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catholic-character-tournament · 10 months

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Quarter Finals - Catholic Character Tournament

Propaganda below ⬇️

Shadow

In sonic destruction (the AI generated fan thing snapcube made a while ago) shadow was catholic or something which I think is reallyyyyyyy funny

Ok listen. I know this is a stretch but hear me out. He says “oh my God” in the Twitter takeovers so we know this is a possibility. I see him as a Christ-like figure because I saw his whole confrontation with Mephiles and was like “this is a thing that happened in the Bible??” and the pose Mephiles shows him in is literally like a crucifixion and Mephiles is meant to be a demon / false prophet reference. And also he’s called a demon in Shadow The Hedgehog 2005 then the guy who calls him that is like “I was wrong I’m sorry” and that also reminds me of a thing with Jesus in The Bible. But the biggest reason is his whole thing with Maria cause I think he’d come to earth and hear Ave Maria once and convert to Catholicism idk he’s like we’re comforted by a female familial figure named Mary sometimes called Maria?? And her color is blue????? Heck yeah I’m in because I Will Cry. Also feel free to share this as propaganda obv even if he doesn’t get in the bracket just. It’s funny.

I feel like he’d battle a lot with being seen or portrayed as a demon and how the aliens he’s related to very much look and act like demons idk lmao- and also I feel like confession would just be good for him I think he needs it for his mental health

There is a debate on the lovely website tunblr that Shadow T. Hedgehog is an allegory for Jesus Christ.

He is Jesus, idk what to tell you. He lived, he was sealed away, he was awakened again and deemed the ultimate lifeforms, he’s angry but not evil, does what he believes is best for people and the world at any given time. Total loser.

Vote for Shadow the Hedgehog

There seems to be some confusion in the notes. He is Catholic. It may not be explicit, but it can be inferred.

Shadow was created by Professor Gerald Robotnik, and for the early part of his life, lived with Gerald and his granddaughter, Maria Robotnik.

Robotnik is not a made-up name. Google Search results may only bring up pages related to the Robotniks of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, however, it is a rarely used Polish surname. Poland is a historically Catholic nation, and… come on. Maria is the most Catholic name ever. The Robotniks are Catholic. Shadow was created and raised by Catholics.

Now you may be wondering to yourself: Does Catholicism even exist in Sonic? The answer is yes, at least in the Archie comics, where Protestants are explicitly mentioned.

Couple this with the fact that several characters, including Shadow, have canonically taken the Lord’s name in vain, it is reasonable to infer that Christianity, and therefore Catholicism, exists.

So… while Shadow’s own religious beliefs may not have been explicitly addressed… at minimum:

Catholic is a cultural designation that Shadow will always be allowed to claim based on the family that made him.

Whether he’d actually want to claim that designation is a different conversation, but the other propaganda does a fine job of explaining why it may be appropriate to headcanon him as a practicing Catholic.

Now that we’ve established that Shadow has as much of a right to be in this tournament as anyone else, there’s one very important reason you should vote for him:

It would be funny if he won.

Thank you.

Essays are done!! Here’s some Shadow propaganda because the propaganda we currently have sucks and I need to fix that. While yes, Shadow being Catholic is a meme, there is more to outside of the simple “fandub said so” and its not quite stated its Catholicism but just how he behaves and his actions. There’s a lot of Sonic content so I will try to keep this brief. Gonna get headcanons out of the way.

Shadow is Chilean and so are Maria and Gerald Robotnik because I fucking say so and they’re Catholic. He definitely had un rosario next to his like. Bed or test tube whatever he slept in. So did Maria btw. Alright let’s move on because I am 100% correct.

Let’s start with some background for Shadow. Shadow was created as a cure for a girl called Maria and he grew to care for her as a sister and loved her deeply. He was artificially created but still holds a soul that is similar to Maria’s. Long story short, Maria is killed protecting Shadow who watches as she’s shot in front of him. He has his memories tampered by Maria’s grandfather, Gerald, who manipulates him into carrying out revenge on the Earth, even if Shadow ends up as collateral.

Shadow struggles with frequent identity crises, even before Maria’s death and always wondered what his purpose was, what he was made to do. Was he a weapon? Was he a cure? He’s the Ultimate Lifeform, but what does that truly mean? ? He’s Shadow, but what more is there to him? He doesn’t know what his purpose is other than what others have prescribed to him, and he guides himself through the will of others (something that he breaks through afterwards but not yet). Shadow at his core is self-sacrificing and constantly punishes himself. This is where you can see some of that good old guilt that everyone has been using as propaganda, but we also see someone who is giving and kind.

He is snarky in the game, especially when interacting with Sonic, but he’s having what is essentially an ongoing mental breakdown but keeps moving because it is his duty to his sister. He doesn’t believe himself important enough to continue on after her and sees it in himself to act out on “Maria’s wishes”. After the revelation that Maria’s final wish for Shadow was for him to make those on Earth happy and to protect them, he immediately sacrifices himself to do so.

Okay, that’s a lot and you’re probably asking “Okay, you mentioned he is a giving person and yeah he has guilt, but that’s not really Catholicism” and yes you would be right! So let’s go into the more important part of being Catholic. The charity, the community, the kindness, etc. Shadow is a very reserved person and has the habit of being a dumb teenager because well. Yeah. Anyways, he definitely has a soft spot for those he cares about and while his whole arc (in my opinion) is about finding the freedom of self-autonomy, it is also Shadow growing as a person and deciding not to save people because others have told him he needs to, but because he wants to. It is born from his soul and its his nature to care for people. It is who he is, and he knows it now. He’s not doing it because he’s a hero or because he is told to do so. Shadow is a very giving person and I think people tend to forget about that especially due to bad writing from the past decade or so. He is also stated to help out at food shelters and volunteers a lot. He is proud and a bit prickly, but he cares so deeply about those he loves. He is stronger with his loved ones and will always do his best to protect them. These are minor, yeah, but you don’t need sweeping and enormous acts to get attention for the good deeds you do. Most of what you apply of Catholicism is done at the personal level, between your friends, family, and community.He also goes to Mass whenever he can and if he can’t he goes to the capilla and also does the sign of the cross whenever he runs by a church. Cutting this off because this is already 740-ish words and I had to send these across multiple asks I am so sorry Catholic mod

Harrowhark

I'm pretty sure you've already got plenty of submissions for her so I'll just say she was raised in what is basically a cult (technically a nunnery but let's be real) dedicated to keeping the body of the thing that will kill God behind the rock. One of their prayers is actually "I pray the rock is never rolled away". Harrow is extremely devout as penance for her earlier heretical actions in the tomb as a child (spoiler!) so the Catholic guilt really comes through

imagine being a catholic nun and you meet god, but it turns out he’s a twitch streamer from new zealand who became god because everything got a little bit out of hand. and just before you met him you gave yourself a diy grief-fuelled lobotomy with the help of your best frenemy. imagine how insane you’d be. now multiply that insanity by nine. that’s the fictional love of my life right there.

she meets god. she’s not inspired

she’s number one practitioner of space Catholicism. The locked tomb is chock full of Christian (catholic) imagery themes metaphors etc. just look at her she’s got a bone rosary

They're Catholicism with extra bones. Everyone is a nun. They have what is basically a rosary made from knuckle bones. They technically worship the same God as everyone else, but they're waaaay more focused on The Body in the Tomb (Mary) and we get a moment where we find out that while everyone else prays the equivilent of The Lords Prayer, they're doing the equivilent of Hail Mary. And they paint their faces with skulls.

She thinks leaving dry bread in a drawer is taking care of someone. She's in love with a 10,000 year old corpse (the same one they worship). She spent ALL NIGHT digging with her bare hands to make sure a field had bones every 5 feet so she could fight her girlfriend - I mean, greatest enemy. Spoiler territory: She's been puppeting her parents corpses since she was 8 years old. Instead of grieving her dead girlfriend, she gives herself a lobotomy. She makes soup with bone in it so she can use the bone IN THEIR STOMACH to try and kill them.

The author is/was Catholic and the entire series had heavy Catholic overtones. https://www.tor.com/2020/08/19/gideon-the-ninth-young-pope-and-the-new-pope-are-building-a-queer-catholic-speculative-fiction-canon/ A good breakdown of how it's Catholic

Anti-propaganda (spoilers)

I love the Locked Tomb series but Harrowhark has daddy issues with God, had a childhood crush on God's cryogenic partner, and is in love with God's daughter, not to mention that she's essentially a bone-bender. The religion on her home planet exists in a way that is technically against the will of the canon in-universe God, even. All of this to say, Harrowhark is heretical at minimum if not an outright witch. Terrible Catholic. Burn her.

#cct polls #tumblr tournament #tumblr bracket #tumblr polls #polls #r6 #sonic the hedgehog #Sonic Destruction #shadow the hedgehog #harrowhawk #harrowhark nonasigmus #tlt #the locked tomb

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animentality · 9 days

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Your hot take on the boys and invincible kinda piss3d me off, not cause I totally disagree, but only because superhero media as a whole is lazy. Specifically for these two, though? The boys isn't just evil superman, it's corporate owned supervillainy, vigilantes who don't have powers, and yeah the shock value gets too much sometimes but like clearly you haven't seen it. And invincible is about a kid (son of superman) who is betrayed by his idol and forced to fight him and lose. Maybe don't judge so quickly!!

What, I have to watch the entire show to judge it?

That would necessitate that I take time out of my day to watch something that I don't like.

And if I watched the entirety of both, and still hated it, you'd tell me I shouldn't watch things I "hate" and I should just leave you and your dumb opinions alone.

So we're discarding that part of your argument because it's pointless.

oh wait.

but that's your entire argument.

hm.

well.

ok. let's talk anyway.

so first off. you just said that superhero media as a whole is lazy.

that's quite a generalization to make about a genre.

I don't disagree but you're giving me shit for saying deconstructions of super hero movies are worse, to me personally, than super hero movies themselves, when you just made a blanket opinion statement disguised as a fact.

Think about that for a second.

Then I wanna talk about the whole "it's about politics" and "subversion of superman" schtick.

you're telling me that the boys is about politics, and invincible is an alien invasion story.

yet neither of those things need to be told through a superhero angle. they just are because of the superhero hype justifying their existence in the market.

and that's fine and all... but to me that's what they are.

gimmicks based on what was hot at the time, which was super heroes.

so they don't exist without the superhero genre to make fun of. they don't have relevance except by being reactionary.

and that's a lame selling point for me.

super hero movies have been dying lately, and frankly, I didn't even know invincible had a season 2 until I saw invincible had popped up on fortnite.

and even then I didn't see anyone talking about it, aside from the shock value of the rape scene.

but don't worry. we'll get to that.

as for the boys, well, I don't know, it could last for some time... but do deconstructions that wallow in misery and mega angst and are highly topical based on the year they were released really stand the test of time?

I don't know. we'll see.

all I know is that no one anticipated the fall of marvel after the success of Endgame...

but look at it now.

The Marvels, Antman 3, Madame Web... the lackluster performance of DC...

if you look back at the boys 50 years from now, what will you see?

a satire of the Justice League.

but it's not something on its own.

at least watchmen, as garbage as it is, has unique characters and a weird, but mildly interesting take on history.

the boys is like oh what if there was a world where superheroes existed and they killed people?

yeah that'll stand the test of time I'm sure.

