#thanad-zid

[curiosity-killed]

Hi, curiosity-killed.....If you don't mind me asking, what are your top 5 favorite moments from tgcf? Sorry if you've answered this question before....

WE'RE IGNORING THAT THIS IS 2 YR OLD I AM CLEANING OUT DRAFTS

oooh at last my folder of tgcf screenshots comes in handy >:D (...jk that folder is horrifying and I can’t find anything in it)

MEGA SPOILERS BELOW

also sorry this very rapidly gets unhinged bc i'm speed finishing this 2 years after i started it

1. Lang Qianqiu’s “I’ll never be like you” in Book 1

I mean first of all, I am so weak for Xie Lian being a badass and what compares to “Fight me and you will die for sure”?

But mostly I love this whole arc a lot and particularly the confrontation on the road. There’s something about the ahh almost generational parallels of Jun Wu -> Xie Lian -> Lang Qianqiu that just gets me. In another world, you could almost make them into a little heavenly dynasty of tragedy and corruption — and I think this moment crucially incapsulates why that doesn’t happen and how wrong Jun Wu is about Xie Lian.

Because Xie Lian’s cover-up feels and looks like exactly the kind of corruption and cruelty that Jun Wu wants from him. Sure Xie Lian didn’t go through with destroying Yong’an the first time around but look at this: isn’t this just proof that he can still be Jun Wu’s successor? Isn’t this proof that Jun Wu knows him better than anyone else? 

and then the more we actually learn about it, the more we realize how much XL was trying to avoid exactly that happening. And the confrontation on the road, Lang Qianqiu swearing he will never become like XL—and XL laughing, saying 'good' hnnnn brain go brr

2. Xie Lian’s “Then the heavens are wrong.” in Book 2

litcherally the reason i fell in love with him! my good good boy, my baby boy who's going to fall so! so!!! hard off that pedestal! yeah!!

3. Guoshi explaining Hua Cheng’s past in Mt. Tong’lu in Book 5

I just! a) am a sucker for Hua Cheng and b) love the way this backstory explains and directly contradicts Hua Cheng's self-view, own version of the story, etc. There's so much meaty goodness in HC's character and I love the way this backstory tells so much about him in sort of horrifying ways

4.  Hua Cheng after the final fight with Jun Wu in Book 5

i know ppl are like omg why did hc play xl like that SUCH a drama queen but TBH i think he was pretty much 100% prepared to go! he accomplished his desire of serving and protecting xl! he did the thing! and i love the sense that he really thought he was gone at this point and that xl begging him to stay is what gave him the new purpose to come back despite that being a bonkers wild impossibility

5. chap...ter....190 in Book 4

yeah. i mean. *gestures to me and also all my tgcf art and fic*. yeah.

#thanad-zid #asked & answered #sorry this is unhinged and so late! i periodically rediscover my drafts and am confused why they're drafts so uhhhhhh #here

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime, books, movies or tv series)? Thanks....

I'm not sure I have a good answer for you.

I like a lot of different characters for a lot of different reasons. Narrowing down to 10 just feels a bit arbitrary. Especially when we're getting to tumblr land where it's all important that one justify ones favorites with "this is a shit person but I like them because they're a shit person and those characters fascinate me" vs. "this is a person I'd actually like to know in real life".

#about this blog #thanad-zid

[miyakuli]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks

Hello~ Oh I don't mind at all :) actually I've been tagged as well by @oo-mi-ru-oo to give 10 characters I love in different fandom so it's kinda similar, I can reply both in one post :3 I'm gonna on japanimation only because if I have to choose with manga/books/movies/tv characters, it'll be impossible for me haha >v<"

Hinata Hyuuga

I started Naruto when I was 10-11 years old and that was the period of time when I began to lack of confidence and I began to be pretty introverted. And well, I was relating so much to Hinata so I immediately got attached to her. Also I grew up with her in a way, and seeing her becoming more confident and strong, while still being very empathic and sweet, she became like a model to follow in my eyes. It's really one of the character who had the most impact for me so yeah, Hinata will always be Best Girl to me <3

Natsume Takashi

Natsume Yuujinchou is my favourite anime, especially because of this sweetheart. I’m very moved by empathic character (you’re gonna notice it with the charac I’ll pick lol). Natsume has such a sensitive and sweet personality, I loved him instantly tbh. Also, the fact that he is careful to not get too close because he fears to bother them or to get hurt...well, I totally understand that feeling ;;  And seeing him being more open little by little, and warming up to people, it makes me feel happy, so yeah, it’s a character that makes me feel good and warm inside =v= 

Makoto Tachibana

I think everyone following my blog is aware of my love for him xD What can I say more. Makoto is THE friend everyone would like to have ; he is a sweetheart, he is adorable, he is caring toward his family and friends and he is the best to comfort people. Simply, he makes people happy, putting the others before himself sometimes (#protecttheboy), and really you cannot see this guy and not feel the need to smile back at him <33 this boy needs to be loved as much he loves people, so here, TAKE MY ALL MY LOVE MAKOGOD <3

Tifa Lockhart

My beautiful, strong, confident, sensitive and caring girl <3 I think Tifa is an amazing female character. I love her personality so much and even though she can kick ass, she is still a pretty calm and sweet. She is confident but humble, strong but adorable, sensitive but sassy when it needs. I really love all those sides of her <3 also she is one of the reason that made me realize that I wasn’t that much straight XDDD

Fai D Flowright

He is the first character that made me turn into protective mode (;v;) He is such a tragic character, and despite all the pain and horror he went through, he is still such a lovely man who just wants to take care of his loved ones. He suffered so much but he has still love to give...even though he doesn’t love himself ;o; I swear I just wanted to jump in the manga each time to hug him and comfort him. Yes he is funny, and cool and beautiful, but that’s definitely his fragile side that made me appreciate him even more. 

Clear

I started playing Dmmd for the gay boys...I ended it by getting a son to protect. Clear is a kinda a mix of everything I fall for : empathic, sweet, strong and a bit unconfident. But also he is SO INNOCENT, SO PURE!!! he has this childish innocence that makes me melt all the time ;v; so when the angst came, I just cried for him. I don’t know how much tears I cried because of him, his story touched my heart so much and he deserves only happiness ;; also, he sings (yes this is a very good reason to love him too xD). Anyway, I love this angel so much <3

Tomoyo Daidouji

She wasn’t immediately one of my favorite girl. I appreciated her kindness, the fact she was always so caring toward her friends but also her fun side, like being a kind of groupie of Sakura xD it’s when I finished to read all the manga when I was older that I realized that she was such an amazing character. Without spoiling, she is definitely the type to sacrifice her own needs as long as the people she loves are happy. She’ll be happy either way, without any resentment or regrets. And I think that’s something to admire. Also...she can sing xDD

Mihashi Ren

My maternal side activated at the sight of this baby boy. I was older when I began Oofuri, so I was less shy, still pretty unconfident but I was hiding my anxiety inside all the time. But Mihashi was expressing his anxiety through his expressions and his acts. And when I saw him I was like “yep, it’s my inside-self personalized there”, that no one can’t really see. So obviously, I’ve been right away attached to this character since I was relating to his social struggles and his lack of confidence. But the most important fact is that Mihashi is always doing his best, and he tries to be better all the time, fighting against his anxiety and trying to believe the words of people who praise him. He is so inspiring to me ; more than just seeing myself in him at that time, he became a character that gave me the desire to control better my anxiety as well ;v; 

Levi Ackerman

Ok Levi is a bit different of all my previous crush characters ;) I’m gonna admit, I first liked him because he was such a too cool charac xDD loved his design, his sort of grumpy personality, his badass side too etc...but through the chapter, we all discovered a protective and sensitive side of him <3 I also love so much his honesty ; he assumes his beliefs and won’t hesitate to shake a bit people for their own good. He is also very smart and combined to his agility skills, he is such an amazing fighter, and he never hesitated to put his own life in danger to protect others. But he has a violent and controversial side due to all the trauma he went through, so that makes him even more complex. And that’s why I think he’s the best charac of snk, and also one of the charac I love the most~

My reason to love her is kinda close to Levi’s. She appeared at first as cold and determined but she is much more complex. Through the manga, it becomes clear that she is a broken person with depression and PTSD who find a reason to keep living when she fell in love with Roy. She is ready to do anything for him to fulfill his dream even though she will have to give up to a part of her humanity (but also femininity). She is such a selfless character and basically she is following her heart. And for a character that appears strict, it’s such an adorable and touching side of her. And this sweet side appears from time to time, when she adopts her lil doggy or when her fragility breaks through the shell in some situations. I will end with obvious point too like, she gorgeous and strong, so yep, an amazing lady indeed ;)

______

Voilà :) It was a bit hard to decide at the end (I wanted to put Aizawa from bnha as well ><), but I think I summed up well how I feel about those characters...hopefully//////

#I HOPE IT WASNT TOO LONG SORRY #it was hard to put words to explain why I loved them - I hope it isn't too stupid//////// #I can do an other one for movies charac or else - I'll be pretty different x) let me know!! #personal #ask #thanad-zid #oo-mi-ru-oo #long post

[roger-maylor-brian-tay]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime, books, movies or tv series)? Thanks....

