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charmspoint · 3 years

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May...may we hear the rant about Yuuta and Rika being a battle couple?

I’m supposed to be asleep but i have no filter worth speaking of lmaooo. idk will this make any sense at all but I’m very passionate about this.

So I have wishes about how I want JJK to go, characters i want to survive and things i want to see happen. But my deepest, rawest, bottom of my maslow hierarchy of needs is that i want to see more of this shit

Because this? This is peak for me. It does not get better than a romance between a fuckin twink and his big buff monster girlfriend.

(If ur here from my sign language fics this might come out of the left field but i honestly have some feelings about those that could be their own mini rant so ill let it be)

I just adore this concept, this is my favorite partnership in jjk, fuckin if it counts under techniques its my favorite technique. I love monsters in general and I love exploring humans feeling like monsters and this is just like bringing it all together for me. Like, being allowed to be raw and ugly and monstrous and the other person still loving and cherishing you and feeling out for their own raw and ugly parts while they are with you. Being allowed to be something imperfect and fractured and not okay and being that together, the fierceness of love with teeth and claws. Idk if I’m making sense its 1am but that’s the shit tm.

Like I know I know I know half of Yuuta’s arc was about letting go of Rika but the heart wants what the heart wants. Most of what we’ve seen of Yuuta and Rika was a very master and servant dynamic, Yuuta leads and Rika follows and lends him her strength. And I want more. I want a proper, equal partnership, I want them to cooperate in fights easy as breathing, I want Rika just casually chilling with Yuuta around like a proper couple but she’s a big ass fuck off curse. Imagine how impactful and funny it would be if like one of the Kyoto kids spotted them just hanging out and was like ‘WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT’ and Yuuta was like ‘this is Rika, my gf :3′ Like the power move please. We have shikigami and we have curse users but Yuuta was the closet we go to actual partnership between a human and a curse and I WANT IT. It would be such a cool way to explore more of curse psychology (like half of my curse!Gojo fic is based on this premise), because Rika isn’t like Mahito n co who are fully able to verbalize and act somewhat human. She’s much more raw and feral but also obviously more intelligent then a normal curse (probably double so after V0....tho we still don’t know for sure wtf was that in Shibuya, if that was really Rika or ? something else) and I fuckin dig arcs about understanding each other despite not being able to understand each other, about getting across immense boundaries to work well together. I want something raw as it’s intimate, as feral as it’s loving. I want a couple that will give off ‘holy shit they scare me’ and ‘goals tbh’ vibe at the same time. Also I think it would be really really cool for a female love interest to just be a big fuck off monster that isn’t conventionally pretty in any conceivable way but that the main character is still smitten with.

Do I think this will actually happen in JJK? hHHH probably not in a way I want it to. We still have to figure out why is Rika here but they obviously arent acting as partners if the situation isn’t urgent and idk how much sense would it make for Yuuta’s character or the plot overall. Do I care? No, i call it my rawest wish for a reason there aint nothin logical or thought through about this, these are just my raw unfiltered emotions on this very specific thing i wanna see be done.

Idk if this made any sense at all, when v0 is animated ill cease being a person i promise you now

#anon #jujutsu kaisen #okkotsu yuuta #rika #lucy rants #i just want yuuta n rika against geto again #and again and again and again #that was the shit

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surreality51 · 5 years

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Guardian Meta: Love Song Edition

Can we talk about how the Guardian end credits song and the promo song are essentially love songs?

Disclaimer: In the great tradition of Western writers who think their opinion about things they have limited direct knowledge of matters, I’m about to screech about traditional Chinese views of love even though I am not from China nor do I know anyone who has lived in China past the age of 6. Everything I know about the matter comes from my Taiwan-born mother, whose relationship advice could be summed up as “never depend on a man.” You can guess what her love life has been like.

I’ve been listening to “Time Flight” and “Just Cared Too Much,” the promo song and end credits song from the Guardian drama respectively, on repeat lately and I just can’t get over how achingly romantic these two songs are. The opening theme song, “We Won’t Be Falling,” captures the can-do spirit of the SID team and the socialist brotherhood/power alliance between Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei that everyone associated with Guardian insists the show is really about, but the closing theme song and promo song will forever be the true songs for Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan to me and no one can convince me otherwise.

