#yes i am calling out the entire persona fandom.

[tallulah477]

Below the cut contains my thoughts and feelings about certain issues that I've seen recently that I feel like need to be addressed including hate/bullying, the new Neteyam & Lo'ak rp blogs, and the general fandom as a whole.

CW:// Mentions of pedophilia, predators, racism, and homophobia

Over the past several months, and especially over these past several days, it's come to my attention that we as a fandom need to make some things abundantly clear.

I was a silent reader for a long time. I love Avatar and this fandom with my entire heart and I wanted nothing more than to be an active part of it and member of the community, but the thing that stopped me for a long time was seeing how hateful people can be and I wasn't sure if I could handle it. Obviously, I decided that my happiness and sharing my love for Avatar and the characters with other people who love it as much as I do is more important than any nasty messages I might get and I couldn't be happier with my decision. I think I can safely say that most of us here in the fandom can say the same (although I'm sure the feeling of happiness comes with endless ebbs and flows for all of us).

That being said, the amount of sheer bullshit that I've been seeing on here is ridiculous.

The amount of hate messages that I've had to witness my mutuals receive is unacceptable. The amount of hounding as to why someone unfollowed this person, why aren't they interacting with this person anymore, why would someone write something like this, why won't you write this, is crazy to see. I've seen racist comments, I've seen homophobic comments, and I've seen people being called a pedophile wayyyy to often now.

This is Tumblr. We are responsible for our own media consumption. We cultivate our own media experience.

That means authors write what they enjoy regardless of content as long as they are responsible and tag the work correctly. You as the reader are responsible for heeding those warnings.

This means that if two people who used to interact or follow each other all of a sudden don't or someone gets blocked, it is no one's business as to why it happened. They don't owe you an explanation and there's no need to publicize drama. Do not go into their inboxes asking for details because all that does is feed the flames.

This is supposed to be people's happy place. Our safe space. And instead it seems like there's something new happening every single day.

At this point, we've all seen the rp blogs that have popped up. I'm not generally someone who enjoys rp so I didn't interact, but I saw a ton of my mutuals and others having a great time with them. Despite me not liking rp, it was exciting to see at first. A live persona of one of my most beloved characters interacting with fics that I love? Yes, it's definitely exciting to see!

But then it got not so exciting to see. The responses seemed solely sexual and out of character for Neteyam, a lot of them were really dark and borderline violent. I like dark fics, and I love dark Neteyam. But there are warnings to every dark fic and you go into them knowing what to expect. For a blog that's rp-ing a character that's not canonically like that, it was concerning to see.

We've had issues in this fandom in the past with predators. And despite us all being adults here (at least we should all be), you can never be too careful when it comes to the internet. I am NOT saying that the people running these blogs are predators, but certain things I've seen have raised some flags to me. Rp can be really dangerous when people don't know who's behind the character, especially if things are sexual. Since then, both blogs have created 'About Me' sections which I think is good. So that's something I appreciate.

However, we've also had the opposite problem in which minors interact with us and our content. It's a huge problem that we are constantly trying to battle because while seeing/reading sexual content can be harmful for those who are underage, it's can also get us into a lot of trouble for interacting with minors even if we don't know they're underage. When the accusation that the rp accounts were minors came out, they were sent asks to confirm. One responded respectfully and one, in my opinion, responded not so respectfully. If you are ever asked if you are a minor, don't get pissed about it. It's an important question and you should understand and respect its importance. Just clarify.

I'm saying all this not because I don't think people should interact with these blogs if you want to. It's 100% up to you and I know a lot of people were having fun with it. You're all adults, do what you think is best. And I do think it would be really nice to have more guys in the community, whether they rp or not. My issue with them is more about safety than anything else.

Now back to the hate comments. For any issues I might have had with the Neteyam blog (again, no hate, just my own thoughts), I only ever saw the Lo'ak blog being respectful. Yet, I still saw someone on their actual blog, not under anon, telling him "can't you just leave?". Under no circumstances is it okay to say this to another person. Any one who is an active member of this community who posts fics or the like KNOWS what its like to receive hateful comments like this and you think its okay to say something like this to someone else? No way. I'm sure you know what it feels like to get comments like that and you decided to be nasty to another person anyway. You should know better. Anyone who can say something mean to or about another person should be ashamed of themselves.

For as much as I love this fandom, this is insane that I actually have to say this.

Be kind. Be respectful.

And if you can't?

It's called the block button, people. Use it.

#𝑻𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒆 𝑻𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒔 ♡

[poeticpains]

Does anyone else ever think about how fucked up it is that the setup of Escape the Night has us talking about who "deserved" it?

You see it in the fandom, and in the show itself, too — where there's discussions about who "pulled their weight" or who did the most for the team, with the implication that those who didn't deserve...what? A horrible, lonely death? To never see their families and loved ones again?

"I'm going to vote for [X], because they didn't pull their weight," is literally saying that someone being foolish, oblivious, and/or lazy is a mistake that should be punished by death.

Or the fandom, as they say that, "[X] wasn't doing very well, so they deserved to be put into that challenge."

And, look, I do not legitimately believe that anyone in the fandom or the show would ever be okay with someone dying because they couldn't figure out a riddle — I'm one of the ones screeching about how your fannish participation is not morality, and what you enjoy in fandom, or say about fictional characters (or fictional personas of real people) is not, in any way, reflective of your actual beliefs. Let me be abundantly clear: it doesn't matter to me who you think "deserved" to die, because nobody died, and at the end of the day, it's a fake web series.

...But that doesn't change that I think Escape the Night is a perfect encapsulation of the way that manipulation works on humans. As they say,

“1. Man is a MORAL animal. 2. You can get human beings to do anything — IF you convince them it is moral. 3. You can convince human beings anything is moral.” — Frank Bidart

In ETN, and especially in Season 3, the guests were convinced that voting people to die was the morally correct option. After all, world annihilation (and their own life) was on the line. Isn't that worth a little blood on your hands?

But it's hard to convince your average person that killing other people (or sentencing them to death, I suppose), if those people are otherwise innocent of severe crimes, is moral. So the situation sets it up using two things that are highly prized: merit and fear.

The fear is the easier option to discuss; it's the same point I made earlier regarding world annihilation and their own lives. (And, of course, it's easier to control scared people than it is to control people who have their wits about them. Manipulation 101.)

Merit, of course, is the entire point of this post. Many of us, I would hazard a guess, grew up with the American justice system, wherein death is an appropriate punishment for certain things. In ETN, that category is just stretched a little wider. Someone missed a clue? Well, they must be stupid — so they deserve to die.

And yes, I am defining voting someone in as tacitly saying that they deserve to die, because that is the unspoken consequence that could happen to anyone who was voted in.

Anyways, back to merit. Before every death challenge, barring the special ones, like the Witch's Challenge in S3, there's literally a discussion where the guests are supposed to defend themselves and prove that they helped. And if the court of public opinion decides you didn't? Well, off to the chopping block with you, my friend — your performance was unsatisfactory, and therefore you deserve to be beaten to death/buried alive/whatever terrible fate awaits them that episode.

But isn't that absurd, when you think about it like that? It's like having a shitty coworker that never responds to emails and takes 45 minute lunches. That's basically it. That's what these people are dying for.

Literally everyone on the show is guilty of this, even fan favorites like Matthew, so it's not like I'm trying to call guests out, or anything. I just think it's a really fascinating look into the way that humans can be manipulated into being willing to kill other humans.

Maybe someday I'll write something more in-depth on this.

#escape the night #etn #etn s3 #escape the night season 3 #etn season 3 #escape the night meta #etn meta #my meta

[echoinghowls]

Why Dream has a healthier fanbase than JSchlatt: and why that sentence can never be true.

Continued beneath the cut...

Reason 1

Dream can't tell his audience "no".

This isn't completely true, I'll admit. He's very good about calling his audience off of his friends, and minimizing damage caused by his fanbase.

However, what I am talking about is the reason they have to be called off in the first place.

Dream has said yes to/ allowed:

Shipping between himself and friends

Smut (of him and his friends)

Fans (after his face reveal) to post his face/ make it their pfp

People to dedicate their entire life and personality to him

Basically, Dream just REALLY needs to set some boundaries. Of course it doesn't have to be a lot, having a super big/ active fandom must be fun (if a little scary)! BUT some healthy boundaries could be:

No Smut (people will make it anyways with shipping. at least someone won't show up IN REAL LIFE wearing a shirt of him FUCKING HIS BEST FRIEND)

Don't buy the L'Manburg flag (not only is it merch that all of the people of l'manburg could have sold together, but when people are treating it as another pride flag I think that's too far. ((Think of how a "Classic American" who loves the American flag thinks/ feels and multiply it by at least 10. that is how some of these fans are.)))

After his face reveal, ask people not to plaster his face everywhere. He didn't show it at first for his own reasons, and I can't imagine what it was like going from nothing to it being everywhere at once. That had to be overwhelming, and yet as far as I'm aware he said nothing.

Not everything he says is true! DEAR GOD!! People need to stop treating everything he says like it's religion!!!! Like, he's a great guy and a good content creator but seriously!!! Let him make a joke sometimes!!

Irl and Online are seperate things. I feel like Dream's fans aren't aware of that?? Like, Dream only shows you what he want's you to see. Like in his face reveal video, he sat at an angle the entire time. For no reason other than that was probably how he liked it the most! Because he didn't want to show us his other angles yet! And his videos? edited. shit cut out that he thought might offend people/ hurt people's feelings, or most likely because it was boring. Can you imagine how differently you would view him if you hung out with him as just another person? Imagine meeting Dream irl before the face reveal, and you don't know it's him and you guys spend a day together. You would probably not like him as much as you do online!! Because it's a persona!! Because it is so incredibly toxic to put every part of yourself online!!! Let him have some privacy and NOT ASSUME YOU KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT HIM!!!

Anyway.

You're probably wondering "why JSchlatt of all creators? he's the opposite of Dream!"

No, I don't think so. I think he just has boundaries. If he didn't like something someone in his audience said, he made a point of saying how much he dislikes the joke and, after poking a but of fun at him, his fans stop.

Because they respect Schlatt.

Dream's fans don't respect him, they obsess over him.

Remember when Schlatt mass banned people with a Dream SMP name from his chat?

He probably did that because it was funny.

But also because he didn't want people who don't respect a content creator's privacy/ humanity to be in his chat/ audience.

TL:DR,

Dream needs to set boundaries so that his fandom will respect him instead of turning him into some kind of God.

Also Schlatt is funny and says "no" to his audience all the goddamn time and nobody cares because they all respect him.

#dsmp #dream #jschlatt #dream smp #I really hope dream fans read this #at least one #I'm using these tags to get you to read this #if you have jschlatt muted you are the cause of the problem

[melpomaen]

Blorbo ask game!

