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cannibalbuffe · 2 months

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hi! I've honestly been craving some qpr headcanons with Alastor as someone who's also aroace! The concept piques my curiosity so much considering most of the stuff with him is purely romantic (no offense to those writers, I just wanna see more qpr stuff! :])

Of course! But do forgive me, annon, I got so carried away with this 😅. I just really like Alastor a lot.

I ended up writing some backstory to your relationship first, but I highlighted the start of the proper qpr headcanons if you feel like skipping that.

Obligatory I'm sorry if this is ooc, I'm still getting used to writing about these characters. This is also all based on my own perception of him.

(Also, I am aware that qprs are very different from one another and there is no single mold for a qpr, I'm just going off of what I think it would be like with Alastor.)

Uhh, I also finished this at 1 AM, so forgive any mistakes. And I'm pretty sure I changed the verb conjugations(? Is this how you say that in English?) from present to past at some point. Sorry. Enough with the A/Ns now. Hope you enjoy!

Alastor queerplatonic relationship headcanons

(gender neutral reader, Alastor x reader)

‼️Trigger-warning‼️: mentions of cannibalism (not graphic), a single mention of tongue-kissing and making out (spoiler: he doesn't want either of those things in this work.) Usage of the word queer, but not as a slur. Alastor is a grandpa and you have to explain LGBTQ+ stuff to him, but he gets it.

› At first, before you were close, it's likely that he didn't see you as an equal.

› Truly, in his eyes, it seems not really is his equal. He is the most powerful overlord in hell and he knows it.

› Unless you are someone he holds in high regard (and this is mostly based on vibes, barely anything to do with power, as we can see by how he is with Lucifer of all people) before your first meeting, like Zestial, you won't be on equal footing at first.

› You only really start getting close when his perception of you shifts.

› You respect his boundaries, you are interesting, you and him share quite a few interests (or not really, but you're at least interested in hearing about his), and you're, surprisingly, pretty wise and mature.

› And caring. I personally believe he would be drawn to that in a way that he may not even understand fully- or realize it at all.

› Still, the point is. He respects you, and you respect him.

› (And not in the way some others do, where they're only "respectful" out of fear. You would act like this regardless of his power.)

› This, by the way, is important. You don't treat him like a superior, but as an equal.

› You'd think someone like him would love to be treated like a superior, and it's true. He very much does.

› But he has to admit to himself that it does feel nice whenever someone isn't shaking in their boots and can hold really good conversations with him while still not being pushy, annoying or just generally disrespectful.

› Anyways.

› Ever since you became friends (which took long), one could say, you just kept becoming closer and closer.

› You were the first one to be vulnerable with him, of course. It happened on accident, but you trusted him enough for that.

› You were also the first one to share any more intimate information with him. Something you wouldn't tell just anyone.

› Between this, your conversations, and maybe even helping each other around (honestly, he probably helps you more than you do him, but you always offer it and always in a sweet way, never condescending, and he appreciates that.)

› He eventually felt more comfortable sharing personal things with you too.

› (He may have distanced himself a bit when he realized this, but it was short-lived. You can't be without each other for so long, and you were pretty upset at his suddenly withdrawal. You may not have mentioned it to him, but he could tell, and as much as he hated to admit it, it hurt him to see you sad because of him.)

› This marks the beginning of the path toward your queerplatonic relationship.

› I mean, you didn't initially label it as such, but it definitely started there.

› Surprisingly, I feel like the first one to ever do any sort of affectionate gesture towards the other was him.

› You knew he didn't like to be touched, so you didn't.

› But! He just started getting more and more comfortable with touching you. At first it was hands on your shoulders, or putting his arm over them.

› I can even see a head pat or two, which he probably passed off as some sort of joke the first few times, but, if you liked them so much, just became a thing he does to you.

› And then one day you, completely absent-mindedly, intertwined your arm with his while walking around.

› When you noticed you had done it and he hadn't said anything, you questioned him about it.

› "Alastor, I'm sorry I didn't ask... is this alright?"

› "This?... Oh, you mean the arms? Ah, dear, don't worry, if it weren't I would have simply told you so!"

› From them on you only got more and more physically affectionate with each other. At first you would usually be the one to start it, but eventually you were both shockingly equal in doing so.

› (You still would always ask if you could touch him beforehand, but after a while he just gave you a free-pass.)

› Not a lot in public, though. Mostly just hand holding, or intertwining arms (if in public, that is.)

› Alastor also was so protective of you. You were the person he treasured most, after all.

› Well, demon.

› Even if you told him you were going to be okay, he would watch out nonetheless. He couldn't afford to lose you, not when he's never trusted and cared for a person this much.

› You two also cuddle a lot. You were the first one to ask, as usual, but now both of you feel weird sleeping alone.

› Alastor loves being the big spoon, if you're doing that.

› But he is also quite fond of occasionally being the little spoon, although he wouldn't be caught dead admitting it.

› A hobby you two do together is cooking. Cooking with Alastor is fun... especially if you're okay with cannibalism.

› But if you don't like that, he won't insist, of course.

› He's pretty good at cooking, though! If you're also good at it, then great. If not, he'll tease you about it (in a friendly way), but still teach you.

› On teasing, he teases you quite a bit, but never in a mean way. If you don't mind, of course.

› You also may tease him occasionally, but he doesn't appreciate you teasing him in public.

› The two of you also have a good amount of inside jokes that probably confuse the hell out of the others.

› Kissing... well. I don't really see Alastor as the type who would enjoy kissing on the lips too much.

› Tongue is out of question for him, as well as any sort of making out, but otherwise... if you like it, he can do that for you.

› He might actually like a peck or two. An acquired taste for him. Don't overdo it, though.

› Of course, him being from the 1930s and not very familiar with anything LGBTQ+ related, he would, at first, be somewhat confused by the request.

› You would probably have to explain to him that nothing is inherently romantic, especially not if you don't want it to be.

› "A kiss on the lips? Well... we aren't courting, Y/n."

› "We can put our own meanings to things, though. Would you like this kiss to be romantic?"

› "Definitely not!"

› "Well, me neither. So it's not!"

› "... That is very sound logic! I can't believe I've never thought of this myself."

› Kisses on the rest of the face are something else, though. He does enjoy it whenever you kiss him on the cheek. He himself might occasionally kiss you on the forehead.

› But overall I don't think he's big on kissing.

› If you want to really solidify that you're in a queerplatonic relationship you'd also have to explain what that means to him, sorry.

› Again, he's old and not up to date with things.

› Thankfully he understands things easily.

› "I see... I suppose we do have quite the queer relationship, don't we? And it is certainly platonic. I don't see why not!"

› Going back to vulnerability. It will never feel fully natural for him to just be vulnerable with you — or anyone else, for the matter.

› (In case you couldn't tell, he's using the word queer as meaning odd (and doing a little pun. You know. Because it's a. Queerplatonic relationship. Queer. Hehehehe), as it defies the norm of what a platonic relationship usually looks like, despite being one.)

› But you know him well enough at this point to recognize whenever there's something going on with him.

› And if you show concern and give him enough time he will share whatever it is with you.

› If it's not anything too big he might even reach out to you first.

› He can also read you like a book and gives surprisingly good advice, and is also pretty good at comforting you.

› You are the only person allowed at his studio while he's live on the radio. You usually read as he speaks in the background, his voice is very relaxing. He enjoys having you around.

› He's also particularly gentlemanly to you, more than to the others. When you're with him you never have to open a single door yourself, for one. If it's raining, he'll hold the umbrella for the two of you. When walking together on the sidewalk, he's always on the side closest to the street instead of you.

› You two often go out for dinner. If you also fancy some cannibalism, he will definitely show you his favorite restaurants around. If not he will just pick the best non-cannibal places (but you know those are not his favorites, haha.)

› He just cares about you a lot, even if it took him long to admit (it may have seemed fast-paced during this, but Alastor is someone who really takes long to get close to.)

› And you care about him lot too!

› (And you're probably never going to be in a life-threatening situation again, at least not at the hands of most demons. Who would ever want trouble with Alastor?)

