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elia-liendy · 7 months

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A little analysis about Beelzebub

I'm liking the game a lot and one of my favourite characters is Beelzebub, so I wanted to do a little analysis of his character based on the little information that we have currently of information about him.

Spoiler warning about the personal story about Beelzebub (Selfie) card (part 1 and part 2) and the comics of : Bael, Beelzebub (selfie), Amon.

Leak waring about Beelzebub butt card.

I currently never met Beelzebub in the main story, I'm on chapter 2 and stuck as I am writing this.

But I also think that we never met Beelzebub to all the 4 chapter available at the moment because if you go to 'album', you can see which GC you have and how many you missed it and of who you missed it. And there isn't yet an option about him or Abyssos/Avisos.

I think Beelzebub himself will show for the first time or at Gehenna or Tartaros, since in his description it says to spend most of his time there, but only later we will have to seriously have his "kingdom arc".

Before talking completely about Beelzebub I want first to talk about his kingdom, because I think, even minimally, that each kingdom represents/reflect it's king personality and doings.

(honestly I don't understand if his kingdom is called Abyssos or Avisos, but I will use the first to name the kingdom and the second the organisation)

In Abyssos there is an entertainment district and a casino, the existence of these things, makes me connect that Beelzebub is a party animal, and consider having fun something really important or something of his begin as a person.

In fact in the comics we see a Beelzebub that is always doing something fun such as begin on the beach/vacation (Amon comic) or hanging out whit the other kings (levithan selfie & mammon butt comics).

And seeing him in one of his many tentative of run away from his job and responsibility as king, and failing this time. (Beelzebub Selfie)

[immagini 2]

I put this last image not only cause Beelzebub looks like a fucking chad, which is hilarious to me.

But also it shows the "darker" side of him, better to say that it shows Beelzebub strength and serious side of him and the fact he actually do his job.

And made me also think about Beelzebub not using his power while he is trying to run away in his selfie comic. Could he not wanted fully to run away? Or wanted to have a little distraction before continuing to work and wanting to actually get cached? Or he just doesn't use his power to run away cause he fully believe/knows he is able to run away whitout using them?

I'm saying this cause he was catched whit s bear hug, and it's said in his description that his powers doesn't follow any kind of laws, and if he wanted really, really to "escape" he could have use it easily.

I also recently discovered that after Solomon death (B.C. 931) Beelzebub decided to completely run away from his kingdom and never stepping on it again, or at least till now.

In Bael description it says that Beelzebub is specifically targeted by angels, and since Bael takes Beelzebub identity, he have to fight all the angels that come to Beelzebub. But why he have to do so??

Not long ago I read a theory that says the reason why Beelzebub is Always on the run since B.C. 931 and targeted by angels it's because he is involved to the death of God and Solomon.

I would also add one of my personal theory: remembering Solomon death lead all the demons he made a pact whit, extremely restrained by the contract still existing.

And I believe that Beelzebub is one of the Demons that got extremely weak and/or unable to use his power, making him a really easy target for angels, reasons why Bael has taken his identity, is it to protect Beelzebub by angels since he still can use his power.

But at the same time Bael made believe to the angels he is Beelzebub, Abyssos civilians seem knows that right now, at the "throne" there is Bael replacing Beelzebub since they miss Beelzebub. (Abyssos description)

But I could completely wrong, we really don't know actually the reason why and I hope in the future we will get an answer about it.

I also think that only whit MC influence in future chapter he will return back to Abyssos, after breaking solomon contract and/or whit some persuasion.

Or not, Beelzebub is a impulsive and unpredictable person that does what he wants most of the time, like 9 time out of 10.

but I think he will return, because even very subtly it is shown that Beelzebub cares about his his people and kingdom.

He personally gives piercing all Abyssos citizens to shown that they are from Abyssos.

And I also read somewhere that Beelzebub doesn't scribble on Abyssos walls (I don't remember if this last thing is canon or a headcanon, so take this information whit a grain of salt)

But it's shown more than once his care for his friend Bael.

Bael comic is one of my favourite comic at the moment.

I love how it shows Beelzebub and Bael relationship, I love it how's it show a new side Beelzebub personality and his guilt, and I love that last panel of Bael smiling and the little drawing.

Specifying more, I want talk about Beelzebub guilt and behaviour in this comic.

The comic shows Beelzebub feelings about the situation of Bael using his identity:

Whit a flashback to, what I think is, the first time Bael impersonated Beelzebub.

It shows Beelzebub shock as he see Bael taking his identity in front of the angels and also it show Beelzebub running away from the fight as he is begin called a coward by other Devils and Beelzebub insulting himself as he is running away (and when he returns back to bael completely wounded by the angels).

I'm sure there is a specific reason to why Beelzebub acted this way, especially cause on the Amon comic there is a Beelzebub that isn't scared of fighting or is weak that it have to run away.

Here I will stand again on my theory of how Beelzebub can't use his power because of the pact he made whit solomon and his death.

I also want to talk about how at first Beelzebub was exited to talk whit Bael about a back joint therapy in Gehenna that he wanted to do at first, but taken back his words whit a "I'm not actually serious about it, I'm joking/only talking about it".

remembering to the fact how this can mean such a burden to Bael since he is impersonating him, and how they need have minimal differences.

after Bael decides to change topic whit a joke saying "if you want to change your look, why don't we dye hair together (implied of the same colour) " to lighten up Beelzebub mood.

In the comics it look like Beelzebub his a person that hide his problems behind his extroverted personality and momentarily forgets about his problems as he distract himself to wait pick his interest.

Going to the next topic, I want to talk about his description.

Free - mysterious - doesn't follow rules - hearty and lovely

Are key words on his description that catch my eyes the most and I want to analyse each one for themselves:

Free - we can see many times how much he is a free spirited person, not really linking to work and always on the run in search of entertainment and something that catches his eyes, this is also why on the same day you can see him in two different countrys.

Mysterious - more than mysterious, he is pragmatic, a bit hard to read at first, and since always on the run you never know what going on whit him and inside his head.

Doesn't follow rules - I think this is self explanatory.

Hearty and lovely - WHERE?????? BECAUSE FOR NEITHER IN HIS SELFIE CARD HE IS?? HE IS MORE OF A BITCH THAN LOVELY.

Seriously the first time I read the story (part 1) I literally wanted to punch him in the face. (I still do every time I re-read part 1)

I really don't understand this, since it's never shown this part of his personality or hinted.

Even considering Bael comic, he doesn't really look or act "hearty and lovely", he is acting more of a person that cares about his friend.

In the 2nd part of the story( still Beelzebub Selfie card), MC and Beelzebub begin to do the doings and he encourage MC as MC takes their times, but he isn't "hearty and lovely" even there.

He is for sure a flirt and kind of a bastard in the first part. While in the second, he is kind of patient, he doesn't make fun of MC "inexperience" and even encourage MC to continue and go harder.

Which I really liked, not in a horny way, but liked in "enjoying the character personality" way, and honestly before reading the second part I trough he would make fun and insults MC in a kinky way, but he didn't which surprised me in a positive way.

Maybe in the future it will show his "hearty and lovely" side, but for now that side doesn't exist or is hidden very well.

Plus at the end I wanna talk about his Butt card:

At first in the card I looked at his (ass) crying face, seeing him acting this "childish" because of a syringe, made me consider if Beelzebub have a "childish" personality. It true since he scribble everywhere, and he doesn't to his job (homework), but he doesn't really look that childish, more than acting like a kid, he acts more of late teenager that doesn't want to study and go to the disco

But then I got confused, is he scared of needles? I don't really thinks so since he have his ears pierced, and he himself pierce every Abyssos civilians, he shouldn't be scared of needles. Is he scared on needles only when it's about syringe???

Recap of Beelzebub personality:

Beelzebub is impulsive and blunt person that loves to have fun and always on the run of that fun and never following any kind of rules as he loves his own way of freedom.

But also a person that under his care free personality shows his depth as character: affection to the people he cares, even guilt and regret to his own action to even call himself as "useless" to the fact he isn't able to help his friends and even Kingdom that tries to hide by his party animal personality.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I really hope whit this Recap of his personality, I didn't watered down my whole analysis.

I finally finished my analysis and I wanted to thank you to everyone who read this and also to say sorry about:

the possible grammar errors, miss typo and repetition, I tried my best to write something that have a sense.

the possibility that this analysis may be superficial, which is something I really didn't want to do.

#what in “Hell” is Bad?#what in hell is bad #wihib #whb #whb beelzebub #whb beel #beelzebub #Abyssos #Avisos #character analysis #analysis

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royboyfanpage · 3 months

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mia dearden for character ask pleasee

Tysm for the ask!

First impression: "reading Mia's introduction and why is she literally the only DC character with common sense" -quote from my GC.

Impression now: OUGH such a well-written character, the parallels between her and Roy, her dynamic with Ollie, being a teenage girl who's actually written LIKE a teenage girl, going through so much and turning it around as fuel to fight for good... chef's kiss.

Favourite moment: honestly still gotta say her introduction. Immediately calling Ollie out for being Green Arrow and just inserting herself into his life. Sometimes if the sad old man won't adopt you, you need to adopt him.

Idea for a story: Her and Roy actually getting to talk in length, talking about the differences between their Speedy runs... maybe a sibling hug?

Unpopular opinion: Not sure how unpopular this is, but Mia had a more compelling Speedy arc than Roy. Sure Roy had more Big Moments, but he was also Speedy for like 40 years.

Favourite relationship: her and Ollie. That's his daughter <3

Favourite headcanon: not sure if this means in the fandom or me personally, but I hc that Mia absolutely will call Ollie and Roy old for mentioning anything from before she was born. They mention a film that was released like, the year before she was born, and she'll be like "okay boomer".

#thank you for the ask!!#mia dearden #speedy

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onlyjaeyun · 8 months

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Sorry if my other ask sent multiple times, tumblr was glitching and then acted like it sent like 3 times. Some more Poison headcannons, first how I see them meeting their s/o:

Jake would end up falling love with one of the girls from y/n friend group, who idk, I just know it would be one of them. The two would probably constantly argue and everyone would think they hate each other. The two would run into each other at a club one night, Jake seeing some guy making her uncomfortable, and he has to go help her, since he wouldn't want to leave any girl in a bad position. After getting her away from the guy, she's all it was a blind date but he was really mean and all, and Jake's all don't settle for less you deserve the best, and the two of them end up going out for some ramen since it's so late, and both are just like maybe you aren't that bad. The two then start coming up with reasons to hang out, not either wanting to admit they want to hang out, Jake would invite the boys then tell them all to cancel, meanwhile she's inviting the girls and telling them to all cancel. After a few months, she finally makes the first move, asking Jake if he wants to go on a date date. And before long everyone is just like we thought you hated each other, and they are just like oh what you see in the gc is just banter, I can't let you think since I'm in love with them I'm also not gonna tell them how it is.

Jay would meet someone at work, it starts awkward since you know he's all I don't wanna date my coworker I think that's illegal or something. But Jay ends up leaving that job for a better paying job, during his going away party, the two of them end up talking, and Jay finally asks them out, like damn this sexual tension is a bit too much. They go out and really hit it off, and it's just great. They work in the same industry, granted different departments, so there is no conflict of interest, and the two of them are just so in love.

Sunoo moves to live with Jungwon when Jungwon's boss has a sudden opening at their job, Jungwon immediately talks the boss into hiring Sunoo; it means he gets to move in with Jungwon until he gets his own apartment, he will get paid like twice the amount as where he was, and he immediately takes it. Sunoo's a soft boy, so he would probably fall in love with the girl that makes his daily coffee at the cafe he stops every morning. He has a bad day when she's off work, no one else can make his coffee just like her, and he doesn't want to see creepy by asking for her name or anything, so he just sorta likes her from afar. She makes his coffee so often, she has is ready for him before he even enters, knowing what time he comes in daily. It isn't until he goes with Niki one day, Niki immediately says oh is that the barista you think is hot, she's kinda fine bro; it immediately embarrasses Sunoo, he can't even look at her as she makes his coffee, and then as he's leaving he finds a note on his cup, saying 'I think you're kinda hot too, call me xxx'. And Sunoo starts his love arc with the hot barista, and honestly, takes Niki out for food since if it wasn't for him, he would have never had the guts to ask for her number.

Jungwon is a very involved parent for someone that has no children, Heeseung and Sunghoon mention anything and Jungwon is like yes, of course I'll come support my favorite nieces and nephews. He would run into this one person at an event, thinking nothing much of it, assuming she was just another parent. They kinda hit it off, but he doesn't take it seriously, after all this is a PTA event, she must be a parent with a husband and a child; it isn't until Heeseung and y/n's daughter is like 'oh that's my teacher' only then does Jungwon notice the lack of a ring on that finger. He wants to shoot his shot, but doesn't want to make things awkward for his niece. He would not see her again until Heeseung has the flu and cannot help with an event, Sunghoon immediately recruiting Jungwon to fill in for Heeseung, the event has the parents working with the teachers, and Sunghoon pulls a few cords and put some prime eligible singles together hoping they hit off, also he noticed how Jungwon stared at her like a lovesick puppy the first time they met, and honestly, y/n saw it too and bothered Sunghoon until he agreed to pair the two of them up. The two enjoy being around each other so much, once the event is over, Jungwon immediately asks her if she'd like to grab dinner with him, and she easily agrees, feeling the same as he does. Soon dinner turns into a date, and before long, that finger is no longer vacant of a ring.

