#this time it’s a 2 for 1 deal

[spacedlexi]

"sounds nice... having a partner"

#the walking dead game #twdg #violentine #clementine twdg #violet twdg #MAANN when clem says this in s3 JUST WAIT BBY #people who say clemvi has no basis like ep2 isnt just them working as a team for 2 and a half hours regardless of player choice #like be fr #clem telling louis that violet patching up the back wall is ok because she needed something to keep herself busy. married behavior #vi asking clem to help check in on everyone while she deals with the wall. their shared smile when she comes back outside :) #and then they sit in the leadership spot together overlooking the yard and everything theyve planned together coming to fruition :) #sorry i just think their romance set up in eps 1 and 2 is obvious as FUCK and im tired of (Some) people pretending it isnt #'i havent seen her warm up to someone in a long time' brody literally tells clem that vi seems to like her after its been 24 hours #after shes been a block of ice for a whole year. and clem just melted those walls down immediately while they fought walkers together #violet is so devoted to clem post ep1 its embarrassing for her #'i saw she had you pinned and i- shit i got So crazy...' sorry if you dont think shes in love with clem idk what to tell you #'i'll tear that boat apart before we leave without you' i know you would girlie!!! #the animators went CRAAZAYAYAYAY the way they look at each other... their little smiles at each other....even before the belltower #the way clem looks at her while they dance.... the way she puts her head down on her shoulder so contentedly.... #and then she keeps her head on violets shoulder as she pulls away so clems chin gets dragged with it like she doesnt want to let go #'so you never forget that night' 'i never will' they are DISGUSTINGLY in love with each other it makes me physically ill #its 2024 and im still hearing 'i just didnt see it :/'. lazerbeams you #spaced art 2024

[mewtwo24]

Not to be That Guy but like.

Am I the only one that can't stop thinking about how Tianlang-Jun says about Luo Binghe that he pretends to be cold-hearted like his mother. The hint of fondness there, the heartache in that utterance.

Like it drives me absolutely insane. Imagining her putting on a front of strength, cold and driven and unrelenting. Why does TLJ say that about her. Did she secretly look for solutions that meant reconciling with demons instead of hurting them when her sect wasn't looking? (I wonder this because I feel like his weird fondness for SQQ would lowkey track if it's connected to the woman he once loved.) Did he mean that she was tasked with basically assassinating him and she fell in love with him instead (re: failed step one)? Did he mean that she was fond and doting in her own way (e.g. conceding he was attractive, paying for his exploits and humoring him)? Did he mean that, like LBH, she thought that power would be the thing to protect her--and that it was disguising a person who was deeply and privately wounded? All four????? I don't need sleep I need a n s w e r s

Did she know about the Huanhua Palace Master's skeevy ass intentions before she met TLJ? Or did those only come to significant light after she fell in love with TLJ? Is that why she never anticipated that level of betrayal, because initially she had no intention of being with anyone romantically? And HHPM just assumed she would be under his thumb forever?? Was she furious at her own indiscretion or did she try to use the pregnancy as a bargaining chip, a way to try to stop the immortals of Cang Qiong Mountain from attacking TLJ (plus the bonus of marriage entrapment no takesies backsies this is where LBH gets it from)? Did she try to use that claim on her to dissuade HHPM from his covetous advances, framing herself as tainted so that she could finally escape? Did she dream of a life by TLJ's side, far away from Cang Qiong Mountain?

Like. Literally every single permutation of what this could mean guts me to hell. Do you ever just cry about tianxi because I--[loud bawling noises]