#alastor x reader #platonic alastor x reader #queerplatonic alastor x reader #hazbin hotel x reader #headcanons #buffet tag

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nestofthorns · 2 months

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thinking about Cheongryeo and Moondae dynamic and the reasons I can't help but love it is because Moondae is too responsible, so an ambiguous frenemy like Cheongryeo is the only one he will be frank to and show his distastes without caring about the other person's feelings.

moondae sees himself as older than the rest of these guys — not just because of his mental age but also because he's been independent for way longer than them. so he takes care of them and hides his real feelings to not burden them, making sure they get all the care while neglecting his own care because he's used to worse (because back then he was alone and nobody would even ask after him).

and the other guys struggle to get past his defenses to take care of him! because moondae truly doesn't believe he needs help, so he sees their help as obstacles to work around. same with his own emotions and difficulties.

they eventually manage to — but it's so different from the rawness of his interactions with cheongryeo. He can't treat cheongryeo as an outsider the way he does most people because cheongryeo knows too much, but cheongryeo isn't someone he likes either. cheongryeo's ambiguous position allows him to slide in between moondae's defenses and get all his raw bluntness. this is more apparent at the climax of THAT arc — where cheongryeo completely crosses the line but at the same time moondae gains a huge understanding of cheongryeo. This was when moondae really started being more honest around him, while still disliking him a lot.

but Moondae is a softie so even with cheongryeo he eventually starts caring for him but funnily enough cheongryeo is such a big jerk with foot in mouth disease that he'll never enter moondae's mamabear protection circle so moondae will always treat him as an equal.

keunse (big sejin) early dynamic with moondae was like this too (he was the only one moondae was rude to!) but then moondae saw him vulnerable and went "must protecc" and bro isn't getting out of the mama bear protection circle until another few hundred chapters RIP.

other than that there is chungwoo but he's got a different dynamic from them, and ahyeon too way later on but that's getting into heavy spoilers territory so i shall refrain.

#debut or die #park moondae #cheongryeo #ramblings #debut or die: testar's journey to get into momdae's heart

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kevin-ibw · 3 months

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PLEASE TELL ME MORE ABOUT YOYR HAZBIN AU

So Vox is an angel, does that change anything about him on an emotional level ? (Like when he sees religious imagery, does it make him feel anything ‘inexplicably’?) Does his one sided rivalry with Alastor stay the same ? What’s the relationship like between the three Vs? Whatre his thoughts on Velvette’s church?

Angel’s in charge of the family mafia huh? So he must be pretty powerful… Does Val still have power over him or are they on more equal footing ?

So Vox is an angel, does that change anything about him on an emotional level ? (Like when he sees religious imagery, does it make him feel anything ‘inexplicably’?)

- Any mentions of religious imagery, especially christianity, make him a bit.. twitchy, but never the less, it doesn't bother him as much.

Vox can often come off as one; "oblivious" to the fact that he's an angel It essentially became a rule in hell to not mention that fact around him. Two; "passive," but everyone associated with him knows it's a bunch of horseshit and loves to mess with people once they realize it.

Does his one sided rivalry with Alastor stay the same?

- There's still a rivalry, albiet for different reasons.

Alastor: "People always say that I strike fear in everyone's soul, *cue laugh track* Hahaha! If only I knew what it felt like, correction if only I knew what anything felt like anymore! *cue laugh track*"

One of Hell's punishments that was inflicted on Al was the inability to feel anything because he was enjoying his time a serial killer a little too much. Because of this, he becomes severely bored years to come since what's the point in causing a lot of chaos when you can't feel anything from it? Now, don't get me wrong, he's still a heavily feared overlord, but now he's just so bored with a lot of things in Hell.

But then Vox came along. He essentially puts dread in everyone's stomachs because it's very likely he's a one-way ticket to getting yourself permanently killed without a cleanse happening. Alastor actually gets intrigued by him and thus starts their rivalry, it focus less on. "Radio vs TV" and more on, "He's very dangerous and could end me for good, he's the only one the peaked my interest and perhaps maybe give me the ability to feel fear."

Sure, there are exorcists, but all of them evenually leave anyway, too squirmy and skitterish for Alastor's taste.

But Vox just strides in everywhere like he owns the place, without even a little smidge of fright and treats everything like a game.

What’s the relationship like between the three Vs? Whatre his thoughts on Velvette’s church?

- Vox & Valentino: Both have been married for fifty years and it's still counting, as seen in the show it's implied that Vox has to calm down Val a lot of the time when he has a temper, this AU switches that. SHAU!Val isn't dumb enough to let Vox's temper get the better of him, because how knows what would happen if there's a pissed off angelic overlord. (Thank the lord it doesn't happen often.)

OG!Vox butters up OG!Val

SHAU!Val does it instead

OG!Val intentionally withheld information about Alastor coming back so he could push OG!Vox's buttons

SHAU!Val doesn't even entertain the idea

Yeah, Val can be a bit trigger happy, but he's not outright suicidal.

Valentino & Velvette: Both of them hold each other in high regard but aren't as close with one other since Val doesn't focus much on social media. Valentino is a very direct guy. The only Voxtagram posts you're getting from him are photos of sinners with holy bullets in their skulls as a warning to whoever crosses him. Velvette and her little cult of followers take a step further to spread the message, too. Essentially, she's on top when it comes to information around social media.

Velvette & Vox: Both being tech savvy, they get along quite well. While Vox controls all of the internet and anything tech in hell, he's more focused on the business side of things and selling products, when a new product sells, Velvette makes it so the message spreads further.

Angel’s in charge of the family mafia huh? So he must be pretty powerful… Does Val still have power over him or are they on more equal footing ?

Since the church is used a ploy to lure more sinners into their power, Vox finds a lot of assumentment in it and often times indulges in entering the church to heighten her claims and further reel sinners in.

If anyone wants more info, please send an ask! :)

- Sadly, Angel is still under a contract with Val, fortunately though they more-or-less have respect for each other. Angel finds it hilariously ironic that he's right-hand man to a moth when he's the spider here.

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel au #AU: Salvation Hotel #vox #voxval #valentino #alastor #velvette #angel dust #hazbin hotel vox #staticmoth

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inamindfarfaraway · 6 months

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The Morality of Mabel and Dipper Pines

Warning: Dipper Levels of Overanalysis Ahead

I’d like to make it clear at the start that I love both of these characters equally and they’re both good people, just in different ways. But I’ve seen a lot of criticism of Mabel’s flaws and less of Dipper’s, so I’d like to contribute to the discussion of their respective characters by exploring a divide between them I haven’t seen talked about much.

Mabel really wants to be a moral person. She places a lot of intrinsic worth in the concepts of ethics, like kindness and fairness and the wellbeing of others. Being a bad person could be considered her worst fear. It’s definitely up there with her other greatest fears of losing her relationship with Dipper and the inevitability of change, and those fears developed later largely in response to Ford and the baggage he brought with him.

Dipper just doesn’t care about that as much. That isn’t to say he’s a bad person! He's compassionate, selfless, brave and unquestionably heroic by the end of the show. They both are. But it sticks out to me how differently they think about ethics. For example, Dipper literally kills Wax Sherlock Holmes, while Mabel is so averse to hurting someone’s feelings that she can’t bear to break out of a false, one-sided relationship with Gideon until Dipper's life is at stake. You see what I’m getting at here? But I have more evidence! Buckle up, this is gonna get long.

Compare how they treat their rivals, Pacifica and Robbie. These are ordinary humans with no real authority over them who, age and class gaps aside, they're basically on even footing with in confrontations, so this is a good metric for how aggressive they are when upset and how much they hold grudges in mundane situations.

In “Irrational Treasure”, Mabel is deeply hurt by Pacifica’s mockery to the point of giving up her silly identity, and sets out to prove her wrong that she can be competent. But at the end, when presented with the opportunity to destroy the Northwest family’s fake prestigious legacy that they use to justify putting others down, she declares, “I’ve got nothing to prove” and lets it go. She’s secure in herself. Her motivation is satisfied. Why bother putting more pain and strife into the world? It’s Dipper, who has been only been hurt by proximity to Mabel, who insists on exposing the truth specifically to spite Pacifica and takes away that “Man, revenge is underrated. That felt awesome!” Revenge is arguably a form of justice, especially in this sense of revealing an unfair lie, but still, he takes great pleasure in bringing an enemy down for the sake of it, not to fix the damage they did.

