#it’s not canon but I’ve gaslit myself into thinking it is | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

metamatronic · 2 years

Note

For the cryptid au, Do you have any ideas for the V3 cast? Who would be the human since there is no lucky student? (I’m guessing Kiibo or Tsumugi but idk)

I HAVE A CHART NOW!**

it took many hours of research (thank you yokai.com and the myths and folklore wiki) and many decisions based on bullshit, but! I now have a finished (sorta) cryptid au chart to go on. More descriptions/explainations below the cut:

**EDIT: Some people raised concerns about cultural appropriation, so I’ve changed Maki to Bloody Mary! I apologize for the lack of research on my end!

Shuichi Saihara - Apprentice Grim Reaper

If Ultimate Lucky Student equals human, then Ultimate Detective equals Death. My working theory is that Shuichi was intended to be Class 79’s resident human, but died on his way to the school and was then taken in by Kyoko as an apprentice.

**Maki Harukawa - Bloody Mary

Specifically the version where she was falsely accused of killing a bunch of kids and then burned alive for it. Now she kills, but only when summoned. Kind of like an assassin!

Kaito Momota - Krampus/Goatman

Kaito really wanted to be viewed like Santa and instead he’s viewed as like. Evil Santa. And he’s sad about it. Also he has a bridge, though I imagine he’d be pretty gung-ho about dancing on it. (I don’t have a good explanation for this either. it’s just vibes.)

Himiko Yumeno - Baba Yaga

More like Baby Yaga, am I right??? I was just going to make her witch, but that’s booooring. I’m probably never going to draw like, Old Lady Himiko, though. Maybe she was just too lazy to age normally.

Tsumugi Shirogane - Lizardperson (Chameleon)

She’s totally plain and normal! Don’t look too closely! You definitely won’t find anything! What is this AU, if not a bunch of monsters cosplaying as humans. And what cryptid would be the best for that, if not a lizard person. As for the chameleon, i like the aesthetic more than just regular lizard face.

K1-B0 - Automaton

Yes, it’s lazy. (Though he’s also in contention for Class Human, specifically so he can claim to be a robot. Because his whole childhood he was gaslit by his “creator” into being told he was a robot. And this is the first school where people hear that and go “yup, that checks out!”)

Gonta Gokuhara - Boogeyman

I really screwed myself over by making Taka Mothman, but I just love that idea too deeply to change it. So, where’d I get the Boogeyman? Well, if we operate under the Oogie Boogie man from The Nightmare Before Christmas, the Boogeyman is basically a sentient pillowcase full of bugs! Sounds good enough to me!

Miu Iruma - Nymph (Dionysian)

Again, I really screwed myself over by using all the horny monsters up on other characters, but I think this works! Dionysian Nymphs are particularly frisky and have a propensity for partying and vulgarity, but maybe the booze will knock a good idea loose every once and a while.

Rantaro Amami - Kelpie

Green hair??? Seaweed??? Hatred of cars??? I got nothing, we really haven’t/didn’t see that much of that boy. This is subject to change of his talent is revealed, in which case kelpie status will probably transfer to Tenko. He’s listed as a possible Class Human because he could be the Lucky Student? But it’s unlikely.

Kokichi Oma - Eldritch Horror

I’m not convinced he’s not an Eldritch Horror in canon, tbh.

Kaede Akamatsu - Sylph

I search high and low, yet found no piano cryptids. So I went with Sylph because they’re air spirits, sometimes depicted as hummingbirds (music theme!) Plus, Kaede can be a little airheaded sometimes.

Ryoma Hoshi - Kappa

This was mostly vibes + I drew a doodle of Ryoma with a Lotad-esc lily pad head and fell in love. Plus, uh, drowning is an essential part of both Ryoma and kappas. Dude would probably be the chillest kappa in existence though.

Kirumi Tojo - Jorōgumo

There’s a lot of Kirumi spider imagery. This seems like a shoo-in.

Angie Yonaga - Living Painting

okay this is mostly just me being on an Ib kick, but it would explain why she’s always smiling. Bonus: Atua was/is the name of her painter.

Tenko Chabashira - Yeti

I…I got nothing for this. I ran out of man-hating monsters, and I wanted something that could beat the shit out of you. It was this or a Chimera. I dunno.

Korekiyo Shinguji - Naga

I only know this because of his FTEs Korekiyo compares himself to Medusa at one point and says it’s his favorite folktale. Unfortunately, gorgon has already been claimed by Miss Celestia Ludenburg, but luckily we can still get that snake monster symbolism. Mask is to cover up that unhinging jaw probably. (Also let’s just say that he isn’t dating his sister for this AU, yeah? I don’t want to deal with that.)

Also, some adjustments to earlier cryptids:

Toko Fukawa/Genocide Jack: Some people raised concerns that having any sort of cryptid that “played off” Genocide Jack could be considered offensive to those with DID or MPD, so I changed it. And honestly? The Kuchisake-onna works so much better. Woman who’s insecure about her body image and carries around a giant pair of scissors?? If that’s not Toko, I don’t know what is!

Mukuro Ikusaba: I love Mukuro, but I felt like the Waheela was just sort of me grasping for any sort of wolf symbolism, and it didn’t really work. Now she’s an incredibly intimidating curse demon who can control the weather! Much better.

Junko Enoshima: I think she was technically a Wraith before?? but Lich just seemed more fitting. She’s every DND campaign’s BBG.

#meta talks #long post #cryptid au #monster au #danganronpa au #dr1 spoilers #sdr2 spoilers #drv3 spoilers #danganronpa cast #danganronpa cryptid au #danganronpa: trigger happy havoc #super danganronpa goodbye despair #danganronpa v3: killing harmony

304 notes · View notes

ryuichirou · 10 months

Note

How do you think Ortho fell down the rabbithole that is hikikomori Idia Shroud?

Creator, brother, benefactor...

Of course, at first it was his given purpose. To be the younger brother Idia still needed

But how did it evolve?

To replace the image of a dead brother with himself alone? To be Idia's one support, having Idia rely on him so heavily? To be Idia's one and only-

In some way, Ortho loves Idia's reclusive nature, as it means he can continue doing what he loves for his brother. Of course, he knows it isn't healthy to be so shit-in, causing internal conflict

Oh, but the way Idia whimpers for someone to save him from a difficult situation...

I really like this ask, Anon. You’ve described the vibes we’re getting from Ortho’s feelings towards Idia very nicely. Although it’s kind of difficult to answer a question that you’re asking: how did Ortho fall down that rabbithole?

I’m not sure if this is an actual quote from Ortho or just a thought that I’ve had so many times that I gaslit myself into thinking that it’s canon, but Ortho’s “mission” is for Idia to be happy. And it is quite fun to consider the idea that it’s also important for Ortho to be “the direct source” of Idia’s happiness. So in theory, he would love for Idia to be more sociable, but in practice he wants to make him happy himself, just so Idia could smile to him and say that having Ortho by his side is enough.

It really is difficult to say when and why did Ortho fall in love with Idia, but I think it is closely tied with how he developed his self-awareness, his selfishness and his own desires: one leads to another after all.

As an AI, Ortho evolves, reaches his goals and creates more and more goals for himself, because he is programmed to always be learning and, in a way, wanting to get more. Weirdly, it would mean that hid greediness is a part of his code, but Idia definitely didn’t intend for things to end up this way. So, to answer your question. I would assume that the very first time Ortho got an emotional response from Idia/found a way to connect with him was the start of Ortho’s “fall”.