#svsss #tianxi #tianlang jun #su xiyan #like this shit keeps me awake at night #i'm trying to put fic ideas together and every time i go back to that line i just #find myself trying to parse and hone out su xiyan's mannerisms/personality #zzl's descriptions help a great deal but i also love that they're limited in the sense that #1. zzl was clearly scared shitless of/disconcerted with her LMFAO #2. he was suspicious of her (as a cultivator fundamentally) and its fascinating that TLJ did not seem to share this suspicion at all #or one could argue tlj just didn't care beyond his attraction and glee being around her jkahglfdskjhsfkhjg #there is also the hilarious implication that part of what turned tlj on so much about sx is the fact that she could prbly kill him #tlj really said 'i love a woman who can and WILL kick my ass' #'none of that soft power seduction shit manhandle me or nothing' #like he always believed deep down--or at the very least wanted to believe--that she loved both him and lbh dearly #i'm not usually the fix-it fic type but the Way I Need To See Su Xiyan Destroy Huanhua Palace Master's Entire Life. #i just want sx and her boytoy to live happily ever after is that so wrong? #i also think of that person (im so sorry tumblr user i dont rmr who u are at the minute) that said there had to be trust between tlj and sx #because YES. ABSOLUTELY. I AGREE. AND I WANT IT FOR ME #don't mind me just the usual descent into madness anytime i think too hard about svsss #i need to outline damn you airplane and your refusal to expand on LBH's juicy ass backstory #ill never forgive the chinese (joke)

[sleepsucks]

#21.01.23 #3238 #ok HI. gettin back to queue. resume. #because 1/ i wanted to not get past the full year posting delay #2/ im gonna have too much free time again so i can put some time into dealing with the backlog #its gonna be a rough start bc theres real bummers in the upcoming ones sorry #CaGab #PoTal #LiLua

[pastadoughie]

2 stupid with computers to rlly feel welcome in old web communities 2 good with computers to handle being around ppl my age who cant handle having to unzip a folder 2 autistic about blinkies to exist around anybody inbetween

#not that i nessasarily like the old web community #2 many absolutely insufferable assholes in it #but i love blinkies #i love blinkies so much that i kinda have to be atleast 1 foot in it #there is not a single person on earth as insane about blinkies as me #witch sucks so fucking bad #i follow the blinkies tag #and god #listen. i love blinkiescafe and im glad it exists #but theres only so many times i can deal with people talking abt how they “made” a blinkie when in reality they just typed in like #2 words into the generator #there is so much hate in my heart #the beast speaks #screaming and scampering

[frostbitebakery]

“So? What’s the grand plan?”

Cody planned to have a mild to semi severe breakdown, thank you. “We contact the Order as soon as comms are running again.” Half the ship had been thoroughly fried when… this… happened. They had managed to send out a distress signal but that had been it.

“And in the meantime?” Obi— Gen— Kenobi asked. “I do what? Twiddle my thumbs?” He waved a hand around.

Stars, it barely had any of the callouses Cody knew so well. Or that little scar at the thumb’s knuckle from Obi-Wan accidentally cutting himself, getting citrus juice all over it, and letting out the longest, high-pitched, suppressed noise as he “let go of the pain and into the Force, Cody, through acknowledgement of what has befallen my body and spirit”. And now he was looking at the shiny-faced version who had much of the same hardness lurking in his eyes already as the man Cody knew. The same kindness, and, to Cody’s everlasting grief, the same brattiness.

“Some sleep would do you good,” Cody replied. The dark circles on that kid, Force.

Ken— Obi-…Wan sighed in that particular way that let Cody know this compliance would find an end soon enough. The kid ran a hand through his hair in a motion so familiar Cody’s heart constricted, and shrugged an irritated shoulder. “Might as well,” he muttered. “And where would I sleep?”

“Here, in your quarters.”

The kid’s brow contorted into a skeptical crunch. “With all the blaster oil and cleaning kits, and, you know, armor I assumed this was your room.”

“It is,” Cody confirmed without thinking like some kind of especially obtuse idiot.

They watched each other stagger into brain static in record time. And held each other’s gaze far, far too uncomfortably long. Cody’s eye twitched.

“Oh,” Obi— the kid said, blush blooming on his cheeks as he looked more closely at Cody, studying him. “Oh.”

“Peaceful rest,” Cody strangled out and turned around to very calmly and in a most dignified manner book it out of the quarters.