Not at all!

Here they are:

1. Genjo Sanzo - Saiyuki (anime)

2. Nakayama Haruki - Given (manga/anime)

3. Adachi Kiyoshi - Cherry Magic (TV drama)

4. Date Masamune - Sengoku Basara (anime)

5. Shindo Shuichi - Gravitation (manga/anime)

6. Loki - MCU

7. Tendo Akane - Ranma 1/2 (manga)

8. Hyoga - Saint Seiya (anime)

9. Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes - MCU

10. Thranduil - The Hobbit (movie)

🙂

#answered #ask #thanad-zid #favorite characters #genjo sanzo #nakayama haruki #adachi kiyoshi #date masamune #shindou shuichi #loki #tendo akane #hyoga #winter soldier #thranduil #saiyuki anime #given anime #given manga #cherry magic #30歳まで童貞だと魔法使いになれるらしい #sengoku basara #gravitation manga #gravitation anime #MCU #ranma 1/2 #saint seiya #the hobbit

[meshkol]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Thanks....

Hello there! I absolutely don't mind this question. I love this question, actually, and I've never...actually answered it before, at least not on this blog in an open forum with all my favourites. So this is actually cool and made my brain go oooooooooooooh. Thank you so much for this ask <3

I've answered this briefly on fandoms and faves, specifically just listing them by names, but haven't really gone into why I love these disasters, mostly because I'm long-winded af and English isn't my first language. This is the tip of the iceberg and do not include real-world individuals (that would have to be a different post entirely). Anywho, here goes, I suppose, and I apologise in advance for the length LMAO. Seriously, this is, like, 5k. (It’s also formatted weird because tumblr doesn’t like paragraphs in bullets, but it still looks a little wonky to me??)

Anyway, here are my ten favourite fictional characters and why I love them, in order. Actual content is beneath the cut because it is long.

(1) Thranduil Oropherion [Tolkien's Legendarium]. My first introduction into English was Tolkien's Legendarium. I had read The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings in French and had them read to me as a bedtime story before I could even read myself, but it was literally the first series of books I picked up myself when I was a tiny little thing and was like “I’m gonna figure out what all of these weird little letters mean in this weird bizarre language so I can read it in its intended language by Professor Tolkien!” So yeah, literally my first introduction into English, before I was put into official tutoring, because I was so hyperfixated by this legendarium. This fandom is still my One True Fandom to this day.

The Sindar in general were my main focus of study and fixation, even though Tolkien had a gigantic hard-on for the Ñoldor (literally and figuratively, probably, considering Galadriel, but I digress), and even though Thranduil wasn’t even named in The Hobbit, I distinctly remember tunnelling on his parts as a toddler who couldn’t even fucking read yet and asking to hear his portions of the story instead of the dwarrows. He is the sole reason why I hyperfixated on the Sindar despite the criminal lack of content on their kind, and why I started to learn English long before I was required to do so for education’s sake.

He was just so kind and generous and understanding and brave and wary and tired and strong – nothing like what the films did to his character, don’t get me fucking started on that utter rot, the films did Thranduil dirty...though Lee Pace played him dishy af and I still enjoy the films as a separate entity from the books, kind of like how enjoy the MCU as a separate entity from the comics – and I needed that in my life. The elves in general were those things, but Thranduil was my first introduction to that, and he was a hell of a first imprint to my young, impressionable mind, especially in the environment I grew up in. I needed a father like he was, who was kind and generous and understanding and brave and wary and tired and strong, not the father I had, which was pretty much every other father Tolkien described in the books lol. I latched onto him to an almost extreme amount of insanity and that has persisted to this day. I love him so much that it’s damn near pathetic. You don’t see it much on this blog but whew, on my other blog(s) back before LiveJournal, FFN, and the overall internet imploded?? Yeah, it was nuts. So much fanfiction, I swear. Probably published about two to three million words before the purges on private servers and LJ. I will never stop being bitter and devastated about that. ao3 is king, all hail ao3.

(2) Tony Stark [Marvel]. So there’s a lot to say about this disaster of a human being and I don’t even know where to start, because there’s a lot of baggage associated with the beginning of my love for him.

There’s an echo of my English beginnings with him too, since I practised my English with those comics, and that’s tinged with some bittersweetness too. So for some background that is open knowledge on this blog: I hate my biological father with a burning passion. He’s an awful person and I hope he fucking dies a horrible, painful, awful, embarrassingly humiliating death. But weirdly enough, despite the extreme conservative household he ruled over with an iron fist, he...liked comics?? He hated that I loved Tolkien – my maman, before they got divorced, read those stories to me – but when he realised I was beginning to read things in English, something that was heavily encouraged in our household because "English is business" as he liked to say, he actually would give me Iron Man comics to practise reading with. Not Batman and Superman and Captain America (he hated Captain America LOL the height of irony) and Spider-Man, but Iron Man, a C-list-at-best superhero. It was probably because Tony was a billionaire industrialist who saved the world and my father was gamely ignoring the multitude of issues Tony has, but whatever, I latched onto Tony like a leech nonetheless because of those multitudes of issues Tony has.

I think my father liked to think that he either was similar to Tony or could be like Tony one day – they were both businessmen, after all, and were both outwardly pompous pricks to the public. My father was very pleased when I adored Iron Man/Tony Stark and clearly expected that I would start being amendable to him because of that adoration, except I started waxing poetry about how Tony was so much more than those surface-level masks. He was complex, and full of survivor’s guilt and just plain-old-guilt, and hated his father, and loved so deeply, and cared so deeply, and wanted to change the world for the better instead of destroying it, and he was a socialist, and he believed in women’s rights and was probably bisexual and got pegged by Gamora and-and-and—

Yeah, my father didn’t like Tony Stark very much longer LOL, especially once I got old enough to understand what socialism really was. Worked out for me because I got to nick all of his comics when he tossed them all out in a rage, and a lot of them are worth loads of money now that the MCU is a thing. But anyway.

It's kind of funny, actually, especially since I’m taking something that my biological father weirdly enjoyed despite his extreme conservative puratism and writing extreme BDSM porn about it all the time. I find it very therapeutic and a fun little Fuck You™. What can I say, I’m a spiteful queer. <3

But anyway, I really love Tony for a lot of different reasons, even if the origins for it are a little bittersweet and come from a place of spite lol. He’s just...very complex and I just feel him on a very deep, personal level. Tony is the only character on this list that I can empathise and sympathise with on almost every aspect of his person: he had a horrible and abusive father, had problems with drugs and alcohol, has crippling self-doubt and anxiety, is almost certainly neurodivergent, masks on a daily basis, deals with survivor’s guilt, etc-etc. The only thing that I can’t empathise with is the liking-vagina thing (I am way too queer for that sort of thing haha, though I’d be alright with a woman if she had a prick, hence why I identify as ‘queer’ instead of ‘gay’; trans and NB people are sexy af) and the RT (arc reactor for you MCU fans), but then again, half of my rib cage is metal and my leg is full of pins so...meh??

(3) Hatake Kakashi [Naruto]. My first real introduction into Japanese fandom lmao. My brother and I had watched Dragon Ball with a few classmates but outside of that, I’d had no real exposure to anime or manga because my father banned that sort of thing from the household, and I’m too old for what the younger kids these days are exposed to, like ATLA and Yu-Gi-Oh and all that. I ended up getting a translated sub of the Naruto anime from someone online when I was in university, watched it for the lulz, and ended up tunnelling on the weird half-masked dude who went batshit when his lil baby students were threatened. As you do.

Another one of those events where my lovely little ND brain went nuts. By the time that I had discovered the fandom, Shippūden was just starting to air, but I am incredibly impatient, hate filler episodes, and also hate American puritan bullshit, so I just...decided to scoff the anime and read the manga instead because I read faster plus new languages! Didn’t really anticipate how hard Japanese is though LMAO. Mercifully, translations come out pretty quickly, but I still sort of threw myself into language courses and study and so this fandom is sort of credited for me learning a new language. Can’t really speak it very well, since I never bothered to focus on that avenue and I still haven’t watched the anime haha, but I can read it (albeit with the occasional glance at unfamiliar kanji when I come across it, cos there’s a lot of fuckin kanji holy shit) very well. Language is weird.

