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unkownknowledge · 3 years

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Genshin OC: Spritefather

(A/N: I'm not used to character descriptions, I'm more used to story writing. So sorry if this isn't good. Also note that this character's history with Baal is a lot darker than originally planned)

Spritefather is an ancient immortal of unknown origin, he's rarely seen by mortal eyes but he is referenced in much of teyvat's legends. His legend depends on the region: in mondstadt he is the father of Barbados, who raised him to follow the path of freedom. In Liyue he helped Rex Lapis connect with mortals by showing him the many artist and singers of the land. In Inazuma he was the husband of Baal before they came to blows when she began the vision hunt. And in Schneznaya he's known as the man who told the Tsarista "fuck off pretender, I'm making cheese" when she ordered he move his camp to make way for a fatui building.

Personally

"Humans are so nice to look at, but Interaction is a bit of a chore."

-Spritefather

Spritefather is a very calm and kind man, as evidenced by his adopting of orphaned sprites and his ability to not lose it at over 30 children. He often wanders around the wilds of Teyvat to admire the beauty of the land and is often accompanied by seven of his children, each a different elemental sprite.

As mondstadt's legend's state, he loves freedom. To him freedom is the natural state of all things, and since he loves nature he loves freedom as well.

To him humans are difficult to understand, and their customs and behaviors are tiring to perform. However he finds Sprites to be more "simple". Their language is clear to him, and their customs and behaviors are casual and easy.

While he prefers to be around sprites and animals, he does love humans as well. He think the art they paint, the stories they write, and the songs they sing are all gifts to the world. Even if a painting envokes no emotion, a story has terrible writing, or a song makes your ears hurt, he will love it and the human who made it. Because to him creativity is the ultimate freedom, and as such is the ultimate beauty.

He is not above hate however. For instance the Tsarista hates his eldest son, so he hates her. However he also does not like to fight, so when he hates someone enough to act against them he will instead prank them and cause them misfortune. This is what lead to him calling the Tsarista a "pretender", because it upsets her, and getting in her way when she made the fatui headquarters.

He is, however, capable of fighting. He is an immortal after all, so it would only make sense he would be capable of defending himself.

History with Barbados

According to mondstadt legend, Barbados almost died in Decrabain's storms before he ascended to godhood. And it was only because of the Spritefather that he lived.

While the legend isn't entirely incorrect, it is plagued with inaccuracies thanks to the people of mondstadt not knowing of Barbados' origin as a sprite.

Long before Barbados met his friend Himmel, the Sprite struggled to persist in the cold storms that surrounded mondstadt. One day he almost faded away, thanks to an avalanche trapping him inside a cave in what is now Dragonspine. Luckily for him, Spritefather was in that cave as well. Though at the time he was simply known as the "husband of eternity", as he was the electro archon's husband. He saw Barbados was starving and freezing, do he picked up the little Sprite and hugged him close to his chest, using his power to transfer all his heat to the sprite. He didn't have much food, but he gave all of it to Barbados in order to keep them alive until the snow cleared away. In the six months they spent in their he told Barbados of the world outside of the storm, how even in war it was filled with beauty, of the many wonderous people he had met on his travels, and of his beloved homeland of Inazuma.

When the snow cleared long enough for the avalanche to clear away, both left, and while Barbados wanted to join the Spritefather the man insisted that Barbados journey his homeland and find people that could make this land worth living in.

Despite his insistence that he would not return, Spritefather continued to return to Barbados and help him live through the storm. Even meeting the bard Barbados became friends with, and comforted him when the bard passed away.

And while the legends say Spritefather taught Barbados to love freedom, he only taught Barbados the philosophy of freedom. And Spritefather, who usually dislikes unnecessary violence, wishes to smack whoever gives him credit for teaching Barbados to love freedom, because it further erases his child's friend from history.

History with Baal

(Note: this might change depending on lore for Baal as it expands)

Long ago, before they ascended to godhood, Baal met Spritefather. At the time he was not known as anything, as he was but an immortal who had nothing to his name. He would observe humans, but noone ever saw him, in fact it seemed that he was invisible to all but Baal.

They continued to meet many more times, each time growing closer and closer. Spritefather telling her of the great history of the world and it's people, and Baal telling him about her day. While to many this would seem an unfair exchange, to Spritefather her days as a mortal was the most amazing stories in all of Teyvat.

When she ascended to godhood Baal used he powers to make Spritefather visible to humanity, so that he may live with them and they may live with him. It was this act that lead to him proposing to her.

After his travels around Teyvat were done, and because of his encounter with Barbados, Spritefather brought up the idea of children to Baal, an idea she equally loved. And so they began to create many electrosprites, and any orphaned sprites they could find immediately became a part of their family, for many centuries the land of Inazuma was also known as the land of Sprites because of how many would fly around the land.

With such a loving relationship, one must wonder what led to them coming to blows.

Fall of Baal

(Tw: this bit includes abuse. Not detailed, but made crystal clear)

Spritefather was appalled when Baal declared the Vision hunts. She claimed that Visions are divine power, and as such belong to the divine alone. But the Spritefather saw it as egotism and denying mortals the rewards they worked so hard to gain.

Tensions rose quickly in their relationship, Baal became more and more frustrated at her husband's opposition to her plans, and how even her children became afraid of her after she began the Vision hunts. Eventually this lead to her most horrific act: abusing Spritefather. She claimed that it was "teaching him to love her" and she was "trying to bring him back to his senses", but his scars made it abundantly clear to everyone who saw him.

While many claim he came to blows with Baal, such an event never happened. What happened instead was Baal almost beat him to death, with a gift he gave to her no less. But the Sprites saved him. All the Sprites in the land of Inazuma came together and, with the combined elemental might of million Sprites, blasted Baal away from their Father and flew him to safety.

Sadly, however, this release of elemental energy did not leave many of the sprites alive. In fact, now only seven of them live. One of each element.

History with the Tsarista

Because she hates his son, Spritefather hates her. In fact many of the bard Venti's tales of Barbados troubling the cryo archon is based off of Spritefather pranking the Tsarista or otherwise being a nuisance. One of the best ones according to him is when he had a bug camp built in the place where Tsarista wantsd to build the fatui headquarters. While she could have killed anyone else, Spritefather is, well, immortal, so that was out. In fact he's the only person who has gotten the Tsarista to give up.

History with Rex Lapis

After a few centuries of being a God, Rex Lapis began to become apathetic to mortals, something Barbados mentioned to his father over wine.

Because of his love for mortals, and having seen the effects of an archon becoming apathetic to their people twice now, Spritefather decided to pay Rex Lapis a visit.

Yo keep him in touch with his people, Spritefather had Rex Lapis take the form of a human and then dragged him from his home in the heavens down to earth by the ear. When they arrived in Liyue he had Rex Lapis see the many arts of Liyue: the dancers, the singers, the poets, they painters, and even the cooks of Liyue. Over the course of a year he showed Rex Lapis the greatness of humanity, and renewed the god's interest in his people.

Description

Spritefather wears a cloak that is similar to a Sprite's body, however it is colored with the seven different colors of the elements. Under his cloak he wears a simple black leather outfit on his whole body. His eyes glow yellow causing them to appear as yellow dots beneath his cloak, and when his hair is visible it is short and brown.

The most notable part of his appearance below his cloak his the electro scar covering his whole neck, and below his whole outfit is almost his entire body covered in electrical burns and electro scars.

_____________________

This was my first attempt at writing an oc page. This oc came to be thanks to @genshin-scenarios take over event.

(Tagging: @golden-wingseos(incase you forgot, you asked me to tag you in my genshin writings), @storytravelled)

#genshin impact #genshin #genshin oc #tw: domestic abuse #tw: abuse

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thejustmaiden · 4 years

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Jaken = Rin's Dad?

Okay, is this how a daughter treats their so-called father?

Most definitely not.

Rin and Jaken's relationship clearly screams of your typical sibling rivalry punctuated with cute and silly moments of playful bickering.

Yes, Jaken may technically be her main provider, but that doesn't necessarily equate to him being more of a father than Sesshomaru. If anything, he demonstrates more of a brotherly love towards her. As we all know, parents (which Sesshomaru embodies more based on real life patterns and parallels) will leave their older more capable children in charge of looking after their younger brothers and sisters. In this case, that would mean making Jaken responsible for watching over Rin and protecting her if need be. Ah-Un offers protection, too. Think of it as Jaken as the big brother and Ah-Un as the family dog who are babysitting while Sesshomaru as the parent of the household is away at work or taking care of business. I mean, they literally fit that description to a tee and I'm dying at the accuracy of it all! 🤣👌

[Quick! Someone write up a modern au where Sesshomaru finally gets out to have a nice date night but everything goes wrong in the most spectacular way. Like maybe Rin and Jaken catch a ride on Ah-Un to go spy!]

I recently revisited some episodes from The Final Act, and I couldn't believe how many moments like this there were where Rin got after Jaken or when she would "put him in his place" so to speak. Obviously, all of it is mostly harmless. I was only surprised by how often it occurred, not to mention how Jaken would just stand there and take it. Towards a supposed father figure, Rin's behavior is downright unacceptable. There's a certain level of respect a child is expected to show their parents/guardians, and that's just not what I'm witnessing here between them. Like at all.

Rather their dynamic has the nature of some sibling relationships like I mentioned above. So I really wish fans would stop pretending otherwise, because based on what we know of father-daughter relationships- healthy ones at least- they don't appear anything like what Jaken and Rin have. If you could please provide me other examples of where we've seen similar portrayals in fiction or in real life, then perhaps I can get on board.

Look, that doesn't have to mean that because Jaken isn't her father then Sesshomaru must be. They can both be her caretakers without necessarily filling that traditional father role. I'm just saying that if we're going to start assigning titles to characters, let's make sure we are accurate and truthful in our assessments. If you're going to label anyone Rin's dad, then it needs to be Sesshomaru. Jaken doesn't have precedence over him in terms of fatherly attributes, that just wouldn't make sense.

After all, this isn't about what you want to see, this is about what Rin very likely sees. It's safe to assume that she views Sesshomaru more like a father than she does Jaken. She knows she's safe with him (broadly speaking lol) and that he'll come for her no matter what. That sense of security and comfort is what a child seeks and what they should always feel in a parent's presence. She trusts and even idolizes him, just as a young and innocent child tends to do with their parents. At that age, parents are perfect and could do no wrong in their child's eyes. Idk about you, but this describes perfectly how Rin is around Sesshomaru.

Rin adores him and will follow him anywhere- yes, even into danger! That's what the innocence and unconditional love of a child will bring them to do if necessary. Fortunately, at the end of The Final Act we learn Sesshomaru takes Kaede's advice when he realizes that leaving Rin with her in the village is in her best interests. That way she'd be able to lead a more normal and safer life alongside other humans. Remember, Sessrin shippers, that doesn't mean he wasn't still a part of her life and didn't witness her become a young woman over the years right before his very eyes. Therefore, if they eventually do become romantically involved, then most if not all of those gifts had intimate and seductive intentions and it essentially constitutes as child grooming.

I understand from a Sessrin shipper's point of view why it'd be so much easier to claim Jaken as the father. In doing so, they diminish Sesshomaru's role in her upbringing. By refusing to acknowledge the real role he had in helping raise Rin (short periods can be crucial and impressionable too esp. in a child's early years so yes they did assist in raising her not only Kaede), these shippers are better able to justify how their filial-like relationship evolved into a romantic one. So yeah, I get it, if I were a Sessrin shipper I'd probably do the same. It's one of the more plausible arguments available to them, after all. "Let's pin Jaken as the father to fend off antis!" is the best chance they've got, but even so, it's still not good enough. But if you insist Jaken is indeed like a father to Rin, then Sesshomaru is most certainly one too. Who says she can't have two fathers anyway?

The thing is however much you want to deny or downplay what Sesshomaru truly means to Rin and vice versa, nothing will ever change or hide the truth of the matter. Please, stop acting like they're only traveling companions and nothing more. Some of y'all even go so far as to say that they're like strangers. Knowing potentially little about a person is not equal to a lack of love and affection. Making big assumptions such as this to defend your ship is actually doing you more harm than good. Let me elaborate.

According to your reasoning, if that's all Rin ever was to him was a companion and Sesshomaru had no real attachment to her, then what precisely is the basis of your ship? Recall that Adult!Rin doesn't exist yet, thus we have no real idea what she will be like or if she's even alive. So how can you make comments like that but then go on later to say "they have such a unique and unbreakable bond" or "only Rin can be the mother because she's the only human he ever cared for" if all that time spent traveling together didn't amount to much in the first place like you claimed to believe beforehand? Do you see how your rationalizing is confusing?

Contrary to what some of you may think, I'm not just saying all this because I'm an anti and I'm obligated to disagree with you, or whatever other excuse you want to tell yourself. Believe it or not, I'm attempting to give as unbiased and objective of an analysis I can based on widely accepted interpretations of family dynamics, development, and any history we know of.

Of course I respect that at times fans will perceive things differently since that's bound to happen. What's hard for me to wrap my head around however is the unwillingness of some fans- not exclusively Sessrin shippers- to apply basic common sense and sound judgment to their observations and deductions.

Looking at all our facts, then taking the small handful of scenes Sesshomaru and Rin do share together into account, one can logically conclude that their dynamic is akin to one found in a typical parent-child relationship. If you still fail to recognize Sesshomaru as a parent to Rin, then that's fine too. In the end, that won't really change the fact that he'd still take on a role resembling an adult figure overseeing a young child's care and protection. Be it as a vassal, guardian, what have you. Plus, nobody is saying here that Sesshomaru doesn't make mistakes regarding Rin's general well-being, but so do all parents. Overall, I think the majority of us agree that Rin is in good hands. Whether it's in his direct company or in his occasional supervision from his frequent visits to the village.

