#and that is characters with sort of unhealthy codependent relationships but TWIST IT'S NOT THE WAY YOU THINK

[egophiliac]

LET THE BOY HAVE AN EDUCATION

officially at the point where we're starting to see where it's all headed and I am just going NYEEHEEHEE in delight at it all. ahhh...next week can't come soon enough...

#art #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland spoilers #stage in playful land #stage in playfulland #leona: (devises an actually somewhat clever plan to take out the staff-puppets without breaking any rules) #leona: (taken out two seconds later because he sat down in the wrong place) #at this point i'm half expecting the ssr boys to actually bust in with a big sandwich platter or something #a cake with 'please don't kidnap people :)' written on it in shaky icing #kalim isn't good at plans but he DOES throw a good shindig and by god he's going to play to his strengths #also IT WASN'T SHINY TICKETS IT WAS GIDEL?! #MY BOY #MY BEAUTIFUL MAGICAL FELINE BOY #i mean i'm assuming at this point but that seems to be the implication #genuinely kind of shocked that they actually WERE being magicked into being extra gullible #it was ✨foreshadowing✨ all along... #the blot though! what about the blot! #is that going to be an issue or are we going to have enough to deal with already! #i have rocketed from 'i find these villains entertaining' to 'i am suddenly incredibly invested in them as characters' #LOOK there is one thing better than characters with sort of unhealthy codependent relationships #and that is characters with sort of unhealthy codependent relationships but TWIST IT'S NOT THE WAY YOU THINK #nyeeheeheeeeeee

[humdinky]

hey all! i just wanted to take a minute to stand on my little soap box and tell you about a manga i picked up last december. it has gotten much more attention since then, but i'd still like to throw my thoughts into the mix.

on the surface, the summer hikaru died explores a pretty common horror trope: what if a person you loved changed into something unrecognizable? do you reject them, or try to connect to the person that they have become? of course, this fear is twisted into something more threatening in a supernatural horror format. what if they literally died and came back as something else that could potentially harm you and your family?

we follow two teenage boys: yoshiki and his best friend (and one sided crush) hikaru, who goes missing in the mountains for a week and miraculously reappears unscathed. he looks the same as ever, but yoshiki can tell that what came back is no longer the hikaru that he once knew. now, yoshiki must come to grips with the fact that something sinister has taken over his friend’s body - and that it has a strong attachment to him.

that's the basic premise, but this manga is still ongoing and there are plenty of different directions it could take. if you haven't read it yet, it's worth experiencing firsthand. beyond the body horror are themes of grief and repressed homosexuality, as well as subtext to read into. i'm not going to be spoiling any explicit plot details, but i'd encourage you to stop reading this and go check it out if a bl manga with gorgeous art, toxic but engaging romance, and body horror sounds appealing to you.

the first thing you'll notice about this manga is that *chef's kiss* gorgeous art! it is uncanny, as you would expect, but it is drawn with so much care. the heavily detailed background art and visual horror create a rather oppressive atmosphere. the author also really excels at conveying character emotions through facial expressions, and there's a lot of very subtle bits of information that you can pick up from them.

being a body horror manga, this aspect is of course given extra care. when it gets supernatural, it takes on an oddly surreal quality. i'd even say that the transformations of hikaru take on an air of eroticism. that sounds out of place, but the author understands that the line between fear and attraction is thin. there is one scene in particular that would be very sexual if not for the absolute nightmare scenario unfolding before my eyes.

one of my favorite things about this manga is the confidence the author has in the reader. yoshiki having had feelings towards' the previous hikaru is never outright stated, it's just assumed that the reader will pick up on it. the village yoshiki lives in views homosexuality as some kind of curse, and the insecurity this creates in him is shown very subtly. the camera's gaze and the little things he says all convey this, like his apparent guilt over staring at hikaru shown through the shadow on his face. his fear of and attraction to hikaru's transformations also conveys this idea. he's also coping with grief in an unhealthy manner, and this is shown through the almost experimental way he's sometimes drawn. but yoshiki is not the only important character, and hikaru also has some depth. his character is harder to parse, but there's more to him lurking below the surface. he's more delicate than his outgoing demeanor would suggest. hell, it's understandable - being a literal monster means his position in yoshiki's life is extremely tenuous. our two main characters form a codependent relationship based on a fear of being alone, something very human and compelling in a messy sort of way.

something that i do not see being brought up quite as much is how tshd uses horror elements to discuss the fears around coming out and dealing with same-sex attraction. so much of hikaru’s internal struggle is such a wonderful metaphor. many of the moments between him and yoshiki serve as a dual narrative - the surface-level narrative but also this very delicate story about two boys from a rural village who realize they have feelings for one another. the whole story in fact is one giant metaphor for dealing with the anxiety losing who you thought you were and embracing concrete truths about sexuality and love.

overall it left me with some very strong first impressions. it is both an excellent horror manga and a nuanced exploration of loss and sexuality. i also find it very refreshing that their relationship isn’t built on any sort of deception or lies, and that yoshiki is aware that he’s an imposter, just not the extent of what exactly he is or what is happening in the town.

#the summer hikaru died #hikaru ga shinda natsu #hgsn #tshd #txt #manga #shounen ai #bl manga #manga recommendation #lgbtq #gay #horror #romance #certainly brings a new meaning to 'exploring each others bodies' #when im in a who loses his head first competition and my oponent is a gay white haired dude 😨

[starburstfloat]

I think what I'm loving so far in nevertheless (besides the A+ side characters like can we take a moment to appreciate that there isn't one member of this cast that's weighing this drama down) is the fact that we as an audience are supposed to see how twisted and unhealthy the relationship between jae eon and na bi is, and still empathize. It's like the viewers are enduring a similar manipulation as na bi, almost like the show is saying, "see? aren't they cute? you want them to be endgame, right? but also, isn't this messed up? isn't this painful? you wouldn't actually want this yourself, would you?" The show purposefully navigates the turmoil of unhealthy relationships, and finally centers the story on a female lead who (despite backlash I've seen and cannot understand) exhibits vulnerability in her feelings of worthlessness and dependency. It's almost like this show is a commentary on codependence, the toxicity of a lack of communication. And I'm so curious to see how this will play out. I'm hoping we'll get to see a genuine backstory on jae eon cause at this point let's be real he's lowkey a sociopath?? I saw another post here commenting how he has no real personality or friends and damn it's so true (and that's not meant to be a criticizing statement, I really feel like the show is trying to reinforce that as a sign of some sort of trauma he's endured). And na bi is a great portrayal of how smart and emotionally intelligent people can still fall victim to fuckboys/manipulative people. Idk man, this whole dynamic is so interesting, especially considering it's a kdrama and handling pretty mature subjects. My HOPE is that they will end up being friends as they learn that self love is most important. c'mon an ending highlighting the value of platonic love AND self love would just be perfect!! But it's a kdrama so I guess I can't hope for that much 💀 anyhow~ predictions~? thoughts~? I'm curious what other people are thinking at this point (posting as of ep 5 release)

#nevertheless #nevertheless kdrama #song kang #han so hee #park jaeeon #yoo na bi #알고있지만

[linddzz]

Pitch Black for the ask meme bc I'm forever on my rotg bullshit

002 | Give me a character & I will tell you

How I feel about this character: THE OG! THE BASTARD THAT STARTED IT ALL! My first fanfic was because I didn’t like how anyone else was writing him at the time. He is still probably one of my favorite villain characters tbh. He’s got the classic Bad Guy vibe with evil laughs and a killin aesthetic but just adding all the potential for ancient eldritch personification of fear in the shadows???? Chefs kiss. So much cool shit was done with him in fandom because of that. But he’s also a goofy fuck??? He tells stupid jokes and he sasses and we must never forget the prancing around on the globe like a big fucking nerd.  And then the angst potential. The reveal that he’s also a lonely miserable motherfucker who is largely acting up to get attention and make people notice him. He’s manipulative but I like interpreting him as also being fully sincere and never really lying because that makes it so much more interesting.  Later learning about the book Kozmotis backstory??? Making Pitch into the end result of a formerly noble hero character being taken over and fully corrupted by cosmic darkness??? AMAZING. INCREDIBLE. EXACTLY MY SHIT.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Jack Frost. (Who uh, just to be clear for newer kids, bc of his voice I always took as “twink who died between 18 and 25″ since if I remember right no one could find an official age for movie Jack??) I mean, you got the Cold and Dark dynamic that even Pitch tries to appeal to. You can also go into fun often has a bit of fear going on. They’re two immortals who know what it’s like to be totally ignored, overlooked, and invisible while being increasingly desperate for some sort of recognition. They can take each other in a fight and GOD I always loved Pitches legit batshit GLEE when Jack hands his ass to him and hes all like OH YEAH SHIT GOT INTERESTING AGAIN. I also am a person who loves me some unhealthy obsession in my fiction ships and Pitch immediately going “IF YOURE NOT GONNA BE MY FRIEND YOU’RE GONNA BE NO ONES FRIEND!!!!” just made my Hot Problematique Content senses perk right the fuck up. Scissor Sisters “I Cant Decide” is MY SONG for them ok like they just got that MOOD. Even in my more uh, mutal and balanced version of them (aka Evil Boyfriends) I see any relationship with Pitch getting full on codependent and obsessive and contentious. But even with all Dark Vibes there’s that fun aspect to them both! There is so much potential for stupid shenanigans and jokes and mischievous idiocy right alongside the dark nightmare shit and god I love that dichotomy.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Him and Sandman have a two-sides-of-the-same-coin balance dynamic that is so great to explore. I also have an AU where Pitch is less Absolute Villain and more of a like, weird asshole antagonist who is still Part of Their World and anyway him and Toothiana get together to have tea parties where they talk shit and act like passive aggressive PTA mom frienemies.

