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zahri-melitor · 1 year

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Connor and Tim: They’ve Got a Dad Thing

With the DC Pride story, I’m having soft thoughts about Tim Drake and Connor Hawke talking about their feelings, identities and dads together, which is something they do remarkably often for two characters who are friends but have never been on the same team or family. Also Tim brings up Connor not being able to drive. A lot.

Going through a bunch of their appearances:

Green Arrow #105: The first meeting! Connor and Tim are chasing after Connor's stepfather, who has committed CRIMEZ buying weapons in Gotham. They take the time to discuss such important issues as ‘not being the first person to have their identity’, legacies, Tim’s love for cars, Connor’s inability to drive, and Lady Shiva.

Connor stays in town, leading to their next team up in Robin #25. Tim’s chasing down a DIFFERENT group of gunrunners after one of his classmates brought a gun to school. The dad angle here is actually Tim sending Jack to talk to his classmate’s dad about bringing a gun to school. There isn’t nearly as much fun banter between Connor and Tim here, but they still get to spend some time appreciating each other’s martial art skills.

Also notably Tim emotes quite a bit to Connor (and also Steph) about how he feels about his classmate getting shot (due to bringing the gun to school) and how fighting for revenge feels (it’s not something Tim enjoys).

The next team up is Batman Chronicles #7! Connor shows up to talk to Tim about Ollie and what it’s like trying to live up to a legend, and Tim tells him a story of a Bruce & Ollie team up. They bond over being legacies for Batman and Green Arrow.

The next time Connor and Tim team up is my all time favourite, Brotherhood of the Fist. It happens following Cataclysm but before No Man’s Land. Tim and Connor get a full crossover together! (Ok Bruce and Dick and Eddie Fyers are also there). Everyone is having problems with the Monkey Fist cult, who are busy having a martial arts competition while taking down various martial arts masters.

Tim and Connor once again get the chance to talk about dads (and also the fact Connor STILL doesn’t have his licence). This time it’s discussing whether Batman is Tim’s dad. He’s not! Connor’s still feeling like he has to live up to Ollie’s legacy! Tim empathises and tells him Batman approves.

Tim’s also a martial artist fanboy.

Eventually Connor ends up having to fight Lady Shiva! Tim saves Connor’s life by using his life debt with Shiva, and everyone tells Connor how good he was keeping up. (Nobody acknowledges Tim HAS that life debt due to managing to kill Shiva by accident a few months ago, because Tim’s fight record against her is full of ‘Tim wins due to shenanigans’)

(I love this crossover so much, folks)

Robin #78-79: Connor drops into Gotham again, because all of Tim’s classmates at Brentwood have something weird going on. This time they’re taking down a demon! Tragically they’re too busy running away from the demon to have any good conversations about their dads this time, but Tim DOES get some jokes in about the car.

(Eddie Fyers does not appreciate this and gives as good as he gets, bringing up the only mention of a dad).

Batgirl #30-32. Connor and Eddie show up to investigate the murder of some rich folk who belong to a specific secret society. A member of this club is Jack Drake. Amazingly, Connor and Tim get to talk about dads even while they’re in Cass’ book. Connor and Eddie kidnap Jack Drake and Eddie pretends to be him at an awards ceremony to save his life. This is very funny as Dana, Tim and Steph are in the audience and Tim at least recognises Eddie on sight. Eddie then gets kidnapped by the assassins.

Once Tim and Steph regroup and meet up with Connor and Cass, Tim still has time to tease Connor about being unable to drive and take control of the vehicle. Again.

The group tracks down the van that Eddie was kidnapped in, leading to Tim very awkwardly trying to explain how he knows who Jack Drake is.

Identity Crisis #6. Now this one is not so much a Connor and Tim team up so much as a very important moment on the topic of Connor, Tim and their feelings about dads. (I will never not be annoyed that Ollie doesn’t show the paper to Connor, given that Connor knows about Jack Drake, even if he doesn’t know that Tim is Tim)

This is an important part of the Connor and Tim relationship, dammit, even if neither of them realise this moment happened.

Unfortunately after this point the Bad Times start for both Connor and Tim for a while (several continuities of a while). Not so much time hanging out together talking about what being a legacy means to them and what’s in a father.

But they’re both FINALLY back in continuity, themselves, and in the same place. So what did they do together this week? They met up, talked about coming out, their dads, and their feelings. (No cars this time, though).

Damian thinks they’re joking about sitting about talking about their feelings. They absolutely are not.

#dc #tim drake #connor hawke #look I love these two together so much #they have such complicated feelings about their various dads together #also one day Tim is going to end up teaching Connor how to drive for some case and I think that's beautiful

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seventeenlovesthree · 1 year

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Digi Dynamic Shipping Game

Send me two names among the following 12 and I’ll write a short analysis post about them:

Whether canon provides input on them or not:

When deciding which picture I wanted to use for their analysis, it actually took quite a while for me to be truly satisfied with it - and admittedly, I do believe there may be even better ones out there. On the other hand, it also summarizes a certain vibe they’re giving me - but let’s start at the beginning before I get there.

With their ship gaining a lot more popularity throughout recent years, I was very excited to see them getting as many votes as they did in the poll mentioned above. At first - very superficial - glance, they seem to play off of their designated tropes rather perfectly; you have the reckless and enthusiastic let’s-go-for-it protagonist and the overly-correct and anxious voice of reason who has to hold him back - and that quite literally happens several times in Adventure. It looks like they’re contrasting leadership portrayals, with one of them being self proclaimed due to being the oldest, thinking they HAVE to do it, whereas the other doesn’t actively strive to be a leader, but has a strong sense of “moving (the group) forward”. And that’s what makes you think they would constantly clash - but that’s where the trope gets torn apart throughout the series:

While Taichi does have a hard time respecting and “relying” on Jyou and Jyou cannot help but role his eyes at Taichi’s forwardness AT FIRST - they both learn the good qualities of the other throughout the series and you can VISIBLY and AUDIBLY tell that the mutual admiration grows. And the older they get, the more we actually learn that they’re more similar to each other than their tropes would have liked us to believe at first.

Once Taichi witnesses Jyou’s own courage (and self-sacrificing recklessness by doing so), his respect starts to increase - not surprising, as this is one of his own themes throughout the series, so the mutual relatability actually starts very early. Jyou’s arc throughout Adventure 01 (and in general) is to come to terms with what his “personal role” is, among the group, in the future, etc. And while going through that journey, he is the FIRST one to acknowledge Taichi as rightful leader of the group, reassuring him in front of everyone in times when everyone’s fate is resting on his shoulders. He has seen Taichi falter just as much as he had done himself - and yet he knows that it was his charisma, his natural sense of togetherness that brought everyone back together. He’s not “rejecting his own responsibility”, he just sees Taichi’s qualities - and has been witnessing them for a while.

Looking back at the screenshot taken above, things people like to associate both Taichi and Jyou with in different contexts is - that they’re actually not the “smartest” in the group. Taichi is often assumed to be a head-through-wall-character who tends to not think twice (mostly if the plot requires it), while Jyou has to go out of his way to STUDY HIS BUTT OFF in order to deal with tests, cram school, high school entrance exams, etc. However, Taichi’s own arc throughout Adventure 01 (and in general) is that he has to become more mindful, of his surroundings, the people he cares about and thus he is not only shown to become more empathetic, his strategies also become more those of a great, observant tactician. And Jyou sees and acknowledges that. They may have a more teasing attitude in regards to their weaknesses (and strengths), which is often played for (very endearing) comic relief moments, but they also begin to praise each other a lot at this point. Not only that, but they appear to grow significantly more physically comfortable throughout the series (lots of hands on shoulders and casual touches may indicate that as well). Jyou, while always being portrayed as rather clumsy, also eventually comes to terms with the fact that his help, his support looks different from what he once thought was his path - he may have to study to become “booksmart”, but he also becomes wiser through his experiences. And so does Taichi.

They might actually be the ones who become most contemplative as the series goes on - and that’s why it’s a shame we actually do not see them interact a lot with each other past 01. Because you can tell they’ve grown to trust and understand each other a lot. One of my favourite sequences all throughout Tri is in the second movie - while the group goes on about how Jyou is letting them down by not showing up and prioritizing his studies over fighting, Taichi is the one who cuts him some slack. He UNDERSTANDS that “talking to him might just remind him of things he doesn’t want to face”, so he wants to give Jyou the time and space he needs - because he himself is going through the exact same thing. And so it also is no surprise that Jyou is the one who looks through Taichi as well - in the stageplay (and the fourth movie, very briefly) he is the one who approaches Taichi for being “weird” and having another fight with Yamato, knowing EXACTLY how much that has ALWAYS worn him down (ever since he saw them fight in the Dark Master’s Arc). Even if they don’t fully succeed in reaching through to each other at this point in time - they understand each other’s wants and needs and that they’ve both been wearing masks to hide their true feelings behind.

It’s all a lot more subtle as it’s - as mentioned - all very brief and more in the background than anything else, but paying close attention to their moments together really shows how compatible they can be.

Whether I think why and how they’d work:

As outlined above, it’s remarkable how much they just STOP clashing against each other at some point in the series. Unlike other character duos who contrast each other very blatantly and never really stop doing so, even when they do get more familiar/comfortable with each other through the seasons, there is usually a factor of remaining friction (examples here are Taiyama and Koumi, but not exclusively). Jyou is one of the few characters who just breaks through people’s barriers like that as he becomes more and more of a senpai to the others as the series progresses (which is why he and Mimi are growing to become so compatible as well - and I’m inclined to say that stageplay!Jyou has literally perfected the art of breaking through people’s barriers, such as in Koushirou’s and Yamato’s cases). And that, ladies and gentlemen, might also be the reason why he would be a very appealing partner to Taichi - who definitely NEEDS someone to break through his own barriers, because he has grown accustomed to not let others in. Jyou, having become the person he is displayed to be as a young adult, would see through all of that - and choose whether or not confronting him or leaving him be for a while might be the right choice for the moment. We have seen that he understands Taichi’s needs - and while they both might not be the best to voice their own needs and concerns in the perfect way, they actually play off of each other much, much better than others would.

And I’d say it’s not unlikely to believe they would spend a lot of time together off duty as adults - we already know Agumon and Gomamon like to hang out together when Taichi’s at uni and Jyou at work. Additionally, they have chosen to go through the most daunting, most demanding education paths, which will take them years and years of studying - remember how I said they both seem to be not the smartest? Hard work and dedication always made up for that and even if they might curse themselves for having gone down their respective roads, maybe even spend entire evenings rambling about how much everything sucks... I can actually see them NOT drowning in negativity because of that. If their relationship analysis has taught me anything about their personality structures, even as adults, they might pick a more humorous way of moping, thus picking each other up again and again. A bit of gloominess is fine, but they would find ways out of it by teasing and nudging. Even big senpai!Jyou may need to have some of Taichi’s warmth (figuratively and literally) shine on him in return. (Even if they might have to stick to long distance calls a lot.)

They might need the enouragement of the others - including their Digimon partners, but also through the likes of Mimi - to come out of their “own four walls” every once in a while, but once they do, they would have a great time. They’d have Ramen dates, being Daisuke’s main test subjects (mostly together with Yamato and Ken), I could also see them having cram (and moping) sessions over at Koushirou’s office (maybe they can pull him out of his own four walls too... Takeru would also be there btw) and they’d DEFINITELY go to Sora’s exhibitions together. That aside, they’re more on the relaxed side when it comes to spending their freetime (vacation time chilling on the beach, my dudes), but I can also see Taichi trying to push Jyou more towards sports activities.

Whether I’d prefer them as platonic or romantic ship:

As mentioned, the recent wave of fandom popularity surely has made me want to dig deeper into their dynamics - and while I usually focus more on their other relationships (mainly Yamato and Mimi for Jyou as well as Koushirou and Sora for Taichi), this one has definitely been one of the deeper AND fun ones. And I must say, I think I have fallen a little more for their romantic side than I used to, looking at all the mutual healing potential. I can just sense a lot of fondness between them and I’ll always go for ships that are mutually supportive and loyal - which definitely appears to be the case here! In general, they could be great platonic bros too, ESPECIALLY in terms of moping about how much life sucks as adults, so overall, I am definitely a fan of both angles.

#taijyou #jyouchi #taijou #jouchi #taichi yagami #jou kido #jyou kidou #joe kido #tai kamiya #my two cents #meta #digimon #relationship analysis

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juneviews · 2 years

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axelle judges bl shows > The Eclipse

/!\ SPOILERS AHEAD

summary: Ayan infiltrates the Suppalo school to try and figure out what happened to his uncle who commited suicide after working there. There he meets Akk, the head of the student prefects who has it in for him, while also hiding a secret of his own.

where to watch: youtube

grade: 8/10

pros:

- the acting was amazing from everyone involved. I’ve been a fan of first & khaotung since their first roles so I didn’t expect anything less from them but they were incredible, there was not one moment where their acting felt off, and it was especially great to see khaotung in such an unexpected role for him that’s actually great for once! another great surprise is also neo, who was finally allowed a more serious role & did great, and also louis whom I had only seen in one role before and had a very solid performance. aj, my underrated fave for years, was also great just like ploy. basically everyone did amazing & I loved this cast :)

- I loved that this show tackled the difficulties linked with figuring out your sexuality & coming out, especially in relation with being lower class, even though I wish it would’ve been made a bit more clear that the reason akk is super closeted & also follows suppalo rules so blindly is bc he’s the only one in his family with a hope of going to university & would get a scholarship from being the head prefect. but in general, it was nice to see a bl show acknowledge sexuality & homophobia. while I do like the escapism of bl shows that pretend like those topics don’t even exist, I also think there is something more touching & heartwrenching to having them get explored. it’s also more realistic while still having a happy, positive queer story in the end so imo there’s only good things to gain from it.

