#seemed like a good number

[occidentaltourist]

bbc: Some sweet #Silvacre content for your FYP ❤️

#silvacre #suranne jones #rose leslie #vigil #the bbc making a silvacre fan edit was a pleasant surprise :) #i saw the streaming numbers for vigil 2 were very good (understatement) #which makes an s3 at least a possibility #if they can write a story suranne and rose would sign on for #i'm counting on what suranne said that the continuation of the love story is a big part of what brought her back #the series does a good job creating dramatic tension and conflict within a happy relationship that doesn't involve cheating or one dying #if they do a 3rd season i hope that continues #i mean the series started with amy in the worst possible place emotionally and psychologically so surely they wouldn't go there again #s2 with its wlw mlm solidarity/parallel storyline and giving us more insight into amy and how far she's come since s1 #on top of all the other things i liked this season (which i enjoyed quite a bit in addition to the ship) #at heart it's very critical of the british government and military/war machine and some reviews seem to have missed that part #anyway i'm pleased as punch that a prestige bbc drama has two women in love at its center and a lead as compelling as amy #and that it's pulling in the numbers even without the submarine and claustrophobia (admittedly a cool premise) #keep making the fanvids bbc social media team we appreciate you #queue

[tomurakii]

My last post about bloodweave was pretty negative (though necessarily so imo) so I wanted to talk about the little things about the bloodweave dynamic that I DO like and want to see more of in fic (under the cut).

- the orb means Astarion can't start their relationship transactionally. Gale can't give Astarion blood, and also can't have sex with him (and presumably would refuse casual sex anyway). How would the relationship develop without Astarion being able to rely on the give-and-take, forced instead to just trust Gale will watch his back? Astarion isn't a plans guy, I imagine having to come up with something on the spot (considering none of the other companions are reeaaaally an option either) would lead to a lot more emotional vulnerability as he tries to take a route he has much less experience with. Not to mention that the flirty and standoffish front isn't exactly going to endear him to Gale, who approves of the capable, loyal, and righteous. How long can Astarion pretend to be invested in Gale's wellbeing before it becomes true?

- they both have bad ascension endings, but different natural outcomes. Gale is considered the more morally upstanding one, but in their solo states (without the player's influence) Gale will go through with ascension and Astarion won't. Would they goad each other on? Gale disapproves of Astarion's ascension, using arguments that could apply to himself about the personal sacrifice and loss of the soul. Would Astarion flip them around, become defensive? Their dynamic could mean the power hungry character ending up discouraging the pursuit of godhood, or the two of them hurtling over the edge together. Or, maybe, Astarion encouraging Gale to ascend and having to trust him to return.

- they're the party members with the most life experience, and they're also both pretty well-educated (even if Astarion's law qualifications may well have expired by the events of the game). He spent his time under Cazador sewing (like Gale in his Baldur's Gate epilogue) and learning languages (of which Gale knows four). They have enduring common interests beyond their circumstances. Gale can help Astarion rediscover the latent nerd potential he lost when he died, and lord knows he would love to pick his brain for a first hand account of the mid-to-late 12th century.

- Astarion recently regained hope for his future when the tadpole freed him, Gale recently lost all of it. While act 1 is a continuous series of positive discoveries for Astarion (tadpole frees him from cazador -> ceremorphosis is held off by the dream visitor -> tadpole can be controlled), Gale's life gets worse with time as his treatment stops working. It's a dynamic that could give Gale hope, force Astarion to practise empathy, or put them completely at odds.

- Astarion's all-encompassing desire to reclaim his life could be inspiring to Gale. Moreover, I imagine seeing just how passive Gale is about his death would infuriate him. To have so little regard for his real, mortal, free life? It's a great source of angst, and also a great starting point for Gale to start wanting to live again. Because after learning about Astarion's past he would agree, he'd recognise how much value a mortal life was supposed to have. He'd think himself ungrateful or impolite for entertaining the idea of throwing it away when Astarion would give anything to have what he had. This would lead to guilt, and potentially self-loathing, unless someone was there to help pick up the pieces.