#replies #shroudcest

18 notes · View notes

ambersnake · 1 year

Text

I posted 727 times in 2022

25 posts created (3%)

702 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@nonbinary-octopus

@kungfunurse

@sarah-yyy

@waxjism

@hardrockerhippie

I tagged 412 of my posts in 2022

Only 43% of my posts had no tags

#kinnporsche - 85 posts

#the untamed - 48 posts

#fan art - 35 posts

#tumblr being tumblr - 32 posts

#vegaspete - 29 posts

#videos - 25 posts

#love in the air - 25 posts

#just me - 20 posts

#tiktok - 16 posts

#animals - 14 posts

Longest Tag: 108 characters

#i had to unfollow someone because half their tweets were complainig about the lack of content and promotions

My Top Posts in 2022:

I love that the Finnish commentator pronounces Måneskin with an o, even though the å is obviously an Aesthetic a.

Finns used to do the same with Stargåte.

You give us a Swedish o, you get a Swedish o.

34 notes - Posted May 14, 2022

The ice hockey world championships are taking place in Finland at the moment. I don’t follow the games myself, but my husband watches Finland’s games and I’m usually in the room at the same time and as such I’ve developed a favourite player.

There’s a (*googles*) left winger with the surname Lammikko, puddle in English, who makes for amazing lines from the commentator.

He runs into puddle mid-ice.

Puddle is there to cover for him.

Amazing stick work from puddle.

Puddle scoooores.

Every time I hear his name, I imagine a small anthropomophised puddle of water living its best life at the IIHF worlds 2022.

47 notes - Posted May 24, 2022

Kinnporsche fics I’d write if I was capable of writing fiction

Porsche and Pete are very physically affectionate with each other. It’s completely platonic, but they snuggle in front of the tv, sleep in the same bed, kiss sloppily when drunk, dance together at bars. Their boyfriends deal to the best of their abilities.

Kim and Vegas meet. Like I know they’re cousins and have certainly spent time together, but we never really see them do that in the show and I want my psycho4psycho (platonic) interaction, dammit!

Outsider POV. I don’t know the timeline or the exact circumstances (other than that they’re banging) but at some point Pete drops the khun when addressing Vegas in public, with no other indication that there is anything between them. He’s still perfectly polite and plays the perfect main family bodyguard and no one can figure out why Vegas shows no reaction to the disrespect.

Vegas and Pete do the ”who did this to you?” thing (before Pete gets captured). Someone else beats Pete and Vegas goes crazy for no reason he can understand.

Kim is a legit psycopath that fixates on protecting Porchay. He stalks Chay to make sure he’s safe (and kills people if not), breaks into his home to stock up his fridge or to put him to bed. Chay is slowly gaslit into thinking it's all fine and for his own good and because Kim just loves him so much.

Vegas thinks he has the perfect no strings attached arrangement with Pete until he witnesses Pete with someone else and realises that the no-strings goes both ways and he wants those strings after all (not just ropes).

Shotgunning. Anyone, everyone.

Pre-canon, Kinn is drunk and propositions Big for sex. Big obviously says yes and has the time of his life (even if it is a bit angsty because he knows he’ll never have Kinn for real), but he would never dream of pressing his boss for anything, so when Kinn wakes up the next morning, all he can remember is Big passively going along with anything he did and is sure he pressured an unwilling Big into sleeping with his boss.

55 notes - Posted August 15, 2022

The proper translation of the Finnish word kotihiiri is homebody (or similar), but I like using the literal translation of house mouse instead because it rhymes.

235 notes - Posted May 20, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

In Finnish, you’re married with someone, not to someone.

Even knowing the expression in English, hearing that someone is married with children always gives me that momentary whiplash.

1,882 notes - Posted July 4, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

2 notes · View notes

themountainsays · 2 years

Note

Hanahaki AU anon here (not that I ever left). I'm still working on the outline (Act 1-2 is basically done aside from undecided details/timeline), but I found your tweet concerning homophobic Alma, and— well, that level of full-on rampant homophobia really needs its own dedicated fic (which I’d happily read), but I’ve been thinking of including "lowkey homophobe" Alma; you know, accepting-until-it's-*her*-family-doing-the-gay, “Are you sure it’s not just a phase?”, that kind of thing. (1/3)

Young Isa would’ve confessed her babygay feelings to her Abuela, having every reason to expect her support, but gets blindsided by her disapproval instead. There’s no “she’s a danger to her sisters and cousin” element (because she’d have had hanahaki for yeeears if so), but she does get gaslit and pressured back into the closet. It may be Isa alone who gets that treatment, too— the other grandchildren can have their “quirks”, but Alma’s “perfect Isabela” isn’t allowed to be a lesbian. (2/3)

That said, I’m kinda groaning at putting that much focus on Isa’s relationship with Alma because that’s going to create certain expectations, and that’s super intimidating. Like, on one hand, that relationship is canonically a huge influence on her and would be an obvious absence in any long multichapter Isabela-centric fic, but on the other hand, trying to extract a happy ending for Isamira out of the clutches of pre-movie Alma? In these circumstances? Hoo-boy. Save me from myself :( (3/3)

Ahh lowkey homophobic Alma who quietly hopes it’s all just a phase 😭😭 bro poor Isabela I wanna hug her sm she thought she was safe opening up to an adult she trusts only to be betrayed and shamed and punished for it ;-; and yess ahh all the other grandkids being allowed to have some imperfections but not Isa. Dolores gets to be a bit weird and quirky and *checks notes* stalk people she’s attracted to like a creep? Nice. Camilo gets to be a little shit and play pranks on people. Antonio gets to be quiet and shy, Luisa gets to get her hands dirty when she needs to, Mirabel… well, no one was expecting anything from Mirabel anyway, but Isabela? No no, she has expectations to meet 😊 And yesss ahh it’s kinda impossible to erase Alma’s presence from any fic focusing on Isabela in any level because Alma is a huuuuuuge influence, so even if there’s some unnamed unaddressed scar or shadow haunting her, you still know who gave it to her. And indeed it’d be hard if you don’t want to copy and paste Alma’s arc onto your fic, and I mean, I assume you’d either want her to reach that place on a different way or not have her reach that place at all, at least yet. Mmmm. Indeed a difficult work. In my role swap AU, I was kinda faced with the same question and in the end I kinda realized that… the best conclusion for the story was to literally kill her off TT_TT nothing personal! It simply fit better with the themes of the story, the idea that you can’t always “change” your family for the better and the best thing you can do is move on and live your life without letting them hold you back, sooooo Isabela only comes back home after her death etc etc etc. Uhhhhh yeah anon good luck 😭😭😭 uhh try to see what works best for your story and what conclusion you want Alma to eventually reach, and then work backwards from there ;-; writing hard

#madrigalcest #isamira #shipcest #isamira hanahaki au

7 notes · View notes

honeykept · 3 years

Note

On the night of y yo a ti, I really fully accepted canon bi Dean. Now due to internalized homophobia, I’ve kind of gaslit myself out of it. Do you have any tips on how to accept bi Dean even though he never really says it outright? How do I let my brain enjoy this thing rather than just dwelling on what I’ll never get?

hey! i’m sorry to hear that, but i think a lot of people are in the same boat. (my apologies for the rest of this ask because it got all over the place lmao)

however, there is a lot of evidence that dean is bi and reciprocates cas’ confession. a couple of anons pointed some reasons out to me here, but also just...hh. if you are queer (or if you heavily identify with anything, really, including mental and emotional aspects of characters, etc etc) and you see yourself in a character, you have the right to interpret that character in any way you want/see fit. i know this errs less on the side of proof, but it’s still valid--dean can be bi simply because you want him to be. it is just sprinkles on top that there is a lot of textual and subtextual proof that shows him to be written and acted out that way as well. and i mean. he was partly based off of a bi character from on the road, and i will add to that post that i linked and point out that dean has had multiple mirrors and friends that are queer, and he was continuously given friends and found family arcs as opposed to sam’s heavily romantic b plots (all with female love interests) and on top of that--sam’s relationship with eileen heavily mirrored dean’s relationship with cas, especially in s15. claire and kaia. also mirrored dean and cas.

point is, the evidence for bi dean is there. it exists. plots were written in, lines and scenes were acted out in specific ways and parallels were set in place to further illustrate a bisexual dean winchester.

