#i tried to be like 'it's a valid point and i guess it makes sense to want to include that in a rec'

[orcelito]

:/

#speculation nation #the writer can see ur bookmarks u kno #who starts an almost 500k fic only to complain about the timeframe being too long #like look. i know ive taken too long on the past 10 chapters. im getting there. #ugh. #doesnt make me feel better about the newest chapter im working on bc it's the observance of a date that acts as the final look back #b4 really moving forward with things #'probably going to abandon but the first 30 chapters are worth the reread' well my dude ur gonna miss out on aaaall the fun i have planned #ive been trying to like. make it clear that im revving the engine so to speak. things r gonna start picking up again soon #but apparently not soon enough. #genuinely tho. it's nearly 500k words. what the fuck do you think that's spent on? continuous action? #no it's that long bc i love to do Reflection. character analysis. reactions. #and theres a lot of stuff that's gone into smashing all their relationships together and sorting out the pieces #i guess if ppl dont like character analysis & reflection theyre not gonna like my fic. especially not the more recent stuff. #but it's not like Nothing is happening. ive still tried to make things read well as i sort things out #feels ungrateful. like i dont have to be posting this ya kno lmao #if u dont like what im doing then fine. but you dont have to mention it where i'll see it and feel shitty about it. #i tried to be like 'it's a valid point and i guess it makes sense to want to include that in a rec' #but no this isnt a rec. it's a public bookmark. which i look to as a form of secondary comments when i havent gotten any in a while #and i was real excited to see one with a note. only to read a fucking. mixed compliment i guess. #genuinely tho im one chapter away from genuinely moving on with things. #if ppl cant deal with me having more of a character and relationship perspective (in the character and relationship perspective fic) #then theyre not gonna see all the fun and evil plans i have later on. soooo sorry. #god i try to not worry about what others think and just try to write what i wanna write. but im only human. #i want ppl to like what i write. why else am i posting it on the internet? #but it's 7 am after a very exhausting day & right before another very exhausting say #day* #and i just feel so undervalued. #waa waa waa sound of a fucking baby (me). whatever. i'll get over it i guess. just feels shitty.

[iamthat-iam]

Validation 🎬🥇

Lamar has been in the LOA community for years. It has always been a magical experience to read everyone's success stories, and to share some of his own. Everytime he successfully "manifested" something, he felt like "HIM." He felt like That Guy.

He couldn't wait to run to social media to brag about getting his SP back, and them moving into a beach house together. He couldn't wait to talk about how he met his favorite rapper, J Cole, and was invited to a party after one of his concerts.

"Wow that's insane!" People commented. "Congrats man! That's crazy!"

He didn't know what felt better, actually "experiencing" his manifestations, or the validation he got from sharing his success stories. Either way, he felt pretty damn good all the time.

Then, one day, he came across some ND/AV posts on Twitter that humbled him in ways he didn't think were possible. "Everyone and everything is you," "There's no manifestion, it's just an imaginary concept to explain how reality works," "All experiences are the same. No difference between physical and imagination," are all quotes that stood out to him.

This made him question everything he thought he knew about his own life, how reality works, and manifestation. If everyone was him, that means his girlfriend is also him, and everyone in his life? He's just been sharing his success stories with himself? If all experiences are the same, what was the point of waiting for everything to show up in the 3D? What's the point of it all? He needed to find answers soon before he drove himself crazy.

He found a NDtwt account that was willing to take DMs and sent a lengthy message about his concerns.

"Hi Lamar, thanks for messaging me!" The ND 'teacher' greeted him. "The first thing I want to explain is how 'everyone is you.' Everyone is not the PERSON you think you are, everyone is not Lamar. However, your true nature, the awareness behind everything that appears, is everyone and everything. You may have labelled the phone in your hand a "phone", but in reality it's just you. Same thing with the objects in the room you are in. Same thing with anything you can think of."

"Okay so I am one with everything, that makes sense," Lamar typed. "What about all experiences being the same? This whole time I've been waiting for things to show up in the 3D for nothing? Is it pointless to share success stories?"

"You got your GF back, you're living in a beach house and you met J Cole, I completely understand why you'd want to share that with others," the ND 'teacher' began. "However, once you've collapsed the duality between physical and imagination, you won't need that validation anymore. You know your true nature, you know that everything is you, so you know that no experience is seperate from you. That's the difference between LOA and ND. In LOA, there's someone here in lack to get something. In ND, there's nothing to get. You simply experience whatever you want without labelling it 'physical', 'imagination', 'dreams' because there's no such thing. No one can validate or invalidate your experiences because seeming others are also part of the illusion."

"Okay, I kinda get it, could you give me an example?" Lamar inquired.

"Suppose you were aware of being a famous rapper, and you had tons of fans. Then you open your eyes and everything appears to be the same. You try telling your family that you are a famous rapper, they all look at you like you're crazy. What happened here was you were perfectly aware of being this famous rapper, then switched to an illusion where you are not a famous rapper, and tried to get validation from people in the illusion where you aren't a famous rapper. Do you see where I'm going with this?" The ND 'teacher' asked.

"So it would be pointless to tell them I'm a famous rapper if I already experienced it myself, and them looking at me crazy doesn't really mean anything," Lamar guessed.

"Correct!" The ND 'teacher' replied. "Also, when you were aware of being a famous rapper, the old life and old you did not exist. This is because there's no objective reality here. There's actually nothing here, only your awareness of being, or " ."

This made Lamar feel better about this whole situation. There's no need for validation from seeming others when everyone and everything is you. Your success story is your ability to appear as anything or anyone.

#non dualism #nondualism #consciousness #awareness #self #self realization #advaita vedanta #advaita vendata

[sepublic]

In light of Clouds on the Horizon and Reaching Out, I’m really seeing past Alador scenes in a whole new light...

This isn’t Alador actually being opportunistic here; Rather, it’s him standing up for his daughter and her friends, now that he has an excuse to do so. Al knows he can’t sway his wife on morals or anything like that, the only way to appeal to her is by Odalia’s sense of profit; And when he sees how Luz motivates Amity, Alador sees a reason he can give Odalia to make her back down. He’s still a terrible parent at this point, but now it gives the vibes of a victim having carefully learned how to ‘speak the language’ of their abuser and get them around to things, by framing them in just the right way.

Obviously Alador WAS also keen on his daughter’s potential, but this time we can view it in a more positive light, as believing this is good for his daughter and what he believes her goals to be at this point. Alador really is unironically, genuinely happy for Amity’s skills here; Proud from a fatherly sense before any desire for social gain, even for Amity’s benefit!

When Luz points out the Abomaton display is getting excessive, Alador agrees, but he doesn’t step in because his power really is limited. Odalia is essentially holding their kids hostage, and it’s not the first time a Blight has been forced by her to choose the lesser of two evils in order to protect loved ones...!

This shot? Honestly, it’s probably more the last vestiges of what happiness their marriage might’ve started out with... Or it’s Odalia being ‘proud’ of her husband for being business-oriented, while Al is just glad he got her to listen for once.

Suddenly, the scenes of Odalia taking Alador’s interest from him DO hit hard, actually... She really is taking away what little enjoyment and reprieve he has left and holding all the power, and not just veering her husband back on track. And when Alador reminds Odalia that she’s a Blight to make her uphold her end of the deal, it’s likely Al throwing back a saying Odalia used against him and their kids to keep them bound to their deals with her; He’s not impressed with her sudden hypocritical double-standard towards Luz here, for Odalia’s own benefit.

I’m getting the vibes that Odalia was the Blight first and Alador married in, and she’s really obsessed with making herself an old money name, even if she’s actually new money. Maybe the Blights used to be rich but fell into ‘hard’ times, and Odalia saw Alador as a means to make her family name influential again? Not that she cared to restore her parents alongside herself, Odalia really is selfish...

So the initial fandom perception of the Blights as Victorian nobles might not be too far off, as that was what they once were; And Odalia has tried to regain that wealth, while also adapting to more modern times as well. How her hypothetical parents would feel, I’m not sure; As long as it’s power, I guess Odalia doesn’t care about ‘sullying’ the Blight name by reinventing themselves as a modern tech company, new money and all that.

And to help achieve that Odalia wanted cheap labor and fired half of Alador’s team; And he proceeded to take on the burden of labor to make up for that, just so his kids wouldn’t have to. How much did Al even get paid... That’s like domestic slave labor y’all! And only an abuser’s victim would stomach such harsh working conditions for such little pay, because Alador is already bound to Odalia by marriage, and is concerned for his kids... Like damn, Emira and Edric got to goof off partially because of him, even if Odalia still enticed Amity to work in school to prove herself.

It sucks that Alador stopped paying attention, and his kids are still valid in any resentment for not standing up to Odalia earlier for their sake; But it really does cast what free time the kids had, that was necessary for their interactions with Luz and eventual growth, into a whole new light! What little happiness these kids had underneath their mother’s abuse came from their father’s neglect and sacrifice... Amity was already so stressed back in Season 1, imagine that AND child labor...

Which as I mentioned; Odalia still got what she wanted out of Amity and even the twins, hadn’t she? So it was still kind of for nothing, hence Alador realizing that and making his stand; He’s done playing Odalia’s game and negotiating on her terms.

#the owl house #alador blight #odalia blight #speculation

[not-your-fucking-kacchan]

Alrighty then! Ima go for it! Believe it or not it is neko based. But, with a male y/n to be exact lmao. The quirk being Cat: The user is given cat like ears and tail, however they are givin feline like instincts that they can’t necessarily control. But the user is aloud to transform into a house cat, and can look like their natural hair color. The user can only meow in this form, they can’t talk like a human duh. The user has cat like senses, being able to hear very well, see in the dark, and have really good balance. The user can talk to/ attract felines alike mostly house cats as they seem to be the most popular in Japan. They are known to be flexible, and have balanced landing. And oml that is heckin long look i just copied and pasted from the last time i wrote about this quirk i hope you can forgive me. 😔 But anywho, i can just see Aizawa being absolute friends with this chad, like maybe y/n is a therapist to kids because he can literally comfort them due to his quirk, or just like a detective of sorts because of he can turn into a cat and be an excellent spy. Im so terribly sorry if this is long, i guess this more of an idea giving thing, maybe some inspiration for ya? I wanna see what you come up with. I think it’s about time we get some Neko Dilfs in our lives. 😎 what do you think?

Ooo jejkdbfkd I haven't even watched that fricken program and I'm already thinking of chat noir 💀

But of course I had to make it cute and romantic <3 sort of

Masterlist <3

Aizawa x Male!Neko!Reader

It was hard not to stare at Shouta Aizawa when you first met him. He was in his usual outfit, teaching his class 1-A and training with them when you had arrived at the training area, where the class was being held.

You had just been hired as a new teaching assistant because of your reputation as an underground hero, and their thoughts were that it would be best to have another underground hero to teach you the ropes.

He was standing there in all his glory, looking over the kids and making sure that they were making the most out of their training by giving them pointers and keeping track of their progress. It was so hot.

You tried your best not to fanboy over the poor man but you really just can't help yourself at this point. What makes it so much worse is your daddy issues, so this is kind of like waving candy in front of a kid and being like "Yeah you can only look, and you can't eat it. Have fun!", as if!

You were a complete simp for this man, and you always have been since you first heard of him.

He had taken some time out to train you alone in both the physical and mental areas of being a teaching assistant, and his very few complements and praises stuck in your mind like glue.

"I see... A cat quirk, huh? I'll tolerate you because cats are my favourite animal, -but only because of that."

That was a complement in your eyes, at least. He likes you! And he acknowledges your quirk!!

As of right now, you're halfway through your training and you've gotten pretty close to your mentor, though you've told him nothing of your dream to meet him, or of how much his mentoring really means to you. You both regularly chat and you pride yourself on even having made him laugh on some occasions, though he has absolutely no clue how much you admire and crush on him, and he never will.

At least, that's what you think.

In reality, Shouta Aizawa is a much smarter man than you give him credit for, and he could tell from the get-go that you were crushing on him, and hard. He had grown a soft spot for you in the time you've gotten to train and work together, and he had grown to love those twitchy, fluffy little ears of yours, and he wanted to pet your tail so direly, because this man is just an absolute sucker for cats.

He could also tell you had some rather substantial daddy issues too, from your aversion to part from him and your inferiority and abandonment issues, along with your constant need for validation. He found it very, very amusing that you thought he couldn't tell.

As you sit down with him in the faculty room, alone, you have to physically restrain your tail from patting happily against the sofa, your eyes, pupils as wide as the iris itself, avoid making contact with those of your hero.

He chuckles at your shyness despite that fact that it's been almost half a year now since you've met, and the two of you, along with the entire class, have been through thick and thin together and bonded like superglue.