In other words, it doesn't really matter what exact title you assign him in relation to Rin, as the distribution of power is all inherently the same with any and all adult-child relationships. That bond never changes once you've established it either, seeing as it's a special kind of connection one can only form with a child and a child alone.

I was a teacher for a few years, and speaking from personal experience, you don't need to be a parent, per se, to take on a role of authority in a child's life. I know without a doubt that I could never and will never view any of those kids I taught in a sexual/romantic light later down the road; yes, not even once they become grown-ups who are independent and more than capable of making their own decisions. Those of you who disagree are usually missing the whole point though, because we're not trying to dictate what Adult!Rin can and cannot do like many tend to accuse of us doing. This isn't a question of taking away from her autonomy nor does it fall under "purity culture," which is why people shouldn't continue jumping to these outrageous conclusions and really listen for a change. You're deflecting from the real issue here when you choose to misinterpret what we're saying by ignoring the problem we're actually referring to. You cannot present a valid counter-argument if you persist in twisting our words.

Bottom line: once these kids become old enough to pursue a sexual/romantic relationship, of course they have that right if they're ready. All we're trying to say is you guys ought to stop pushing forward this it's-completely-normal-to-want-to-bang-your-adoptive-dad-since-you're-an-adult-and-can-do-as-you-please agenda and not expect backlash. Ship it if you want, but please stop acting like their romance would be the epitome of a pure and healthy relationship.

Sesshomaru may not wear his heart on his sleeve, but it's foolish to presume he didn't actually care about Rin during their whole time together just because he didn't openly express his feelings until the very end. Surely everybody can comprehend that people handle and process their emotions differently. The way Sesshomaru chooses to is completely valid for the most part, so let's cut him some slack regarding this already.

What I'm trying to get at is that any child whose life you played an influential role in will always be a kid in a lot ways to you even when they're old and wrinkly. Just as they will always picture you as the loved one who guided and protected them when they were most vulnerable and couldn't always fend for themselves. Can't we relate this to children we know personally and apply it accordingly?

Finally, I want to end on this note. Could you kindly take a look at these two images below for a second?

The reason I ask is because of something I recently read that's relevant to the topic. There was this pro-sessrin tweet I saw that stated Rin trying to take care of Sesshomaru when they first met is what a mom would do for a child, which in their opinion, translates to Rin being more like a mother than a daughter if anything.

First off: are you freaking kidding me????

Seriously, so now children aren't allowed to tend to their sick or injured parents?! Parents are apparently superhuman and shouldn't be offered a helping hand from a child, even if they mean well and want to help their parent who's in pain?? Now this Twitter user was mostly being a smartass, but at the same time, it was evident they genuinely thought they offered a valid enough point that warranted no further explanation or clarification.

Secondly, by saying this Sessrin fans don't seem to realize that in actuality they're contradicting themselves and proving the point we've been trying to make all along. Glancing at the first picture and moving down to the second, the role of the one being cared for and the caretaker is reversed. So then by their own logic, Sesshomaru IS in fact like a father to Rin.

What it comes down to is the names you give to the roles these characters play aren't as crucial as the dynamic they share. The specific characteristics of that dynamic are what define the importance of said role, not so much the name in the role itself. So real father or not, Sesshomaru and Rin clearly mean a lot to each other. Close relationships are defined and solidified by the devotion and belonging they have to one another, not solely by the duration of time spent together and their proximity.

Well, that's a wrap! I hope you guys got something outta this blog, and that you enjoyed or found some portions of it interesting. I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject from this fandom, but only engage in conversation if you plan to be respectful. Thank you!

#inuyasha #hanyo no yashahime #sesshomaru #rin #jaken #anti sessrin #child grooming #family dynamics #parent child relationship

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mcfreakin-bxtch · 4 years

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could i request a diego x genderneutral!reader where when they come back to the sparrow academy timeline or sum the reader is in the sparrow academy and then they both fall head over heels for each other?? like lots of fluff and angst??

This could’ve turned out better but I hope you enjoy 💞

Warnings: Language, Angst, Fluff

***

Diego Hargreeves thought he’d seen it all.

And he also thought that they saved the timeline, too. Finally stopped the apocalypse that started this whole thing.

Well in a way they did, but there were just... complications now.

The Sparrow Academy.

A contrast to The Umbrella Academy in nearly every way, it was difficult to wrap his head around the idea of Reginald adopting a whole new bunch just because he messed up the one he had before.

Even though he already hated the man, it was still upsetting to see how easy he moved on and created a whole new academy based off their basic humanity; insulting even.

So Diego, as the rest of his siblings did, looked at them as a threat at first. They had powers, just like them—they had just found out about Lila—so it was not much of a surprise to discover that there were others.

You caught his attention right away.

Diego wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but you were quiet unless the rest of your... siblings, and you didn’t give them the stink eyes the rest of them were quick to give, but rather one of curiosity and something else, something that he couldn’t decipher.

So, he watched.

Your powers weren’t as extraordinary as some of your siblings, but you were powerful enough on your own. You were aware of the weariness The Umbrella Academy showed towards your family and, really, you didn’t blame them one bit for it. Vanya and Klaus was probably the kindest to you out of the seven the first time around. The others, sans Diego, left you alone soon after introductions—you knew Five kept an eye on you, always prepared for an attack.

Diego, however, seemed to pay attention to you when you didn’t know it, and quickly found this out when you were discovered in the one part of the mansion that everyone knew not to bother you in.

“You’re quiet.”

You jumped, surprised that you didn’t hear him at all. A bolt of energy flashed from your hands, hitting a nearby shelf that knocked a pile of books over; they landed with a series of loud thumps, making you wince.

Diego, however, regarded the incident with raised eyebrows, but not a trace of judgement on his face.

“And you’re nosy,” you countered back.

He nodded his head, as if in agreement—well, maybe it was.

“So what’s your power?”

You hesitated, and he caught on to it quickly.

“I can throw knives,” he said awkwardly, bringing said knife up in his hand.

That got you to smile. “Energy manipulation. I come up here when things get to be... too much.”

He sat down slowly and carefully sat on a desk nearby, as if he was scared to disturb the quietness that surrounded the room.

“When does that happen?” He asked with a tilt of his head; he didn’t seem to mind the bangs that slightly covered his eyes. “I mean, what triggers them.”

You shifted in your chair that sat a little away from him—he was close enough that you could see the fainted scars that littered his face and neck—and sighed.

“Well it’s a lot of things, really,” you said with disdain. “Sometimes loud noises will set me off on my really bad days—bad days as in, a minuscule argument with my siblings or forgetting my lessons, etc. My powers don’t just stimulate from my hands, but I can sorta absorb energy, too; human, electrical, whatever it is, I can get it for the most part.”

“‘Sorta, ‘’most part’,” he mocked with a light tone. “Gotta be more specific.”

“Right now you’re nervous. Not too nervous, but I can feel the uncertainty rolling off you since you got here—not that I blame you.” You waited for him to nod. “And I can feel that; it comes to me like a... a weight to my chest, I guess you can say; extra baggage to my own emotions and most of the time I have trouble controlling them.”

He seemed to get it by the way he continued to nod. “Makes sense.”

You chuckled. “So I come here to calm down, otherwise you’d be seeing a lot more of those flashes around the house. The worst that’s ever happened is when I shattered all the windows and nearly destroyed every bit of furniture in the house.”

He laughed. You decided right then and there that you really liked the sound of that.

“I would’ve liked to have seen that. The look on that mans face...”

He trailed off, looking down at his feet. You felt the anger and hurt roll off him, and you had to take a few deep breaths to settle them down.

“It must be weird, being here. How different is it? Your timeline and my timeline, I mean.”

He shrugged, twirling his knife mindlessly, it being second nature to him. “Not by much from what I can tell so far, but I’m sure we screwed this timeline up just like we did the other, something my family and I seem to be very good at.”

You frowned, scooting your chair closer to him. He watched you carefully as you did but made no objections.

“Nah, shit like that just... happens.”

He gave you a quizzical look that made you feel small all of a sudden, yet not in a bad way, but in a way where he was studying you; then, a new wave of fascination bubbled within you.

Then he grinned. And it made your heart skip a beat at the way his face spread so happily, so carefree.

You talked all night about your lives. You were a little shocked to hear what Diego had to go through living with Reginald, and wanted to curse the man even more for his selfish and abusive behavior. It made you feel closer to him, though, and you could feel the same for Diego. It took some time, but he continued to open up to you, giving you pieces of himself that you returned equally.

It took months for you to realize you were in love with him. And it fucking scared you. You’ve never felt this kind of intensity before, it felt like being reborn, almost; like you were a completely different person yet the same, still.

Your first kiss only heighten the feeling.

“Wow,” you breathed against his lips, breathless and grinning like a fool—Diego matched it with a chuckle, caressing your cheeks fondly while keeping his forehead pressed against yours.

“Wow times infinity,” he said dumbly, making you both giggle before he muffled it with his lips.

It was the best feeling in the world.

But you hated having to sneak around. It was something the both of you agreed on, not wanting to bring any unwanted attention towards you or have Reginald’s wrath darken your love for each other. Not being able to kiss him whenever you wanted, or hold him or even look at him a certain way was starting to get the best of you, no matter the reassuring words Diego spoke to you in the safety of his arms.

“Nobody is gonna take you from me, got that?” His breath tickled your neck. “You don’t have to worry so much, not when I’m here to help.”

“I know,” you scooted closer to him, eager for his warmth. “But I can’t help but feel that everything is going to turn bad, and it just makes me feel so helpless.”

He shook his head, shushing you gently while cradling the back of your neck; your blankets tangled around your bare feet, legs intertwined together and naked chest pressed tightly against one another.

“We got this,” he said confidently. “You and me.”

Your heart soared. He made you feel safe no matter the situation at hand, and that night you felt nothing but unwavering dedication and love, so much fucking love that it threatened to tear you apart in all the best and worst ways.

“You and me.”

His lips distracted yours for the rest of the night until he had to climb out your window. Every time you watched him disappear into the dark—after a wave and a kiss blown to your direction—a piece of you left with him.

Reginald found out about your secret relationship quicker than you thought he would. As usual, he was upfront and brutal about it.

“I forbid it,” he scolded the two of you like you were children. “They do not belong here and you have no right to interfere with these failures, and I will not have them bring you down. You have much potential and a lot of work ahead of you, don’t waste it on him.”

You ran up to your room before you let your powers best you, Diego quickly following in your steps.

You didn’t say anything at first, taking a few deep breaths to calm yourself down. Diego gave you space by leaning against the wall in front of your bed, watching you carefully with his arms crossed across his chest.

“He’s right,” you finally whispered. “This isn’t your place anymore or even the right timeline or whatever it is for you... and you shouldn’t have to deal with this anymore.”

“And neither should you,” he said sternly. “You don’t have to take that from him.”

“I know but—“ you bit down on your lip, hoping the tears wouldn’t escape.

“Just come with us,” he begged, holding on to your hands. “Or I’ll... I’ll stay. I don’t care, as long as I’m with you.”

“I can’t ask you to do that,” you shook your head; you could feel it starting to pulse, the raging emotions flying beyond your control and starting to overtake your senses. “They’re your family and I can’t make you leave them, not when you just got them back. And I’m sorry, but I have to stay here with mine, too.” As much as you loathed them at times, what you were saying wasn’t false—you still loved them dearly and the thought of leaving them behind hurt you.

Diego had gotten good at detecting when your powers were climbing in intensity. He slowly placed his forehead on yours, telling you to match his calm breaths.

“We can get through this,” he said quietly after a few moments. “But it only works if we leave. At least out of this house and away from them.”

Your bottom lip shook as the tears started to fall. “They still need me too. Just like your family needs you.” You backed away from him, your heart breaking and shattering into pieces at the way his entire face fell; that look would haunt you for the rest of your days, knowing that you were the cause of it.

“So y-y-you’re g-g—” He frowned, frustrated with his stutter that only came out when he was extremely nervous or upset; it made you feel like the biggest piece of shit in the universe. “Going to l-leave me then? Just l-like that?”

You hugged your arms across your chest, as if it would help ease the stinging the rang painfully through your chest. “I don’t want to,” you admitted with a whimper.

You couldn’t look him in the eyes anymore. It was getting to be overwhelming and you weren’t sure how long it was going to be before your sobs would tear from your throat.

“Then don’t,” he sighed in defeat, taking a few tentative steps closer to you. “You don’t have to listen to him just because he gave you this big ass mansion, or or made you feel like this was the only place where you would get help and be accepted for who you are. Your family will understand that.” He was desperate at this point, unwilling to be under Reginald’s thumb, or The Umbrella’s or the Sparrow’s anymore, and he wasn’t about to let you fall. “I love you. Just...” he placed his forehead back on yours, giving you the chance to move away. When you didn’t, he wrapped his arms around your waist and pulled you to him until there was barely an inch of you that wasn’t touching him. “Please.”

You thought about how loved Diego made you feel. You thought about your siblings, the Umbrella Academy. You thought of Reginald, and a life away from him, away from the end of the world and time travel and different timelines; of found love, of how it felt like you were barely seen, like you were a bomb that could explode any second over the stupidest little things, how Vanya had just started to help you with your powers as she understood where you were coming from.

Was it really worth it? Throwing it all away because of one man, because of uncertainty?

“Okay,” you finally whispered. “Let’s go.”

His eyes immediately lit up, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “Really?”

“Yeah,” you nodded, smiling through the tears. “Just you and me.”

He kissed you before you could take another breath and fuck if you cared, as long as his lips were on yours. You could get through just about anything as long as you had each other, this love and guidance and acceptance, and that’s all you needed in the end.

“You and me.”