#just got on mobile and #oops #this got long #sorry!!!#ely answers #dean is bi #anonymous

91 notes · View notes

bedlamsbard · 3 years

Note

So, I get the distaste for Rebels and The Bad Batch (definitely that last one), and I can certainly suggest @agoddamn's series of watching Clone Wars (because wow, I'd forgotten how poor that series could be), but with The Mandalorian, the most I can understand of your dislike of it is how it handles previous characters. Which, yeah, Filoni and his Precious OCs, but other than that, what about it? I mean, the plot/theme seemed simple to me: focusing on the relationship between Din and Grogu.

Ack, I didn't realize that out of context of my past ten years of fannishness and fannish engagement the takeaway from recent critical posts would be "Bedlam hates Star Wars," let alone "Bedlam hates Rebels"!

Look, I love Star Wars -- I genuinely do love Rebels and TCW, I'm very fond of Resistance and most of the films, and there are other parts of the ancillaries (books, comics, games) that I love, like, and/or enjoy. There are other parts of the saga that I dislike, a lot of it that I'm pretty neutral on because I just don't care; there's very little that I outright hate. (There are things that I avoid because I know I would hate them; I won't read Dark Disciple because the old EU Republic/Clone Wars comics from Dark Horse were formative for me and I'm not really over how Quinlan Vos's story line got retconned for TCW and thus the novel, so I don't feel the need to rub my face in it.)

I think, especially with Star Wars, there's a tendency to think that people only complain because they dislike or hate whatever it is they're complaining about it. I don't talk about the parts of Star Wars I actually hate because I frankly don't see the point in talking about the stuff I have no emotional investment in, or where my emotional investment only is distaste -- that's why I'll almost never talk about the ST. (And why I've only talked about the back half of Rebels S4, which I do genuinely hate, a handful of times over the years: I don't want to think about the thing I actually hate.) I talk about Rebels and TCW because those are the parts of Star Wars that I love and because I occasionally want to dig into why there are parts of them that just don't work for me. (And I do realize that if anyone pays attention to what I reblog and don't it may come off as me not liking them particularly; 99% of the time I only reblog TCW or Rebels gifsets immediately after I've rewatched episodes, and I haven't been doing rewatches lately for various reasons.) Critique doesn't mean "I hate it," it means "I want to think about this more on a critical level." It means "I love the puzzle pieces, why does the way they were put together not work for me? How could they have been done differently so that it would have worked for me?" Like I said a few weeks ago, while I don't want to actively add negativity to the fandom, I also don't really want to sit down and shut up if something isn't doing it for me if otherwise I love the thing; I want to figure out why it doesn't work. This is the flip side of "if you can't say anything positive, don't say anything at all" -- I'm not talking to Dave Filoni or the other showrunners (and I would never say any of this to the face of anyone at Lucasfilm), I'm sitting here talking to myself and to my friends about why the puzzle pieces don't quite come together for me. (And the bonus of me putting it on Tumblr is that I can actually find it again, because sometimes I do want to go back and see what I said about XYZ.)

If I'm not actively talking about all the things I love about Rebels or TCW it's because I don't particularly feel the need to justify why Thing works for me, because I already know it works for me. Or because I spent the first two years or so of Rebels and big chunks of TCW doing episode liveblogs, which are on the back end of my "Bedlam watches Rebels" and "Bedlam watches TCW" tags, and I don't feel the need to come back and say "I love the way XYZ happened" six or seven times. Or because I think it would be obvious because I've written something around a million words of fanfic about the two of them. Or because I have three Rebels tattoos and am a Rebels cosplayer, which obviously I don't really talk about on Tumblr but is something that I personally know. I mostly have not talked about The Bad Batch publicly (and only a little privately) because mostly it's not doing much that triggers strong feelings in me one way or another, though I do have the whole "why are these puzzle pieces not working for me, how would I have put them together differently" feel about parts of it.

As for Mando specifically -- look, Mando's fine. I understand why it appeals to a lot of people, even if I am not one of those people. I don't particularly find Grogu appealing either on a character or an aesthetic level. I find that for me personally the show varies wildly in quality from episode to episode; I find it to be a little too clever about itself in how it deals with both the world, its plot, its place in the saga, and its characters in a way drives me up the wall. It hits a couple of really specific things that are huge do not wants for me and some of that is on a shallow note of "I don't like how they do their Twi'lek prosthetics" and some of it is "I don't particularly like the aesthetics" and some of it is a weightier "I'm confused about what the thematic points of the show are because they're all over the map" and yes, some of it is, "I don't like how Mando intersects or does not intersect with other parts of the saga." Or the way that it gets valorized for being live action rather than animated by a lot of the fandom and then gets elevated over the other parts of the saga that I care about the most (TCW and Rebels). I've talked in the past about how Mando genuinely made me feel gaslit, even if that was no one's intention and thus was not actually gaslighting; it just managed to hit on my specific issues. I don't talk about Mando that much because mostly I just don't care and when I do talk about it it's because it managed to trip into something I do care about.

And if I sound particularly cranky right now, it's because every time I say something critical and it starts making tracks out of my usual circles, someone comes in to go "wow! you must hate Star Wars!" or "wow! you care a lot about [aesthetic choice]! why would you care about that!" or "wow! you're an idiot for thinking XYZ would happen/not happen!" or variations thereof. I've been in fandom for twenty years. I've been in this fandom since George W. Bush was president. I know how it goes. I'm going to reiterate the post I made after the Mando finale:

in any expanded canon, people are going to have different deal-breakers on where they can suspend their disbelief and it’s not a judgment on you and yours if theirs is different than yours. nor does it automatically say something bad about them! it just means y’all have different priorities and that’s fine! neither one of you should be jumping down each other’s throat because their line in the sand is “this contradicts something in previous canon” and yours is “the CGI is unconvincing.”

I feel like I’ve been seeing a lot of condescension (rather than hostility, which tbh is par for the course in SW so I just tune it out) recently and like…people can have different priorities. it’s fine. they’re not stupid for having their priority be “I don’t like the prosthetics” when your priority is “character A was mean to character B.” don’t worry, Lucasfilm isn’t listening to any of us.

#this was the first thing I saw when I turned my computer on for Sunday zoom #so I am perhaps a LITTLE crankier than I would have been otherwise #sorry about that #bedlam replies

27 notes · View notes

the-lightning-strikes-again · 4 years

Note

I really don’t get why people keep saying Allura was SO awful or horrible to Keith after learning about his heritage. She just gave him the cold shoulder for an episode or two, and it’s not like they brought this up later in the show as a way for her to hold some other grudge against him. People are just blowing it up as something bigger than it actually was. And like many people have said, her liking or “suddenly” being nice to Lotor wasn’t bc oH he’s Altean (1/2)

Continued anon message: “There were several moments between their first close encounter and him revealing his heritage which prove that trust was developing before then, but I guess people just overlook those (2/2)”

Hi, anon! Thanks for the note! Yeah, haha, this topic of “is Allura racist?” is an interesting one because for me, it boils down to looking at the show’s design decisions and details. And those design decisions came from real human beings who aren’t any more objective than the rest of us. So as a content creator myself (who feels incredibly human and and whose stories and portrayals are also imperfect by virtue of their imperfect creator), I have to recognize that it’s impossible to create a totally woke, unproblematic creative product—and it’s also impossible to ensure that everyone around the world interprets everything in exactly the same way, no matter how well-intentioned the project.

That said, I do think a lot of fans are victims of how this show may have manipulated/gaslit them to feel, not just about Allura but also about other characters and events as well—and that there are benefits to analyzing what went wrong with VLD.