Just. look. at. these. fucking. lyrics:

*incoherent screeching*

It also doesn’t help that the official music video for “Time Flight/Flying Across Time” is nearly indistinguishable from the thousands of Weilan fanvids out there.

I mean, the first shot of Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei has them framed with wedding decorations. The video editors were...not subtle.

In an attempt to organize my thoughts around this topic, I’m going to take a step back and look at how the song lyrics reflect a traditional Chinese approach to love and why it’s impossible to interpret the songs as anything other than love songs (unless you’re a Chinese censor, in which case, yes, these songs are totally about platonic friendship).

Stereotypical Eastern vs Western Approaches to Love

Let’s face it, the stereotypical Chinese approach to love is practical nearly to the point of being mercenary. The first question any parent asks when presented with an offspring’s potential suitor is, “What’s his job? What are his prospects? What do his parents do?” In other words, who gives a fuck about things like personality or compatibility or feelings. Romance doesn’t put food on the table.

The concept of falling in love with someone and choosing your own partner is relatively new in Chinese culture and maybe imported from the West (someone back me up/correct me here, I’m too lazy to Google this). According to family lore, my great grandmother and her generation (born 1890s Fujian province, married 1910s) followed traditional practices around dowry and matchmaking, where essentially your parents pick your partner based on family relationships and social standing within the community. You get limited say in the matter.

Western ideals around love, attraction, passion, compatibility, personality, courtship, and romance were traditionally not factors in a relationship, at least in the beginning. Instead, traditional Chinese ideals value steadfastness, stability, loyalty, partnership, duty, responsibility, and a love that grows over time. Whereas Western depictions of love in modern media often focus on explosive passion, magnetic attraction, wild declarations, daring courage, individual charisma, finding that spark, and, in more modern relationships, choosing someone who fulfills your personal/emotional needs or as an avenue for self-actualization, love in traditional Chinese culture is steady, humble, something that grows out of mutual striving, something that takes root deeply and quietly through the day to day, like two trees slowly growing together until they are entwined.

In the Guardian web novel, Zhao Yunlan’s father expresses the traditional view of love during his discussion with Zhao Yunlan about his relationship with Shen Wei:

“Perhaps one day, when your hormonal levels are back to normal, you will regret this decision.” Zhao’s father maintains a calm and stately tone, relaxing and not at all intimidating. It’s much easier to persuade someone this way; he says, “Passion is attractive; I’ve been young. I know that feeling. But I don’t agree with difficult love, do you know why?”

[…]

“Love is strong yet frail; perhaps in the face of adversity, it can rise up with great power, transcending into a sort of exemplary ardour, and that is why it’s been praised since ancient times. But you have to remember the saying: ‘It isn’t the mountain ahead that wears you out; it is the grain of sand in your shoe’.”

[…]

“Difficult love can be overcome with perseverance and grit. But love has to subside eventually, have you thought of that?”

—excerpt from chapter 74, RainbowSe7en translation

Again, modern Chinese relationships are very different, where the feelings of the two people involved often do outweigh the views of the family, and relationships are viewed more as individual choices made for personal reasons rather than collective decisions made for the well-being of the whole family. As Zhao Yunlan expresses, the modern view of love is intimate and personal:

“Dad, I know what you mean, but there is always someone in your life, it’s not because of attraction, allure, obsession, or mere lust; it’s if you don’t treat this person right, then you’d feel like a worthless prick.”

—excerpt from chapter 74, RainbowSe7en translation

But my point is that love in Chinese tradition stems from a different perspective. It’s a perspective that views feelings as fleeting, romance as a luxury. It values durability over passion. True love is something that can withstand separation, hardship, and the long march of time. It is built on a foundation of duty to one another, responsibility, patience, loyalty, sacrifice, and a depth of feeling that does not necessarily need to be showy or even stated aloud, but that can be felt intensely in one’s heart and seen in one’s actions.

Themes in Guardian Theme Songs

Given this perspective on love, it’s a no-brainer that Guardian’s theme songs are love songs, but let’s dive into the lyrics anyways.

