#admittedly this is the only shippy moment between them

[tuesdayintheservantshall]

Jimmy has no right to *that* hostile (ie downright homophobic). He already almost threw Thomas out onto the street without a reference; if anyone has a right to be scared it’s Thomas; he’s now aware everyone knows he’s gay and he knows at least one or two of those people(one of them being jimmy) would happily throw him under the bus given the chance. He’s literally never been so vulnerable and there’s no need for jimmy to rub it in

Hey Nonny you’re my first official fandom argument! Or you were when I first drafted this over a week ago lol. Since then I've waded into some drama bc I have poor impulse control. Well you're my first argumentative anon still! Do I get a prize, or do you? Have an, um apple of discord: 🍏And I will have one too: 🍏 (Intended tone: genuinely friendly, although if you are not already aware you should know that in fandom spaces messages like these are generally considered hostile acts. Most people don’t want to argue with strangers about why their faves suck, and especially not in response to tags they made about their overwhelmed shippy feelings. (Although I guess if hypothetically you’re the OP of the post I put the tags on and weren’t comfortable with them being on your post that’s admittedly a tough place to be in. Coming to me with your face on and asking me to remove my reblog or the tags because you’re not comfortable with them runs the risk of me being an asshole or taking something in your phrasing badly and starting a big fight. Uh, the chances of that seem rather remote so I’m gonna leave the tags where they are unless OP comes to me and says “I hadn’t wanted to say anything but actually -”.) Anyway I’m not gonna derail this into a long(er than it is) ramble on preferred ways to discuss disagreements in fandom but I might post something like that at a later date.)

God I use way too many parentheses. Apologies to any with a blacklist for Jimmy (do I still have any of those? not sure), obviously I don’t want to put this in the tags. I shall tag this and any further discourse on the subject with “the storyline that shall not be named”. Let’s get (finally) to it!

So, the first thing I wanna say is: yes, Jimmy makes homophobic comments and that’s bad, both because Thomas being gay is not the reason he assaulted Jimmy and because there’s hypothetically a chance someone who doesn’t already know might figure out Thomas’s sexuality based on Jimmy’s comment(s? There's the one before the rope tug and then I could have sworn there was one other one but I'm blanking on what it actually was.)However a) the moment I was commenting on wasn’t one of the homophobic comments and b) I find it important to distinguish between the specific manner of hostility (sometimes homophobic) and the level of hostility (nasty remarks and making a constant point of distancing himself) and the level is in fact 100% warranted. If you think nasty remarks and pointed distancing are more hostile than a person has a right to be towards the guy who sexually assaulted them, then we have a pretty profound disagreement.

As for your other point, regarding fear: Thomas and Jimmy both have very compelling reasons to be afraid of each other but I have to ask exactly what you think Jimmy is “rubbing in?” He initially tried to retaliate excessively against Thomas, backed down from that, and then discovered that instead of facing a reasonable consequence for assaulting him, such as being fired but with a reference that reflected the fact that this was one very bad mistake rather than a pattern*, Thomas was promoted to a position of direct authority over Jimmy. Although Jimmy was bribed into not making a fuss about this rather than, say, threatened, I think he has nonetheless been given a fairly clear message from his employers that they will back the senior coworker who assaulted him against any potential consequence he might try to bring. From Jimmy’s point of view, which is admittedly blinkered by fear and self interest, Thomas is the one in the secure, powerful position and Jimmy is the one extremely vulnerable.

I don't even just mean from his point of view like, ~emotionally. Genuine question: what would happen if Thomas started being overly touchy-feely again, or did worse than that, and Jimmy went to Mr. Carson or Mrs. Hughes or Lord Grantham to report it? I really don't know, and neither does Jimmy. Personally, I'm guessing that whether they believed him would probably depend significantly on things like Jimmy’s demeanor, and exactly what words he used, and basically whether he came across as a victim or as a brat trying to get someone in trouble. And which of those things a person seems like has no particular correlation to the facts of what they’re reporting - as we can see from what happened the first time! Like, Jimmy came off as spiteful and nasty and instead of being fired Thomas was promoted. That is actually what happened! The fact that Jimmy's motives were mixed doesn't change the fact of what Thomas did: Jimmy, when evaluating his safety, has access to one really strong datapoint and that’s that last time the majority of his superiors came down on Thomas’s side, either from the beginning or by the end.

Now, it’s true that he’s had a year to observe Thomas’s behavior and make an educated guess that Thomas really is sorry and won’t do it again. We can only speculate as to what extent he may have reached that conclusion and why he has or hasn’t. Some possible reasons why he might not have: trauma blinkers, homophobic and sexist beliefs, sufficiently bad at reading people to not know what clues to even look for, too self-centered to bother thinking about it in those terms... we don’t know. And perhaps he does know perfectly well that Thomas won't do anything like that again and any lingering fear is of cooties or of people mistaking him for gay and him being in the line of fire along with Thomas next time! You can read him that way if you want. You can say “wtf I see no fear of any kind”. It’s a flexible canon and none of these interpretations are actually contradicted by the text. Indeed I happily read other interpretations and when I babbled in those tags it was more "this is the interpretation I am thinking about right now" than intended to assert it as my One True Headcanon that I will not deviate from. But Jimmy definitely has reasons to be afraid, and of more than cooties.

Of course Thomas also has logical and emotional reasons to be afraid of what Jimmy might do, I'm certainly not denying that. (In fact, one of the things I find so compelling about these two is that they both have such strong reasons not to trust each other and they both reach out anyway.) It seems that Thomas’s belief in who Jimmy is as a person supersedes those reasons (“He wouldn’t be so unkind. Not on his own.”) but if Jimmy has a similar belief about who Thomas he keeps it hidden at least until the fair.

P.S. please reconsider the phrase “has the right to be scared” in every context but especially when discussing someone’s reaction to a situation that involved them being sexually assaulted. I offer you the alternative “logical reason to be scared” or "compelling reason" as perhaps capturing what I hope you meant. I think that’s a language choice that really does matter a fair bit.

#*the reference thing is tricky to think about because on the one hand I don't think it would be out of line (ethically #it would definitely be out of line from a propriety standpoint) #for Jimmy to want to know that the incident was affecting Thomas's reference in some way #but I also don't actually know enough about service and references to know how much room for middle ground there was #like if the reference says 'efficient worker but has made other staff uncomfortable in the past' or some other euphemism what does that mea #was that the sort of thing reference writers did ever? #but I don't think Jimmy actually cared about this #so I guess it's moot #the storyline that shall not be named

[lovedsammy]

I saw your Sastiel pack and LOVED it! Why does anyone ship Castiel with Dean though, he treats him terribly? Is Dean like that with everyone AKA if I watch SPN will I be constantly wincing in empathy?

Oh wow, thank you so much for this! Suffice it to say, this could become a rather long response, so I’ll make sure to put it under a read more. 

Question for you, nonnie: are the Sastiel scene packs the only exposure you’ve had to SPN? If you’re thinking of watching it, there is a whole lot more to it, believe me, but let me explain this as best as I can for you. <3

The way you see Dean treating Cas in the scene packs is admittedly only a part of their relationship, but it’s the most PREVALENT part. It’s what you’ll see happen between them the most. There are moments of friendliness, even ‘shippy’ moments if you get that vibe. 

I used to ship Destiel way back in the s4-s8 era. Initially, my reasons for liking it were that I loved how Cas expressed emotion whenever he spent time around Dean, and the idea of an angel falling in love with a human appealed to me (i.e: Cas FALLING BECAUSE HE FELL IN LOVE). I liked the idea of Dean, a man who didn’t believe in Heaven and angels, finding this one angel and seeing that they can be good. Cas saved Dean from Hell, after all. They were having so many moments together that went from outright hostility on Dean’s end to something of a comradeship and a hint of something more. I definitely saw some of the appeal. 

However, that appeal was short-sighted and it was heavily influenced by members of the fandom (the pro-Destiel camp that insisted on seeing it literally EVERYWHERE). I was sucked in, incorporated their views as my own, and hadn’t quite decided where I felt ‘at home’ in the fandom. Especially because when the scene in 4x07 happened and Cas and Sam met for the first time, my first thought was: “Oh shit, I could end up shipping this. I already love their dynamic.” But it was a low-key thought, because bringing up a potential for Sastiel at that time when the fandom was mostly loud Destiel shippers that outright hated Sam, much less the idea of him with DEAN’S angel? You’d get torn to shreds, lmao. So I kept those thoughts to myself, having no outlet to talk about them, until I finally came over to the Sam side of the fandom, risking losing friends and followers along the way, and I definitely did. I unfollowed some people that I initially really liked because of how they made Sam fans feel and how they felt about Sam in general. 

I really do think the primary reasons for shipping Destiel are that:

A) Brother bias. A lot of the SPN fans I’ve encountered are generally more of Dean fans than Sam. Sam gets so much flack both within and outside of the fandom. So naturally, Dean fans are going to be more invested in dynamics and relationships for him than they are for Sam.

B) Dean and Cas had a lot more moments together very early on, so they had more of a ‘foundation.’ I guarantee you that if Sastiel had been given the same amount of screen time early, it likely would’ve gone a different direction. 

C) Cas’s development - or expansion - of emotions occurred primarily around Dean. The show is very Dean-centered (biased) and you see the show a lot through his eyes. You need to read between the lines and look at it with a different perspective to get Sam’s, much less anyone else’s. So if you’re fixating on moments where Cas is emotional, you think it’s happening because of Dean. But there were many scenes where after talking to Sam, Cas expressed emotion, doubt, and other emotions. Plus, we hadn’t known at the time that Cas had been created with a crack in his chassis, and was already predispositioned to loving humanity and only by meeting Dean (and Sam) was that brought out. 

D) The desperation for queer rep. Sadly, there are plenty of Destiel shippers who are straight girls that just want to see two hot men get it on, but there are many people of the LGBTQ+ community that are genuinely looking for good representation. I think the idea of Destiel is something that could’ve worked for rep had it been done right, but it wasn’t. I’m all for more rep, and good rep at that. I consider myself Ace, but still going through it all, so I’m not very involved in the community (although I’m definitely an ally) and I want rep that everyone can feel represents them. What most Destiel shippers don’t seem to get is that people who are LGBTQ+ are not always Destiel shippers and I have plenty of friends who are queer or bi or trans that ship Sastiel or Wincest instead. It comes down less to people who are anti-Destiel being homophobic and more of that some of us just... don’t like abusive relationships, which Destiel definitely falls under. 

If you decide to watch the show: 

Yes, Dean is very often abusive towards Cas. He’s abusive towards Sam, too as well as Jack. He has anger issues and outbursts that the show loves to sweep under the rug because it’s naturally biased towards him. However, early on especially, we are shown that he can still be good, be gentle, and loving at times. The last 10 or so seasons, we kind of lost some of that. I had to go episode by episode in how I felt about Dean. The most important piece of advice I can give you is watch the show for yourself, and don’t let anyone else’s views impact how you see it. 

#Anonymous #anti destiel #asks

[nossbean]

Myrcella / Sansa Anon Here: Like Jaime and Brienne are both Beauty and the Beast, Myrcella and Sansa have the potential to be both Cinderella and the Prince/Knight. Myrcella a bastard disguised as a Princess and Sansa is a Princess disguises as a bastard. When the Starks fell, the old man could have written Myrcella as one of Sansa’s Protectors since she knows how to survive Cersei while when the Lannister’s fell from power, Sansa would give Myrcella a home. For cherry on top, Myrcella could 1/2

2/2 inherit Jaime’s sword skills and her desire to pursue that could be a way to escape being her mother’s mini-me, only valued for her looks, and toxic family as well as an attempt to gain some control over her life. I had more articulate thoughts on this but I wrote them down somewhere I can’t recall. In canon, you already have Arianne set up for the fairy godmother role and Brienne as a subversion of the typical stepmother. Either way, less creepy than any potential in-canon Sansa ships.

Honestly, anon, you persuaded me with these first two, but the absolute joy is that you came through with even more! I do wanna quickly say though that I support folx shipping who they ship and in whatsoever way brings joy, we’re all here for the love of the characters and the story after all <3

I am as ever at the moment, very late to the party, but I’m so glad you came back to share all this! A lot of what you’ve said by way of potentials has lived rent free in my head. I’m very into the fairy tale elements you’re describing (particularly noting Arianne as fairy godmother, and Brienne as a subversion of the typical (boring, sexist) fairy tale stepmother...!) and the incorporation of major themes that could be present in Myrcella’s arc (I’m poss wearing my clown shoes, etc, but I do think there’s a chance some of those could come to bear in the remaining books, with or without Sansa, so let’s hope) Your note about Myrcella inheriting Jaime’s sword skills set off a different thought in my head, that it would be interesting for her to instead pick up a lot of the knight’s code and utilizing it to her whims and needs, though without the fighting/sword skills element. There’s resonance and balancing there, then, with parts of Sansa’s arc, and also with themes in Brienne’s arc, and is again, a repudiation of much of what Cersei (and Joffrey) thinks and believes. Though am also very much here for more sword wielding ladies.

Anyway, onwards with the rest of your Sansa/Myrcella galaxy-braining:

Also, we know Myrcella wasn’t scared of Joffrey so we could have had Myrcella getting in his face to defend Sansa and having a tense stand-off. Plus, it would be a more explicit sign of Jaime and Cersei not being soulmates and gender swapped mirrors as the cruel and cowardly Joffrey being Cersei if she was a boy and brave and clever would be Jaime as a girl.

ANON. I am SO INTO playing with aligning Cersei with Joffrey and Jaime with Myrcella explicitly! It definitely could be there for the taking (that note about where did Myrcella and Tommen get their sweetness, I WONDER) but whether GRRM will take it... Things seem to be pointing Tommen-ward atm when it comes to possibilities with Jaime and his children, which is, idk, to be expected to a degree I guess. BUT ALSO, as is on the record, I’d really rather a sharp veer towards Myrcella instead (Tommen can come too I guess but centring Myrcella would be grand)

And also just: a Myrcella who takes on her brother (and by extension, Cersei) *on behalf* of Sansa would have been fucking incredible, and would absolutely have been particularly satisfying for the resonance it would have for Jaime’s later arc. And there’s every possibility Myrcella could have stood up for Sansa, or even if we frame it more as “against Joffrey”, at least at first. Also what you describe as being possible later by way of role reversal of who protects who, yes thank you please. Deeply into how that shapes Lannister-Stark relations and also honestly the potential impact on LSH storylines, in the event Sansa meets LSH in around the same time Brienne and Jaime are confronting her (I mean, that would substantially alter the timelines, possibly, but still!) 