My unpopular opinion about this character: Fandom made him too nice. Just. In general. I also got a lot of flack in the height of fandom for saying that without a LOONNNGGGG redemption arc and likely a bit of reverting back to Kozmotis, Pitch as he is in the movie isn’t really made for “healthy and wholesome romantic relationship”

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I only kinda read the books but man i would KILL for that Kozmotis backstory presented as an adult sci-fi/fairytale. Give me space fantasy and noble knights and really digging into that “how much of the old man is in there still” nightmare potential.

my OTP: I pretty much put my blackice manifesto right up there already

my cross over ship: Shrug

a headcanon fact: Pitch doesn’t remember his old life but his personality is pretty much unchanged, but twisted up. He still sometimes gets set off and almost triggered by things that hit on Kozmotis trauma, but he has no idea why and those instances freak him out a little bit. He dances around a lot and if he wasn’t so fucked up by his growing isolation and need for vengeance he would probably be a great non-evil overall harmless antagonist who just likes stirring shit up for shits and giggles and (other peoples) screams.

#rotg #pitch black #blackice #that nightmare aesthetic was SO GOOD #we all took this kids movie and went #ok but lets look more into that ancient nightmare creature who likes dancing like a dweeb #Anonymous

[bryndeavour]

i want to write genderswap aus that dont change much. i dont like the propensity to ‘soften’ or ‘harden’ characters based on their gender.

i want toxic female morse who is as internally self hating as male morse is (not that they know it). who assumes shes the smartest person in the room still. who is sort of a bitch. who has a string of unfulfilling relationships behind her and seeks relief through sex without shame. problem with authority. problem with alcohol. being a woman has raised her walls not let them down. she meddles. she says the wrong thing. she’s not more emotionally wise. she cares about people a lot but goes about it all the wrong way all the time. shes always wanted grand romance and stability but has never felt respected for her equal need for independence and has also never respected anyone else enough to change herself in the least bit to compromise. she takes up ‘personal projects’ thinking they will fulfill her - buys a house to become domestic - tries to garden - bird watch - choir - and very few of them survive her lifestyle and thirst for constant stimulation.

i want a quiet yet stable and secure max. also a know it all. eccentric. bit of a bitch. shes fought hard to achieve her position and does not intend to let anyone undermine her. shes dominant but wants pleasures where she can get them. she straddles a fine line between feminine and butch. she knows heartbreak enough to know she doesn’t need a spouse to be happy, or at least as happy as possible. (and my shipping brain tells me she’d be happy to let morse be her pillow princess for a while and morse would get her mind blown and their unhealthy codependency as sometimes-friends-sometimes-lovers would remain)

I want a ronnie box who is as intimidating and problematic as male box. outwardly confident, winking and lascivious. charming. obsessed with her outward presentation because she deserves it. she needs it. because shes shaken inside, really. the shell is a presentation, to look like a leader when she knows deep down she’s nothing but a follower who’s good at flash and glamour and doing the right paperwork and talking to the right people. who gets shook by genuine care and friendship to her own downfall.

and Fred Thursday as a MOTHER. Stop the fucking presses. That would be a shift.. and would she be a Winifred???? WOULD WIN AND FRED JUST SWAP? I’m sorry im now completely derailed and having a crisis. 

A male Joan Thursday. Frustrated to be locked into this tiny world that doesnt extend outside of oxford. flirty and playful in the early years. easily turned by a pretty face. Becoming an adult and realizing the issues in the family. wanting to fly and find his potential. wanting to NOT be like his parents... but after stumbling - after making mistakes - finding his way home. finding a career with purpose that can do some good. realizing that maybe not all character traits of his parents are bad. stability. reliability. care. not seeking excitement and drama anymore. finding RELIEF in that revelation. deciding that maybe settling down isn’t a bad thing.

How about how much more meaning there would be for a female jim strange to offered a position in something *like* the masons. she doesn’t come from much but its a step up for her, a way to achieve what she wants, and she’s ultimately got a heart of gold beyond her ambition. she befriends everyone. even when the friendships are one sided. shes a GIVER. a nurturer. a caretaker. but also a boss. just let her be a boss!

anyway theres a lot and i may not every write any of it but i like the thoughts... how much harder most of them have had to fight to be where they are. they are strong, sure, but complex and still twisted in places and maybe even a bit more human and less like walking romanticized male-toxicity tropes. 

#ange talks #just rambling #i know that gender is made up #but its a very tangible thing in this fandom and in the media itself #its always about men and women #its also very relevant to how you are treated in society #i just dont think gender coding should be 'fix-its' #could you imagine a motherly fred getting attached to ronnie box #MY HEART #anyway

[mbti-notes]

(1/8) Yayy, I love Fleabag and I love your blog and everything you write, so I hope you're up for a discussion of your typings (and I hope all the asks come through). Agree about Fleabag, the Godmother and Harry's (his frequent breakups with Fleabag seemed INFJ door slams, but his endgame points to Si) typings. Boo and Fleabag seemed to have been the sort of BFFs who matched because their personalities were quite similar... What made you conclude ESFP rather than ENFP? Same goes for Martin...

Boo’s interests are all concrete, her thinking is always immediate and short-term, Ni grip was apparent in her hasty death.

Same goes for Martin. While I see signs of tertiary Fe in his deliberate manipulation of Claire and pleasure at bringing Fleabag down, and also the overall recklessness of unhealthy EPs, I couldn’t be sure whether he was Se or Ne dom.

I see no evidence of dominant Ne nor inferior Si but many vulgarities and desires that are indicative of unhealthy Se.

What about the Bank Manager? My memory of series one is fuzzy, but he makes an effort to work things out with Fleabag (and women in general) even if he judges too quickly, which could point at aux/tert Te-Fi, I guess.

He is honest and straightforward, no pretension, but severely limited in his perspective. His moral reasoning ability is rather rudimentary, which makes F unlikely. His life is in a deep rut and he is drawn to Fleabag because she is his opposite and helps spark his lower function development. She comes to symbolize the key to understanding his failures and frustrations (both in terms of how he treats women and his lack of function development), therefore, helping her succeed is also helping himself find his own way. He’s reconciling who he is by reckoning with his past mistakes through Fleabag.

The Father clearly struggles with expressing his feelings. He wants to communicate better with Fleabag, but he understands and prefers Claire (a T), so probably IxTx, perhaps Ti-Fe if we consider the main issues presented in the story plus the fact that he quickly fell for Godmother, a Fe dom? I’d like to know your reasoning for him. Anyway, I’d typed Claire and the Priest as ISTJ and ENFJ respectively, and these ones I was sure to have gotten right. xSTJ was clear for Claire, and episode 203 was the one that cemented her as ISTJ for me. She is constantly anxious and full of routines and rituals and micromanages everything, from actions to looks to even jokes, implying a lot of overthinking (I); she clashes with Fleabag because she’s insecure about the possibility of not being as interesting and funny as Fleabag (tertiary Fi). Also, she tries to pretend that she enjoyed the night, that her marriage is going well and that she thinks Fleabag kissed Martin rather than the opposite because of Si’s need to maintain security and stability and not lose what she’s conquered. By accepting her individuality, her feelings and the possibility of something better for herself, she takes action to improve her life, which implied much needed extraverted development. Also, most ESTJs I’ve met, despite being control freaks privately, are more adaptable and relaxed as well, especially in public (higher Te-Ne).

The show centers around Fleabag’s dysfunction. In Si grip, Fleabag tries to pinpoint Boo’s death (and her own hand in causing it) as the “point of origin” but her problems go far deeper than that, all the way back to her family relationships. Everyone in the family is equally messed up despite appearances. The show doesn’t go very far into the historical causes of their collective dysfunction, but it does a good job of illustrating the dysfunctional patterns as they exist in the present. The characters are largely products of old family patterns, therefore, it’s hard to understand each member individually without the context of their collective family dynamic.

