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boysplanetrecaps · 3 months

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Build Up Episode 0: Getting to Know the Boys Part 2: Team Soul

Hey friends! Continuing my introductory posts about the guys on MNET's Build Up before I can dive into proper recaps, here's the low down on Team Soul -- their background, basic info, and my opinion on their teaser performance (and other performances). (I did Team Allround last time.) Let's go!

Same disclaimers apply -- 1) these are all excellent vocalists and I am just splitting hairs here 2) this is taking forever and screencaps with my video source are tricky, so please forgive my awkward screencaps and occasional typos. Thank you!!

Ma Jaekyung

Jaekyung is 27 and from a group called Romeo, where he was the main vocalist and performed under the name of Kyle. He also appeared on Mixnine, that blighted show that produced a group that never debuted. It was such a fiasco, ugh, and so many trainees went through hell for nothing. Bitsaeon from M.O.N.T. , Jeong Inseong from KNK, and Donghun from A.C.E. all went on that as well, so they all might have gotten friendly then.

Jaekyung (and the other members of Romeo) also went on Peaktime, a show for idol groups that had already debuted but weren’t super successful, including Vanner (who won!), M.O.N.T, and BDC, so he may have met Taehwan, Bitsaeon (again), and Hong Seongjun. When Romeo was on Peaktime, they performed the SHINee song Juliette, which is a cute choice since that’s the name of their fandom. And then MNET didn’t bother airing that performance. Thanks, MNET! Themnet.

So, as for his group itself. Romeo was a 7 member group that debuted in May of 2015, when he would have been 18 years old. The group did slightly better in Japan than they did in Korea, but none of their Korean singles charted at all and most of their MVs have fewer than 200,000 views. Their biggest hit appears to be Lovesick. When the guys from Romeo went on Peaktime, they revealed that Romeo had disbanded at some point in the past.

In Jaekyung’s k-profiles listing, it says he’s” a 4D” kind of guy, so I guess we should watch out for his personality, if MNET will show it. It’s hard to picture a guy in a tan blazer as wacky, but we’ll see!

His teaser song was V25, Passing by Kim Bum Soo. For me, he has a really nasal tone to his singing that isn’t my favorite, and I am not a huge fan of his kind of wobbly vibrato, but like everyone on this show, he’s essentially a very good vocalist, with what seems like a very good sense of pitch. Again, it’s a ballad and my ears sort of turn off, so I’ll keep an open mind.

Seokhwa

Here is Kang Seokhwa, who is in WEi. He also went on YG Treasure Box, where he would have met CIX’s Seunghwan, and Produce X 101, where he ranked 35th and would have met two of the all rounders on this show, Choi Suhwan and BDC’s Hong Seongjun.

WEi, pronounced something like “we-eye”, is a six member group that debuted in 2020. WEi is almost entirely made up of contestants from Produce 101, Produce X 101, and Under 19, including some who won their seasons. Seokhwa is their main vocal. The WEi song Spray spent some time on my playlists recently, but I don’t know many of their other songs. WEi’s most popular member, Johan, is significantly more popular than the others; he came in first place in Produce X 101. Their videos get around 10-15 million views each, putting them slightly lower in the popularity ranking than CIX and AB6IX, but leagues ahead of IMFACT and Romeo.

I checked out an MR removed video of Spray and Seokhwa was really stable, so I can see why he’d come on the show. He’s V37, and it’s a ballad and you know me by now so it’s hard for me to give this a chance but he has a sweet voice that sounds best when he’s singing more softly, which can’t be said of everyone on this show. We’ve got a lot of belters here! He strains a bit on the higher notes, and I feel like he closes his throat a bit when he belts, but doesn’t get too nasal, which is good. He’s young yet -- he’s only 23, one of the younger people on the show -- and I hope he keeps working on his voice, because he has a lot of potential.

Donghun

Donghun will turning 31 at the end of February of this year (2024), and he’s already done his military service.

He is the main vocal of A.C.E., a five member group under Beat Interactive/Swing Entertainment that debuted in 2017 with the song Cactus. Their songs don’t chart in Korea, but they get into the top twenty on the US World Chart, because USA has taste, yo.

If there’s one song of theirs that I think you’d know it would be Goblin (Favorite Boys). But there’s also Under Cover, which is also a banger. Whoever did the subtitles on their older videos puts the names of the singers in, so you can easily find Donghun in their videos. Some of their older songs have 15-20 million views, but their newest comeback, an English language mid-tempo ballad called Effortless, has less than a million views, maybe because it’s in English? Or because it’s a mid-tempo ballad? I don’t know, if you like Who Do You Love by Monsta X, songs like that, you might like Effortless. Really, their songs are good. I feel like it’s a weird situation where everyone likes A.C.E. but somehow they’re still kind of nugu. I know, that doesn’t make sense.

Donghun went on Mixnine (he won 8th place and should have debuted), so he probably knows the other Mixnine contestants on this show: Bitsaeon from M.O.N.T., Ma Jaekhyung from Romeo, and Jeong Inseong from KNK. He may also know Park Jeup from when they both went on I Can See Your Voice 4.

He set himself up for a tough time by singing an EXO song for his teaser song (V20, Miracles in December). Literally no one can sing it like they can. Still, he does pretty well. He has an appealing warm vocal color and he really goes for that long held note, holding it with good breath support. I just worry because I can almost feel his throat straining on the higher notes. He hits them, but it’s got to hurt. He also relies on some pretty loud background vocals so it’s harder to tell how much of it is live. Despite that, he’s an excellent idol singer and I’ll always support A.C.E. and him.

Lee Minwook

Minwook is 23 and is in a group called Newkidd. I guess he likes vests? What, oh what, what on earth is up with the styling for these guys? Most of them are dressed like they’re going to a college interview. I don’t get it!

As far as I know, Minwook hasn’t been on any other survival type shows, making him one of the 15 members of the cast who haven’t (and 4 of those are musical actors).

Newkidd is a 7 member group under J-FLO Entertainment, an agency that manages only them, and the debuted in 2019. Most of their MVs get a million views or fewer. From what I can tell, their most popular song is Tu Eres, featuring the Spanish refrain “tu eres, tu eres, tu eres bonita” (you are, you are, you are pretty). The comments on the video are mostly in Spanish and show a lot of excitement about hearing Spanish in a Kpop song, and I can’t blame them! Representation! So maybe Newkidd is more popular in Spanish speaking countries and is courting that market. That’s smart -- it’s a huge market!

In his teaser, Minwook was V09, The Manuel by Eddy Kim, an example of a ballad I actually like -- it has some interesting chord progressions and isn’t sappy at all. I also like his performance. He seems to just be singing live while accompanied by just one guitar, which gives me faith in his vocals. I think his voice might be more “unique” than “soul” but these categories are pretty reductive anyway. He puts a lot of warmth into his lower notes and makes you almost feel like you understand what he’s singing. He doesn’t display his higher register or belt as much here, so I’ll be waiting to see more of what he can do.

Lim Sanghyun

Sanghyun is listed as a singer-songwriter, and he’s 27. He’s considered a ballad artist specifically, and is signed to MNH entertainment, where he releases mostly digital singles. I know the ballad market in Korea is really big, even if it’s not my favorite, so go for it, Sanghyun!

His teaser was V14, one of those kinds of ballads I hate so much that it’s hard for me to be fair. He sings in that classic K-ballad style, that kind of gruff whisper-sing, which can go either way for me depending on the song.I don’t think he ever really lets go and belts in his teaser, so I’ll be curious to hear what that would sound like.

Bain

This is Bain, age 22, and I adore his voice. (His name is pronounced “bane”, if you’re wondering, based on the hangul.)

Let me talk about him for a moment.

No, wait. Instead of me talking, you should just listen to this. It’s just a straight forward, earnest cover of Oliva Rodrigo’s Driver’s License, with no winky “ha ha I’m a boy singing this,” no sarcasm. Just a pure performance. His vibrato is so sweet. He exhibits barely a trace of nasality, and when it’s present, it’s for the emotion of the song. The notes he hits in his full chest voice? I can’t believe it. And his mixed register is like, chef’s kiss. I can’t. I just can’t. I’d never heard of him before this show, but I heard this performance and I was good. Even my fella was like, “wow, this guy has technique.” So you’re going to have to accept that I’m a Bain fan and will be cheering for him.

I had to look into Just B. They’re a 6 member group under Bluedot Entertainment, a subdivision of Kakao that manages only them. They debuted into 2021, and their members were contestants on Under 19, I-land, and a few other survival shows. (Side note: I watched a lot of I-land, but never saw any of Under 19. Starting to think I should add it to the list.) JustB has a few title tracks out at this point and they usually get about 10 millions views each. I listened to a few of them over the last few days (it’s taking me a while to write this recap) and I’ve come to like a few of their songs. Their most recent comeback is called Medusa, and though the lyrics make negative amounts of sense, it’s pretty catchy. I also liked Damage quite a bit. The group doesn’t seem to have set positions, but it seems that Bain and Geonu are more or less the main vocals.

Jay

Jay Chang, V02, age 22, famous for almost making it into Zerobase1, landing in 10th place. He’s American, with a white-Filipino-Chinese ethnic background, and on Boys Planet, he was extremely popular among the “Global” voters, but not very popular among the Korean voters. He also went on another show called Under 19 at some point, if you watched that -- I didn’t, but maybe I should. In case you didn’t watch Boys Planet, here is his initial audition to Rush Hour,and here is his performance of Exo’s Love Me Right (he was main vocal).

I know that most of my 3 or 4 readers are Jay fans, and that is cool by me. I’ve always thought he has a really really lovely, clean vocal color, he has good stage presence, and I think he’s basically a nice guy, though he sorta gives me fuckboi vibes sometimes. I also think -- and don’t get mad at me, ok? -- I also think that he needs to work on his pitchiness and nasality. That’s true in both the opening notes of his Rush Hour audition, and at points in his Baby Baby teaser song. He was one of the top 3 or 4 vocalists among the Boys Planet boys, but he’s in a different setting now and might just be outsung by the other vocalists here. I hope that you’re ok with that. I’m not saying that he’s a bad singer. Everyone on this show is a very good singer, and Jay is also a very good singer! I’m just looking for a voice that can compete with D.O.’s voice, and my standards are up in the sky. (Hanuel wilo fly fly!)

Jung Soomin

Jung Soo-min loves slightly goofy, informal outfits that scream “Hi, I’m American!” Which he is -- born in Chicago. That's about all I know about his background.

Check out his performance, V30, a really sweet cover of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You,” in which he accompanies himself on the guitar. I think it speaks for itself, but I’ll say a few words anyway. I really like his voice -- sweet, light, a little textured. Great agility, and good performance of the emotion/feeling of the words. Just delightful. I’ll forgive your hat.

Here he is on tiktok talking bout his experience on the show (in English). He says that his attitude toward competition is to just do the best he can, that the competition is really with himself. He seems like a nice guy.

Kim Seongjeong

Seongjeong is a musical actor, and his performance in V16 shows that. It’s not a style of singing that I tend to respond to, but I respect its natural quality and hard-earned technique. Vocally, he wouldn’t at all be out of place on Broadway. Considering his rich timbre and excellent breath support, I’d be interested to hear him sing something more in the pop or r&b style to see what it would sound like. My sleuthing tells me that he’s 25 (born in 1999) and acted in Hadestown and West Side Story. And look at that smile! Totally transforms his face.

Park Joohee

Joohee is another one of the contestants I just can’t find much info on. His teaser song was V15, Stand by Me by SHINee, and it was perfectly nice. Not mind blowing, but easy to listen to. He has good agility and a nice vocal color, but seems to lack breath support -- either that, or he was just really nervous, which seems likely. Also, the camera hardly ever shows him, so it was really hard to get a screencap of him.

Ok, that's team Soul! Feel free to go on to the next post, Team Power.

And thanks for your amazing response to my first post -- I was really worried you all would murder me for saying slightly negative things and thus far that hasn't happened, so thanks! You're all peaches. Have a beautiful day.

#bpr recaps build up #mnet build up #build up mnet #park joohee #kim seongjeong #jung soomin #jay #jay chang #boys planet jay #bain #just b #lim sanghyun #lee minwook #A.C.E.#Donghun #WEi #Seokhwa #wei seokhwa #ma jaekhyung

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jinxedpanda4life · 3 years

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Criminal Investigator AU HC

I would first like to start off by saying thank you to everyone.

I honestly did not expect the response I got to my Damirae Hospital AU HC list.

When I first woke up and checked tumblr ~13 hours after posting I had a holy shit moment.

I felt powerful, should I? Probably not.

But! Since I am noticing a lack of AUs in the fandom, whether on Tumblr, AO3 or FanFiction.net, whatever AU comes to my mind I shall jot down some hcs for!

Thank you all once again!

(Also trying format changes for easy reading)

(Also Also, I am thinking the story is less fluid but more episodic)

Let’s get started:

- So I’m thinking this is some FBI, SVU, and FBI BAU mixture or whatever. Basically all the great shows we know in love shoved together. From Bones to Criminal Minds and everything in between.

- Special Agent (Dr.) Raven Roth is a lead interrogator and is the resident psych consult.

She’s been educated in interrogation, behavioral science, psychology, forensic pathology, and criminology.

She has combat training (hand to hand), she carries (for her job) a gun and at all times has a knife/dagger on her person (people have stopped trying to figure out where she keeps them).

Her father was/is crime boss T. Trigon who is currently imprisoned.

Was born in the states but fled with her mother to Romania when she was a newborn.

When Trigon found them he killed Arella and took Raven, she was abut 9 - 10 years old.

She took her mother’s last name when she turned 18.

Knows two languages besides English; French, Romanian, Romani (various dialects but knows multiple), Greek and Latin

On more than one occasion some goon of her father’s tries to recruit her, every time she kicks their ass. (Damian was there for the most recent (he was still green though))

Lives by herself in a decent sized apartment, has a gun safe (gun safety is important!), a cat (Nevermore), and is a regular at a 24/7 bookstore &/ cafe

Can usually be found wearing some kind of jacket, sweater, cardigan

She once helped save some kids (Melvin, Tommy & Teether) and is now their surrogate aunt, she has photos of them at her desk @ work. (Damian assumes/ed that they were her kids)

She also, when she can, hangs out and babysits them on occasion.

Raven is part of a team consisting of Dick Grayson (unit leader), Kori Anders, Garfield Logan, Jaime Reyes, and very recently Damian Wayne

- Special Agent Damian Wayne is a lead investigator (he is still a bit fresh to the unit), translator, sniper and combat coordinator

He’s been educated in martial arts, explosives, hand to hand combat, close range combat, and combat (basically he knows how to kill you 9 ways to Sunday), also, behavioral science, computer science, criminology, linguistics and language.

He can easily translate (into English): Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Bengali, French, Polish, German, Spanish, Portuguese, he can also learn any language you put in front of him and know the basics within a day

(Having lived in many places around the world he needed to be able to speak and understand in order to survive) (wow dramatic much?)

His father is currently the director (or deputy director, whatever floats ya boat) of the FBI.