Tagged by: @elithilanor

I've been making Haldir headcanons lately so he is the lucky blorbo today woo

What is your blorbo’s:

1. Favorite season?

He's fond of Spring. The weather is fair, the land is in bloom, and travel is easy. All of the seasons have their merits in his eyes, though.

2. Favorite food?

Fish 🐟

3. Favorite plant or herb?

Elanors and other flowers that look like stars

4. Favorite person/being?

His brothers, without a doubt. I hc that his father died in service to Lorien and his mother sails shortly after, leaving him to watch over his brothers. As a result, Orophin and Rúmil often feel more like his children to him.

5. Favorite place?

The answer changes as he ages. When he was young he would say Lorien. After the War of the Ring he would say something along the lines of wherever his friends and people are.

6. Favorite animal?

Birds 🐦

7. Favorite drink?

Dry mead. All the better if it's on the stronger side.

8. Favorite hobby/activity?

He enjoys reading and/or listening to poetry, stories, and songs. I hc he learns his first bits of Westron from songs and stories Lindir and others in Rivendell share with him here and there. Lindir insists he at least become conversational in it because the more avenues one has to eavesdrop the better.

9. Do they like to read? If so, favorite genre?

He enjoys poetry. He has some books of it that his mother left the brothers before she sailed that he revisits from time to time. I think he enjoys poems about land and nature the best. He appreciates a lament but sometimes it's the last thing he wants to read during his free time.

10. Do they like to dance?

Yes! He's not usually one to dance all night, but he'll dip in and out of dances throughout if there's dancing going on.

11. What is their favorite room in the house?

I haven't figured out how many rooms his house has yet but his favorite spot in it is by one of the windows. He keeps some nice furs and skins (as well as a couple of less nice ones from some of Rúmil and Orophin's first hunts) to lay on near by. He tends to take to the floor to read or decompress.

12. Favorite place to travel to?

It depends on the Age. In his younger years: it's a toss-up between Rivendell and Mirkwood. As far as the traveling itself goes, he finds the journey to Mirkwood more straightforward. He's not a fan of crossing mountains. Post the fading of Lorien: Rhovanion is still his preferred geographical region. Traveling to other places is well and all. He enjoys it and he's good at it. But at this point, the destination doesn't matter much to him as long as people he loves are there. The real problem is that the place that he called home for his entire long life doesn't exist anymore. His people are moving or leaving Middle Earth all together and it takes him some time to find his footing in the wake of that.

13. Who is their best friend?

Lindir,* occasionally against his better judgement. They seem like opposites to others at times, but in many ways they're two sides of the same coin. Lindir is more extroverted and Haldir more reserved. In private, however, they're comfortable enough to let their respective walls down; Haldir talks more freely and Lindir is content to retire his performer's persona and listen. They trade stories often, but are just as content to share an evening in silence. They have excellent banter. Haldir has a dry sense of humor and a sharp tongue; he tamps it down in public, especially when he's on business in other elven realms. Lindir has no such reservations and has made a sport out of attempting to needle Haldir into a slip-up during dinners. *I am LotR fandom old so as a note, Lindir as in 2000s fanon Lindir who is a minstrel and a separate character from Figwit/Melpomaen

14. Favorite bioregion?

His stomping grounds are Rhovanion. A good deal of Haldir's duties eventually include bringing messages, gathering news, scouting, ect. The blue area is where I imagine his area of operation mostly lies at the end of the third age, but the green is where he's most in his element. He loves the area immensely, the forests and rivers especially.

15. Choose one for them: wine, beer, cider, hard liquor, or none?

Beer when he's traveling, wine when he's not.

Tagging @oracleofimladris @parma-formenorion @orophin-of-lothlorien @legendariium @helreginn @tarantula-hawk-wasp to blorbo if they so please or whatever the kids say these days

#blorbo ask game #headcanons #Haldir #Lindir #//found out that i don't know what a bioregion is while filling out 14 #//still not 100% on that but it was a fun excuse to highlight a map

[1016anon]

Title: Inception AU one-shot Author: 55anon Fandom: Bridgerton Pairing: Anthony Bridgerton/Kate Sharma Summary: In which Kate is Anthony's Head of Security. And his wife.

Ever since Dominic Cobb-the-Knob had successfully incepted himself into believing he'd performed inception, people have been taking a crack at it themselves, to varying degrees of abject failure. But everyone gives it a go at least once because it's the unsolvable problem of dreamshare, like P=NP or the Riemann Hypothesis.

Which is how Carl found himself in fuckin Viscount Anthony Bridgerton's militarized mind, having the shit kicked out of him by the Viscountess. Kate Sharma had been one of the best in the business before she faffed off to marry some lordling; Carl and his team really should have known better than to take this job. But the money was too good to resist and there had been significant advances in dreamshare since Sharma had left the industry.

All research showed that Viscount Bridgerton had some Issues regarding his father, mother, and seven siblings. It should have been an easy thing to exploit that weakness. It was quite easy-- not so easy that it tripped their alarms that it was a trap, not so difficult it was impossible-- until Sharma popped out of nowhere, guns blazing, shot his team in their hands and kneecaps (to prevent themselves from suiciding out) and crooned that she was going to have so much fun with them.

Which was how he found himself in his own subconscious being hijacked by Bridgerton's head of security. Carl was not aware projections could do that.

Worse still was the fact that Viscount Bridgerton was standing behind his wife, huffing with impatience.

"Darling, I know this is important, but could you hurry it up a bit? I need to catch a plane in an hour."

"Good things come to those who wait."

"If I miss our anniversary because of you, I'm telling Kathani."

"I'll tell her myself."

"We are not having inception sex or whatever you like to call it for our eighth anniversary. I had porn running through my mind at every board meeting for three months."

Sharma simply looked over her shoulder at her husband and winked.

"You love it when I used your mind as a playground."

"I love it less when you use my mind as bait," he grumbled.

Bait? What?

"Yes, Carl, bait. My wife likes to keep current with the developments in dreamshare. She's currently extracting you and your team's entire life now, and then going to store it in my brain-- I am not a goddamn cloud server, Kathani."

"You know I always make it worth your while, Husband."

"Stop fantasizing about my wife, Gerald."

"It's part of his militarization."

"... Pardon?"

"Most people in the dreamsharing business are men, so Gerald here thought it would be clever to militarize his subconscious with hookers and blow."

"Points for creativity, I suppose."

"Not all of them can have a femme fatale like you, Anthony."

"If I recall--"

"Shut up, Pierre--"

"You shut up, Phillipe."

"Huh. Identical twins. Interesting."

"Do keep up, my Lord, it's a split persona."

"Not a multiple forge?"

"No, bit more complex than that. Anyway, Pierre, you were saying?"

Carl was rethinking all his life choices. He wished he had a femme fatale waiting for him at home, probably wearing really sexy lingerie and fuming that he was late for their anniversary dinner.

"Well, Cobb sort of had his wife as his head of security."

"You dumbass, Cobb's wife was a ghost. She killed his own teammates during jobs. Does Kate look like a ghost to you?"

Bridgerton shot Gerald's gut-- Carl knew from experience it would be an extremely painful death. He probably wouldn't even be dead by the time the PASIV ran out.

"That's Sharma to you, Gerald," Bridgerton paused. "Or Her Ladyship."

Sharma rolled her eyes.

"I saw that. I can't have every person who waltzes through my mind speaking to you on a first name basis."

"Here's the drive."

"Are you serious? There are 400 terabytes of data on this!"

"I think most of it is Gerald's porn," she smirked.

Bridgerton's face was thunderous.

"I was joking. It's not porn, Anthony. Phillipe and Pierre actually had a wealth of very useful information about Lottie."

"The Queen."

"Yes. They're French, they have no hang-ups about royalty like you do."

"Who is it that insists on harmonizing when she sings God Save the Queen?"

"You have a lovely voice. Should we leave them here?"

"Bleeding out in my mind? No!"

He shot all four of them.

Carl woke up to the terrifying visage of Kate Sharma looming over him.

"Hey there, Sharma. So... I guess you weren't just the head of security?"

"No, I am. You're still in Anthony's dream. I like to take people down two levels."

She shot him again.

This time he woke up tied up and gagged in a van surrounded by the Duke of Hastings' security guards.

"Darling?"

That was Bridgerton's voice in the front seat.

"I might be a little late for our--"

He immediately pulled his phone away from his ear and winced.

"It's hardly my fault that I--"

"Of course not! Do you think I enjoy being kidnapped?"

"I had my security team!"

"Fine, yes, I gave them the slip, but it was because--"

"She pulled 400 terabytes of data, does that make you happy? I'm developing a migraine."

"I DO IT OUT OF LOVE!"

"What? Carl, Gerald-- who fantasizes about you far too much, by the way, I think you should do something about it, I've got him here in the car--"

"I think I'm allowed to be a bit possessive!"

"It's flattering in theory, but not when I'm treated to a smell-o-vision cinema."

"He didn't even get your scent right."

"I'm not sulking! No, do not--"

"Some other one. French, starts with a P. You said they were a split persona."

Bridgerton turned around.

"Your name is really Pierre-Phillipe?"

Pierre-Phillipe, also gagged, nodded.

"Not for another three hours."

"You were the one who lectured our entire security team on 'the proper disposal of bodies,' so I would say the delay is entirely your fault."

"Yes, yes, I can do a memory wipe. Have done it too many blood times to count now. Also your fault, by the way."

"Their fingerprints? Why--"

"We need to address your habit of collecting biometrics, my darling. It's getting out of hand."

Carl began banging his forehead against the nearest hard surface (a security guard's shin, as it turned out). He hadn't needed to be reminded of Sharma's fondness for terrible puns.

"Paranoid menace," Bridgerton said a little too fondly.

"I love you too."

"If I wanted to be really cruel, I would have taken their little token things. I still don't understand why they need them."

"All right, I'll let you go. I really am sorry, love."

"Happy anniversary."

Bridgerton looked at the PASIV and sighed.

"Right, let's get this overwith."

--

Carl woke up in his hotel room. He was greeted with the sight of an enormous bouquet of flowers and within the arrangement, a little stuffed bee.

There was a card:

Flowers for your femme fatale. Best of luck finding her, and I'll be sure to return the favor on your eighth anniversary.

He had no idea what any of it meant, but had a very strong urge to start looking for a wife.

#bridgerton #kathony #fanfiction #inception au

[ultrabeast01symbiont]

☆ Dragon/Bremusa ☆

✧ She/They/Mew ✧ Lesbian ✧ 23 (August 22nd) ✧

△ Art Blog △ AO3 Page △

Hiya! This is my personal blog. Most of what's on here is reblogs, with the occasional personal post sprinkled in. I've had this blog since around 2018 and I have not once changed my URL or icon, and I don't think I ever will. I like Nihilego.

You can find more about me under the cut, as well as (my attempts at a) tagging system!