#diego hargreeves #diego hargreeves x reader #diego hargreeves x you #diego hargreeves x gn!reader #gender neutral #gender netural reader #request

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fytheuntamed · 4 years

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I used to see WWX as sunshine incarnated and how it hurt me when I realized that it's mostly just fake and he's really not. I thought he was such a genuine person and when I realized that he hides so much of himself that he's not very genuine at all my heart broke a little and I needed to share my feelings. I still love him though, but it was a huge shock to me that everything I initially fell in love with was actually wrong. I hope this little ramble wasn't a bother.

Hello, anon! First off, you’re not bothering me at all; even if I can’t reply to all of them, I read and appreciate every ask I get. I’m sorry to hear you’re feeling a bit disillusioned with WWX; I know some would say he’s just a fictional character, but I think all of us here can attest to the power fictional characters have in impacting the lives of real people. Your ask made me think a lot about who WWX is, so I hope you don’t mind me sharing my own thoughts on the matter! Just a few disclaimers before I get into it: all analysis is based off of drama!WWX, as that is the adaption I know best, so keep this in mind as you read because I know his characterization varies a bit from adaption to adaption. WWX also happens to be my favorite character from the show, so this could will get long :’) I’m also going to continue on with the assumption that you’ve seen the show in its entirety!

I think one of the most important things to understand about people, fictional or real, is that we, like ogres, have layers. This is just what happens when you exist in a world where different settings with different people bring out different sides of us as dictated by societal norms. Does this make someone fake? I would say no, mainly because I think there’s a difference between acting “fake” and being fake. Anytime I speak on the phone with a stranger I automatically assume my “telephone voice,” which sounds quite different from my talking-with-friends-and-family-voice. I don’t leave such phone calls thinking to myself, “wow, I’m such a fake,” because I know that when speaking with strangers, being more polite than I would be around close friends and family is respectful. I think what it comes down to for me is, regardless of how I am presenting myself, am I staying true to my beliefs and values? This is why I think WWX is in fact very genuine, and I would also argue that it is his genuine nature (once revealed) that attracts LWJ to WWX.

Returning to the idea of people having layers, we must recognize that people are not static; we are constantly reacting to our settings and thus our moods fluctuate accordingly. WWX is sunshine incarnate, but he is also someone who has suffered a great deal over the course of his life. To expect him to smile no matter what is a cruel burden to impose on him, and I believe it is a burden he feels in canon. Because both Jiang Fengmian and Madam Yu impress upon WWX that he must keep Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng safe, that they are the priority, WWX feels compelled to smile and put on a strong facade so that he doesn’t crumble and fall apart, thus “failing” his adoptive parents and siblings. So while these smiles may simply be masks to hide his pain, thus not “real” smiles, they do not make WWX himself fake, but rather (imo) reinforce his genuine nature because his motives are genuine, even if his smiles may not always be.

There are also times when he smiles and acts extremely cocky in front of others, only for this facade to immediately fall away the moment he is alone/out of the public eye. One of my favorite examples of this is in episode 26 when he questions Jin Zixun about the whereabouts of Wen Ning. The entire time he is there, he exudes a cocky disregard for formality and the established hierarchy, even going so far as to say, “If I, Wei Wuxian, want to kill someone, who can stop me? Who would dare to stop me?!” Once he has the information he needs and turns to leave, however, we immediately see the cockiness fall from his face to be replaced by one of...remorse? I’ll let you guys decide for yourselves.

[gif credit]

I think it is worth noting that his facade fades once he looks at LWJ, because LWJ is one of the few people at this point in time who WWX respects, and whose opinion of WWX still holds value to WWX. And so again we see that WWX’s outward behavior does not seem to align with his inner feelings. Look at the situation that WWX is in, though. He is just one man, albeit a powerful one, going against the biggest, most powerful clans. If he shows an ounce of weakness, they’ll eat him alive. And so in order to stay true to his beliefs, WWX puts on a show. In episode 25 we also see WWX put on a show of shooting many arrows simultaneously while blindfolded. @cal3ris made an excellent post on here stating that WWX was not just doing this to show off, but that he was ensuring the temporary safety of the Wen prisoners by pulling off such a feat so as to ensure no other cultivator would attempt the challenge after him. In situations such as this one, it works in WWX’s favor that the vast majority of the cultivation world believes him to be nothing but a showoff with a big mouth. And of course, there is a part of WWX that does enjoy being in the spotlight! Especially if someone he wants to impress is watching~

At the beginning of the Gusu days flashback (ep 3), we see WWX before everything goes to hell. He’s constantly smiling, goofing around, and is a genuine gremlin of a lad. This is real! He’s a teenager in the flush of his youth, he’s with his beloved siblings, he’s smart and talented, the list goes on and on. For people who don’t know WWX, he comes off as a shallow person with no real depth who thinks of nothing but goofing around all day. For those who know WWX intimately, like Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng (though he’s less vocal about it), they know this is not the case. The point is, WWX doesn’t care what people think about him. He doesn’t care because he knows who he is and what he stands for. This is a huge part of who WWX is as a person: “I don’t care if they slander me, as long as I have a clear conscience.” It is also one of the defining things that connect Wangxian to one another, which brings me to the point of LWJ being someone whom WWX hates to deceive, because he greatly values LWJ’s good opinion of him. We see how much it pains WWX to put distance between himself and LWJ, but we also see that WWX is willing to do so if he believes it is for the best. In episode 20, after being reunited with Jiang Cheng and LWJ, we see WWX purposefully push LWJ away with cold precision. Once more he plays his role with practiced ease, but we see his mask fall as he watches LWJ walk away.

WWX goes from this:

[gif credit]

to this as soon as LWJ isn’t looking at him:

[gif credit]

Having just returned from the Burial Mounds, WWX is very unstable, both physically and mentally. For the past months that he’s spent in the Burial Mounds, survival has been his priority. We see this instability and the signs of PTSD manifest quite a bit throughout the Sunshot episodes. In episode 20 Jiang Cheng hugs WWX, who honestly seems at a loss as to how to respond. In episode 20 we see LWJ step towards WWX, who immediately steps back. We also see WWX shrink away from Nie Huaisang’s touch. This is incredibly telling because WWX is someone who likes physical touch and proximity. He’s constantly putting his arms around Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang and constantly puts himself in LWJ’s personal space (much to LWJ’s initial chagrin). I believe WWX’s behavior post Burial Mounds comes from a desire to protect himself from those around him as well as those around him from himself. [apt gifset here] Nothing about this WWX is fake to me. He is acting differently here because he is different. Trauma does not define a person, but it does change a person. Post Burial Mounds WWX is a different person, but he has not lost what makes him him, which is his strong commitment to his beliefs and morals. For WWX during this time, I don’t believe he has the emotional strength to relive his trauma to those closest to him, so he settles for brushing them off with excuses and yes, fake smiles. This also ties into WWX’s habit of internalizing his own struggles so as not to burden those around him. Hopefully at this point a clear pattern has revealed itself: no matter how WWX presents himself on the outside, he never compromises his beliefs.

After being resurrected in Mo Xuanyu’s body, we see a WWX who is far more reminiscent of the carefree teenager back in Gusu. We see WWX slowly heal from the traumas of his past life and we see him begin to smile again, not because he needs to, but because he can’t help it. We might be tempted to look at this WWX and think, “ah, this is the real him,” but I think this does a disservice to the complexity of his character. The point is, it’s all WWX. The pranks, the smiles that crinkle the corners of his eyes, the creativity, the cockiness, the way his laughter bursts out of his body at times and at other times comes out like a sigh or an afterthought, the way he looks out for the juniors, and both his quiet and loud rage are all what makes him who he is. Certain aspects may be muted at times, but that’s to be expected. WWX is by no means perfect, but I would say he is painfully genuine. Just think, would LWJ feel so strongly about him if he weren’t?

As I feared, this got way too long and I probably rambled and repeated myself and got off track, but it’s fine…..

#the untamed #wwx #wei wuxian #wei ying #ask #anon #Anonymous #does this count as meta? pretty sure it's just me blabbing about how valid wwx is lmao #also DUDE why is tumblr putting the read more in the ask and not where i want it???

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darkwood-sleddog · 3 years

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Hey! Sorry to bother you, but I just adopted a large northern breed mix wolfdog that I think would really enjoy mushing/carting/dryland mushing, do you have any tips for a beginner? (Dog is approx 4 years old, not puppy) For instance, how to get them to go in a straight line continuously vs natural wobbly canid sniffing patterns, pee stops etc? Love your blog and your dogs.

Hmm, there are a lot of different methods you can use here, but since your dog is an adult you can start right away which is great.

I personally use the canicross --> mushing method when training dogs for harness work (mushing harness, line & canicross belt for equipment). This can be done alone or with a partner, but if you feel your dog is struggling to run in front I’d use a lure (another person in front of you) to encourage them to be out front.

Starting from a stand still allow your dog to move out in front of you, offer vocal encouragement. If they can get this, start moving forward (usually a jog is best, dogs are more distracted into sniffing behavior at a walking pace), encourage the dog to be out in front. If they’re not pulling STOP. They don’t get to move forward if they aren’t pulling. Don’t stop for long, encourage them out in front again until they get the idea that out in front & pulling straight = running = fun! Not pulling straight = stopping = not fun.

If you have a luring partner, they can encourage the dog to pull out in front by running in front and calling to the dog/cheerleading the dog. The only difficult part about vocal praise in this situation is many dogs tend to think that praise = omg my human praised me I need to turn around and go to them! So sometimes breaking that behavior can be difficult and that’s where the luring partner can come in. You can apply these methods to the bike/sled/rig etc. once you are comfortable with your dog’s understanding of commands.

Another important command (if not one of the most base commands you should teach along with directional cues) is Line Out. Line Out is just a conditional stay where the dog must stay in place (in a stand or sit, doesn’t matter) holding the gangline tight and not turning around or moving from their spot. The way i teach this is to tie the dog to a strong post/tree etc on their mushing harness. Have their leash attached to the collar and walk the dog out so the line is taught. Say “Line out” and walk away slightly. If the dog moves, simply bring them back to exactly where they were, say the command again and do repetitions until this the desired behavior is achieved (for me desired behavior is dog can hold the stay no matter if I walk to the side or behind them etc). I like a low, slow vocal praise in this instance while they are holding the “Line Out” and then they are released to get to run around the yard as reward.

#faq #dog training #i could go into on-by / leave it #but this ask was getting REALLY long lmao #bubbleteabumblebee

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

Text

Darkwing Duck Reviews: Darkly Dawns the Duck Pts 1 and 2

It’s a Darkwing Double Feature! Just in time for his ducktales special, I take a look at the introduction of everyone’s favorite Daring Duck of Mystery. In his daring debut we meet Darkwing Duck, an egositical and attention hungry superhero who soon finds himself having to look after a feisty orphan to keep her from getting nabbed by local kingpin of crime Taurus Bulba with the help of his biggest fan. Darkwing owns the night under the cut with decades old spoilers.

Let’s Get Dangerous.. is tommorow so with that in mind i’m doing a darkwing double feature to refresh myself before the big special. So i’ll be covering both the original series pilot “Darkly Dawns the Duck” and the ducktales reboot episode “The Duck Knight Returns”. Let’s Get Dangerous Itself because I was so wiped yesterday I didn’t get the other review done and unexpectly got acess to the new episode way earlier than usual so i’d rather focus on that. Got it? Good. Let’s continue past me.

As usual with a new show a breif bit about my history with it: I watched it years ago, as a friend of mine lent me the first two discs of the season 1 dvd and never found the third one nor asked for them back, nor cared I had them. I thoughtly enjoyed it, had a great time and then it took me a decade or so to actually watch the series again due to a combination of being too stubborn to just buy the season 1 dvd again, a very darkwing move of me in hindsight, and then when disney plus meant I had all episodes at my finger tips I.. sat on them till now.. though to be fair i’ve sat on a LOT of great shows on there including the mandalorian, gargoyles and boy meets world. I have a bad tendency to procastinate, the fact this is coming out so late in the day should be a giveaway. I did read about half of volume 1 of the comic and all of volume 2, so there’s that at least. Point is this new episode finally made me decide to get off my ass and watch darkwing once again, starting with the pilot and the episodes related to the fearsome four to be ready for tomorrow to see what the differences are (Thoguh I did remember bushroot vividly, so I had that at least). Something to note before I get started talking about the pilot itself though, is the episode order for Darkwing Duck is a Darkwing Clusterfuck. Now I do understand WHY they aired this way: While some episodes do logically take place after other episodes, you can reasonably pop on just about any darkwing and watch it and enjoy it with minimal need to know what happened in previous episodes, kinda like batman the animated series oddly enough. It was also aired between two networks so on some level I get disney’s confusion here.. but on the other hand it’d take ten minutes, they clearly can call up the creator easily as Tad Stones made a cameo in ducktales 2017 we’ll get to so they could easily get a better order from the creator himself, so they really don’t have an excuse for this, or for slapping the pilot in the middle of season 1. Then again both ducktales 2017 and x-men the animated series were sort of a mess order wise when first put up, so not giving a shit about where episodes are placed for re-watching clearly is a pastime of theirs.

Now i’ve got that out of my system we can dive into the episode itself and a breif plot synopsis. Darkwing Duck is the superhero protector of St. Canard, a masked vigiliante who takes out crime but wishes he actually got fame and credit for his work. Kind of like Booster Gold but without taking endorsments or as far as we know coming from the future. He also has nothing else as shown by the fact he fights crime, does a training regimine to prepare his breakfast that’s a delight to watch then prepares to sleep. It’s an intresting concept, a hero who HAD a civlian identity once, as the rest of the series would play out, he just no longer needs it. And it’s also ahead of it’s time as batman would explore this idea both seriously with bruce wayne murderer and comedically and seriously with the lego batman movie LONG after this series aired, meaning the writers here figured out what many probably knew about batman and put it into their parody version: Batman is the real identity and Bruce is the mask. Batman only keeps his old self because the bruce id is useful to him: It keeps people away from his company, puts up a playboy facade that draws attention away from him being batman, and allows him to do various charities and what not and help honor his parents in a way that dosen’t involve swooping in and kicking people in the throat. And as seen with bruce wayne murderer when the option to throw bruce away for good came up Batman gladly took it. This is the same idea: Drake Mallard ONLY cares about crime fighting, has no friends no family, we never do find out jack about his family hopefully if there’s a full reboot series Frank and Matt fix it for their version. He has nothing, and is fine with that. He hasn’t really had a reason to care about anything else than his own glory and works alone not because it’s less efficent but because his oversized ego means he dosen’t want to share credit. IT’s an intresting start and his ego would be a defining bit of who he is and used intrestingly int he reboot but we’ll get to that there.