In “Fight Fighters”, Dipper’s vindictive streak returns. He manipulates the ridiculously powerful Rumble McSkirmish into brutally beating up Robbie on the fraudulent charge of murder, threatening Robbie’s life. He didn’t realize Rumble would try to kill Robbie, but he was fine with him severely injuring him. Rumble is a fighting game character, a superpowered master martial artist. Robbie is a normal fifteen-year-old. This is not a sportsmanlike matchup. By the end Dipper learns his lesson and takes responsibility, but so does Mabel about hurting people to try to have a perfect life and people still complain about that!

In “The Golf War”, Mabel is again the twin with a bone to pick with Pacifica, but Dipper takes her rivalry more seriously than her and is more willing to be mean about it. He encourages her to cheat when she doesn’t want to, justifying it because Pacifica is “cheating at life”. Understandable, but still underhanded. While Mabel bonds and buries the hatchet with her rival by the end, outright declaring their rivalry to be stupid, Dipper holds onto it, refusing to forgive Pacifica at all and disapproving of Mabel's offer to give her a ride home afterward despite the pouring rain and her absent parents. He still wholeheartedly considers her “the worst” (and tells her so to her face) at the beginning of “Northwest Mansion Mystery”, even though he saw her and Mabel help and protect each other in their fight against the Lilliputtians and Pacifica thank Mabel and accept her apology.

In “The Love God”, Mabel’s compassion is on full display. She makes it apparent that she wants everyone she knows to be happy, to the point of making a chart to show her friends’ feelings with stickers, and goes out of her way to help Robbie just because she doesn’t think any human being should be so lonely and sad. Dipper initially has no sympathy for Robbie’s misery and sees the twins and his old friends leaving him to rot as a good thing.

Dipper just invests more emotionally into hating people and is more willing to play dirty. Mabel prefers to see the best in people, forgive, deescalate conflict and turn enemies into friends whenever possible, and has more respect for honour and sportsmanship.

Compare the insecurities they highlight in "Society of the Blind Eye". These could have been their last words spoken with their memories of the summer, so they are fully candid and vulnerable.

Mabel confesses, “I only love some of my stuffed animals and the guilt is killing me!” She reprimands herself for not having sincere affection for all the people in her life… who are inanimate objects, hence this being a joke about how immature and overly sentimental she is. But she’s telling the truth! Not being honest about your feelings toward someone who loves you (as toys are assumed to love their kids) is wrong. It’s something a bad, or at least flawed, person would do. We also know that it’s something Mabel can do with real consequences - she loves Dipper unconditionally, but her frequent teasing of him instead of letting this on damages his self-esteem more than she intends and often realizes - and when she does realize as in “Little Dipper”, she’s ashamed of herself. Her guilt is that she’s failing morally, that she hurts the people around her despite her good intentions.

Dipper admits, “Sometimes I use big words and don’t actually know what they mean. I mean, I’m supposed to be the smart guy! If I’m not the smart guy, then who am I?” He primarily thinks of his worth in terms of competence. Dipper is generally not that confident, at this point in time. He has an intense drive to prove his worth. He is acutely aware of his physical and social shortcomings. But the one thing he knows that he does well is analytical, deductive and strategic thinking, and so to always have value he’s built his entire identity around being particularly intelligent. He’s the planner, the mastermind, the guy with the specialized knowledge and important big words who people have no choice but to respect and listen to, because a lifetime of loneliness besides Mabel has taught him that given a choice, they probably won’t. Except just like Mabel’s all-loving attitude, there’s an element of performance. He doesn’t know everything; he’s inherently irrational to a degree like everyone else. So he tries to seem smarter than he is. His guilt is that he’s failing intellectually and practically, that he isn’t contributing enough to be worth something.

This is where Dipper diverges. He wants to be ethically good less than he wants to be good AT things, and respected for it. But they both beat themselves up when they don’t live up to their self-assigned archetypes of All-Loving Hero and The Smart Guy, when they aren’t good enough by their own unreasonably high standards.

"The Last Mabelcorn" deconstructs Mabel’s fixation on her moral perfection. Celestabellabethabelle, who I will henceforth call C-Beth for short, manipulates it to keep her out of the unicorns’ way. She makes manifest Mabel’s fear that she isn’t good enough no matter what she does. We see Mabel push herself further and further to try to prove herself, much like Dipper in episodes like “Dipper vs Manliness”, and emotionally unravel until she’s miserable, self-loathing and openly listing her vices in a way never seen before. But this isn’t productive! Wallowing in shame doesn’t motivate her to be better! She needs to learn that although she isn’t perfect, the virtues she has are good enough to work with to both get out and kick C-Beth out of her head. She decides to stop worrying about meeting an impossible ideal of goodness and just focus on doing good, by using efficient (if violent, and therefore immoral under certain paradigms) methods to protect her family. Her plot in this episode has its detractors and I understand the criticisms that the message wasn’t handled as well as it could have been. But I think it does okay. Mabel definitely reevaluates her need to feel like a good person here. She switches from prioritizing what’s important to her, the validation of being "pure of heart", to what’s important to others and in the bigger picture, simply getting the unicorn hair to keep Bill out of the Mystery Shack.

Finally, compare the twins’ disastrous errors in judgement in “Scary-Oke” and “Dipper and Mabel vs the Future”, when they both accidentally unleash terrible forces of evil upon the town and set in motion a local apocalypse.

Dipper recites an incantation from Journal 3 that causes the dead to rise as bloodthirsty zombies, desperate to prove to the government agents before they leave that the supernatural is real and warrants their help investigating, driven by both his desire for knowledge (his tool to feel secure in himself) and more immediately his fear of being dismissed as unworthy. He is emotionally vulnerable, but still creates the dangerous situation on his own initiative. Since he doesn’t need a blacklight to read the spell and the beginning of the episode established that he’s already familiar with all Journal 3’s visible entries, he knows what the spell would do. He doesn’t realize how many zombies will appear and how dangerous they’ll be. But he is aware that there are risks. Plus, the Shack is hosting a party full of innocent civilians and Mabel has explicitly asked him not to interfere with weirdness. The one thing she told him not to do that night was raise the dead! And what does he do? Raises the dead.

Mabel is actively deceived and manipulated into giving who she believes to be Blendin Blandin, an expert in time-altering technology, what she believes to be an item of such technology, with the intention of warping time to extend the summer for the town. This is a selfish choice. But on top of how emotionally compromised she is, sobbing in despair after “the worst day of [her] life”, consider her internal logic: the end of summer is going to mean the trials and tribulations of growing up for both her and Dipper, and they won’t even have each other if he gets his way; Wendy is already going through that and has told her how awful high school is; she overheard at least some of the Stans’ conversation at the end of “A Tale of Two Stans”, meaning she might know that Stan will have to give up his home and business once the summer is over; and she and Dipper both have true friends here who they will miss and be missed by, as opposed to their memories of Piedmont where we only see them supporting and comforting each other and never hear of any friends. And it isn’t like she’s the only one having fun! Stan is happier than ever, Ford is back home, Dipper’s come into his own more than she could ever have anticipated. He’ll still get to delve into the mysteries of this town that he loves so much. But she’ll be there too. If you want more Gravity Falls, you can see where she’s coming from. She genuinely thinks that “just a little more summer” would be a positive experience for everyone, with plenty of good reason. Yes, she’s recklessly messing with powerful forces that she doesn’t understand. Yes, she isn’t nearly as suspicious of this sudden miracle solution as she should be. But she has no evidence that this would harm anyone.

Their responses after making their mistake are also noteworthy. They’re both horrified and remorseful. But Dipper expresses no concern for the agents for the rest of the episode when it looks like they’ve been killed due to his actions. He even nonchalantly remarks that he thought they were dead when he sees them again. Mabel, however, reaches to stop Bill and begs him to “wait” before he knocks her unconscious. Then she’s imprisoned in Mabelland, which is designed to make her never want to leave and based on how it only occurs to her after she renounces it that the neon colours and repetitive background music are too much even for her, may additionally have a direct, if subtle, influence on her mind. So she’s a little distracted from her guilt. But by risking her life to fix the repercussions of her actions and save the town, she shows much more responsibility for the townspeople’s lives than Dipper showed for the agents he’d tried so hard to impress. He just happily went about his business for weeks believing he had two people’s deaths on his conscience. Never even looked into whether they survived.