Anyway. Kakashi is just awesome and gives off lazy does-not-give-a-fuck energy until someone fucks with his peeps, in which he goes to 9,000 in about half a second flat and decimates everything that moves. And I think that’s very sexy of him. I also have a thing for angst and tortured backstories, in case that wasn’t completely fucking obvious by my everything, so when I tunnelled on him within the first six seconds of watching that first episode and began researching his character, obviously I was like, “Ah shit, this one is gonna be fascinating to read and write fic for, think of all the whump possibilities.” Especially in the Naruto universe, where they send literal toddlers to war, which is batshit crazy and fucking nuts to the extreme – to be able to dig into that sort of worldbuilding and find out how characters would adapt, grow, and develop resilience in that sort of environment is like crack to an angst and smut demon like me, and combined with a backstory like Hatake Kakashi (and Uchiha Itachi, who’s coming up soon enough)?? Yeah, it was inevitable.

Doesn’t exactly help that he also gives of hurt/comfort vibes with all his charges too, and I also tend to gravitate towards those types of characters just as much as ethically grey but morally good characters and/or people with fucked-up backstories. You combine all the above with an aesthetically attractive character and you’ve got yourself a real winner lmao. I’m predictable af.

(4) L Lawliet [Death Note]. L is batshit nuts, let’s just throw that out there early. The manga and manga had been released fully by the time I had registered its existence and, if I recall correctly, I had only picked it up because I saw a piece of fanart on tumblr back in...shit, it must’ve been late 2009, since I started writing my first DN fic after the new year and published the first chapter soon after (that remains my most reviewed fic to date by an obscene amount lmao; don’t even look or check reviews anymore because I’m old and bitter now, but ten+ years ago?? That sweet, sweet validation before fandom imploded and ao3 sprung into existence out of pure necessity and self-preservation by fandom?? Yeah, that was a hell of a time to be alive).

Saw a creepy-looking, but also paradoxically attractive-looking frog man eating sugar cubes and cake like it was covered in bacteria in a ridiculously well-done piece of fanart circulated on the wild-wild-west tumblr, because I’ve been on this hellsite since forever on various blogs (and I’m never fucking leaving it, no matter how hard staff tries to implode it or how many pricks inhabit it, fuck you staff and pornbots and gay-men fetishisers who flood my ask box asking for nudes and shit, go get a therapist). Anyway, as a person who went to school for a stupidly long period of time hyperfixating on parasites, infectious diseases, and pathogens, and how human beings act and respond to said things, I immediately was like, “Oooh, frog man looks like he’s got germaphobia, that sounds like something that is aligned with my interests, what’s this from??”

Did a cursory search and here lies a fandom of a psycho teenager with a g-d complex who quickly enters university (because I generally do not fuck around with secondary school shit, that squicks me out hardcore) after finding a magical notebook that just straight up murders motherfuckers, who is being hunted by a mid-twenties detective who does have germaphobia and autism (like me!) and probably scoptophobia and is probably riding the line of ethical legality with his investigation practises, and oops, looks like I’ve entered Death Note hell.

Like I said, I like ethically grey characters with a firmly good moral code, and L’s doubly interesting because he’s an orphan with a semi-established backstory, which means that you can take liberties with his character to flesh it out to your whims. Which I did. A lot. With a lot of angst and gay, because obviously. There isn’t anything too deep about why I love him like the other three, and there’s probably a lot of fanon and headcanon interpretation that colours why I love him as much as I do, but that’s about the extent of it. I think of L Lawliet and I think of my mammoth story I wrote for him, and all of the love I received for that story, and during a time when fandom was going through a massive upheaval, it was a bright point that I really needed.

(5) Uchiha Itachi [Naruto]. Aesthetically attractive character? Check. Ethically grey and morally good character? Check. Tragic backstory? Check. Hurt/comfort with his charges? ...er, not so much, because his brother is a tool and I hope that psychopathic, abusive, whiny little bitch dies in a fire. But anyway, that’s kind of why Itachi doesn’t rank higher, to be honest lmao. Love this little freak a lot though (especially when he’s getting it on with Kakashi and/or Sakura, but whatever, I have my OTPs in this fandom and I’m old and tired enough to be pretty blasé about the purity police in American shipping culture, which is hilarious considering Naruto worldbuilding because did they even read or watch the manga?? That shit is fucking awful). He’s very queer-coded, like most ‘villains’ are even in Japanese media, and that obviously is of high interest to me, being queer myself.

He also has the demanding father, high expectations on his shoulders, and was understandably insane before he died, but somehow was loyal to averting war and maintaining peace and prosperity?? If I had been him, I would’ve either retired to the sea or watched the world burn so seriously, he deserved so much more than what he got, which was being murdered by his brother (seriously, fuck that bastard). He was also extremely shrouded in mystery even despite the major reveals within the manga, anime fillers, and novels so it was fun as fuck to flesh out his character in fic, not to mention it was obscenely interesting from an epidemiological prospective to dig into his illness in an effort to identify what it was.

Additionally, Itachi is also certainly neurodivergent too, which was obviously relevant to me, and it was also a very unique portrayal since it wasn’t the ‘uwu smol bean who’s good at mathematics or piano awwww’ or the ‘non-verbal, screaming savant’ autism that is so pervasive in media. He was straight-up brutal and violent on occasion, massacred his clan to save his village and brother, and was the consummate spy and master of mind-fucks, and yet he was kind and generous and did everything in his power to stave off something worse, though he ended up failing in the end because of matters out of his hands and because he was only one man. I don’t know, I have a lot of feelings about this man.

I’m still unimaginably bitter about the truly insane amount of fic and meta about him that I lost during the various purges – though I shudder to think about the plethora of anon hate and comments/reviews I’d probably be flooded in today’s purity culture, though admittedly a chunk of my Naruto fic was written in Japanese and, in a smaller number, French so it wouldn’t have had to deal with as much bullshit from American audiences – because the vast majority of it was about Itachi and/or Kakashi in the Naruto fandom. But what can you do?

(6) Draco Malfoy [Harry Potter]. Oooooh boy, where to even start with this arsehole. So. Despite the fact that I want Joanne Rowling to get lost in a distant galaxy and take her bullshit elsewhere, and despite the fact that Strikethrough/Boldthrough and the shipping wars still give me metaphorical nightmares, I have a lot of fond memories of the HP (and Drarry) fandom, and still obviously write for and read that pairing myself. Harry’s alright, I suppose, but Draco’s got a special place in my heart, mostly because I both see myself in him and see what I could’ve been at the same time, if that makes sense, so my love of him is very personal.

He grew up wealthy and privileged and I grew up like that too, albeit Jewish and brown instead of white and magical like Draco is. He grew up with a demanding shit of a father who wanted him to have a wife and an heir, and I grew up with a demanding shit of a father who wanted me to have a wife and a child. Draco was supposed to be exactly like his father, walk the line and talk the talk, follow the doctrine and never step a toe out of his father’s approved line, never think for himself and to think lesser of anyone who was considered weaker or poor or what-have you, and Draco eventually realised (through self-preservation, ambition, and good old fashioned fear) that he needed to pull his head out of his arse, stop parroting his father’s racist dogma, and go against the grain if he was going to survive. I did the exact same thing. Sure, Draco did it through war and I did it through...a very different type of war, but it was the same sort of concept in my head, and I connected to him in a very visceral way when I was younger.

It was a double hit to the gut when I learnt that his wife died post-books (i.e. post-school), because my husband died post-school. But anyway.

But we both also could’ve turned out just like our fathers if things hadn’t gone tits-up, y’know. If the Wizarding War hadn’t happened and Draco hadn’t been forced to choose between saving his mother and his honour as a human being, Draco would’ve probably been a carbon copy of all the Malfoys before him. If I hadn’t gone through what I’d gone through because I’d been born queer and autistic, I would’ve probably been a carbon copy of my father and his father before him. It’s a very sobering and humbling thought.

He’s not perfect, that’s for damn sure, but none of us are, are we? We all have to unlearn shit that we internalise or are indoctrinated to accept as normal when we are children. Draco Malfoy is kind of my little comfort bastard that I get to use as therapy, because in a way I get to live vicariously through him and expunge a lot of nasty shit I am still unlearning, and I’ll always love him for giving me the opportunity to play around in that sandbox in a safe, fictional environment, just as I love playing around with all my other favourite characters in safe, fictional environments regardless of the fucked up, batshit crazy situations I put them through lol.