Additional Info

Yes, I actively use two names! I use them interchangeably. Feel free to call me whichever one you like best.

I have both Autism and ADHD, as well as some unfun flavors of mental illness. While I am very open about my AuDHD, please do not be weird or invasive about my mental illness.

My hobbies include writing, drawing, RPing, playing video games, and taking naps.

I'm a resident appreciator of Tsumugi Shirogane (Danganronpa V3), Sara Chidouin (Your Turn to Die), and Akane Kurashiki (Zero Escape). If you see posts with or relating to them, feel free to tag me!

I don't need tone indicators, but they're nice so long as you don't use unnecessary ones. /J, /S, and /LH are the only ones that I use, if at all.

I don't think that having a DNI list is all that helpful in curating your online space, so I don't have one. Instead, I block people that I don't want in my space if I see them. I'd rather bigots not engage with any of my content, but I doubt they'd listen to me, regardless...

Also, if I do block you, don't harass me trying to figure out why. 9 out of 10 times it's not personal, and the other 1 time will know exactly why I did already.

I don't give out my Discord publicly and I don't give it out to people I don't know. If you randomly ask for it, I'll block you.

I'm pretty fatigued most days and I don't always have the energy to vet the people I reblog from. A reblog is not equivalent to an endorsement of the original poster's views or anything. If you catch something weird, let me know and I'll look into it.

In general, just don't be invasive or aggressive and we'll be fine. :]

Tagging System

As of right now, only posts from 2023 onward are properly tagged. I'm very slowly working on tagging my entire blog, but... it'll take a while!

I don't tag spoilers in reblogged posts unless the media I'm reblogging is less than a month old. I tag spoilers in original content I post, though (such as memes I've made) so that people browsing the tags don't get jumpscared.

By the way, I try to tag triggering content as "(____) tw" or "(____) cw". This way, the Tumblr filtering system can catch it.

Common fandom tags:

#yttd ✰ #fate ✰ #dr ✰ #persona ✰ #genshin ✰ #ze ✰ #aitsf ✰ #hsr

Other tags:

#dragon.txt (personal posts)

#about me (posts that encapsulate my vibe)

#fave post (posts that i really like that don't fit into any other tag)

#my art (self-explanatory reblogs from my art account)

#cats (cats)

#i'm evil now (posts about villainy and treachery)

#stuck in the time loop (posts about time loops)

#yuriposting (posts about lesbian/wlw topics)

#ref (resources that i want to come back to)

#audhd moment (posts about autism, adhd, or both)

#writing related (posts about the writing and/or roleplaying experience)

#art related (posts about the artist experience)

#yeah (posts about more serious topics and statements that i agree with)

#dragon.txt #pinned post

[cybernaght]

Guardian rewatch: episode 6

Episode 6 jumps us into the case of a disappearing woman, Zhou Weiwei, with the SID team being on the scene, taking the unofficial statement of her fianc��, Ji Xiaobai. While in terms of the actual investigation this case is even thinner than usual, thematically its juicy. It’s musing on the self, and how the self is defined in the eyes of the others; it actually has a grown-up real life take on an unhappy love story, and it can even be read as having pro-immigration connotations. This episode is telling the viewer that one is not entitled to nice things because they are a human from the human world, and there is no sin in wishing to take a chance to move somewhere you can see the sun. 

From the very first scene, Zhao Yunlan, who always has been shown as hands-on with the investigation, removes himself from Xiaobai’s flat, claiming that he has to speak to someone. It’s obvious who that someone is; and we see that our Chief is starting to rely on Shen Wei as his consultant way before he ever offers him that job. There is no reason for Yunlan to seek the other man’s help; and yet, he will end up solving with Shen Wei by his side, and purely through Shen Wei’s ample advice. 

Left with the worried, grieving fiancé of the missing Weiwei, Guo Chancheng suggests they take a stroll to calm down emotions, bringing himself, the man in question, and Chu Shizhu to his favourite place. He is, once again, being the sweetest, most lovely and considerate human being on this planet; and Chu Shizhu is starting to take his lead, listening, being a calming presence - even going as far as to softly offering Ji Xiaobai a beer. 

Hearing the sounds of a magpie, harbinger of good fortune, Guo Changcheng becomes animated, dragging Xiobai up to make a wish out loud. Xiaobai, predictably, wishes for his beloved to come back home, and Xiao Guo gladly repeats this wish, strengthens it with his will. This is where he is in his element: making people better, giving people hope, using his massive heart to help those around him. Guo Changcheng truly is too precious for words.

“Kid. You never make wishes for yourself?”

“I do. When everyone is happy, I am happy as well.”

We see Guo Changcheng’s simple, pure altruism resonating deep within Chu Shizhu, reminding him of his little brother that he lost. Well, I say “little” metaphorically, as the two are twins. That’s right, Guardian has two sets of twins, probably because it does not want to waste its extremely capable main cast. I’m not mad at it. 

Later that day, Shen Wei is conversing with a flower Yashou conveniently living on campus. I think she has a name, but I have a habit of calling her Bush Woman, because it’s what she is. 

She is animated poorly, but at least she is animated at all: there will be a scene later in the series, in which she is played by a bush, being shaken enthusiastically below the shot. The actual conversation is about a person Shen Wei is looking for: he has received a tip from Butler Wu in the previous episode that one of commanders in the Underworld army had a child. Hoping that that child could give him a clue at to where the next of the Hallows is stored, Shen Wei is now looking for them. Naturally, the child in question is also the missing woman in question, but Shen Wei does not know that yet. 

Their conversation is interrupted by Zhao Yunlan being sited on the bike heading towards the university. In the next scene, Zhao Yunlan is shifting uncomfortably at Shen Wei’s office door. Presumably, he has knocked, heard no response, and is just about to give up and go home. This is the moment Shen Wei opens the door from inside, greeting him. Did he teleport into his office so he could talk to Yunlan? Yes, yes he did. 

Despite being more than capable of deducing stuff on his own, Chief Zhao brings in the pictures of the disappeared Weiwei to Shen Wei to analyse for clues. We know that Shen Wei is aware that there is no actual legitimate reason for Zhao Yunlan to seek out his help - because Shen Wei states as much, in the nicest way possible. Zhao Yunlan does not actually have a satisfying answer to that, and his response is mostly boiled down to shameless flirting. 

And also doing throughly shameless things to a lollipop while maintaining eye contact the whole time. Because why not give our protagonist in the show about brotherhood the most homoerotic character quirk he could possibly have, right? 

As Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei continue discussing the case, it becomes more and more clear that they work together marvellously, going as far as finishing each other’s sentences. The body language also suggests that they are very comfortable in each other’s company.

Yunlan, who a few episodes ago would rather sleuth himself than ask people for clues, listens to the advise Shen Wei gives him, internalises it, and eventually uses it to solve this case. Scratch that, actually - he accepts it when Shen Wei pretty much solves the case for him. 

Following Shen Wei’s words to the letter, Zhao Yunlan opens the portal into the magic dimension and discovers that there are, in fact, two Weiweis. The woman from the mirror - an Undergrounder, who left to live a normal life, and a human, who hid because she could not stand being unpopular, and now returned out of jealousy for her mirror counterpart’s perfect life. 

It’s very hard to not sympathise with the mirror!Weiwei over the human one. All the former wanted was to live, and to love, and to be happy. All the later wants is to have all that without putting in any effort. Human!Weiwei does not truly understand that it takes more than taking to have a relationship, and there is nothing that would allow her to be entitled to happiness that she did not herself create. 

Instead, she calls mirror!Wewei a monster, and the later snaps, creating a whirlwind of energy which threatens to destroy everyone in the mirror with her. 

Unfortunately for her, one of the people she is threatening to kill is Zhao Yunlan, and we know how Hei Pao Shi feels about Zhao Yunlan’s life being threatened. This man, who does have a soft, squishy heart, and has previously allowed murderous Wang Yike to stay with her lover, all but snarls at mirror!Weiwei as he captures her. 

The show treats hers and Xiaobai’s farewell as a true tragedy; it’s genuinely heartbreaking to see them cry, as we are shown flashback of their relationship.

In the past couple of episodes, we have witnessed a huge shift in Shen Wei. He may have been determined to detach himself and march onwards alone a short while ago, but he has also seen the SID being full of kind, righteous individuals; he has been begged to save an Undergrounder’s life; he has been asked for friendly support and advice by Zhao Yunlan, and so he, perhaps unwittingly, allows his Hei Pao Shi persona to soften. As he takes mirror!Weiwei away, he stops to have a little tiny heart to heart with Yunlan, saying that identity of a person lies in their heart rather than what or who they are physically. This is a very Shen Wei thing to say, actually, but it will be a while before Yunlan figures that one thing out. Two things on this scene:

One. The mask really does hide Zhu Yilong’s most prominent features pretty well, and to help the viewer understand how he could have been hiding his identity successfully for what could be months, the camera more often than not shoots Hei Pao Shi from a lower angle, and Shen Wei from the higher angle, or dead on, subtly reshaping the jaw line. It’s clever; as is often often the case with the camera work in this show. 

Two. Isn’t it a little bit amusing how this ancient godlike being needs to fill in the paperwork in line of his duty?

As with Shen Wei’s advice earlier on, Zhao Yunlan takes Hei Pao Shi’s one to heart as well, and makes his way to human!Weiwei to make sure Xiaobai knows that she is not at all the woman he fell in love with and wanted to marry. He unearths her greed, jealousy and entitlement in full; in the end, this relationship cannot survive, because how could Xiaobai possibly stay with someone who does not know - someone who even is, in some ways, responsible, for his lover being taken away from him forever? As the couple breaks up, Wang Zheng and Sang Zan’s love song is playing in the background. 

During this scene, the infamous “I would like to buy [this coat] for my girlfriend” moment happens. 

As we know, he does not have a girlfriend. He may, however, have a boyfriend.

I really like the idea that he buys Shen Wei’s trench coats based on this. I really do. It is nice to see Shen Wei’s style starting to change dramatically as he and Zhao Yunlan become closer, of course, and I want it to be one of those deliberate coded messages Guardian is absolutely astonishing for. But at the same time, this is the jacket Yunlan is remarking on:

It sadly does not look anything like what Shen Wei wears. I will file this under “it’s true because the fandom said so”. 

Later, Hei Pao Shi is having a conversation mirror!Weiwei, revealing that he knew her father, and getting a clue he was after. We are getting a lovely extreme close-up of his eyes. While the mask does not stand to scrutiny of close examination - seriously, they could have maybe put actual leafing on it! - I really love this shot. 

At home, Zhao Yunlan is talking to Da Qing about his favourite subject, which is Professor Shen, and performing more shameless things to his lollipop while doing so. Brotherhood, my friends. This show it about bro-ther-hood. 