My hope is that, as content creators and fans, maybe we can learn from VLD’s narrative mistakes or even better understand how two fans can have totally opposing interpretations over the same creative work. In the case of VLD, as I’ve mentioned before, the show uses a screwy and imbalanced narrative lens when portraying victims. To add to that, the show design also consistently undermines details foundational to the show universe (such as using an unreliable narrator to express what the show actually accepts as objective fact or history). This is important, because the way in which something is told/shown ultimately manipulates audience emotion for or against something. This gets into how propaganda and subliminal messaging work at a technical level. And when the narrative lens is handled in a biased way that undermines other story elements, audience reaction/interpretation gets messy, no matter what the stated events/facts are in the story. We are attuned to pick up on cognitive dissonances (inconsistent patterns) as part of our human survival instinct.

I’m not convinced that VLD dev team wielded the Power of the Narrative Lens very well—if it had, season 2′s portrayal of the conflict with Keith and Allura would have looked different.

In an s2 with a more balanced narrative lens, we likely would have seen at least flashes of Allura’s memory, showing some s3 backstory of Allura’s fear upon realizing that previously faithful Galran allies were killing multiple civilizations upon an order from their own kind...and coming for Altea next. Or maybe there would have been something/someone else involving Allura’s traumatic experiences so that the audience could have an empathetic, emotionally connective moment with her. We would have, in equal parts, still seen Keith’s plight as the suffering saint trying to figure out what being half-Galra means. And we would have seen the other paladins trying to resolve the conflict and understand how to recalibrate together as a team and a family.

Instead, in provided canon, we see Hunk (of all people, why Hunk?) make racist microaggressions at Keith, further alienating Keith without any recourse. And for Allura, the visual lens shows her making a cold glare at Keith without further explanation. It’s a very alienating moment. In season 2, you feel that coldness from Allura because the show’s visual lens aligns you to Keith’s gaze for several agonizing seconds, and the narrative bias of the animation is to show Keith as the singular victim in this situation. It is a very targeted, lonely, and disquieting moment for Keith. The other paladins and their reactions to Allura and Keith even feed into this. It’s not until s3 that we get an emotional glimpse into the omnicide of an entire solar system—and even then, that history focuses more on the motives of the instigators rather than showing the brutality experienced by victims. By that point, we’ve blown way past the s2 issue, which creates another layer of cognitive dissonance: that the situation doesn’t feel totally...resolved, somehow, even though plot-wise it actually is.

So I think there are indicators that the dev team’s own biases and agendas informed, at times for the worse, the very lens through which we consume the VLD story. I don’t think the dev team was aware what tackling genocide while visually portraying Allura’s trauma as antagonistic and alienating would result in? And I think this oversight gets into why some fans feel a certain way about literally anything in this show, haha. So I feel like we’re all victims of a show with amazing potential and incredibly fascinating elements but just…poor execution.

One other thing I have to give faith on when I have a disagreement with another show fan—it’s a 78-episode show. How often are people holistically watching and critically reviewing this show in order to catch every little detail? I’m pretty sure I can’t remember all the details either, even though I re-watched the show not that long ago. So there’s a whole other layer here, where fans have a separation from the source content itself. So take those emotional negative “impressions” people developed while watching s2 or any other moment where Allura has been less than the ideal woman (oof, fandom is so forgiving with men but so unforgiving with women), and then suddenly muddy those memories with 2 years of not re-watching the show holistically. Typically, the brain is better at storing negative reactions than positive ones. So if someone had a negative reaction to Allura’s actions with Keith in s2 or elsewhere, without an empathetic moment to balance it out, then that negativity is going to stick, and every detail to the contrary is going to fade out.

I know for me, I’ve really had to fight the memory problem because after over a year, for example, I was building up impressions about VLD history that actually were missing some important details from s3. And that was kind of a shock to me. So I do think selective memory plays a part in adding to a biased dissonance one might feel from the actual story.

Ultimately, this whole unnecessary fandom split on “is Allura racist?” is one reason why I feel that VLD—for all of its good things that I genuinely love so much—had a lot of troubling issues. Despite all the canonical good that Allura ends up doing and how she overcomes trauma to champion genuine peace for all, there’s subliminal messaging against her because of how the visual and narrative spins or hides things. And that issue has nothing to do with the characters but everything to do with the development team and how the show was written/directed. And that, I think, informs ongoing fandom perceptions of Allura and creates just some really painful and unnecessary messes, to the point of creating an overall inaccurate take like “Allura is racist” when in fact, she’s just traumatized from very real and significant abuses and overcomes that, even.

It really makes me, as a writer, try to look at my own stories and attempt to understand “why” I portray certain things as I do while writing—and if that lens portrayal is really the best one for the effect/message I want. Because the way in which a story is conveyed can really play mind games with the audience, and that might not be the right effect for a story that isn’t another Inception or Crying of Lot 49, lol.

#Voltron #Allura #Keith #VLD #Writing Techniques #Subliminal Messages #Biases in the Visual Lens of a Story #VLD had an incredible lack of empathy for victims #it shows in the very way it portrays their stories and then villainizes or undermines them #Thanks for the note anon!

12 notes · View notes

fiovske · 4 years

Note

What is ur opinion on certain bj fans saying that they were queerbaited and gaslit because by is getting more attention during this arc? Also on them calling it a ship for straight people and trying to invalidate it being a ship about lesbians with a big lesbian/wlw following?

I run in a LOT of b*auj*s circles and while I've seen most, if not all of them be disappointed by the possibility that b*auj*s canon is next to impossibility given how things are progressing, I've hardly seen any evidence of them using loaded terms like queerbating and whatnot. its more accusations laid on them saying things they haven't really said and I've seen a lot of them be happy for b*auy*sh as well (me included, bc wlw rep is wlw rep and as long as there's hope that b*au and y*sha will interact w each other in conversations and vulnerabilities perhaps beyond the security of the mutual physical attraction... I'll take it, I really do want it to happen. well fleshed out and everything.)

I think a lot of the "lesbian ship for straights" comes from the disgruntled feeling that most b*auy*sha fics have the two of them in the background almost always to a j*ster ship in the main. like pairing off the two lesbians so neither of them are a threat to their primarily intended straight ships. (i am of the opinion that y*shter is INCREDIBLY SOFT and everytime j*s and y*sha interact my heart just... melts.) its made me frustrated too when I went to read b*auy*sha fics and found that it's background pairing most often than not. and some have like.. barely two lines. or an acknowledgement of the pairing.

as a wlw myself, I do not see the point in attacking each other and besides a couple of b*auy*sha shippers who maintag b*auj*ster hate... I don't see b*auy*shas being anything but overjoyed w the content they're getting and I am truly happy for them. as for b*auj*sters, like I said. there is disappointment and sadness but I am yet to come across any vitriol slung by them like the accusations have been going around. b*auy*sha is a good ship. it's two lesbians who are comfortable in their attraction to one another and don't have to second guess that, there is attraction there and I would like it to delve deeper, much deeper as I know it's capable of going, to form a bond that isn't just "pair off the lesbians" but one that's built on trust and love and mutual understanding, I believe they have the potential. but I also want it acknowledged that admittedly b*au's attraction to j*s is unlike "anything b*au's ever felt before". I want resolution for that. so that y*sha doesn't feel like a second choice or smth, y'know.

I believe watching y*sha play the harp in the village, the description Matt gave of that beautiful moment... was one of those moments that hit beau square in the chest about how much there is to yasha that she still doesn't know... and how much, yasha be willing, how much beau would love to find out.

#b*aujes wont go canon and I've made my peace w that #doesn't mean i still don't enjoy it #i hope b*auyasha is well fleshed out now that ashley is truly here #to put in the work and the love. I genuinely believe it can build to something #wlws fighting each other is so weird... like. laid ease. just kiss each other #also y*sha and j*s have had many a significantly impactful interactions characterwise #i want that for b*auy*sha too. i want it to be a good relationship that's built on more than just apparently physical attraction (for now)#it can and will be so much more. i am hopeful #mail tag

11 notes · View notes

ofinkdried · 4 years

Text

INTRO: MUN // TASK #001

hey all!! i’m slowly working on bios and pages and such but I wanted to introduce myself first -- so here’s what’s technically was the first task?? im using it as the template for my intro so HERE WE GO!!

