#i have normal thoughts about him

[confusedmothboy]

page of vampire mithrum because i got my grubby little hands on the artbook today and i am in love with that halloween design

#dungeon meshi #dunmeshi #mithrun #hes so neat #tugging at my collar like a victorian man seeing an ankle #i have normal thoughts about him #this was just an excuse to draw him in loose shirts and old timey formal wear #barking

[defensivelee]

so i have been having ALIEN AU thoughts (so creatively called the Alien Alien AU after the hit song by Nayutalien) and this is William's design

he is a little bit inspired by Xingchen

#i have normal thoughts about him #william iii (alien alien) #i am so in love #with the biology i've come up for him #yes speculative biology with william of orange!!! #alien alien au

[hinderr]

Ooh. Gideon clone oneshot. Instead of mirror image.

Spitting image

#i have normal thoughts about him #mirror image #spitting image

[ato-dato]

I don’t think they’re ugly. But I think the number of times Jean has begged him to buy new clothes is astronomical.

#and this is his work appropriate stuff. think about the stuff that’s too disco to even consider wearing to work. imagine. #I just love the idea of Harry rediscovering his apartment and finding out that green/orange combo was the most normal it’s gonna get #anyway #I have a bunch of de comic ideas but I’m feeling a bit down in the dumps about my art lately #so it thought I should practice drawing him a bit more #disco elysium #disco elysium fanart #harry du bois #harrier du bois #hdb #jean vicquemare #jean viquemare #which one is it??? #kim kitsuragi #de fanart #kimharry #kinda #kim x harry #harry x kim #art #artwork #my art #fanart #digital art #drawing

[noecoded]

hey asmo fans

#do people even still enjoy him... #i pickup my dusty discarded blogand blow it off. im so sorry i abandoned youu #ive been thinkingabt him again lately and the pm controversies gave me an excuse to drawhim somuch for a couple days... #i keep thinkingabt how cute hed be if hisstyle was likee a little more 2000s party girl that shows up to everythign even if u didnt invite #her at all...ok . im going to disappear again maybee ive been having somany thoughts abt asmo but i think none of them would be #original or well received by normal people who arent ill about asmo because lately ive been like sillymaxing so everything i thinkabout him #is unfit for general human consumption. #asmodeus obey me #asmo #mine #oc #a&t

[rookdaw]

monster X monster hunter

#baldur’s gate #bg3 #baldur’s gate 3 #astarion #wyll #I AM SOOOOOO NOT NORMAL ABOUT THESE TWO #IMAGINE BEING PERFECT FOILS OF EACH OTHER #BOTH TURNED INTO MONSTERS AGAINST THEIR WILL #imagining young wyll trying to court astarion and just being so genuine about it #as one of his first loves he wants to do everything right but is still overall (fairly) new to the whole thing #vs astarion who is much more cynical after 200 years of seducing victims #he knows how to play someone’s heartstrings like anlite and is overall very detached from the whole thing only #doing it to make aure wyll wont murder him or something #but then selune forbid it he starts to develoP FEELINGS FOR HIM KSDBBSJAJA #and then just as astarion starts to fall into love wyll almost falls out of it as he realizes astarion was LYING to his face the whole time #about liking him #and then there is DRAMA and a secret slow burn underneath what you THOUGHT was a fast burn #AHEM. anyways. #im gonna draw more of these two cause wyll is soooo slept on #pictured this as early in their meeting/relationship which is why wyll doesnt have horns yet #also *anlite i meant to type *a lute but shaky fingers #rip no tag editing

[tickletails]

craziness

#hi #I'm normal (can't consume any media without having tickle thoughts about it) #tickle art #tickling #scott pilgrim tickle #my art #also i might be a bit inactive in the coming months bc im swamped with uni work atm o_0 #but who knows #anyway yeah heheh i just wanted to get him

[waaterdeep]

It’s heartbreaking to me how easily Gale abandons his plans of becoming a god when you romance him, because it shows that he never actually wanted to become a god in the first place.

When you ask him how he’s feeling after discovering the crown of Karsus he tells you that he’s excited about what the crown could do to improve both of your lives. His plans aren’t clear but it’s obvious that he wants to use it for himself. Of course there’s some selfishness there, perhaps a desire to get back at Mystra, but there’s a good part of him that sees this as a way to impress you, to become worthy of you.