Spiderman has lasted this long because he's relatable. He was the prime example of a changing genre, that allowed its heroes to be more down to earth.

Batman has his gothic detective thing, and you can tell so many stories with him, as he's just an ordinary man, who's also coincidentally a huge freak at the same time. what's not relatable about that?

And even Superman... oh, so he's boring because he's a good person?

yeah. sure. I don't particularly like him. I don't think he's that deep.

but his popularity did come from the basic idea that people should be good to each other.

what is the average jackass going to learn or remember from the boys?

oh that homelander likes drinking breast milk.

gee, that's relatable.

also that the deep fucked an octopus.

because haha... Aquaman, am I right?

so.

now let's move on to shock value.

It sucks.

the boys is made for people who hate super heroes.

it's fine to hate super heroes, but Jesus Christ.

you hate them so much that you make them edgy. you make them rapists and mass murderers. you make them do nasty shit just because you wanna make someone vomit.

like. ok.

I don't like shock value in anything, not even horror movies.

if there's no plot reason for it, then I don't want to see it.

but the boys is all about throwing in sex scenes wherever they can, and making them as fucking weird as they can just because "oh we're not marvel."

yeah. I know that. even marvel pretends to have a story from time to time.

the boys literally starts off with a fucking 90s ass rape revenge story. like seriously?

so revolutionary ahahaha.

with a guy who fucks animals.

and is meant to be sympathetic later on because he's pathetic.

soo soooo deep.

good rape revenge plot.

reminds me of the misogyny of blade runner, and the director saying well I'm objectifying women because sexism exists in real life.

gee thanks, guy.

forgive me if I was turned off by a show that immediately sexually assaulted its main female character.

I'm a triggered snowflake, hahah, you got me.

but when I look at all this, it's like...

I never got into game of thrones because I never liked the mega edge lord plot of that either.

but at least game of thrones was doing something different with a genre, rather than just making a satire or parody of the genre.

it stands on its own.

the boys relies entirely on shock value and superheroes having sex in depraved ways.

it might have some valid political commentary somewhere in its messy gory insides, but nothing I couldn't get, and much better, from the Wire.

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thegapbetweenmoments · 3 months

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New Muse Ideas!

So here is my consistent conundrum: I like writing things with what I like to refer to as notable supernatural elements. This could be a vampire character (Alicia), a necromancer (Diana and kind of Belle), a time mage (Tom), etc.

The problem with this is twofold. One issue is simply that many people aren't super interested in fantasy based things, which is 100% fair and fine, and why most of the time I just write without the supernatural bits unless otherwise specified.

The other is that even when people do want to write supernatural-ish things, sometimes the vibes don't line up with whatever it is that I made for my characters, which is why it takes a while for new characters to be made even at times like this when I'm relatively active.

SO!

Below is a list of character ideas I've come up with that I'm currently considering. If you see any on the list and go "Ooh! That sounds cool!", please let me know, because that kind of input is super helpful for this process. Doesn't matter if you're a mutual, nonmutual, never interacted before, etc (though more weight will be given to mutuals/people who've interacted before). Just drop a little response and that will give more weight to the idea. Once one or two have been figured out, I'm going to make a new post about FCs, because tbh I suck at picking those, but that is a thought for later!

The list of thoughts (under read more so that I don't take up the whole dash):

Half-devil lawyer (Honestly, this is a character I actually did use for one thread and I enjoyed a lot. I may make this one even if people don't want him, but weight and priority will likely be given to things people actually want. I've always enjoyed devil contracts as plot devices, and he might be just a smidge lawful evil)

Freed djinn nurse (General concept is that she has pretty significant powers that only work if she uses them in response to a wish. She wouldn't have to respond to every wish, and like more nefarious djinn she'd probably try to use the wording of wishes in order to bend things to work how she wants, even though she as a person is not trying to harm anyone. Job as a nurse is essentially so that she can hear wishes that are inherently more benevolent and grant or bend those to do good things)

Rune mage tattoo artist (Essentially, the thought behind this is a guy who can write a long, complicated series of glyphs as a sort of magical sentence on something and activate it to give whatever it's written on an effect. Take this to its logical conclusion and with enough time, this can be used to give magical tattoos to people that give them some type of ability or effect)

Air mage pilot (I mean the usefulness of the power is kind of obvious, but also I think she'd likely own a smaller plane of her own and generally be a bit more chaotic/daring than most of my girls on here, which is a lot of the fun behind this idea for me personally)

Blood Mage Butcher (I like when characters have these powers with crazy amounts of evil potential, who then use them for completely mundane, neutral-to-good aligned things. I think this guy is just passionate about meat and grilling. Probably early to mid thirties with wholesome dad vibes. Maybe not the route most people would go for characters they want to write with, but certainly one I find amusing)

Lightning Mage Art Thief (I'm thinking she shorts out cameras and security fixtures, then just walks up to an expensive piece art and swaps it with a replica, possibly with a nearly invisible hidden signature. Some real heist movie bullshit. Then, she goes back to some incredibly mundane or wholesome day job. Maybe an elementary school art teacher who steals to buy art supplies for class)

#OC ideas #open rp #feel free to let me know!#Thank you in advance for any input offered

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fizzingwizard · 10 months

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Because of those last two posts I randomly started thinking about Yugioh... and in particular the Doma arc... about which my opinions haven't changed since I was a teen, even though they were unpopular ones.

Since I'm perpetually long-winded I'll put the tl;dr up here: fans were unreasonbly harsh on Other Yugi during Doma because they were too busy feeling upset about Yugi to appreciate Other Yugi's storyline. But some of that is Doma's fault because while it's way stronger than a lot of filler, it's over-involved and has a rushed ending that fails to express its hero's growth. Also YGO fan culture circa Doma-era majorly sucked lol.

I never hated Doma. It's is my favorite filler arc, and what's great about it because it's filler is that it's not dumb. So much of 90s/2000s filler arcs in anime were just painfully stupid. But YGO, buoyed, I guess, by it's over-reliance on card games, was able to construct a couple filler arcs that weren't mindless nonsense. Not all of them! The KC Grand PRix, for example, is so bad it's unwatchable. But the Noa arc gave us a lot of backstory for the Kaiba brothers and asked some interesting questions about family and love. It doesn't go super deep, and the ending is uh, pretty weird, but also very fitting for sci-fi. It's not my favorite, because despite the ways it's better than most filler it's still got a lot of "stupid filler" features. But I appreciate that it took on something which was going unaddressed by canon (the Kaiba bros and their history) and tried to develop it.

Doma was like that. It took on the fact that Other Yugi is the soul of a pharaoh from ancient Egypt who has no memories of being so, and asked, "What does he actually feel about that?" Because all he does is play card games. Now and then we see him joking around with Yugi, even more rarely the others. But mostly he shows up, plays a cool combo, makes a kingly speech, and then disappears back into the Puzzle. It made sense in the context of the story. He's still fighting the war from the past, and he doesn't want to interfere too much with Yugi's present life. But as a fan, you gotta wonder what Other Yugi felt, discovering he's not actually an aspect of Yugi's personality but an entirely separate person with a past he no longer remembers.

Doma decided to ask that question. Of course it couldn't give us Other Yugi's backstory, since that would happen in canon. But it could address how Other Yugi feels while still not knowing anything. It could look at all the horrible things which have happened which are connected to Other Yugi, and which people (even fans sometimes!!) blame Other Yugi for even when it's not his fault, and ask what impact so much pressure would have on him. It said, "He's stressed. He acts strong, but he's not okay. He's reliant on Yugi for humanity, which means compassion and faith in his own goodness. If Other Yugi is a good person, he must be unable to look at the horrors going on around him and think it's fine. He must be wondering if he himself is evil, for being part of the cause. And a good person who thinks he's evil is bound to reach a breaking point."

I'm not counting the battle with Kaiba at Pegasus's Castle as a canonical breaking point because it's really more about Yugi's strength, and Other Yugi didn't even have a concept of himself having a past outside of Yugi then. That's memorable for totally different reasons. Although he initially tries to sacrifice it for Yugi's sake, in the end Canon Other Yugi follows the course of "destiny" with unfaltering dedication. I suppose the idea is that Other Yugi's convictions about his destiny are just too strong to brook any misgivings like the ones posed in Doma. But I always thought Other Yugi needed real character development, and before Memory World, Doma is pretty much the only thing that gives it to us. So I have to admire it for that.

Here's the tricky part. Doma took on something huge for Other Yugi. It put him in a situation where he had to face his anxieties that he might not have been a good king, that he might be just as bad as Bakura's other self. Where he had to exist on his own and trust in his own goodness sans Yugi's influence. It's a huge undertaking for canon, let alone filler!

I think Doma is right in its take on Other Yugi: that he'd be lost and bereft not because of not having Yugi but because not having Yugi means those weaknesses have nowhere to hide. Other Yugi is struggling, but he always struggles where no one else can see, and presents only strength and confidence in public. But the thing is, fans had never seen that before. The most we saw (if you were watching the Japanese version, btw, the US dub just wrote right over the following lines) was Other Yugi apologizing to Yugi for what he had to go through and wondering briefly whether he was bad for causing it. That happened in Battle City and was quickly forgotten.

We always see Other Yugi the winner. Doma showed us Other Yugi the loser. And fans did not accept him. I know the reason why is because he bartered Yugi's soul for the sake of winning. He thought he was bartering his own soul - a relevant point I feel many fans overlook - but it's still clearly risky, and on top of that, he went as far as to block Yugi from interfering with his duel with Raphael. Other Yugi took a massive risk with a power they knew couldn't be trusted, and he barred Yugi from having a voice while dueling in Yugi's body. It's all round terrible choices on Other Yugi's part.

Which is another part of Doma I love. It didn't give Other Yugi some stupid choice no one could really hate him for. It said we're going to test this guy for everything he's worth and it fucking went for it. That makes it very different from the Noa arc, where the Kaiba bros are unquestionably the stars and heroes.

In themes, Doma and Noa are similar. Both call into question one person's loyalty to another and ask whether their love is real or simply useful. Kaiba, as a sometimes villain, sometimes anti-hero, gets pretty lovely treatment: the fact that he's not a nice guy and puts his brother in dangerous situations all the time barely matters. And also when he loses it's fighting for his brother, and then there's someone (Other Yugi) to step in and win on his behalf. Meanwhile, with Doma, Other Yugi starts out as a hero, so he has much farther to fall. His duel with Raphael isn't for a righteous reason, but a self-serving one. And when he fails, there's no one to help. And he really loses what least deserved to be lost.

The stakes were high and Doma let the hero fail catastrophically. Because Doma understood that the only way characters grow is through failing tests against themselves. Not against business executives. Not against millionaires.