Also ALSO, Sansa being sapphic would better show the limits societal scripts have a person’s perceptions, agency, and ability to connect with others since her character is so influenced by storytelling, imagination, and societal roles. It would also expand her understanding of womanhood and femininity, paving the way to reconcile with Arya.

Into this, as well! Don’t really have much more to say than that, really XD Oh, only that Sapphic Sansa is very satisfying to say, hehe. Anon, I ask if you’ve read this excellent meta about Sansa? It’s a long read but a good one. 

admittedly, Myrcella did luck out with getting the sweet, age appropriate, and non-creepy Trystane Martell as her canon love interest.

My cynical take here is that it isn’t coincidence that Myrcella lucked out with Trystane being sweet and being part of a family who (mostly?) wants her safe and happy not just because of her proximity to the Iron Throne but for her own sake, only to be almost certain to lose him, heh.

Sansa/Myrcella it could be about forgiveness, chosen families, breaking the cycles of violence and revenge, hope for the future, the importance of female solidarity, re-writing the future to include everyone.

Just here to say I am a sucker for each and every one of these themes, thank you.

Physical doubling is another shared feature of both Myrcella and Sansa’s stories. Everyone comments on how much Sansa looks like her mom and Littlefinger plans to unveil her identity using her red hair. Myrcella also looks like her mom and has a double in her cousin. Both are hurt and almost killed while in care of someone they should trust, Myrcella during the Queenmaker plot and Sansa with her Aunt Lysa.

Sansa’s themes of identity, self-preservation, perception, longing for something beyond your childhood home, the power and consequences of shaping stories through truth and lies can easily be mapped onto Myrcella.

Your Jaime and Myrcella post reawakened my dormant interest in Myrcella and Sansa, since Jaime is tasked with returning Sansa.

Again, mostly am just here for all this, particularly the potential theme sharing and how they could help one another through 😍🤩

Reading all this, I feel like you hit on one of the major things that GRRM fails with on the regular in ASOIAF, which is that women and girls... often like one another? Even when they’re, like, different from one another? 😱😱😱 And even if he didn’t want to pursue a shippy route, to your earlier point, there was plenty of room for friendship and solidarity between Sansa and Myrcella when they were both in KL, even with Myrcella being younger. There could be an added element wherein Myrcella goes behind Cersei’s back somewhat to do this, given Cersei would undoubtedly put the kibosh on it had she been aware - which again, would have had resonance later for that Jaime and Myrcella mirroring angle. Buuut that would require GRRM to recognize the power of relationships between girls and women, and I admit I remain stuck on the idea that apparently no woman or girl in Brienne’s life ever did anything but mock/deride her until Catelyn came along. I invite you to imagine that a small part of my soul is always howling to the heavens: NO ONE????????? (though this is, happily, an easily retconned detail, so my clown nose is honking that there may be even a throwaway note about some girl or woman in Brienne’s past in Winds, anyway, I digress)

I DUNNO, I’m trying to, like, contribute to this excellence but mostly I’m just picking up everything you’re putting down...! 

And finally:

I don’t have a Tumblr, though I enjoy reading fic and people’s meta, so I forgot I sent that ask to be honest, haha.

Again, I’m sorry for how very, very late here, but I am so very glad you did...!!!!

#anonymoose #askbox #char: myrcella baratheon #char: sansa stark #ship: myrcella x sansa #meta: asoiaf #there's a lot here which gets to exactly the kinds of things i like about ships jfkldajhlkdaf #q'd #long post

[minijenn]

Mismatched Making Preview

By golly Dipper and Pacifica are cuties and I’m already loving writing their interactions in this chapter even though I’ve barely dived into them at all yet. Even so, here’s some starting cuteness to get ya’ll in that shippy mood. Enjoy!

***

“Oh, come on, Mabel, I’m not that predictable,” Dipper protested, sitting up. “Sure I like a good mystery hunt every now and then, but after dealing with so many of them this summer, I… kinda wouldn’t mind a change of pace. Maybe I’ll try my hand at hunting down something else for a change.”

“Oh yeah?” Mabel asked with a challenging smirk. “Like what?”

“Like…” Dipper trailed off, admittedly unsure of what to say. After all, he’d spent so much time lately embroiled in one mystery, one fight, one disaster after another. So much time spent struggling in the loudest of moments to win the quiet moments like these. And now that they finally had these quiet moments, admittedly, he really had no idea what to do with them. 

Fortunately, he didn’t have to supply an answer to his sister’s question as the shack’s doorbell abruptly rang out. “Well, right now, I guess I’m hunting down the door,” he said succinctly, slipping out of the conversation to answer it. 

“Wait… how can you hunt down a door…?” Steven wondered, confused, though all the same, him and Mabel followed along after Dipper to see who had arrived. The initial speculation on all sides was that it was probably the Gems, though it was a bit odd for them to not just enter without knocking or ringing as they usually did. Though who was actually at the door was just about the very last person any of the kids could have expected, even from the moment Dipper first swung it open. 

“P-Pacifica!?” Dipper exclaimed, absolutely baffled to see the heiress standing in front of him. Even more bewildering was the fact that, unlike the last time she had ventured out to the shack to seek his help, this time, Pacifica hadn’t come in any sort of heavy coat or concealing disguise. Rather, she was in her usual fashionable attire, her expression pensive and her hands held tightly behind her back before she greeted him back with a somewhat awkward wave. 

“O-oh! Uh, h-hey, Dipper,” she said, smiling rather tightly. “Looks like you’re back--finally. N-not that I haven’t been hanging out around here waiting for you to get back ever since that day we spent at the mines, b-because that would be weird, obviously, but… um… what was I talking about again?”

“I… honestly have no idea,” Dipper frowned, confused before breaking into a small, cordial smile. “But anyway, hi, Pacifica. What brings you all the way out here-”

“Pacifica!” Mabel suddenly interrupted, pushing her brother aside to brightly greet the heiress. “Hi! How are you?! Did you come out here to invite all of us to another super glitzy, glamorous party? Because if you are, we are so on board, the last one was so fun! 

“Yeah, it was!” Steven interjected just as cheerfully. “Ya know, aside from the vengeful ghost and crazy Gem mutants. But that’s the sort of stuff we deal with all the time, so I guess it was nothing too out of the ordinary.”

“Oh… you guys are here too…” Pacifica’s smile fell as she looked between Steven and Mabel. “Great…”

“Uh, so…” Dipper cut in, squeezing his way back into the conversation between the pair. “Like I was trying to ask before, what’s up, Pacifica? You need some help busting another ghost or dealing with a pack of angry city slick dwarves?” 

The heiress couldn’t help but let out something of a small laugh at this, one that Dipper slightly joined in on, not noticing as Steven, and Mabel in particular, watched the exchange curiously. “No, nothing like that,” Pacifica smirked. “I was just… um… w-well, you remember how you said after your how drill thing was over, we’d… uh… h-hang out?”

“Yeah…?” Dipper nodded, raising an eyebrow before he realized Pacifica’s intention in coming all this way to see him. “Oh, wait, you mean right now?”

“Uh… I mean, if you wanna?” she shrugged apprehensively. “I-if you’re busy though, I-I totally get it. I can always come back some other time.”

“I mean, we did only get back from the barn for weeks on end just a few minutes ago…” Dipper noted with an earnest frown. “But…”

“But he’s totally free and he would totally love to hang out with you!” Mabel sharply interrupted, excitedly pushing her brother out the door a bit. “Wouldn’t you, Dipper?”

“Uh… well…” Dipper hesitated for a moment before meeting Pacifica’s hopeful expression. She offered him a small, almost demure smile, one that carried none of the cold haughtiness she often used to front, but instead, it was completely honest, completely genuine. And if there was something that Dipper knew well from experience, it was that Pacifica was always at her very best when she was at her most genuine. “You know what? Sure, why not. It’ll be fun.”

“R-really?” Pacifica asked, quite surprised to hear this as her cheeks flushed the slightest pink. 

“Yes, really!” Mabel exclaimed as she pushed Dipper out towards Pacifica even more, urging the pair off. “Now, go on, get outta here, you crazy kids! Go out and make some memories!”

“Yeah, and have fun!” Steven called after the two as they exchanged a somewhat startled glance, though ultimately decided to head off together towards town all the same. Leaving a very satisfied and a somewhat confused Steven behind.

#lol steven and mabel boutta snoop #and eventually matchmake these two crazy kids #adorable this chapter is such a fluff fest #until the end when i sprinke a lil of that #romantic angst on top of it #woo baby #jen writes #universe falls #uf preview #mismatched making

[ahmedmootaz]

More shippy moments between Dr.Drakken and Shego.

So I’ve recently fell off the planet and climbed back on again, and whaddya know, I was just on time to catch-up with Season 3. I‘ve stopped just shy of “So The Drama”, having heard of how spectacular it was, but I couldn’t help but notice that Season 3 did little to stop me shipping a certain mad doctor and his sidekick. Seriously, that season has a ton of ship fuel.

So first of all, “Steal Wheels.”. Okay, I’m well-aware this one was mostly Eddie and Drakken hanging out and being enemies/nemesis/pals/cousins, but I kinda like how Drakken knows better than to oppose Shego’s ideas and how he seems to simply accept that she (sometimes, of course; wouldn’t let his ego admit anything more) is better than him at driving the Doom-V. I like that he also knows how to treat her better than Eddie, even if its mostly because she has glowing plasma hands of doom.

Then there was “Emotion Sickness.”. This...this wasn’t just shipping fuel, I’m fairly certain someone on the Kim Possible Team ships Kim with Ron and Drakken and Shego and used this episode to express that. I mean...holy heck, there were so, so many things that need commenting on...So firstly, let’s start by mentioning the “This is not the right time to question the nature of our relationship!”, and...what? Does Drakken mean that she’s questioned it before? I mean, I’m fairly certain that at this point they’re friends, if nothing else, so...It was an interesting comment.

Then, Dr.D reacting to Shego’s mood swings at first. I feel he’s kinda...trying to do his best? I mean, yeah, telling Shego she was overreacting probably wasn’t the brightest idea he ever got, but other than that, he seems like he’s trying to do his best while she’s setting him on fire and beating him to a pulp. I also reaaaally like how his first assumption to what’s happening is that he forgot her birthday. What, is that just a regular thing employers and employees do? Remember each other’s birthday and celebrate it accordingly?...Boy, this sole line can inspire so many Fanfics...

And then there was the whole “lovey-dovey” mode. Yeah, this was one big shipping episode. So first of all, Shego flirting with Drakken on a table and posing. I’m still deciding whether Drakken is actually so oblivious he couldn’t grasp she could flirt with him or if he was trying to be good employer and a gentleman. I mean, considering he seemed to have no idea what was happening while she was growling like a cat I’d lean towards the former. And then the whole “Perfect weather for cuddling” comment. I was positive Drakken was going to call the insane asylum to take him in because he was seeing hallucinations. And that massage...seems like our mad scientist is a bit stressed from his “worky-worky”. And then the park montage...Yeah, I’m willing to assume that the photo-booth ‘session’ melted his brain. I mean what? She just...jumped him. This was basically an accurate depiction of what Dr.Drakken would be like when faced with the concept that someone could be infatuated with him. Spoilers: He’s scared out of his wits.

So we’ll skip the admittedly amusing Kim Part of the episode and jump back to their Dinner Date. Their entire interactions there were golden, not to mention Shego’s ‘Yaaaay’ and giggle after Drakken told her (while being pointed at with a what’s basically a gun to his head) it’d be an evil date. I wouldn’t describe Shego as ‘cute’, but that scene could hardly be described as otherwise. Then when they’re at the Middleton Festival and Shego suddenly bursts into tears, I adore that Drakken, who up to this point was basically psycologicaly scarred, tortured and shocked by Shego, doesn’t just leave her or anything, no, he comforts her when she says he’s “Leaving her in her time of need.” and says “No no no, I’‘ll just...I’ll be right back.” though what really makes that scene for me is his tone; it’s not frustrated or fake, he did mean it. Of course, I suppose Shego did also mean it when she then went into rage-mode and was ready to blast him to pieces. And, just as if this episode couldn‘t stuff anymore fluff, Drakken’s first idea on how to calm a homicidal Shego is to make her dinner. What kind of boss makes you dinner to make up with you?!...Also, I do wonder, how did he get the Moodulator off of her?

So after this ship-filled episode, it’d only be natural to have an episode where Shego comes back to her senses and dumps Drakken for another villain. So “Bad Boy” comes in and has Drakken actively seek Shego’s attention and sympathy by...crying. Sometimes I see the ‘mad’ part in ‘mad scientist’ in him. Sometimes I don’t. In any case, Shego, contrary to what you’d expect, takes him to a Villain-Con. It seemed like a nice gesture on her part. Then there were Drakken’s actions when he was “good”. Coco-Moo. Never before did I imagine I’d hear him saying that word, but now that I did, I’m glad it happened. I mean come on, the first thing he does when he turns good is make her and his henchmen cookies and Coco-Moo I mean what is this boss-employer relationship? I also liked Shego kinda acknowledging the fact that is was sort of a low-blow to leave Drakken in his goody two-shoes state.

“Showdown At The Crooked D” had Shego flex her language skills on Drakken. I don’t know why I loved that scene so much, but I did. And I liked their whole “Cowboy-like” interactions. It was also nice to see she didn’t abandon after their plan failed.

“Dimension Twist.” didn’t really have much in term of shippiness, though I appreciated Drakken taking Shego with him when he escaped.

And then the last episode that involved them together this season: “Rappin’ Drakken.” Firstly, it seems to me as if Drakken did, actually, listen to Shego after all this time and make his device immediately launch instead of counting down. But that’s not what I really loved during this episode. I loved the fact that Drakken and Shego go to karaoke together. What, don’t tell me that’s regular employer-employee stuff! And even so, why doesn’t Shego bail out if she claims she hates it so much? Drakken’s rap itself was golden, but this scene made my day.