His mother was essentially a secret agent who worked for various agencies around the globe. (deceased)

His grandfather was the leader of a, um, well to be honest, terrorist agency. (deceased)

Was sent to live with his father when he was 15 (when his mother died) and has been in the states ever since

Lives alone, he has an upscale apartment that he truthfully spends little time in, has multiple locations in the home where various weapons are stored, his place has a very cold atmosphere

Is either in proper work attire or in work out clothing, there is no in between

Tries and fails not to take work home with him

He sees a therapist (who says he should probably try investing in relationships with the people at his job)

His only “friend” (he hates calling him that, more like close acquaintance) is Jonathan Kent who was in his class at the FBI Academy, Jon works in a white collar crime department in Metropolis

The only person he actually kind of sort of doesn’t dislike is in fact Raven Roth, she’s a no bull shit person, he likes that

He may know Grayson because of how he’s Bruce’s kind of son but it does not mean he likes him

He finds Logan annoying as all hell, even if he is somewhat useful

He picked a fight with Reyes first day and regretted it (he will never admit that), he respects him

Anders is overly friendly in his opinion, kind of acts like a secretary with all that positivity and grates his nerves, he tolerates her

(Unlike last time I am not going in detail about the rest of the team, this will be brief)

- Supervisory Special Agent Dick Grayson (Unit Chief) is basically Dick Grayson with a big fancy title but all the same skills

He is also obsessed with Slade Wilson and Red X (who is Jason in this)

- Supervisory Special Agent Kori Anders is a lead investigator and is also a go to for undercover work

- Special Agent Garfield Logan is a lead interrogator, is head of the unit’s K-9 unit and kind of has a thing for Roth (which she does not reciprocate)

- Special Agent Jaime Reyes is a tactical analyst, tech analyst and is head of the unit’s SWAT team, he does not do well with talking with people, or change

The Scarab is a computing program that Jaime created himself

STORY START:

- When Damian first joins the team there is another member, Special Agent Terra Markov, she is revealed as a sleeper agent but she aligns herself with the team and sadly is shot and killed in a fire fight

- A couple weeks after Agent Markov’s death everyone is talking about what they are doing for an upcoming holiday, Damian says probably nothing, Raven invites him to spend it with her and her “niece” and “nephews,” he declines

- About a day after the holiday Damian is home looking through case files when someone knocks on his door

-- It is Raven. He asks how she knew where he lived, she says she asked Dick, she also says that she knows how it feels to be alone and that he may be insufferable but it doesn’t mean he can’t have a friend

-- His response is saying he isn’t the kind to make friends with co workers

-- “I’m not asking to be your friend Damian, I am asking you to be his,” She reveals a small black great dane puppy “I know that other people aren’t really your thing, but having someone in your corner and waiting for you is always nice, even if it isn’t human.”

-- Damian invites her in, names the dog Titus and thanks her

-- “Just make sure no one tries to kidnap and kill you, we don’t need you to go full blown John Wick.” Damian has no idea who that is. Raven tells him it is an action movie series that he should watch. She leaves. He does watch them that night with Titus on his lap. (after having gone to the local pet supply store to get everything he needs) The action is inaccurate but he enjoyed the movies none the less, and decides that he probably would go into John Wick mode if someone hurt Titus.

- SA Roth and SA Wayne are sent to a high security federal prison to interrogate a prisoner, who refuses to speak

-- When they get into the interview room the prisoner does start to speak, but not in English and not in a language Damian is fluent in

-- Raven on the other hand immediately responds to the prisoner (shocking the prisoner and Damian) “He is speaking Romani though not the dialect of those overseas, he learned it here.”

-- Damian is fascinated by it and they are essentially switching roles the entire time

-- They leave having successfully interviewing the prisoner, and Raven leaves behind a written list of common words in Romani so that they can possibly communicate with the prisoner better

-- As soon as they are on the plane back Damian asks her a myriad of questions from “How many languages do you know?” to “When did you learn that?” and even “Are you a spy? Sleeper agent? Part of a terrorist cell?”

-- “Not as many as you, when I was a child, if I was part of any of that you wouldn’t be asking.” The rest of the trip is spent with her teaching him Romani and even some Romanian

- Dick & Kori eventually get together and after a while they break up. Kori takes some vacation time. At the same Dick has been temporarily reassigned to another unit.

-- Chaos ensues

-- Garfield thinks he should be the interim unit chief, Jaime thinks the same, as does, you guessed it, Damian (Raven doesn’t want to she is comfortable with her role on the team)

-- In the end they are assigned an interim unit chief, SSA Jason Todd, who usually works overseas on covert op missions (not gonna lie this could easily flow into a Jayrae thing)

-- Everyone kind of falls into line, except Damian, Damian doesn’t like him for two reasons

1) He doesn’t act serious about the job 24/7

2) He has been flirting and hitting on Raven the moment he stepped into their sector

-- Damian hates the names he gives her; “Little Bird,” “Sunshine,” “Princess,” “Rae,” (no one calls her Rae, not even Garfield, at least not after the incident) etc.

-- (Little does Damian know, Jason and Raven have worked together before and are actually friends)

-- This all comes to a head when Damian and Jason are the only ones still in the office after a tiring case.

“You shouldn’t do that you know.”

��“Do what? All I am doing right now is contemplating where Grayson keeps the liquor.”

“Call Raven all those names, she doesn’t like it.”

“Really? Because if you haven’t noticed she hasn’t exactly asked me to stop.”

“She gets uncomfortable, maybe not to the extent of asking you to stop, but she tenses up and her body language becomes slightly more agitated.”

“You seem to pay a lot of attention in how she reacts to thinks baby brat. Seems to me that you like her.”

“Of course I like her, she is a good friend and reliable teammate.”

“No, you like like her.”

“That presumption is juvenile.”

“But you don’t deny it.”

“Tch.”

-- If anything after that conversation Jason seems to doubled his advances. Which confuses both Damian and Raven. Damian because it is inappropriate and HR will be hearing about this. Raven because she was under the assumption that she and Jason were just friends. (Jason actually does have genuine intentions but is like 60% just egging Damian on)

-- Eventually (far too long for Damian’s tastes), both Dick and Kori return. At first it is sooooooo awkward. Like mom and dad divorced have shared custody but don’t hate each other but also cannot look each other in the eye. ((Was that a mouthful? Good)) No one can really look at each other the same? Though they do have a meeting to sort it out, get everything out in the open.

- Raven’s annual kidnapping/attempt to convert her/torture comes almost exactly one year after Damian joined the team (this is his 2nd time dealing with this)

-- This time Damian is prepared. By prepared I mean Raven doesn’t even leave her apartment before she is taken to safety.

“Damian what is going on?”

“Christmas came early this year that’s what.”

“Christmas? What in gods name are you talking about.”

“God has no dealings in this matter.”

“You do realize you are sounding like a bad action movie? It is not even 6 am and I am in your car going somewhere, I have had little to no sleep and I am barely dressed. What is going on?” Damian hadn’t payed attention to what clothing Raven was wearing. His mind was on one goal. Find Raven, keep Raven safe. His eyes glanced off the road enough to realize she was indeed not properly dressed. Her body was merely adorned with an oversized tee-shirt, tiny barely there shorts and a pair of fluffy socks.

“I apologize, it appears in my haste I did not leave you time to properly clothe yourself. As to why you are here, it seems your father and his people have shortened their waiting time this year from one year to a little more than ten months.” Ravens hands fisted her shirt. “This time I was prepared,” last time he was still new to everything, last time he made mistakes, this time there will be no mistakes. “Since our last encounter with your demon, so to speak, I have been setting in place precautions and safety measures to ensure Nevermore and yours’ safety. I have also been tracking the movements of his big players. If any came close I would mark it down. Multiple are entering the city at this moment. Seeing as you we taken last time I have made plans to ensure that will not happen again.” The car made a snap turn down an unfamiliar street pulling Raven from her clouded gaze.

“So I am going to be okay this time?” Her voice was faint and restraining against hope.

“You’re going to be okay.” His hand lightly held hers. Only to stop the shaking, they told themselves, only to make everything better. “Nevermore is with Titus at my place being watched by a friend of mine. I have already walked Grayson through everything we will not be expected at work this week, but we can work remotely.”

“We?”

“I’m not going to leave you. Ever.”

-- ((Sorry for the blocks of text))

-- As Raven finds out they are at one of Damian’s safe houses. The one least likely to be tied to her. It is fully stocked with food, has security cameras and if needed weapons. The only problem is that the only clothes there are Damians.

“Thought of everything huh?”

“I was following their pattern, I expected to have more time to acquire clothing for you.” (he was looking away and blushing, you cannot tell me he wasn’t)

-- Raven just resigns herself to wearing Damian’s clothes, yes his brain does stop working for a hot second when he sees her in only his clothes.

-- All attempts to try and retrieve codename: Gem of Scath are foiled (like some good math)

-- So many bonding moments happen. Cuddling (pure accident *rolls eyes*), eating together, inside jokes, etc. At one point Damian answers her phone (he disabled and disconnected the tracer) to one of the mob guys after them.

“Hello?”

“You can hide the gem but we will find her.”

“I’m sorry, is there a jewel you are looking for? I don’t think I have and any jewels that I am coveting.”

“We know you are with her! It is but a matter of time until we collect her.”

“I hope you do eventually find whatever you are looking for sir, but I haven’t the slightest idea the gem you speak of. If you could give me a physical description? Is it a ruby, diamond, onyx? Is it round or more of a pear shape?”

“...”

“Well, I will look for it here, but I do not believe I possess what you speak of. Will you give me your number so I can call you back?” (The line cuts dead, and Raven can be seen laughing in the background, the phone was on speaker)

-- Once the team tracks down, arrests and interrogates all of the parties working for Trigon; Raven and Nevermore can go home. Though both are reluctant in their own way. Nevermore has grown attached to Titus, and Raven well Raven has feelings. Sadly, as Raven knows, feelings are dangerous to have in their line of work.

-- Look at Dick and Kori they were together and then they fell apart and the team almost imploded.

-- What about Trigon if he finds out about Damian and how she feels towards him? What kind of danger will he be in then?

-- Like all of her feelings Raven puts them in a box and locks the box away. Not just figuratively, in her safe there is a box with: post its, torn papers, journals, etc. That box has a lock on it. Whenever she has a new feeling that she cannot ignore, like her feelings towards Special Agent Wayne, she takes out the box and writes her feelings down. They can range from a single sentence to pages worth. (Her feelings towards Damian fill a small notebook she has on hand). Once she has written all of her feelings out she places them in the box, locks said box and then places the locked box in her safe, which she then locks.

-- Is this a healthy way to cope with her feelings? Maybe not. But, it is way better than how Damian deals with his. Violence. Also art but violence comes first.

- At this point both Damian and Raven have caught the feelings (highly contagious I hear), which makes this a little awkward and a little not awkward. For one everyone but Raven knows how Damian feels towards her. He does things for her and with her that no one else gets the privilege to.

-- To list a few:

--- He brings her tea whenever he gets himself coffee or tea

--- He talks to her about what he does outside of work, even about his kind of friend definitely not enemy, Jon.

--- They socialize outside of work. Watching bad movies (some of them are not that bad), going to the park with Titus (they once got Nevermore in a leash and walked her), meeting each other before and after work to get breakfast or dinner.

--- He doesn’t glare at her

--- He allows physical contact between the two

--- He worries about her (hello he created an entire plan so that she wouldn’t get kidnapped, with contingencies and everything, garfield would be lucky to get a plan)

--- His eyes light up when she talks, or enters a room, or you know exists in his vicinity

--- He actually smiles around her (Dick caught him smiling once at Raven and he though Damian was having a stroke)

-- Even though everyone knows Damian likes Raven, very few know that Raven likes Damian back. (this only includes; Kori, Dick, Jason, Titus, Nevermore, and Melvin) She does do certain things that give herself away just like Damian.

--The list:

--- When Damian gets frustrated or angry she puts a hand on his arm, or holds his hand

--- She laughs at things he does (light chuckles, or little giggles)

--- She will talk to him about his interests and actively tries to have conversations with him about things unrelated to work.

--- She blushes when he does something unexpected (like a compliment)((Mostly she tries to hide it until he isn’t looking at her))(((Kori has caught the blush before)))

-- Luckily for them it does not take some cliche ‘One suddenly becomes in danger and the other one saves them only to be close to death and then they admit their love for one another and promise to go on a date when the other is healed’ situation.

-- Damian actually asks Raven out after being tipped of by Jason and Dick that she may like him back. Damian finds out when they have days off at the same time and asks her while leaving work.

“Raven, you have this weekend off correct?”

“Yeah I do. I wasn’t planning on doing anything though. Did you have something in mind?”

“Um, yeah, heh, I was wondering if you would do me the pleasure of going to dinner with me tomorrow.” *Awkwardly rubs back of neck*

“Like a date or two friends going to dinner?” *Thinks she sounds harsh* “I am honestly fine with either since we are friends.” *nervous smile*

“Like a date if that is okay with you of course.”

“Yeah, yeah totally that is totally okay with me.” *Starts sounding like a teenage girl who only knows about 10 words, because she’s nervous*

“Good, I’ll be by your place around 1830, if that is okay?” *nerve central, the central nervous system could never*

“Yup that is totally fine with me.”

“Great.”

“Good.” The elevator opens in the knick of time.

“See you tomorrow evening Agent Roth. Have a good night.”

“You too, Agent Wayne, you too.”

-- When Damian does pick her up he feels like his brain is going to explode. She looks absolutely breathtaking. This is just like all the other times they’ve gone to dinner, except this restaurant is slightly fancier and they are on a date.

-- Raven feels as though all her emotions are leaking out at once, she has no idea what she is doing.

-- In the end they have a good time and decide to do it again. Damian does bring up that all of the breakfasts and dinners they regularly do could now be considered dates. Raven does not oppose that switch at all.

- Fast forward a handful of years (like 3?), Damian and Raven are moved in together (Nevermore and Titus are happy about this, they even allow the humans to adopt another pet, a cat named Alfred). Damian is now Supervisory Special Agent Wayne and is in charge of their unit. Raven has retired from field work and now works at the FBI academy and at Virginia State University. In about 6 months Damian is going to propose and Raven will say yes. Their wedding will be small but happy and full of life.

Once again I would like to thank everyone and all the support the previous post got.

Like last time if anything is disjointed, out of place or seems wrong, please go ahead and tell me. I have been working on this since the last one, but have finally had the time to finish it.

I hope the new year will bring us all some good. Possibly more head canons to come.

#damirae #Damian Wayne #raven #Rachel Roth #damian x raven #Teen Titans #Headcanon #How do tags work #dc #demonbirds

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zandracourt · 3 years

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I’ve been reflecting a lot on Cas’ recent confession of love and the responses I’ve been seeing across tumblr and Twitter. As a Destiel fic writer, I am thrilled to see this become canon and as a queer woman, also really touched to see how much Misha has embraced this as a really significant thing. I already ordered my Only Love merch. So I’m content with it all as much as it is. SPN has never made queer representation its issue. SPN *has* responded to its fanbase, who have both pushed the importance of representation and also brought the actors into a realm of growth over queer issues that they may never have come to without this show and this fandom. For that reason, I don’t think it’s helpful to be mad at Jensen or the Showrunners for Destiel not being perfect. You don’t have to celebrate them as allies, but the anger and vitriol just doesn’t help, in my opinion.

BUT...where my thoughts have been going is around what it means to be an actor in a ‘ship and what the impact of the story has on the actors, the fandom, and the constant dance of who controls the story because I think this has been something that even with straight characters has had serious impacts on how fans feel about an ending.

