#learn to interpret fiction at least a little

[sprout-fics]

Ghost and Gaz have barely any interaction in MW2022, and it makes me curious about what the relationship is like between them. They’re both part of the same taskforce, and based on the way Ghost immediately recognized Gaz, they’ve met at least once before. Based on the missions in the game, it’s possible that they’re almost never worked together before. Still, I like to imagine how they might interact off-screen or in a more casual setting. This is a bit of my interpretation of these two.

Personally, I think Gaz heard about ‘The Ghost’ long before he signed on with Price. The rumors about Ghost were often exaggerated, and Gaz could tell that. As a result, he probably dismissed Ghost at first as some type of arrogant prick or a gritty edgelord. To his surprise, Ghost was neither of those when they met. Instead he was this huge, silent, lurking man with a clear respect for Price and a cold, leveled stare for Gaz. Quiet, abrasive when he talked, but incredibly skilled and dangerous.

Still, I imagine that Gaz, perceptive as I like to imagine him, had a moment where he and Ghost met eyes for the first time. It was then that Gaz realizes those rumors weren’t just fiction. The cold, unflinching weight of Ghost’s stare on him, devoid of life and yet promising a distant, imminent end has a shudder running up his spine. 

Bloody hell. He thinks. He’s actually dead.

It may not have been the case canonically, but I like to think Ghost and Gaz ran a few missions together pre Las Almas. Same with Soap, though that’s a different story. It was through these missions that Gaz was able to witness Ghost truly in action and see the full, lethal effect of him in action. The man uses a blade like a butter knife, doesn’t flinch under fire, can snap a man’s neck like twisting a bottle cap. I think it both startles Gaz to see, but damn if it doesn’t instill a healthy amount of respect (and fear) in the sergeant. 

On Ghost’s end, I imagine he sniffs at Gaz at first the same way he does with Soap. A young, lucky, upstart sergeant that has some experience under his belt but has yet to see the full and startling scope of war that he and Price have. He’s seen the man’s file though, and the fact alone that Price trusts him to such an extent is good enough for him. Besides, on those first few missions Gaz does more than haul his weight. He demonstrates his aim, shows his clean, practiced maneuvers, obeys orders with little question, drags a marine from the line of fire and compresses down on his wound, and tosses a frag grenade right back to its sender.

Yet it’s after the successful mission that Ghost sees Gaz bump against Price with that big, pleased grin that Ghost gets it. While Price was the one to drag him back, to help Simon put himself together again into something mildly resembling human, it isn’t the same. There’s a warmth between Gaz and Price that he feels almost like he’s intruding upon, a bond that goes beyond mentor and mentee and easily passes into the realm of friendship. The more Ghost looks at it, the more he sees what Price sees in Gaz. Intelligence, drive, dedication, but above all loyalty. 

It’s something Ghost wishes he had more experience receiving. 

Ghost goes off on a number of solo missions, Gaz continues working with Price. 

Then there’s the missiles. Hassan. Las Almas. Shepherd. Graves. The mask. Chicago. 

When the dust settles, there’s Makarov. 

I don’t know how all of the team recognizes Makarov, and honestly I think it’ll be more interesting to see how that happens. I do like to think the team starts working a little more closely in the months that follow in-game. Ghost and Gaz start getting used to each other, start learning each other’s habits. 

Ghost knows that Gaz is an early riser, that he likes his coffee black. Gaz knows Ghost likes to have his meals in his room where he can not only eat in peace, but without others staring at the litany of scars that snake from his jaw up to his eyes. Ghost learns to take Gaz’s needling jokes, and Gaz gets easier at offering them. Gaz learns Ghost hates certain foods, and realizes it’s because they all have the same kind of grainy, sandy texture that brings back bad memories. Ghost helps patch things over with Price when he and Gaz have a disagreement, and Gaz recognizes when Ghost is slipping back into old, bad habits that drag him down into something rotted inside him. 

They start leaning on each other more often. Ghost patches Gaz up after Gaz takes a bullet to the thigh on a mission, and easily tosses him over his shoulder to carry him to safety. Gaz gets better at seeing the fractures that belong less to Ghost and more to Simon, and begins to understand the man underneath the mask. He learns to recognize Ghost’s silent and dangerously subtle ups and downs, and knows better than to show his surprise when Ghost starts wearing his mask less often just around the team.

Gaz gets Ghost Kentucky bourbon for his birthday, giving him space on the anniversary of his family’s death. Ghost learns about Gaz’s family, his two nagging older sisters and his dad, retired from the military. He sees Gaz’s smile when he talks about the people waiting for him when he gets home, and Ghost silently vows to himself to make sure he gets Gaz back safely. The bond there never runs as deep as Gaz has with Price, or Ghost has with Soap, but there is trust there built on oaths, brotherhoods, bonds, and the same loyalty Ghost always craved from the people around him. 

Gaz learns to recognize when Ghost smiles under the mask.

#simon ghost riley #simon 'ghost' riley #kyle gaz garrick #kyle 'gaz' garrick #mw22 #cod mw22 #ghost/gaz #drabbles #headcanons #and scene #I could say more but honestly this is probably enough for now

[spotty-bee]

Hazbin Hotel Headcannon

I've been thinking a lot about Adam, Lute, Vaggie and the exorcists. How they all work and everything that we've learned over the course of the show about them. After looking over the pictures of them without their masks and all the back dealings with heaven I was kinda starting to think...

What if their all related?

Adam and Vaggie have the same skin colour. Lute has Adam's nose. They all have golden pupils (Though Vaggie's sclera is red, many have head cannoned that being from living in hell.) Vaggie and Lute both have white hair. Theres a lot of similarities between these characters physically and while that can be due to the art style, I do start to wonder.

However WHY would Lute , Vaggie and possibly all the exorcists be Adam's daughters? Well it starts to make sense when you remember that Sera wanted to keep the Exterminations under wraps. If you have Heaven Born or Saint (Dead humans who got into Heaven) warriors doing the exterminations, word would eventually get out. These people have lives outside of their work and all it would take is talking to a spouse or one of them feeling guilty before news spreads. IF you have warriors who's entire life was Exterminations, then they would A- be less likely to tell anyone and B- Be less likely to feel guilty if they weren't taught anything else.

As for where all these woman came from, my guess would be cloning. We know for a FACT that Heaven has Science.

A good way to get warriors that won't have outside influence/ loose lips is if they don't have any parents that will be wondering whats going on. Cloning would also ensure that warriors will walk off the assembly line fully grown and ready to train. Adam likely used his DNA and then mixed it with donated DNA from other Heavenly Residents . All he then had to do was train his army.

OF course this opens up some rather dark things to consider. There are at least 100 Exterminators. All of them are female. The likelihood of that happening by happenstance is extremely low. Adam had to have chosen to only have woman in his army, and when you factor in Adam's misogynist, narcissistic attitude, that dose not paint a pretty picture. We also need to consider that Adam was left to train/educate these woman with almost no outside interference. Sera made it clear she wanted as little to do with the Extermination business as possible and she maybe one of the few who knew about the army's creation. IN FACT I know she had nothing to do with the army because, apparently, Adam got to name these girls and nobody, and I mean NOBODY, stopped him from naming Vaggie after female anatomy. (I wouldn't be surprised if Vaggie is a nickname and she's actually just named Vagina.)

They seem to have lived a life of constant training and battle. Its also heavily implied that Vaggie (and Lute to a lesser extent) were taught to view themselves as disposable. Worthless if they didn't have someone to serve. We see it when Vaggie tries to lead the trust exercises, when she beats herself up for not making a proper commercial for the hotel, in fact she seems to have little personal life unless its training or Charlie is involved. Lute herself rips off her own arm just to try and help Adam. If Adam did raise/train them, then these are some pretty bad signs.

These are just some things I was thinking about looking over the show. I am also not making this to bash anyone who ships Adam and Lute. This is all speculation and personal interpretation. I've just never felt anything romantic between Lute and Adam, but they were clearly close. I took that last, tearful goodbye in the finally as a distant, estranged Father- Daughter relationship.