A very common family dynamic involves projecting all of the family’s history of dysfunction onto the “weakest link”, aka, the black sheep. The black sheep is usually “chosen” according to their so-called inferiority for failing to live up to the family’s unspoken values, then they are routinely criticized and shamed for being something that is perceived as contrary to the family’s survival and well-being. Over time, this dynamic places an unspoken duty/expectation onto the black sheep, namely that they should always be “the one that ruins everything” whenever the family requires a scapegoat to deflect responsibility for dysfunctional behavior. Fleabag is obviously the black sheep, so everyone uses her as the punchline (for easing tension), the punching bag (for displacing their frustration), and the punch down (for a cheap win during power struggles).

As a defense mechanism, Fleabag believes that she is actually the superior member of the family because she’s “clever” enough to see through people’s fakery or hypocrisy. Despite the concrete proof of her own life being a total mess, she likes to think of herself as being more self-aware than others, i.e., she implicitly blames her life failures on the fact that she can’t fake it or lie to herself like everyone else. However, she doesn’t realize that playing the black sheep role is her form of self-deception. She is deeply caught up in a logical contradiction of knowing she is less than but also believing herself better than, and we see this over and over again in her asides to the audience. By exercising crude power in exposing other people’s fakery, she doesn’t have to look at her own and expose herself, and this plays perfectly into the family pattern that always ends up ricocheting back onto her. Whenever she exposes anything resembling the truth of the family’s dysfunction, regardless of whether she does it kindly or maliciously, she is roundly blamed for “acting out”, being “cruel”, “screwing up”, “ruining everything”, etc etc. The family immediately comes together to activate the scapegoating pattern and, in the end, nothing changes and the pattern repeats the next time they get together. Her twisted way of “caring” for her family is to play the black sheep, and their twisted way of “bonding” is to collectively reinforce their status as not the black sheep.

When people treat you like a black sheep long enough, you believe it and it becomes your identity, and playing this role so well leads her to blow up all of her relationships outside of the family. In accumulating many failed relationships, it’s very easy to slide into settling for less or settling for what you think you deserve, and she has been trained over a lifetime to feel less than deserving. As a defense mechanism, she’s romantically attracted to people who aren’t capable of knowing who she really is, which in turn gives her justification for blowing up each relationship as they are always shallow and meaningless anyway. But this automatic and destructive pattern hits rock bottom when she destroys the only person who’s managed to really know her. She then gradually becomes more aware that she’s repeating unconscious conditioning and could perhaps choose otherwise, but ingrained patterns are hard to change without help and guidance, which eventually invites the influence of the priest.

You might think that their father bears the brunt of the blame for the family being so dysfunctional, but he has plenty of his own unresolved issues that make him more like a child than a parent. The show does not offer any explanation for him but everyone has a history. It seems that he has always been emotionally absent and socially inept in that he allowed their mother to do all of the parenting and caregiving. He is not aggressive, obsessive, or controlling as you would expect for unhealthy TJs, rather, he is detached, distant, avoidant, and indifferent. When you talk to him face-to-face, there is some natural warmth there, but once you are out of his sight, you are out of his mind. You know that he loves you in his way, you know that he tries to empathize, but you also know that he utterly fails to understand anything about you no matter how hard either side tries to bridge the gap. It’s hard to fault him for what is clearly a “disability”? Because of his ineptitude, he traps himself in a codependent relationship with his shadow opposite type, a narcissistic person who calls all the shots in the relationship so that he never has to lift a finger, i.e., he never ever has to bear moral responsibility for anything, and taken to an absurd conclusion, he lives in a pitiful state of learned helplessness. You never have to feel bad if you never do anything, right? Wrong, he is still guilty of sins of omission, and for that he’s never able to truly be at ease no matter what he does to shed away every difficulty. Ideally, a good stepmom takes care of the step-kids, but he was not lucky enough to snag one, so he must accede to the bad stepmom’s judgment or else, heaven forbid, he loses his easy life by having to take responsibility for the girls on his own.

Unhealthy TPs need uptight Js to help them keep life in order, but they often prefer Ps for their amusing company. The father does not “prefer” Claire for what/who she is, rather, he merely appreciates that she doesn’t make any trouble for him, which he wants to believe absolves him of blame. He can say, “See, I have one good daughter, so it’s not my fault that the other one is bad”. There are many parallels between Claire and her father in how they approach relationships very passively and helplessly. Deep down, his heart actually prefers Fleabag for the fact that she more closely resembles her mother and the fact that she is braver than him and challenges him (to be better). He wishes to have a better relationship with her, similar to what he must’ve had with her mother, but he’s unfortunately incapable of containing the dysfunction that bad parenting and unresolved grief has wrought upon her.

You say that Claire should be more flexible if tertiary Ne, but why would you expect her to have any healthy functions? She clearly suffers inferior grip quite often and thus cannot use any of her functions optimally. Every SJ with unhealthy Si-Ne uses micromanagement of routines/rituals as a crutch, so this is true for both dominant and auxiliary Si - your claim here only proves SJ. She’s just as fucked up as Fleabag is, only she is better at repressing her feelings, and for this alone, ISTJ is very unlikely. ISTJs are introverts and they prefer to give up and be at peace rather than double and triple down on stupid behavior in the manner that Claire often does. Her main problem in life is that everything she does to “manage” situations results in her betraying herself in some way, which is strongly indicative of infantile Fi. I disagree that stubbornness is her fatal flaw ala Si-Fi loop; if that were the case, she’d be more than happy to give up everything to Fi loop and disappear into the background. She would also never ever go near Fleabag nor trust her with anything due to the fact that she has already encountered countless past experiences of Fleabag blowing up situations in awful and unpredictable ways. ISTJs are at their least forgiving and never forget whenever it comes to delegating important tasks.

I argue that what gets Claire truly upset is not being unprepared for “all negative possibilities in the abstract” but rather the possibility of LOSING FACE, i.e., being publicly humiliated and exposed as the uncool simpering hypocrite that she is, which is indicative of deep-seated fear of Fi (she envies Fleabag for her “cool” factor for this reason). Unhealthy Te doms, falling apart internally, are still capable of maintaining functionality in external life far longer than other types. She suffers from serious grip problems but still manages to perform her duties at home and at work, which simply wouldn’t be possible for Ne grip. With Fi grip, she instantly switches to very ugly self-pity and irrationally self-protective behavior when threatened by anything. Her instinct upon feeling the vulnerability of exposure is to go on and on and on about how “successful” she is, which usually includes a few rounds of punching down at everyone in an attempt to disown her bad decision making. ISTJs are rarely capable of bullshitting themselves to that extreme; they are more likely to react with humility and even resignation when presented with incontrovertible proof of their failures (see: Bank Manager).

Claire was probably expected to be “the responsible one” (aka elder/caregiver sibling archetype) because there was no one else to take responsibility. However, at this point in her life, she has achieved enough career success to be independent from the family. The fact that she can’t help herself from enacting her old role speaks to the lack of self-insight that is characteristic of inferior Fi, i.e., as much as she complains about hating the pressures and headaches of being “the responsible one”, she unconsciously LOVES it because it grants her a superior position in the family. She’s not willing to give up the pain because she’s not willing to give up the payoff, and this internal love-hate contradiction is what makes her relationship with Fleabag dysfunctional despite the love and affection they have for each other. I don’t think ISTJs are able to bear such obvious internal contradiction and still manage to claim integrity. ISTJs find it much more painful, if not impossible, to pretend and posture for the sake of appearances, because they are supremely stubborn people when it comes to preserving their subjective sense of integrity. By contrast, inferior Fi makes it very easy to ignore subjective integrity and choose destructive methods of obtaining feelings of power and superiority, hence she ends up betraying her own well-being all the time.

As for the Priest, we both agree on him being a Fe dom. What made me choose Ni rather than Si is that he admitted to have been quite a different person in the past by alluding to his many sexual experiences, probably a hint of Se as well. But then he met God and everything took a 180 for him (N, not S), implying that he was uncomfortably adrift for a while and needed a sense of meaning and a clear vision of his path ahead to feel whole (Ni). Also, PWB has said that Fleabag was drawn to the Priest because he has an established sense of purpose, which she’s been looking for, which highlights their P vs J and Ne vs Ni differences. You could argue that he was drawn to her because of tertiary Ne, but I don’t see signs of Si’s typical grounded outlook (he uses a lot of abstractions to explain his ideas) or typical adherence to traditions (the path to his faith wasn’t primarily through this motivation as it happens to many) or typical narrow-mindedness (quite the opposite, he used to be quite open to experiences due to Fe+Se). Oh, and I forgot to mention, the Priest can read and understand Fleabag so well that he even gets to enter her internal world and listen to her personal thoughts. To be able to understand people with this level of depth is, of course, more natural for xNFJs rather than xSFJs, who help people on a more practical level (Fe+Ni v Fe+Si).