- If Astarion meets Oblodra before Gale's act 2 romance scene, (or for a fanfic plot, just before Gale is confident enough to confess) they most likely won't have sex until the graveyard scene in late act 3 (or the post-ascension equivalent). It means that rather than the fuckfest we so often see from bloodweave fics, the relationship is almost entirely a slow-burning, emotionally intimate affair. I'd really love to see that play out, the progression from semi-horny yearning on both parts as the orb keeps them apart, to two love confessions that are followed by the both of them experiencing non-sexual intimacy for the first time in years. I doubt Mystra was one to hug her chosen, after all, or hold their hands.

I just love a bg3 ship that forces the characters to take different actions than they do in canon. It makes me feel like I'm developing a broader understanding of the characters, you know?

#perhaps I will write a bw fic. since from the tags of my other post it seems like a lot of people want less-explicit work of them #and i (as the number 1 gale understander /s) have a dif perspective than a lot of bw writers (largely astarion stans) #im workin on a gale/illithid tav postgame whump based on one of my other posts first tho. which could be a chara study for him #and the nature of (this version of) bw is that it puts astarion out of his comfort zone more than gale. so id want to have a good handle on #gale so that the bw fic can focus on the astarion character study rather than me finding both characters kinda finicky #hmm. hmm #but regardless PLEASE PLEASE everyone is welcome to write fic based on/incorporating these and tag me I wanna see em so bad😭😭 #bg3 #bloodweave #gale dekarios #astarion ancunin #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate #astarion x gale #baldurs gate 3

[quinns-art-box]

rarepair week day 3: studying/shopping

i thought maybe…. shopping online for computer parts?? they're just hanging out and being nerds. together <3 (i see chihiro as nonbinary and transfem, i don't mind if you have a different hc but please be respectful!!)

@dr-rarepair-week-blog

#danganronpa rarepair week 2023 #danganronpa #kazuichi soda #chihiro fujisaki #chisouda #THESE TWO ARE SO CUTE AND FUNNY TO ME #chihiro being able to ramble and explain stuff and she doesn't feel awkward or annoying because kaz listens #he thinks she's cute but also they have a sorta shared interest (and seem to be friends in the utdp mode!!) #so it's not like that shallow attraction to sonia it's genuine #and they both feel loved and appreciated :] chihiro gets feeling like you have to hide who you are #and kazuichi is their number 1 hype man #i drew this as like.... nondespair au maybe they're in college or smth #wanted to give kaz a different jumpsuit color to indicate that but green looked good with chihiro

[ryllen]

i'm so happy to see you've fallen into twisted wonderland, but i did NOT expect you to fall in love with Sebek. good for you!

Love is an overstatement.

All i want to do is tease & scrunch his whole being into a little ball. 🤣

#fhshsh #do i love sebek? i don't know #i'm like dad with cat he doesn't want #that be like i don't want sebek and here i am with sebek fhshshs #i don't think i would even go out my way to collect his cards or anything #he'll just be there if he chose to be there #sebek just feels like he's free to grab because no one wants him compared to other characters #it doesn't feel like he's too good for you because of how annoying he is fhsh #surprisingly tumblr people seems to hold him in quite a high regards #but honestly speaking i'm sure i don't think of him as good as these ofher people feel about him #but i am trying to see the good part of him more by trying to look closely more on his fanarts #fshs adorable yes #but i still don't see it as much as ehy people would put him as number one in their mind #maybe one day #he needs to work it out still if he wants to brings me down on his knees with whatever charming side he actually has fhsh #maybe later shdn the diasomnia book out #we'll see #it's interesting how he has several main similar points with jade #eats a lot #tidy appearance #tall #not exactly a human #have thing to be obsessed about #LMAO but oh sebek #take it down a notch ur wakasama obsession #people probably start puking when they hear malleus name bcs u talk to them about him too much #fhshdgh #questions #yell at me as much as u want sebek u're not even close to jade & trey-senpai #>:^)

[girlmetalsonic]

thinking abt how one of the defining traits of metal sonic who's supposed to be this cold unfeeling machine is that they completely block out logical thinking to blindly attack sonic whenever they cross paths.. attacks him like an animal, not like a killing machine. attacks him in the way that only someone who feels an obsessive hatred could attack someone.. idk.. something something their most defining trait disproves what is allegedly their other most defining trait.. if that is the case then who are they at all?