Anyway, what do you think? Its highly unlikely this is true, but could make for a fun, dark fan fiction or Au!

#hazbin hotel #hazbin vaggie #vaggie #hazbin hotel lute #hazbin lute #lute #adam hazbin hotel #head cannon #hazbin hotel vaggie

[sociopathicartist]

More UT!Sans headcanons!

(these ones are romantic, meant to be during dating time.)

I’ve stated it before and I’ll stay it again, he is touch starved and most likely didn’t even realize he was until he just found himself unable to keep his arms off of you. i’ll elaborate more on the touches a bit further down, but i feel like he’d always want to have at-least one of his hands on you, even if simple like holding hands or his hand on your shoulder. i’m not really feeling like he’d be affectionate just because he’s touch starved, but rather that he would just be a bit disturbed to not be with your warm, soft skin. even just intertwining pinkies would comfort him. something that eases his mind and thoughts that after being alone for so long - you’re finally here with him.

i do also feel that he is (more of would become) very acts of service on the love language side. we know that he has to be able to cook and do basic household tasks since he assisted or fully raised papyrus, not to mention that papyrus wasn’t always doing cooking classes (and doesn’t even make edible food…) and would probably get prissy at the idea of eating at grillbys all the time for all 3 meals, so sans definitely had to cook somewhat. (sorry for that long elaboration). if you’ve had a long day at work he would definitely make you dinner. if you’re sick, guess what? he’ll make you soup. breakfast? no problem, he’ll willingly make it for you all the time just so that he can learn the way you like it. you’re doing the dishes? great. you wash them and he’ll dry.

he would just become very accustomed to acts of service once he’s dating you due to the fact that he would definitely self improve a bit (or a-lot) and would want to become accustomed to just doing things with you and helping, even if simple things like folding laundry by your side while you tell him about your day. to him, this wouldn’t just be some 40 minutes he spent doing chores with you, it would be 40 minutes of something he never got to have. the love and comfort he never got to experience. if papyrus ever chose to get a place of his own or wanted to stick around with you, i think sans would move in within a heartbeat. day to day life of being with you would become intoxicating, the one thing he wouldn’t mind reliving over and over again.

-

aside from his love languages, how does he like to feel loved?

again, physical touch. i know i established his love languages already (my interpretations, of course <3), and while i don’t think he’d care at all if you chose to show your love by giving him gifts, or praising and assuring him (he’d go nuts for that one), the relationship wouldn’t be very compatible without physical touch.

its just something i feel like he’d become addicted to, and i dont mean the physical affection from friends that he doesn’t really crave. he would crave only yours, the one of his lover. he’d look forward to little surprise smooches all over his skull, lipstick stains everywhere that he’d definitely brag about to his co-workers (he finally got bitches), and your hugs and cuddles throughout the day. he would become so in-love with it all, so in-love with you.

if you aren’t really a physical touch person, i feel like he’d be a bit more on the edge about dating you. not to say that you’re not compatible, because while not everyone is compatible (which is 100% okay), he is a fictional character and you can interpret his love language and demeanor any way you want. it’s just my own interpretation that physical touch would be something he’d seek from you, so there may not be a good chance anything romantic happens if you aren’t with that. if you do date and you’re not physically affectionate, he will try for you. he still loves you very much, more than himself, and would be willing to step down on the touch factor if you ask him, you are his lover after all.

he’d also feel very loved if you just thought about him. a very easy task, i know, but it would mean the world to him. if you offered to make him lunch before he goes to work then oh boy, you better believe that he’d show off what you made him to all his co-workers.

“today you guys, not one, but two whole juice boxes. orange you jealous?”

you get the gist. i’m not going to say it would be easy to love him, because he definitely has trauma and issues you’d both need to work on together to help him, but he’d feel loved in most ways you’d show him.

-

past traumas would be a bit of a slow burn with him.

so we know sans is depressed, definitely. while he’s not ‘i’m so sad and edgy my brother is dead and things keep repeating’ depressed IMO, he more so bottles up his feelings on his nihilism and stress that i worry one day he would just crumble under you. he doesn’t talk to anyone about his feelings, which papyrus does share this with us in the game. i think that his issues sleeping, his stress and other various things would build up the more he was around you, almost beginning to feel guilty for not opening up to you after you’ve started taking down your walls.

it would most likely be a night like many others, laying in bed intertwined in each others arms and talking until you both fell asleep, conversations about your day, how much you’d miss each other when one of you had to leave for work tomorrow, your future together, and he would just crumble down.

this is bold, i know. this is not something that would happen early on. over a year into the relationship minimum, if not more. after spilling his feelings and past traumas to you there wouldn’t really be any walls left from him. no more secrets or worries, just you and him.

-

he loooooves soft affections.

this one will be a bit shorter, but i wanted to drabble it in.

since he would like having his hands on you all the time i do like to imagine some of his favorites.

he’d love putting his hand on the small of your back to guide you. just in a gentle and calm manner, in no way is he ever physically rough with you with normal affection. he just likes to guide you sometimes, especially if you get sidetracked easy or like to wander around.

his hands would almost always be in your hair. short or long, he’d find hair enthralling. he’d like to brush it whenever you let him and just run his phalanges through it unconsciously anytime your head was in his range.

he would also do other simple things, like leaning over to buckle your seatbelt when you get in the car, tying your shoelaces if he sees they’re undone, tracing your figure while you sleep and grabbing you by your waist. all of the little affections he loves to give.

-

as for how he kisses ?

i’ve seen many variations on this.

i’ve seen a lot of authors (mostly wattpad… no hate though…) describe kissing him as though he has lips. im sorry, i 100% disagree.

his teeth (mouth ?) only even move from his permanent smile when he’s heavily injured, so the idea that they can just somehow kiss like lips is a tad bit bonkers. he’d honestly think you’d rule out kisses in general with him since he has no lips to kiss, but would be pleasantly surprised that you enjoyed the little bonks.

since he is just a bit of a flat teeth surface, his kisses don’t feel like lips, but rather warm and tingly magic thats a bit pleasurable and nice to the touch, very similar to the feeling of butterflies in your stomach. you’d probably get a bit of a high off of it if you kissed him enough. since monster motivation is about intent (such as with fighting), i don’t see why kissing and intimacy would be any different. the more he wants to kiss you the better the little mouth bumps on him would feel to you, not that it still wouldn’t feel like kissing a wall, though. he would enjoy to pepper you with little skeleton kisses, and would enjoy your soft kisses as well. i could definitely see him always egging you for just one more kiss before you get up and leave him to go somewhere. as for my thoughts on a tongue with kissing for him, that is a prompt idea for another headcanon list…

thank you for reading :) if there’s any requests my asks are open ! i do most of the well-known AU’s as well as classic undertale (ofcourse), along with platonic and romantic headcanons.

#undertale #undertale au #undertale alternate universe #sans #sans x reader #sans x you #sans headcanons #undertale headcanons #sans undertale #SAP

[nateofgreat]

the dumbasses who think they know everything and were in George’s mind or something when he was writing the prequels and therefore their interpretation of them is “Right” and definitely what he meant and not completely opposite fanon….

just taking everything the fucking evil ass Sith Lord who manufactured a fucking galactic war to destroy the Republic and create the Empire/used the Clones to commit genocide/abused his power/played everyone and goddamn Anakin Skywalker says abt the Jedi as fact and totally correct and not biased at all.

like no i don’t think that’s the point of those conversations….you just wrongly think it is. the Sith are not “good” and murdering the Jedi and their babies was not getting rid of a “corrupt” (what the hell are they talking abt with that tired excuse? shut up) org. but also new official d*sney SW content feeds into those takes on the Jedi? especially with the sequel trilogy and D*ve Filoni’s works.

i mean say what you want abt the Obi-Wan Kenobi show and but it at least respected and admired and mourned them properly and showed how devastating Order 66 was from the POV of a youngling survivor and how traumatized Obi-Wan was from Anakin’s actions.