(7) Viktor Nikiforov [Yuri!!! On Ice]. Viktor is an interesting conundrum, because he’s an infamous ball of sunshine (with the occasional glimpse of serious melancholy or depression, however rare that may be) and that’s not my usual M.O. of favourite characters LMAO. But I am figure skating trash and when Yuri!! On Ice came out, I was on-the-fuck-board with watching that shit for sure. Like. I have a few major, life-will-hit-a-standstill hyperfixations and figure skating is one of them. So when there was a fucking figure skating anime coming out?? Yes please and thank you very fucking much.

I think the reason I love him so much – outside of the fact that he’s aesthetically gorgeous, that is – is because when the anime was airing, I was kind of in a transition phase in my life and was writing a fic I was getting a metric fuck-tonne of hate for, with pretty much zero support system, so I needed a comfort character who was just...really supportive?? Viktor is really supportive, understanding, and patient with Yuuri, who is a fucking anxious disaster of a human, and I guess I just latched onto that at the time. It also helps that his past is a complete blank slate, so it’s absolute fun to headcanon any sort of angsty shit I want. Or kinky shit. It’s really easy to project myself on him because he is the definition of a blank slate, and he’s down for pole dancing and exhibitionism and all sorts of really fun stuff. I just love a guy who’s up to whatever lmao. (Also, I’ve read so much good fic that has just cemented my love of him, seriously, there is some good shit out there, like woah.)

(8) Hermione Granger [Harry Potter]. Hey look, a woman on this list! No, but seriously, listen. Listen. I love her so fucking much. She’s the only member of the Golden Trio that doesn’t drive me bonkers on a regular basis – I love you Harry and Ron, I do, but seriously, I want to strange both of you on the reg – and she might need to learn tact sometimes but she’s the only one who I think has anything resembling common-fucking-sense in that whole damn series. She’s smart, she’s brave, she’s clever, she’s a badarse, she’s stellar at everything she puts her mind to, she doesn’t give a fuck what you think, she’s passionate, she’s willing to be vulnerable and doesn’t think that makes her look weak, and she’s pretty much the only one keeping those two dumb idiots she calls best friends alive most of the time. She’s an interesting case where she grew up ‘normal’, in the sense that she had well-adjusted parents and a well-adjusted home life, but then got thrown into an absolute shitshow of war and all that, particularly a magical war where her best friend was the main target and she was also a main target just because she was Muggle-born.

Muggle-borns were targeted just because they existed, to be tortured and exterminated, and that makes it even more personal for me because I’m Jewish. Almost my entire family was exterminated during the Shoah (Holocaust) and the Occupation of France – I still remember listening to my grand-mère’s story and the tattoo on her arm is seared into my brain to this very day. I still remember all the stories, from her and all the others, some still alive but most gone now. Knowing what my people went through during the Occupation, what my countrymen went through during the Resistance...it is chilling and humbling to think of the parallels of what Muggle-borns like Hermione must’ve experienced and lived through during the Wizarding War, when they were being rounded up and tried in a mockery of a court, sent to prisons and tortured and murdered. How that must’ve weighed on her, the fear of her life and Harry’s life, her parents. I feel that fear every day even now. The parallels of the Shoah and the Wizarding War are very therapeutic to write about, and it’s a way to get my grand-mère’s story out too, because she’s gone now and there’s no one to tell her story to because no one cares to listen anymore. I get to write justice and victory and closure for her people because my family doesn’t get to have that peace – they’re in mass graves and gas chambers and labour factories where influencers and tourists with selfie sticks grin at their iPhones where my people died.

Anyway, Hermione Granger deserves the world, and that’s the fuckin’ tea.

(9) Sebastian Smythe [Glee]. This follows a lot of the same themes as Draco Malfoy, tbh: grew up with privilege and money, was a bit of an arse, blahblahblah, then had a world-changing moment in their life and altered their life for the better. The difference between the two is that Sebastian isn’t as fleshed out as Draco is – there are seven books and a lot of official and unofficial canon material for HP whereas Glee just had Sebastian for about twelve seconds. Still, Sebastian allegedly lived in Paris, which is gross as a person from southern France but is nevertheless France. In addition, he was also canonically gay, canonically kinky (at least verbally but likely in practise too), canonically promiscuous, and canonically unashamed about all those things, which was fucking insane in primetime television about high school students that was hugely popular amongst mainstream audiences in the United States. Seriously, Glee was massive in America.

I never read or wrote any fic centred around secondary school shit because again, that squicks me out, not really because of age stuff but because fuck secondary school, I hated that time of my life and I don’t want to revisit it even in fiction lol. Also, I didn’t go to ‘high school’ in the U.S. and the idea of doing copious amounts of research on the American high school education system is exhausting, ngl, especially since it seems like every single state and every single country and every single district does it differently. You lot are confusing as fuck. Anyway, I like the idea of taking what little we do know about Sebastian and fleshing out his character based off my own experiences growing up in France – though I grew up in superior half because fuck the north and especially Paris – and then making it more angsty lol. A lot of my love for him is because of self-projection, the ability to headcanon and fill in gaps, and because fanon exists, I guess. It’s kind of funny because I don’t particularly find Grant Gustin, the actor, attractive at all, but I find the character attractive, if that makes any sense. I dunno. Anyway, I ship him with Kurt and they can have a lot of kinky sex in between affectionate bickering and sarcastic bitchfests. Those are the best kinds of dynamics imo

(10) Haruno Sakura [Naruto]. Another woman! LMAO. Nah, but seriously, I love her, despite the epic amount of hate she gets in the Naruto fandom (and the horrible treatment she got in the actual source material, don’t get me fucking started). Forgive the crudeness, but I’m a cis guy who’s into sucking prick or getting reamed by said prick, so I don’t usually focus on women in the media I consume, but there’s something about Sakura that I really jived with when I was getting into Shippūden. She was admittedly annoying as hell and airheaded for a boy in the first arc because she had been essentially brainwashed to think that was what girls were supposed to do (g-d, I hate how girls are practically tailored and bred for boys, it’s awful, as a guy I can tell you that we’re all a bunch of morons) but then realised that she needed to pull her head out of her arse, take matters into her own hands, and protect the people around her as well as start cracking skulls open because men are stupid. Which, again, is true.

Sakura is amazing, hands down, and she is absolutely a one-hit badarse. She gets a lot of flak because shippers of their “faves” don’t like that she’s in the middle of their gay ship and that’s literally the only reason they hate her, which is fucking gross as a queer man who’s sick and tired of being fetishised. She cuts a lot of motherfuckers down with her fists, heals the sick and wounded, is wicked smart, doesn’t take any nonsense from anyone, and is just plain cool as hell. Another one of those interesting cases like Hermione in which Sakura comes from humble upbringings, then ended up on a team with a bunch of fucked-up misfits and got thrown in the middle of drama and then a huge war that she was a cornerstone of, and I love being able to dive into what that does to someone like that. It wasn’t as debilitating as Hermione’s situation was, since the entire cornerstone of the Fourth Shinobi World War was about the jinchūriki (like Naruto) and not people like Sakura herself (in contrast to the situation in HP), but it’s still delicious to writers and worldbuilding angst-monsters like me.

I also like fix-it fics, like, a lot, and I hate Sasuke, like, a lot, and the canon material did Sakura dirty by ruining her character development in one sweep by hooking her up with a psychopath who’s canonically an abusive and a megalomaniac, so. I have a lot of fun with that, despite the sheer amount of flames and death threats I get for writing it. Y’know, because people don’t understand nuance or the Three Laws of Fandom, and clearly haven’t read/watched the fucked-up source material that is the Naruto manga/anime. If they had, they’d chill tf out and find another hobby.

Anyway, that's all for this post, and this is the only the tip of the iceberg as to why I love these (fictional) characters. IRL people is a different post altogether. And this also turned into a novel. And personal. Oops. I hope this answered your question at least somewhat...possibly?? It’s a really difficult question and I don’t really connect with a character unless there’s significant emotional and personal attachment, so it kind of goes hand-in-hand, therefore it’s a long response and a bit TMI and Extra™. I’m also-also sorry for any spelling and grammar mistakes; I have to start getting ready for work so I don’t have time to go over it again, English isn’t my first language, and I am in the middle of writing a figure skating AU for stevetony (it’s already at almost 70k and I’m only on chapter two of nine and I’ve only been writing for two months, please send help).