My first fandom, Starsky & Hutch, was mostly written by a gay man who wrote “straight” characters because that was what they had to be in 1974. The characters and show plots were such that the actors felt the love underneath the words and acted accordingly. Back then, it wasn’t so much queer baiting as queer coding. I find it amazing that my parents never thought for a minute Starsky and Hutch were gay, but even as a 7 year old, I knew they were in love and saw them that way. And anyone who watches the show now, it’s so clear that it’s almost laughable. When their show won the Peopel’s Choice award in 1977, David Soul said in his acceptance speech that the best part of being on this show was that people saw two men who “could be anything”. He knew that queer folk read their characters as gay and that straight folks saw them as straight and he was happy for both to be true. While the show never had an explicitly romantic declaration, the characters held hands, hugged, and in the final episode, their final scene is Hutch crawling into Starsky’s hospital bed with him, something done with amusement, but was completely coded to mean something else. It was never “canon”, but the ‘ship has lasted 46 years with new fic being written even now.

In the new SW films, actor Oscar Isaac was not at all quiet about his feelings that his character, Poe Dameron, was in love with Finn. He stated he played him that way (and was not directed otherwise) and he even explicitly asked for that ship to be made canon. He was told no and that is not how the story ended. The romance plot was instead focused on two other characters. Some fans liked that. Many didn’t. In general, though, the story is open-ended enough that shippers could have Stormpilot be their ship and there is nothing that really contradicts that. In that scenario, Oscar had his sense of who this character was and felt strongly about that, but in the end, it wasn’t his story, so the ending was what it was.

Hawai’i Five-0 ended its 10 year run last spring. Actor Scott Caan said in an interview during the show’s 5-year mark that he wanted to see his charcter have a romantic story line with his other lead, Steve McGarrett. And while Scott did not go so far as Oscar Isaac did to say he made his acting choices based on that, watching him and Alex play their characters, there was definitely some intention to show their characters as loving one another. Actor Alex O’Loughlin voiced a few times over the years that he felt his character would not get back together with Catherine, a woman his character was on-again, off-again with, because he felt Steve had reached his limit with what Catherine had done to him. The series made a decision to end with Steve leaving Hawai’i behind and flying away with Catherine. Neither actor has commented much about the show’s ending, but clearly it went against what both actors had publicly expressed in the past. Again, they don’t control the story, but they do understand their characters after playing them for so many years and they are invested in that. In that sense, the actor’s subsequent silence about how the show ended says quite a bit. And McDanno fans were very unsatisfied with the show’s ending, myself included.

So we come to Destiel. Over the years, this ship has been very controversial in part because one actor (Misha) has clearly been OK with his character being perceived as being in love with Dean, while the other actor (Jensen) has not. At times he has been very negative about it, and that has been taken by some fans to imply how Jensen feels about homosexuality in general. I’m not convinced it does, but I understand why people feel that way. Over the 12 years since Cas’ introduction on the show, there clearly has been a shift from the writers and showrunners avoiding the topic entirely, to talking about it, and now to having Cas confess his feelings of love to Dean in canon. In the days since, Misha has been unequivocal in saying Cas is romantically in love with Dean and that he has played him that way, at least for this season and likely longer. Misha is proud that he was able to advocate for Cas to be gay and he clearly understands why it is important for the show to have made this choice. For Jensen’s part, however, he has stated he has not played Dean that way and from video clips of him talking about the show’s ending, it appears that he needed some convincing to accept this as the story. To his credit though, once he was convinced that this was something show creator (Eric Kripke) could envision as part of Dean’s character arc, he was on-board with this ending and feels statisfied with it. And I think some of the frustration folks feel stems from both in how the actors portrayed their characters and in which takes were chosen to be in the final cuts of episodes. In that way, the show has fed this ship, whether the actors realized it or not, and that is why Destiel has felt particularly painful at times. The fanbase has been gaslighted for seeing it at all (from actors and showrunners) while the directors have seemed to go out of their way to choose shots where the actor’s choices were more tender and affectionate and write lines where characters make explicit statements about Dean and Cas as romantic. I can’t help but wonder if Jensen really didn’t see Dean as being in love with Cas, but that we saw Jensen’s own affinity for Misha bleed through in their incredible chemsitry together or if Jensen has just been in denial of this ‘ship having teeth for his own personal reasons. I don’t know and so far, he hasn’t been willing to talk about that. Maybe he will once it’s over. Maybe he won’t and I’m not going to be angry with him for it. He’s an incredible actor and he’s lived this character for 15 years, so he has a right to who he believed Dean is and isn’t.

The issues of representation continue to be pressing and what I see happening with Destiel and these other ‘ships is exciting because it shows growth on all sides. We have audiences able to voice not only how they perceive characters without shame but can express a desire for characters to be together. None of that is new for straight characters, but it is for queer characters. We have actors who not only can see these same things, but feel enough ownership of their characters to expresss what they believe their characters would do or feel. And we have showrunners who are going to make their story, sometimes in response to feedback from their fans and actors, and sometimes in spite of it.

What Destiel becoming canon gives me hope for is that as new shows come into being, characters that take off, actors who have unexpected chemistry, and ‘ships that gain a life of their own, will lead to shows that are less inclined to care if those ships are queer or not and just go with what fans respond to. That it will normalize that people can (and do) come out an all different times of life, even after being het-married, having kids, or presenting as straight to everyone else for 40 years. That it will reflect that sometimes, it’s not about having been queer or straight from the beginning, but be about that ONE relationship that just is different, special, or grows into a deep love regardless of the genders of the people. I hope we can get to a place where deep intimacy between same-gender characters doesn’t have to be a war over romance vs. platonic and the story can just develop without the pressure of representation because queer characters will be so prevalent that we don’t have to feel like we must cling so tightly to every one we get. I hope we can come to a place where sometimes relationships don’t go romantic because one person (regardless of gender) just doesn’t feel that way, because that is very fucking true in real life. I want to watch shows where the sexual identity of any character doesn’t have to be etched in stone from the word go, never to change ever because that’s boring and limiting, and honestly, not real life.

I am deeply grateful for actors like Isaac, Caan, and Collins who are willing to see characters outside the heteronormative lens and to advocate for queer romantic arcs. I’m thankful to showrunners who are making shows with greater queer representation than ever before. And I’m grateful to actors like Ackles, who while it wasn’t who he thought his character was, was able to expand his view enough to go where the story was going to go. The arc of the universe does bend towards justice, and we will get there. Until then, there’s fic. And thank God for that.

#mcdanno #starsky and hutch #supernatural #destiel #stormpilot #zandra writes stuff #Scott Caan #Misha Collins #Oscar Isaac #Jensen Ackles

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eddiemunsonssoulmate · 4 years

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Make love, not war: The anti- OBX drama edition

Okay kids, listen up.

I’m too old for all of this drama and I’ve been on this hellsite for way too long to just keep watching it in silence so this is gonna be my only, long ass post about this mess that has occured/is occuring. I’m trying to get my thoughts out and and maybe talk some sense into the last three braincells some people have left.

These are my thoughts. My opinion. It’s totally fine if you disagree but if you feel strongly offended or called out by this, you might be part of the problem.

I’ve been watching the drama for a while now and normally I’m just someone who’s on the quiet side, grabbing a box of popcorn and watching how y’all tear each other to pieces but seriously?

Some of you really need to get a life.

Fandom life isn’t always easy, fandom life can be messy, some people are not what they seem, yadda yadda.

But seriously, did you lose all the respect you had when you’ve signed up on this website or social media in general?

First: The Rudy “drama”

Someone, a really sweet and nice to everyone person, stated a theory based on an anon ask who based their ask on a social media website. A theory. A worst case scenario of what might have happened. They wanted to be nice and answer to every anon they’re getting but guys.

Guys.

It was a theory. A mere idea of what might have happened because someone asked, nothing else. It was not facts, there was no evidence and the ask that caused all of this was not based on facts either. It can totally be fun to speculate about things. You’re allowed to believe what you want. Rudy’s a dick, Rudy’s a sweet angel, Rudy is a blue alien in disguise, everyone is allowed to have an opinion on something but oh my god.

Don’t make facts out of theories.

Don’t look at three emotes and be like “oh my god they have to be dating!”

Don’t make a drama out of two actors not liking each other’s posts on Instagram like what the heck.

When did Social Media take over your life so much that you interpret everything in those little things? There’s a real life out there, ya know?

We don’t know anything for a fact so let it go. Wait until someone says something official which probably won’t happen.

More importantly, stay out of actors' private lives as much as you can. Seriously. You’re welcome to state your opinion about them, make theories, stuff like that but tbh, it’s better to stay out of it because at the end of your day, it’s none of our business. Celebrity stalking is not and never will be cool. Don’t waste your time and energy of trying to figure something out they clearly don’t want you to see. Best example for this are like, baby news.

I know it can be exciting to figure stuff out. I know you can be totally curious because you like that person and want to find things about their life but don’t blow it out of proportion.

Actors are humans. Actors are not their characters. They have their own private life and if they want to share, that’s cool. If not, then that’s also cool. And tbh, the OBX cast is feeding us a lot more way more than other actors from other shows/movies, god bless them.

But who the fuck do you think you are that you’re sending them, the actors or the people talking about it, hate based on a simple theory on a website that has a life on it’s own and things that happen on here should stay on here? That’s not cool, it’s a shame for other people in the fandom. Why would you want to make a person feel bad because I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t like to feel this way either.

They’re grown ups, they can do what they want. You don’t have to like it but for the love of god:

Have some respect for a human being.

Second: The Chase Thing aka #chasestokespartyisover

That last sentence totally applies here too.

Have respect for a human being.

Boy made a tweet over ten years ago where he said something that was problematic. Was that cool? No. Did he apologize? Yes. Is it time to let it go? Totally. Was his hacking excuse true or not? WE DON’T KNOW.

You know what’s not cool tho? Some people taking their time to scroll down TEN YEARS AND MORE on a timeline to get some tea on them that you can use and complain about.

I know quarantine can get boring but jfc guys. There are more things to life than obsessing over an actor, ya know.

We all said shit in our youth, that’s a fact but people change. They grow. Don’t compare a teenage boy with a grown ass man.

You know what’s also totally 100% not acceptable? People photoshopping fake screenshots to show what a big mean white boi Chase is, trying to fuel the fire of hate. What the fuck is wrong in those minds?

Cancel Culture is a toxic phenomenon that should be the only thing getting canceled. You can’t cancel people, ya know. It’s fucking toxic to say something like that and just...don’t, man. I barely have any words left to describe this stupid thing.

Make love, not war. Spread love, not hate.

Fandom is not a place to rip each other to pieces. Not everything in this world is about race, sex/gender or problematic things. Just because someone doesn’t reblog a lot about Madison it’s mostly not because of racism or because she’s queer. Sure, that’s probably the case for some people but you know, those people aren’t worth it then.

Fandom is not a place that should spread hate around, especially not on anon, sending people asks filled with hate. There’s a bunch of younger kids on here, especially in the OBX fandom from what I’ve seen so far and it’s not okay to tell a 15 year old girl to tell her to go kill herself because she likes Rudy more than JD or shit like that. It’s never okay to something like that but it hits the younger ones even harder. Maybe it’s their first fandom and people ruin that experience on the spot, feeling powerful while on anon.

Fandom should be a place where we come together and have fun. Make friends and share things. Gifset, fanfics, theories about the new season, things like that. It should be a place to freak out over new teasers, new pictures from the set, the cast sharing stuff on their platform of choice and just things we enjoy.

There are different ways to block and blacklist on Tumblr, especially if you’re using it in a browser on your laptop/pc. Use that to block toxic people, tags you don’t wanna see and create your own little bubble where you’re happy in. Do this in case you feel uncomfortable with some people around here, so you only see what makes you happy.

Please remind yourself about the fact that behind all those blogs, there are real people. People who all have their own lives, own opinions, own ideas. Same goes for actors. They’re not there for your personal entertainment, they don’t have to share their complete private life with you. They’re human, just like you and me and it’s unacceptable to send them hate, no matter what they’ve done. You don’t have to like them but keep it to yourself or talk about it with friends, I don’t give a shit but leave it out of their sight.

Please remind yourself that we want to have a good time here and especially during times like these where we spend more time on here than we probably should *laughs*

If you made it to the end, thank you for your attention and taking your time and remember:

Be nice to each other, the world is cruel enough.

-Captain out.

#outer banks #obx #obx netflix #rudy pankow #chase stokes #madison bailey #jonathan daviss #madelyn cline #drew starkey #obx cast #this is just a massive brain dumb with lots of swearing lmao

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knchins · 4 years

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The 16th Year - Hitoshi Shinsou

Summary: Your quirk was destined to awaken on your sixteenth birthday, and it would force you to take to sea-life with your birth parents. No one with your quirk had wanted to stay on land before, but none of them had been so in love at age 15…

Pairing: Histoshi Shinou x Fem!Reader

Rating: G

Word Count: 2.1k

Warnings: Light fluff, some angst, teenage heartbreak

Notes: Hello! This is the first thing I’ve written for the bnha fandom so I hope you enjoy it. I wrote this for the @bnhabookclub Mermay event! This is loosely based off of the old Disney Channel movie “The Thirteenth Year”. A throwback to fellow 90s babies. Special thanks to @hawksward for reading of this for me. <3

She had always accepted him and his dream. The first day they met, when he mentioned that he wanted to attend UA and be in the heroes course, she didn’t laugh. She didn’t sneer and tell him that his quirk was only suited for villainy. Instead of scoffing and looking down at him, she brightly smiled up at him. To her, his dream was perfectly reasonable. There was nothing wrong with wanting to be a hero, in fact in her opinion there was quite a romantic ideal to it.

Their chemistry was profound and none of their peers had anything that came close to their magnetism. She had told him that she was quirkless, when the truth was that her quirk was not bound to awaken until midnight of her sixteenth birthday. Currently she had two weeks to tell him the truth. It was a heavier weight than any young teenager should have to bear.

They were in the same class at UA, she had opted to follow him there as she knew her time with him was limited. They had known one another since they were eleven and even then she always knew that her clock was ticking down with each passing second. She dreamed of a way to be rid of her fate, to stay with him and see his ambitions come to fruition, but alas there was no cure for her. In fourteen days she would be a merperson and would have to swim into the arms of the others that were bound to the sea.

She was already exhibiting subtle signs of her quirk. It was little things that she kept under wraps, hoping no one would notice. And in truth, no one did except her adoptive parents...and her best friend.

Shinsou had not brought up her strange behavior. How she was incredibly thirsty all the time, how her skin suddenly seemed drier than usual, or how fast she had become in the water. Weekends spent at the community pool where the two of them liked to relax suddenly made him feel as though she were a fish out of water. He didn’t know how right he was.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on with you?” He asked one night as they sat at their favorite sushi restaurant. Y/N sat stiffly in her seat, chopsticks in midair. How did she tell him? How could she knowingly break his heart like that?

She forced a smile but the sadness shone in her eyes. “There’s something I need to tell you.” She confessed, placing her utensils down. “I’m not quirkless.”

He cocked his head to the side curiously. She had never shown any signs of having a special ability, so the notion that she had been lying the past four (almost five) years seemed a bit ridiculous. Still, he decided to bite. “Alright, what is your quirk then?”