The dangers of writing fictional propaganda I suppose lol.

What's funny is that a lot of the things that the Jedi Order is blamed for are actually Palpatine's fault (an intentional design on his part) specifically for the purpose of distracting them or making them look bad.

Like everyone complains about the Jedi fighting in the Clone Wars when it was Palpatine himself who orchestrated the war and conscripted the Jedi to fight in it.

They complain that the Jedi command a "slave army" when the Clones are intended to be a metaphor for the draft, when Palpatine's the own who ordered their production and then literally enslaved them with inhibitor chips.

The Jedi "steal babies" (not true) and then Palpatine has all of the same babies everyone's so upset about the Jedi raising killed.

I don't understand why Disney's insistent on playing into it. It's like they don't get that the Jedi are the main selling point of Star Wars, they're not going to have much luck with the franchise if they waste all of their time complaining about them and acting like they all deserve to die.

As much as the Last Jedi's panned for this it at least presented the idea that the Jedi Order's failures didn't define them and that they could pass on what they learned from it all. Filoni looks more like he's going the route of, "They failed, they suck, they're wrong about almost everything, and they need to completely change." Which is uhh, not very intriguing.

I also prefer Kenobi, it was a good show. Most the complaints I see about it are mostly just minor plot holes and contrivances that I think could've been caught if they'd given the team a little more time to iron things out. So I blame Disney for that one. And showing how terrible Order 66 was fit nicely into it.

#Star Wars #Pro Jedi #In defense of the Jedi #Jedi Order #The Jedi #Dave Filoni critical

[alpaca-clouds]

Hector and Trauma

You know what. I wanna talk about Hector from Castlevania, specifically the Netflix version of the character. (Again: I hate CoD Hector, who just replaces his dead girlfriend for her fucking clone. That's just fucking low.)

As people might've noticed... I am kinda obsessing about this man right now. And the main reason is that... I really do identify with him in a way I have not identified with a fictional character before. I read him as autistic (though I am not sure whether he was supposed to be read that way or just happens to be written in a way that every single autistic person I know reads him so...) and I very much identify with the C-PTSD that he clearly has.

We do not know much about his childhood, other than "lonely kid revives animals to have friends" and "abusive parents". We do not know how far the abuse went, so whether it was just verbal abuse (which we know about) or went into physical abuse. All we know is that at some point he could no longer take it and killed his parents by setting the house on fire and locking them inside. We don't know, how old he was after this and what exactly he did after that. Only that in his early 20s he is somewhere on Rhodes with his undead animals, has already met Dracula once and then agrees to "cull" humans and then creates night creatures for Drac.

Again, there is little information for what has happened in the time in between. But we get enough information to understand that he has been at least somewhat mistreated by other humans, making him wish for humans to be somewhat culled.

Here my interpretation of him being autistic comes in, too. Because... an autistic child with an abusive home will completely lack social skills and hence will probably meet with a lot of abuse from other people. Because he would not know how to act around them.

Something we do see: He kinda seems to understand that Dracula is doing a genocide and not just a cull. But he very willingly ignores it or keeps himself soothed by thinking that he is just misunderstanding it until Carmilla comes in.

Now, Carmilla makes it clear that Dracula lied to him. But she obviously also betrays him and then abuses him. Something that is kinda ignored: During the march to Styria he is constantly abused. He has fresh bruises, when he arrives at Styria, making it rather clear, that he got beaten up constantly during the long march there. So: Say hello to even more trauma.

Along comes Lenore, her original violence against him and then obviously her betrayel. And let me make one thing clear: What she does to him in the finale of season 3 is sexual assault. Maybe not in the legal sense, but speaking of a psychological effect, it clearly is SA.

Obviously at that point we do have season 4. Where he seems kinda... fine. Like, what we see is, that he presents as fine. He is joking with Lenore. He is making his escape plan. He appears to be okay. Which is a state that seems to continue till the end of the show. Heck, we see him smile as Lenore dies........

And that should be a hint on how not-okay he is.

Let me talk about child abuse first. See, here is the thing: Children do not only develop physically, but also psychological and neurological. In that, they need to learn certain things at certain points in time. One of the first things children are supposed to learn, is to trust and mistrust. But for that they need a stable surrounding in which they can trust that they are cared for. Which children, who get abused or neglected, usually do not have. Especially with the dialogue we have from his mother: "I knew you were wrong from the moment you came out of me." (Note: This is another reason I read him as autistic, because at times autism shows even at infant age and without the information it might lead to parents not quite bonding with the child.)

They also need to learn some basic autonomy early on and to deal with self-doubt and shame. Which again abused children, who do not get encouraged to develop autonomy in a healthy environment and often might get shamed cannot develop.

Some other things they need to learn is how to deal with guilt, how to understand consequences, how to develop an identity and also what role they have in society. All things that children, who are abused, cannot properly learn. Additionally here, because Hector clearly has not found his own place in the society he lived in.

And this is something we actually do see in the show. He is absolutely unable to understand whom to trust or to see any red flags. He also is so clearly longing to be loved and praised by someone. Which is why he falls for Dracula and Carmilla and then Lenore. Heck, good chance that his understanding with Varney went something like that.

He is obviously not aware of this, but he is very much compensating for what was not given to him.

There are several characters over the entire story, that note how he has the mind of a child. And part of that is just, that he has childhood trauma and developmental delays because of it. And this delay is used again and again against him.

Something that is very noticable in the show is, that Hector never once cries. No matter how much he is abused and betrayed, he does not cry outside of the flashbacks where he is a kid. Now, in any other show it would not be that noticable, because we rarely do not see men cry in media........ but Castlevania is different here. Castlevania has no qualms letting the men cry.

Now, IRL it is obviously that a lot of men got taught not to cry. Because our society has the entire "boys don't cry" thing going on. BUT... I kinda doubt that is what is going on here.

See, one thing that happens in some cases, when people have amassed too much trauma, is, that they loose the ability for appropriate emotional responses to things happening to them. Mostly because the brain cannot process the emotion normally any longer.

Which is also why I think he is smiling in that last scene. Because... I mean, let's face it. The Lenore death thing has to be fucking traumatizing too. But he just... doesn't quite have the ability to process it in any proper way.

Now, how much of this is intended reading?

Honestly, I do have no idea. But at some points his behavior does make a lot of sense from the CPTSD point of view - and it is even called out by other character. Which kinda makes me think that at least some of it was intended.

Either way: I am rather thinking the man has a lot of healing to do post-canon. Because he not only has to heal from the stuff that happens to him in the series, but also the entire childhood trauma, that so very clearly is not addressed.

And if he addresses that trauma, there will also be a point in which he has to face his guilt. Because that is very much another thing he has not yet done.

Anyways. I adore him. And I want him to be alright. Q-Q

#castlevania #castlevania netflix #media analysis #headcanon #castlevania hector #hector castlevania #cptsd #ptsd #child abuse #cw: child abuse #psychology #essay

[qqueenofhades]

hilary, I really love talking about history with my friends but sometimes I talk about a historical person that I'm interested in and my friends act like just because I know things about a famous historical person I support everything they did. even when I know they know I don't support slavery, racism, sexism, etc. how do I keep from losing my cool when they do this?

Look, I have no idea where the "if you talk about anything complex/consume this material/think about it in any way, YOU TOO MUST SUPPORT IT AND BE PROBLEMATIC AND BAD!!!" mindset came from, but I honestly and deeply wish it a very killed with fire. It's the same anti mindset where if you read Morally Impure Fan Fiction, you are Morally Impure, but apparently now extends to... learning about the literal entirety of human experience? Why does this not surprise me, while also making me want to put my head through a plate glass door?