#codywan #ish #obi wan kenobi #de-aged!obi wan #commander cody #the clone wars fanart #my art #we are embracing tropes this fine Sunday #how to deal with your deaged SO and CO #step 1: set them a bed time #step 2: do not think about the oh OH #i KNOW Obes isn’t rocking the padawan cut #let me rest #and pretend he was on a mission #from whenever he got there #frostbitebakery art

[cry-ptidd]

Expression study ft Laura and Alucard who look just about fucking miserable

#hellsing #alucard #hellsing oc #my oc #laura chastel #my art #angst? on MY tumblr? it’s more likely than you think #they’re having the time of their life. #laura wouldn’t actually be very emotional at all in a canon setting #(if we don’t count anger and lust for battle) #but she’s still fucked up. like REALKY fucked up #and I kinda see her and alu getting along bc they 1) are both ancient monsters that understand each other’s struggles #2) have sa trauma #3) have no fucking clue how to Deal with it in a healthy manner #who needs therapy when you have Shooting things and Eating people #cw blood #cw nonsexual nudity #cw mental breakdown #cw sh

[coquelicoq]

i am such a clown. decided to make stickers for my siblings even though i have ZERO design skills or knowledge of any programs that allow you to rotate text except for powerpoint. so i made them in powerpoint. (this took, mmmm, maybe 6-8 hours btw.) then had to find a website that would print and mail these stickers to me. no i don't want 50 stickers. i want one circle sticker and one rectangle sticker. oh that's not an option anybody wants to give me? okay then i guess i will buy 16 circle stickers (the least offered) and 50 rectangle stickers (the least offered. why not 16 also? a mystery). one of the designs is for my sibling's band, so if they like it theoretically they could use the stickers as merch or something lol. but i'm not holding my breath, on account of the aforementioned lack of design skills. i get away with a lot among my family because they're all so willing to react to my questionable creations with aww look, she Tried! but that probably doesn't work for strangers who are fans of my sibling's band. so i guess they will just have 49 extra stickers that they can idk stick to streetlight poles or something. not my problem.

#i originally designed them on graph paper. with like a compass and everything #i learned something new today!! apparently you can curve a text box around a circle!!!!!! that saved me some time #this all came about because my sister was telling me how sad she was that she lost her water bottle because it had a sticker on it #that she had gotten from her travels. and i was like awesome i'll just make her a new one #girl what! you don't know how to do that!!! CLOWNNNNNN #also i don't actually know what the original sticker looked like lol which is probably for the best so i can't 1) plagiarize #or 2) compare my shoddy workmanship to that of an actual professional #i thought about commissioning an actual graphic designer to do this but i quickly got overwhelmed with logistics #and it's so close to christmas i didn't really want to deal with the timeline issue #i really should have done this three months ago but of course i procrastinated #anyway. the website kept being like are you SURE you positioned that image correctly? #and i was like nope! but i don't know what else to do so let's just try it and see what happens :) #it looked fine in the preview. living on the edge over here. the extreme sport of sticker designing

[blue-rose-soul]

For Bastard child au. Assuming that Lucifer finds out before the finale how would he respond to knowing Alastor got hurt fighting Adam? How would Charlie?

I've been waiting for an excuse to talk about this! Well, not this exactly, just...

Okay, so the general consensus is that Lucifer couldn't step in sooner with the extermination because he had an agreement with Heaven, and that Adam broke that agreement by targeting Charlie, a hellborn. Alastor may be Lucifer's son, but he was born on Earth to a human mother. He has a human soul and came to Hell as a sinner. An extremely powerful sinner, but a sinner nonetheless.

In other words, he's not protected under the same agreement.

But! But but but, I figure Lucifer must have been keeping an eye on the battle from somewhere, so he could know when to step in. So he saw Adam and Alastor fight, saw Alastor nearly die, and saw him barely escape with his life. In the end, Niffty doesn't need to step in to finish Adam.

"You come at me, and my family!?"

Lucifer does it himself.

They know Alastor isn't dead thanks to Husk (and possibly Niffty) but are still concerned when they can't find him in the ruins of the old hotel. Lucifer does make an attempt to look for Alastor, but he doesn't know Alastor well enough to know where to look. But his daughter is still here and still needs him, so Lucifer puts the search aside and helps Charlie rebuild her hotel.

And in the end, Alastor returns. Alastor would shove Lucifer off when he joins in the group hug, but he doesn't want to aggravate the wound he's pretending not to have*.

I think that, whether or not she knew Alastor was her brother, Charlie would show the same amount of concern for him. Wanting to know what happened after Adam broke through his shield, why he disappeared from the battle. Just, wanting to know if he's okay. Alastor just brushes off her questions and keeps her at a distance. The biggest change is really between Lucifer and Alastor, and later between Lucifer and Charlie.