- the overall story’s message was great, and fits well with other high school thai dramas that tackle corruption (which I’ve made video for here.) I also ESPECIALLY liked that the bringers of change are effeminate gay men, bc those kinds of characters have been mocked & ridiculed for far too long in thai dramas. but here they’re brave, iconic, and have otherwise fulfilling lives with a great friend group & also boyfriends. honestly I would have loved to see even more of them but this positive portrayal of effeminate gay men was really important imo, and one of the great aspects of this series which tackled more queer topics in general. but apart from that, I just really liked the message of this series for almost every character, and it worked really well for me.

- the chemistry was really great, which is not surprising since I’ve never seen first & khaotung have bad chemistry with literally ANYONE. as for neo & louis, you can tell they’ve matured as a ship & they feel more grounded and better overall than in futs. the ships were really compelling, especially akkayan who worked fantastic in my opinion!

- this is kinda small & random, but I REALLY appreciated akkayan not breaking up once they got together. literally EVERY OTHER bls (even ones I adore) love breaking up the ship before the final climax of the show to add drama, but here I really loved that even when akk wanted to pull away, ayan never let him. they also took a bit longer than other ships to get together & felt very sturdy thanks to it, which made this high school ship feel more mature & beautiful imo.

cons:

- from the beginning of the show, I’ve felt like the pace was a bit weird & the ending was gonna be unsatisfying, for a good reason: the whole investigation plot & all the drama surrounding suppalo felt very much like it was thrown in there so akkayan could meet (because it WAS!) throughout the show, while the romantic relationship had a good pace imo, the suppalo storyline was barely acknowledged at all & most of it is spent on protest scenes that end up all feeling & looking the same in the end. bc of that, not only are the suppalo-focused moments kinda boring, but it also meant that the show had to settle everything in the two last eps, which is why ep 11 was just plot twist after plot twist & led to plot holes and overall insatisfaction from the viewers. all of that to say that the writing is in big part to blame for that, and I wish it would’ve gone differently bc the show could’ve been even better if it had.

- thua as a character, man. he was one of my favorites & was ruined in ep 11. having a queer character who’s been bullied his whole life for being gay outing others for literally no reason felt worse than other outing scenes in shows by straight characters bc DAMN, how are you gonna betray your own like that ;_; and then having him never apologize but everything goes back to normal the next day?? HELL NO. he should’ve been called out by akk & apologized to him, and akk should’ve had an explanation scene with kan & wat as well. this whole part of the episode just... sucked, and ruined kanthua for me.

- that bl short film concept was wacky af I’m sorry... I already didn’t love certain fanservice scenes towards the beginning of the show but THAT??? didn’t fit in tonally with the show at all & added absolutely nothing to it.

- for a show called the eclipse, there wasn’t a lot of eclipsing. it might sound like I’m nitpicking but???? the eclipse was literally one second long????? and it had no fucking purpose at all????? like how random for being the fucking title of the show though :’) I just wish the eclipse would’ve been incorporated into the show more, for example from the first mock trailer I thought the eclipse was tied to the suppalo curse, so I think they could’ve played into that more.

would I rewatch it: sure :)

This was in the top 5 of the shows I was most excited for this year, and while it wasn’t perfect I really enjoyed it & what it stood for. I still recommend as it’s a nice little show :)

#axelle judges bl shows #the eclipse #the eclipse the series #bypiningbisexuals

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oddygaul · 21 days

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Rise of the Dawn of the War for the Planet of the Apes

Yeah okay the marketing got me and I watched all these movies.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

You know, honestly, with this first one… there’s a hundred things about it I could pick apart*, but the emotional core works so I’m here for it. Like, fuck, who am I kidding, of course I want to see a story about apes gaining human-level intelligence and banding together for a heist scene to escape humanity, hell yeah, brother, that rules. I’m here for any movie with the wherewithal to give a sci-fi-ass concept like that a serious, modern take and lean into its strengths. And then, on top of that, they actually managed to create a character as compelling as Caesar? It’s hard to complain too much.

*The company going to human trials literally 5 minutes after the success of one single trial monkey, James Franco’s girlfriend somehow never questioning Caesar for years, the humans randomly making the drug into a gas canister right when it’s convenient for the plot, the absolute lack of response to the giant band of apes rolling through the city, the apes’ incredible immunity to glass cuts from the dozens of windows they smash through…

I will take a moment to say, though, James Franco’s whole character is goofy as fuck and I could not take him seriously. He honestly feels like he stepped straight outta Spider-Man 3, like Franco was really gunning for that Norman Osborne callback. I was, at any given moment, expecting him to bug out his eyes and go punch out some board members.

The biggest missed opportunity in this movie imo is Jacob not reaching out with his palm facing upwards in this scene, to echo the supplication gesture

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Right from the jump this one gets pretty dumb. Look, I get that the point is that humans are just as tribalistic, violent, and stupid as any species, but the human group's reaction of “Wow, we came into contact with sapient apes, and they even speak our language and fully understand us, making communication easily possible! Welp, guess our only option for conflict resolution here is immediate violence” is so cartoonish it was hard for me to take anything seriously afterwards.

They even double down on this exaggerated conflict by turning Koba into an antagonist. In Rise, I loved that this scary-looking, scarred-up ape was a good guy. Typically, a viewer would assume such a character design is cleary indicating a villain. With Koba, though, the scars are all visual reminders of the pain inflicted on him by his human tormentors - he looks scary because of what was done to him, not because of what he’s done. The beginning of Dawn seems to continue this trope reversal - Caesar and Koba seem to have a mature understanding of each other, with Caesar respecting the valid experiences underlying Koba’s feelings towards humans, and Koba trusting Caesar to do what’s best despite his misgivings. This is then thrown away seemingly just so we can get a big ape showdown on a skyscraper for the finale.

In general, Dawn feels much more like it’s trying to be a big blockbuster at the expense of its writing. Rise felt like a solid exploration of its concept; a lot of dumb things happened, yeah, but ultimately in service of the story, with the action sequence at the end feeling like an afterthought. Dawn, on the other hand, almost feels like it’s coming up with excuses to throw in dumb, big-budget action scenes. And they’re fine and all - it’s hard to argue with the cinematic power of a bonobo dual-wielding assault rifles on horseback - but I would’ve preferred a slower, more thoughtful sci-fi story about the apes’ developing culture.

I did dig the sorta cheesy old-school scoring of this one - lots of random timpani hits and weird flutes and stuff. And this is as good a point as any to acknowledge that god damn, is the CGI in these movies great. Aside from a few rare moments, where the lighting just barely gives away that the apes aren’t really present, the effects work is totally believable and does a lot of heavy lifting to keep the series engrossing.

The very end was a good moment, too, with Caesar’s acknowledgement that peace with humans is no longer an option. It’s a depressing but accurate read of the situation - it doesn’t matter what anyone’s intentions were beforehand, and it doesn’t matter that individuals within the two groups understand each other, each in-group as a whole is irreparably distrustful of the other going forward. Once that history has been written, it’s damn hard to let go of it.

War for the Planet of the Apes

The start of this one is pure schlock lol. The monkeys riding around on horseback like desperados, Woody Harrelson’s silly-ass performance, the little girl that joins them for your token inspirational human-ape bonding moments… goofy.

where we droppin boys

Despite that start, though, I thought this one ended up being kind of a bummer. It seems like the apes being trapped in the military camp was an attempt to recapture the magic of Rise’s escape arc, but it isn’t quite as fun for a number of reasons. The stakes have been raised so high that the mood is tense and grim, rather than exhilarating; the human opponents are too deadly for all that many antics to happen; and the snowy environment feels oppressive, and doesn’t offer anything as visually exciting as the dense forests we were watching the apes swing through one movie ago. The whole thing just ends up feeling a bit drab and bleak.

It’s pretty wild how much Caesar looks like Andy Serkis, honestly. I wouldn’t think you could get such a likeness on a chimpanzee without killing the believability, but here we are.

So, the trilogy overall… I dunno, kinda trash, but good trash. Monkey brain like watching monkey, but it’s nothing that’s really gonna stick with me too much.

#will's media thoughts / virtual brain repository #movies #long post #rise of the planet of the apes #dawn of the planet of the apes #war for the planet of the apes

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itspileofgoodthings · 2 years

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Season 1 and 2 Steve Harrington Meta

(nothing new to see here, just working through my own thoughts—better late than never!)

Thinking about the way Steve’s season 1 and 2 journey is about being kicked out of the nest of popularity, so to speak, by the choices he makes. he wants better than just holding on to his center-stage popularity and in looking for and pursuing that something better he loses his place and his status with such matter-of-fact ordinariness. And it’s shockingly good. In my Steve Harrington Blindness Era (the reason I’m writing about season 2 so much later) I only sort of half-watched his season 2 arc with Dustin and the kids and everybody seemed to love it so much (and it annoyed me so much that they did lol) and I sort of let that “Steve is the Mom Friend!” excitement and rhetoric cloud how actually rich and deep and funny and unsentimental and TRUTHFUL that arc is. Steve is suddenly stuck with all these kids but not as a main player anymore. Dustin likes him but Dustin’s also like “I’m the one in charge in this relationship” it’s absolutely not a hero-worship thing. And they end up having a great push and pull dynamic where Steve is not just bossed around but my point is—he goes from being King Steve to … backup. To doing the more thankless parts of being an adult, a babysitter. He has to keep them safe without any particular personally compelling reason to do so. He doesn’t know any of them personally, none of them are his siblings’ friends, they’re just his (currently not speaking to him, doesn’t love him) girlfriend’s brother’s gang and socially speaking none of them really care about who he is, it’s THEIR show (ha) and they run it! And if he’s going to be part of this group he has to take a thorough backseat. That would be a blow to any high school kid’s ego—a fragile thing—because it’s just the absolute shattering of the whole social world order that IS their entire life. And Steve is very funny and iconic in that role with his hands on his hips and his dish towel over his shoulder calling them all little shitheads. But all the excitement generated by that is fan furor that doesn’t extend to the inside of the show. In the actual world of the show nobody really cares. The kids don’t really listen to him or respect him; they don’t pay attention to him. He gets beat up by Billy in defense of those kids and instead of that being acknowledged as the heroic act that that is things keep happening, it’s kind of lost in the shuffle, and then he discovers that his girlfriend has actually left him. The hits just don’t stop coming.

And it’s a playing out of what happens at the end of season 1 but this time without the happy ending for him. This time that choice to fall off the path of popularity for the sake of something else, to let himself be socially de-centered because of the choices that he makes and swept up into a role that isn’t his by temperament or established status, leads to nothing except bruises and being left out in the cold. The choice he makes to go back into the Byers’ house at the end of season 1 is so important and beautiful, a real turning point where he cements his leaving of Tommy and Carol and Status so that he can help be part of the real action of the story. But the real consequences of that choice don’t set in until season 2. In choosing to care about people more than his own popularity, in choosing to de-center himself for love, he becomes vulnerable. He becomes Nancy’s in a way he wasn’t before; because now he no longer has his power and status and Pack of Friends as his context and support and backup, to keep him company when she’s gone. It’s just her. And season 2 plays out that fragility to the bitter ending. Nancy has a lot going on internally and externally; the relationship is not her focus and quickly becomes not her priority. She isn’t happy, she’s struggling, she’s in pain and she also just doesn’t want him anymore. She hasn’t made the same step towards him he’s made towards her. And I’m not debating right now whether she’s right or wrong about that but the point is—she withdraws from him and Steve is left with nothing. In season 2 he is faced with the same choice, walk into danger or away from it, help or run and hide, but this time there isn’t anyone or anything that he personally, specifically, cares about on the other side of that. He has to step up for goodness’s sake alone for a bunch of kids, again, he doesn’t really know against literal monsters. And there’s no context that helps make that choice easier, that draws on already established social bonds or family love etc. He has to choose on his own very quickly what kind of person he’s going to be and he’s going to have to be that person without expecting any kind of reward for it. And he gets no reward! There is no sitting on the couch with Nancy in his Christmas sweater ending for him. Everything crashes down on him with astonishing brutality and once the evil is defeated and the gate closed that doesn’t actually change much for him personally. Steve doesn’t go to the Snow Ball dance even the way the other kids his age do, even just to help; he has no place there anymore. Even the show is not paying attention to his fall from grace that much because he isn’t the center.

And the point of all of this is that it’s so beautiful the way he responds to these new circumstances created in many ways by his choices. Because he makes the best of it! He isn’t bitter. He lets Nancy go, he doesn’t command the kids’ worship (not that he would have succeeded but he could have tried and most kids in his position would have) and is a real friend to Dustin by helping him with his older kid advice and tips and support and also by letting Dustin run the show. By not letting his ego get in the way and trying to overpower Dustin with his older kid powers. He doesn’t even hate Jonathan. He is fallen completely out of the only social sphere he’s ever had, he’s alone in a very real and very new and very scary way, he has no power, little support, no appreciation. And he just takes what he has and makes the best of it. And it’s Character-defining, character-creating. The best and most surprising journey.

#stranger things #steve harrington #anyway I know we’re all past celebrating this season 2 moment. But I missed it at the time #Basically Steve’s journey is the cs lewis quote about how to love is to be vulnerable.#and to be open to the suffering it causes #Steve Suffers a lot as a result of love #and he lets it change him. can’t wait to watch season 4 #this is badly written sorry it’s 4 am I know I repeat myself a lot #My meta glory days are over but I still have to write it #in my own learning how to not live in the center/choose to be good despite the social rewards for it era t b h #(doing it much less graciously and generously than he does though)

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hanatsuki-esperanza · 2 years

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Unpopular Critical Role Opinion: Imogen is an annoying character

Alrighty Critical Role fandom, let’s talk about your favorite telepath: Imogen.

So. Imogen.

Aberrant mind sorcerer, resident moon lady, rock collector, and honestly, I could do without her. I’m normally apathetic to boring characters because they’re just characters, but Imogen...she is easily the flattest D&D Player Character I have seen Laura Bailey play, and that’s unfortunate, as I appreciate how she played Vex and Jester. She brought life to them and carried an energy to the table that completed the group during those two campaigns.