Niki moves to live with Sunoo when Sunoo shares his roommate ghosts him after he gets a girlfriend, Sunoo can afford rent, but would rather had a bit of fun money and would prefer someone else instead of just the second bedroom being empty. Sunoo suggesting to Niki he could probably find a hirer paying job here and move here, which Niki quickly does. Niki would be employed at a dance studio, that's where he would meet her, she was dancing, and he was starstuck. People say time stops when you see the love of your life, and for Niki, he would have swore his heart stopped and all time did, since his breath was taken away, and he saw nothing but her. She was the owner of the studio, and despite the two of them claiming they would only have a professional relationship, both quickly abandon that, since they have more common than just their love of dance, namely their love for one another. And soon, he's not just an employee, but a co-owner, and they are opening more dance studios.

Now, now many kids I envision in futures:

Hee and y/n I see having 3 kids, their daughter and twin sons. The sons are fraternal however, one being a copy of Hee and the other one is all Park genes and looks so much like Sunghoon, people honestly think he's his.

Hoon and Ning I see having 2, their oldest will be a son, born the same time as the twins, this child is all Park as well, everyone thinks he and Hee's twin are twins, but nah. The other, I see being a girl, and Hoon is absolutely wrapped around her little finger, she can do whatever and he would allow it, Ning has to be the structure.

Jake I see two kids, the oldest is a boy and the youngest is a boy too, Jake is an all boy dad, like pray for his wife she's outnumbered. He would teach all his boys all the sports he loves, they would be so athletic, and he would make sure his boys feel loved and would raise little gentlemen.

Jay I see two children as well, the oldest is a boy, and the youngest is a girl. Jay is a girl dad, like girl dad all the way, would be that dad that does his daughter's hair and treats her like a princess. Would treat his wife and daughter to spa dates once a month, and one that day he would take his son somewhere he wants, usually something like paintball.

Sunoo I see exactly a child and approximately 5 ferrets. The child is a girl, their daughter is a carbon copy of her mom, but got the attitude of her dad. I also see the barista he falls for being an artsy girl that doesn't like normal pets like cats or dogs, she wants to get a snake but Sunoo says no, so instead they settle on ferrets and get one, but then they gotta get him a buddy and before they know it they got 5 ferrets.

Jungwon jokes that all his wives students are his children, but he and her actually end up having three children, I see Jungwon being a girl dad to the max, initially he wants a son a Jungwon jr., but instead gets 3 daughters, triplets to make it worst, after that, he and his wife and just like nope, no more kids, triplets is enough. And he would face this internal panic at how to be a girl dad, definitely asks Hee, Sunoo, and Jay for help, Hoon offers help and Jungwon is just like 'your daughter would ask to commit arson and you would ask her where, drive here there, help her pour the gasoline everywhere, and then light the match and hand it to her, I don't think I need your help'.

Niki would end up with two children, both boys, both getting his dance talent and his height. The talent runs in the family, like what can we say, his kids would also definitely tease the others kids, since they are taller than them but younger than them.

Now, some pregnancy headcannons, I've already sent Hoon and Hee, so just the others:

Jake is always clingy, like he not hanging from his wife would mean he's too physically sick to hold onto her. She would be throwing up one day and he would be like 'how crazy would it be if you were pregnant' and she's just like 'yeah crazy' but Jake can hear her tone and just looks at her, and she's all 'so maybe I ran outta birthcontrol, but i didn't think one day would be a bit deal', it was a big deal. Would constantly just lay his head on her lap and talk to her stomach, he swears it's so the babies will know their dad's voice. Would constantly follow her around incase she needs help once she starts showing. Does not let her leave the house without him, since he swears she shouldn't be bending over or reaching high, and needs him to do so.

Jay, they planned, Jay is a planner, they would have an ovulation chart, they would constantly fuck, but on ovulating days, he's calling out sick, she ain't leaving the bed, he ain't missing a chance when it's most likely to happen. He reads all the parenting books, definitely calls his parents for help, and they are just like everything will be fine, calm down. The type to baby proof the house when she's only four months along, sets the nursery up then too, claims it's because what if the baby comes early, it needs to be ready. When she starts nesting, he starts nesting as well, wants her to sit and just let him handle this.

Sunoo, they would have just adopted their fifth ferret when she had a doctors appointment. Despite being a spitfire and putting grown men in their place at the coffee shop, doctors offices give her anxiety, so Sunoo tags along with her, it would be a total surprise, the doctors running test and then looks at Sunoo all 'congratulations dad', and he's just like what, and she's all what, and the doctors like 'oh I take it you were not trying', and they are just like what, pregnant, baby. After finding out, everything makes sense, like Sunoo had good intuition, and he would bring her the foods she usually craved, and it suddenly makes sense why they made her sick now. Sunoo would be on top of everything, like you want fried chicken, don't ask he's already got it. While Sunoo would enjoy holding her stomach, until the baby starts kicking, he would be enamored by the ultra sound pics, since to him those are more real than her growing stomach, but once the babies start kicking, she will never get a moment of peace, since either the baby is kicking or Sunoo is holding her just a bit too tight.

Jungwon and his wife would try for the whole planned thing, being a teacher they think it would help her the most, but all their attempts would fail, and after a while, the two them would just think children is not in their cards. Jungwon would notice the weight gain of his wife first, but he wouldn't want to hurt her feelings. He would go as far as to replace her pants and shirts with the next size up, without her knowing, when he notices she struggles getting them on and they look a bit tight. Initially they would think something drastic is wrong, like the crazy weight gain that fast is not normal, he would not bring up the gain until she does, he would be all 'I think you've gained a little, but I don't care since you still look beautiful to me', which would cause her to cry, they would think maybe it's just the stress of teaching since it was near testing time. They would end up in the doctors office and she's all 'I'm fat, I've ballooned', and Jungwon is over there all 'babe, you aren't fat, quit saying that' and the doctor would start doing an ultrasound after the two say they aren't expecting and are afraid it might be a tumor or something, but soon the doctor is just like 'well it's common to gain quite a bit of weight, especially carrying multiples'. The two are shocked, pregnant, multiples, what; to which the doctor turns the screen and is just like 'look baby 1, baby 2, and right there, baby 3'. All the trying and teas and supplements when they were acting trying for a baby instead caused her to be super fertile, and once they stopped trying, just boom, babies. Jungwon would force her to take her maternity leave early, and would take her paternity leave early, even if the doctors say it's okay, Jungwon is like nope bedrest, belly too big to work, babies too much, you need rest. He would want her to want nothing, he would do anything and everything for her, she needs more water, he's got the brita filter, she wants soup, he's asking what kind and ordering a quart of it. He would be the definition of devoted, her back hurts, he's all here's a massage, she wants a bath, he's already running it throwing in all the best things, and ready to help her in and out of it. He would constantly be touching her stomach, practically begging the babies some nights to stop kicking since their mom needs sleep, he would also somehow manage to get a kick right to the face while his cheek is resting against her stomach. As she gets further along, he would get to the point he does not leave the house, afraid she'd go into labor the second he leaves the door, instead making the others bring things for him. He's thankful for his friends, as they set up the nursery, knowing they were stressed for one, and he's about to have three, so they do their best to help him and his wife.

Niki's wife would not find out until she's pretty far along, dancing is good exercise, so she avoided all the weight gain until about four months along. She also never got morning sickness or anything, so it was a total surprise when at her yearly checkup the doctor is all congrats, you wanna know the gender, and she's just like what, and the doctors like, you're like sixteen weeks along. Niki would think he's being pranked, all the others found out at one or two months, not four, but he'd be happy. At first, he would let her continue dancing, but around month six it hits him, she's prego and he's gonna be a dad, he would then make her stop teaching dance classes and let him take them over. The type to put a pair of headphones on the bump and play hiphop music, claims it's so the babies can get the love of dance in their hearts, and when it makes them move around more, he's just like see, we got little dancers already, it runs in the family.

Now, some more random headcannons:

Niki would start to teach dance classes at the school after the school's teacher quits, and honestly, he likes it, so he ends up doing both, being a full time dance teacher at the school, and a part time dance teacher at his wives dance studio. All the teenage girls join his class since they think he's cute, despite the fact he's much older than them, and married. The studio has record high enrollment once Niki talks some of others into putting their kids in, all the moms come to sit and watch the all the other dads, just in aw that the group of 7, like not one misses, all visuals.

Jake would volunteer to help the little league soccer team since his boys want to join it, and the coach honestly doesn't know anything about the sport. It ends in him taking the league over and being the coach, despite both of his sons being on the team, he's really big into being fair on the field, and lets all the kids have time to go. The moms that used to just dump their kids off and run errands now stay to watch the games, since the coach is pretty hot.

Jay would take his son out once a month for a dad-son day, while his wife and daughter have a mom-daughter day; this however turns into his son asking him to invite his friends, seeing how Jake, Jay, Sunghoon, and Heeseung's sons are all close in age, they are all friends, and he quickly agrees. What started as Jay and his son bonding, turns into Jay watching his son and his friends bonding, seeing himself, Jake, Heeseung, and Sunghoon in their sons.

Sunoo would take his daughter out for dad-daughter dates every month, he would then quickly encourage the others that have girls to do it as well. He would make sure that they all treat their girls so well, and he claims it's so they won't be impressed by any crusty boy that wants to buy them cheap things, but it's really because he believes their daughters deserve nothing more than to be treated like princesses. So once a month, he, Heeseung, Sunghoon, Jay, and Jungwon dress up nice, and allow their daughters to dress in their prettiest outfits, and they take them out to the most expensive restaurant they can, before take them out to do things like get their nails done and their hair done.

Jungwon would have his hands full with his three daughters, but when his wife would mention the end of her maternity leave, he would be heartbroken as what to do. He wouldn't want her to go back and he himself would not want to go back either, he would be terrified at the idea of leaving the triplets with anyone, even if his own mother offered to come watch them, he would feel uneasy. After a bit of thought, he would have this epiphany, and decide he's not gonna make his wife put her career on hold for this, instead he would put his own, immediately contacting his boss, letting him know that he won't be returning for a while. Luckily his boss is cool and tells him that he'll hold onto the job until he's ready to return, and then Jungwon would surprise his wife by letting her know that the kids won't be with strangers, she won't be putting her career on hold, that he was, and he would feel it's the least he can do for her, seeing how she carried their triplets for ten months, and the most he could do for her during that time was just rub her feet and stomach.

i read this yesterday and when i tell you my only thought ess that (if youre not still at it) PLEASE i'm BEGGING you on my KNEES go back to writing because your brain is so attractive i'm about to ask for its hand in marriage and let go of my maiden name bc of it. every single detail about this was so well thought through and as the creator of these characters i agree with every single one of them. the fact you included sun and riki too made me so 🥺🥺🥺🥺 bc they really are part of that family urgh now i wont ever stop thinking about the poison!enha boys as dads this is everything to me. thank you so, so much for the time you put into this and the fact you sent it to me is such an honor. i hope you have a great day and know how appreciated and loved you are 🥺💞💕💗🩷💘

#; mailbox 📬#; poison

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viscountessevie · 2 years

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since you mentioned shonda & love triangles! lets hear some cursed love triangle ideas for the upcoming seasons! my nightmares are sienna coming back and michael being into edwina 🧿🧿🧿

Related to this ask

Ohmygod anon thank you so much for this ask because my GC and I had THE most fun time coming up with these but also being traumatised because the writers might just do it.

Here’s what us clowns (s/o to Franzi @anthonykatebridgerton Triv @hptriviachamp , Lav @sweetestviscount , Belle @sophiamariabeckett) came up with/have seen before in AO3:

The Traumatic Ones That I Am Shaming Yall For:

Colin/Sophie (Ew Sophie would never; Book!Colin maybe)

Michael/Pen/Colin (SO cursed cos the Pelicans keep doing Pen/Michael its so stupid but I also feel like the show writers would 10/10 go onto AO3 and steal this triangle gross)

Pen/Anthony

Pen/Gregory

Pen/Edmund I (not her nephew but her dead father in law!!)

I don’t know who needs to hear this but newsflash yall: as much grief as I give Show!Penelope, Book Penelope is her own person and not a self insert you can use to project onto the men of Bridgerton. Actually both versions are their own characters and like at least write ships that makes sense?? If you hate their canon ship so much and wanna insert yourself with a Bridgerton man, just create an OC lol. But yeah honestly Pen and Gregory/Edmund are very real tags on AO3 and that’s gross like Gregory is a whole MINOR and Edmund is DEAD and also in what world would he leave Violet for his son’s almost wife?? [I have thoughts on Ant too but that’s a whole other post lmao]

Ben/Sophie/Edwina (not to bad but still not a fan)

Enough traumatising ones, here are some fun crack ships!