Toodles!

#thanad-zid #ask #rowan answers #sorry this turned into a novel #fandoms and faves #i just really have a lot of thoughts okay?? #i love them a lot #thranduil oropherion #tony stark #uchiha itachi #hatake kakashi #l lawliet #haruno sakura #hermione granger #sebastian smythe #viktor nikiforov #draco malfoy #fandom

[veliseraptor]

Hi....Are there themes about self worth in all of MXTX works? Do you think there are similarities or differences between the characters of MDZS, TGCF and SVSSS? Sorry if you've answered this question before......

oh, I'd say so. to both questions, but I'm going to focus on the former since the latter is a subject that I feel like someone could write a book about.

the thing about MXTX is that she has very definite Things She Is Interested In and she's not particularly subtle about it. all three of her novels feature a protagonist who is, for one reason or another, either convinced they're unlovable (Luo Binghe, to a certain extent Wei Wuxian), or resigned to a certain loneliness and distance between them and other people (Xie Lian).

though I think the interesting thing in TGCF is the fact that the character who most fits that "convinced they're unlovable" is actually Hua Cheng, not Xie Lian; Hua Cheng definitely, obviously has issues with believing himself monstrous and ugly (partly because he grew up with people telling him he was monstrous and ugly) and therefore unworthy of his beloved.

even looking at Shen Qingqiu, though; the level of self-doubt and self-deprecation Shen Yuan expresses in text is pretty high, even if a lot of the time it's couched in humor. in one way or another, MXTX also writes outcasts, people on the fringes in one way or another. (Arguably Shen Qingqiu doesn't fit this mold, but the original Shen Qingqiu certainly does, and so does Luo Binghe. Even Lan Wangji stands in isolation from society at large, though his seems to be at least in part by choice.)

I think there's a particular fantasy, among others, that all of this is leaning into, more than it's specifically saying something "about" self-worth or self-esteem. while I think the outsider/outcast themes that keep cropping up do have a larger thematic importance, I think the recurring self-worth issues are mostly part of the fantasy of the unconditional lover: the person who will do anything and everything for you, utterly devoted no matter what, who loves you even as your worst self, and so on. it's a classic romance trope, and it can be made more powerful when the love interest's judgment differs from the other person's: it's the fantasy of someone else being able to love you even if you struggle to love yourself. while it's certainly not exclusive to MXTX - like I said, classic romance trope - I do see it pretty starkly in all of her work.

#webnovel liveblogging #conversating #thanad zid #lise does meta #(ish)

[fismoll7secinv]

Hi, again....I just want to say, sorry because I've already asked that question (fav books) in your other acc....if you don't mind, can I ask your top fav books/ manga/ manhwa/ anime? Sorry if you've already answered this question before (feel free if you want to answer or not).....Thanks again.....

SORRY I ANSWERED THIS A WHILE AGO BUT SAVED TO DRAFTS INSTEAD OF POSTING AAAAH

Aight so, books were already answered so I'll focus on asian comics and animation. For most of those it’s been many years since I read/watched it, so it may be just my nostalgia speaking xd But here you go nonetheless:

fma (manga and fma brotherhood, the other version of the anime was imo worse), d gray man <3, death note, yuri on ice, soul eater, senyuu (there aren’t many eps so I read the rest and IT’S SO WORTH IT), gintama, pandora hearts, angel beats (cried like a baby), durarara, madoka magica, tengen toppa gurren lagann, mp100 <33

only manhuas/manhwas: 19 days, tamen de gushi, dr frost

‘spooky’ or abstract: jigoku no shoujo, mononoke, ghost hunt, ghost hound or shinreigari (this was fucked up for my teenage self <3), bakemonogatari, shinsekai yori

naruto, kiseijuu, darker than black, detroit metal city, nana, mawaru penguindrum, natsume no yuujinchou, lucky star 😆, ouran high school 😆, no. 6, eyeshield 21

only as mangas: 1/2 prince, hikaru no go (i think it has anime but i didn’t watch)

not asian but MUST be mentioned: atla (avatar the last airbender)

ghibli ofc

Might have forgotten something, just from the top of my head

Recently I’ve been reading The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All and the webtoon version of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint and DAMN im digging both

#ask #thanad zid #ask opinion #shh yzz #IT'S BEEN A FEW MONTHS IM SO SORRY

[baoshan-sanren]

Hi...how are you? If you don't mind me asking what is your top 5 fav danmei novels (until now)? And why? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....

jfhdkhgfdjhdjks I JUST finished Peerless so that’s going first on my list bc I am weak and I WANT MORE

Peerless (无双) by Meng Xi Shi - (jjwxc link) (chapters 1-187) (extras 1-4) (not explicit) I am fckn IN LOVE with this novel. Feng Xiao and Cui Buqu are the most brilliant fucking morons I’ve ever met in my life. This is a slow build of all the slow builds, murder, intrigue, so much stupidity, court dramas, martial arts fights, levels of arrogance that would make even Yan Wushi shake his head (who does show up in a tiny little cameo in one of the chapters). The book is split up in five arcs that allow for a pause in between, if you find 190+ chapters to be too much for a continuous read through, but I would have flown through them in a space of a few days, if life hadn’t turned upside down on me. Now that I’m finally done, I miss these morons more than I’ve ever missed two fictional characters. This novel will def end up in my top five for a long time.

The Wife is First (妻为上) by Lu Ye Qian He - (jjwxc link) (chapters 1-5) (chapters 6-85 ongoing) (explicit) This is still, by far, the most feel-good danmei I’ve ever read. Jing Shao dies, then gets to relive his life all over again from the night of his wedding to Jun Qing. The beginning may be rough for some readers bc Jing Shao, despite getting another chance at life, has nonetheless arrived too late to prevent his first offense against the man he married (can you hear me screaming about hurt/comfort!). But from that point on, he is determined to do things differently, so the story that had been one of misery in his previous life, turns into one of love and devotion (and some very satisfying court scheming) in this one. It is an extremely satisfying read, and the relationship between the two mains, despite its rough start, is so goddamn lovely, I can’t recommend it enough. 

The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System (人渣反派自救系统) by Mò Xiāng Tóngxiù - (physical novel purchase link) (chapters 1-80) (extras 80-98) (chapters 1-53 ongoing) (explicit) Yeah, this is my baby. I’ll admit off the bat I’ve read svsss at least ten times, which is five times more than either tgcf or mdzs. It’s hilarious, frustrating, insightful, feral, infuriating, and pretty fucking amazing, all at once, and all of it overlapping. I’ve written essays upon essays about mxtx’s creative choices in this novel, most of which will never see the light of day. This damn thing is so ridiculously rough on the surface, but svsss, for me, is like a damn onion, and every time I read it, I peel more layers off and find something else new underneath. I fucking love this damn novel, and you will only pry it from my cold dead hands. 

Lord Seventh (七爷) by Priest - (jjwxc link) (chapters 1-5) (chapters 6-7) (chapters 8-32) (chapters 33-76) (extras 1-3) (semi-explicit?) It’s kind of a crime that this is the only Priest novel on this list, but if I can only list five, I’m gonna try and not double up on authors. Highly, highly, recommend this, especially to people who plan to read Faraway Wanderers. Zhou ZiShu’s background doesn’t take up a large part of the story, but the environment in which he thrived at court tells you much more about him as a person than the first fifty chapters of tyk do (and in much more stark terms). Jing Beiyuan is an absolute fucking delight, a man who had reincarnated multiple times, but managed to keep all of his memories of his previous (pretty terrible) lives. His sense of humor is therefore honed to the nth degree, and he is simultaneously a giant gremlin who takes nothing and no one seriously, but is also utterly done with everyone’s shit. Basically a story about being destined to forever be entangled with another person, and then deliberately choosing not to be. I love this goddamn novel to pieces. 

The Husky and His White Cat Shizun (二哈和他的白猫师尊) by Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat - (jjwxc link) (chapters 1-4) (chapters 5-149 ongoing) (heavily explicit) This fucking novel haunts me. It’s been over a year since I’ve read it, and I still sometimes lie awake, staring at the ceiling, wondering about the nature of life, love, forgiveness, and redemption (and then I curse Meatbun to high heaven). I once described reading 2ha as being stuffed feet-first into a wood-chipper for 200 out of 300+ chapters, and I still hold to that description. But this is, hands down, one of the most hauntingly beautiful novels I’ve ever read. To anyone who intends to read it, I highly recommend checking out a detailed list of content warnings first, buying three boxes of tissues, and being ready to have your life ruined for good. 