Imogen though, is none of that. To me, she’s boring, annoying, and comes across as self-entitled. She has a “holier-than-thou” and “I could never do anything wrong” attitude that is frankly frustrating to watch and wouldn’t look out of place on a high school campus. Her immaturity can be explained by the lack of life experiences she has had (similarly to Keyleth in C1), and it's fairly early in the campaign, but my read on the group says that she’s going to have to acknowledge her own flaws and how they impact people, and then deal with them on her own before anything can happen. I don’t see that happening anytime in the near future. In each campaign, there has been one character that just sits wrong, and this campaign, Imogen is holding that title.

Events in the most recent episode have only highlighted this more, particularly the quote-fight-endquote between Imogen and Laudna. Let’s take a look at it.

When Laudna broke her gnarlrock, she didn’t even allow Laudna to explain what happened, and allowed the awkwardness between them to fester. The rock may have been influencing her mental state, but there’s giving enough time for a cooldown, and there’s awkwardness growing because neither character knows how to approach the problem. You can be not ready for a hard conversation, but from what I can see, Imogen has been sitting and stewing, disregarding Laudna’s feelings as she stressed about actions she had no control over.

In this group, Imogen and Laudna have known each other the longest; Imogen should know Laudna is strange and things happen around her that can’t be explained (Laudna is literally a corpse moving with a soul). She may not know Laudna's full backstory, but Imogen is refusing to talk about it and she, for some reason, believes Laudna intentionally broke her gnarlrock. It’s interesting that she believes “that dead lady with a lot of love in her heart” would do something malicious like that. Playing devil’s advocate briefly, even if she secretly acknowledges it may have been an accident and Laudna didn’t do anything, she’s certainly not spinning it that way to Orym and the rest of Bell’s Hells. The refusal to talk has finally been brought up by the other characters, because it has gotten that bad. Imogen makes her problems everyone else’s problems and expects them to fix her problems for her.

If Imogen knew-knew Laudna, she might consider that while Launda may be smiling and laughing about being with Dusk (Dusk, ooooh boy, that’s a whole topic), it is because Imogen is not allowing an explanation and it seems like Laudna has no other allies in Bell’s Hells since Dorian left, with the exception of sometimes FCG and Ashton (there’s ANOTHER topic for me to talk about). Imogen’s acting like a kid who had her favorite toy got taken away, which might be because of her immaturity and lack of experiences. Her actions are causing Laudna (who already has HORRIBLE self-worth issues (hello, the “let her step on me” and “I’ll die for her” comments)) to believe she is a horrible friend. How long will it take Imogen to get off her high horse and let there be talk about it? Laudna got her the ptotholder and pencil, the start of an apology, but did Imogen ever say “thank you,” “can we talk,” or anything like that?

Imogen needs to bond with other members of Bell’s Hells who actually challenge her and do not automatically take her side. She needs to grow beyond what she has with Laudna before she be an interesting character for me (the Laudna/Imogen relationship is going to be discussed at a later time, because it’s a whole can of worms). She needs to consider other points of view and realize that she is not the only interesting individual here, far from it. All the characters in this campaign have their flaws and problems, but Imogen’s have gotten to the straight-up annoying point to me. Character development may be a thing, but of all the current characters, she’s going to have to work the hardest for it, and even then, she’ll likely remain the character I care the least about.

All of this isn’t helped by the fandom’s unhealthy obsession with Imogen.

This was written after episode 25 (Taste of Tal'Dorei), I have not seen the most recent 4-Sided Dive, and please note that this is my opinion.

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casliveblog · 1 year

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Custom Toonami Block Week 136 Rundown

Spy X Family: So the group finds out they actually failed getting into Edin College despite what happened last episode but it’s okay since Elegance Man punching out the asshole dude did bump them up to the top of the waiting list and there’s almost always a dropout or two. Yor’s just immediately on board for murdering someone to improve their chances which is fucking funny but luckily it doesn’t come to that and like one night later they get a call that they’re in. They have a mini-party with Count Scruffyhead (I didn’t learn his real name and that’s what they call him for this episode so that’s what I’m gonna call him) and him and Yor get drunk off their fucking asses and convince Loid that Anya deserves a reward for getting in and that somehow turns into him calling in thousands of dollars worth of Spy Resources to stage a Lupin the Third style phantom thief rescue mission in an unopened theme park for Anya’s favorite show. So basically Loid gets to show off his spy skills in the Disney castle to J-pop while Count Scruffyhead hams it up as the villain and drunk Yor vibes in the background. The final boss actually is drunk-ass Yor and luckily she passes out before she can fucking accidentally kill Loid and I have no idea how any of these people have alibis around each other anymore like I guess Loid just thinks Yor’s some Rock Lee style drunken boxers who can flip cows over idk everyone’s really smart about their own secrets and really dumb about everyone else’s secrets but that’s the name of the game I guess but if they ever try to pull an actual reveal where they find out what’s going on there’s gonna be a like ‘You know there WERE signs…’ deal. But yeah, not it’s time for the greatest challenge of all… private school.

Inuyasha: It’s the start of the Naginata of Kenkon filler arc and if you told me this was a recycled script from a scrapped Inuyasha movie I’d believe you. We start off with Kagome sucking at school as usual for someone that goes to school like ten days a year, when Hojo busts in like ‘yo check out my family tree there’s a girl named Kagome that means there’s logical precedent for us getting together right?’ and Kagome’s too full of school-related despair to even acknowledge it at the time but she’s the only know that knows it’s technically possible that it could really be her since they do know Hojo’s ancestor from the second movie. I remember being so confused as a kid because I DID see the second movie but it’s not like they played them in order or anything so I kinda forgot Akitoki was in it by the time this episode came around. But yeah the plot does kinda a decent job of weaving into canon with Akitoki saying he wanted to get his cursed family blade purified at Mt. Hakurei but since Mt. Hakurei kinda blew up at the end of that arc and a bunch of demons flew out it prolly won’t work so Kaede directs them to the second most holy and thankfully much closer shrine around. Along the way Hojo’s Milo Murphying his way through shit because of the curse which I guess having an enormously cursed half of a demon naginata translates to ‘being kinda clumsy disturbingly frequently’ and also they’re being attacked by Demon Ninjas… which are demons that are also ninjas. I feel like playing that scene from DBZ Abridged where Piccolo calls out the filler villain squad every time because we basically always get the same group which is weird because Inuyasha doesn’t do villain squads all THAT often and getting non-Inuyasha fights is usually a nice change of pace but usually there’s not much to the design besides an elemental demon for one of the lesser guys to fight, Anyway they get bombed by the demon ninjas and Kagome and Hojo get thrown off a bridge, the end.

Yu Yu Hakusho: Now that Kurama’s starting to put together the pieces of how Gamemaster’s power works, he realizes that the kid will die when he loses the game since the Goblin King dying is part of the game’s ending, unlike players that have continues and can start over. Apparently Sensui’s nihilism made him pick a game that will off one of his teammates even if he does exactly what he wants, probably a ‘better to die in a game than be killed by demons or live in this corrupt world’ kind of villain motivation. He tells Gamemaster this right before the game starts and the kid who’s only motivation is ‘the apocalypse cancels school right?’ fucking breaks down knowing now that he’s playing the villain the only way out is death. This comes into play as Kurama’s game against him is what I can only describe as Sudoku Tetris which sounds ridiculously hard. Gamemaster thinks back to meeting Sensui which is a scene FULL of stranger danger at this point and it looks like he does have at least some idea of what he’s gotten himself into but was mostly in it to make video games real. The realization that he’s going to die kind of makes it hard to focus even for the guy that knows the fucking code of this game inside and out because apparently Sudoku Tetris isn’t as predictable as the quiz show. Kurama’s not about to hesitate to kill a kid though and brutally ends the game with less than half his screen full. Kurama’s fucking pissed Sensui led a child to throw his life away without even knowing it and Hiei’s just like ‘yeah we kill kids all the time no biggie at least I didn’t have to play a fucking video game’ which I kinda wish we got a scene of Hiei playing Fruit Ninja or some shit but yeah now we’ve got a dead kid and we’re at the final boss and now Gourmet and Kuwabara are in the boat instead of the psychic monk guy so Kurama’s ready to murder everyone because he does not like being forced to murder kids though this series is terrible with sticking to sad death scenes so I doubt this’ll stick.

Jujutsu Kaisen: So yeah Sukuna’s out and about now and challenges Megumi to a fight to celebrate his new body-having…ness but not before ripping out his own heart since if Yuji switches back while he doesn’t have a heart he’ll die but for Sukuna it’s a mild inconvenience. Megumi wants to fight him to force him to heal enough for Yuji to come back but this guy’s the final boss and Megumi’s Part 1 Sasuke levels of ‘stronger than he should be but not strong enough to break the story flow’ and he’s also dropping shadow puppets left and right. We get a little of his backstory which is your standard ‘mom was cool and died but dad named be after a girl and left’ backstory, you know how it goes, hopefully we’ll get more info on that later because we seem to be getting driveby flashbacks without much depth for these backstories. But yeah before Megumi can do his super ultimate shadow technique deal, Yuji comes back and fucking dies on the spot. Gojo’s mad and says it was probably people pissed off at Gojo himself and wanting to spite him for getting Yuji’s execution on hold but that’s kinda fucked up because they had not guarantee it’d be Yuji that died or that it wouldn’t also kill Nobara and Megumi. But yeah, Yuji’s dead and only took three fingers with him, so uhhh… short series, guess we’re focusing on Megumi and Nobara’s survivor’s guilt now. We also meet the second year squad, discount Nanao Ise, Rice Ingredient Man and Pandaman, because we learned from Tekken that if you just throw a Panda into a fight it’ll be way more fun. They invite Megumi and Nobara to your local shonen tournament dealie and their friend just died because they couldn’t beat up a giant naked man without the help of their friend’s four-armed hollow tailed beast deal so they’re like ‘yeah sure training arc sounds good’. Also Yuji’s not dead because of course he’s not but it still is pretty creepy to think that he’s like a corpse and the original heart and hand he was born with are gone now like it’s like the Ship of Theseus how much does Sukuna have to heal him before he’s a completely different person from when he started?

Chainsaw Man: Picking up immediately where we left off with Denji about to feel up Power, aside from her padding her chest the whole experience isn’t the world-shattering nirvana-inducing eternal bliss he was expecting. He brings it up to Makima in a similar yet more crude way to Fullmetal Alchemist: if the pursuit of the dream is more enioyable than attaining it then what’s the point? Makima basically tells him that pleasure is fleeting but you can extend it with torturous teasing and actually giving a fuck about the person by forming a parasocial relationship with them, so basically the same model used by OnlyFans. She also wins him over by promising to fuck him if he gets the big head honcho arc Devil so we’ve basically reset the goalpost of the arc to introduce a real villain. We also get a little of Aki’s backstory and get to see his whole family killed by the Gun Devil which should probably be called the Nuclear Bomb Devil with how it fucking obliterates shit in seconds (if this took place in the 1960s it would definitely be the Nuclear Bomb Devil). But yeah when there’s supernatural devils running around everywhere people just start buying up guns so the whole world became America for a bit and America became SUPER AMERICA so there was a terrorist attack that shot that through the roof (I like how there’s a number of actual attacks this could be referencing but since it’s America it doesn’t even narrow it down a little and probably for the best since relating it too close to an actual attack in your manga about groping boobs would probably offend people). So then the world basically banned and censored guns to cut off its power but peeps are still afraid of it because who wouldn’t be. Also I’m like 100% sure America didn’t actually sign on to the bans because the most American thing to do is be like “GUN DEVIL!? WE CAN SOLVE THAT WITH MORE GUNS!!” But yeah now they gotta collect the jewel shards since enough bullets will act like a compass to the real Gun Devil. Aki Squad and Himeno Squad go to a hotel to hunt down one such bullet-eating devil and spend way too much time talking about smooching Himeno and Denji pretends to be monogamous for like 0.00001 seconds before going balls to the walls on getting smooched. Turns out Himeno and Aki used to be partners and while Aki decided to become Sasuke with a boner for his superior, Himeno decided to literally just fuck around and find out, I mean that’s her prerogative, also she got a ghost hand, feels like a literal embodiment of the fear of ghosts should be able to do more than squeeze shit but I guess that’s all you get for the payment of an eye. Also the hotel is doing some PT-Shining shit and looping and we’ve got a perfect cast of horror movie dumbasses so this should be fun.

Ranking of Kings: Turns out Kage was in Bojji’s bag the whole time and that’s why it protected his head after he fell off the tower and why it returned to him randomly after it got stolen, and it was even Kage protecting him from eating the poisoned food by the campfire, honestly that’s really good foreshadowing, enough to make you realize something’s going on without outright giving it away. Turns out creepy snake dude actually sent Kage to protect Bojji while trustworthy sword dude was the one trying to kill him, real Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone switcheroo. Kage gives Bojji a new crown and leads him down deeper into the literal hell hole saying that the king of the underworld will help make Bojji strong enough to fend off all the attempts on his life. Meanwhile Daida is having a Rick and Morty style montage of multiple things being murdered to create a simple drink including throwing his dad’s corpse into a wood chipper and super murdering a phoenix to make a good ol’ dad shake just in time for father’s day. Turns out creepy snake guy’s full of good advice since Daida flashes back to him telling him struggling for strength is what makes him strong and he throws the dad shake away, fully pissing off his magic mirror but given it’s just a pane of glass it ain’t gonna do shit, though weird Spear Guy who Daida almost had killed is on his way down to find him so who knows. Meanwhile Domas gets confronted by the other guard guy that actually likes Bojji and Domas is flashing back to Daida being like ‘wow you sure are untrustworthy for verbally betraying your student, to prove you’re trustworthy to me you should kill that student’ which doesn’t make any kind of sense but okay. Anyway second guard dude is pissed but he can’t do shit so Domas knocks him out and cuts off his own hand as punishment or some shit idk this episode got real bloody real quick between dismemberments and turning people into milkshakes.

