#at the mere idea of gay ships in the show | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

velvet4510 · 2 months

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i saw these two people in the tolkien discord server i’m in say this, and while i can see their point (i 100% believe that men should be able to be affectionate without romantic undertones), i just feel like so many people get the wrong idea that samfro shippers merely see them as “gay and cute”

most of us accept all interpretations of their relationship, whether that’s soulmates, queer-platonic, romantic, etc

i was wondering what your opinion on this is??

Great question! SO sorry for the delay in responding. I hope to make my reply worth the wait. Also, this answer will be really long - sorry again - but I have many thoughts on this.

I completely agree that men should be able to be affectionate without it being romantic. Women do not have this problem of fearing open affection due to assumptions about sexuality, and I think it’s a terrible symptom of toxic masculinity for men to forbid themselves from showing affection out of fear of it being misinterpreted. LOTR is full of many beautiful examples of how men can be emotionally vulnerable with each other and how platonic friends can still physically express innocent affection (Aragorn’s kiss to Boromir’s forehead is a great example). Modern society should definitely follow the examples set by these characters.

The thing is, as a straight woman, I did not go into LOTR expecting to see any same-sex romances at all. And the majority of male friendships depicted in the book and films never gave me any sense of romantic undertones. Unlike many fans, I do not ship Legolas and Gimli because I recognize that their relationship is a bridge between Elves and Dwarves, proof that they can get along, that despite their differences, they can still find common ground and respect each other and be friends. This to me is a far more important message than a generic “forbidden romantic love story” that many view their relationship as. Their bond isn’t necessarily about wanting to sleep together, but more about recognizing that they can like and be fond of each other, and not allow their parents or cultures to influence how they view each other. I do not hate the Gigolas ship, of course, and people can feel free to ship them if they want to. But to me, they fall under the category described in the discord that you have shared: their friendly intimacy does not necessarily signify anything romantic. Even their journey into the West together does not have to be a romantic thing; I see it as Gimli not wanting to say goodbye to any more of his friends, after losing Merry, Pippin, and Aragorn, and instead going on one last adventure with his soul-brother Legolas.

Frodo and Sam, however, have always stood out to me as being different from all the other friendships in LOTR. I didn’t even take any pause in the fact that they’re both male. I just saw two people in love. It’s just in how they are written, and in Elijah and Sean’s beautiful performances. I totally agree that ANY interpretation of their relationship is valid. I think it is very wrong for any shipper of these two to insult or declare someone “wrong” to see them as just friends. But it’s the same the other way around. It is unfair for non-shippers to hate on shippers. While the argument regarding Tolkien’s Catholicism is an understandable one, texts and characters do develop lives of their own over time. Texts are meant to be interpreted. Tolkien himself wrote that he did not want to enforce his own beliefs within the story, and instead preferred to leave it open to readers to apply their own views and perspectives to it. He basically was inviting us to make interpretations that deviate from his own. He may not have had sexuality in mind when he wrote this, but if he were alive, I very much doubt he’d be hypocritical enough to criticize people for doing the very thing he encouraged them to do, especially since he was smart enough to know that not every reader of his work was or would be Catholic, and thus may not see certain aspects the way he did.

The main, unchangeable, factual point about Frodo and Sam’s relationship is that they love each other. That’s it. They go from formal master and servant to two people who have been through hell and back together, and in the process, formed a bond that nobody else will ever understand. This point stands, whether their specific feelings for each other are platonic or romantic. To view them as lovers does not take away from or undermine the foundations of how Tolkien shaped their characters and the connection they build.

It also bothers me how those who criticize this ship use the word “gay.” Bear in mind, of course, that I’m not an actual member of the LGBT community, and I’m speaking based on my love for my many LGBT friends and relatives, and the efforts I’ve made to understand and empathize with this community, and to never be among those who hate people based on who they love. But I’ve learned enough by now to know that it is quite ignorant of people to truncate the idea of Frodo and Sam being in love as “they’re gay.” Sam is not gay, as shown by his love for Rosie. To ship Frodo and Sam is not to erase Rosie or pretend Sam doesn’t love her. Sam has the biggest heart of any fictional character I’ve ever seen, and I, like many shippers, don’t find it implausible that he has room enough in that heart to have two great loves.

On that note, I’ll now signify that in the text Frodo and Sam have many moments that no other pair of male characters have, which serve as actual potential evidence of a romance. It says in the text itself that he is “torn in two” between Frodo and Rosie. No other pair of male characters in LOTR has any moment like this. Aragorn does not feel torn between Arwen and his friends, for instance. Sam hesitating to marry Rosie if it means he can’t be near Frodo is a very unique detail that adds weight to this “ship.” Not to mention the way Sam strokes Frodo’s hand in Rivendell and blushes, or calls himself “your Sam,” or has a Romeo-like moment of falsely believing Frodo is dead, or longs for the touch of Frodo’s hand in the Tower of Cirith Ungol. Plus, don’t forget that in another of Tolkien’s writings, Elanor directly compares Sam losing Frodo to Celeborn losing his wife. Also, I and many others have described how Frodo and Sam’s story directly parallels that of two canon lovers, Beren and Lúthien. Again, platonic interpretations of all this are valid, but it’s important to remember that shippers are not making things up. We’re not saying or believing that Frodo and Sam are in love “because they’re cute”. There are many moments between them in the text that support this interpretation, not the least of which is a direct parallel to a canon romantic couple - and without context, many of their exchanges and moments could easily be seen in a romantic light. (Sam watching Frodo sleep and saying “I love him, whether or no,” and declaring his one wish after potentially completing the Quest alone is not to return to the Shire and Rosie, but to return to Frodo’s body and never leave him again … all these things are right there in the text. Merry and Pippin, Legolas and Gimli, Aragorn and Boromir, none of them have any moments like this.)

And Sam’s journey across the Sea does not have nearly as much ambiguity as Gimli’s. Gimli has more to gain by going than staying; to stay would be to be left alone with no family and no more Elves or hobbits around, while to go would be to stand by his best friend, see the woman he loves/deeply admires again (Galadriel), and not face any more goodbyes. He wouldn’t really lose anything by leaving with Legolas, only gain. Sam’s circumstances are completely different. He has many people in the Shire; 13 children and countless grandchildren who could take care of him. He could easily spend his last days peacefully living with Elanor and watching her children grow, as any old hobbit would typically do. To sail West would be to lose and permanently be separated from a countless number of loved ones. And though he was affected by the Ring as a Ring-bearer, he held it for a very brief time, short enough for it to not prevent him from having a normal life after the war. It cannot be easily assumed that the lasting effect of the Ring on him was so powerful that it made him happier to leave his family than to stay with them. Because what would be waiting for him in Valinor? Gimli had two people in Valinor to whom he was very close, Legolas and Galadriel, as opposed to no loved ones back in Middle-earth. But Sam had one person in Valinor to whom he was very close, Frodo, as opposed to dozens of loved ones back in Middle-earth. The fact that he chooses Frodo over his family, to live with Frodo rather than die with and rest beside Rosie, to see Frodo again rather than see his family as much as possible in his remaining days…is a major point worth considering, and another thing that adds a layer of credibility to the idea of shipping them.

So to sum it all up, to say “you just ship Frodo and Sam because you don’t know what friendship is, because you think they’re cute so they must want to sleep together” is a MASSIVE trivialization/oversimplification/misunderstanding and completely ignores the things I’ve just laid out, particularly the distinctions between their relationship and those of other male pairings in LOTR.

Ok, ramble time is over…Boy, I hope that made at least one lick of sense! Haha.

#lotr #jrr tolkien #samfro #lord of the rings #lotr books #frodo x sam #sam x frodo #samfrodo #frodo/sam #frodo baggins #samwise gamgee #rosie cotton #beren and luthien #legolas and gimli #gimli #legolas

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straightouttheslendermansionn · 1 year

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𝑳𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝑮𝒖𝒖𝒋𝒊'𝒔 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝑨 𝑺𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝑴𝒂𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏!?

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓: Yae Miko

𝑺𝒚𝒏𝒐𝒑𝒔𝒊𝒔: Yae is a diligent kitsune with a broad imagination. She needs ideas to keep the publishing house thriving, and would go to any lengths to get what she needs. However, what if pretending to be in a relationship with a shrine maiden isn't just for the sake of inspiration?

𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝑾𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈: Just really fluffy and just a little gay. Love you guys!

As sly as a fox is she, with her wits always about her but her playful nature running amok. The look in her eyes always either gleaming with a hint of mischief or glaring with the utmost solemnity. Yae is revered on all of Inazuma’s islands and even across the sea, where gods and their retainers alike recall her name and commend her for her power.

That being said, having the Lady Guuji casually walk up to you and strike up a conversation would have been unheard of. Especially if you’re a mere shrine maiden. She runs the show, always stern and diligent, expecting the same of those operating the Grand Narukami Shrine. This line of work is very sacred after all.

“Good morning, Y/N.” Yae greeted you as she walked over to where you were sweeping the deck of one of the small buildings. Everything in your brain was put on pause as you processed her greeting.

“Good morning, Lady Guuji!” You replied timidly, almost completely caught off guard by her specifically greeting you. The closer she got to where you were, the more the sinking anxiety feeling grew within your chest. She never usually has time for conversing with the maidens, so you start to worry that you either did something wrong or have boatloads of work– comparable to the cargo held in the ships that come in from Liyue Harbor.

You tried to focus on the task at hand– sweeping and cleaning up the shrine’s decks. Breathing along with the broom strokes, trying to calm down and catch your breath. However, the only sweeping actually happening was Miss Yae sweeping you off your feet. As per usual, it isn’t difficult to find yourself enamored by and in fear of the kitsune, but how could you not? With those purple eyes boring into your soul, you could drop dead any second.

“Why so scared? You did nothing wrong. You can untense. As if you even need my permission to do so.” She attempted to assure you with a slightly teasing tone. You let out a nervous giggle and tried your best to steady your breath and slow your racing thoughts. You propped the broom up onto one of the railings and turned to face her, bowing and coming back up with a sheepish smile on your face. Your expression is riddled with awkwardness and fear.

She was trying to put you at ease, look eased, dammit!

“Is there anything important you need to make me aware of, Lady Miko?” You asked, expecting her to issue you orders or commend your upkeep of the shrine and walk away.

“Actually, I do have something I’d like to talk to you about. I feel this isn’t the time or place though, so all I ask is that we meet at the Uyuu Restaurant at your earliest convenience. Sound good, little one?” She asked with crossed arms and a smile. You nodded.

“Of course, Lady Guuji.” You accepted her invitation, still very nervous. She chuckled at your worried expression and smirked.

“Glad we arranged this. I hope to see you soon, Y/N,” She sang before walking off. You waited for her to leave before continuing to work, as she instantly rushed off to check on other areas of the shrine.

What exactly did she want? You wondered to yourself. It would have been a valid question, had your words not been caught in your throat. It’s really hard to think when her sakura scent is wafting into your nose, her eyes are only on you, and that smile of hers on her face. You’re aware that she is planning something, but cannot pin down exactly what.

Could it be something to do with the Shogun? No. She would have known better than to choose a simple shrine maiden. Chances are, she would have called upon that traveler, the one Yae called on to assist her in bringing the Shogun back to her senses. Surely they would be a thousand times more effective and helpful than you.

It definitely wasn’t something regarding shrine work, unless, of course, it is. She has had plots in the past where she would have shrine maidens play roles to assist in the success of her plans regarding the supernatural. This matter didn’t seem to worry her that much though, she didn’t seem too serious. Of course, the kitsune was careful and excelled in masking her true intentions and emotions, but it seems that this wasn’t something too urgent.

Could the Lady Guuji herself be asking you to accompany her as a friend? That would be sweet but doesn’t ease you or shake your skepticism. As unlikely as this seems, she does like watching people squirm in her presence, it can be fun for her if she’s in a playful and jovial mood. But you? Really? You shake the thought, highly doubtful that this is actually the case.

Throughout the day, your racing thoughts began to fade as you performed your duties. Assisting in practices and performing simple exorcisms (or rather, faking it because the person in question isn;t actually possessed), deciphering fortune slips, etcetera. By the end of your day’s work, you had almost completely forgotten about Lady Guuji’s request until thinking about dinner.