And Doma gave us plenty of explanation for Other Yugi's failure too! It didn't make him a temporary villain who would just go back to being the hero at the end of the filler arc so we'd all say "oh, Doma, yeah that was stupid and doesn't fit anywhere in the story as a whole." Doma told us that Other Yugi is breaking down without anyone knowing, and Raphael and Orichalcos are the final straw. Doma says this was going to happen, and if it hadn't happened, Other Yugi would have been weaker going into his final battle for his destiny. Doma said Other Yugi is traumatized too. And why shouldn't he be, having so much pressure on him all the time, with so little knowledge of himself and so little to distract him in that dank, dark mental labyrinth where he's trapped day in, day out?

This is what I think fans as a whole missed because they were too busy freaking out about "angelic Yugi, poor baby!" Don't get me wrong. Yugi is everything good and Other Yugi did make a horrible choice with Orichalcos. But Other Yugi is suffering from trauma every bit as much as the Kaiba bros. It's an existential trauma as well as a magical one which means it much less relatable, much less visceral. And Yugi is so sweet and kind! It's so easy to forgive the Kaiba bros because they love each other, be upset on poor Yugi's behalf, and completely ignore the intense mental upheaval Other Yugi was going through. It's not that Other Yugi should get blanket forgiveness. But his motives should be understood and his pain should be respected.

He didn't set out to risk Yugi's soul, or the Duel Monsters either for that matter. He meant to risk his own and to prove his mettle as a king by overcoming the Orichalcos's influence. It was stupid because he didn't have any proof that that was a good idea except that Raphael provoked him to try or accept that he was a failure. As a very strategic player, Other Yugi is used to taking calculated risks. But this wasn't that: if he'd been calm, he'd have realized that he couldn't be sure Yugi's soul would be fine and only his own would be lost. And he'd have realized that he had only Raphael's word that a pure soul could overcome Orichalcos to go on. Granted, Raphael seeming in perfect control while using Orichalcos himself probably seemed like pretty good evidence. But it certainly wasn't the only possible explanation and normally Other Yugi would know that. He chooses to play the Orichalcos card clearly under a lot of strain, even pushing Yugi away, which is unprecedented.

What this means is that, afterwards, the reason Other Yugi is suffering isn't just because of losing Yugi. It's also because he's now lost what sense of self he had. He had so little of it going into the Raphael duel, and he wanted to gain more by overcoming Orichalcos. Instead he lost Yugi and he lost his idea of himself as someone who cares about others and can trust his own heart. That's why he wanders. That's why he's so mixed up and and sad and broken for the next several episodes. And it's why, once again, Doma put off fans.

Because fans don't like to feel sad, unless it's in an "aw, poor puppy" way. They don't like to see someone who is strong wrestle with not being so. And words like "arrogant" or "impure" are trigger words in fandoms: apply them to any character even one time and that's all fans will remember about them forever and ever. Other Yugi made an arrogant decision; he acted arrogantly. But arrogance isn't who he is. How can we tell? Because he comes back, he wins and gets back what he lost, and he apologizes. And he doesn't do it again. He does better. The same goes for "impure." What even is purity? Why did fans accept it just because Raphael said it was real and mattered? Raphael provoked Other Yugi's anxieties and then laid a trap for him: he gave him what he most wanted, a duel that would "prove he's a true king," and set him up for an entire mountain of despair to crush him one he fell for it. Even with Yugi, Other Yugi was already in such a state of confusion and fear that it was something others could manipulate. Losing Yugi was heart-breaking, but it wasn't the cause of Other Yugi's troubles: they already existed. I prefer Doma's odyssey of test and riddles to the manga version of Atemu, who blindly does what he's told to do because "destiny," but who is also revealed to be just as much the player as a pawn during Memory Game without any transition.

Now that I've praised Doma up and down, let me wind back and say I also hate it. Because for all it gives us that's great, its execution leaves a lot to be desired. Other Yugi is rather hard to watch when he's so sad and weak for so long. It's especially hard when he's got Jounouchi and Kaiba for comparison, both of whom were put in much more heroic storylines. I find Kaiba's dull, since there's not really much Kaiba is really guilty of there - Amelda's grief was Gozaburo's doing. Jounouchi's is great for him as a masculine hero, but fucking sucks for Mai who is a helpless female caught between two men and sapped of any personal motivation. I love Jounouchi/Mai so I really wanted to like their subplot, but Doma really ruined Mai for the sake of Jounouchi's heroism.

Which makes me wonder if Doma hates Other Yugi. It gave classic hero stories to the others, but beat Other Yugi so hard he was wounded forever in the eyes of some fans. Especially in the aftermath of Doma's first airing, every fic had to make sure to describe Other Yugi's "arrogance" to prove they didn't like him an unreasonable degree. It's one reason I stopped reading YGO fic back then: I couldn't open one that didn't mistreat Other Yugi, often while glorifying Yugi's perfection or going to lengths to sympathize with and justify Kaiba's wrongs.

So are there things Doma should have done to lift Other Yugi up the same way? My overall opinion is not really. I think Other Yugi's Doma arc is clear and fitting right until the final battle. BUT! It fumbled the ending. It fumbled it really bad. The battle with Dartz gets stupid by not doing anything with Yugi and Other Yugi's long-awaited reunion. Not only was the art in that episode unfortuantely awful, but the scene itself is like... seconds. Barely memorable. Yugi hugging his friends is way more satisfying. And the weird bit at the end-end where Other Yugi gets hit by the vortex of anger and grief, I guess, was meant as the final proof that he had overcome all the tests Doma threw at hm. But once again bad art and a "running out of budget" vibe hurt that as well.

Endings are important. You can't rush them. Because Doma fumbled the ending, Other Yugi's victory has much less of an impact. Because it doesn't step back and reflect, but just kind of spouts some cliche phrases, we forget what Other Yugi has really accomplished. Kaiba sacrificing himself to let Other Yugi keep battling is memorable. In fact, Kaiba was much more useful than Other Yugi in most of the final Dartz duel, because Other Yugi had not quite recovered his confidence. After Kaiba's loss, Other Yugi faced real despair again, which should have been awesome but was, by then, kind of like "oh, he's sad again. Will he ever stop being sad?" Yeah, he won. We got cool golden lights and shit and then a miracle. But it's not the same as that victory being felt by fans.

So that's why in the end, I'm always half-and-half on Doma. Because it did what no filler ever dared to do before, I admire it so much. But because it was filler, it also couldn't keep all the subplots in balance, it couldn't do its main characters justice, and most importantly, it didn't stick the landing. For all those reasons, I understand why fans have mixed opinions on Doma. My general sense is that it's disliked but in a weird way where everyone still references it and uses it in their fics - proving how superior Doma is to other filler.

I will always have beef with fans who are unreasonably hard on Other Yugi over Doma, especially when those fans don't bat an eye at things other characters do. I hate that the purpose of Other Yugi's Doma arc flew over so many heads or just went unappreciated. I really felt it was much needed character development. And most of all I hate the impact it had on fandom, which made it so impossible to find Other Yugi-related fan works that didn't either overdo Doma or make sure Other Yugi was everlastingly apologetic about it.

Really, I can't express how nuts the fandom nonsense was - I didn't even want to talk about Doma, because fans were so extremely sure about Other Yugi's arrogance and Yugi's saintliness. Call any of that into question and you'd get attacked. It's been like two decades now though so I should be safe... right? X'D

#yugioh #other yugi #orichalcos

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elysiuminfra · 2 years

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Alright tell me your complaints about the Jekyll and Hyde fanbase, because if you don't my brain is going to subconsciously project mine on you since you mentioned you had them, and that's not very nice. I want to hear your actual thoughts

OH BOY i have a lot of them. i dont think they're necessarily controversial tbh but i do have quite a bit.

my biggest complaint is the woobification of hyde. he's a grown man. he's a grown man that murders someone, and feels good about it. he drinks and has sex (probably) and does all sorts of things. he's not a baby, he's not a chaotic gremlin, he's a grown ass man!!! i also dont like it when ppl liken him to a child/give him child-like characteristics/make him too short. its weird imo. i dont like it. i think ppl should treat hyde like an adult with agency who's responsible for his own terrible actions instead of going oh woe is hyde / he's just a baby or whatever (and tbh i blame tgs a lot for this. no hate towards sabrina i just dont like that hyde is seen as "cutesy" in canon. i think that man doesnt shave his [censored])

the insistence that jekyll and hyde is about good/evil, or that jekyll is secretly bad and hyde is good/vice versa. jekyll sucks, but hyde isn't any better, the end. i don't think jekyll is a good person but he's not like, irredeemable i guess. he just sucks. he just uses hyde as an excuse to kill a guy. fuck alot. do cocaine. i mean who doesn't wanna go nuts sometimes. he can be self destructive as a treat if he wants

that jekyll and hyde are completely separate people. once again i blame tgs for this (sorry sabrina) which is like. its not the point of the story i guess. im a strickler for keeping the original themes, though, so that's just me. but also what comes with that is ppl shipping the two which i just. nope. nope!! i cant do it. in my mind's eye jekyll and hyde, though there is a degree of separation at the end of the story, are the same person. its weird and i dont like it. its only made worse when ppl woobify hyde/make him much younger. it genuinely makes me gag like stop that!!! stop it!!! :(

i dont like the musical. i just dont. im sorry to musical fans everywhere but i dont like it. :( please dont get mad at me for this. i will give them this bring on the men does go hard as fuck though (also anthony warlow's voice. hot damn)

i also dont like tgs as much. i just have issues with the writing (bc once again i love the original book too much) and also utterson isnt even there :( this also brings me into my next point is that UTTERSON!!!! he's funny and lovable and not enough ppl like him and just ignore him in favor of jekyll/hyde or lanyon (once again tgs) and im like :( no.... please....... he's funny and i like him

i think tgs is a fine enough story on its own, putting it nicely at least, but i dont like that it's greatly influenced a lot of ppl's perception of the original story. and this is coming from a former fan. it's led a lot of ppl to woobify hyde/ignore utterson/act like jekyll and hyde are separate/etc etc. just a lot of stuff that goes against the original.

idk what else to put here tbh i probably have more but cant think of any rn. i just think that we need more nuance in our discussions of these characters, shouldn't ignore certain unfavorable facets, and be open to criticism of media we enjoy. and we should also treat grown men like grown men. and be nice to eachother i guess. peace and love.

#answers #jekyll and hyde #the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde #btw i noticed your tags on a previous post and YES it is shayfer james. i saw that comment. i see everything #also thank u for liking a bunch of my stuff and sending me an ask <3 i appreciate it

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riemmetric · 7 months

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I've never related to Rory Gilmore, because she was beautiful and boys fell in love with her left and right, and I was ugly, and not much of a reader when I was young anyway. I've always regarded her as nothing more than a character in the show and took her relationships they way they were given to me, because I was never much into shipping non-canonical ships. So the discourse surrounding her now and the multitude of "the fall of Rory Gilmore" and "Rory sucks, actually", that people are coming up with nowadays seem to me a little excessive. Rory is a girl who grew up having the best of both worlds, really. The close relationship with her mother that Lorelei never had and the financial support of her extended family that Lorelei never had. She grows up sheltered and makes mistakes when she goes out into the world and experiences its different facets. She goes to college to pursue a childhood dream, but it's rare for a childhood dream to continue into adulthood, after one learns more about oneself, so she falters in her decision and takes time off school to figure out if it was really the right choice for her (normal, and I wish I had had to courage to do the same). Sometimes her boyfriends hurt her, and sometimes she hurts them too (Grey's Anatomy syndrome: this is how you can create conflict in a show that keeps people watching). She's a young woman finding her place in the world and she's not perfect, she's not evil, and she's not the model for every single young girl going to college. She's not my favourite character in Gilmore Girls but I think she's fine. I think she's a good character. I like some things she does, I hate some things she does, I'm annoyed by some things she does and I relate to some things she does, and I think the hate coming her way comes from: 1. people looking for clicks on their videos (fair enough, it's a jungle out there) and 2. people who don't have the money to go to a fancy university and hurt seeing her almost throw it all away (I understand, but a characters need internal conflicts, not just external, this is a good one, and sometimes art is uncomfortable).