His life changes forever though when local crime boss Taurus Bulba unleashes his latest scheme: To steal the Ramrod, a gravity manipulating device created by the late Dr. Quackmeyer.. late because Bulba’s men killed him and were dumb enough not to get the arming code for the ramrod first a year ago. Bulba is also behind bars but in one of my faviorite gags of the episode despite the warden’s constnat gloating, Bulba has taken the “Supervillian makes jail into a base” Or “Jail is nothing to a supervillian who can easily get out trope” to ludcrious machines. He has whole meetings with his minions, keeps the ramrod once he gets his hands on it in the laundry and has a ship SHAPED LIKE HIS FACE built into his cellblock. I’ts just so over the top it’s glorious. But yeah since Bulba can’t go after it at first he sends his three goofy minons, one played by eddie “Mandark” deezen in.. love that guy.

THey do end up stealing the ramrod thanks to the help of bulba’s cool, non-anthromporhic condor who he uses as his right hand man and as his link to his minons via a small tv aroudn it’s neck. That.. is awesome. Darkwing spots the condor but fails to stop the three stooges or the condor and gets unknowingly blamed for the robbery..and stopped to get glamor shots not realizing the guy thought he was a criminla which.. fair enough. It is a shadowy disguise after all.

Darkwing ends up grabbing onto the vulture sonic 3 style, but ends up falling off him into a hangar where we meet the original version of Launchpad McQuack, whose apparently quit working for scrooge and has his own hangar now though it wouldn’t be a stretch that scrooge bought it for him.. he does , stingy as he is, appricate hard work and launchpad wanting to start his own buisness and while hte planes were probably all on launchpad, Scrooge would gladly buy a run down buliding for a loyal friend who wants to put in some hard honest work. Plus it’s a free place to store any vehicles he has in the st canard area.. I mean it’s still scrooge. And yes I know the whole “Tad stones said they aren’t the same universe” non sense. I do have the utmost respect for the guy and he seems really, nice but I don’ tlike that, no one likes that and both the comics and the current duckverse with the ducktales reboot entirely ignore that for good reason.While the two shows are diffrent in tone they stil lfit and it’s not a stretch for launchpad to want to spread his wings or failing that scrooge to help push him out of the nest and give him his own buisness or one of scrooge’s to run.

But while Launchpad does help DW with a propeller plane they fail and while launchpad offers to be his sidekick, DW gives him the old I work alone bit. However him being alone won’t last for long as Bulba still needs that arming code and since his only lead is Waddlemeyer’s grandaughter who grew up in his lab, he sends his buffonish minons to go get him. Why he never sends his lone female minon with them is because it’s funnier if she dosen’t I guess. Which it is so fair enough. So thus we enter Goslyn, who the head of the orphanage is fed up with due to her antics. Goslyn is played as most of you knwo by christine cavanagh.. I honestly forgot and it still throws me off a bit she’s using what would later be her chucky finster voice for a character so completely diffrent. Granted it’s not unusual in voice acting, just weird here and only for me personally having grown up with rugrats but not darkwing. The orphanage head is a bit less jarring as she’s played by Marcia Wallace, aka Edna Krabable from the simpsons but A) that show was already running at this point and B), the character is basically a nicer version of edna versus chuckies voice coming out of a tiny if immensly fun to watch hellion. I do like goslyn, sh’es a fun character even in her shadier moments, it’s just something i’d forgotten about i’ll need to get used to is all.

Bulba’s hired goons come in claming ot be friends of her grandpas and we actually get some really heartwrenching context for Gos’ behavior: While she does act out she actually LIKES THE orphanage.. ti’s just her friends keep getting adopted while no one wants someone “full of spirit”. It’s heartwrecnhing to hear.. and only gets worse when the goons try and kidnap her. Thankfully Darkwing.. also kidnaps her, but he kindaps her from kidnappers and while Goslyn naturally takes a second to realize he’s the good guy them shooting at him clues her in. Darkwing, in a rare for the series as a whole moment of reason and not wanting to just power though something himself TRIES to do the responsible thing and leave gos with the police where she’ll be protected.. but given they think he’s a wanted criminal they shoot at him.. and the small child in his motorcycle. Yup that’s the police alright.

So with no other options Darkwing takes gos home, hyjinks insue including her activintg the breakfast thing. But the two genuinely start to bond. While Darkwing dosen’t WANT to keep her around, the whole not wanting connections thing, it’s clear he’s growing fond of the little snot as she holds her own with his trianing course, they have a tickle fight and in the sweetest moment of the episode the two sing little girl blue, a song her grandfather used to sing her to sleep that she teaches darkwing. It’s an utterly heartmelting bit and Cummings and Cavanagh really sell the hell out of it. It also however turns out ot be plot relevant: Turns out just in case Dr. Waddlemeyer hid the code for the ramrod in the song, and when Darkwing sees a photo Goslyn got from bulba’s goons, he realizes this and realizes that depsite thinking she didn’t know it Goslyn had it all along.. and that as long as h’es around she won’t know. Bulba is naturally livid at his minons failure and decides now’s the time to take this into his own hands and while he actually liked the prison hq setup, as it did make sense as it was the perfect cover and the warden was too full of himself to realize Bulba was still active and too convinced the bull was beaten down when he clearly wasn’t, but instead as mentioned above awesomely converts his cellblock into a flying ship in the shape of his own head. Bulba.. is a great villian and I only think the show didn’t use him more because he’s a dead serious, deadly dangerous villian in an otherwise goofy but fun superhero parody show. The show later gained Negaduck, so they had a more dangerous threat for darkwing that fit the show’s tone better while still being utterly terrifying, and likely simply didn’t need him till the idea for the steerminator came up. But I love the guy: he reminds me a lot of the kingpin, a threatning villian who uses his sheer size to beat our hero down, is cool and suave and is an utter mastermind at planning. He also wears a nice suit. And naturlaly he has a plan to take out darkwing since despite the two never having met, as Darkwing disparages when Goslyn assumes their lifelong mortal enmies like in the comics, they know of each other.. and thus bulba knows exactly what trap to spring to get him out of the way and goslyn into his ship: He flashes a message in morris code that he wants to surrender to Darkwing while stroking his ego a LOT. And it works... while i’ts an obvious trap Darkwing’s so full of himself he goes despite Goslyn telling him it’s very obviously a trap. Naturally everything goes pear shaped as a result: Bulba shows up, revealing gos not only to be right but easily pummling Darkwing. Which makes sense: While Darkwing is a vetran crime fighter and secret agent, Bulba’s been at being a villian longer clearly as he’s built up enough of a rep both for Darkwing to know him out of hand and for the warden to be proud capturing him. Given what univese this is, it probably isn’t Bulba’s first round with a superhero and given at this stage St Canard only has one.. yeah Darkwing is outclasssed and the police grab him while Bulba scarpers. And while Gos puts up a good fight using the trianing course, Bulba’s vulture gets her. Bulba has everything he needs. Darkwing meanwhile actually bemoans what a dick he’s been, that the first person he’s cared about besides himself in possibly ever is now in the hands of a murderous mastermind, and that he’s stuck in jail with no one to call on for help. Thankfully.. help arrives.. and by help I mean launchpad backing the ratcatcher, Darkwing’s bike, into the prisoin. He DID come just to bail DW out despite his earlier jerkishness, but backed in and Darkwing not beliving superheroes have time for paperwork, decides to just bust out. And to be ifair int his case he’s probably right as you know, a ten year old might die if they don’t get there in time. So off they go.. but with Bulba in the air they need something with wings to catch him. ANd luckily as Launchpad mentioned earlier he’s been working on something special for darkwing. It’s with this we enter the thunderquack, which is DW”S awesome headshaped plane. It’s just cool it’s got a nice design, goofy enough tof it the universe but cool enoguh to still be fun to watch. Darkwing has really damn cool vehicles, as the ratcatcher is also awesomely iconic. But yeah the thunderquack impresses darkwing and rightfully so and he decides to make LP his sidekick afterall. So now our heroes fly into the danger zone and attack bulba’s airship with Darkwing landing on the bow and a scuffle insues with darkwing and hte minons.. who use actual guns which for a 90′s kids show is a suprise, especially one this intentioanlly goofy, but boy is it nice. However Bulba, being awesomely evil, isn’t dumb and instead of fighting darkwing, which he could win but would win him nothing and having gotten nothing out of goslyn, figures the hero might know the code.. and while Darkwing lies and says he dosen’t, Bulba points out .. he’s right.. but he’s always been a gambling man and has his condor drop goslyn to lure drake into telling him , with DW putting in the code and bulba testing it with a bank robbery.. before predictably having his condor drop the girl because he no longer needs her. Thankfully launchpad catches her in time and then they get revenge on the condor with the thunderquack BITING IT.. which is awesome. Hopefully the reboot version does that.

Darkwing meanwhile saves the day, his new daughter and the city by simply sneaking over to the ramrod and mashign the keys till it overloads, silly, but undeniably awesome and effective. Bulba TRIES to finish off darkwing this time for foiling his plan.. btu the ramrod explodes and while bulba’s minons and goslyn and launchpad are safe... bulba and darkwing are apparently dead and it’s effective. A few weeks later Goslyn’s back at the orphanage utterly distraught and broken at being basically orphaned again. Naturally though Darkwing’s alive, having taken his old identnity back since now he has something worth using it for and adopts her, hinting at who he is so she goes with him. And Drake has changed.. sure he’ll still be as egostical and impuslive as he was here.. but he’s no longer just darkwing.. he’s drake again as he has someone worth fighting for.. two someones in fact. He has a friend, a loyal partner to help him fight cime. And more importantly.. he has a loving daughter. And both needed each other: Goslyn needed someone who understood her despite her manic energy, and Drake needed someone who needed him and not darkwing, a reason to be a person outside the cape and cowl and outside the attention again. He needed a reason to live again... and he’s got it. And it’s going to be great.

Final Thoughts: This pilot is excellent. Well paced, plenty of laughs, tense action and great introductions for everyone involved as well as a hell of a vilian> This is how you do a first episode: it introduces the main themes of the show, both comedically and dramatically, introduces the cast and gives us a one off , or rather two off it’d turn out, villian whose compelling and intresting. IT’s really damn good stuff and I can’t wait ot see what frank does with a simlar story tommorow. Until then, stay safe, and happy hallowen. We’ll be back shortly for The Duck Knight returns and then Let’s Get Dangerous tommorow.

#darkwing duck #reviews #ducktales #darkly dawns the duck #drake mallard #goslyn mallard #launchpad mcquack #tarus bulba #the disney afternoon #the 90's

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fiore-rosewood9 · 3 years

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14 and 23?

Thank you for the ask kind tumbrl-er. Before I start I would like to mention that anything I say is related to personal experiences in a fandom and there is no right or wrong answer. People come in all shapes and sizes and that also means - Different sets of experience.

TRIGGER WARNING - Mentions of slurs, r*pe, p*dophilia, creepy behavior, mentions of psychological analysis on a character, personal experiences with fandoms and a long rant. If any of these disturb you, please refrain from reading this and skip this post. This is not meant to cause drama, but I had to involve them to explain my point. I also mention sensitive topics like the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 9/11 and the r*pe of Nanking, if you are related to any of these or have someone you know who died during this time, please refrain from reading, because I was extremely emotional and cried a bit while I wrote these, because what I wrote still has an effect on me.

Again, this is not meant to bash/hate on any ship mentioned here.

This is not meant as a personal attack for anyone who ships these. Also this may be a rant, I apologize for writing a whole novel and not a short answer, but I feel passionate about what I write here. This is going to be a really long post, so I do not blame you if you don't read all of it. I am going to mention a lot of things that are not related to the ships, but they do have significance in my mind and are related to my rant. With that out of the way, my answer is under the cut -

14 - Has a fanbase ever made you ship or not ship something? Why?

Yeah, I have been forced and threatened to ship certain things, via texts which made me leave certain fandoms. Hetalia is a cespool simply because I have been in it 8-9 years and can speak confidently about what happened to me. I thought the hate and immature fans in hetalia all left by the time it was 2016-17 but nope, there are still bad apples here and there. I just try to tell them I am not here for childish games and I am not here to debate which ship is the ''best'' since that is what certain people did all the way back in 2013. I am here just to enjoy my self and reblog fan art and headcanons and talk about hetalia and other fandoms and appreciate the manga/anime.

- Ciel x Sebastien (Sebastien is just there for Ciel's soul) I mean he does care for him in some aspect and I think he said something like - "I will always be with you til the day you die, my lord". There is a normal age gap between adults, and then there is lowkey p*dophilia. How old was Ciel anyway ? 12-13? Even though he is a teen, at this age people are not really mature in many aspects. I have collegues who have what you may call ''Sugar daddies'' in the west and let me tell you, they don't really act nice to their sugar babies. Unless it is some sort of consensual sex roleplay and you are living in a fantasy with your partner, most girls and boys I see feel ''trapped'' by their words.