I think your understanding of Si is still quite stereotypical. ESFJs have a common pattern of using Ne to “find themselves” only to end up lost because what they’re really doing is Ne loop. ESFJs tend to grow up feeling very pressured to be rule abiders and it is common for them to go through a rebellious stage a bit later in life compared to other types, once the pressure finally reaches a breaking point. After swinging from the painful oppression of “rule observant” behavior in youth to the painful failures of “rule breaking” behavior in young adulthood, they eventually boomerang back to old touchstones, i.e., they ground themselves by rediscovering comfort in the known. IIRC, the priest felt lost and eventually revisited religion for guidance, he made the beliefs his own rather than blindly following dogma, and he chose to commit his life to doing good because HE genuinely wanted to, not because family/society told him to. A healthy ESFJ establishes a stronger sense of self once they reconcile with the past and make “rule following” more palatable by turning it into a personal choice (rather than feeling obligated to constantly self-sacrifice). I disagree that he “transformed” from one person into a completely different one, I think it’s more accurate to say that he had no idea who he was and got increasingly lost until he discovered himself by looking backward and making sense of his past experience. 

Religion is an abstract concept, there’s no avoiding abstract discussions about religious beliefs when you’re debating a non-believer, especially when that non-believer is Ne dom. Ne is tertiary and people often use tertiary functions for relief, therefore, ESFJs tend to enjoy abstract discussions, especially of the Ne variety that is full of humor and playfulness, exactly like the kind that he gets with Fleabag. I dare you to try joking around with a “true believer” ENFJ. Their beliefs are deadly serious to them, so they show far less patience for sacrilegious play (unless, for some reason, they have developed an irrational fear of being criticized as dogmatic and pretend to be open-minded). Also, why would an *N*FJ be shocked and alarmed or seem resistant to using intuition to “read” people? Why would their intuition seem so painfully accidental? NFJs generally LIKE using intuition and do it naturally as part of who they are, they embrace it and feel more confident the more they are in touch with it.

Ns tend to speak in abstractions but not everyone who speaks in abstractions is N, similarly, every NJ needs a sense of purpose but not everyone who seeks a purpose is NJ -> beware this logical fallacy: “every cat has four legs but not every four-legged creature is a cat”. NJs need a purpose for materializing their personal potential, SJs seek a purpose for the sake of grounding themselves in something unshakable within - you point out the behavior without grasping the true motivation. When ESFJs develop Si well, they recognize that what makes them happy is to be of service, to be a positive contributor to their community, to be a reliable source of help and comfort to those in need. He is not a charismatic and boastful preacher of the ENFJ sort, rather, he sees himself as a humble servant who uses reliable traditional beliefs to help ground people who feel lost in hectic modern life, using his own past experience as the starting point. The fact that he has the strength to end the relationship with Fleabag before it becomes negative and destructive is a testament to Si steadfastness and how strongly the rules matter to him (Ns are very masterful at rationalizing that the rules don’t apply to them, and that’s often how they end up in bad places). Why would you expect him to display all sorts of negative signs of Si if he is meant to be the positive moral guidance for the show? And wouldn’t it make sense for him to use his well-developed Si to reveal to Fleabag the true extent of her dysfunctional Si? Would an ENFJ instinctively know better than an ESFJ how to remedy Si specific identity dysfunction?

Can you please allow us to submit things to you? In the case of long asks like mine, it helps to avoid any part not getting sent.

I have considered this before but I’m not sure I want to do that.

#fleabag #fiction #fictional depictions #enfp #estj #esfj #ask

[luxlightly]

I always thought Eddie’s relationship was a really heavy case of queer coding villains (which of course, is only being recognized as a romantic relationship now) but I’ve also heard that it’s a metaphor for addiction. What do you think?

I don’t think it’s too much of a case of queer coding villains since Venom, even in the early days, has always been a bit of an anti-hero. They’re obsessed with protecting the innocent, even if they go about it the wrong way. One of the major focal points of their character is their very strong moral code, as flawed as it often is. And, by the time I think a lot of their romantic undertones really started becoming overtones (The Hunger, for example), they’d already branched off into their own sort of anti hero role. As Spider-Man once put it, they’re more of a “temporary ally or problematic frenemy [than an arch nemesis]”. I also feel like queer coded villains usually are defined by the fact that they are never quite made explicitly queer, which I feel Venom is fairly early on in their existence. I mean, I don’t mean to only reference “The Hunger”, but that comic was not subtle. Nor was the many times they referred to themselves as “Married” even early than that. 

As far as metaphors go, I think moreso than anything, it’s a metaphor for relationships that, even though they are not “abusive” and both parties love each other deeply, are still unhealthy. 

Early Eddie and the Symbiote are very codependent. They’re obsessed with each other and they’re so concerned with keeping each other and not being alone that they’ll do anything to keep the relationship going. They start to fear normal, healthy things like having connections with other people or knowing the truth about certain parts of their past (this is more on the symbiote’s side since Eddie physically cannot hide his past from the symbiote). They want so badly to be together and to agree that they just bounce twisted morals off each other endlessly. Like “I want to divert the blame for my life onto someone else” “Well, I want to be with you and I like you so I’ll agree!” “Well I like YOU and want to be with YOU so I’ll  agree!” “Well, I like YOU so--” etc etc. In an endless loop until both are convinced they’re right beyond all doubt despite the fact that they’re obviously wrong.  Eddie gets more violent and self righteous and the symbiote equates heroism with punishment and violence.

Which is honestly, while the early 2000s Venom comics were undoubtedly a travesty, I excuse their existence for the simple fact that they separated Eddie and the Symbiote for a significantly long time. Time enough for them both to grow and experience life (and a fairly good life) without each other so that they are then able to clearly and without the influence of the other’s fears, choose to get back together. They were able to become healthier themselves so that they would be healthier together. Now their relationship has very much focused on each of them working hard to make the other better, instead of lowering themselves in a desperate attempt to always agree. 

Long story short, I’m not sure I’d call old school Venom a perpatrator of the whole “queer coded villains” thing, though I’ll admit, most of my knowledge of Venom is kind of Lethal Protector and onward so I could be wrong. And I think, as a metaphor, it’s closer to unhealthy relationships than substance abuse. 

#venom #venom comics #symbrock #eddie brock #venom meta #long post #Anonymous

[soulcrossed]

HEADCANON / VALKYRIE CAIN :   POST TDOTL RELATIONSHIPS

with a great thanks to  MAY  ( @foulefairs / @aasmahni )   for letting me ramble for a couple of hours. kind of a pt. 2 to  this ;  i’m going more into detail about her reaction to other people after her return from meek ridge,  AND  i’m explaining my interpretation of val & skul’s dynamic, their relationship in general, and how they ended up where they are. again, this is long af  ---  feel free to ask me for a tl;dr, but  please  note: i differ heavily from phase 2.

REACTION TO OTHERS

listen, here’s the thing. everybody HATES val. at least everybody she comes into casual contact with  ---  and she knows this. she expects this. that’s fair. but sorcerer politics is mainly an  image thing,  so -----  she’d not only avoid people who simply don’t like her, but also those who she  IS  on friendly / neutral terms with, if just to avoid damaging  their  reputation / career. it doesn’t really matter if people see her with skulduggery because a) skug doesn't give a shit about any of this and b) his reputation is fucked already anyway, so nothing to lose there. but say, like, fletcher? tanith? the remaining dead men? even militsa?* they’re all doing fairly well after ... everything and she wouldn’t want to make it any worse for them; wouldn’t want people to bother them  about her  and she’d. avoid them at all costs, in the beginning. anything beyond texting / skyping that isn’t case-related will be. cancelled. with the most ridiculous excuses. untill someone literally drags her out of the house. and the thing is, it doesn't really occur to her that these people  ( fletcher / tanith / dead men, other people from before )  also have major trauma she might possibly help them work through with providing the opportunity to  talk,  to get  closure,  since, you know, she played a major part in  causing  that trauma.  ( val is still self-centred at heart. she tries to take others into consideration, especially after tdotl and her exile but like. she's trained this into her since she was twelve and she didn’t really have any chances to work on that when completely isolated; it's a habit that is going to take her  A LOT  longer to unlearn. essentially, it’s good intention with bad results  ------  it’s partly fear for her friends’ reputations, and partly because she is simply not ready to confront  everything,  at least not all at once. listen. my girl needs therapy. badly. )   valkyrie feels so GUILTY looking at everyone and  still  has it so ingrained in her that she's bad for people. and she comes back to work on that because she feels  ready  to  work on that  again but? she's still super convinced that Any Association With Her is Bad. essentially, she’s still very in her head about it, and isolates herself  again  for a good while, just. on the same continent, this time.