Why were you so shaky around him all the time?

He sits with his legs crossed, an arm slung over the back of your couch and behind you, making you almost quiver as you keep averting his gaze out of sheer embarrassment at this point. He had grown to truly respect you and your accomplishments, knowing about your past with providing free therapy for kids.

That was one specific thing that caused his respect for you to increase dramatically when he first heard about it though, especially since it hit so close to home. His students have been though so much already that most rookie, full-time heroes haven't had to deal with yet, but somehow none of them classified for therapy? Or could even get it at a reasonable price? It was a longstanding struggle that Aizawa had fought long and hard against for his kids, yet he didn't have the power to do anything more for them until you came along. And you did it for free?!

He knew that he wouldn't have much trouble getting along with you at least, since your moral standpoints seemed to allign quite nicely.

He turned out to be right, although somehow no amount of psychology training could help you resolve your own issues, apparently.

"Why are you so tense all the time? 's not like I'm about to drag you to the nearest dark alley and threaten you for spare change. You need to relax"

All he receives in response is a shaky nod, and that's when he gets fed up, taking your chin in his hand and tilting your head towards him, forcing you to make eye contact with him. Your pupils are blown wide with love and adoration, much like that of a real cat, and your left ear twitches slightly, prompting him to pet it as he leans in to press a peck to your lips.

You freeze. It was like you had been struck with Todoroki's ice, because you could only sit in shock as your long time crush kissed you. He's just so dreamy and hot, and you can't stop your cheeks from going bright red again.

"I-... I-... S-so..."

"Let's date."

You nearly faint.

You can't help but ask if you're dreaming, and this only ilicits a low chuckle from the dark haired man which has your knees and heart weak, and as you look back at him and take the sight in fully, your little heart skips a beat. You must be the luckiest guy in the world right now.

#mha x reader #bnha x reader #bnha fanfiction #mha #bnha #bnha fluff #bnha headcanons #mha fluff #aizawa x reader #mha aizawa #aizawa fluff #aizawa shouta #aizawa shota x reader #aizawa x male reader #bnha x male reader #mha x male reader

[webslingingslasher]

oohh i just thought of science guy peter x astrology girlie trouble dynamic 🤓 trouble tries to convince peter that astrology is real and it makes sense, or like she tells him about horoscopes and he argues with her telling her it's nonsense, as a science guy. i can imagine they banter over it once in a while it's just funny.

then one day when trouble tells him abt someone she doesn't like, he surprisingly ends up guessing their sign as a diss and trouble is just ECSTATIC

-🧚🏼‍♀️

‘did you know there’s a thirteenth zodiac?’

‘ophiuchus, right?’

‘oh my god, yes! have you been looking into this? that’s so sexy of you.’

‘i could lie for brownie points, but i wont. no, i haven’t been looking into your fortune cookie books-‘

‘horoscope.’

‘-but i do know the constellation’s. plus i find that one cool, it disappears for a month.’

‘it’s frustrating how you can be so annoying and cute at the same time.’

‘ditto, trouble.’

‘wanna hear todays horoscope?’

‘you’re gonna tell me it no matter what.’

‘okay, for mister handsome leo, today says “you’re born romantic by nature, but today you’re likely to think more in terms of physical passion than idealized romance,” is that true?’

‘if you’re asking if i want to have sex with you, the answer is yes. it’s always yes.’

‘you’re greedy. okay, wait, this is actually kind of good. “the color blue might seem especially appealing right now, but don’t forget to add some red for passion. phone your romantic interest and have fun tonight.”’

‘there’s no fucking way. let me see that.’

‘that’s weird. i don’t like it.’

‘it’s okay, you just have to give in. be spiritual, peter. the universe is begging you.’

‘your delusions are tough but i fight through them for you.’

‘oh my god, you know who’s delusional? fucking jack. you don’t know him but he’s that one guy in the lecture who always has something to say and it’s always some woe is me shit! we could be talking about the german bomb dogs and he’d say it’s not as sad as his blind dog falling into the pool.’

‘let me guess, he’s a cancer?’

‘what did you just say?’

‘his zodiac. he’s a cancer?’

‘why… why would you say that?’

‘because you tell me all the time about how cancer men are the absolute worst humans alive.’

‘because they are! and guess what, nonbeliever? you’re right!’

‘i don’t wanna be right about this one. this will make you think there might be some validity to your claims and i can’t have that happen. no, no.’

‘you were right.’

‘i was making fun of you.’

‘and you happened to be right. because you knew he was a self pitying person and only one sign does that.’

‘wrong. i pity myself for entertaining you with this nonsense.’

‘understandable. i’ll see you later tonight… in your blue and red.’

‘that was a lucky guess!’

#girl wtf do i tag this as???? #fuck it - #frat!peter

[azrielsbxtch]

I’ve had more time to sit with HOFAS so here are things I loved and things that bugged me.

THINGS I LOVED

AZRIEL AND NESTA - Where to even begin. Their relationship and friendship is EVERYTHING. I'm so glad SJM chose to highlight both of them for the ACOTAR part because their chemistry is everything. I can't wait for more in ACOTAR 5

AZRIEL - Every new thing we learned about Azriel had me screeching. It's so clear SJM is setting him up for the next book. Every scene he appeared in I was obsessed! Finding out about truthteller, him being protective of his mom, him interacting with music, him being all hot and threatening....this bat has me in a chokehold I swear.

THE LORE - All the new information we got about Prythian and Midgard is so interesting. I wish I was a theories person because there's so much to theorize about!

RUHNLIDIA - They served in this book omg. When Ruhn was like "this is my first mission with my girlfriend I want to impress her" I almost threw my phone I'm not even kidding. They are so cute🥹✨✨

HUNT - I still feel like I need more Hunt. He's such a sweetheart and was truly a highlight for me in this book. I love him so much and I was totally rooting for him to fry Celestina.

THINGS THAT BUGGED ME

Ruhn and Lidia’s mate announcement. I knew Ruhn and Lidia would be mates from HOSAB so I was only waiting for confirmation but the way it was written threw me off. Ruhn just said it out of nowhere and to…of all people…Pollux….like what? Why? Idk it could have been more emotional.

Ariadne- I don’t understand the point of introducing this new character only to do NOTHING with her. I shipped her and Flynn sooo much. The way she was introduced in the beginning of the book had me so hyped only for her to disappear. Like imagine a dragon marching with the armies of Hel when they fought the Asteri…

Sigrid - That entire plotline felt useless to me. She was set up to be this hope for the wolves and it all amounted to nothing. So why did we waste so much time on her. I enjoyed Ithan’s chapters because I really like him. But from an objective point of view…most of what SJM made him do didn’t make sense. If she wanted him to become Prime (which I loved btw) she didn’t need to waste all that time on Sigrid and her resurrection only for her to join Sabine the person she’s supposed to hate and then disappear.

Tharion and Sathia - No…just no…..

Bryce ignoring Hunt’s trauma - She did it in HOSAB but again and on a larger scale in HOFAS. Everytime Hunt brought up his fears (understandable because he has now faced the Asteri twice and suffered insane consequences) Bryce just got angry and put him in such a bad position. She made it look like he didn’t want to support her when he has very valid reasons to be afraid. After what he went through the first time in the Asteri dungeons for years and then again! I’m surprised he didn’t break down even more tbh. His feelings were so valid.

Bryce - SJM tried to do the “Aelin is always two steps ahead” thing with Bryce but honestly it didn’t work. A lot of the times I was side eyeing and was like “that’s convenient” Bryce was guessing a lot of times so that whole thing just didn’t work.

The plot was all over the place. The book really didn’t flow well.

#cc hofas #houseofflameandshadow #cc3 #bryce quinlan #hunt athalar #ruhn x the hind #ruhnlidia #ruhn danaan #lidia cervos #nesta stan #nesta archeron #azriel x gwyn #crescent city #ruhn crescent city

[torscrawls]

Cold Snap

Bruce tries to protect Phantom during his first real mission but he soon finds out that Phantom needs less protection than he thought. 

Words: 4 307 

Can be read on AO3!

-

"Phantom. Stay back," Bruce said gruffly as he pushed the Justice League's youngest member behind himself and out of the line of sight of Poison Ivy. She was currently calling forth a small jungle in the middle of the street; vines forcing their way up through the pavement, stems and roots rapidly growing up the sides of the surrounding buildings as they sprouted a copious amount of leaves and flowers.

Predictably, Phantom immediately tried to protest, "It's fine, I can–"

"No," Bruce cut him off as he drew a batarang, "she's dangerous."

Bruce gritted his teeth. Of course Ivy had to show up when it was just him and Phantom on the scene, and unprepared for a confrontation to boot. Bruce had been showing Phantom around Gotham—not giving his new son a tour of his place, no matter what his other children said—but because he wanted Phantom to have the tactical advantage of knowing his surroundings if he ever had to fight in the city. Which proved to have been a very valid point, considering their current situation.

It would be a tough fight to go head to head with Ivy while keeping Phantom safe at the same time. At least the civilians in the area had almost all completely fled by now; routine and repetition really did wonders for the effectiveness of evacuation.

Phantom scoffed. "She's just producing a few flowers. This isn't the first time I've faced someone who's controlling plants, you know?"

Bruce was now positive that Phantom wasn't used to fighting real threats and was severely underestimating the danger. The young ghost had been a part of the Justice League for a fairly short amount of time—coming with them on missions and helping out where his specific skill set was required—but it was enough for Bruce to come to the conclusion that he was an enthusiastic teenager with a lot of potential in the sneaking-around-undetected-business, but he was generally a bit too impatient or just plain untrained to make full use of his potential.

Then again, he hadn't been involved in a full-blown confrontation since he joined the League, but what little fighting Bruce had seen him do was sloppy and more haphazard than he would have liked.

Bruce might have made a mental note to offer some hand-to-hand training for the boy as soon as they had the time to spare. Only to make sure he wasn't a liability in the field. Of course.

But to do that Bruce needed to keep him safe, so he tried to put as much seriousness into his voice as he could as he growled out, "This isn't up for debate, Phantom."

Phantom's retort was drowned out by the deafening sound of a car getting crushed beneath a mass of twisting vines and then by Poison Ivy's voice ringing out across the street, "Enough with all the pollution! Enough with all the destruction! Enough with—"

Before Bruce could stop him, Phantom had called back, "Isn't that a bit ironic considering what you're doing?"

Ivy's eyes fixed on him and Bruce swore under his breath. Of course he had to call her attention to him. Of course. "And who are you supposed to be?"

"I'm Phantom! It's…not nice to meet you, but, you know. Hello."

That seemed to stump her for a second before she laughed. "I like you. Too bad you sided with the wrong side."

Phantom crossed his arms over his chest. "You're the one hurting people and destroying things."

Batman sent him a warning look, trying to get him to stop antagonizing her.

If there was one thing that was good about Ivy, it was that she tended to at least be possible to argue with, to try and find another solution. She did what she did out of a misguided sense of justice, not to simply destroy and hurt. But that also meant that Phantom shouldn't needlessly push her.

She heaved a sigh and shook her head, looking very disappointed. "If that is how you want to view things. Then I guess I have to hurt you too. And Batman, of course."

Ivy added the last part with a wink in his direction and Bruce's frown deepened as he raised his batarang and breathed out to steady himself, and then he stopped. He frowned as he took in the way his breath was misting in the air in front of his face. In the middle of July.

And now that he thought about it, he did notice that it was an unmistakable and sudden chill in the air. He hadn't noticed because of his thick armor and focus on Ivy, but it seemed like they might have another threat on their hands. He cast a quick glance around to try and spot the new variable in this increasingly unpromising equation, and that was when he noticed that Phantom had gone very still at his side.

Bruce risked a quick glance down to check on him, not wanting to take his eyes off the enemy but needed to check that their young member was okay. He didn't have time to babysit him right now, but he couldn't just look the other way if a kid was panicking right next to him. Especially a kid that Bruce had indirectly dragged into the situation himself and was partially responsible for. So he said, in a voice that was only slightly gruff, "You don't have to be scared. I'll protect you."

It came out less reassuring and more annoyed than he had been aiming for, but hey, at least it was something. Bruce privately thought he was getting better at this whole comforting people business, but then Phantom shook his head. "I'm not scared."

Bruce opened his mouth to say that it was okay to be scared, that he knew Phantom wasn't used to fighting real battles against strong enemies, but before he could say anything Phantom spoke again, and this time it was with an echo and a snarl and loud enough that Ivy would be able to hear, "I'm angry."

That… was not what Bruce was expecting him to say. "What?"

All thoughts that the sudden drop in temperature could be caused by a natural occurrence flew out the window as Phantom's stillness seemed to spread—both through the ghost himself and through the environment around them—and goosebumps broke out all over Bruce's body as the temperature dropped even further. It came from Phantom.