And that’s all I’ve got. I’m still working on that story I said I’d write, but then it suddenly spiraled out of control and got longer than expected and what was supposed to be a single paragraph transformed into a chapter and it has evolved a mind of its own and help me-

Ahem. In any case, have some more shippy moments. Again, I must praise the series itself, as its quality makes it a delight to watch. And now, off to So The Drama...

#Kim Possible #dr. drakken #shego #shippy stuff #I mean who goes to their boss with karaoke?

[thebest-medicine]

Leave it to Chance (Spin the Bottle)

A/N: I saw a prompt (x and x) about using spin the bottle like whoever spins it gets to tickle the person it lands on. I’ve also seen a game before of using dice, like if you have 2 dice one can correspond with the spot you get tickled and the other can correspond with how long you get tickled. Anyway, here’s some spn trash of that.

Words: 3,150

AO3 Link (x)

Characters: Charlie Bradbury, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Castiel, Kevin Tran (non-shippy but you could interpret some sevin and destiel from this)

It was silly, they knew, a game decided upon by a group that had maybe one too many drinks to be thinking clearly in the first place. But here they were, their little makeshift family, enjoying the low light and calm feeling of the bunker. The walls surrounded by soil, keeping them and their secrets hidden. They were safe here. They were home.

Their little group gathered on the soft carpet within the library, a den of their own making. Charlie stood to collect dice that they would need to use. Dean sat between his brother and Cas. Cas made conversation with him, teasing Dean as he insisted that he’d played many a round of spin the bottle in high school, though admittedly never like this. Sam was smiling, laughing a bit as he chatted with Kevin, who tried his best to look comfortable despite being arguably the most sober and most jittery about what they were doing.

Charlie returned to complete their circle after she happily selected two non-identical dice to use for their game, one blue with white dots, and one white with yellow dots. Blue had to be the time, because blue was a sad color, she insisted. Yellow, the color of sunshine and happiness, would represent the location.

“Okay, so, lay it on me.” Dean asked Charlie, the unofficial officiant of the game. “How are we doing this?”

“Well, first, we need a bottle.” She started.

Dean’s hand shot up, an empty beer in hand. “Check!”

She took it and set it in the middle of the circle.

“Ok.” Charlie clapped once. “Everyone gets a turn to spin. Whoever spins, does the tickling. Whoever it lands on, gets tickled.” Charlie winked.

A collective blush overran a few faces among the circle, namely Kevin’s and Dean’s.

“Then!” Charlie cleared her throated dramatically. “The person who it landed on must roll The Dice Of Destiny!” She announced.

Castiel chuckled at her showmanship.

“Blue! Time! This shows how many minutes you’ll be tickled for. A one will bring you one minute, two for two, six for six, etc.” She explained.

“Simple enough.” Sam agreed.

“Yellow! Location! Now this one, this may make or break you.” Charlie ‘ooh’d and ‘ahh’d dramatically. She took another swig of her mojito. “This little die holds the power to show WHERE you will be tickled.” Charlie smirked as she continued. “A one, your feet. A two, your legs. A three, your stomach and sides. A four, your ribs. A five, under your arms. A six, your neck. Any questions?”

Kevin timidly raised a hand. “So, if we get something like... two fives... and we have to be t-tickled under our arms for 5 minutes.” He shuddered a moment at the thought. “Then, but, what if we can’t- what if we can’t keep our arms up?”

“The other members of the circle will do their part to help keep you in place for the duration of your tickles.” Charlie smiled.

“You mean hold you down.” Sam clarified with a wink.

“I do.” Charlie waggled her eyebrows.

Kevin nodded with a blush.

“Ok. Ready?”

Everyone gave a nod.

“Alright. I’ll go first?” Charlie began.

She took the bottle and placed it in the middle. Everyone’s eyes watched it like a hawk as she spun.

Around and around it went, the tipsy eyes of the circle unable to be drawn away as the anticipation built. Finally, the bottle settled, pointing directly at Sam.

“Fuck.” He chuckled. “Alright give me the dice.”

Sam held them in his hands a moment, pretending to say a little prayer.

Everyone watched almost as intently as Sam as the dice were released onto the carpet. A two for time. A six for location.

Charlie grinned the widest of them all, patting her lap expectantly. “C’mere Sam, rest your head in my lap.” She sing-songed.

Sam grumbled but obliged, laying across the circle and putting his head face up between Charlie’s knees.

“Timer?” Charlie asked.

“Got it.” Dean supplied, holding up his phone.

Sam was stuck between closing his eyes and watching to see when Charlie would strike, which left his eyes opening and closing every few seconds. “Okay just, get it over with.” He pleaded.

Charlie was happy to.

Sam scrunched with eyes shut, his lips pursing tightly to hold in his giggles as Charlie’s nails scribbled beneath his ears and around his neck. She got just under his chin and her fingers make quick work of his defenses.

Sam’s giggles poured out slowly at first, then all at once.

“T-Time?” Sam begged.

“Oh, man. I was so wrapped up in that girly little giggle you had going on that I forgot to start it.” Dean grinned.

“Fuck you.” Sam hissed.

“Should we start it again at 2?” Dean suggested.

“No!” Sam insisted.

“Yeah I think it’s been about 2 minutes, gotta save some time for the rest of you guys.” Charlie smirked.

Dean couldn’t help but look disappointed while Sam stuck his tongue out at him, going back to his seat.

“Alright Kev, your turn!” Charlie passed him the bottle.

Kevin sighed in relief, knowing that he couldn’t be the victim here. He spun the bottle, and it landed on Charlie.

“Oh man... alright!” Charlie chuckled as she grabbed the dice, making a show of shaking them up and rolling them.

Three for time. One for location.

“Oh no! Not my feet!” Charlie whined.

“Rules are rules.” Cas chimed in.

“Fine...” Charlie grumbled as she untied her shoes and slipped them off along with her socks. “Go easy on me, Kevvy.”

Kevin smirked at her as she begrudgingly placed her feet in his lap.

“Sam, you’re in charge of timing this. Remember I was fair to you.” Charlie noted.

“Okay.” Sam laughed. “Don’t worry.”

“Great. Okay, well. I’m ready.” Charlie gulped dramatically.

Kevin pulled back her toes and started slowly wiggling his fingers under them, just at the top of the ball of her foot, like Gabriel had done to him so many times before. He knew it would drive her crazy.

Charlie squirmed and gasped, a stream of giggles coming out of her mouth.

He slowly picked up the pace, wiggling and scribbling his nails over the ball of her right foot. After about a minute, he switched to her left. Charlie shrieked when a new foot was tormented.

For the last minute, Kevin decided upon a grand finale of viciously wigging his fingers over both of her feet. Charlie tried her best to stay in place but kept squirming away, leading to Dean jumping in to hold her legs down.

The timer ran out just as Charlie ran out of breath. “Whew! That was crazy. You’ve got some mad skills, Kev.”

“Must be that he’s learning since he gets tortured all the time.” Dean interjected.

Kevin blushed.

“Okay. Sam’s turn!”

Sam took the bottle, rolling it a moment in his hands to get a feel for it. He set it in the center of the circle, adjusting it a few times before he finally settled on the exact middle.

“Oh my god just do it already!” Dean complained.

“Shut up and drink your beer.” Sam laughed.

Dean rolled his eyes, but took a swig anyway.

Spin. Spin. Spin. And it slowed to a stop just at Dean.

“Shit.” Dean groaned. “I hate you. You did that on purpose.”

Sam laughed, “How could I?”

“I don’t know you... physics. Mr. Stanford.” Dean grumbled.

“Sure. Take the dice. This one’s all you.” Sam handed him the set of blue and yellow.

Dean shook them vigorously before dropping them to the carpeted floor. Five for time, five for location. He stared at them in horror. “No fair that’s the longest time so far.”

“You’re only the third one to go.” Cas responded.

“Whatever.” Dean huffed.

“I doubt you’ll be able to keep your arms up, you’re too fucking ticklish.” Sam laughed.

Dean blushed, hoping others blamed it on the alcohol. He opened his mouth to retort.

“I’ll help with that.” Cas suggested.

“So.... who times, Kev? Charlie?” Sam asked.

“Kevin, could you? I wanna have my full focus on Dean’s face while he laughs his head off.” Charlie grinned.

Dean blushed more.

“Can do.” Kevin replied.

Charlie slurped down another gulp of her mojito before inching closer to Dean, who laid down hesitantly.

“Okay, give me your arms.” Cas ordered.

Dean could barely muster the will to lift his arms over his head when all his brain could say was ‘oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck fuck you sam’.

Sam smiled with glee as he brought his hands down toward Dean’s arms. He hovered just about the armpits.

“Ready Kevin? Count me down.” Sam asked.

“Ok, three.... two... one!” Kevin announced, clicking the timer to start.

Dean arched his back and turned his head, trying to bury it into his arm while Sam tickled wickedly under his arms.

“NahahahahahahahaHAHAHAHA FUCKYOUSAHAHAHAHAM!” Dean wailed, laughing madly.

“Aw, I love you too Dean.” Sam laughed.

Charlie watched on with a menacing smile. “Gotta get pics of this.” She announced, grabbing her phone.

“NohohohHOHOHO!” Dean protested.

Cas smiled fondly down at him.

Sam tickled from Dean’s elbows down to his underarms, scribbling down to his upper ribs as well and making Dean jump. He drilled into his armpits and chuckled every time he made Dean jump or shriek (which was a lot).

“Annnnd we are approaching the end...” Kevin announced. “Ten, nine...” he began counting down. Sam tickled even more vigorously for the last ten seconds and Dean could swear he was seeing stars.

Finally, the time was up and he was released. He barely moved from the floor at first, trying to hug his arms down and brush away the lingering tingle of Sam’s fingers.

“That was horrible.”

“And hilarious!” Charlie smirked.

“Whatever.” Dean continued. “Finally it’s my turn.” He grabbed the bottle and quickly spun it.

“Cas.” Dean’s voice sounded like the snake trying to charm Eve into eating the apple, smooth, secretive, threatening. “Looks like it’s your turn!”

Cas rolled the dice, getting four for time and two for location. Well shit.

Sam offered to hold Castiel’s legs while Charlie timed. Dean sat backwards across his middle, facing his thighs.

Cas felt like praying. The slacks he was wearing did little to impede Dean’s fingers as they began squeezing his sensitive legs just above the knee.

He yelped out a laugh as he fought the urge to scream. Dean was an expert at taking Cas apart, especially somewhere as sensitive and intimate as his thighs.

“Aww I bet this is driving you crazy, Cas.” Dean teased.

“StahahahahahahahahHAHAHHOP DON’T BEHEHEHE MEAN!” Cas cried out amongst his frantic laughter.

“What, does that make it tickle more?” Dean continued. “It’s not my fault you’re so sensitive.” Dean squeezed into the skin on the inside of Castiel’s thighs, making him kick so hard that it almost threw Sam off.

Finally, to Castiel’s relief, the timer sounded.

Dean’s mischievous look told Cas that it was far from over in the long run.

Castiel sat up, his appearance disheveled as he took hold of the bottle. As it spun in circles, eyes still watched it cautiously, a collective breath was held as it began to slow.

Dean.

“Well shit. That’s not fair. Sam already got me.” Dean protested.

“The bottle speaks the truth, Dean!” Charlie yelled back.

“But no one’s even gotten Kevin yet!” Dean whined.

“Complainer.” Sam teased. “Suck it up.”

Dean felt the urge to protest further, but when he opened his mouth he instead decided to sip on his beer. “Fine.” He reached out his hand. “Hit me.”

The dice appeared in his hand as he threw a roll. One for time, excellent. Three for location, not so excellent.

Dean looked from the dice slowly up to Cas, who wore a small smirk. Revenge would be sweet, it said.

“Can I reroll?” Dean asked.

“No!” Charlie, Kevin, Sam, and Cas all replied.

“After the treatment you gave me...” Cas began. “Expect fair retaliation.”

Dean felt himself shrinking.

Sam grabbed Dean’s arms and pulled him back to lay down on the carpet, holding his arms over his head. Cas took a seat on his middle. Kevin and Charlie offered to hold his feet to prevent extra kicking.

“It’s only one minute, why are you so nervous, Dean?” Cas teased.

Dean shot up his best attempt at a glare.

When the timer, set between Charlie and Kevin, began, Cas wasted no time digging directly into Dean’s hips.

Dean knee that was coming, but regardless he howled, his back arching up as much as it could as his whole body squirmed. “NahahahHAHAHAHAAHAHO NOHOHOH LHAJAHA CAHAHAAHHAHAAH CASHHAHAHA PLHEHEHEHEASE I CAN’T!” Dean wailed.

“Only 45 more seconds to go!” Charlie reassured him.

Cas drilled, scribbled, and wiggled his fingers ruthlessly into Dean’s most sensitive spot.

When there were only about 20 seconds left, Cas spidered his fingers all over Dean’s belly, throwing him off and making his laughter change form and pitch. Not as desperate but still tormented.

The final 5 seconds, which everyone counted down together, Cas squeezed Dean’s hips once for each second before finally releasing him.

Dean stared up blurrily at his friends, wishing he could muster the energy or mood to glare at any of them but only able to poorly choke back a goofy smile.

“I Hahahate you.” Dean said as he sat back up.

Back to Charlie, when she received Cas as a victim again. He had a two for time and a four for location. Charlie tickled his ribs silly as he giggled and squirmed.

Kevin got Sam, who rolled a one for location and a four for time. Kevin took his time tickling Sam’s huge feet. Under his toes made him giggle sweetly, though it took Dean and Cas to hold his legs down. Kevin saved this information for future use.

Sam, in turned, got Kevin. A huge smile formed on his face. Kevin found himself blushing and tried to take a sip of his wine cooler to mask it as something caused by tipsiness. Kevin rolled a six for time and a five for location. He stared in horror at the dice before him.

“No, you can’t...” Kevin whined, clenching his arms to his sides. “Have mercy...”

“You’re right, Kev.” Sam nodded before drawing his lip up into a smirk. “I can’t have mercy.”