But to convince him to let go of the crown in Act 3 you simply need to tell him that he matters, that you love him for the man that he is not the god he wants to be. You need to convince him that he’s always been enough and that he always will be, so long as he stays true to who he is. And with high approval he accepts this without question. While he feels uncertain about putting all of his faith into one person, he’s still relieved and happy to do so.

You have opportunities before the Outer Planes scene to tell him that you care about him, most notably in Act 2, when you can tell him that you want to spend the night with Gale the man, that you don’t need him to wow you with cosmic sex. While this clearly means a lot to him it doesn’t translate as “I am exactly all that this person needs” in his mind yet.

But when you have the Outer Planes scene and he tells you of his plans, if you gently bring him back down to earth, kiss him and tell him he’s perfect, he’s wholly convinced. While Tara might have told him many times some variation of this, you are the first person, and most importantly the first lover, to tell him and show him. The fact that you met him with diminished powers and the Netherese orb and still fell in love with him speaks volumes.

It shows that his ambitions are not born from hubris, rather, from a profound insecurity that could only be the product of his defining of his life, his value, in relation to the literal goddess of magic and, obviously, falling short. Conjuring visions of Waterdeep and the Outer Planes, it’s all his way to convince you that he’s worthy of your affections, you who in most cases cannot do that at all. But he bases his worth completely upon his magical abilities, it’s no surprise then that magnifying them to infinite proportions is his way to remove his fear of losing you, since his greatest weakness, his humanity, is what drove his previous lover away from him.

And that’s absolutely heartbreaking.

#I have a lot of thoughts about gale #feel free to add on to this I’d love to hear your thoughts #anyways I love him a normal amount thanks for coming to my ted talk #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #baldur’s gate 3 #bg3 #my thoughts

[followerofmercy]

I think my favorite thing about Childe is that he is defined by how much other people hate him.

Party rock with me for a minute

Genshin's a pretty lighthearted game. The vast majority of characters like the Traveler, and by extension you. Nobody playable has died yet. For the most part, characters get along. The biggest exceptions are Wanderer (who has his soft moments) and Yae Miko, whose torment of Gorou and Thoma is usually played off for laughs. (Should it be? I don't really think so but that's not the point I'm tryna make here. It's intended to be funny.)

And then there's Childe. The other Harbingers have obvious contempt for him at best and outright hostility at worst. While he clearly respects and idolizes the Traveler, their attitude towards him is more along the lines of "What are you doing here you motherfucker."

Yeah, Yoimiya and Xinyan like him, but they got to know him outside of work in a way. All of Liyue hates him, for good reason. Zhongli probably cares about him on some level but Childe's too pissed off to accept it. His parents are afraid of him.

The only people that have unwaveringly positive opinions of him are his subordinates, who do not know him well, and his little siblings, who he lies to. None of them know him, not really.

Can you imagine what that's like? To break and build yourself into what you thought would be a hero, into the perfect weapon, to get everything you ever thought you wanted, and everyone that matters hates you for it?

#genshin #childe #tartaglia #character analysis #I have so many thoughts about this man #and none of them are normal #and don't even get me started on how him and Diluc most likely met #and have tried to kill each other

[originalaccountname]

Mori Ougai’s belief as the boss is [...] “The boss stands on top of the organization, and at the same time, be the slave of all.” For the sake of the organization, the boss must always take the “logical optimal solution.” That is the duty of the boss. [...] “Therefore, no matter how much your heart aches, you have to ignore your personal feelings.”

Kafka Asagiri, for the BSD exhibition

On Mori and regret.

This man acts based on his perceived "optimal solution". It means relying on cold logic, detached from (his own and others') emotions. In that way, he fits right in as one of the smart characters of BSD, contrasting for example Dazai's way of working with/around people's feelings, and Fyodor's way of manipulating and twisting those feelings into monsters.

Mori remains cold, logical, distant, efficient. It meant disregarding Yosano's and the soldiers' deteriorating mental health during the war because the concept of an army that cannot be wiped out was too good. It meant following Natsume's plan and taking the old boss' place himself to fix Yokohama's underground and protect the city and its people. It also meant disposing of Mimic by sacrificing Oda in order to get the special ability business permit, despite (and perhaps because of) Dazai's attachment to the man.

The thing is, humans are not logical creatures, and will inevitably encounter conflicting emotions.

(does this look like the face of a man without regrets to you?)

Mori in Dark Era tried to pass on to Dazai his practice of putting aside his own feelings for the sake of choosing the most efficient solution that will benefit the group. It backfired spectacularly, so much so even, that Mori regrets it to this day.