This was unlike anything Bruce had seen from him before and he hated to admit it, but it was an unknown, something he hadn't taken into account, and he decidedly did not like it. So he turned to his companion and asked, "Phantom?"

But Phantom didn't have time to answer before Ivy spoke up, "Well, if you won't listen there's only one way to make sure this all ends…" She raised her hands and with them, all the vines surrounding her rose up too. "I have to take control of everyone's minds and make them respect nature!"

Bruce cursed under his breath as a cloud of spores erupted from the flowers around her, immediately starting to disperse in the wind as it carried the cloud deeper into the city, and thankfully away from him and Phantom.

Bruce threw his batarang at the closest wine, not waiting to see it connect before throwing three more in quick succession.

"What is it with you plant-people and mind control?!" Phantom growled out from next to him, and his voice was no longer anywhere close to human.

A shudder traveled down Bruce's spine and he couldn't tell if it was due to the sound of Phantom's voice or the sudden and steep drop in temperature, making the surroundings, impossibly, even colder.

He could already feel numbness spreading through his fingers and toes as he started shivering as a chill settled in, deep in his bones and much too fast to be natural. Bruce threw another batarang and watched as it missed its mark.

"Phantom!" Bruce barked out as he looked to his teammate and the blooming frost that branched out from where he floated, looking like deceptively beautiful and delicate latticework.

"Aww, what a pretty ice-show," Ivy cooed with a laugh. "Let me take Batman here out of the picture and we can talk. Just the two of us."

A vine shot out towards Bruce and he cursed himself from getting distracted. The cold surrounding him made him slow enough that he wouldn't be able to duck in time, he just had to trust that his armor would protect–

Or not.

The vine suddenly stopped in mid-air, overtaken by ice.

Phantom rounded on Ivy. "How dare you threaten my friend?!"

By now, the air was cold enough to hurt going in and Bruce had to struggle not to gasp as his shivering turned into painful shaking. It was cold and it was all his brain could focus on. Cold cold cold cold—

Bruce managed to convince his legs to move enough to take a couple of stumbling steps away from Phantom, hating that the action wasn't a conscious decision, and hating eve more that it left Phantom's side vulnerable. But his colleague didn't seem to mind, instead it was Ivy who looked suddenly exposed and unsure.

And Bruce couldn't blame her, and he definitely couldn't fight like this; while having to keep an eye on his ally at the same time. He needed his head clear, and to do that, he needed Phantom to calm down and stop whatever it was he was doing. Preferably now.

"Phantom. Calm down," Bruce tried again through chattering teeth, "You have to stop this."

But Phantom didn't seem to hear him, or if he did he ignored him, as he kept addressing a wide-eyed Ivy. "You have nothing on Undergrowth, and I won't allow you to destroy the city. It takes ages to restore the damages caused by the roots."

At the end of the sentence, Phantom's eyes blazed blue and Bruce realized that he couldn't remember a time in his life where he had ever been this cold. But wait… Maybe he wasn't cold? Bruce realized that he almost felt warm on top of alarmingly tired. Bruce blinked. That… was a bad sign, wasn't it?

When he blinked again he got distracted by the sight of his own eyelashes laden with frost, and then, again, by the sight of all the plants surrounding them suddenly freezing in place. Bruce watched in horrified fascination as a second later, they all turned brittle and hard before crumbling to pieces, and he realized—to his horror—that despite how cold he felt, Phantom was somehow protecting him from the worst of it.

His aching eyes landed on Phantom where he floated perfectly unaffected by everything going on around them, and even Bruce's struggling brain managed to come to the conclusion that he might have severely misjudged Phantom's skill set and what he was capable of.

It hadn't been Phantom's safety he should have been worried about

Ivy seemed to share his conclusions as she didn't waste any more time before turning and beginning to stumble away.

Which proved to be a mistake as it prompted Phantom to move, and with him all the pressure, all the focus of the sudden all-encompassing cold moved as well. Like an avalanche rolling down the street, unstoppable and terrifying.

Ivy stopped, frozen to the spot as he approached, wide eyes fixed on Phantom's form, and Bruce couldn't tell if that was because she was actually frozen to the ground, or if she was simply frozen in fear.

And then it was as if Phantom shed the burden of all that heavy power, and in an instant the slow inevitability of his movements switched to swiftness and Phantom faster than Bruce could follow, faster than he had ever seen him move before, and in the blink of an eye he was in front of Ivy and with his hands raised towards her—his expression was completely blank and deathly cold as his normally lively eyes held nothing but ice.

Bruce felt a sudden dread twist his gut.

What if he was about to kill her? He couldn't allow that. Not while he was there—he couldn't just stand by as the League's youngest member become a murderer. A voice in his head whispered that he apparently knew nothing about his team member and that Phantom might very well already be one.

How he managed to get his aching throat to produce words was beyond him, but he did manage to croak out, "Phantom, stop!"

And—this time—thankfully, Phantom did.

He tilted his head in Bruce's direction with a questioning look in his eyes. "Shouldn't I capture her?"

Capture her. Of course. The relief he felt at that barely registered beneath the mind-numbing cold and even if he wanted to, he couldn't give an answer as his shivering lips and hacking teeth refused to form any more words. Instead, he settled for gesturing with a shaking hand around them and to his throat, hoping that Phantom would catch on to what he meant.

Phantom frowned in confusion for a second before his eyes widened with sudden realization. "Oh, right. Sorry. Wait a second."

And, just like that, warmth started to spread across the street and across Bruce himself and he could feel a painful tingling starting up in his fingers as they came back to life.

The next breath he took almost burned on the way down as his frozen throat thawed.

Phantom looked the same as ever, as if controlling the very climate of a whole street was nothing to him, as if commanding the power of a tundra, an ice storm, was nothing to him.

Maybe it wasn't.

Ivy sank to her knees and Bruce would have followed her if he hadn't managed to lock his knees at the very last second, a skill honed after countless times of staying on his feet for far longer than he really should have.

Bruce forced his throat and mouth to work. "Don't hurt her."

Instead of answering him, Phantom turned to Ivy and asked, "Will they be okay? The people you mind controlled?"

She nodded. "Yes. It will wear out in an hour and they will be unharmed. I won't ask them to do anything. Please, you have to believe me, I just wanted to help—"

She stopped speaking abruptly when a Phantom moved, and Bruce had a second to tense up before he saw that Phantom simply crossed his arms and nodded as he said, "Alright."

And it felt like a judgment.

Bruce let out a slightly unsteady breath. He had thought he had become used to powerful beings, what with aliens, literal superheroes, and living legends being on his team, but this was foreign in a way not even the aliens they had encountered were. This was foreign to life itself.

After Bruce was able to move again, they made short work of capturing Ivy and sending her back to Arkham. For once, she didn't argue or try any tricks to get away, her eyes stayed locked on Phantom the whole time until she was taken away.

When it was only the two of them left, together with a couple of small and inconspicuous puddles that was all there was left of all the frost and ice, as well as quite a lot of destroyed plant matter, Bruce turned to face his teammate.

And all of a sudden, he started to doubt what had transpired; his brain having trouble connecting what had just happened with the innocent looking boy in front of him. But the street around them as well as his own shaking body spoke of the truth. That it had really happened.

Besides, the whole street as far as he could see bore traces of the melted ice and the crumbled plants. He felt himself hesitate for a split second at the implications of that—at the sheer size of whatever power Phantom had unleashed so casually and at the potential danger that it posed.

But then Bruce looked back at Phantom's face and the way he was keeping his earnest attention on Bruce—waiting for what he was about to say; waiting for his judgment—and felt himself relax.

Phantom had never done anything since he'd met him to earn his distrust and to his surprise, Bruce found that he didn't want to ruin that. His children had told him that he was too paranoid for his own good and maybe this was the time to start working on changing that; to prove them wrong.

Bruce fixed Phantom with what he hoped was a stern look and said, "Let's go debrief."

Phantom at least had the sense to look faintly ashamed. "Are you sure? Shouldn't we—"

"Watchtower. Now."

This time, Phantom followed him without further debate, and Bruce breathed out a sigh of relief. He wasn't sure that he would be able to force Phantom to come if he didn't want to.

-

As soon as they arrived at the Watchtower, Bruce led Phantom to an empty meeting room and closed the door before anyone could stop them to talk. He was grateful for the effectiveness of his glare in keeping people away.

Bruce placed his hands on the table and fixed Phantom with a stern glare. "We need to have a serious talk about following orders. As well as withholding important information."

Phantom grimaced. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get so angry. I just… Hated that she threatened you. I couldn't just—"

Bruce cut him off with a stern, "I can take care of myself." He couldn't have a young boy risk himself in a misguided attempt to protect him. "But I need you to listen to what I say in the field."

Phantom looked like he wanted to argue for a second, before he deflated. "Yeah, sure. I'm sorry."

Bruce had sons of his own; he could tell Phantom didn't mean it, so he raised an eyebrow and stared him down in silence until the boy broke.

"Okay, fine! I'm not sorry! I could help in that situation and to stand back and do nothing wouldn't have helped anyone!"

And that was a good segue way into the other topic Bruce wanted to discuss. "Why haven't you used those powers before?"

Phantom hesitated. "I was scared of hurting you guys. We've only really been on missions in small spaces and my skill set isn't really made for that." Then he paused with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Well, except for the invisibility and intangibility and stuff, but that's just basic powers, you know? Every ghost can do that."

Bruce had thought that was his only skill set.

He mentally tried to re-categorize everything he knew about his teammate, and started on making new contingency plans.

Phantom took a deep breath. "I normally try to hold back a bit. I know humans aren't really as durable as ghosts and I don't want to hurt anyone more than I have to, I don't want to destr–"

Phantom cut himself off, a pained expression flashed across his face, but it was gone before Bruce could get a good read on it.

And that was part of the problem, wasn't it? He didn't know enough about Phantom to know what to expect, not really.

He had been blindsided by Phantom's apparent youth and humor, how willing he was to cooperate, and how happy he always was to interact with the other members of the league. But Bruce knew, better than most, that appearances could be deceiving.

He should have dug deeper.

He had just assumed that there wasn't anything more to dig up on a dead child. That had been a faulty conclusion. He was getting weak. Lenient.

Well, he could start to work on fixing that now.

So Bruce crossed his arms and fixed Phantom with what he hoped to be a stern stare. "Why didn't you tell us you had powers like that?"

"I promise I didn't mean to keep it from you guys! It's just… I forget."

Bruce raised an eyebrow in question. Forgot what? He wanted to see where Phantom went with this. Thankfully, Phantom seemed to take the hint and elaborated, "My powers."

Okay, Bruce took it back. That didn't really clear anything up.

After a few silent seconds in which Phantom didn't seem to think he needed to explain further, Bruce caved and asked, "What do you mean?"

"I mean I forget what my powers are sometimes. Or at least some of them."

"…What?"

Was Phantom messing with him? He couldn't seriously mean that he didn't know his own powers?

"Yeah… I know it's bad."

Bruce blinked. Or… He was serious. "How can you not know what your own powers are?"

"It's not my fault I get new ones all the time! I mean, of course I know about the ones I use on the regular, but the others… I get new ones so often it's hard to keep track!"

Well wasn't that a terrifying admission? Bruce almost didn't want to ask, "How many do you have?"

Phantom paused with a thoughtful expression on his face. Bruce wanted to cut in that it was a fairly straightforward question.

Then Phantom groaned and threw his hands in the air as he exclaimed, "Well that's the problem, isn't it?! I'm not sure!"

He couldn't really be serious, could he…?

Bruce looked into Phantom's eyes that were once again back to their familiar green color, and found only honesty there. Well, honesty and a fair share of annoyance and resignation.

What was he meant to say to that? He got new powers just like that? Was that typical for ghosts?

…How was he supposed to keep a detailed list of his teammate's powers if Phantom himself didn't even have the information and if it changed all the time?

Phantom seemed to take Bruce's silence as disapproval, which wasn't completely wrong, as he raised his hands defensively in front of him and plowed on, "I didn't know that was, like, a requirement for you guys! There's nothing I can really do about it."

"What about making sure you know your current powers before going into dangerous situations, at the very least?" Bruce barely recognized his own voice, he sounded so exasperated.

Phantom looked at him as if his statement was in any way shape or form an intelligent and revolutionary one. "That might actually be a good idea. I can try to write a list down if you want?"

"I can help you compose the list." The words were out of his mouth before he had made the conscious decision to say them and Bruce cursed himself as soon as he let them slip. His teammate might get the wrong idea that he wanted to help him out of the goodness of his heart, but it was simply to keep a closer eye on Phantom and learn his strengths and weaknesses. Of course. Nothing else.