( * i don’t personally like militsa’s attitude of almost-stanning val and i find the “hey so i was attacked by a lady with parasites coming out of her hands” - “haha was she hot” interaction ... questionable.  especially  with blandy’s track record of fetishizing lesbians / the train wreck that was dem.on ro.ad so. i’m not,, comfortable with blandy’s canon stuff. i’m willing to work something out with militsa muses but that’s something that needs to be  carefully  plotted out, especially if it goes into ship territory. note: at this point in time, i have not read bed.lam. )

gordon’s mansion / grimwood becomes her safe space and she does  NOT  do well with having that invaded. xena is a part of that, skulduggery is tolerated  ( in sight! she’s  very  uncomfortable with people in her space. especially when they’re off somewhere making noises --- she forgets they’re there and she’s  jumpy )  and very, very occasionally her parents  ( and only in the living room / in sight as well )  it’s just. hard for her to coexist with living beings again, it’s something she has to  RELEARN.  this also ties into meetings  ------  ALWAYS on neutral ground / preferably in the mortal world somewhere. and even then, she’s going to be twitchy. she has emergency plans memorized. she’ll want to call it off and she’ll want to take the opportunity to Run. she’s not going to, but--- things are hard and uncomfortable and when has val cain ever dealt with things like this properly? 

the thing is, dealing with other people, especially people she used to know, brings on a whole different type of guilt, and not one she can actively think about, at least not at first. there's a disparity between the "i almost destroyed the world and killed a shitton of people including my sister" kinda guilt  ( which is about an objectively bad thing )  and the "i left literally everyone to deal with the fallout of this, and i'm pretty sure i would've just made it worse in the state of mind i was in then, but what if i've been making it worse on other people after all and oh my god there's no way to know what would've been right and no matter what i would've done my existence is just not right" type of guilt that goes. a little deeper.  ( because  also  that was her active choice, just like alice. )  and it takes her a little longer to confront that than it does for the other things.

it’s going to take a lot of time and work for her to reintegrate herself and learn how to be around people again  ------ especially since said people have moved on with their lives. she's not a part of that anymore after five years in exile literally not speaking to anybody. and a big part of her coming back is a) accpeting her decisions and b) integrating herself in a sort of community again, if just so they can peacefully coexist without her having a panic attack every time she randomly meets someone on the streets or at the sanctuary. in summary, my interpretation has a long road ahead of her to work through things with most other canon characters.

RELATIONSHIP TO SKULDUGGERY

this also goes for skuldug  -----  and as an  IMPORTANT NOTE:  skul forcing her back into working cases is not part of my canon. it’s just bull, imho, and it goes against both how i interpret val and their dynamic as a whole. she comes back from america because she (thinks she)'s ready. she  decides  to go on cases again, but few and far between, and besides that mostly (really) keeps to herself and won't set foot into roarhaven if she can help it. and  THAT's  were skuldug pressures her ------ the getting back to roarhaven / old friends / acquaintances / the magical community itself; he knows she  needs  to find this connection again, and as i said,  she  knows it too, she just. avoids it at all costs, otherwise. when she’s not ready for  case work,  though, skulduggery couldn’t pull her back into that if he tried. if she learned anything in america it's  independence  and how to make her own decisions, and she's starting to stand firmer on that. before, she always had it somewhere in the back of her mind that she needed to impress skul to some degree, at least subconsciously. this is gone, now. don’t get me wrong, they’re still codependent af for reasons i will get into below, but val did become a lot more independent in her decision making in those five years. she's a lot less succeptible to skuldug's suggestions and she does, sometimes, put his ego in check  ( he's not getting away with ignoring issues anymore. he needs to actively apologize and confront them. death bringer level sneaking back into her good graces doesn't work anymore. )

the thing is. in those five years, val spent  A LOT  of time dissecting their relationship. and she  knows  it's very codependent and unhealthy and not good, but no matter how she turns and twists it,  none of this could've gone any other way.  she spends so much time on constructing alternate realities in her mind, changing details upon details, but they always would've ended up just the same. she always would've ended up on that first case with him, because it was her uncle, and because it was magic. what kid would decide to not go after that? and YES skuldug probably should've been a responsible adult, but then. she was literally the first one who believed him and didn't try to gaslight him about serpine.  ( she also spent a lot of time dissecting skug's personality and history. she never brings it up to him, though. )  so, yeah. he kept her around. the serpine issue is resolved and i think he actually would have made her walk away then, except by then, val has pretty much seen it all. she knows china, tanith and the sanctuary and where to find / how to contact them. and people know HER now. serpine's old goons know her name. she's a dot on the magical radar now and she knows this, and she thinks skuldug knew this and tanith, too, and that's why they agreed to train her. by the time faceless ones rolls around she's in too deep. skuldug was her connection to the magic world and to being a detective, a job she loves. skuldug comes back and he feels like he owes her, he'll always owe her. and when they discover the other's respective Murder Alter Ego, they're screwed, because no one else knows and there's no way anymore they can deal with this alone. they need this one person who loves and who they know will support them anyway. and is this fair to put on a teen? absolutely not. and val  RECOGNIZES  that. but she also knows that darquesse would've found a way, anyway, after the point she was introduced to magic. so from the point her uncle left her the scepter, essentially, she was doomed. 

and to sum up this way too long meta: val is VERY aware of all the ways her relationship to skul is just a little fucked up and she doesn't actively defend HIS choices, but she'll defend her  OWN  choices. because of her own issue about agency, her own choices are what she can really rely on  ( and lay blame upon )  so any conversation about her relationship to skulduggery is always going to be kinda uncomfortable and frustrating with everyone who tries to talk to her about it because. she see their point? but it doesn't change anything. they ended up where they ended up, and besides the fact that it, in her opinion, couldn’t have gone any other way, she also wouldn’t have  wanted  it to. she loves him. not necessarily in a familial or a romantic way, but simply because after everything they’ve been through and everything they  are  and are to each other, there’s just. no way not to. in the context of all of this  ( context most people lack! as they don’t know about the vile issue and barely know anything about the whole darquesse situatione except  evil worldbreaker )  that’s just. the way it is. plain and simple. she'll always stand by him and she knows he’ll always stand by her, no matter what. and that might not be good  ( for them or the world at large )  and it might not be right but that's what her character is like, as i see it.

#╰ ( hc ) valkyrie cain. #╰ ( rel ) valkyrie cain & skulduggery pleasant. #( i probably will write a part 3 about the whole darquesse issue bc i see so many ppl giving her shit for it #and completely forgetting. she was a teenager. literally. like. idk i feel the need to contextualize the whole thing #because my views on that also heavily influence my interpretation of val #and i know i write;;; a lot abt val cain but listen. she'll always be my first muse and i'll always love her to bits #and if you think i can let this go think again ) #q.

[censorship-isnt-woke]

acknowledging that trauma bonding and abusive environments create fucked up dynamics between people of all sorts =/= romanticizing incest or unhealthy relationships

writing about the ways that bad things impact the lives and the loves of main characters, and treating the bonds they form as serious and meaningful even as they’re obviously deeply warped and twisted =/= saying that incest is totally fine, or saying that unhealthy codependent warped relationships are totally fine

talking about the bad shit that can happen in life is not equal to romanticizing it.

empathy is good. understanding how people think and act and perceive the world is good. using fiction to explore things that happened to you and try and process them is also good.

not every incest story is porn designed to make someone sexually aroused at the thought of hurting someone or violating a taboo. and even though I personally think that producing content where incest and similar relationships are totally okay is irresponsible at best? those stories aren’t the same as the real people who have been hurt.

#incest mention #just so everyone knows my own stance: #I do not support the idea that consensual incest is ‘harmless’ or ‘fine’ #I don’t approve of that kind of story being told #but I still think stories aren’t as important as real people

[sincerely-chaos]

A Year as Told as Words of Fic Written

Inspired by @jbaillier‘s post on the year in terms of written fic (and the absurd experience of seeing one of my own scribbles mentioned amongst some frankly amazing stories…) I decided to give this summary thing a try, if nothing else then because I’m trying to get back to writing more again, and this might… something.

Most hits: A Study in Floodgates and the Art of Tipping Scales. My very first fic in fandom, my very first story written in English and also a frequent reminder of the fact that my English has - after all - improved after three years of writing solely in English. The story in which we follow the codependent and somewhat unhealthy start of what’s to become a relationship between Sherlock and John, with the added twist of each chapter illustrating a psychiatric symptom or a psychological phenomenon. Let’s say that ‘Show, don’t tell’ wasn’t really a concept I was aware of when I first started writing this…

Most hits on a work posted (I read this as ‘started’) 2017: Inconsequential. My little sandbox project that I started as a one-off on tumblr and almost deleted the day after, but that apparently resonated with a few, very persuasive people, which made me attempt to write an ending to it, and then it all got out of hand and became a story that is now rather dear to me, both because of its themes (kink, emotional constipation, neurodiversity, sensation seeking behaviour and the intricasies of relationships, kinks and emotions) and because it’s a story where I allow myself not to obey to any sort of ‘common sense’ in terms of writing - the chapters are very uneven, the story is fragmental at times, there are jumps, the chapters may or may not be written in the same narrative style and— you get the picture. This is where I go to amuse myself without caring too much about consistency, which is pretty fitting, given this version of Sherlock…

Most comment threads: Patterns of Silver Birds, which is delightful in a way, because of all that I’ve written, this is by far the most intriguing writing experience, but also the most personal and experimental. Plus, this story is what brought @pennypaperbrain into my chaotic life, and the discussions, beta and nudgings from her during the writing of this story have been some of the best and most intriguing things that has happened in my writing life. This is where love is actually - arguably - a chemical defect, OCD isn’t quite what you’d (well; John…) expect, Sherlock’s thought process is guiding the narrative and his perceptions and sensory experiences are more coloured by my gut reactions and instincts than in anything else I’ve written. Also, this is very much a cathartic story to tell in more ways than one… The fact that this story has put me into contact with people who mentions having had similar experiences as those in the flashbacks to Sherlock’s childhood is nothing but fascinating.