Lady D/Thomas Dorset/Mary

Lady D/QC/Mary

Lady D/Ben (I don’t see it but yall do you lmao)

Colin/Portia (ala Stacy’s Mom but make it Penelope’s Mom ahahah)

About your nightmare ships, anon, yeah I don’t really want Siena back as much as I like her and want her & Kate to be besties. Her arc with Anthony was resolved and closed perfectly. If Sabrina does come back for a cameo, I just hope its to sing at one of the balls and Siena and Anthony give each other looks of acknowledgement and that’s it. I do not trust the writers to write them meaningful convos that isn’t causing drama while Kathony is married so no dialogue between any of them thank you.

I rather Eddie/Michael than Pen/Michael - the latter fan ship annoys me so much like Hello Mikey canonly has loved ONLY Frannie. I don’t know who needs to hear this but pining is not a personality trait for those two to bond over and fall in love. I swear it’s like these idiots who ship them haven’t read their respective books. They only had eyes for Frannie and Colin respectively, leave Pen/Michael in the trash thanks. I think Eddie and Michael would be good friends that’s it - remember his rule, he won’t compromise marriage mart girls and Eddie is still on the mart.

#Bridgerton #Cursed Ships #Bridgerton Love Triangles #Cos these ships were CURSED #Sophie Beckett #Benedict Bridgerton #Edwina Sharma #Lady Danbury #Mary Sharma #Thomas Dorset #Colin Bridgerton #Portia Featherington #Penelope Featherington #The GC Stamp of Approval #Kanthypants & Eldest Daughters GC #Bridgerton Asks

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nillamybread · 3 years

Text

°•×Pure Vanilla Headcanons×•°

These are mostly my headcanons for rp so if you don't like them it's ok, it's just my interpretation and you don't have to agree with it :)

°•×Main Character Headcanons×•°

•PV is afab*; he only realised he was male during his time with white lily studying with her and getting into all sorts of mischief. She accidentally said, "He's my best friend!" To another student and he has never gone back.

•He is pansexual; he loves everyone no matter their gender, he's just a big, loveable guy.

•He is polyamorous; he would rather have multiple partners than just one, however, he is also alright with monogamous* relationships, he just has a lot of love to give.

•PV is blind; he was born (baked?) partially blind, however, after the fight with the dark enchantress he lost his vision altogether. His staff is like a guide dog for him, meaning that when he was healer cookie he was completely blind and alone.

°•×Before The Fall Of Vanilla Kingdom×•°

•Most of the ancients would believe him to be asleep in most meetings until he spoke up and frightened them all. There was no way to tell he was awake or not unless he had his eyes open or spoke.

•He gets the least sleep out of the entire group as when he wants to sleep, most people need him or one ancient has come back from battle injured. This leads to PV being out of commission for up to a day as he sleeps undisturbed.

•White Lily, Golden Cheese and Hollyberry play pranks on him by mildly inconveniencing him. Maybe by placing his hat slightly to the side of its normal place so when he goes to put it on, he is confused as to why he can't feel it or grab it. He figures it out, but his confused face always makes the three laugh.

•He will have bad days where he is extremely disoriented and forgets the outlay of his castle, and even with his staff's help, he can't find his way around. Either White Lily or Dark Cacao will offer to come over and help, reminding him of the castle's many hallways to the little details of the tiniest cracks. He appreciates it a lot.

•He makes flower crowns for the ancients; since most don't like wearing traditional crowns he makes flower crowns for them whenever they come to his kingdom for a meeting. GC has sunflowers and dandelions, Holly has petunias and holly leaves, White Lily has lilies and daisies and Dark Cacao has roses and orchids. All are naturally sourced from his personal garden.

•He loves cotton candy sheep, so much that he visits all of the ranches when they give birth and bottle feed the lambs. He also has a few as pets that cause carnage, however, he refuses to let go of them.

•All the way up to the appearance of the dark enchantress, he would regularly swap heartfelt letters with White Lily, he would never get any back but it was the thought that counted. She only told him how much those letters meant the last time he ever saw her.

•Before the fall, he had a family, not a big one, only a child, however, to save him from the fall that was inevitably going to happen, he sent him off to another kingdom under the alias of being under the "Custard" family. Regrettably, he never saw that child again. They were only a few months old when he sent them off to live with another family.

°•×During Healer Arc×•°

•Healer has no memories of who he was or what he is, he just knows that he woke up blind and alone in a barren wasteland. He has no idea if he has friends, family, or even however old he is. He spends years upon years walking the land just to turn up where he was lost in the first place. He found a cool stick along the way though, it was wrapped in cloth and stuck in a bush. It seems to whisper to him 'I can't see'.

•His "cool stick" becomes his best friend, although it only repeats and laments on the phrase 'I can't see' he finds it nice to finally have someone to talk to.

•He appreciates noise a lot more. Being blind he takes his time to appreciate the sounds he hears from nature. His favourite is the rain, although it makes him soggy and cold, he can appreciate the sound of rain and it's one of his favourites as he travels. He also likes the blueberry birds chirping.

•People have confused him for this "Pure Vanilla" guy, to the point it got annoying and he actually questioned if he was an ancient, however, he couldn't be... Right?

•He remembers two things, a child called Dark Choco and an infant he cannot remember the name of. It confuses him to no end as he wonders if they have ever met or if he's just making these cookies up in his mind. He also remembers having a child, however, he has no idea what type of cookie he even is so he just gives up on that search after the first hundred years.

°•×Kingdom Clarity×•°

•When he remembers who he is after entering the kingdom he takes an instant liking to the children. Especially Custard. He sees him as his own child and tries to hang out with him constantly, and custard happily does when he realises PV is the guy from the statues and supposedly his great-grandpa. They get along very well.

•He has a bad time remembering things, making him need either a constant reminder or a to-do list. However, he has plenty of friends to now help him through it.

•His preferred job is to work at the cotton candy ranch, however, he's usually on too many missions to work anyway.

•When cookies are out of the kingdom he picks up their jobs for them, making sure they are done properly before they return. He also cleans people's houses so that they have a clean bed to fall into after a fight.

•He's known as the sweet old grandpa of the kingdom.

•He has nightmares of what happened to his friends and they don't lift until Hollyberry arrives in the kingdom. He only then can try and forgive himself.

•When he meets Dark Choco he accidentally calls him Dark Cacao and it starts becoming worse and worse. He starts confusing people and it only starts clearing with Hollyberry's help. He feels awful about it.

°•×Keyword terminology×•°

Afab - Assigned Female At Birth

Monogamous - In love with/In a relationship with one person

#pure vanilla cookie headcanons #pure vanilla #cookie run #cookie run: kingdom #this man is not cishet #king custard the third #hollyberry #dark cacao #golden cheese #white lily cookie #cookie

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poisonousquinzel · 3 years

Note

https://lady-ha-ha.tumblr.com/post/160715688748/is-that-comic-before-the-reboot-and-which-one-is

(I have not read this comic) Is this true? (if so, ivy deserves someone better).

Post

Kay, first off both of those people are Jarley shippers so take everything they say with a grain of salt and then some, cause no. that part isn't about how much Harley loves Joker and will always choose him over Ivy. Literally you can tell ops don't know what they're talking about cause her whole thing in those issues is going to kill him for years of graphic abuse but ultimately falls back with him once she’s face to face with him.

Like wow, congrats on missing the fucking point again but not surprised from people who ship her with The Fucking Joker.

also, ffs, can anyone please have basic comprehension skills and realize that Harley and Ivy are both fucked up sometimes because they’ve got issues and that’s not comparable to Joker’s long ass history of graphic and disgusting abuse.

Harley and Ivy are villains, they're not a wholesome cookie cutter, White Picket Fence, super vanilla ship with no bad moments. They're both bad guys with a fuck ton of trauma that they both have to work through, and have done so at this point.

Gotham City Sirens was published between 2009 - 2011, Harley and Ivy weren't blatantly romantic at this point nor had they had anywhere near the development that they’ve had at this point.

Like don’t go into Harlivy content expecting them to be the perfect wlw rep with no flaws during their arcs from BTAS to current time cause that’s just not realistic. They’re both deeply flawed people who’ve got a fuck ton of trauma that they need to (and have) worked through.

I have talked about the BTAS issues here and this post is good at explaining them too.

Harlivy is not and has never been a purely wholesome, goody-goody ship. They’re messy, they have issues, and they have bad moments sometimes, but they both worked through their seperate trauma and came out stronger and better because at the end of the day, they care about each other.

Harlivy has messy, toxic moments sometimes, but they’re not, and have never been, abusive. There’s a difference between unhealthy moments and a ship being abusive.

That’s completely different to how Joker acts Constantly, because he does not care that his actions towards Harley are abusive, because he doesn’t give a shit about her.

He enjoys hurting her. He enjoys ruining her.

Jarley has always been intended to be written and shown as a domestically abusive relationship.

This is also the first instance where it's directly referenced that there's something more than platonic between her and Ivy, other than the reference in Batgirl Adventures.

Gotham City Sirens is also not connected to any verses.

This didn’t happen in the timeline we’re in rn with Harley Quinn (2014)/(2016)/(2021).

Comic timelines and shit are stupid and make everything more confusing and awful and I hate it sdfjdksksdkjsd

this is gonna be a long post since ops wanna just cut and paste random bits of the issues like jarley stans always do (cause jarley never has good moments that aren’t entirely surrounded by him abusing her) I’m going to show them in full context. *added a keep reading cause it is a lot

(All panels shown are from #15, #18, #19, #20, #21, #23, #24, #25)

So, Harley's entire thing at this point in the GCS comic in that she's been triggered by flashbacks of Joker's abuse and she breaks into Arkham with the intent to kill him.

The entire thing in these issues is showing her smarts and how she knows people's trump cards to get under their skin so she can break into Arkham.

She’s trained to identify these things in people and she's fucking good at pushing people's buttons.

this is also just one of my fav Harley covers so I wanted to show it jsdjksdks

“Trump cards. Everyone has one. Places where the armor we build around ourselves is weakest.”

She’s right. And it’s now shown that Harley’s willing to use those below the belt trump cards if she has to.

And frankly, I’d say this is worse than what she says to Ivy. And I’m not surprised she did it. She didn’t want to, she tried to get him to just open the door -

“Don’t make me do this, Aaron. There are some secrets that should stay hidden. Things you should never learn about your own life.”

but she’s also entirely fueled by rage and the desire to kill Joker. She came here for a reason and she’s not leaving until she’s done it.

“I’m going to kill you. For everything you’ve done to me. All the times you’ve made me feel useless and small. For all the times I will never forget. For all the things I can never forgive. All the memories -”

“Hello, Harley. I’ve missed you.”

“Memories. That’s all I have left. The past is gone and all I have is... memories.

Memories.

Memory.

Gone.

I guess I too have a trump card.”

“Oh, Ivy. You know exactly what my answer is going to be. But you’re hoping you’re wrong, aren’t you?”

She’s also right about this, they already mentioned this in #18.

“How did I become the bad guy?”

“You’re the one choosing a man over her girls.”

“Are you kidding me? You would never say that to Harley, and we both know she’d dumb us in a flat second if Joker called her.”

“Hey! That’s not fair-- Actually, that’s probably true.”

“The difference is, she can’t help it. You can. And she’s working on it. You’re not working on it.”

“Too easy, Ivy. Too easy. I know your weak spots. Now I just need to push.”

This is exactly what she’s been doing since the starting point of this post. She’s still in that mindset and she knows she can’t beat her on a regular battle field. Neither of them can.

“Like I said-- You beat me in any level playing field. But I don’t fight on those fields.”

Harley’s biggest strength as a villain is her ability to completely mentally stall her opponents and learn their weak spots. She wouldn’t win against the majority of the Big Bads if she didn’t fight on a different field than they are.

so, like yeah, out of context what she says to Ivy seems awful and completely screwed up, and it is, but it’s also built up really well and it’s completely in character for her at this point in her fall during these issues.

Is what she did fucked? absolutely. It’s not painted that it’s not.

Ivy Literally Goes To Kill Her For It.

In the end of this all three of them are recaptured by Catwoman and Batman and that’s where we’re starting off at again.

“Oh, Harley.

The only human I’ve ever called a friend.

To what lengths will I go? Where are my own limits? She is the Strangler fig. And I am the tree, choking underneath.

Without me, she could never grow.

But without her, I would fall if I grew too tall.”

“Will she ever stand by herself?

Will she ever be ready?

She is in throes of madness. She sees him, her brain flooding with adrenaline, it makes her excited, nervous, then the feelings start to fade, and she needs more. And more.

She sees it as passion. She sees it as love.

But it’s not. It’s addiction. And she’s relapsing.”

Ivy is well aware of the nature of their relationship. She’s not stupid and she’s been shown already to know that it’s something that takes time. It’s not a one off break up and it’s over. That’s not how abusve relationships work.

What do I do?

I could use my pheromones to alter her brain chemistry.

I could leave her behind abandoning her to the wilds of her own mind.

I could kill her right now.

Show her how red Nature can be.

There's one other option.

It would require patience.

Even love.

Maybe I'm more human than I want to admit.

"You have one chance to answer this."

I know, if she agrees, she'll be doing it for revenge. For him.

"She put us behind bars."

But maybe if I get away from this place, if I give her something else to think about. Maybe she can break the cycle. But it has to be her choice.