The guilt is crushing Lucifer. He knows how badly hurt Alastor was, and knows that instead of coming back to the people who would help him, he hid away somewhere to heal alone. Lucifer tries to be subtle about it, but he's constantly checking in on Alastor, asking if there's anything he needs, or anything Lucifer can do for him. He's not subtle at all.

And Alastor is not at all amused. He doesn't care that Lucifer was late to the battle! He didn't ask for or want Lucifer's help! It was his own fault for getting sloppy and letting Adam get a hit in (not to mention a disadvantageous deal but he's not saying that bit), and he doesn't need Lucifer coddling him. Unfortunately, with his cane broken and his body healing slowly, Alastor is uniquely vulnerable for the first time in a long time. But Lucifer's awkward hovering and Charlie's concern is only serving to make Alastor all the more agitated. So he sticks the needle where it hurts; Lucifer's guilt.

He accuses Lucifer of waiting until after Adam had mortally wounded Alastor specifically so his 'mistake' would be erased. Of wanting him deader than dead.

Then he coldly tells Lucifer that if he can't be bothered to show up when it matters, he shouldn't show up at all.

Later, he assures Charlie he doesn't hold any negative feelings towards her even though Lucifer came running to her rescue while he was willing to let Adam nearly eviscerate Alastor. After all, it stands to reason that Lucifer would choose his real child over a bastard. The King of Hell has made it perfectly clear he doesn't need a 'busboy.' Charlie tries to speak in Lucifer's defense, but, Alastor is pleased to note, her heart isn't in it.

Afterwards, he listens from the shadows and grins as he hears Charlie asking Lucifer why he saved her but not Alastor. Lucifer telling her the terms of the agreement he made with Heaven doesn't satisfy her. Alastor's her brother, they're both Lucifer's children! Lucifer should have stepped in, agreement be damned! The recently repaired cracks in their relationship begin to widen once again and Alastor is pleased.

(*I'm going to cackle if season 2 drops and it turns out we were all wrong and Alastor's completely fine.)

#ask #anonymous #Hazbin Hotel #the Devil's Bastard AU #Lucifer Morningstar #Charlie Morningstar #Alastor #and here on your right you'll see Alastor taking advantage of Charlie's desire for a sibling bond to drive a wedge between her and Lucifer #Season 2 episode 1 prediction: Alastor's got his cane back and he's not injured in any way shape or form! #but not in this AU in this AU he's bleeding every minute of every day lol #just imagine Alastor dealing with wave after wave of upstart sinners thinking they can become Overlords #if they just get in a lucky hit on the injured Radio Demon #not to mention whatever Vox and the Vees are planning #and all the while Alastor's choking on his own blood acting like he's fine #and glaring at Lucifer every time he tries to step in

[fortist166]

Daily reminder: People say Akane’s jealousy was unreasonable in the Shampoo introduction arc, but the family begged to differ 🤣

#ranma 1/2 #ranma saotome #akane tendo #shampoo #And Akane didn’t even pound him but went outside to deal with her anger first and THINK #Love you Ranma but you dug your own grave there and that was one of the very few time I agreed with Genma

[samssims]

Time Machine. 

<< | >>

#ts4 #Sims 4 #NSB #Not So Berry Legacy #Not So Berry #NSB Gen 2 #NSB Gen 1 #NSB Ruby #Sims 4 gameplay #Sometimes your wife just cracks the code for time travel #no big deal

[samble]

"homura is an evil abuser who wants to control madoka and hates their friends" tired trope, canonically untrue, congrats on falling for the facade put up by a middle schooler.

"homura sees herself as inherently evil and abusive due to her upbringing, past actions, and status as a witch, which is still ongoing even at the end of rebellion" fresh, new, actually closer to canon, doesn't demonize a child for being mentally ill.

