#And that comment ALWAYS gets me because if you go into character backstories and think about it realistically
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I have thoughts but I don't know how to arrange them. I just... A lot of people are like "I can't see Tarkin dating a lowly stormtrooper!!! Maybe another officer but not a stormtrooper!"
Which is fair but I also thinks that they work because TK-421 isn't an officer, has no interest in promotions or greed and seems to want to just be free of the imperial army at large.
Like, think about it. A person like Grand Moff Tarkin is probably prime for people dating not for him but people dating the doors he could open for them. It's a status thing. He's in Palpatine's most inner circle. Even for other officers, he can offer promotions and secrets beyond their clearance and access to and the favor of the Emperor. And so he always has to be careful of it-are these people with him for the grand moff? It's like he says in Of MSE-6 and Men. He can't let his icy exterior down because the greed of the core natives are waiting for the first sign they can get a leg up. Even his ex boyfriend longtime friend from their academy years tries to get Tarkin to put in a word for him with Palpatine when Tarkin has just returned from three years off planet
And then comes G7 with the hologram of TK-421. He's gorgeous, and it'll be casual. He'll keep his walls up. He knows what to expect. No one has to know, and it won't go on for long.
But then TK-421 isn't like anyone else. He has no interest in secrets or the Emperor or promotions. In fact, he dreams of leaving it all behind. Of a racing circuit on Coruscant, of comfortable living conditions for him and his droid, and of lighting like the one on the station that Tarkin built.
Of stuff that, being born into the wealthiest family on the planet, Tarkin could've given him if they had met in a different life. All Sevastian wants is something Wilhuff could've easily provided, if their life never expanded past Eriadu. He could've made this man happy by just being Wilhuff.
For once, he doesn't have to be grand moff or governor, or any title. Because he can provide for his lover as a man, provide a home and allowance from his own wealth. And that's probably-huge. Bigger than TK-421 knows.
I think there is very much a safety and comfort thing from sleeping around with someone who has no interest in his work life. Who dreams are probably crazy, but they make him laugh, he makes him laugh. And Tarkin allows it because he's safe. Their job difference is so very unsafe, even Palpatine would scold him for fucking a trooper, but Sevastian is warmth and safety as long as they keep it hidden.
For once in his life, perhaps for the very first time(Definitely since he was in single digits), just being Wilhuff is enough.
(He knows that the stormtrooper is using him for those things, that the trooper doesn't feel as deeply, but he wants to believe once they're away from the army and the Death Star, perhaps he'll feel safe enough to start opening up his heart. He doesn't mind Sev playing him like a fool. Better a fool than an idiot who allowed access to stars know how many secrets)
So yeah that's my response to all those comments. On surface level, yes. But when you think about how characters are fluid and this is definitely bookverse, the only person Wilhuff could truly let in is someone like TK-421 given his past in Tarkin. It's also why King of My Heart by Taylor Swift is SO them, with the themes of the love that is the one being more simplistic and lowkey than all the others(Cause all those boys and their expensive cars/their range rovers and their jaguars/never took me quite where you do and Up on the roof with a school girl crush/drinking beer out of plastic cups/say you fancy me not fancy stuff/Baby, all at once this is enough). I said what I said(But also the acoustic version she sang at an engagement party, not the big studio/concert version).
#wilhuff tarkin#tk-421#of mse 6 and men#I've had this in my mind for a long time#I just have a lot of thoughts#And that comment ALWAYS gets me because if you go into character backstories and think about it realistically#TK-421 having no interest in the empire has something huge with their fling turning into an actual relationship#It's something that I marvel at#How of all the characters tarkin fell in love with the character who seems to yearn to be a simple civilian#I like to think they build a very private but very strong home life together#They have cooking and cleaning droids but find themselves doing a lot of it#It's strangely mundane and tarkin strangely loves it#Sev's a bad cook but he tries and he's been in the army for 12+ years and just the fact that it's his cooking makes it lovely#Tarkin makes a much stronger push to be stationed on either coruscant or eriadu 85% of the time and the DS 10% and 5% is ships#So they can maintain a shared residence because they've made his properties homes
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Reimagining the characters in Wish
(Part 1- Asha)
Hey guys! I don’t really know how to start this, but let’s just say that I… Didn’t like how Disney’s 100th anniversary movie turned out, like at all.