Note: all lyric translations are based on the Orange Biscuit Subs translation.

Separation

Chinese folktales and mythology is littered with stories of tragic love and separation. It seems like the more tragic the love story, the more popular it is, and parents loooooooove to tell these tales to their kids. (WTF, China? No wonder Chinese dramas are so overdramatic.) One story that my family liked to tell for the Mid-Autumn Festival is the story of Hou Yi and Chang’e. We would stand outside in the backyard and look up at the harvest moon, and my mother would tell us the tale of how Chang’e sacrificed herself by swallowing the pill of immortality and floated up to the moon, where she lives forever alone, yearning for her husband Hou Yi on earth.

Another very well-known tale is the story of the cowherd and the weaver girl. Per Wikipedia:

The tale of the cowherd and the weaver girl is a love story between Zhinü (織女; the weaver girl, symbolizing the star Vega) and Niulang (牛郎; the cowherd, symbolizing the star Altair).[3] Their love was not allowed, thus they were banished to opposite sides of the Silver River (symbolizing the Milky Way).[3][4] Once a year, on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, a flock of magpies would form a bridge to reunite the lovers for one day.[3]

Yep, separated lovers get to be together for one whole day of the year. This is peak Chinese RomanceTM.

Given this cultural context, the ending of Guardian, with its brief reunion and the promise between Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan to meet again in another life, is considered not only tragic, but could potentially be read as extremely romantic:

Their mutual pact to one day meet again echoes the themes of separation and reunion that form the backbone of so many Chinese love stories:

Then there’s the fact that “Time Flight” is playing in the background of this whole scene, which very unsubtly shows that the song is specifically written about the drama ending and about Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan. I mean, there’s dialogue in the scene that matches the lyrics for chrissakes:

Steadfastness, stability, loyalty, resoluteness

Related to the theme of separation, another favorite trope of Chinese romance is the steadfast lover who awaits news of her beloved (it’s usually the woman who does the waiting while the man rides off to war or whatnot) without losing hope. The chorus from “Time Flight” includes this concept of waiting for news while keeping the faith, but what’s really interesting to me is how things shift from the first chorus to the third.

In the first chorus (above), it’s Bai Yu singing the lines. In the second chorus, Bai Yu and Zhu Yilong share them. In the third closing chorus, they share the chorus again, but the lyrics change slightly:

We know that repetition and variation are significant in poetry and lyrics, so we need to pay attention to how this change affects the meaning of the song. I’d quibble with the translation just a bit, because there’s a difference between “deng yi ge xiao xi” vs “deng ni de xiao xi.” The former uses “yi ge,” which is generalized, i.e. “I’ve been here waiting for news.” The “from you” is implied but not stated explicitly. But in the third chorus, the lyrics change to “ni de,” which is explicit, i.e. “I’m waiting for your news.” It’s a lovely shift that makes a common romantic trope even more specific and personal.

The final line is also a shift, taking the last line of the chorus and changing it from “flying together” (yi qi = together / fei xing = flying) to “I remain in the same place.”

Those last few words deserve some unpacking, since video subtitles can’t fully capture all the context and implied meanings of such a dense language as Chinese. “Yuan di” is not just “same place,” but also “original place,” or “where I’ve been all along.” There are multiple ways to read this, from “Across time, I have remained in this spot unmoving, waiting for you,” which speaks to those themes of loyalty, hope, and steadfastness. Or “Across time, I have not gone anywhere, so you can always find me here,” which speaks to themes of hope for your loved one’s return and optimism about reuniting.

However you want to read that last line, you can’t ignore how it plays into the romantic trope of keeping the faith for your beloved and awaiting their return.

Words Unsaid

I didn’t notice until I started writing this giant brain dump of an essay that the first word here is “zao,” meaning “early.” So that chorus line could be interpreted as “Knowing from the start that we would be separated.” I just….can’t with these lyrics.