Phantom stared at him in silence for long enough that even Bruce started to second-guess himself, before he broke the quiet with a barely audible but clearly awed, "You would do that? For me?"

Bruce cleared his throat. "It would be bad to not know your powers. It makes you a liability and a danger in the field."

"Aww, you care about me!"

"Of course I—" Bruce cut himself off. He would not admit to something like, especially not for a colleague of all things. And of course he didn't. He just needed good intel to make sure a repeat of today never happened again. What if next time Phantom got hurt or—

No. What if next time, Phantom compromised the mission. That was what he cared about. Only that.

Phantom's green eyes suddenly shone with tears and Bruce stood up straighter. Please, Bruce begged silently, please don't start crying. He hated it when his kids cried. Not that Phantom was one of them. Of course not.

But then a wide grin slowly spread across Phantom's face, stretching his mouth wide and squinting his shining eyes into mirthful crescents. The innocent picture was slightly ruined by his fangs peeking out from between his lips. "I care about you too!"

Those words shouldn't have almost made Bruce smile back, but he forcibly reminded himself to focus on his faulty assumptions and on the risks this whole thing posed instead of the warmth spreading through his chest. And Bruce could admit to when he had been wrong, despite what his sons said, but it had been a long time since he had been this wrong about something or someone. He didn't like the feeling, and he would make absolutely sure it didn't happen again. And that no one found out that it had happened.

He shook his head, forced the small smile off his face and said, "Prepare a list of all the powers you do know about until tomorrow."

Phantom sloppily saluted him with a grin. "Yes, sir!"

Bruce scowled harder, but it only made Phantom's grin widen. He needed to make sure Phantom knew the importance of this.

"And next time I tell you to do something, you do it," Bruce growled out.

Phantom nodded, still grinning. "If it's not too stupid."

Bruce could recognize when he had lost an argument and decided to take what he could get.

-

The next day Bruce found a note on his desk at the Watchtower with a long list of increasingly absurd powers in a very scratchy handwriting covering both the front and back and covered his face with his hands as he groaned.

They had a long way ahead of them.

#dp #danny phantom #dp x dc #dp fic #danny phantom fic #phic #i'm sick and i'm tired and that means i'm back on my bullshit #have some more op danny #just confusing bruce with his usual shit #i hope you enjoy! #my writing

[jess-the-vampire]

You have mentioned at some point you're not sure about Philip ever having a love interest, right? Is he like aro ace in you au or something else? I have seen a lot of people who either ship him as aro ace or gay.

i've honestly never really confirmed his sexuality in the au, i don't think i've really been sure of what best suits him, at least in my work, and to be fair if i were to try and add romance in the au with him i'd probably worry about it being taken out of context if it were with another canon character.

Because let's be fair here, people absolutely take my au out of context and if people are willing to openly complain to me about philip and hunter's relationship being less abusive despite the fact this is a swap au at the end of the day and it makes sense to make philip less terrible for that concept to work....there's no way people won't make a bit of a stink if i tried shipping him in my au as well.

i'm sure the fact i don't personally ship philip with anyone in the actual show probably also adds to why there's never been a proper love interest in the au. You can def interpret terra as a love interest but it's unlikely to go anywhere, for a number of reasons in this au.

all sexuality headcanons for philip are valid to me, and personally i'm of the opinion that he is queer in some fashion, both because i think it adds more to this character, and that i don't quite like the mindset that all villians like him can only be cishet. Philip being a repressed outcast who self destructs because of gravesfield and trying to live up to their standards and further hurting himself is a more intriguing concept to me and i think even gives him a further interesting parallel to luz.

(yeah, fun fact for those who don't chat with a lot of people who enjoy belos's character, most of his fans headcanon he's queer, i guess the man radiates it)

but yeah, even with that in mind, i have not been sure of what sexuality to actually give him, so i've been dancing around the subject ever since.

A lot of people pick aroace as mentioned, some pick gay, i'm fond of both those interpretations (Though i am not fond of people making him aroace JUST because he's evil and they don't want him with anyone, please don't do that), i've just had some rough patches on this version of him regarding that part.

he is queer tho, at the very least in this au.

#my art #the owl house #toh #a reverse of feathers and mud au #areverseoffeathersandmudau #a reverse of feathers and mud #toh hunter #golden guard #the golden guard #hunter #hunter wittebane #hunter noceda #hunter deamonne #emperor belos #philip wittebane

[sunshine-jesse]

Why I'm Uncomfortable With Trying To Diagnose The Siblings

Hey!

I would like to preface this by saying that I'm not saying you shouldn't find representation in these people. If you have a personality disorder, and see your own behaviors in the two of them, then by all means, claim them. The point I'm going to try to be making is NOT that it's morally wrong to see yourselves in them. After all, I find autistic rep in people like Futaba Sakura, who isn't explicitly diagnosed, or trans rep in Luka Urushibara, who isn't trans within the context of the story but is so obviously trans in behavior that she'd absolutely be trans IRL. I also find pretty good autistic rep in Maria Ushiromiya from Umineko, and trans rep in [SPOILER CHARACTER] from that very same work, even though her experience doesn't exactly line up with the average trans experience.

None of these characters are diagnosed. None of them really have to be in order to be valid examples.

The point I'm going to be making in this essay is that I don't think that personality disorders have enough explanatory power for their behavior, and while Ashley and Andrew (especially Ashley) might technically qualify for one of them, I think it's a very simplistic way of characterizing their behavior. And frankly, whether or not they do qualify doesn't matter, because I think psychology as a field is grossly insufficient for characterizing and treating their behaviors… and perhaps even your own.

Why?

Well!

What, exactly, about their actions and thought patterns is disordered? The Nina incident obviously, and the calls to Julia, I guess, but what -else-?

Let's start with Ashley because she's the one people have most commonly accepted as having a PD of some kind. Namely, Borderline Personality Disorder! I'm going to go down the list of symptoms and tell you why I either do not think she has many of them, or that they're perfectly rational reactions to the environment around her.

I probably won't cover Andrew as deeply because Ashley, as loud and annoying as she is, makes everything easy to see.

-Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment

…So. Where, exactly, are the -frantic- efforts? In Decay, what she's worried about is literally her dying. Not just being abandoned. And in Burial, when she feels her grip loosening on Andrew, there's nothing frantic about her reaction to it. She's just confused and thoughtful, maybe a bit worried. But that's more because she's trying to parse what's going on, and not because she's trying to avoid abandonment. She only ever speaks about it in regards to the incest vision.

The most severe actions to prevent abandonment are her calls towards Julia- assuming Andrew ever could've heard them and it wasn't just Andrew imagining what the calls could've been- but she takes immediate responsibility for them when confronted. That immediate responsibility is admittedly her just laughing it off, but there wasn't even an attempt made to justify it. All she has is the fear of abandomment, really. With the above in mind, her calls to Julia come off as her being more of an asshole than anything.

-Unstable and chaotic interpersonal relationships, often characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation, also known as "splitting"

I think she idealizes Andrew a lot. But the parts where she tries to """""gaslight"""" Andrew over how responsible he is for his killings aren't… devaluation. As I spoke about in my last essay, it was Ashley trying to get him to take responsibility for the actions he took supposedly for her own sake, so she knew it was for her- to make her happy.

It qualifies more for the first symptom, with that in mind, but she never, ever deviates from viewing him as her favorite person. She doesn't split. She just wants him to take responsibility so she knows that he actually cares.

-Markedly disturbed sense of identity and distorted self-image

Her self image is absolutely distorted. She's been viewed as worthless from the start of her life, and never got along with any friends or family. But her self-image is also remarkably consistent- she has a firm idea in her mind of who she is and never starts to deviate from it until, arguably, the end of the Burial route.

-Impulsive or reckless behaviors Yes.

-Recurrent suicidal ideation or self harm

Nope. She arguably has the strongest self-preservation instincts in the whole story, and despite her viewing herself as worthless, never once actually wants to die.

-Rapidly shifting intense emotional dysregulation -Inappropriate, intense anger that can be difficult to control

These ones are a bit iffy. The scene wherein she yells at Andrew for not taking responsibility for killing Nina and the 302 lady arguably qualifies as this. But this is the only such example of it in the story. Otherwise, she's in remarkable control of her own emotions, and all her worries over Andrew abandoning her are met with confusion more than an immediate, powerful emotional response.

-Chronic feelings of emptiness Yeah.

-Transient, stress-related paranoid or severe dissociative symptoms No. She displays no dissociative symptoms whatsoever and she only ever grows slightly paranoid when she sees the shift in Andrew's personality.

So, let's go over her symptoms that she unambigously has: -Chronic feelings of emptiness -Impulsive or reckless behaviors

And the ones she PARTLY qualifies for: -Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment (key word here is frantic, else she'd fully qualify) -Unstable and chaotic interpersonal relationships, often characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation, also known as "splitting" (she doesn't split Andrew)

The BIG maybes: -Inappropriate, intense anger that can be difficult to control (only two such examples of that in the story) -Rapidly shifting intense emotional dysregulation -Markedly disturbed sense of identity and distorted self-image (her sense of self image is distorted, but her sense of identity is not disturbed; it's remarkably consistent)

You need five of these symptoms to qualify for a diagnosis. Ashley unambiguously meets two, partly qualifies for two, and the rest are either BIG maybes or flat out nos.

In other words, for people who view BPD as The Cause, she does not qualify for having the disorder. Sorry, armchair psych bros; this is your L.

…are they gone yet?

Good!

As I'm sure most people reading this who see themselves in these characters have come to realize, diagnosis is mostly full of shit. And for those who have actually studied the field of psychology beyond a few random-ass articles they looked up while trying to find out why their ex or mom was so crazy, or a single college psych course, they might find my above summation to be lacking. Questionable. Even, problematic!

Well, congrats, because now I'm going to level with you about what this essay is actually about. If you understand what personality disorders are, you'd know that they are rarely the cause of anything. They're not like diseases in that they 'cause' anything; they're just words we use to describe a set of symptoms that each have their own individual causes. And while there's a lot of buzz in some circles about the heritability of personality disorders, the fact of the matter is that there is currently very, very little evidence that they're genetic. (https://www.apa.org/topics/personality-disorders/causes)

The patterns emerge early, sure, but there is no gene for a personality disorder*. It's not, and never was, how they were always like. Nobody is doomed to develop one. They are merely born with a series of traits that might predispose them to it. By their very nature, they possess no explanatory power for behavior whatsoever. Ashley is not "like this because she has BPD," she's "she has BPD because she's like this." And this is at the core of why I'm uncomfortable with attaching a personality disorder to her.

*A malfunctioning gene has been linked to OCD, however, but even in that case it's not a gene that defines someone as OCD, because it's linked to other conditions as well such as autism, social phobias, and substance use disorders. It's merely one of the many preconditions someone may have that could lead them to developing it. https://www.nature.com/articles/4001365

There's an old meme about trans people having BPD. I don't know if that's still a popular meme, but it was, in fact, a strong association that us in the trans community had. A way we stereotyped ourselves, as it may. And it's a pretty funny meme! Bonding over mutual trauma is always a fun time. But. I don't like that meme, either, for the same reason I don't like it for Ashley or Andrew.

I don't think medicalizing personality is a good thing.

For trans people, the fact of the matter is, we have every reason to develop BPD. The world really is that hostile towards us. Coming out can make friends drop us on a whim, transitioning makes it hard to develop lasting relationships because there's always that fear of people sexualizing us and never wanting a real, close, romantic relationship to begin with.

It's not disordered. It's not a condition. It's not a "problem".

It's a perfectly rational reaction to the world around us.

We have every reason to be so afraid. It'd make less sense if we weren't. And we have every reason to view every sign someone might leave as a sign that people never cared to begin with, because we have seen so many people who never HAVE really cared about us show their whole ass once we're a little bit different than they expected us to be. The same applies to cis women, too; it's why they're diagnosed with BPD three times as much as cis men are!

And I honestly think Ashley's reactions are much the same. She was denied the benefits of the social contract her whole life, abandoned by her parents and "friends," and only ever had Andrew, who gives every indication that he's trying to distance himself from her for the sake of being normal. He refuses to give her the validation she needs to think otherwise, always making it seem conditional or coming with a caveat, and tries to pass off the responsibility for all the actions that'd prove how much he cares for her.

And, ah, Andrew, goodness gracious. I've seen so many different takes on what's up with him that it boggles the mind. It's hard to pick out just one, but ASPD is a pretty common one. But I honestly think that's even more questionable than Ashley having BPD. Like, yeah, he's mostly afraid of consequences rather than the morality of his actions, but that's because his Prime Directive is to keep Ashley safe. Any consequences necessarily separate them. And the fact that he's so willing to kill, so cold and emotionless while doing it, so emotionless after? Once more, it's his job to keep Ashley safe; to keep her happy. But society won't let him take credit. It pushes back against him taking responsibility and acknowledging just how much he wants to- and has- done for her.