Da Qing wonders if his friend has been bewitched by Shen Wei, because it is obvious that Zhao Yunlan does not shut up about the man ever. When asked whether Yunlan would arrest the professor if he were indeed from the Underground, Yunlan responds with a dismissive, almost affronted “He didn’t do anything wrong”. We are to understand, through Da Qing’s reaction, that this is extremely uncharacteristic of Zhao Yunlan to say something like this, and it is entirely reasonable for Da Qing to be concerned. We could extrapolate that Da Qing’s worried because if Shen Wei is dangerous, getting attached to him in such a blatant manner could put Zhao Yunlan’s career and life at a very great risk. So, Da Qing, who knows his friend very well, chooses to press all the correct buttons to kick-start his natural curiosity, and do some investigative work into Shen Wei. 

Step one: break into his flat. As you do.

When we saw Shen Wei view the flat prior to moving in, it was shown already furnished, which is not entirely consistent with this tasteful, yet eclectic, furniture. I don’t know about you, but most flats I have rented have been furnished at IKEA. I can’t help but particularly admire his G Plan style mid-century side-board. And the fact that the man owns a gramophone, because of course he does. 

Shen Wei’s book collection is wonderfully perplexing. I’m not surprised that he reads in English - he is educated, and Dragon City is explicitly shown as bilingual, seeing as signs and even gravestones are written in English. But choices were made with the selection of titles. Going off the English ones alone Shen Wei owns: three copies of the same book about architecture, a heavy looking tome on interior design, a tattered one on Van Gough, and the only non-fiction English titles in his possession are… Irvin Welsh’s Trainspotting and a novelisation of Rocky? The former is notoriously difficult read as it’s written entirely in the Scottish accent. The later is very difficult to find, as is often the case with unnecessary novelisations. Neither scream “Shen Wei” to me. 

Apart from Shen Wei’s obviously fake book collection, we find out that he has some files on the SID. It should be a weird point of contention for Zhao Yunlan, considering that a) he also read Shen Wei’s files; b) he literally broke into the man’s apartment. 

While Zhao Yunlan and Da Qing are still nosing around the flat, Shen Wei makes his way home, stilling at his door when he either sees that the lights are on (they won’t when he left), or notes with his Hei Pao Shi sense that someone is inside. 

We, in turn, discover that he has sword replicas on his wall. The swords are obviously European, two of them are shorter, arming ones, and the one in the middle is a longsword with a hand and a half grip. All three have round pommels, downturned cross-guards, and the general shape most reminiscent of very Late Middle Ages (I would hazard at a guess and place them around second half of the 15th century). I wish we could have seen Shen Wei fighting with one of those at some point, because they would be wielded in ways very different from his own blade, but alas. The shield, by the way, has no business being hung together with those swords: it’s not only from a wrong era, it’s from a different part of the world entirely; my guess is that it’s a replica of a shield from the Tang dynasty. 

Shen Wei senses Zhao Yunlan hiding on the balcony, and bites back a smile. Anyone else would be less happy to find out that their privacy being violated, but he is endeared at is the same way Yunlan was endeared at Shen Wei’s cunning during the prior episode.

After getting back to Zhao Yunlan’s own flat (possibly by waiting for Shen Wei to pretend to fall sleep), Da Qing and Zhao Yunlan move on to step two: contacting the Underground Regent about Shen Wei. Which is not as important a tidbit as finding out that Zhao Yunlan owns a swing. 

Then, they move in to step three: the banner.

According to this article, it’s 锦旗, a traditional gift of gratitude. It’s addressed to “Dragon City University, Professor Shen Wei”, but is singed by “Zhao Yunlan”, without mentioning of SID or his position therein, implying that the gift is personal. The message reads “Helping people [is] helping oneself” and “conscience of the industry”. It’s extremely over the top, which both Shen Wei and Chu Shuzhi, tasked with delivering the banner, are aware of.

Shen Wei looks between tentatively amused and politely mortified.

Chu Shuzhi looks like holding this banner is the most excruciating torture he ever had to endure. 

The banner, of course, has a hidden camera in it, so that Zhao Yunlan has a 24/7 feed from Shen Wei’s office. As he and Da Qing are watching the gift being hung, Da Qing is teasing Yunlan with Hei Pao Shi, who is surely the wrong man to tease him about.  

In the next scene, Zhao Yunlan is at Shen Wei’s workplace again, and we discover from Shen Wei’s unpleasant boss that Li Qian has dropped out after her ordeal with the Longevity Dial. 

From the way this is written and shot, I would surmise that Zhao Yunlan does not spring on the professor in a middle of an uncomfortable conversation, but rather has spent some time with him prior to it, volunteering to be moral support. He continues being a good friend by asking Shen Wei why he feels like he has to shoulder all of the world’s weight: it’s surprisingly insightful into a large part of Shen Wei’s personality. 

There is little narrative reason for them to have this meeting, so I am choosing to believe that dropping in on Shen Wei randomly during lunch time is a habit Zhao Yunlan has started to form.

Finally, before the episode ends, we are privy to Shen Wei being the most polite, level-headed mugging victim. He hands the muggers his watch and money willingly, waiting for Zhao Yunlan, who is obviously stalking him, to show up and save the day. The muggers, enraged by his cool attitude, decide to shake him up, and, in the last seconds of this episode, the Pendant of Pining appears in shot for the first time. 

Next up, episode 7: No, Shen Wei, It Wasn’t The Bears

------

Just a quick note to say that I’ll keep those recaps going, but I will have to slow down the pace at which I’m churning them out to one every three to four days. There are some real life things I’ve been neglecting last few weeks that I need to spend my time on; and I’ve also started a new show (Sound of Providence, not Word of Honour - my watching priorities currently lie with Zhu Yilong being awesome). So, if I’m quiet here for a few days, I’m not gone, just a bit busy.

ETA. Realised that I made a booboo when translating the banner. Fixed that now. 

#guardian #shen wei #zhao yunlan #weilan #recap #rewatch #overanalysing set design

[butwhatifidothis]

bless you for this work, honestly. I first was exposed to this game through fanfic and genuinely loved some of the versions of edelgard that writers have developed, and then took on the game starting with the Deer and thought “hmm I’m clearly not seeing her perspective in this timeline though cause I have an outsider view and everyone keeps saying they agree with her in principle,” and then played CF and recruited everyone I could and it was one of the most jarring narrative experiences I’ve ever had, seeing so many characters veer wildly OOC. I was prepared for a villain run or a secretly-good-but-misunderstood or a forced-into-desperate-actions or a bloody-revolutionary route but what I got was just so bizarre that I honestly felt like crap and was just pushing through at the end to get it over with— like the actions I was presented with as a player were super dark but the framing was so happy as to be disorienting (like Ignatz being excited about the fall of the Alliance). thank you for your time and energy laying some of this stuff out! it is very validating and helps me feel less disoriented to have someone acknowledge the disconnects, haha.

Aw, thank you so much! That’s actually very similar to how I first saw Edelgard - I hated her in-game, but reading some fic before playing through/watching through the rest of the routes had me wondering if there was something I was missing to her character that made everyone love her so much. She was very interesting in some fics, and her portrayal in AM softened me up to her some! I thought playing - or watching, in this case - her route would be that final push I needed to like her as much as everyone else did.

But then I watched a cutscene/support movie for CF (those longass ones that are like 7 hours) and saw how just... evil, some of her actions were and most of the characters acted, how weird they were being compared to GD and AM, how angry Rhea was at Byleth’s betrayal, how shocked and dismayed Claude was if you kill him, how distraught Dimitri was at his death scene, combined with everyone’s happy-go-lucky personas, and I was just baffled.

It honestly had me hooked - sat through the whole 7+ hours in one sitting (and as someone who usually can’t sit through a 2 hour long movie that’s sayin’ somethin’ lmao). It was like you said one of the most jarring things I’ve ever seen. When Edelgard lied about Arianrhod I was legit shocked, and when she bold face lied about her assault on Garreg Mach - how she said she gave them time to evacuate when we know as players who’ve played other routes that she was spied on and discovered to have been amassing her men to join together during the two weeks grace period before the assault itself - ngl I straight up yelled WHAT. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing from her, and not for the first time either. 

This is the character that stole the hearts of so many? This character, who compares herself to someone willing to murder his own men - hell, his own son - to get vengeance for someone who’s dead? Who never tried to make up for the fact that she used Demonic Beasts to accomplish her goals, knowing how they’re made? Who helped in Flayn’s kidnapping? Who knew who killed Jeralt and said nothing, ever? Whose response to someone rightfully calling her out on her violent conquest is a childish “no u” (and yes, I’ve seen plenty of translations from the JPN text itself, and from what I’ve seen the ENG ver. just simplifies an already dumb sentiment into the dumb phrasing it deserves)? Who lies to her friends and never comes clean, even when it comes to a mass killing like at Arianrhod? Who calls Nabateans “creatures who can merely masquerade as humans at will,” beasts, an inherent enemy to humanity that must be put down for the good of humans? Who’s blatantly wrong about history, who calls the near end of an entire race a “simple dispute”? This one? If I’m being honest, I don’t see how any player who didn’t play CF first could possibly play her route and come out thinking that she was the good guy at all - CF almost made me go right back to hating her - hell, my sister does hate her, full stop, and she played AM first! The route where she’s the most sympathetic!

Absolutely no problem!! This account was made specifically to rant and rave about the fandom’s shit taste and the game’s inconsistencies (like I love 3H to bits and pieces but oh boy is there a lot to rant about, for me it’s like Bleach - a nice mix of good and bad where I love and write about the good and can vent about the bad for hours lmao), so I’m glad it gave you some validation! (:

#ask #anon #anti edelgard #Anti-edelgard #edelgard critical #just to be safe #I can definitely understand that feelings of confusion from the fandom's reaction to a character #so I'm really glad I could offer some help with that!! (: #just to note that again I do like Edelgard now as a villain but hoo boy did the fandom test me #still does sometimes ngl lmao

[krreader]

BTS scenario → you as TXT’s older sister.

pairing: bts x reader ; txt x sister!reader fandom: bts ; txt warnings: language  genre: fluff ; crack word count: 1.7k+

a/n: suuuuch a guilty pleasure of mine to write stuff like that so thank you for requesting it bb! I hope you like it ♥

kim seokjin

Jin didn't have a lot of time for going out with friends anymore, unfortunately.

Even dinner was nowadays a luxury he could rarely afford, that's how little time he had on his hands.

But with TXT having debuted, Jin found himself more often than not spending a few hours with them at dinner, even if it was just a snack bar close by. What mattered the most was that he didn’t have to eat alone.

Soobin and him had formed quite a friendship over the last weeks. And tonight, the topic of siblings finally came up.

“My oldest sister is really talented. She's such a good dancer, you know? I used to train with her a lot before I auditioned.”

“Ah, really? You should introduce her to me, I could learn a few things from her,” Jin had chuckled.