Once again, I don't know what people think historians DO, but I can assure y'all, it's not sitting around talking about how Totally Great [fill in the historical person, place, or thing] absolutely was, and how there were no problems with it ever and everyone should just be like, totally down with it, man. (Tubular.) In fact, the practice of academic history is often directly focused, especially nowadays, on identifying these problems and previous interpretations, putting them into context, and discussing how they happened in the first place. Considering that we're suffering from such a profound crisis of historical ignorance, both deliberate and inadvertent, and have seen how that manifests in current events (which are just the history happening right now), I am... boggled that "we shouldn't talk about anything because it was Morally Problematic!!!" is, indeed, getting serious play. Once again, it's the anti-intellectualism that is just as rampant on the left as it is on the right, while dressing itself up in different language and pretending to support different goals. But either way, any critical philosophy based on "we can never talk about things that went wrong/people who did Wrong Things in the past" is absolutely dead on arrival as any use to anyone. Ever.

Obviously, there are complexities in how to approach this material, and I personally don't think that historical figures, especially complex ones, should be "fandomized" or treated just as Cute OTP Blorbos or sanded down to fit a sanitized fictional box (unless they are explicitly fictionalized/being used in a fictional context, and even then, yeah, it's good to keep the background in mind). It's not that this is wrong -- after all, historians get into this line of work because they have Big Thoughts and Many Feelings about historical people/places/things and want to work on those in a variety of contexts -- but it's a little uncomfortable, at least for me. That said, it's still not inherently wrong, in any way, to be interested in/want to talk about people from the past. They're human, for god sakes! You are also human! They are your ancestors! Of course you, a primate with higher reasoning and anxiety, are curious about them! You want to know their stories and consider their circumstances and ponder why they did things, including bad things! If you can't do that, shun other people from doing it, and therefore you are completely cut off from your species' entire backstory and have no frame of reference for anything at all, you're going to end up an idiot. Guaranteed.

Anyway: yet again, people talking about history (or fiction, or anything at all) in a complex way that takes into account the fact that uh, people have never been perfect in their entire existence does not mean that the person is Bad or Supports All The Evils of Human History or whatever. I'm not sure what this attempted-gotcha "don't you know they were a bad person!!!" is going to accomplish, other than giving someone the same kind of fleeting self-righteousness high that comes from Being More Correct On The Internet (or wherever), but like... if you like studying history, and they know you like studying history, I don't know why they would think you don't know that, unless you tragically failed to post a 50-page disclaimer first. And it's stupid, and it's juvenile, and it's not useful, and I think you're entitled to say much of what I've said above, in whatever amount you please, because yeah. Sheesh.

#anonymous #ask #history

[chiisana-sukima]

Hello, I really love your perspective on SPN.How much of the incestuous undertones do you think were intentional (obviously the writers are aware of some of it with the erotically codependent line)? And also how much do you think the general viewerbase (not fandom) picked up on back when the show was coming out?

I think the vast majority of the incestuous undertones were intentional and that spn is the 7 Minutes of Incest Show, if not from day one, then certainly at least from season one. Kripke and Gamble both called it "the epic love story of Sam and Dean" and Jensen has called it a love story about two brothers. The number one major theme of the show over its whole run is the way love, abuse, and horror in families run together and interact, and an act of vertical, nonconsensual incest (Mary and Azazel's kiss) is the first domino through which the entire rest of the plot occurs. Kripke was asked by Standards and Practices if he'd be willing to remove it and he declined. That suffocating feeling of someone loving you enough to do anything for you, but also anything to you, and how that's an unacknowledged aspect of familial love--all of that is all over the text and has to be intentional. It's too blatant, omnipresent, and barely even given plausible deniability, to not be.

That said, I also think there was no intent at all that Sam and Dean be interpreted as actually banging each other or even interested in banging each other. The risque jokes are just risque jokes. They practically write themselves even had both the writers' room and the set not apparently been inhabited mostly by people with the sense of humor of twelve year old boys (which I'm not complaining about--I too have the sense of humor of a twelve year old boy and find most of the jokes hilarious). The weird interest in each others' sex lives is just the same over-investment they have about every other aspect of each other's lives. And the more serious romantic/sexual overtones imo are there to reinforce the platonic/emotional love story, not tell a separate one.

R.e. how much did the general audience (GA) notice it, I have no idea tbh. My guess is probably not much, because the GA is there to be entertained, not think too hard about every little detail like we do in fandom. Spn is a very vibes-based show and one can easily absorb the vibes for entertainment purposes without thinking too hard about what they mean.

And to be blunt, people in general have a metric fuckton of practice not noticing irl incest while pretending to be vigilant about and horrified by it, so why would they notice it in a fictional setting where the love between the (emotionally) incestuous family members is ultimately redemptive and always saves the day? That's a pretty hard disjuncture to face squarely imo. Not looking away is a learned skill that most of us have no specific reason that we know of to learn, and it's in many ways an awful experience learning it, so why would most of us bother? I've never specifically asked a GA member about the incest piece in particular, but my spouse, who is a GA member, didn't notice that spn is particularly rapey and didn't notice that Lucifer had canonically raped Sam, even though Spouse has a long and sometimes complicated marital history with a rape survivor.

Anyway, thanks so much for the ask! I'm always very interested to hear the opinions of others, so Nonny, you and anyone else who feels like it are welcome to add on in reblog.

#spn meta #wincest #cw rape #cw incest

[elizais]

elizai what do you think about the book cover of no longer human? the pink one with the black silhouette?

ARgh thank you for sending this!! one thing everyone will come to learn about me is i love analysing this type of stuff.

also i giggle when i see the cover because one time in an english lesson like 2 years ago my teacher was yapping on about how book covers have to reflect the mood of the book and she said, "for example, you won't have a sad book with a hot pink cover." and i had no longer human on my desk and she had read it bcs she runs my school's library and she bought it for me and it was my moment to shine by proving her WRONG!! she is my bff though

okay i'll do it now!

no real spoilers, i just talk about how the MC feels but if u have watched bsd with your eyes open and know a little about dazai you will get the jist of what i'm talking about.

OKAY! initially, you need to state the obvious. which is it is a human-like black figure on a hot pink background. that is essentially it. but !!! if u saw what i said about like those bsd scenes on that one reblog you know i love colour symbolism!!

so: hot pink: "playful, sociable, optimism, amusing/humorous" and if you have read the book, you know that yozo oba takes up a personality of entertaining others through his actions during his school days. attempting to be a "class clown" type. i don't own a copy of the book but if i did i would pull up quotes TRUST!!

so (younger) yozo does seem to represent these characteristics - maybe not optimism but that is up to reader's interpretation in my opinion.

but the interesting part of the cover is the figure. it takes the shape of a person, roughly at least, yet isn't defined enough. its torso is quite large in proportion to the head, the shoulders curve too easily..

and the title is "no longer human", and yozo doesn't feel human. if you are only familiar with fictional dazai, he is loosely based off of yozo oba. once you read the book, you will pick up similarities between them consistently.

but yozo doesn't feel human, so that figure on the front is just that. a figure, a symbol of the emptiness he feels inside. he knows that physically he is human, which is why as a consumer we can see that the figure resembles something like us, but he doesn't let his soul feel that way.

possibly, the torso is so disproportionate compared to the head because he is harbouring the loneliness, longing and the rest of his dull emotions within.

may i also add, we can just see these recognisable parts of a human which is how yozo feels. you can tell he is a human physically but not emotionally. as an audience, you do not form any attachment to the person on the cover as there just.. isn't much to see? which is why whoever designed it done such a good job with it. granted, i am probably thinking about this much more than they did but it is truly a fantastic cover.

as i write this, i am kicking myself for not having a copy of the book with me because i would be able to write much more for you! i do love writing analyses, so if people ask i would be more than happy to write some more if i am confident enough in them. but i think i mostly like to do them because i talk a lot and can talk about anything.