"I'm going to kill her. Come with me."

So yeah, it’s definitely not a just “Harley hurts her and runs off with Joker and it’s just a plain ol’ her choosing him over everyone and that’s that.”

Jarley shippers love to just reduce all her scenes and arcs down to their “epic love” and shit, but that’s taking away literally everything about her and reducing it down to the 3 panels that they’re “cute” in. Her arc in this part is fucking heartbreaking to read.

And Ivy damn well knows what’s going on with her. She’s smart and she’s the one that’s been there throughout all of this. She found her in the park after he shot her out of a rocket.

And she knows it’ll take time for Harley to get over and through his manipulation, that’s just how it works with abusive relationships.

But she’s also not forgiving at first, she’s mad and rightfully so, until she sees the sate of Harley’s cell and realizes how bad her addiction is at that time.

A lot of the unhealthy moments on Harley’s side when it comes to them are directly caused from the effects of being in an abusive relationship with Joker. Because she’s always in this area of her journey in those moments. She’s never fully over him or emancipated.

And that’s realistic. It’s hard sometimes to be friends with someone who’s in abusive relationships like theirs, having to watch them return to that person time and time again and it’s frustrating after a while.

I know from personal experience, it’s really hard to watch someone you care about go back or forgive someone that continues to hurt them.

But abuse victims desperately need a support system outside of their abuser. It’s a crucial part of being able to escape, because when they do try to get out they need someone there or they’ll literally have no where to go but back into their abuser’s arms.

It’s heartbreaking and it’s really rough for everyone effected, but that’s just how it is most of the time. Especially in their case, as they’re not just regular folk dealing with this.

If she doesn’t have Ivy, Harley has no one else to go to but Joker, on more than just an emotional level.

She’s lost her job. Her income. Her home. Her livelihood. Her everything.

Most of the time she has no other choice but to return to a life of crime after she’s released from Arkham because she can’t get a job, she’s a notorious criminal and she’s got a lot of issues that don’t just disappear with a bit of therapy.

She has no other choice but to return to Joker because the other alternative is the streets. At least she knows what to expect with him.

And that’s not even getting into the manipulation, gaslighting and degrading abuse that he drills into her constantly.

He’s made her believe she’s not anything without him. That she’s not smart or useful or anything.

And that’s why it’s so damn important for her to have a support system and why he’s so damn against Ivy.

Because Ivy is the good voice on her shoulder telling her he’s wrong and that she doesn’t deserve that.

And on Ivy’s side, she’s aware she gets very near cutting off all parts of her humanity.

She’s a plant goddess, she’s insanely powerful and she feels everything through the green. Frankly, she’s not even on the same playing field as these villains. She’s significanty more powerful than Harley and Joker.

Her connection to Harley is what keeps her humanity in tack, because despite everything, she does care about her. She was the first person she let in, the first person Ivy called a friend.

The person that was able to get through to her in #14/#15 when she was losing herself. The one that was able to get through to her that the dude was manipulating her.

“Ivy, I know you think you love this guy... but you’re just gonna end up strapped to his rocket!”

She had to knock her out for the dude to trust her / not attack them anymore. But Harley got through to her by mentioning how they first met in the park when she saved her after Joker shot her off in a rocket.

And Ivy is understandable turned off towards humans considering her origin and trauma around that.

She’s got a lot of trust issues.

But both of them work through their seperate traumas over the years because their affection for each other is stronger than the issues their trauma has given them.

and also, sometimes, they just have shit writers. that’s an issue overall in comic fandoms. Some writers just fucking suck at getting any of the characters right, let alone LGBT characters, who’re notoriously treated like garbage by DC.

#sorry if it came off a bit aggressive anon i don't mind ya asking <3 #ops just annoy me SDJSKSK #tw abuse #tw clown boy #long post #♦️ asks ♦️#harley quinn #harleen quinzel #poison ivy #pamela isley #harlivy #gotham city sirens #me? rambling in detail about Harley? yup yup

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shayberri789 · 2 years

Text

So @alexxuun dragged me to watch nwh with them today, and I ended up ranting in a (different) gc about the comparisons between Miles and MCU Peter's arcs and I'm just going to post them below the cut in their raw instagram Dm rant form. I LOVE THESE TWO SO MUCH OKAY

(Full spoilers for the MCU home trilogy and itsv below the cut)

NO BUT THEIR ARCS ARE JSUT-- MWAH

Miles’ arc was coming into himself, peter’s arc was accepting responsibility and growing up

Miles KNEW who he was - he’s clearly popular in his old school. He’s confident and well known and comfortable, and then he’s thrown into this new school where he’s awkward because the people there are all upper class and too different to understand each other

He’s awkward and crumbling under the “high expectations” and THEN he becomes spiderman, and watches the “perfect peter” DIE during his worl and then the entire world is mourning him and he feels guilty bc he died on miles’ watch

Miles didn’t WANT to be Spider-Man. He didn’t want the responsibility and expectations, he did not think he could live up to them

His arc was learning to shoulder the responsibility of living up to a legacy, very similarly to Peter but different. He learns to EMBRACE his differences, where his awkwardness came from feeling like he couldn’t fit in. He rewrites Spider-Man (like with the suit! With his own paint! That’s symbolic - he’s taking the old and making it HIS, and with his science teacher giving him a personal essay on "who are you and what do you want" titled "great expectations") and he embraces his roots and his differences and he grows confident in school

He greets the high expectations by coming into himself

Meanwhile, Peter grabbed the opportunity to become Spider-Man without fully grasping what it MEANT. He’s still a kid. He idolizes the avengers but he doesn’t understand the responsibility that comes with it? The pain of doing the right thing while miles, before he had even had his powers for a day, sees FIRST HAND the cost of being Spider-Man. He’s aware of the responsibility and expectations from the GET GO, and meeting the others only solidifies tbis. Peter on the other hand is blinded by his hero worship and desensitized to violence. He wants to emulate his heroes and help people, but throughout the trilogy he’s been struggling to balance being Peter and being Spider-Man. He’s a kid, he wants to BE a kid because despite all he’s been through and his interactions with the avengers he doesn’t really SEE himself as a hero. He’s just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. And a lot of his conflict comes from trying to balance being Peter and Spider-Man.

He wants to help but he doesn’t want the responsibility

And then in ffh he’s literally been HANDED the responsibility from stark, but in this film he’s DESPERATELY trying to ve Peter not Spider-Man. The ENTIRE conflict comes from him wanting to be more Peter than hero and shoving responsibility off, and at the end he learns he has to take account for it

Then in nwh his two worlds are VIOLENTLY clashes together. The whole film is Peter TRYING to take responsibility, fix what he’s been through, but he’s not grown up enough. He’s still not ready to be a hero. And at his core he just wants to do good so he tries to help those villains, but it backfired on him and we get May’s quote

And then just as he’s on the tipping point - abandon Spider-Man, or embrace him - he meets Toby!SM and Andrew!SM

Both are men who were in peter’s position: they lost a loved one, and they reacted with anger. Andrew’s Peter went rouge, but he heavily embraced Spider-Man. He says “not much time to ve Peter”. Tbis man is more SM than Peter. And when we see him - he’s suited up. We always say - he’s too cool to be Peter, but he’s a great Spider-Man

("and then the cool youth pastor" - kuwisu)

And then there’s Toby’s Peter: his uncle Ben was killed and he went and murdered his killer and he hated himself for it. He’s the oldest and the wisest and at this point he’s chosen to be More Peter. When we meet him, he’s in his casual clothes, and Toby is done acting as Spider-Man (both irl and in the movie). These two are the paths toms peter can take; become Spider-Man or become peter after May’s death, and BOTH men manage to save peter their trauma (killing in vengeance and failing to save MJ/Gwen) and save themselves in the meantime

And after being with them, SEEING them, have to face the responsibility and pain of heroism and what it means to be spider man OVER and OVER again throughout the trilogy, Peter decides to finally take responsibility and he basically FULLY kills Peter Parker to be Spider-Man and do his duty to save the world and take responsibility for his mistakes

And then at the end, we see him being Peter. He goes to get coffee, he gets an apartment and starts studying. He’s given up everyone and now he’s only got himself, and his arc with the college applications and moving out shows him growing up

So both miles and Peter had an arc to do with coming into themselves and responsibility, but the difference between miles and Peter is miles always had a support network, he had a network that helped him become Spider-Man, but he had a DIRECT legacy and expectations to live up to, and he knew the price before hand. His “with great power comes great responsibility” was accepting that he had the capability to fulfill these expectations, but he had to believe in himself first (irs a leap of faith miles. Believe in yourself) and coming into himself (making Spider-Man his own)

Peter had to do that too - he had a HUGE support network as Spider-Man, but he became it without being aware of the responsibilities and when he HAD them and expectations to live up to he shunted them away until he had no choice but to accept the responsibility, and in the process both sacrifice himself and be stuck with himself, and now he has to build PETER again.

Peter had to redefine what being peter meant because he embraced spiderman, and miles had to redefine what spiderman meant because he embraced miles.

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cc-tinslebee · 3 years

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[steps up to the mic] Listen, this might just be me, but if you’re going to have a large cast of “main” characters, you should probably give those characters opportunities to display their skills and foils instead of handing it off to the “real” main character.

Obviously, this could probably speak to a lot of fandoms, but I’m just gonna talk about The Mighty Ducks for a second because that’s what inspired this train of thought.

A bit of a rant (analysis?) below the cut:

When we look at the movies, I think the original, as well as D2, handled their large cast pretty well. Sure, it was kind of strange not seeing Karp, Peter, Terry, and Tammy/Tommy in the D2 cast, but they seemed to fill their absence decently with the new additions. (Of course, that’s just my own opinion.)

D3’s where my real gripe is, and while I have yet to rewatch it, there are still a few issues about the large cast that come to mind. Going from giving Adam good arcs in 1-2 to side-lining him when there was a perfect opportunity right in front of them, setting up a conflict between Guy and Connie with seemingly little payoff, and completely cutting Jesse (an original and arguably very important Duck) out with, as far as I know, little explanation.

I’d like to clarify before I get into this next part that I actually like Linda as a character; she seemed to have a lot of heart and I really admire that. I don’t, however, appreciate the writers creating a female character for the sole purpose of being the love interest to the lead. I really do believe that they could have made a much more compelling coming-of-age story for Charlie had they not implemented that romance, which didn’t seem to add anything to the plot. It really wasn’t Linda who got Charlie to turn around and realise his kinda self-destructive behaviour, but Fulton and Bombay.

They really would have used their time better focusing on solely telling the story of the Ducks’; Charlie’s refusal to change, actually giving us a vague understanding of Connie and Guy’s lovers quarrel, Adam’s feelings of separation from the Ducks. They really did the Ducks dirty with this one, and, hell, they did Linda dirty too. (And, yes, I do understand that D3 was mainly there to wrap up the story, so naturally things were a little messy.)

Which brings me to Game Changers.

Look, I’m not going to subject you all to me nitpicking this show. I will, however, say this: I hope they give the Don’t Bothers/reclaimed Ducks other than Evan a chance to shine. Even Sofi and Nick, despite them arguably being the “second/third” main (younger) characters. Sam, Logan, Maya, Lauren, Koob — even the Capek brothers! — are listed as main characters, but they’re often not as focused on as Evan. I’ve seen someone argue that Sam was set up to be a really interesting character this first season and they didn’t really do much with him other than in Pond Hockey, which was kind of disappointing, and I think that’s an extremely valid point.

I can only really speak for myself when I talk about things I’d like to see if we get a season 2. Like, if they manage to get Joshua Jackson, I’d be pretty happy with a new-captain-meets-the-old-captain moment, but I would much rather see Charlie bond with Logan over absentee parents over Evan. Logan clearly has some unaddressed issues with his mom, clearly more self-aware that what his mom did was unfair to him, and it just furthers his already established arc (but I’ve spoken about that already). I’d like to see Sam’s character get explored more, and maybe see Bombay help him harness his X-factor! I’d like to see Lauren and Maya’s relationship grow, and the Capeks’ gradual journey learning English! Hey, maybe even see the Reddicks join the new Ducks and bond a bit with Evan like Stephanie and Alex did.

That’s what I, personally, would like to see, not Evan getting handed all the potential arcs. Because he pretty much got everything; absent dad, team captain, love interest, choosing between what's good for him versus the team, getting Bombay back onto his feet, etc, etc. Other than maybe Sofi and Nick, everyone else on the team has 1-2 arcs at most, and I think there’s a pretty good argument out there that some get one to none.

And look, I’m not so naïve that I don’t understand that large casts are hard to juggle. It’s difficult to focus on everyone especially when a particular character speaks more to you and especially with a time limit. But take my Logan and Evan point for example; it’s not hard to assume that a bonding-with-Charlie-over-an-absent-parent moment would go to Evan. That’s probably what the GC writers might assume. But if you take a step back, look at the rest of your cast for a moment, you can see that he’s not the only option. It’s all about sharing the wealth of arcs evenly amongst your characters.