Y/N had never worried about Shinsou using his ability on her. He never had and he told her a long time ago that he never would. She trusted him with all of her heart so any time he asked her a question she simply answered. Other people that knew them thought this was wildly dangerous, especially as they got older. What if he took advantage of her? But Shinsou would never do such a thing. He wasn’t a villain, not in a million years.

“Remember how I told you I was adopted?” She probed, thinking perhaps it was best to start from the beginning. The purple haired boy simply nodded in response. “My parents, they live in the ocean with a colony of other aquatic people….they can’t live on land.”

A deep frown formed on his features. What did that have to do with her exactly? He wondered to himself. Obviously she could live on land. Still, he said nothing as he waited for her to continue.

“People with my quirk, don’t manifest it until their sixteen.” She continued. “They’re bodies undergo a transformation. Their legs fuse and turn into a tailfin. We become ningyo on our sixteenth birthdays.”

Hitoshi continued to stare unblinking. He could typically tell when she wasn’t being series and he waited for a tell to show him that she was totally joking. After a few minutes, when her sad expression did not change, he realized that she was telling the truth. His chest became uncomfortably tight, as if someone dropped a hundred pound weight onto it. The air left his lungs, his tired eyes widening in shock. She was going to leave him? The one person who seemed to support him most? The one person who always uplifted him and encouraged him and cheered for him...gone?

The hurt expression that crossed his usually stoic face broke her. She thought she had prepared herself for this, but in reality she hadn’t. The impending destruction of their relationship was all the more real now that he knew of it. She was certain that neither of them would ever fully recover from this.

“You’re leaving me?” He asked, his voice a whisper that didn’t dare to show any kind of true emotion. The apathy did not match with the words. The disconnect only told her that he was beyond angry with her for never telling him about this. Suddenly, the horrifying thought of having ruined their relationship before her birthday dawned on her and she nearly began to cry right on the spot.

“Not because I want to.” She spoke softly, hand darting out to grab his across the table. “Hitoshi, you know I would never leave you if I had a choice. I care about you more than I care about myself.”

The tears fell freely down her face as she was unable to hold them back. “I love you, you know? I don’t think you understand how much it hurts knowing that we can never actually be together. We’ll always be a world apart.”

He wanted to recoil from her touch, but the sight of her crying caused his anger to recede back into the back of his head. She had never admitted her feelings to him, and while he knew he had been wildly in love with her for years he also had never been able to bring himself to confess it. He was always worried that he would ruin what they had. Little did he know that it would ruin itself one day.

“You love me, Y/N?” He asked, his voice still quiet. This time there was emotion behind it. Raw, tentative emotion that was deeply afraid to be shown. Sometimes he hated his own vulnerability around her. How his walls came down any time you were around. No one knew him better than she did. No one brought comfort to his soul like she did. And now...now she’d be taken from him forever.

“With all of my heart,” she murmured to him, dabbing tears away with her napkin with her free hand. She hoped her makeup wasn’t completely ruined, however she knew deep down that it was. She felt his hand flip over in her gasp in order to hold her palm. She wrapped her fingers around him in return.

“Let’s get out of here.” He said before standing, helping her up with their connected grasp. He left money on the table for the bill and led her outside. There was still that same incredible weight on his chest, despite her confession. It only seemed to make him hurt at the loss of her even more.

She didn’t know where he was taking her until they ended up on the nearby waterfront. They walked onto a long pier and stared out at the ocean in heavy silence for a long time. The only thing they could hear were the laps of the waves against the wooden pillars of the dock.

“Well this isn’t how I expected to spend my Saturday night.” Shinsou finally murmured as he pulled her closer to him. He had wanted to kiss her for so long now, perhaps now the time was right. Perhaps he should also tell her his own feelings. His silence had unnerved her, though he obviously wasn’t repulsed by the thought of her caring about him in a way that exceeded friendship.

They were facing one another now, chests pressed against each other as Shinsou’s other hand slipped around her waist. He had never done anything like this before. They both felt incredibly awkward at the closeness, cheeks glowing pink with uncertainty. “Me either.” She mumbled back to him, voice quaking. This kind of embrace went far beyond a platonic hug.

“Y/N, can I kiss you?” He asked, his voice dropping low as his eyes were glued to her lips. Both of their hearts were hammering within their chests so loudly that it was deafening.

Her eyes blinked slowly as she lifted onto her toes to connect her lips with his softly in lieu of a verbal answer. The future hero was taken aback, so much so that he nearly stepped away from her. He hadn’t noticed her desperate grip on his shirt of the tightening of her hand around his. The simple need to be kissed by him too much for her to simply wait.

Slowly his eyes closed and he reciprocated, lips pressing against hers in a chaste kiss that was over way too soon. Neither one had ever kissed someone before. It was perfect in every conceivable way.

Before another word could be said, they kissed again and again until the moon shone high above the water. Only when their curfews edged closer did Shinsou decide to walk her home.

He kept her hand held securely within his own, never wanting to let it go. Finally they could express how they felt with one another. The years of tension were gone only to be replaced with longing for what could have been. The walk back was torture as they both knew the time to revel in their mutual feelings would only extend for the next two weeks.

The time spent until her sixteenth birthday, Shinsou and Y/N were inseparable. While before it was common to see them together, studying for school or just hanging out, now it was more steadfast for them to be attached at the hip. They were constantly touching each other in one way or another, her arm wrapped around his or their hands holding as they walked. His hand on her knee when they sat next to each other or even sometimes his arm around her shoulders when they watched a movie. It was small and innocent.

“Hitoshi.” She whispered to him sadly as they sat on the dock on the eve of her birthday. At midnight she would return to the sea from which she came as a newborn. “Do you promise to never forget about me?”

She knew her request was selfish, but the thought of being totally erased from his life had plagued her tremendously. They had grown infinitely closer over such a small amount of time. Shinsou was staring at their reflections in the water. The question seemed completely absurd to him, as how could he ever forget his first love?

“I could never forget you.” He said honestly, not noticing that she had slipped off her clothes. He was too lost in thought.

Thousands of scales covered her most intimate parts, obscuring them from view. Her legs were already beginning to ache as she sat down on the edge of the pier, toes touching the water. Shinsou seemed outwardly unfazed by her lack of dress. Really seeing her figure without obstruction for the first time made him wildly uncomfortable with arousal. Obviously it wasn’t the time nor the place for that, but it was still a teenage boy pumped full of hormones.

Y/N plucked a shining scale from the center of her chest and held it out to him, a sad smile on her delicate lips. “You have to promise.” She said in a voice so soft that he almost didn’t hear it.

He took the turquoise scale and held it tightly in his palm, never wanting to forget the feel of it. “I promise.” He said, sounding totally defeated. Would he ever see her again? She said she would come to this pier as often as she could at night to visit him, but he simply did not know if she would be able to keep her word. The insurmountable pain rendered him unable to even cry at his loss.

She slipped into the water as his watch beeped to signal the turning of the hour. She was totally obscured by the darkness. Two minutes later, a small head popped from the water and he noticed a swirling of scales scattered down her neck along with what looked like gill slits.

“I love you.” She said one last time, as if he’d instantly forget unless she reminded him. His heart trembled in his chest as tears finally did threaten to fall.

“I love you too.” He said resolutely, and then she was gone.

#bnhabookclub #hitoshi shinsou #shinsou #shinso #shinsou x y/n #shinsou x reader #shinsou imagine #bnha #mha #shinsou hitoshi #shinso imagine #bnha imagines #bnha fanfiction

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phoebehalliwell · 3 years

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could I just ask you ALL the questions? (minus any you've already answered of course)

lksdajglaks hell yeah bro (i'll also be skipping the ones require like fill in the blanks)

Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

no again like the charmed fandom isn't really like hella active so there's no like mass swarming 2 drive u mad which is nice

Have you received anon hate? What about?

like i'm sure i have but like idk about what prolly just like what i said was wrong or incorrect or something idk i usually just delete

Most disliked character(s)? Why?

i mean i never really liked cole :/ like he was fine in the beginning but i was never big on phole which was his big thing and then of course they tanked him so :|. like whatcha gonna do. i can respect the concept tho n julian does have some really good moments. i also don't like kyle bc he bugs the shit outta me but also i find him like So Fascinating like. like he's so interesting just the way he interacts with people like it's so. i personally have a headcanon that he really has trouble like connecting with people / like reading emotions or social cues which is why you know like he dropped that magic bomb with darryl and sheridan and had like no qualms about it and he has like this. it's not quite charm but he has like this. god i can't describe it but you know this kind of light playful tone with an underlying malice that he tends to present with most people upon first meeting but in like relationships he has skin in he's just like a lot more stiff i personally think there's not the same swagger that we see initially Which I Think is because again i don't think he can read people well and his early attitude is actually his impression of like. the leader of the evil kid gang he fell in when he was younger. someone who was a cool sauve leader who was afraid of nothing but people were afraid of him something that a young kyle who was like still like really afraid reeling from the trauma of the death of him parents really kind of worshipped as the perfect mask of strength and masculinity that then proceeded to really sail him through law enforcement you know so it is like his most comfortable mask but it is at the end of the day just some impression of a school bully. but of course this is just my own lil brain in canon kyle's like a bitch

Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

jack sheridan my beloved <3 also richard montana. i literally see a lame ass male character go is anyone gonna project onto that guy n then i don't wait for an answer. but like fr. he is literally me <3

Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

um continuing in the same vein calling it an arc might be generous but i fucking Love prue/jack so unreasonably much like. they're so fascinating. like. but beyond that i also liked paige's temp jobs which i think were kinda unpopular

Unpopular opinion about your fandom?

i mean again n/a bc this fandom's just so like chill. because the shows been off air. for like. 15 years. that being said. i do hate when people like. maliciously hate any the sisters. like you can just leave if ur having a bad time??

Unpopular opinion about the show?

i mean like. i don't think this is like. Unpopular per se. but like. it's gotta be said. like this wasn't really like a ""good"" show. like obvi we all love it but like some of it was like. really bad (lookin at u l8r season phoebe arcs 😡😡) idc tho bc i still fucking love this show. so much. but like. has 2 b said.

If you could change anything in the show, what would you change?

ah jesus like just one thing? hmm. i guess if i get only one move it'd probably be to save prue idk how that would work per se because i love paige and piper's arc in s4 but killing off prue was just So Cruel it breaks my heart.

Does not shipping something ‘popular’ mean you’re in denial and/or biased?

i'm gonna level w u i think the phrasing of this q is so funny bc hell yeah ur biased it's called like having an opinion lol. but again in regards to charmed specifically it's So Fuckin Old that being in denial really no longer applies just because. like what's done is done and cannot be undone. that being said bianca didn't die lmao she n chris r fine

What is the one thing you hate most about your fandom?

😐. idk. some people read the text different then me & i'm all like no!! u don't see it the way i see it!! what the fuck!!!! but like. at the end of the day. i really don't fuckin care?? like u can be wrong and that's fine it doesn't affect me. & ik a lot of people probably feel the same way about me like you know i'm out here like pruejack <3 piperkyle <3 paigeleo <3 pruecole <3 like. i've got bad opinions. so at the end of the day it's really whatever. i'm really grateful that this fandom is like p quite and you know not insane and vicious and cutthroat bc liek bro calm down it's literally just pictures on a screen? but yes. some people have like. Wrong Opinions. but i let it go. zen.

What is the purest ship in the fandom?

that's a good fuckin question. paigeleo? lol. in canon and ik a lot of people probz won't like this but phoebecoop.

What are your thoughts on crack ships?

depends on how u define like crackship because like i get none of them are going to happen but if a crackship is defined as something i think is funny but i would never wanna actually see happen then i have like zero of them bc i am like dead serious about like damn near all my ships idc how stupid i'm like hell yeah i wish this would have happened in canon. piperkyle my beloved <3 that would have been so fuckin funny to go canon. like. like. so fuckin funny. would have loved it lol

Popular character you hate?

prolly cole bc he is popular and i just never loved him as much as everyone else i just never really liked what they did with him there are some episodes where i'm like hell yeah (see: the good the bad and the cursed) but for the most part i really don't care that much about him and the narrative Really Wants Me To Care

Unpopular character you love?

once again. richard & jack. <3

most shippable character?

tbh i feel like piper. just because we get so many sides of her in the show like she has a lot of character growth and that's really fun to work with that. beyond that i do love paige and she's usually my go-to for gay pairing bc look at her. she's gay.

#woot woot #charmed #💌

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wooyoung-a · 3 years

Text

— fanfic writers tag game <3!!

tagged by: @fluttering-tbz ! <3 thank you for tagging me nini !! i enjoyed ur answers sm <33 tagging: @sowhatwehotwe-tyong @stealanity @hvae/@sohnday y'all are the only ones i have and i'm curious about your answers !! no pressure doing it i still would love you with all my heart <3

1. what fandoms have you written for (but do not currently)?

↣ i've got tons !! i've been in the writing game for years already, i just started on tumblr! if i were to name a few, i'd say my ults- got7, exo, etc!

2. what fandoms are you currently writing for?

↣ ateez, the boyz, woodz, but i'd take any that is requested !!

3. how long have you been writing?

↣ just like what i said in 1, i've been writing for maybe 4-5 years already? not this frequent though, quarantine made me so obligated in writing lmao

4. on which platforms do you post your stories?

↣ tumblr and wattpad !! for now though, i only do post on tumblr but i'd still post some on my wattpad- but now only for requested series!

5. what is your favorite genre to write?

↣ i'd say angst, but i'm terrible writing it. so i really respect the writers who give such good angst, i love how it feels in the chest when it hurts me. NO!! i'm not a masochist, lmao, i'm just.. a very curious person lol

6. are you a pantser or a planner?

↣ i'd say i'm a little bit of both; pantser when i have an idea in mind and i want to write it like,, right now. and planner if i have an idea but then i'm too lazy to do it- i am mostly on series because i'm indecisive af i can go on for a smooth story for the first five chapters then boom i'd suddenly be sitting here wanting to change something on the next chapters.

7. one-shot or multi-chapter?

↣ it definitely depends on my mood. and i'm moody af. if i've got a few bunch of ideas, i'll have one-shot. but if there's one idea i can expand to a series, i'll choose multi-chapter and let my imagination handle the rest.

8. what is the perfect chapter length in your opinion?

↣ none. it really depends on the writer. whether it's short or long, as long as the writer is satisfied, then it is the perfect length.

9. what is your longest published story?

↣ it's younghoon's - injury ! it has 6.1k words, and i still don't know how i did it. i have multiple stories that has 4k words too!

10. which story did you enjoy working on the most?

↣ seungyoun's - energy drink, hongjoong's - overdue, chanhee's - photograph and younghoon's - injury. i can't pick one- but these are stories i love most that is written by myself lmao ndsnajk these are all special too !! energy drink was my first woodz story, overdue was my first hundred notes, photograph got so much love, and injury was based on a real-life situation with my sister (just the literal injury though lol)

11. favorite request you’ve written and why?

↣ seungyoun's - the two of us, both. this was a request for a milestone celebration: song fic, and it was based on the lyrics by joseph o'brien - we could build a house. though it was based on lyrics, when i was writing it, i felt like all the emotions through the story. it's also my first in a while story that i've written in one sitting.

12 are there reoccurring themes in your stories?

↣ none !! .. i think? jasdjakl

13. current number of wips?