#bungou stray dogs #bsd #bungo stray dogs #no longer human #japanese literature #osamu dazai

[madnessofthespirits]

2, 9 and 17 about Diar and Alter for the character ask game 👀👀👀

2. A canon or headcanon hill I will die on

cu alter: ummmm i'd die for anything. for example:

he's not lancer but he is very much cu chulainn

in EPU (and to a certain extent post-EPU too) he's basically just a guy trying to give himself agency in a situation where he's been robbed of his agency. this makes him act really weird

nothing about him has anything to do with warp spasm cu, even on a meta level

he's got that dissociative ptsd

whenever he's kind or caring i find it moving because he's quite literally been altered to suppress those parts of himself, which goes to show that they're actually too strong to be suppressed completely at all, and that he's fighting extra hard to be that way

(i may be interpreting this question as an opportunity to just share random opinions but hopefully that's okay)

diarmuid: the worst things that ever happened to him were ultimately the fault of awful old men with too much power and if fate would actually notice that and try to do something with what that might mean about him i think that would be a much more interesting thing to explore in regard to his character in fgo (or any other post-f/z media he could potentially be in) than well, most of the other things they've done with him post-f/z instead

also *straight guy voice* he's way stronger than either canon or fans usually treat him as being. urobuchi (or someone else on the f/z staff, i forget who) said he might have won the grail war if it weren't for kayneth being a fuckwad. all of the stuff he's done in his legends is at least as impressive as anything cu has ever done.

9. Scene that first made me love (or hate) the character

cu alter: honestly i think it was during the scene where he fights nero and she's trying to understand his motives and nothing he's saying really makes much sense and she points out that he's not even enjoying what he's doing, which he implicitly agrees with, and then tells her that his only goal is to just keep fighting until he's dead. i remember thinking to myself stuff along the lines of "wow bro that sounds Bad what's your problem" and "oh he's like Fucked Up fucked up i can't not care about him" and really it just made me want to understand him so bad

and then there's the finale scene where he finally admits that he's being forced to do what he's doing because medb used the grail to place him under a geis and it's like sad as fuck because he's been forced to sacrifice the parts of himself that feel joy and love just so he can maintain his honor, and therefore it's also heroic at the same time (this is what i'm talking about when i say that though he may not be lancer he is very much cu chulainn). also the part where's he kind to medb while she's dying in spite of having little reason to be and actually holding clear dislike for her is very touching

diarmuid: i definitely liked him from the start - like he so clearly just wants to do the right thing and have fun at the same time in spite of the fact that he has this horrific past and got saddled with this shitty master - like how could i not care about him? but it's definitely the last couple of scenes he appears in that sealed the deal for me. just seeing him walk away from that shitty encounter with kayneth and turn around and decide he's not gonna let that stop him from enjoying an epic fight with his best friend - and then he experiences one of the most awful fictional deaths i can think of and we learn that this whole time while he's been smiling and taking the high road at every turn he's actually been building up this whole volcano of grief and resentment. the whole thing is just as brief as it is powerful. it's a moment of honesty, it's touching, it's relatable, it's the closest thing to justice he's allowed. it contrasts so starkly with the side of him the audience sees up until then that it comes off as genuinely shocking, and it shows that he is just as glaringly human as he is a perfect knight, and therefore what makes him such an interesting and lovable character. can't imagine how hard your heart has to be to see all that and not care for him at least a little

17. Quotes, songs, poems, etc. that I associate with them

cu alter: i think you will either get it or not, but out of all the songs i associate with him, of which there are many, i think of this one as being the most "his" of them all

diarmuid: i know i've already brought this one up before but:

"when i choose to see the good side of things, i'm not being naive. it is strategic and necessary. it's how i've learned to survive through everything." -- waymond wang in everything everywhere all at once (excellent film btw if you haven't seen it)

also:

[ruthlesslistener]

How accurate/believable do you feel the bug behavior is in hollow knight? And if you find it inaccurate/unbelievable do you find that it affects the enjoyability of the story told? I really enjoy stories that center on fictional creatures (which I believe is called fantastical xenofiction?) but I always find myself anxious bout making stuff believable since I know nothing about regular biology, and it feels like most writers of xenofiction whether more humanoid or animalistic have a degree or at least some advanced schooling in biology that informs their writing.

Oh my friend, don't worry at all about biological or behavioral accuracy in Hollow Knight, because there is very little of it present and the fact that they are an advanced species means that it merely has an influence on their behavior, such as Leg Eater and Divine's cannibalistic courtship, Flukemarm's family system, or Willoh eating other bugs. Hollow Knight appears to be set in a completely alternate universe where invertebrates filled the niche of the large vertebrate species we see today (bc why else does gruz mother have bone in it), so while there are species that are analogous to the ones on our planet, it's not entirely 1:1. That's part of my enjoyment of it, actually- we're given just enough similarities and tidbits for us to base them off of irl creatures, but they're also different enough from our bugs that personal interpretations have a lot of breathing space. Their species will infer how they view and act in the world, which is something we see in the above examples, but because they evolved to live in civilizations, how much of that base instinct ends up persisting in the society is variable and up to headcanon. That's why I like it so much- because the game makes it very clear that these civilized bugs are very much not human, and builds the world and the culture of each tribe around it. The spiders and mantids of Deepnest and the Fungal Wastes being eager or unbothered by killing/eating other sapient bugs makes sense, but does not detract from the fact that both tribes harbour sympathetic or deeply honourable characters. Hollow Knight embraces the fact that each species of bug has different needs while also sticking fast to the anthropomorphic characteristics that makes them so relatable, making it a believable alternate society setup that does not discriminate which tribes are 'good' or 'bad'. Which was actually what threw me off in Bug Fables more than the inaccurate biology, as in Bug Fables, the socialized bugs were all herbivorous while the 'evil', feral bugs (with the exception of one, the tarantula sorcerer) were all carnivores. That just doesn't make any sense to me, and it bothered me more than all the other biological inconsistencies in the game- because I can assume if bugs have developed a new language and civilization, their biology wouldn't match the bugs in our world. Having consistency in worldbuilding rules is much more important than biological accuracy.

I also don't think that a background in biology is a necessity in order to enjoy xenofiction. Much of what I learned about bugs and snakes is information that I learned in my free time rather than learn in the classroom (though some of my classes did indeed inspire or reinforce some of the stuff I've made up, such as wyrms being simultaneous hermaphrodites due to mate scarcity). Having a background schooling in biology will make understanding your research easier, yes, but learning how to read scientific papers is a skill that every biology student needs to learn, no matter how long they've been in school. If you're determined enough (and curious enough), then you too can do the research necessary to flesh out the biology and behavior of fictional species! All you need is plenty of curiosity and free time, and the patience to chew through some tough, dry words to get to the meat of the good stuff. As long as your worldbuilding is consistent, the amount of biologically accurate material in your writing is more of a secondary thing to worry about.

(If you want a tip though, do a deep dive into the evolution of reproductive behaviors to help you get a basic idea of how different social structures evolve. Sex is a pretty key factor to how animals behave and evolve, with resource scarcity/location, scarcity of mates, difficulty of rearing young, tertiary sex ratio differences, and the harshness of the environment all leading to different social structures, physiology, and behavior. It's pretty fascinating stuff, and is a great help in determining how a fictional society might work.)