#pmmm #madoka magica #do you understand. do you see my vision #it is VERY VERY COMMON for people (esp kids) to see themselves as edgy and evil when they're 'normal' over minor things #eg kids who listen to metal and think they Cannot Be Understood..... #let alone literal child who has spent almost 1/2 her life in a time loop watching her friends die a dozen times #even nowadays due to Trauma Stuff and mental illness i deal w being like #'wow im an awful evil person for [minor offense] [intrusive thought] etc' #im not even a 14yo raised orphan catholic who lived over a decade in a loop failing to save my friends #and!! EVERYONE ignores that homucifer IS A WITCH. #witches canonically CANNOT CONTROL THEIR ACTIONS (oktavia attacking her friends etc etc etc) #even if she's 'not entirely a witch' or one w more control she's still canonically influenced by her despair and misery at the end of it #see: her familiars running around her soul gem 'whispering' to her etc #'homura is an evil abuser w no good qualities' posts (esp in 2024??) drive me up the wall ffs #sambling

[apricotbuncakes]

Ranma 1/2 is an interesting show.

Clearly a product of it's time through very obvious homophobia and transphobia, but again is an interesting watch nonetheless. I need to make it known now though that I DO in fact love this show very much. Loving a show and being critical of it are not mutually exclusive. Some of y'all have piss poor reading comprehension so I'm stating it now. I LOVE Ranma 1/2, and I have criticisms of it.

The premise of Ranma 1/2 is that Ranma, his dad, and a handful of other people fell into cursed spring water in China where one is cursed to inhabit a body correlated with who or what died in the water previously. Ranma gets one of a young girl so whenever he is doused in cold water, his body transforms into that of the female sex, and only reverts back to its original male sex when he is doused in cold water.

(I'm going to note now that I'm using he/she/they pronouns for Ranma, based on how he identifies in a given moment, not necessarily what sex he has, as gender and sex are not the same, yada yada yada, you get the drill).

One episode is about Akane accidentally eating testosterone infused noodles and beating a girl named Shampoo who is out for (boy) Ranma's affection. Akane is now super strong because the noodles increased Akane's testosterone levels. And then as Akane is challenging (girl) Ranma in the same challenge to prove she is truly stronger than Ranma, she runs off because she's spontaneously grown small bits of facial hair and is embarrassed by it.

Like holy shit?? I WISH testosterone worked that fast!!! This is what you-know-whos think happens when trans people are in sports, which is so funny because this is a fantasy martial arts anime. So this is the mind of material we're working with here. ANYWAY!

A few episodes later Ranma hits his head and then wakes up truly feeling like a woman, and describes the VERY FEELINGS I FEEL ABOUT MY PAST SELF, how she feels that memories of her past self are someone else's memories and don't truly belong to her (she's just like me for real). There's a point in the episode where Ranma's father dumps water on her head to turn her body back to male, and the scene ends with her distraught and sliding down a door after hiding herself away, very clearly going through intense dysphoria and distress.

Akane later offers to take her shopping and Ranma goes to get changed into cute clothes only to realize that she still has dysphoria over her body, how she doesn't feel pretty wearing the cute clothes in her male body because she thinks they don't fit her right. I really hate how the music they played in the background is the same when a character is upset but the audience isn't supposed to take it seriously, the music played when a characters' emotions are meant for laughs, because Ranma is so clearly in distress and almost no one else is taking it seriously (except for Akane's older sister). And despite the small tidbits of encouragement and affirmation Akane gives Ranma, Akane still is at least a bit annoyed at how it's all playing out.

During the shopping trip, Akane even admits to being embarrassed by Ranma being excited about girls clothes because other people thought Ranma was being perverted (God forbid someone think a bra is pretty, and again I know it's a product of it's time but I'm still allowed to be annoyed by it). Instead of standing up for Ranma, Akane drags her away for them both to hide.

Ranma even struggles to use the men's restroom because she's uncomfortable with having to use a urinal, and Akane ends up dumping Ranma with cold water so she can use the women's. Then Akane buys Ranma a dress so she isn't in wet clothes. A rather expensive dress too. (Apparently it's okay for Ranma to like feminine things as long as she looks like a girl to everyone else...). Ranma loves it and wears it the rest of the outing.