Kevin rolled his eyes, squirming as he tried to situate himself. Sam sat over his head, asking for his arms which Kevin reluctantly gave. Sam sat on them and wiggled his fingers teasingly over Kevin’s armpits.

Kevin thought he might die.

“Go!” Charlie demanded, announcing the timer had begun.

Sam wasn’t a complete sadist (or maybe he was and this was worse?) to Kevin, he began at Kevin’s elbows and slowly drew his fingers down, tickling gently.

He swirled them around and around Kevin’s armpits for the first couple of minutes, peppering in pokes and scribbles as he went along. Kevin was squealing and out of breath, kicking his feet aimlessly at the onslaught.

Once the halfway mark passed, Sam turned up the heat. He began tickling more directly, harder, even driving his fingers into the center of Kevin’s armpits.

Kevin spasmed and thrashed and laughed his head off.

In the final 30 seconds, which in Kevin’s mind took hours to come, Sam drilled his thumbs into the middle of Kevin’s hollows, driving him mad with sensation and laughter.

When the time finally came, Kevin couldn’t stop laughing. Sam had moved off of him and offered him a hand to get up, but Kevin remained on the floor in a giggly puddle.

“Mahahahahan.....” Kevin eventually spoke up. “That was brutal...”

Sam winked at him, making Kevin blush again.

Finally, he sat back up and rejoined the circle.

Dean’s turn, which he eagerly awaited. He took the bottle and spun vigorously. Spin. Spin. Spin.

Eventually, it landed...

On himself.

“Oh, what now I spin again?” Dean asked.

“...No.” Charlie replied, holding out the dice to him with a smile.

“What?????” Dean stared in disbelief.

“Whoever it lands on gets tickled.” Charlie shrugged.

“I shouldn’t have asked....” Dean wiped a hand down his face.

“And, the yellow dice will be how many people tickle you. One: one, two: two, three: three, four, five, or six: everyone.” Charlie explained gleefully. “Blue is still time.”

“What? That’s- no-“

“Rules are rules, Dean!”

“You’re just making this shit up!”

“Rules are rules!” Charlie pressed the dice toward him more firmly.

Eventually he sighed, and took them. Time, six. People, four.

“Nooooooooooooo.” Dean whined.

“Yessssssssss.” Sam replied in an imitation.

“I despise all of you.” Dean noted.

“I’m sure.” Cas replied.

Dean rolled his eyes, huffing and puffing as he laid back on the carpet. Cas took a seat at his feet, as dean insisted Cas not have access to his stomach again. Sam above his head holding his arms. Charlie and Kevin sat back to back on his middle, Charlie facing his tummy and Kevin facing his thighs.

“Ready.” Charlie began.

“No.” Dean replied.

“Not you-“ Charlie stuck out her tongue at him. “Set.”

Dean clenched his eyes shut.

“Go!” Charlie declared, and they all dug in.

Dean’s eyes formed tears a minute in with Sam tickling all over his sensitive underarms and alternating with his neck. His long fingers made quick work of Dean’s ribs, squeezing and pinching them.

Charlie tickled ruthlessly over Dean’s belly. She dipped a finger into his bellybutton, squeezed his sides, spidered all over the skin, even lifting his shirt to get more direct contact, and took some time to squeeze and scribble on his hips.

Kevin tickled behind Dean’s knees, squeezed their tops, and tickled up and down Dean’s thighs. His legs couldn’t escape due to Castiel’s prescience on his ankles.

Cas tickled over the tops of Dean’s feet, around and under his toes, between them, then the balls, then arches, then heels of his feet. He would tickle back up the sides, and then begin the process again.

Dean thought he might lose his mind.

Then, the timer buzzed.

Finally, it came to Castiel’s turn again.

“It better not fucking land on me.” Dean glared as he collected himself.

Luckily for him, it landed on Charlie, who rolled a six for location and three for time. Cas tickled all around her neck and ears as she giggled lightly.

“Maybe we should continue another time.” Sam began. “Dean seems a little pooped.” He nudged his brother’s side.

“Shut up, bitch.”

“Jerk.”

“Sounds good. Who’s ready for a movie?” Charlie announced as she stood. 

“Yep. I need another round.” Dean stretched his arms and began to stand as Sam reached out to poke his ribs.

“Don’t fucking start!” Dean hissed, jumping up to escape the touch. He followed Charlie quickly out of the room.

Everyone else soon followed.

#ticklish!charlie #ticklish!sam #ticklish!dean #ticklish!cas #ticklish!kevin #tickle fic #mine #tickling #spin the bottle #leave it to chance #tickle #tickle challenge #group tickling #tickle game #spn #supernatural #i havent written in forever forgive me #here it is #dean winchester #sam winchester #charlie bradbury #kevin owens #castiel #good stuff

[laughingpinecone]

Yuletide letter!

I am laughingpineapple on AO3 

Likes: worldbuilding, slice of life (doubly so if the event the fic focuses on is made up but canon-specific), missing moments, 5+1 and similar formats, bonding and emotional support/intimacy, physical intimacy, lingering touches, loyalty, casefic, surrealism, magical realism, established relationships, future fic, hurt/comfort or just comfort from the ample canon hurt, throwing characters into non-canon environments, banter, functional relationships between dysfunctional individuals, unexplained mysteries, bittersweet moods, journal/epistolary fic, dreams and memories and identities, outsider POV, UST, exploration of secondary bits of canon, leaning on the uniqueness of the canon setting/mood, found families, characters reuniting after a long and/or harrowing time, friends-to-lovers, road trips, maps, mutual pining, cuddling, wintry moods, the feeling of flannel and other fabrics, ridiculous concepts played straight, sensory details, places being haunted, people being haunted, the mystery of the woods, small hopes in bleak worlds, electricity, places that don’t quite add up, mismatched memories, caves and deep places, distant city lights at night

Any tense, any pov, any rating, plotty, not plotty, IF, canon divergences, non-mundane AUs (space opera! high fantasy! new weird also), deep lore, unrequested characters popping up - please do go wild with the & combos!

Blanket crossover prompt with Untitled Goose Game: set that goose loose anywhere and ruin anyone’s day. Tariq and select Twin Peaks characters who are not Albert (Margaret, Laura...) may hope to tame and befriend the goose; anyone else better get wrecked. Capitalism may also get wrecked while Kentucky Route Zero characters popcorn.gif nearby

DNW: non-canonical rape, non-canonical children, canon retellings, unrequested ships (I listed all the ships I like for each fandom. Outside of those, I’d prefer if other canon characters weren’t shipped, unless they’re like, canon engaged/married)

Dark Souls 1: Solaire of Astora

I’m only familiar with the first game! It’s probably relevant to mention that I think that linking the fire is kind of a dumbass move, Gwyn is a jerk, Kaathe has his own agenda and there’s no winning move in this world, or at least no obvious one. And amidst all this nonsense, Solaire just shines, pure of heart and dumb of ass like the best of ‘em. I love his kindness in this cruelest of worlds and I love the sad edge he’s got even earlier on when he admits to being seen as weird.

I would enjoy a bittersweet ending for him but I realize both of his endings are deeply entrenched in his themes so it’s hard to make him steer clear of either of those. If you can figure out how to make him not link the Flame or survive the ordeal, I’m all ears! I like a sense of purpose being the thing that can stave off hollowing, and I like characters helping other characters finding that sense of purpose within themselves. Focus on scenery always welcome, and if you want to make up a location, that’s great too!

I’d be super happy with a story set during Solaire’s time in Lordran that simply doesn’t mention his endings, anyway. Maybe he’s the one who helps someone else while his own tragedy keeps looming on the horizon. Striking up friendships in the face of a crapsack world! Meeting people through Lordran’s temporal/dimensional fuckery, where it’s possible to cross the path of warriors who have been gone for ages… could Solaire meet either or both Catarina knights (there’s so much great art about sun bro and onion bro but where’s the fic?), or do the grumpy grump&ray of sunshine routine with Logan, or meet Artorias or even Gwyn before he linked the Flame - or himself? What if he met Kaathe?

Ships: none really? Solaire/Chosen Undead but I don’t really like to read about customizable protagonists in fic so I’d rather not get fic featuring the CU. I’m all about the & character combos here.

Ghost Trick: Cabanela, Jowd

I love Cabanela being fierce and dazzling bright and determined and loyal to the very end, dancing to his own rhythm, so sure of himself and of his ideas that he doesn’t even need to prove to anyone that he’s right. Too sure of the wrong idea, once, and everything crashed and burned. And I love Jowd being the immovable object to Cabanela’s unstoppable force, a suicidal trainwreck of guilt with the gallows humor to show for it, and also incredibly smart (both jerks figured out Sissel’s powers better than Sissel did, that’s... something) and athletic and with an unsuspected talent for stealth.

I am very interested in various characters finding about the erased timeline, but not getting their memories back, and having to live with being told about what they did but never remembering it. Touch-starved Jowd in the new timeline is a surefire hit (or maybe Cabanela if he’s the one who came back and kept the memories of the old timeline). Touchy-feely Cabanela as kind of his baseline with the people he likes.  All what-ifs welcome:what if they managed an acceptable happy ending but didn’t reset the timeline, what if Alma’s ghost stuck around… I’m also wondering about either of them ending up undead via Temsik shard - how would they take these developments (I’m assuming better than Yomiel did but the bar is admittedly low), did Cabanela do it on purpose for whatever sensible-if-you-are-Cabanela reason, what does it change in their relationship, what are the practical pros and cons of the situation here. UFO adventures with Pigeon Man! Lynne teaming up with either of them against the other! Sissel death-averting action if either/both of them die or just regular cat action! Spy stuff! Daring rescues! My forever prompt of Jowd being the one who gets a chance to prove his loyalty to Cabanela for once. Dancing.

Please no Yomiel. Nothing against the guy I’m just getting an overdose of him through RPing.

Ships: Alma/Cabanela/Jowd and all sides thereof, but when it splits the canon couple I only like it when the missing spouse is dead or otherwise unavailable, hopefully with a reset on the horizon. If you want to go for a Cabanela&Alma or Cabanela/Alma who are strongly motivated by a dead or jailed Jowd, I’m good with him not actively appearing in the fic. Alma/Jowd & Cabanela is excellent in all scenarios. I’m good with explicitly non-romantic takes on Jowd&Cabs but please keep their bond strong, and please no conflicting ship for Cabanela. Lynne/Memry!

Kentucky Route Zero: Any (Lula Chamberlain, Joseph Wheattree, Donald kentuckyroutezero, Weaver Màrquez)

(if enough of us request it, will some Murphy corollary guarantee that Act V will come out between now and reveals just to mess with the Yuletide schedule? If it does, I’ll be playing it immediately and probably add a few thoughts and prompts here for kicks, at the end of this section, after a spoiler warning. Obviously feel free to stick to canon up to Un Pueblo De Nada)

I’m all for exploration of any of the game’s themes and for including any staples from adjacent genres - wanna go full-on American Gothic? Dip into surrealism? Take a leaf from Twin Peaks with tulpa / split narratives to explore the characters’ issues? I can’t think of any specific AUs for the disaster trio + disaster soloist here, but I generally love AUs so if you want to sidestep the inconvenience of an incomplete canon that way, be my guest! Or of course there’s Xanadu at the height of its glory, an infinite what-ifs generator. Was Weaver ever part of it, what was this digital Weaver up to? A Xanadu narrative would be great! A good fit for IF, too? I’d love to hear about any new spot along the Zero or the Echo river, or an expansion of some place that’s only mentioned by Will in HATATE or only gets a few paragraphs of text. Lula getting ideas for a new installation, or an article talking about her work? Donald listening to Static between stations somehow (Donald being constantly high as a kite as per this)? Joseph who went back to the surface finds himself near an entrance to the Zero somewhere? A collection of Weaver-isms? Feel free to bring in anyone else from any part of canon.

Ships: “Flipping through the pages, Conway is able to gather that it's a story about three characters: Joseph, Donald, and Lula. It's something like a tragic love triangle, but much more complex. Some kind of tangled, painfully concave love polygon.” 😬 that one, as a full triad, regrettably since they don’t seem too inclined to get reunited and stay that way. If you can nudge them, good. But I’m very open to non-romantic resolutions as well, going past their messy feelings to find each other as friends after so many years maybe. For Weaver, I’m interested in all her & relationships (seriously. Weaver & Cate. Weaver & EmilyBen&Bob. Weaver & Slow Moe Crow.) but nothing shippy. Conway/Lysette, Junebug/Johnny(/Shannon?).

The Last Remnant: David Nassau, Pagus

I’m very interested in post-game exploration, and getting a clearer feeling of any of the cities and assorted places that populate this fascinating world. I like the whole party with their characterization based on battle quotes, red bubble dialogues, and even their unique stat (‘authority’ is a natural fit for David but ‘romance’ tells me something new about Sibal!) Character interaction. Bit of worldbuilding. What’s another festival they celebrate? Do they erect something else instead of the Valeria Heart? Any fun discoveries down in Siebenbur? Where the hell IS Veyriel, anyway, do they go look for it and if so what do they find out? End of an age. Old bonds.

I ache for David who fought so valiantly as a warrior and as a politician only to be slapped in the face with the unexpected loss Emma first and then Rush, right as they were ready to claim their victory and as he would have to start coming to terms with the idea that maybe without the Gae Bolg he wouldn’t die young. At least his Generals are still with him - out of them, all of whom I adore, I picked Pagus because Qsiti are cool. And Pagus in particular is the coolest (”I know that fine qsiti... That large, reticent mouth, the laugh lines around the eyes...“ he’s FINE it’s CANON!). So I’d like to see how David bounces off Pagus in particular, what their bond is like, what he thinks of whatever aspect of Qsiti culture.

Ships: postcanon David/Rush, possibly with an emphasis on Rush’s nature as a remnant? I am also fond of Pagus/Sibal/Maddox, there are more prompts for them in my #letters tag!