#hollow knight #speculative biology #xenobiology #worldbuilding #^ tagging it multiply bc i feel like this is important #also you dont have to go too in depth in the whole sex thing (like female choice or sperm competition or w/ever) #its more just that how a species breeds will infer how they work socially and what pressures will be placed upon them #lots of our complex behavior (esp. with mate choice) is bc of how taxing it is to rear our young #and how scarce the resources were during our evolution #so understanding how a species might react to their environment and how they reproduce will let you infer how they react to different stimu #anon #reply

[sinkableruby]

romantic love continues to evade me

ive been asked out before by someone i was wondering if i liked or not and said yes not because i wanted to date but because i didnt want to refuse the person's expectations. the idea of a relationship felt trapping and i would be expected to do things i didnt want to do and have feelings i didnt have. so i think i didnt like that person after all

ive had crushes based on being attracted to people which is normal i think. and then i want to know more about them and get nervous around them and such. but the moment they do something even a little off putting to me i lose all interest immediately. i was attracted to their body or their style and what i wanted to get close to was some ideal of them in the moment i saw them as amazing

i admire people and then my brain thinks thats love. i find myself thinking someone is cool and my brain asks "do you want to kiss them" and i go :( at the thought because my brain is super not cool bringing up that idea. i don't know. do i? i don't think i do.... but what if? but...

and i feel that bit of admiration or vague, interpretable-as-attraction spark of positive feeling and i feel uncomfy at that too. i find myself not wanting the feeling to go further. is that because i don't really like them or is it because my heart is locked in a box and would rather die before it comes out? but i feel like if i truly loved someone i would want the feeling to go further, so why am i even worrying about it?

like if the perfect person for me came by in the perfect circumstance... then that'd be cool but thats not how anything happens. and do i even want to date or go steady or whatever with people in the first place. do i just want the ideal of a relationship, the ideal of a person?

but then i wish fictional characters could be real so i could date them. and i genuinely fall in love with them. like i know what love feels like. so whats the deal! is that more idealization? is it?????

i think my ideal state is just like, inserted into a polycule. where im not expected to love anyone or do anything. im just there receiving affection from people who like me. and watching people love each other. or not. idk. and maybe loving someone back. but i genuinely don't know if im capable of that. who would i be able to love at this point? who would i even be interested in? who do i think is cool, but don't feel uncomfortable at the idea of being in a relationship with? and why do i feel uncomfortable? how am i supposed to interpret this heart of mine

am i undermining the crushes too much? the time i learned smth about someone and instantly lost interest was once. it was like a two week crush. but i had a crush on someone for like the whole last half of high school or so. but i was too shy to do anything. the one time i talked to them normally it wasn't butterflies like usual it was just normal. do i need the distance?? god what is the fucking code in my brain i need to look at it so i can just understand yk.

at least i do have hashtag yumejoshi lyfe. that is still 100% functioning and operational. because i like feeling romantic love! it's nice. it's powerful! it makes me happy and gives me motivation. it's extremely important to me. not that other forms of love aren't, but. yk. bah! bah bah bah!

#musings #rambles #long post #the real answer is maybe that i simply dont have enough experience #but like. what experience? experience with what? getting close to people? making friends? #i don't get it....... i don't get it! #i have this discussion in my head every now and then so now you all get to see it

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Andrew Doyle

Published: Apr 20, 2023

I am at the home of a psychopath. Here on the easternmost point of the island of Capri, the ancient ruins of the Villa Jovis still cling to the summit of the mount­ain. This was the former residence of the Emperor Tiberius, who retired here for the last decade of his life in order to indulge in what Milton described as “his horrid lusts”. He conducted wild orgies for his nymphs and catamites. He forced children to swim between his thighs, calling them his “little fish”. He raped two brothers and broke their legs when they complained. He threw countless individuals to their deaths from a precipice looming high over the sea.

That these stories are unlikely to be true is beside the point; Tiberius’s reputation has done wonders for the tourist trade here on Capri. The historians Suetonius and Tacitus started the rumours and, with the help of successive generations of sensationalists, established a tradition that was to persist for almost two millennia.

All of which serves as a reminder that reputations can be constructed and sustained on the flimsiest of foundations. Suetonius and Tacitus were writing almost a century after the emperor’s death, and many of their lurid stories were doubtless echoes of those circulated by his most spiteful enemies. Or perhaps it’s simply a matter of prurience. Who can deny that the more lascivious and outlandish acts of the Roman emperors are by far the most memorable? One thinks immediately of Caligula having sex with his siblings and appointing his horse as consul. Or Nero murdering his own mother, and taking a castrated slave for his bride, naming him after the wife he had kicked to death. For all their horror, who doesn’t feel cheated when such tales turn out to be false?

Our reputations are changelings: protean shades of other people’s imaginations. More often than not, they are birthed from a combination of uninformed prejudice and wishful thinking. And we should be in no doubt that in our online age, when lies are disseminated at lightning speed and casual defamation has become the activist’s principal strategy, reputations are harder to heal once tarnished.

I am tempted to feel pity for future historians. Quite how they will be expected to wade through endless reams of emails, texts, and other digital materials — an infinitude of conflicting narratives and individual “truths” — really is beyond me. At least when there is a dearth of primary sources it is possible to piggyback onto a firm conclusion. “Suetonius said…” has a satisfactory and definitive air, but only because there are so few of his contemporary voices available to contradict him.

As the culture war rumbles on, and I have found myself ostracised by former friends who now interpret even minor political disagreements as evidence of malevolence, I have learned that reputation is invariably a form of fiction. One such friend used to complain endlessly about a certain conservative commentator, asserting that he was a mendacious hatemonger whose every action was motivated by contempt for marginalised communities. These ideas were so frequently repeated in conversation, and confirmed by others within our circle, that I had no doubt they must be true. Imagine my confusion, then, when I eventually became well acquainted with this man, and found him to be both generous and empathetic. It’s like meeting Beelzebub and finding that he has been secretly baking cupcakes for the poor.

The same sense of bewilderment has struck me whenever I have happened upon bad-faith critics attempting to summarise my views. I have been variously described as “far-Right”, “bigoted”, “racist”, “sexist” and even “homophobic”. Of course, I would not expect total strangers to know my mind, but given that my actual opinions are freely available to anyone with a search engine, it does feel odd to be so wildly mischaracterised.

I am not alone in this. That false narratives can be more powerful than reality is, of course, the reason why our opponents so readily resort to distortions and smears. A colleague recently alerted me to one of the more bizarre hit pieces that has been written about me in an online magazine. The strategy was at least novel: the writer had contacted former students from my time as a teacher in order to trawl for unflattering anecdotes. According to one account, I had sent a pupil out of the classroom because he dared to disagree with me about the use of metaphorical language in Of Mice and Men.

But perhaps funnier than the story itself is that the author of this article was gulled into repeating it as though it could possibly be authentic. It is a reminder that reputations are often cultivated by those who must first suspend their critical faculties. This kind of nonsense is harmless enough, of course. It falls far short of defamation and, as RuPaul so neatly put it: “what other people think of me is none of my business.”

For all that, more serious attacks on people’s reputations can be devastating. Three years ago, I lost a friend to cancer after he had been falsely accused of sexual assault. In his final days he told me that he had no doubt that the years of intense anxiety following the trial had exacerbated his illness. The source of his distress wasn’t even so much the initial accusation, which was easily disproved in court, but rather the gossip that continued to reverberate and the loved ones who no longer picked up the phone.

In the past, I have often made the mistake of assuming the worst of my detractors, simply because a scurrilous lie has seemed more appealing than a complicated truth. Few of us who have been dragged into the deranging ideological skirmishes of the past few years will have avoided making these mistakes, but these days I like to keep in mind Philip Roth’s remark in The Human Stain: “our understanding of people must always be at best slightly wrong.”

No doubt it is hopelessly optimistic to assume that this approach will become the default. Our brains are hardwired to take mental shortcuts — known as heuristics — and we are generally more willing to believe the worst of others than make the effort to consider that we may have been misinformed. Worse still, the inherent appeal of scandalous and titillating tales means they will be propagated at an accelerated rate, so that even outright lies can quickly become received wisdom. We tend to accept that there is “no smoke without fire”, when more often than not it’s just a few troublemakers with a dry ice machine.

So perhaps we ought to give Tiberius the benefit of the doubt. In that spirit, let us consider one of Suetonius’s more flattering accounts. While living on the island of Rhodes, Tiberius remarked that he ought to visit all the sick people in the town. His servants assumed that this was some kind of decree, and the local invalids were hastily summoned. Rather than turn them away, Tiberius took the time to speak to each one and apologise for the misunderstanding. This story may not satisfy our appetite for murder and depravity, but at least it might be true.

#Andrew Doyle #reputation #cancel culture #strawman #online mob #false narrative #religion is a mental illness

[asteria7fics]

I've got a few questions for ya! Where did you learn to write like you do? I read through your newest fic and I'm blown away from how could you write!