↣ 31 what the fuck ;; 19 series and 11 reqs/one-shots [+ one on my series on my wattpad]

14. three things you have noticed about your writing?

↣ i tend to write all over the place, i write with the most cliche ideas, and i have the same old vocabulary lol

15. a quote you like from a published story?

↣ juyeon's - hearts day. "why is his heart hurting with the fact that you aren’t acting on your feelings for him? he thought- but the thing is, he didn’t act on his feelings too." ↣ seungyoun's - the two of us, both. "you didn't deserve seungyoun, no. but you had to- and will be deserving of him."

16. a quote from an unpublished story?

↣ younghoon one-shot wip. "younghoon feels his heart break, not the first time, as he looks at the door you just went out of. it wasn’t the first time he felt heartbroken and confused, but above everything else he felt- he still wanted you to stay." that's the only wip i have a quote on sorry njkdsak

17. space for you to say something to your readers~~

↣ i don't know if many of my followers follow my rec blog (i'd probably reblog this there), but if here you are, i just want to thank you for all the love you've been giving my works. thank you for trusting my blog as another safe place for you to cry, laugh and feel sad on. ily all so much, y'all deserve the best <33

#·˚✎ ﹏ dayns got tagged ˎˊ #♡ // nini

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burnedbyshoto · 4 years

Note

Can we get the same thing dealing with Uraraka and Momo? People hate on them soooo much and I dont see the reason why. Most of the time its just because they interrupt peoples fave ships, and Ive noticed a lot of the hate they get is from other girls. Like. Though a lot of quieter anime girls get a lot of shit from fandoms, mostly from the girls and with the idea of them interrupting whatever ship they like a lot.

I think... dealing with female characters is very hard in terms of shonen manga. especially for us western fans.

as always this is my opinion on how I see and interpret the manga and anime, you’re free to disagree and hate my interpretation!!!!

number one thing you need to know is that I don’t hate a single female character in bnha. i don’t. my least favorite female character is like... I don’t even know, I like them all really. but when it comes to hating on female characters in shonen manga it’s hard for me to find a true stance.

for us westerners I don’t think we’ll ever be satisfied with female empowerment within shonen unless we have more series like sailor moon honestly. to be honest i’m not well versed in anime and manga, I haven’t like watched more than 5 series and all of them have been popular and mainstream things, so they’re all pretty formulaic in the same way.

strongest male main protagonist, not as strong as main protagonist but can kick his ass still male protagonist, and the female protagonist that’s meant to serve as an equal but is sorely unequal to both her counterparts and will grow to be strong but not that strong but strong — can probably beat up the two protagonist in a playful way but never ever in a serious match.

all things considered from what i’ve seen females are plot devices for one arc and one arc only.

westerns — female fans specifically — want our female characters to be as badass as the men, to be able to go toe to toe, to be loud and obnoxious and still be loved, to be crusty and ugly villains and still be loved. from what I gather people just want female characters to be more than just love devices and hold their own weight and not cry.

we also have to take into consideration that bnha is literally designed for young boys — it is a shonen after all — and while it’s by means no excuse for lack of female character building, this series is meant for young boys to see themselves within these characters. and within our cis heteronormative world that does mean letting these young boys see themselves within these male characters. again, not an excuse, but an insight we do need to take into consideration.

now applying this to bnha we have our main female protagonists within uraraka and momo.

I think that they’re pretty well written all things considered. I know they’ll never be like winry or hawkeye in fma and that’s literally the only anime i’ve seen where the female characters were developed in their own field of expertise in strong ways.

uraraka has been made to be the love interest of izuku, there is no denying it, but I don’t think that’s her only character trait. she’s 16 years old going to a school that people dream of getting into, and is best friends with someone she admires. it’s without a doubt that feelings catch on, but izuku isn’t the one driving her to be a hero.

from episode what 5??? of the anime she states that she’s becoming a hero for her family. she’s becoming a hero so she can use her quirk to help her family and to rescue people. uraraka wants to be a rescue hero (and tbh people often forget that that’s what izuku wanted to be too). she learns a few fighting skills because she experienced first hand that her inability to fight is going to cost her big time. so she thinks “what would izuku do” once gets called out about it from aoyama and suddenly no one can shut up about it.

the entire sports festival battle against bakugou she fucking had him, tbh the fact that bakugou was able to clear the entire air of concrete chunks and only get a 5 second arm cramp is ass. bakugou always says quirks have a limit but that’s the only time we’ve seen him near a limit and it wasn’t even that impactful seeing that he was ready to roll again. but uraraka did THAT!!! she pushed bakugou to the point where she has been the first person to ever really put him at the brink. sure bakugou and izuku go at it many times leaving them bloodied and bruised, but never have they been like: “OMG MY QUIRK IS GONNA BE INEFFECTIVE NOW”

uraraka takes her initiative to do things, and hell if it really bugs you that she’s getting stronger because she wants to be like izuku idk what to tell you. she’s becoming a hero to help her family, and her getting a little side piece along the way isn’t a big deal to me as long as she doesn’t throw her entire life away to save izuku (which she hasn’t). uraraka is a self sufficient queen, she’s dirt poor and is thriving. she’s 16 years old with a crush, that’s not a big deal in my eyes.

now momo is ehhh idk how to explain it. okay, so like, I love momo. but I don’t see her becoming a fighting hero and that’s okay!!!! why do we have to have girls being able to one hit KO other heroes when it’s been made perfectly clear that not all heroes are alleyway boxers. momo is fucking smart, with the ability to create whatever the fuck she wants, sure she can pull gun after gun from her chest and mow down any villain who comes her way — but that’s not who she is. momo is a leader through and through. she is a take none give none, and battling isn’t her expertise but she’s still good at it. momo has scored first in every single UA exam validating her intelligence every time.

if momo becomes a hero similar to todobakudeku, which I severally wish she won’t because that’s not her, I know she’s not going to be the best. her quirk makes her have to be sneaky, smart, and faster thinking than anyone else on the field. I mean look at her fight with tokoyami, her inability to think fast cost her the match really.

to be honest I don’t know much hate on the girls because it’s so stupidly irrelevant to me that I just go “scroll!!!!!”

I do think costumes need to be redone, but like can we also remember that heroes are also superstars in a hero society so looking hot af for popularity is needed. these girls were also 15 years old when they decided on their costumes and idk about you but I would’ve picked a costume that made me look hot as hell!!!! if i’m going to be fighting for living, people best know that I am hot as fuck!!!! besides, these costumes weren’t meant to be fought in outside of training!!!! they should see how their costumes work, how to improve them!!! they have 3 years and even more changes outside of UA to make them the best!!!! uraraka didn’t want her suit to be skin tight, but because the support company took into mind appearance it became tight. momo doesn’t want her costume to be regularly destroyed through her quirk, so she wanted to basically be naked because she thought there was no way to save her clothes!!! I hope hori gives her the ability to make her costume from her hair like mirio did so that way it can phase through her outfit without tearing it into smithereens.

but we also have to remember that female characters don’t have to be like male characters. would I love a female character to be able to best all might, shiggy, todobakudeku??? yeah, what female wouldnt??? but then we’d all have problems with her not being realistic enough and yadda yadda yadda. females not being the best is okay in my eyes as long as they get the proper growth and attention.

undeniably momo and uraraka have been on the back burner but with how the manga is going there hasn’t really been time for them to be on the front, but maybe it’s coming??? idk. I just want another stupid school arc but noooooooooo people hate it when the kids are being kids!!!! why do you want them to suffer all the damn time jfc 😫😫😫

if you want girls to be as strong as the boys I say look at girls like ryuuku neijire mina and miruko, i’m positive these ladies will be your saving grace once japan figures out that mina is amazing and that it’s okay for girls to be on the front lines kicking ass too

#lyssa doesnt shut up

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x0401x · 4 years

Note

Why do you think the writers of the Tsurune anime decided to tone down masamina and outright cut out kaisei while pushing for sei/mina instead? It's just so baffling to me why they would alter the canon content from the novels so much. Like, what was even the point?

I’ve answered this question quite a few times before, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever made the point entirely clear, so here we go one last time. Sorry that it turned out so long.

So, in novels and manga or any written medium, creators normally have more freedom to do what they want, but when it comes to TV series, animators have been developing the habit of toning down whatever they can. Most of them have this conviction that the viewers only want to watch calm and relaxing stuff nowadays. Other than this, we get adaptations of popular works that basically exist to promote the source material, most of which rush up towards the end like crazy. It does seem like the Japanese audience has an obsession with comfort animes now, since life in Japan gets more and more stressful with each passing year, but it’s not like they’ve abandoned other genres. This general belief that creators should water down the contents however they can is pretty much destroying the industry, and it’s probably what the animators of Tsurune had in mind when changing the novel’s events into a much less dramatic versions or just cutting them off. That’s issue number 1 with the anime.

Issue number 2 is that animators of adaptations tend to ignore the reader demographic in favor of making the series neutral to please all audiences lately. But that’s only when the majority of the readers are women and girls. If it’s guys, you’d rarely see alterations. It feels like the general conception is that making the contents less “cringy” for men means more people will be watching it and having a positive opinion. It seems to completely slip the staff’s minds that the fans they disappoint mostly won’t feel willing to buy the DVDs or merchandise. This is where most of these adaptations fall flat, by the way. It’s kind of really obvious to me that these series are more prone to succeeding if the studios animate what the readers fell in love with, because the originals are popular for a reason, and it’s that people liked them the way they were. I think it’s only the expected when readers are disappointed not to see animes live up to the expectations, and that whoever picks the source material will feel the difference as well. Still, if the anime isn’t a BL, there’s this unsaid rule that you can’t show too much gay between male characters unless you have an excuse for it. Normally, nakama power and rivalry is what does the trick. I don’t think I need to mention that this is the standard in sports animes.

In the Tsurune novel, most of the gay doesn’t have an excuse. Of course, it’s not officially gay unless canon states it, but the books not only don’t give any justification for it, they get rid of possible justifications, so while you can’t say it’s not fanservice, you can’t label it as just fanservice, either. For a studio that banks off fanservice like KyoAni, that’s a problem, especially since the novel is packed with heavy scenes and even heavier quotes.

I mean, in Masaki and Minato’s case, they don’t have the nakama power or rivalry elements, so one possible excuse for them being so close would be that they’re master and disciple. But Minato makes it clear quite early in the story that Masaki doesn’t have to be his master because just having Masaki’s company is enough for him, and all in all, the two of them have a much more affectionate relationship than the other teacher-student ones from the books. Another excuse would be the found family dynamics, but Masaki already shares that with Kaito, who canonically sees Masaki as the older brother he never had, and their relationship is unlike Masaki and Minato’s as well. Kaito also has a monologue in volume 2 about Masaki treating Minato differently from everyone else in the club, and the way he describes it denotes that Minato is Masaki’s favorite, and that Masaki doesn’t bother hiding it. Just as a cherry on top, Minato often loses his rationality when it comes to Masaki despite being a serious kid, and he’s very verbal about wanting to monopolize Masaki. Add fate to the mix and you have the perfect recipe for anything except an ordinary mentor-pupil relationship.

As for Kaito and Seiya, there was a lot going on between them since the beginning, but the nakama power excuse only starts applying late in volume 1, because they didn’t get along very well at first. And even then the nakama stuff hardly applies to their interactions, where Seiya often acts like Kaito has a thing for him, for no reason other than Kaito’s reactions being amusing. Their relationship also does some big strides in the middle of volume 1, and Seiya literally migrates to Kaito’s side at some point. They don’t seem to have a friendship as strong as the one between Seiya, Minato and Ryouhei, but it’s Kaito who Seiya interacts with the most in volume 2 and he’s also the one that Seiya leans on whenever he needs any sort of assistance. There’s other unexplainable things here and there, such as Seiya taking a peek at Kaito’s sleeping face when it’s just the two of them in the room, or him implying that Kaito is jealous of the motherly attention he gives Minato. It goes on as far as the novel does. There’s literally no scene with the two of them that doesn’t make it look like Kaito is really into Seiya and that Seiya owns his ass but he’s the last one to know.

Back to the main point, it’s really hard to animate all of this without giving people “ideas”. For KyoAni, any gay exists ultimately for the sake of fetishization, and they often follow the “ship whatever you want, even yourself with the characters” model. If being gay is canonically a character trait in the original, it’s out (Violet Evergarden is probably the best example of that one), and if the gay can’t be interpreted as something else, it’s either out or downplayed. In Seiya and Minato’s case, that’s perfectly feasible. Not only are they best friends, they also have a familial relationship where Seiya treats Minato like a son. Minato has sworn eternal friendship to Seiya in the novel, and both he and Kaito describe Seiya as something like a helicopter parent. There’s more than enough counter-argument to remind the viewers that, whatever happens between Minato and Seiya, it’s all a product of their childhood friend bond. Anyone is free to interpret it differently in fanon, but the viewers (at least the Japanese ones) are ultimately aware that the anime is in its “safe zone”, portraying a friendship. Nobody on the Japanese side of the fandom actually believed that there was romance going on in it. On the other hand, if you search in Japanese for people’s impressions of MasaMina, you’ll notice people often saying that the novel makes you wonder if Minato and Masaki aren’t actually dating, or if Minato doesn’t have a puppy crush on Masaki, at the very least. Basically, everyone seems to agree that what goes on between those two is hard to define, but whatever it is, there’s this very particular, “special” air about them that differs from the rest of the characters, which normally manifests when they’re alone together.

As you can tell, this overall view is the opposite of the animators’ ideal. If the novel had been animated the way it is, it would’ve probably felt like a BL for the people watching. Not only does it come with practically set ships, it also doesn’t give much space for the proverbial “ship even yourself with the characters” option. To put it bluntly, the animation went through those changes so that it could fit the mold. It gave us SeiMina and even some NanaKai (the latter being honestly disturbing, since they’re cousins), while either toning down or erasing the rest of the duo and trio interactions. It made Minato’s accident with his mom actually seem like Seiya’s fault and didn’t really take the burden off his shoulders but instead swept it under the rug. It also made Masaki seem like a two-faced bastard who only became a coach for the sake of revenge, which means he was using his students (actual 15/16-year-olds) for his own personal gains. Shuu and Minato’s friendship went down the drain, Ryouhei was pushed aside as if Seiya was Minato’s only childhood friend, Nanao was never depicted as his own person, and the girls didn’t even exist 90% of the time. So yeah, none of the changes served any good purpose for the characters’ images. All it did was (try to) fill a quota.

Personally, this whole thing feels like we’re being told to the face, “we’ve given you what you want, now give us your money”. It brings me back to interviews I’ve read featuring Stars Align director Akane Kazuki and his statements about the anime industry being in a pinch, specifically because animators nowadays keep trying to make a fool out of the audience for monetary ends. Seems clear to me that the staff thought the female viewers would latch onto anything as long as it looked remotely gay, and that’s why I was so angry back then. Being looked down on like this by people who expect us to consume their media is pretty offensive, in my opinion. I’m glad there’s at least one creator speaking up about this matter and using the exact same arguments as I have been for more than two years now.

#tsurune #tsurune kazemai koukou kyuudoubu #narumiya minato #takigawa masaki #onogi kaito #takehaya seiya #wow i can't believe i'm getting asks about tsurune in 2020

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miggydiaz · 3 years

Note

for the salty ask: 3, 7, 10, 11, 15, 16, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 27 for spn

I had to do this one today because I have a LOT of Supernatural feelings and so a lot of these are even longer than my CK one. But thanks for the ask @wonderwolfballoon!