Pyre: Volfred Sandalwood, Tariq The Lone Minstrel

Oh the burning found family feelings, the revolutionary passion, the tension between topside social constraints (moreso for liberated exiles, thrust into heroic roles after the revolution) and the kind of freedom allowed by the Downside! I love all the themes, the solemnity, the heart of this game. I’ve been waiting for a character like Tariq all my life, a minstrel who’s otherworldly soft and just a lil bit eldritch. Volfred as well, he just hits my perfect ratio of “noble intentions” to “scheming to a fault”. Like, the percentages in his planner are pointless for gameplay since the ending just depends on the number of Nightwings sent topside at the end - so it’s just there for his characterization, he’s the sort of person who assigns percentages to people, nbd. ...for a good cause! That said, I would die for anyone in that Blackwagon+Dalbert+Celeste, so if you want to write in someone else as well, please do! (otoh if you maybe want to dunk on Brighton or Manley, I don’t like bashing but canon levels of love-to-hate-them would be fun)

Thoughts about finding oneself at the end of an age, as everything crumbles down to form something new. The titan stars. History nerd Volfred, “aye sir, I was there” Tariq. Conversations with Dalbert. Or with Sandra? Any postcanon very welcome with any combination of endings as long as the revolution was peaceful. Please do lean into the xeno headcanons if you enjoy them! Even for gen, I like to read what it’s like to be something other than human and these two are very much not human in different and intriguing ways. Or, Volfred’s zodiac sign is Cancer and Cancer is ruled by the Moon, so there’s that. I also love how they both hold the other in the highest esteem, especially on Tariq’s part since he’s the immortal Herald of the Scribes and Volfred is, all in all, a history teacher, but listen to him and you’d think the roles were inverted. I love my nonviolent canon but could anything happen to either of them that may require a rescue, and/or some good old-fashioned h/c? What’s something that could make Tariq of all people lose it? How’s life 100 years on?

For a funnier mood, picture Volfred trying to figure out how to flirt with Tariq with percentages, planners and all. He could just ask him but no, it’s convoluted plan or bust. Or, conversely, Tariq’s increasingly direct hints that he’s interested, but they’re still ‘increasingly direct’ for Tariq standards, so, not at all, undetectable even by Volfred who can get pretty damningly indirect himself.

Ships: Volfred/Tariq, Volfred/Oralech, some form of Oralech/Volfred/Tariq (more of a Volfred-centric V but I would like to be convinced of the Oralech/Tariq side of things), Celeste/Jodariel, Hedwyn/Fikani and Pamitha/Bertrude.

Twin Peaks: Albert Rosenfield

Case fic but they don’t find out jack shit, someone disappears, David Bowie was there, it’s complicated. Fragmented, shifted, mirrored identities. New Lodge spaces. The risks of staring into the void for too long. Gentle illusions. Transcendence. The moon. Static buzzing. Any title from the s3 ethereal whooshing compilation used as a prompt, actually. Twin Peaks is all about the mystery to me, the awe of mystery and unknowability and the human drive to look beyond and the risks of getting a peek, and about shared consciousness and trauma taking physical form and about the warmth of human connections in an uncaring world. Go wild with the ethereal whooshing!

I love Albert and he breaks my heart, a pacifist who ends his arc shooting his oldest remaining friend after life sucked all the passion and most of the idealism out of him. Is shooting Diane just to see Cooper come back, get her back and disappear with her again trauma enough to make him split? I’d be interested in reading about it, or any other take on his unwavering loyalty to Gordon which should maybe waver after Gordon’s admission that he’s lied to him for 25 years and the aforementioned unmitigated disaster of an ending. But I’m also very interested in his life apart from the disaster that is Blue Rose and his heartbreaking search for Cooper: did he keep in touch with Harry throughout the years, what did they talk about? Was he ever dragged along for a hike in the woods and did something weird happen there? We know he kept in touch with Diane, what did THEY talk about? Does he go on a journey of his own to find her after the ending? Does Tammy come along, do they see each other as friends other than mentor and protégé? What was Phil like as a co-boss back in the day? Did he get a small victory over Windom at some point (maybe even in the present day, given Kenneth Welsh’s recent wonderful interview where he’s adamant that Windom lives)? Does Laura ever visit him in some ghostly manner? He and Denise look like a great duo for a case and/or office shenanigans. We know from TFD that he’s a big jazz enthusiast, something about that? When does he cave in and just accept some aspects of Coop’s investigative method? Just set him loose on another unsuspecting character and I’ll be happy.

If Coop comes back (and I’d love for Coop to come back), I would like it if he came back on his own thanks to having sorted out his crap. After s3, I am not interested in stories about any other character saving Cooper. Albert’s got his wounds to lick dangit. And he’s got friends who can be by his side! ...I do love his dynamic with Coop so much, though. Sigh. I do miss that bastard. Anyway.

Ships: Albert/Coop/Harry and sides thereof, Tammy/Cynthia, Gordon/Phil, Diane/Constance, Lucy/Andy, Chet/Sam.

Canon-specific DNWs: any singular Dreamer being the ‘source’ of canon, BOB (let alone Judy) being forever defeated in the finale, Judy being an active malevolent presence in the characters’ lives, clear explanations for canonical ambiguities, ‘Odessaverse’ being the reality layer, the Fireman’s House by the Sea being the White Lodge, anything that 4 hours video says is the explanation of Twin Peaks

#letter #yuletide 2019

[notuptoyou]

SHIPPING INFO // Answer the following for your muse(s) so people know how shipping works on your blog.

REPOST. Don’t reblog.

What’s your OTP for your Muse(s)? ALL OF THEM. I get OTP level invested in most of the ships that I have. 

What are you willing to RP when it comes to shipping? I don’t think I particularly have limits? I am somewhat selective when it comes to smutty things, but I mean, I like the angst and the fluff and everything that would make it feel like an IRL relationship. I don’t want it to just be one thing, I want all of my ships to be all the things. 

I also have a soft spot for toxic trash ships that I would never condone in real life, but they’re fun to write and cause each other pain.

How large does the age gap have to be to make it uncomfortable? Natasha has a rule that whoever she’s dating has to be old enough to buy their own alcohol in the United States. So 21 or older. with the obvious exception of college verses

Are you selective when shipping? Honestly not so much? If there’s chemistry, and it fits the other requirements (such as age), then it’s a go. 

Natasha is a little more selective about shipping with other female muses. I can never really plan those. It’s either a thing or it isn’t. 

How far do steamy moments have to go before they’re considered NSFW? I tend to start tagging things if the clothes are coming off. But I don’t really do the read mores unless my partner prefers it that way. 

Who are other muses you ship your muse with? So very many people. Uh, Steve, Bucky, Thor, Bruce (but not AoU BruceNat, like let’s discuss and fill in all those plot holes), Tony, Sam... the list continues. 

If you can tell me why you ship it and get me excited about it, I’m like 100% on board. 

Does one have to ask to ship with you? Not really ask but I do love to converse with my ship partners and talk about things and make sure we’re at the same starting point. 

How often do you like to ship? I am admittedly a genuine shipwhore, but I don’t always need to ship. I just find that ship dynamics are interesting and fun, and usually with shippy threads you have more of a tendency to develop a full little universe between two muses. But if I can get that in a non-ship way, I’m 100% on board with that too. 

Are you multiship? Yep. Multi-everything. 

Are you ship obsessed or ship more-or-less? I feel a little ship obsessed right now, but most of the time I feel like I’m more in the middle ground. I really only need a few really good ships to keep myself invested. Otherwise I get a sort of “always the bridesmaid, never the bride” vibe, and get really easily discouraged about being on tumblr. It’s just so damn hard to have a female muse sometimes. I really love getting to exist in other people’s worlds, but it gets hard after a while to always be sort of the third wheel.

What is your favorite ship in your current fandom? Romantic and Platonic: I have a lot of favorite ships in my fandom, most iterations of Nat ships are always the best. 

Finally, how does one ship with you? Honestly it doesn’t take much. Just write a thread, or part of one so we can make sure the chemistry works, and then express an interest in shipping with me. As long as Natasha isn’t like WHOA NO, then we can plot it out and make it work. I like all of my ships to feel unique, even if it’s the same ship.

Tagged by:  stolen from @facemypast Tagging: anyone!

#⸢ ⧗ ⸥ OH ME! // ( PSA ) #⸢ ⧗ ⸥ Faith Stuff // ( OOC )

[yaboylevi]

I'm sorry I'm answering like this, but I don't want to get into the ship tag with my non-shippy opinions (please censor the name of the ship in the ask, next time). Also, this answer CONTAINS SPOILERS.

So, first of all, I think every group of shippers is guilty of thinking/hoping, with different degrees of intensity, that their ship will be canon in the future (or is/was canon, it depends). That's not something inherently bad, because it just means we really, really love our ships and we just see how their canon platonic relationship could evolve into something different, something romantic, because their personalities just click the right way in our opinion. Honestly, I think every ship has a chance of becoming canon, however their fates are ultimately in the hands of the original creators and only they can decide which relationship to change into a romantic one. EM shippers may feel more assured about it because, well, it's pretty common for the main protagonist to end up with the main heroine (although it's also common for her to end up with the protagonist's best friend).

Isayama's only implied couple was an f/f ship, though, and that's pretty uncommon. But anyway, honestly speaking, I don't see Shingeki ending with Eren (or even Mikasa) involved in a romantic relationship. Even yumi/hisu's arc wasn't about their love story, it was about the effect they had on each other, which led to mysteries being unveiled (so: it was plot-relevant). EM, imo, is not framed in a way that implies they will become a canon couple in the future; if anything, it's the opposite.

In regards to Eren, I think he is not interested in relationships, he has other things to focus on. Or maybe he is just super oblivious. He never seemed even aware of other people's romantic feelings, while Mikasa (and to a certain degree everyone else) was keenly aware of them (Ymir's, Hitch's). But I also think Eren might be more interested in men than women. However, this is a matter of perspective and preferences (+ I'm thinking about a hilarious smartpass interview where he was asked about the female cadets in a suggestive way and he just went "???? what about them??").

As far as Mikasa's feelings go, in my opinion, they are something different from purely romantic ones. I think she is just so grateful to Eren, she'd do anything for him. As a teen, I think it's almost obvious she might feel like she's fallen in love with the guy who saved her. Heck, she would have been sold as a prostitute to a brothel or, worse, to a noble as a sex slave. Eren gave her a reason to fight, and saved her life. When she thought Eren was dead, Mikasa decided to keep on living in order to remember him. That's how strong her feelings are. But I don't think they are exclusively romantic. They're so much more, more complex, deeper, stronger. For example, if he ended up with someone else, she wouldn't hold a grudge, she would be happy as long as Eren is happy. I think now that she's older, she understands this, but when she was 15, she was jealous, or at times even completely blind to Eren's feelings (which weren't romantic). 

This behavior was mainly used as comic relief, but it was there. Hence the "yandere girlfriend meme" Mikasa has become to some people.

The scene in chapter 50 is beautiful. In a moment of utter desperation, Eren hears Mikasa's words and realizes that he isn't a complete failure, he saved a little girl once. He can do it again, he just needs to...not stop fighting. And so he gets on his feet and fights. Was Mikasa about to kiss him? Probably. Eren didn't realize it or simply thought there was no need for Mikasa to confess her feelings as a result of her giving up, because he could still fight, he could still save her. And so he did. "I'll wrap you up in that scarf again and again. Forever," he says. In my opinion, it's not a declaration of love, but a declaration of his devotion to fight and protect and save Mikasa and his friends. Forever. No matter what. This is who Eren is, the pillar of his character. And in that moment, after having momentarily lost his motivation, he strengthened his resolve, his purpose in life again.

How did this moment change their relationship? I don't think it changed it severely. I think it was more gradual and this was just the pinnacle of Mikasa's romantic feelings and after this, she acknowledged that that's not what it was all about. She cares for Eren a great deal. She wants to see him happy, accomplished and safe. Who wouldn't? But she also realized, she cares deeply for many other people. Her crying desperately for Sasha (a friend not from her childhood) is the peak of this. She's way past the "Choose. Eren or Ymir?" phase. Her heart, once closed off because of trauma, has opened up again, and I can see how she can return to be that happy girl she once was, independently from Eren. I think this has been implied for a while now, since she's been put in the background during the Return to Shiganshina Arc, always a step behind Eren and Armin. 

But this has always been the case, apparently. She didn't even know about Eren and Armin's promise/dream of the ocean. 

While I understand this was a necessary set-up, seeing how things escalated/paralleled with Levi-Eren-Erwin-Armin, I also believe it was a sort of nudge into the right direction for her, like "Mikasa. You are your own person and you're not bound to what Eren does or say. Be free." 

(Although, this could change because I'm not sure what happened in Marley. It's possible her hand, in particular, was forced by Eren...and it seems her love for Eren has made her more miserable than anything else...but anyway, these are conclusions I'll draw once we know for sure what happened then.)

Mikasa has gone from not trusting Eren and constantly reminding him that he was "not enough" and that he needed her (a behavior that superficially irritated him but in fact affected him a lot, imo, maybe because there was a bit of truth there)... 

...to respecting his personal space and opinions, and trusting in his abilities. And she tells him exactly that, which is super important. This panel below makes me tear up a bit, if I'm honest.

Mikasa went from being so self-centered about her role in Eren's life to the point that she unintentionally ridiculed him in front of everyone...

...to accepting that Eren's life is independent from hers, and leave him to his own ridiculous shenanigans with Jean.

That's also why I don't like when people disregard Mikasa's initial flaws. Because it cheapens her development and makes it look like she never had one. She's far from a static character. Her character development is just more subtle and stretched throughout the whole manga, it's not condensed in just a bunch of chapters (like Historia's, for example). I understand people want her to be perfect from the start because they love her, but...then they say she never gets development. Not acknowledging flaws is just counterproductive. 

I really didn't like their relationship at the beginning of the story, it was frustrating because they were both so stubborn...but as both Mikasa and Eren changed, I've grown really fond of it. I don't see it in a romantic light but I still appreciate it. Of course, there's nothing wrong in seeing it as romantic or wishing in a future romantic development, as long as Mikasa is acknowledged as her own person and not Eren's accessory. 