He always has to distance himself from how he truly feels, lest society punish him. He's had to distance himself from his true feelings so much that it's little wonder he has any attachment to them at all anymore. Violence is the only power he's ever had, because it's the only thing society never pushed back on, and it's the only thing many of the viewers never push back on. It's how he distances himself from the things that hurt him, which is either Ashley, or the people who keep him away from Ashley. … But only one of those things ever truly made him happy, and it just happens to be the one that society doesn't accept.

Andrew isn't like this because he has ASPD. Andrew has ASPD because he's like this.

It's the effect, not the cause.

The cause is the world around him; the world around Ashley.

Medicalizing something implies the issue is internal. It implies it's something we can fix from within ourselves. And, at worst, it implies that it's our fault. We should take responsibility for maladaptive behaviors, sure. We absolutely should, if only for our own sakes, lest we push people away through no fault of their own. We should do what we can to not hurt people, every step of the way. That is on us.

But there's only so much we can do when the world around us constantly reaffirms our greatest fears.

And that's exactly what the world does to the marginalized.

#andrew graves #ashley graves #the coffin of andy and leyley #gaming #tcoaal #tcoaal essay #essay

[splatattackz]

okay guess ill get this off my chest.

warning, discourse below!

discourse topic; the rampant bbh neg in this community and the misunderstanding of what fail rp is, by definition.

its REALLY rubbing me wrong how i only see discourse about BAD "fail rping" by still playing on the main server. like. bagi is doing the same thing? etoiles has done the same thing (logged on tuesday and hung with foolish)? i dont see anyone discussing that? and this is NOT to hate on them, not at all, im just pointing out how a lot if the hate is VERY focused. and its becoming apparent you guys just fucking hate bbh i think.

it also gets on my nerves its being CALLED fail rp in the first place. bc its not. both bagi and bad have made cases to justify them still wanting to be able to take a chill pill and play on the main server in lore, and those justifications are VALID and MAKE SENSE - which they DONT EVEN HAVE TO DO BTW AND ARE DOING IT JUST FOR YOU GUYS! the admins are ALLOWING creators to still play on the main island if they want. its not like theyre breaking a sacred rule set by the admins by doing this. because it does not fucking matter!

bagi has tried to justify this by saying who she is on the main island currently is a robot - emergency bagi - she made for times like these (i believe).

bad has tried to justify it by saying he split himself in 3 and left 2 thirds on the main island and let the more violent third go to purgatory - which is a plausible thing because he is a demon.

the definition of fail rp is as follows;

" when a person fails to roleplay properly, whether that be through going down an unrealistic RP or intentionally disrupting the roleplay of other's by trolling. "

in neither case is it fail rp because it isnt unrealistic for who their characters are (bagi seems like the type to have that ready easily, and bads a fucking demon what do you want from him) and they arent disrupting others roleplays by existing like this.

and its really getting on my nerves because, once again, they dont even HAVE to do this really. they dont have to justify something the admins are letting them do freely. they dont have to justify wanting to take a chill pill because purgatory is stressful. but they are. because of YOU GUYS. THE AUDIENCE. but you are not fucking listening at all.

me when tumblr is becoming JUST like twitter with the constant mindless bbh neg.. mon dieu..

id also like to note this comes from someone who doesnt always watch bad and bagi unless for lore; and this comes from the 'bias' i suppose of a fitmc main watcher. so take it as you will. i am not defending bbh because he is my main or a fav i am doing it because i find its super unfair and stupid (<- not the right word but english is not englishing) what is occuring in this discourse.

TLDR; you guys focus hate on bbh too much and also if you just take a moment and listen it makes sense the lore reason he (and bagi) have made for this and by definition is not fail rp.

much love <3

#had to get this one off my mind before i killed smth #slinking back into my hole home now #goodbye #im scared qsmpblr will kill me for this one lmao #discourse #qpurgatory 2 #qsmp #<- since it also concerns their presences on the main island #not tagging characters so fans of them can continue living a happy and prosperous life :] #qsmpattackz #splatattackz

[feather2004]

Who is macaque’s killer and why I think it is Peng

Okay so I know this has been a source of discussion within the fandom basically ever since Macaque’s backstory got revealed. But I’ve got a pretty good case as to who I think the killer is and why it’s not Wukong.

For starters we already know that one of the shows developers has stated that Wukong and Macaque’s relationship is full of misunderstandings, and one of them was hinted to be Macaque’s belief that he was killed by Wukong.

Now dear reader there are many possible culprits for who could’ve done it however, based on the evidence the show has given us thus far and what we know of the possible suspects I have narrowed it done to three main suspects.

Suspect number 1 Wukong

He’s ruled out for obvious reasons, number one it’s almost confirmed by the creators that Wukong is innocent, but there is other evidence such as.

Number one: Wukong doesn’t react the way a normal person would to finding out someone you killed is most certainly alive.

He’s not shocked to see Macaque during his debut episode in season one, at least not the way he should be if he new Macaque was dead. He seems just angry and annoyed to see him, especially after all this time which would imply that Wukong most likely believed Mac fled during whatever battle they had and survived.

But we know better, now you could say that perhaps Wukong and him met up before that episode so that’s why he’s not shocked. This explanation however, dose not convince me since we have no idea how long Mac’s been resurrected for for all we know he could’ve been alive for a few months before meeting MK.

Plus it just doesn’t seem like Mac to immediately rush off to fight the man who killed you to moment he comes back. No it’s far for likely he waited, hid and schemed for a possible opening to attack before confronting Wukong, and a brand new Monkie Kid who’s inexperienced with his new powers and easy to manipulate now that’s a perfect opportunity.

Number two: it wouldn’t make sense from a writing point to make Wukong the killer, it’s obvious that they’re trying to make this version of him more kid friendly and having your main characters mentor brutality murder his best friend is not the way to do that. That and it’s obvious the writers are setting up for Mac and Wukong to reconcile it would be really hard for that to happen if Wukong just straight up killed Mac, that’s kinda something you can’t come back from.

So yah from all logical standpoints it makes no sense for Wukong to willingly be the killer, and if he is he had to have done it unknowingly or at least against his will.

Suspect number 2 The Lady Bone Demon

Okay so I get why people would think it’s her but honestly, there’s absolutely no way it’s her, and think my reasons for thinking this are very valid.

Number one: she would have no motive to do so or opportunity.

This I feel I’d quite obvious if we look hard enough at the story, it’s stated in her backstory that she was defeated by Wukong and sealed after she tried to kill the whole world. But nowhere is it stated that she new Wukong or had beef with him before this, in fact it wouldn’t make sense for her to as she was busy with her mission and it’s implied that Wukong and the gang were sent in as a last resort and succeeded on their first try.

So, how exactly would she have been able to mess with Mac and Wukong’s relationship when she was imprisoned? My guess she wouldn’t have and even if she could why would she waste her time targeting Macaque when she was most likely focusing on trying to escape her prison. And I know the chains look like hers but there’s no reason that those can’t be ghostly underworld chains, plus we don’t know if that ability is exclusive to her.

And if I’m wrong about the original battle timeline she still would have no reason target Mac since it’s very clearly implied that almost no one new of him aside from Wukong and the brotherhood. I mean he wasn’t a very flashy demon and he kept to himself mostly so how could she have known about him. And even if she did who’s to say Mac wasn’t already dead by the time Wukong and her fought.

Plus it just isn’t within character for her to do this, Lady Bone Demon is all about logic and is usually quite impersonal with her victims she isn’t the type to needlessly torment someone. She’s cruel yes, but she’s not sadistic at least not to the point of destroying someone’s relationship and killing their best friend.

Remember her core motivation as a villain is to end all suffering, in an extreme way yes but that’s still what she wants.

Number two: it would also narratively be underwhelming for it to be her.

If I’m wrong and she is the one who did it, well wahoo I guess she’s already dead so there’s no karmic justice that can come from this revelation. She can’t be punished or yelled at or anything really, she’s gone it wouldn’t mean anything if it was her.

No it would make way more sense for the writers to pick someone who is alive, someone who the heroes can bring justice against a new juicy villain to write all kinds of interesting character dynamics with.

And that brings us to our final suspect, the one who I actually think did it.

Suspect Number 3 Peng

Now this guy, this guy is the kind of person who would kill Macaque: we already know that he and Mac have a heated rivalry at least on Peng’s side, we know that he’s bloodthirsty wanting to kill MK the moment he met him because he was to powerful to let live and we also have a perfect opportunity for him to commit the crime. Plus he just screams filthy backstabber from his voice to his design.

He has motive, opportunity and the skills to accomplish such a task.

It would be incredibly easy for someone like him to kill Mac, one we know it’s most likely that Mac died during the brotherhoods fight against heaven that Wukong was present for as he was shown there during the flashback. Two two the battle was probably hectic and could have easily given him time to slip away and attack an unguarded or unconscious Macaque during the battle leaving everyone else none the wiser.

Three we already know that Mac and him were fighting about whether Wukong had betrayed them or not plus it was clear in the flashback that Mac was in the brotherhood for Wukong and didn’t actually like the others except maybe DBK and Azure. So it would make sense at least in Peng’s mind that Macaque was a liability that would betray them the moment Wukong asked him to, so it’d make sense to kill him when he had the chance and save the brotherhood two mystical monkeys against them.

It would be the perfect plan to him, plus the idea of killing Wukong’s best friend and the immense pain it would cause the monkey would probably just be a bonus to him. The only reason why he might’ve not is because Azure would have disagreed but as I’ve stated before the battle would have been a good cover as everyone else would be distracted fighting their own battles, plus Peng probably thought he could convince Azure it was for the greater good with the reasons I’ve listed above.

Not to mention this has AMAZING story potential, just imagine Wukong finding out one of his of friends killed Mac imagine what’d that do to him: constantly pondering on how he could’ve prevented it why was he so blind ect.

And on Macaque’s side we’ve got this eternal rival who he thought was his ally but instead was the knife in his back all along, that could be a great villain vs hero dynamic.

Even Azure would be tested if he found out, questioning the brotherhood’s integrity and if his actions are actually morally correct. Imagine the strain that would put of his and Peng’s relationship who are shown to be particularly close.

To me it just makes perfect sense for Peng to be the killer. So yah that’s my theory it was Peng all along.

#lego monkey kid macaque #lego monkie kid wukong #lego monkie kid #lego monkie kid azure lion #lego monkie kid peng #lego monkie kid lady bone demon #lego monkie kid lbd #lmk spoilers #lmk sun wukong #lmk analysis #lmk theory #lmk macaque #lmk azure lion #lmk peng #media analysis #theory

[canonicallyobserving911]

Anti Bucktommy

Eddie deserves better than that raggedy storyline he was handed.

Don't read below the cut if you ship bucktommy because this is an ANTI-BUCKTOMMY ZONE!

Full Disclosure: Eddie is my favorite character and IMO the way he was charcterized in 7x4 was horrifically horrible.

It's been a few hours since the episode aired and I believe I'm finally at a place where I can articulate how damn angry I am about the way EDDIE DIAZ was treated throughout the episode.

Before it aired, I was still on the fence regarding if I should watch live because I didn't want Buck and Eddie to argue/fight but I sure as hell didn't want either of them to get injured. I really tried to keep an open mind about Buck’s storyline but I'm not sure how to process the fact that they made Eddie out to be the villain for the third time. First it was the lawsuit, then it was Buck's coma dream where he was charcterized as "Angry" and now this. He was the one injured but Tommy had to tell Buck to call Eddie and he was just like "ok" when pre-Tommy Buck would have taken Eddie to the hospital and stayed with him until he was better. But it appears everyone forgot how Buck dropped everything to take care of Eddie and Chris after Eddie’s breakdown since Buck finally kissed a guy.

Eddie

So... first things first. Eddie FINALLY ADMITTED HE'S TAKEN but when did that happen because Marisol has been on screen for like 5.098 seconds in 4 episodes. Second, why didn't Eddie ask her to babysit Chris? I mean if they're in a committed relationship or whatever, then shouldn't he have asked her? That would have made more sense but if he had then he wouldn't have been able to ask Buck to do it. And finally, why was his actions towards Buck made to seem like he was intentionally being mean? The pre-7x4 Eddie Diaz wouldn't have done that because he knows how self-deprecating Buck can be. Reminder he called Buck Evan first and it wasn't like he was trying to put him in his place like Tommy was and will do. Tommy's actions towards Buck didn't show that he even liked him since he was dismissive but this isn't about that, it's about Eddie.