You hurried down the steps of the shrine, all the way down Mt. Yougo and through the grassy fields into Inazuma City. Upon nearing the restaurant, Yae already stood, anticipating your arrival. She didn’t notice you at first, this led to you tapping her shoulder and slightly jumping back when she turned to you, smiling.

“I expected you to take longer,” she laughed “shall we head inside?”

You nodded your head as she made way for you to walk through the doorway first, she immediately followed. The lights inside were charming and the setting itself was nice and cozy as well. Yes, you’ve been here before, but never appreciated it as much until being invited by her. You noticed every little detail of the place; from the various scents moving through the air, to the creaking wood and chatter from other patrons. All of these surroundings occupied your mind, consumed you as a distraction from the butterflies fluttering in your stomach.

The two of you sat at the bar, where you both ordered the ever-popular tonkotsu ramen. The silence was awkward at first, even though the ambience of the other customers made up for the lack of conversation from the two of you.

“Aren’t you going to thank me for inviting you out tonight, Y/N?” the kitsune joked. Due to your tenseness and nervousness, you had to fight the urge to apologize profusely.

“My apologies, Lady Guuji. I am very grateful for the invitation and am glad to be here with you tonight. Thank you.” You responded, almost like you were reciting something pre-rehearsed.

“You are allowed to call me Yae, you know? I understand that you’re caught off guard but I imagined that the shock would have worn off by now.” she remarked.

“It’s kind of… see, you’re highly revered and in all honesty, I’m glad you invited me out tonight but I couldn’t quite put my finger on the reason.” You explained to her, trying your best to avoid eye contact, yet stealing glances every few words or so.

“Let me explain.” She smiled and cleared her throat subtly.

“Recently, my ideas for writing have run dry as of late. Then it dawned on me that maybe something different is in order,” She started, “After all, Yae Publishing House is renowned for paving the way, is it not?”

“What might that be?” You asked, your interest piqued.

“Well, how many romantic light-novels have you seen with two female protagonists pining for each other?” She proposed. Come to think of it, she has a point. There aren’t very many or any at all. None that are well-known anyway.

“That does sound interesting, especially since I’m big into light novels, I haven’t yet found any with that being the focus. I would definitely read it, that’s for sure.” You beamed. Yae chuckled, thankful for your insight.Your bowls of ramen were gently placed in front of , the steam warming your face and the scent making your mouth water. You were still intent to hear her plans, so you gave her a look that urged her to keep speaking.

“Come now, eat. I didn’t invite you out for you not to eat, after all.” She smiled as she raised her ladle full of pork broth up to her pink lips, savoring every last drop. You couldn’t help but stare at her pleased expression, but looked away as she noticed you looking. You heard her giggling as you picked up the noodles in your bowl and began slurping them up with delight.

After thoroughly enjoying your meals along with each others’ presence, Yae shifted in her seat to face you.

“Oh yes, one part I failed to mention,” she recalled “The reason I invited you to eat and speak with me on this matter.”

“You didn’t just want my input?” You asked her. She shook her head and giggled.

“No, I had something else in mind,” she started explaining “I wanted to see what it was really like, being in a relationship with a woman, solely to assist with writing these two characters. What do you think?”

“You’re not proposing–” You were taken aback, absolutely shocked by what the kitsune was insinuating. Your face turned a bright red and she smirked at this physical response.

“Only for the purpose of writing this story. After all, I can split the sales with you if that’s a motivator of yours.” She proposed.

“No, no! I’m not money-hungry for anything, I’m just–” You shook your head and waved your hands, but she interrupted the oncoming explanation. She already knew.

“I know, I know. This is completely uncalled for and it concerns you that I proposed this out of the blue. Truly I understand,” Yae sympathized, placing a gentle hand on your shoulder “You have all the right to reject this offer. I will not force you to assist me, but I’d very much like it if you did.”

“I…” you tried to speak, but couldn’t muster up the words. While yes, this was quite uncalled for, you weren’t uncomfortable. Flattered, maybe, but not shifting and squirming because you wanted to leave. Only because this was quite sweet, in some weird way. She said it was fake but sincerity was sprinkled in her voice.

“I… I have decided… I will help you with this investigation of yours.” You accepted, turned away from her out of embarrassment.

“Are you certain? You look like you're quite bashful and unsure.” She asked to confirm, and you faced her.

“Miss Yae, all due respect, who in their right mind would reject an opportunity like this?” You deadpanned, causing her to giggle in response.

“I suppose you have a point.”

“So does this mean…?” You asked, raising an eyebrow. She nodded and smirked.

“Hopefully we’ll make the best of partners, my dear Y/N.” She cooed as she handed the man behind the counter a pouch of mora. She then proceeded to get up and offer her arm. You got up and grasped her forearm and smiled up at her.

“Shall I walk you home?” She offered, a loving smile on her lips. You nodded and averted your eyes shyly.

“Yes, Miss Yae.” You grinned from ear to ear. You’d cover your face if you could. A feeling was boiling in your chest and you had no idea what it was. Not anxiety, not fear, but admiration? No. Too soon. That couldn’t possibly be it. It’s only been minutes.

“Alright, lead the way,” She said as you two headed out of the restaurant and into the beautiful night.

This is all just for the sake of inspiration, right? Then why does it feel so real?

A/N: Hi guys! I've had this idea in my brain forever and if you want the whole story (I haven't finished the second chapter yet lol), I will be regularly updating it on Wattpad! This post is the first chapter and the link below is the same thing but if you'd like to support the book, it'd mean a lot! <3

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celluloidbroomcloset · 2 months

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Not to beat a dead horse or anything with the masc Stede discourse but the way he was acting in the bar with all the other pirates made me think too hard about my time in highschool and how hard I tried to be “masc” to fit in, trying to present myself as more manly to others even though I never really wanted that, and neither did Stede I’m sure. It was merely the idea of being accepted in a general populace, even though it was toxic. It irks me to see how some people try to fit Stede in a (1/2)

Traditionally masculine role when that was never was he was or ever really wanted to be. Even in his dream, it felt like an exaggeration of what he “should” be. Just a lot of self consciousness. From one toxic environment to another and now to finally find yourself and freedom. Let men be effeminate and happy. To see Stede be so soft and gentle and enjoy pretty fabrics and flowers means so much to me tbh. No gay man needs to wear the “pants” in the relationship. Sorry for the rambling!! (2/2)

Yeah, I think that both the scenes in "Man on Fire" and the pub scene in "Wherever You Go" are intended to show Stede trying, and ultimately failing, to fit into his society. He wants it more in "Man on Fire," but in neither does he actively seek it out; it more or less comes to him, and he indulges in it for a bit because he's someone who has never been able to fit into the space where he's "supposed to." Then it gradually becomes less and less fun and more painful—he likes the attention, then he gets drunker, he starts thinking of Ed or of what he's lost, he gets depressed, he gets angry. Both sequences end with a woman nearly killing him for performing this role that is not and never has been him. Stede could absolutely become that man, because any man could, but it would destroy every part of him and it's not what he really wants or thinks he should be. And that is very important. It's

I think his dream at the start gets a bit misread as being his ultimate fantasy self that he's aspiring to—being a badass, killing the bad guy, getting Ed back, etc. But there are clear cracks there—Izzy reminds him that he chose to leave, Ed doesn't forgive him, Stede himself begins crying as soon as he sees Ed. Stede is not delusional; he's gone through an entire arc of learning how little fantasies conform to reality, and even his own dream self fails to be perfect. He doesn't try to make the fantasy work, and seems to realize that his attempt to create the fantasy (getting a fancy ship so he can look good when he goes to find Ed) almost ended with him not getting back to Ed at all. Having a fantasy and truly wanting and believing you can become that fantasy are two different things.

Stede's not deluded and he does understand himself. He gets Ed back wearing the dirty white shirt he's been wearing for months, and he does it by being his kind, earnest self, even when other people laugh at him. None of that reads as a man trying to be "traditionally masc."

#ofmd #reply #our flag means death #stede bonnet #edward teach #ofmd meta

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showtoonzfan · 1 year

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Predictions for the new upcoming Helluva episode:

Ever since The Circus came out, these writers have had a habit of making long-ish episodes feel like you just watched a whole heap of nothing, but I expect this episode to be REALLY overwhelming and crazy since there’s clearly going to be a lot going on. This episode will probably be around 20-ish minutes unless it’s legit 30 minutes because I see that happening, especially since the crew made it clear that each episode gets longer and longer as the season moves on.

Similar to what I said in the last one, I just KNOW this episode will be insufferable regarding the pacing. Unlike the previous one where we were simply in one location, here we’re clearly going to be in multiple locations with more characters and plot lines, and let’s not forget…more fight scenes. I expect the animation to look very rushed and in your face in some areas, since this show is known for being very fast paced. It’s just going to be a mess, we all know it.

Either this episode will end with everything quickly being resolved and happy dandy, or it’ll drag out and end on another cliffhanger since the show is desperate for you to keep tuning in and have hype. (Cough, only for it to let you down later in the most underwhelming way COUGH) —It’ll either be one of those but I’m not sure which.

Stolitz pandering. Lots and LOTS of Stolitz pandering, with probably no mention of Ozzie’s too since nobody cares about actual character development and buildup, everyone just wants to see the ship in action, not the shit that actually should be setting it up. The pandering will of course revolve around sex jokes since nobody on this team can write believable nuanced gay couples, and like I said in the other post, Stolas will get hurt, uwu Blitzy has to save him since Moxxie and Millie are useless whenever they’re not the focus, and once Stolas ends up in the hospital, Blitz will worry over him and it’ll be dramatic yada yada. They’re probably going to pull another “SEE GUYS BLITZ LOVES HIM”- scene to pander the ship in. I’m also expecting the show to probably once again treat Stolas as someone who always “loved” Blitz and portray him as the uwu bumbling bird boi who’s in love despite it still not making any sense whatsoever.

Again, Moxxie and Millie will probably be useless in this episode. Like…yeah there’s going to be a fight scene between them and Striker, but Viv has proved to me that these fight scenes mainly go nowhere and I feel like it’ll be there to look cool and pad out the run time. Striker will probably just get away again anyway, unless Viv kills him off but I honestly doubt that’ll happen. I feel like I’m going to go out of this episode saying “Moxxie and Millie didn’t need to be in this episode”- because as of now they just seem to be there for the fight scene and nothing else. The focus is clearly going to be on Blitz, Stolas, and Striker anyway so do we really need them? Same for Loona, she looks like she’s here just for a fight scene and because the writers have no idea what to do with her outside of fighting or just appearing for a few minutes to either help the group out or do nothing.

I already said this but Andrealphus is definitely just going to be Stella 2.0 but a gay male version of her. Very flat, boring, and a waste of time. He’s just another pawn existing to merely torture poor Uwu Stolas and make him look like the innocent one because god forbid Stolas suffers from something other than a Saturday morning cartoon villain. Wish Stolas would suffer from the consequences of his actions rather than someone who doesn’t like him simply because they don’t like him but this show clearly has no interest in characters getting what’s coming to them and would rather baby them instead.

Highly doubt Octavia will be seen or even mentioned in this episode since no one gives a shit about her, unless Stolas will of course to show that he’s the good one who actually care’s because god knows Stella won’t mention her, and despite Andrealphus being Octavia’s uncle, I doubt he cares about her either, especially if you’ve seen the leaks where they’re both just getting pedicures and laughing about Stolas trying to call Octavia like fucking 80’s cartoon goons.

More non existent and empty world building or more things that are just left unexplained

Striker may or may not die, if he does I’m not patting Viv on the back for being “bold” because we now know she hates him and sees him as a toxic masculine bigot, and it seems like she’ll strip away what made him interesting in the first place anyway so his character was already ruined. If he survives we’ll know just so the show can bring him back again for the sake of suspense.

I already know that the fight scene or scenes in here with Striker are probably going to be like the fight scene in episode 5, where there are not only countless animation mistakes like the backgrounds changing constantly, but characters hesitating when they could easily just shoot immediately, cause…again…plot. And speaking of the plot, this might be another episode where the characters are dumbed down for the sake of it.

Knowing that Viv wrote this episode, I’m expecting it to be very horny. Perhaps not as horny as the previous episode, but still horny, especially since it’s a Stolitz centric episode.