The conversation had gone into such depths that Soobin actually really ended up giving Jin your number and Jin, after having had a few drinks too many, ended up texting you.

And the look on his face when he walked into the dance practice room three days later and found you standing there with a big smile on your face, because he had completely forgotten that he had invited you over to help him with his dancing.

“So.. are you ready, Kim Seokjin?”

He gulped down hard. 

That should be answer enough.

min yoongi

Yoongi was on his way up to the boss, currently scrolling through some app on his phone when you entered the elevator.

He immediately stood up straighter, something about you intimidated him greatly. And that wasn’t something that he could admit often.

Maybe it was your angry look or the fact that you looked hot as fuck, but whatever it was, he wasn't so cool anymore.

“You look angry,” he remarked.

“I am angry,” you replied, not pressing any other floor. Oh boy, Bang PD had a big storm coming, “People in this industry think they can use young artists for their own benefit. It's disgusting.”

“It's the idol industry, love.”

But calling you ‘love’ wasn't a good move. Not when you were already on the edge of smacking someone. 

You turned around and killed him with one look only, Yoongi quickly bowing a little as an apology.

“My brother worked so hard for this,” you said once you had turned around again, your voice now a little less audible, “He shouldn't be treated like this.”

Right! Yoongi thought he had seen you somewhere before, you were the sister of one of the TXT members! He didn't remember whose sister, but he knew you were a family member!

“Are you.. a lawyer then?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have a card or something? You seem like you know what you're doing and I could use a lawyer like you.”

Smooth, Min Yoongi. Fucking smooth. Because you gave him that card, thinking he was only interested in your abilities, when the reality was that he was interested in much more than that.

jung hoseok

Hoseok had only recently started following TXT's private Instagram accounts.

Now, as he was on set and waiting for his make-up and hair to be done, he decided to look through who they were following, just out of curiosity.

And that's when he stumbled across your account.

The childhood pictures made him assume that you were the sister.. the older sister. The sister that grew up to be very very pretty and, from the looks of it, quite successful on her own.

“Do you think I'm too old to just randomly message a girl on Instagram?” Hoseok asked Jimin, who just snorted.

“Hyung.. you're Jung Hoseok. It doesn't matter what age you are, whoever it is that you're messaging will be over the moon.”

Maybe Jimin had over exaggerated a little, because you didn't respond to his message for an entire week.

Hoseok completely forgot that he even messaged you in the first place when you finally replied: “Hey, sorry. I wasn't sure if you were a fake account, so I had to ask my brother first. But how are you?”

Ah.. so that's why the TXT members weren't looking so fondly at him anymore. He wasn't sure if he'd be too happy if one of them messaged his older sister either.

kim namjoon

Namjoon would never purposefully listen in on a private conversation, but even though Kai was trying his hardest to talk quietly, Namjoon could still hear every word.

“I don't care, (Y/N), I don't care that you're my older sister, there is no way I'm going to walk up to my senior and ask him for his number just so I can give it to you! Do you know how embarrassing that is?!”

That made Namjoon chuckle and press himself closer against the wall. Now he wanted to know who you two were talking about.

“No, no, no! Don't tell mom, I'm..- ugh, you're so mean, this is exactly why Lea is my favorite sister and not you.”

Namjoon thought this was a funny and normal conversation that siblings had with each other, he didn't think anything more of it.

But oh boy, his face when Kai walked up to him that same day and told him about you and showed him pictures of you, Namjoon slowly started to realize that this conversation from before had actually been about him.

And he was flattered.

“Sure. Give it to her. I'd love to get to know her.”

From what he heard from before, you sure as hell were an interesting persona and he was so down for anyone that didn't fake their personality because they were famous.

park jimin

Jimin and you had been friends ever since Beomgyu had gotten accepted into BigHit and he had run into you at an office party a few years back.

But that was initially all it was.

Friendship.

It was only recently that things started to get a little out of hand.

One drink was all it took for you two to play truth or dare and well, the next thing you knew was that you woke up in his bed the next morning.

And instead of keeping it a secret, Jimin had decided to come clean to Beomgyu, who, of course, wasn't angry at his senior, but at you.

“Do you know what this looks like? You sleeping with him? It's as if you're doing this for my sake!”

“I'm sorry to disappoint you, little brother, but not everything is about you. I like Jimin. It's as simple as that,” you shrugged.

And it's not like he could do anything to change that.

You were your own person and so was Jimin.

All he could do was stand there and watch as you two grew closer and closer.

And he didn't like it one bit.

kim taehyung

You usually stayed as far away from the industry as you possibly could.

Just because Yeonjun was now an idol, didn't mean you had to be in the spotlight too. He didn't even want you to be, he wanted to protect you from that, despite you being the older one.

Nevertheless, this was an important award show for him and while it was usually your parents being there to support him, they couldn't make it today. The thought alone that all of your brother's members would be cheered on by family except for Yeonjun was ultimately the reason that you decided to take the plunge and join him.

They were currently getting ready and you had come late, so you had missed the rest of the family members.

Not knowing where to go, you just decided to hang out in front of their green room and wait for your brother, especially because you still had to wish him good luck for his upcoming performance.

You were so focused on your phone that you didn't notice someone suddenly leaning against the wall next to you.

“Bang PD didn't say anything about a new intern.”

“That's because I'm not a new intern,” you said, still not looking up from your phone, “I'm also not a crazy fan, in case you were afraid of that. I'm Yeonjun's sister.”

“Ah.. I get why he's so secretive about you.”

When you looked up, you didn't flinch because of who it was. You just smiled a little as you noticed him biting down on his lip, his eyes traveling down to your own lips, “Are you flirting with me?”

“I'm trying, but it's not working, I think,” Taehyung chuckled.

“Ah, you're here!” Yeonjun said with a big smile, then bowed when he saw Taehyung, “Hyung?”

“Your 'hyung' is currently trying to ask me out,” you smirked.

“No, wait, I wasn't..-” but what was more offensive to Yeonjun? The fact that he was, or that he maybe wasn't, because why wouldn't he? You were pretty, intelligent and funny, “Okay, I was.”

“Uh.. well, I..-” your brother rubbed the back of his neck, clearly uncomfortable about this situation, but you took pity on the poor guy and wrapped an arm around his shoulder.

“Come on. Let's go to the stage together.”

Taehyung was a little disappointed then, but not for long. Because a day later, he got a message from Yeonjun with a phone number and: “I don't like this one bit, but she's my older sister so I have to do whatever she says. Please don't hurt her, hyung.”

Ah, so you were interested after all.

jeon jeongguk

It was so freaking early, nobody in their right state of mind should be up and working at this point.

But Jeongguk was walking, not quite awake yet, into the practice room and threw down his gym bag.

They had just started working on their newest choreography and he wanted to be one of the first to nail it.

He was just about to put on the song when someone walked in with two cups of coffee.

Someone he didn’t know.

“Here, drink this, it'll..- Oh!” your eyes widened, quickly bowing, “Sorry, wrong room.”

“Who are you?” Jeongguk narrowed his eyes at you, “Staff usually isn't working this early.”

“I'm.. not staff. I'm Taehyun's sister. He's practicing and I'm worried about him, so I stopped by before I have to go to work.”

Jeongguk looked at you for a moment, then he let out a laugh, “Boy, he's lucky to have you as his sister. I don't have anyone bringing me drinks and snacks in the morning because they're worried about me.”

The conversation didn't last any longer than that, you quickly made your way into the next practice room you could find where your brother was already dancing.

Jeongguk continued on with his day like he usually did.

The next morning, however, he was surprised to find a smoothie and a sandwich in front of the mirror with a piece of paper saying: “Eat and drink this. You'll need strength :)”

And he could have sworn that he had fallen in love right there and then.

#bts imagine #bts reactions #bts x reader #bts #bangtan #bangtan reaction #bangtan boys #kpop #kpop imagines #kpop reactions #bangtan sonyeondan #reader #bangtan x reader #bangtan boys x reader #txt x reader #txt imagine #txt scenario #requests

[snowberried]

Akihiko Sanada dating hcs

(A/N: My first post on Tumblr, starting off with best boy! Hopefully this is good enough for a first post!)

- Character: Akihiko Sanada

-- Fandom: Persona (3)

--- Gender: Neutral (A little bit more feminine, but anyone can still read!)

---- Includes 13 seperate lines for if you have a persona.

----- Spoilers: Yes (Pass by if you don't want to see spoilers!)

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

• Akihiko and you probably met at school, same class (or if you're younger) maybe just passing by the halls.

You not being in his fanclub was a relief to him, finally not some weird fangirl, he wished he wasn't bombarded by a group of girls and could be a normal high school student, and you made him feel that way.

He could hang out with you and not feel awkward, could actually do activities with someone not swooning over him (well, not immediately).

When you do actually start dating, I feel like he'd be the one actually confessing it, probably like the p3p confession, he wouldn't exactly do it in the most romantic way.

If you confess, he'd probably pull you straight into a kiss, a gentle one, he has this huge though soft smile on his face.

He looks like a dork.

"Y/N- I've- felt this way around you.. I think it may be love.."

He would probably take you to Hagakure's ramen shop after he gets done training, sometimes even treating you.

This man would treat you right, hang out with you and buy you things. Ultimate ladies's man. Well- that is if he was actually good at flirting.

This man is also horrible at flirting, awful.

"Uh- the sunset is almost as pretty as your- smile-??"

Actually he's pretty cheesy.

Whether that's cute to you or not is your choice.

Finding it funny and joking about it would make him feel comfortable flirting, him liking to see you laugh, he hasn't been able to do that to much people.

Actually thinking it's cute would fluster the heck out of this boxer champion, him? Being cute? You must have the wrong person, right?

Call him cute, he'll essentially break down, well- him trying to hide it.

He wouldn't try to look flustered, you started dating him because of his strength, yeah, most definitely, just look cool.

Although he would be horrible at trying to hide it, stuttering a bit on his words, and just shutting down quiet style, hiding his face subtly.

You tease him about it? Even more flustered. He'd say things like "Shut up Y/n-" or just telling you to stop. (Well, I mean the joking manner.)

You'd only stop when he'd literally offer you food to stop.

So now y'all asses at Wild-duck Burger, Akihiko ready to cough up some money.

If it wasn't obvious, Akihiko likes giving you gifts, his love language would be gift giving... Well if it wasn't for quality time.

He loves spending time with you! Jogging especially, although it doesn't have to be anything active, it could be baking, or knitting for all he cares. Well- maybe not knitting, he doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd like knitting.

I'm sure one time he took you to train with him.

If you enjoyed it, cool! Something else to do that you both enjoy.

Though I'm guessing you wouldn't, and in that case, he understands, he'd enjoy coming home from training to see you sitting down or laying on the bed, cuddling with you.

"You're always so cold in bed.. do you wait for me or-?"

He'd probably play with your hair a lot, long or short.