These differences in their personal moral philosophies add another layer to the parallels between the two generations of Pines twins. Typically, Dipper parallels Ford and Mabel parallels Stan. But less so here! Like Mabel, Ford very staunchly believes in abstract moral theory, namely that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. He holds a grudge for weeks against Stan saving him from being lost in the dimensions through the portal, because it endangered the rest of the world by creating the Rift. It was a good deed with good intentions… but it didn’t only make life better for everyone. To Ford, that means it isn’t good enough. Hmm, which younger twin has a problem with judging anything short of ‘pure good’ to not be worthwhile? Also like Mabel, Ford’s self-righteousness is often hypocritical, considering his pride, selfishness and willingness to disregard the possible negative consequences of his actions, e.g. trusting Bill and building the portal in the first place.

Like Dipper, Stan is willing and ready to use underhanded methods to win against his enemies, to lie, cheat, steal and leverage assets he doesn’t really have the right to. He’s more inclined to be aggressive, spiteful and smug. As for holding grudges, even to an unreasonable extent, he personally despised a nine-year-old child even before he knew that the child was a bad person. He would absolutely summon Rumble McSkirmish to attack a rival for him. He prides himself on his cunning, another form of intelligence, and prioritises being good at what he does best over holding the moral high ground. He is shown to have lifelong insecurities about Ford being better than him in other fields (and thus explicitly valued more by their father); so his pragmatism is his way of trying to always be useful to the people he loves, and indeed a key way he shows them his love.

#gravity falls #mabel pines #dipper pines #pines twins #gravity falls analysis

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our-happygirl500-fan · 1 year

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Draxum needs to apologise to a lot of people for the things he did before his redemption, & he gave Splinter a small apology in the episode in the episode Hidden City’s Most Wanted but there are still two people Draxum needs to apologise to specifically

Draxum: I’m sorry for, you know, trying to turn you into a weapon, and a bunch of other stuff

Obviously he owes an apology to Leo for throwing him off a roof but there’s another person Draxum really owes an apology to & that’s Cassandra Jones.

Draxum: I have accomplished with one assistant what you couldn’t accomplish with an entire clan!

Casey: Assistant? But I thought we... were partners?

The moment Draxum thought he had secured leadership of the Foot he kind of betrayed Casey & tossed her to the side which is actually kind of sad when you think about how Casey spent most of the episode ‘How to Make Enemies and Bend People to Your Will’ looking up to Draxum.

Casey: I have been doing this all wrong!

Draxum: Indeed, waiting is for fools

Casey: This must be a trap but if there’s one thing I’ve learned from you is that we get nothing from waiting!

Through the episode Casey is practically looking at Draxum with stars in her eyes & takes the things he says to heart as things that she should be doing & Casey looking up to Draxum throughout the episode isn’t just that Casey decided that Draxum was cool, throughout the episode Draxum uses language that would make Casey believe he viewed them as equals.

Casey: Lookout support duty? We’re the lookouts for the lookouts?

Draxum: This is beneath us both

Draxum: If we want to improve our rank we must handle this ourselves

Draxum: Trust me, our rank is about to skyrocket

Throughout the episode Draxum uses words like ‘us’, ‘we’ & ‘our’ to make Casey feel like they’re equals, that they’re working together & Draxum must have known how much being treated as an equal must mean to Casey because from the very start of the episode it’s shown that Casey isn’t treated with much respect with the Foot Clan.

Casey: I can’t believe they promoted Jocelyn over me! I know her parents are big donors but come on!

Casey: We’re here to get coffee for the entire Foot Clan, and a vegan coconut scone for the boss

Draxum: Draxum is no errand boy

Casey: To become a full member of the Foot one must show commitment and patience, I have been in training since I was seven!

Even though Casey shows constant loyalty & dedication to the Foot Clan they don’t really treat her with respect, she’s been training since she was seven & considering that JJ Conway said that Casey is supposed to be the same age as April (around 16-17) that means she’s been training with the Foot for most of her life & yet she still has to watch countless others be promoted before her & has been stuck running errands for years.

Draxum: Would you like to do the honours?

The Foot have been making Casey run errands for years, making her be the one to get everyone coffee or assigning her as the lookout for the lookouts so when Draxum comes along & lets her be the one to retrieve a piece of the Dark Armour, something important, you can see how much it means to her.

Her eyes are practically shining at someone trusting & respecting her enough, to do a task that actually means something.

And then Draxum calls her an assistant & shows her that he never thought of them as equals, he was just using her to get what he wanted which is why I think Draxum owes Casey an apology because he made her feel like she had finally found someone who she could trust, finally found someone who trusted her as well & he basically threw it in her face once he didn’t need her anymore.

And when they properly interact again in the episode Battle Nexus New York he’s so mean to her for no reason

Draxum: Who even likes Foot Recruit?

Casey: Huh?

Casey: Leap of faith! [Crash]

Draxum: Oh look, a ladder

Casey & Draxum are the two redeemed villains of the Hamato clan & I need to see some form of resolution between these two because the closest we’ve got to that is Draxum & Casey being next to each other during the final attack against the Shredder

If Rise ever gets a season 3 Draxum better give Casey an apology for how he betrayed her trust when they were both working together in the Foot Clan

#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #teenage mutant ninja turtles #cassandra jones #casey jones #baron draxum #rottmnt #tmnt

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spop-romanticizes-abuse · 6 months

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actually one thing that I think makes it the true reason I dislike huntlow as a ship is that it's not foreshadowed at all like how lumity was. both Luz and Amity expressly talk about romance in SOME way, even not in relation to eachother. Luz's wizard dream having a prince she was pseudo-into. Amity's diary and mentions of romance. both had clear romantic wishes, even if it was among the other ones such as be a witch and have a life outside of the blight name. willow and hunter *never* speak about love or anything like that, and if Hunter's like. aim was to have Belos love him, or *anyone* love him, I think it'd actually make the arc make sense and if Willow had that insecurity with being a teenage witch with no date or love to be found it'd make sense and I'd actually SEE huntlow being viable rather than shoehorned in where it made both of their personalities make zero sense for the scenes they were both in together

exactly! i always headcanoned willow as aroace because she literally shows no romantic interest in anyone? even her interest in hunter seemed so artificial. she just blushes and tells him he means a lot to her and… that's it? then they proceed to blush whenever they're around each other and there's literally nothing else to indicate a romantic interest.

meanwhile hunter seems less "in love" with willow, and more like he's worshipping her. it's a little reminiscent of how amity treated luz at first but even then, i feel like luz and amity were more on equal footing. we still see amity talking to luz casually, while all hunter does is blush and stutter around willow. i get it, young love and all that. but considering that hunter used to worship and idolize his abusive uncle, i can't help but feel like this kind of relationship is not right for him. i wouldn't say willow is a stand-in for belos or anything but i just don't think their dynamic works.

not to mention, both characters act horribly out of character with each other. willow was this kind but strong girl who only attacked or fought people who deserved it, but she's somewhat forceful and dominant with hunter. (i wouldn't go as far as to say toxic, i don't think she's abusive towards him or anything.)

meanwhile, hunter was this sassy and sardonic child prodigy who was trained in combat from a young age, but somehow he's always a damsel in distress when he's with willow. i have to clarify, i have no problem with women saving men or being stronger than men. but it just doesn't make sense for these characters because hunter isn't just some guy, he has supposedly gone through extremely torturous training and is a very proficient fighter. meanwhile, willow is just a normal highschooler who happens to be skilled at plant magic. how is she the stronger one here?

and of course, the fact that this ship was just shoved into the narrative with no development or chemistry just doesn't sit right with me. no hate to huntlow shippers but i really don't understand how people don't see how rushed and underdeveloped it is.