And that’s it. I’m honestly dreading this episode cause Viv wrote it, and we all know how S1E7 turned out. I really wish we were getting the Fizz and Ozzie episode instead, but nah we can’t go two episodes without focusing on Stolas and/or Blitz. I’ll be here to review it once it drop’s because it is keeping me entertained, so I’ll see y’all then.

#vivziepop critical #spindlehorse critical #helluva boss critical #helluva boss critique #helluva boss criticism #helluva critical #vivziepop critique #vivziepop criticism

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remidyal · 7 months

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Bad Ideas of the Day, Part Three

My monthly-ish roundup of my bad dimension 20 fanfic ideas of the day prompts! As ever, all of these can be written by anyone who cares to do so.

Part two can be found here and part one here

Bad Idea Of the Day, Multi-class Edition: Following basic pattern recognition skills, Fig decides and convinces four of the other bad kids that the key to getting powerful wizard abilities is not hard work and study, but having a name that starts with the letter A. Can Adaine deal with walking in to class on the first day of school and finding five new students in her wizard classes, Afig, Akristen, Ariz, Agorgug, and Abian, or will she murder her friends on the spot?

Bad idea of the day, Sicktember is a curse edition: Out of respect for Aelwyn's compromised immune system following her time in the orb, the residents of Mordred Manor actually take proper precautions to avoid getting her sick during the following flu season. A fluff piece and alas seemingly pure fantasy.

Bad idea of the day, yes I already did one today edition: Fig, actually doing a bard assignment for once, needs to build a ballad for her family history and decides to include the entire insane non-Gorgug bad kids family tree, even the most tenuous links in it like Kristen and Aelwyn.

Bad idea of the day, role swap edition: Fabian, prince of Leviathan, must deal with a ship that has been raiding his father's trading vessels, led by two sisters who are pirating with varying degrees of reluctance to bring wealth back to their greedy and demanding parents

Bad idea of the day, backstory mix and match edition: In the summer before high school, Kristen and her entire family are ripped apart by the discovery that she is half-devil; meanwhile, wood elf Fig wakes up one morning to a god whispering in her head and is deeply annoyed because they won't just let her sleep in.

(If I want to do it for all of the bad kids, hmm… Riz's parents are actually retired thieves, while Bill Seacaster was actually a privateer working for Solace the whole time; Adaine is adopted and aware of it and hoping her birth parents would actually love her, while Gorgug has a wild gnomish older sister who may be up to some nefarious activity)

Bad idea of the day, every show needs a musical episode by its third season edition: The residents of Elmville have been cursed into bursting into song at the slightest provocation, with reactions ranging from the amused (Fig, Kristen) to the murderous (Riz, Aelwyn). What kind of villain could be behind such an impromptu act of theater?

Why, it's Sam Reich of course. He's been here the… you know the rest.

Bad idea of the day, I Like Werewolves Okay? edition - KINGSTON fails his con save to avoid becoming a werewolf during the train fight and everyone else needs to help him adjust without gnawing on too many people.

Bad idea of the day, the writer had to scroll back to see if it had already done a bad idea of the day today edition: A groundhogs day esque time loop for one of the bad kids, but it's not a dramatic day or anything special and in fact it's just kind of boring and miserable. This turns out to eventually be revealed to be revenge by Arthur Aguefort for some petty and long-forgotten-by-the-kid slight.

Bad idea of the day, campaign fusion edition: Arthur Aguefort sends the Bad Kids on their most dangerous and critical mission yet, shrinking them down to clean out his fridge and prevent the vegetables within from grouping up to kill him before he can eat them, without causing too much damage to the ecosystem he's been maintaining for the last five centuries. Can these mere fleshy beings stop this uprising against 'the hungry one' in the world of Calorum?

Bad idea of the day, early morning edition: Kristen's gay awakening is triggered not by Tracker, but rather by someone who her parents would hate even more: The cute bi rebellious tiefling in her new party.

Bad idea of the day, portal to hell edition: Daybreak succeeds in condemning Kristen to hell, which doesn't actually end the world but does mean Kristen's stuck in hell. Can she find a new god worth following in such spicy surroundings?

Bad idea of the day, after school special edition: Fig and Aelwyn get part-time jobs going around Solace to "demonstrate" the dangers of drugs and drinking by going to local school parties and faking getting into lethal car accidents, overdoses, and other mishaps to scare those local students into being drug free, mostly because both of them secretly find it funny and in Aelwyn's case she needs the money

Bad idea of the day, Double Your Pleasure edition: Riva, never quite certain how the pleasure putty they're selling works, finds out about oral sex and then makes the determination that the explosive material should be marketed as chewing gum. The ensuing pleasure blows people's minds!

Bad idea of the day, Oops All Spells edition: The bad kids manage to not get detention on the first day and to avoid accidentally playing into daybreak's hands, ending up in normal parties. Many of them have many troubles out of this, but the worst is for Fig, who finds herself tempted into hanging out with the first other tiefling she's ever met even if he is a little bit of a loser, one Johnny Spells

Bad idea of the day, Mentopolis edition: The Fix gets an assignment to wipe out serial distracter Imelda Pulse before she can ruin any more coworker's birthdays

Bad idea of the day, Afterlife edition: Figueroth Faeth is very bad at the paperwork of her domain in Hell, even after nearly fifty years running it. Luckily for her, her good friend and paperwork expert Riz Gukgak has just died of old age, and Fig isn't above cheating him out of heaven in order to get his administrative expertise in Hell.

Bad idea of the day, party swap edition: As part of a junior year test, all of the students in that year must do a relatively easy quest mixed up into different parties, with no two members of a typical party allowed to be together. How do the bad kids handle doing a mission with people who are less, well, generally insane and bloodthirsty than they are?

Bad Idea of the Day, Spy Versus Spy edition: All of the bad kids are on secret missions to spy on Arthur Aguefort and his school, with varying degrees of willingness and conflicting goals: Adaine for Fallinel, Kristen on behalf of the church, Fig on behalf of Hell, Riz for Kalina, Fabian for his father, and Gorgug for the Solisian government itself through his parents.

Bad idea of the day, A Crown of Candy edition: Amethar dies in the initial ambush, the way Brennan had frankly probably planned for. Can the remnants of house Rocks hold things together and avenge their fallen king?

Bad idea of the day, Nightmare Forest edition: Rather than illusions, the nightmare forest sequence is made up of a Freddy Kreuger-esque sequence of actual dreams in the Bad Kids' actual sleeps, with them needing to survive their respective worst nightmares in order to make it to the place at the center of dreams where they can find the Nightmare King.

Bad idea of the day, fake holiday edition: Aguefort in junior year includes a class on self-promotion, and Fig and Adaine, taking it extremely seriously, start a holiday honoring the anniversary of Riz murdering Daybreak.

#fantasy high #a starstruck odyssey #dimension 20 #fanfic #the unsleeping city #a crown of candy #bad ideas

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midnightrings · 2 months

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On another note, I spent the entire day to finally start working on the Edwina/Siena fanfic I've been wanting to write for an eternity now - I've already written almost 10k words and I'm having so much fun with this.

This was such a random idea I had a couple months ago and I've never thought of them as a ship before that, but they honestly fit so well together.

I've been a bit indecisive about whether Edwina will be a lesbian in this fic or not. I want the story to be "canon-compliant" with the first 2 seasons and it definitely seemed like she was attracted to Anthony...

I never hc Edwina as gay before, but I really adore lesbian!edwina tbh - and I think it's only been that scene at the lake where Edwina showed actual attraction towards Anthony? I feel like that could easily also be mere curiousity ...

Anyways, it's not like I would let 3 seconds of canon to stop me from making Edwina a lesbian lmao

#bridgerton for ts #edwina sharma #siena rosso #edwina x siena #i just prefer for my fics to still be close to canon tbh #but besides that scene i don't think there was anything else?#pls feel free to correct me tho #like obviously she liked anthony but that doesn't mean she was attracted to him #i gave her a husband in this fic too who she definitely felt love for at one point just not romantic love #anyways i hope i finish that fic soon and can start posting it cuz i'm in love with that story #vi's fic notes #<- starting a new tag because i want to share more about my fanfics on here

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thesoftboiledegg · 1 month

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What up, libsharts. Since you all fell for my brilliant social experiment last year, I thought I’d come back to troll you for another round. You really thought that I was gay, huh? Well, you weren’t the only ones. I showed it to the bros in my Elon Musk Discord server, and they stupidly went “Wow, that was pretty gay” and I said “No it isn’t” and one guy said “You said that you’re attracted to Rick a bunch of times” and I said “No I didn’t” and another guy said “Dude, you said the exact same thing yesterday” and I said “No I didn’t” and he said “You literally showed up out of nowhere, said ‘im going to jack it to rick tonight lol’ and left” and I said “Haha, it was all a social experiment! I’m fucking with you! I’m a master manipulator like Rick! What’s gay about what I said? If somebody on Discord said ‘I want Rick Sanchez to ream me in the back room at Spencer’s’ and you thought ‘Wow, that sounds pretty gay,’ maybe YOU’RE the one who has dreams about Rick railing you in a blow-up inflatable pool while Bird Person lies facedown in a ditch!”

I beat them with cold, hard logic, just like Rick would. But one aspect of my genius experiment was true: I’m a dudebro sent here to infiltrate Tumblr. We do everything better than you, and to prove it, I wrote a fic that’s infinitely superior to anything you Tumblrinas could shit out. You think you’re the only ones who can come up with stories? Ha! You’re never going to beat me. You ass clowns have no idea how many times I’ve fantasized about Rick!

Anyway, here’s my one-shot that’s better than a thousand Rick Sanchez/Reader fics combined, and I would know, because I read all of them. And this is NOT AI-generated, by the way–no machine could compete with the brilliance pulsating in my brain stem. Get obliterated with literature, dumbfucks!

Your Majesty: Rick Sanchez/Elon Musk (PLATONIC!!)

Elon Musk gazed at the sky as a spaceship shimmered into view, glittering in the sunlight while it approached the SpaceX landing strip. Elon–or E, as his most respected admirers called him–was a ruggedly handsome man of over six feet tall with a chiseled jaw, godlike facial features, sizeable muscles and a full head of hair that one would love to run their hands through–if they were allowed to, of course. But few people had enjoyed this privilege. In both a literal and metaphorical sense, Elon Musk was truly untouchable.

A SpaceX rocket launched to the left of him, undoubtedly on another successful mission, but E’s eyes were fixed on the giant spaceship drifting to the ground with a barely audible whirr. The Tesla logo glinted on the front of the incredible ship, a mark of Elon’s brilliance. Steam hissed from the entrance as the side door opened and a lengthy shadow stretched across the ground.

“Greetings, Elon,” Rick Sanchez said as he approached. He was just as handsome as Musk, perhaps even more so. At nearly seven feet tall, most humans could only gaze up at him and marvel at his unfathomable genius, matched only by that of the engineer standing in front of him. He strode magnificently toward E as if he knew that he were God’s perfect creation, the scientist that would give Stephen Hawking envy diarrhea.

“Salutations, Rick,” E answered in kind, acknowledging the pleasure of being in his presence. “What do you have for me?”

“I have a concept that will revolutionize our lives and showcase our brilliance to the rest of the planet.” Rick paused. “Nay, the entire galaxy. Alien species will look up at us in wonder as they question how Earth could have produced not one, but two, of the universe’s perfect beings.”

Musk flashed him a smile brimming with boyish charm. “It seems, as I’ve suspected many times, that you and I are the main characters in this simulation, and everyone else–girls and normies in particular–are mere NPCs.”

“This is true, but I can’t take credit for all of it,” Rick admitted. “While most of this idea was mine, I confess that I couldn’t have developed this plan without Tesla’s impressive technology.”

“You are too humble,” E said with a nod of his head. “Of course, none of this would have been possible without your technology that turned Tesla into the pinnacle of human achievement, a stunning display of masculine brilliance and prowess that womenfolk could never accomplish because they’re dumb.”

“You are familiar with my Raising Gazorpazorp manifesto, I presume?”

“Of course, Rick. I have watched every moment of your life with intense fascination. Our Twitter interaction all those years ago was the highlight of my existence, moreso than the birth of every one of my children combined, and it compelled the author of this story to jerk off to it even though we’re both men.”

“He was imagining all the hot chicks that he sucked off in his fraternity, I’m sure.”

“Undoubtedly. Now, if you would, please lead me into the ship so that I can witness your latest intellectual conquest.”