Anyways, we know that what’s left unsaid is often more powerful than what’s been said aloud, and you can see it in these lyrics here. Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei never say “I love you,” but it’s implied in all of their actions and looks, and it’s one of the primary plot drivers of the ending of the Guardian drama. As @riceworkshop discussed in this fascinating meta on Dreamwidth, it’s the selfishness of that love and Shen Wei’s choice to essentially use his life force to heal Zhao Yunlan’s eyes—putting the individual before the whole, his feelings and needs before duty—that cripples him and leaves him an unequal match to Ye Zun. But their love remains unspoken, largely due to Chinese censorship but also partially due to the whole “two people from different worlds/this can only end in tragedy” thing.

In the novel, Shen Wei knows explicitly from the beginning that anything between them can’t last and will only lead to ruin. In the drama the situation is different, but he no doubt senses that their time is limited, given the clues about Ye Zun’s coming and the fact that he already lost Kunlun/Zhao Yunlan once. When it comes down to it, “Just Cared Too Much” is literally the crux of Shen Wei’s problem.

(It’s Zhao Yunlan’s problem too, because if he weren’t so in love with Shen Wei, then he wouldn’t have gone back in time and looked at young Shen Wei like this:

And like this:

And said things like this:

Which caused young Shen Wei to fall madly in love with him.)

In Conclusion

In conclusion, China loves tragic romance and keeping soulmates apart for shits and giggles, Guardian’s theme songs are love songs, and I have spent way too much time thinking about Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei’s stupid faces.

#guardian meta #guardian tv #lyric analysis #ow my heart #weilan #shen wei #zhao yunlan #this is why I keep crying over Guardian

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n7soldiered · 5 years

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CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRE note: I'm crazy busy these days and am getting zero sleep. Worked on this for the past couple of days but my clarity has been fluctuating. I'm sorry if some of this makes little sense or contradicts. I promise I’ll go back to fix this later. I'm just really tired/stressed working overtime. Also, please note that much of this is dictated by interaction, too. It’s obvious who John is closest to.

GENERAL

NAME: John ‘Anderson’ Shepard. ALIAS(ES): n/a AGE: 29 — PLACE OF BIRTH: Shepard was born somewhere on earth. I haven’t worked out the circumstances yet. As far as I’m concerned, he grew up somewhere in Canada because he speaks with a hint of Canadian dialect. I mean, Meer is Canadian, so it makes sense, y’know? I was thinking about following Vanderloo’s origins, have him hail from the Western Netherlands just to shake things up, but, I don’t think it matches as well as having him come from Canada. The accent is just too important a detail to ignore. If I remember correctly, canon states Shepard is from Canada?

SPOKEN LANGUAGES: It actually took an extensive amount of research for me to work this out. I’ve learned that I know nothing about Canada and wow, there are a lot of languages spoken there. According to many statistical charts, I’d found online, John’s accent isn’t strong enough for me to assume he’s from eastern Canada. He probably grew up somewhere in the heart of Canada ( just like Meer’s birthplace ), toward the west coast but not too far out.

So, Shepard is fluent in English, Canadian French, and struggles only slightly with metropolitan ( modern ) French, mainly in correcting his inflection and intonation. Sometimes he forgets how informal he is with his speech, but he’s quick to adjust. He’s also thoroughly acquainted with slang-speech. He learned most, if not all, of his French while growing up on the streets.

I also have this little developing headcanon about John and other alien languages. If there’s a chance he can vocalize the tones required, he’ll want to learn a few words. Maybe even ditch the translator sometimes if he gets good enough, just for the hell of it. Shepard loves a good challenge and he likes to learn about other cultures. He’s rather open-minded and adventurous in that sense.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: John is a demiromantic pansexual, borderline demisexual, if not demisexual, in his adult years. However, that isn’t to say he didn’t have his fair share of flings. By the time he hit the academy, and subsequently, ICT, romance just wasn’t something he had time for. And that served to develop demisexual traits. OCCUPATION: Alliance soldier, Commander, Spectre.

APPEARANCE

EYE COLOR: blue. HAIR COLOR: brown. HEIGHT: 6’2″. SCARS: While I’ve always thought the renegade scars are a cool aesthetic to have, it’s never made any sense to me that the scars are completely limited to their face ( in-game )? John had never put forth the resources to completely heal his facial scarring. You shouldn’t have to squint to see them. If you look, they’re there. Not prominent, but there. When experiencing high emotions or anger, his scars glow orange ‘neath the skin.