#rory gilmore #thinking about her today #look. she's not real. you can hate literally any fictional character without explaining yourself and it's fine #it's part of experiencing a piece of entertainment #this is mostly in response to the video essays people make. because that's more than fan behaviour #that's supposed to be an analysis of the show. and i simply think any analysis of gilmore girls that berates rory is done in bad faith #it's a story about a student figuring shit out!!! of course she's annoying at times!!! we all are!!! god #don't even get me started about the boyfriends #personally i liked logan as a character the best out of them #but i think it made a lot of sense for her to end up single and traveling the country at the end of the show #so the question are you team [name of guy] makes no sense to me #i'm team rory finding someone who fits who she is as a fully developed human. and yes i do hate the 4 season sequel thing bleah #thoughts

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goldsrc-hl1 · 8 months

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I think there’s a ir of a difference in what constitutes “trying to be good in a bad world” and “trying to make everything worse”

I don’t actually know much about critters rewrite, but It seems like they’re trying to do something similar to nimona, where nimona is introduced graffitiing a propaganda poster and then spraying pain in a guys eye for insulting her, throughout the film she embraces bi g considered a monster and is active key trying to get the other main character to come over to the “dark side” and call himself a villain, and later on they do team up to try and destroy the order of monster fighting knights who have controlled and “protected” the kingdom since its founding, and yeah getting into several fights with that kingdoms authorities,

So the idea that ruby stealing means she’s sue how being evil because the world is evil seems kinda like a poor read, critter possibly has a perspective more like the one I mention, the rewrite still most likely sucks (again, I haven’t read it and probably never will) but just having ruby stealing seems like a weird thing to focus on, or having Roman be somewhat right when he targets society,

I also don’t personally think that wanting to tear down a world that has only ever hurt you is inherently wrong? At least not if you don’t mean so literally destroying everything,

Take Ilia for example, human society, or at least atlas society, killed her parents, mocked her for it, and tries to punish her whenever she dares to fight back, to ask for more, the world at best ignores her suffering and at worse has already decided she was a monster, so why shouldn’t she lash out? Why shouldn’t she get angry? Again this doesn’t excuse the kinds of things Adam did like murdering random people,

But frankly I think parts of remnant society need to be dismantled, wether that’s through gradual legislative change or occasional violence depends on the specific situation and has yet to be seen,

That’s kinda the biggest complaint I have as I’ve stated before team rwby seems unwilling to actively go out of their way to challenge current remnant society except as a way to stop Salem, maybe because they don’t have time to while dealing with Salem but then I wonder why you even include all those societal issues the way they did. Making them integral to the majority of the villains motivations

Especially since Salem destroyed atlas making those issues moot anyways

Many have said it was to show how atlas’ systems of oppression ultimately destroyed it, but they didn’t, they helped Salem destroy it yes but Salem was still necessary in that equation, if Salem had simply decided not to attack atlas it would still be floating more or less unchanged until/unless Robyn managed to continue her work,

Yeah I agree with pretty much everything in this

Ruby stealing stuff is fine as a completely different character, but it just doesn't fit RWBY or Ruby Rose for me. I just don't like it.

Team RWBY try to be as nonviolent as possible at first, seen with trying to persuade Ironwood, but once he starts getting violent they get violent right back. I'm hoping they learn the lesson that sometimes there is no peaceful solution to oppression on par with Ironwood's.

I've never understood the whole obsession with making Roman Torchwick justified, he's so much better as an unjustified yet still understandable and fairly nuanced near pure evil character. He's evil as hell, he LOVES it, and we love to see it. He's got charm, he's got a sense of fashion, and he's just plain enjoyable.

All of this while still having him be fairly nuanced through his whole thing about everything he is doing being done for the purpose of survival and not necessarily because he likes doing it (though he does like doing it to be fair).

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being-of-rain · 1 year

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Legal notes from my court-appointed Classic Who watchthrough. This time season 23, The Trial of a Time Lord.

The Trial of a Time Lord reminds me of Flux in New Who in a lot of ways. Both are shorter seasons that have a unique and more prominent story structure. And idk if it’s the neurodivergent in me or the writer in me (or both), but I really love an interesting and strong story structure that shows itself off, so I really love Trial and Flux in theory. I like some of them in practice too! But oh boy do both stories have their weaknesses, especially in their endings, that could’ve been fixed with some planning and editing and good writing. Though to be fair, both had reasons that accounted for some of their messiness- Trial’s final story saw the death of its author partway through and his first replacement quitting, and Flux was made during the COVID pandemic. So yeah, I have a soft spot for Trial of a Time Lord. Putting the Doctor on trial so they watch videos of his adventures to debate is perhaps a little on the nose on the meta level... but I’m fine with on the nose themes, and it’s a great premise just on its own, so whatever. I’ve heard people say they get sick of the trial scenes and I can’t say I’ve ever agreed. It’s a fun gimmick and there’s not that much of it compared to the rest of the story, it’s just a shame that eventually they stop having anything particularly interesting to say in them. But honestly I’d always be happy to watch some Doctor Who that randomly pauses sometimes to have Six give commentary on how good he’s doing or how much the Time Lords suck.

The Mysterious Planet isn’t the most gripping story ever and goes a bit slow, but honestly it’s a solid start to the series. The introduction to the trial is a great build-up, and the shot of the space station at the start is obviously wonderful. Six and Peri’s relationship being a little softer is nice (though, like most of their soft moments last season, it kinda looks like that character development was down to Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant working hard to deliver the script in a way that makes the characters watchable. I’ll never understand why the writers thought the Tardis team fighting and bullying each other all the time would make for a fun show). Glitz and Dibber are very funny, so are a lot of the Doctor’s interactions with most characters. Setting up the mystery of the sleepers and why the Time Lords want to censor what they found is the sort of story arc Classic Who had never really tried before, and I love it. And its eventual answer of people stealing secrets from Gallifrey itself is a cool payoff. But it does raise the first of many, many questions/holes in the trial plot: why on Earth did the Valeyard choose this story to show as evidence? Out of the history of Doctor Who, he chooses the only one the High Council wanted him to keep secret? Also, I don’t like season 23′s theme music. Maybe it fits the court intrigue better than the action-packed early-80s theme, but damnit I just love that action theme. SO catchy.

Mindwarp is.. a mess! I mean it’s meant to be a mess, but apparently nobody working on it knew exactly what was supposed to be happening in it. And that’s not how you make a deliberate mess! Because it shows, and it means I don’t know what was supposed to be happening either! Specifically, the bits where the Doctor goes evil. Was he acting evil to earn the trust of the bad guys, was he actually evil because of something their machine accidentally did to him, or did the Valeyard edit the footage to make him look evil? Or a combination of those? According to Tardis wiki Colin Baker asked the script editor, the writer, and the producer for the answer, but they all said they didn’t know. How is that even possible. The way the Doctor at the trial says he’s starting to half-remember what had happened makes things even more confusing. So... yeah. The story reminds me a lot of Vengeance of Varos. Obviously it’s by the same author and features the same villain, Sil, who still just doesn’t do it for me. Again story feels like it’s being very meta (even more than the rest of the Trial season) and I’m sure you could make some clever observations about it and the way season 22 plays Six as very unlikable, but again it just doesn’t interest me a lot. It’s a bleak serial without a lot to enjoy watching. Brian Blessed is one of the most fun things in it, but I’d rather he was in another story. Peri’s departure is... well, I guess it’s the right story for an exit as brutal as that. I think I prefer making a happy ending out of it, but being left to marry a random warlord is still pretty rough. Still, if there’s one thing that I love in this story, it’s the Doctor’s reaction to her death. Colin Baker’s acting in that part (and at the start of the next story too) kills me every time, and the moment of silence before his delivery of “you... killed Peri?” is heartwrenching in a way that I love.

First of all, I love any story that follows the structure of A Christmas Carol with past, present, and future, so kudos to the three stories used in the trial as evidence for that. And it’s a very fun way to introduce a new companion. But if the trial was starting to confuse itself a little in Mindwarp, it completely loses its focus in Terror of the Vervoids. Calling the Doctor’s argument in his defence ‘flimsy’ feels like it’s giving him too much credit. He chooses it so he can point at one adventure and say “in this case I was explicitly asked to interfere,” something that has already been made clear isn’t always the case, and something that I’m not sure would even matter in Time Lord law! And why this adventure specifically? Obviously he didn’t see it coming that it would get him saddled with a charge of genocide too. In the next story it looks like the Doctor would’ve genuinely been executed if the Master didn’t intervene, and honestly... it makes the Doctor look like an idiot more than any other time in the show. It’s bad writing lol. Another thing that seemed silly- its made clearer in this one where the Valeyard had tampered with the evidence, but his two edits are wildly different. One of them is writing the Doctor out of a certain scene so it looks like he let Mel investigate something alone- not particularly damning and not very unbelievable either, with the Doctor thoroughly edited out of a certain sequence of events. The second edit is a quick scene where the Doctor sighs in satisfaction while holding an axe and looking at the wreckage of the radio room, which is so absurdly out of nowhere and nonsensical that it makes me laugh every time. The way the Inquisitor is willing to believe it makes her look very gullible, especially when she was quite ready to consider the idea that the Matrix had been tampered with when it was the Valeyard suggesting it, but pooh-poohing the idea as impossible when the Doctor suggests it. Anyway, I can enjoy watching Terror of the Vervoids, and not just because of poking fun at it. Mel’s strong personality matching the Doctor’s makes a nice change after Peri (sorry Peri), and a love a murder mystery so setting up the characters then watching them sneak around and suspect each other is also fun. ...Though that said, I think the mystery gets a little too complicated. There’s a few different parties up to no good who are all facing double-crossing in their own ranks, making things very hard to keep track of, so the trial scenes on top of that is quite a lot of plot that isn’t executed very clearly. Maybe I was just happy for an all-round brighter story after Mindwarp. I think the most interesting character was Travers, the guy who’d met the Doctor before and had both a healthy respect for his ability to root out the truth, and a healthy wariness of the chaos that he causes. Oh, and the scene where the Doctor pauses and rewinds the Matrix to explain how he made a deduction was kinda fun, like a peak into the thought process of the Doctor that might turn up in Moffat’s Doctor Who, if a little rough and smarmy. It’s a peak at the kind of entertaining things that could be done with the trial format. It’s this kind of thing that makes me wish they reused the trial format for another season in modern Who, with better writers who’d actually work together to make a coherent story.