The entire episode portrays Ranma in a very stereotypical "women do as men say, only like feminine things, doesn't like violence, cliché" sort of way, but that isn't inherently bad. Ranma even says that she wants to do a lot of these things because she genuinely enjoys them, and not just for bridal training. (Except in one scene where one of the side characters who is a perverted freak is trying to see Ranma in a bra and Ranma almost lets him because she doesn't want fighting, which is a weird thing even for Ranma to almost allow, but I digress). It is odd because Ranma is being portrayed during this time with different standards than Akane, the other main lead. Akane is frequently bullied by Ranma for being 'tomboyish' while the rest of the characters don't seem to have a problem with it. Even Ranma is presumably only picking on Akane in an effort to hide his romantic attraction to Akane, determined to not fall in love because their marriage was arranged.

By the end of the episode, Ranma has hit their head again and is again very firm in his identity as a guy (which is standard for the majority of the show).

Honestly, not on par with more modern representation, but it's still a fun watch and I'm slowly going to drag my friends into binging it with me. I started crying after seeing that episode because jesus fucking christ they hit the nail on the head and still seemed to miss the point.

Like, I'm not sure if the original author of Ranma 1/2 intended for this episode to be portrayed this way, if it was an effort to comply with social expectations at the time, or if they genuinely thought it was funny for Ranma to identify as a girl despite everyone 'knowing' she's 'really a boy' but it kinda hurt. This show is a really nice exploration of gender and sexuality, but it still feels restricted, playing a trans coded character for laughs or for being seen as annoying and perverted because the character is acting different than they did before. I love this show so much, and damn it I'm going to write so much fanfiction about this episode but gaaaaahhhh. I think I'm frustrated at what this episode could have been.

This isn't the only episode that irks me like this, but it is the biggest one so far. I wish we could have a more modern adaptation of this anime. I'm not sure every Ranma 1/2 fan would enjoy it, but I would love to see this anime portrayed with a more modern lense, where Ranma isn't made fun of by Akane and others for expressing part of their identity, something that affects his everyday. Where a lesbian isn't attempted to be pulled back to the 'straight and narrow', or said lesbian who is actually a cis straight man crossdressing isn't seen as perverted for enjoying different clothing (yes that is an episode).

Again, I love this show and greatly appreciated how many eggs have cracked thanks to it. Watching it with a modern lens makes it questionable and I really wish people in the past had been better in general about these things, but I love it for what it is.

#this is a gut reaction post to the episode so no i am not going to br as nuanced as i could be and you all just have to deal #despute some of the 'ew gross' or 'what the actual fuck' moments of the show #i really do enjoy it a lot. #again forthe upteenth time it is a product of its time #but that doesnt mean that the time was rught in its portrayal and actions #it just means it tracks that this series trats these subjects like this #god i wish it could be better though #ranma 1/2 #ranma saotome #ranma ½ #ranma anime #akane tendo

[deus-ex-mona]

biannual reminder that this event sure was a ✨thing✨

#(the two event remembrance dates are 14/3 and 11/11 btw~~~~) #it’s pocky day huh~~~~~~~~ well. more like sALES DAY YEAAYAYAYAYAYAAAAAA #man. i still can’t believe that the aiyuu pocky event was a thing. it was truly one of the greatest pieces of canon fanfics of all time #i wonder what the honeypre event story writers are doing with their lives these days… #i sincerely hope that they’re living their ✨best lives✨ and are still writing aiyuu fanfics in their spare time lmaoooooooooo #i want them to come back to write the lxl radio drama with them in ✨situations✨ tbh #(ok but guys what did you submit for the lxl situations?) #(my submissions were 1: they go on a lovey dovey date 2: they swap bodies one day 3: they go to the aquarium together) #(i saw some submissions on ft4twt which involved them having to deal with situations™️ w/ ft4. i hope those get picked ngl) #anyways manifesting white day kiss mv for next year leading up to the album release o k b y e— #shibaclown saturday #染BODY ONCE TOLD ME—

[welcome-to-the-end-of-eras]

While the whole thing about Mori including Six in the business and saying she’s his daughter is cute af…how did they pull that one off??? There are little to no heterosexual ways to claim that your “good friend’s” daughter is also your daughter, so how the fuck did they do that without anyone getting weirded out/suspicious???