Once again, I ask those who are willing and able, to buy the original novels and support the authors. (jjwxc buying guide for english-speakers here)

#danmei #novel recs #THANK YOU LOVE! #this was fun! #thanad-zid #ask for ts

[neuxue]

Hi....Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime, books, movies or tv series)? Thanks....

I am so extraordinarly bad at choosing favourites when the categories are so broad. 

So this is uh... less of an actual top 10 and more of a ‘10 that happen come to mind at this particular moment because if I don’t answer this all in one go it’ll sit in my drafts forever taunting me with my inability to come up with a One True List’. With a limit of one per story or author because who am I if I don’t set arbitrary rules for myself.

In precisely no order whatsoever:

Lord Asriel (His Dark Materials) - this guy has strong principles but no scruples, a snow leopard as the external manifestation of his soul, and he turns up in the story like 'hey I'm going to tear open the void between universes to pick a fight with god'. Along with his lovers-to-enemies-to-partners-in-damnation Marisa, an early Formative Favourite and in hindsight says a lot about my taste in characters.

Deth (The Riddle-Master Trilogy) - I have a thing for betrayals - particularly a very specific kind of betrayal - and this is probably where it started.

Nirai Kujen (Machineries of Empire) - I described him elsewhere as an 'immortal, immoral mathematician who traded empathy for the ability to act on it' and I'm really not sure I have anything to add. Except that wow did his whole thing with Jedao hit so very many good-awful id buttons for me.

Baru Cormorant (The Masquerade Series) - c o r r u p t i o n a r c s. She just hits this exact balance of determination, ruthlessness, vicious intelligence, and fractal-like self-destruction that I so often want and don't quite get in characters. There's no softening of the edges here and I'm into that. Also, again, betrayals.

Sheng Lingyuan (《烈火浇愁》/ Lie Huo Jiao Chou) - oh man I haven't even finished lhjc but I think I have to add him here because fuck. Some of it's just the gentle-voiced malice and weaponised courtesy, but a lot of it is the themes of weaponisation and deification and what it means to be created by and for people but never as a person himself, and all the ruthless pragmatism and coldness you'd expect that to engender but a kind of extraordinary idealism you very much wouldn't. Also the war crimes.

Wei Wuxian (《陈情令》/ The Untamed) - it feels weird just picking one MXTX character here, and then I find myself thinking 'wait but is he even my favourite MXTX character' and I'm bad at picking favourites but I'm not sure he is, but at the same time the opening scene of CQL hit me like a freight train and like. Defined most of the fictional content I've consumed ever since. Anyway. It's the arrogance, the power, the aesthetic, the determination to walk a path that can only end in ruin, the ruin, the (self) sacrifice, the flute-murder, and the mercuriality.

Moridin (Wheel of Time) - This idea of a character who believes himself (whether correctly or incorrectly) to be essentially the opposite of a chosen one, the one chosen as the eternal enemy; spun out again and again to give himself to a cause that must lose if the world is to endure. If he plays his ordained role he is the villain and the destroyer, his victory would mean annihilation and his defeat would mean he has to do it all again. But if he doesn’t play his ordained role the whole thing collapses and so what hope is there, for the betrayer of hope?

Kelsier (Mistborn) - it's been a while since I've thought about him but man I love a guy who smiles in the face of utter calamity, whether he's the target or the cause. I love a character whose hunger for power is as much a source of victory as downfall. Who is vicious and cunning and charming and terrible and because of that can do things other characters cannot, and is allowed to be those things, and learn from them without having to relinquish them.

Francis Crawford of Lymond (The Lymond Chronicles) - again haven’t actually finished the series but like. not a saint. An artist in the vivisection of the soul. The fact that he is constitutionally incapable of speaking in prose like a normal person for more than half a sentence, or explaining himself or defending himself to anyone except when pretty much literally dragged kicking and screaming into doing so... but is very much constitutionally capable of physically dragging himself through calamity time and again because fuck you that’s why. Also the whipping scene.

Rin (The Poppy War) - it’s the war crimes and the weaponisation of the divine and the self. Also again the absolute refusal to soften literally any of the sharp edges. Can and will fuck up every living being in the vicinity, including herself, but it’s impossible to look away.

#i'm trying not to feel bad about the fact that there are only two (2) female characters on this list #on another day there'd probably be more #but like. i struggle to pick top 5 or top 10 characters in a /single story/ #you want me to do it across /all of them????/ #i cannot #asks #thanad-zid

[rynne]

Hi, rynne....if you don't mind, can I ask 13, 14, and 22 for the salty ask game? Thanks.....

Hey there! So I could probably use JC for all of these, but I do not want to be a broken record, so I will discuss other things.

13. Unpopular opinion about XXX character?

For this I will return to what made me start writing MDZS meta in the first place and emphasize again that WWX is not oblivious. Considering he started the present day story believing LWJ didn't like him (reasonably, given LWJ's history of rejecting him, fighting with him, and literally calling him an awful person), WWX actually realized their mutual feelings remarkably quickly, within 2-3 months. All those things that people like to make fun of for him, like drunk!LWJ calling him "mine," have similarly reasonable explanations. WWX was not oblivious.

14. Unpopular opinion about your fandom?

Connected to #13, it feels like there's a...remarkable lack of empathy for WWX's journey of self-discovery. People make fun of his "obliviousness" as if every queer person automatically understands and can accept their own attractions. I was in my mid-twenties before I realized I was ace. My best friend came out to me as bi earlier this year, in our mid-thirties. A lot of people don't know this about themselves for a lot of different reasons, and mocking WWX for not knowing immediately just feels very...unkind.

22. Popular character you hate?

It would be so easy to mention a Jiang, but...JGY. His motives are understandable, but...cool motive, still murder, basically. And the Villainous Friends extra shows that he feels a lot less remorse for his murder than people seem to want to recognize. It's not that circumstances push him into it, it's that he finds it an acceptable resolution for his circumstances. And like, in the Guanyin Temple confrontation, it's like he and JC are competing for how utterly self-centered someone can be while having a breakdown about being caught with their bad deeds.

#mdzs #thanad-zid #salty ask game #asks #ooops a little jc salt still got in there

[aspoonofsugar]

Hi...how are you? If you don't mind me asking who are your favorite siblings' relationship in anime/movies/tv series? Sorry if you've answered this question before......

Hello!

Here is my list in no particular order.

1) Nina and Johan (Monster)

Their relationship is very interesting and complicated and it basically deconstructs the bond between twins and the trope of the good twin and evil twin (which is what makes it acceptable for my friend @hamliet <3<3<3).

The two twins were never treated as children and as a result they developed an extremely frail sense of self and kind of a symbiotic relationship. In particular, Johan decided to become Nina’s coping mechanism, a sort of living Jungian Shadow of her. The result is a disaster and the two siblings ended up hurting each other.

Still, their recovery goes through uncovering their shared past and the past they do not share. It is a path of self-discovery and forgiveness.

2) Zuko and Azula (ATLA)

Theirs is a tragic bond. They are two abused children who turn into two troubled teenagers. They are pitted one against the other by their abuser and in the end they are not able to overcome how their upgringing has shaped their relationship (at least in the show proper).

They are also two different answers to abuse and even if just Zuko is able to change for the better, Azula is still shown empathy.

In particular, they have opposite problems when it comes to their feelings. Zuko’s feelings explode and this is why he lacks control of his fire. Azula instead represses all her feelings to have perfect control. However, in the end it is necessary to aknowledge one’s emotions and to face them to truly reach harmony.

3) Soren and Claudia (The Dragon Prince)

In my opinion, Soren and Claudia (together with their father Viren) are the two best written characters in the series (as for now) and the main reason I got invested in it.

Soren and Claudia’s bond is one of mutual affection and trust. However, it is being challenged by the toxic influence their father has on both. They both risk to lose themselves to the flaws they very clearly inherited from Viren. Moreover, their different reactions to their father’s spiral has created a rift between them.

I love how they are both shown at their best and at their lowest points because of that same trait that, if well balanced can save them. Soren risks to lose himself to the desire to prove he is a good royal guard. Still, later on is that same desire that leads him to make the right thing. Claudia is his inversion. She is shown doing the right thing out of love, but then she spirals for that same love.

Still, I think that in the end they will be there for each other.

4) Krel and Aja (Tales of Arcadia)

Krel and Aja’s arcs are powerful and complementary. They both start thinking they are meant to be what the other will become in the end.

Krel starts as more responsible towards his role as Prince and shows disdain and discrimination towards Earthlings.

Aja initially wants to run away from her role and enjoys her normal life on Earth.