#me posts #metal sonic #sth #the identity crisis is baked into her!!!!!and yet they still just add her as killer robot number 5608 #which dont get me wrong i love it when she mauls and kills but i just mean like auugh yknow there is so much story potential but #in universe they are just cast aside. which is so strange bc sonic typically is all for helping his rivals but with metal for some reason h #es so reluctant. like yeah he wants metal to 'be good' but he barely cares whenever she shows signs of life and most other characters just #write it off as acting strange or dont even seem to notice at all #man these tags could be a whole other post idk im running on no sleep falling asleep at the keyboard mayb this makes no sense #but im rotating metal in my mind so now its ur problem my followers #sonic the hedgehog

[daily-hanamura]

#p4 #persona 4 #p4d #persona 4 dancing all night #hanamura yosuke #yosuke hanamura #actually low key obsessed with naoto's comment - conversationally adept but terrible at making speeches #personally i would say yosukes not even capable at conversation half the time with his foot in mouth disease #but i wonder if it was because naoto was even worse at conversation therefore making yosuke seem good in comparison #BUT it had me thinking about that time where naoto mentioned yosuke had told naoto that they could be oblivious to other peoples feelings #and then i think about all the private conversations between yosuke and yu and i wonder if yosuke is actually just #pretty good at 1-1 conversations but awful in bigger group setting #and im not saying its my Yosuke-Puts-Up-An-Act-For-Others agenda coming into play again but with i think in a large group setting its just #a little harder to do so #i think yosuke is very sensitive as an individual and he still struggles with saying the right things #but especially in settings where a number of people are watching him talk #he starts to fumble and trips over himself quickly #especially when people start teasing him #because he's started referring to his peers with honorifics becauses hes nervous #but also teddie bullying yosuke like “favourite disappointment” i think teddie means “favourite” more but yosuke only hears disappointment #thinking about how it sticks with him in p4d because when he does a good dance one of his lines are “not such a disappointment after all!” #oh my god yosuke..... #he's good with his queue

[bhaalble]

I like Shadowheart but I legitimately do not know where the narrative emerges from that Lae'zel is the aggressor because in every single playthrough I've done Shadowheart talks about her like three times more and usually unprompted. Lae'zel's RUDE sure but the worst thing she does to Shadowheart is tell us not to save her in the middle of a burning crashing mind flayer ship (while doing nothing to stop us if we decide to do it). Shadowheart comes out the gate suspicious of Lae'zel and is incredibly hostile and mistrustful of her not because of anything she's actually done. Shadowheart has actually done something to Lae'zel's people and she knows it but when confronted about that immediately jumps to "well it was probably stolen plunder anyways 😒😒😒" ITS NOT. ITS CARVED WITH GITH RUNES AND HAS BEEN WITH THEM FOR GENERATIONS. AND ALSO THAT WOULDNT MAKE IT YOURS.

The weirdest the game gets about this is that fight where Lae'zel challenges her to a duel and Shadowheart instead sneaks up on her in the middle of the night and holds a knife to her throat! And then starts!!! lecturing LAE'ZEL about how they need not be enemies and they could instead direct that hostility at others! This is seconds after "If the others ask, I'll say you were turning. Don't expect to be mourned" btw

To be clear this too is yuri but girl you have problems! Conditions even!

#it occasionally (often) feels like the game really banks on me agreeing on gith default evil #which i dont for any number of reasons. #but also laezel is like pretty much nothing but practical the whole opening act #considering the stakes she believes are at play! #very rarely does she actually pick fights with the others she just doesnt have patience with them #also its deeply funny to be playing as a gith sorceror who's mostly in shadowhearts good books #she keeps expecting orroros to agree and orroros is like hey man im scared shitless of her but like #for a reason #whats your reason it doesnt seem like you have a reason #then they get a proper look at the astral prism and go oh thats the reason #well that sucks >: ( #bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #shadowheart #lae'zel

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Potential Ango backstory. Because I like to make connections that don't exist.

I received a tag under my last post about Ango...

I have been enabled.

What I said in that last post was that due to the disconnect between Ango's values and the values of the Special Division - in particular, their views on necessary sacrifice and the greater good - I found it odd for this to be Ango's career choice. So, I have this theory... it's really more headcanon than anything but basically, I wonder if Ango didn't choose to work there, but rather had no choice.