#what is this a toh critical blog?#sorry about the rant lol #toh criticism #toh critical #toh discourse #toh salt #anti huntlow

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transmutationisms · 1 year

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in your opinion, why do you think kendall seeks out equality w sexual partners (even if he fails) but not in other aspects of his life (i.e. he loves to be in control/have underlings)?

love this comparison actually; i think it gets at some of his root dysfunction. fundamentally, kendall doesn't have a kill drive or even much of a natural 'will to power.' he wants to feel like he's on even footing with his sexual partners for sure, but even when we see him interacting with his underlings, it's clear he wants their approval, specifically in a way where he can pretend they're all just cool guy peers hanging out together. his interest in the ceo position doesn't really come from a desire to wield power over other people, but from a desire to fulfill the purpose logan has instilled into him his whole life. this is part of why actual power is so unsatisfactory for him. he never gains enough to actually win logan's approval, and the sole fact of being on top in the hierarchy is not intrinsically psychically pleasing for kendall because it goes against his own inclinations for how to pursue interpersonal relationships.

however. lest you think i'm letting kendall off the hook here. i think it's crucial to keep in mind that the show goes out of its way to demonstrate, over and over again, that kendall's actual intentions and desires are kind of irrelevant, insofar as he consistently places himself in positions of power and then willfully ignores the consequences of that dynamic in his relationships. sure, he didn't mean to pressure anna newman into flirting with him or potentially fucking him. sure, he didn't mean to torch jennifer's career or humiliate her. in a way he probably didn't even mean to be hurtful to those guys on the jet at the beginning of argestes, because as usual he was only thinking about himself and logan, and treating everyone else around him as means to his own ends. but the show is quite clear about pointing out that kendall does materially benefit from his place at the top of the hierarchy, even though it's also the tool by which logan psychologically abuses him. so, despite kendall's 'natural' desire to seek equality in his relationships, we see him consistently seek out (and benefit from!) positions of power both professionally and personally.

#the professional and the personal being often one and the same on this show ofc #a sandpit for emergent behaviour

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nrilliree · 16 days

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https://www.tumblr.com/nrilliree/747663914665459712?source=share

It's really crazy how much TG lives in their own fanfiction.

This person also refuses and seems to understand that it is misogynistic that Rhaenyra ended up with a nickname equivalent to Maegor simply for arguing about taxes. Something that was advised to her by a man on her council, not even her idea. And what else could she do anyway ? There was no more money because the Greens took everything ! But obviously, it's all Rhaenyra's fault. Also, I find it hard to understand how the TG are good sovereigns when we see how they manage money ?

Also, the simple fact that she doesn't seem to accept and understand that Rhaenyra had more than half the kingdom on her side ? That the Greens weren't tied or had a majority ? She almost acts like everyone obviously wants to support them.

She advocates neutrality while she is openly TG, it annoys me.

Anyway, coming from a person who thinks that I can't read and don't know anything about the GRRM universe simply because I told a simple truth ; namely that women could not become Kingsguard. A truth according to her that is false because since Visenya created the Kingsguard, apparently that means that women can be too ? Sorry, but how can we seriously support such a stupid thing ? It's not because Visenya created the Kingsguard that women can become one! In the era of ASOIAF / GOT a woman can't even be a knight ! So Kingsguard in the time of Rhaenyra ?! Make me laugh !

She's also exactly the kind of person who will try to explain to you that Rhaenyra can't be the legitimate heir because apparently there is no legitimate heir under the pretext that the law is vague. Stupid, the only real law that matters is the word of the king. It kills me that they are trying so hard to deny it ?!

I'm not going to talk about our least favorite troll, so I won't refer to her statement, but rather the general attitude among TGs.

Alicent's mistakes and crimes are explained by the fact that it was not her fault, but the evil men around her who coerced and manipulated her. She is a victim of evil men. Rhaenyra's mistakes and crimes are Rhaenyra's mistakes and crimes. The end.

This is what some people think.

This can be extended further to other TG characters: Did Helaena go crazy and commit suicide after her children died? Poor thing, it was completely explainable, the death of murdered children is a huge tragedy that will devastate everyone! Rhaenyra went crazy and paranoid after the death of her children? This is no explanation! You can't explain this to her, she's a terrible tyrant!

Rhaenyra's reign was not good, but there was much more to it than the fact that Rhaenyra "is evil, spoiled, narcissistic and generally yuck." People accuse her of not being a feminist because she didn't decree that from now on all daughters would inherit on an equal footing with sons… Do any of these people even know how emancipation developed in the real world? It didn't work that way. Rhaenyra was to be the first woman in power. It was the first step, and true emancipation often takes generations. In Poland we had Jadwiga of Anjou and guess what? She took the throne as a king, not a queen, so she could rule, and that didn't miraculously result in women being treated equally to men from then on. Rhaenyra listened to her advisors and therefore did not decree that daughters would inherit before sons or cousins, because she knew she could not make too many changes in one moment. She listened to the advisors, but it was still her fault. It's just as much her fault for stealing the Driftmark from Baela and Rhaena… even if Corlys preferred to legitimize his bastard and make him heir rather than give the inheritance to Laena's daughters! Rhaenyra is fully to blame for the riots and dragon slaying, even if the Shepherd was simply looking for a suitable excuse to overthrow the rich and lords. It wasn't even about Rhaenyra, and if Aegon had been on the throne then, there would have been riots anyway. The Shepherd would simply find another reason! For example, the fact that people were starving and Aegon built golden statues of war criminals…

She realizes that Rhaenyra was not a good queen, but that was due to the situation. War, lack of money, riots incited by the Shepherd, and on top of her own emotional problems that resulted from almost her entire family being killed. If someone doesn't see it, he or she is simply a TG pro, not a "neutral" person who, strangely enough, justifies only one side of the conflict.

#house of the dragon #team black #anti team green #hotd #pro team black #rhaenyra targaryen #anti alicent hightower #anti team green stans

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trickstarbrave · 7 months

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Idea in my brain

Astarion and Tav but. Tav has also been through some horrific abuse themselves. Treated like pure shit, half their face burnt, and gives off the impression they’ve healed from it but really they just like helping other ppl more. In their eyes they’ve kind of decided other ppl need their help more, because they’ll at least have the chance to recover and heal. They’re self sacrificing, but charismatic enough most ppl just think they’re just helpful. If you ask about their past they don’t say much, just enough that others drop it and in the chaos of lilithid tadpoles and the absolute cult no one really digs that deep into it for a while

Astarion meanwhile does his thing. He’s terrified of being left behind. Of people turning on him. He uses his body and sweet talks Tav. But immediately Tav sees through it. They can tell Astarion doesn’t mean it, he’s just scared and alone, but they’ve honestly never felt very desired before. And also they figure rejecting him might make him even more jumpy, so they play along knowing full well he’s ‘manipulating’ them.

Astarion opens up more and talks about his past, while Tav just kinda becomes like. Well Tav sees themselves as an emotional support animal. Astarion’s first actual relationship while he gets his footing. It hasn’t been the first time they’ve done so and they figure it won’t be the last. But Astarion is too beautiful and strong to want to stay with them once this is all take care of, right? After a few months post Cazador death and free of the tadpole he’ll be making a new life for himself. Tav may have been the one to help Astarion crawl out of the grave he’s been lying in for 200 years, but Tav doesn’t see themselves as an equal to anyone.

Tav sees themselves as a person who is used and then discarded. It’s why out of all the romance options they were most comfortable with Astarion—Astarion is the kind of person they’re familiar with. Astarion is manipulative and has something to gain, Tav has stuff to give. They don’t know how to handle say, Karlach’s forward and affectionate demeaned or La’zael’s straightforward desire or even Shadowheart. Definitely can’t handle Gale’s earnestness, not when Tav is afraid they’ll only ruin Gale more, plus how can Tav compare to a literal god he used to date?! But Astarion is… Safe. He has something to gain after which he’ll toss Tav aside. It’s all Tav’s ever known, so it’s comfortable.

#Astarion #Astarion bg3 #astarion x tav #bg3 spoilers

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m00nchildwrites · 1 month

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I agree I can see where love was put into the Netflix atla adaptation (the actors alone all so great), but I’m sorry, the writing was NOT one of them.