“Follow me, Your Majesty,” Rick responded with a limp-wristed wave that was stunningly, incredibly heterosexual.

The door hissed shut behind them as E followed Rick into the ship. Since Rick had partnered with Tesla a year prior, his ship had become a sprawling technological wonder full of everything that the space traveler could possibly need. Only E could have done this, Rick thought to himself, as he gazed around the interior of the ship as if seeing it for the first time. Truly, being in the presence of his hero reminded him of his incredible fortune.

Rick’s ship, once small and held together with duct tape but an astonishing creation nonetheless, now housed five scientific laboratories stocked with alien technology that Rick and E had amassed on their many adventures together. His ship also possessed a gigantic library, a hologram room where he spoke with digital recreations of Earth’s greatest MALE scientists, a math classroom where he solved and invented equations, a Tesla think tank where shareholders held board meetings, a SpaceX rocket manufacturing plant, and a cafeteria that served exclusively reheated taquitos and Mountain Dew.

Elon felt the same way as Rick. He couldn’t keep his eyes off the scientist as they walked to one of the laboratories. Of course, this was done in a completely straight, masculine way. E thought that he would later have sex with lots of beautiful women that looked a little like Rick, but they weren’t Rick, because that would be gay.

“Here it is, my dear E,” Rick said, spreading out his arms in front of him like a Greek god.

A scale model of a glass dome stood on a pedestal with tiny figures moving inside to represent a community. As E peered into the dome, the glass reflected his breathtakingly handsome features.

“This is the community that we will build on Pluto,” Rick announced. “As you’ve undoubtedly guessed already due to your unfathomable genius, those crystals in the center release pheromones that will cause the most beautiful women in the universe to flock to us while the ugly ones stay at home and cry about it on Tumblr. These beauties will fawn over and make out with us while we chug Mountain Dew and watch video game livestreams where one guy just says ‘BANG!’ over and over. One of our wives will microwave taquitos on demand while another will periodically wipe the sweat off our gaming chairs. Truly, we will be the gods of our own universe.”

E smiled at this thought. He had colonized Mars years ago and had no less than 1,000 Martian wives with male relatives who had invested in E-Coin, his genuis cryptocurrency that only tech bros could understand, but he now saw an opportunity to enter the NFT market. Any male would be delighted to own a digital representation of one of these alien Helens of Troy. And of course, who but Rick should be at his side? Who else but the god-like scientist who deserved to have dominion over every living being in existence?

“If you have a minute, E–” Rick began, then stopped. “You do have a minute, don’t you? As the owner and CEO of X, PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla, OpenAI, Neuralink, xAI, Midjourney, OpenSea, Adult Swim, Dogecoin, McDonald’s, Fox News, The Joe Rogan Experience, Funko Pops, Discord, and Harmontown, I realize that your time is so precious that one second with you is worth ten kilos of fine Neptunian gold.”

Once more, Elon flashed his iconic boyish grin. “Rick, don’t you know me by now? If I weren’t a man of science who understood the natural disasters that it would cause, I would stop the world from spinning on its axis just to spend another minute in your presence.”

Rick responded with a flushed smile, then pressed a button on the side of the display. “Then allow me to demonstrate.”

When a set of steel doors slid open, a girl robot emerged from the storage space. I guess she was attractive for a girl. In her extended arms, she held a glass case piled high with shimmering jewels.

“This is a scale model of one of our Plutonian wives,” Rick said intelligently, lifting the case from her hands. “In preparation for our mission, I’ve amassed a fine collection of intergalactic space jewelry.”

Rick typed in a code to unlock the case: 42069. 420 and 69 were Rick’s favorite numbers, as well as Elon’s. The gemstones glinted in the light as the lid clicked open. Rick attached the earrings and kissed the robot’s ears, slid on the bracelets and kissed her wrists, and strung on the necklace and kissed her neck. He looked amazing in that jewelry.

“Well, Rick, this calls for quite the celebration,” E said cheerfully. “Should we celebrate with a bottle of Twitterian space wine?

“Of course,” Rick said with a wink. “What do you think I stashed in the wine cooler?”

Rick pressed a button on the wall, causing a drawer to slide out with a hiss and a cloud of steam. The steam dissipated to reveal a sparkling bottle of golden wine and two identical glasses with Rick and Elon’s names etched into the side. Rick handed Elon one of the glasses, the surface reflecting his Adonis-like visage.

“Let’s take this to the lounge, shall we?” Rick said. “I could use some quality time with my technological muse, the scientist whose mere existence transformed my life the second I laid eyes upon him.”

“Ah, but the feeling is mutual,” Elon confessed. “When I first saw you in that Tesla board meeting and realized that you had invested in our stock, I knew that I had reached the defining moment of my career, the pinnacle of achievement that made everything else seem like watching an orangutan pissing into a lake.”

“Your affections charm and dazzle me,” Rick responded. “I may go on adventures alone when you’re busy transforming X into history’s greatest social media empire, but I confess that my travels are incomplete without you by my side.”

“I will have to take a break from X to join you on the next mission,” E said with a nod. “After all, we have not yet had sex with all the hot babes in the universe. We’ve had sex with most of them, this is true, but I’m sure there are far-off corners of the galaxy that have yet to hear the legend of Rick and Elon: a hundred years, a hundred more, our friendship extending into eternity.”

A few minutes later, the two of them were reclining in a lounge furnished with plush velvet couches, Greek statues of famous scientists, and a bubbling hot tub. Rick and Elon had slept with many hot alien chicks in this lounge, but they didn’t really enjoy it even though they were both straight. One might say that they were super-straight. It was a special type of straight that only their genius minds could possess.

Elon and Musk clinked their glasses before they each took a drink. “While we’re here, should we engage in some meta commentary?” E said with a sly chuckle.

“Of course,” Rick said, straightening to look at the reader. “I would like to say that the author of this fic is an incredibly handsome, virile, and heterosexual man, and if I were gay and he were gay–which we’re not, of course–I would love to take my pants off and sit on his face while he recites mathematical theorems.”

“I concur,” E said with a tilt of his head. “I also find this author to be quite attractive, brilliant and god-like, and although I’m super-straight, I would be up for a threesome with you, him, and I in a truck stop bathroom while some other guys watch.”

“Truly, that would be the spectacle of a lifetime,” Rick said with a charming, boyish grin. “Of course, this is impossible because I’m straight as well as white and neurotypical, and whenever I said otherwise, I was in fact performing a social experiment on my audience.”

“I, too, have done such a thing,” Elon agreed. “And Birdrick is platonic, is it not?”

“Birdrick is indeed platonic. Anyone who thought that scene was gay needs to watch some gay porn and learn what ‘gay’ really means, which this author does on a regular basis.”

They nodded in agreement, then drank their glittering space wine as the sun set outside the ship, casting the inside of the lounge in a deep, romantic glow. Rick lit a set of Tesla candles powered by Teslectricity, a new form of electricity that Musk had patented. The lights shimmered and flickered as if the candles were about to explode any second.

Orange light shined on the surface of the water bubbling in the hot tub. “It’s growing warm in here,” Rick said, fanning himself with his strong yet elegant hand. “I think I need to remove a few layers. Excuse me, E, while I change into something other than my iconic lab coat.”

Rick disappeared into another room and returned a few minutes later, wearing only a bathrobe. Elon rubbed the back of his neck as he found himself sweating. Suddenly, the temperature seemed to have increased a hundred degrees.

“I believe that I will also remove a few layers,” E stated. “Excuse me for a moment.”

E disappeared into the same room, which had several robes and outfits in his size just in case he lost his clothes for some weird reason. The room also held outfits for other prominent male scientists, plus Dan Harmon. The room had no clothing for womenfolk because they’re gross and dumb.

When Elon returned, Rick sat on the edge of the hot tub, drawing circles in the surface of the water with his toe as he swirled the remainder of the wine in his glass. His eyes were lowered with an expression that one could almost consider lustful–his thoughts full of girlies, no doubt, even though they scarcely deserved a moment of his attention.

“I’m thinking about taking a dip in the hot tub,” Rick said. “Would you care to join me?”

“Of course,” E said, already removing his robe. “I desire nothing else in this moment.”

—

HAHA noobs, you thought you had it all figured out, didn’t you? You thought this was going to lead to some gay shit? Well, I’ll tell you what happens. Rick and Elon PLATONICALLY sit in the hot tub together. That’s all that they do. And they talk about all the babes that they’re going to make out with when Rick gets his crap on Pluto set up. Yeah, that’s right, libpukes: Rick likes GIRLS even though they’re stupid and dumb and don’t understand Rick and Morty! No one will ever understand Rick Sanchez like I do! Not Elon Musk, despite his unfathomable brilliance! Not Dan Harmon, despite his magnificent beard! No one but me, Steve White, the man of every scientist’s dreams!

Anyway, I just proved to you that the woke crowd took over the writers’ room and made Rick something he’s not. This story is more accurate and in character than every episode from seasons 5-7 put into a blender, spun around and spewed onto a plate like a horse vomit smoothie. Rick was once a manly, masculine man–a man’s man, you might say–before they turned him into a twink like they’re challenging the audience to jerk off to him.

I told the guys in my Elon Musk server “Wow, Rick and Morty has been a real jerkoff machine lately, huh?” and they said “No? Not really?” and I said “What show are you watching? Rick and Morty has been a total jerkoff machine” and one guy said “Yeah, I agree with you, I jack it to Rick on the regular” and I said “Haha, I was just fucking with you guys! It was another social experiment! I’m a master manipulator! I’m the real-life Rick! What’s gay about what I said? While you queers jack it to Rick in a gay way, I’m going to jack off to Rick to PROVE TO MYSELF that I’m STRAIGHT!!!”

I got banned from the server for a week, and I had so much time on my hands that I decided I’d pop back in and give Tumblr another textual ass-crushing. The server’s going to be so proud of me when I tell them what I did. Elon would be proud. Dan Harmony-to-my-ears would be proud. And Rick would DEFINITELY be proud. If my Rick Sanchez body pillow were animated, he’d look directly into my eyes and whisper to me as tears of joy stream down my face.

Oh my God, forget it. Why am I still wasting my time with you idiots? You have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty.

#rick and morty #rick sanchez #elon musk #rick sanchez/elon musk #fanfiction #fan fiction #tesla #teslamotors #teslacars #dan harmon #april fools

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a-noone · 5 months

Text

Silly McSpirk Story Idea: When The Ship Sails

Inspired by the story of two best friends who pretended to be a gay couple to win booze on a cruise ship. Plot under the cut.

The planet Klobour is rich in dilithium, and populated by a species with roughly 21st century level technology. As a pre-warp civilization, they are protected by the Prime Directive.

The Klingons do not care. Their plan is to slaughter the planet's Prime Minister, take over the government, and mine the hell out of that dilithium. They see their chance when said Prime Minister boards a luxury cruise ship.

Kirk, Spock, and McCoy must go undercover on that cruise ship. Chapel modifies their appearance, Uhura hacks some Klobour computers to give their men tickets, and they go and replicate both appropriate attire and a limited quantity of cash currency.

McCoy: "Well, if we're gonna blend in, we're gonna need extra cash for tipping, and for their over-priced alcohol."

Spock: "Doctor, the quantity of alcohol you undoubtedly wish to drink would necessitate replicating a quantity of currency that would almost certainly attract the attention of the constabulary."

The cruise ship is snooze central. It's mostly loud old rich people and families with whiny kids.

Jim's fine. He thinks the kids are cute. He flirts with a bunch of older people just to make them feel good about themselves. He goes swimming in a speedo. Somehow, after three hours, he's friends with the ship's Captain.

Spock is caught in the hell which is watching Jim go around half naked, flirting with people who are not Spock. He vents his frustration by making pedantic commentary to McCoy.

Bones wants to McFuckin' DIE. Jim's got that thing for the diving board and surely he's gonna bust his fool-head open, and they can't even use modern medical tools. Kids won't stop running around and screaming and whining. Spock won't shut up. And because they only have a small amount of cash, he can't really afford alcohol.

McCoy: "YOU did this to me, you damn green-blooded miscreant."

Spock: "I fail to see how I am responsible for the socio-political circumstances that necessitated our presence here."

McCoy: "Damnit, I told you we needed more money! I can't even afford a french fry here, let alone a mixed drink."