The sugar daddy (In rare cases mummy) exploites them for attention and tends to lash out if the baby looks at their phone and doesn't pay 100 percent attention to them and tries to buy their attention which is simply wrong. Okay, I moved way offtopic, but certain ships kinda remind me of this unhealthy dynamic in a way. I know my opinion isn't worth shit since this is the internet and everyone thinks they're the next new hot thing around here but I just see them as servent and master and more like frenemies where Sebastien would do anything for Ciel, but you see, that is kinda his job. Just like how doctors act professional and it is their job to cure/heal you if you have some sort of pain.

- Izuku Midoriya x Bakugou Katuski - (I was in this fandom for a short time and only watched up to a certain season so please excuse me if I what I say is not accurate, this is also a long rant so you can skip if you want, in the last two paragraphs I explain about the pairing speciffically) So like from what I remember Katsuki is a bully. I really despise this ship, purely because bullying to me is not something cutesy and fun that people do. It makes you wish you kill your self faster because self harm no longer works. There was this weird person on tumbrl that sent me hate through tumbrl and I made a post about them, how I was a ''bad person'' for hating on this ship. I mean, I am allowed to dislike and even hate what I want. It is not you who has went through trauma and has CPTSD is it? In my high school, even though it was an economical one, except learning Economics, Accounting, Finances and other stuff I also got to learn things like Psychology, Ethics, History and Geography.

And each subject is tough, as in - You can't pass high school if you don't know the details. Except the book that we used in school that we learnt our lessons from, we were also made to carry two other books that we used for exercises, and other than that we had books that were by different authors, we had to read, but they didn't lift our grade in any way. So I have learnt psychology and world history for 4 years in high school and I learnt world history and world geography for 3 years in middle school. And now the first year in Uni, I got to learn psychology for year too. They also made us buy 9-10 books by different psychologists and write about them. From what I hear from my americans friends and collegues, they kinda don't teach you world history, it is like unless you know all of Thomas Jefferson's favourite foods you will be failed. I don't know if this is true, but judging by how they teach what Communism and Socialism is, in the american schools, I am kinda losing hope for what americans actually know about the outside world, aka, anything that is not the US and Canada.

I am not a psychologist and I have never studied to be one, but my own problems and the problems of my family and friends made me start reading even before high school in order to self improve as a human being because I have - Fatal flaws. I also have a few mental illnesses whcih have been diagnosed by psychiatrists, but where I live, mental health and the lgbtq+ is extremely shamed. This is why I never tell anyone I go to a psychologist, because people don't understand you and laugh at you and shame you. The lgbtq is harassed and can't marry or adopt children, however, this somehow is not a hatecrime. Which extremely frustrates me since this is against human rights in my book. You can't just harass a person for their sexuality. I may not have a phd in psychology but I naturally tend to help people and listen to their problems. It seems that I also give good advice and help people well, so sometimes in friend groups I am know as the ''heart'' and the ''psychologist''. I say that because I know a lot more than 4-5 articles that I read on psychology today, healthline or verywellmind, while people nowdays read a few articles and call them selves a psychologist. I am not one, but have the skills and knowledge to be one and can spot articles with old outdated information that hasn't been relevant in the past 30 years or so.

But that is the majority of people, who concider it a mental illness and base the lgbtq on what stereotypes they see on TV and what their parents told them. The internet is made for global use and that means that anyone can write all kinds of shit and use it. However there are a lot of problems with this when it comes to psychology and psychologists and psychriatrists. Many people still believe myths and things that were proven to be wrong. For example, in my country the word - Autist/Autistic, can be used as a slur, it is similar to what the Americans have in the - N and R words. And this is extremely upsetting, because while I am not on the spectrum, I don't think anyone should be degraded and be shamed of this label. Autism is a spectrum, but here it is used to signify that someone is slow. They're not slow, their brain just works differently. But that can be used for other illneses too. I think anyone suffering from mental illness deserves the support of family and friends and a normal life. I think anyone who is a decent and kind human being deserves a peaceful life.

So in real life Bakugou x Izuku would be a crap pairing. Because bullies x their victims do not mix well. Bullies in real life are cowards. They're like predators in the jungle. They are not real leaders. They always settle for someone who is clearly weak and vulnerable (This case - Izuku has no quirks and is useless in their world) so being beaten up, emotionally and verbally bullied isn't really fun. On top of that, when a bully develops an unhealthy dynamic, other people of the group, who never oroginally bullied the victim and were neutral or even friends, go and bully the victim, because they can and they will. Usually victims are powerless and telling the teacher and sometimes beating up the bully doesn't really make the bully leave you alone and respect you. And sometimes, you end up in the hospital with a broken leg and an arm and small injuries in your chest because bullies can't handle anyone standing up to them and ruining their status. Bullies have extreme, neurotic fear of being alone, so they find other assholes and bitches like them and attack always people - Who never did anything to them to insult them.

The bullies create it them selves. No one is an easy victim, not the person who wears glasses, not the anorexic girl that sits on the first desk, not the boy in a wheel chair, not the man with a stutter, not the woman covered in scars, no one. It is also a fact that schools profit from bullies since bullies usually have rich parents that think their child is somr sort of angel when in reality their child loves to make others cry and hits them when they don't get what they want. The problem with bullies is that they are hard to stop. Sometimes telling them off works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes punching them works, sometimes it doesn't. Etc. We can't predict which bully is bluffing and which bully is serious and will beat you up. They do not realize or care that they hurt their victims, even if the victim becomes a millionaire, to them, this person will always be inferior weakling that they need to torture psychologically and make them cry. They're sadistic. Bakugou from what I remember became jealous and only stopped bullying Izuku when he became ''strong'' that means strong physically. And for boys, it is generally easier, you hit the gym and no one bullies you. But what if you are a girl? I don't see girls being more respected or feared for being muscular. It is kinda like the jock x nerd. Cute in theory, but in reality it is beyond abusive. Even if the victims kill them selves bullies do not care. They just move on to another victim and are proud that they broke someone and are not as weak as them.

America x England - (OOOOH BOY, HOW MUCH DO I WANT TO BE CANCELED, HAHA) Well, as someone who has been 9 years in this fandom, I have a long history with this pairing. I do not know if I ever explained why do I hate it so much? I have a long and complicated history with it. This where my inner historian comes in. My uncle is a professor in history, but not in our city and we are not very close but I was always interested in history, but now I am a bit skeptical when it comes to history, because you never know how someone can twist it since history is written by the winners. Whatever I say in this post, is not meant to cause drama or offend anyone. From now on I am going to use, vulgar language and this may not be suitable for some readers

This is not meant to be hateful towards people who ship it, but I hate this ship, with passion. This has to be the worst ship, in the fandom history, ever. If you want, feel free to block me if that triggers you. I don't know from where to begin, since I am going to get canceled if I speak my own personal truth and my experiences. I have read the manga when I was 13-14 and have matured since then. The hetalia fandom in the past was more different than in 2021. So like there were ship wars, fan arts, roleplaying, everyone cosplayed hetalia and homestuck since they were the biggest fandoms, Carley Rae Japsean's song Call me maybe was blasting on the radio, Gagnam style was the shit and life was good. I was young, naive, full of hope and looking for fandoms to join in, since it is was a relativly new concept for me. I did not know what these cutesy boys I saw on deviant art were so I decided to scroll down through the comments to see what it was, and I read the name - Hetalia. If you then pay me one million dollars/euro and tell me that Hetalia is going to be my favourite anime and the fandom I stay the longest in - I would have rejected the money and not believe you. Pshht, Hetalia? What does this anime about personification of countries has that the other animes don't? Well, to that question, I can't answer and still ask my self.

When I first came into the fandom I only knew about it from deviant art and from a site called - Shamchat. This site no longer exists and has a site specifically made to fill the hole of it. I roleplayed and I think my happiest years in the fandom were 2013-2015. Those were the years where I met really, really kind fans. It is like everything else went downhill and the kind and sweet fans left one by one. And I was just left with hateful immature tweens and teens who only cared about their OTP and didn't care about other fans's emotions. I apologize if this sounds like a pitful story and I am pitying me, I did not mean it to sound it this way, or as a whining. I do not like whining.

They also seem strangely neurotic if you ask them why they ship UsUk. I can perfectly tell you why I ship anything without being mean. They just straight up insult you and send you passive agressive smileys - : ) - like this and never explain why they insult you, they just curse you. I do not understand why you make America to be the top? When he is clearly a power bottom?????? I mean, if you ever look through canon manga England and him as a country in a history book you wouldn't think he is a ''uke'' (I really hate the little girls who use japanese and think they kniw the language just cause they watched the anime and think they're quirky if they saw kawaii out loud). In fanfiction he is not fleshed out, he always seemed to blush and say baka and be a boring character over all. While Alfred is this dumb himbo/bimbo character that can't put 2+2 and laughs at everything like a small child. He is 19, for fuck's sake.

He is still a child and people can mature up until 25-26. But these ages are not real ages. For example Germany is 20, even though Bismarck unites Germany in....1871 if I remember correctly? Don't quote me on that and the americans have freed them selves in 1776. So technically Germany as we know it, should be younger but isn't. And they're both still awkward babies. America doesn't have a concrete religion but from what I know, Christianity seems to the most popular religion there as for now. I don't know if Alfred (Even though he is fictional) would identify as a catholic, protestant, puritan or some other stuff but he is awkward, he has a boyish charm that Ludwig does not have. So I can't imagine these good bois being tops with experience. Usually tops/doms come with lots of experience behind their back, or at least this is what people say whom I know who are also part of the lgbtq and bdsm community. Alfred just doesn't have the vibe of a top, he is more of a switch to me, or at best a power bottom. Ludwig has a dom/top vibes but he is extremely awkward in all senses of the word. America doesn't have a concrete religion but from what I know, Christianity seems to the most popular religion there as for now. I don't know if Alfred (Even though he is fictional) would identify as a catholic, protestant, puritan or some other stuff but he is awkward, he has a boyish charm that Ludwig does not have.

So UsUk was forced down my throat ever since I can remember, I have been insulted, threatened and took 2-3 hiatuses purely due to bullying. I Really HATE, HATE, HATE - feminine Arthur. I do not know why this is the fandom's fetish, or at least used to be even though some fans still draw him that way. I really love art, I used to draw and still do. I went to classes through out almost all of my life and I know my proportions. Whether you look through normal fan art or hentai manga (Arthur has the most porn idk how or why) he always has these weird proportions.....of a malnorished tween girl. There is some porn of him either as a child (A toddler by the judgement of his body) or of Alfred as a child, and they fuck. How is this supposed to be hot for anybody? I also remember (Which is why I left amino) on amino that users were extremely childish and lied about their age. Like no, you're not 17 and a half and are ''too mature for your age'' you are 17 and that still is a minor in my book. Also in one of the translated hentai comics there is this...idk how to describe it, there is this shaving scene where Alfred becomes a man and has his first boner from what I remember, the artstyle is great, but the scene can be described a child grooming. England lies to America how boners are a horrible disease and it can only be cured if he stays next to him. He then goes to France who tells him that boners are healthy and normal at this age and is upset at England for lying to him. Then when he frees him self America smiles, laughs and pisses on top of England I think he later fucks him. Like people can try to force their weak argument over england being a uke somehow now, but Pirate England is a top, how in the hell would anyone think he is a bottom?

UsUkers also love weird fetishes and force them down your throat, and not only shame you when you don't ship the ship, they shame you when you don't have their fetish. So like people go to my dms and ask me if I want to MPREG with Arthur beign the ''woman'' in the relationships, and golden showers. I also remember leaders acting unprofessionaly towards me. Some user was sending me child porn and when I told one of the leaders they just told me it was my problem and to fuck off. It deeply upset me so I took a hiatus and when I returned I was just met with another shit wave. I think I left last year because some girl was harassing me and constantly wanted attention. I told her to leave me alone since I have lectures and can't speak to her right now and she told her friend I was ''mean'' to her and her friend started insulting me in every comment on every posted I posted, be it fan art or fanfiction I wrote. Also they can't roleplay properly. I feel like I am in 4th grade where children used to insult each other. Like what stupid (probably american white girl) thing going to tell me this time ? Hmmmm option A - Alfred says that Arthur has horrible teeth, option B - Alfred says that Arthur has horrible cooking, option C - asks for sex and wants to impregnate him even though they are both males, it seems to be quite jokes among them. I get that americans want to see their country as this buff, strong, brave, macho type, but real people have strengths and flaws. In my opinion no country is dumb, they all look after their personal interest and empires love to exploit others, it is just how it is. They basically use english stereotypes and call it a day.

Before leaving I went to another ''better'' amino where I blocked one of the leaders. I don't remember if their name was Alfie or something else but it was something like that. And another leader asked me to unblock her, mind you. I was hesitant but I did. I usually do not block people unless they share content that causes negative reaction out of me - panic attack/rise in adrenaline/shaking/desire to puke/anxiety/etc or they have been a total asshole/bitch to me in the past. So I don't have the screenshots, since I changed my phone a few months ago. I used a Lenovo one and now I have an old huawei I used to have since we don't have money for a new one. So I saved the screenshots where they started saying how Francis is a rapist and I thought we passed this phase. I told the original leader and they all seem to not speak english well but she told me that this leader thought I was mean. I mean...she joked about rape, am I supposed to text - XD LMAO YEAH THE R WORD IS FUCKING FUN, YEAH DUDE YEAH! XD LOL LMAO. From what I see, if I have explain his behavior, he just has a high libido, which is nothing to be ashamed about.