The writing was not perfect. But considering the episode constraints and the fact that future seasons were uncertain, they did well. Future seasons allows for them to show us more, and of course, there are some things I am hoping to see in each of the characters coming up. But the absolute bashing of the Netflix live action across this platform just does not fit the reality of what the natla adaptation was. People treating it on equal footing in the "disaster" category as the M. Night Shyamalan hot mess is laughable and ridiculous.

The fact is that this adaptation did the show justice. The CGI was beautiful. The scenery was breathtaking. The costumes gorgeous. The fleshed out backstory of the air nomads the day of the comet? Lovely and appreciated. The removal of filler plots and condensing of others? To be expected with any screen adaptation. See LOTR. The actors? So well casted. The writing? Perfect? No, but again, the love and respect for the original is clear and the changes do not make or break the thing.

People act like everyone is so different from the show when they really are not that dang different. Katara still gets to show her anger- not as much- but again time constraints. Sokka still feels like Sokka, even if his misogyny was tuned way way down; it is still there, but in a realistic and subtle way. Aang is shown as the innocent kid he is and his struggle to accept his role is replaced more heavily with guilt for not being there, which is completely still our Aang, and that "kidness" the writing chose to focus on just exacerbates the tragedy that is the fact that he has to face the Fire Lord and end a war to save lives. Uncle Iroh was well done; he felt believable. I like the fact that they didn't make him flirt with June; it was creepy in the OG. Ozai is still evil and twisted, and the fact that he shows emotion during the Agni Kai with Zuko just makes him seem MORE twisted; my father was a sick, twisted psycho that enjoyed psychologically screwing with me. The thing is that he thought he was doing the father thing well, even with the mental, emotional, and physical abuse. Let me tell you, Daniel Dae Kim is killing it as Ozai. He was so believable it was borderline triggering. And Zuko is still the broody, angry, lost son wanting to just go home that he should be season 1.

Everyone has their own taste. Some will not like it and that's fine, but it is often so extreme on here that it seems perfomative in my opinion. But again, to each their own if that's how you really feel.

#natla #opinion #natla spoilers #zuko #katara #aang #sokka #uncle iroh #ozai

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winns-stuff · 6 months

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Two things:

1 a. I don't think kidding someone's feet automatically equals foot fetish. If you have someone a kiss on the shoulder doors that mean you have a shoulder fetish?

1 b. Even if he does, that didn't automatically make him evil or a creep. Kinks and fetishes are not moral indicators and acting like they do is juvenile. It might not be for you, or even make you uncomfortable, and that's okay. Live and let live.

2. I don't think it's fair to call Persephone a homewrecker when:

a. Minthe and Hades were not exclusive. Minthe was sleeping with Thanatos - Hades' adoptive son - and Hades was sleeping with Hera anyway.

b. Minthe was emotionally, verbally, and physically abusive to Hades. I feel like everyone forgets that she literally hit him. He shouldn't have been in that relationship anyways.

Okay first off, I’m sorry if I made it seem like I was kinkshaming at all. I was honestly just joking about that comparison and one of the main reasons why I said that it reminded me of Dan Schneider and that I was repulsed was because of the “creepy” aspect of it being placed in there, it was around the end that the person said that the kink seemed like it was only given to creepy guys. I don’t care about kinks genuinely and trust me I do mind my business when it comes to those things, again my apologies if I did come off immature.

But you’re right, his kink doesn’t make him a creep but the fact that he literally is creepy, manipulative, and an overall messed up person makes him a little bit more warranted for those kinds of comments since that’s literally how he represents himself in the comic. Hades is a slave owning, hypocritical, child neglecting, abusive, and overall tyrant to everyone who’s not kissing his ass and it’s not me exaggerating it’s literally just how he is that’s him as a person overall.

And I do think it is fair to call Persephone a homewrecker based on the very fact that they were seeing each other and breaking a lot of boundaries after Hades and Minthe officially made it official. Mind you, it was Hades who wanted to close the open relationship so yeah now seeing other people and touching them beyond the appropriate interaction between an employee and boss especially is now inappropriate and not something that you can just wave the “we’re not in a closed relationship” card at. Also, by definition Persephone was one of the sole reasons that Minthe and Hades broke up since Minthe started noticing just how overly affectionate they became with each other while working so yes, she is a homewrecker. She broke a home and please don’t comment by saying “there was never a home in the first place” because there was, you can’t just give homewrecking and emotional cheating a pass because you don’t like the character they still had history.

Also, trust me when I say no one forgets that Minthe hits him. Every single time I post about Minthe I make sure to acknowledge the fact that I don’t condone her actions and actually a lot of critics do as well since there’s a lot of people like you (not saying this in a bad way by the way) that do believe that many people are Minthe stans every time you discuss her without stating that fact. But even though yes, it was a fairly toxic relationship on both sides and they should’ve broke up much sooner like I said before there was still a relationship there that they were both in. It’s still emotional cheating and homewrecking on Hades and Persephone’s part, also Persephone doesn’t even know how Minthe treated Hades she just never cared about her feelings to begin with and pursued her boyfriend basically.

Also last thing but do you know what slap everyone does tend to forget a lot? Hecate when she slapped the ever loving shit out of Hades, now I’m not saying since that happened just forget about Minthe’s behavior at all but I am saying that we should all react to that slap the same. We all agree that it’s never okay to put your hands on someone so why should we condone it when it’s not Minthe?

#lo critical #anti lore olympus #anti lo #lore olympus criticism #lore olympus critical #antiloreolympus

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hualianisms · 4 months

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saw someone saying that the difference between HC & FX's loyalty is that HC dares to say no to XL and that "stop following" never worked on HC, and i have a lot of thoughts about this.

i think there's 2 major things that make XL's relationship with HC vs with FX completely different, especially if comparing XL & HC 800 years later, vs XL & FX in book 4.

the inherent difference in social status btwn XL & FX

the circumstances surrounding how FX & XL's friendship deteriorated in book 4, vs hualian meeting 800 years later when XL is in a way better mental state

bc of these 2 factors, i personally feel like hualian's relationship vs FX & XL in book 4 are in many ways not fairly comparable.

firstly, the inherent differences in social status btwn XL & FX:

while it's true that XL & FX were close friends and XL never treated FX as just a bodyguard or servant, it's undeniable that 800 years ago, XL & FX's relationship had inherent big differences in social status. the thing is that in a historical chinese context, differences in social status make a huge difference, bc confucian societal hierarchies and roles are rigid. in fact to me as a native chinese speaker, mxtx was already pretty lax in her portrayal of the status differences btwn XL vs FX or MQ. a crown prince vs his personal retainer have huge inherent differences in status that create lines that cannot be crossed by the retainer. bc of this, in other c-novels or c-dramas, it's rare to see a crown prince and his personal retainer being best friends on an equal footing, much less a romance between them (the romance would be forbidden and face societal backlash).

bc of the inherent differences in social status, it's much harder for FX to outright defy XL when XL gives a direct order, for example if XL dismisses FX as a servant - and it's very obvious in the revised version of the novel that in the scene where XL tells FX to leave, he's also dismissing FX as a servant as he also says "i don't need you anymore". that's something that's hard for FX to just ignore. it's like if your boss fires you, you can't just say "no."

while i would argue that FX himself dares to talk back to XL (in book 2 he often scolds XL and in book 4 after xianle's fall, FX even dared to do something like give XL a punch in the scene when XL came back from getting stabbed) - it's hard for FX to insist on staying if XL just dismissed him and told him to leave. some might see it as FX being afraid to speak out, but to me it's not about fear, but about respect. FX has deep respect for XL. he scolds MQ every time MQ shows disrespect to XL and even went on a long angry outburst to MQ in book 2 about how MQ should respect XL as XL is His Highness. it's evident even 800 years later how much FX respects XL.

in contrast, HC with XL 800 years later does not have this inherent status divide of master & servant. 800 years later, hualian meet as complete equals. if they had gotten closer when HC was still a commoner child and XL was still a crown prince, the difference in social status would have been an issue too.

2. the circumstances surrounding hualian's relationship 800 years later, and XL & FX's relationship in book 4 are extremely different

when hualian meet 800 years later, they get to know each other as not just equals, but as individuals who are 800+ years old. they have had literal centuries to mature and grow as people. and, XL is in a way better mental state 800 years later. in contrast, XL & FX in their book 4 falling out were dealing with extremely tough times, barely struggling to get by each day, traumatized by the fall of xianle and losing almost everything of their old lives (with XL especially in the worst psychological state he's ever been, extremely traumatized by the events with BWX and clearly depressed). people really don't make the best decisions when they are in bad psychological states - that's when they tend to make bad choices.