UNPOPULAR SUPERNATURAL OPINIONS AHOY: INCLUDES ANTI-DESTIEL SENTIMENTS AND OTHER UNSAVORY ELEMENTS

3. Have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion? 100000000% I have unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion in the SPN fandom. SPN was the fandom that taught me to make JUDICIOUS use of the blocking feature tumblr offers in order to curate my experience. I would actually encourage anyone and everyone to use the blocking feature if they disagree with people. Honestly, we don’t owe anyone our time or energy, especially on the internet! It is much healthier than sending or responding to hate, IMO. 7. Is there anything you used to like but can’t stand now?* This is actually a hard one for me to answer, so let me start by saying -- I have not seen a SINGLE episode since 9x05? I think? Whichever episode was the Dr. Deanlittle one where he talks to animals. I just couldn’t do it anymore. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the first 5 seasons, and they are all I watch anymore and I pretend nothing else exists after that (except The French Mistake because that episode is hilarious). But uh... I guess the simple answer is when I was originally watching it, I really loved Dean. He was brash, snarky, rough around the edges... but kind of soft in a I’m too toxically masculine to deal with my softness sort of way that I love seeing characters grow out of as they mature. But when I go back and rewatch now, much older than I was in 2006 when I first started watching, I see how awful a lot of his older behavior truly was. I still love Dean, and I will be a Dean girl until I die probably, but sometimes you gotta remind yourself that your faves have been problematic in the past so you don’t put them up on fandom constructed pedestals.

10. Most disliked arc? Why? AND AS A BONUS, MY ANSWER to 11. Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why? I could write a literal essay about all of the problems I have with the later seasons (the ones I watched, which encompasses 6, 7, 8, and a few episodes of 9). But by far and away, the thing I hated most, was the Men of Letters.

Okay, this is where I am going to recognize my love of certain characters is at FUNDAMENTAL ODDS with how that character develops later and what history and background we get later on them. I RECOGNIZE this character is problematic, and I would NEVER STAND for his shit IRL, but fiction is complicated and nuanced, and fantastic circumstances do not make for normal behaviors. That being said, with all warnings I could possibly give, and with the full understanding that what I am about to say is basically fandom blasphemy of the highest order...

I like John Winchester’s character.

I know, I know. If you wanna stop reading and block me now, you are free to do that. I will not hold it against you. I am not about to apologize for anything he has done. I just need to contextualize why I have such an issue with the MOL storyline and it starts with the simple fact that I liked John Winchester as he was originally presented.

To me, and with the full understanding that I am answering this from the perspective of someone who DOES NOT regard anything past season 5 as personal canon, John Winchester is the perfect example of a truly complicated character. Here’s a parent who, if we take the pilot and the original s2 Djinn episodes at face value, could have been a great parent, who then got shoved into a fantastically impossible situation and made terrible choices that he thought were necessary in order to keep himself and his sons safe. That does not EXCUSE the heaps of abuse that he piled onto Dean in any way. We know John and Mary didn’t have a great marriage. But we also know from the pilot that John was at least a caring and present father, mostly, for the 4 years he got to parent in a normal world, and that if Mary had lived, John would’ve been a softball playing dad who raised his kids and had a loving marriage with his wife. (Again, I need to reiterate, I did not watch anything past the early episodes of s9. If there is later canon that negates this, I do not know about it, nor do I want to because I don’t think of anything past 5 as canon) This is all important to me because these things emphasize that John was “NORMAL”. He was a mechanic, from a family of mechanics, whose father didn’t bail on him (a man in the episode where Dean is transported back in time to Lawrence tells John to ‘say hi to your old man for me’ or something to that effect). He was just a midwestern dude. Giving John Winchester a fantastical background through this Men of Letters bullshit made me SO MAD. First of all, I hate when later canon negates previous canon. I cannon TELL you how much I hate it. And the later seasons of Supernatural are riddled with stuff that doesn’t make any damn sense in the context of original, Kripke written canon, which is exactly why I stopped watching. That’s not ~Evolution of the show.~ That’s conveniently forgetting stuff that made your show and its premise so successful to begin with in order to keep filming episodes so you can keep making money. It’s the sacrifice of art for capitalism and yes I know this is a stupid TV show but as a writer myself it PISSES ME OFF.

/rant

ALSO, the idea that this toxically masculine family was set on this path by Heaven, and inherited this curse that put them on this path from their mother was such a good plot twist in its heyday. We spent four seasons thinking of Mary Winchester as a victim of circumstance, whose fate could not have been avoided because she was the mother to Sam, who is effectively cursed. And then, we learn that its BECAUSE of Mary that this ball even got rolling in the first place. IDK if you were around for that time in the fandom but at least in my circle, this was a big fucking deal. There had been so much (rightful) discourse about John before this, and what kind of parent he was, that Mary became almost deified in the same way Dean deifies her. And then we find out that this whole story gets set in motion by a decision she made because this was the life she found herself in. This was great. It was interesting. And even though the MOL doesn’t negate any of this, it does give John this weirdly fantastical that isn’t necessary. Let this guy be just some Joe Schmoe who fell in love with a kick ass hunter and had no idea any of this even existed. Let Mary and her want to be ‘normal’ be a complicated moral choice that fundamentally altered the paths of her husband and sons. It’s good tv!

Also, I fucking hate the bunker. The best episodes are Dean and Sam having moments in the car, or while in motel rooms on their cases, or whatever. I don’t mind them having a home base. I’m fine with that. But if a building could ever be a Mary Sue character, the bunker is it. I hate all of the MOL storyline, starting with this place.

I may not even tag this as Supernatural, I don’t need angry later season stans in my inbox.

15. Unpopular opinion about the manga/show?

There’s nothing good about anything that happened after season 6. It’s all a bunch of retconning bullshit. Season 6 had its moments where it was interesting, so I cut it a little bit of slack, but as far as I’m concerned, the show ended in season 5. I’m not sure that’s necessarily unpopular, but it does feel that way on tumblr, so.

16. If you could change anything in the show, what would you change?

Aside from ending it in season 5?

Oooh, I’m about to blaspheme again. I am definitely not tagging this as Supernatural.

I would never have introduced Castiel, and I would’ve given that entire storyline to Anna. Or, alternatively, I would’ve flipped their story lines.

Look, for whatever it’s worth... I agree with the idea that Dean Winchester is a repressed bisexual. His Dr. Sexy love, the entire storyline with Benny in season 8, etc. I just don’t think he feels romantically about Castiel. And like, that’s okay! Just because you’re not into someone who is into you doesn’t mean you owe them a relationship or anything, no matter what the fandom thinks.

But I also think Dean has a big problem when it comes to women. Again, obviously later on in the series, Dean shifts and Charlie happens and Claire Novak and I know all of these things from gifs okay, context is not applicable here because I have none. But early on, Dean struggles A LOT with thinking of women as A) capable and B) trustworthy. He exists in a perpetual state of identifying women along the Madonna/Whore binary. Even Jo, however you feel about her, and to be clear, I loved Jo, but he doesn’t stop thinking of her really as a kid until they’re about to shoot the devil. Up until then, he’s genuinely surprised Ellen lets her out of the damn house.

Giving him a strong, capable woman who rebels against Heaven for HIM would have fundamentally altered Dean’s perceptions of women much earlier on than we get and would have forced him to examine some of that misogyny head on.

Dean has no problems trusting men. This is why the entire Gordon fiasco happens, right? It was less work for him to trust Castiel because Castiel is the inverse of Ruby. Angel to her Demon. Angels and demons don’t really have genders, but for the sake of presentation of vessels, man to her woman. Not even getting me started on the problematic parts of having significant demons mostly symbolized by women (Meg, Ruby, Lilith) and having significant angels mostly represented by Men (Castiel, Michael, Lucifer, Zachariah, Gabriel, Raphael), and how that ties into the idea of Original Sin and yada yada, but just like it’s interesting to have Mary and her decisions be the catalyst for the story, it’s interesting to have this badass warrior angel in Anna who marches down to Hell to yank Dean out, and through her interactions with him, decide to rebel against the ultimate patriarchy, while Dean gets an equally strong female counterpart to Sam’s Ruby, a woman for all intents and purposes that he respects as a soldier and an ally and not just a potential piece of ass.

Also, Castiel fans being literally unbearable is why I left the fandom. Nothing against Misha or anything, and not even anything against Cas as a character (who I very much enjoyed in seasons 4 and 5), but his fans have always been the worst and they try to insert him into everything.

19. What is the one thing you hate most about your fandom?

Castiel/Destiel fans, which even though I also hated the direction the show was going, drove me out of the fandom. Not like, personally or directly, but just the sheer mental hoops they had to jump through in order to make their ship work and I just got tired of seeing all of the contrived meta on my dash. Oh, and the rampant misogyny that came out of those early Castiel fans. I didn’t appreciate it from the Wincest corner, and I definitely didn’t appreciate it from the fans of the new guy. Gross.

22. Popular character you hate?

Oof. I don’t know. I don’t really hate Castiel, because again, I liked him a lot in seasons 4 and 5. Even 6 was interesting, even if I don’t regard it as my own personal show canon. I don’t think there was a popular character in those first five seasons I ever really hated. I didn’t fundamentally hate a character at all until the MOL stuff came around. Um. Yeah, I don’t really have an answer for this.

23. Unpopular character you love?

Pretty much every female character ever. Jo, Ellen, Ruby, Meg... although Meg became more popular as the series went on, Anna. Um. OH, BELA. Bela ESPECIALLY, I recently rewatched season 3 and I cannot emphasize how MUCH I love Bela. She was the best purely human foil ever. Bela is hands down the character I love most that the fandom had frothing at the mouth hatred for. It doesn’t help that I legitimately think Lauren Cohan is one of the most beautiful women on the planet. But seriously, Bela. Hands down.

24. Would you recommend XXX to a friend? Why or why not?

I have! Many of times, and ALWAYS WITH THE CAVEAT to stop at the end of season 5. Not a single one of them has listened to me and almost all of them came to me at the end of the finale and were like WHY DID I WASTE SO MUCH TIME, and I don’t want to say I told them so, but like, I explicitly in neon colored text once told them so, so like, idk what to tell them. But yes! I think if someone is interested in some classic mystery television that has an overarching theme of family and forgiveness and striking out against the boxes that life tries to put us all into, SPN is a great show. But only the first 5 seasons. Also, be prepared for some thematically problematic parts of the show because there’s a lot of cishet toxic masculinity in those early seasons, and we should examine our media critically. There’s also a lot of good though too, and IMO, the good outweighs the bad.

25. How would you end XXX/Would you change the ending of XXX?

I would’ve ended it at season 5. I would’ve had Sam escape the pit and seen him standing under the street lamp, but then I would’ve had him walking away to leave Dean with Lisa (btw, side note, I DIDN’T like Lisa because I don’t think Dean would ever be truly happy with someone completely outside the life). Not because Sam doesn’t love his brother, but because he *does* love his brother, and because he would want Dean to be happy, even though Dean and Sam’s ideas of what makes the other happy have always been a little bit screwed up.. but that’s a different story.

27. Least shippable character?

Probably Zachariah. God, could you imagine? And... maybe Alastair, but I’m sure there are fics out there that I do not want to think about.

#wonderwolfballoon #I cannot for the sake of my own sanity tag this #I don't need angry SPN fans coming at me #I hope the bold text at the top helps people to understand what's behind the cut

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xxbrokdreamsxx · 3 years

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“Carry On” - My Thoughts

SPOILERS!!!! I know this won’t be read much, but my heart is so heavy and empty at the same time, I need to write to let it out.

After 15 seasons, the road has finally come to an end. It’s safe to say that we all had our own idea of how the show would end and what would happen to Sam and Dean, but I think it’s safe to say that NONE of us expected how it went.

I love reading comments after an episode of any show as I like to see how other people interpret what we saw. Everyone reads everything differently. I know that there at many people who wished episode 19 was the series finale. In my opinion, I thought it was a great season finale, as it was intended it to be. Yes, the flashbacks to all the characters we’ve come to know and love made us feel that it was the series finale. Sam and Dean defeated God. Jack is the new God and Heaven is in good hands. Sam and Dean are free and can finally live out their lives the way they want to. They were happy. But what we should all know is that “Supernatural” isn’t a show about happy endings. Especially for the Winchesters. Seeing them happy at the end of episode 19 made me worried for what was in store for the next episode. The last episode. The writers gave the fans service with episode 19 and I believe they gave themselves and the actors service or episode 20.

Episode 20, “Carry On”, starts off what seems like the next day after God was humanized as I like to call it. But we really do not know how much time lapsed since episode 19. Sam and Dean had their morning routine down to a pat, so it seems it could have been a couple of weeks or more. I found it comforting yet soothing how they couldn’t find any jobs. Everything seemed to be finally right.

Dean finally getting his pie was amazing. Sam pushing the pie in Dean’s face was even more amazing. However, we know there was one more job and we soon found out what it entailed. Btw, those masks were SO creepy.

The final hunt. The final fight scene. SPOILER ALERT. When Sam and Dean were fighting, I did notice that nail. I thought Dean would push the vamp’s face into it. You know, the Supernatural way with the blood spraying everywhere. What I did not expect was Dean to be pushed INTO it. I literally gasped at this. This was not the way I imagined it would happen. I don’t think anyone did.

Dean (and Jensen) always said they wanted to go out arms swinging and guns blazing. Everyone knew. The fact that it did not happen is genius. No one expected something as simple as a large nail would be a fatality to the unstoppable Dean Winchester. Which brings me to my next point. People were saying, including myself, that with everything Sam and Dean has face….they defeated GOD for crying out loud, how could something as a nail be the death of Dean Winchester.

Remember when they were horrible hunters in episode 10? Chuck took their “luck” away. So since Chuck isn’t God anymore and Jack is making things right as they should be, the way Dean should die should be something out of the normal for them. They are human and when your time comes, your time comes. We all know Dean deserved better. He deserved to grow old with Sam and live a normal life. But that is what we think and feel. Dean does not. And that is what people need to understand. We see Dean on the outside perspective. All Dean knew was to hunt. If he wanted a normal life, I feel like he and Sam would have stopped hunting when God was defeated. But they didn’t. They continued what they do best. Hunt.

I always knew Dean would die. He was damaged goods. But a working damaged goods. Dean dying during a hunt is fitting. Hunting and saving people is what he is known for. The same can be said for Sam, but as we saw in the very first episode, Sam just wanted a normal life. For Dean telling same to not save him this time, to not bring him back from the dead, Dean is accepting that after the battle with God, the angels and demons non-existent as they were before, he can finally accept death. On his own terms.

With his death, he knows that Sam will be “free” in a way from the life. It is Sam’s out. Because Dean, and me personally, feels that if he still lives, the two will always be fighting. Sam will never get the life of normalcy, Oh boy, I’m crying again. Also listening to Neoni’s rendition of “Carry on My Wayward Son” on repeat is not helping. Dean’s words to Sam were so touching. Asking permission to let go broke me. He wanted out. Unfortunately, death was the only way.

Dean wanted peace. Same wanted peace. The Fandom wanted peace. Dean got his peace. Unfortunately, it was in Heaven, but as we saw, it was the best thing for Dean. He can finally rest (Deja vu with Tony Stark!) I personally wanted Dean to grow old with Sam and have a family. But was just not in his DNA. His happiness is Sam’s happiness. From the beginning.