For the BSD exhibition, Asagiri wrote some individual character commentaries, all very interesting insights into their characters and the writing intentions. For Mori, here's what he wrote:

“He who fell out of the optimal solution” Mori Ougai’s belief as the boss is described in the novel “Dark Era” and “Dazai, Chuuya, Fifteen”. That is “The boss stands on top of the organization, and at the same time, be the slave of all.” For the sake of the organization, the boss must always take the “logical optimal solution.” That is the duty of the boss. There is an unspoken additional point to it. “Therefore, no matter how much your heart aches, you have to ignore your personal feelings.” We can catch a glimpse of that in this scene. [the ADA-PM alliance meeting] Mori’s expressions after “Burnt it.” and “Like what you did to your predecessor”, gave us a glimpse of his true feelings that were made sacrifices for the sake of the “logical optimal solution”. (By the way, it goes without saying that Dazai is inducing Mori’s thoughts by words that will make him regret the past. It is to make him decide to form an “alliance”.) source and translation: Popopretty

(notice the inclusion of Hirotsu in this scene. Remember that later, Hirotsu suggests that Dazai knows why Mori did what he did to overthrow the old boss, which, in my opinion, is both a proof of Dazai's support in Mori's goal, and a reminder to uphold it.)

One of my favourite parts of the Dark Era light novel is a small scene during the epilogue that was not adapted into the anime. This is two weeks after Dazai defected:

To quote Asagiri again, "Therefore, no matter how much your heart aches, you have to ignore your personal feelings." Mori is conflicted about the outcome of the Mimic incident. He holds in his hands the Silver Oracle he himself gave to Oda, and reflects on its purpose: to "help the man mentioned above without hesitation in the face of any and all trials". Didn't he fail to do just that with Oda? Didn't he set him up and sent him to his doom? Didn't he abandon him to his trial?

But he rationalizes the events by saying he got the permit they so badly needed. No matter if he sacrificed one of his men. No matter if he drove Dazai away. He accomplished his priceless goal. It was a total success.

And yet, he poorly folds a paper airplane with the very Silver Oracle he gave Oda, throws it, watches it crash immediately, and mourns the loss of his right-hand man, without ever moving on.

But we have a direct example of Mori expressing regret.

The perception that Mori in BEAST is a completely different character than Mori is in canon, when that perception doesn't extend to any other character from that universe, rubs me the wrong way. The characters in BEAST are very similar to their canon selves, with some core traits getting a new twist. They are all one or two major life changes away from becoming these versions of themselves. As far as we know, Mori's only life-altering event was being forcefully removed from the Port Mafia by Dazai, and secretly put in charge of Atsushi's old orphanage.

Mori unambiguously made that orphanage a better place, as stated by Atsushi himself. BEAST!Mori is a lot softer, vulnerable and honest. That Mori offers to be a father to Atsushi while he heals. He also expresses regret in not being able to help Dazai when he was in his care.

I think it's very interesting, especially when knowing that Asagiri wrote both BEAST and Fifteen at the same time for the Dead Apple movie, because in Fifteen we have this:

The beginning of the first chapter of Fifteen is a gold mine. It is narrated from Mori's point of view, the man of logic and calculations, and yet it is full of doubt. He is alone and struggling to fix everything with so many people against him. But, throughout this scene about grasping at the Port Mafia's power, there is also this secondary thought being woven in, of Mori having started to actually care for Dazai.

The teenager is scary to him, smart enough to be a threat should he decide to be done with all this and turn against him, and yet, he immediately (and with a hint of sadness) finds that Dazai reminds him of himself. This lonely, lonely man found a kindred spirit, bright enough to grasp any situation in seconds and prone to using an uncomfortable obsession to divert and keep you guessing his true intentions. Mori entered Mentor Mode™ then. He taught Dazai his ways, he shared his struggles and thought process, he fought tooth and nail to keep him alive.

So when he asked Dazai why he wanted to die, it was with the concern of someone who has started to care. It was with the mind of someone who is trying to prevent the worst by fixing the problem at its source.

(translation: Reneray)

But it's also that self-projection/ability to relate that made him drive Dazai away, when he pushed too hard and forced Dazai to adhere to his optimal solution philosophy. Because Dazai cannot separate himself from his attachments, could not ignore his emotions like Mori does, and chose Oda over Mori's logic. From Dazai's point of view, that was betrayal. Mori and him were accomplices!