HC may have seen XL at XL's lowest, but they were not friends at that point. they didn't have to live with each other, they only were around each other for an extremely short time in book 4. they didn't have a mutual, reciprocal bond. ofc i'm sure if HC was in FX's position, he would have never left. but for FX's specific position, he was living with XL, was XL's good friend and personal attendant, was actually day-to-day witnessing and being on the receiving end of XL's heavily deteriorating psychological state. XL was screaming at FX and having intense mental breakdowns due to trauma. it's important to remember that XL in book 4, especially after being stabbed 100 times, was completely different from his normal self. he was not himself at all. any friend would be alarmed to see their friend completely different all of a sudden, and questioned it.

however, FX did not know or understand what XL was going through, and when he tried to ask, XL didn't tell FX about any of it, and instead shut him out and pushed him away. FX probably wanted to help, but didn't even have a way to understand what was happening. he was helpless. and even XL's own mother didn't know how to help either. she, too, was pushed away when she tried to talk to XL.

we also have to remember that we, as the reader, know that XL only pushed FX away due to an intense fear of abandonment, but FX did not have the knowledge that the reader has. FX did not know that at all. from FX's pov, XL didn't want him around anymore. from FX's pov, even as a friend, how could he force XL to change his mind if XL didn't want FX around anymore?

bc even completely ignoring social status differences, even in terms of friendship, when friends have a messy falling out like that, where one basically tries to cut ties with the other (with an implied leave and stop staying/living with me - it's practically being kicked out), and if the other friend truly believes that they are no longer wanted around (which is what i think FX interpreted), it could in some ways be ignoring your friend's own wishes or even your friend's personal boundaries, to say "no" and insist on still following even after being told to leave. i find their fight and falling out in book 4 pretty realistic for how friend breakups happen in real life.

so to me, the circumstances were very different. when HC says no to XL, it's 800 years later, when XL is in a much healthier mental state, they don't have an inherent status difference, and XL isn't trying to drive HC away completely. XL is only doing something harmful to himself, which HC can push back against on the grounds of prioritizing XL's own well-being. it's not when XL is trying to cut ties with HC due to abandonment fears. (not saying that HC would leave in any circumstance, but that the situation FX was in would be complicated to experience in reality and not as simple as just saying no. and that FX's choice was more complicated than just blind obedience.)

in fact, FX & XL's friend breakup, although incredibly painful for both of them as well as the reader, paved the way for them to reconcile 800 years later when XL is no longer the crown prince & FX is no longer his personal retainer/bodyguard. they no longer have such a big difference in social status between them. they are both also 800 years older - i.e. had lots of time to mature and grow as people, and in a much better psychological state. they are in a much better place this time around to form a much healthier friendship with each other on a more equal ground.

#fenglian thoughts #long bc i have too much to say about this #idk man the circumstances to me were totally different #mp: tgcf #tgcf thoughts #im not saying that hc would have ever left bc ofc he would've not left; but that fx's position was very complicated in a way that #if it happened irl it's not as easy as just saying no

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aprofessionalwithoutstandards · 6 months

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I’m glad Demo’s sex appeal is getting more acknowledged over the years. Ngl I feel like there was some racism and colourism that prevented his attractiveness from being acknowledged back in 2012 due to him being unable to get hit with the ‘skinny white uke’ ray, like spy, sniper and medic did, because he was black

Oh for sure! I wasn't In the fandom in 2012 of course lmao I was eight but I've seen content from that time period and I'd also say I've noticed a difference in how Demo is sexualized when he does show up. It's not Completely fixed, I still see this in newer stuff, but idk it feels like people have backpedaled a little on presenting Demo as a Hyper-Masculine And Hyper-Dominant 2% Body Fat Rippling Abs Sex Beast who'll exist in fic as basically like, a sexy prop without a substantial personality that the writer can give a huge dick with which to fuck any of his white coworkers (the amount of demomedic sexyfic that describes Demo as being physically larger than Medic when he's really Really just not is astounding), if he's even considered as an option at all. Idk it's not like Anyone is characterized perfectly in a great deal of sexyfic but there really is something worth criticizing in the tendency to ignore the canon characterization and even appearance of the source's One black guy in order to force him into a fetishized "cartoonishly large and powerful hypermasculine sex god who exists in the plot only to sexually dominate white men." BUT I think people are becoming aware of this and a lot of this is changing! Idk I've seen not only More sexy sexy Demo art lately but more of it that depicts him with the body type he has in the mainline comic, or as more playful and more in line with his textual personality, especially a lot of stuff with Soldier where they tease each other a lot and seem to be on more "equal footing" which is really fun! Idk I clearly looooove Demo I think he's super interesting and super funny and like one of my favorite characters Ever to write about and soooo gongeous and he makes me so horny I should be shot like a lame horse but a lot of the way he's portrayed just does not really feel like Demo at all and I definitely think a ton of that is owed to the fact that he's a black guy and fandoms tend to treat nonwhite characters and black characters especially as either a total afterthought or a type of exoticized sex object. :/

#ask #anon #demo #mick dicks #racism cw #antiblackness cw #there is definitely an element of colorism to it too especially with a lot of art where demo is 'pretty' heavy quotes #and yknow looks softer and has flowers in his hair or whatever will make him Significantly lighter than he is in the game #but that's also the comic's fault! thanks valve!

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thevagabondexpress · 11 months

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let's take a closer look at christopher, matthew, and their shared love of downworld, shall we?

On the surface, when you read them, Matthew Fairchild and Christopher Lightwood are wildly disparate characters. They have almost nothing in common. But then we get to the Shadow Market in Chain of Iron, and suddenly—suddenly Christopher Lightwood is a whole different man from the owlish, absentminded, socially inept little being we see around his friends and among the Enclave in general.

He's street-smart, avoiding the dangers of the Shadow Market with the practiced ease of many, many visits, he haggles like an expert (to quote Cordelia), and what's more, he's openly Nephilim in a place that seems to generally despise Shadowhunters and yet he and the vendors are familiar, even friendly with each other, Christopher chats as comfortably as he haggles, and in general he seems far more comfortable there than he does among the Nephilim of the Enclave, even those he considers his closest friends.

Up until then, Matthew and Anna were the characters we associated with Downworld. They frequent the Hell Ruelle, and are welcome and beloved there, and it's made clear that Matthew adores the Downworlders and their way of life, watching with starstruck eyes and longing to join in.

Matthew is the Downworlder lover extraordinaire—or is he? Hypatia states quite plainly in Chain of Gold that Matthew is welcomed into the Ruelle because he's pretty and amusing: he's there as a lovely plaything, a pawn of the other guests, a runed curiosity who can't seem to keep it in his pants and doesn't seem to realize that he can say no. The way he's treated by the Hell Ruelle is exploitative at best. And in the Shadow Market? He's swindled and snubbed like everyone else. Matthew adores the Downworld, but he looks at it through glittering rose-colored glasses, viewing it with the fetishized fascination for the exotic of a British colonist writing a travelogue of the Near East. He's Lawrence of Arabia, Marco Polo, Gertrude Bell.

Christopher in the Shadow Market, by contrast, is one of them already. "Christopher Lightwood!" one vendor calls. "Just the man I was hoping to see!" Granted, I don't know how they'd treat him if he wasn't such an extravagant spender but I imagine he would still be welcomed, if perhaps not hailed so loudly. But why? Christopher isn't scandalous, or extravagant. From everything we've seen he holds himself to high standards and lives a fairly clean lifestyle: he doesn't sleep around, he doesn't smoke, he doesn't do drugs or drink to excess.

But at the same time, while Matthew does do those things, he also gets treated like a toy by the Ruelle, and I am willing to bet you the moment he puts his foot down and says no to somebody, they'll stop letting him in.