Highest wordcount: A Study in Floodgates and the Art of Tipping Scales (which initially had an even longer title, believe it or not…)

Most bookmarks: Patterns of Silver Birds. (Yes; I’ll try to finish the last chapter shortly. By which I mean ‘anytime I have the focus to put that many words and plot parts together without losing track of them. The outlines and parts of several scenes are in fact already done…)

Most popular AU story: Define ‘AU’, and what do you mean by ‘popular’? All my stories are more or less AU in some way, given the backstories I give the characters, but if we go by more common ways of defining AU, my most kudo’ed AU would be The Landlocked Adventures of The Tuna Detective, which is, yes; exactly what it says on the tin. Tunalock with a side-order of mental health (well, if we’re to be more exact, I’d say that Tunalock’s reactions in this isn’t very depressive, but a natural reaction to his situation as a landliving tuna in love with his human flatmate whilst being stuck in Moriarty’s net…). But if you look closely, it’s probably a story about otherness…

The stories I never expected to write: All of them, to be honest, but in particular The Landlocked Adventures of the Tuna Detective (I think you can guess why… but I had a fever and @yourdykeinshiningarmor was bringing me so many fish puns…!), Trick of the Light (because I honestly tried to write a PWP teenlock, and despite the fact that people tell me - kindly - that I failed the ‘without plot’ part, it was not something I thought I’d write. First time teenlock without any prominent mental health issues isn’t what I expected, so I rose to the challenge…), Imprints (because that ended up as close to ‘fluff’ as I’m likely to ever get), Things About Bodies Still Alive (my first poem ever…!), a redundancy of moons (this is probably as close to ‘break up’ or ‘relationship falling apart as I will ever go - I want them messed up and sometimes suffering, but not parting ways…!) and Anomie (in which I, for the first and to date only time, write something that takes place after The Reichenbach Fall).

The Story I’m most proud of in 2017; Patterns of Silver Birds.

Favorite moments in fic life: I refuse to answer this question as the answer would be obscenely long, but 70% of it would consist of the people I’ve met through fandom, IRL and/or online, and the things we’ve done, discussed or created. And a lot of knowledge that’s been earned through these years.

Frustrations: Seeing kind, talented, encouraging, fascinating people leave fandom because of wank (and not the nice kind that involves genitals) or other problems, or due to disappointments. Me being unable to un-compartmentalise everything happening after The Hounds of Baskerville (I don’t hate it, I just… got stuck in my happy place which is season 1 and 2). Being unable to write during periods of time due to the frailty of a chaotic mind. Fandom getting a bit less… populated after season 4. We have so much to work with - please stay and discuss things with me!

Stories I wish I had written aka my favourite reading experiences of fics published/updated/finished in 2017: Can I refuse to answer this question as well? Because frankly, I don’t remember which of all the amazing stories I’ve read over the year were actually posted or updated during 2017, and I could probably tell you some of my favorite stories overall, but… I can’t choose. If anyone wants to know what I’ve enjoyed recently, I do have bookmarks, bookmarked for very variating reasons; finding good descriptions of a phenomenon in them, an interesting take on something, the perfect comfort food in fic form, a story that won’t leave my mind, a story with fascinating narrative, a story that changed the way I look at love/sex/the mind, a story that pushes many of my kinks… there are many and varied reasons things end up in my bookmarks. But rest assured - there’s been so much amazing fic written in 2017 that I’ve adored!

My conductors of light: This is yet another question I find hard to answer, because I honestly am too wary of forgetting someone. I suspect some of you know who you are: the people that have discussed everything from sexuality to psychiatry or books with me on the tumblr chat and in comment sections, widening my understanding and opening up for a mutual discussion and sharing of some personal things I will rarely discuss with anyone in real life - I really, really respect and adore you all, and am thankful. It might be months between our conversations or I might be slow to respond, but it has meant the world to me. The people who have beta’d for me over the years. The people that has given fandom and me so many amazing, insightful stories, artworks and podfics (PODFICCERS!!). THÉ PEOPLE WHO ENCOURAGES OTHERS with their kind words, their inarticulate, enthusiastic keyboard smashing, emoticons, recs, reblogs, messenges, replies, love... and so much more!

I’m just really, really happy to be here with you all.

#summary of 2017 in too many words

[ladeeheroine]

The Traditional Snow White Story as Emma’s Story...With a Twist.

So, it’s pretty obvious that Emma has a problem and there is a lot of evidence that points to Snowing (and Hook) as being a large part of that problem. This made me think about the psychological meaning behind Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs and I came across an analysis by Stephen Flynn that was very interesting.

Flynn uses Jungian psychology to suggest that the story of Snow White is really about the immature female psyche. Although Flynn’s analysis is about the traditional Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs story, the points he makes fit more with what we are seeing from Emma on OUAT. A lot of Regina’s journey can be seen in the analysis as well.

To start my analysis of Snow White, I will assume that the whole of the story to date describes a state of the immature feminine psyche. For instance, there are three women in this story, and the first, the caring mother soon dies leaving our heroine Snow White with no psychological mother.

@anothershadeofgreen made the point that when Emma realizes that Snow and David are her parents, symbolically, this is Emma being born. So the behavior we see from Emma now represents her immature female psyche.

Generally speaking, fairy tales are looked at as childish stories that are told to little girls, in particular. Even Emma thought it was ridiculous at first, too, but as she came to realize it was true, the urge to identify with these people, who were the quintessence of love, grew stronger.

Love is all Emma has ever wanted throughout her entire life (same with Regina), so as she sees all of these happy endings and true loves, she wants it, too, and she especially wants it in the way that her parents have it because those are the people she wants to identify with more than anything. When you’re a kid (and remember, psychologically speaking, Emma sort of is) you think your parents are the greatest and you want to be just like them.  

…these stories tell us how to develop and integrate conflicting aspects of our selves as our personal unconscious map unfolds. At the start of the story Snow White, or the anima, is far from complete as she is both innocent and immature and lacks a caring mother figure within.

Flynn’s analysis also discusses the development of the masculine and the feminine. 

There are ten men in the story of Snow White and nine represent weak or inadequate father figures within Snow White. These ten men can be broken down into four stages of development of the masculine within the development of the female in her striving to become a fully mature woman at the end of the story.

When relating this to Emma, all of the relationships she has had with men have been unhealthy and that more than likely stems from her lack of father, i.e. lack of positive animus. Regina had a father, but he still wasn’t a positive animus because even though he loved her, he was weak and he didn’t protect her. 

Regina also had a severely negative anima in her mother. However, Regina was able to see both of her parents in the Underworld and the closure she was able to have with them greatly affected her ability to find balance within herself. I would say that, in the end, they were a positive animus and anima for her.  

Uniformity starts to emerge when we read how the queen died at the birth of her child and after her death her husband, '..the king took another wife'(Grimm 1984:188). This is the only mention of Snow Whites' father. He is an indolent father because he utterly fails to protect his child from the murderous hands of his new wife. This indolent father figure is also shared with Cinderella and perhaps Little Red Riding Hood who does not seem to have a father at all. Common to all these tales is the fact that the negative aspect of the masculine (indolent father) cannot be integrated and this can result in a denial of the masculine. These maidens are always doomed to die, because their exclusive domination of the feminine psyche hinders the individuation process, that is, the maturation of personality'(Jung and Kerényi 1989:172).

When relating this to Emma, we can see that she falls under the same category. Unfortunately, Charming can be considered an indolent father, too, because he was absent from Emma’s life and as we just saw in the last episode, he and Snow chose not to save Emma when they had the chance, which adds to his indolence. He desperately wanted to, but ultimately, he followed Snow’s lead and once again Emma was left alone.

Right now, we are also seeing Emma “doomed to die” just like the other character’s mentioned above. Emma isn’t that dynamic person we saw in the beginning because the “maturation of her personality” has been halted due to the imbalance of her anima and animus.

The counter balance to the weak Animus is an inflated negative feminine 'shadow' which is totally unconscious.

In the traditional Snow White story, the evil step mother is the negative feminine shadow, but in OUAT Emma’s negative feminine shadow would be Snow.