First off, Ango being a government agent before he joined the Mafia means that he was already one under the age of 19... which is. Well, far from uncommon in the BSD universe but... does the government itself really not have age restrictions on potential members? Ango would've been younger than 19 when he started working for the Special Division. He was 22 ish in Dark Era, first met Oda and Dazai two years earlier, and joined the Mafia one year before that. I know we like to joke that the preferred hiring age in BSD is like... 14-15, but for the Mafia, this makes sense - there's no hiring age there; most of them are or were kids with nowhere else to go. Fukuzawa hires minors who typically also have nowhere to go. Ango was really young when he joined the Special Division. Since they would, at least, have to follow some laws (I believe anyways), the circumstances of Ango's joining were probably not the usual.

Here's another weird bit: the government sent a 19 year old spy to infiltrate the Mafia, one who was too low-ranked to have any say in decisions (he had no say in their sending in of Shibusawa, for instance). That's... weird, on it's own. He had no influence but they felt certain the man wouldn't betray them or get caught? That's a lot of faith to place in him. Now, granted, he's a very reliable person and his ability is absolutely the reason he was selected - but it's still strange.

You might be thinking, okay, but what about his replacement? Tachihara was sent in after Ango so the government could keep monitoring the mafia's activities, and he was a young, new recruit. Yes, that's true but see, here's the thing: Tachihara's nature as a Hunting Dog means the government has a guaranteed hold on him - Teruko mentions that the Hunting Dogs need to undergo monthly surgeries to maintain their bodies after their enhancements. I see no reason Tachihara wouldn't have had to do the same. So, in my mind, that goes to show that they needed some kind of hold on Ango too, right? Wouldn't you want some kind of insurance on someone so presumably new?

I'm going to cut away from this for a moment so I can point out a passage from Dark Era where Oda finds how Ango (allegedly) joined the Mafia:

The gist of it was: Ango was a hacker -> he helped a gang steal money -> the money was stolen from a Mafia front company -> Ango was on the run for several months before the Mafia caught him -> Ango's manipulation of the trackers' information was so impressive to Mori that he invited Ango to join the Mafia

Obviously, this is a cover story. But at the surface it kind of has to be true, otherwise the Mafia would know. So, it was set up for Ango to help steal that money by the government. Why this particular story though? Well, they say the best lies are often rooted in truth. Before he joined the Division, I suggest that Ango really was a hacker and seller of information. (Just fyi, his real life author inspiration was a bit of a delinquent so... make of that what you will.)

Now this next part is a mess because we still don't know how all the pieces fit together.

Remember that the Special Division, and by extension the government, are considered so incredibly powerful that they could destroy the Mafia. From Dark Era:

That legal document appears to be the only thing that keeps ability users reasonably safe. Atsushi was being tracked as the "rampaging tiger" and had nowhere else to go. What about people like Yosano or Chuuya, associated with military research? Even Kenji - he was hired after he moved a mountain out of grief. It appears that the permit is a necessary protection to those ability users who reveal they are ability users publicly.

In Gaiden, Tsujimura explains that the Division also continuously monitors the activities of ability users. Essentially, in addition to the legal protection the permits provide, they also seem to make the Division's job of keeping track of all ability users, what they're using their abilities for, and how dangerous the abilities are, much easier. We also know that if an ability user proves too great of a threat to the general public, the Special Division can and will eliminate targets unless the target proves especially useful (ex. Ayatsuji).

Ok why am I going over all this? I'm just trying to make it clear how incredibly powerful the Division is. But what I also want to denote is that they are focused primarily on the greater good and will justify sacrifice of individuals (which contradicts Ango's beliefs directly), and they also take orders still from higher ups in the government (and the government in bsd is... a bit shifty if you ask me).

And about Ango: his values lie in life and an appreciation for it. He prioritizes memory and records, especially of those who have passed. He has many regrets and is, at heart, a kind person. However, he also has the capacity to do what "needs to be done", seems particularly vengeful and angry with Sigma for Taneda's stabbing, and was ready to shoot Atsushi when he collapsed after the Sky Casino arc. He also went from making deliberate stubborn efforts to create records of the dead, to being part of the cover up for a group of disgraced soldiers and one of his closest friends. He does things because he thinks no one else can do them - so this means it is his obligation.