However, by the end Krel is the one who discovers himself through his relationships on Earth, while Aja finds herself a queen.

It is this paralleled and inverted structure together with the siblings’ complementarity and the strong bond they share that make them such good protagonists.

5) Hargreeves siblings (The Umbrella Academy)

They are all disasters and this is why their family is the best.

I love how after years spent avoiding each other, they still very clearly love each other and see each other as family. Despite being already adults, they are all still children when the story begins and they need to face each other to heal and truly grow.

I also like how each sibling has their own well defined personality and how each bond is different.

Luther and Diego have a rivalry.

Allison is everyone’s big sis and Luther’s love interest.

Vanya is estranged from everyone, but she develops a strong bond with Allison and is shown to get along with Five.

Five adores all his siblings, but often does not care for their individual needs.

Klaus is loved, but also underestimated by the others and he shares a special bond with Ben.

All in all, the family dynamic is very well flashed out and I think this is why the show works so well.

6) Zoldyck siiblings (HxH)

I love love love the Zoldyck Family and I love how all the other four siblings clearly foil Killua aka one of the MC. His two older brothers are who Killua must not become (an assassin like Illumi or dependent and unable to leave home like Milluki). Kalluto and Alluka are instead who Killua needs to save from the family. At the same time, Alluka, Kalluto, Milluki and Illumi all foil each other or have the potential to do so. They are all pretty different people and their dynamics are dysfunctional, but also entertaining to watch.

7) Schneeblings (RWBY)

This trio’s dynamic might be less central to their series than the other examples. Still, they are all pretty flashed out and their interactions are funny to watch.

The Schnee siblings have all reacted differently to their abusive environment. Still, they all share a warm heart behind a cold exterior. It is telling that they all work together to save Atlas and it is telling they all break free from their abusive home life also because of the others.

Winter inspires Weiss to leave and Weiss inspires Whitley to use his power for good. They make a virtuous chain of sibling love.

8) Kirishima siblings (TG)

Ayato and Touka’s backstory is one of my favourite parts of TG. It is interesting to see how they both changed in ways that turned them into their antithesis, but that are also consistent with the personalities they show as small children.

It is heartbreaking to see how close they were as children and how much they have grown apart as teenagers. Still, their bond remains strong and they still clearly love each other. Touka used to protect Ayato as a child and Ayato is trying to protect Touka now that he has grown. Still, he goes at it in the worst way possible.

SPECIAL MENTION: The Gandor brothers (Claire included) from Baccano! I just love how surreal their interactions are!

Thank you for the ask!

#nina forner #johan liebert #azula #zuko #soren tdp #claudia tdp #krel tarron #aja tarron #hargreeves siblings #zoldyck family #schneeblings #ayato kirishima #touka kirishima #thanad-zid #asksfullofsugar #chain of faves #gandor brothers #claire stanfield

[spockandawe]

Hi, spockandawe, thank you for answering my ask....If you don't mind me asking, what are your favorite moments from svsss (top 5 or top 3)? And why? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....

Oh, this........... this is a difficult question, which I’ve been pondering hard. I acknowledge completely that svsss is a less well-crafted novel than mdzs and tgcf, but I also love it very very much, even though I know it’s like. Junk food. I will live on a diet of junk food and love the whole experience, thank you very much.

Let’s see. Lord, this is going to be hard XD

5. I think I will say upfront that the 79 extras are going on this list, but I can’t bring myself to pick out anything specific, because I love the knowledge, but also they hurt me terribly much to read :( I was already screaming about Shen Jiu by the end of the book, but by the time I realized this was the canon timeline for Shen Jiu, and realized all the ways his (limited) healthy coping mechanisms were being turned against him...... they hurt me a Lot. I could scream about these extras for days. They live rent free in my head. I also don’t wanna read them again because I’m horribly fragile :(((

4. Liu Qingge and Shen Qingqiu’s succubus adventure. Look. I don’t have very elevated tastes. I’m a woman of simple needs, I just live for Shen Qingqiu getting his fortune told about who the great love of his life will be, thinking ‘hmmm, can’t think of any women who fit this description’ while Liu Qingge is like ‘wait, he’s going to marry the hottest person in the world? but? that’s ME????’ I want these two dumbasses on their dumbass adventure getting accidentally dosed with sex pollen and dealing with it by kicking each other into a convenient pond. They’re clowns, your honor. I love them so much.

3. Shen Qingqiu’s first suicide! It took my WAY off guard my first time reading, and I still find the whole build incredibly tense and delicious, especially with the mounting pressure of how powerful Luo Binghe is and how far his influence reaches, seeing him invading Shen Qingqiu’s dreams and steering the currents of the mob justice and wondering what the heck Shen Qingqiu is going to do..... and then THIS! Oh my goodness! At least part of my enjoyment comes from knowing the emotional fallout that waits in/after the five year gap, but it’s so fantastic seeing Luo Binghe at his angriest and most resentful, watching Shen Qingqiu accidentally stir up that anger and resentment even further and not realizing because he’s frightened, and seeing it all fall apart and come crashing down on Luo Binghe’s head. Luo Binghe just... suffers very beautifully.

2.  I find the climactic (hurr hurr) sex scene really, really compelling, even though it’s intentionally terrible sex. The whole buildup to seeing Luo Binghe following Shen Qingqiu around a collapsing mountain range, in the middle of a massive qi deviation, is massively creepy, and then when he snaps back to himself and sees what he’s done and the way that he’s hurt Shen Qingqiu, and realizes that Shen Qingqiu is killing himself, again, to save Luo Binghe, even though it’s the last thing in the world he wants... The way he asks why Shen Qingqiu didn’t just kill him instead......... God, the panic is palpable, and it just GETS me, every single time. I don’t have the power to remain unmoved in the face of this scene, haha.

(honorable mention moment to Luo Binghe thinking Shen Qingqiu abandoned him in the mausoleum and backtracking hard once he realizes Shen Qingqiu is horribly injured and barely standing, and also to the thicket of kisses back in the bamboo house. OH, and to the dream extra where we see Luo Binghe taking care of Shen Qingqiu’s body. AH, AND THE ABYSS SCENE. This book has a lot of moments I love!!!! I also feel bad there wasn’t room for moshang on this list!)

1. And I think my absolute favorite moment is also the pinnacle of Luo Binghe’s on-screen suffering, Shen Qingqiu accidentally helping Liu Qingge with a corpse heist. Luo Binghe is cold and unfriendly and is NOT putting on one of his nice faces, and he’s just so miserable! Look at him! Look at how sad he is! Look at him stubbornly hanging on to his last thread of hope after five years of suffering! He converted his bedroom to an icebox so he could preserve Shen Qingqiu’s corpse and pour spiritual energy into it for years, plural, in hopes of someday, somehow, getting his shizun back! He’s had no opportunity for closure, has only been abandoned and told that he is, by nature, unacceptable, he’s seen the shizun who hurt him deeply run from him and act against him and fear him, then before that fresh hurt had much time to set in, he also saw his shizun kill himself to save him! His primary face isn’t that of the sweet-faced manipulator of pidw, he’s angry and hurting and closed off and exhausted, and Shen Qingqiu, in his new body, gets to see a side of him that Luo Binghe would have hidden from him if he’d known he was there to see it. There’s something about that exhaustion, specifically, that comes through very strongly for me in this scene, and I could just read this part of the book over and over and over.

#spock replies #svsss #shen jiu #shen qingqiu #liu qingge #bingqiu #luo binghe #suicide cw/ #even if it didn't stick #thanad-zid

[miyakuli]

Thanks for answering my ask ....If you don't mind me asking (again), who are your favorite romantic relationship's couples in books/ manga/manhwa/ anime/movies/tv series (can be canon or non-canon)? Sorry if you've answered this question before....

Hello again <33 and sorry for the late, it's hard for me during weeks to reply after work *so tired* =v=

Woo so many different medias haha I'm gonna try to give my fav ships for all <3

Manga/Anime :

Makoharu from Free!