Vinland Saga: With Thorfinn now trapped on the ship of the guy he wants to kill he finds screaming about murder isn’t enough to keep him alive and almost dies of thirst before Askeladd’s crew hit land at another village and Thorfinn passes out long enough for the real pillaging to start. Thorfinn finds Askeladd sleeping and is about to just fucking murder him in his sleep but takes at least part of his dad’s pacifist message to heart and decides if he’s gonna commit bloody murder he’ll at least commit Odin-sanctioned bloody murder and kill Askeladd in a duel. The funny thing is it looks like Askeladd was awake and was ready to let him kill him if he tried to jump him in his sleep but as soon as he gets challenged to a real fight he just beats the shit out of Thorfinn since the kid’s using a sword that’s basically the same height as him. Thorfinn does a mini training arc in the woods and figures out he’s better off with his knife since he can swing it easier and throw it. We also cut back to Ylva and she’s working through her grief in her own way by overworking and as soon as she’s forced to take a second’s rest she breaks down crying (if this series was about Ylva hunting down her father’s killer and being a badass Viking lady I’d still watch that) also Leif says he’s gonna find Thorfinn but apparently they didn’t think to look too hard when they lost him like it’s not a big boat where the fuck did they think he was I really wanna know what happened in that scene. Thorfinn’s basically doing the camping montage from the All is One, One is All episode of FMA and gets like 10% more deadly which is pretty good for what’s implied to be a long weekend but it’s not enough to take down adults so Askeladd just kicks his ass again and tells him he’ll fight him again when he’s proven himself as a real warrior. So now we’ve got our kid with borderline Stockholm syndrome ignoring his father’s wishes to live up to the toxic masculinity of his culture, basically the exact inverse of How to Train Your Dragon.

#ooc #Toonami #Custom Toonami Block #Spy X Family #Inuyasha #Yu Yu Hakusho #Jujutsu Kaisen #Chainsaw Man #Ranking of Kings #Vinland Saga

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combinationofstardust · 1 year

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the convenience store

There is a convenience store at the end of the street, and I wouldn’t say next to my school, because you still have to walk a good way down the pavement and go across the street and risk getting hit by a car thus risking your life (although unfortunately, it is quite a small risk) to get there, but it’s near enough that students swarm in it right about six in the afternoon when the school day ends. It’s not a big store—quite tiny, actually—and the number of just people, alive, breathing homo sapiens in a fifteen-square-meter space, bumping into shelves that are far too close to each other, getting saliva on each other, pushing each other against the counter and shouting at the cashier is quite intimidating actually, so this is never the time when I head there. And I don’t want to sound like I’m trying to be “different” from the other peasants who conform to societal norms and head to a convenience store for food and excitement after a long depressing day in what is basically a prison for innocents, but sometimes it just happens to be that there is a large, vocal majority and a voiceless minority, and in this case, I would say I belong to the latter.

Not that everyone has to have a place to belong, of course, and I’ve only recently realized how incredibly impractical and boring it is to always find a place for people to belong. Since I was a child I read coming-of-age books, watched movies, drooled over TV shows, and somehow they always liked to tackle the question of “loneliness” and “feeling like an outcast”, and “being ok with yourself” or “individuality” or whatever, and “finding your place” (which, in this particular “place” was always somehow “the weird group”). That’s all good and everything, I’m sure it helped a lot of people overcome whatever kind of hardships they had in their life, et cetera, but is it really necessary to overcome the feeling of alienation? Similarly, people always find a way to “label” their sexuality, and even though being “un-labelled” is becoming more acceptable now, or at least, on Tumblr, for some reason, people on social media, or at least Western social media, still insist that you assert your “sexuality and pronouns” to the entire fucking world, which is fine, but only slightly annoying. I think people just like to feel that they “belong” to the bisexuals or the queers, and it doesn’t really matter if they are actually bisexual or queer or transgender, it’s the feeling of belonging that’s important, so in a way, despite everyone saying they’re being “individualistic” or whatever, it’s still conforming to the societal standard that you should be individualistic.

At any rate, I’ve digressed far too much. I was about to tell you, actually, about the Person. Typically I head to the convenience store about an hour after everyone’s gone already, and they’re somewhat a minimal number of people in the store now, which makes it not only easier to shop but also easier to breathe, for heaven’s sake, and there’s always a Person there. He’s not always there when I am, of course, but it happens so that we meet often enough that we recognize each other and give each other a small nod of acknowledgement when we meet. We don’t talk, of course. This is something I like to call The City Etiquette—you do not make anything further than the Nod of Acknowledgement or a Simple Smile to people unless it is someone you are familiar with (which tends only to be classmates, friends, colleagues, or family members). I think we might smile at each other, we’re both wearing masks out of habit from the whole-ass worldwide pandemic starting in the fateful year of 2020, or perhaps it’s because no one wants to show their face anymore because everyone is somewhat socially anxious these days.

I am no Sherlock Holmes, so there is very little I can tell you about The Person. However, there are a few things I know.

He is a middle-school student at a particularly prestigious school well-known to the entire country. I know this because he wears their uniform, which has their school name on it and is also very recognizable due to the prestigious nature of the school itself. Of course, there is the very minuscule possibility that he doesn’t go to the school and is just a young-looking person wearing someone else’s uniform, but I find this extremely unlikely considering the awkward nature at which he deals with his phone and the thick, heavy, and frankly, ugly backpack he wears on his back distinct to middle-school students only.

He wears a black pair of glasses. I know this because, well, he wears glasses.

He’s tall, or at least a fair bit taller than me, between 170cm to 180cm, by my best guess, including the height of his shoes.

He’s currently wearing Nikes, and switches shoes often enough, but they are always Nikes, and even from my very limited knowledge of shoes they do not look like rip-offs. It’s a safe guess he comes from a middle-upper-class family.

Most likely, he likes the chicken onigiri rather than the tuna one. I make this educated guess because every time he buys onigiri, he buys the chicken one, even if there is the tuna one in stock.

He has dark circles under his eyes, so presumably, he’s sleep deprived.

He rides a bike, but not always. When he does it’s a very average bike, black, with gears, and big wheels that I’d tell you the size of if I knew bike wheel sizes.

From this information we gather, which may or may not be accurate, he’s an extremely average Beijing middle schooler. Book-smart, short-sighted, middle-upper-class, exhausted on a daily basis, rides bikes around because public transport is shit. Nothing special, really. I only thought it was worth telling, because even when I’d switched out an entire friend group and grades fluctuated by the dozen, I still saw him at the convenience, without fail.

#creative writing #when you start your 15th wip and counting #i will literally never finish this #writeblr

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rametarin · 1 year

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Just pondering genetic modification, and the pricks that obsess over it.

Blahblahblahblah

There are people that think holding the position, “this thing is normal because it’s how biology is supposed to work”, is tantamount to religious traditionalism.

So where do they get their ideas about what a thing is supposed to be, ideally?

Why, socially constructed idealism, of course.

So a person might say, “A human being, without disease or harmful mutation, possesses two functioning working eyes, teeth, ears, and all ten fingers and toes.” And the social constructionist would call them a bio-essentialist, saying their standards are arbitrary..

.. While aggressively denying that biology and reproductive selection or speciation are any kind of determining factors, to be discredited, solely because through technology, one can change that or make those characteristics irrelevant.

Like being able to surgically alter the form or genetically alter the characteristics of a being or individual means THEY get to decide what is normal or ideal for an organism, and that nature and the hereditary nature of a thing are just coincidental and circumstantial.

These kinds of people would unironically say a person that declared, “We could use genetic engineering to cure cleft lips and brain disorders,” as eugenicists trying to, “genocide and euthanize the Disabled.” As if the disabled were an ethnic group with a target on their back. Like curing someone’s blindness or deafness or inability to walk was somehow tantamount to forced schooling of Native American children in the US and Canada to naturalize them.

The idea that biology itself and heredity are orthodoxies arbitrarily held up as legitimate standards, and professing the only legitimate standards are the ones we arbitrarily construct out of philosophy, divorced from the limitations of biology and any kind of definition of what a human being is based on it.

It’s low key disgusting, and in its own way, just as homophobic and transphobic as any fundamentalist mainstream religious viewpoint, and I’ll tell you why:

Sexuality is predicated on an individual’s orientation. Orientation is, by nature, a way we discriminate biologically with what our bodies tell us is good to fuck, and what isn’t. A heterosexual person is oriented towards the opposite sex. A homosexual person, the same, and bisexual covers anyone in that spectrum even capable of wanting and desiring and following through with sex with both.

But what happens when people that do not believe in sexuality rooted in biological processes decides to weigh in and philosophically declare sexuality is based on gender, and that gender is arbitrary and has no REAL meaning?

Well.. you get someone going, “JUST SUCK IT, BABY. YOU’LL LEARN TO LIKE IT JUST SUUCK IIIIIIT.” Only they aren’t doing it to impose, “cisheteronormativity” or, “Judeo-Christian patriarchal standards.” They’re doing it because they have the position that sexuality is no more ingrained or static than your taste in carpet, sports teams or favorite brands of cereal. They do not acknowledge nor entertain the idea a sexuality is unchangable, because they’ve simply gone around you and taken it upon themselves to declare sexuality itself is fluid, no one is actually ever “really straight” or “really gay,” because people can change their genders and it means nothing.

And that same person will unironically tell you there’s something wrong when the religious fundamentalists dictate what sexuality is, means, and what is right, and not when they do it, because, “we came to our conclusion using secular reasoning and fact.”

Which isn’t true. Soft science and philosophy, arbitrary post-modernism that holds nothing as true and insists on no meaning exists but the one we decide and give to it, does not get to declare itself fact and truth just because it’s not rooting its arbitrary determinations in the absence of a deity. “It’s true because I deem it so and I have the authority to impose it”, is not a valid reason.

So therefore I submit to you, the post-modernist transhumanist view of what is legitimate and human is just as flippant, arbitrary and authoritarian as religious fundamentalism, their fundament just Courtney Loves it in colleges and pretends because they photo bomb with STEM scientists that they’re rooted in reason and intellectual logic and fact, while the religious fundamentalist is speaking hooey. Right before they start “correcting” the forensic scientist about how to gender skeletons or what pronouns to use to define how a given animal’s life cycle works.

If biological reality does not factor into how you determine the self-evidence of the nature of a thing, then you aren’t doing science. And this is something that is endlessly infuriating to argue with some people, because reality and material substance does not always lend itself to civil rights ideals. It is not religious or authoritarian orthodoxy to maintain that the standards of what counts as human depend on the precedent of humanity in its biological state before invasive technological use.

For example, a human being cannot fly. Yes, we can use a plane. Yes, we can construct gliders. Yes, we can ride rockets. But when you ask, “can a human fly?” The answer has to be no. We can’t. We can use tools and machines to fly. And as such, it would be incorrect or dishonest to say, “SOME humans can fly” just because some poor Island of Dr. Moreau project produced a transgenic designer baby nightmare with wings and muscle tissue strong enough to fly. That would not count in the category of unaltered human being; that would count as suprahuman. Transhuman. Posthuman. The existence of an engineered biological state allowing a human being to beat wings and fly would not suddenly prove, “humans can fly.” Because that does not cover humanity at large.

If someone said, “Humans can also have more or less than 5 fingers and toes,” that would also be a true statement. And why, if the ideal and average is five, would these mutations count? Because these mutations and populations that have excess or absent digits occur naturally in the wild. But they occur because of incomplete mutations. Find me the island where everybody has functional six fingers. You’re more likely to find an isolated population where just four functioning digits exist, because it’s easier to have a population where a detrimental mutation deletes a thing and the progenitor survives to reproduce, than otherwise. That still makes it a harmful mutation, not proof this is something that should occur.

To discount the imperative of the biological in determining what is supposed to be the norm, is to discount objective, imperative, impartial reality, from reality, and substitute purely what you want it to be. That is an absolutely horrible way to reason anything. And yet I’ve heard some people rumbling about how things have to shape this way, or else, “transgenic people will face stigma and ostracism and have their humanity lessened.”

Well yes if you modify your own genome permanently so you and all your offspring would, say, glow in the dark or be able to breathe underwater with designer organs, glands and tissues, that would kind of fuck up your entire hereditary line, bro. Yes, it would therefore be prudent to cordon off your contribution to the gene pool or at least designate yourself out as altered in some way. Not declare you’re human, therefore humanity now glows neon green in the dark and can make not just vitamin D from sunlight, but photosynthesize food, as well. Some acknowledgement that you’re human-plus isn’t a frickin’ scarlet letter, it’s just acknowledging what a human is, is an animal. A recursive pattern reproducing itself in this natural world. Even if we acknowledge humans can radically alter their individual makeup, those added characteristics should not be consider the equals of evolutionary traits.

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that-disabled-radfem · 3 years

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Happy back-to-school y’all

I’ve attended and worked at a couple of super liberal universities. I avoid the gender studies departments for obvious reasons and I still had a lecture in which the female prof gave a brief overview of TERFs and proclaimed her hatred of JKR. Being openly critical of gender ideology, the porn industry, kinks, and ‘sex work’ are the kind of things that can ruin your future in academia. Not to mention the fact that any speech or actions that could be labelled transphobic (ie. defining woman as adult human female) can get you a suspension according to many universities anti-hate-speech policies.

So, here’s a list of small and smallish (small in terms of overt TERFery, some may require more effort than others) radical feminist actions you can take as a university student:

(this is a liberal arts perspective so if you’re a stem gal this may not apply. but also if you’re in stem maybe you can actually acknowledge that women are oppressed as a sex class without getting kicked out of school. idk)

(Note for TRAs hate reading this: One of the core actions of radical feminism is creating female networks. This is not so that we can brainwash people into being anti-trans. This is because female solidarity is necessary for creating class consciousness and overturning patriarchy. It is harder to subjugate the female sex when we stand together.)

Take classes with female profs. Multiple sections of a class? Pick the one taught by a woman. Have to chose an elective? Only look at electives offered by women. When classes have low numbers they get cancelled. When classes are super popular, universities are forced to consider promoting the faculty that teach them

Make relationships with these female profs. Go to office hours. Chat after class. Ask them about their research. Building female networks is sooooo important!