Jim: *getting between them and slapping them both on the shoulders* "Hey, you know, there's a newlywed contest. The prize is unlimited free food and drink. You two certainly argue enough to be a married couple."

And Jim is joking. Teasing.

Spock: "Undoubtedly, Captain. Securing additional food and drink for Doctor McCoy would doubtless improve his mood, and make the mission easier."

McCoy: "There is no way you could pull off pretending to be my husband."

Spock: *raising an eyebrow in defiance*

The game show is pretty standard. You have to answer correctly about the other person's personality, preferences, and favorites. They win because Jim has never, since they've known him, been able to restrain himself from gushing about each of them to the other.

McCoy tries to make Spock uncomfortable by laying the flirtation on really thick.

Spock's not uncomfortable. He's actually secretly touched that McCoy knows his favorite tea blend, his favorite book, his favorite poet, his favorite scientists, the name of his childhood pet, all of his hobbies. Spock remembers everything he heard because he's Vulcan. McCoy must remember because he cares.

Then, they win. As a bonus surprise, they are upgraded to the honeymoon suite. They must now, for the remainder of the cruise, sleep in a singular gigantic bed.

What they don't know is that they were recorded, and broadcast on loop to the entire crew, making them ship-wide celebrities.

They're asked to kiss every time they enter a common area. And they kinda have to do it. McCoy internally detonates at the realization that he likes kissing Spock, later yelling at him: "You didn't have to make it so convincing!"

Spock, a touch telepath, merely gloats.

Jim feels some kind of way about seeing his besties kiss each other.

But also, the secret Klingon operative on the ship now knows that McCoy and Spock are definitely on board! Romantic antics, pining, and angst are interrupted by Klingons trying to kill them and sink the ship.

The story ends with Jim confessing his affections for both of his friends. Spock announces that the only logical solution is a poly triad.

#only one bed #fake dating #fake marriage trope #mcspirk #cruise ship #Spock is a little shit

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marley-manson · 2 months

Note

D / L / N / P / T

Thank you 💖

D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t.

Hawk/BJ happy style. I have a feeling I'm missing out on some decent Hawkeye fic I might otherwise like because of this, but I just can't get into that Hawkeye/BJ happily ever after vibe. Earnestly shipping them would also probably help me get through a few of the more sloggy chunks of the later seasons - though on the flipside shipping them in a fucked up way helps me enjoy a lot of the weird conflict episodes, so it's not a bad tradeoff there.

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you merely dislike. Characters that you absolutely loathe with the fire of ten thousand suns are exempt, as there is no point in giving yourself an aneurysm over a character that you hate.)

I've said the whole BJ is interesting because of his flaws thing a lot so let's go with a different Mash character for this: Mulcahy is sweet and I love his friendship with Klinger.

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

Evil Hawk/BJ fic 😈 I want misery I want unhappy endings I want psychosexual torment I want resentment I want it to be fucked up.

This feels spoiled of me lol because there are absolutely some great historically accurate feeling fics, but I always want more gay Mash fic that feels like it's set in the 1950s.

And more fic that really leans into the misery of the setting, the draftees imprisoned in a nightmare vibe. The army brass are jailers and the draftees all hate their lives and I want to feel that at least as much as I feel it in the show.

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).

I'm into canon divergence moreso than new settings, so AU where Frank was kept as temporary CO for at least a few months after Henry died. Hawk bites the bullet and seduces him to redress the balance of power and secure his allyship.

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?

Gonna keep this Mash themed, so my Hawkeye is fine after the war headcanon - better than most of the cast. He goes home, spends a few months in Crabapple Cove, another few months in Europe, returns, gets his job in Boston back, returns to his pre-war social circle, falls in love with some dude unconnected to the war, and lives happily ever after.

It's a bit exaggerated to say I'd die defending it lol, I don't mind Hawkeye miserable to some extent post canon in fic (and have written it myself), and I get why it's a popular headcanon. But I'm married to my version of post-war Hawkeye like a year out, and idk if I could get into fic where he's like, depressed and struggling and/or isolates himself for years on end.

#text post #ask meme #marley on mash

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joehawke · 10 months

Text

hold me steady now (or steddie now. Get it?)

or: a (very short) Steddie first kiss scene

It was Robin’s idea.

She had insisted on taking (newly outed) Steve to her and Eddie’s favorite gay bar in Indy. Eddie quite frankly only has Robin to blame, he thinks.

Steve looks absolutely obscene is the issue. His hair is slicked back in a James Dean kind of way, his lips sparkling with what Eddie can only imagine to be as spit and alcohol, and his shirt is unbuttoned to reveal his chest hair (and Eddie wants nothing more than to take the fine course hair in between his teeth. Sue him).

The three have been there for over 2 hours, already drunk of their asses. Robin had downed a shot before stumbling away to chat with a group of girls over in the corner. That was 20 minutes ago.

Which leaves Eddie here, a drunk Steve begging to do a line of shots off the bar.

Steve has an orange slice he had gotten from his fruity drink wedged in between his teeth, quickly pulling it out to give Eddie a taste, the two too drunk to care about anything else, like how disgusting that truly is. Eddie’s forehead lies flat against Steve’s, Steve’s fringe sticking sweaty in between the two forces. Eddie is laughing at something, though he’s lost track of what’s even funny at this point as Steve throw his head back and laughs along, and god does Eddie love the sound of his laugh, and god does he want to lick a stripe up the vein protruding from Steve’s neck. Some days he wishes he could trap Steve’s laugh in a Jar and keep it like it was something sacred (though he would never tell him that).

Steve is so close to his face he can smell the booze radiating off Steve’s tongue. Eddie can feel Steve’s breath on his, and he can feel Steve’s eyelashes fluttering against his own cheekbones, he can feel Steve’s heartbeat, and can feel his own practically jack rabbiting out of his chest as Steve inches closer and closer. Steve parts his lips, Eddie following swiftly, before their alcohol hazed mouths are inching toward one another like a puzzle piece. Eddie thinks he wouldn’t mind always having this piece of the puzzle.

When their mouths collide, Eddie feels vulnerable, like he’s showing Steve everything he is and then some. But at the same time, he feels at home, safe, like Steve’s taste and warmth were to merely be the anchor that his tethering rope so desperately needed to be grounded for once. Steve’s mouth feels like a ship harboring, Eddie being the compass that brought it home. Steve tastes like alcohol, and lime, but more than that, he tastes like what Eddie imagines hope and serenity and solace were to taste like (cliche’s be damned okay? This is Steve Harrington he’s talking about).

Steve ignites a flame in Eddie, one that he hopes only sparks and grows in flames and never burns to ash and smoke. Steve’s mouth slots with Eddie’s sloppily, before they’re pulling just barely apart to catch their breath. Steve leans in to continue, the intent of a promise of some kind lingering in the air, and Eddie wants to reach out and clasp the promise with both hands and stick it in Steve’s laughter jar and leave it to fester.

But before Eddie can so much as do anything, Robin is bumbling over, all limbs and no logic as she crashes into him and Steve. Steve and Eddie share a look, a small shy smile coating Steve’s lips (and god does Eddie want to suck his lip back into his mouth), before Steve is holding Robin upright as they head to the exit. If kissing Steve is anything like what Eddie just experienced, then yeah, he doesn’t mind getting interrupted with the prospects of next time.

#idk what this is #fluff?#I wrote this forever ago #first kiss #when is it my turn #lovers #Steddie first kiss #steve harrington #stranger things #steddie #steve stranger things #eddie munson #steve x eddie #robin buckley #eddie stranger things #steddie drabble #Drunk Steve harrington #drunk eddie Munson #drunk Robin buckley

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samasmith23 · 4 months

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Evangelion: You Can (Not) Marathon — (Part 13)

Neon Genesis Evangelion, “Episode 13: Angel Invasion/LILLIPUTIAN HITCHER”

Continuing my Evangelion re-watch marathon with NGE, “Episode 13: Angel Invasion/LILLIPUTIAN HITCHER.” For my thoughts on the previous episode, click the link to the post below:

Happy New Year everyone! Yeah… it’s been quite a while since I posted my last episode analysis of Evangelion, hasn’t it? The last time I discussed an episode was back in August 2023, as I had to temporarily postpone this marathon due to being preoccupied with Graduate School classes. But since I’m currently on Winter Break in-between semesters and I’ve only got one more class to complete before I finally get my Master’s degree in History of Ideas, I thought it was finally time to resume my marathon of every episode and movie from the EVA franchise! So with all of that out of the way, let's dig into the 13th episode of NGE!

Aww! I love how right off the bat this episode reiterates the deep-seated admiration that one of the three main NERV staff members, Maya Ibuki, holds for the organization’s head scientist, Ritsuko Akagi. Specifically, the episode opens in Central Dogma where Ritsuko & Maya are conducting a routine system’s check-up on the facility’s advanced supercomputer, the MAGI system. Not only does Ritsuko complement the speed at which Maya enters the code sequences into the database, to which Maya replies, “Of course. Did I have any choice with you as my boss,” but Maya can’t help but stare in awe at her screen when Ritsuko types in a more rapid command-function, stating to herself, “Wow… she is the master…”

In addition to emphasizing Ritsuko’s skill and proficiency as a computer programmer, which serves as a central focus for the episode, this opening scene also subtly hints through the former’s interaction with Maya that the latter might view her relationship with Ritsuko in a much higher regard than just a mere master-&-apprentice bond. Specifically, I along with a lot of other EVA fans interpret Maya as a lesbian who’s secretly in love with Ritsuko.

The subject of queer-coding in Evangelion will become of greater significance when I eventually get around to discussing the character of Kaworu Nagisa in Episode 24, but this interaction along with several other scenes from future episodes of the series heavily infer that Maya secretly possesses romantic feelings for Ritsuko based on her dialogue and mannerisms when interacting with her. Although Maya’s attraction seems to be one-sided since it will later revealed that Ritsuko is sleeping with her boss Gendo Ikari in a failed effort to try and emotionally connect with her dead mother (which, again… GROSS…).

But while it would also be inappropriate for Ritsuko to instead get together with Maya due to the mentor/student power imbalance in their relationship, I can’t help but feel that Ritsuko would be in a much happier and healthier place in life if she also came out as gay and dumped the bastard Gendo for a female love interest. Heck, I’d personally ship Ritsuko with Misato! considering that the two are both best friends who attended university together, plus there was also some potential queer-coding in that brief moment of a swimsuit-clad Ritsuko suggestively bumping into Misato back in Episode 1!

One last aspect of Maya’s queer-coding that I’ll briefly elaborate on here is that many fans have pointed out that her character design heavily resembles that of the main protagonist, Shinji Ikari, further visually coding Shinji as potentially being a trans-femme egg! I absolutely love it!

Lol! As soon as I start talking about shipping Ritsuko & Misato, the latter then shows up to see if Ritsuko’s done with the MAGI’s system check-up. As Bane from The Dark Knight Rises once famously stated:

Alright, if I recall this is the first time the viewer is provided a visual diagram of the MAGI and how it specifically functions. While the MAGI has been referenced in passing throughout previous episodes, where it was portrayed as an advanced supercomputer that assists in and analyzes the effectiveness of battle strategies for combatting the Angels, as well as serves as the de-facto governing body for Tokyo-3 in place of an ACTUAL human mayor (who’s stated in Episode 11 to be a simple figure-head), it is here in Episode 13 that we first get a real glimpse of exactly how the MAGI operates.

According to the monitor diagram, the MAGI is divided into three separate systems that function in conjunction with each other, and are distinguished by the names “Melchior 1,” “Balthasar 2,” and “Casper 3.”

The names for the MAGI system themselves serve as yet another Biblical reference, specifically to the Three Wise Men from the Book of Matthew. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “Magi, in Christian tradition, the noble pilgrims ‘from the East’ who followed a miraculous guiding star to Bethlehem, where they paid homage to the infant Jesus as king of the Jews (Matthew 2:1–12)… Eastern tradition sets the number of Magi at 12, but Western tradition sets their number at three, probably based on the three gifts of ‘gold, frankincense, and myrrh’ (Matthew 2:11) presented to the infant… In about the 8th century, the names of three Magi—Bithisarea, Melchior, and Gathaspa—appear in a chronicle known as the Excerpta Latina Barbari. They have become known most commonly as Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar (or Casper).”