The Ultimate Foe is a lot! Just so much. From the moment the Master turns up, the trial premise that’s been building (and then decaying) for twelve episodes collapses into an absolute shambles. I don’t know why so much of these episodes are set in the Valeyard’s Victorian England-themed Matrix hideaway, or why the Valeyard spends it pretending to be a completely random character he made up. Maybe the funniest moment in the story is when, in the middle of everything, the Keeper of the Matrix runs into the court and announces, with no build up, that the High Council has been deposed by insurrectionists. Are these insurrectionists allies of the Valeyard, the Master, or just random people who have somehow been following the trial and realising just how shit the High Council is? I don’t know, because it isn’t mentioned again until the Inquisitor mentions that she guesses that they’re going to have to elect a new Council. One day I’m going to make a post going through the politics of Gallifrey in Classic Who, because oh boy is it a hell of a mess. Another moment that I always find very funny is the reveal that the Valeyard is the Doctor, which is written and delivered like it’s supposed to be a super casual line from the Master, but the most talented actor in the world couldn’t deliver that line and make it sound casual. Actually, that’s something I could say about a heck of a lot of lines in this story, especially for poor old Mel. Bonnie Langford you tried so hard with the script they gave you, and I respect you for it. Oh also, shout out to the Keeper of the Matrix for looking the Doctor in the face and telling him that no one could possibly get into the Matrix. As if The Deadly Assassin and basically every other Gallifrey story didn’t happen. As if the Master and Goth didn’t have a DIY bootleg Matrix link in their sewer lair. I feel like so much of some Gallifrey stories are Time Lords saying very dramatic things that are demonstrably false, but I guess that’s an empire for you.

I’ve really spent most of this post dunking on The Trial of a Time Lord, but I’ll say again that I always enjoy revisiting it. It’s partly because of the little great moments sprinkled throughout, partly because of nostalgia, and largely because of the fantastic premise that they had to work hard to make such a mess of. It becomes more and more of a disaster as it goes on, and by the time the Valeyard turns to the camera in the Keeper’s clothes and laughs I’ve completely given up caring about questions like “how does that make any sense at all,” but I enjoy the ride every time. They even managed to write Six in a way that isn’t aggressively unlikable and rude all the time! Good for them. As always, it’s a shame that Colin Baker was treated so poorly by the show in so many ways, but I’m grateful he got a chance to play the role with such better scripts in Big Finish (and specifically I’m grateful for Jac Rayner and The Marian Conspiracy for writing the blueprint for Six and Evelyn. I’ll never not stan that audio.)

#my thoughts #Six #Peri #Mel #Master #Valeyard #Darkel #This turned into a lot more criticism than I was expecting considering I love watching this series jdflksjf #I have come to this conclusion: I love Trial of a Time Lord and also it is bad.

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problemcore · 1 year

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for whichever of your ocs you'd like to talk about:

1. what'd be their level of goodness or evil? or like what's their moral alignment, dnd style?

2. if they had to pick a song to listen to on repeat for 24 hours, which would it be? would they rage quit the challenge?

hiiiii tysm for these! gonna talk about my ocs from kitchen magic, the game im planning on developing in the probably far future <3 my hands are freezing cold woe

sorry for nerd moment this will happen again. so yknow how the whole point in shadow the hedgehog (2005) is choosing between the paths of evil, good, and neutrality? luckily my three characters from kitchen magic (sasha, sunny, and dekota) pretty much represent this concept. sasha is very much true neutral. he doesnt have much care for the rules, and he only cares about making sure himself and his friends are safe and sound. sunny and dekota are like the angel and devil on his shoulders. sunny is a human who very very much follows the rules and does what she's told. is it because she truly believes in those rules, or because she's scared of failing the people around her? who knows! i havent developed her that much. but she's very lawful good. this is a good time to mention i have played dnd exactly once, so i dont know if im using the moral alignments perfectly . its fine. dekota is very much. chaotic. no clue if good neutral evil. but he sure as hell is chaotic! he's the magic law enforcer, adored by all his people, seen as very powerful. in reality he's only strong because he abuses magic, uses forbidden curses and spells, and even summons demons banned by the magistrate, all for his own benefit and no one else's. he'll even use his own people to get what he wants. he's the definition of a "the end justifies the means" person. WOW THAT TURNED OUT TO BE SUPER LONG hope any of this made sense.

2. HEHEHE I LOVED THIS QUESTION SO MUCH I MADE A QUICK DOODLE FOR IT

ive drawn sunny being a sonic the hedgehog fan too much for it to not be canon. good lord. anyway she would choose All Hail Shadow by crush40. fun fact since the very moment this ask was sent (over an hour ago) ive been listening on repeat to this song, to see if i myself could handle it. came to two conclusions. 1. this song slays absolute penis but i dont think i could last 24 hours. sunny definitely could. 2. the original version by magna-fi sucks. sorry.

unfortunately i dont have a good answer for any other characters. i could Maybe say. one of the songs from the album Avatar Country by the band Avatar for dekota. since its a very very him album. but thats about it. so instead ill leave you with this fun fact. when i was 12 i listened to fall out boy's immortals on repeat for 4 hours straight without noticing becuz it just became background noise at some point. sometimes i can still hear them.

#TYSM I MADE THE ANSWER SO LONG HOOOOLYYYY #this was so fun #tysm anon <33333 #i go sleepy now. its almost 1am.#asks #kitchen magic #sasha (oc)#sunny (oc)#dakota (oc)#anon #goodnight friends! i love you <3

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hopeymchope · 11 months

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hopeymchope, I know you strongly identify with the progressive movement, because you see it as standing up for the oppressed, and we certainly don't want the conservatives to win. But take a step back and think about how "Your Side" has been behaving recently. As anon told you in a previous ask, every single Hiyoko Saionji fan and Chloe Bourgeois fan is left-wing. Every single one. So I recommend you ask yourself, "do I really want to live in a left-wing paradise any more than a right-wing one?"

Hold up — how can you possibly know the political leanings of every single fan of these characters? Are they really ALL so overt with their politics online? Are even MOST of them so obvious?

Beyond that, though, this speaks to something I think is a MAJOR issue with the whole American political landscape: The prevalent idea that we have to be in lockstep with everyone on whichever side we largely agree with/identify with.

With conservatives, being in total lockstop and having no variation of opinion is strictly enforced by the Republican Nation Committee among actual politicians — you can get kicked from the RNC and/or have your career ruined for daring to disagree in any way on ANY single issue. Just ask Olympia Snow! This kind of total 100% devotion to the "official" stance of the party makes them more of an imposing political force, an immovable wall of policy, while simultaneously making them look even more like inhuman assholes. And yet... personally, my experience is that regular citizens who are conservatives are more accepting of some minor variances/differences in opinion among their fellow conservatives. So they most often don't give a fuck about — to cite just one random example — someone wanting to regulate major corporations heavily so long as that same person is on-board with MOST conservative attitudes.

With progressives/liberals, the opposite seems true. Actual politicians and the Democrat "machine" are rather tolerant and accepting of variances of opinion among their own members and politicians — even sometimes to a degree that might be counter to logic (*COUGH*Manchin*COUGH*). This kind of attitude makes them weaker without any kind of unified political voice, sure... but it's also recognizably fucking human and a whole lot less Gestapo in its approach when compared to how the right operates. Ironically, though, my experience is that the "regular citizens" who consider themselves serious progressives are always looking at each other with suspicion and applying some kind of "liberal purity test" so they can judge one another as failing or "not truly progressive" And it is FUCKED UP shit. Progressives always be kicking people on their own side to the curb when they should be uniting to fight the greater evil instead. Self-destructive, foolish behavior.

I greatly prefer the approach of those Democrat political figures and those conservative non-politician "allies." We are all individuals, and it's only right (and SANE) that we should have variances of opinion on some details. It's about whether we can agree on the majority of issues, IMO. I freely admit that I don't agree with every single progressive/liberal stance/cause — I'm actively against the standard party line on a couple of lower-tier matters. But I'm also disinclined to share the specifics of those matters/disagreements outside of my absolute closest friends, because I know I'll get fucking REAMED for it among people who should absolutely be my allies — people who should absolutely be happy to have any support they can. It's a situation that fucking SUCKS. Though even on the couple of things where I really disagree with the standard progressive party line? I still feel the conservative stance on the same issues is far more incorrect by comparison. So it's not like I'm flipping sides on anything, jeez.

If I'm not being clear: I'm not going to agree with every left-wing position, and that SHOULD be fine as long as I'm not out backing the right. And for anyone who thinks that's NOT fine, I believe they should look in the goddamn mirror and reassess their shit. Because I believe there is no such thing as a pure "left" or pure "right" paradise for people of those alignments, nor should there be. There will be - and always should be - things we disagree on, even among those who share our side of the overall "aisle." Those variances, those differences... they're fundamental to being human beings with fully realized senses of self.

Everyone should be their own person and find themselves. So don't be afraid to express that you think the opinions of some people on your personal "side" are faulty + why you think that. Don't be scared to admit that sometimes, people on your side do things wrong.

And in return, I won't shy away from telling Hiyoko and/or Chloe fans that they're doing it wrong. :P

#politics?#anti-hiyoko saionji #asks #anon

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zevranunderstander · 2 years

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Sorry to bridgerton-post on here but like? One thing i find funny is that season 1 fucking sucked and because of that they don't really know what to *do* with daphne in season 2 bc her personality is super underdeveloped but people would have also noticed if they tried to add complexity to her *after* she was the main character of season 1, so they make her appear very rarely and be involved in some plot points some other character also could have done, just to include her. like im not saying its a bad decision, i even think its a pretty good decision, but it's so funny because if you would only show someone season 2 and then tell them daphne was the main character of season 1 i don't think anyone would believe it, because?? compared to even side-characters like penelope and lady featherington she is COMPLETELY one-dimensional.

and it's so great to me because penelope and mrs featherington both at first seem to be fulfilling a very specific trope. so like, you THINK they are some one-dimensional side characters that just serve the narrative in some purpose, but as you look at them act and develop, you realize that they are way more complex and three-dimensional than that.

Like penelope at first appears to be the "chubby best friend that is in love with someone who would never see her as more than a friend" trope and who is kind and cheerful and never really has her own storyline. But if you look at her, she's actually this caring, but ultimately very selfish person who often chooses her own good over that of people she deeply cares about and still pretends like she wasn't the one brutally ruining someone's life, and she gets so much agency and makes mistakes and you still feel for her and hope everything will turn out well for her.

And Lady Featherington starts as this really unlikeable evil stepmother of three daughters who aren't generally seen as very desirable and who tries to sabotage everyone around her. And while she at first actually kind of *is* the evil stepmother trope, she develops into someone who has to fight so much adversity to just *stay* where she is in society as she loses more and more of the grip she once had in said society. she just makes sense as a character & isnt any trope that she might appear to be when introduced. She knows her daughers are hard to "marry off", but she still isn't cruel to them about it, she does most of what she does for her daughters and for her own survival and you honestly are rooting of her to somehow come out on top at the end, despite watching her do a lot of pretty immoral shit.