Actually fill in your end of year course feedback forms. Profs often need these when applying for tenure or applying for a job at another university so it is very important (especially with young and/or new profs) that you fill out these forms and give specific examples of how great these women are. Go off about what you love about them! Give her a brilliant review because you know the idiot boy in that class who won’t shut up even though he knows nothing is going to give her only negative feedback because he thinks any woman who leaves the house is a feminazi b*tch.

(note: obviously don’t go praising any prof - female or male - who is blatantly racist, homophobic, etc.)

(Also if you have shitty male profs write down all the horrible things they have done and said and put it in these forms because once a shitty man gets tenure they are virtually untouchable)

(also also, leave a good review on rate my profs or whatever other thing students use to figure out if they want to take classes. idc if you copy paste your feedback from the formal review. rave about the class to your friends. do what you can to get good enrolment for that prof for reasons above.)

Participate in class. Talk over the male students. Say what you mean and mean it. Call out the boys when they say dumb shit

Write about women. If you have the option to make a text written by a woman your primary text in an essay, do it. Pick the female-centred option if you’re writing an exam-essay with multiple prompts. (Profs often look at what works on their syllabus are being written about/engaged with as a marker of whether to keep those texts the next time they teach the class. If there are badass women on your syllabus, write about them to keep them on the syllabus) Use female-written secondary sources whenever possible.

(pro tip: many women in academia are more than happy to talk to you about their papers. expand your female networks by reaching out to article authors through email and asking them about their cool shit)

Get your essays published! Many departments have undergrad journals you can publish in. This will ensure more people read about the women you write about and will demonstrate to the department that people like learning about women

Consider trying to publish your undergrad essay with a legit peer-reviewed journal. If you can do it, your use of female-written secondary sources boosts the reputations of the women who wrote those secondary sources. Also this helps generally to increase scholarship about women’s writing!

Present your papers at conferences! Many schools have their own undergraduate/departmental conferences that you can present at. Push yourself by submitting to outside conferences. Bring attention to women’s works by presenting your papers. Take a space at a conference that would otherwise be reserved for mediocre men

Talk to your profs and/or your department and/or your university about mandating the inclusion of female works in classes if this isn’t something they do already

Sit next to other women in your classes. Talk to them. Make friends. Form study groups. Proofread each other’s essays. Give each other knowing looks when the boys are being dumb. Just interact with other women! Build those female networks!

Be generous with your compliments. A female classmate and I were talking to a prof after class and the classmate told me (out of the blue) that I always have such interesting things to say. I think about that whenever I’m lacking confidence about my academic skills. Compliment the women in your classes for speaking up, for sharing their opinions, for challenging your classmates/profs, for doing cool presentations, etc.

Talk to other women about sexist things going on on campus. Make everyone aware of the sexist profs. Complain about how there are many more tenured men than tenured women. Go on rate my professor and be explicit about how the sexist profs are sexist

Be active on campus and in societies. If a society has an all male executive or is male-dominated, any women who join that society make it less intimidating for more women to join. Run for executive positions! Bring in more women!

(Pro tip: Many societies’ elections are super gameable. You can be eligible to vote in a society election sometimes just by being a student at that university — even without having done anything with the society before. Other societies might just require that you’ve taken a class in a particular department or attended a society event. (Check the society’s governing documents.) Use those female networks you’ve been building. If you can bring three or four random people to vote for you, that might be enough for you to win. Societies have trouble meeting quorum (the minimum number of people in attendance to do votes) so it is really super achievable to rig an election with a few friends. And don’t feel bad about this. The system is rigged against women so you have every right to exploit loopholes!)

(Also feel free to go vote “non-confidence”/“re-open election” if only shitty men are running. Too often people see that only candidates they don’t like are running and so they give up. But you can actually stop them getting elected)

Your campus may have a LGBTQIA+alphabetsoup society. That society definitely needs more L and B women representation. It may be tedious to argue with the nb straight dudes who insist that it’s fine to use “q***r” in the society’s posters and that attraction has nothing to do with genitals, but just imagine what could happen if we could make these sorts of societies actually safe spaces for same-sex attracted women and advocated for our concerns

Attend random societies’ election meetings. Get women elected and peace out. (or actually get involved but I’m trying to emphasize the lowest commitment option with this one)

Write for the campus newspaper. Write about what women are doing - women’s sports, cool society activities, whatever. Review female movies, books, tv shows, local theatre productions. Write about sexism on campus. We need more female by-lines and more stories about women

Get involved with your campus’s sexual assault & r*pe hotline/sexual assault survivor’s centre/whatever similar organization your campus has if you can. This is hard work and definitely not for everyone (pls take care of yourself first, especially if you are a survivor)

(If your campus doesn’t have an organization for supporting survivor’s of sexualized violence, start one! This is probably going to be a lot of hard work though, so don’t do it alone)

Talk to your student council about providing free menstrual hygiene products on campus if your campus doesn’t already do this. If your campus provides free condoms (which they probs do), use that as leverage (ie. ‘sex is optional, menstruation is not. so why do we have free condoms and no free pads?’)

If you’re an older student, get involved with younger students (orientation week and such activities are good for this). Show the freshman that you can be a successful and well-liked woman without shaving your legs, wearing heels, wearing make-up, etc. Mentor these young women. Offer to go for coffee or proofread essays.

Come to class looking like a human being. Be visibly make-up less, unshaven, unfeminine, etc. to show off the many different ways of being a woman

Talk to the custodial staff and learn their names. (I know there are men who work in this profession, but it is dominated by low-income women) Say hi in the hallways, ask them about their lives, show them they’re appreciated

Be explicit with your language. When you are talking about sex-based oppression, say it. Don’t say ‘sex worker’ when you mean survivor of human trafficking. This tip is obviously a bit tricky in terms of overt TERFyness, so use your best judgement

That’s all from me for now! Feel free to add your suggestions and remember that feminism is about action

#back to school #university #terf safe #terfs DO interact #feminist action

831 notes · View notes

cottonkendi · 3 years

Note

Part 2 of request Shinchiro x popular reader (sorry i did it on hurry) :

Reader is super serious and cold to everyone but him

MASTERLIST

Sano Shinichiro x f!Reader

Word Count: 2.7k

Genre: Crack, Fluff, Friends to Lovers

Warning: The usual spoiler warnings, implied sexual threats, cursed words

Synopsis: Your journey into becoming Shinichiro’s girlfriend.

a/n: hey hey anon~ thanks for the request, this turned out longer than expected ngl but i hope you liked it!! <33 (also, thank you lovelies for 600 followers, i wasnt able to check the other milestones cause everything happened so fast - like 1 1/2 months? but thank you <33)

Letting out a sigh, you straightened your back, face stoic as you made your way to his classroom, barely acknowledging the students who greeted you as you walked past them.

Peaking through the open door, you spot Shinichiro with his friends, the four of them seeming to have just finished lunch which makes you look down at the small bag of cookies in disdain, silently scolding yourself for not going earlier so that he’ll be able to eat the cookies as a treat during lunch.

A sigh leaves your lips, shoulders slumping just a little but before you can fall into a deeper sense of dejection, someone cuts through your thoughts.

“L/N-san? Are you okay? Do you need anything?” Aiko, from what you can remember, asks you, voice small and timid as she offers you a small smile which makes your eyes widen a little as you look them straight in the eye in surprise at being caught lingering around. They flinch a little, not expecting for you to actually look at them.

You notice how more people are now looking in your direction after she mentioned your name. Composing yourself, you clear your throat. “I’m here for Sano Shinichiro.”

As soon as his name escapes your lips, the room explodes in a fit of murmurs, all of them looking at you or Shinichiro who just started to notice you by the door.

Once both of your eyes meet, he offers you a smile, immediately standing up from his chair and waving his friends off when they start pushing him around. You can hear some of the words that they’re saying.

“Tsk, Sano’s about to get in trouble huh? No way L/N-san’s gonna be giving him the light of day unless he did something to trouble the School Council.”

“I think a teacher sent her ‘cause Sano hasn’t been handing in his homework. Too busy with his gang.”

You can hear how his classmates all snickered under their breath, the snickering group all giving Shinichiro a dirty look which started pissing you off.

Shinichiro makes his way to you, hand going straight to your hair to ruffle it up much like he always does when the two of you meet up.

A smile is about to make its way to your face but his classmates’ comments made you frown.

“I don’t even know why he thinks that he can just go and be close with L/N-san when all he’s good for is getting beaten up.”

They all burst out laughing once more, guffawing at the irritated looks that Shinichiro’s friends are giving them. Even from the door, you can see the way the assholes are trying to hide their shaking hands when they heard Wakasa whisper a threat directed at them, but you’re not satisfied with the little threat since you know that the Black Dragon, you met them once when Shinichiro was walking you home after you tutored him for an exam, won’t be doing anything to actually harm any civilians.

You know this because Shinichiro told you before that they’re only after rival gangs. And because the faculty already issued a warning to the four Black Dragon members about any gang related activities near the school campus or any non-members in the school.

So, with full confidence and irritation, you walk over to the group of snickering buffoons and peered down on them, glaring at all of them one by one before speaking. “I don’t even know why any of you think that you’re better than Shinichiro or any of his friends just because you’re not part of a gang or something like that. Or that you ‘do your school work better’ than him. You don’t have the right to talk shit about any of them, especially to Shinichiro. Not when your personality is worse than all the trash in the world combined.”

You don’t notice Shinichiro’s gaped look as he stares at you with awe in his eyes, you also don’t notice the look that the 3 Black Dragon members are giving each other while watching you intimidate their classmates. The only thing you do notice is that the boys that you’re glaring at are giving each other smirks while eyeing you up and down.

“Now now, L/N-san, you shouldn’t be getting too cocky, the Black Dragon won’t be coming to your rescue once we actually do something about that big mouth of yours.” His friends snicker at his words while the rest of his classmates all looked on with horror.

With one swift motion, your hand wraps around his throat, pushing him off of his chair until he’s forced to lean back and hold onto your wrist so that he won’t fall onto the floor. Gasps can be heard as you lean down on his reddening face, still holding him up with only one hand.

“Shall I report you to the faculty for threats of sexual assault? Or should I go to the police station now and file the report there? Do you want to see just what will happen if I do something about you and your friends? I can and will ruin your life if you give me the reason to. I’m not part of the student council for nothing. I’m there because I’m not afraid of handing out punishment to those deserving of it.”

Rolling your eyes at the way he’s gone completely white from your threat, you tighten your grip on his neck and pull him up.

Finally letting him go, you turn around and start walking back to Shinichiro who’s waiting for you by the door, mouth wide with his eyes open like saucers.

Ignoring the lingering looks of his classmates, you subtly hold his pinky, pulling him towards the rooftop.

“Thank you for protecting me back there. You were also very cool.” Shinichiro shyly compliments you, eyes darting to the side, trying his best to hide the growing blush on his face, afraid that you’ll think of him weirdly.

Shaking your head, you let go of his pinky in order to open the door to the rooftop.

Letting him in, you close the door behind you and give him a smile, the tension in your body disappearing now that you’re alone with him.

The sight of him makes your heart beat just a little faster than normal, cheeks heating up when you remember why you dragged him here on the rooftop.

“It was nothing, Shinichiro. I just couldn’t let them say bad things about you or Black Dragon when I know how much they mean to you.”

Looking him straight in the eyes, you continue.

“That's why I like you so much.”

It took 3 seconds for the words to sink in and for Shinichiro’s neck to almost break as he gives himself whiplash, head moving from left to right, trying to see if someone’s behind him and that you’re just confessing - are you confessing? Is this a confession? - to someone behind him.

Or maybe you’re playing a joke on him?

But you just stood up for him earlier. You wouldn’t do something as cruel as play with his feelings even though you are cruel enough to hand out punishments to the students who break the school rules without any hesitation.

And so far, Shinichiro hasn’t done anything to warrant a punishment from you, right?

So this must surely be true and that the president of the student council, head of the disciplinary committee, first honour of the batch ever since the two of you started school, is actually confessing her love for him, right?

This is not a dream, right?

RIGHT?

THIS IS NOT A DREAM, RIGHT?

Just as Shinichiro’s about to lose his mind, you decide to step in, a little concerned with the wide-eyed look that your crush is sporting, along with the shaking hands.

So, with the gentleness that you’ve practiced for years, you take a step closer to him and raise your hand, taking his shaking ones in yours and holding onto it tightly. Thankfully, the shaking stops.

Offering a small smile, you start to speak. “You don’t have to accept it Shinichiro, I know that you’re not that interested in me considering you’ve almost asked out all of the girls in our batch except for me, but I just wanted to confess now before I regret it.”

A light chuckle leaves your lips even though your chest feels so painful from the sting that’s going through your body right now, but alas, you keep your facade up, not wanting to guilt trip him into accepting your feelings.

When he still hasn’t said anything, you decide that it’s finally time to let go.

So, with another gentle but fake smile, you slowly let go of his hand, fingertips grazing against his knuckles as you pull away.

But just as you’re about to fully let go, Shinichiro lets out a grunt and quickly takes your hands in his, hands tightly gripping onto yours as he stares at you with wide eyes. It takes him a few seconds to gather his thoughts, heart starting to beat wildly when he sees the way your eyes look all watery.

God, he’s an idiot.

For years, he’s like you.

And now, he almost let you get away when you’ve just flat out confessed that you liked him too.

God.

When he gets home, he’ll make sure to ask Mikey to kick him.

“No no, please don’t go. No no, sorry, I just, I didn’t know what to say. I was too overwhelmed. I thought you were joking or it was a dream. But I like you. I love you too. I mean, no. I like you. I’ve liked you for years! I’ve liked you ever since you helped Mikey and Emma when they were looking for me in school and you were holding their hand and they looked like angels beside you even though they’re total brats. And they were telling me stories about how you bought them snacks in the cafeteria. Then the next day, you talked to me and helped me with school. Then, you. Oh God, this is embarrassing. But you told me that you’ll start helping me with exams and then you asked me to go to your house so that you can tutor me and that was the first time that I went to a girl’s house and I saw your dad’s motorcycle and we talked during dinner and it felt like we were dating. I know it’s weird but I really like you and I’m sorry that I didn’t get to confess first but thank you for confessing-”

Now, you’re the one being overwhelmed by his confession, not sure on what you’re supposed to be focusing on.