There are also different types of attraction - Aesthetic, Romantic, Sexual. And he appreciates anything beautiful. He also says that ''You can't force love on anyone'' and is generally a really sweet guy. Also from what I see he copes with his loneliness by having casual sex while Arthur copes by abusing alcohol. People cope with loneliness in different ways, for him LOVE is important and he craves intimacy. He is suggestive and says sex jokes which is relateable. He also has moments of walking around naked, and while that may be perverted, far more people have done more perverted things than him. Also Greece and Turkey have a lot more sex than France has ever had. I don't know if it is canon or fanon but I read somewhere that Greece loves sex without a condom since it excites him. France is perverted but so are many other people, if a person is assertive towards such personality he will respect the other person's wishes and not force the issue, because he understands the concept of boundaries. It seems that some fans are either too young or too stupid to understand what is common sense and boundaries. Some couples in real life suffer from mismatch in their libido which is why they go to a couple therapist and ask how they can revive their sex life.

He is not a creep. I have met old men stalking me around after school and I have had a guy at a bar putting something in my drink not knowing that I saw everything so I just left. Real creeps do not understand the concept of boundaries and the fact that people are not their sexual slaves, they crave power and dominance and love ruining people's lives, it doesn't matter who their target it, as long as they are depressed and on their knees crying and shaking in pain and fear. So yeah, rape is not something to laugh at but it seems the shitty girls that got into hetalia think it is peak comedy. With Antonio it is different, I do not like throwing the term - P*dophile around because that is a harsh accusiation but from what I remember from manga...didn't he try to steal North Italy who was a child...to marry him? He never wanted South Italy but got used to him at some point, so I am sorry for ruining all of the Spamano shippers's fantasies. He also raised him. Which brings me to the second point.

England raised America. Period. It is canon, it is in the manga, he found him as a child. England loves America because he is the first thing that did not hate him, for him. Europe in the past hated England, this is why France jokes that he is the - black sheep of Europe. He was abused by his brothers, especially Scotland and threw things at him and chased him away. Scotland is not only an abusive alcoholic though. He is more complex and loves his brother in his own way but historically England was not kind at all to Scotland. So these people were telling me that I am a wh*re because I don't ship their precious UsUk? Well guess what honey, England isn't a useless girly bottom, America is neither a top, nor a dumb guy and England most likely changed his diapers. Also why would America blow his revolution if he wanted to be free? I mean England taxed the hell out of him and was a bit of a narcissitic asshole, so why shouldn't America want to be free from tyrany?

Also for people who bring the - BUT FIORE, ENGLAND KILLED JEANNE'DARC SO THAT MEANS FRANCE SHOULD HATE HIM, YOU'RE A HYPOCRITE! - well hun, France held a grudge for centuries until he got even by helping America with Spain and Prussia to free him self from England's grasp. America was the only thing that didn't hate him because he didn't know him. He was an alone child and he finally had someone to take care of him and listen to him talk, that wasn't a human, that didn't die (Davie) and England is an introvert but he has many issues which is why to him the loss of America hurt so much. Because everyone else hated him, or at least in his mind it looked that way. Portugal was always his friend and in a rare case lover and France had a love/friend/hate relationship with him. People can make the argument that France took care of him but France was probably around 12 in human years and England looks to be around 10 when he wore that blue dress of his and when England had a bow and green cloak and shaggy long blonde hair. France still cuts off his hair to this day. While England was in his late teens 17-8 when he found America who was clearly around 5-6. Their pairing doesn't make sense from a psychological point. So I would love to not have any usuk shit in my feed. I have enough abusive people in my life who treat me like a punching bag, I don't need to get upset online too.

Alfred looks 5-6 years of age and believe it or not some children piss them selves even to the age of 10. Some have medical problems but that is not an issue for now. I have been a nanny. I have taken care of children of all ages, and they're telling me? That I should ship a ship where some guy changed another's diapers but the other guy grew up too quickly and now they are dating? IN WHAT WORLD, I REPEAT IN WHAT WORLD?Does that mean I should feel some sort of sexual attraction and would like to bang children I took care of, because they went to the gym and have what society conciders the perfect body? I guess in their mind I should. In reality somewhat every country is related to hetalia so the boundary between what is incest or not is vague. But even when usukers bring the - BUT THEY ARE NOT BLOOD RELATED? - so what, incest is still taboo and some say that since they don't have blood relation it is not incest, but this is why stepbro/sis memes are so prevelent. Since it is a taboo and taboos get some people excited sexually. Whether they are blood related or not is out of the question, Arthur did take care of him as a child.

This is not meant to cause the old FRUK VS USUK wars, but in my experience USUK fans are extremely harsh and cold, at least to anyone who doesn't ship their precious ship. It is like they can't stand anyone who simply objectivly says - I do not like this ship. Bruv, do you know how many other ships I don't like in other fandoms, and no one has given me shit or threatened to hack my computer and send people to beat me up, simply because I DON'T SHIP USUK? maaaan-Let's not forget that these hypocrites also spread lies and said that ''Himaruya said that UsUk is canon'' and there was this black and white fan art that rolled around Twitter, Facebook and other social media for a while and people believe it. I think Hetafacts or some other youtuber debunked that it was nothing but a pure lie. It should not matter what ship is canon, what should matter more is fans being civil and kind to another but no, let's insult other pairings and make people hate ships they didn't originally hate just because.

Here is another ship I don't like - Russia x China. Also another ship - Russia x Prussia, also another ship Russia x Lithuania, or Russia (Romantically) x Latvia, or Prussia x Liechtenstein (Romantically). I even met one person who shipped Sealand x England lol or England x Seychelles x France or Belarus x Liechtenstein (Romantically) I dislike all of these ships. Do you see the word hate anywhere? No, because I don't hate them? Do you know why? Well no one told me - ''I hope you die raped in shit'' and told me that I am ''r*tarded'' in my comment section on youtube because I said that I do not care about certain ships. You see I used to feel this way about UsUk too. It was meh, I don't care, I see them as father and son, because England literally raised him. Also England is proven to be a horrible neglectful father and a workholic and alcholic. This is the reason why Sealand is taken care of by Sweden and Finland.

I always saw him this way so I don't know how the new fandom just started seeing him as the gremlin that he is when he was always a fucking old grandpa gremlin, not a soft uwu useless femboy that loves sex and screams BAKA every 3 seconds and blushes for no apperent reason whatsoever. I have many things that I don't ship. For example I feel conflicted towards pairings like - China x Japan or Japan x America because the r*pe of nanking is a thing and Japan denies and while Japan may have attacked America, americans kinda rationalize the two bombs and laugh at it while if anyone mentions 9/11 they freak out. So they can joke about other countries's misfortune but if it theirs - NO,NO,NO! I think global issues should be adressed in hetalia and people should make vent/rant art. If you are an indigenous person and a white guy comes to you and asks why you wear normal clothes and he says that indigenous people only wear feathers and all, this is why we need to speak to children about racism. Or being told that being latino/a makes you ''Inferior'' somehow (IT DOESN'T), or you're black and you get told by a white person how you should go back to your home land ''with the bananas''. I can joke about my own country's problems but it feels extremely offensive if the country that did the crime (R*pe, destruction of religious monuments, statues of popular poets from my country, more r*pe, stealing boys and babies and forcing other religion on them so they can kill and r*pe their own mothers and sisters. )I do not blame their descendents for what their grandpas did to us, what I can't stand is the superiority complex they have and how they insult this country and speak in their own language like we don't understand them and pretend like nothing happened, which is why I hate a certain hetalia country with passion.

It really sucks how due to Covid the hate against asians has risen, I heard from my favourite youtubers how certain people harassed them and hurt them for ''spreading covid'' or something. Well this just horrible and we really need to re-think how we treat people who were not at fault for a fucking global pandemic. I don't know where Yao Wang would stand, since he is a fictional country but unless somebody projects their homophobia and xenophobia through roleplay or art and send me hate art, I don't really care who they are as long as their are respectful. I can't stand usuk, and I can't stand the fans. I try to block every account that has this content which sucks ass since they look like cool people but no, it has to be fucking ew ugh usuk they draw. I sometimes feel like a bitch for blocking them since they're not the same fans that have insulted, threatened and harassed me but I would like to not blow my chances and risk ever talking to them. If you want to, you can call me a hater, a basher or anything, I don't care.

In a way everyone in hetalia is related but lets say that I do not have concrete hate over this ship but the serial bullying I received from fans over the years. Which is why I ship things like Seychelles x Iceland or Hong Kong x Iceland and I can't choose. Usually when UsUk fans ''defend'' their ship they have two arguments - It is cute and - the revolutinary war and how much england missed him. Two people may look cute together but would their emotional maturity and personalities match? These are important questions, which is why for me Gerita personalitywise, matches but the emotional maturity gap is way too much. For UsUk America lacks basic emotional maturity, raises his tone, cuts off people when they speak, weird obsession about being a hero and a tiny bit of narcissism here and there, he overly trusts him self which can cause as much problems as someone who doubts them selves. England is in another place mentally is honestly much better off with anyone else that is not America or Canada. Portugal, Spain, France, Russia, Japan,etc. America also has more developed friendships with countries like Russia, France, Siciliy and probably Japan and Vietnam. I think he can date Lithuania for me their dynamic is so wholesome and pure and everything click together. Russia also works but some people are put off by it due to the cold war. RusAme/UkFr is much more than just love/hate relationship, I don't know why people have the impression that they constantly fight and make up. Normal couples don't do that. Whether it is incest or not it is debatealbe. I have seen dynamics like theirs and let tell you that these people always ended up divorced.

I will share some quotes from people on different social medias I have found that describe it better than me -

Quote number 1 - from fanpop

"USUK is actually one of my most hated anime pairings followed by Spamano a few places behind for the same reason. The thought of raising a child as a son/brother only to bang him when he's older is nothing but disgusting and makes England seem like a pedophile for "falling in love" with the child he adopted and raised. I honestly can't understand why so many people insist that America and England aren't brothers and that the pairing isn't incest when Himaruya, the anime director and characters in Hetalia have confirmed that America and England are indeed brothers. Some USUK fans claim that America's independence makes them non-siblings. That's just ridiculous. Even if America would say "I don't want to be your brother anymore" directly to England, it still won't make any difference and it certainly doesn't change the fact that America was adopted and raised by England. If the USUK fans want to ship this pairing, it's fine, but denying that the pairing is incest is just annoying. It makes it seem like they think incest is gross, but desperately try to deny that USUK is incest only to continue shipping it or to keep telling themselves that USUK will be canon, which will never happen just like (unfortunately) every other Hetalia pairing except (possibly) AusHun.''

Quote number 2- from deviant art

''t's this reasoning that made me think back to all the Journal reads, essays and editorials many of the Anti UsUk fans write about why they hate the pairing. They usually mention about the pairing being incest, pedophilia and/or not cannon. While all of those might be true, I think there's more reasoning to why UsUk usually never works. It isn't to say those shouldn't be mentioned, because they should be, and I will mention them. First off, incest. Yes, UsUk is incest, but not because they share blood, but because they're BROTHERS. The fact that England adopted America should not be anyone's excuse for why it's not considered incest. Incest means sexual relations between people classed as being too closely related to marry each other. The definition of related is belonging to the same family, group, or type. Neither of these say anything about sharing blood, or having to be born from the mother's womb. If your parents divorced, and your father married another woman, who becomes your mother, she would be considered related to you, since you both belong in the same family. America and England are brothers, they're family, they belong in the same family, and even share the same family name (Don't believe me? Britain's full name is United Kingdom of Great Britain, just like America's full name is United States of America, which was declared by Acts of Union in 1707 before the Revolutionary War. Coincidence? I think not 📷). No, I do not count their human names, since they're mainly names used for the fanbase to use. Now, for pedophilia, that's the one that can be questioned. On one hand, if England and America are shipped when both are adults, then it shouldn't be considered pedophilia. On the other hand, they are about 800-700 years apart. Though, the same could be said with America and other countries like Japan, Ukraine and Belarus. While America may not be the youngest country, technically speaking, he's certainly the youngest most powerful country. So, if anyone in the fandom is going to pair up America with anyone, male or female, that country is most likely going to be thousands of years older than him. So, do I consider UsUk pedophilia? Well... not if America is already a grown adult. So, unless there are fanart or fan fictions with England being sexual or flirty with kid or youth America, pedophilia isn't really the big issue (especially since I haven't seen pictures or fanart of England being sexual or flirty with kid America, and are perhaps the only brotherly pictures and/or fan fictions I can find of England and America). Being that everyone knows that UsUk is CERTAINLY not cannon, I want to go more deep into why I feel UsUk doesn't work. Let's set aside the fact that it is incest, and look at this pairing from a realistic standpoint. I want to start from the bottom up, which would be the back story of how England's and America's relationship started. Why is this relationship so memorable, and considered adorable? Why does it work so well? To put it simply, the relationship between England and America is very relatable. They both reminded me of my two brothers, and my dad and my uncle. It's the story of the little brother, who looked up to the older brother as the greatest thing on earth; the most perfect person in the world. He could never think of anyone else that could be compared to his older brother. Then, suddenly, that little brother grows up and realizes that his older brother is a compete jerk, or isn't as perfect as he originally thought. Usually, this is hard for any little brother to grasp, and, once he does, the relationship between him and his older brother starts to friction. They no longer share the same relationship they once had. Little brothers can relate to America in trying to grasp and understand that his older brother wasn't the big, perfect person he once thought, when he says, “you used to be so big.” At the same time, older brothers can relate to England in losing the innocent little brother that thought he was the world, then having to watch him grow up, and turn into a complete

jerk himself, or lose his innocence. It isn't that England never saw any flaws in America, even as a little kid, but it's hard for him to watch those innocence and naiveness suddenly flushed down the toilet. Now, America is surpassing England, and England now needs America to help him at times. From what I've seen from my brothers and uncle, it's very hard for an older brother to admit he needs his little brother's help, that there might be things his little brother knows more than him, and to actually call or go to little brother for help. This is continually seen with England and America during World War 2 where America volunteers to help, and England continually refuses, but yet seems to need the help (this is especially seen in the Blitz series). When anyone takes these two characters, whose relationship represents and older and younger brother of our generation, then turns it into a gay relationship, it completely ruins the amazing buildup that Hidekazu Himaruya was intentionally going for. It's not that gay relationships are not relatable, but the one that's made in the UsUk fandom isn't something that gay couples can relate to. Turning something that was never intended to be a gay relationship into one is actually the reason why there are gay men and women that dislike yaoi. It's not only a misrepresentation of England and America, and their relationship, but it's a misrepresentation of gay relationships in general. That's mainly where it boils down to why I dislike UsUk. Yes, homosexuality is one of those reasons, being that homosexuality was VERY looked down upon back during World War 2, especially during the colonial days (if you were caught in the act of homosexuality, you'd most likely be kicked out of the city and, if not, be beaten by countless cowboys, then killed, and those cowboys would get away with it, not being punished for said act even if they were caught). More than likely, England and America were homophobic back during those days, since many Americans and Englishmen were completely against homosexuality. It wasn't until around the Cold War, or during the 1960's, when the world started changing their viewpoints. Though, with that aside, UsUk, to me, just can't work with the back story and buildup of the show. Though, the same should be said for many yaoi fandoms in general. Many of them just don't work with the cannon buildup set for the two male characters. If people try to pair America and England up, keeping the cannon story line of their relationship, it comes out as unrealistic, and a misrepresentation of gay relationships, the relationship between England and America, and history in general. It isn't to say that nobody should write UsUk. In my opinion, whatever shipping you want to use is completely up to you. Though, if you want to write a UsUk fan fiction, it needs to not ruin the cannon relationship buildup set for England and America. In other words, I don't want a UsUk of any type to use the same cannon back story from the Hetalia series, otherwise it just becomes very unrelatable, and ruins the intended relationship buildup between England and America as older and younger brother. Anyways, those are my thoughts on UsUk, and why I don't like the pairing in general. You can agree or disagree, but I wanted to get my thoughts out. You can let me know in the comments about your thoughts on UsUk. I'm interested in knowing what your thoughts on the fandom, whether you're a UsUk fan or completely against the pairing, like me.''