PERSONAL INTRO

name / alias : victoria / tor gender / pronouns : cisfemale / she/her where ya from ? : texas!! the current time : 4:29 pm height : 5′4 job or major : unemployed at the moment, but I have a degree in health science/health administration & a national certification in phlebotomy pet ( s ) : one doxie/beagle mix named Roxie favorite thing ( s ) about yourself : my ability to remember song lyrics better than my own name any special talents ? : uhhhh I can play 4 ( 5? ) instruments why you joined hqclouds : FUNNY STORY care was talking to me about some Tea ( we’re in another rp together ) and she made a comment about running an rp and im a bit of a sleuth and found hqclouds and decided to join meaning behind url : it’s ‘ of clementines ’ because one of my favorite halsey songs is clementine and i’ve been on a halsey kick as of late last thing you googled : ‘ fools troye sivan ’ because I wanted to send my friend the music video birthday / zodiac : october 29th / scorpio in your opinion , does your sign suit you ? : some days myers - briggs : I took it forever ago and don’t remember... ^^’ moral alignment : chaotic good hogwarts house : ravenclaw!! three fictional character ( s ) you see yourself in + why : oh gosh.... katherine from newsies ( dedicated, doesn’t take a man’s shit), emma from the prom (nervous gay who plays guitar), and flynn rider from tangled (jokester, very in love with our girlfriends) i started roleplaying : 2012 I think? types of rps i enjoy : definitely literate ones favorite fcs to use : I try to not reuse fcs a lot?? like I have some I prefer for certain characters, but I don’t have a strong draw to certain faces... fandom ( s ) you’d like to write in : musicals ( namely newsies ), fairy tail, the raven cycle fandom ( s ) you aren’t in but are curious about : uhhhh I dont really know... share a funny roleplay horror story : oh gosh I dealt with one girl who like... constantly gaslit me as a player and my characters, would make me feel bad for not responding immediately, made everything about her characters, and then got mad when I called her out on it? and now she goes to a christian school and says that rp is ‘ the devil’s work ’ and I just... yeah. fondest roleplay memory : I feel like the moment my now girlfriend and I realized we always do ships bc just had awesome chemistry and then started dating like, 4 months later. favorite canon muse ( s ) to play : connor murphy ( deh ), gansey ( trc ), spot conlon ( newsies ), jimmy ( bandstand ), lucy heartfillia ( fairy tail ) favorite original muse ( s ) to play : theo massard ( a boxer, jack barakat fc; had an AMAZING ship for him ) canon ships you can’t help but love : CATRADORA. none of my other ships are technically canon : / trope ( s ) you tend to be guilty of : tragic backstories, tough on the outside soft on the inside i prefer . . . angst , smut , or fluff : I wanna say fluff but I know care and megan will call me out bc I love angst more than anything long or short replies : mid-length pre plotting or chemistry : chemistry leading to pre plotting! sentence starters or headcanon memes : both? I love discussing headcanons single muse or multimuse blogs : multi!! gif icons , medium gifs , or static icons : typically gif icons, but lately ive been loving medium gifs grab the book nearest to you and pull a quote from it : ok so I have no books atm bc im moving, but the first book on my phone is the dream thieves, and the line I see first is “ The Gray Man considered what it must’ve been like to live like that, always waiting for your door to be kicked in. ” what’s a quote or song lyric that speaks to your soul ? : oh gosh, so many... “ I'm a walking travesty/But I'm smiling at everything ” ( therapy, all time low ), “ I imagine the tears in your eyes/The very first night I'll sleep without you ” ( roman holiday, halsey ), “ Am I the product of a problem that I couldn't change?/Got his eyes, got her hair/So do I get their mistakes? ” ( secondhand smoke, kelsea ballerini ) top current celebrity crushes : halsey, froy guiterrez, harry styles ( always ) last movie you watched : I think it was uhhhhhh miss americana on netflix? did you like it ? : YES I loved it favorite movie ( s ) of all time : 10 things I hate about you, newsies ( ’92 ) favorite tv show ( s ) of all time : she-ra, queer eye, fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood, gossip girl favorite tv show that hasn’t ended : zoey’s extraordinary playlist favorite series of books / novels / comics : the raven cycle, all for the game, the last song sports team ( s ) you rep : dallas cowboys, houston astros ( yeah I know about the scandal and I hate it, but they’re my team ), FAU owls ( my alma mater ) favorite video game ( s ) : breath of the wild, KH series favorite youtube channels : unus annus, daniel howell ( rip he hasn’t posted in a year ), the try guys, NPR Music, CrankGameplays ( ethans just a dork I dont even like gamer videos that much ) hobbies : guitar, singing, being in zoom musicals ( im playing whatsername from american idiot for one in July and auditioned for a few others! ), reading what are the three non essential things you’d bring to a deserted island ? : my guitar, my laptop, wifi put your music on shuffle. what six songs pop up ? : HOLD ME TIGHT OR DONT, fall out boy; I’m Still Here, John Rzeznik; Towers, Little Mix; Way Down Hadestown, hadestown obc; Stitches, state champs (cover); Look Back, betty who personal aesthetic : nerdy punk? dream vacation ? : disneyland paris or disneyland Singapore with my gf dream job ? : music teacher dream car ? : one that works at this point if i could live anywhere , it’d be : austin, texas ( im about an hour away rn ) favorite musical : OH GOSH..... the prom, bandstand, newsies, hadestown favorite food ( s ) : blueberry pancakes, red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing coffee order : at starbucks? venti iced chai tea latte. at dunkin? large iced vanilla coffee. at home? french vanilla coffee and caramel macchiato creamer and 2 scoops of sugar. unwatched stuff in your netflix / hulu / etc : netflix: sex education, the umbrella academy, end of the f***ing world, the people vs. oj simpson. hulu: portrait of a lady on fire, my friend dahmer, rocketman what’s a subject you know too much about + never get tired of talking about ? : I dunno? I have a ton of useless facts on a wide range of subjects. like did you know that in 100 letters, halsey says ‘ You wrote 100 letters just for me/And I find them in my closet in the pockets of my jeans/Now I'm constantly reminded of the time I was 19/Every single one's forgotten in a laundromat machine ’ and that’s actually autobiographical -- her bf at the time wrote a note and put it in a pocket of every pair of pants she owned, and she was still finding them months after the relationship ended, so she took all her pants to a laundromat and washed them so she wouldn’t have to see the letters anymore!!

#(( this got long im sorry asdkjfh ))#cloud:task #&&. 'im a hurricane.' || tor posts.

8 notes · View notes

incarnateirony · 4 years

Note

*chef's kiss* Your "honk honk" seems of a different... attitude. I can't help but think you got information, and I wonder if it's the "‘Supernatural’ Boss on Season 15’s ‘Chance to Let Both Boys Be the Star of Their Own Story’" interview on Variety. If it's nothing, that's cool. If it's something else, I'm intrigued. Most of all, /if/ you write something about it, I/we always love hearing your thoughts. 🤡🤡

Hokay so this is going to be difficult to write out, because I do want to clear this up. Given, it took considerably longer than I intended, a few life kidnappings and one really strong IPA later, so if I get rambly, forgive me, I’m kinda buzzed.

That said, arrogant as it may sound, I’ve been told many times that people take me as a sort of seat of common sense and realism in this fandom, and “honk honk” can have many readings, so let me explain where I’m at in regards to the show, our canon, DeanCas and everything in this tangled web.