Now, I still can't tell if Eddie's actions were supposed to be funny or WTF but the way they had him acting like he was inconsiderate towards Buck’s feelings was just WRONG! Furthermore making it seem like he was using him and rubbing his nose in it since he had a new friend was NOT OK! FYI, the way everything played out validated some of those Facebook moms' thoughts because they've already posted that they believe Eddie uses Buck to babysit for him so he can go out and have fun 👀.

Additionally, Eddie was shown to be the one Buck’s affection... no fuck that, LOVE was directed towards only for Buck to literally injure him and ACT like he did it because he wanted to be with fucking Tommy Kinard? I call BULLSHIT and at this point I don't like Buck very much right now because of the way he acted in this episode.

Showing Eddie using Buck to babysit Chris and talking at him and ignoring him while he was hanging out with the guy who basically called Buck stupid and unbelievable to his face was just bad writing. Of course there will be those who say, "Let the story play out because it was just one episode" but the audience has been here before waiting for Buck to finally get it and nothing changed except he's dating a man now. None of this was ok and even though Maddie told him don't do it again, that was fine I guess but what in the actual fuck was this raggedy ass storyline? There was a better way to handle this without making Eddie the villian.

If all Tim Minear wanted to do was set Buck up with someone other than Eddie, then he could have picked a better character than Tommy. Also, there's an article that indicates he was planning to bring Lucy back for this storyline and it's ridiculous. She already put her lips on Buck without his permission and Tommy did the same thing and so did Taylor.

At this point, I don't know how to feel about Buck. But I do care about Eddie who was called "Angry" in Buck’s coma dream and who Buck actually fucking physically injured during a basketball game because he's jealous that Eddie was hanging out with Tommy.

I can't support a toxic relationship and that's what I saw happening between Buck and Tommy in 7x4.

IMO, The math ain't mathing and this is... not good storytelling.

#EddieDeservesBetter

#buddie #eddie diaz #evan buckley #anti eddiemarisol #911 season 7 #911 season 7 speculation #anti tommy kinard #Anti bucktommy #anti marisol #oliver stark #ryan guzman #Eddie deserves better

[melonteee]

Speaking of the OPLA Zoro, one scene that annoyed the shit out of me is was when he was on the roof with Luffy in episode 7. One of Zoro’s major character traits is that he typically tries to take a step back and get all the information before he takes action - and this character trait is a huge plot point in developing his dynamic with Nami in Arlong Park. Him hearing that Arlong killed her mom and Nami still worked with him is the point that makes Zoro go “… wait what’s really going on here”

But in the live action, that same-ish plot beat - except with less ambiguity since everyone hears the whole story - has Zoro double down and tell Luffy “[Nami] made her choice”??? Like… motherfucker what was the point of you bonding with Nami over drinks in the Baratie if you’re not even going to TRY to parse out how the tragic story you just heard relates to the Extremely Specific details she told you? Why have so many scenes between Nami and Zoro in the first 2/3rds of the show - to the point that Zoro’s the catalyst to Nami leaving - if you’re not even going to resolve that falling out? Why does Luffy even need Zoro at all if Luffy has to be the one to teach him how to not jump to conclusions??? Because it seems like the only thing LA Luffy “needs” from Zoro is validation.

It’s just so funny to me that the live action went out of their way to call Zoro the first mate, but then made him someone who gives shit-garbage advice that’s always wrong and comes across as someone who’s incapable of introspection or self-reflection.

Luffy needing validation is also so fucking funny the only time Luffy needed validation was when Ace died for OBVIOUS REASONS he never needed validation at any other time cause Luffy has always been sure in himself like djfghkf why in the fuck would you make this dynamic between them where Luffy needs an essential hype man...when Luffy is literally is own hype man 99% of the time HHHHHHHH

Also yeah I don't understand the point of having all these extra scenes with Nami and Zoro (that made no sense mind you) including Nami seeing Zoro getting beat down by Mihawk?? again??? for some reason??? Nami had no reason to be there for that dghjkdf like it's SO funny that in the original, Nami didn't even see Zoro get totalled by Mihawk, AND she imprisoned Zoro, AND she beat Zoro up, but he STILL believed in her being on his side because Luffy demanded she be on their crew while she did also let Zoro out of prison without Arlong's knowing. But in the opla Zoro's just "nah she made her choice" 😭😭😭😭 not to mention they wrote an entire town genuinely hating a little girl, so I guess it was meant to be like "See even ZORO hates her for it so it makes sense that a whole town could hate a little girl" like I'm sorry the writing is just horrendously bad HHHH

#ask #melonask #oplatalks

[officialgleamstar]

Personal DnDads Pride Headcanons

some of these are simple but most are paragraphs long because of who I am as a person (incapable of saying things concisely), so they're going under a readmore. vaguely organized by age group.

one quick note: feel free to cheer on or rag on any of these that you please, variety in opinion is the spice of fandom life! everyone's headcanons are so real and valid to me, i am a strong believer in having as many contradicting fandom opinions as you want. for this list, i just went with everything that is "default" to my fan content. others' transfem sparrow is shaking hands with my gnc sparrow and yes, i'm listing that one on purpose, because if you make fun of transfem sparrow, you are getting hit by my bat. be fucking nice.

please enjoy!

Season 1 Dads and Spouses

Carol is a lesbian. This is simply canon to me. It’s important that this is first and visible to everyone.

Bi/pan polyamorous Henry and Mercedes is also simply canon to me. Honestly that one might be fully canon based on some of the things that happen in Odyssey

Henry is unlabeled but in the sense that he calls himself ‘queer’, ‘bisexual’, ‘gay’, or ‘pansexual’, fully depending on his mood and the conversation happening

Ron is also unlabeled but in the sense that he has never thought about it in his life and isn’t intending to now

Glenn is bisexual but never talks about it unless someone else mentions it first, and he tries really really hard to never think about his gender once in his life. The queer angst I give Glenn could be a whole post of its own but just know he has issues. He does fuck men though

Darryl still isn’t really sure on his sexuality and probably never will be, but he’s actually explored it a bit, so that’s better than whatever the fuck was going on with him before the show started. Henry likes giving him subtle bear pride flag accessories because Darryl actually wears them a lot. His favorite color is brown, after all.

Jodie, Nicky, and Taylor all are bisexual with a preference for women. Sexuality isn’t genetic but it is for them specifically.

Morgan is also bisexual. Literally none of the season 1 parents are straight except maybe Samantha and even with her, my opinion fully matters on the day and how I’m feeling.

Henry and Lark have definitely had an exchange at some point where Lark asked him how it was to ‘experience twink death’, to which Henry just went ‘get back to me in a few years on that, kid.’ and Lark spent the rest of the week furiously moping because clearly, he’s a twunk, Father- (words of a man who did not take care of himself well enough from the ages of 18-25 to ever be a twunk)

This is my little shipper brain but Jodie only realized he liked men after being stuffed into the Odyssey and being around Ron 24/7 for months on end (and the demon stuff, but he didn’t know that yet for obvious reasons). In his timeline, he had a whole arc about it and now he’s persistently attracted to strange men who don’t make sense as well as women light-years out of his league. He’s still a little miffed that Henry doesn’t remember the very long conversations they had about it, but him and Nicky get to wear matching bi pride bracelets now, so he guesses it’s fine.

Kiddads and Spouses

Lark is bisexual. He has known this since kindergarten when his parents explained what the flag all over their house was and has never thought about it since.

Lark also helped Rebecca realize she was bisexual because she would ask him about it in a class they shared in high school

This is utterly unrelated to LGBT headcanons but I think Veronica and Rebecca grew up in San Dimas with the kiddads, and were friends with them in high school. It just makes sense to me

Unlabeled Terry Junior is something that can be so personal to me. In a general sense, he likes everyone romantically, and identifies enough with the asexual spectrum to wear an ace ring, but he doesn’t really see the point in putting a name on it. He’s just Terry Junior and he’s happy with that.

Him, Lark, and Nicky did have a group chat called ‘bisexuals with an agenda’ in high school though, where they would make plans for pranking or otherwise harassing their fathers during group outings. Terry loves Ron but that does not mean he is above ruining his day. It’s done with affection.

My thoughts on Sparrow could be a full fanfiction but gonna try to keep it simple (retroactive edit: did not keep it simple). Sparrow is the token cishet of the kiddads, but in the queerest way possible. He’s an Oak-Garcia, of course he’s explored himself very thoroughly. At current, he identifies as gender non-confirming cis man, but he has had periods of his life where he transitioned and then detransitioned. In early high school, he identified as non-binary. From senior year up until just before Hero was born, he lived as a trans lesbian. He doesn’t see these periods as phases, just as his identity changing over time. Currently he’s perfectly happy identifying as a man, but wouldn’t be wholly shocked if he transitioned again. Calls himself “cis but gender is obviously, massively, a social construct and so it feels unfair to expect myself to fit into these boxes when identity can be so fluid and-”

Rebecca still calls him her wife, and also a granola lesbian or MILF from time to time because it makes him laugh, and while Nicky was still in his life, he would send Sparrow trans memes a lot. Sparrow also has always liked being seen as non-binary, he sees it as ‘winning at being androgynous’. Competitive to the sense of nonsensical Sparrow my beloved

Sparrow always wears women’s clothing but that’s for autistic reasons. They just fit nicer for his brain. It helps the gender(tm) thing though, he near exclusively wore hand-me-downs from Mercedes throughout all of high school

Sorry for talking so much about Sparrow. He’s my favorite character so he is the focus of many of my thoughts. Anyways

Never been a huge fan of the ‘Grant was outed by his crush in the Forgotten Realms’ headcanon, I think Grant came out about a year beforehand. Long enough where everything about it has settled but it’s still new enough that Darryl forgot for a split second and thought Grant might have a crush on Killa during the Four Knight arc. He’d known he liked boys a while before that, and also his parents kind of figured he was gay most of his life since he had 95% girl friends

Marco is pansexual! He met Grant in college because he worked the front desk of their dorm building and would always wear a bunch of pride pins

Nicky was Grant’s first good friend who was a boy, I like to think that they were childhood friends. Grant announced this to his dad at the age of 10 by going “Nick Close is transgender now, so that means you don’t have to worry about me only talking to girls because he’s a boy.” and Darryl went “…Alright?” and then googled what ‘transgender’ means

Speaking of, Nicky realized he was trans because of Mulan. Both Glenn and Jodie, in their respective timelines, googled ‘How do I know if my daughter is a lesbian’ before he came out because Nicky would rewatch the reflection song so often and also the tomboy-isms. Everyone felt very stupid for being surprised when he cut all of his hair off, cried, and asked to change his name

T4T Nicky and Cassandra is canon and they rubbed it into everyone's faces when they were together, Anthony is just afraid of the truth

Cassandra is trans het. I love trans het people more than anything and I love her so this makes sense to me.

Veronica is non-binary, in the sense of “girl but to the left”. They/she pronouns, calls themself a girlie and a mom but not a woman, dresses in a kickass pantsuit at formal events. I’m also in love with her

Season 2 Teens and Friends

Hero and Normal are both trans. When Hero came out, Sparrow sat Normal down to explain why Hero was now a sister instead of a brother and Normal responded with “Well, that’s not fair. How come Hero can be a girl but I can’t be a boy?!” and Sparrow just stared at him for a really long time before going “You can be a boy, honey.” and they went thrift shopping as a family for new clothes the next day

Normal is stealth trans, mostly because Hero is the same way and he copies her, but also because it doesn’t really occur to him that he passes. He just figures that people knows even though he is on testosterone and binds and presents masculine. It helps that his family presents pretty gender-neutral as a whole, so most people assume he had long hair as a kid because his parents are hippies. They had a son and daughter, both with long hair. They now have a daughter and a son, both with short hair. To the general populace, nothing has changed, they just misremembered which kid was older.

Taylor is a demi-boy and spends every year growing more and more feminine. Definitely calls their gender something like ‘boy with a dash of girl on the side’ with their friends. Growing out his hair was a newer thing and he regrets cutting it, even if it was a super cool sequence and he looked like an anime protagonist, because he liked how it framed his face.

Cassandra has always maintained an openness about her trans identity, so Taylor’s the same way. He’s always got the he/they pronoun pin on (I figure this is normalized by the time of season 2, but he’s just very pleased about it), he has a variety of trans and non-binary pride pins that he cycles through, and they like painting their nails because it’s an easy way for them to feel a little more feminine.

Cassandra’s living room is decorated with a massive trans pride flag and LED lights. The first time the teens walk into Taylor’s home, Scary says “it looks like a Twitch stream in here” at the same time that Normal says “it looks like my sister’s room in here” and they high-five while Taylor yells at them to be nice.