Also, please note that the location of John’s scarring correlates with the game’s canon cinematic ( yes, I examined the cinematic for way too long lmao ). The worst of his scarring is located on his chest, midsection, left back, and around and under the armpit. They’d operated around there the most, with the goal of preserving his heart. His right collarbone was completely removed, as well as the bones in his right wrist and shoulder. Scars rope his right arm, starting from the wrist to the upper shoulder. After having been obliterated upon surface impact, his left knee had received a prosthetic. Both femur bones, one right finger, and three left fingers are prosthetics. ... He has a lot of prosthetics. I’m still working on this one, though. Post-reaper war, his prosthesis fuck up his gait. After investing much time in physiotherapy, he discards the wheelchair and adopts a walking cane.

FAVORITE

Wow. I haven’t thought about any of this before so please, bear with me as we get through this. Though I doubt I’ll be changing much, some of these headcanons are subject to change as I develop John.

COLOR: Blue—light blues. Baby blue. Pastel pinks. Pastels(???). I don’t think he cares for extremely dark colors or anything neon. The aesthetic of neon lights reminds him of his childhood, ‘home’, but there’s no fondness tied to the remembrance. HAIR COLOR: Disregarding personal attraction entirely, he thinks blond hair is pretty. Pure. EYE COLOR: I don’t know why this detail amuses me so much but—blue. I suppose there’s a bit of narcissistic bias on his part in that, but, if there’s one thing John likes about himself, it’s his blue eyes. Since that seemed kinda predictable, I’ll point out that aside from blue, hazel eyes fascinate him. Jane and Jyn’s bright green eyes are beautiful to him, and when the light catches just right, Kaidan’s eyes shine an amber gold. And that, my friends, blows the dude’s fuckin’ mind, I swear. Having blue eyes for all his life, it’s enthralling for John to see a weave of green and brown in someone’s gaze. It’s the little things, y’know?

ENTERTAINMENT: This is a ridiculously broad question. When condensed into a measure of a few days, or even a few hours, shore leave doesn’t often provide John enough unfettered time to seek a means of entertainment. He’s kind of a workaholic. However, if there is time on his hands, it’s spent catching up with friends. Maintaining relationships is an absolute priority for John. Regardless of the era, without his companions and loved ones, he wouldn’t have made it this far in life. He feels like he owes it to them to visit and put in some quality time, hanging out and just chatting. I’d imagine they’d go out and eat, go see the latest action vid or whatever. PASTIME: What annoys me the most about this question is that no matter how I explain what Shepard enjoys doing in his free time, he’ll still seem like a complete square. … Like I said, he doesn’t get enough free time as it is. If he isn’t working on reports and whatever paperwork the alliance swamped him with, he’s working out, eating, or getting some goddamned sleep for once.

FOOD: GOD. THIS IS THE HARDEST QUESTION IN THE UNIVERSE WTF. Okay, after dropping another day into thinking about this—and I know I’m going a bit off tangent—I’ve come to the conclusion that John is a Fool.

As awful as it sounds, he prefers eating ration bars, and he eats them way too often. I'm not saying he likes them, I’m saying he prefers them. Although they’re mostly kept for when they’re on the front lines, ration bars aren‘t thirst provoking and they’re nutrient dense, which pass them as ideal for his backward-stupid mindset.

With approximately 4,000 calories packed into a block, he can just shove that in his face and go straight back to work.

It’s also imperative to understand that good tasting food will be eaten too fast; they recommend bad tasting emergency food as it will be eaten only when necessary. John ‘prefers’ to eat bars of chalk, apparently.

When it comes to normal food, John relishes any chance to eat meat. He loves comfort foods such as ribs, steak, mac and cheese, bacon, ham, mashed potatoes, chicken-anything etc. High-calorie count dishes don’t faze him. He could clean out someone’s fridge in one go. On the sweet spectrum ... While he isn’t big on sweets like ice-cream and decadent cakes, that doesn’t mean he’ll turn them down. John didn’t get to have those things as a kid.