For those somewhat new to my blog, I didn’t really “ship it” until season 13, episode 5-6; I’d argue myself in reverse that my foundation was shaken by 12.19 in reverse, so put it somewhere in that time frame. Before that, I simply defended the validity and, frankly, sanity of Destiel fandom for seeing what they saw after years of them being gaslit, times confusion spawned from fandom levels that birthed all kinds of weird bitterness.

I kept it at arms length because realistically, on a production level, it just wasn’t a thing until somewhere in the ballpark of S12, which is when I joined fandom, and for a reason I will continue to vague blog about but I think some people have picked up on.

Even still, I have always endorsed being mindful of ones’ own emotions and expectations, and despite my honk honk, that still floats as a background element to everything I am about to say.

The TL;DR is that, quite frankly, any babbling about marketing or production issues aside, since season 14, Andrew Dabb has been seriously fucking my head up. Seriously.

I don’t know how long you’ve been with me, Nonnie; but early S14 I started blogging about the God of Control, Ialdaboath, Abraxas and other shit but also said I had no faith in it since in S11 already the network shut down killing god for fear of pissing off the fundies, and still, making him the villain holds about the same effect even if cruising on technicality. I built entire meta series pondering the pattern and direction of our canon, laying out how it was due to be Chuck, in reflection of Yellow Eyes and the sins of the Father, and then Dabb turned around and smacked my reservation out of my mouth in 14.20.

I spent hiatus blogging on about the next alchemical step being death of the relationship for birth of something new by Art and Lovers arcana; I referenced that old meta project, but spent equal time dismissing the balance of it, too Destiel, too front facing, to not expect it at all. Season 15 turns around smacking us with divorce and marriage shit all around and knocked that reservation out of my mouth too.

I blogged about Belphegor and patterns having a DeanCas breakup by 15.03 within mythology, but not to expect it to be forward facing; and ep 3 was so loud TVG and soap reporters started calling a spade a spade. Dabb knocked that reservation out of my mouth.

Structurally speaking, we continue to tread forward into louder and louder territory, and any time I try to apply any form of reservationist logic to it, Dabb cockslaps me into the dirt so hard I don’t know what to call logic anymore.

The interview may be part of it, for sure, but full honest I’ve been honking since before that.

Now, what “honking” is lacks a specific goalpost. As someone fully at peace with the level of effort our crew has been giving us beyond restrictions, as someone respecting the low key textuality plugged into this season even if it failed to meet “good representation” boundaries as people have identified, or the performative release anyone’s after, I have no specific expectation beyond:

Louder.

It’s going to get louder. It’s going to get harder, and harder to miss. And they aren’t shy about it anymore.

When it comes to corporate level shenanigans, there’s other things at play; some associated with certain topics I vagueblog about; others less vaguebloggy but related, like the WB losing 5 of its and its sister companies’ CEOs in the last year and complete corporate turnover that led to Pedowitz’s recent promotion to make CW more self-standing without babysitting as much by its parent company (not even minding the CBS-facing Moonves disaster which makes it 6 in CW’s blast radius).

Whether it be the first-female-WB-CEO making a change in how the business is handling its business decisions and marketing decisions, or simple “Forgotten Child Syndrome” that has given Dabberens the right to get away with everything but murder, in all we know of the crew, and all we see, the direction is only one thing: Louder.

And for that, I’ll gladly honk to death right now.

This crew is taking it as far as they can, and I will gladly blast the circus music announcing them in their wake.

We have truly reached a “roll the dice” point, which at no other point in history have we been at a horizon of beyond the curtain. We could still turn up snake eyes. That’s fine. Or we could nat 20. Or it could be a tepid 10. But the fact that the dice are rolling at all – honk honk.

I don’t know what’s real or logic anymore at this point, it’s one big muddy mess. So I may as well enjoy the ride, throw the dice, honk my heart out and see just how far these fuckers manage to sling us.

But if I could get in a TARDIS and zap back to season 7 fandom and try to tell them what was going on, right here, season 15, the final season, with Dean and Cas, everybody would tell me I was on crack or full of shit, and that’s the kind of perspective this bitter ass fandom desperately needs to wrap their heads around and hands over rather than being lost to waves of irrelevant arguments.

I mean let’s look at S8-9 fandom that weren’t paying attention to the production curve at the time. A large sum convinced themselves it was “going to go canon”. But where, when, how? What was canon? They didn’t know, they just knew they got mad when a corp exec went “dafuq is a Destiel” in sum, because he was rightfully blindsided and everybody went bananas and didn’t come down from it since. If you had asked them then what “going canon” meant, you’d get a million different answers much less explanations why they thought it, some being really bizarre meta about fish or other RANDOM shit that literally makes you go “the FUCK?”.

And that has plagued the DeanCas community ever since, frequently addressed as “moving goalposts”, wherein person just needs XYZ and then it happens so somebody else makes a new thing they want and so on into eternity.

But as of late I’ve noticed a large, and I mean large section of fandom has detected certain patterns in Dabb era and have pretty unilaterally set an idea– for example, fandom has come to realize Korrasami, right down to the handholding, seems to be putting off beacons and pulses in the show time and time again. It’s not the loud rep some want, but a great deal of people are out here, seeing this groundwork laid down. There’s a how and a where and a when and I really can’t think of any other time in the history of this fandom that’s actually been in conversation, and I don’t think fandom has really grokked that as a difference, as well.

Because it’s, for the first time, actually been handled like a genuine potential. How far that potential goes is up in the air, but it’s no longer punch line subtext or weird “oops I tripped and fell in the gay” shit. It’s not even just lowkey background parallels. It’s entire goddamn story arcs crafted front and center with loud cultural resonances, partial text level breaking dynamics and more, just lacking the affirmative sentiments people want– and suddenly, fandom actually has a formulative idea of what those sentiments might look like in the show.

And that my friends? That’s different.

Honk honk.

34 notes · View notes

whyitdoesntworkforme · 4 years

Text

DC Characters Ask Reddit

I have been doing a deep dive into reddit since COVID-19 has left me with nothing better to do and so many people have unbelievable family drama. Still, lots of clever reddit users give really good advice and I was wondering what they would have to say about the drama of the DC universe characters.

Any comments please reply as if you were answering a real reddit post.

I would love more contributors to this project. If you want to write a post please get in touch and I'll add you as a co-creator.

Canon, AU and fan fic inspired posts are welcome. Just write a note detailing when and where your post takes place and any necessary information and context that doesn't fit in your post.

Chapter 1: Inspired by Embleer_Frith0323's Un Nombre Desconocido https://archiveofourown.org/works/22521934/chapters/53817514 (please read first). Jason finds out Dick had a kid and Bruce knew and kept it from him.

Okay first of all I should probably say that my family has a pretty unconventional structure (we're also pretty fucked up). So I should probably introduce you to us all.

B- Father (Asshole) D-Oldest brother (Golden Boy) C-Sister (Badass) J-Third oldest (Me/fuck-up) T-Fourth oldest (Smarty pants but pretty cool) Little D-youngest (Demon)

Also BG (D's wife and also close family friend since we were kids)

All of us other than Little D are adopted and no there is no mom. Little D has a mom but that's complicated and not part of this story. To be honest only D and B are a part of this story but I kind of need to give you some background on our family.

D is B's favorite and is probably closest to him out of all of us (that is not a good thing but I'll come back to that). Me and B had a pretty strained relationship. We are okay now but to be honest I don't think B should have had any kids. He tried his best, I understand that now but he had some trauma in his childhood that to this day he has never really gotten over and it affected us all growing up. D got the worst of it. Not only because he was the eldest and B's first kid but because he was the only one that could manage B's moods other than our Butler/grandfather (don't ask). B leaned on D a lot and they had lots of fights especially after D became a teenager, went of to find his independence and came back to find me in the picture. Still, they always end up forgiving each other even if no wrong was admitted on either side (especially B's). D loves B to the sun and back because he took him in at the worst point in his life and made him the person he is today. He will always forgive him no matter what he does. I only tell you this because I am concerned that this is gong to happen again. Our family sweeps so much under the rug you can see the lumps.