Seeing Sam trying live without Dean in the bunker was devastating. I was very shocked that we saw Sam give Dean the hunter’s burial. It was just so hard to see because it was a character we loved. They were a part of our family. We all lost someone there. But it was wonderful seeing Sam finally live the life he wanted from Season one. Having a son, another Dean. Keeping the impala. Sam’s son saying the same words to Sam as he said to Dean before he died. Dean driving until the bridge and knowing that he was reunited with Sam. Like just episode one. The symbolism is amazing. So emotional.

I am hoping for the fans who were not happy with the last episode will take time to watch it again, take time to revel in what happened, and process it. No one wants their favorite show to end. A show that’s been on for 15 years, that is a hard job to wrap up in one hour. I thought the writers did a fantastic job. My heart is so heavy and empty, but I am satisfied. I do not have any lingering questions.

I hope one day we will find out what the original plan for the finale will be. I know a lot of people wished to see John and Mary, even Crowley. But with COVID, the writers had to change a few things. And to be honest, I like how it was just Sam and Dean. Just like how it started. We knew John was out there hunting but rarely saw him. Bobby telling Dean his parents were a few miles away was comforting. Would it have been nice to see them, yes. But I think not seeing them and knowing they were there has more of an affect.

I just want to thank you to Jared, Jensen, Jim, Misha, Mark, Alex, and all of the amazing cast who ever appeared, the crew and writers throughout the years. You created something so special that will go down in television history. I miss you already.

#supernatural #seriesfinale #dean winchester #Sam Winchester #carry on

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luckyjak · 5 years

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Why I Don’t Ship Widojest: A Master Post

An anon sent me an ask about this topic, and I debated for quite a bit about how to answer it. Then I decided the best way was to do a long post like this. I put a lot of thought into why I don’t like it, and I thought to share it.

A few things: 1) I am not telling you not to ship it. The goal of this is not to say “Don’t ship Widojest! It is a bad ship and you are a bad person for shipping it!” That is not my goal, okay? The internet and fandom in particular is meant for fun, and if you enjoy Widojest then more power to you! Don’t let me or anyone else stop your fun! Lord knows I have shipped significantly more problematic things. All I ask is that you tag shit more but that’s beside the point.

2) I am not particularly interested in argument. You are not likely to change my mind. I am not trying to be hostile, but if you know reading this is going to piss you off, then don’t read it. A question was asked of me, and so I thought to share my opinion. Unfortunately for everyone involved I am a high school English teacher, and so I cannot think about anything without completely overthinking it.

About my shipping preferences: generally, I like all the ships! I was particularly fond of Widomauk before Molly died, and I now I really enjoy Shadowgast, but I also like Fjorclay, Fjester, Beaujester, Beauyasha, Widofjord, Clayleb, Lavorclay, and, as the only person on earth, Yasha/Caleb. Hell, if Astrid gets a good redemption arc? Caleb/Astrid or even Caleb/Astrid/Edowulf. Any of those ships could become canon and I’d be tickled pink! You can even throw Nott into the mix, even though I mostly ship her with her husband. Nott/Fjord? Delightful. Nott/Caleb? Weird flex but why not? Nott/Jester? Absolutely! They are the best detectives!

I just don’t like Widojest and I don’t want it to be canon, and here’s why:

Doyalist Reasons First:

1) Laura and Liam played twins for years, still act like siblings even though they aren’t related by blood, and it squicks me to think of them together romantically.

Laura and Liam are fantastic actors. If they were hired to play a romantic couple, I have no doubt in my mind they could knock it out of the park.

But why on earth would they want to pretend to be a romantic couple, in a game they both play for fun?

It would be weird. I play D&D with several guys I consider my brothers, and I can’t imagine pretending to romance either of them in d&d for that same reason. It would be weird.

Maybe it wouldn’t be weird for Liam and Laura. Maybe they are more dedicated to their RP, and they’d be able to push that aside for the sake of fictional romance. But for me, that would be the last thing I’d want to play, and I suppose I project that onto Laura/Liam.

2) A lot of “evidence” for the ship is the way Liam looks at Laura.

To which I say...did you watch Vox Machina?

That’s how Liam looks at Laura all the time. He’s the president of her fanclub. He’s her twinsie. He always looks at her with hearteyes. I have a hard time seeing that as “evidence” for him having feelings for her when...that’s just what his face looks like.

Now, for Watsion reasons:

3) It has all the benefits for Caleb, and none for Jester

Seriously. What does Jester get out of a relationship with Caleb?

Don’t say someone who understands her, because Caleb certainly doesn’t. In fact, the only person who routinely “gets” Jester is Beau. (see: their conversation on the ship.)

Lots of people accuse Widojest as being a Manic Pixie Dream Girl ship because...let’s be realistic, it has all the makings of one. Tortured, broody man meets young, innocent girl who teaches him to enjoy life once again? Wikipedia’s definition is “[girl with] eccentric personality quirks and are unabashedly girlish. They invariably serve as the romantic interest for a (most often brooding or depressed) male protagonist.” Guys, that is textbook Manic Pixie Dream Girl! It gets even worse because Jester’s character is a healer! You want her to heal him? That is squicky!

And yeah, I trust Liam and Laura to be more nuanced than that, but do you know who I absolutely do not trust to be more nuanced?

The fandom. The fandom that is already producing mass amounts of Manic Pixie Dream Girl fanfic. And as that’s where I spend a lot of my free time...egads. I do not want that.

The few Widojest fics I have read (which, admittedly, are not a lot, because again, I don’t like the ship. The few I have read have been tagged as gen and then come to find out, weren’t.) have the distinct problem of woobie-fying Caleb so that Jester can take care of him, and gosh, I do not want that to become a trend.

4) Age Gap

Yes, thirteen years is not that major of an age gap. Yes, Fjord/Jester also have a large age gap.

However, there is a world of difference between “20 year old girl displays romantic interest in a 30 year old man, who decides he likes her back after getting to know her for months” vs “33 year old man decides to pursue a 20 year old woman after they danced one time when he was drunk and held hands and she showed general concern for his well-being.” One is decidedly more creepy.

(And would Jester be the one to pursue a relationship with Caleb? I almost think she’d have to, but again, why would Jester ever pursue Caleb when Fjord/Beau are right there.)

(Also, side note that I thought about making it’s own point but then decided it was petty: if Jester’s type is Fjord--tall, broad-shouldered, dark haired, muscled, then Caleb--skinny, red-head, shorter than Fjord--decidedly isn’t her type.

You know who is tall, dark, and handsome though? Beau.)

And do not say Jester is mature for her age, because she absolutely isn’t! In fact, the whole point of her character is that she’s not mature, she’s very immature and childish on account of her being locked away and being incredibly sheltered most of her life!

Also not a good excuse: Caleb spent 11 years in the asylum and therefore he’s only mentally in his 20s. Uh, no he’s not. He was in an asylum: he was not brain dead. He lived those years. He might’ve been crazy, but he was alive then. Nothing Liam’s done suggests that Caleb is mentally in his 20′s.

5) What would they even talk about?

This is probably actually the one that bothers me the most out of all these reasons, but uh....what would Caleb and Jester talk about, if they were in a relationship together?

Seriously.

They could talk about books? But Jester only ever reads terrible romance and smut. We saw when she tried to pay attention to the dunamancy lessons that she struggles to be interested in that academic stuff that is Caleb’s bread and butter. They could talk about their childhoods? That will go over well. Jester was locked away from society and Caleb straight up murdered his beloved parents. If they manage to avoid that, I’m sure they could fight again over income, what with Jester being a rich kid and Caleb being a poor farm boy. Pranking? Caleb enjoys a good prank now and again, but I can only imagine he’d tolerate getting banned from so many libraries.

They are a cat and a dog, literally. Caleb is an introvert and his idea of a good time is a quiet night at home with a good book. Jester’s idea of a good time is a party with lots of people! Yet I’m supposed to believe they’d have a happy and fulfilling relationship? Don’t get me wrong, many introverts and extroverts do get married in real life, but like...I have a hard time seeing this one working out. How many dicks do you think Jester draws in his spellbooks--which are expensive and time-consuming and require precise work--before that becomes a point of contention?

6) He doesn’t trust her enough to tell her his secrets

Hey quick poll! Who in the Mighty Nein doesn’t know that Caleb murdered his parents?

Fjord. Caduceus. And look, Jester.

I have a hard time buying that he sees her romantically when he can’t even tell her one of the biggest things about him. And he’s known her for months at this point.

If I liked a guy, and I found out he had this big secret, and he had told Beau but not me this secret? I would think he didn’t trust me.

I suppose you could argue that he’s trying to protect her. But then that just goes back into the whole “he doesn’t trust her” argument. He even had the opportunity to and he didn’t during their whole hand-holding thing a few episodes ago!

7) What does their ending look like?

Listen, my ideal ending for Caleb at the moment is “maybe after ten years of friendship he lets Essek tenderly hold his hand for just a moment but no longer” but that’s just me. I see a lot of people who seem to think Caleb’s going to settle down and marry Jester and they are going to have kids, and I just--

Caleb? Having children? Caleb, who murdered his parents and has severe PTSD surrounding that? Caleb, who was abused by his mentor daily for many years? You want to give that Caleb children??? Children who he would constantly worry may grow up to kill him, like he did his own parents, or worse, that he’d do something to accidentally hurt them in a fit of madness?

I could see Caleb maybe adopting a kid if one was forced onto him, but I cannot see him going “ah yes we should procreate!”

Jester, meanwhile, needs like approximately fifteen kids ten years from now, I think. She’d love them. She’d just adopt an orphanage and let the kids run wild and be the best at playing games with them.

Also, character arcs are important. Because Caleb’s ideal ending is stability and Jester’s is exploration.

Caleb, traumatized child soldier who has spent the past 15 years in an asylum and also fighting for his life, and before that spent time traveling between the Zemni Fields, Ikithon’s home in the country, and the Empire’s Capitol, who then escaped the asylum and spent all of his time running, trying to avoid being caught by Ikithon. The best ending for Caleb is to find peace; peace that involves not having to move around anymore, and having a home again, something he hasn’t had in almost twenty years. Maybe that home is a tower in Nicodranas. Maybe it’s a house in Xhoras with six other people. Maybe it’s a quiet bookstore in Zadash, or a little cabin in the Zemni Fields. A garden/graveyard in the woods. Either way, it doesn’t involve a lot of travel from place to place.

Meanwhile, Jester, who was trapped in exactly one place for her entire life, deserves a chance to explore the world. Even when the Mighty Nein disband, I can’t see Jester being happy to just go back to Nicodranas and stay there for the rest of her life. She may settle down eventually, but uhhh, not for several decades, I don’t think. Part of why my two big ships for her are Fjord and Beau: Fjord wants to be a sailor again, I think, which involves travelling the world, so I could see Jester going out with him. Beau, likewise, is an Expositor whose job is to seek out corruption, which again, means travelling, which Jester would be happy to do with her. Hell, the three of them could go together, sailing and punching evil for all of time! It would be great!

(Also: her god is called the TRAVELER why would you want her to settle down and be a mom??? What part of her story makes you think she needs to stay in one place?)

Lastly

I apologize if this post offends anyone. I’ve just been thinking about it for a while, and while Widojest as a ship has surged in popularity, I suppose I wanted to make a counterpoint about my feelings towards the ship. This isn’t meant as an attack on anyone, again, and please, if you like the ship then don’t look at this as a reason to stop liking it! Fandom is for fun! Keep liking what you like!

And I can’t promise I’m always going to feel this way about the ship--hell, the VOD of Thursday’s episode may come out on Monday, and I may watch it and be converted myself. Who knows! I didn’t like Vax/Keyleth at first either, but it grew on me and now it’s one of my favorites from Vox Machina.

(ALTHOUGH Mr. O’brien I swear to God if you romance Jester while flirting with Essek in a direct parallel to Keyleth/Vax/Gilmore I’m going to fly to LA just to punch you.)

Part of me wonders too if it just comes down to character interpretation, if there is something about their characters that is clicking for some people but isn’t for me. Admittedly, I love Caleb and Jester’s friendship, and I see them more as growing like siblings that romantically, but I’ve been wrong before and who knows, I may be wrong again. But if it is a character interpretation, I just wonder what they are seeing about the characters that squicks me but appeals to them.

#critical role #cr discourse #anti-ship #anti-w*dojest

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corancoranthemagicalman · 4 years

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Okay, so I recently got back into Yuri!!! On Ice (I’ve delayed in rewatching the episodes since I want to do draw alongs and haven’t had the time or energy for that yet.) But I have an opinion that I’ve always wanted to express.

I really like JJ’s character.

When I first started interacting with the show while it was airing, I didn’t have a Tumblr or anything. A lot of the opinions and discussions of JJ I saw were totally negative (and still are.) And to me that’s very disheartening, especially since we see JJ have change (even if slightly). (Now, as I haven’t watched the show in three years it’s not quite fresh in my mind, but this is what I’m feeling as of current.) JJ is an asshole, but I like that.

JJ is cocky. He’s a bastard. There’s no, “oh well he was pressured into this” because all of the skaters experienced pressure in their youth. We see it in the show’s run with Yurio and we can pick it up in the dialogue of the other character’s (maybe especially even Viktor). But what we see toward the end, when JJ flops his last skate, is he is King JJ. I think it was a super powerful moment in Yuri!!! On Ice where we see JJ have his break down and instead of falling to that break down, once he knows he’s plummeted, he loses JJ Style. Do you know how awesome that is to see a character own their loses like that? JJ - whose entire character has been “I’mma win the gold, bitch” - flourishes into this character of “well, I’m still a boss ass bitch.” In fact, if we forgo the personality of the two characters entirely, this attitude is what Yuuri should have had in the previous Grand Prix. Yuuri had that same break down and same plummet, but instead of being sure of himself, he crumbled.

I’m not saying that JJ isn’t an asshole. He is an asshole. His personality can be toxic. But I like that. I think he’s such a cool character. Would I be friends with him? Probably not, but then again, seeing that end of his, I think the lose sort of humbled him slightly. Maybe he didn’t have the large character changing arc that others did (Georgi and Mickey [who we’ll get back to], or any of Yuuri, Yurio, and Viktor) but he had his own change. His own change that he could still lose and still do it in JJ Style. He’s not a loveable character because of his flaws. He’s a well-written and human character that I admire very much because he’s an asshole. It’s actually hilarious because he’s actual such an this is how other people see Americans trope and he’s Canadian.

Now, for people who hate the character. They hate the charcter and not the person and I think that’s unfair. They act like he’s the only toxic character written on the show. Hell, all of the characters have their own version of toxic. Georgi and his dependency on a romantic relationship and Mickey and his dependency on his relationship with Sara are two prominent ones. Honestly, I think Mickey is sort of way more toxic than JJ (at least, in my opinion. Hence the I think. None of this is like, research or anything. It’s just my opinion and how I consumed the show and the characters.)

See, JJ’s family (his parents, his fianceé), they promote his behaviour. His fiance clings to his arm and says, “hell yeah, I’ll marry him when he wins gold because he will,” but then she’s also super supportive when JJ loses (which is honestly so beautiful. I thought she was gonna be a gold digger, but she has such a genuine reaction to JJ’s fall and his rise again that it’s super endearing. In fact, that reaction shot of her and JJ’s parents helps to endear the entire moment of JJ losing in JJ Style.)