He also likes dessert pastries. They’re tiny and delicate and he has trouble bringing himself to eat carefully decorated ones. Has a soft spot for sweet cinnamon and custard-anything. Likes cinnamon rolls and pecan pie. A lover of brown sugar. Still doesn’t know what ‘the hell a macaroon is. Someone buy him a macaroon.

DRINK: I don’t see John as someone who drinks soda regularly. His go-to drinks are water, fruit juices, and tea. As someone who doesn’t drink alcohol, therefore cannot contribute much firsthand knowledge to this headcanon aside from providing detailed descriptions of the taste from various sources, I believe John appreciates good whiskey. Bourbons, if you want to get specific. Ryes on a good day, and rums, on the nights he knows he can kick back without worrying about the next morning. Gin and vodka, on the undoubtedly bad nights.

Still, I don’t really see him as someone who gets absolutely hammered on purpose. Although whiskey will lead to a much worse hangover, even if ingested carefully, something tells me he just doesn’t care for much else? If he drinks, he’d rather the drink taste good.

BOOKS: [ answered ] you mean the concept of shepard, having enough free time on his hands to read a book? sorry, but you’ve got the wrong shepard. i’ll be frank, i doubt he cares much for reading books, less if it’s fiction. unless there’s intel to gain that will aid in his current objective, even biographies don’t make the cut. john reads news reports and mission debriefings … sometimes, if he’s feeling up to it. once again, content relevance and long-term value are what sways shepard’s interest in engagement. besides, he enjoys vids way more than books. less quiet. less boring.

HAVE THEY

PASSED UNIVERSITY: no. HAD SEX: … yes. HAD SEX IN PUBLIC: no. GOTTEN SOMEONE PREGNANT: no. KISSED A MAN: yes. KISSED A WOMAN: yes. GOTTEN TATTOOS: I’m still thinking about this one. perhaps, from jack. GOTTEN PIERCINGS: He’s thought about it as a young, reckless teen, but no. In a normal modern verse, he’s pierced his ears. HAD A BROKEN HEART: Uh. The closest thing John’s had to a ‘broken heart’ is when Kaidan had spurned his offer to join the Normandy SR-2 on Horizon. However, the sentiment had been a direct contradiction to his beliefs at the time. Despite John’s reliable sense of optimism, he had been certain he would die destroying the collector base. The fact that Kaidan decided against joining had eased as much as it had crushed his spirit.

Also can’t forget his reunion with Liara. When she’d kissed him upon reuniting but chose to follow her work instead of leaving with him, he’d felt bitter inside. While he realized she had more important things to handle at the time, John was butthurt. You kinda can’t blame him.

BEEN IN LOVE: Yes. But only after he’d met his ‘canon romance’. John only knew of ‘puppy-love’ before then. STAYED UP FOR MORE THAN 24 HOURS: definitely.

ARE THEY

A VIRGIN: Why would you ask this when, in just the previous section, you inquired if he’s ever had sex? Omg this meme. I suppose I could delve into this, then. Oh, let me just mention, John is ... really, terribly oblivious sometimes. Given his background and his comparatively early admittance into the alliance military, he simply hadn’t garnered enough experience with the normality of intimacy in relationships, be it casual or not. I bet a lot of the social cues flew right over his head.

When individuals came on to him, which did happen a handful of times while in ICT, it was painfully obvious what they wanted, but John was never convinced until they’d slapped down an outright offer. I have a good feeling he lost his virginity around this time of his life. These experiences were more like one-night stands. Extremely cut and dry affairs since most were more focused on getting off rather than expecting something out of it. A CUDDLER: Yes. The little spoon, too haha p: A KISSER: I mean. Does he have lips?? Of course, he likes to kiss. I dunno if he’s much of any good at it... But John’s good at everything he does so. A SMOKER: In his youth, yes. SCARED EASILY: Goddamn right, Shepard gets scared easily. And his fear manifests in a remarkably strange manner if you ask me. But first, I must address what constitutes as ‘scary’. What Shepard faces on a regular basis is life-threatening so, we’ll be disregarding trivial things like horror movies etc ... Fear, for John, evolves into driving factors for him, motivation—for lack of better wording. If anyone—or anything—happens to threaten his loved ones, especially, while he isn’t there to do something about it, himself, Shepard is prone to all manners of violence and extreme behavior. In short, John gets fucking pissed when he’s truly scared.