(Also, I wanted to quickly include — I believe — @k-romantic’s idea/joke that Julie should’ve been the one to romance Linda purely because I think it adds to my argument of arcs being forced onto the main character when they could’ve easily been better suited for another character. Obviously, since it was the late 1990s and Disney’s a bunch of cowards, maybe they wouldn’t have used Julie, but I think another Duck dating Linda would have done what the writers were going for just as well, maybe even better.)

#is this mostly incoherent? yeah probably #the amount of analysis I have retaining to TMD in my drafts is astounding-#welcome back to Tim’s Terrible Takes I guess-#the mighty ducks #the mighty ducks game changers

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the-void-i-scream-into · 3 years

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White Tulips - a JunJin fanfic 1/3

Full Story: Part 2, Part 3

Hello everyone! I hope everyone who is reading this is healthy and safe. This is a fanfic about my favorite characters, Kang Sujin and Han Seojun. I really love these two together so I wrote what I had hoped to see in True Beauty. This is my first time writing fanfiction so its not that good. But I hope you still enjoy it. I didn’t change anything from True Beauty, rather continued the events from the ending with a focus on giving Sujin the redemption arc she so rightly deserved.

I really have to thank everyone on the shooters gc, especially @prodmina, for being so amazing and awesome. Never before have I come accross such amazing, wonderful, open and friendly group of people. I’m not that active on the chat, but I am so grateful it exists. Thank you to everyone on there. This is dedicated to you all.

Pairing: Kang Sujin x Han Seojun

Romantic Trope: Haters to friends to lovers

Word Count: 5.9k

Rating: T

PART 1

If you asked Han Seojun why he loved Lim Jukyung, he wouldn’t be able to answer. His feelings for her overwhelmed him to the point of inarticulation. His heart still skipped a beat every time he saw her at dinner with their group. He still found himself staring at her from time to time, unable to look away from her beauty. He even wrote songs about her, his only form of expressing his love for her.

He still thought of her in every free minute he had between practice, performance and recording sessions. When he couldn’t see her, he would watch her make-up tutorials online. He was proud of how far she had come with her career as a make-up artist. Her popularity was a source of delight for him. It was only appropriate that everyone see how amazing she was.

The only problem was, Lim Jukyung didn’t belong to him. She belonged to Lee Suho, his best friend.

Seojun was happy for the two of them. They were the best people he knew and even he had to acknowledge that they belonged together. Which was why, having these feelings were burdensome for Seojun.

It was burdensome, seeing them all lovey-dovey with each other and talking about their lives together. Normally Seojun would have faked a smile, but when they were all together in a group he scowled without reserve. He got away with it because right beside Suho and Jukyung, sat Taehoon and Suah who were the kind of cheesy couple that made anyone barf.

In fact, just the thought of Suah and Taehoon fawning over each other made him cringe. Even now as he walked into the special private room they frequented for their gatherings—private due to Seojun’s and Jukyung’s popularity—Seojun was pushing back his gag reflex at the squealing he could hear outside.

He scolded them as he entered the room. “Guys! I can hear you all the way from the front entrance. Why are you always so—” He stopped in his tracks. There, between a giggling Jukyung and beaming Suah sat the worst person Seojun had ever known.

Her.

He had heard peripherally about how she had changed now, having reformed as a charity worker. She had apparently apologized to Jukyung about the shitty things she had done before. As if an apology could change anything.

Han Seojun knew Jukyung had forgiven Kang Sujin. That woman had even attended Heekyung’s wedding. But Seojun didn’t understand why she had to invade their special gatherings.

The room had fallen silent. Everyone awkwardly stared at Seojun, then Sujin.

“It’s been a while, Han Seojun.” She said with a polite smile. Her voice deeper than most girls’. He always hated her voice and its lack of femininity.

Ya Han Seojun, are you a gangster?!

Seojun pushed the memory away.

“Ah-aah! Han Seojun. You must be surprised.” Jukyung said with forced cheerfulness. “I invited Sujin to join us today.

Seojun merely flicked a cynical brow at Jukyung and took his usual seat besides Suho. Suah and Jukyung nervously returned to their conversation.

The uncomfortable air in the room subsided after a while and everyone chatted cheerfully with each other. Everyone except Han Seojun.

“I saw your performance on TV. You looked good.” Suho told Seojun.

“Why the hell have you invited Kang Soojin?” Seojun asked Suho in a hushed tone.

“She’s a friend, of course she’s invited.”

“Why are you friends with her again?”

“Seojun, its fine.”

Seojun opened his mouth to protest but before he could, Sujin interrupted him.

“Ya, Han Seojun. I saw your performance on TV. I didn’t know you could sing so well.” She said, not sounding too impressed. “You were great.”

It was a peace offering. A way to start off on the right foot.

Seojun gave a sarcastic smile and tilted his head. “You should have known I was that good. I performed in school, didn’t I?”

“Oh right. I guess I didn’t really pay attention before.”

“You were too busy giving all of your attention to Lee Suho. I don’t expect you to have noticed anybody else.”

This time, the silence in the room was palpable. Taehoon audibly gulped. The only person unfazed was Sujin.

“Yeah. I was obsessed with Suho.” She said simply. “But now that I look back,” she made a frame with her forefingers and thumbs, “I think what the hell does Jukyung see in you?”

“Ya!” Suho protested so seriously that Jukyung giggled, breaking the tension.

“Honestly Jukyung. You’d be better off with me as your boyfriend.” Suah and Taehoon joined the laughter.

“Ya Kang Sujin, you stay away from my girlfriend.” Suho protested, pouting.

“You’re too serious, Lee Suho. Jukyung needs someone more fun.”

“At least I don’t go around kicking people in the face.”

“You wouldn’t be able to do it, even if you tried.”

“I know jujitsu, you know.”

“Okay, okay!” Jukyung said. And that was it, the friends were back to normal.

Seojun kept out of the conversations, eating and drinking on his own. No one dared to bother him lest he say something else to ruin the mood.

Han Seojun didn’t care to maintain a good mood. He had no tolerance for people like Kang Sujin; people who were bullies. And especially not when said bully had hurt someone he cared about very deeply. He didn’t buy this act that Sujin was pulling. He knew, that people never changed.

The conversation turned to Sujin and her charity work overseas. She talked animatedly about the children she and her non-profit group worked for. It made Seojun’s blood boil, how she was using a noble cause as a front for her true cold-hearted personality. That angel bullshit may work on others, but it would not work on Seojun.

He kept a close eye on her the entire time, almost glaring to the point where Suho had to poke him with his elbow to get him to look away. But Suho was blind, he should have seen how Sujin’s face gave the barest of glances of pain when he and Jukyung kissed each other and pulled each other’s cheeks and talked about living together.

“Oh, you guys share an apartment?” No one else noticed the high-pitchiness of Sujin’s voice when she asked this. No one, expect Seojun.

And then there was the stolen glances at Suho. That was the final nail in the coffin. Seojun was convinced that Sujin was pretending to be over Suho. She was still in love with him. And that was a problem.

“What’s wrong with you?” Suho confronted Seojun outside, when it was just the two of them waiting for the others to leave.

“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you? Don’t you know the kind of person Kang Sujin is? How can you let her in again?”

“Calm down, Seojun-ah. That was all years ago.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that she hurt Jukyung.”

“She’s not a bad person. I know her better than you. She made a mistake.”

“She knew what she was doing.”

“Haven’t you ever made a mistake before? Or are you telling me that blaming me for Seyeon’s death was the right thing to do?”

Seojun was quiet.

“Seojun-ah, don’t take this the wrong way. You have a tendency to judge too quickly, and misunderstand. If you really hate her that much then talk to her and ask her about her reasons. Don’t just go on assuming something is the way it is because you think so.”

Seojun grit his teeth.

“Shall we go?” Jukyung came up from behind, taking Suho’s arm. The rest of the group was behind her.

“Yeah. Bye everyone. See you next time.” The couple waved as others waved back. “Seojun, I hope you’ll think about what I said.”

Seojun just nodded and waved too. He watched Jukyung and Suho disappear into the crowd on the street.

The rest of them said their goodbyes and went their way, Seojun leaving after giving Sujin a distrusting side-eye.

ii.

I don’t want to be a fool like you and be just friends, only to like him one sidedly.

It had been such a long time ago when Kang Sujin had said this to Han Seojun, but he remembered it like it was yesterday. That and a couple of other memories that played in his mind, causing whiplash.

Ya Han Seojun, are you a gangster?!

Those words especially felt like a slap on his face. He could actually feel his cheek burning at the image of Kang Sujin standing there in her uniform, telling off him and his boys about bullying Jukyung.

He had respected her back then, for having the guys to stand up for her friend. Even though she had been all haughty like some arrogant princess and thought him a fool, he had still respected her. He had never expected her to turn out to be such a vile person.

Am I handsome?

Yes.

No, no, no. That was one incident he refused to remember. It meant nothing. Only a source of surprise at her bluntness, nothing more.

“Seojun, we’re going to hit the showers now, are you done?”

Seojun didn’t hear Chorong as he ran on the treadmill. His body was in the gym but his mind as fully occupied by Kang Sujin, as it had been for the past week.

“Han Seojun, are you listening?”

She must have had a reason for suddenly showing up out of the blue. She had disappeared completely when the truth about her had been revealed online. Obviously, she ran away like a coward. If she was back now, it must be because she wanted something. Kang Sujin could be very calculating and manipulative.

Was it because of Lee Suho?

“Han Seojun!”

Chorong’s voice snapped Seojun out of his thoughts and he fell backward from his treadmill.

“OOOH! Are you okay?”

“YA! Why would you do that?!” Seojun snapped at Chorong as he got back up. He checked himself for bruises though his dignity caught the worst of it.

“Ah-nee, I called you so many times. You were totally checked out.” Chorong explained.

“Does that make sense? Why would I be checked out?”

“Well… you have been out of it this past week. Has something been bothering you?”

Something had been bothering him; something with silky, black hair and long legs.

“What? You met Kang Sujin?” His entire posse sounded as he told them about her return. Seojun put a finger in his ears as he was bombarded with questions.

“Did she apologize to Jukyung? Are they friends now?”

“Did she tell where she was all that time?”

“Is she still pretty?”

“Is she single?”

“What is she doing these days?”

Seojun ignored all of these useless inquiries.

“Hey! Did you al forget the kind of person she is? How could you ask if she is still pretty?”

“She must be. I bet she’s still the same.”

“She was never pretty.” Seojun declared. “I can never understand what people see in her.”

“That’s because you only have eyes for one.” One of them teased and the rest of them Ooh-ed like school girls.

“Ah, shikkeureo! Shut up!” Chorong said in defense of Seojun. Out of everyone, Chorong understood best how much Seojun still pined for Jukyung. “So, what exactly is bothering you about Kang Sujin?”

“I don’t trust her. Especially around Jukyung.”

“Wae? Do you think she might still be after Lee Suho.”

“Yes. At least I suspect so. I’m not sure what game she’s playing at but I’m not buying this angel persona she has on.”

“So? You can’t exactly stop Jukyung from choosing to be friends with her.”

“I feel I can convince Jukyung if I talk to her.”

“She might just tell you to try to get along with Sujin.”

This was true. Jukyung was too nice and trusting with people. Seojun thought long and hard.

“I’ll have to protect her. I’ll have to keep Kang Sujin away from Jukyung.”

iii.

He had been on his way to the studio, casually riding by on his bike, when he saw her. She was in some blue vest, clearly a uniform of some sort. She was handing out fliers to people who passed by, smiling widely with that fake innocent look she had perfected. What a crock of shit. Seojun swerved around and parked his bike, then sauntered up to her with an amused expression.

She lit up when she saw him approach, waving animatedly at him. Her happiness upon seeing him surprised him so much that he stumbled and almost fell. He played it off as nothing, hoping she hadn’t noticed.

“Ya Han Seojun, gimme your autograph.” She grinned as she pushed forward a petition to help kids in Africa.

Seojun didn’t take it. “What are you doing?” He asked rhetorically, looking at the pictures of children she had set up for people to see along with information as to how to donate. So she’s using these poor kids for her own selfish reasons?

“Huh?” Sujin hadn’t missed his tone. “Just sign it, its for a good cause. And being charitable will help your image too, no?” She tried appealing to his logic.

“Ooooh,” Seojun mocked, “So you keep up the pretense even when you’re not around Jukyung? Isn’t this a too much, Kang Sujin?”

Sujin’s smile dropped into a snarl, “What?”

“I’m on to you, Kang Sujin.” Seojun got up in her face. “Ah-nee, if you’re going to pretend to be all reformed then you shouldn’t make it too obvious. Charity work is a little too on the nose, don’t you think?”

Sujin stared at him in shock and anger. Seojun suddenly recalled how well Sujin had kicked those thugs who had kidnapped Jukyung back in high school and gulped. He hoped she wouldn’t try to kill him in public but it was too late to take back what he said.

“Han Seojun…” Sujin said through clenched teeth and Seojun prepared for the worst.

Ya Han Seojun! Are you a gangster?!

But she said nothing. Instead she calmed herself, exhaling through her mouth.

“I probably deserve that.” She said, not backing away or cowering from him. She pushed the flier in his chest, “But don’t make these kids suffer because of your anger towards me. They could really use the support.”