Anyway onto the latest fucked-up fiasco.

D brought some random 15 year old girl to my house and asked me to look after her for a few hours. I bitched a little but he promised to pay me and I was like, 'fine, sure, whatever.' He brings her over and says he needs to leave her here while he talks to BG. Nice kid. I figure I should feed her. So I make grilled cheese and we start talking. D's a cop so I figured she must be a runaway or something. Turns out she's my goddamned niece. WTF!

I'll spare you the details of my reaction and skip forward. D went to talk to B after BG because this had his giant fingerprints all over it (how he knew that would take another post to explain). Suffice to say it did not go well. The Kiddo is going home with D. I want to punch B right in his controlling, self-righteous teeth. What the fuck should I do?

EDIT: I realised that there is a lot of context surrounding WHY B hid this that I am missing out. So here it is. Years ago D was dating a woman who really fucked him up in a lot of ways. It was a straight-up abusive relationship. She gaslit him, stalked him, pulled him away from his friends and family and even faked a pregnancy to get him to stay. But the worst part of it is, she raped him (anyone who thinks men can't be raped by women get your asses out of this post right now). I'm not going into details about the rape because they don't matter, so don't ask.

He broke up with her but did press charges. She started stalking him again and even reported him for abuse. He was an absolute wreck. There was another confrontation and she shot him. We all thought she committed suicide by cop.

Turns out no, she was alive this whole time and B used is money and influence to make sure that she got locked up in a prison on the other side of the country. He knew about the baby and no doubt thinking as long as she had a home, a guardian and enough money she would be fine. Part of me feels sympathy for B. He sat at D's bedside while he was recovering from that gun shot wound. And D has always been his support. D is just such a happy person. So friendly, so tactile is drives me crazy sometimes but I've learned to love it. While he was with this woman he started to lose all those qualities and didn't get them back for a very long time. I know it still affects him to this day. I think if I knew about the kid, there would have been a teeny tiny part of me that would want to make sure D had nothing tying him to that abusive bitch.

But being a kid of the system myself I am downright furious at him for doing it. Plus, I know D. It would have been hard for him to begin with but that little girl could have (not made it worth it but) given him something back for everything that was taken. I know he would have loved being her dad. B had no right to make that decision for him.

But that is what he does. He always thinks his way is the only way.

WTF do I do now.

#dc comics #batman #bat family #dick grayson #bruce wayne #jason todd #catalina flores #barbara gordon #nightwing 93

11 notes · View notes

ckret2 · 5 years

Text

And I got so into writing out that Worst Case Scenario last night I forgot to mention my second misgiving with the whole damn prompt, which AS IT HAPPENS covers some headcanons I've been meaning to bring up AND is relevant to a prompt coming up in my list that I am gonna write, so I'm gonna devote a post to this:

The very scenario "x character gets upset over y character CHEATING!!!" is based on the presumption that, like... the characters give a shit.

In the case of Rodorah, it assumes that two giant animals, one of which is an alien, both:

1) are familiar with the concept of monogamy as humans understand it

2) believe in and adhere to the concept of monogamy as humans understand it

3) consider dating or banging anyone outside their relationship a breach of trust in regards to said monogamy

4) would have the exact same emotional reaction as a human to said breach of trust

Which is a lot of assumption to put on a dinosaur and a dragon. And also anyone who dates Ghidorah is automatically in a polyamorous relationship so monogamy is kinda out the window right from the get go, you know?

So I'm gonna dig into why all those assumptions are unnecessary to assume. Half based on canon and half covering fic headcanons.

Gonna go out on a limb and assume that we don't know anything worth discussing about the mating habits of pteranodons; but Monsterverse Rodan's also got a lot of bird in him, so let's go with that. Lots of birds are socially monogamous, but not sexually monogamous. What that means is that once two birds are committed to each other—went down to bird city hall and signed their bird marriage license, exchanged tiny bird rings, whatever birds do—they've committed to sharing a nest and splitting egg-guarding and child-rearing duties in that nest. They HAVEN'T committed to only screwing each other. Depending on the species, 10% to 33% of the eggs in the nest could have a different genetic father than the male bird in that couple. (And some even have a different genetic mother, which boggles my mind. Like did she fly all the way over to someone else's nest just to lay the egg like "I don't wanna deal with this one thanks" and they're like "that's fine have a nice day"? I'm sure that's not how it works but the thought amuses me.)

Operating by that definition, Rodan's image of "totally committed and faithful" would be "there's only one person whom I split daily chores with, and I can have kids with anyone."

(Some bird species are both sexually and socially monogamous... but then, some bird species also are only committed to one partner for one breeding season, then break up and commit to a new partner next year. There's variation, is the point—and more than that, "you can't logically assume that a species like this is going to be sexually/socially monogamous for life the way humans idealize" is the bigger point.)

The fact that Rodan's species, like all titan species, seems to be in a perpetual state of "less than two dozen deaths away from total extinction" would actually select against sexual monogamy, because a species that goes "I'm not having kids with anyone except my one true love. Who died a century ago," is gonna go extinct a lot faster than a species that goes "boy won't my one true love be excited when she hears about the prime real estate me and Ms. Krakatoa found to lay our eggs in."

And I've established in prior headcanons that because parents might die long before their kids are born and because volcanoes act as natural fortresses/incubators for eggs, Rodan's species doesn't share nests, doesn't need to protect or incubate eggs, and doesn't rear their young—so what would social monogamy even entail for them? It doesn't need to entail much of anything, if they even subscribe to it at all.

Ghidorah's species is alien so there's no need to try to compare them to their "nearest related species on Earth" because they aren't related to any species on Earth. But, if we're gonna use Earth species as a framework off of which to base their headcanons anyway: dorats/Ghidorahs, when taken all together, are like 50% snake, 30% cat, and 20% bat.

Snakes are the least monogamous bunch of animals you could ask for. During mating season, males and females both have multiple partners, females can lay eggs from multiple fathers in one clutch, and most species don't even bother incubating their eggs. (In the few that do, the mother does that without a partner.)

Domestic cats are into gang bangs. When a female cat is in heat, she will yowl to attract as many male cats in the area as possible. When a male cat wants some, he'll yowl in hopes a female cat in heat will zip over. They'll mate with multiple cats in a row, loitering around watching while they wait for their turn. They'll mate with whoever shows up. They'll mate with their own relatives. Cats don't care. Cats are gross. Get your cats fixed.

Most bats will have multiple partners. Some bats are polygamous—one or two dudes with a collection of multiple female partners. In both of these cases, males don't help rear the young. A few bats are monogamous and share parenting duties—but these are the minority.

So Ghidorah's most closely related species are three counts of "I don't care who you screw, I don't care who I screw, once a year there's like a month where anyone could screw anyone else at any time and nobody is safe. I'll screw you and then I'll screw a space chicken cyborg and then I'll screw myself, watch, I'm flexible."

One hopes they're a bit more selective than that, but those are the nearest Earth analogues we're starting with as our basis for their species.

Based just on that, between Ghidorah and Rodan, if one of them is gonna be fussed about the other having additional partners—sexual, romantic, or otherwise—odds are it ain't gonna be Ghidorah. Ghidorah's gonna be the clueless alien trying to figure out what weird Earth etiquette rule he broke while Rodan's upset—assuming Rodan cares either.

So beyond Earth animals: what's been established about dorats so far is that they live in big groups with multiple aeries. The basic dorat social unit is a flock (30-200 adults), not a nest (1-2 adults). Since they communally share nests, eggs from multiple parents will end up in the same pile, and so it's likely no one gives a damn about who's had kids with who. (And—although I haven't gotten into dorat reproduction yet—eggs are laid immediately after mating, so it's impossible to have dubious paternity in a dorat mating—which IRL, aside from "doubling the amount of parents looking after these kids," is one of the driving factors of monogamy in the wild.)

