses and who wants people to think he's super smart but also has no idea how to show his work. At first this was okay. We had Dazai and Ranpo who were very good at pushing the plot along and sometimes you'd get explained how they got to that conclusion and sometimes you didn't but it usually wasn't a big deal. But then the writing became more and more and more of 'well he's smart so he figured it out so just trust me' without actually explaining anything and as you said, it ended up feeling boring, unengaging and very deus ex machina. You know what Kafka's writing reminds me off? That video about how Sherlock is so happy to stroke itself to how smart they look while never showing their work, you know the one. Kafka likes writing smart characters but doesn't actually know how to write smart characters so instead of giving us reasons and clues and explanations to how they come to some conclusion, how they predicted or planned or whatever, he just goes 'oh well they are super smart so they figured it out'. I don't think I need to explained why this is bad, annoying and unengaging writing. This is why i say Fyodor ruined Dazai for me, Dazai was fine as a genius but then they had to pit him against Fyodor who's another genius and things just got ridiculous. You know how in that sherlock video the guy points out the one scene that encapsulates every irritating thing about sherlocks writing. This had been it for me and BSD (thank you Foxy for helping me find the panels)

THATS NOT HOW CODES WORK, THATS NOT HOW ANYTHING WORKS, THEY WOULD JUST BE COMING UP WITH TWO DIFFERENT SETS OF CODES HERE. Even if they were both smart enough to remember every conversation in detail, how on earth are they supposed to 'guess out' what the other means. How are they supposed to confirm or deny that's what a certain word means in a way that can be understood, how can they even guess what the word the other guessed is IF THEY ARE BOTH TALKING IN CODE. KAFKA'S ANSWER: THEY'RE MONSTERS, THEY ARE JUST THAT SMART, NO NEED TO EXPLAIN IT BECAUSE THEY ARE JUST THAT SMART AND THAT'S YOUR SOLUTION AND THAT'S BULLSHIT. This scene broke bsd in half for me and honestly made me dislike Dazai for a long time (I got better), but it honestly shows so well how Kafka wanted to make his characters so smart he actually made his manga really fuckin stupid, ruining very good and interesting concept he had started with.

In the end, Kafka writes how I wrote when I was 15. With no idea where the plot is headed, adding new characters and situations whenever it strikes his fancy whether they work for the story or not, ending up just flopping around plot holes and fizzled out character arcs and boring ass writing. And that's fine for a 15yr old writing fanfiction. It's not fine for a presumably grown ass published author of a relatively popular manga.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

#anon #bsd #if you like bsd dont read this i tear it apart #BUT KAFKA MAKES ME SO ANGRY AAAAA #IVE NEVER SEEN SO MUCH POTENTIAL WASTED SO EFFECTIVLY