Seojun looked down at the flier. He couldn’t sign anything without the consent of his agency. So he folded it up and pocketed it. Along with his pride. He could put his ego aside for a good cause.

“These kids deserve a better person representing them than you.” Seojun said. Sujin pressed her lips tightly.

“Aren’t you being a little too harsh? I’m not the same person anymore. And Jukyung has—”

“You may have everyone else fooled, Kang Sujin. But I will always remember what you are.” With that, Seojun walked away, his hand twitching.

iv.

The next time they all met up, Seojun made sure to sit between Sujin and Jukyung. He felt uncomfortable because he had to bump shoulders with her, but he would bear it for Jukyung.

Suho gave Seojun a warning look when they all sat down. Don’t do anything excessive, the look said. Seojun ignored it.

He could feel Sujin’s stiffness beside him. This was uncomfortable for her too. Good. If I’m suffering, she should too. But she kept up her polite façade, smiling like nothing bothered her.

Seojun made sure to keep her isolated from Jukyung. He didn’t let her speak to Jukyung, didn’t let her participate in the competitions. He even didn’t let her eat properly.

“Jukyung-ah, did I show you my pictures from—”

“Jukyung-ah, has your sister told you about the tour we’re planning?” Seojun interrupted.

Jukyung would be at a loss as to who to answer and Seojun would move forward, blocking Sujin.

When Suho or Jukyung tried to ask Sujin what she wanted to eat first, he took the first dish he saw and shoved it in front of her.

“Here, have this Kang Sujin.”

“I don’t want it.” She said with an unamused look.

“Take it.” He ordered in his intimidating baritone.

They glared at each other , Sujin’s face twitching with annoyance. Seojun mentally dared her to snap at him but she swallowed her pride, quite literally, and put on a fake smile.

“Thanks.” She said dryly.

By the end of dinner, Han Seojun had successfully managed to annoy Kang Sujin. Her fake persona was slipping as she clenched her jaw and exhaled excessively to keep her temper in check. Seojun guessed he would have her true personality on display by the end of the night.

“Han Seojun what are you doing?” Suho confronted him outside.

“What did I do?” Seojun feigned ignorance.

“You need to sto—”

“Han Seojun. Let’s talk.” Sujin strode up to them from behind, her face set with determination.

“No.” Seojun said.

“I wasn’t asking. I was telling.” And there she was, the old Sujin. Gone was the politeness and friendly demeanor. She stared boldly at him, almost challenging him to refuse again.

“Seojun-ah, just hear her out.” Jukyung broke through their staring match. Seojun could never say no to her. But he didn’t get a chance to say yes either.

Sujin simply commanded, “Follow me,” and grabbed the collar of his jacket, dragging him away.

“Ya! What are you doing?!” But Kang Sujin was stronger than she looked and Seojun found himself being pulled against his will.

The rest of them could only stare.

“Do you think they’ll be alright?” Suah asked, concerned.

“Nope. I’m certain they’ll kill each other.” Suho replied nonchalantly.

“My money’s on Sujin.” Taehoon and Suah said together.

“You’re on.” Suho replied.

iv.

“Are you crazy? How could you grab me like that?” Seojun smoothened the collar of his coat that Sujin had bunched up in her fist. She had let go when he had said that he would follow enough times. They walked together, Sujin going ahead of him. He quickly put on his mask. “How can a girl be so strong?” He said under his breath. Then spoke aloud, “Is this any way to treat an idol?”

Sujin suddenly turned on her heels, stopping Seojun in his tracks. She was a little too close for comfort and looked intimidated with that unfiltered anger on her face. “Just shut up and follow.”

Seojun put his hands on his hips, tilting his head. He was unimpressed by her tough attitude. He gestured forward with his chin, “Then move.”

He followed her, keeping a small distance between them. She marched forward, taking long strides with her long, long legs. She looked like a general going to war.

“She calls me a thug. She should look at herself.” He mumbled.

Sujin led them to a secluded pocha, street food vendor with small plastic seats housed inside a plastic tent. Seojun adjusted his mask.

“Relax, no one here is going to recognize you.” Sujin said, sensing his discomfort. Indeed, when Seojun looked around, all he saw were hold ahjusshis getting drunk and babbling nonsense. None of them seemed like his fans.

Still, Sujin led them in a corner table and sat where he was hidden by her. She ordered two bottles of soju and side dishes for him. He simply watched with his arms crossed.

The silence between them was awkward and heavy. Neither of them said anything. Han Seojun openly stared at Sujin. Kang Sujin looked everywhere but him. The lady brought them their order. Sujin effortlessly opened a bottle and moved to fill his glass. Seojun put his hand on top of his glass to stop her.

With a sigh, he took the bottle from her and poured for himself. She followed suit. They both took a shot.

Sujin sat up straight, shuffling in her seat. She first looked down at her hands in her lap, then looked up, straight in his eyes.

“Mianhae.” It took him by surprise. More than that, the regret on her face moved him. If only by an inch. “I’m sorry, Han Seojun. What I did back then… I was going through some personal issues, and I took it out on Jukyung. But even that is not a good enough excuse. I shouldn’t have done what I did. And even what I said to you… even after you gave me a chance to delete the video… I’m sorry.” She gulped and Seojun mirrored her. “You were right. I was only destroying myself. I should have seen that. But I have changed now. I’m not the same person. I know you’re important to Jukyung. So I hope we can get along from now on.”

Seojun took another shot. He took a minute, considering her words.

“If its forgiveness you want, then Kang Sujin, there is nothing to forgive between us. Your fight was with Jukyung. Not me.” Sujin appeared relieved till Seojun added, “However, my problem with you isn’t because of old grudges. I just can’t trust you, Kang Sujin. I believe you still will hurt Jukyung, even if you don’t mean to. And I can’t let that happen.”

Sujin’s mouth became small. She jutted her jaw, pouring another shot for herself. She downed it aggressively before responding. “I’m not the same girl anymore. I’m not in love with—”

“I keep hearing that you’ve changed. But have you really? Can you honestly tell me that you’re over him?”

“I am over him.”

“Bull shit. I saw the way you were looking Suho. All throughout dinner—”

“Aren’t you just projecting your own feelings onto me?” Sujin interrupted.

Seojun laughed incredulously, “What?”

“The one who’s not over their unrequited love is you. You’re not over Jukyung.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. All these years you’ve been pretending to be her friend. Aren’t you the one being two faced?”

“I’ve already confessed to her. We even went on a date.” Seojun crossed his arms with a smirk.

This was news to Sujin, “Aah. Is that so? Then isn’t that more pathetic? Even though she clearly doesn’t want you—”

“Ya, Kang Sujin.”

“—you’re still not over her. I too saw how you looked at her. With that pathetic puppy dog expression on your face. Don’t you think this is awkward for Jukyung? Sitting there with her boyfriend and—”

“Shut your damn mouth.”

“Wae? Don’t like it when the tables are turned on you?” Sujin and Seojun glared at each other with hatred. Seojun poured and downed a shot. Sujin swallowed and looked away. This was not how she imagined this conversation going.

“I’m not in love with her.” Seojun declared.

Sujin snorted, “Hul. Then why is it you who is giving me this lecture and not Lee Suho? If I’m really such a threat to Lim Jukyung, then shouldn’t her boyfriend be the one to confront me? What gives you the right to treat me this way?”

Seojun paused. “I can give you a million reasons; that I’m her friend, that even though I’m not her boyfriend, she stills relies on me, that I’m doing this out of humanity.”

Sujin scoffed.

“That I don’t want to lose another friend because of bullying.”

Sujin’s face fell. She licked her lips as she considered his point of view. Then, wordlessly, she poured him a drink.

“I’m not a bully. I never was. I did a shitty thing that I’ve apologized for and now I’d like to move on with my life.” She poured herself a shot of soju too. “I care about Jukyung. I will always regret what I did to her. But I still have a chance at friendship and I am going to take it whether you like it or not.”

They both took the shot. Sujin poured them another.

“We both care about Jukyung. And she would want us to get along, or at least pretend to for her sake.” Sujin gave Seojun a pointed look. The ball was in his court now.

Seojun remembered how uncomfortable Jukyung had been because of his hostility towards Sujin. True, Sujin wasn’t the kind to be trusted. Seojun was a man of action, he didn’t believe in hollow words. But it was also true that fighting with Sujin all the time would cause problems in their peaceful little group. And although he was sure that when it came to it, everyone would choose him and not her, he still held up the shot glass and said, “For Jukyung’s sake.”

The two drunken enemies staggered on the sidewalk, each supporting the other while trying not to fall; a drunk trying to steady another drunk.

“Ah-nee-ya, I’m not *hic* not in love with Jukyung. I don… I don…”

“Arassssso. And I’mf the Pwincess of England.” Sujin slurred, pushing Seojun upright as she tried to hail a taxi.

“Na ah-nee-ya. I’m not. Nope.” Seojun hiccuped.

“Ah just sstand still!” Sujin pushed his body away but his arm was still draped over her shoulder.

“Ah sshutup! Shut up you stupid Suijin!” Seojun started snickering at his own statement, “Hehehe. Stupid Suji. Sujinnie phabo.” Seojun pushed his weight onto her, still chortling.

“Ah stand still!!” Sujin wrapped an arm around his waist to hold him up. She was suddenly very aware of just how tall he was. Even with her own impressive height, he seemed too big.

A taxi finally stopped and Sujin struggled with pushing Seojun inside. She pushed him in with her legs when he bent over on the seat but refused to move further to give her room.

“Where to?” The driver asked when they both were seated.

“Han Seojun, tell him your address.”

Seojun fell to the other side, passed out. Sujin, who herself felt like passing out, leaned over to tap his face, “Han Seojun? Ya! Wake uuup.” He did not.

“Are we leaving or not?” The driver asked impatiently.

Sujin shook Seojun again. He stirred, only to mumble Jukyung’s name and pass out on her shoulder again. Sujin looked at the driver helplessly.

vi.

The first thing Seojun felt was the pounding headache, it brought him out of a very nice dream he’d been having that he promptly forgot. He could feel his legs sticking out from the side of the bed. In turning over, his elbow punched into something.

“Oof! Ow! What the hell!”

Sujin kicked at him as she pressed her ribs in pain. They both were surprised to find themselves tangled in each other. It took them exactly three seconds to start screaming.

They both flew off the bed, Sujin hitting Seojun repeatedly with her pillow.

“Ow! Ow! Ah! OW!”

“Why. Are. You. In. My. Bed?!”

“Why am I here? Why are you here?”

“This is my room asshole!”

Seojun grabbed Sujin’s wrist to keep her from hitting him. He looked around and indeed it was Sujin’s room.

“What the hell happened?” He asked.

She kicked him in the shin, “How the hell would I know? Explain yourself, Han Seojun!”

“You explain! How can I end up here if you didn’t bring me?”

Sujin’s raised foot, about to kick Seojun, slowly lowered. She was suddenly hit with the memory of last night. Drunkenly trying to enter the code to her door as Seojun whined about missing Jukyung, stumbling into her apartment and dragging Seojun by his collar to the couch, falling on top of him as he fell and then immediately picking herself up and going into her room to pass out.

Seojun put his hands on his hips defiantly, “Kang Sujin. We got drunk last night didn’t we? Aish, chincha. I never thought you’d be the kind of girl to take advantage of a guy like that.”

“Ah-ni-godun! That would never happen! I only brought you here because you wouldn’t tell me your address.”

“Ah, what a nice excuse. And whose idea was it to go drinking any way? Was this your plan all along? Of course, its understandable that you’d want a rebound with the most handsome guy around.”

Sujin scoffed in disbelief. “That’s not the case!” She protested. “And what handsome? I find you laughable.”

“And I find you detestable.”

“Then why did you come into my bedroom when I left you out on the couch?”

A flash of memory sparked in Seojun’s mind; of getting up, using Sujin’s bathroom and going into the bedroom thinking he was at Chorong’s place.

The red spreading on his cheeks was a dead giveaway to Sujin that she had him.

Seojun cleared his throat, “No matter what, this isn’t what it looks like.”

“Of course, it doesn’t.”

They stood there awkwardly for a moment as they wondered what to do next. They both spoke together.

“You should probably go.”

“I should leave.”

A rare agreement. They both nodded in sync.

“But… is there a back door to your apartment? I can risk having my face seen leaving a girl’s apartment.”

Sujin licked her lips as she considered this. “I think I have an idea.”

From the outside, Kang Sujin’s apartment door cracked open, just enough for two heads to poke out to check if the coast was clear. One of those heads was wearing a beanie, a mask and sunglasses. The other was Sujin. They both sneaked out of her apartment and beelined for the emergency stairs.

“Why is your apartment so up high?”

“We can always go in the elevator where my neighbors can see you.”

“I hate you.”

Finally making it out the back exit, the two relaxed.

“How are you going to get home?” She asked him.

“I’ll take the bus. Nobody will recognize me when I’m like this.”

“You shouldn’t underestimate fangirls.”

Seojun chuckled, “Never do. Bye then.”

Seojun turned, then paused, then turned back. “Kang Sujin.” He called out to her just as she was about to go in. “Thanks… for not just abandoning me last night.” It was the most difficult thank-you he had ever said.