The Xilien military HAS witnessed aggression based on sexual jealousy between adolescent dorats, enough so that they think it's a threat to their experiments. The Xilien military is locking up dorats in cages and experimentally fusing them together. The Xilien military is not observing dorats in their natural habitat. The actual dorat breeder is absolutely horrified to hear of dorats behaving like that, because it's a sign of extreme stress and trauma. Viciously competing for mates and chasing off other potential sexual partners, therefore, is abnormal for dorats.

Using Ghidorah as they are now as an example of what dorats are like is dicey, since they've lived such a strange life and so much of their psychology is shaped by trauma—buuut, it's evident from them that dorats can feel romantic love, but we don't know what function it would've had among normal dorats. Maybe it's supposed to be a temporary thing that fades after a mating season, maybe it's supposed to encourage a few members of one flock to latch on to members of another flock and move as a means to discourage stagnation in the genetic pool of a single flock, maybe its primary purpose has nothing to do with driving reproduction but rather is supposed to strengthen social bonds between members of this naturally empathic species...

So the presence of romantic feelings doesn't inherently correlate with monogamy, or a desire for monogamy, or sexual/romantic exclusivity, or sexual/romantic jealousy...

So add all that together and what do you get. Of the two of them, Rodan is more likely to have a natural and/or cultural inclination toward any sort of monogamy than Ghidorah is, and even at that it's most likely to be romantic monogamy than sexual monogamy. Ghidorah's the one more likely to assume against exclusivity from the outside. However: to the original premise, if Ghidorah DID find out Rodan had taken another sexual partner (and let's be frank, it would be sexual because nobody in this fandom is writing a damn thing about infidelity plots that don't eventually fall back on "o noez Rodan screwed someone he shouldn't have," even when romance IS involved it boils down to sex, and yeah it's always Rodan—)

That parenthetical went on a bit of a tangent. Anyway if Ghidorah found out Rodan had taken another sexual partner, there'd be three possible reactions:

1) The LEAST likely: as in the potential scenario yesterday written on the "okay, let's assume that cheating is a thing for them" assumption: an apocalypse with a potential side of murder/suicide. In order for something like that to happen, Ghidorah's experiences on Earth would have to have pushed them into full Despite All My Rage I Am Still Just A Dorat In A Cage mode. Their baseline mental state is at about 45% on the "stressed caged dorat" meter. Right now they're hovering around 30% and gradually dropping. Being an enslaved war machine kept them at a steady 75%. They'd need to be at like 90% before they started flipping their shit over romantic jealousy. To get them to that level of stress, they'd need to be getting constantly harassed by Godzilla and human military units, psychically bombarded by Mothra, and on top of that probably getting gaslit to hell and back by Rodan re: their relationship status so they couldn't be confident of where they stood with him—and that leads into the other factor that's necessary for this scenario to happen. Rodan would need to 1) insist to Ghidorah that he's the only one Rodan's got any sort of sexual/romantic involvement with, and 2) convince him that the stability and continued existence of their relationship is predicated upon Rodan being interested in only Ghidorah. They'd need to be specifically convinced of these things first in order to feel lied to/betrayed if Rodan had a relationship of any kind with someone else, because they wouldn't naturally assume either of them.

Since we've got no evidence Rodan is a raging abusive asshole who would go out of his way to convince an ignorant alien that their happiness is dependent upon Rodan being exclusive and then go off and not be exclusive, this scenario isn't happening.

2) Actually likely scenario, bad outcome: Rodan comes home and Ghidorah asks where he's been all day and he goes, oh yeah, he found another member of his species today, they're gonna try to make eggs, it's great—because to Rodan that's no big deal, that's normal, he's got absolutely no reason not to tell his mate that he's banging another bird. Ghidorah gets nervous solely because they DON'T know what's normal here. They don't know whether monogamy or polyamory is the norm for Earth in general or Rodan in particular. Are they still a thing or is this Rodan's way of saying the relationship's run its course and he's moved on? Was he always planning to move on once someone of his own species became available? Was he expecting Ghidorah to expect that? Because they did expect that, they've always feared they were just a temporary substitute for a more desirable partner, they just didn't know if they were supposed to expect that. At which point they go "oh" and Rodan goes "'oh' what?" and they go "so is that it then?" and he goes "is what it?" and they actually communicate for thirty seconds and everything's fine. So hey the bad outcome isn't even bad. It probably just takes them a month to have that conversation while Ghidorah invents mental worst case scenarios.

3) Actually likely scenario, good outcome: Rodan comes home and Ghidorah asks where he's been all day and he goes, oh yeah, he found another member of his species today, they're gonna try to make eggs— And Ghidorah goes EXCUSE US if they're in a relationship with him and he's in a relationship with her then that means they and he and she are all part of the same flock and they are DEEPLY offended that he hasn't brought her by to meet them yet, come on, go get her, they need to know what she looks like so they don't accidentally get in a fight with her if they see her in Rodan's territory. Also they need to know where her volcano is so they can get their scent all over it.

#(using a wtf prompt as an excuse to write a longass headcanon post I already wanted to write)#(Like A Boss)#headcanons #meta #about my writing #rodorah #godzilla

33 notes · View notes

shieldisntalife · 4 years

Note

👀Favorite thing about the muse’s appearance? 🔥 Unpopular opinion about your muse? 😩 Hardest thing about writing the muse?

Mun Talks About the Muse (one of my favorite pastimes tbh) || Accepting!

👀Favorite thing about the muse’s appearance?

I was going to say his eyes, but it’s not. Although they are gorgeous eyes. Look at them.

But it’s his eyebrows.

They are just the most darn expressive feature of his entire appearance, and he just wouldn’t be Lance Hunter without those eyebrows.

Sometimes they almost seem to disappear…

And then…

they can be so…

wonderfully…

expressive.

I’m fond. :D

🔥 Unpopular opinion about your muse?

He deserved better than canon Hunt*ngbird. He was basically routinely lied to, manipulated, and gaslit by his ex throughout their entire relationship, which culminated in him being knocked out and kidnapped by his best friend when he got into the middle of the coup the two of them were planning. He had extremely legitimate reasons to doubt whether Bobbi ever loved him at all, or whether instead he was just a convenient shag on the side while she used him as a pawn in the work that really mattered to her. He also had extremely legitimate reasons to feel hurt, angry, furious, betrayed, bitter, and indignant about what happened. But instead of ever resolving any of that (which I could possibly have gotten behind), they swept it all under the rug and just threw them back together again. Which makes canon Hunter weak-willed and codependent and ultimately glorifies a relationship that I would tell anyone I cared about to run away from, fast. It’s also, I think, really out of touch with his character. He’s got some self-respect, after all.

I was in recovery from psychological abuse myself when watching AoS, which probably made it hit home particularly deeply. It’s taken me a long time to even be willing to write them attempting to reconcile, and I can really only do it with one dear friend and long-time RP partner.

(Why don’t I tell you how I really feel? -facepalm- Sorry!! People who love canon Hunt*ngbird, you see something there that I don’t see. Do you. Just value yourself enough not to let anyone treat you that way, please.)

😩 Hardest thing about writing the muse?

He’s so very different from me. And I’ve been writing him long enough now that a lot of it comes naturally, but I still struggle in the areas where we are most different - making sure that he is witty enough, flirty enough, that his dialogue is studded with an appropriate quantity of wry pop-culture references (I probably fall short here XD). He’s so much more extroverted and quick-witted than I am; I probably tend more toward earnestness. :D

#{ thank you!!!!! this was fun :D }#|| drop everything! (meme responses)#amazongoddcss #|| the mun behind the merc (ooc)#long post

4 notes · View notes