23 - Have you ever had a ship become canon, but you didn’t like how it was portrayed?

- Korra x Asami (It looks rushed and I think Asami deserves better, in my eyes Korra constantly changed relationships and has immaturity issues, I watched the show a long time ago tho)

- Light x Misa (Misa deserved someone who cared for her)

- Erza x Jellal/Gerard (Erza deserved better, the guy looks like he is an extra or made of plastic)

- Ban x Elaine (I really dislike this ship, I read some articles about Japan and I do not know if this real/legit and please excuse me if I spread misinformation, but from what I read, some people said that Japan has p*dophilia problems. Certain mangaka or their word for the comic/manga artist, put loli characters on purpose to please a certain fanbase that likes this type of content. I look like a loli somewhat because I have small frame while other girls matured on body way too fast, I remained skin and bones up until the age of 19, after that I somehow started to gain some weight on my legs but that doesn't mean I am still not short and skinny on my upper body. Old creepy men, asking where you live and asking you sexual intimate questions when you just want to buy you self some dinner after school, isn't my idea of fun. Which is why - 100000 years but has the body of a loli is bullshit. There are older women who have smaller bodies but no matter how young you look, every human being starts developing wrinkles and hair falling at some point in their life. They may be small, but they surely don't look like lolis.

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fatelotusorder · 3 years

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VA: JP -Daiki Yamashita -Naranica Child - Ikue Otani - Sanji (Young) ENG - Anna Graves - Naoto Shirogane

Quote:"What Kinda person do You Take Me for ! I'm Not someone Who Backs Down from a Fight just because of a Setback ,I'll Fight Until someone Makes Me Stop!"

Full Name: Ming Zheng

Aliases: Project : Shi Huang Di , Ying Zheng Affiliation: Chaldea , Cult Yet to be Named(former)

Age: 16-18

Gender: Male but Is Mistaken for Female

Elemental Affinity: Mercury Talents :Martial Arts , Drawing , Singing

Likes: Cute Things particularly Stuff Made by Sanrio , Chinese Food , Friends , Anime , 4th wall Breakage

Dislikes: When people Question Why He Dresses so Feminine if hes Clearly a Cis Male ,People Harrassing His Servants or Anyone he Cares about , His twin Brother, Root Genesis

Magecraft: Unknown at this point Sense He'll often Fight using Martial Arts

(Though It's More Than Likely going to be Mercury Manipulation )

Belongings: Alot of Sanrio Plushies and Merch Mainly consisting of My Melody and Kuromi ,Show By Rock and Arrestuko, Many Cosplays and Costumes most of these were given to Him by Medea , A Sketch pad

Bloodline: Zheng

Natural Enemy: Zhuge Liang ,, Medea ,Gilgamesh ,Hanako

Bio : A Child born in China to a Cult that Seeked one Thing , A New World order To Acheive this New World order they Sought out Reincarnations and Descendants of Hero of Legends and Experimented on to bring out the Heroic Spirit Inside Them and Trained the Childern in Battle .He was the only one in the Group who Had both Qualifications, He was Experimented on Extensively and taught to Ignore His Gender the only Behavior from the Cult that Stuck and act like a proper Emperor but the Cult Wanted to make Him an Exact Copy of the first person Who Called Himself Emperor His Code Name Was Ying Zheng under Project Name Shi Huang Di .Ying Had a brother Code Named Zhuge Liang Zheng ,They were At the Time Identical Twins and the only Family that Ying Had and He had planned to escape .Ying in his Current State Vaugely Remembers the Attempt But Remembers one moment ,Ying Fell over as the Guards were Chasing them and Zhuge looked back and then left Him in an Act of Cowaridce and Changed His Name to ... Well You Might Know him in other Universes as Waver Velvet . Instead of Crying like most Children Do, Ying Cursed His Brothers Name he would Never forgive him as He was Dragged back to His "room" . Years Later the Mage Association Found out about the Chinese Bases operation After a Mage they had sent Thier was Kidnapped by the Cult Due his Bloodline Tracing Back to an Heroic Spirit , When the Mage Association and their Freelance Allies Broke in an Stopped the cruel operation . A young at the time Freelance Mage by the Name Aro Myorenji or as You probably know Him Scandinavia Peperoncino Noticed Ying still his "room " not Fleeing like the other Kids and people Kidnapped by the Cult ,Upon Finding out that Ming pretty Much thought it was useless to Escape Pepe Scooped him up and Basically Adopted him the First thing Pepe Did was Cut His Hair to Reasonable Lenght to walk without Tripping and to Actually See what the outside World was like and like Pepe likes to Do Told some Jokes as he Styled His Hair into The Buns Ying Regularly likes to But them in . Ying then preceded to Change his Name to Ming as " It was Cuter" According to Pepe's Wording and Ming Became Pepe's Traveling partner and Son Eventually becoming a Happier person and More Confident in himself as a result. A few Short Years After Pepe Was recommended by Marisbury to Join Chaldea Which in this Universe is a Secrete Multi building Complex Located In China Styled After the Forbidden City . There he Met ,"Old Ugly Mean Hag"( Olga ) ,"The Peach Doctor"(Romani), The other A team members(though Hanako is called an Ugly Vampire ) ," Creepy Old Guy"(Lev Laniur),"The two Faced Scientist"(BB) and His 5 Sons . The two Sons Ming Got along with the Most were the Twins Meltlilith and Passionlip The Three Quickly became Friends even if their Initial meeting consisted of Ming Punching Melt in the Mouth for teasing Him. Fast Forward to Grand order Ming was Set out the Room For His Lack of Censor when the Bomb Exploded shortly after He Runs to See if Melt and Pepe are Okay ,He Finds Melts Unconious Under rumble Holding Olga Marie whom he pushed out the Way and attempts to Save Him at least as the two and Olga as sucked in the Singularity F . Upon Which Melt Finds out he Had Fused with the prototype man made Servant Chaldea was in the process of Summoning ,not knowing the Class Ming Dubs Melt the Assassin Class and as the Events of Singularity F go on Olga is Killed By Lev Lanuir triggered the Anger of Ming Who Attempts to Attack Him But is Held back By Melt. Once Again Ming Vowed Vengence Against Lev the Difference Is that Ming Got that During the America Singularity ,The Pax Romana singularity they couldn't Defeat him so He escaped while they Dealt with Altera Okeanos Passionlip Came with Him and Melt

to provide Himself and Just like His Twin Became a Psudeo Servant however We don’t know how It have but it was probably during the Explosion as well he just didn’t know , Ming Dubb Lip a Beserker Class Due to the Large Mechanical Hands .They also Met Alexander The Great along with Sailing Along the Seas with Drake . Right after Is the The Tudor Rose Singularity , In Which the Group Meet a rather Battered, Scared and Nervous Elizabeth Tudor being Held by Francis Drake .Through the Singlaruity they Gradually Get Bess's Confidence up to where it was before Mary Tudor Tortured Him through Using the Grail to Summon Various "King" Servants Including Richard Lionheart ,Charlemagne , Artoria ,Ozymandais , Nitocris, Caesar ,Gilgamesh, Gustavus Adolphus ( Who is A woman who wears fake beard Oc of a good friend on deviantart )and Wu Zetian.Its Eventually Revealed that the good queen is a Male a Secret that was Kept by Drake among others til the Day they Died .Ming begins to Develop a More Startegic Fighting Style due to Bess and Before Ming Faded away from the Singularity Bess Give Ming his Crown as Token . When they Summoned Bess They Discovered that people that are Alive at the Time of a Singularity Experience the Memory of the Singularity but as a Dream , Bess Remembered Mings Face But only Due to Dreams in his Life . E plurbis Um is Set in the 1920's America Thier two Important Events Happen one they Find out that Lev Lanuir is Weak to The power of Alter Ego Which Turns out are the True Classes of Melt and Lip because Two They Met a Master and His psudeo Servant Girlfriend Akio ( an another good friends Oc )and Mashu whose Chaldea Mistook His E plurbis Um as another Sub-Singularity and Sent them there to Resolve it , of Course Akio Scolded Ming for Being too Rash and not planning . Which made His Strategies Even more planned how in Ming nature Still rather Unexcepted like Having Mashu perform her Noble phantasm in the Air after the Singularity Ming and Melt When to Sleep in their own Chaldea only for Akkio to Find the two Sleeping in his Bed ,Though Not before Sleepily Snuggling Inbetween the two and then Waking up to Find two boys (well What he thought was a Girl and a Boy) in his Bed and that he had Slept with them . After Saving Humanity ,They Met the Newcomer to Saving the World Rin ( the friend who owns Gustava’s master oc ) in the Raiding Singularity and after that Met Bruno Buccellati, a Former Mafia Capo Turned Master along with a Mysteroius girl named Kotori Kosuke . And Several Psuedo servants who had escaped Root Gensis in the First Raid Like Mushu, Fengxian ,Draven and Bryn.

————-—

something important to mention

Jing Ke used to be a go to servant of Mings however at some point he woke up in the night and attacked her violently . Jing Ke is okay but cant bring herself To stay alone with Ming.

Ming remembers none of this and It’s suggest that Shi Huang Di may have taken over while Ming was sleep and Just didn’t know they were Allies know.

#mastersona #fate grand order #fate series #master #cute crossdreser #original character #kisekae

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unbloomingmoonflower · 3 years

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Ship History

I’m bored, so Imma write Shuri’s ship history.

LONG POST BELOW

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THANCRED X SHURI:

When Shuri first became a member of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, she was just beginning her adventure as a conjurer--and, of course, she met the handsome rogue himself, Thancred Waters.

Of course, the Steppe native was already shy in nature as it was, having travelled from Gridania, so a handsome stranger making himself known to her? Definitely a way to charm Shuri if there is no apparent hint of potential harm/threat. With further interactions, even up to when Shuri agrees to join the Scions and her first missions was with Thancred, she found herself enamored with his charm.

Shuri was unaware of Thancred’s dalliances with other women, partly due to her other Scion members wanting to maintain the girl’s pure vision of Thancred to not disillusion her to an idea of a romance. However, Shuri was not as naive as her fellow Scion members thought; she happened upon Thancred wooing a couple of women in Ul’dah and said nothing at the time and just stowed away the hurt. When Thancred was taken over by Lahabrea, Shuri was determined to save him by whatever means necessary. Partly due to her feelings for the Hyur and partly due to her own code she was raised with within her tribe: to not leave a comrade behind.

Shuri’s affections toward him were not lost on Thancred; he knew full well the Xaela harbored feelings for him and while he did not encourage the idea of a relationship, he didn’t clear the air with her in that regard. It lead to the other Scions being fully aware of the one-sided affection, but Shuri--being shy as she was--did not vocalize her feelings or thoughts until after the attempt to bring Minfilia from the brink.

After failing to bring back Minfilia after she became the Word of the Mother and relaying what she had seen and was told, Thancred stormed away and Shuri went after him, in an attempt to soothe him. However, after biting comments from Thancred was when Shuri revealed her feelings for him and embraced him from behind. Words weren’t needed to be said further; instead, Thancred gave Shuri a chaste kiss on her forehead, one a friend or sibling would do, before walking away and Shuri knew that her feelings weren’t reciprocated. The Xaela was heartbroken and more subdued than usual afterward, even when she and Alphinaud were traversing with Estinien and Ysayle a good portion of their journey.

It wasn’t until Shuri and Estinien began getting close that Thancred was bit by the green-eyed monster. While he already maintained a cold distance, he became even more so once Shuri and Estinien pursued a relationship. The jealousy was mostly in part to how Thancred noticed Shuri either looked at, spoke to, or even when it came to saving Estinien from the thrall of Nidhogg; it was the same, if not a stronger way that she used to look at him. The tension between Thancred and Shuri kept growing until it came to a head.