Furthermore, the episode’s opening also alludes to the later twist that the MAGI is far more than simply just a set of 3 advanced supercomputers. Specifically, following the routine system check-up the scene immediately transitions to a weary Ritsuko alone in the bathroom where she looks at her reflection and states, “Everything checked out. As usual, Mother’s in good shape, but… is it just me getting older?”

Not only does Ritsuko’s line effectively foreshadow that her late mother, Dr. Naoko Akagi, was the MAGI’s original inventor, but also the revelation that Naoko digitized her own consciousness into the system itself.

Also, that final line of Ritsuko’s, “Is it just me getting older?” Not only does this line indicate that Ritsuko is potentially experiencing a mid-life crisis, but it is also reflective of the emptiness that she feels due to her existence being solely defined by her association with the inventions of her late mother whom it later revealed that she had a strained relationship with due to the latter career-oriented pursuits as a world-renowned scientist. Here, Hideaki Anno & crew effectively communicates through simple visuals and dialogue that Ritusko is burdened by her desire to understand and connect with her mother by routinely tending to her living legacy.

Also also, another fan online pointed this out, but these shots of Ritsuko leaning at the sink and staring at her reflection directly parallel those of Asuka later on in Episode 22, who similarly pilots her EVA Unit-02 due to being haunted by the specter of her own emotionally neglectful mother. Once again, Anno truly is a master of being able to convey so much information and character nuance through subtle visuals alone!

Lol! As hilarious as it is to listen to Asuka’s complaints about having to completely undress alongside Shinji & Rei as they enter a decontamination for a special harmonics synchronization test with their respective EVAs, I do legitimately love how the animators here utilize the three pilots’ silhouetted postures (only the character’s faces & feet are left unobscured) behind the glass to distinguish each character’s unique personality traits!

Despite Asuka’s justified protestations of being required to strip down for this test, we see that she’s standing proud and firm with both hands on her hips, which is contrasted against the frustrated expression on her face, conveying how Asuka utilizes her boastful pride as a facade to mask her insecurities in front of others. In stark contrast to Asuka, Shinji is unable to hide his embarrassment and anxiety, since in addition to having a nervous expression he’s placing both his hands over his crotch to desperately preserve his modesty, which is reflective of the character’s fears of opening himself up to others. Finally, Rei is once again presented as the neutral middle-ground to Shinji & Asuka’s opposing ends of the emotional spectrum, as she simply gives a blank deadpanned expression while standing completely still in a non-exaggerated manner, highlighting her struggles to emotionally connect with herself and others.

Also, I’m totally with Asuka here! I sincerely hope that Ritsuko is telling the truth when she reassures Asuka on the intercom that the security cameras have their monitors temporarily shut off as the pilots exit their decontamination showers to enter their EVAs. At least… that’s what I’m hoping the red light suddenly appearing on the camera following the two’s conversation…

Still, however, I am somewhat surprised that the exit hallway lacks any guard railing between the shower doors to protect the pilot’s modesty from each other. I know that I would personally want such a feature, especially as someone who’s always HATED and refused to utilize open-door public shower facilities! UGH! That’s always been a major pet peeve of mine!

Whew… at least we as viewers can breathe a sigh of relief in the fact that Ritsuko was at least telling the truth about the naked pilot’s visuals being obscured from the test operator’s computer screens since they’re only presented as green silhouettes inside of their Entry-Plugs. Although Shinji seems to be the only one among the trio wearing a safety belt inside. Weird…

So I’m rather curious as to what the purpose of this specific harmonics test is exactly. Like, I understand the idea that the reason Ritsuko had Shinji, Rei & Asuka undergo decontamination and sit inside their Entry Plugs completely naked was so that she could determine how well each pilot synchronizes with their respective EVA Units without any foreign contamination (which feels like a callback to Episode 8 when Asuka forced Shinji to sit inside the Entry-Plug with her and she initially experienced a program error due to Shinji’s Japanese thought patterns interfering with her Unit being pre-conditioned for her native German language).

But what’s NERV’s specific end goal here? To simply see whether or not the pilots can better synchronize with their Units without the presence of their usual plug-suits?

While the exact answer is left incredibly vague and unanswered, I personally subscribe to a fan theory that I encountered online a while back (although I can’t remember where it originated from), but I believe that Ritsuko and NERV intend to utilize the data collected from each pilot’s unfiltered and decontaminated synch-ratios from this test as part of the dreaded Dummy-Plug system program in later episodes, since those specific Entry-Plugs are stated to perfectly imitate the thought-patterns of a pilot to trick an EVA-Unit to engage in an auto-pilot function even without the presence of an actual human pilot inside the plug.

Although... this theory does have some holes in it since it’s also later implied that NERV’s Dummy Plug system is specifically derived from the thought patterns of dozens of Rei clones (and that SEELE utilizes her counterpart Kaworu for the Dummy Plugs for the Mass-Production Evangelions in The End of Evangelion).

Also, I just realized something else! The fact that Shinji, Asuka & Rei are sitting inside of their Entry-Plugs naked (which is somewhat akin to a fetal position), and that the Entry-Plugs themselves are symbolically reflective of a mother’s womb due to the EVA-Units containing the souls of their dead mother’s (at least for Shinji & Asuka’s respective units…), and that the pilots are also submerged in Liquid LCL while inside of their Entry-Plugs, and LCL is the primordial soup that humanity was originally birthed from by the Seed of Life known as Lilith…

Geez, this scene alone takes all of the pre-existing Freudian imagery that EVA is known for, and pumps it up on steroids!

Moving on from that though, we get more foreshadowing of the true nature of the MAGI when Ritsuko coldly remarks, “You can sure feel their creator’s original personality can you,” in response to the 3 supercomputers suddenly processing a mysterious dilemma.

In addition to Ritsuko officially confirming to Misato (and by extension, the audience) that her mother Naoko was the original inventor of the MAGI system, we also get to see the initial signs of cracks beginning to form in Misato & Ritsuko’s friendship. Despite Misato’s high-ranking status as a NERV military officer and her promotion to Major in the last episode, it is evident that Misato is still in the dark concerning NERV’s more intimate secrets. While Ritsuko is willing to chastize Misato’s ignorance regarding the MAGI system due to the former’s personal connections with the classified hardware, Misato will grow increasingly distrustful of the other secrets Ritsuko is guarding for Gendo and will be inspired by her lover Kaji to try and unravel the conspiracy behind NERV.

Also, Misato’s annoyed retort, “That’s because unlike me, you never talk about yourself Ritsuko,” feels intentionally hypocritical on Anno’s part since Misato frequently attempts to hide specific aspects of her personality from others like Shinji due to her internal Hedgehog’s Dilemma. Although this exchange does convey that in contrast to Misato’s more emotionally extroverted persona, Ritsuko’s personality is more introverted, presenting herself more coldly and rationally due to her nature as a scientist.

I love the early ominous visual representations of the “dilemma” that the MAGI is responding to. First in the form of a visual graph up in Central Dogma’s mainframe, which Aoba & Fuyutsuki describe as “corrosion of the 87th protein wall” that they attribute to recently-installed parts to the system, as well as what appears to be a purple acidic burn-mark on the walls of one of NERV HQ’s tunnels.

Not only does this help provide initial intrigue and suspense for the viewer concerning this mysterious “dilemma,” but Fuyutsuki & Aoba’s dialogue debating the potential causes of the system error in highly-detailed technological detail reminds me of why I’ve always nicknamed this, “the Techno-Babble episode” of NGE!

Trust me when I say, there is going to be so much techno-babble in this episode alone that it would make Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation blush!

Also… that corrosion is creepy as all heck!

Lol! Both Ritsuko & Fuyutsuki make the exact same comment, “Ikari would chew my ass off,” in response to letting the corrosion interfere with their synchronization test! It’s like the old saying goes: “Two great minds truly think alike!”

Wait a minute… so the pilot’s EVA-Units are in their usual holding cages during this test? Then what exactly is that fleshy unarmored EVA-arm submerged in water and connected to half-a-dozen wires outside the window of Ritsuko’s control room supposed to be? Is it part of Rei’s EVA Unit-00 but on the opposite side of the wall-locks, or something else entirely? Either way, the fact that Ritsuko tells specifically Rei to move her arm in conjunction with that submerged severed arm does seem to suggest my earlier theory that this test is actually somehow connected to the Dummy Plug system…

Oh crap! Glowing red sparks appearing on the purple corrosive wall stain as soon as Rei synchronizes with the submerged EVA arm! Definitely not unusual and foreboding in the slightest! Not at all!

I’ve gotta say, I’m really enjoying the nice change of pace this episode takes in regards to its action scenes and building suspense! Instead of the usual strategic planning and bombastic Mecha vs. Kaju fights, Episode 13 takes full advantage of its focus on computer science by having Ritsuko utilize her technological expertise to try and quickly quarantine and prevent the spread of the corrosion of the 87th protein wall into the testing chambers.

Despite initially seeming inherently less exciting on the surface, from a cinematography and editing perspective the flow of action in this scene feels incredibly intense and suspenseful due to the fast pace and quick cuts between the various computer screen alerts & graphs, Ritsuko’s technical commands, and the closing of doors & pipes to prevent the spreading of the corrosion! Anno & GAINAX certainly know how to make even the seemingly mundane incredibly captivating from an action standpoint! That takes incredible talent!

Also, I don’t know why but I FREAKING love the design of those water drones that Ritsuko deploys into the testing pool!

Oh, I see now! The pilot’s Entry-Plugs are actually connected to 3 full-flesh unarmored EVA bodies inside the testing pool! I just couldn’t tell at first due to the previous camera angles of the pool framing the scene from outside the control room window, which combined with the darkly lit underwater conditions helped obscure the other two EVA-bodies! Also, the fact that the heads are missing and are replaced with wires (which I’m assuming are connected to each pilot’s main respective units…), aided in my confusion in thinking that these were just arms.

My mistake! Lol!

But being serious again, all that tension built up with Ritsuko’s technical commands & counters comes to a roaring head as the mysterious corrosion finally reaches the testing pool and causes the arm of Rei’s EVA-body to move against its will and try and breach the window of the control room (mirroring the flashback EVA Unit-00’s failed test in Episode 5)!

Holy FREAKING Crap! Even though Ritsuko & Misato fortunately had the arm of Rei’s EVA severed before it could break the glass and forcibly ejected the pilot’s Entry-Plugs out of the pool, the worst possible case scenario is confirmed when the drones fire their lasers at the mysterious corrosive force, only for said force to suddenly repel their attacks with an AT Field! That’s right, NERV HQ has just been infiltrated by the 11th Angel, Ireul!

Out of all the Angels presented in the series so far, Ireul is easily one of the most distinctively unique due to its lack of a consistent physical form, being primarily represented in the form of either a corrosive substance on the wall or as a pixilated glow on the test EVA’s.

Speaking of which, dang is the animation of Ireul infecting and possessing the arm of one of the other test EVAs so FREAKING cool! It has this unique red-digitized effect to it! I can’t even begin to imagine how tricky it must have been for GAINAX to animate the hand-drawn frames for the Ireul infection scenes! I sincerely hope that they were paid well for their work…

Also, regarding this specific Angel’s name, according to Wikipedia, “Iruel (イロウル, Irouru), also known as Yroul, Yrouel and Ireul, [is referred to] n religious texts as the angel of fear.” In addition to Episode 13’s primary scriptwriter, Mitsuo Iso, stating that the primary inspiration for Ireul’s abstract design was to showcase “a battle against an invisible enemy,” the historical theological interpretations of Ireul as the “Angel of Terror” were noted by ThingsAnime blog writer Will Raus in his article Neon Genesis — An Angelic Vision, who stated that, “the episode featuring Ireul is marked by panic from the lab techs that operate the MAGI.”

I’m curious as to what exactly was going through Ritsuko’s head as she just coldly stared at Ireul breaking the glass while the rest of the staff fled the control room. Was she merely so distracted by her scientific curiosity that she completely neglected her own safety? Or is this indicative of Ritsuko having suicidal ideation?

Knowing what I know occurs later in Episode 23, I have a strong feeling it’s the latter option, especially since Misato is similarly the one here to try and snap out of her trance before Ireul can flood the room.

The sheer amount of scenes that directly mirror each other in regards to subtle details in animation & character framing that I’m noticing upon rewatch is honestly FREAKING phenomenal! Anno certainly took a page from George Lucas’ playbook as a director!