Hermie is genderfluid and uses any pronouns. This is real to me. He has my own teenage trait of gender shifting every three hours and never knowing what to do about it and he will be suffering with this until he exits puberty, at which point he gives up and just sees what gender other people choose for him.

Hermie is also pan/ace! No further thoughts here. She just is.

Erica just goes by queer because she doesn’t think the common passerby deserves to know her rich inner life and she’s right, they don’t

I tend to say a lot that all of the S2 kids are bisexual, and I represent them as such, but I truly believe that Lincoln and Normal both have no idea what’s going on with their sexualities. They say they’re bisexual for bisexual teen squad reasons but Normal is going through a constant crisis of “Am I gay or bisexual?” and Lincoln looks up the definition of aro/ace on a weekly basis. Neither of them will ever express this until Scary goes “maybe I’m not bisexual, actually.”

On that note, Scary is a lesbian but she’s not going to realize that until college. For now, she’s rocking with the bisexuality and pretends it’s not weird that her ‘crushes’ on boys feel wildly different than her crushes on girls. Yes I am projecting. This is not a secret. We project onto Scary here.

#mine #dndads #dungeons and daddies #happy pride! #im just gonna drop this and go shower. sorry it is so fucking long LMAO

[crisiscutie]

Recent comments on your blog makes me want to request a scenario where Sephiroth learned that darling is an adoptee and also has parental problem, if that's okay with you?

The request is a bit too close to home since I'm also an adopted child, and I used to hate the world just as Sephiroth do (probably still do now, but I somehow slowly manage to outgrow that feeling the older I get). My biological mum didn't want me, I never knew my biological dad. My adoptive parents aren't the best at parenting as I grew up with many physical punishment, and gaslighted into thinking everything is my fault. My childhood were riddled with racism and sexism. SA'd when I was in elementary school. Fear and hatred were the only thing I knew. I have no one to talk to or lean to, and my only escapism was drawing and video games. I remember wishing I could turn into a werewolf and just ripped apart everyone. Silly young me under the influenced of games has too much imagination. But sadly (or luckily), I don't have that kind of power, nor Sephiroth's power, so the world is safe. LoL.

Sephiroth is so relatable for me in many ways, I guess that's part of why I got attached to him and able to see his side of perspective.

Thank you for the request, anon.

You are valid and so is your relatability to Sephy. I understand some people may find it ridiculous to relate to someone "perfect" like Sephiroth, but he is far more human than they realize. Pre AND Post-Nibelheim. But when you spend years being exposed to him as a stock character with only small glimpses of his inner self revealed, this is inevitable.

I appreciate how the EC writers are highlighting his humanity, both the positive and negative aspects, and I think this will help some folks see Sephy is just as complex and multi-dimensional as the other members of the FF7 main cast. He's the Crisis Cutie for a reason! If you are interested, I also written a prompt with Fluffy Sephiroth supporting a darling with anxiety here!

Onwards to the prompt! (Wrote it in bullet points)

Content Warning: Mentions of Abuse and Trauma.

After finishing the mission debrief with Sephiroth and Lazard, you opened up about your background to Sephiroth.

You had a sudden flashback about your upbringing during the debrief.

Sephiroth had noticed a change in your mood during the debrief and decided to stay back to talk to you.

You tried to mask your sadness, but Sephiroth is no fool. To him, you wear your heart on your sleeve.

Upon hearing about your upbringing, he was taken aback to discover that it was difficult, despite assuming the opposite initially.

He may not be the best at finding the right words to comfort you, but he's willing to be there for you when you need a shoulder to cry on or lend a listening ear.

He has always deeply resonated with you, but your story has subconsciously caused him to experience vicarious trauma.

Mainly because of the similarities he found with your story: he too, had faced a difficult childhood filled with lies and abuse.

However, it also infuriated him you, his precious darling, were subjected to such cruel treatment.

After being there for you, he needed some time alone to reflect on what he learned about you and his own emotions.

You almost regretted telling him your history when you noticed he became slightly distant a few days later.

Upon telling him, he swiftly apologizes and reassures you what you've told him doesn't change his view of you. In fact, it deepened his bond with you.

He was on the verge of sharing his own struggles, especially his longing to discover his true parents, in particular, his mother.

But the words were stuck in his throat. He wasn't ready to share them just yet. Part of him thought it might be meaningless, anyway.

He would be worried about what you thought of it, and he wouldn't want to trigger any unpleasant memories for you.

As you resonated with him as well, you sensed his inner turmoil. You reassured him he could take his time to express his feelings.

You've barely scratched the surface of telling him your difficult upbringing yourself. It's clear that it's hard for both of you to share more.

But you and Sephiroth are there for each other. Your strong bond gave you both the time and space needed to heal and open up to each other.

Hitting a major development checkpoint in your relationship doesn't mean that the journey is over; there is still much comfort and trust to be built between you and him.

But if you stay patient and supportive, then Sephiroth will return that tenfold. The unbreakable bond you share with him will give you two the strength to face the world together. 💜

Remember, the Crisis Cutie loves you~!

#Sephiroth #ff7 sephiroth #ff7 x reader #final fantasy vii #final fantasy 7 #ff7 #fluffy sephiroth #sephiroth ff7 #final fantasy x reader #crisis cutie #Sephiroth x reader #ffvii #ffviir #gender neutral reader #gender neutral insert #x reader #x you #x gender neutral reader #gender neutral y/n #x y/n #tw: abuse #tw: trauma

[chibivesicle]

Trigun Stampede - Episode 6 - Wolfwood’s tragic backstory, now? Eeeehh?

Episode 6 dropped yesterday and I had only enough time to watch but not anything else.  After watching it, I just felt meh wringing my hands about how when I first heard about the reboot at Anime Expo last summer I was so stoked for a more through Trigun anime.  And we get this version from Studio Orange which I really wanted to be an enjoyable watch - buuuuuut - meh.  You’re killing me Studio Orange.

Since I didn’t have time to get to it yesterday, I pestered my good meta friend Merdopseudo to see what she thought as well, so I’ll be highlighting some of her points here as well since she’s great at catching things I miss or summarizing well.  As indicated by my summary title, I’m quite confused why they decided to lead with Wolfwood’s even more tragic backstory in this version of Trigun than in the manga.

We start off the episode with a fleeing masked member of the Eye of Michael (though they haven’t been named yet) who tries to kill Wolfwood and fails as he destroys the man.

We get even red eyes as he lines up his aim before the man dies.  And he’s wearing his sunglasses even at night!  Wow, maximum badass.  Why? Wolfwood needs to be a maximum badass, that’s why. Furthermore, so many scenes in this anime seem to feature full moons all the time.  Just an observation.

After the opening we return to the quartet in the November News Bureau SUV.  In the backseat, Vash and Wolfwood are pouting over something and Meryl jokingly asks if they are having a spat over candy.

This line feels like it was delivered in poor taste.  I get she’s trying to defuse the situation but are we to think this is due to Wolfwood shooting Rollo - last night?  Or a few days prior?  What is our pacing? What day of the week is it?  How much time has passed?  Any clue would help us out here Studio Orange.  I’m going to take the easiest option and say that they are pouting about the fact that Wolfwood killed Rollo - last night.

Roberto then suggested that they need to finish their job.  This would mean abandoning the SUV and taking the Sandsteamer to July and I guess check in with a Bureau office there?

He’s clear that he wants Meryl to take the steamer but it was vague if he was going to go with her or if he wanted her to take it for safety. Uncle info dump isn’t info dumping this episode much.

They end up separating from Vash and Wolfwood who both board the Sandsteamer.   Wolfwood gives Vash shit for seeming to have no emotional connection to Meryl and Roberto - which really it a valid reply.  It hasn’t been that many days that Vash has known them.

It has been even less time for Wolfwood to know Vash and he’s sticking to him like crazy glue, again being an ass.  Honestly, there is NO chemistry between Vash and Wolfwood in this version, Vash runs and tries to not kill people and Wolfwood gives him shit and kills people.

Meanwhile, Meryl is working hard to convince Roberto that they need to continue to track the Humanoid Typhoon.  Interestingly, that she doesn’t call him Vash, but by his destructive nickname here.  She pulls out the photo with young Rollo asking Roberto if he’s scared.

We don’t get a clear answer from Roberto if he’s actually afraid - I felt he isn’t afraid of Vash per se, but instead realizes that his youthful appearance is some sort of indication that dangerous stuff surrounds him.  More that he wants to avoid Vash out of a sense of - I dunno - not dying.  This episode will frequently use the word monster to describe Wolfwood a lot and Vash as well.  This is the writers trying to get us to connect the two of them and make us feel that they should be friends and a dynamic duo - which they aren’t currently.

We see people at the Ferry Terminal waving to those on the steamer which in this version is called the Humpback.  Interesting shift, as in the original the Sandsteamer was known as the Flourish and was a Humpback class.

In other versions, children were excited when it came, being Sandsteamer nerds.  I’ve been following too many historical sewing/clothing youtubers for the past few years and I keep getting vibes that the clothing for normal people in this sci fi series is more 1910s-1920s and not late 19th century western dress.  The boater hats, suspenders, knickers, newsboy caps, lack of women with bustle action etc.  I know it is a future sci fi series, but it does seem that they tried to modernize the clothing to at least be early 20th century to fit the sci fi vibe more.

On the steamer there is a route map telling use they are leaving the Terminal - which literally is just a single terminal in the desert?  What?  Ports develop around such locations but this is just a terminal. 

It is also hilarious that the Terminal starts somewhere in ‘Central America’ crosses part of the Great Sand Ocean, there is the Hopeland Orphanage in ‘Africa’ stops West of ‘India’ and then loops around ‘Australia’ only to reach July in ‘Southern China’.  Really guys, you just took a world map and smooshed and distorted the proportions.  We also get to see a tall man with the modified Zia-Cross symbol of the Eye of Michael in Stampede. 

Back when I first saw the early previews, I caught a glimpse of what was his back in an action shot and my first thought was - what? Are they using a Zia in the anime when it has some important symbolic meanings?

Stampede has been clear it has shifted very far away from the Christian aspects of the original work.  Since this is based on a Western style anime/manga we get this mixed vague symbol which I’m certain is a visual hybrid with the Zia.  If one were to travel through the Southwest as a tourist, you would inevitably see a Zia in some form with the most obvious being that of the New Mexico state flag.  The flag is yellow with the red Zia in the center representing the Zia sun symbol.  This symbol originated from the Zia Pueblo but has come to include more Pueblo groups, Hispanic native New Mexicans to just New Mexicans.  You live in New Mexico?  Lots of government documents, logos and all sorts of stuff will have a Zia symbol.

A simple way to summarize it is that it captures New Mexico culture - for example a cycling racing team is known as Zia Velo and they represent southern New Mexico.  However, if the Zia is applied out of a New Mexico/Pueblo context things get stickier.  I also think with a Japanese audience, a symbol which is built on groups of four wouldn’t work for the viewers so they took elements of the Zia from a Southwest inspired image board and called it good.  Four is the number of death for East Asians versus for the Zia, four is a scared number that captures key elements of life.

Anyhoo, I got distracted by the interesting looking symbol for the religious group on our desert planet.

Vash finally gets around to directly asking Wolfwood what his job is and he replies that he’s babysitting him. From Wolfwood we can understand that it is his ‘job’ to make sure Vash gets somewhere.  Or at least those are the orders that Wolfwood has.

Their conversation doesn’t get very far since Livio appears on the scene almost immediately and shoots at both of them.  We have a much more clean cut and slick looking Livio with a slim build and his two smaller guns along with a modification on his face and a mechanical sounding eye.

Vash fights back and it able to get close enough to fire at point blank range, but of course doesn’t.    We know he doesn’t want to pull that trigger, but it seems none of his modified opponents could care if they are in a tight spot.

It takes a little bit of time for Wolfwood to recognize who this man is and it ends with him asking if he is Livio before the title screen flashes. 

The anime then takes a shift to a 2D style of animation with silent film style titles showing how Livio came to the orphanage and Wolfwood was the longer taking care of the ostriches.

As Livio settles in, Wolfwood becomes his friend trying to get the crybaby to stop feeling sad at missing his parents.  He gets him to help out in the bird pen, and there is a cute sequence of them becoming childhood friends.

Older Wolfwood, tries smoking like an adult all cool and shares it with Livio who coughs.  We get a close up of Wolfwood running off with Livio hand in hand where in this flashback Wolfwood has a much darker skin tone in contrast to Livio being exceptionally pale.

We get it, there was a time when Wolfwood was cute and he was friends with Livio.   The flashback goes back to the present and Meryl and Roberto chasing after the sandsteamer when the Bad Lads gang shows up on sand sail boats.

They are taking this idea of the Great Sand Ocean quite literally and I don’t know how I feel about this.  I’m still wondering why it even exists but this is a sci fi desert series paying homage to lots of other sci fi desert tropes.