You'd probably go to some of his boxing events, and he gets really happy when you do. Secretly trying better to impress you.

He wouldn't flat out say in the ring that he was trying for you, but later in private he probably would, although kinda bluntly.

"I tried to show off for you y'know?"

After all the boxing matches, you'd be the one to patch him up most likely. Your pretty much a makeshift doctor in the comfort of Akihiko's room.

Speaking of Akihiko's room, you two sleep in there most of the time, though you give it your own touch.

There's all the times your boyfriend won boxing matches, and there's one right near the middle of you winning a spelling bee, or the winner of a 2nd grade art contest.

"I think any accomplishment is good enough!"

"Aki I won that 10 years ago!"

Also of course you're allowed to call him Aki, he finds the name cute, the faintest little blush in his cheeks whenever it's said. (he denies it though)

Hope you don't mind the constant smell of protein while sleeping, he most of the time has 2 whole buckets worth of it at all times in the corner of his room.

He offers you some everytime you eat together, saying it's helpful for if you'd wanted to jog afterwards.

declines everytime.

~It is now angst time~ (Final spoiler ahead warning)

You remind him a lot of Mika.

You know about his past, about Mika. You try to comfort him about it when he gets sad over it.

You knew Shinjiro because of Akihiko, you knew they were great friends, they treated each other like brothers.

So obviously, he didn't take his death very well, or at all.

You were the only one to see him cry, he was in his room sad the entire day. You convinced him to open the door, and you immediately hugged him.

He was devastated, and just started crying on your shoulder. He didn't fight them back or anything. You patted his back and brought him to his bed, and laid down with him.

He thanks you so much for that, saying when he gets better he'll make it up to you. If you try to protest, he'll just kiss you and shake his head.

So you'll eventually wore down and accept.

He promises he'll protect you, if it's the last thing he does. He can't lose 3 people.

~If you have a persona~

Obviously you'd join S.E.E.S. and honestly, Aki is all for it, who wouldn't wanna see their partner kick ass?

Just more time to train together?

At Dark Hour you're suddenly woke up by Akihiko every night.

"Aki it's 13 at night-"

"C'mon! Can't we can get a little training in at least-?"

In Tartarus, although not noticable, Aki does try to protect you if you're ever in critical health.

He'll purposefully make Polydeuces keep Dia just in case you may need a heal.

Yukari and Ken wondering why they can't just heal you.

If one of you is sick or tired, the other won't go to Tartarus, simple as that.

You'll stay at the dormitory and help the other get some rest, laying down with the other and singing lullabies to the other.

Akihiko will offer soup, which if Shinjiro is alive, he'll cook

Though if he isn't, Aki will just try to make it instead, it's always better than you'd thought it would be.

"Have a great night Y/N."

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

A/N: I am finished!!! I hope it was alright for my first headcanons.

✿ Have a great day!! *.✧

#akihiko sanada #persona 3 #headcanon #mxm

[tamamatango]

Let’s talk about Kururu, again

Apparently the fandom is growing all of a sudden so I feel like talking about Kururu again cuz that’s all I know how to do and it’s been a while

First off disclaimer that fandom is fandom and anybody can interpret any character any way they want and if you like to portray a character a certain way for whatever reason go for it, more power to you (unless you put them in pedo/incest relationships that are displayed as good in which case fuck you). But in my personal Kirbpinion(TM) the Funimation dub was a fucking mistake because so many fan content creators write a way different Kururu than what he is in canon cuz the dub never got to his best episodes and also upped the sadism to ridiculous levels. Listen I know it’s funny to joke that he’s the kind of guy that has 3 medieval torture chambers but hear me out. Kururu is by no means a perfect person, he’s genuinely pretty rude/blunt (though sometimes his straightforwardness is justified :P), has an ego, sometimes acts pretty gross around others and likes extreme and elaborate pranks way way way too much BUT.

Assuming you’ve watched far enough into the series (like 100+ eps) I do not really understand the interpretation that he doesn’t care about anyone and that friendship and love are things he is totally incapable of. He says that yes but if you pay enough attention to his dialogue it becomes pretty apparent that he displays this attitude for multiple reasons. One is that he does genuinely have a hard time expressing the emotions he feels and often has awkward/guarded ways of doing so. But also he says many times over the course of the series that he has a “reputation” to keep up and wants people to call him a jerk; he wants to look cool and rebellious all the time and he thinks a nasty apathetic attitude is what earns him that status (not claiming that’s a healthy mindset, mind you). He wants to have full control over the way people see him and he gets super frustrated and humiliated when he can’t. This is probably why he gets so upset when people talk about how unpopular he is, because he’s spent so much time honing his image to a T and is like why the fuck isn’t this working?! In other words even though sometimes he is just an actual pain in the neck a lot of his asshole antics are part of a carefully manufactured persona, and he will do anything down to labeling his own memories to prevent other people from seeing through his facade and discovering the parts of him that are vulnerable.

And God forbid anyone does figure out that he does care quite a bit for the people around him, or at least if he didn’t at first he does now. Early on in the series he was commonly referred to as “depressing” and while the meta reason is probably just the anime writers just didn’t know how to adapt the character yet (he started out a little differently in the manga), in canon I believe he was just even more inclined to push everybody away from him, and as he began to get used to working in a group he gradually opened up. He commentates on how “soft” he’s gotten since he came to Earth a couple times, and the fact that he’s surprisingly one of the most loyal to Keroro out of the whole team (in many episodes where everyone abandons Keroro for being dumb he leaves last) and goes out of his way to help when he thinks it’s warranted (he asks for money when things aren’t dire yeah but hey labor deserves compensation :V) shows that he is dedicated to his team. There’s even episodes where he doles out some kind of moral lesson to the squad in his own Kururu-y way, especially to Keroro and Tamama. Even the Hinatas he’ll pitch in to protect when he has to, and we all know he’ll pretty much drop everything if Saburo needs him.

Speaking of which. I think the unspoken reason why he’s best friends with Saburo (besides the surface-level stuff like they’re smart and nerdy and seen as enigmas by everybody else) is because Saburo is the only other person in the cast who understands Kururu’s particular struggle of putting on airs as a means of self-defense all the time. He basically has a carefully managed celebrity life (that he has to constantly work to hide in anime canon), a somewhat formal/reserved public life, and the more quirky enthusiastic side of himself he only shows when alone and to the few people he’s close to and god damn that just sounds like the most exhausting juggling act ever. He has an outlet to free himself through his art but he still has to live with nobody quite knowing what he goes through on a daily basis, which is probably why we see him off on his own for most of the series (until he gets to warm up to everybody better...wonder who that sounds like) and occasionally have his bouts of frustration and insecurity like in 229 where he says “fuck it I’m gonna fight the apocalypse alone because I need something to do,” 354(? I think that’s the number) where he talks about just dropping everything and starting over, and I think one of the Christmas eps where Giroro has to like beg him to go to the Hinatas’ party cuz he says he’s “busy” even though he’s just sitting around pretty much (UPDATE: it’s 294 the implication is probably that he has his show or something but cmon that’s only like an hour lol). I am going off on a tangent now but anyway the point is he and Kururu are the most complicated communicators of the cast and they share feelings only they understand which is why they can more or less read each other’s minds and know exactly what to do when the other is in trouble.

Back to Kururu. Keroro, from what I can tell, is the closest to him out of the Platoon; Keroro gets freaked out by Kururu’s pranks sometimes yeah but they have a lot of common interests as the fun-lovers of the group and Kururu’s also kinda been interested in Keroro enough time follow him around for almost his entire life up to this point so there’s that. He also gets along with the other people he‘s around; we know he and Aki get along from the beginning because of how dynamic their personalities are but later on he gets close to Fuyuki to the point where they just hang out for the heck of it sometimes, and even though Natsumi is very justified in generally disliking him (many of Kururu’s more Eugh moments tend to involve her) even she seems to rely on him often, and in the cursed puppy episode she knows all his favorite foods by heart so she must care in some fashion lol. Dororo and he aren’t evidently super close but I think they get each other on some level as the (in-universe) least popular of the platoon and Dororo at least respects his abilities, and has clearly come to figure out his subtleties based on 229. Giroro and Mois...things get complicated. Just putting on record that I’m not a fan of either ship between Kururu and them. I’ve said this before but I think Giroro and Kururu are in a turbulent sibling-adjacent relationship in that they have completely opposing attitudes but they have a begrudging sense of respect for each other and, ultimately, they’re teammates, so they’ll defend each other when someone they don’t know tries to mess with them. I really don’t think the flirty stuff on Kururu’s end goes beyond teasing and I got kinda sick of that running gag if I’m being honest. (You can probably tell which frog I ship Kururu with by now :P) Mois went from something of a rival to Kururu to his lab partner, which is probably why he goes easier on her than he used to and even strikes up something of a friendship because the only other person he knows that might be capable of handling his technology is an Earthling who’s still against the invasion despite his lax attitude so. She helps :V

Now the question is why Kururu acts like he does if his relationships really aren’t all that bad and I think there’s two components to this. I’ve made it clear by now I think he’s autistic but your mileage may vary there. I think personally his childhood did something to the way he processes things as well. In Secret of the Kero Ball, he’s got a bandage on his head which may imply he got hurt somewhere and then he almost drowned which canonically definitely did something to him lol, was mostly seen alone so who knows if he has a family he still talks to, and then he got drafted into the army and placed into a high-ranking position of great responsibility at a very young age; it’s kind of a no-brainer why he rebeled and got demoted eventually. I’ve got plenty of headcanons about what his early days in the Military did to him but that’s for another day because good God this post went on too long.