So, finally, here's my deranged conspiracy: I think Ango was a hacker in his teenage years, and I think he always had the intention of preserving life in some way. Perhaps he attempted to make information about the war, or something to do with ability users, public. Whatever he found, he got in serious trouble, whether with a criminal organization, or with the government itself, I'm not clear on. Ango needed to join the Division for protection, and perhaps it was Taneda's idea to invite him, seeing that his ability would be very useful - that would explain the loyalty. It's also possible that Ango's actions resulted in a loss of life, and so he no longer trusts himself, which is why he is constantly torn between opposing values. I wonder if it was explained to Ango by the people in charge why certain information had to be withheld from the public, in such a way that he felt guilty for what he'd done - maybe that's why he's so diligent. It would be tragic if guilt turned out to have always been the motivator for his character and if he stands with the Division despite his offset values because he really does think they know how to better help people than his instinctive response ever could. While I'm sure the Division was confident in Ango's loyalty (one of his dislikes is written as betrayal for goodness sake), they also had a hold on him due to the nature of his ability. He is a walking store of classified information, which we are told repeatedly in Dark Era makes him a prime target. This means that nowhere is safe for him unless he stays with the Division. There is no guarantee that the government itself wouldn't also consider him a liability if he were to suddenly quit. In summary, Ango's joining of the Division was not a free choice, and while he likely feels grateful to people like Taneda for that chance - he also cannot leave.

Regardless of whether or not you all think I am wholly deranged now, there is definitely something to Ango we're not privy to yet. Here's some extra stuff on Ango to chew on:

He had the experience once of taking in so much information he passed out while his brain tried to process it (much like Atsushi did after Sigma transfers the information to him about the Page)

He had some run-in with Chuuya which apparently led to Chuuya owing him for something?

He seems to have been more comfortable defying expectations in the Mafia than he ever was in the Division

Thus concludes my Ango theory.

Source? Just trust me bro.

#i also like this because it heightens chuuya-ango parallels #and we still have yet to find out how they're connected so. you know. fun! #also i think it would be absolutely horrible (read: very good) if the info ango found was actually connected to the seventh agency #idk seems weird it would be name dropped by dostoevsky if it had nothing to do with ango #anyways i am so sorry if you read all this it's an absolute mess #worst meta i've done by far but i just can't look at it anymore #bsd #bsd meta #bsd ango #storyrambles #btw welcome to the fringe of my number one bsd conspiracy theory - the government's secret agency will turn out to be the final villains #ok. take it just take it i can't anymore

[vintageseawitch]

✨️maybe stardates noted by the captains in their logs are the friends we made along the way✨️

#like fr how did they decide these numbers #everyone seems to use it regardless of their federation status lmao #its universal if you catch my drift because star trek reasons #star trek #star trek the original series #star trek tos #star trek the next generation #star trek tng #star trek voyager #star trek voy #star trek deep space 9 #star trek ds9 #star trek enterprise #star trek ent #star trek the motion picture #star trek the wrath of khan #star trek first contact #star trek lower decks #star trek strange new worlds #strange new worlds is so freaking good

[coquelicoq]

the sheer number of female characters in orv and the depth of every single one of them is rapidly ruining me for 90% of media. here i am just bopping along not even realizing how resigned i am to a 3:1 ratio of men to women in most media and then orv hits me like a freight train. like okay now i have standards. everybody else get on this level.

#i'm trying to think what it is about it because i *do* read/watch media that features lots of women. it's not just all dudes! #i think it's related to how they're all completely different people. they're not cookie cutter #and they're not just clones of each other with the numbers sanded off (han sooyoung notwithstanding lol) #or idk. like tmbd has lots of women and nb folks. but. though i appreciate how much gender diversity there is in those books #there's something about it that feels very deliberate. which isn't bad per se - it's good to know the author #cares enough about it to go to an effort - but it comes across as kind of clumsy sometimes? #whereas in orv there's just a lot of really well realized characters and oh hey at least half of them are women #it feels organic and effortless. idk if it actually was organic and effortless but that's the effect it gives #plus the fact that it seems the authors of orv never met a guy character that they didn't go #'he seems like he could be a girl under the right circumstances' about #orv #my posts

[semisolidmind]

yeah but how MANY kids does he want

eh. he'd probably tap out at about 8? that seems like a good number

those kids, tho...raised by one of the most powerful beings in the universe, learning fighting and magic from him? even the one or two that are pacifists/scholars would be forces of nature. the celestial realm would be getting more and more nervous with each kid.