Christopher, on the other hand, is humble. We're shown frequently through his interactions with his friends and family and other members of the Enclave that he doesn't place himself higher and believe himself better than anyone else. Neither does he seem to buy the prejudices those around him seem to hold: why should women, or Downworlders, or people of color, be considered lesser than someone else? He considers everyone on equal footing in that respect and judges them based on who they are as individual persons. And even then he shows a great capacity for leniency and forgiveness: he's the first of them to accept Grace, and while he goes along with his friends' hatred of Alastair in spirit, his actions don't suggest he really dislikes Alastair that much at all (except when he's insulting Anna, that is).

We see all of those behaviors from a distance in the Shadow Market scene, in the way he haggles and chats with the vendors and the fact that he doesn't seem either afraid of or bedazzled by the Market at all.

Ultimately, Christopher surpasses Matthew when it comes to knowledge of and position within the Downworld. Where Matthew treats the Downworld like a curio cabinet, and is exploited for his hedonist nature in turn, Christopher treats the denizens of the Shadow Market as equals, and receives equal treatment back from them, welcomed as a customer, a regular, yea even a friend.

TL; DR, Christopher has always been the true Downworlder spirit, and Matthew needs to wake up and put his foot down before he gets himself seriously hurt—again.

#christopher lightwood #matthew fairchild #the last hours #blue's tsc analysis

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tillychmo · 5 months

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S1-Izzy's Foreshadowed Road to Redemption in s2

(And me slightly gushing over Con O'Neill's acting on the way.)

Right-o. We need to talk about our man Izzy Hands. More specifically we need to talk about Izzy in ep110 and through to the second series, because I have yet to see anyone else comment with this particular angle, so here's my hot take:

(This will include obvious spoilers for all of the current two series of Our Flag Means Death)

I've seen some people talk about Izzy's character change as something that happened 'way too quickly' – I've seen others talk about Izzy not being a bad guy in series 1 at all – and I've seen a lot of people come away from the scene in ep. 110 where they're throwing out Stede's books and Fang/Kevin asks Izzy what happened to his foot with an understanding that Izzy's reaction to that question is one of gloading satisfaction, and because I kinda disagree with all of these takes (but especially the latter), here's my wee take on the lot – with particular emphasis on that 'smile' in ep. 110:

Jumping right in: The second 'Krackbeard' cuts off Izzy's toe Izzy knows that he has f*cked up and finally pushed Ed too far. Sure, Izzy has been used to Blackbeard cutting the toes off of other crew members and make them eat it "for a laugh" for years and years – but Blackbeard/Edward has never turned his violence on Izzy before.

Izzy wanted Blackbeard back, yes, and all the way through s1 he pushed and pushed and pushed him, even though Ed clearly didn't want to be 'Blackbeard' anymore.

We see this in the 'soft' manipulations – like him saying "My boss would like a word with you" to Stede, but telling Edward "I explicitly told him 'Blackbeard desires his company'" – and we see it more and more prevalent as Ed grows closer to and more and more fond of Stede – like Izzy ordering Fang/Kevin and Ivan to back him up in his demand that Edward kills Stede (based on Fang's & Ivan's reactions in the previous scene "This is the most open and available I've ever seen him", I feel OK with surmising that Izzy probably ordered them to back him up here) so that Edward will 'lose face' or even be looked at as weak if he refuses to do it; like insisting on a swordfight with Stede – directly against his captain's orderes – and choosing to not just banish Stede from the ship when it looks as though Izzy is going to win, but actually going in for the kill; like selling Stede (the man Ed loves) out to the English, while also basically treating Edward as a commodity, by making him the 'price' Izzy will earn from the British, when they've captured Stede.

The latter of which – and this is equally as important to note – literally sets the whole trajectory of Ed's fall into Krackbeard in motion.

Ed is the one who returns to the Revenge – not Blackbeard. And Izzy is continually at his wits end, because he has now done nearly every single manipulative thing he can think of (Izzy obviously doesn't think of these things as 'manipulative' – in his eyes he is still doing the 'right thing') to get Edward to 'snap out of it'. But Ed is still refusing to act the part of Izzy's preferred understanding of what masculinity is. In fact, after his return Ed slips even further into the kind of 'feminine'-masculinity that Izzy despises.

And Izzy finally cracks – insisting that 'Edward' and 'Blackbeard' are not the same, and then taunting Edward with his percieved weakness of being heartbroken. This finally goads a reaction out of Ed.

And for the glimmer of a second Izzy thinks he sees 'Blackbeard' in Ed – and you can see the sheer satisfaction on his face:

But Ed doesn't want to be Blackbeard. And the moment Izzy touches his face (other people have written brilliantly on Ed's reactions to physical touch – if I can find it, I will add a link to it here), Ed doesn't go in for the counter attack. Instead, he pushes Izzy's hand away, let's go of Izzy's neck, and takes several steps back. Even here, when he is being actively threatned, he is still refusing to 'act the part' of overt violence that Izzy is demanding of him.

And because Con O'Neill is an actor's absolute dream (side-note: seriously, I cannot get enough of watching his micro-expressions when a thought changes and you can see it so clearly in his eyes) we can see the split-second where Izzy realises this:

(Seriously that thiny change of his eyes is so easy to miss and yet it speaks VOLUMES for Izzy's character and character arc – Con O'Neill you brilliant bastard.)

So at the point where Ed is at his absolutely most vulnerable – because the crew has made him feel safe to do so – Izzy goes for the final 'trick' he has left: He threatens Ed on his life.

And this brings us back to the beginning of this post: Krackbeard cutting off Izzy's toe. Supposedly this should have been an indicator to Izzy that 'Blackbeard' is back and is "himself again" and Izzy even says this himself:

And here we arrive at the whole reason for why I've made this post (yeah, sorry, I know it took a while) :

Izzy is telling us that he finally got what he wanted: "Blackbeard is himself again". In other words: "I WON. YAY."

BUT – and I cannot stress this enough – look at the reaction that follows those words:

"I WON ... YAY?"

THIS is the look that clued me in on where Izzy's character arc was heading. Because there is only one reason to allow the antagonist of your story to crack even the flicker of an inch and acidentally show their true feelings like this – and that is if they are on their way to redemption. And with redemption more often than not also comes their inevitable demise.

THIS is not the face of a man who is happy. THIS is the face of a man who knows damn well that he just cosmically f*cked up and now has to live with the consequences.

Which is why we see him, immediately after this accidental facial honesty, putting on the face of a man who actually got what he wanted. Because he is suddenly finding himself in unchartered territory: Izzy knows who 'Blackbeard' is – but he has no clue who 'Krackbeard' is or how to handle him, because 'Krackbeard' is born from the lack of Stede, the heartbreak that followed, Ed's self-hatred, and the threats from Izzy. And Izzy didn't understand this ... Until he suddenly starts to realise it, when it is seemingly already too late.

So when series two started and we see a completely broken down Izzy, I was not surprised at all. Because not only did Izzy realise in ep. 110 that he had finally pushed Ed too far – he has, in the intervening weeks and months, seen Edward (the man Izzy was/has been/is coming to realise that he loves) deteriorate, doing more and more drugs and abusing alcohol and becoming more and more depressed and suicidal. Izzy has finally realised what antagonising Ed actually costs: Ed's attachment to life – Ed's willingness to live. And the reason why we see Izzy change his tune towards Stede fairly/incredibly quickly in s2, is because Izzy has realised that the only way to save Ed, is to accept that Stede is what brings Ed to life. Not 'Blackbeard', or 'Krackbeard', or any other performative persona, but "just Ed".

Which is why mirroring the 'attack' scene in 110 with the words "There he is" in Izzy's final words to Ed is so damn beautiful.

IZZY: "Just be Ed." Ed breaks down crying. IZZY: "There he is."

(An afterthought: Writing this I'm realising that Izzy's final scene with Edward in 208 actually beautifully mirrors their scene in 110 in more ways than "There he is". In 110 we see Izzy being pinned against the wall; he is 'finally' being touched by Edward, but it happens with violence and agression and with no hint of care or love – but in 208 Izzy asks Ed to sit with him, and not only does Ed stay with him, he is literally holding him, caringly and lovingly in his arms. No agression and no violence. Just care and love and familarity and warmth. Not telling Izzy that he loves him, but showing him. And I think that's quite a nice thought to end on.)

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