I'm admittedly not very knowledgeable about the EM fandom, and I often see comments such as "Mikasa needs to have Eren's babies" or (serious) jokes like "if you take Eren away from Mikasa, she's nothing", which I strongly disagree with, but I'm sure a lot of shippers don't see it like that. Unfortunately, haters and shippers with bad opinions are also the loudest but they certainly don't represent the true nature of the ship. Chapter 50 felt like the turning point to a better balance between EM, and a main point in Mikasa's development.

#snk #shingeki asks #mine #long post #snk meta #snk 50 #vivimetas

[astro-b-o-y-d]

What I say: I don't like ////M//a///k///k///i

What I mean: While the ship itself is harmless upon first glances, I hate the fandom's obvious favoritism towards Max and Nikki and part of that hate is tied to how obsessively hyperfocused a portion of the fandom is on the two of them, because a good portion of the fanart (even non-shippy art) tends to only have Max and Nikki while Neil is a main character and deserves just as much fanart as they do. Also Neil having a lot of autistic characteristics and being canonly Jewish makes the fact that people leave him out of things and places HE SHOULD BE even more uncomfortable and irritating. And while my annoyance towards the ship started out small, a number of things (including a shipper coming on my lesbian Nikki or Ma//k//k///ie///l posts constantly with their dumbass opinions 'they're kids sweaty' and 'straight is the norm!! :)' and all the above stuff with Neil AND people turning moments between the three of them in canon into 'Look Max and Nikki are in WUVVVV!!1!11' moments) have made me outright despise it. Admittedly, I used to foolishly dislike it simply for being too 'straight', which was a dumb reason to hate a ship. However, upon analyzing their interactions in past episodes, it seems like Max was constantly undermining her feelings (Eggs Benefits or Into Town for example) or straight up ignoring her in favor of Neil and being overall selfish. Which is fine, because he's a child and season three is definitely letting him grow out of that. However, it'll be a long time before I'm comfortable saying I ship them without Neil being included, if that ever happens at all. Though tbh, if we could see more of their interactions like in the Summer Social episode, I might be more open to at least considering the ship. But then again, it's very hard for me to NOT include Neil in any scenarios I think up with just the two of them, so who knows. However, I have nothing against the people who DO like the ship. I just wish they'd be better at how they treat Neil and include him more in their fanart and fanworks, and not necessarily in a half-assed 'i guess Neil's here too' kind of way. Also don't fucking ship him with a stalker, because are you KIDDING me????

#Hayley Speaks #Long Post #Negative #Discourse #Ship Critical #Ship Hate #.....That anti-Neil blog might've touched a nerve #Would prefer this not to be reblxgged please.... #I mean #I guess you can #But I'd prefer not to start drama today thanks #I'm just venting #Also yeah I KNOW that anti-Neil blog is probably a troll #And I know not every shipper is like them (trust me I KNOW) #But I'm....tired.... #I'm so tired of people hating my boy #//Camp Camp

[shslpunkartist]

Because I feel very bad for Morgana for all of y'all pushing him aside for Pico lately, I shall share this little shipping HC I got! After all, he deserves to have time with his crush too!

So, unlike some teens out there who were lucky enough to finally get together with their crush who's older than them by several years, Morgana has the common sense to take things slow with Xeno. He understands that their hesitance has nothing to do with him personally but rather out of concern over how other folks might react to the age gap. Not that either of them would go out announcing it to the world of course, but still doesn't hurt to be on the same side here. Still, despite his patience and willingness to allow Xeno to adapt to the new dynamic between them at their own pace, Morgana often finds themselves rather affection needy for them and, more often than not, will forget to double-check whether they're out in public or not first before coming up to Xeno from behind and pulls them into a hug, often burying his face into the top of their head. Xeno doesn't this at all, finding this to be rather adorable. They can't really return it back due to their position (and admittedly Xeno is a bit unsure if only cuz one time they TRIED to return it with a little smooch on the cheek somehow resulted in an accidental lip smooch and Morgana proceeded to bluescreen so hard that he faints), but they do gently rub his arms as a way to return the affection. Oh, and the very first time Morgana has done this was right in front of not only his gang and Gold BUT ALSO KEITH, CG, AND THE NG DUO AS WELL. Needless to say, Morgana ended up keysmashing quite a bit from everyone's teasing for a good while lol

And there we go! Hope you enjoy this little shippy HC~

Yeyeyeyeye there we go! Let's never forget the very first ship we made with Xeno~

Morgana having his lil needy moments is cute. He's so used to keeping to himself and whatnot, that now that he's able to do things, he can't help but want a hand hold or hug Xeno. Sometimes, just sitting together with Morgana hugging behind Xeno while watching something is the best thing ever

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

what's wrong with P5A's characterization? (admittedly I haven't been watching it but I thought you liked it o3o;; )

This is mostly aimed at Anne and Ryuji tbh. Ren…..I like his name, as of the later chapters in the manga I think I might Akira’s personality more….mostly cause he really is a newbie goofball and 100% not like what the fandom considers the MC to be like. It’s kinda refreshing (of course the art doesn’t help but I can slowly see some funny quirks).

This all mostly happens in the first 3 episodes, and tbh sours the first dungeon for me. 

Anyway from least irritating to most (there’s 4 things but technically the first two are in the same scene so maybe there’s only 3), Ryuji I think is the worst part but Anne’s is so confusing tho she does actually get railroaded back to her game counterpart the early episodes really screw her character over (anyway basically they have some….OOC moments….big ones….important ones). Sorry it’s not SUPER in depth, maybe later I can go frame by frame between the game, anime, and manga. 

Anyway under the cut because in this essay I will be (btw sorry if it’s all over the place)….

Let’s start with the weirdest one….when you first meet her, ok well…the first first one is just a minor one the thing RIGHT AFTER is the weirdest one. Ok so there’s more going on in the anime/game than the manga, but the anime unlike the game has dialogue. That’s fine….thing is…..the manga might do….a better job with capturing Anne’s character than the anime did. I mean it’s less shippy (but we get new shippy scenes later I’ll get to that). I mean let’s look at her reaction to the MC staring at her:

Game:

Manga:

Anime:

What’s the difference?

The smile. Doesn’t Anne look friendlier in the Game/Manga? Isn’t your first impression….”huh she seems nice!” I think the anime tried to give her more of an action like “actions speak louder than words” kinda thing, with her taking the petal off of the MC’s head. “See? Isn’t she nice? She helped remove the thing he couldn’t see!” And, I get what they are trying to do there, but she still comes off as coldish. I said a second ago they wanted to give her an action, but the thing is…..smiling is already an action! A very simple one! She’s already showing she’s friendly by giving him a greeting smile (or just a polite one). Also the way it’s presented, the manga and game give off a warmer atmosphere than the anime. The game’s colors are soft and bright and welcoming (and she’s drawn in a softish way), the anime it’s darker and dreary. The manga, even tho it’s black and white and has a plain ass background, Anne is drawn in such a soft way, it’s even shaded a little to give off her being illuminated (like notice the lower corners where it’s darker, the way it’s shaded the light is drawn to her fact brightening out her smile). 

Like we got all we needed to know from our first meeting in both the game/manga, she’s friendly. Maybe the anime wanted to amplify her cold exterior to make the “oh she’s really friendly underneath” hiddens side of her a reveal…..but….the thing is….THEY DIDN’T DO THAT! They set it up with no pay off, like it would’ve been different and I can’t knock them for that, but now it’s just different FOR NO REASON! Like the game/manga show she’s friendly, and later we see her colder wall she puts up all while hearing rumors and putting the pieces together as to WHY she has a cold wall, all while knowing she’s friendlier than she appears. And if the anime wanted to do something different that’s fine but it didn’t follow through so it’s an issue for me.

Anyway, again, it’s minor, it still bugs me tho. Moving on to….when we first meet Kamoshida in the car. And this one is weird. Let’s compare Anne again.

Game:

Manga:

Anime:

What’s the difference?

It’s the way they look, the way the lines are delivered, the dialogue, the way she moves. I mean one thing to keep in mind is they want to have her smile so they can cut away to her looking unhappy and have you thing “hmmmmm something is up.” 

Game!Anne, her smile is mandatory polite (smile cause it’s the right thing to do, she probably also did this in mind with the MC too but hey she had the music with him and not Kamo 8V basically what I’m trying to say a person who is uber cold wouldn’t politely smile and at the same time just cause they smile doesn’t mean they are happy). Her dialogue is also a bit….apprehensive, and just mandatory polite as well. It’s what I would say if I didn’t want to get in the car with someone but also had no reason to say no. Anyway the cut to her looking upset shows us her real emotions.

Manga!Anne however really doesn’t look pleased, I mean you could totally read it as “relief,” possibly due to not being trapped in the rain. Same as the game, it cuts away to her not looking happy (and actually amplifies it some more in the manga with Kamoshida talking to her). 

Anime!Anne. Unlike the other two, she had yet to show a smile, unlike the other two who came off as polite with no wall, Anime!Anne does not have that frame of reference. Instead it’s a juxtaposition. She had a bit of a wall but then as soon as Kamo showed up, she bursted out into this big smile. Her words are a bit more eager, it looks like she practically runs to the car (while she just casually walks to it in the other versions). She seems happy. Sure maybe it’s cause she doesn’t need to be in the rain. But again, this is the first time we’ve seen her smile. Then it cuts away to her not looking happy. It’s…..it’s some whiplash man. I think it’s cause they wanted us to buy into thinking Anne is Kamo’s girl by choice….. I mean later in ep 2 Kamo shows jealousy over the fact the MC was with Anne alone. But the thing is….this misdirection makes no sense, they don’t spend nor have the time to slow things down to make us wonder. The whole plot point is useless because it’s dropped very fast considering her later reactions in ep 2. 

Side minor nitpick before moving on. I don’t like the way they introduce Ryuji. The Game/Manga have him running after Kamo’s car, well after Kamo has driven away (not aware of Ryu even approaching). The anime has Ryujis slowly approaching the car and Kamo takes notice and has him drive off. I dunno it feels weird, Ryu would totally run after that car and Kamo wouldn’t really give a shit about Ryu approaching. Minor but a bit annoying, this change wasn’t needed.

Now onto…..my biggest problems with how they handled Anne, it’s this scene, this fudging scene right here:

This did not happen in the game. This did not happen in Spain. This did not happen in the Game writer’s brain. It did not happen here Nor there. It did not happen anywhere. It did not happen in the manga. It did not happen under Obama. It did not happen in a conga. It did not happen here nor there. It did not happen anywhere. SO WHY THE FUDGE IS IT HAPPENING HERE?????

First off half of this convo is taking place a day early, they are talking about Shiho’s volleyball problems which is suppose to take place the next day on the bench:

OH THE BENCH SCENE STILL TAKES PLACE! But they change the first half of the dialogue to reflect the optional dialogue you can hear when talking to the volleyball team, WHICH INSTEAD HAPPENS A DAY PRIOR TO THE BENCH DAY:

(let’s play I was using didn’t have them talk to Anne/Shiho but there’s the location/date, it’s about the same dialogue, talking about how BS the rumors are about the MC). 

But like what purpose does the corridor thing hold??? Cause when I first saw it I thought they were moving the bench scene. But obviously that didn’t happen. So why include it? Then I realized it was suppose to replace this scene:

The scene they are reinterpreting is happening a day later in the anime (4/13), with the bench scene still taking place (4/14) in the anime, but it moves the optional scene from the game (4/13, mentioned above) to 4/14 as well. They also removed Anne telling them to be careful about asking questions (4/13 in the game) to 4/14 when the bench scene is taking place. Giving Anne a more aggressive/protective role over Shiho, rather than going out of her way to warn them where it doesn’t involve Shiho at all (the manga did something similar to he anime). Now before we got back to the corridor and why it’s just SO FREAKING BAD, the reason why I don’t like Anne telling off the guys in the anime/manga is because it makes her ignorant. It brings about her now being aware of Kamo’s bad traits and the rumors to full force. The game she just knows they are going around and trying to dig up dirt about Kamo and considering what happen to Ryuji a year prior, she’s like “Guys she’s a teacher you aren’t going to win.” Coupled with the fact she’s kept in the dark about what they are investigating, as opposed to the anime (the manga she’s still in the dark, but it’s still a negative because she didn’t approach them herself to warn them they are getting into deep shit, you know cause she actually cares). 

Moving the confrontation also hurts the anime. In the game, it’s before Shiho gets bruised (or at least before Anne can see Shiho to see she’s bruised). The manga it happens right after Shiho mentions spraining her wrist but it’s def played off more convincingly that it was just a normal practice that did that. She does seem to attempt to tell Anne the truth, but Anne misreads what she was trying to say and assumed it was how she felt inadequate about her spot on the team (which they were also just discussing earlier). And….it works out fine, sure Anne loses some of her caring points from the game (so only real issue with that) but she’s in the dark about the truth so that’s good (from a story stand point that is). But why is it bad in the anime? It’s because…..she hears something is up with the volleyball club, and doesn’t believe Ryu/Ren LITERALLY AFTER LOOKING AT SHIHO’S INJURIES. ANNE IS NOT THIS DUMB (and no her CoOp doesn’t cout that is filled with OOC messes too). Outside her CoOp, Anne is characterized as being able to pick up on people’s emotions. She can read people pretty well (when the writers don’t depower that ability cause they suck). She would’ve figured it out right then and there. 

Anyway what’s wrong with the corridor scene? Other than screwing up the bench scene from here to hell? Just look at it. Look at those two pictures. WHat do you see? Anne gets invited to join the club and she bails. SHE BAILS! AND SHE GETS AN IN! WHAT THE FUDGE?! Like, no nononononon nonono no NOOOO NO! nO FOR ONE aNNE WOULD NOT BAIL ON SHIHO LIKE THAT! She can actually watch Shiho, be near her, one of the issues in the game is that Anne doesn’t see Shiho often. Their lifeline to each other is cut. Yeah maybe Kamo would try something with those two, but I think he wouldn’t want to take his chances since it’d be hard to fight off two at once. So Anne SHOULD be in the clear, him talking to her after the club would be a new issue, but  ANNE WOULD TOTALLY GO TO THE CLUB TO WATCH SHIHO FIGHT ME. And as for reason number two  as to why this scene sucks. It’s the life line, you can see in the game’s bench scene, even in the manga, Anne can’t follow Shiho. She has no in. She’s an outsider. She doesn’t know what’s going on because she’s an outsider and she can’t make Shiho talk. That’s one of the big conflicts of the game (and manga). She’s not on the team, she’s not on some committee like the Student Council, the most she can do for Shiho is cheer her on and try to string Kamo along. But what does Anime!Anne get? A FUDGING IN! The one thing Anne needed in P5, not to be an outsider, she gets an invitation to a thing she needed and she turns it the fudge down!! LIke no! Noooo???!!!! 