#he has eight kids in the sequels so it seemed like a good number to tap out at #he probably allows reader to start taking contraceptives after their last kid #cause you know he aint pulling out #bad end wukong

[facetsofthecloset]

i'm sure it's been said but i feel like both Raxtus and Ronodin can be argued as "the only gay kid in the family and consequently shunned/rejected" and it's like. so weird bc Mull is so Mormon he'd probably rather eat his shorts than even acknowledge the possible existence of gays but

i mean. Raxtus literally has a fairy form. he's a fairy dragon.

Ronodin was just emo lol

and they both get so thoroughly rejected and sidelined by their families their whole lives and it turns Raxtus into an awkward but basically decent guy who runs back to the approval of his family once he's performed masculinity/violence enough to be accepted, only to then realize that he's basically just being used and still not fully trusted/accepted and having to betray them to save his real friends

(who sadly are probably actually homophobic but that's ok bc they're not dragon-phobic so that works out for him)

while Ronodin's like "fuck it. chaos and murder then!" and can you really blame him? he spent his entire life trying to conform to the "right" (in this case, Light) way of life, started spending time with the outgroup and learned to question things, then was told he was "too corrupt" to remain in his home

like. the symbolism is right there.

it's so funny, because sure Raxtus isn't a bad guy, but Ronodin definitely is and he pretty much gets sent to a type of hell at the end of Dragonwatch

and while Raxtus gets kind of a happy ending, like, him becoming an effective killer in a war and being accepted by his dad for being Good At Murder in the first Fablehaven series is presented as a happy ending. if Celebrant didn't wind up being the main villain for Dragonwatch, that probably would've been the end of it! gay kid learns how to soldier and is finally accepted by his homophobic family bc he's finally aggressive enough for them to love him

(i mean i have MANY issues with Celebrant being the main villain later and the reasons he's framed as bad but like. that's a separate rant lol)

the queer reading is right there. but also it's very bad and you can tell completely unintentional. or at the very least highly repressed. idk man i don't look into Mull as a personal individual bc i doubt i'll like what i see and i don't care that much but Dragonwatch was SO MUCH MORE MORMON than Fablehaven already was and it's so weird, seeing the fingerprints of it all over.

i feel like he either has a new editor or he's been doing this for long enough and sold enough books that he has the clout to veto changes made by editors or SOMETHING, bc i feel like? he's gotten worse?? and more unfiltered?? that or something happened and he's like. even more religious than before or something idk

like fablehaven was just kinda generic/bland fantasy with some fun ideas for magic items/powers/one sentence character premises, with just a hint of sus Mormon ideology, and then Dragonwatch just went. Full Mormon.

but then there's somehow even more weirdly queer shit. like. he's repressing so hard he's approaching queer from the other side??

idk man i wish this deeply mediocre man's writing wasn't a formative piece of middle school reading, leading to me still giving more of a shit than i really should over questionable children's literature now

#i mean it seems like his wife may or may not have divorced him between the series's so maybe that had something to do with it #i didn't look too deeply into it i just kinda guessed from his about the author blurbs wording changes #also wtf was up with the weird borderline piss/humiliation kink thing in the latest candy shop war book? #like. that was. that was not funny at all if it was meant to be comedic. like the execution was SO BOTCHED if so #and if it wasn't??? it was just????? UNCOMFY??? #sorry i'm tired and kind of delirious and for whatever reason this man's writing's squandered potential still haunts me #like genuinely if i ever publish original fiction there's a good chance it'll be fanfic of this with the serial numbers filed off #like 'MINE I'LL DO IT /RIGHT/ OK GIMME' #fablehaven #dragonwatch #i know ronodin is overrated and like. yeah he's not really a sexyman to me but he IS still compelling as a character #i think he's funny i wanna be his therapist #like stereotypical him lying down on a chaise longue thing #but also i reserve the right to make fun of him so like. not a very ethical therapist lol #get it all out queer boy let's get you to a gay club and find some fairies who WILL accept you #just cool it with the murder and the manipulation a bit y'know