Oh boy, we’re getting some more foreshadowing to the conflict between Gendo & SEELE since immediately after getting off the phone with another “Sound-Only” screen, he orders the rest of the staff to lie about the presence of an Angel inside of NERV HQ being just “an error in the alarm system.”

Lol! It looks like the computer diagrams confirmed my fan theory regarding the purpose of the harmonics test, since the 3 EVA bodies inside of the pool, or “Pribnow Box” are labeled as “Dummy 1-3!”

Oh crap! More foreshadowing in the form of Fuytsuki & Gendo whispering to each other that Ireul’s contamination of the systems is spreading “too close to Adam.”

Double crap! Even more foreshadowing in the form of Gendo prioritizing the safety of Unit-01 above that of Units 00 & 02 when ordering them to be launched without the pilots to prevent them from being infected by Ireul!

Triple crap! The foreshadowing just keeps on going as we now see Kaji randomly exiting an elevator inside of the tunnel to Central Dogma directly below Ireul’s contamination zone! Continuing to play the double/triple agent game I’m guessing!

Leave it to Fuyutsuki to ask the million-dollar question on everyone’s mind: “How exactly can you fight an Angel without an Evangelion?”

Man do I love just how unapologetically science-oriented and techno-babble-heavy this particular episode of EVA is! It’s honestly pretty cool watching Ritsuko and the rest of the NERV staff’s attempts to try and counter Ireul’s spread by increasing the ozone levels in the heavy water boundary of the testing pool, only for Ireul to rapidly adapt and increase its resistance to ozone before evolving into an organic electronic life form capable of hacking its presence into NERV’s computer files to infiltrate the MAGI system!

While a lot of the technical and computer programming terms completely fly over my head and are borderline gibberish to me, the scene itself is so tightly edited and quickly paced that it’s NEVER boring and the natural flow of dialogue makes the increasing threat of the Angel clear to the viewer even if they’re not computer scientists themselves! That takes a lot of skill from a writing & and directing standpoint!

Also, Shiro Sagisu’s soundtrack further elevates the tension in this scene in near-perfect symbiosis with the editing and dialogue! The sequence of musical scores from “The Day Tokyo-3 Stood Still,” to “Harbinger of Tragedy,” to “The Beast” really serve to gradually increase the suspense and fear derived from this scene, even though all we’re doing is basically looking at computer screens & graphs & listening to techno-babble! I love it!

Also also, Ritsuko provides the first direct indication of the Angel’s ability to repeatedly evolve and adapt to its surroundings to actively counter NERV’s defenses to try and reach “Adam” in Terminal Dogma! While the Angel’s environmental adaptation capabilities were already established with Sandalphon from Episode 10 being born in the heart of a magma chamber, here we get our first glimpse of the Angel’s evolving intelligence as Ireul learns how to hack the MAGI system to utilize NERV’s own supercomputers as a weapon against them!

The sheer speed at which Ireul completely infects Melchior which it then utilizes to try and hack into Balthasar next before Ritsuko enters a fail-safe code-sequence to halt the Angel’s spread for 2-hours next is legitimately FREAKING terrifying!

Fuyutsuki’s words, “The MAGI have become our enemy,” are even made more disturbing by the panning shot showing the 3 giant red boxes that serve the supercomputer mainframe directly below Central Dogma’s main command deck, emphasizing that the Angel is directly under NERV’s feet.

As Kakashi once famously told Sasuke during the survival exercise in Naruto, an attack from below is the most dangerous since it’s the least expected!

Also, the way Ritsuko describes Ireul as having evolved into a nano-machine-esque living computer virus, now all I can think of is the Ms. Marvel villain Doc.X, who’s also a sentient computer virus!

I love how Ritsuko immediately and harshly rejects Misato’s recommendation to Gendo that they self-destruct the MAGI system to destroy Ireul.

While Ritsuko justifies this by countering to Misato that “destroying the MAGI means destroying headquarters itself,” it’s clear that Ritsuko is desperately trying to preserve some piece of her mother’s legacy, still desperately struggling to understand the individual who prioritized her roles as a scientist & a woman over her role as a mother.

I am totally NOT foreshadowing anything with my specific word choice of “scientist, woman & mother!” NOT at all! Lol!

The transition from Misato’s exasperated anger towards Ritsuko’s stubbornness to calm yet confused questioning of the latter’s refusal to “share the responsibility” or “trust someone else” is honestly quite profound. You truly get the sense that Misato is desperately trying to understand her friend’s inability to rely on the assistance of others. It effectively illustrates Misato’s self-awareness concerning the Hedgehog’s Dilemma, as she’s able to recognize and wants to help others who are struggling from a similar place as herself. Whether it be Shinji and now Ritsuko.

Also, I can’t help but appreciate the irony of the fact that Ritsuko was the one who first informed Misato of the Hedgehog’s Dilemma back in Episode 3, but is now clearly shown to be struggling with her own version of said dilemma as she’s emotionally closing herself off from others in a misguided effort to connect with her dead mother, just like Misato does with her dead father.

Despite their contrasting personalities, Misato & Ritsuko truly are very similar to each other. It’s no wonder the two formed such a close friendship. This makes the gradual deterioration of their trust in each other as the series all the more tragic…

Alright, we finally get a run-down of Ritsuko’s plan to defeat Ireul! Essentially, Ritsuko intends to utilize the Angel’s evolutionary survival mechanisms against itself by reprogramming the final remaining MAGI supercomputer, Casper, with a program designed to regress Ireul’s evolution and force it to self-destruct within the system.

Just like all of the previous strategies portrayed so far in EVA, there are considerable risks involved since not only can Ireul be exposed to said program by intentionally deactivating the firewalls preventing it from hacking into Casper, but Ritsuko needs to introduce her counter-program into Casper’s mainframe much faster than it will take the Angel to fully infect the system. And once again, I think this strategy is FREAKING brilliant due to how insane and risky it is!

It is also worth noting that Ritsuko’s plan to introduce a counter program into the MAGI that will force the Angelic computer virus to delete itself is heavily reminiscent of the scientific phenomenon known as Apoptosis, which Susan Elmore of the National Library of Medicine refers to as, “the process of programmed cell death, or apoptosis, is generally characterized by distinct morphological characteristics and energy-dependent biochemical mechanisms.”

You can certainly tell that Anno & crew engaged in a lot of scientific research for this specific episode!

Also, I can’t help but notice the fact that it is the Casper supercomputer that is the one that will inevitably result in Ireul’s self-destruction. I’m skipping ahead a little, but it will later be revealed at the end of the episode that Naoko designed each of the MAGI supercomputers to embody the three main aspects of her identity, those being herself as a scientist, a mother, and a woman respectively. Furthermore, it will later be revealed that Naoko was not only having an affair with Gendo which led to her committing (which her daughter is also now engaging in), but that Casper is the supercomputer which specifically reflects Naoko’s identity as a woman, or more accurately a lover.

So basically, Ritsuko is channeling both her mother and her own self-destructive sexual characteristics to kill the 11th Angel.

Honestly, this feels incredibly reminiscent of one of the core themes that will become increasingly apparent as the series progresses: the Freudian dichotomy between sex & death.

Dang! I love the physical design of the MAGI mainframes, which similar to the Evangelions are a hybrid of mechanical & organic components. Not only do all the wires and pipes appear to have a blood-like red texture to them, but they’re arranged in a pattern that is heavily reminiscent of a brain. An association that is made even more visibly apparent through the central core of Casper being what appears to be literal brain matter and tissue!

Given that Naoko transferred pieces of her consciousness into the MAGI, combined with the future twist of Rei being a clone of Shinji’s mother Yui Ikari, I feel like this is heavily implying that Naoko cloned her own brain matter to make these computers operate. If so, that’s honestly kinda disturbing…

Lol! Not only do we get more hints of Maya’s romantic attraction towards Ritsuko through her fan-girl reactions to the hundreds of the original developer’s notes taped all across the interior walls of Casper, but we also see the kanji, “Ikari, you jerk,”angrily scribbled across one of the pipes!

I’m not sure if it was Naoko or Ritsuko who wrote that specific note, but either way, I’m all for insulting that bastard Gendo!

I love the little bit of Ritsuko smiling, “Thanks Mom, with your help we can make it,” as she begins crawling into Casper’s interiors. It implies that she seemingly does care about & and misses Naoko, however much she tries to deny it…

Also, the imagery of Ritsuko crawling inside of the computer that’s essentially her mother is once again incredibly Freudian, reflective of how the EVA-pilot’s Entry-Plugs metaphorically represent a return to the womb. Or in Ritsuko’s case with the MAGI, a return to the brain?

Aww… Misato can’t help but reminisce on her and Ritsuko’s college days together…

I am curious though as to what specific memories mirrored their current situation of doing engineering and programming work inside of a tightly cramped space…

Interesting! Not only does Ritsuko disclose to Misato that the MAGI utilized a personality transplant system that transferred Naoko’s consciousness into the system, but that the exact same transference system was utilized for the Evangelions, once again foreshadowing that the souls of Shinji & Asuka’s dead mothers inhabit their respective EVA Units!

Also, it’s here that Ritsuko truly reveals her complicated feelings towards her mother. When Misato questions whether Ritsuko’s desire to protect the MAGI is motivated by love for her mother, Ritsuko instead states that in actuality she “never really liked [her] mother,” and that “[her] decision was that of a scientist.”

Does this imply that Ritsuko’s efforts to try and understand her late mother, whether it be through maintaining & protecting the MAGI or sleeping with Gendo (again… EWWW!!!), are motivated solely by scientific personality? That Ritsuko is actively attempting to reject the womanly side of her mother in favor of the scientific side? Or is Ritsuko lying to herself and there’s a part of her that secretly does love her mother like Misato suggested?

This kind of multifaceted and nuanced character-writing is a major aspect of why I love Evangelion so much! Nearly all of its characters are such fascinating and human messes of psychological contradictions that you can’t help but become invested in their personal struggles!

Wow! The actual initiation of Ritsuko’s counter program is once again FREAKING intense! Not only does Ireul manage to quickly hack into Casper once the firewall is lifted, but in what has got to be the most prolonged single second in the history of fictional media, Ritsuko & Maya manage to enter final code-sequences and command keys necessary just in time before the Angel can infiltrate what is quite literally the last single tiny block of uninfected data on Casper’s diagram!

And as soon as Ritsuko engages the counter-program, the tension is finally alleviated as that tiny blue square of uninfected data quickly spreads out and consumes the corrupted red data blocks across all 3 MAGI supercomputers, indicating the Angel’s rapid demise!

Like… dang! I’m honestly impressed by just how suspenseful Anno & GAINAX managed to make this back-&-forth computer-hacking battle against the Angel, especially since this more down-to-Earth tone deviates so heavily from the series’ usual formula of epic and otherworldly giant-kaju battles! It just goes to show how EVA can so efficiently balance various genres and tones into a cohesive whole.

Additionally, it was also a nice change of pace to witness a character outside of the main trio of EVA pilots be directly involved in the defeat of an Angel, while also utilizing said battle to heavily flesh out Ritsuko’s character similar to the previous episode’s heavy emphasis on Misato’s character development!

Speaking of the EVA pilots though, I couldn’t help but chuckle when we cut back to Shinji, Asuka & Rei STILL inside of their Entry-Plugs after all this time!

Not only is it hilarious knowing that the trio are completely oblivious to Ireul’s infiltration and Ritsuko single-handedly defeating it, but I can’t help but sympathize with Asuka’s embarrassment and irritation since they spent all that time undressed inside of their Entry-Plugs floating alone in the GeoFront lake without any access to outside communication! That’s gotta super suck!

Lol! Ritsuko’s tired but relaxed line, “I must be getting old. These all-nighters are really rough,” is such a clever bookend! While the episode began with Ritsuko’s exhaustion regarding her mid-life crisis and anxiety of being solely defined by her mother’s shadow, she now can’t help but feel content in the fact that she protected Naoko’s legacy from being annihilated, staying true to her promise despite her complicated feelings towards her mother.

Also, it’s here that Ritsuko reveals the MAGI’s true nature to Misato as the dichotomy between Naoko’s respective identities as a mother, scientist, and woman. What I can’t help but find fascinating though is that according to Ritsuko, “Those three aspects are struggling for dominance within the MAGI. She intentionally implanted the dilemma to imitate the human experience.”