And the other question I have, do you ever get worried? I hurt my brain and went down the SP confession rabbit hole, and now I'm worried about my writing now. I'm afraid of falling into tropes and writing these characters to be one dimensioned. How do you get past that?

First of all, thank you!! I never really know how to react when people compliment my writing as a whole, because truthfully I’m still very insecure about the way I write! It really does help to hear that people enjoy my writing style! (,,> ᴗ <,,)

I have a couple of answers to your first question. Learning to write has been a weird process for me if I’m being honest. I’ve always been told that reading is the best way to learn, and while I think reading lots of different things is a huge factor in being able to write confidently, there’s really no substitute for actually doing the thing.

I’ve always loved storytelling, but only really began writing stories down in middle school. Then I started finding RP partners online, and spent several years writing all kinds of stories and absorbing tons of skills from those people.

I’ve also spent an embarrassing amount of time listening to people talk about writing. Story structure, character development, all that jazz. There are several really great YouTube channels that discuss different writing techniques that I’ve taken bits and pieces from throughout the years.

Writing style is a very personal thing though, and while I’ve learned a lot from the way other people write, I’ve also spent a lot of time experimenting with my own voice. I’ve drafted tons of unfinished projects just to see what perspectives I enjoy writing from the most, or what sort of narrative voice I prefer to have. As you may glean from both TSOB and EWILY, I tend to take on a sort of sarcastic tone as a narrator, and for the most part I do that because that’s just kind of how I talk! I’m a smart ass by nature I’m afraid, though I think it also works well in the context of the sillier stories I tend to tell with my SP inspired works.

To answer your second question, yes! I’m always worried that my interpretations of certain characters won’t be enjoyed by the greater fandom, especially as someone who tends to not really vibe with a lot of really popular head canons. My solution to that? I pretend not to care!

Seriously though, I have spent a truly, horribly embarrassing amount of time studying these characters. Between watching the show, playing the games, listening to the episode commentaries, watching character analysis videos on YouTube (I’m a Johnny2Cellos girly myself), and reading some really, really good fan fiction I have put in the time to feel at least a little bit confident in my characterization of the main four boys, and sometimes Butters.

The fun thing about SP is that even Those Bastards play pretty fast and loose with their characterization, though.

Characters like Cartman who tend to have very consistent traits are usually the easiest for me to write. When I ask myself the question “how would Cartman respond to this?” the answer is usually whatever the worst possible response I can think of would be. Then I dial it back a little bit because I’m not trying to get cancelled.

But characters like Stan or Kyle are a lot more fluid. Sometimes they care very deeply about things, sometimes they don’t give a single shit. Sometimes they support one another through everything, sometimes they’re very quick to part ways. Characters like this can be really challenging, especially when you have them alongside characters who are often so cartoonishly villainous like Cartman.

My best advice for writing any characters, but especially for these particular characters, is to lean into their positive traits and flaws equally.

Cartman is actually a great example of this. He’s bigoted, crass and quite frankly kind of terrifying if you think about the things he’s done for more than thirty seconds. But he’s also extremely creative, pretty smart when he wants to be and, in many instances, is shown to actually care about his friends. Balancing all of these traits can be challenging, but it can also result in a more fleshed out, well rounded character.

Another character I see a lot of discourse about is Butters. To avoid making him too ‘uwu sweet baby’, as I often see it said, I balance a few things with him. Yes, Butters is generally very kind and sensitive to others’ feelings, but he’s also extremely gullible and can be a real asshole when he’s around the wrong people for long enough.

Of course, you don’t need to take my advice as gospel. I’m someone who has tried to keep the characters pretty close to canon (less so in EWILY than I did in TSOB, truthfully), but I’ve seen many incredibly written, extremely interesting SP fics that throw much of canon in the trash. Do what feels right for you and helps you to express the kinds of stories you want to tell!

At the end of the day, if you write for you and you enjoy the content you’re creating, then it shouldn’t matter what anyone else thinks of the interpretations you make. I especially don’t take anything on confession blogs personally, because if one of my head canons really offends someone they can talk to me about it. (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

Thank you so much for this ask! I had a lot of fun thinking about my own journey with writing these fics, and I hope some of my advice will be helpful for you! Much love, anon! ♡⸜(˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)⸝♡

#ask Asteria #Asteria lore drop #my early writing was all very bad #it takes time and practice to get good at anything #and writing is VERY HARD please remember that #be kind to yourself #take your time and write what brings you joy #lovely anons make my day <3

[ciaossu-imagines]

Following up with this fandom prompt, I'm going into an under-requested but well received fandom on this blog, Servamp!

Send me a fandom and I will name a character:

Who I will protect at all costs: This is a two-way tie between Sakuya and Tsurugi. I could not pick between them because both of them just hit me so right. They make me want to take care of them and want to protect them and make them happy!

Who deserves better: So many of these characters deserved better than the lots they got in life, if I’m to be honest. However, seeing them deal with those and, in some cases, how they’ve chosen to overcome them, makes for some truly fantastic characters.

Who was killed off too early: It’s not that they were killed off too early because there’s no way the story could exist with them still being alive, but I really would have liked to have seen more regarding Mikuni’s mother and that whole situation with her. I think it would make a solid side story to the main manga, along with one focusing on Hyde and Ophelia’s time together.

Who I used to hate but now I love: Something about Mikuni really bothered me when he first showed up. He just gave me some creepy vibes but the further we got into the story and the more we learned about him, the more I started genuinely first liking and then loving him as a character…the fact that he’s also kind of strangely gotten more attractive thanks to slight art style evolution might have helped as well.

Who I used to love but now I hate: Hugh. I had found him absolutely adorable and he was originally my favourite of the Servamps. Though I don’t hate him, per se, he’s definitely a little soured in my view.

Who needs to be killed off asap: Touma. I don’t care about redemption, I don’t care about excuses. I just want to see him dead.

Who is unfairly hated: As with all answers to this and the next question, I will say the same thing as I say for any and all fandoms. Nobody. Everyone is entitled to love or hate the characters they do. These are fictional characters, everyone will interpret and see them in their own way, based on their own biases and reads on the characters and can hate or like the characters they do without having to be ashamed about it.

Who is unfairly loved: See the above answer.

Who needs to sort out their priorities: Tsubaki, honestly. I do feel like it’s just that enough attention hasn’t been paid to really fleshing him out, but I can’t fully get a grip on his priorities or motivations a lot of the time. I do get the argument that he can just be a sort of embodiment of chaos for the sake of chaos, but I also don’t fully get that vibe from him either.

Who needs a hug: If I could, I would hug Sakuya at least five times a day. It goes along with my first answer of who I would protect the most!

Who needs to get out of their current relationship: Okay, I know the fans of this particular ship will kill me. I get their Servamp/Eve dichotomy and I even enjoy it at times but there is a really unhealthy, abusive part of Hyde and Licht’s relationship, if viewed in any subjective or realistic way.

Who the writers love: Mahiru, but as with most stories, this mostly comes down to being the protagonist. I do find him a little bland at times but he’s still an enjoyable character and doesn’t fall square into the ‘bland bitch protagonist’ field so I don’t mind how much of him we do see.

Who needs a better storyline: Not so much a better storyline, and again, I’m not fully caught up to the manga, but I feel like Tsubaki needs…more. I’m not fully sure how to articulate what I mean by that, but I find him stagnant in some ways. I feel like there needs to be more done with him, more of a back-story fleshed out or more sides to him shown.

Who has an amazing redemption arc: I feel like we’re still seeing it but I do feel like Tsurugi, for the time he’s been in the picture, has displayed and had focus given to a lot of character development and it has made him one of my favourite characters because of that.

Who is hot as fuck: He’s a little off-the-wall, but Higan in both his younger and older forms is just super attractive to me.

Who belongs in jail: Honestly, there were a lot of options. There’s a lot of characters who have done some…questionable things. However, my gut still goes with Touma every time.

Who needs to be revived from the dead: If the spoilers I’ve gotten is any indication, I think I got my wish here, but I’ve always thought that Sensei needed to come back, that there needed to be some twist there. I know a big plot line is that Kuro killed him and the fall-out from his action and the vote they took but I feel they jipped us what could be this batshit insane and truly intriguing character in Sensei.