Kurofai from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle

Victuuri from Yuri on Ice

Ranma x Akane from Ranma 1/2

Kawoshin from Evangelion

Royai from Fullmetal Alchemist

Manhua (I count chinese webtoons too!!) :

Wangxian from Mo Dao Zu Shi

Hualian from Tian Guan Ci Fu

Jianxi & Tianshan from 19 days

Cartoon :

Lumity from The Owl House

Korrasami from Avatar

Stolitz from Helluva Boss

Sheith from Voltron

Books :

Remus x Tonks from Harry Potter

Ralph x Lois from Insomnia

TV shows :

Barney x Robin from How I Met Your Mother

Lynette x Tom from Desperate Housewives

Sherlock x John from Sherlock

Jack x Sam from Stargate SG1

Movies :

Hauru x Sophie from Howl's Moving Castle

Jake x Neytiri from Avatar

Belle x "Beast" from Beauty and the Beast

Video Games (I add this one xD) :

Clearao from Dramatical Murder

Cloti from Final Fantasy 7

Violentine from The Walking Dead

Phoenix x Hunter from Ace Attorney

Phewwwwwwww that wasn't easy xD I hope it'll be enough for you haha <3

#tbh for movies I wanted to put a lot of disney couples but it would be too much XDDD #ask #thanad zid #personal

[curiosity-killed]

Hi......Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be books, anime, movies or tv series)? Thanks....

OOF this is as hard as getting asked what my favorite book is XD

uhh okay this is NOT comprehensive but here are ten of my favorite characters

1. Xie Lian

2. Miranda from Station Eleven

3. Martin the Warrior from the Redwall series

4. Steve Rogers

5. Aragorn

6. Dustfinger from the Inkheart series

7. Shiro from VLD

8. & 9. Blue and Red from This Is How You Lose the Time War

10. Marjan from Shadow Spinner

#see if you ask my /least/ favorite character #i know that in a heartbeat #but #i'm TERRIBLE at remembering things i've read/watched ajdlg #also it goes in cycles #so like i like xl and wwx more than any marvel characters rn #but like #good ol' martin was a super critical character to my growing up and stories #even tho i haven't read a redwall book since i was 10 ;A; #so #anyway i'm definitely missing characters here lmao #i don't know #aaaaahhhh #i did just stare at my bookshelf hoping for inspiration #only to realize most my novels are back home D: #asked & answered #thanad-zid

[pumpkinpaix]

Hi, pumpkinpaix....don't know if you remember, but I've asked before of your top 5 fav mxtx characters, and you've answered them. If you don't mind me asking, can I ask you, why you like those characters? Sorry, if I ask you similar question again......

hey, no problem!! :D I like talking about my favorite fictional people haha. since 15 characters is a bit much, I’m gonna just take a sample of the top four out of the 15. :)

1. Lan Xichen

I think most everyone following me at this point knows that I am always on my lxc defense thesis bullshit, but: look. i’m defensive of him! I love him! and I think that he occupies a really tragic and important place in the narrative. I remember I said before somewhere that I think there are three characters that are portrayed to be paragons of virtue/goodness within mdzs and all three were met with tragedy: jiang yanli, xiao xingchen, and lan xichen, but that the tragedy isn’t meant to show that kindness only meets with tragedy, or that kindness is always naive, or that kindness is stupid--I think it’s meant to show that kindness is not always rewarded because life is not a fair game. however! that doesn’t mean that kindness is useless! again, just--kindness is not always rewarded, but its absence devastates. that’s something we see again and again: if only people had been kinder to jin guangyao or xue yang or whatever etc etc. perhaps things wouldn’t have turned out the way they did. I think that’s a something the narrative says pretty explicitly. what could these people have been if they had been afforded a fair shot? what could these people have been if others had acted more like jiang yanli, or xiao xingchen, or lan xichen?

anyways, I also find that lan xichen is often held to incredibly bizarre standards that don’t plague jiang yanli or xiao xingchen, and it feels telling in some way about how we (speaking from an american?? perspective i think) think about and treat the concept of compassion. that being compassionate is stupid and foolish and idealistic and exasperating. that being jaded and bitter is somehow a mark of intelligence and worldliness. I care very much that lan xichen isn’t that -- that he’s an incredible cultivator, warrior, sect heir, that he’s respected by everyone! but that even in all of that, he chooses to continue acting kindly.

this isn’t well-worded, but like. you get the idea. also: he is Big Relate, what with his intense eldest daughter syndrome, conflict resolution strategies, and the way he struggles with and makes his moral decisions. in his position, I would have made pretty much all the same choices in mdzs as he did for very difficult and upsetting reasons. i just. lov him ok.

2. Xie Lian

tbh, just take a look at this post aslkdjf. my love for xie lian is adjacent to my love for lxc, with the added bonus of: xie lian is capable of immense, terrible cruelty as well. if lan xichen is about the need for kindness in the face of an imperfect world, then I think xie lian is about the sheer cost of it. what does it take to be kind when you want to be cruel? when you have every reason to be cruel? when you have the means to do great harm? ugh. 

3. Yin Yu

god, how do I start with yin yu? yin yu really exemplifies, to me, how intensely complicated your feelings towards something or someone can be. I think that his deep hatred for quan yizhen is just as real as his very deep love for him, and that the existence of both at the same time is a constant torment. for me, someone who struggles A Lot with holding complicated feelings towards people (my brain DESPERATELY wants to put things in a “good” or “bad” box and when something is complicated it tends to self-destruct), i really loved seeing that kind of... intense conflict? in a character. because there’s no part that ever says he’s ACTUALLY just resentful or he’s ACTUALLY just loving. no part of his emotional turmoil is a untrue, but so what? so i resent him, so what? why should I choose to act on that emotion rather than another? idk. it’s a choice. and yin yu makes it. ugh. god i love him.

4. Gongyi Xiao

he is Simply Best Boy. [spoilers for SV] I think what I really like about gongyi xiao is that he’s.... like, quite simple in his motivations? he's just like. a Good Guy. he’s talented! in any other situation, he would be the protagonist of his own story. he’s not bitter about losing, he’s diligent, hardworking, kind. he’s disappointed if he fucks up, but he also tries his best. idk he’s just like! he’s just sweet. I like that a lot. and i also, in a weird way, really like his death. it’s so inconsequential. why was he killed? because he was there. because it was convenient. a boy talented enough to be a protagonist in his own right, but his story ends offscreen, without drama, without fanfare, and for so little reason. that’s a different kind of tragedy. you know that bit in the adventure zone?? not all exits are equal? sometimes, it just happens. idk. it really got to me, to learn that gongyi xiao died for no reason, alone, unaware, unexpectedly, and then to never hear of him again. gah.

#aaaAAAAAA #i just love them!!! i love!!! them!!!! #lan xichen #xie lian #yin yu #gongyi xiao #mxtx #mdzs #tgcf #svsss #cyan dlc #thanad-zid #asks and replies #mine #mymeta

[lansizhuis]

Hi.....If you don't mind me asking, who are your favorite MXTX characters (top 5 from each novel)? And why? I'm sorry if you've answered this question before.

hi! biggest apologies on a super late reply (i only logged back in rn whelp) —

and ahh fav?? hmm i think 5 from each is a lot bc while i do like almost all the chars, it takes quite a big thing for me to consider them as a “fav” so i’ll just give my top 5 overall haha

5. SHEN QINGQIU (svss): there’s something about his ability to compartmentalize and yet still have empathy that i love. it’s also how he learned from his past mistakes and continued on to be better (a journey he shares very well w/ LBH) that made me love his character.

4. LAN JINGYI (mdzs): my sunshine, my son, my favorite coined term of “the most un-lan lan in the history of lans” — imma give an abridged version and it’s basically how he stays true to himself no matter what and the idealism that still sticks w/ is fascinating to see if it’ll hold up once he grows older. (i made a gush post about him before lemme dig that up and reblog hah)

3. XIE LIAN (tgcf): ohgoood there’s something about characters who were so high up and then fell so damn low but managed to pick themselves up that speaks to my core?? it was so nice to witness his story from the idealisms of his youth, how time & experience made him realized how everyone is but a speck in the wide universe, and how he coped w/ what he can control whilst not losing who he is along the way.

2. WEI WUXIAN (mdzs): my og faaav!! i absolutely love shameless mcs that are confident af and very capable on a specific thing but a mess on everything else aka that fits him perfectly. it’s mostly about his resilience (from an orphan, losing his home multiple times, decorated as the big bad villain, etc) and how his kindness was there at his core that he won’t let injustice pass but without the annoying idealism of typical shounen protags. he really deserved that second chance. /sobs

1. SHI WUDU (tgcf): and ofc the man, the myth, the legend in my eyes haha i believe i also made a post gushing why exactly i love him but abridged version here — he was an extremely fascinating character!!! was what he did to he xuan wrong? yes! would a lot of us have done the same thing to save the one we love, the one we consider our world, the one we raised? also, interestingly, yes! [incoherent screams] i have so much to say about him but hhhnnggg lemme just slide the character exploration fic i have of him as a summary lmao

#answers #thank you so much for this amazing q!!! #thanad-zid