[behindthunders]

#good omens #Me in practically every fandom I ever engaged with #But the Good Omens fandom is taking the prize for the sheer number of crazy-ass headcanon I'm seeing being thrown around #Just.. get good people! #Some of these headcanons makes me seriously question if you folks even LIKE the characters #Seems like you either don't get them or straight up just hate how they are and decided to create a brand new one #Anyway I'm out for blood today LOL #If you felt this was a personal attack on you then it's you I was aiming for alright

[sketching-shark]

Golden Cicada + Canon I outright reject

Ooooo interesting choice anon! Especially since there's so little know about that guy in the first place lmao. As is with the creative license that is non-description I've seen people give Golden Cicada every form from a pretty regular looking human monk to a full-on man-sized cicada yaoguai, and there's nothing in the text to confirm or reject any one of these interpretations.

THAT SAID, given the hints of what Golden Cicada's incarnations went through before he became Tang Sanzang (probably getting devoured one after the other by Sha Wujing for starters), and given everything that our beloved weepy monk went through before he reached Enlightenment apparently as a way to make up for his past misdeeds, I guess my "rejection" of Golden Cicada canon isn't so much a rejection as it is an expansion of what him being "heedless" of Buddha would have actually been. Because just falling asleep during one of Buddha's lectures doesn't seem like something you would need nine lives and then 14+ years of trials to make up for; making the choice to ultimately reject Buddha's teachings so that you could perhaps be like a number of other figures in Xiyouji and live it up on Earth as a yaoguai warlord before meeting your untimely fate, however, does seem something that would throw you into the cycle of samsara for around ten more rounds before you got back to a state of Enlightenment lol.

#anon answered #xiyouji #journey to the west #jttw #golden cicada #anyway yeah my personal headcanon is that golden cicada spent a number of decades as a yaoguai warlord before getting killed by sun wukong #because A) it seems like a good set-up for all the cycles of suffering he had to go through after #B) I think it would be neat if Tripitaka had that history of violence & a connection with his monkey protector that they need to deal with #C) its an opportunity for Tang Sanzang to have to explicitly confront the more cruel & selfish & violent sides of his own character. Growth #D) Reason to design a cicada monster with corrupted monk elements hell yeah

[bylertruther]

kind of crazy how mike said in a moment of vulnerability and weakness that he wants to be needed and to be of use and good at something, and then a large chunk of the fandom just decided to validate all of his worst thoughts & fears and suddenly reduce him to a weak, incapable, mindless, unloved wastoid wimp that's everything his low self-esteem tells him he is and nothing like how the people in his life see him (or what the narrative itself has shown us since the very first episode). even crazier when the people that do that call themselves mike fans lol but i'm 😴😴😴

#mike wheeler #mine #like. i don't think that some of you actually like him. you weren't supposed to agree with him when he was self-deprecating. #mike has been loyal brave kind compassionate courageous many many times. he's been strong for others when they couldn't be. he #grabs whatever he can use as a weapon because he isn't going down with a fight. he attacks and does do damage. people listen to him #when he speaks. they look to him to lead them and help them with both big things and small things. he IS their inspiring leader and he #IS will's knight in shining armor. like... i just don't get it. mike isn't a bad character. he has depth. good sides and bad sides. he's #always involved in the plot. why would you want to take that away? he's always been like that. if you take it away- then what the hell are #you left with? who is mike when you take away everything that he is? just. what? #i would expect that from someone that doesn't pay super close attention to the show or militantly believes him to be a homophobic #straight guy but. but but but.... i just will never get it lol. why did it come NOW after another character LITERALLY TELLS HIM #THAT ISN'T TRUE? it seems almost spiteful. as if the next thing you're going to tell me is that eleven's number is actually nine or smth.

[thereareeyesinsidethetrees]

i can't even fathom how ford was able to hide his absolute terror that well when in bill's presence

that's it that's the post

#it seems so silly to say about a fictional guy but i want good things for him. i'm glad he got a happy ending #he deserves to not have to worry about bill anymore #i don't know. maybe it's the catharsis of an abused character being freed of their abuser like that? #with bill being dead and all. it means that ford finally has the time and a safe environment to start to heal #(number one reason why i will never like 'revived bill' aus)