He loves you?

Liked you for years?

Mikey and Emma?

First time in a girl’s house?

Your dad’s motorcycle?

What even…what?

Calming yourself down, you look at Shinichiro, trying your best to not laugh at the way his face looks redder than a tomato and how his chest is heaving like crazy. It looks like he just fought in another gang fight.

Taking a deep breath, you give his hand a little squeeze, feeling how he’s starting to sweat. “Shinichiro, calm down…” You watch as he listens to you, taking in deep breaths and only staring at you. You can see the way he’s starting to relax, face going back to its usual colour. “Alright, you don’t have to tell me everything today okay? We have the rest of our days for that now that we’re dating, yeah?”

At that, his cheeks bloom into a palette of pinks and reds, lips parting as he aggressively nods at your words. “Does that mean you’re my girlfriend now?” He whispers, voice a little raspy.

You almost coo at how cute he looks now, with his styled up hair being blown by the wind, face red and lips all pouty. Makes you want to kiss him.

But you’ll save that for later.

“Yes, and I’m assuming that you’ll be my boyfriend?”

A choked sob escapes his lips as he pulls you against him, arms wrapping around your form as he presses a light kiss to the side of your head, his chest pressed against yours and you can almost feel the erratic beating of his heart. Or maybe that’s your heart beating wildly in your own chest. Either way, both of you are too caught up in finally being together for you to notice the door opening behind you.

Though the distinct voice of his friends does break the two of you up.

“Oh god, don’t tell me the two of you are dating?!” Takeomi shouts from the doorway, mouth open in shock as he watches the two of you pull away from each other, Wakasa and Keizo right behind him, also with shocked looks.

“Are you sure?!” Wakasa barrels through, pushing Takeomi aside so that he can stand in front of you, his blond hair swaying in the wind as he gives you a serious look. “Are you sure about this L/N? There’s no going back once you start dating him.”

Shinichiro’s eye twitches, blood boiling at the absolute DISRESPECT coming from his friends and Black Dragon members.

He’s literally their leader, do they not have an ounce of respect for him?!

Keizo steps in, pushing Wakasa away from you. The giant gives you a concerned look, hesitantly placing a hand on your shoulder and slightly nudging you away from Shinichiro. “Are you sure? Are you sure about this L/N? It’s never too late to back out. We’ll help you get away from him if you need it.”

Shinchiro feels like he’s about to start a gang war with his own members, he feels like he needs to start bringing his wrench and just start hitting people on the head everytime they question your budding relationship with him.

EVEN HIS FRIENDS CAN’T BE HAPPY FOR HIM.

Flicking Keizo’s hand away from you, he shoos his friends away, eyes squinting, trying to see where his real friends are ‘cause these men ain’t it.

“Can’t you be normal and congratulate me for finally being in a relationship with the person I’ve liked for years?” He says, voice stern as he stares his friends down.

There’s silence for a bit, with you silently standing beside Shinichiro, subtly holding his hand. You can see the way his face tints pink at your action. The sight only makes your chest feel warmer.

Damn, it hasn’t even been 10 minutes but the butterflies sure are having a fiesta.

“Are you sure about this L/N?”

Shinichiro’s just about to jump Takeomi, fists ready to pummel his friend to the ground as best as he can when the bell sounds, indicating that lunch is ending.

Tugging on Shinchiro’s hand, you give all of them a heartwarming smile, one that you rarely give anyone. “Well, I need to get going, I still have things to do but…” Facing Shinichiro, you tilt your head to the side, shyness blossoming in your chest at your next words. “If you want, we can go to your house later so that I can visit your siblings again? We can have a date too if you want.”

He can barely nod his head, heart erratically beating from excitement at the promised date along with smugness, seeing his friends all gape at you in disbelief at proposing a date AND meeting his family on the first day of dating.

Waving at them, you start walking away, steps light from the new found connection you have with the boy you like.

“ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DATE MY BROTHER?!”

“Y/N-chan, I know you’re a smart girl, why not think about it first-”

“YOU NEED TO SAVE YOURSELF Y/N-NEE! SHINICHIRO IS NOT WORTH I-”

“DOES NO ONE BELIEVE IN ME?! ARE YOU NOT MY FAMILY?!”

From the very first encounter that you’ve had with the Sano family as Shinichiro’s girlfriend, you can say that you’ll be loving every second of being a part of this family. <3

taglist:

@erishaitto

#sano shinichiro #tokoy revengers #shinichiro #tokyorev #tokrev #sano shinichiro x reader #shinichiro x reader #tokyo revengers x reader #tokyorev x reader #tokrev x reader #sano shinichiro fluff #sano shinichiro crack #sano shinichiro imagines #shinichiro fluff #shinichiro crack #shinichiro imagines #tokoy revengers fluff #tokyo revengers imagines

458 notes · View notes

saoney · 2 years

Text

Best bud | ᴛᴏᴊɪ ꜰᴜꜱʜɪɢᴜʀᴏ & ᴊɪɴ ɪᴛᴀᴅᴏʀɪ

let’s imagine Toji Fushiguro and Jin Itadori are actually best friends, sidekicks and bro before hoes in an alternate universe somewhere. And they meet again when they’re a dad and a husband to their lovely wife. I set Toji’s last name as Fushiguro cos Zenin’ stank bro :( and their wife? is in reference to you cos y not?

[art], [art]

I would imagine that Toji Fushiguro and Jin Itadori first met at their high school, both of them have a very different interests like how Toji is a high school heart-throb who plays basketball and his team would always bring victory and good name to his school similar to Jin but what’s different is that Jin is a science brain smarties that invent creatives ideas and creations that always surpasses other school in every Youth Science Event. Their talents are acknowledge and talked by many of other students and teachers in their school.

Toji is very bad at making new friend and he is intrigued to be friend with Jin but always ended up having a fight with him whether in the school’s hallway or in the class during learning session causing them to stand outside of the class throughout the studies session all because of him trying to greet Jin or rather mocked Jin when he was asked to explain difference between Mitosis and Meiosis to the class.

Jin Itadori is a kind and softhearted person but when it comes to Toji Fushiguro his atmosphere would turn grim. it is not that he hate him but his presence alone is annoying to him, so he really hope that for this science project the teacher won’t put him together with him but alas..

“Jin Itadori your group would be with Toji Fushiguro. Maybe with this science project you two can become friends.” Said the fifty years old science teacher, smiling innocently to them.

“This project is important, if you passed this one, the finals will be a lot easier to all of you.” Still smiling but her eyes turn directly to Jin and Toji.

Toji is awfully quiet but that does not mean he is disagreeing in fact this is his chance to maybe befriend with Jin.

“You. Meet me after school, we’re gonna have discussion at my home.” The pink haired boy told him in very hostile manner only to have Toji smirk as a respond to him.

---

2 months has passed. Their science project went well and their finals passed with flying colours. Shockingly to say that Jin has accepted Toji and become friends.

Toji who notices Jin who is changing his books by his locker instinctively changes route from together with his basketball team to Jin who still rummage through his locker.

“What ya lookin’ for? Was it condom-”

“Holy- Toji! Shut your rowdy mouth! I was looking for a piece of paper.”

“What for? I can lend ya my notes.” The raven haired lad gingerly looking for his notes in his school bag.

Jin looked restless but he also looked exhilarated so he wonders what has happen to his friend. “Not without ya tellin’ me, man.” he raised the note book above Jin’s height only to have him sigh in defeat.

“I got a note from YN--”

“The chick ya been stalking?” Toji purposely teasing the pink haired lad.

"I was not stalking her! - I want to reply to her back and leave the note in her locker.”

“Yea, yea. I get ya man. Here’s my note.” He lend his note to the thrilled boy and wave him off as he walked to his class.

Jin is so excited to write a reply on his friend’s note for his dream girl, upon him opening the note a piece of condom in a red rectangular wrapping fell on the floor causing his face flushed as beetroot.

Quickly he bends to pick the condom before anybody notices and stuffed it into his pocket. “That damn scar face.” He said in a gritted teeth.

---

Their friendship continues all the way to the university. Toji has a very great body mass and reflexes when it comes to sport despite his love for sports, he have a better insight when it comes to his future so he took Criminal Justice Major while Jin his interest in science still with biology, he took Microbiological Sciences and Immunology Major. Even though their classes have different timing, they still and always will be together as they are each other sidekicks.

Like always, Toji is always a heart eye and heart throb to boys and girls in school. But since they are in their prime time, Toji is a bit more wild than he was in high school and he has become a full fledged playboy much to Jin headache; girls who got ghosted by Toji always aimed for him for answers they said or maybe Toji forgot that they’re existed, something out of logic just so they can get back again with the famous Fushiguro.

“You need to stop playing with these girls’ hearts, Toji.”

A short hum was Toji only answer, it feels like his words only moved passed him unaffected much to Jin’s dismay while he lay there on his bed- his expression is.. questionable.

“Do you even listen to me, you damn-”

“I’ve fallen in love.” Toji said, face not turning to face Itadori. He don’t know was it shame to admit his feelings or it is just foreign to feel something related to love. He never fall in love in his life and this feelings is very new to him.

“You what?”

“Ya heard me, man and don’t laugh!”

“I’m not laughing! It’s,” he tried to stifles his laugh, it’s not funny or maybe a little because he has never saw this Toji 7 years of their friendship. “..It’s great!”

“Shit.” Toji groans in his pillow as he turn to his side as his back facing Itadori.

“It’s a good thing damn it. Nothing to feel shy about.” His encouraging words sink into the silence.

He tried again, “Was it that girl you’ve been eyeing, the one in Education Major?”

And it was a success in getting Toji’s attention back at him.

“How do ya know? I never told ya pink ass.”

“It’s not that hard to guess when you took the long route to your class just to see her in the hallway of Education faculty, you moron. Did she know about your feeling?”

Another pained groan leave the young Fushiguro.

“That’s the problem! She’s uneasy of me, man. The girls I’ve ghosted are talking bad about me to her now I don’t have a chance to woo her.” He said in a begrudging manner.

Before Jin get to tease him, the raven haired quickly cut him, “Don’t make fun of me Jin, I freaking know I reap what I sow.” Semi glaring at Itadori as he huff alone in annoyance.

“Do you know her name?” Jin asked.

“I didn’t get the chance to asked her smartass.”

“Jeez. Well her name is YN, you can start with that.” Itadori said, eyes rolling seeing Toji’s face lit once again.

“What a pretty name..” He abruptly stand up from the bunkbed, eases himself to wear hoodie and outer coat, seemingly in rush leaving the pink haired lad confuse.

“Where are you going so suddenly?”

“Chasing my girl, thanks pinktard!” With a slam to their shared bedroom door, Toji ran for cafe he last saw you hanging out with your girls group, hoping that you still there.

---

Exactly 4 years later after the graduation day, Toji Fushiguro and Jin Itadori laying in Toji’s room back at home, each have PS4 controllers in their hands. Both have their minds wandering thinking about their next step in life.

The raven haired let out a sigh, “So what’s ya plan next Jin?”

“I applied for a job at QWS Corp for my field, still waiting for reply and after that maybe propose YN.”

“That early man? Ya sure? I mean-”

“Yeah, we’re not getting any younger besides me and YN has been going for so long now. Ain’t risking her to be taken by other dude.”

“Ya ass!” Their laughter booming in Toji’s single room.

A moment passed by and not one between them break the silence as they went back sinking in each other’s thought, not until Jin break it first.

“How about you and YN, Toji?” They both stared at room’s ceiling with great interest.

“We’re good, YN got a job offer from Tokyo’s Junior High and as for me, I don’t know yet Pal. Maybe I should also start planning our future with her.” A small sigh leaving his mouth, talking about future never feel this tense back in the days but today, just thinking about tomorrow stir his heart. It’s a bit confusing but if he had you by his side then maybe the tomorrow is not as gruesome as his brain thought of. Yes, he sure of it, as long as he have you by his side... and Itadori nothing could go wrong.

“Another news is, if the QWS Corp accepted me, I might gonna be send to oversea..” His voice sounded small, thought of leaving his hometown did a number to him. He can no longer annoy his parents or go to that arcade place that him and Toji always went back in high school but since they have their own partner now, they would bring their girls playing arcade, well there would be no more hanging out in the future.

“Well that’s a bummer.” Toji lightly rub his hairline. A bummer indeed.

----

31 years ago, long story short; Itadori got accepted by the QWS Corp and was sent to New Zealand because of the vacancy and qualification he owned- and as planned, Itadori married to YN and bring her living with him there.

As for Toji, after all those hard work at the police camp this man now a chief in Criminal Division at Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Similar to Jin, Toji married to YN later that year and now living together at Tokyo district not far from his workplace.

Toji and Jin are now 35 years old, Toji would always contact with Jin back in the days but since they are growing old with his own growing responsibility as husband and future baby about to come, the conversation they had slowly become less progressive and in the blink of an eye Toji and Jin lose contact with each other. Toji doesn’t know if there’s any new news from Itadori but he wanted to believe Jin is living his best life there, making great tons of money with belly full of good foods with his wife. Then Toji wonder, has Jin also become a parents now? If so, how many kids he have now? His own thought only make him chuckles alone in the living room.

Lightly he stand up and shut down the tv when he heard a soft crying emitted from his shared bedroom with you. He thought you and his bundle of joy were sleeping that’s why he left for a quick tv break for himself, knowing that you finally get the rest after a long night last night.

“Hey, I can take him from here.” Toji said in a hushed voice, his hand slowly and lovingly rub a soothing circle on your ached back.

“It’s okay, I don’t want to trouble you love.” You offer him a tired smile, slowly swaying the baby in your arms.