The whole story seems to be about Snow White eventually finding her prince, the tenth male figure, before she is able to face and tame the rage within. 

If we replace Snow White with Emma and Prince Charming with Hook, then it would suggest that Hook is the positive male figure (animus) who is going to help Emma “face and tame the rage within”, but supposedly he has already been established as her true love…twice! So if he is that positive figure that is going to help Emma balance herself and mature (psychologically speaking) then how come it hasn’t happened yet? They are already true loves…right? We see Hook and Emma kiss all the time, but it’s never TLK. Belle kissed Rumpelstiltskin and it began to break the Dark One curse, so how come the same isn’t happening with Emma…and there is strong evidence to suggest that she is being influenced by a curse or curses.

I suppose they could be holding off on showing Hook & Emma share a TLK for the wedding, but that would incredibly redundant considering they have already tried to convince us twice that they are TL. Shouldn’t once have been enough? No one else has had to confirm their TL so much.

Flynn describes Snow White as a mess because of her inability to recognize the danger around her, which is why her step mother was able to trick her into biting the apple. Emma could certainly be describes as a mess at this point in the story. She is a shell of the person she used to be and she continually excuses the destructive behavior of Hook and her parents.

If she were a patient at this stage of development, she would appear hysterical, have a terror around freedom and at the same time be dependent on whoever was available. 

Again, this is clearly seen in Emma’s behavior with Hook. They are melodramatic, depressing and codependent. Emma has become incredibly attached to him to the point of it being sickening to watch. Her dependency on Hook is unhealthy to the point that lies and deceit is readily excused and she even takes the blame for some of his behavior. “I didn’t exactly make it easy for you...”

The ego began its own development when Snow White was seven years old, and it was then we find terror expressed by our Queenly step-mother. This terror can also accommodate jealousy, a lack of love for the child within, which then becomes hateful and murderous '...she would have been ready to tear her heart out of her body'(Grimm 1984:189).

The section above actually reminds me of Regina more than anything, especially the tearing the heart out.

Concerning the traditional Snow White story, her awakening happens in four stages. I’m not sure if Emma’s story is following these stages exactly, but parts of her story can be recognized within each stage. For example, Snow White starts to become aware when she encounter’s the Huntsman. He doesn’t do any harm to her, but he isn’t able to protect either and she becomes lost in the woods.

The Ego at this stage is under the spell of unknown forces within and is restricted in freedom being alienated from normal life where she continues hiding in the woods.

Not completely sure this fits, but the Huntsman actually reminds me of August when it comes to Emma. He did the best he could as a child to protect her, but she still ended up alone. This might also include Neal, who made promises to her and then abandoned her with a child and let her go to prison.

And of course, she [Evil Queen] had the magic mirror. It was magic because the reflection looked into the mirror and saw the real self looking back from within the mirror. This is indeed a symbol of one aspect of feminine beauty. Jung says of such a woman that they have '..artistry in illusion being a specifically feminine talent.. However, it seems if a woman remains '...content to be a femme a' home, she has no feminine individuality. She is empty and merely glitters-a welcome vessel for masculine projection.

Emma has lost her feminine individuality. Her style has become duller and it can even be compared to Snow’s, which is drastically different from how it was when she first came to Storybrooke. Is this the version of herself that she subconsciously thinks is more acceptable to Hook and her parents?

The quote can also be compared to Regina’s story as the Evil Queen. We recently saw her looking into the mirror and it wasn’t Sydney telling her what she wanted to hear, it was finally a reflection of herself and there was no more denying the hatred that she had for herself.

As Snow White encounters the Dwarfs, she continues to build a more positive animus. Even though the dwarfs foolishly leave Snow alone in their house, once again leaving her unprotected, they are helpful to her. Flynn states:

Snow White has been pursued, robbed of her rights, been misunderstood or failed in her understanding, and yet she has shown few emotions.

Flynn also states: I am often astounded when working with some women that they do not realize that what is going on in their lives is 'not right.' They have come to accept the unacceptable. 

This reminds me of Emma one hundred percent right now. It doesn’t matter what Hook or her parents do, she makes excuses for them. She showed emotion when she caught Hook trying to burn his memories, but she was quickly closed off again and then forgave him immediately when he came back, as did David, her indolent animus. Regina tried to get her to open up at Aesop’s Tables and she remained closed off except for a few tears when speaking to Aesop/Gideon. Snow revealed that she and Charming had a chance to save Emma when she was a girl and they chose not to for the greater good and Emma immediately forgave them. Emma’s only real emotion is shown when she is with Hook, whom with she is clingy and dependent upon.

The Prince comes into her world only when she is unconscious…

So, I think this is the point where it might get tricky because we leave the traditional roles of male and female.

As we all know by now, when Emma was sent to the Wish Realm, Regina wished to be where she was and she was CLEARLY dressed as a prince, complementing Emma as a princess.

So even though Regina is female, does she represent the positive example of the animus (male) that Emma needs in order to find her balance, similar to what Prince Charming was for Snow White in the traditional story analyzed by Flynn? Regina woke Emma from her unconsciousness so that she was able to remember who she really was. Prince Charming kissed Snow White, waking her from her unconsciousness.Only Snow White’s true love could wake her. So how did Regina wake Emma if she isn’t her true love?

Is this foreshadowing for what’s to come? It makes sense if you consider that Regina & Emma sharing True Love might be the twist in the plot. It would certainly be a modern fairy tale and a lot more original that what we are seeing now, which I discuss a bit more here.

Couldn’t it have been written to send Hook to the Wish Realm to wake Emma if he is supposed to be her TL? Why dress Regina as a prince at all or have Emma humming Someday My Prince Will Come if it’s not supposed to mean anything? Those were very specific choices.

The negative aspect of the feminine has to be silenced before the Prince can arrive.

In the Wish Realm, Snow & Charming were killed before Regina was able to wake Emma. Snow represents the negative anima for Emma (and Charming always supports whatever Snow decides), so they had to be silenced before Emma could wake up.

This isn’t to say that Snow (or Charming) is bad, it’s just that she is not who Emma is and there is always going to be a problem when you try to be anyone other than your self.

Flynn discusses all of the different animus that were shown to us throughout the story and to what degree, if any, they helped Snow White. He states:  

The tenth male figure represents the symbol of completion of unification with the masculine.

Regina is the only character that has been blatantly shown to be a prince to Emma’s princess. Hook has been shown to be the opposite of what a prince represents. He is a negative animus who does not contribute to Emma’s growth.

Lots of people have commented on the fact that Regina is acting like a savior more than Emma is and I agree. She was set up as being a savior in season 5 when Emma gave her the dagger...

...when she stepped in as the savior in Camelot...

...and when Leroy said if anyone was going to save them it was her.

Regina is also the only person we have seen have a complete arc to become a balanced person and she did it on her own, which shows her strength. She’s the only one who is qualified to help Emma at this point. I would say that maybe Emma could save herself like Regina did, but she seems, too, far gone at this point.

Our heroine was unable to seek out what is useful from the unconscious…people in this state lack power.

Regina and Emma are two damaged people who want the exact same thing, which is to be loved. Regina went to one extreme and raged externally. Emma went to opposite extreme and internalized her pain.

We’ve already seen Regina face and tame her rage.

Now we need to see Emma do the same.

She hasn’t been able look inside of herself to find balance, which means she lacks power, which means she needs a savior of her very own.

Also...

Emma told Regina she would fight for her happy ending. Even though Regina has found peace within herself, she still doesn’t have a happy ending yet. Emma & Regina’s story is unfinished.

#swan queen #dumb positivity #ouat meta #anti charmings #anti hook #anti cs #swan queen meta

[mesaaana]

All right, so The Well of Ascension. I finished it. In like four days. Even though i’m back at school. But anyway.

Also, I’m actually writing this from a computer rather than a phone app so...warning for excessive italics. Yes, I’m one of those people

It’s one of those books where, after finishing it, I had to take a break rather than immediately start the next in the series like I usually might. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, the ending - and the pace in about the last 200 pages or so - was exhausting. It was like the Battle of Hogwarts or something in there, is what I’m saying.

so, that downer ending though. is it just me, or do second installments in trilogies almost always have a downer ending? Empire Strikes Back, Catching Fire (and yes, I DID read The Hunger Games), the second season of Avatar:  The Last Airbender (actually i think the writers of this were specifically going for the Empire Strikes Back vibe so ha). I’m sure there are other examples, i just can’t think of any at the moment.

there were character deaths! sure, in the first book, one of the main protagonists (Kelsier) died right before the climax, but (1) i believe tvtropes.org calls it “Mentor Occupational Hazard” and (2) he engineered a situation where he would be made a martyr so that hardly counts. admittedly, Clubs and Dockson were not SUPER important, but they did tie us to the first book and Clubs got an actual personality in this one (rather than just “Uncle Grumpy”, as Spook called him), so it was still tragic. even more tragic was Tindwyl’s death....

obviously the downeriest downer of them all was Sazed, who arguably suffered the most out of Our Heroes. but i think I’ll talk about him (and Tindwyl) last.