And then you have daphne who has like 5 character traits: 1) she is a perfect lady who knows all ettiquette and is super polite and always knows what to say, 2) she wants children and wants to fill societies ideal of an upperclass wife, 3) she is generally very sheltered and doesn't know much that isn't part of her upbringing, 4) she sometimes says sentences like "you don't know what it's like to be a woman", no one knows what she means bc she WANTS to be sll of societies exectations and even ridicules her sister who doesn't want that, 5) she sometimes develops "schemes" which usually make no sense (and that one time include actual martial rape). like, that's really all there is to say about her, the narrative sometimes just excuses her actions and she never even has to learn a lesson or develop or do anything or really is challenged in her behaviour. And of those character traits, in season 2 you only really see her being a very fine lady who organizes balls and makes polite conversation and has a side-quest to talk to her brother about true love from time to time.

Like these two side-characters are just 1000x more complex and real and relatable than daphne EVER was and tbh whenever i see her on screen it's like i see a ghost of a way worse show quickly poking her head in to remind you that yes, this is the same show.

#i have some beef with the show prentending mrs featheringtons daugher are ugly but yk yk #myposts #bridgerton #i found this in my drafts this post is a bit older #this is a daphne hate club tho

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irkimatsu · 3 months

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Caught up on Hazbin Hotel! It's a fun ride! I don't have nearly enough words for it - there's someone in my circle way, way better at that when it comes to this - but I did want to ramble a little bit:

-Charlie. CHARLIE. I am about 60% here for Charlie. You could have told me nothing about this show besides "the Princess of Hell is basically a shoujo protagonist" and you would have gotten me from there. Is my love for Charlie proof of my namby-pamby hippie ways of love and kindness and forgiveness? Probably! But it's fine. I love Charlie. I want to know her dreams of redemption are possible. (Sometimes I really need to know that you really can be redeemed no matter how badly you've fucked up...)

-I'm also really loving Husk. How much is the personality and how much is the character design? No clue. (I'm a furry, baby~) He's a good straight man, though, and someone that most of this hotel's residents are gonna need, especially Angel. Glad I'm not the only one on the Husk/Angel train, looking forward to where that's going

-Sir Pentious is a pathetic baby man and I love pathetic baby men. (My main fandom is still an anime about six pathetic baby men, after all.) While there's other characters I care more about as a whole, I fully expect to be laughing my shit off every time this guy's on screen. Idiot. <3

-God damn the music is good, just as I expected after years of Helluva Boss. Standouts so far are "Poison" (obviously, even though that scene fucking hurt to watch - which isn't a complaint, it did what it was supposed to); "Stayed Gone" (Vox is such a petty bitch and damn do I see why a friend of mine favors Alastor, he's effective as hell); and "Loser Baby" (maybe because I literally just watched it and boarded the Husk/Angel train, but hey, it was fun, and a desperately needed cleanser after "Poison". You know "Poison" was rough when a cheerful song about how much your lives suck is a cleanser.) There hasn't been a dud yet, though! Gonna have to loop the soundtrack to commit everything to memory, though that might wait until the whole season's out. Don't want to not give later songs a fair shake because I was too busy looping the earlier ones.

-If I have to complain a little, I do admit to being lost on some things, and I don't know how much of that is "I'm supposed to be lost, they'll explain later", "I'm dumb and didn't absorb things properly", or "that was explained in side materials". I hope most of it is those first two and not the third - side materials are fun, but I do think the show should be able to stand on its own. Even with the pilot - is that on Amazon? I don't know because I watched the show, um, elsewhere. I have my doubts about it, though, since so much changed between the pilot and the main show, as it tends to happen with pilots. If it's not, that does feel like a bit of a problem, since I think this show has its best chance of success if someone sees it turns up in their recommended section, knows nothing about it but thinks it looks cool, and tunes in there. Treats for the dedicated fans are great, but continuity lockout makes it hard for newbies to care, and I'd rather this didn't turn into "well you're not a real fan because you didn't read all the side comics and blog posts". No elitism, please! Let people who don't live on the Internet enjoy the funny demon show, too!

-Twitter is annoying and my engagement with this show in public will probably be slim-to-zero because this show's hatedom is one of the most obnoxious I've seen in a long time. It's fine to hate the show, obviously, but god, all the reaching for straws to prove that everyone who watches this show is evil and supports all the crime in the world. It's okay, you don't have to like the violent Hell show where people say fuck. It's not for everyone. You don't need to prove you're better than everyone else for not liking it. It's fine, love, it's fine. Of course there's stuff to criticize, every show can be critiqued, but "it's gross for Niffty to make sex jokes because she's tiny"? Go away with that shit.

I hope at least some of this was coherent. Looking forward to more!

#irk blubbers about nothing #nope not tagging this not going there #no fandoms only friends

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lifes-little-pin-pricks · 5 months

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Can Do Attitude

Before we get to my ramblings... This quote kinda hits my hard.. Because I'm still trying to understand my mind.

--------------------

I've been trying to assess what it is about the actresses that I like.

The ones that I wish I could be like.

June/Anne Lockhart in Trolls (1986)

Michelle Rodriguez in

Resident Evil

Fast and Furious

Jane Seymour in Dr. Quinn

Jessica Biel in Blade 2

Jennifer Lopez in Enough

Mary Stuart Masterson in Fried Green Tomatoes (Idgie Threadgood)

Lori Petty in In the Army Now

I don't know.. I'm sure theres more - But.. These are the ones I thought of currently. What trend do you see in these characters?

I think …. I THINK… I might have figured out part of it…. They didn’t seem afraid.

The 'CAN DO' attitude with the ability to ACTUALLY 'DO'

There is a Presence to them. When they talk, people listen. When they walk in the room, they draw eyes (even if its just to notice them and nothing more). They could kick your ass in some way be it with knowledge wit or fists. Nothing gullible about them. Always had some kind of strategy for situations they knew were going to be ugly.

Well Hell! - I'm in the middle of work and this thought crossed my mind and I started writing and now it's going down a damn rabbit whole with water dripping from my face. Hell of a way to start the day. I notice my head feels like a lot went through it, but looking back, I've barely said a thing. It feels like a lot to me.

Anyways… These People… Characters, that I aspire to be like… They were SEEN. They didn't have to be mean about anything, but they could still make a very sound point. They were the ones that would catch the fist that wanted to punch them, or someone else and spin it around, Capable.

I don't know what that says to me though.

This reminds me of how invisible I felt most of my life.

I considered maybe it was because these characters were strong, could whoop some ass. But I don't think that is it at all. It never felt quite right, and I didn’t have any reaction to that thought. But this one… Has me feeling very broken.

I noticed recently how I promote this invisibility. I'm working very hard at not feeling like if someone thought of me, that I have been an inconvenience to them. Accepting Compliments and the want to hang out with me instead of feeling like all interactions with me are more out of pity than actual enjoyment.

I can already hear my friends clamoring to say that is so far from the truth. And While I think a part of me knows this, its super ingrained in me.

"Oh! Don't fuss over me, I'll be fine" - Physically. I always look at Physically I will be fine. Never really considered Mental health.

"Oh! You didn't have to go through the trouble for me!" - Please - don’t put effort into making me feel like I exist. And yet - here I am yearning for that.

Effort.

I also I go for things that are "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" Gigs. I wall flower or over share or feel like I suck the oxygen out of the room. For a JOB - I like the behind the scenes stuff, I even like being the agent level. But there is seldom recognition when you are the man behind the curtain. Seldom seen/noticed to be anyone.

You don't make much money in those gigs. I hate being a Supervisor with required coachings and things like that. Its not natural. I will teach those who WANT to learn, I'm not going to force an uninterested party to pay attention just because its their job. I'm Rambling and being very tangenty.

I had a conversation with my partner the a little while back about how I put so much into what I give. The thought.. Making sure whatever IT is, is carefully planned out to ensure that what ever I give is useful. Ugh - I'm not explaining this well at all. At least this part. So were skipping it. You still get the mess of it though. Because - this is my blog. And yeah - it might be a diary/journal, but… Why do these have to be secret? Isn't seeing in other peoples heads sometimes helpful? To know you aren't alone? That you can find solace that you aren't the variant (so to speak) or maybe you want to be the variant. Or maybe you don't compare yourself to others because you have finally broke through this lack of self esteem and whatever else is the issue with us. Yeah. US.

You are part of this club whether you like it or not.

So on of the dawning realizations about these women.

They walk into a room with a plan and can execute that plan, They are determined, They Follow Through, Strong, Can use your help or do without it. They are what I would call "Bad Ass" - though I have learned in my years that not everyone defines things the same way.

Bad Ass: (My Definition): Strong, No Bull Shit, Catches Lip and Gives Lip back, Not Naïve, Action, Can hold their own in battle of wits, fists or otherwise. Skills that surprise others. So I guess…. Well rounded?

Ugh -- Inspiration to write has faded… Going back to work now LOL

#StrongWomen #Empowerment #ConfidenceGoals #FearlessWomen #OwnYourSpace #SelfDiscovery #BehindTheScenes #Determination #GirlPower #AspireToInspire #CharacterAnalysis #ConfidenceJourney #BeSeen

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alrightberries · 3 years

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honey, honey (how you thrill me)

request: i loved strawberries and cigarettes but levi just can’t catch a break :(( can we have a super fluffy modern au with boyfriend levi instead? thanks!

request: hi i’m new here and had read your fics. i love your take on levi’s character! Also that your writing is very great to read!😘 (tho that angst really made me cry HARD) if i may request umm... i want a levi x reader fic about them being like an old married couple but they’re not in a relationship ‘yet’ so like everyone ships them. Its a fluffy crack fic/ Reader is like “well you’re clean and I kinda lilke you so...” then levi be like “you’re tolerable and knows how to properly clean.” and then they really ended up married. It’s like the easiest transition from friends to lovers that one day they just said lets get married we act like it anyway whats new 😂. I want fluffs and laughs! Aot is angsty enough we need fluffs with our favorite characters!!

❈ pairing: levi ackerman x reader

❈ genre: fluff, semi-crack. ❈ word count: 4.6k

❈ summary: modern au. In which you and Levi are both professors at the same university, and are painfully unaware that all the students and other staff members have a bet that’s been going on for years now. What’s it about? When you’ll both finally confess to each other and just date already.

❈ trigger warnings: profanity. mentions of sex

a/n: made it gender neutral as per usual. this was really fun to write! makes me think about writing fluff more often (pffft sure)

Trost University was home to many brilliant minds. It was a prestigious school with an acceptance rate of 600 out of 4000 yearly applicants, and producing the finest students; those of which would almost always graduate with high honors before starting a successful career of their choosing.

Its professors, undoubtedly, were of the finest quality as well. They were professional, extremely skilled, and highly trained. It was a workforce full of almost over qualified educators excelling in their respective fields, with master and PhD certificates framed on cubicle walls being the norm in the faculty room.

Erwin himself was proud to be a professor here. He started working as a high school teacher when he was still studying for his master’s degree, shifting from high school teachings to college teachings as years passed by, before eventually getting recognized and offered a job seven years ago by the prestigious school.