JEALOUS EASILY: John is. ... Possessive. And I say that with a measure of self-conflict as well, because I don’t think he’s possessive either. It might just be too soon to know. From what I’ve gleaned off his temperament, and his intermittent displays of headstrong aggression, he demonstrates jealousy and possessiveness only when driven too far.

John is a patient man, but he’s far from a saint.

Let’s just say, for example, his lover decides to chat up another individual. Just an amicable discussion. However, that individual seems to inch closer and closer to his lover. Combine that with some not-so-friendly-touches and his lover, made uncomfortable by that, and you will have John seeing red. God, forbid the situation ever flips the other way around. I don’t imagine he’d take infidelity well... Trust is everything to John. TRUSTWORTHY: You won’t find a more loyal, reliable, and honest man. DOMINANT: Oh, god. This is one I’ve been experiencing trouble figuring out. John is ‘dominant’ for reasons that are obvious. He’s a ranking officer; a commander; a spectre, a captain, and above all, a leader. No matter how you crop it, John is a dominant force to be reckoned with. Hmmm. However, when loved ones are involved, and the situation is domestic and not dangerous, John is rendered useless lmao. Around the right people, he’s softhearted and ridiculously malleable. If they asked, he’d bend over backward for them. But only for them, y’know? SUBMISSIVE: I — o h. ... This is awkward. I only just now realized there might be a sexual theme to ‘dominant’ and ‘submissive’. Wow. Okay, well, I’m not gonna get too into that. John is malleable around loved ones. That’s really all there is to it. So far, Jane, Kaidan, and Ryan have him wrapped around their fingers. SINGLE: ( verse dependent ).

RANDOM QUESTIONS

WANTED TO KILL SOMEONE: yes. ACTUALLY KILLED SOMEONE: the count is steeper than he’d like. RIDDEN A BEAST: … Yes? I bet he asked Wrex to piggyback him once. Probably got headbutted instead. And I have no doubt that grunt had to piggyback him when injured. HAVE/HAD A JOB: yes. HAVE ANY FEARS: lkfkjlsflkd. For now, I will list a couple of things because, once again, these are things I’ve only vaguely speculated rather than fully explored.

1. failure. 2. here, have one he reveals himself: ❝ I’M NOT AFRAID TO DIE. ❞ shepard held their eyes, aware they could see straight into the shadows at the bottom of his gaze, and all the harshly controlled thoughts and fears that burned there. he felt the rush of cool air brush against his cheek, and the shift of reality began to decline like the tides of VIRMIRE, falling back from every nerve. john plunged himself into it, down uncertain contours of dislodged sentiments and reverent possibilities on the rise, moving in a disorganized flurry, windswept within his mind.

another distant look in the commander’s eyes. perhaps, fighting one of the many battles that never showed. ❝ i’m afraid of SURVIVING. getting to the end of this fucking war, only to find out i’m ALONE. that everyone I knew and cared for is GONE ! ❞

FAMILY

SIBLING(s): Jane Shepard, Ryan Shepard. ( twins | verse dependent ). canon: none PARENTS: David Anderson. ( adoptive father | verse dependent ) canon: none CHILDREN: none. ( verse dependent? ) canon: none PETS: I will be featuring his pets in a completely different post. TAGGED BY: @risenspectre Thank you! TAGGING: @littleredrenegade @sentinelmade @therevcnant @kyberborne

#( . my favorite one is the food headcanon. i loved this. thank you for tagging me once again. i enjoy writing these so much sdfjlksdf #✯*:･ﾟ ❝ ɪ'ᴠᴇ ʜᴀᴅ ᴇɴᴏᴜɢʜ ᴏғ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴛᴀʙʟᴏɪᴅ ᴊᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟ��sᴍ! ❞ [ headcanons ]#ᴀ ʙʀᴇᴀᴄʜ ᴏғ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴏᴄᴏʟ│✯*:･ﾟ[ musings ]#( . im just hoping to god any of this makes sense #( . i've caught so many mistakes / moments where i rambled about NOTHING that i had to delete a bunch of what i wrote #( . fml.

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