#the only explanations I can think of are 1.) they renamed the business in modern times after doing a historical deep-dive #or 2.) something happened to Thaniel and he got to legally take her in as her godfather #I would genuinely never recover if it was option 2 I can’t deal with that #the watchmaker of filigree street #the lost future of pepperharrow #the mars house #tmh #natasha pulley

[compacflt]

you're a legend for referencing lauren berlant and michael warner in relation to your top gun fic and I'd like to think that they would say the same!! the stories that you've created are beautiful explorations of some of the biggest questions posed in queer theory: who are we in public? who are we in private? where is the line that separates the two (spoiler: there is no way to actually separate the two, no binary) and what are the structural forces bearing down upon all of that bullshit! I for one would love to see your questions about privacy and respectability explored with rooster and ice and mav. especially considering the generational cliff between them, with the aids crisis in the background of rooster's childhood when they were all the closest, in your world. anyway! you are an incredible writer and it's been a privilege to read you work :)

thank you so much for this ask!! yes i have spent so much time thinking about this. In March i started working on a new-yorker-style interview that tried to address a bunch of these questions. Since I didn’t do wip wednesday yesterday (sorry) here’s some relevant sections of that wip related to your ask. I don’t think it’s spoilers since I’m not sure id ever post this anywhere—you can see for yourself how entertaining the writing is and it’s overly political and didactic. Just a lame hegelian dialectic where im interrogating my own characters (at least, my own interpretations of them) on their politics. And I’m not an expert on any of this stuff (currently on the slow uphill climb out of the valley of the dunning-kruger graph—trying to learn). Nor am I fact-checking it & that feels irresponsible to post For Real. so just take this post as a fun (for me) exploration of what i (20y.o., ignorant, no editorial oversight, smooth-brained) think Might be some political implications of my fics, trying to write from a lib-moderate pov (tough!)

talking points I wanted to address:

The politics of ice’s career, both internationally & domestically (some wild navy scandals happened under his “tenure” [fat Leonard most pressingly—would LOVE to know how actual TGM’s ice & mav felt about that bc it was SO FUCKING CRAZY, navy officers & admirals having wild sex parties paid for by a singapore defense contractor (the details are so fucking crazy i can’t even say them here—one anecdote involves 7th fleet officers using WWII/Korean war general macarthurs historical memorabilia during sex acts—go read about it) a couple PACFLT RDMLs were charged with actual crimes, 60 admirals (of the navys total 160 admirals) were under investigation & both my and TGM’s ice & cyclone would probably have been two of them, basically if you were a pacflt officer in the mid-2000s-2010s you were under investigation it was so fucking wild]) —and another geopolitical look at the implications of both top gun movies (reagan weighs in from beyond the grave)

Ice and mav who can’t win—they want their relationship to Not Be A Big Deal. leave us alone. We’re Normal. we’re not Weird or anything. —but can’t understand WHY their relationship is so sensational/political—yes, boys, it is a big deal, sorry!! mavericks probably the last Ace the world will ever see & ice is the secretary of the navy and they’re married, fuck yes that’s newsworthy!!!

my version of Ice acceding to SECNAV at the intersection of a couple crucial contextual moments for the navy/military as a whole: 1. Recruitment is currently fucked. This interview takes place in 2020/early 2021, and things were bad then, but the numbers just came out for the Navy this year, and hoooooly shit they are so bad. And blame is falling along partisan lines like always: Ds blame low recruitment numbers on lack of benefits etc, Rs literally i am not shitting you are mostly blaming low recruitment numbers on the military going Woke. The USN has long been seen as the most obnoxiously woke/gay (derogatory) service to conservatives & there’s a lot of political baggage that comes with having a SECNAV who, while not openly identifying as gay, is openly married to another man. especially with a recruiting crisis like this one. 2. Withdrawal from afghanistan obviously. kind of a shit way for ice to end his career ngl. It Did Not Go Super Well. 3. rising tensions in eastern europe pre RU-UA invasion in 2022, what that means for the MIC and procurement, etc. 4. The joint chiefs openly declaring they (& by extension the military as a whole) would not support trump’s coup attempt post-J6—the end of that extremely politically polarized presidency—what does it mean for the following Dem president to then have a gay secnav after that? It’s HUGE. SO no matter what, Ice as SECNAV is going to go down in history. He just wants it to be for his actions, not the fact that he’s gay.