In short: Kururu is possibly the most complicated character in the show and the F in Flanderization stands for “Funimation.” That’s it I’m never writing another essay about pee-color frog again I will make real content again at some point I promise

#keroro gunso #sgt frog #kururu #kululu #long post #i sure spent 2 hours on this #imo kururu is a more compelling tsundere than giroro there I said it

[bronanlynch]

bi-weekly update

it sure has been a wild time here and tbh I had enough to do one of these last week and just. didn’t?? for some reason?? anyway

listening: the Promare soundtrack went on sp*tify recently so I’ve been on Promare soundtrack lockdown over here. I know Kakusei is the iconic Promare song but Inferno (the opening song) always makes me tear up??? love to experience emotions about a movie in a reasonable and normal way. so anyway my standout track from the OST is Piromare because I am so very not immune to sad soft piano renditions of a motif that is usually triumphant/cheerful/etc

reading: I have, for once, read a bunch of books. I got a giftcard to my favorite local indie bookshop for Christmas and finally got around to using it to buy two books I’d been looking forward to, Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson (bi polyam Dracula retelling, kind of) and Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell (gay arranged marriage space opera)

Dowry of Blood was very satisfying to me, someone who has lots of opinions about how vampires ought to be sexy and also terrifying, and I really enjoyed this specific take on vampire lore. also the formatting/pagination was really really cool and reminded me more of poetry books than prose usually does. for the first couple of pages there’s only text on one side of the page and then there’s one line on the back of a page and it hits really hard. extremely good and cool printing choices. would def recommend, but it is also explicitly an exploration of getting into and then out of an abusive relationship so. warnings for that in addition to the murder/blood warnings

also look at how sick this cover is (by Marlowe Lune, an artist whose work I really like in general)

I previously read Winter’s Orbit when it was on ao3 as an original work (called Course of Honour) and it was really cool to read a familiar story that I uh. read several times on ao3 but with added layers, because the author added a bunch of worldbuilding and an entire overarching higher-stakes political plot. I really really liked the added worldbuilding, and for the most part I enjoyed the new plot stuff, though at times I felt like it distracted from what I liked the most about the original, and there was one specific scene that was taken out that I was disappointed about. fave thing about the worldbuilding is when something is referred to by normal familiar words (like pigeons or bears) and then the actual thing is like, a fucking dinosaur that only vaguely resembles the word that’s used for it. very fun

also slightly mixed feelings about the framing of empire in the book, since there is some discussion about the consequences of imperialism and the resolution of the plot involves getting more rights and political sway for colonized planets. but the majority of the plot is about preserving an unjust status quo, and the representative of one of the colonized planets is working for the interests of the empire so that they can appear unified in the face of a larger-scale potential threat, which I’m not sure I love. and I also didn’t really care for the way the resistance movement (whenever it came up, which wasn’t often) was portrayed. so. on one hand yes there is a message of ‘empire bad and we should maybe try to be less Like That’ but on the other hand sometimes it did feel like the imperialism was an under-examined backdrop for a romance. like don’t get me wrong, I love the romance, I love the characters, it’s just that some of the politics didn’t quite do it for me and I think I just wanted More of things that just. weren’t the focus of the story

warnings for discussions of abusive relationships in this one, except this time it’s backstory for one of the characters, not something that’s present in the central relationship. and for all of the things that I wasn’t quite satisfied with, the parts of the book that are about like, learning how to be a person again after being in a situation where you’re not allowed to be yourself are still very well-handled and hit me real hard.

I also read a whole bunch of KJ Charles because sometimes all my brain can handle is marathoning romance novels, but I’m not gonna talk about all of them because this is already long enough (have not read the new one that came out today yet though that’s what I’m gonna do after this)

watching: Supernatural season 13 is incredibly boring and bad in ways that aren’t interesting or fun to talk about so I haven’t watched any recently. I did watch the first episode of Lupin, and really enjoyed it! will definitely watch more, though slowly because it takes too much of my brain to marathon it, partially because I know just enough French to almost not need the subtitles but having to read and also automatically trying to translate as I’m listening takes more brain energy. love a good heist though, and it has some good social commentary on race and class and crime

also the main character is very good. fucking superb you funky gentleman thief

playing: still making my way through the last mission of Knife of Dunwall. I made a bunch of progress since I whined at my friend about how hard it was and they told me to just stay in the building that has places to hide (the one you have to make your way through as Corvo, so I already know the layout, which helps lol) instead of the one that’s falling apart with nowhere to hide. who would have thought.

have also watched my roommate play lots of games and have thoughts on those too. Final Fantasy games (or at least the ones I’ve seen anything from, which is 7, 14, and 15) really appeal to me on a character/aesthetic/plot level but the gameplay looks like it would be bad for my brain. and yes all of those have very different gameplay but they would all be not fun for me in different ways. my roommate showed me like an hour of cutscenes from 14 last night that was basically a movie of tropes I love but holy shit I could never play a game where I have to wait for other people to be ready to also play the same part of the game before I can advance the plot

they’ve also been playing Persona 5 Scramble/Strikers (I don’t know which one the S stands for and at this point I’m too afraid to ask), which I do intend to play myself some day. it’s a sequel to Persona 5 with the same characters and damn they really nailed the feeling of seeing your friends again after not seeing them for a while, both in terms of. I care about these characters and am happy to see them again and also, they haven’t seen the protagonist in a while and they’re so happy he’s back and it makes me very soft. would love to reunite with friends whom I haven’t seen in a while

making: haven’t worked on cosplay but we did make some very tasty tortellini soup last weekend, and then last night we made fish & chips which was a lot easier than I was expecting and turned out pretty well? we just used frozen fries instead of like. frying them ourselves but we did make some very tasty lemon-garlic green beans

writing: well. I have a couple of things I’ve been noodling away at for a bit, and then a couple days ago I had a little bit of a breakdown and wrote 3000 words of angst in one sitting for an entire different new fic (Persona boys having a miserable time), and then yesterday decided to get in on a thing in The Untamed fandom of people writing short ““boring”“ domestic oneshots, and I love domesticity so I wrote one, which various reviewers have called “very sweet” and “a callout post” (it is both of those things)

I’m also organizing an event for P5 trans content because someone was shitty to one of my roommates over a trans headcanon and I got so pissed off that I’m running a prompt week now. love to have reasonable emotional reactions to things that happen in my life. why would I think about my actual problems when I could get petty and spiteful over someone saying that a fictional character couldn’t possibly be trans

#this one is real long i'm sorry #contains pictures of food under the readmore #tuesday no problem extended universe #dreaming.txt

[sadviper]

2020 Creator Wrap: Favorite Works

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 (or so) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

Succumbing to peer pressure, haha, thank you @rain-hat, @smylealong, @ibelongtomousse, @macgyver-sheriff, @avauntus for tagging me~

It seems the common refrain is that this was the year everyone exploded into massive creative productivity after years of nothing, which is the exact same story for myself. I had read all the strategies of course: write 5 min a day, 1 sketch a day, don’t think about quality, do *something* just to keep the spark alive, etc etc, but it just got worse and worse. Honestly, I had been feeling so dire about it that I had made up my mind to stop trying anymore, because it was so depressing to try and fail so many times that it was much better to not hope at all.

Buuuuut.....then quarantine and telework happened, and woooah, guess what, all I needed was LOTS of time and space to myself where I’m not wasting it in an office checking emails and doing random training to fill all the downtime!!!

Much thanks to the serendipity that had me stumbling into @rain-hat , reading her early JY/KSR fics, and her encouraging me to go ahead and write that office yearly budget oneshot for TKEM (who writes BUDGET fics?? Who reads them???? lol). That’s not in my list here because it was very new and awkward, it was definitely the ball that got everything rolling.

Cut for super long-winded rambling:

1) Before There Was Zero (TKEM)

This was my first big fanfic in my life, and my most popular, and it absolutely gushed out of me in this massive torrent of *I MUST WRITE* where I would walk around at lunchtime giggling to myself, and type on my phone as I went, or wake up at 1am to scrawl something in a notebook in the dark because I couldn’t stop the words from coming. (How I miss that feeling now! ;__;) Actually, it also is the 2nd fully complete long-form story I had ever completed as well, so...lots of milestones here.

Looking back, it clearly was the product of my years of bottled up silence, where I stewed and dragged myself to the office every day wondering if I was going to calcify in a bureaucracy for the rest of my life (yes). But even as an office drone, I learned a lot of valuable lessons in how to manage, what leadership actually is at the worker bee level, the types of games white-collar workers play, and how to be a decent co-worker (and by extension, a decent human being--I don’t believe it’s possible to separate work life and private life. All your personas are you). It wasn’t all a waste after all!

Somehow I connected my day-to-day to the faceless, long-suffering Royal guardsmen in TKEM, headed by the utterly gorgeous, devastating, thoroughly underutilized, comedic prop military action star Jo Yeong, and thought--yeah! :D

2) Nil Desperandum (TKEM)

My biggest fic by far, full novel length at this point, massive in scope, I don’t even know how I came up with it based on the 10 collective seconds of screen time that Jeong Tae-ra and tyrant Jin got as a joke, but I was clearly still on that dam-gushing-pent-up-creative-high because this idea was fighting me when I was in the middle of writing “Before There Was Zero”.

I actually figured out the title while watching “Call the Midwives” where one of the peppy, indefatigable British nurses said to never despair, and I thought, yes, that’s it. All the horrible things I put my tyrantverse characters through, it was only so that when I save them at the end, it will be completely worth it. It’s a bit more violent (nothing beyond My Country levels tho) and quite emotionally dark, but I also tried to inject a lot of friendship, humor, and love into it as well, because there must always be hope.

For My Country fandom friends who didn’t realize, the tyrant!Yeong in this fic is essentially modernAU!Seon-ho, and I lifted Sung-rok entirely from My Country to be tyrant!Yeong’s second-in-command and loyal-superstar-extraordinaire. Writing them in this modern AU, and seeing the positive reception to Sung-rok’s grouchy, dogged devotion was the start of my love spiral for Sung-rok. <3 <3

3) The Veritable Records of King Taejo (My Country)

Going to cheat and lump 3 fics (soon to be 4) into one link. I rested a little bit after “Nil Desperandum” because I had completely emptied myself out at that point, just a husk of an author shell. Then I started poking out oneshots! Each one got progressively harder to write, lol, the creative gas tank was running out of juice, so I had to really start figuring out new strategies as a writer to keep going. One magic tool was coercing recruiting @rain-hat to beta for me, and WOW, THE BEST???? Who would’ve thought it’d be FUN to be edited!!! <3 Due to her efforts, I could avoid the “no beta we die like Liaodong” tag, hahaha.

I grew up watching cop shows, lawyer shows, monster-of-the-day shows, endless procedurals-- so I was super miffed that the drama would imply that Seon-ho spent YEARS just single-mindedly chasing private armies??! No! I want more family and friends development for this sad, dramatic whump child! I want him to be smarter than the show, inherently brilliant despite the stupid he descends into, and be recognized as such by the people who do recognize his value! And I want them all to be happy with no pointless death!

Also, the 4th WIP is now a Sung-rok lovefest written as an ode to his awesomeness, has stretched to 47K+ words, and is being an absolute royal pain to finish. ;__; All the ease and creative fervor from earlier? GONE. I’m a lone salmon flopping upstream on a ladder. I might get eaten before I finish laying my eggs. Any one have tips to get over this?

4) First Translation of Woo Do Hwan Japanese Interviews

More firsts! So much thanks to @ibelongtomousse to inspiring and encouraging me to do some real translating after talking to her about her sublime TKEM fics and translations thereof, and @staidwaters from emerging from the Internet depths to boost/correct my neophyte efforts! I’m now chomping at the bit to do more, even though I may ultimately discover that these interviews have absolutely nothing interesting to say, lol. But my first priority is simply to get better at the language, and 2nd priority is to soak in the words (and photos) of Woo Do Hwan, hahahah. Also, as far as I can tell, no one is filling this niche, so I guess I’ll keep going??

5) Fanart!