“What nonsense are ya talking about, sweetheart? There’s no trouble in taking care of our own kid,” His buffy hand softly nudge yours so he can take the little Megumi who’s still whimpers and crying in your embrace.

“Ya have way too much fun bullying ya mom, brat.” A smile tugged on Toji’s lip upon bringing the baby close to his chest, Megumi’s cries and small whimpers slowly dissipate when he feel he’s being lifted high from the bed.

Worry still expressed from your face, Toji knows you don’t want to trouble him but what kind of a husband he will be if he isn’t there to help his wife. His other hand lovingly pat your head, “Ya go on sleep, hon. I’ll close the blinds so ya sleep better and quit worrying about us. I’m ya husband, Megumi’s gonna be fine. Have some fate in me, good lord babe.” He playfully teasing you as his warm hand go below to cup your face.

“Ya sleep alright? Come, let me wrap ya in this blanket.” With that he kissed your forehead and leave the house with Megumi in baby carrier tucked safely on his chest.

As expected, his son wanted to go for a walk because why else he’s giggling and laughing right now? Coy brat. This is great, he get to give the opportunity to let you rest and sleep the day away, as you should, his hardworking wife deserve so much rest and he’d do everything to ensure uniformity of his beloved wife.

The evening walk feels nice, the sun is not too hot on the skin, the temperature is just nice for the growing baby. Too caught up in his thought, walking passed the corner Toji bumped into something, a man? From the previous stumbled have caused Megumi and another infant to shriek in unison, alarmed with his own son crying Toji forgot about the person in front of him as he frantically rocking his son in coaxing manner. He lifted his face to scold the person in front him, not until he saw a man similarly like him swaying the crying baby in the baby carrier on his chest. The first thing he noticed was the pink hair, glasses and his voice.

“Jin.. Itadori?”

The man lifted his face as if the baby understand someone is calling his dad’s name his crying slowly becomes whimpers. “Toji?” The pink haired man said in disbelieve.

“Ya back?! Ya freaking back!” Toji said gleefully, meanwhile Megumi’s eyes sparkles as they met with the baby in front of him.

“When did ya get back? It’s been a while man-”

“-Too damn long,” Jin cut him saying as they laugh care freely. “Woah, you had a son now? How old is he?” He said as his eyes went from Toji to Megumi.

“He’s 16 months years old, how ‘bout ya champ? How old is this little one?”

“Same, he’s 16 months years old too and his name is Yuuji. Say hi to your friend Yuuji.” The babies talk in their language as their hand reaching out to each other.

“Well this one is Megumi, nice meeting ya Yuuji.” Megumi’s hand finally reached Yuuji’s and the infants laugh a hearty laugh together, causing the older men to smile widely.

“Are ya stayin’ or just visiting?” The men decided to walk to the nearby park with their sons’ hand still holding to one another.

“We’re staying. I got to move back here because there’s a spot for me in Japan’s branch, It’s good to finally be back home.”

“Glad to hear that man.”

And so their catching up session begin, from work to house and family, some more life update after that. A lot has happen and a lot has changed but one thing that remain is their friendship together, a sidekicks till the very end hoping that their son will be as closest friend as they are.

Like and reblog are greatly appreciated! Share me your thought, I’d love to read them :)

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astaroth1357 · 3 years

Note

Ok but like, what if MC's fandom starts to make ships with MC and the guys. Just think about the ship wars, the fancams, the fanarts, the absolute CHAOS when the brothers find out. It would be even worse if they start shipping MC with the undatables, one day everything is normal and the next day there are ship wars fighting over MC x Barbatos vs MC x Solomon (who are both very smug about it)

The MC's Fanclub are… Shippers?!

Perhaps… The italics blurb has been fulfilling its greater purpose all along…? Perhaps in its state of existential angst, it has in fact developed a plot of its own… An arc of introspection and self-discovery in which its own longing for purpose has forged a meaningful identity… It now has… a story…

Lucifer

As if they couldn't get any MORE frustrating…

He's not an otaku. He's not a part of ship culture. He's not even sure why anyone would care about who dates who around this school, but apparently it's a big deal to some people...

He only became aware of their interest in him and the MC's relationship through some very… subtle clues…

Like the groups that would follow them around in the hallways with their phones out.

Or the multitude of fan rumors about their relationship that Satan spams him with from time to time just to irritate him.

"MC refused hug from Luci in halls today!! Are they bout breakup??? 🥺"

"Tots got pic of kiss today!! Relationship upgrade??"

"IS ARE MC+LUCIFER SECET LVRS?!? PLEASE RESPOND"

It only got worse after he found out the MC gets shipped out a loooooot….

If he had to pick his least favorite ship, it'd be MC x Mammon. He can kind of see it with any of his other brothers (admittedly, Levi is also a little mystifying) but the idea of them ending up with Mammon makes his skin crawl...

He once found a drawing of the MC and Mammon in an… explicit position in one of the classrooms and he was so disgusted that he wouldn’t even touch it. He just set fire to the paper outright. Disgusting...

Mammon

Shipping, eh…? More money making opportunities!

Has some passing idea of what shipping is from Levi and, from what he knows of it, shippers eat cutesy couples stuff right up!! If all he's got to do to make bank is to look all couple-y around the MC then sounds like a win-win to him!

He'll happily pose for a photo or two (paid in advance) of him throwing his arm around the MC or something. Want him to hold their hand? Sure thing!

But since this is still Mammon we're talking about, the second MC actually starts getting into any of it he'll still turn into a blushy, stuttery mess...

For WEEKS the headline picture on so many of their fans' blogs was an image of him turning beet red while the MC kissed him on the cheek. (A fan really got their money's worth there... 😏)

Though he doesn’t exactly like the MC getting shipped with other people, he'll still totally sell pictures of any of them together. He almost paid off an entire credit card with the money he got from the t-shirt sales of the MC and Satan!

If he had to point to one ship he doesn't like it's either MC x Asmo or MC x Levi. His opinion, but Asmo won't treat them right and they could do waaay better than a shut-in. Like him. Ship the MC with just the Great Mammon, got it?

Leviathan

… Lowkey super active in the MC shipping community but is a self-shipper to the extreme.

Like, he never uses his real name on anything (and would probably die from embarrassment if anyone ever found out) but a lot of their fans probably know a couple of his aliases.

He does everything from mod forums, runs a couple blogs, even anonymously posts his own work of him and MC that are totally not his secret fantasy dates or AU versions of themselves, shaddup.

It’s a lot easier for him to keep his involvement secret because he’s hardly at RAD, but the few times he does show up he tries to keep an eye out for anybody prowling for pictures so he can get in a good pose and save the image later.

Mind you, his version of a “good pose” rarely gets more spicy than linking pinkies, but even then he’s still lit up a Christmas Tree throughout.

Naturally, he’s also not a big fan of any ships that aren’t just him and MC and he can find a reason to be jealous at almost anything. But he keeps a special corner of hate for MC x Mammon and MC x Diavolo. Like, the first one doesn’t even need an explanation but MC x Diavolo?? Really??? Do those two even talk?? (please, please, please make sure they never actually talk because a guy like him versus literal royalty? He’d lose MC for sure….!! 😫)

Satan

He hates to actually agree with Lucifer on something, but their fans are starting to get out of hand...

Knows what shipping is in concept, he may have done it once or twice to characters in his books, but he was kind of surprised how it could evolve into such a… group activity?

He was pretty quick to pick up that the MC’s fans had a bit more interest in them together than they did when they both were apart…

I mean, those hideous shirts that Mammon was pedaling were kind of a dead giveaway…

Considering he finds their fanclub all rather annoying, even without their bizarre interest in his love life, when they started actively meddling with him and the MC he was ready to smash some heads.

No. He will not stop for pictures. No. What things they do together is none of your business. No. He has zero interest in seeing your explicit fanart and if you don’t start running that will be the last question you ever ask.

He DOES, however, appreciate the cringy “annoy Lucifer” ammo. They could keep that up for a lifetime... 😏

He doesn’t have a least favorite ship because he doesn’t care about any of this, leave him alone. (That’s a lie, it’s MC x Lucifer. He pokes fun at Lucifer, but he can’t stand it either. Big shock, I know 🙄).

Asmodeus

Oh he is shamelessly a part of the community, are you kidding??

He could practically call “Shipping the MC” one of his favorite pastimes. He’ll openly gossip with their fanclub about who they’ve been with, who they’re seeing, who’s got a chance, etc… He lives for this shit!

He’s the only person who knows that Levi is also in the community and what his aliases are (not because he told him, but because Levi’s not as subtle as he thinks he is… Who else would call themselves “SupremeRuri666” and speak mostly in outdated chat lingo?) but he doesn’t out him because he thinks his very obvious crush is kind of cute.

Plus, Levi needs the outlet waaaay more than him…

Doesn’t stop him from constantly trolling him and getting into arguments over who the MC would be better with though (the two are “virtual nemeses” as far as Levi is concerned).

Appreciates all forms of expression that comes out of the community (especially the saucy kind 😏) and will happily feed into his own shippers without a care in the world.

Truthfully, Asmo will say that there isn’t a ship he doesn’t like but if someone mentions one that he thinks is kind of “eh,” he’ll just add himself into the mix. “Oh, you like MC x Barbatos? Well how about Asmo x MC x Barbatos? That sounds loads more interesting doesn’t it??”

Beelzebub

Oh, Beel… Sweet, sweet Beel… Beel doesn’t even know what their club is doing…

Because Beel has a reputation of being pretty protective of MC - and against the fanclub in general - the club keeps a healthy distance… but that doesn’t mean they’re not going to sneak in some picture or make a SHITLOAD of fanwork about them.

Between classes and practice Beel is a busy guy, so sometimes he just doesn’t notice that there’s people hiding behind trees when he’s out with MC.

Honestly, his complete ignorance of it all makes it even cuter because when he acts sweet, it’s not just for the camera. That’s the real deal.

Mammon was the one who eventually let it slip that there was even shipping happening and Beel was… kind of creeped out because isn’t this stalking? But also kind of weirdly happy(?) that MC x Beel was so popular… Very conflicted boy here.

He never actually acknowledges the community, though, and just keeps on being Beel (which still gave the fans more than enough material so all’s well that ends well?)

Beel genuinely doesn’t have a least favorite ship (because he believes the best ship is whoever makes the MC happy) but his second favorite under himself is probably MC x Belphie. They look very cute together... 😊

Belphegor

Ride or die, Beel x MC x Belphie.

Just kidding (kind of), Belphie isn’t into the shipping but if asked he’d be pretty okay with that one.

His campaign against the MC’s fanclub and their attention stealing ways means that he found out about their shipping thing only slightly ahead of Beel when Mammon was trying to get pictures of them napping together…

Honestly, he couldn’t care less if a bunch of weirdos were weirdly invested in their relationship, but he’s not about to let Mammon just make a quick Grimm off of it. Belphie makes sure that he gives him NOTHING to work with.

Since Mammon is the main dealer, the shippers in both the MC fanclub and Belphie fanclub aren’t nearly as well fed and pretty desperate for anything... You best believe he plays that to his advantage (because it’s okay if he does. He’s not Mammon).

Really helps that MC x Belphie is legitimately a very cute looking couple, carried by Belphie’s cuteness alone if nothing else. Add an adorable MC and you reach levels so cute it could actually melt people into puddles of goo... They could be a registered weapon.

Least favorite MC ships are any that don’t involve him or Beel. Any others may as well just not exist, he won’t even acknowledge them. MC x Who? Yeah, that’s what he thought.

#i guess this is a series now #wasn't expecting that #obey me #obey me shall we date #shall-we-date-obey-me #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #obey me headcanons #obey me scenarios #obey me suggestions

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thebeautyoffanfics · 3 years

Note

Can I request Hanako (or Amane Yugi), Teru Minamoto, and Akane Aoi (the male) with a female s/o who is literally invisible to people. (This totally not based on events that actually happened to me-)

Like some people, even her close friends, won’t even notice she’s there and if she’s has to asks something she tends to repeat it or stutter. She also tends to get forgetting or lost on school trips, etc.

This has happened for as long as she could remember and she’s use to it by now but sometimes it still hurts when they forget her

Headcanons please!

hanako x f!reader, teru minamoto x f!reader, akane aoi x f!reader

a/n: sure thing!! I feel like Hanako would understand that as a ghost, so I think I’ll write for him in his ghosty form! I hope that’s alright :)) thank you so much for requesting, and I hope these turn out alright!!

I’m really sorry if these are shorter or poorer than normal, and if they’re formatted strangely- I’m doing my best to get requests done on my phone (´ε｀”)

warnings: none?

word count: 1,414

Hanako <3

He understands, he understands more than anyone- so he thinks. I mean, he’s a ghost. He literally cannot be seen by anyone who isn’t an exorcist, near death, a fellow supernatural, or bound to him in some way.

Still… honestly, he gets pretty defensive over you-

They can’t hear him, but you can. (They can’t hear you, but he certainly can.) It’s honestly somewhat humorous, Hanako standing behind you, shouting that they’d better listen up!!

“IF YOU GUYS MAKE (Y/N) REPEAT HERSELF ONE MORE TIME?? Are they deaf, (Y/N)?? I think they’re deaf?????”

His reactions like that are half-joking-half-serious. He’s genuinely upset that they treat you like that- but he hopes that all his ranting and going on helps you to feel better somehow?

He can’t exactly follow you on trips, but! He makes Yashiro “Honorary (Y/N) Defense”! Meaning, since he can’t, she’ll defend you in his place!

You get interrupted or ignored? Hanako tells Yashiro to help you out, and (though she would any way) she’s raising her hand somewhat shyly- explaining that you were trying to talk.

Getting left behind on a field trip? Yashiro is sticking by your side! She turns around constantly, making sure that you keep up with her, and especially making sure that you get on the bus with the rest! As per Hanako’s request, and her own care for you, she’ll let you sit next to her.