Dazai planted the idea that Mori was afraid of him taking over as boss, and Mori seems to agree with that thought (would it be because he feared for his life, or for Dazai's ability to replace him?) Yet, for a man afraid of his closest subordinate backstabbing him, he seems to be hanging on quite hard to the possibility of Dazai coming back, leaving his seat open to this day, inviting him back twice in the same arc, and...

(yeah I used this picture at the start too. "I hAvE nO rEgReTs" he says)

Mori may try to convince himself he feels no regrets and no guilt over his own actions by weighting gains and losses objectively, but he still hurts and has a very hard time moving on. He's human despite his best efforts, prone to mistakes and doubts. He's lonely and wishes to impart his knowledge onto others. His cold logic has both helped him in fixing the city, and alienated him from some of the people he most cared about.

In a similar vein, should the ADA employee transfer be of topic again, and should Mori clash with Yosano again, I wish we get to see some similar conflicting emotions in Mori between the usefulness of Yosano's ability, and Yosano herself as a person. The war was 14 years ago, that's a long time, and I want to believe that counts for something.

#there carrot i finished it 4 u #i can't be normal about mori and i've been having Many Thoughts about him #i needed that out of my system and lost the plot twice so uh. I hope this reads somewhat fine. #i could have started on twelve different tangents i have SO MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT MORI #i love mori i'm not even going to excuse or justify myself read the post #bsd #bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs #bsd analysis #bsd meta #bsd mori #bsd mori ougai #bsd beast #bsd beast spoilers #apparently i talk sometimes #what does it mean about him trying to get yosano back all these years later now that she's a grown-up with the means to oppose him? #is it only about her ability? or did 14 years of hardships made him reflect in any way at all? #food for thought (while we wait to see if that plotline gets cancelled or goes anywhere interesting)

[keirientez]

Pokemon trainer AU, Reborn is the champion meanwhile Tsuna is his apprentice. Tsuna’s design belongs to my friend @Cloud_Knee (Twt or X)

#katekyo hitman reborn #r27 #sawada tsunayoshi #reborn #my friend and i discussed about which pokemon would be in their team. eevee and umbreon was ther for their similar looks to r27 lol #flygon is a good candidate bc yk. leon. and for tsuna suprisingly we liked the idea of meloetta (bc meloetta has two forms like how tsuna- #-has his normal vibe and his dying will mode) #for reborn we thought of him having a liking for bug types bc of his bug communication skills. like his seasonal bug thing #we also thought of lore for a whole game which was heavily based on pokemon mystery dungeon bc we wanted death (future arc spoilers oof) #but general beginning plot is: tsuna dislikes having pokemon battles so all his pokemons are non-combat #- somehow he meets reborn (? idk maybe bro trips and got silly and he now owes reborn something). and reborn then seeing how close-minded- #tsuna is he decided to accept tsuna as his apprentice so he finally gets it #we discussed about tsuna also seeing reborn often at a lot of places but never got in contact (bc we thought of him living on a mountain idk #like how everyone cant see through reborn’s disguises but he can. so he’ll just see him around (bc reborn is hiding himself from the public) #as a champion. yeah #yeah thats about it i think. ive forgotten most of our ideas dkdgkgfhfhfj maybe another time

[robinfollies]

Been really pondering Fantoccio and the cursed citizens lately… like, if you’re stuck in a city for 15 years with some of your only company being these cursed globby versions of the people that used to surround you normally, you’d start to Notice Things that remind you of who they used to be, right?

#I HAVE SO SO MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS GUY HE MAKES ME SOOO SAD. FANTOCCIO…. #i really do think about his time in the city a lot. like a whooole lot. #like ofc these are weird amorphous blobs but yknow. there may still be some semblance of who they used to be within them #they have old habits or hang around in places they used to live idk idk. #they still have some of that old humanity they used to hold i guess… even in their cursed forms… #a little spark of hope that maybe everything will go back to normal someday #i dunno. and maybe eventually they even start to LOOK normal. all in ur head #fanto’s supposed to be younger here btw!! id personally put him at around 12-14 maybe? #also the bear baker’s name is Miss Cardamom!! unfortunately she is doomed by the narrative…. so sad… ú_ù #the bg characters were VERY VERY FUN to design!!! hehehe #billie bust up #bbu fantoccio #bbu the fella #robin’s art #2024 art #didnt mean to go as hard on the art as i did… twas supposed to just be a simple sketch comic HAHA #comicfollies