His friends— a loving and longterm couple who, as far as he knew, were high school sweethearts and still going strong today— had joined him on this journey as well. He’d known them since they were in college, all studying different fields but aiming for the same career of teaching.

The three of them shared a strong bond; a bond built on study groups, mutual dislike for crappy teachers, and a certain love for education. They were there for him, and he was there for them. He especially disliked it, however, when their relationship went through rough patches. He didn’t like picking sides, and listening to the same story being told from two different perspectives almost always made him want to grab Y/N and Levi’s heads and bash them together for how dumb they were acting.

But despite the differences and occasional fights, he wouldn’t hesitate to say that he trusted them with his life.

So Erwin, for the life of him, couldn’t figure out why he was just now finding out that the power couple he knew and loved wasn’t even a couple at all.

“So, wait.” He speaks, trying to be heard over the crowded cafeteria chatter. “You’re telling me... they’re not a longterm couple?”

“They’re not.” Moblit confirms easily. “Apparently, they’re not even dating.”

“Or so they claim.” Hange interjects. “Y/N and Levi have actual matching rings. Literally— I asked Levi about it once and he said Y/N was his fiancé.”

“But not romantically.” Moblit quickly adds on. “I was there too, he said not romantically.”

“Why would Levi propose to someone he’s not romantically interested in, huh?!” She counters back, a little louder than the brown haired man’s volume.

“I don’t know! Citizenship? Money? Sex—“

“They’re in love! You know they’re in love, you’re just denying it because you want to get in Y/N’s pants.” She huffs. “And because you’re about to lose the bet.”

Erwin’s eyebrows scrunch in confusion. “Bet? What bet?”

“Oh, you don’t know about the bet?” Hange asks. “It’s been going on for, like, five years now. The entire faculty’s in on it.” She begins to chow down on her soup, not offering more of an explanation. Moblit takes this as his cue to expand when he notices Erwin’s blank stare.

“Since you guys joined maybe... seven or so years ago? Everyone just assumed Y/N and Levi were a thing. Because of, y’know, the way they interact with each other. But then five years ago Hange and I asked them when their anniversary was so we could get them some wine, and both of them full on denied even being in a relationship.”

Hange nods, more than a spoonful of soup and a more than generous bite of bread in her mouth. “Yeah, but then I peaked at their faculty files—“

“Peaked at their faculty files?” Erwin murmurs, but he’s ignored.

“—and they have the same home address. They live together!”

“I can confirm that much, at least.” The blonde man answers thoughtfully. “They’ve been sharing a dorm since college but Y/N moved out at some point. They live together in Levi’s apartment now, though.”

“That doesn’t prove anything.” Says Moblit. “They could just be roommates and really good friends.”

“Well I’ll say!” Hange throws her hands in the air. “I caught Y/N sucking Levi’s dick at a party once. Must be one hell of a friendship they have, aye Moblit?”

Her elbow begins nudging the brunette beside her, and Erwin stares with amusement when Moblit starts getting irritated from the eccentric woman’s teasing.

“So what’s the wager?” Erwin asks.

The two professors stop their bickering and share an evil smile. Hange gestures for Erwin to come closer, as if she were about to tell him a secret, and he does just that.

“Whoever wins the bet gets a free meal from Shaw’s Bistro.”

Erwin’s eyes widen. Shaw’s Bistro; the classy high end restaurant with the fancy wine, fancier atmosphere, and the best Japanese Salted Salmon he’s ever had.

It was an expensive restaurant— even for someone with his salary. Erwin knew he could rarely ever eat there unless he wanted to run his bank account dry. And he concludes that this petty bet must be a Pretty Big Fucking Deal.

He squints his eyes. “I’m listening.”

Hange giggles as she continues. “Basically, you have to guess how long it’ll take for Y/N and Levi to finally admit they’re couple. But you can’t choose the same answer as other people in the bet, we can’t afford two winners. Literally.” She gestures to Moblit. “Unless you’re like dumb dumb over there who wagered they’ll never admit it because they’re not a couple—“

“They’re not!”

“—I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

Erwin nods his head, one hand on his chin in thought. He never did explicitly ask whether they were dating or not, he just assumed they were.

He carefully considers his options; be a snoop to his longterm friends and possibly break their trust for joining a foolish bet? Or Japanese Salted Salmon from Shaw’s Bistro?

Hange and Moblit look at him expectantly, smiling when he nods.

“Deal me in.”

The cafeteria was noisy when you walked in.

Students mingled amongst themselves, chatting idly about academics and gossip. Cutlery scraped against each other as people took bites of their meals. Your eyes scanned the crowd, spotting your friends sitting around their usual table and having what seemed to be a heated discussion.

You turned to look at the man beside you. “Did you bring your own lunch today?”

Levi nods as he lifts up a small black bag. “Always do. But I’ll stand next to you in the lunch line so you don’t look like a loner.”

That was Levi Speak for I’ll wait for you.

You smile. “Thanks.”

The brief silence between you is broken when you start talking about your students— how proud you were that Armin was tutoring some of the struggling students in his free time, how terrible Jean was at hiding his crush on Mikasa, how terrible Mikasa was at hiding her crush on Eren (“I don’t even think she’s trying to hide it. At this point, I’m convinced that Eren is either dumb or dense.”)

Levi nods along to your tales, seemingly uninterested and bored. But anyone who knew him well would know he was listening intently as you spoke, every word heard loud and clear and processing in his mind as soon as they left your lips. Occasionally, he would pipe in with his own comments (“Eren’s just dumb.”) but he didn’t engage too much, opting to let you speak and rant on.

Your talkativeness never got on his nerves, contrary to popular belief. He liked listening to your stories, listening to your voice, and seeing the little glint in your eyes when you start talking passionately about your students. He overall just liked being around you. You were cleaner than most people he knew. You were tolerable. Sometimes a pain in the ass, but still tolerable.

But what does get on his nerves, however, is being ‘secretly’ watched by his friends.

Once he’s sure you’re not looking, he turns his head in the direction of their table, murderous glare prominent on his face. Hange, Moblit, and Erwin quickly snap their heads down and pretend to eat, but Levi knew they were definitely staring.

“Oh crap, I forgot my free meal card.” He hears you mumble beside him. He hadn’t even realized you were already standing in front of the counter.

“Figures. You have the memory of a gold fish.” Levi comments off-handedly.

He hands the cashier his free meal card and grabs your tray for you, and you silently took the coat that Levi had swung over his arm to carry with you instead. You knew he’d hate for it to get dirtied by any accidental soup splashing.

“So, what’s happening on your end of the gossip?” You ask, both making your way to your usual table with friends.

Levi shrugs. “The brats are doing well on their thesis. Their grammar is shit though; makes you wonder how they graduated high school.”

You snicker. “You say that now but tomorrow pull an all-nighter to help them study and revise.”

“You’re not one talk. You scheduled two different consultations between classes and three more after your shift.”

“I can’t help it, okay?! You know I have a soft spot for the kids from the 104th.”

Of course he did. He knew of your affection for that specific group of students— admittedly, he held a twinge of affection for them too.

They were part of the first class you ever taught in your entire teaching career. At the time, you both worked at some crappy school in the 104th district. And to see the kids now, all grown up and studying at a prestigious college, it made your heart swell. And Levi’s heart... well, suffice to say it cracked some of the ice around it.

“That soft spot of yours is making you lose sleep.” He scolds. “I’ll take some of the consultations off your hands. The lil shits deserve a teacher who isn’t half asleep.”

Again, that was Levi Speak for Don’t overwork yourself, let me help.

You jokingly slap his arm. “That’s rude!”

“I know.”

Your conversation is interrupted when you finally arrived at the table, Levi setting down your tray in front of you and you handing him back his coat as you sat down next to each other.

“Hey.” You greet your friends, and Levi silently unpacks his lunch. “What were you guys talking about? It looked pretty intense.”

“Oh, nothing, nothing.” Hange waved off. “Just the usual. Grading papers, grading lab experiments, grading essays. The usual.”

You nod, unconvinced but letting it slide. “I see.”

The table is once again filled with laughter and conversations. Banter was thrown around here and there, mostly between you, Hange, and Moblit as you debated about films and TV shows. Levi and Erwin stuck to light chatter, but it didn’t go unnoticed to the shorter man when Erwin’s eyes squinted as Levi placed his arm around the back of your chair like he always did, or when Hange tried to hide her squeal when he wiped some excess soup from the corner of your lips.

Something was up.

It was about ten minutes into lunch when your phone began to ring, a notification from a reminder app you downloaded. You picked up your phone and sighed as you read your schedule.

“Gotta go. I have a meeting in a few.” You mutter, beginning to clean up your tray and utensils; you were a little disappointed. You didn’t even get to finish your soup.

Levi eyes you and the way you kept glancing back and forth between your soup and the clock. He sighs before he speaks, “I’ll take care of your dishes and buy you lunch later. Just go.”

“No, no, I can— fuck!” You yell when the bowl of soup is accidentally knocked over, spilling over your jacket.

Levi silently offers you his handkerchief to clean yourself up. He starts using napkins to clean the table as well, before taking the coat he brought and giving it to you.

“Use this for now.”

You smile at him once again, taking your coat off and slipping on his as you stood up. “Thanks.”

He doesn’t flinch (or react for that matter) when you kiss his cheek before you left, only letting out a small hum of acknowledgement as you waved goodbye to your friends and made your way to the meeting.

Once you were out of view, Hange’s smile immediately drops in favor of too serious eyes as she starts interrogating Levi.

“Okay, cut the crap, Ackerman. How long have you—“

“Hange, no, we’ve talked about this.” Erwin tries to reason but his pleas fall on deaf ears as she continues.

“How long have you and Y/N been dating?”

Ah. So that’s what it was about.

Levi sighs and continues to chew on his bread. He unenthusiastically stares at the woman yelling at him, swallowing his meal before speaking, “I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again: we’re not.”

“Bullshit!” She yells. “You guys are a disgusting old married couple who have two adopted children—“

“Dogs.” Levi corrects boredly, but just like everyone else at the table, he’s ignored as Hange continues her tirade.

“—have matching sweaters, do small bullshit for each other like paying for meals and lending your coats. And for god’s sake, they literally just kissed your cheek even though you hate human contact.”

She finishes her rant but Levi looks unphased. God, she wanted to punch his dumb and oblivious face so bad.

“Those are normal things normal friends do. I’m not surprised you wouldn’t know, four-eyes.” Says Levi, but Hange is unaffected and already used to his abrasive words.

Levi continues. “We don’t do anything beyond what’s considered friendship.”

Hange squints her eyes in suspicion. “Didn’t Y/N move into your apartment?”

“Yeah. Their landlord was shit.”

“Where I caught you having sex?”

“We’re fuck buddies and you don’t know how to knock.”

“But you introduced them to your mom as your fiancé?”

“I lied so she would stop bugging me about getting married.”

“You literally have a shared bank account and a shared retirement fund!”

“It’s easier to keep track of.”

“Damn it, Levi!”

Armin stares at the study guide in front of him, mind half processing the words and half... not. Quite frankly, he starts to wonder if the papers you’d given him were written in gibberish or some dead language no one spoke anymore.