But Mickey, well, no one wants that. Emil, Sara, and other characters all acknowledge that his near obsession with his sister is not healthy or helpful. And while I’m not saying that I hate the character (I actually love him supremely, I love the growth of him ;~;). I just think it’s a bit odd that we hyper-fixate on JJ as “the Jackass™️” and don’t acknowledge that there are other characters who have those moments. Maybe they don’t play out as the story’s “antagonist”, but really, every character had their own antagonist and half of the time it was themself.

Hell, even Yurio falls into this category of antagonistic and jackass-ish. The first time we even see Yurio he’s introduced as a psuedo-antagonist. (We learn, however, that Yurio is not Yuuri’s antagonist. Yuuri’s own self-confidence is his antagonist. His battle with his doubt and anxiety, etc... [but that’s it’s own novel, isn’t it?]) Yurio verbally berates Yuuri (after his dog has died, even if Yurio didn’t know it) and he battles Yuuri for Viktor. Granted, Yurio goes from jackass to insecure 15 years old real quick, but why does Yurio’s acts get forgiven “because he’s young”? He’s recognized as an adult to some degree since at age 15 he’s moved to the Senior League, right? Or even still, JJ is only nineteen himself. Who the hell is an adult at 19? We’re still flabbergasting our way through life by either pretending to be confident in what we’re doing or screaming into the void. My point is, all of the characters are actually fairly young and they’re still learning.

I’m not saying that JJ is hanging out with the group and is part of the “and they all lived together happily ever after” ending. I’m just saying I don’t get why his character is constantly either thrown away or treated like the series villain. Yeah, sure, he was certainly Yurio’s villain for a while. And Yuuri’s too. JJ is an asshole, but I think acting like he’s the only asshole is really detrimental. Or really, I think avidly hating a character when there are people who like him, admire his ability to lose in JJ style, is one of the huge downfalls of fandom. Any fandom that I am in, there’s always that one asshole who everyone shits on (and I have been guilty of it from time to time but I’m trying to not do that) because tryying to look for JJ content and getting only putrid hate for the character sucks ass.

Anyways, TL;DR: I love JJ’s character and I think the loathing that he gets as if his name alone brings vile to someone’s throat sucks ass for people (like me) who actually super love the character.

#Yuri!!! On Ice #yoi #JJ (yoi)#jean jacques leroy #yoi spoilers #(im trying to tag anything that could be spoilers regardless of the age of the media #c has opinions #c rants #might delete later idk #I'm not saying people aren't allowed to not like him I'm just saying purposefully going out there--#and shitting on the character in the spaces that people are trying to enjoy him in #is wrong #Jean Jacques Leroy Positivity Post

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ectodog · 4 years

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it’s the 4th anniversary of the premier of vld which of course means i have assembled a rough timeline for my descent into voltron special interest hell. it goes something like this:

- june 10 2016: vld season 1 premiers. i am none the wiser

- january 20 2017: season 2 comes out. this fact is irrelevant to me

- august 4 2017: season 3 happens. still not entirely sure what a “voltron” even is

- mid-august 2017: one of my friends cosplays keith. that’s cool. who’s keith?

- october 17 2017: season 4 arrives. that’s fine i guess

- march 2 2018: season 5 has entered the building. i am vaguely aware that i have known people who watched it at some point. the fandom is apparently “terrifying” but i survived homestuck, so i scoff at the concept and go on with my life

- june 15 2018: season 6 drops. i see a bunch of cool gifs and pretty fanart. coupled with the hype i have absorbed from the lead up to it, i wonder if i should give the show a watch

- june 16 2018: i start watching vld. two (four) episodes in and i love it. i can already tell i’m a hunk kinnie, and this brings me no end of joy

- june 28 2018: within two weeks, i have caught up entirely. i am thriving in the post-s6 hype

- july 20 2018: at sdcc, the Big Reveal happens. shiro is gay. he is a disabled main character of of colour in a wildly popular show for kids, and he is kind and brave and the pinnacle of masculinity, and he is gay. no matter your shipping opinions, this is incredible news and it’s hard to Not ride the high, so why bother trying? they show a trailer and announce the release date for season 7, and within hours a bunch of booted recordings of s7e1 are floating around online

- july 23 2018: my interest level has gotten to the point where i need to make a separate twitter for it, so i do. (fun fact: as of today, less than 2 years later, said twitter has over 7300 posts on it. my main, 4x that old, has ~30k)

- august 10 2018: season 7 is online at 1am my time. im selling at an artist alley all weekend, starting the following morning. i binge half the season anyway before passing out, and completely avoid the internet until i can watch the rest later that day

- october 5 2018: at nycc, the trailer for s8 and release date are revealed. i immediately book the announced day off work because i know i will want to watch the entire thing at once the second it’s out

- mid-october 2018: “leaks” of s8 start appearing online. pretty much no one in the fandom believes them, because no one Likes them. they seem ridiculous. people start making “leakverse” fanworks to feed some of the finale anticipation into, including me. no one really thinks they’re plausible at all

- december 14 2018: season 8 airs. i post a quick but heartfelt fanart before gearing up for 1am. it starts, and i cry. the first time they form voltron, i cry some more. things keep happening, and i keep getting tears on my screen, and i have to pause and start it over and over, but i live tweet the whole thing anyway. the leaks were... real. i come out of it unsure how i feel, exactly, but i am exhausted from the marathon and so immediately pass out

- the same day, after some sleep: im upset and confused as to why the finale season was so hollow. i see im not alone. it’s a rough week, feeling like something i love so deeply let me down so much. i realize it’s only been 6 months since i got into it - but, clinging to a deep sense of betrayal, i cry some more anyway

- the immediate aftermath: there are petitions and accusations of censorship and conspiracies about where the “real” s8 is. it’s hard not to get caught up in, or at least dragged down by, the lack of hype. no one who worked on the show says anything for days, weeks, months. fix it fanwork starts cropping up, and i surround myself in them. none of the excitement from before is there, not the same way it was. i start a new and highly ambitious piece of art out of spite. it’s left unfinished

- january 2 2019: lion forge releases the third volume of vld comics. no one really cares. i certainly don’t

- the intermediate aftermath: it becomes clearer by the day that the season was, simply put, a failure and a flop. no one liked it. kids cried over it and parents had no idea how to explain it to them. the fandom and community dim for a while, but i keep immersing myself in the trove of fanwork that already existed, and i start trying again to make some of my own

- may 29 2019: lion forge comics announces that they are not renewing their license to make more vld comics. that, coupled with the abysmally rated final season, seems to be the nail in the coffin for this iteration of the ip. there won’t be anything else official for vld. somehow, this sparks a renewed interest in me. despite everything, im more dedicated than ever before to preserve and proliferate my good experiences. i know this won’t be a blip in my history as a fan, so i’m determined to be happy with it, as best i can be

- the rest: is, as they say, history. as of now, i have something like 20 fanworks of my own in progress for vld. my ao3 bookmarks number in the 100s, and my to-read list is at over 250. ive made a concerted effort to be more active and engaged in the fandom, because it came so close to fizzling out, for me and maybe for everyone, but it’s brought me so much goodness that i cant and Won’t let that happen, not without a fight

it’s been just under 2 years since i decided to watch voltron on a whim. and it has honestly become a central part of my interests and identity in that time - but for the majority of it, it’s been because of fandom and fanworks, and that’s maybe what made it stick so well to begin with: the creative, varied, amazing parts of it that no network mandate could have offered on its own

this started as a way to catalog my journey into and through vld but honestly it kind of became a love letter to the fandom (at least, my corner of it). that’s what’s made these last years so special - what’s made them simultaneously fly by and feel like a solid constant. a dedicated, talented fan base who are capable of so much more than the constraints of the source material

it’s amazing to look back on, and incredible to keep looking forward to. we’ve all been told - “go, be great”

we have been, and continue to be. like the stars, and like my love for vld, it’s inevitable

so thank you all for the years of “great”. 🖤

#this got so far away from me im so sorry #but i really wanted to write it out so! there you have it #voltron #vld #long post

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codenamesazanka · 5 years

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What are your feelings on Shigaraki getting a redemption? From your post comparing Gaara and Shiggy, I got the feeling you didn't care for Gaara becoming a good guy. Personally I would love for Shiggy to have a redemption arc!

Nah, I actually absolutely loved Gaara’s redemption arc!

tl;dr: Gaara’s redemption was done super well in my opinion. & I have no opinion on redemption for Shigaraki’s character, I’m waiting to see what happens! I wouldn’t mind it, should a few conditions be fulfilled. But I also don’t mind him not being redeemed. (Does he deserve to be? Sure.)

(Super, super long post because I love Gaara and I wasn’t smart enough to write meta about him when I was in the Naruto fandom so this is my 14-year-old self breaking out to do what was never but should’ve been done.)

I loved him being a homicidal 12-year-old, and I also I loved him having turned into the 15-year-old ninja leader who re-discovered love and bonded with his siblings (the sand sibs!!! I love them).

I love this brat and his post-goth self

What I hated was this guy:

Who the fuck is this. Who the fuck. Who the f—

So here’s the thing about Gaara!

He was literally created to be a monster, manipulated by his father into being one, on top of having a literal demon inside of him that would break his mind and take over. One can see how it led to him being the murderous, unstable 12-year-old he was. Yet.

A lot of the bad guy stuff he did was also by his choice. His father wanted a weapon; Gaara became something worse, one that became too much to handle; gone horribly right. He killed for pleasure, he threatened his siblings, he almost crippled an important side character because he could, he released the demon on purpose, outside of orders.

Gaara was traumatized by his upbringing and influenced by how others judged him; but he also eventually arrived at his philosophy by himself. The influencing words for him were “love only yourself and fight only for yourself [because no one else will, monster]” and he took that to heart. Then he turned it into “I exist to kill all humans other than myself, so for long as there are people for me to kill, I will not cease to exist; I will feel alive.” Damn.

I totally get it. His own father tried to kill him, again and again. Sent assassins after him. There was no one he could trust, and the only comfort came from relying on the demon inside of him, and killing others to feel alive. But—

From the way he interacted with others, he knew what he did was wrong. Not the self defending himself from assassins; but things like killing people who surrendered or treating his siblings like shit. There were a lot of fanfic that blamed all his monstrous acts on the demon inside of him, or like an insanity defense; but I never thought so. He had moments of demon possession, but for the most part, he retained his self, he reasoned, he made choices. If I wrote meta back then, man…

It was why when Gaara turned good, it was solely on questioning himself and reframing his perspective, and not like, extracting the demon from him. He reflected on himself, he reconsidered everything he thought, he listened to another person’s philosophy, and here’s the most important part: he made the choice to change.

Because when faced with that moment, it wasn’t because he was arrested or told a secret that changed everything or it was revealed he was actually loved all along or freed from external manipulations. He could’ve gone back to his old ways. He was still in the same situation as before; the only thing that changed were the choices he could make despite everything. So, quite immediately, he apologized to his siblings.

And so began the long process of atonement. He went back and saved the guy he almost crippled, he opened his heart and reached out to his siblings, he decided to become ninja leader despite the poor, poor relations between him and the village (which yeah, started because they treated him as a monster, but then he started killing for pleasure…). He worked hard.

That was a redemption story I really liked. It’s true that Gaara had a terrible childhood and a good reason for turning out the way he did; but eventually, there came a point where he couldn’t blame his actions on that. He was understandable, but not forgivable - yet. There were choices made on purpose, connections rejected out of hatred, and blood on his hands. I think ‘redemption’ is all about coming to that choice on your own, owning up to that and working to correct those wrongs - even if it’s impossible, even if it’s never ending.

Gaara’s story is really much like Shigaraki’s. I wouldn’t be surprised if Horikoshi was influenced by the character! Prototype Sazanka had his name written out as: 沙惨禍. “Sand Calamity”. Hehe.

But yeah, Gaara started out as a creepy character that showed up antagonistic and began murdering people outside of what was allowed in ninja society. He showed no mercy, he told his siblings he never thought of them as family, he tried to kill an unconscious hospital patient. Pretty unsympathetic except for very, very subtle hints; until bam! Backstory. Yeah, it made you want something better for him!

It was a matter of how.

I have no opinion on redemption for Shigaraki’s character. I’m waiting to see what happens. I would like it!

If! Shigaraki reaches that conclusion by himself. Not him realizing he was so manipulated by AFO none of his own actions were actually his actions. Not him being ‘unbrainwashed’, if that even was a thing. Not a secret revealed to him that changes everything, wow, if only I knew this, I would not have become a terrorist… Not him getting captured and All Might begging the courts to be lenient on him and dragging him kicking and screaming to rehabilitation.

I really like Shigaraki! What made him fun was that he’s a willful brat. “Before we leave, let’s kill a kid!”. “This asshole stabbed me so I’m releasing bioweapons onto the city.” “I’m going to hold this boy hostage in broad daylight and discuss morality.” He delighted in destruction, he looked for ways to hurt people most. All his chosen actions.

Does he deserve to be ‘redeemed’/recover/be allowed to atone for his actions/given the chance to change? Sure!

It’s just, Shigaraki’s gotta make that decision on his own.

One thing about Gaara’s redemption is that, yeah, he was ‘saved’ by the main character, Naruto. Talk-no-Jutsu, I think that was called, the main character’s habit of changing someone’s life/morality/philosophy/sinful ways simply by telling them his feelings.

But it made sense. Naruto and Gaara were proper foils. Both have demons inside of them, both were shunned by the village, both struggle with feelings of loneliness and hatred and finding a reason to live. Sure, Gaara had it worse since he was targeted for assassination; but Naruto related Gaara’s pain at a basic level. And Gaara recognized it too.

They understood each other, that they were mirror versions of each other, that they very well could’ve ended up like the other, the difference between them that one had someone who cared about him, and one didn’t. Naruto showed Gaara a different way to live - but he didn’t force it. Naruto simply told Gaara he empathizes with him, but if Gaara tries to hurt his friends, he’ll kill him. It’s thanks to Naruto, but Gaara realized his path to redemption on his own.

So excuse my lost of control here, but what the fuck kind of foil is between Deku and Shigaraki??? Deku getting Shigaraki redeemed is, currently, laughable.

One is quirkless and got bullied (I maintain my position that these things are overemphasized and made worse than it was by the fandom), but had a loving home and grew up as a normal kid…

for Shigaraki, being at home made him anxious, then he gets a truly dangerous, frightening quirk, and then he’s raised to be a a weapon by Japan’s Number One Villain.

Why are there so many AU fics of Deku having a deadly quirk? Or made him be so relentlessly bullied? Or kidnapped by Villains and forced to work for them? Overall, fics that make his situation/backstory worse? It’s cuz he’s boring. All these stories is just taking Shigaraki’s past and giving it to Deku to make him more ‘badass’ and then have the audacity to write Shigaraki as a dumb tamper-tantrum-throwing manchild. Don’t get me wrong, I actually love reading these fics cuz I’m a sucker for AUs, but honestly.

Talk-no-jutsu isn’t gonna work here.

Still! Should Horikoshi go for redemption, I wouldn’t mind! I just need to see exactly how he handles it. If he screws it up, I will also never forgive him.

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