Interestingly, we have no idea if the Bad Lads Gang have taken Meryl and Roberto hostage, just that they’ve been surrounded.  I also guess there will be no scene with Kaite, the son of the chief engineer of the original Flourish.

Wolfwood’s flashback continues that he’s been selected as a ‘Child of Blessing’ just like Rollo by mysterious church.

There is a weird psychedelic flashback were Wolfwood is a test subject and shows S+ levels of possibilities.  This is clearly a term added for the Japanese audience as the States does not have this type of ranking which is a trope specific to Japanese media.

The original Trigun did not make references to S+ and I honestly don’t remember the term coming up in Trimax either.  We get that Wolfwood is subjected to all sorts of crazy stuff and due to his response to the treatments he’s a good candidate for furthering efforts.  Just like the breakneck pace of the anime, his own physical development is rapidly accelerated - much more so than with the manga.

We still don’t have a clear timeline, but if he’s ten or eleven at the start, but he’s I dunno twelve now?  As the original anime put it, he was taken in as a child and trained by Chapel the Evergreen for ten years before striking out on his own for an unclear amount of time making his age over twenty.  The manga has the unclear timeline where you’d think he was around twenty at the end, but maybe seventeen.   Either way, manga and ‘98 anime Wolfwoods were more emotionally mature and had seen things.   This version of Wolfwood might be a super-powered twelve year old for all we know. Which I am not a huge fan of this angle.

For fun he’s stuck on an inverted cross examine room table and called a monster for emphasis. Yeah, let’s slap some basic Christian imagery down but it has no meaning since that’s been cut out in this version.

Of course, being likely only twelve, he tries to escape his now adult form declaring he’s returning to the orphanage before getting caught.

As I stated previously, I wasn’t a huge fan of younger Wolfwood in the manga since it has a character disconnect where he had this world weariness that did not match his age nor life experience.  But I could forgive that a little since we saw him as an older teen training under Chapel.  Now, he’s a man with a child’s mind.  Yeah.

With his attempted escape, he is only stopped by Legato.  This is another huge deviation from the anime and manga since Legato doesn’t even know what ‘Chapel’ looks like in the manga.

Their first encounter was at the Church at Jeneora Rock and the assembly of most of the Gung-ho Guns.  In contrast, he’s immediately on guard since Vash told him about the strange and dangerous man he’d encountered on the bus to May city/Augusta.

For the sake of oversimplifying the plot, something that Merdopseudo and I had been predicting, Legato is the one who reveals that all things lead to Knives.  The Eye of Michael is not an independent organization!  It is all a part of Knives noble plan for the the future.  This is lazy writing.  The whole regenerative capsules and religious assassin organization were independent of Knives and only worked with him due to a shared goal of sorts.  Legato tells Wolfwood he’s been signed up for the Eye of Michael.

And apparently, since Wolfwood still has willpower to fight Legato, it makes him unique and declares that he doesn’t believe in any god.

Wolfwood has gone from being a flawed, trapped principled man with some sort of religious core to an atheist.  Okaaaaaaay Studio Orange - not sure where you are going with this at all. 

Legato brings in Livio who wanted to join Wolfwood and it is clear at the moment that Livio’s backstory has been completely retconned and he’s the younger brother character for Wolfwood to worry about.

Legato comes off as bizarrely cold and unemotional in this version.  In the anime he was a man clearly bent on a dark and destructive agenda, but I would not call him unemotional.  If anything Legato had a huge amount of pretentious pride in his nihilism.  It was a defining feature of his character and in the manga his intense emotions and nihilistic tendencies were even more over the top. 

This Legato - just a cold blooded robot.  Conrad shows up with his own Project Seeds jacket in white, symbolic of his role as a staff scientist.  It also has me wondering how old he is in this version.  Our Doctor has to stop Legato from killing the promising young Nicholas for the greater goals.

The flashback ends and Vash and Wolfwood are arguing again as Vash is interfering wanting to help.

Vash managed to pin down Livio in a rather smooth action sequence with lots of empty shells bouncing around as he tries to figure out what is up when he calls out Wolfwood’s name.

This catches Livio’s attention who says that he needs to catch up [to Wolfwood] and easily launches Vash off into the air while Wolfwood randomly declares that he can’t let the two of them kill each other.

So, when did you become friends with Vash, Wolfwood?  You only showed up in episode four and here in six you are his friend?  You’ve had no bonding!  There was no foray into the desert to rescue a child or bus ride.  No tournament or situation with a runaway kid where your philosophies aligned and clashed.  You haven’t gotten drunk together.

But hey, we now have Wolfwood’s flashback and we know he cares about Livio his adoptive younger brother who can’t kill his other friend Vash. This. Does. Not. Work.  I see two random men in sunglasses who just argue with each other.

Zazie the Beast and Livio approach the Sandsteamer as Legato reads the ‘bible’ of the local religion and the two characters mock Wolfwood and his pinch.  Legato has decided emotions are for losers and Wolfwood has those pesky emotions!

We get it, Wolfwood is different and you are having fun watching him suffer.

They drive close enough to the Sandsteamer that Legato is able to stop an internal mechanism inside the the locomotive that causes it to veer off course.  It seems that Legato has leveled up in his own abilities instead of manipulating people to do things against their will.

I guess Legato is officially an ESPer instead to make him easier to understand.  I will miss that manga scene with the transport truck and the Calvary and the blood dripping onto the sand below. 

By diverting the steamer, it now is on a collision course with the Orphanage - which is apparently the entire town?  This is as confusing as the Terminal being a Terminal alone.

At the same time the Bad Lads Gang have appeared.  And with our simplified plot we know - they were brought here by Knives.

Why do Legato and Zazie the Beast care what Wolfwood does next?  If they see themselves above human emotions why do they care at all?

And with that the episode ends on a cliffhanger. 

We will learn in episode seven what happened to Meryl and Roberto and perhaps the man himself will appear.  B.D.N. that is!

My immediate reaction to this episode -

Wolfwood’s backstory was way too soooooon!  Far too soon!  Was this even earned Studio Orange?

For a few points, I’m going to tap some of my conversation from my good meta friend Merdopseudo.

1.) A good stand alone episode.  Technically, and by itself this was a good episode.  Merdo points out it is fine as an episode but its structure is also its weakness, indicative of the issues that have plagued the series.  Where does this fit in the overall structure of the story?  What purpose does it serve in advancing the plot?  The episode is fine.  You can watch it and be entertained.

2.) Wolfwood’s backstory is unearned.  We get Wolfwood’s tragic backstory far to early into the plot.  He appeared two episodes ago, seems to be a dude who is rude and will kill if necessary.  We don’t know what it at stake for him.  What does he do normally?  Where is his moral compass?  What is he doing in this whole mess.  Why do we even care?  Right now, Wolfwood is a kid with a big fucking gun and apparently had a friend named Livio.  The found brothers trope also falls flat despite the technically excellent 2D silent film flashback.  The backstory in this episode is just ‘put there’ in an attempt to humanize this version of Wolfwood.

3.) Vash and Wolfwood are not friends. Yep, I will continue to say this.  They are not friends.  Wolfwood is an annoying guy following Vash around because those are his orders.  They have not bonded in their adventures, nor have they argued about how to act.  They both jumped into save a girl, rode the bus to May city/Augusta.  They in the anime had more bonding at the competition and fought over the rights of the individual versus the rights of the collective.  In the manga the bonding is a bit later but still happens over several volumes and Wolfwood gets tied into Vash’s heroic antics from time to time.

4.) The pacing is paradoxical.  This is Merdopseudo’s best point.  With the predicted 12-13 episodes, this story needed tight-super tight plot beats.  Instead, individual episodes are slow while the combined episodes are rapid leading to this disconnect.  This is the best highlight of the writing problems that have plagued this series from the start.

This ties into what I have also been most critical of - the pacing.  There is no room to breathe between episodes yet, certain episodes linger and waste time on things which are unnecessary.  This is a lot of the CGI scenes of how E.G. drove his wheel or how Rollo was watching Vash dodge and stuff like that.  Or the man with the lights guiding the Sandsteamer out of port.  Just lots of strange shots that visually look cool but don’t help the story.

Which gets back to Merdo’s theory that this is all just a demo for Studio Orange for future projects and investors.

And as this continues, I become more pessimistic that this indeed is the purpose of Trigun Stampede.  Studio Orange took on Stampede because it was a low risk project.  They updated the look for a more modern audience and don’t have to worry about upsetting the original fans of the anime or manga since it was domestically a flop and obscure.  Clean it up with characters that are for the domestic audience, simplify the plot beyond recognition and make it dazzling to the eyes.  It is only 12-13 episodes, it will pull in better projects in the future.

Studio Orange isn’t going to care about the non-Japanese, specifically very likely vocal American fanbase.  We aren’t there buying the new merch at Animate. Hell, it is currently and annoyingly out of print with Darkhorse here in North America.  Why keep all the elements that made it a smash hit elsewhere?  It doesn’t help their bottom line.

Thus, Trigun Stampede is a product that does not take the elements of the original anime from Studio Madhouse and the lore of Trigun Maximum to deliver a cohesive product that gives us the magic sauce that made the original so good.  It was never their intention to present us with faithful adaptions of the original series and characters.  They clearly don’t care for the original themes, character morals, questions, struggles, successes, failures and sacrifices that made the original such an emotional high hitter.

Quick character notes:

1.) Our dud duo - Meryl and Roberto.  For once, Meryl sticks to her guns and is able to guilt Roberto into continuing.  Good for her, but doesn’t amount to much in terms of plot.  She stood up for herself and made a valid argument and her senior colleague agreed.  Wow.

2.) Vash.  Is more assertive with Meryl and Roberto away from him, and finally asks Wolfwood what his deal is.  He has some decent fight scenes with Livio but honestly, doesn’t do much else in the episode due to the Wolfwood heavy plot.

3.) Wolfwood’s premature backstory.  Fails his character greatly.  Wolfwood is a character of great nuance, moral struggles and lots of questioning in a good way.  We see none of that and get his backstory upfront almost as quickly as Vash’s.  This attempt to humanize him without knowing him does not serve his character.  This also doesn’t work with his previous religious associations which are why he was a more powerful character in the original versions.  We know he believes in God, though he’s not naive enough to believe that faith in God will solve his problems.  If anything he sees that humanity’s flaws and dark sides force humans to become devils at times (a line both used in the anime and manga).  The anime leans in much harder with the priest aspect of his character with his first and last confession in the church before he dies.  The manga instead has him die at peace sharing a drink with Vash as he’s ‘thanked’ by the younger children of the orphanage.  Either way, both of these endings for him show that he’s a man who has a moral code derived from a very Catholic theology and he struggles with balancing that with his own actions trapped between powers greater than him.  He has a clear line between acts of divine beings such as God and Angels and how it is impossible for a single individual to meet those and instead must learn to live with their actions and how painful it is to directly contradict your own moral code.

4.) Legato Bluesummers is a ‘robot’ with a bad haircut.  This version of Legato is not the nihilistic, self-destructive one of the anime and manga.  He mocks others and sees himself as superior to orphans like Wolfwood. He wants to watch a moral quandary but does Wolfwood really have a moral dilemma? Is he religious or is he reading a religious text to mock it due its emphasis of faith and emotions?  Like Wolfwood, his power is also much greater, if this were the original he would have made that random train engineer dude destroy the moving part while dying in the process.  Now, he just goes ‘whoosh’ and it breaks.  Boo - I miss his sadistic tendencies. 5.) Livio is another ‘robot’.  But with a hangup to be like Nicholas!  I bet.  Unless, he also gets a long flashback, his character has been likely completely retconned to the extreme.  Lazy writing would indicate that Razlo the Tri-punisher was a result of his mind splitting due to the experiments.  That’s my prediction if we do get his backstory.  Not due to other things . . .

6.) Zazie the Beast.  Is weird.  Look, I’m playing cat’s cradle and I made a spider web.  Humans are so dumb, mwahahahahahaha!  I’m also filling in for Leonof the Puppermaster with my insect spycams/drones.

My snark is coming out in my character responses here, but really are these characters with depth or characters checking boxes like a game of Bingo.  I’m curious to see how many of my predictions pan out in future episodes of if they will leave us in the dark. 

As far as themes, this episode doesn’t really have one that stands out. Other than adults treat children very poorly in this place and even if you are a masked religious woman, you have to have big tits.

#Trigun #trigun stampede #trigun anime #trigun stampede meta #trigun stampede episode review #Vash the Stampede #vash #nicholas d. wolfwood #wolfwood #meryl stryfe #roberto deniro #legato #legato bluesummers #zazie the beast #livio #livio the double fang #razlo