Sujin simply nodded. “Get home safely.”

vii.

Sujin didn’t remember going back up to her apartment, just the click of the door shutting behind her that pulled her out of her daze.

She had just spent the night with Han Seojun. Admittedly, it meant nothing, but it still felt weird and she didn’t know what to do about it.

Maybe I should have asked him to eat before he went. He must have been hungry. She thought. And then scolded herself, Ah-nee, why would I care about him? He doesn’t matter to me anyway.

Traces of Han Seojun still lingered in her apartment; the bedsheet that had fallen on the floor, along with the pillow she had assaulted him with, his spicy scent on the bed and a metal ring on her bedside table that he must have taken off during the night.

Sujin held up the ring, looking through it. She would give it to him later, if they met again. She hoped they didn’t. She was already dreading the thought of encountering him again.

Kang Sujin didn’t let herself think too much about last night. She changed her sheets, showered and firmly put all thoughts of a certain idol out of her mind. He was just a silly twerp who had been a thug in high school and was now just an idol. He had nothing to do with her, nor she with him.

She had better things to do, like her work.

If you’re going to pretend to be all reformed then you shouldn’t make it too obvious. Charity work is a little too on the nose, don’t you think?

Nope, she wasn’t going to let that idiot get to her. Who was he to treat her like this? Next time she saw him, she would kick him in the face. Yes, that’s what she would do.

I keep hearing that you’ve changed. But have you really? Can you honestly tell me that you’re over him?

All day long Sujin’s hand twitched with the need to be scrubbed clean. They kept getting clammy and sticky. She wanted to scrub, scurb, scurb them of all the dirt and the grime and the filth of her past self. Sujin had believed that she had kicked this bad habit of unnecessarily cleaning her hands, but apparently she hadn’t.

My problem with you isn’t because of old grudges. I just can’t trust you, Kang Sujin. I believe you still will hurt Jukyung, even if you don’t mean to.

“Well who the hell wants your trust?” Sujin argued with the wind.

“Is everything okay?” One of the girls she worked with asked.

“What? Oh-um-yeah. Everything is fine! Just… talking to myself.” She put on a fake cheery attitude and shook her head.

It was only when Sujin’s day was finally over, and she was back in her empty apartment, leaning against her front door, that let herself feel the misery she had been suppressing.

Of course that Han Seojun hates me. What reason does he have not to?

Even the person who had been obligated to love and protect her, had only ever seen her as worthless. If her own father, couldn’t treat her with decency, then why should she expect a stranger to?

Her small apartment suddenly seemed so much bigger now. Big and empty, with shadows extending from the ground to the roof.

Kang Sujin, were you always such a piece of trash?

She hadn’t answered him back then. But in these quiet moments, she allowed herself to admit, “Yes, Han Seojun. I was always such a worthless piece of trash.”

Back when she had been a kid—running away from her problems in school, from what she had done to Jukyung—she would let this darkness take over. It would eat her inside and out till she was just a shell. However, now that he had grown up, she had learned how to deal with this on her own.

Sujin pushed herself off of the door and walked into her room, turning on all of the lights. Rest, she needed rest. And food, before anything else. Most of the time her depression would just be weakness caused by hunger. She was indeed careless with her health.

Her phone buzzed suddenly. It was a message from Jukyung. She would respond later. First she would spend time on herself. But then, almost immediately, there was a message from Suah. Then Suho. Even Taehoon. Then the phone lit up with a call from Jukyung.

“What’s going o—”

“Kang Sujin, have you seen the articles?”

“What?”

“There’s articles about you and Seojun dating.”

“WHAT?” It took Sujin a full minute to process what Jukyung was saying. She was speaking but Sujin didn’t hear the rest. Jukyung’s voice was muted from the speaker as Sujin searched through Naver for her and Seojun’s name.

“It’s all over the internet.” Jukyung was saying. “Someone’s posted pictures of you and Seojun together. Sujin-ah. Is that really you? Are you and Seojun dating?”

The room began to spin and Sujin had the urge to kick someone in the face.

“Jukyung-ah. I’ll call you back.”

What the hell happened?”

The articles Sujin found showed her and Seojun exiting her building. It was from this morning. Seojun’s face was well hidden but she could be clearly seen. From the way the pictures were taken, it looked as if the two were involved in something together.

Sujin’s phone suddenly lit up with an unknown number. She knew it could only be Han Seojun.

She pressed answer.

Some JunJin images I came up with just for fun

#junjin #Kang Sujin #Han Seojun #True Beauty #True Beauty Kdrama #Kdrama Fanfiction #True Beauty Fanfiction #Seojun x Sujin #Kang Soojin #Kang Sujin Fanfiction #Han Seojun Fanfiction #kdrama #fanfiction #park yoona #hwang inyeop

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terramythos · 3 years

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TerraMythos 2021 Reading Challenge - Book 21 of 26

Title: The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Wayfarers #4) (2021)

Author: Becky Chambers

Genre/Tags: Science Fiction, Third-Person, Female Protagonists

Rating: 9/10

Date Began: 8/15/2021

Date Finished: 8/22/2021

Gora is an unremarkable planet. It has no natural life and few resources to speak of. In fact, its only use is its proximity to more interesting places. Over the years, it’s become a waystation, notable only as a temporary stop for travelers as they wait for their spot in the wormhole queue.

The Five-Hop One-Stop is a small, family-owned rest stop on Gora. Three travelers— a marginalized nomad, a military contractor, and an exiled artist-- lay over at the Five-Hop awaiting the next stage of their journeys. But everything goes horribly wrong when repair work on an orbital satellite causes a cascade event, destroying the planet’s communications. Now stranded on Gora with debris raining down from the sky, the travelers and hosts must live with each other while cut off from the rest of the galaxy. As they learn more about one another, each is forced to confront their personal struggles… and challenge their perspective on life.

Speaker had a word for how she felt right then: errekere. A moment of vulnerable understanding between strangers. It did not translate into Klip, but it was a feeling she knew well from gatherings among her people. There was no need being expressed here, no barter or haggling or problems that required the assistance of a Speaker, but errekere was what she felt all the same. She’d never felt it with an alien before. She embraced the new experience.

Content warnings and spoilers below the cut.

Content warnings for the book: Non-graphic sexual content, child endangerment, ableism (if you squint; it’s not malicious), references to warfare, discussions of intergenerational trauma re: colonization (not the scifi kind), prejudice and xenophobia, recreational drug use.

I’ve had a mixed experience with Wayfarers, which is unusual for me. I can’t remember the last series I read that fluctuated so much in terms of personal enjoyment and (in my opinion) quality. People as a whole seem to enjoy this series more than me, hence the multitude of awards and glowing reviews. I liked book two, A Closed and Common Orbit, because of the focused narrative and dedicated development of two lead characters. But the first and third books suffered from an overly large cast and reliance on generic archetypes. When a series is built on character development and plot is a secondary concern at best, those characters have to be outstanding. And to me, they usually weren’t.

But in this fourth and final book, I felt that Chambers finally hit her stride. On a surface level, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within has striking similarity to book three, Record of a Spaceborn Few. Both are virtually plotless novels which do deep dives into a cast of characters. What sets The Galaxy apart is its execution. All three leads have unique and compelling personal conflicts. An underutilized strength of the series is its creative aliens; something Chambers takes advantage of here with a fully alien cast. Finally, this book hinges upon interaction between the three leads, something sorely missing from the previous book.

In these reviews I often seem critical of ensemble casts. But when done well, I actually prefer them to singular narratives. The main hurdle is having consistently interesting characters across the board. When there’s one or two characters I prefer over the others, I usually struggle with the novel. There’s an inherent sense of disappointment when leaving a favored character’s POV. For me this affects my overall enjoyment of the story. But when I like all of the characters or they all have something interesting going on, ensemble casts are great. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is successful in this regard because I thoroughly enjoyed all three perspective characters. In no particular order…

Speaker is an Akarak, a birdlike scavenger species introduced as sympathetic antagonists in the first book. Going in, we know their home planet was colonized by the Harmagians, which has caused irreparable harm to their culture. Robbed of their homeworld and forced into the margins of GC society, the Akarak are nomadic, and many of them rely on banditry in order to survive. We have seen very little of them besides that. The Galaxy expands their lore a lot; their short lifespans, their incompatible biology with other sapients, and the resulting generational trauma from centuries of colonial exploitation. Speaker’s arc in particular is about dealing with the prejudice she encounters daily, adjusting to acceptance after being othered for so long, seeing things from a new perspective, and persistent worry for her twin sister Tracker, who she’s been separated from due to the events on Gora.

The Aeluon Pei is actually a recurring character; she’s Ashby’s love interest from the first book. Here we get a more intimate view of her as a person. In particular, she struggles with living a double life. She works a prestigious yet dangerous job among her people, running cargo into critical warzones. But her affair with Ashby (a Human) is a huge cultural taboo among the Aeluons. If her colleagues discovered her romantic relationship, her life as a cargo runner would be over. The double life is wearing on her, because she loves both aspects of her life, but knows that it can’t go on like this forever. To make matters worse, she goes into “shimmer”, a once-in-a-lifetime fertility period, during the events on Gora. This adds a layer to her struggle; does she do her duty to her species and produce a child, or does she pursue what she really wants?

Finally, there’s Roveg, a Quelin. Like the Akarak, Quelin haven’t received a whole lot of development in the series. In the first book, they’re portrayed as a xenophobic insectoid race, and their role is unambiguously antagonistic. Roveg is the polar opposite of that. He’s something of a renaissance man; an appreciator of fine art and dining, who designs artistic sims by profession. He delights in meeting aliens, befriending them, and learning everything there is to know about them. His arc centers around his exile from Quelin society and all the hidden pains associated with that. Chief among these is a mysterious meeting he has to make— which the Gora disaster obviously complicates.

Complementing the three leads are the Five-Hop’s hosts; a Laru mother and child named Ouloo and Tupo. Similar to the Akarak and Quelin, we haven’t seen many of the Laru (who I always picture as fuzzy dog-giraffe hybrids). Ouloo struggles to be a kind and accommodating host in the wake of disaster. She’s also forced to confront her own prejudices, especially regarding Speaker, the first Akarak she’s ever met. The two initially have a lot of tension, but grow to be great friends over the course of the novel. Her child Tupo is a nonbinary character using xe/xyr pronouns throughout the novel. Xe’s basically a Laru teenager, and super endearing. I love xyr natural curiosity and naiveté. Definitely the “heart” of the group.

Interaction between these characters is the bread and butter of this novel. There’s very little action; instead it focuses on their differing perspectives and life experiences. It’s a gradual build as the characters grow more familiar with one another. The epilogue is brilliant, because we see the long-term effect of these characters meeting. Despite interpersonal conflict in the story, Speaker inspires Pei to make a specific decision. From this decision, Pei realizes she can help Roveg with his meeting. As a result of this, Roveg is inspired to help Speaker based on one of their earlier conversations. His help fundamentally alters Speaker’s perspective on life— and there’s an implication it will reach beyond that, to the Akarak as a whole. It’s a cascade effect, but rather than the disastrous version that happened on Gora, it’s a positive social change for the leads. That’s the kind of literary parallel that really fires me up.

I do have a few criticisms of this novel, minor and otherwise. The first is, I wish the tension between Speaker and Pei was more strongly built throughout. While I’m glad the novel isn’t all sunshine and rainbows when it comes to the character interactions, their conflict goes from an idea in the back of one’s mind to an explosive event. This is something of a nitpick because it’s otherwise well executed. I especially like that despite their interpersonal problems, they work together in the climactic events of the novel without sacrificing their respective principles.

My other criticism is a series-wide observation. Wayfarers is optimistic to a fault. As such, it’s pretty rare that we see true evil or even bad behavior in this series. On one hand, it’s nice to read something where the characters are people who want the best for everyone. But there’s a lot of dissonance here, because there are MASSIVE social problems with the GC at large. For example, we see the effects of xenophobia, war, slavery, and colonialism, but the ones who perpetuate these issues are faceless. If Chambers wants to portray good characters, that’s fine, but it strikes me as odd to build complex social issues into your society, yet exclusively portray groups of morally good people. Why would a society full of such nice, helpful groups also marginalize the Akarak, or create an entire caste of slave clones to sort through their junk? This approach comes off as a desire for nuance without committing to it.

This trend continues through the final book. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is clearly a COVID-19 response novel (“we’re all in this together”!)— but everyone is blameless, and the government response is reasonable and timely. That’s just not how it worked in real life. So many people were (and still are!) selfish in response to COVID, often outright endangering others. Practically every government botched their response for the sake of money, leading to mass death worldwide. If Wayfarers has similar social issues to the real world, why would the response to a disaster be any different? It’s an ongoing contradiction; the Wayfarers society is simultaneously utopian and flawed, and it’s hard for me to suspend my disbelief.

As an individual novel, though, I really enjoyed The Galaxy, and the Ground Within. Like all the other books in the Wayfarers series, it’s a standalone and can be read on its own. My experience with this series has been up and down; I recommend the second and fourth books, but I’d skip one and three if I ever do a reread. There are things to like about Wayfarers in terms of worldbuilding and the creative ideas behind all the different aliens. Characterization is hit or miss, but the hits are great, and this book in particular knocked it out of the park. Chambers’ prose improves a lot over the series, and it’s nice to see how she develops as a writer. As I’ve mentioned, Wayfarers has gotten lots of positive feedback, so it’s possible you will enjoy it more than I did. But I’m looking forward to reading something new.