I started drawing again! As a procrastination tactic from writing oneshots, but it still was really nice to see that I hadn’t lost the touch entirely. I feel like I’ve mentioned this here and there, but writing wasn’t my first interest--drawing was. Animals first, then people once I discovered anime/manga. I went all into drawing comics, only to face the hard reality that I didn’t know how to tell a story end-to-end. Hence how I started trying to write. Along the way, things happened--I got RSI and had to stop drawing/writing for awhile. I discovered that pictures are NOT worth a thousand words, esp when it comes to long-form comics; my preferred tools of trade (dip pens) ended up exacerbating my RSI problems; then once I got a handle on my RSI, I found I could type faster than I can ever draw, and so here I am. I saw what @convenientalias was doing with their My Country werewolf fic though, so I am excited to try that for my Sung-rok WIP? :D

I think I’m the last hold out among artist/writer friends in answering this wrap-up, hope you enjoyed reading!

#meme #fic meta #2020 accomplishments

[mlm-writer]

Is Homelander a Psychopath?

Even the fandom page calls Homelander sociopathic (mostly synonymous with psychopathic in the medical sense), but is he really? In this way too long meta-post I use the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised to put Homelander’s psychopathy score on a scale from 0 to 40. Welcome to my TedTalk.  

Disclaimer

I am not authorised to diagnose anyone with anything. I am not a professional. See the end of the post for my sources on psychopathy. My main source is the book The Psychopath Whisperer by Dr Kent Kiehl. Also this is how I see Homelander based on the show The Boys, so I do not take the comics into account. Lastly, the fandom page also uses the word ‘psychotic’, which refers to psychosis, not psychopathy.

Glibness/superficial charm 

Ok yes, definitely. Homelander knows how to entertain a crowd. His whole persona is based on nationalism. He has that charming smile down, has this ‘you are the real heroes’ thing going on. Superficial charm is a big check in the present and given that Homelander apparently has been doing it for years, I say it was in the past also a big check. Psychopaths also tend to talk so much that people can not deeply analyse all that they say and then only remember the ‘good points’ the psychopath made. Homelander does this well in interview scenes and you often see him interrupting other people. On a three-point scale from 0 to 2, I’d give him 2 points. 

Grandiose sense of self-worth

Also called narcissism and it is so obvious in Homelander. The thing is that narcissists usually don’t think they are the best, but they feel like they deserve to be treated like they are the best. Actually, narcissists commonly base their entire self-worth on the feedback they get from other people. Without that they get aggressive and start blaming others for their own short-comings. Sounds familiar? The big question is if this had been the case for Homelander’s entire life. His narcissistic behaviour could’ve developed under the limelight. Still he deserves 2 points.  

Need for stimulation 

This is where I start to question Homelander being a psychopath. Psychopaths are very prone to boredom, so they usually cannot keep one job for long. They tend to travel around. Homelander has worked for Vought for years and it is not that much of an exciting job. It involves a lot of interviews that all seems similar. Photoshoots are not exactly peak entertainment either. Reshooting scenes for his movies? Psychopaths with this trait also tend to do drugs and drink a lot to get that stimulation, but Homelander is seen drinking champagne at a social gathering and a whiskey or two in front of the TV at most as far as I can remember. He really scores 0 on this part. 

Pathological lying

Yes, Homelander lies a lot, but it is not pathological. Pathological liars will lie for no reason at all and are unfazed when they are caught in a lie. Homelander can go to extreme measures to keep his lies standing. His whole good guy act is a lie, but he protects it. Not only is he trying to protect his lies, but he also lies with reason. Pathological liars will lie about things that can be fact-checked with a single Google search. Homelander is not like that. He scores once again 0. 

Manipulation 

And back to classic psychopathic behaviour, the manipulation. Not to be weird, but Homelander does it so well. He got the population wrapped around his red-gloved fingers. He knows where to push people. He plays into people’s weaknesses and desire. How to get control of his floor? Simple, recommend to hire someone he can control. Those meetings starting from season one? Perfect for his manipulative mind-games, establish control. The way he played Ryan? Genius! Homelander’s ability to manipulate people is honestly impressive, 2 points. 

Lack of Remorse or Guilt

I think this is one of the iconic Homelander traits. How he could just let a plane full of people die? How he could just murder people? The lack of any remorse for killing that innocent person when he stopped that ‘terrorist’? Iconic. I don’t recommend it, but wow it is such a good trait for his character. I just wonder if this is a recent trait or something he already had. It is also possible that he got a lot of collateral damage from the start and got desensitised to it over time. Madelyn Stillwell loved to say ‘we fix it’ and ‘I’m just trying to protect you’. Imagine accidentally killing people over time and everyone around you keeps telling you ‘oh it’s no big deal’, at some point you might just believe it. Giving him a 2 for this, but I also think Vought is to blame. 

Shallow Affect 

Basically psychopaths generally don’t give a fuck. Whereas normal inmates tend to feel depressed when they start their prison life, psychopaths are completely indifferent. They often see it as a mild inconvenience at best. Psychopaths don’t care. Homelander, on the other hand, may not care about people, but he really cares about some things. He cares deeply about his reputation to the point he would ask for help from Stormfront. Knowing how prideful Homelander is, him asking for help is big. When he found out Stormfront lied? He cared a lot. He cares about ‘owning’ Maeve enough that he would go out of his way to kill someone. And Ryan? Oh Ryan… Homelander did not care about Ryan, but he really cared about having someone on his level. Homelander is a very lonely boy and he cares a lot about not being lonely. Not really shallow if you ask me. 0 points. 

Lack of Empathy 

This is oddly enough questionable in Homelander. Like I said before, he could kill without remorse. He could manipulate without guilt. BUT he understands people. The full-on, full-point psychopath does not understand that a mother would worry about her child when they are out late. Homelander does understand how people feel. How else would he keep his public opinion high? He could understand why people feel fear or pride or love. That requires a certain level of empathy. Becca’s threat: “I will kill myself in front of Ryan and tell him your father did this to me.” Someone without empathy could not see how that would affect Ryan. Homelander understood what that would do to Ryan and he understood that complying would increase his chances with his son. Someone without empathy would never understand that. He also could tell when Ryan was uncomfortable. He could give Ryan space when he thought Ryan needed it. He told Ryan a personal story when he thought that his personal experience was similar to Ryan’s. I don’t know if the story is true, but the fact that he could play into Ryan’s feelings like that shows empathy.  Homelander is not empathetic, but he also has no complete lack of it, 1 point. 

Parasitic Lifestyle

Psychopaths often ‘burrow’ money, life off others, don’t keep jobs and don’t buy their own things. They leech off others, because they couldn’t be bothered to obtain things themselves. I don’t really see this in Homelander. He takes a lot of initiative. That whole creating super-terrorists? That was a lot of effort and he was the leader of that operation. Sure he let others do the hard work, but he still planned it all out FOR MADELYN. It was no personal gain thing. Homelander scores 0 on this if you ask me. 

Poor Behavioural Controls

I want to say yes, but that one scene with the crowd where he thought of lasering them all down, but didn’t? That’s behavioural control. You often see him wanting to hit someone and then stop himself. A psychopath would just lash out, because they can’t think of the consequences. Homelander can think of the consequences and keeps himself in check, because of what might happen when he goes through with his impulses. He showed control when he wanted to kill Starlight where she stood, but then he didn’t. Homelander does lash out at times, but his eyes glow and yet he doesn’t laser someone to death. That’s self-control. Still, I am giving him one point for throwing bratty tantrums like a toddler. 

Promiscuous Sexual Behaviour

Ok his kinks were weird, but while Madelyn was alive, he did not seem to have sex with anyone else. Some goes with Stormfront. He always has one bed partner. What he gets up to with them is not my problem, but important to note is that he shows loyalty to one person. 0 points. 

Lack of Realistic Long-Term Goals

Ok his long-term goals are fucked up, but he does have them. Creating super-terrorists was such a fucking long project. He could see himself in Stormfront’s ideal of a super-army. He planned how to get Ryan from the start. Homelander does more planning than me. Whether his goals were realistic… Well… He succeeded in two of the three things and definitely had the tools for the super-army. So I say they were realistic for him, 0 points. 

Impulsivity 

Yes and no. He sometimes acts on impulse, but like I said he shows self-control and the ability to plan. However, he does not always think things completely through like that speech at the expo or taking down that plane after that dude found out about compound V. Almost drowning Hughie in front of other people? Impulsive. Going to that rally? Impulsive too. I give him one point on this one. 

Irresponsibility 

Seeing Homelander with his son, yes he can be responsible. He doesn’t leave Ryan somewhere unsupervised. He also tried to protect and help Madelyn. He shows a sense of responsibility towards being the face of Vought and towards being ‘Madelyn’s golden boy’. He does not take responsibility for everything he should, but he shows that he is not completely incapable of taking responsibility, one point. 

Failure to accept responsibility 

Not sure how this exactly differs from the previous one, but as far as i can tell, the previous one is a general feeling of responsibility and this refers to individual actions. Homelander does have a general feeling of responsibility, but when things go south, he does not take any responsibility. Becca was not his fault, he just raped her. That plane going down was not his fault, even though he fried the controls. That innocent person in the video dying was not his fault either. Blah blah blah. According to him, it’s never his fault, but those of the people that are in the way or those that ‘test him’, two points. 

Many Short-term Marital Relationships 

Nope, not Homelander. He is said to have had a relationship with Maeve and later he is with Stormfront. He also had this weird thing going on with Madelyn, BUT he never married any of them. Psychopaths have the tendency to just marry someone out of impulse. Homelander is even picky about who he fucks, 0 points. 

Criminal Versatility

Human trafficking, homicide, mass murder, feeding the population lies, assault, rape, supplying terrorists of compound V, yeah I’d say he is pretty versatile, 2 points. 

Conclusion

Due to lack of information or it simply not being applicable to Homelander, I omitted 3 factors (juvenile delinquency, early behavioural problems and revocation of conditional release). I did some reverse math on how omitted scores were handled in The Psychopath Whisperer and I came up with the following formula: score * (1 + amount of omitted items * 0.04) and then rounded up to one decimal point. This gives Homelander a score of 18.0. The cut-off for psychopathy is a score of 30 in the US and 25 in the UK. The average citizen scores around 5, while the average criminal scores around 22. So as unhinged as this bastard is, Homelander is per my analysis not a psychopath. He is just a cunt. Thanks for reading this. 

Sources

Kiehl, K. A. (2015). The Psychopath Whisperer (1st edition). London, Great Britain: Oneworld Publications.

Neumann, C. S., & Hare, R. D. (2008). Psychopathic traits in a large community sample: Links to violence, alcohol use, and intelligence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76(5), 893–899. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006x.76.5.893

Kiehl, K. A. (2006). A cognitive neuroscience perspective on psychopathy: Evidence for paralimbic system dysfunction. Psychiatry Research, 142(2–3), 107–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2005.09.013

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