#fandom prompt #servamp #sensei servamp #touma taishi #higan #higan servamp #tsurugi kamiya #tsubaki #tsubaki servamp #mahiru shirota #hyde servamp #lawless #lawless servamp #licht jekylland todoroki #sakuya watanuki #hugh the dark algernon iii #mikuni alicein

[theowritesfiction]

How’s it going? I wanted to inquire about two things with the Azutara Kitchen nightmare au. The firs, is how does Azula approach cooking?

Is it more a meticulous and tedious task that’s she’s be trained to do and to be damned good at, but does not personally enjoy?

Or is Azula’s approach to cooking similar to her approach to fire-bending in canon? Where she is a prodigy that loves cooking so much, that it becomes a part of Azula’s identity. This love for cooking, is raised by Ozai’s praise in a sense. Yet, is not complete dependent on him. (At least that’s how I interpret Azula’s relationship to Fire-bending in canon).

If answering this question hits spoiler territory though, please don’t answer! But also please do. (Paradigm of fiction you love no?)

Second inquiry is about a recipe. I know that you have posted about playing Baldurs Gate III before. In a similar vein, what is your opinion about the Elder Scrolls series of games? And in relation to the Kitchen nightmare fic I found a recipe blogpost by Taste of Tamriel. The “Rumare-Slaughter fish pie” recipe. I saw this and thought of the fic, after all what better way for Azula to get to Katara’s or Yue’s hearts than by their stomachs? Azula has already captivated Katara, Yue, and Suki via aesthetics (and who can blame them?) getting to the water tribe girls by making a delicious fish pie might work. It could also make up for Azula’s… interesting flirtation skills.

Plus there is a certain allure (so to speak) in making a video game lore dish. At least I find it so. Not that I can cook worth a damn myself.

If you are curious, I have provided a link to the recipe below.

-745th voice of the people

Ps: Thanks for writing (another) awesome Azutara story. Your stories, @juniperhillpatient and other Azutara stories helps brighten the day, and lesson the pain from college class and homework. Along with the lessening the pending doom of dealing with real world!

https://www.tumblr.com/tastesoftamriel/176571528529/rumare-slaughterfish-pie-anyone-whos-been

Hey, it's going well, thank you - alternating between work, writing and playing some Baldur's Gate 3 mostly.

I'm obviously always happy to ramble about my writing, so thank you for your questions. :)

Azula's relationship with cooking is an interesting question to think about. Most modern AU's will have Azula being useless in the kitchen because she's very spoiled and privileged, and it makes sense that she has little idea about what goes on in the kitchen. But what if her father was a world famous chef?

The way I imagine this, at first cooking for Azula (and Zuko too) was something they identified as a way to get their father's approval. I don't see cooking as something that Azula just instantly loved and was great at. It's something that she has worked on tenaciously over the years, and in the process, she has learned to love it.

And some might say, wait, cooking just doesn't sound like something Azula would be into. Well, ignoring the obvious parallel with firebending of heat/flame being involved, I think Azula has that kind of personality where once she gets immersed in something, she wants to learn everything there is to learn and become the best ever at it. At the top level, cooking is a very involved skill of great intricacies and many amazing techniques to master. I just think it's a challenge that someone compulsively obsessive like Azula would enjoy.

Anyway, those are my thoughts about Azula's relationship with cooking.

Quick answer about the Elder Scrolls or Bethesda style games in general. I think they're great games, however, I have never been able to really get into the whole genre of open world RPG's. I often feel like narrative gets lost among all this freedom to explore. I prefer more sandbox-y RPG's with tighter narratives, even if exploration tends to get sacrificed in the process.

Anyway, as far as Azula cooking something for the other girls in the Kitchen Nightmares story, that's an excellent suggestion and I'm happy to tell you that I already have some plans for it - if perhaps not exactly Azula making a delicious sounding fish pie for the girls. We are definitely going to see Azula in the kitchen and cooking, perhaps not in the next chapter, but very soon.

I don't think it will occur to Azula to purposefully try to impress Katara, Yue and Suki with her cooking skills, but you should expect that to happen anyway once the other girls see how Azula works and get to enjoy the results of her work.

Anyway, I'm glad that my stories serve as a helpful distraction from the drudgery of everyday life. :) As a reader, I find that stories by our friend @juniperhillpatient really brighten my day and provide a wonderful distraction, so to know that my stories do something similar for my readers is very flattering, thank you!

#answered ask #azutara #azula's kitchen nightmares #thank you for asking

[thepearlescentdragon]

I think either I'm canon divergent, or I misinterpreted the situation with 10 and Martha. Or just interpret it differently than fans. And that may or may not be because of the whole "fictionkin" thing but I don't really know.

HEAVY Disclaimer:

This is a Fictionkin's perspective of a character dynamic in Doctor Who. I am fictionkin, so I'm sharing my interpretation of it from that perspective.

My experience and feelings may not match what was intended by writers and they have no obligation to accommodate it; neither does the fandom. I am aware of this and you don't need to inform me. If this doesn't interest you, just scroll away, it's all good.

I agree with most people that 10's treatment of Martha was utter dogshit. I don't dispute this at all. What I do dispute is the reason, because it seems the fandom looks at it a little differently

Where I agree: On at least two occasions, 10 thrust her into places where race relations for the time/setting could (and often did) make things harder for her, and he wasn't too considerate of how her experience might differ from his as a white-and-human-passing alien.

Her first proper trip, we have Shakespeare calling her questionable things in an attempt to flirt. We also get Human Nature where she's reduced to his maid and babysitter in a racist setting - even 10 as John is wildly racist toward her. And like every other companion, this is all new to her. She's not a seasoned time traveler. She doesn't know the rules or the science, but he brushes off her butterfly effect concerns and other things she has the foresight to at least ask about (where other companions - even Rose - would've acted impulsively about instead)

Where I disagree is on the idea that it was poor treatment for The Doctor to reject her romantic/flirty advances. I think that was understandable. He/I had a good reason to (not that you ever need to justify saying no)?

He'd just lost someone he was deeply in love with to horrible circumstances. He was recovering from trauma and heartbreak, and here comes a new human who definitely got the wrong idea - he was well within his rights to reject the flirting.

Could he have said more about why he was doing this? Sure, technically he could've. But at the same time, no one owes anyone an explanation for why they're not interested in them romantically; a no is a no. Getting rejected isn't a temporary obstacle, it's a door being closed.

Had it happened at a different time, maybe it would've been different. But the circumstances just didn't make it so. And I don't think it was a form of wrongdoing, it's just bad timing and/or bad luck.

Also, I really don't see him learning she's engaged when he and Donna meet with her as "jealousy." I don't think he wanted her romantically. I also don't think he wanted her to want him romantically. I think he just realized, "Oh, it's not just me that moves on when I say farewell to a companion - they also go on and live their own lives when I leave." He's on the other side of the fence now. He knows how it feels to see your friends have adventures with other people without you.

At least, that's how I interpret it. And it's how I remember it. Maybe the writers intended otherwise, in which case I would be canon divergent and that's fine. I just... I don't know. It feels very uncomfortable seeing people insist I was/should have been romantically interested in Martha. In my experience, I wasn't, because I was still heartbroken about yet another heavy loss. I was looking for new distractions, but not the relationship sort.

Maybe canon Doc was otherwise, but I don't know that. I don't know if I can know that.

I know I'm not supposed to "take it personally" when fandoms talk about the media they're centered on, or the characters in them. And I don't! Not exactly.

Because at the end of the day, I know fans aren't criticizing me, they're criticizing the fictional character I just so happen to identify as. And there IS a difference. I identify as him, but the entity they're interacting with in media is not literally me. (I imagine actors might feel similarly, watching their characters get criticized, now that I think about it...)

It just feels funky and I'm still learning how to adjust, you know?

#journal #fictionkin #canon divergence