Icemav’s relationship with their identities. We really really don’t want to be known for being gay. “Ask me what my proudest achievement is, I’ll tell you without a second of hesitation—my family. Without a doubt. But does any military man really want to be best-known for his marriage?” We want to be known for being the BEST at our jobs, which we are. We’ve earned that title! There’s so much more interesting stuff about us than who we got married to.

AND how that is a liberal-moderate-conservative median-50% meritocratic WET DREAM of an ideology. an interview like this one is a straight fluff piece pre-ice’s confirmation to secnav—it lets him prove to the moderate liberals that he’s left-leaning enough to protect social justice interests in the USN, AND prove to conservatives that he’s right-leaning enough to not let identity politics/“woke bs” get in the way of the navy’s mission of providing a lethal maritime fighting force. the merits of this ideology are up for debate.

maybe helping the conservative viewpoint of that ideology: The fact that the Kazansky-Mitchell-Bradshaw-seresin family is so not-stereotypically gay. Like, look at these four guys. 9-to-11 combat kills between them (11 in my universe where ice gets an extra 2, 9 canon confirmed) in a period of history/modern warfare when ANY air-to-air kill is/was massively historically significant. Extremely macho & tough. They present themselves about as traditionally and toxically masculine as you could possibly get. Theyve KILLED PEOPLE. They’re not “soft” by any stretch of the imagination. Physically & emotionally they ARE extremely conservative, and there’s something to be said about the politics of that too—molding yourself into the shape of what you think a man should look like, just to avoid persecution, and then performing masculinity BETTER than even the men who would want to persecute you…!

Related to your ask: the modern/young ppl inclination to make sexuality SO political and public. When asked how he could reckon with joining a DADT-ruled navy, rooster answers: “hope I could do something to destroy it before it could destroy me.” When asked why he DIDNT use any of his considerable power to influence the repeal of DADT, ice answers: “it was better than the blanket ban that came before it. And maybe I’ve always wanted neither to tell nor to be asked.” the conservative respectable opinion that your intimate relationships ought to be PRIVATE, doesn’t matter if you’re gay or straight—just do your job, and preferably do it well. yeah, don’t ask and don’t tell. It’s not anyone’s business. ice doesn’t have a philosophical problem with DADT, because he agrees sexuality should be private & secret. —is it anyone’s business? whose business is it? How much of your personal life do you owe the public if you’re a public-facing individual like the COMPACFLT or SECNAV? all good questions!!!!

#& unanswerable! #sooo fun to ignore the big ‘is the military bad’ questions in favor of the nitty gritty of policy #yes it’s bad. next! #poor ice and mav honestly. if it wasn’t such a big deal theydve been married in the 90s #its all external influencing the internal #impossible to not be products of their time #‘marshallian system’ as very niche military officer succession strategy #pete maverick mitchell #tom iceman kazansky #icemav #top gun #top gun maverick #edts notes #top gun fanfiction #sorry i probably won’t be posting as much for the next couple weeks. finals season and i am so deep in the trenches its actually not funny. #i think there’s a grammatical typo in excerpt 2. their* #and in excerpt 1 too. not really proofreading these. shrug.

[macbethvsromeo]

I just want yall to know that the tkc movie cancellation is a blessing in disguise bc it really should be a 3 season tv series 🥱

#thinking about how the first book is literally the longest out of the trilogy #bc it’s a lot of info and a lot of movement for the first installment #as glad as I was to have tkc content in the wild #I also figured they would be cutting a massive amt of info and scenes lol #first like six (?) chapters can be episode 1-2 alone #establishing the family dynamic then the museum blowing up fiasco and the police interrogation #and then Amos’ officially arrival #like so much shit happens in like 1-2 weeks it’s kinda insane #also u truly have to give time for the audience to gaf about the characters #coz Amos’ possessed by Set and then Zia’s reveal as a shabti wouldn’t hit nearly as hard if it was crammed into 1.5hrs #there’s also more things that require subtlety and more care to get it right #like the physical appearances of the Kanes and why it matters #idk I’m hoping for a tv series rather than a movie deal so that this is all able to be shown #ya never know #the kane chronicles #tkc