#taylor reads #2021 reading challenge #9/10

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bipirate · 3 years

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Female characters so often play a mechanical role in MDZS plot before being killed so MXTX can focus on relationships between men she finds way more fascinating. In the book, WQ is here just to do the GC transfer, and she apparently never thought about the ethics of what the other Wens were doing before WWX stumbled on her with JC and then she suddenly decided to risk her and WN’s life (ofc WN survived in the end no matter how improbably, not her) while in CQL, she has a whole arc about slowly 1

the rest + my response are under the cut bc it got kinda long

deciding to do the right thing and shouldering the resulting burdens mirroring WWX’s and LWJ’s.

JYL is here only to build WWX’s character as being violent only on other people’s behalf when he punches JXZ or goes berserk after her death, birth a kid (she’s dispatched right after) so MXTX might explore JC, WWX and LWJ’s relationships through him later on and have a weird romance with JZX to move the plot along. Her relationship with her family or absence of cultivation are never explored or explained, and her character arc is just taking everyone’s BS and staying understanding and accommodating and never wanting anything for herself like a good woman should for MXTX.

To contrast with YZY, the only female character with actual power who very tellingly uses it only to abuse people and ruin her family and sect (plus she’s depicted as hysterical and irrational!), reprising that old misogynist trope that a women outside men's control will ruin everything with her caprices so women shouldn’t be trusted with power. Even such a minor character as madam Mo follows this trope, being depicted as in charge in her family and a pretty terrible person at the same time.

LQY needs to be saved in the cave despite being supposedly a cultivator (it’s not framed as her needing someone to fight at her side like LWJ needed WWX, but someone to save her) then she needed a public argument about WWX to realize that there is sexism towards women bc she apparently never faced it before as a low status servant?! MXTX, really? And then after being accused of acting irrationally, she irrationally storms out, abandoning the cultivator position she fought hard to reach (in CQL, she was part of the Jin sect so at least refusing to be complicit in Jin’s crimes while in MDZS, she was just a bystander from a no-name sect) and just forgets about WWX, never trying to warn him or help him or anything.

MXTX can’t have a woman having initiative, which is probably the same reason why XXC never tries to teach A-Qing cultivation so she can protect herself or have a job that isn’t panhandling bc then she wouldn’t be able to die helplessly to fuel man angst, so MXTX said no. Unsurprisingly, madam Lan has no backstory when it would have been such a good character arc for adult LWJ to try to learn the truth about her and come to terms with it, Lan Yi and BSSR are never shown when in CQL they create a parallel with LWJ and WWX and can be read as lesbians if one is inclined (I am).

And to be clear I like many of those female characters though probably not in their MDZS versions, but I wanted to examine the sexist tropes that MXTX seems so fond of and makes such common use of to show that it wasn't just random coincidences but a choice on her part, and it can’t be blame solely on genre conventions either as there are often women characters with good characterizations and their own arcs in wuxia and xianxia (LoF has plenty!)

(breaks added by me) yeah you’re right, the way mxtx writes women is just appalling. i think the cql team did the best they could with the source material they were given. they gave the women a bit more agency.

wen qing being introduced earlier did wonders for her character arc, not that she had one in the novel - she’s so one dimensional and unlikable in mdzs! but in cql we see that she only worked with wen ruohan because her little brother and the rest of the dafan wens were being threatened. just that little bit of extra information made her so much more compelling. still it would have been so cool if they’d written it so that wen qing (and jiang yanli) did survive, source material be damned.

i’ve also touched on this before but when i read the novel, i was so surprised at the lack of jiang yanli! jyl is one of the most important people in wwx’s life and she’s barely present. her death in the novel made me feel Nothing. i think it’s absolutely inspired of the cql team to not only introduce wen qing during the cloud recesses lectures arc, but also take jiang yanli along. they build up the yunmeng siblings relationship as early as possible and it pays off. i also love that she is present during the fall of lotus pier in cql. she was absent in the book and we never saw what an impact this had on her. i just cannot understand why mxtx would write her out of these incredibly important moments, only to kill her off later and expect us to feel any kind of emotion about it. it cheapens wwx’s reaction to her death, too.

you’re absolutely right about the other characters too and i don’t want to write a Whole response to every single one of them, but i do want to talk about mianmian. i’m sad that she didn’t get much better treatment in cql. i would have loved to see her fighting, defending herself instead of needing to be saved. i also really wanted her and lwj to be friends..... i’m pushing the lwj + wlw agenda but like. i really wanted to see the conversation they had right after she left the jin clan. there was Such potential there. i like that they had her come back with her husband and daughter in the future and that she was adamant about teaching her child that the yiling laozu is not a bad man. i’m glad cql placed this reunion with mianmian where they did - it’s not a secret that i Hate the novel epilogue where she reappears, if only because mxtx wrote it so that mianmian’s daughter saw wangxian kissing and got scared of wwx for this reason. as if gay men corrupting little girls was not a dangerous homophobic trope already.

also from what i’ve seen of the tgcf donghua (i havent read the book), she hasn’t uh. improved wrt writing female characters lmao

#also yes i am also absolutely inclined to read bssr and lan yi as lesbians.#mdzs critical #anon #ask

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jayjaysocks · 4 years

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Listing my favorite animes (because I’m jumping on the bandwagon)

❗️⚠️ *spoilers!! (Duh)* ❗️⚠️

5. Deadman Wonderland

I was really really sad when I found out this anime got cancelled. The music was fantastic, the animation was really good, and the voice acting was incredible. Even the fucking dubbed version (I loved the voice they chose for Senji. God he was hilarious). I binged this show so fucking fast it wasn’t even funny. I loved watching the characters go through their own struggles and grow as people in the very small amount of episodes provided. There was a lot of development within the snippet that we actually saw, and I was thoroughly impressed with how well it was done. I wanted to scream or something when I found out there wouldn’t be a second season.

Sigh. Oh well. At least we got some of the manga’s masterpiece translated into a show, even if we were missing some fucking awesome characters.

4. Guilty Crown

Ugh, don’t even get me started. This anime was beautiful and I got so invested so freaking quickly. I literally go back every few years to rewatch it because I get ship starved.

Shu and Inori’s story was so beautifully done; between Shu uncovering his courage and Inori’s journey of self-discovery, I was continuously awe-struck and filled with feelings—I mean, I had never felt such raw emotion while watching something and I was completely blown away by the affect it had on me. Anger, hatred, sadness, it was all there (even for the main character lmao) and it was one of the first times I had ever felt a ship so heavily that I literally cried at the end. It was one of the very first Animes I’d ever seen and was one of the reasons I got such a taste for them. Thanks for throwing me down that rabbit hole, GC.

3. Soul Eater

This was literally the first Anime I’d ever seen, and my god I couldn’t have asked for a better starter. What I like about this one is that it’s style is so unique and different. It’s very punk and grunge, something I admired and appreciated in a genre that is normally the opposite (like Guilty Crown, for example). Also the fight scenes were badass, like holy shit just look at that gif ??? Freaking amazing.

I loved the way the show transitioned from light hearted to intense and adrenaline pumping so effortlessly. That can be said about a lot of shows, but this one went from *haha cute show* to *holy shit, like they’re actually gonna die ohmygod howaretheygoingtosurvivethis* so smoothly I was genuinely surprised. They made one of the main villains actually cool and each character had their own beautifully done arc. I loved and adored how the show solidified and expanded on the different friendships/relationships that were involved—specifically Soul and Maka’s (also, holy shit, Stein’s arc? Fucking prime, dude). There was a lot of growth in each and every friendship (CRONA!!!), and that really pushed the viewer to invest in the individual characters.

I am fucking delighted that this was my first anime, and (though the ending was a little anticlimactic) it remains one of my top favorites to this day. It set the bar pretty fucking high, and for that I am extremely greatful.

No one asked for Soul Eater: Not! It is the unspoken sin of the Soul Eater world (then again, it is called Soul Eater: Not!)

2. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

If you have been following me for a while, then you are no stranger to my love of FMAB. Some of my most popular posts are about this anime, and for good reason.

Unfortunately, I was late to the party. I actually didn’t watch this until last year, but got invested really damn quick. I have a tendency to be extremely picky about the animes that I watch/like (which is why NONE of these shows are that recent), to the point that I will literally research them before I start watching (a bad habit, do not copy me). I have an incomparably hard time finishing a show when I start, because I get bored really quickly, but this was an exception. I started watching and I just... didn’t stop. I spent a straight week watching FMAB, gobbling it up during any small amount free time I could manage, and finished it before I even knew what happened. I wasn’t picky about it, I didn’t research it, I just dove right in and gosh, I was not disappointed.

The subtle romance that was alluded throughout the entire show was super cute, the devotion the brothers had for each other was to die for, and the struggles that each person went through was more than moving. I never once found myself bored while watching, and that’s saying a lot for my adhd ass. I was invested in each and every second of that damn anime and I was never, ever left underwhelmed. That probably had to do with the fact that every. Single. Character. Had a purpose. I’m not even kidding. Every single person contributed to the big fight at the end and that alone is fucking fantastic.

Not to mention ALL the women, every female character, was a badass bitch. None of them were reduced to sex appeal or romantic subplot, they all had real feelings, real arcs and real, unadulterated badassery that I thoroughly admired and appreciated. I could watch this anime over and over again every single month and I wouldn’t get bored. Between the emotional struggle, self discovery, and personal development of each character, I promise you will not see a lack of plot or meaning here. The more you watch, the more you discover and that is not a lie. There are so many layers to its story, which only makes me wish I had watched this sooner.

There is nothing I have to offer in the ways of criticism, and for that I couldn’t be happier. Thank you, Hiromu Arakawa, for such an incredible piece of art. You deserve every bit of love that this manga/anime gets. You go girl.

1. Cowboy Bepop

Holy shit holy shit holy shit this anime is so fucking good and it has been my favorite for so damn long. I have been watching anime for years, and while some of the shows in my list have moved around, this one has yet to be bumped down from the top (and I doubt it ever will). There’s a reason it became such a cult classic.

For starters, the animation. I mean, just look at Spike and the way they animate his fighting (yes I am aware that this gif is from the movie, but that still doesn’t change my point). The sequences in the show/film have been reused in many other shows and for good reason. It’s good, incredible, actually and they make him look so badass with just a few hand movements. I was consistently impressed with the way the fight scenes were portrayed and wasn’t ever left underwhelmed or disappointed (or, for that matter, feeling like they completely over exaggerated/overcompensated the scene with huge close-ups and tons of debris and lights). I loved watching this and my heart was always pounding with every intense interaction. I didn’t feel bored during any of the episodes and always found myself laughing when they cracked a joke—pretty much all of their funny lines hit and that’s saying something, dude.

The show, while having a lighthearted surface, has a heavy meaning that you don’t see at first glance. It’s about dealing with grief and loss, and how the characters themselves accomplished that in different ways. The most prominent quote is the biggest indication of its moral “you’re gonna carry that weight”. Basically: ‘You’ve gotta pick up your baggage, because the world moves on, with or without you’. Or ‘You’re going to carry that weight whether you like it or not, because life keeps going’. When I figured out the show’s actual message, while staring at my ceiling in the long hours of the night, I almost cried. This realization brought something entirely different to the table, a new understanding of the show’s characters and overall essence.

The main characters, all of them, had depth. They had real, palpable depth, and even if you didn’t want to care you found yourself seriously interested in their lives. Each of them had relatively shitty pasts. Faye with her lost memories, Spike with Julia and the people who fucked him over, Jet with his old flame and the ISSP, Ed and her/his father... throughout the entire show we got to see how all of them dealt with these things, whether they wanted to continue on with life or not. The way they portrayed it was engaging, because the characters individual, contrasting journeys weren’t repetitive or one note. The beauty that the show holds so achinging close to its core, the layers of grief that the characters are wrapped in so delicately is almost suffocatingly real—because they’re all different. It’s something you discover when you think on the subject in a deeper light, which is another reason why I enjoy it so much. It has both a surface story and a deeper one. You can either take the show at face value or choose to understand the underlying moral.

This show inspired my very first, thoroughly fleshed out OC, and continues to inspire me to this day. It has contributed to my own personal growth, and has helped push me to continue my art and writing. It is beautifully written, beautifully executed and even though some of the episodes seem like filler, it has never disappointed me. I rewatch it all the time because there’s something so infinitely refreshing about the beauty of this anime, whether it be the way we watch the characters develop or the overall moral it portrays. This show has given us a message that is essentially timeless, it can be ‘carried’ through generation after generation, and still have the same impact—something I absolutely fucking adore.

I owe so much to this anime, including my very own artistic development. I discovered it during a really shitty time in my life and I couldn’t have asked for better timing. I will never tire of the bittersweet message or the thoroughly fucking fantastic animation. Everyone who contributed to this masterpiece deserves love, because it’s seriously fucking gold.

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