[itsdefinitely]

i need to throw him

#unfortunately i lost a lot of my doodles somehow deleted themselves (i dont even know) but these ones were salvaged #anyway!!!! simon petrikov is a normal man and i have a normal amount of thoughts about him! #i do not doodle him everywhere! #i definitely do not really want him to say fuck! #simon petrikov #fionna and cake #adventure time #fionna and cake spoilers #adventure time spoilers #definitely art #no i did not forget his glasses in one of these and only realize it hours later

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

ouagh Wallee.... so so happy he's a seventies boy. peak fashion

bonus:

#the lil scribbles were supposed to be the neighbors coming by to see the outfits #but i very quickly lost steam <3 so meaningless scribbles they remain #they exist to fill space <3 #i just think that bc wally seems very mellow & agreeable that Sally would zero in on him #to use for modeling outfits for her shows #these aren't very costume-y tho. eh whatever lmao #this is not influenced at all by the fact that sally is my second fav right after wally #naturally i take my favs and shove them together. they will be friends whether they like it or not #scribble salad #welcome home #welcome home puppet show #welcome home arg #tw eye contact #i think thats needed??? maybe??? idk theres eyes #i see other people tagging that on their wally posts #he does have big ol peepers #anyway having many normal thoughts #trying to be normal about them and failing miserably but im being so brave about it #on a different note im not sure about this coloring 'style'???? #maybe its just my laptop throwing things off #but it already looked better on my tablet lmao #i couldve lined this #but i wouldve needed to make the canvas bigger #and lining takes so much personality out of the sketches i think

[delta-piscium]

the real reason Steve brings a date to a high school basketball game for a high school he doesn’t even go to anymore is because the one time Nancy went with him the team won and his sports superstitions kicked in and he can’t just risk Lucas losing because of him not having a date, so he will take on the burden and ridicule of being the guy who graduated and drags new dates to games all in the name of not upsetting the delicate intricacies of rituals in sports

#i am so obsessed with him bringing a date to that game like i think about it constantly #because like wasn’t it a first date? or at least one of the firsts? absolutely insane behavior to me #okay i can see it being normal if it’s just ‘we’re both going wanna go together?’ buT that’s less fun to me #also weird sports superstitions steve is so real and true to me #god i love sports people with their little rituals i’m obsessed #coming out of the woodworks with this absolute mess of a post like i’m sorry this is all i have #it is 6am and i have not slept so i apologize for if my wording is messy here #stranger things #steve harrington #dels stranger things thoughts

[wolves-in-the-world]

the thing about eliot spencer as a character, right. the thing about him.

(and as always your mileage may vary on my analyses so if we disagree that's cool actually)

is that he is in fact a somewhat emotionally constipated idiot who is occasionally sensitive about his perceived masculinity and gets defensive about emotional intimacy around other men (largely hardison, who's much more comfortable expressing affection and embracing a softer kind of masculinity), but eliot displays enough emotional awareness and sensitivity and respect for women etc etc that anyone who's been subjected to that era of television will put on rose-tinted glasses without even looking twice.

(and he is, don't get me wrong, incredibly emotionally aware for a professionally punchy guy with enough trauma to sink the titanic. it still startles me to see.)

on top of which we have the layers and the accessories and the excellent hair with the secret braids and the way he barely has an ego and he's good with kids and protective of his team without taking it too far, and some of us never stood a fucking chance.

#eliot #eliot spencer #orig #further discussion in further tags #I'm being perhaps a little critical and there are other ways to read eg the fragile masculinity moments #but I Do think they were intended this way and largely come across this way #I'm quite happy playing with a fanon eliot who's better at this shit is the thing? it feels faithful enough to the original. #but this is something I'm chewing over in a rewatch and it's interesting so far #the fact that he pretty consistently respects women doesn't stop him from treating men and women differently y'know? #the fact that his bantering with hardison expresses affection and gets quite soft over time #doesn't stop him from pushing hardison away on a semi-regular basis. often physically. #the fact that the fandom unanimously decided he's an utter gentleman in matters of dating #doesn't quite negate the time he physically stopped aimee from getting away when he wanted to talk to her #though that's one I might disregard because it's so early and I think they hadn't quite figured out the characters then #and it was admittedly a brief moment followed by very consensual happenings #perhaps. honestly. eliot may be reflecting the attitudes of the show here. #which were very progressive for the time and are still startling on several fronts now but also showing definite signs of age #arguably fanon eliot (as I understand him) is eliot adjusted for inflation. as it were. #there's a lot going on here I'm having a normal amount of thoughts about it I'm. stopping now