Um so when I finished The Final Empire, i remember being....unsatisfied with the fact that Elend became king. I think my concerns were more or less addressed, and i did get on board with it. his character development seemed natural, rather than forced because “the plot demanded it”, so i have no reason to complain. but now, yet again, i have reservations about him becoming Mistborn. sure, he was slowly turning into a more...physical character (walking right into an army of titans blue giants comes to mind in particular), but now i wonder how this development will change him. i can’t see the author making “more powerful” than Vin, since to me it seems like she’s something of an exception; that being said, if Elend does end up stronger than Vin in the Allomancy department, i will be supremely (or should I say imperially?) pissed because (1) they’re married and that would throw a wrench into their dynamic, (2) it would seem AWFULLY suspicious if the most physically capable CHARACTER who happens to be a WOMAN suddenly had her MALE LOVE INTEREST stronger than her, and of course (3) it’s just lame, especially when you consider how much Vin pushes the envelope both with her sheer natural talent as well as her ingenuity when it comes with her powers. so don’t let Elend hijack that k thnx

(speaking of Vin’s “sheer natural talent” will we ever get an explanation why? or is she just that cool? hey i wouldn’t mind too much if it was the latter but i do prefer to have an actual reason)

okay now I talk about Vin, who is arguably THE protagonist of the series (so far, I suppose; i mean, she is on all three book covers). i think i’m satisfied with the direction her character took. she had a rough childhood (which is an understatement), and despite her....adaptation to Kelsier’s crew, it would not have been possible for everything to simply be all hunky dory from then on. so Kelsier’s death and her killing the Lord Ruler took their toll on her, in that she became estranged (and it was definitely at least somewhat self-imposed) from basically everyone on account of her “weirdness” and exceptionalism. hey, the life of a prodigious Mistborn, I guess? being a loner among friends is tough, you guys. but this left room for another definitely sinister Mistborn to swoop in and befriend her and....well, be entirely selfish with his interactions with Vin. so i might have cheered a little when she chose to not leave with Zane. also it must be incredibly stressful to be looked up to as a hero. i guess she’s the Superman to Luthadel’s Metropolis? albeit much darker and, uh, willing to kill and whatnot? also i enjoyed her reluctant allies-to-friends thing with “OreSeur”/TenSoon, and that TenSoon felt guilty about spying on her? *swoon* anyway, maybe it’s because i don’t really know how these things work, but i’m rather inclined to think that Vin’s relationship with Elend straddles a very fine line between “healthy” and “unhealthy”, as in she might just be a little too codependent on him. but again, it’s probably also an outcome of her upbringing

so i could probably talk about Breeze, or Zane, or Allrianne, or Straff, or Jastes, or anyone really, but i don’t particularly want to except to say:

(1) for Breeze I find myself almost disappointed that the reason he never showed interest in women wasn’t simply that he was gay. i think his reasons though are...noble, I will say, and in a Crapsack World like this...yay

(2) Straff should’ve found Zane a therapist. or, ya know, been a better father. Straff was just a terrible human being and i’m actually sad that it wasn’t Amaranta who succeeded in killing him, because that would’ve been Poetic, or something.

(3) Allrianne i did not really get. i feel like she was a plot device almost intended for us to see how “good” Breeze was. i understand she was by no means as stupid as she seemed (perhaps because people are predisposed to think that vanity = stupidity) but otherwise she served little enough purpose beyond convincing (more like bullying, but semantics) her father to side with Luthadel’s defenders

(4) Jastes, however, was an idiot, completely, absolutely, an idiot.

and now, Marsh. i have no idea what his deal with, and why he disappeared for most of the book, but i SINCERELY hope we find out. did becoming an Inquisitor do something to him? is the thing that Vin accidentally released controlling him somehow?

(is the ghost in the mist really as...not benevolent, exactly, but less sinister than it seemed there at the end? stabbing Elend aside, of course)

okay, Tindwyl. Purpose #1:  king Elend. Purpose #2:  annoy Vin, and perhaps make her think. Purpose #3:  voice of reason. Purpose #4:  be someone for Sazed to love then lose. Yeah, i’m not too crazy about Purpose #4, not after getting another named female character....that was fridged before the end of the book. Sigh, you can’t have everything in life.

this doesn’t mean Sazed does not have my sympathy, because he does. his crisis of faith is heartbreaking, honestly (i consider myself a person of faith), but i kind of think it was a long time coming, if for no other reason than that i am with Clubs and entirely baffled that you can believe in ALL the religions. that just doesn’t seem....logical? what about contradictions? like, you can’t be a Muslim and a Hindu at the same time because Muslims believe in the Oneness of God whereas Hindus have a whole pantheon so it’s like.....contradictions. but i suppose that was kind of the point, that you can’t really believe in all the religions. then of course there’s his sort of scholarly crisis, which, as a scientist-in-training, i can also sympathize with. because imagine that you have this hypothesis that you’re SO convinced is true, and then one day, after years and maybe decades of study you find out it isn’t, like not even a little; you or someone else disproves it so fully. and then you don’t know what to do with your life because you literally spent it working on proving that one hypothesis. and that would suck. i guess this means Sazed is a nihilist now?

so the thing that happened at the Eye of the World the Well of Ascension was.....weird. in a good way. creepy. what a twist. THIS is the source of the downer ending, as well as Sazed’s angst (and undoubtedly Vin will also have her own angst in the last book because guilt). and THIS is the sort of twist i like, especially with the whole ~the prophecies were wrong because someone/thing screwed with them~.

basically, “we tried to save the world but screwed up ROYALLY because we were misled by a sentient evil thing that we cannot even begin to understand because a despotic ruler that fancied himself a god destroyed ALL the records of anything that might help us so dear God are WE fucked”. (how’s THAT for a book summary?)

themes:  freedom or safety? this book in particular definitely begged the question, as well as “can you be both a good person AND a good ruler?” my answer to the first question is:  i dunno, dump me into a bizarre post-/pre-apocalyptic fantasy world and THEN we’ll talk. to the second, i’m inclined to say yes because of my religion, which is, ironically, another theme of this series, but one i will not get into because it is a theme with which i am increasingly frustrated. perhaps i’ll discuss it after i finish the last book...which i will probably start tomorrow.

but until then, if you read this entire thing, wow, what ARE you doing with your life? just kidding, but seriously, thank you for reading and i love talking about books with people

#little rant feel free to ignore #reem reads mistborn #mistborn #on to 'hero of ages' i suppose

[ao3feed-13reasonswhy]

A Tale of Bunny and Stone; Touch Like a Prayer, Like Loneliness (A Continuance)

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/33hF1Rw

by beauty_love_stardust

Sometimes the nightmares wake him ... this time it's something else ... something softer ....

  (AN: This is a continuation of the story I wrote a month or so ago, when I watched the final season. I keep re-reading what I wrote and find my mind wandering to a whole bunch of varied 'how do they get to the end?' sort of scenario. So this work is going to be fragments of their time spent in their self-made oasis, between the time they start up a comforting cycle with each other, and between the end where they realize they've found true happiness together. SO this will be all the stuff I didn't add, but mostly summarized while writing! This won't be told linear, so there may be parts added from the end, then the beginning. I will add them as inspiration strikes! I hope you all enjoy! I recommend reading the first work in this series first, but you don't necessarily have to.)

Words: 6941, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Series: Part 1 of A Tale of Bunny and Stone Series

Fandoms: 13 Reasons Why (TV)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/M

Characters: Clay Jensen, Jessica Davis

Relationships: Jessica Davis/Clay Jensen

Additional Tags: Canonical Character Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Sex, Vaginal Sex, Touch-Starved, Touching, Lust, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Heavy Angst, Angst and Feels, Unhealthy Relationships, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Explicit Sexual Content, Sexual Content, Sexual Tension, Lost Love, Sexual Roleplay, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Horny Teenagers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt, Alternate Canon, Grief/Mourning, Multiple Personalities, Multiple Orgasms, Forced Orgasm, Orgasm Control, Dry Orgasm, Porn with Feelings, Porn With Plot, Angst and Porn, Healing Sex, Healing, Trauma, Psychological Trauma, Triggers, Twisted, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings, Emotional Porn, Emotional Sex, Kissing, Rough Kissing, Hand Jobs, Codependency, Mental Anguish, Obsessive Behavior, Obsession, I Don't Even Know, What Have I Done, Please Don't Hate Me, Cliffs of Insanity, Sleepy Kisses, Morning Kisses, Sleeping Together, Sleep Sex, Sleep Groping, Nightmares, Dreams and Nightmares, Consensual Somnophilia, Wake-Up Sex, Past Abuse, Self Confidence Issues, Dark Past, Dark Character

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/33hF1Rw

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #13 reasons why