*inhales* As you can see I have issues with this on a number of levels. Now do I think it could’ve worked in the anime? Hell yes. Reorder everything to the right order from the game. Change the corridor scene to the optional scene you can overhear with Anne/Shiho on 4/13 talking about the MC and rumors, they split up and after Shiho rounds the corner Kamo catches Anne and the 4/12 scene (the one that MC overhears) happens. Anne declines him and walks away, cut to Shiho who is like “oh I need to tell Anne something” and have her round the corner and run into Kamo. The scene from the anime plays out where he abuses her. This way Anne doesn’t get an in and doesn’t abandon Shiho. Now move Anne yelling at Ren/Ryu about digging up dirt about Kamo, where she shows concern about them, but they don’t reveal any info so she’s still in the dark. Then the bench scene plays out like in the game with no interruptions, and they question Shiho like in the game. 

*inhales* Ok now let’s go to Ryu……Thankfully this should be more straight forward. But man, even the manga got Ryuji right (or at least didn’t get him wrong like the anime did). 

Ok so we all know the issue with Ryuji (and by extension the MC) right? Both are “protector of women” in the first arc, very respectable (well the MC does have the one line I didn’t like but haha we’ll get that THAT in a second), just good guys all around. Then everything post-dungeon 1 it’s “let’s make everything horribly sexual and objectify Anne and IT’S OK IF WE DO IT CAUSE WE’RE THE MAIN CHARACTERS!” Yeah THAT problem. One of the reasons the first dungeon is my fav. So let’s compare how Ryuji reacts to seeing Cognitive Anne (as well to the other sexual imagery) shall we?

Game:

Anime:

Manga:

Before I rip into it, the manga they don’t actually showcase his good boy status like in the game, but they also don’t make him a perv so I’ll fudging take it. And yeah I think it’s Akira talking in that panel, but again, Ryuji isn’t acting like a perv and she’s clearly not happy. (also they never see Cognitive Anne till Anne’s awakening, which….and Mona falls for the real Anne instead of the Cognition as he first meets her when she accidentally gets pulled into the Metaverse)

So……remember how I had a minor nitpick with how they introduced Ryuji? Him not running? Well there was……another thing I realized while typing this. Anime Ryuji doesn’t call Kamo a pervy teacher when he first speaks, Game/Manga!Ryuji do but not Anime!Ryuji. Instead he just calls him a bastard, but not a perv. He doesn’t call him a perv till Anne’s awakening in the anime. YEs this is important. Game/Manga!Ryuji make a point that they hate how pervy Kamo is, and how horrified they are of his perviness. Anime!Ryuji doesn’t until it’s too late. Is it more in-character considering the perv pile he becomes post-dungeon 1 in-game? Maybe, but why would you wanna double down on that? Ryuji was great in dungeon 1! Anyway Ryuji doesn’t show his horror until it’s too late, instead he avoids calling Kamo a perv so he’s not seen as a hypocrite in terms of perving, but then they just…..make him a hypocrite anyway cause he still calls Kamo a perv just later after perving himself. It’s just…..what the fudge….

Also did you notice, the “so jealous line” was originally the MC’s. Now I hate the line, but it really makes no sense for Ryu to say it esp during dungeon 1.  I mean it makes no sense for the MC to say it (this is probably why I hate the MC, I really hate some of his “cheeky lines). But why give….a character that already speaks…a lot more than the silent MC? Why give Ryuji one that makes him look worse to boot???? Like I didn’t like Yu Narukami or the P4 Anime, but it at least made sense why Yu took Yosuke’s “hey it’s the pint size detective” line from him. Yu needs more lines, so does Ren. So why add something unnecessary when you could just give Ren more lines? It’s just…..I’m sorry this really pisses me off. This really killed my goodwill for the anime, and it was dead by episode 3 (but I did finish arc 1). 

Like, the anime did two good things that remember from those eps, 1) Having Kamo be jealous over the MC for being near Anne and the rumors about Ren/Anne hitting on each other (cause it’s SOOOOO in character for him, 2) Shiho’s abuse being shown. And I do like the idea that they are….slightly capitalizing on the fact they are suppose to have their personality change when in the Metaverse (this is mostly Ren tho), but I saw it with Anne as well. I mean they promised that with the game and I thought they did jack with it. Anyway not sure how much they’ve….continue to capitalized on it but…..at least they tried. Tho I think I prefer the manga the  most in this case, just a bunch of useless, newbie doofuses trying their best but they know they aren’t all that. Instead of being a bunch of useless thieves who think they are all that but really they all suck at being thieves (more of a game problem than the anime but tbh considering how Ren is cocky in the anime I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a shared problem).

#persona 5 problems #p5 problems #anime problems #silly rants #anon #asks #silly asks #silly ask #ask

[pan-xichen]

Why I don't ship k/ance: revealed

(notice how I censored the ship name specifically to avoid people coming after me)

So it's no secret that k/ance is the most popular ship in this fandom. I don't see a ton of it because I mostly follow people who post other ships and non-shippy content but I know it's the biggest ship based on the ao3 tag size alone (I was curious one day okay). There's just this massive amount of people who love the ship and there's nothing wrong with that. I think it's great that people can make and enjoy content made by others about their ships. I just have never been interested in k/ance myself. It's not that I've been asked this or anything, I just felt like giving my reasons for not liking it. So here it is, my humble opinion on the ship and why I don't particularly like it (under a cut because this turned into a long ass post whoops):

(warning: this post is opinionated and analyzes the relationship between Keith and Lance from the perspective of someone who does not like the ship at all; please don’t take any of this as offensive if you do like k/ance, I don’t mean to anger anyone)

It just... doesn't make sense to me. It's also the... unsavoury crowd the ship attracts for some reason, but if I liked it or had reasons to like it chances are I'd probably ignore them. There are some cool people who ship k/ance and I love all of them, even if I'm not interested in their ship.

I've always been someone who prefers when two characters in a ship actually get along. I'm not saying Keith and Lance hate each other, because they definitely don't. I just don't see them being particularly close to each other yet. Maybe they'll get there, maybe not. I doubt even if they do end up being great friends later on that I'll start to ship them, though.

I've always found it weird that everyone latched onto the two characters who are consistently at each others' throats, (in most of the first season anyway), and deemed them suitable for a ship while simultaneously deciding that the two male characters in the show who have been canonically the closest since the first episode are related in some way. I just... don't get how people can look at Keith and Lance's dynamic, especially early on, and think they're romantically interested in each other. They have their moments where they do get along in the first two seasons but typically it's for the good of the mission and when they're done it's back to not liking each other. I think at most, Keith wants to be Lance's friend, not his rival, but Lance doesn't want to be friends with Keith at all. He prefers his own misconception of who Keith is to finding out the truth for himself, and Keith gets tired of trying to make friends with a brick wall and just accepts that this is his relationship with Lance. That's just how I see it.

When I look at Keith and Lance, I see Lance unnecessarily vilifying Keith out of jealousy. I read and reblogged a post about Lance causing Hunk to have the same misconception about Keith as a person that kinda spiked this one a bit, because... it's true. Keith doesn't even remember Lance's name in the first episode, which might have also sparked part of Lance's perception of him. Keith, however, was also very focused on rescuing Shiro, and had been struggling through mourning for the better part of a year while isolated from contact with others. Of course he's not going to remember Lance-- the only person he's been thinking of has very likely been Shiro.

What Lance is doing, essentially, is projecting his lack of skill as Keith, someone who is obviously more skilled as a pilot than him, "always trying to one-up him". If Keith really was always trying to be better than Lance, he would've remembered him. Hell, we don't even really see him trying to prove he's better than Lance at anything until their nonexistent rivalry gains merit. Lance doesn't want to accept that he wasn't a great pilot (yet) and also accept that Keith was better than him. That's where that comes from.

Part of why I think that is stems from his family. At a panel at a con (I don't know which one) he was "word of god" confirmed to have been from a wealthy family, and was given plenty of attention growing up. Whether that upholds or not remains to be seen but really when you look at the way he treats Keith, it makes sense. It might be more subconscious than conscious, but Keith was an orphan, probably coming from foster care (or just out of nowhere, maybe he was living on his own who knows) and somehow being an incredibly talented pilot, while Lance, someone with a stable, healthy upbringing was struggling and ultimately didn't make the class he wanted to. He blamed Keith, and thus was more than happy to know he'd taken his place after Keith had been expelled.

This is somewhat of an assumption/headcanon of mine, but I also think Lance may have been jealous of Keith's relationship with Shiro, and that it carried over to when Shiro returned after disappearing. We've had tons of hinting at Keith and Shiro being friends before the series too, and Lance states when they discover that Shiro was in the alien ship, "that guy's my hero". He idolizes Shiro, and especially taking his reaction into account when he sees Keith on his way to rescue him, he may have been jealous of Keith having a close relationship with him pre-series, in addition to envying Keith's talent as a pilot.

So we have Lance being envious of Keith, and painting him as this snobby, arrogant guy in his head (I assume Keith was probably rather selective in who he hung out with at the Garrison too which would add to that). That leads to Lance victimizing and convincing himself that Keith always wanted to be better than him, when in reality Keith is just a talented, intelligent and somewhat quiet person. He was probably focused mostly on his studies and not much else, whereas Lance is very extraverted and invested in his friends. Neither of those are bad things, but are certainly polar opposites.

Keith, in contrast, probably also had his own misinterpretation of Lance: someone who cares more about relationships and goofing off than his work. In reality, Lance really wanted to be a good pilot. Maybe he was a little distracted at the Garrison, as we do see him become a great pilot as a paladin, in which this assumption by Keith would make sense. Keith very much strikes me as someone who had to grow up too fast, and Lance as someone who had ample time to come into maturity. The difference between them with their misconceptions seems to be that Keith is a bit more willing to cast his aside, whereas Lance continues to cling to them.

I know a lot of shippers see the first episode of season three as having a k/ance moment, what with Lance putting his hand on Keith’s shoulder and accepting his leadership, but really... it’s not. I see this more as Lance putting his own wants and desires aside for the sake of the mission-- he wanted to be the black paladin, but the lion chose Keith, so he’s reluctantly accepting. That’s what’s happening there. In my opinion, to say that it’s exclusively a k/ance moment takes away from that bit of Lance’s development. Not to mention that honestly, Lance isn’t accepting Keith as his leader, either. He doesn’t respect Keith any more than he did before. What he respects, is the black lion. He respects her decision to choose Keith over him. He does grow to accept Keith as his leader eventually, but just two episodes later we see him actively jabbing at Keith’s (admittedly poor) decisions and leadership. Keith is in mourning, for fuck’s sake. I know Lance isn’t the only one who doesn’t take to Keith’s leadership well, but really, he’s the only one I can remember who actually went at him. Even after they start to kinda get used to Keith leading, when Shiro(?) returns, they naturally look to him for guidance instead. Lance then tells Keith that he’s worried about his own place on the team, and Keith tries to reassure him as best someone who doesn’t closely know the other person can. Again, as well, Lance is worried about himself (which is fine). 

If this was a shippy moment he probably would’ve been more concerned for Keith, as he’s the one who’s been unintentionally undermined by his closest friend and everyone has gone back to following Shiro instead. Keith pulls back from the team in season four as a direct result of what happened when Shiro returned; he’s putting everyone else above himself. In Keith’s mind, he sees himself as the extra. Allura is fantastic as a paladin. The red lion hasn’t shut Lance out because she wants Keith back, so he assumes she’s done with him. The team already would rather listen to Shiro than him, so he got the black lion to take Shiro back. The green and yellow lions were never involved in the swap. He can’t help Coran with the castle, so he goes off with the Blade of Marmora. He makes a series of decisions in the first episode of season four that separate him from the team, and then announces that he’s leaving. Lance does... nothing to stop this. (Admittedly Shiro also doesn’t try to stop him, to tell him he’s needed, which also makes me more suspicious as to whether or not this really is our Shiro but that’s not what this post is about.) He doesn’t pull Keith aside and ask if he’s okay, find him when he returns to talk to him (like Allura did). He’s vilified Keith again; sees him as selfish, only interested in what he seemingly wants to do, when in reality Keith truly wants to be reminded that the team needs him and probably to be a paladin again. The complete and total lack of intervention on Lance’s part when Keith is clearly Not Okay in the most recent season also signifies to me that they still have yet to be close enough for them to make sense being romantically involved. 

And that’s fine! I’m not saying I look down on the ship or shippers because of it. I just prefer my ships to at least make some canonical sense, and can’t see it happening with k/ance. Like I said at the beginning, maybe they will grow closer together before the series ends-- I’d actually really like to see that happening. I still doubt I’d be interested in shipping it, though. 

I do think it’s neat that shippers can make content for themselves and each other to enjoy, even if it isn’t quite canon compliant. The one thing I really hate to see though is edits of intimate scenes between Keith and other characters, or Lance and other characters, with captions of “this is how it happened right?” or “I fixed it”. Like... how much more fucking pretentious can you get? Edits are fine but when you claim they’re canon or that you “fixed” the actual scene, that’s just disrespectful to the creators of the show. The story they want to tell, is how it happened. You can’t “fix” that.

TL;DR - I don’t ship k/ance because when I look at their canon relationship it doesn’t make sense seeing it as romantic. I’m not judging anyone who does, but this is just a long-winded analysis of what I think of them and why I dislike the ship. I know there are some really cool people who ship k/ance and are more realistic about knowing it’s not logically going to be canon (not just based on my analysis but also the showrunners did explicitly state that it won’t) but enjoy their ship nonetheless, and props to them! For me it’s also kind of a combination of the way some people who ship k/ance treat other fans and the staff and their canon dynamic but I can mostly disregard them in terms of why exactly I don’t ship Keith and Lance.