Honestly, that kind of blending between humanity & machinery makes for an incredibly fascinating concept, since it subverts the emotionless rationality that usually defines A.I. in science fiction media, instead exploring the possibilities of how a machine would function with more human characteristics.

And the episode concludes with some further insight into Ritsuko’s relationship with the late Naoko, clarifying that while she respects her mother as a scientist, she struggles to understand her as a mother while hating the side of her that is a woman. That latter comment in particular does make me wonder if the reason she’s sexually involved with Gendo is because she wants to spite that aspect of her mother instead of merely trying to misguidedly understand it. Or maybe it’s a little bit of both…

Either way, it truly does feel like Ritsuko embodies a mixture of the Oedipus complex which characterizes Shinji, and the Electra complex which characterizes Misato, which I honestly find to be incredibly intriguing…

Also, one last piece of foreshadowing in the form of Ritsuko’s ominous statement that it was the woman aspect of Naoko’s personality that she stayed true to to the very end!

So that was NGE, “Episode 13: Angel Invasion/LILLIPUTIAN HITCHER,” and overall it was another incredibly solid entry to the series! For as much as I snarkily joked about the heavy emphasis on the techno-babble aspect in this particular episode, I was legitimately impressed by the immense levels of tension & suspense Anno and crew were able to generate through a non-traditional Angel battle in what essentially boiled down to a computer hacking contest, as well as the specific focus on Ritsuko’s character and fleshing out her strained relationship with her late mother Naoko. Furthermore, I was not expecting the large quantity of subtle foreshadowing to future twists and revelations across the series in just this one episode, including but not limited to Ritsuko & Naoko’s dommed relationships with Gendo Ikari, the Dummy Plug systems, the presence of human souls inside of the EVAs, and Gendo’s conflict with SEELE. It highlights just how tightly written and cleverly interconnected Evangelion’s narrative and characters are, despite some behind-the-scenes issues that fundamentally altered the thematic and tonal trajectory of the series as a whole.

But that’s stuff I’ll begin delving into next time in my discussion of Episode 14, which will likely be less lengthy compared to my other posts in this marathon concerning the actual content of the episode itself due to its first half essentially being a clip-show (albeit, a rather creative clip-show)… although I will use it as an opportunity to delve into a lot of the behind-the-scenes trivia and drama surrounding the production of the original Neon Genesis Evangelion anime! It should be an interesting discussion at the very least!

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peachyqueenly · 1 year

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Cookie Run, Queerbait, and why the concept does not apply to SeaMoon

There are a lot of issues with the way Devsis, the developers behind Cookie Run, handle diversity in their games. Most notably, it falls into the common trap many, MANY gacha games do in that it partakes in a lot of orientalist tropes. But one debate I’ve seen that I just cannot get behind, as a lesbian, is the idea that they have queerbaited-- most namely, with SeaMoon.

Below the cut, I will explain why: what queerbait is and what it looks like, queerbaiting vs coding, and why comparing WlW tropes from other countries to queerbaiting is unfair (and also maybe don’t apply a Japanese literary concept to a Korean game, more on that later). All in a bid to show why it is not only wrong to compare SeaMoon to queerbaiting, it is harmful.

SeaMoon, for those unfamiliar, is the name popularly given to the ship between Sea Fairy Cookie and Moonlight Cookie in Cookie Run. Aside from the ocean and the moon being a common motif for romance in fiction already, the game had hinted at their romance in a lot of in-game and side material. Most namely, Sea Fairy’s line about Moonlight’s heart ‘being the warmest’ and the “I want you Everyday” music video with their moment together + the lines that went along with that moment...

Your love brought spring to my endless winter...

For more examples of where their romance was suggested, I recommend this doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LPJU8yBYD8Ng7lhh_lR0bA2XRwmJTtbRceGuKahFxFs/edit

The point is, most WlW in this fandom caught onto the romantic ramifications of the ship long before Moonlight was expanded on in Kingdom and the recent updates all but confirmed their mutual affection towards one another. The two of them even got matching costumes and a bond story that was as close to romance as Cookie Run would do (as it is ultimately not a romance centered franchise).

With who they are established...

Queerbait: What is it?

Queerbaiting most popularly is understood as a marketing gimmick where creators and multimedia companies suggest queerness to draw in LGBT people and allies, only for the rug to be pulled out from underneath fans. Whether this is utilizing the ‘bury your gays’ trope, the rep being constrained to insignificant side characters/moments, or just not existing at all.

The two most popular examples of queerbaiting would be recent Disney movies and Voltron. Though special shoutout to Harry Potter, as if we didn’t have enough reasons to hate the book series and JKR. As the stuff with Dumbledore was an obvious retcon to go ‘look how progressive I am!!!’.

Voltron’s last season had two key things regarding queerbait: the Klance drama (the ship between Keith and Lance) and Shiro’s bait and switch with his partner.

To the show’s credit, Shiro was actually gay. Even revealed to have had a partner he was engaged to. However, this rug was pulled out from underneath fans when they actively killed said partner. He was given another partner in the epilogue, but the fact he was revealed to be gay only for his partner to be killed off (coupled with the next thing) upset many queer fans.

Klance is a lot more insidious. In the run up to the final season, Netflix and the crew actively promoted the show using Klance and its popular support. Despite the fact they knew the relationship was never intended to be canon. This is one of the most explicit examples of queerbaiting out there, and is foundational to understanding the specificity and insidiousness of the marketing ploy.

For Disney, I would like to focus on the Star Wars sequels and Beauty and the Beast (2017). The last movie of the sequel trilogy had the creators talking about how there would be queer rep... leading many queer fans to believe they were talking about Finn and Poe for obvious reasons, something the creators never corrected/confirmed. Only for the rep to merely be two background characters in one scene.

As for Beauty and the Beast, Le Fou was celebrated as Disney’s first openly gay character, leading folks to believe they’d explore him having feelings for the titular bad guy. But that was never really explored in any meaningful way, and the rep we got of him was a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ moment between him and an unnamed character. Arguably he could fall more into coding, but the fact Disney actively marketed him for his gayness is where it bleeds into queerbaiting.

In general, queerbaiting is a more modern problem, as companies feel they can say the word gay now. But are still wishy-washy on actual depictions of queerness. So we get them celebrating their inclusion, even if it’s ultimately little to nothing.

Queerbaiting vs Queer Coding

This is when an important distinction needs to be made: what is queerbaiting and what is queer coding. Queer coding is when media uses subtext, but never explicitly says, a character is gay. A good way to understand this is to compare 90′s disney movies to modern ones.

As discussed above, modern Disney will often go on about having queerness in their movies only for it to be minimal at best if not existent. 90′s Disney meanwhile never marketed their movies as having LGBT elements, but many fans could see the way in which queerness came through from characters like Ursula (literally modeled off a drag queen), Scar, and Hades.

Queer coding can be seen as a product of the Hays Code era-- where positive depictions of ‘perverse sexuality’ (including homosexuality) was not allowed in film, relegating a lot of queerness to the roles of villains (hence the association Disney villains have with it). That, or queer creators had to find ways of coding their heroes in ways that went under the nose of cishet audiences.

Queer coding exists in a net-neutral space. As queer coding, while in many ways is outdated in a world where media can show explicit LGBT rep, was integral to the ways in which queer creators told their stories for years. And actively influences the way many queer creators continue to tell their story (for better and for worse). It can also perpetrate stereotypes against queer people, as we saw with the Disney villains, however.

Still, this is different than the relatively modern concept of queerbaiting as that is largely a negative phenomenon. Queer coding was a tool used and is still used by actual LGBT people, while queerbaiting is more often than not the work of cishet folks or corporations wanting to make a quick buck.

Why SeaMoon falls more into Coding

With the two elements defined, let’s explain why SeaMoon falls more into the realm of coding rather than baiting.

First off, the way the devs write romance is consistent with how they wrote SeaMoon. Most of the ways in which things were left vague before Kingdom could be explained in the devs unfortunate habit of not elaborating on things they really should elaborate on. On top of romance in general being coded rather than explicit in the franchise.

As an example, lets discuss the two closest things to M/F romance we have in the franchise-- PureLily (Pure Vanilla and White Lily) and MintCocoa (Mint Choco and Cocoa).

PureLily became more explicit in the same update as SeaMoon (with Pure Vanilla wondering aloud if he still loves her), but in general the way their relationship was shown before the Crunchy Dreams event was largely through subtext (how the two spoke of one another, PV’s garden, etc) and outside material (the love quiz).

This also applies to MintCocoa. During the days of OB, the game itself did not elaborate much on either of the two’s characters (just as they didn’t with Moonlight). With most of their romantic subtext (like SeaMoon) being in outside videos, media, and merch. Kingdom in general seems more willing to elaborate on romance, as we saw in the story that came with Cocoa’s release.

And secondly, the devs never really threw SeaMoon around as a way of saying ‘look how progressive we are’ or to appeal specifically to LGBT fans. Anytime SeaMoon was included in media, it was often alongside other coded relationships such as MintCocoa or things like RaspRose (Raspberry Mousse x Rose). And even the times they did do things like promote themselves during pride month, they never used SeaMoon. Instead they used the Hollyberry kingdom (due to its bg having same-gender couples dancing and having drinks together).

The way SeaMoon was treated up until the recent Kingdom update was more in line with queer coding rather than queer baiting. Which is NOT perfect, as media should go beyond coding in the modern age. But it is not as bad or as insidious as queerbaiting implies.

Extra Note on S Class Comparisons

S Class is a trope in Japanese media where two girls will often have a very close bond, akin to romance. However, it is ultimately still platonic and disappears upon either graduation from school or marriage. It is over 100 years old, with some of the first pieces of the genre being in the early 1900′s. And was a major influence on the yuri, more commonly called GL now, genre.

Before anything else, I want to offer a brief aside that maybe we should be careful when comparing a Japanese literary trope to a Korean game. Comparing the two countries can be a very... very touchy subject matter. Especially in the context of this being a genre that rose in popularity during the colonization of Korea by Japan.

I do NOT think you can compare SeaMoon or anything in CR to S Class tropes. But I will discuss it just to clear things up, as I find comparing the trope to queerbaiting problematic.

It is more akin to queer coding rather than queer baiting. Why? Many of the authors who utilized the trope were queer themselves. In fact, “Obuko Yoshiya, a lesbian Japanese novelist active in the Bluestocking feminist movement, is regarded as a pioneer of Class S literature”. Again, a key factor that separates coding and baiting (being that queer creators will often code but won’t bait).

The genre is at its worst stifling and harmful to the modern day GL genre in Japanese literature, and extremely heteronormative. But to compare it to things like queerbaiting or to entirely dismiss it as a form of WlW rep in the context of how it was used by actual queer people in Japan is entirely unfair to the genre; queer rep does not look the same in every country.

Ending Notes

Are the devs perfect in their representation of SeaMoon and WlW? Of course not, there is a valid conversation to be had on how queer relationships constantly being merely coded rather than explicit is annoying and hurtful. And more and more queer people have this critique of the concept of queer coding. On a personal level, I can forgive it in this specific case cause its in line with how the devs do romance in general. But if it bothers you that it was merely coded for the longest time rather than explicit, that’s entirely valid.

But the idea the devs ever queerbaited audiences is unfair and actively makes many WlW feel invalidated in how they easily saw the coding present in the two’s relationship. Again, queer coding is a net neutral phenomenon while queerbaiting is negative. To subscribe such a notion to what is important rep to so many WlW is hurtful.

Sources

https://www.animefeminist.com/escape-yuri-hell-flip-flappers-critique-class-s-genre/

https://bookriot.com/what-is-queerbaiting-vs-queer-coding/

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LPJU8yBYD8Ng7lhh_lR0bA2XRwmJTtbRceGuKahFxFs/edit

https://twitter.com/CRKingdomEN/status/1532119839178952704?s=20

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_S_(genre)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queerbaiting#:~:text=Queerbaiting%20is%20a%20marketing%20technique,romance%20or%20other%20LGBTQ%2B%20representation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer_coding#:~:text=Queer%20coding%20is%20the%20subtextual,character%20in%20media%20as%20queer.

#cookie run #cookie run ovenbreak #cookie run kingdom #crob #crk #sea fairy cookie #moonlight cookie #seamoon #queerbaiting #queer coding

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