You see him struggle to understand the sheet of paper in front of him, and sigh.

“Need a little help there, Armin?” You offer but he shakes his head. “I’m okay. I think I can understand this if I read through it more, it’s my friends I’m worried about.”

He glances beside him where the rest of his study group also stared the papers, each face painted with a unique mixture of confusion and dread.

You weren’t surprised, however. The readings for this module were quite complex, and the fact that your brightest students— Armin and Mikasa— were struggling with it made you feel a little bit hopeless for the rest of your class. Truth be told, even though you taught this topic countless of times, you weren’t entirely sure how to simplify it without leaving out too much information.

“Okay, how about this, we could—“ A soft knock interrupts your sentence, and you stare at the students in front of you to remember if you were expecting any more. It seemed like everyone was here, however, so you weren’t sure who was at the door.

“It’s me.” Came Levi’s voice, almost like he heard your inner monolgue.

“Come in!” You called out, focus shifting back to the paper in front of you as you heard the door open and close.

Okay, so I guess I could take this part and summarize it for them? Or would that still be too complicated? No, maybe I can—

“Ah, it’s that topic.” Levi mumurs, snapping you out of your thoughts. His face was directly next to yours as he stared intently at the papers you held. “No wonder you all look like you’re about to crap your pants.”

“Language, Levi. Not in front of the students.” You scold.

“They curse more than I do.”

“Still.”

He ignores your comment as he hands you a brown paper bag, pulling a chair out to sit next to you. He grabs the paper from your hands to look over the study guide you prepared, undoubtedly trying to figure out a way to simplify it as well.

“What’s this?” You ask, opening the paper bag.

“Bought you dinner.” He replies, eyes not leaving the paper in front of him. “I figured you’d forget again.”

As if on cue, your stomach suddenly starts feeling empty. It was impossible that you were hungry, though. You just had lunch. And after lunch you had some meetings to attend to, a couple classes, some last minute consultations, and— okay. Maybe it’d been a couple hours since lunch, but it couldn’t be that bad. A brief glance at the clock confirms that—

“Holy shit, it’s almost 8pm.”

“Language, Y/N. Not in front of the students.”

“Kiss my ass.”

“Gladly.”

The students in front of you let out a loud groan, faces over exaggeratedly contorted in disgust at your and Levi’s conversation.

Levi glimpses up at them and raises his eyebrow in question, while you jokingly roll your eyes.

“Alright, I think we should continue our consultation another time.” You said, beginning to pack up your teaching materials as the students did the same. “It’s getting late and curfew’s at 8pm. I’d better not see any of you outside the dorms.”

You knew you would though. It’s Friday night, there’s a bar across the street, and they’re teenagers. What could possibly go wrong?

You turn to Levi and hand him the keys. “You go ahead to the car, I’ll finish packing up.”

“It’s alright, I’ll wait for you in the hallway.” Levi takes the car keys as he stands up, walking out the door once again and leaving you alone with your students.

As you began to arrange your papers and clear the table, you start to remind them, “Okay, so we can discuss chapters—“

“Are you and Professor Ackerman dating?” Eren asks curiously, earning a shove from Jean and a silent threat to shut up, dumbass.

You chuckle. “No, Eren. We’re not.”

He gives you a doubtful look, one which you only return with a curious face.

“What’s with that look?” You ask, and he shrugs.

“You should date him— ow, what?!” He speaks, getting shoved by both Reiner and Jean this time before Mikasa pulls them off of him. You pause from your task.

“Okay, I’ll humor you. Why should I date him?”

The students share a look, daring each other to respond to your bold question. A few tense moments pass by and you smugly continue packing your papers. Yeah, you figured no one would—

“He’s nicer when he’s with you.” To your surprise, it was Mikasa who answers.

Unsure how to answer but still wanting to remain professional, you nod your head without looking up from your task. “Duly noted. Now go on, I know you have parties to attend to. I won’t hold you here much longer.”

The students laughed as they said their goodbyes; you held the door open for them until everyone was out before you left as well, shutting down the lights and locking the room once more.

A warm hand makes its way to the small of your back, and you smile.

“Hey.” Levi greets.

“Hey.” You repeat. “You read to go?”

“Yeah.”

“Wanna share my dinner when we get back home?”

“...yeah.”

He takes the stack of paper from your arms, his free hand reaching out for your own. You walked down the hallway in relative silence, interlocked hands swinging slightly from every step.

From the opposite corner of the hallway, the students’ prying eyes observe the small interaction; the two professors remained completely unaware that they were being watched.

“Told you they were a thing.” Ymir gloats, and the group snickers as Reiner irritatedly hands her some money.

Something was wrong.

If there was one thing Erwin knew from the nearly two decade long friendship he shared with you and Levi, it was when something was wrong.

It didn’t go unnoticed to him when Levi didn’t open your side of the car door as he usually would when you arrived at the parking lot; when he made a beeline for his cubicle in the faculty instead of helping you get settled first; when you didn’t make a fresh pot of tea for him before classes started; when your small sweet gestures throughout the day were kept to a minimal; and most importantly, when neither you nor Levi wore your matching gold rings.

The faculty was nearly empty, save for himself, Hange, Moblit, and the two people who were having a lover’s quarrel. The entire day went by without seeing you two walk side by side like you usually would, and Erwin was pretty sure Levi’s permanent frown somehow got deeper.

Yeah. Something was horribly wrong.

“Pssst.” Erwin hears from the desk next to his. He turns around and is met with Hange and Moblit’s curious gazes.

“The hell happened to those two? Trouble in paradise?” Hange asks, eyeing Y/N and Levi’s grouchy faces and refusal to acknowledge each others’ existence as they each packed their things. She adds on, “Are they getting divorced?” Only to be reminded by Moblit that “They’re not dating.”

Erwin shrugs, answering Hange’s question. “No idea.”

Moblit chimes in, “I heard Petra tried asking Levi out yesterday and now Y/N is jealous.”

She scoffs. “Y/N isn’t the jealous type. Besides, Petra’s part of the bet so that means she thinks they’re going to get together.”

“I’m part of the bet and I don’t think they’re going to get together.” Moblit points out. “And Petra stares at Levi the way Levi stares at Y/N.”

“Full of disdain and irritation?” Hange asks.

“No,” Erwin finally interjects. “Full of love and admiration.”

“Can the three of you creeps keep your mouths shut?” Hange, Erwin, and Moblit’s heads snapped to the direction of the voice, eyes meeting a pissed off Levi with a pissed off Y/N beside him. It seems like their hushed whispering wasn’t so hushed at all.

“When you gossip about our private life the least you could do is wait until we’ve left the room.” You gritted.

“No, it wasn’t-” Hange tries to defend herself but is cut off by Levi, “We already heard you talking. Now out with it before I change my mind about letting this slide.”

The three guilty professors sigh, sharing a look before Erwin decides to come clean. “We’re concerned for you.” He starts. “You’ve been ignoring each other the entire day and whatever this fight is, it’s the worst one I’ve seen you have.”

You sigh. “Listen, it’s not that we don’t appreciate your concern, it’s just that-”

“-it’s just that it’s none of your goddamn business.” Levi interjects and you immediately glare at his rudeness.

“Shut it, Levi. I don’t have time for your bull.”

“And I don’t have time for your petty lies.”

The three watched as you and Levi begin to quarrel, sharp words and irritated glares thrown around with each passing second. Your voices overlapped with each other as Erwin tried to make sense of what it was you were even fighting about, some words about betrayal in the highest degree and ruining a good thing and a relationship built on lies being the few words he understands.

Finally, he has enough.

“Stop.” Erwin says loudly but firmly. The two of you pause from your bickering him and stare at him incredulously; he continues to speak, “We’re not teenagers anymore, we’re grown adults. I’m getting tired of playing mediator whenever you fight but if I have to do it again so you stop yelling, then I will.”

He sighs. “Now what the hell are you two fighting about?”

“Y/N started it.” “Levi started it.” You say at the same time, and Erwin feels a headache coming but decides to ignore it.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

The two of you stare at each other angrily, almost daring the other to back down. This goes on for a few seconds before Levi finally sighs and speaks.

“Y/N thinks lemon scented detergent is better than lavender scented detergent.”

Hange and Moblit snicker but quickly shut up when Erwin gives them a look. He wasn’t even surprised that a fight as small and menial as this would be the fight that tears his favorite power couple apart.

“It is and you know it.” You reply defiantly and Levi groans in frustration, hand holding his head in disbelief as he quietly mutters, “I can’t believe I’m marrying someone who thinks lemon is better than lavender.”

At that, Hange’s ears perk up. “You’re getting married?!” She screams, and the two of you look at her in confusion, fight suddenly forgotten.

“Yeah, next week.” You reply wearily. “We emailed you the invites.”

If Erwin thought your bickering was loud, then the squeal that Hange let out was nothing short of deafening as she suddenly lunges at the couple, forcing them into a group hug as she cheers, “I knew it! I fucking knew it! You are together.”

Levi scoffs. “Don’t be silly, it’s for tax purposes. Apparently the bank won’t approve the loan for our new house unless we’re legally wed; something about tax fraud.”

“House?” Moblit echoes. “Don’t you already live together?”

You nod. “Yeah, but we figured the kids-”

“Dogs.” Levi corrects.

“-deserve a yard to run around in. Our apartment’s getting too cramped for the four of us.”

“Don’t ruin this for me!” Hange yells. “I have a wedding to plan.”

Levi sighs. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, four-eyes. There isn’t going to be a ceremony. We’re going to a court house to get our marriage license approved. That’s it.”

“And we invited you and Erwin to be our witnesses.” You explained. “There isn’t going to be a celebration but we’re going to host a small dinner party for close friends and family.We’d greatly appreciate it if you can RSVP to the emails within the week so we know how much food to prepare.”

The three professors nod, each exchanging pleasant smiles. It wasn’t the wedding invite they were hoping to receive but it was still a wedding invite nonetheless, and they weren’t about to burst your bubble.

“Hold on a second,” Erwin mutters, suddenly remembering one detail. “Where are your rings?” He gestures to your ringless hands.

“We had them engraved with our initials. Makes things more believable.” Levi answers. “If you’re done with the dumb questions, we’ll go ahead now.”

He doesn’t wait for them to answer as he holds your hand in his, walking you out of the faculty room and into the hallway as he pretends not to notice his friends giggling like teenagers at the information you just shared.

“So...” You start, giving him a warm smile as you squeezed his hand. “Do you think they’re catching on?”

Levi lets out a rare smile, eyes softening as he looks at you. “No. They’re too dumb to know we’re actually together. They’ll eat up whatever bullshit explanation we come up with.”

“Okay, but remind me again why we have to keep pretending like we’re not actually together and not actually getting married next week?”

He brings your hand up to his lips, kissing your knuckles affectionately before placing his hand on the small of your back.

“Does it bother you that they don’t know?” He asks, and you hum as you think it through. “No. It’s actually really entertaining.” You laugh. “But why don’t you want them to know?”

He shrugs, pulling you closer to him. “That’s what they get for placing stupid bets.”

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