#this got way too long lmao #people probably don't care but *shrug emoji* #this is just my silly opinion #this is of course nothing against people who do ship it by any means #i just can't ship it myself

[emperorren]

You know I was a very sceptical person when I started shipping.I loved Kylo,his portrayal,the potential and chemistry with Rey but I honestly didn't think they would go this deep. Even when reading fics I would find it unrealistic how Rey would get over TFA but lo and behold it was way easier and faster in the move. She got him in a profound way and was so ready to fight for Ben. It's cause of the force bond I think,it saves a lot of time when you can see the other person's mind and soul.

I always thought the force bond was a solid theory ever since I learned that such a thing existed in the expanded sw canon (thanks to Ohtze’s “My one and only” meta). Not only I was already into the idea of psychic bonds making two characters feel what the other feel, experience them from a distance, looking into the other’s mind and soul (my other experience with this concept comes from Eric&Sookie’s blood bond in the Southern Vampire Mysteries series, which wasn’t sadly adapted very well by True Blood), but I also thought it was an entirely natural, logical consequence of what happened in the interrogation scene.

But I thought, would the actual canon trilogy actually go there? Isn’t it too… shippy? Doesn’t it have an excessively strong sexual subtext for a pg-13 franchise? How do you even convey it visually on screen?

I think Rian portrayed it fantastically. He didn’t bother to explain what it was—after all, it’s a new thing in-narrative too, and the characters themselves have no idea what it is or how it was created. Rather, Rian let the interactions speak for themselves, and found an effective visual device by showing them talking to each other but never IN the same frame and never with the same surroundings, until the hut scene, which is supposed to be the moment when the thin veil between them is removed. It’s beautiful, and Daisy and Adam are so intense and convincing. i’ve seen already some official reviews praising their force connection as the most inspired part of the film. It’s admittedly one of its most original aspects compared to the other two trilogies. We’ve never seen anything like this.

and yes, totally, the force bond was a necessary shortcut to let Kylo and Rey know each other on common ground and not in an adversarial way, considering the extremely narrow timeline (which is still a problem in the film imho. It feels like the movie covers a lot of ground but simultaneously... not enough, as if we’re missing some crucial interaction. Or perhaps we’ve been reading too much fanfiction! once you get used to how incredibly analytical fandom content is, every canon narrative seems too rushed, never complete)

In general, I was never too worried about Rey’s hatred for Kylo. It was clearly a set up for a more layered dynamic, and I already saw a lot of layers in tfa alone. The moment she shouted “monster!!” emphatically? that was when I knew clear as day they would become romantically involved, or at least have an intense dynamic.

But am I surprised that TLJ was so overtly, unapologetically reylocentric? hell yes. I’m still reeling.

#anon #asks #tlj spoilers #force bonds #rey and kylo #*

[adventure-hearts]

analysing the tri.angle

Remember when people thougt we were getting a “love triangle” in Chapter 4? Well, that didn’t last long. What we did get, though, is far more interesting.

@skuag​ asked me to write about the parallels between Soushitsu and Episode 26 of Digimon Adventure, and so here’s a brief analysis of the Taichi/Sora/Yamato scenes in both of them. Beware of tri. spoilers.

Considering how every moment in tri. or takes us back to Adventure and 02, it’s hardly surprising that a Chapter focusing on Sora should have strong parallels to Sora-centric episodes from the original series, like Episode 26. In fact, both episodes focus on Sora going through a deep emotional crisis, and both include in a new Piyomon evolution. 

However, most crucially for many fans, tri. Chapter 4 also happens to mirror a very famous scene from Episode 26 — which happens one of the most famous moments in Taiorato history. The basic framework is the same: Sora is upset, and Taichi and Yamato try to comfort her, each in his own way. 

Let’s look at the similarities and differences between the scenes in Adventure and tri.

In Episode 26, Sora has an emotional crisis about her mum’s love and her Crest. Taichi and Yamato approach this in radically different ways. Here’s an example:

Taichi: “I don’t unerstand this at all! Man, girls are so much trouble!

Yamato: “Don’t make fun of her, Taichi.”

Taichi: I’m just kidding!

Later, Sora explains what’s going on and breaks down in tears.

Taichi: Hey, don’t cry! H-hey, Yamato… What should I do?

Yamato: If she wants to cry, then let her.

In short, Taichi doesn’t really understand why Sora’s so upset about this, but still tries to convince her PicoDevimon is lying and to cheer her up; on the other hand, Yamato just tells him to let her cry. This makes Agumon and Gabumon point out comment how mature he is (well… in comparison to Taichi). The basic idea is that Yamato is more emotionally attuned than Taichi.

Fans of Taichi/Sora and Yamato/Sora have longed used this scene to show why their favourite ship works better and/or to disprove the other ship. Indeed, the two boys react to Sora’s tears in opposite ways, so it makes sense that many people look at the scene and decide that this shows which of the boys "gets” Sora best — and, ultimately, which couple would be more compatible, romantically. 

Of course, the scene takes place between three 5th graders, so it’s hard to see it as an indication of romantic feelings of any kind. From my (admittedly biased) perspective, the scene mainly serves to indicate the differences between Taichi and Yamato, and to illustrate the different dynamic between each of them and an emotionally complex Sora.  For instance, a Taichi/Sora fan may find Yamato’s aloofness too cold, while a Yamato/Sora fan may read the exact same reaction as proof that he understands her on a deeper level. 

There are many possible, valid readings of this scene — enough to support your own opinions about the Taiorato “triangle”.

In Soushitsu, though, the circumstances are slightly more complicated. 

Now, Taichi, Sora, and Yamato are teenagers, with all the emotional and psychological transformations this implies. They now know each other inside and out. Sora and Yamato may or may not have a bit of a romantic past (at any rate, they’re closer here than in Episode 26: she’s dropped the -kun!). Taichi and Yamato are currently undergoing a bit of a rough patch in their own relationship. 

Even Sora’s reasons to be upset are slightly more reasonable than being angry at her Mum — Piyomon, the one person who puts Sora first, is directly telling her to leave her alone. No room for misunderstandings here. Meanwhile, everyone else is happily reconecting with their partners and blithely ignoring Sora’s suffering.

So, when Sora leaves the group and sits by the water looking gloomy, she has every reason to be sad.

Miraculously enough, Taichi and Yamato notice this, and decide to tackle the problem as a team. Their first approach is a complete failure. Yamato breaks the ice and asks Sora what’s wrong, and she coldly deflects. Since Yamato’s repertoire is probably exhausted at this point, he urges Taichi to try... but he only blurts out something about food. Yamato face palms. Taichi sighs and tries a more gentler approach to ask whats wrong… Sora just says they’re stupid.

Now, you can’t blame Sora for this. Taichi and Yamato are being obtuse as hell for not realising there is something wrong with Piyomon. But hey, to their credit, at least they noticed something — the other kids are fast asleep and don’t seem too bothered that she’s is going through a crisis. Nice friends you got there, Sora!

Which brings us to the second scene. Yeah, Sora is really upset about Piyomon giving her the cold shoulder (wing?). But she’s also upset that no one else seems to notice that this is happening. Everyone was apparently too busy to care about Sora’s issues — even Taichi and Yamato.

Sora: “You two sure can’t read the situation. You guys have bad timing and always fighting. Everyone only thinks about themselves!”

(I can’t help but to feel that this “everyone” is a little jab at the other five, as well. But it’s mostly about these two.)

Essentially, Taichi and Yamato’s attempts to comfort her utterly fail because they really are being selfish and unable to grasp the elephant in the room. Sora interprets this as them not really caring about her and her feelings. Because, if they did, wouldn’t they have gotten what’s really going on between her and Piyomon?

So, Sora is angry, she doesn’t communicate, and both boys are completely lost. And the main difference lies there.

Unlike Episode 26, Sora doesn’t say what’s bothering her. Taichi and Yamato can’t read her mind or the situation, so how can they provide reassurance? Taichi still can’t handle these situations well, but he can’t refute the reasons why she’s sad because he doesn’t know what they are. And Yamato can’t say “let her cry” because… well, now he doesn’t know what she’s crying about, does he? This time, crying may not be as cathartic as it was then. The same approaches may not apply here.

Mind you, the differences Taichi and Yamato’s personalities are still pretty clear — Taichi is more blunt and positive, Yamato is more emphatic but has trouble expressing feelings. And they’re both imperfect idiots.

But they’re all stuck in a rut — because Sora doesn’t come clean and explain, and Taichi and Yamato are totally lost. At this point, asking Takeru for help doesn’t seem a bad idea. Remember, in episode it was Takeru who knew the right thing to say, and he was the one who made Sora feel better. 

Similarly, in tri., Takeru is clearly better at expressing emotions than his brother. Heck, maybe Takeru is simply more sensitive and better at handling women people. Maybe Sora kinda needed to hear “I really like you” at that point? But alas, plot gets in the way and nothing gets solved until much later.

The third Taiorato scene in Soushitsu illustrates the crucial difference between these two stories. In tri., Sora gets over her crisis on her own. She doesn’t confess to Taichi and Yamato, and so they don’t help her get over it.

So, when Taichi and Yamato apologise for upsetting her (lbr, at this point they probably still have no idea what’s wrong or what they’re apologising for) … Sora can truthfully say everything’s fine — because now she is fine.

In my opinion, it’s actually a pretty brilliant conclusion because hey, yeah, these two are kinda dumb, but at the same time Sora understands that they do care about her. At least they tried. Anyway, now her problems with Pyokomon are over, so she has that emotional support, which she apparently can’t always get from her childhood best friend and her unclear-it’s-complicated best friend. Sora can stand on her own.

To me, the main difference between these two episodes is clear: in Soushitsu, Sora doesn’t get resolution by opening up to Taichi and Yamato and being comforted by them. She gets there on her own (with a bit of Meiko’s help, because at this point Meiko is the only one who actually seems to understand the Piyomon situation). The situation has parallels with Episode 26, but it develops rather differently. 

If you’re looking at the Taiorato scenes in Soushitsu to find clues about “which of the boys understands Sora better”, you’ll be disappointed. I think the point is that, at this moment, none of them do. It really isn’t about “Taichi / Yamato fits Sora better”. It’s about Sora overcoming an emotional crisis, independently.

Soushitsu shows that both Taichi and Yamato still have a long way to go before they can understand and communicate feelings. And, above all, it shows that they can be pretty self-centered when it comes to Sora. Their intentions are good, and their affection for her is palpable — but man, they do need to grow up and start appreciating her more. 

In the end of the day, I think most fans probably be happy with the shippy implications on both these scenes — sure, the text is super platonic, but it also highlights the appeal of all sides of the Taiorato tri.angle.

#digimon #digimon adventure tri #trispoilers #soushitsu #meta #takenouchi sora #taiorato #SHIT THIS GOT LONG

[braverytaught]

SHIPPING INFO // Answer the following for your muse(s) so people know how shipping works on your blog. REPOST. Don’t reblog.

What’s your OTP for your Muse?:  i don’t have one true pairing, my dudes. though i do ship minerva/elphinstone something fierce. give her muses that respect her, challenge her, bring out softer sides of her. 

What are you willing to RP when it comes to shipping?:  no smut or noncon, but p much anything else!

How large does the age gap have to be to make it uncomfortable?:  this is.....complicated. in canon, she marries a man “much older” than her - i’ve made the age gap ~18 years. but, they don’t marry until she’s nearly 50. so let’s say i’m okay with age gaps if the characters are well into adulthood. but i’ll never ship minerva with a minor, and i will never ship her with anyone from harry’s generation. i’m very wary of shipping her with anyone from the marauders generation - i’d say never, but reminerva is a thing i’ve obviously come to ship, so let’s say i would only ship that kind of gap if it was plotted v thoughtfully. 

Are you selective when shipping?:  yes and no? i don’t tend to rp a ton of ships; i’m not someone who has like 10 ships, you know? i like to put a lot of time and care into developing ships, and only ship with muns i click well with. but on the other hand, i can be convinced to ship things i’d never have considered shipping on my own (ahem, walburga/minerva, anyone?), so don’t assume i won’t ship something just bc it’s not an obvious ship. 

How far do steamy moments have to go before they’re considered NS.FW?:  i’m okay with writing kissing/making out, and moments that are intimate without being overly sexual. i don’t rp smut, so anything more explicit is a no. but i’ve never had a problem with this!

Who are other muses you ship your muse with?: my active ships are remus lupin ( @moonthropic ) and walburga black ( @motherdcarest ), and i also ship minerva/elphinstone and minerva/pomona! 

Does one have to ask to ship with you?:  please do! the two ships i have now are bc the muns came to me to let me know they shipped the thing and totally roped me into it lmao. a lot of the time i don’t even think to ship things until i start talking it out with someone, and then i’m hooked. that said, i reserve the right to say that i don’t see it happening romantically - though of course other ships, like familiar and platonic, are just as important! and i’m far less selective about them.

How often do you like to ship?:  i don’t ever want ships, at least romantic ships, to be my only focus, but i adore exploring the connections between characters! so even though i don’t tend to have reams of ships, i’m always open to it. and again, give me familial and platonic ships too those are So Great.

Are you multiship?:  i tend to be unofficially single-ship with specific muses (like, i have a v hard time imagining shipping with a remus other than elli’s, and i know i wouldn’t ship walburga with someone who isn’t marg), but i’m multiship in general!

Are you ship obsessed or ship more-or-less?:  more-or-less, i guess? i don’t need everything to be about ships. i have so many wonderful threads that aren’t shippy. and minerva has the potential to interact with sooo many characters i’d never ship with. but i do love digging deep into relationships and getting close to muns and muses by shipping with them, so??

What is your favorite ship in your current fandom?:  out of the popular ones......wolfstar tbh.

Finally, how does one ship with you?:  talk to me about it. throw headcanons at me. plot. if i’m not feeling it, i’ll try to tell you (though admittedly i’m v bad about conflict so it is hard for me). don’t throw overtly shippy memes at me without talking about it to me first, especially if we haven’t interacted. but odds are if you do ask, i’ll be willing to throw them together and see how they fit.

TAGGED BY: stole it from @wildmoored​! TAGGING: everyone who’d like to!

#; any rule breaking will lose house points ( psa. )