Hanako is always very talkative, but he’s still very patient with you- he loves to have conversations with you, which is a big reason he doesn’t get why they treat you like that. You’re such a great person-! You’ve got such a cute voice-!!! Why don’t they listen-?!!!

To be honest, he finds your stutter kind of cute… he’s quite bold, so you being timid is something he doesn’t mind! Hanako doesn’t mind listening out for you- even if the other people aren’t in a relationship for you, isn’t it… basic human decency?? What happened to that???

“It’s really alright, Hanako. Things like this have happened since I was little- it hurts sometimes, but I’m mostly used to it.”

Hanako would then grab your shoulders gently, looking in your eyes with some determination!

“You shouldn’t have to be used to that!! I’m used to it because I’m dead, but you’re… alive. You can be heard and seen by everyone, yet they choose to not listen- it’s… ridiculous. I’m sorry that you have to deal with that, (Y/N)... really.”

Uncharacteristically soft moment, but it simply hits different for him due to personal experience. I’m sure as a human, the only time people saw him were when he was bullied, and now he’s- obviously- not seen by nearly anyone. It’s such a lonely feeling, and he genuinely hates that you can relate to it.

Teru Minamoto <3

It’s hard to not garner attention as Teru Minamoto’s girlfriend- so, people certainly acknowledge you once your relationship is made public/becomes obvious.

But! Before the entire school knew about the Prince having a girlfriend, Teru was… quite defensive over you- even before the two of you were a couple, he’d notice the way others seemed to step all over you. Ignoring you, interrupting you, forgetting about you.

Like Hanako, he doesn’t get it? You’ve got his attention, how do you not have anyone else’s? You’re so cute… and really do have a lovely voice, appearance, and overall are really pleasant to be around?? If anything you deserve more praise than he does-

He also doesn’t get it due to the fact that people acknowledge him a little too much-

Anyway, he tends to give that praise he thinks you deserve to you!

Meaning, he brags on you so much. Compliments you to your face, telling you how nice it is to converse with you- telling his family how lovely of a person you are. He even mentions it to classmates, which does start to earn others being more noticeable of your presence.

Not afraid to stick up for you in the least!! Who wouldn’t listen to Teru?? The moment someone interrupts, he’s politely making his way into the conversation- offering an “I’m sorry, I don’t think (Y/N) got her chance to speak.”

“Th-That’s okay, Teru. I appreciate it, but I’m used to things like that,” You told him after class, slightly embarrassed.

“Used to things like being ignored?”

“Yeah..?”

“...you shouldn’t have to be. I’d never be upset with you, but it does upset me that people have been so willing to pretend you aren’t there? I think you’re lovely, and nearly impossible to ignore. It’s simply confusing, I suppose.”

BRO if he, for some reason, isn’t on the field trip and you get forgotten- it’s game over for the chaperones will get their heads chewed off. Except he’ll be calm and collected while doing so- however, on the inside, he can’t express how upset he is.

“Is it not your job to make sure all the students are accounted for? What if (Y/N) had gotten lost? Do you not realize she could have been kidnapped? Should some low-life had decided to try anything strange, the blame would have been on you, and therefore our entire school. What would that do for both your’s and the school’s reputation?”

If he’s on the trip? You won’t be getting forgotten <3 Even you were to get distracted for a moment, he’s grabbing your hand and making sure you stay caught up with the class. Sits with you on the bus, and makes absolutely sure that you’re safe and with him!!

Akane Aoi <3

He worships the very ground you walk on. We all know how he treated Aoi? Well, now that’s how he treats you- maybe a bit less exaggerated and dramatic, but all that love and more is there!

So, he’s admiring you, and sees that you keep opening your mouth in an attempt to speak- only to have someone interrupt you, not even acknowledging that you’re there??

“Hey, (Y/N), what’s up?”

“O-oh, I was just trying to ask them something…”

“Oi, you heard her. Shut up for a moment and let (Y/N) get her question in.”

Most are somewhat aware of how scary Akane can be, so they’ll certainly listen whenever he’s there. Heck, people occasionally keep an extra eye open if they know he’s around- making sure they don’t unintentionally look past you.

If you dislike his very direct method, he’ll try to be nicer to others about it. But, he can’t help but get defensive- like our other boys, he admires you so much, and enjoys talking with you so much, that- by this point- others are simply missing out?? Like, it’s basically their loss for treating you like that. And it’s his mission to shower you in love and admiration to a point where others do the same- platonically of course, and boys better rethink anything that isn’t strictly “wow (Y/N) is cool, it’s cool that she’s taken by Akane.”

Cos, as we all know, if someone even says “oh, (Y/N) probably makes a cute girlfriend” it’s game over. RIP unknowing student, he had no mercy bashing their skull in </3

“Akane, it’s really fine, you know? Things like this happen been happening since... forever. I’m just not easily noticed, I suppose. I’m used to it!”

“Hmm... well, get un-used to it. You’ve got the most beautiful presence and voice of anyone I know! And, I want the class- for everyone- to be able to acknowledge that. You shouldn’t have to repeat yourself constantly, nor be ignored like that. Not on my watch, at least.”

You won’t be getting forgotten. He’s ahead of Teru, ahahahaaaa!!! If he isn’t on the field trip, he’s telling someone who will be to keep an eye out for you “or else <3”. The person wouldn’t even bother to question it- just nod and keep an eye out for you constantly. They even offer to have you sit with them! How sweet! Glad to know they value their skulls!!

If he’s on the trip, like the others, he’s keeping an eye out for you constantly. He’ll hold your hand the entire time, stopping as you pleased, but keeping an eye out for the group. He wants you to see what you want, so you will- all while staying with the class, or at least close to the class. If he, for some reason, were to lose sight of the class, he takes comfort in the fact that you wouldn’t be lost alone.

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blackstarising · 3 years

Text

coming back to this post i made again to elaborate - especially as the ted lasso fandom is discussing sam/rebecca and fandom racism in general. there are takes that are important to make that i had failed to previously, but there's also a growing amount of takes that i have to, As A Black Person™, respectfully disagree with.

tl;dr for the essay below sam being infantilized and the sam/rebecca relationship are not the same issue and discussing the former one doesn't mean excusing the latter. and we've reached the glen of the Dark Forest where we sit down and talk about fandom racism.

i should have elaborated this in my last post about sam/rebecca, but i didn't. i'll say it now - i personally don't support sam and rebecca getting together for real. i believe what people are saying is entirely correct, even though sam is an adult legally, he and rebecca are, at the very least, two wildly different stages of life. for americans, he's at the equivalent of being a junior in college. there are things he hasn't gotten the chance to experience and there are areas he needs to grow in. when i was younger, i didn't understand the significance of these age gaps, i just thought it would be fine if it was legal, but as someone who is now a little older than sam in universe, i understand fully. we can't downplay this. whether or not you think sam works for rebecca or not, even despite the gender inversion of the Older Man Younger Woman trope, whether or not he is a legal adult, i don't think at this point in time, their relationship would work. i think it's an interesting narrative device, but i don't want to see it play out in reality.

that being said!

what's worrying me is that two discussions are being conflated here that shouldn't be. sam having agency and being a little more grown™ than he's perceived to be does not suddenly make his relationship with rebecca justified. i had decided to bring it up because sam was being brought into the spotlight again and i was starting to realizing that his infantilization was more common than i felt comfortable with.

sam's infantilization (and i will continue to call it that), is a microaggression. it's is in the range of microaggressions that i would categorize as 'fandom overcompensation'. we have a prominent character of color that exhibits traits that aren't stereotypical, and we don't want to appear racist or stereotypical, so we lean hard in the other direction. they're not aggressive, they're a Sweet Baby, they're not world weary, they're now a little naive. they're not cold and distant, they're so nice and sweet that there's no one that wouldn't want approach them, and yeah, on their face, these new traits are a departure and, on their face, they seem they look really good.

but at a certain point, it reaches an inflection point, and, like the aftertaste of a diet coke, that alleged sweetness veers into something a lot less sweet. it veers into a lack of agency for the character. it veers into an innocence that appears to indicate that the person can't even take care of themselves. it veers into a one-dimensional characterization that doesn't allow for any depth or negative emotion.

it's not kind anymore. it's not a nice departure from negative stereotypes. it's not compensating for anything.

it's patronizing.

it is important that we emphasize that characters of color are more than the toxic stereotypes we lay on them, yes, but we make a mistake in thinking that the solution is overcorrection. for one thing, people of color can usually tell. don't get it twisted, it's actually pretty obvious. for another, it just shifts from one dimension to another. people of color are still supposed to be Only One Character Trait while white people can contain multitudes. ted, who is pretty much as pollyanna as they come, can be at once innocent and naive and deep and troubled and funny and scared. jamie can be a prick and sexy and also lonely and also a victim of abuse. sam, however, even though he was bullied (by jamie, no less), is thousands of miles away from home, and has led a protest on his team, is usually just characterized as human sunshine with much less acknowledgement of any other traits beyond that.

and that's why i cringe when fandom calls sam a Sweet Baby Boy without any sense of irony. is that all we're taking away? after all this time? even for a comedy, sam has received a substantive of screen time over two whole seasons, and we've seen a range of emotions from him. so as a black person it's hurtful that it's boiled down to Sweet Baby Boy.

that's the problem. we need to subvert stereotypes, but more importantly, we need to understand that people of color are not props, or pieces of cardboard for their white counterparts. they are full and actualized and have agency in their own right and they can have other emotions than Angry and Mean or Sweet and Bubbly without any nuance between the two. i think the show actually does a relatively good job of giving sam depth (relatively, always room for improvement, mind you), especially holding it in tension with his youth, but the fandom, i worry, does not.

it's the same reason why finn from star wars started out as the next male protagonist in the sequel trilogy but by the third movie was just running around yelling for REY!! it's the same reason why when people make Phase 4 Is the Phase For Therapy gifsets for the mcu and show wanda maximoff, loki, and bucky barnes crying and being sad but purposefully exclude sam wilson who had an entire show to tell us how difficult his life is, because people find out if pee oh sees are also complex, they'll tell the church.

and the reason why i picked up on this very early on is because i am an organic, certified fresh, 100% homegrown, non-gmo, a little ashy, indigenous sub saharan African black person. the ghanaian tribes i'm descended from have told me so, my black ass parents have told me so, and the nurses at the hospital in [insert asian country here] that started freaking out about how curly my hair was as my mother was mid pushing me out told me so!

and this stuff has real life implications. listen: being patronized as a black person sucks. do you know how many times i was patted on the back for doing quite honestly, the bare minimum in school? do you know how many times i was told how 'well spoken' or 'eloquent' i was because i just happen to have a white accent or use three syllable words? do you know how many times i've been cooed over by white women who couldn't get over how sweet i was just because i wasn't confrontational or rude like they wrongly expected me to be?

that's why they're called microaggressions. it's not a cross on your lawn or having the n-word spat in your face, but it cuts you down little by little until you're completely drained.

so that's the nuance. that's the subversion. the overcompensation is not a good thing. and people of color (and i suspect, even white people) have picked up on, in general, the different ways fandom treats sam and dani and even nate. what all of these discussions are converging on is fandom racism, which is not the diet form of racism, but another place for racism to reveal itself. and yeah, it's uncomfortable. it can seem out of left field. you may want to defend yourself. you may want to explain it away. but let me tap the sign on the proverbial bus:

if you are a white person, or a person of color who is not part of that racial group, even, you do not get to decide what is not racist for someone. full stop. there are no exceptions. there is no exit clause for you. there is no 'but, actually-'. that right wasn't even yours to cede or waive.

(it's also important to note that people of color also have the right to disagree on whether something is racist, but that doesn't necessarily negate the racism - it just means there's more to discuss and they can still leave with different interpretations)

people don't just whip out accusations of racism like a blue eyes white dragon in a yu-gi-oh duel. it's not fun for us. it's not something we like to do to muzzle people we don't want to engage with. and we're not concerned with making someone feel bad or ashamed. we're exposing something painful that we have to live with and, even worse, process literally everything we experience through. we can't turn it off. we can't be 'less sensitive' or 'less nitpicky'. we are literally the primary resources, we are the proverbial wikipedia articles with 3,000 sources when it comes to racism. who else would know more than us?

what 2020 has shown us very clearly is that racism is systemic. it's not always a bunch of Evil White Men rubbing their hands together in a dark room wondering how they're going to use the 'n-word' today. it's systemic. it's the way you call that one neighborhood 'sketchy'. it's how you use 'ratchet' and 'ghetto' when describing something bad. it's how you implicitly the assume the intelligence of your friend of color. it's the way you turned up your nose and your friend's food and bullied them for it in middle school but go to restaurants run by white people who have 'uplifted' it with inauthentic ingredients. it's telling someone how Well Spoken and Eloquent they are even though you've both gone to the same schools and work at the same workplace. it's the way you look down at some people of color for having a different body type than you because they've been redlined to neighborhoods where certain foods and resources are inaccessible, and yet mock up the racial features that appeal to you either through makeup or plastic surgery.

it's how when a person of color behaves badly, they're irredeemable, but a white person performing the same act or something similar is 'having a bad day' or 'isn't normally like this' or 'has room to grow' and we can't 'wait for their redemption arc', and yes, i'm not going to cover it in detail in this post but yes this is very much about nate. other people have also brought up the nuances in his arc and compared them to other white characters so i won't do it here.

these behaviors and reactions aren't planned. they aren't orchestrated. they're quite literally unconscious because they've been lovingly baked into western society for centuries. you can't wake up and be rid of it. whether you intended it or not, it can still be racist.

and it's actually quite hurtful and unfair to imply that concerns about racism in the TL fandom are unfounded or lacking any depth or simply meant to be sensational because you simply don't agree with it. i wish it was different, but it doesn't work that way. i'm not raising this up to 'call out' or shame people, but i'm adding to this discussion because, through how we talk about sam, and even dani and nate, i'm yet again seeing a pattern that has shortchanged people of color and made them feel unwelcome in fandom for far too long.

coach beard said it best: we need to do better.

#ted lasso #sam obisanya #ted lasso spoilers #fandom racism

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