An argument exploded on the First between Shuri and Thancred, partly started due to how coldly Thancred appeared to treat the First’s Minfilia. Having gained a maternal instinct for the girl, Shuri was vehemently opposed to Thancred’s behavior to her and initiated the fight. It wasn’t until Thancred snapped a retort about Shuri being “the dragoon’s whore” that the Xaela actually punched the Hyur across the face hard enough to send him flying. Thancred was shocked as Shuri relayed how agonizing it was for her to already know of Thancred’s dalliances, of being afraid to tell her feelings even when feeling in her bones what Thancred felt for the Source’s Minfilia.

It was after that argument that Thancred and Shuri had a real heart-to-heart and from that, their friendship was restored somewhat. Thancred did become protective of Shuri more in that instance, consistently saying if Estinien failed to keep the Xaela happy that the dragoon would have to answer to him. They have a far more relaxed and playful banter with one another now than the one-sidedness they had previously.

SHURI X ESTINIEN:

When these two met, it was not love at first sight. Having believed that Au Ra were descended from Dravanians, Estinien was none to thrilled with one of the Warriors of Light being an Auri maiden. By this stage, Shuri had switched from conjury to using throwing weapons while dancing and while she was curious of the Azure Dragoon and his role in Ishgard, Estinien had a very deep disdain (border on hatred) for Shuri just based on her appearance alone. While Shuri repeatedly tried to spark a camaraderie, maybe friendship, with Estinien, she was stonewalled on every turn.

Travels early on with them was tense. Ysayle and Alphinaud sensed it and Alphinaud wondered if Shuri was just oblivious to Estinien’s disdain of her. Little did he know, Shuri knew full well Estinien did not like her, even while she continued to be cordial with the dragoon with every harsh quip. It wasn’t until Estinien made another hard retort regarding dragons, even dragging Shuri’s parentage into it, and the Xaela unhooked her weapons from where they hung on her waist and attacked the dragoon with rapid precision.

When Shuri’s glaive managed to chip a piece of Estinien’s armor, the Azure Dragoon had sneered that the Xaela “had missed”, to which Shuri responded rather coolly, “If I wanted to harm you, you’d be in pieces already”. It was at that moment that Estinien’s disdain vanished for a moment and was replaced with curiosity--the cordial, soft-spoken Au Ra who did not hesitate to put him in his place ruthlessly. It was then that their interactions noticeably changed; when not directly asking her questions, Estinien would inquire about what Shuri wouldn’t answer with Alphinaud.

It was clear that feelings between them were growing, but nothing was said much to the frustration of their comrades. When Estinien was taken over by Nidhogg, Shuri considered it no different than ripping an Ascian out of Thancred’s body--the only difference was the essence of the wrym. She was as determined, if not more, to save Estinien. When the mission was a success and Estinien was recuperating was when the two talked in private in regards to their feelings. While they weren’t considered “officially” in courtship, they certainly behaved that way in private in comparison to public. It would only be when someone was to toe the line with Shuri that Estinien would bare his fangs, so to speak.

Their relationship went into the marriage stage prior to Shuri’s journey to the First and Estinien and Shuri married in the Steppe before having a ceremony in Eorzea. Shortly after, the two adopted a Lalafellin orphan, Helena, with Shuri ending up pregnant with twins, Lexan and Freya, several months after. It wouldn’t be a year or so after that Shuri and Estinien open their marriage and take on additional lovers--Ardbert, the father of Shuri’s youngest child, Ysayle, being one of them.

#ship history #moonie writes #I'll add Ardbert in a bit because I need to finagle some STUFF

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terramythos · 3 years

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TerraMythos' 2020 Reading Challenge - Book 32 of 26

Title: The Siren Depths (2012) (The Books of the Raksura #3)

Author: Martha Wells

Genre/Tags: Fantasy, Adventure, LGBT Protagonist, Third-Person

Rating: 8/10

Date Began: 11/09/2020

Date Finished: 11/21/2020

Moon's past has always been obscure. A winged shapeshifter, he has spent most of his life as a solitary wanderer. He has few memories of his childhood, and only recently found others of his kind-- the Raksura. Now Moon has found a home as first consort to the queen Jade in the Raksuran court of Indigo Cloud.

However, when a neighboring queen recognizes his bloodline, Moon's new life is upended as he's forced to return to a family he doesn't even remember. Seemingly abandoned by Jade and overcome with doubt, Moon has to navigate the complex politics and grave secrets in the court of Opal Night alone. But an old enemy is about to return, threatening every Raksuran court in the Reaches.

The one thing he hadn’t expected to do was miss Indigo Cloud so much. He had been leaving people all his life, to the point where all the turns seemed like an uninterrupted progression of departures, and there had been people he had missed terribly. But this was a never-ending ache in his chest... You’ll get over it, he told himself. You always get over it.

But somehow, this time was different.

Some major spoilers and content warning(s) under the cut.

Content warnings for the book: As always, graphic violence and action. There is a disturbing scene that's... kind of forced cannibalism I guess (I'm not sure how else to describe it). Some sexual content is implied but not graphic. The r*pe plot point from The Cloud Roads is relevant, but is not depicted or described in detail. A romantic relationship with a significant age gap is briefly mentioned (both are consenting adults but it may make some readers uncomfortable).

For the most part, I enjoyed The Siren Depths more than the previous entries. I connected much more strongly to the central conflict, and was pleased to see some deeper character development than in the last two books. This entry also introduces fascinating new settings and characters while exploring some genuinely interesting ideas. It serves as a good parallel to The Cloud Roads, with similar plot beats explored in different ways. I did have one big problem which I will detail further in the review, but let's talk about the good parts first. Moon's conflict in this story, like the rest of the series, has to do with belonging. But The Siren Depths has the advantage of two books of development. From what we know of Moon's past, he sees any home as temporary, and when he's suddenly forced to leave Indigo Cloud (presumably for good), his new attachments and way of life come into question. To some degree, Moon sees this as an inevitable part of his life. Sooner or later, something out of his control will happen and he'll be abandoned. What I found relatable is there's several times Moon knows he is being irrational but still can't stop the negative downward spiral. Like... jeez, just call me out specifically next time! While a depressed protagonist can be a drag to read, I think it really works here because we've grown attached to Moon and know how far he's come. And sure enough, he does get his ass in gear when he realizes this ISN'T like before, and lots of people do care about him. The found vs biological family conflict is interesting as well. I think The Siren Depths does great here because you can see both points of view. Moon always assumed his biological family died, and they assumed the same thing about him. This should be a happy homecoming, but under the circumstances simply isn't. Moon resents being torn from Indigo Cloud because a group of people he barely remembers have a legal claim on him. Opal Night seems strangely hostile until you learn more about its politics and secrets. Even though they're early antagonists, they're not really villains; just a traumatized group of people who see Moon as a missing link from their past. When he's not what the others are expecting, obvious issues ensue, but Moon finds he does care about some of these people, even if it's not really his home. Outside of Moon, several other characters have arcs in this book. While the previous books feature a likeable enough cast, the characters are mostly one dimensional. Not so here; we explore the insecurities and struggles of some of the supporting cast. Jade isn't nearly as self-confident as she appears to be, and grapples with this throughout the book-- for example, wanting to prove to Moon that she is willing to do whatever it takes to get him back. Similarly, Chime's struggle with his involuntary transformation comes to a head here as his strange new powers become relevant again. We see just how bitter he is that he's cut off from his old magical gifts and still holds out hope that they'll return. We even get some indication that while this HAS happened before in Raksuran history, it's incredibly rare. There’s also an interesting hint on what the powers really are, which has some pretty big implications. This is potentially a future plot point, so I’m hoping it gets explored. (Also, I was totally right about Moon/Chime, do I get a prize?)

There are several new characters I found really interesting, namely Malachite and Shade. Malachite (spoiler: Moon's biological mother) is initially presented as the antagonist, and her behavior seems inscrutable. She's a powerful queen who commands respect, yet seems unpredictable and standoffish. All of this starts to make sense as one learns more about her. Turns out unbelievable, extended trauma really fucks with a person. The Fell destroyed her colony, killed her consort and most of her children, and she spent almost a year in full guerilla warfare against them. Yet she adopted the Fell/Raksura crossbreeds and raised them as her own children, demonstrating nothing but indulgent love and kindness towards them. I'm not sure I would be able to do that in her place. In general she's just a huge badass; totally decked out in scars and the first to leap into battle. At least we know where Moon gets it from. Did I say Fell/Raksura crossbreeds? Yup, that plot point is back. Only, it's explored in a different way here. The crossbreeds in The Cloud Roads are terrifying weapons deployed by the Fell. The ones in The Siren Depths, raised in a loving home, are just kind of weirdly pale Raksura. I liked Shade in particular, who we learn is Moon's half brother and serves as an interesting foil. Moon would probably be much more like Shade if the Fell attack on Opal Night never happened. Shade is an earnest and kind (if naïve) man and behaves like none of the Fell we’ve met in the series. I hope we see more of him (and Lithe, the other crossbreed) in future volumes, because I think they're an interesting take on nature vs nurture with the "inherently" evil Fell. Speaking of the Fell, while they themselves haven't changed much, I thought they were more effective villains than in The Cloud Roads. We see their manipulations and twisted views of the world in much more detail. There's a long sequence where much of the main cast is captured by The Fell, and their struggle to survive and potentially escape is harrowing. I also like that Moon isn't their main focus this time, which adds some nuance and perspective to their behavior. They’re also just... creepy as shit. While I do have some issues with the ending of the book, I think the Fell are handled pretty well beforehand.

I'd be remiss to ignore the always excellent worldbuilding in this series. Like in The Serpent Sea, we get to see more Raksuran courts, all of which feel distinct. It’s cool and impressive for a singular fantasy race to have multiple believable factions and societies. The settings in this book are also creative, including a giant half-dead mountain tree, a city carved into a giant statue, and what I can only describe as "Rapture, but make it a solarpunk prison". Wells goes into vivid, loving detail when it comes to the world. That being said, I would like to see more of the sea/sky realms, since this series has largely focused on the earth. The Three Worlds is kind of a misnomer if two of them don't really show up much. Oh well, maybe in future books/stories.

My main complaint, and what drags down the rating, is the ending. It's... underwhelming, confusing, and seems pretty rushed. I'll go into more detail below. *major spoilers for the ending* So... one of the big plot points in both The Cloud Roads and The Siren Depths is that the Fell are crossbreeding with captured Raksura. In The Cloud Roads, this is explained as a ploy to strengthen the Fell with some unique Raksuran abilities; queens can prevent others from shifting, mentors can scry future events, and so on. In The Siren Depths, however, we learn it's not that simple. There's some third party manipulating the Fell and encouraging their actions. The goal is to produce a crossbreed that physically resembles the (unnamed) Fell/Raksura common ancestor for... reasons. We are led to believe the being orchestrating this is in fact an ancient ancestor, though its motives are unknown.

While this feels like a retcon, the discrepancy is acknowledged in the story, and it is explained that the Fell in The Cloud Roads were either lying or those specific ones decided to pursue their own agenda. Which... fine, makes sense based on what we know about them. I'll let it slide. Perhaps it was hinted at earlier and I just don’t remember.

So Moon and the others follow the Fell to the mysterious source, a vast and abandoned underwater city. Soon they find the creature that's been imprisoned there. Turns out it's not the Fell/Raksura ancestor, but something different. I can only describe it as sort of eldritchy, with a vaguely creepy physical form, and the abilities to speak through dead/dying Fell and to create disturbingly realistic illusions. The Fell/Raksuran ancestors trapped it there eons ago, and the only way to free it is the physical presence of a member of the ancestor species (for some reason). Which explains why it has been encouraging the crossbreeding, since their common ancestor is presumably extinct. It's freed from its prison since Shade fits the "ancestor" criteria based on his physical appearance. Then, in the span of literally one chapter, it attacks everyone, chases the characters through the underwater city, gets hit by some water, then promptly melts like the Wicked Witch of the West and dies.

I had a couple problems with this ending. First, the whole Fell crossbreeding conflict with the Raksura is a huge generational trauma thing. Moon has his own horrible experience with them, of course, but it's also a big issue with both Indigo Cloud and Opal Night. Hell, it's the whole reason Moon was separated from his family and lived thirty-some years in exile without knowing what he was. The series literally wouldn't have happened without this conflict. To have everything explained away by "an eldritch wizard did it" is very anticlimactic. I vastly prefer the original explanation.

Second, we know basically nothing about this creature. How was it able to communicate with the Fell (and Chime)? Why was it imprisoned other than being super evil and stuff? Who knows. And yeah, it's possible this will be expanded on later. Except I'm pretty sure that when this book came out, it was the last one planned for the series. The next two books follow a different storyline and came out four years later. So this was probably the only explanation we were ever going to get.

I'm not totally against the concept, but it needed more time and a more interesting/memorable villain for it to work. Introducing all of this in the second to last chapter of (presumably) not only the book but the series, then defeating it with little effort, feels unsatisfying. Hell, there’s more time dedicated to discovering and exploring its prison than anything involving the creature itself! As it stands, the Fell were much creepier and more memorable bad guys in this book, yet narratively serve as bit players in the end. It just feels off.

Also, a nitpick, but the title of the book is weird. The Siren Depths is obviously referring to this imprisoned being. It's trapped underwater and is calling the Fell to it. But it's never referred to as a siren; I'm not sure that word is used at all in the book. It just seems like an odd choice of title that doesn't really fit the vernacular of the world. Siren has some very specific meanings/connotations in our world that don't translate to The Three Worlds. Not a huge deal, just something I noticed.

*ending spoilers end here*

Despite my issues with the ending, I really enjoyed everything else about the book. It does everything the other books do well while featuring serious improvements. I've heard mixed things about the next two books but plan to go in with an open mind.

#8/10 #taylor reads #2020 reading challenge #BONUS ROUND #*casually posts this a week late*

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