But I can tell there was a lot of unexplored potential beneath this story, that in my opinion felt overly simple and bare bones.
But if you love it, that’s awesome, more power to you, I wish I could’ve loved it too. And I don’t want to rewrite it to show I’m “better than the writers at Disney” because I’m definitely not lol, I have no experience in writing, and I’m sure they put a lot of passion into the project and I respect them for that. But this movie inspired me with ideas for a different story that I think is worth telling.
But I won’t start telling it today, instead, I'll start a series of blogs sharing my ideas for changes in the characters and their stories, after I get some feedback I will start posting more of the story itself.
If you’re interested, then come along!
Asha✨
Personality
- Asha is a 18 year old girl, with a passion for drawing and helping those around her, sometimes even worrying more about helping others than helping herself
- She’s like a big sister to her 7 friends, always being the voice of reason and acting responsible, but not in a bossy way, she’s actually very playful with them
- To the people of Rosas tho, she's seen as kind of a weirdo, for you see, she spends almost every time of the day drawing in her sketchbook
- She practices everyday to become a better artist, and the people of Rosas find this to be very peculiar, after all, why would you take so much effort to perfect a talent when you can simply wait to turn 18 and wish for the king to make you an amazing artist?
- Asha doesn’t mind these comments, although they have made her less willing to share her drawings with others that aren’t her 7 friends
- As the story progresses we see Asha flourish from a shy and introverted girl to a brave woman who after discovering a terrifying secret about the kingdom’s rulers, steps in and inspires others to join her and fight an evil sorcerer king and his alchemist wife (yes, I made Amaya an alchemist, more on that on part 2 when I talk about how I’d change Magnifico and Amaya)
- Some Disney characters that share similarities with her personality wise are: Belle, Tiana, Pocahontas and Esmeralda
Main Traits:
Calm and mature
Determined
Passionate about her interests (drawing, dancing, philosophy and stars)
Helpful and generous
Perceptive and always questioning things around her that no one pays attention to (like why do all the artists only paint the King and Queen?)
Playful
Compassionate
Backstory
Oooh boy I gave this poor girl so much angst, okay let’s go
Asha grew up with her grandfather, her parents both died in a fire when she was just a baby
(this isn’t just to fit the “haha Disney princess has no parents” cliche, there’s plot relevance in this “mysterious fire” that I’ll talk about later)
Growing up with her grandpa, he’d always support her dream to be an artist, like her mother, who was an art teacher
Her mother not only drew really well, but she also was able to create the illusion that her drawings could move, by flipping through the pages of her sketch books
In other words, her mom was an animator
Asha saw this technic her mom used as a form of magic, so she would often tell her grandpa she wanted to “Do magic just like my mom”
Her father was a philosopher (this was established in the actual movie but never explored haha whyyyy), who taught people that working hard to achieve your dreams is not only rewarding, but also essential, because it’s part of the human nature to persevere and fight for what we believe, even if we fail, even if it’s hard, just keep moving forward.
This philosophy may sound very “umm duh” for me and you since we all know and hear everywhere nothing in life comes for free… But that’s not the case in Rosas
In this rewrite the kingdom wasn’t created by Magnifico, but rather the kingdom has existed for many generations, being ruled by different kings before Magnifico who also granted wishes… but I’m getting ahead of myself.
The point is that the culture of just asking the king to give you or make you whatever you want to be has been in this kingdom’s culture since forever, so when Asha’s dad comes out saying “hey! Maybe we should stop just relying on the king to make our dreams come true, right?” He’s actually being quite a revolutionary… and sharing a very dangerous belief to other people…
At this point you might suspect what caused that “mysterious fire”
So, back to Asha, growing up with her grandpa, they shared a lot of happy memories together. Reading her father's books and her mother's art books helped Asha connect with them even tho she never had them in her life.
But as her grandfather grew older, he became senile.
Asha went from being taken care of by her grandpa to being the one who took care of him when she was still around 13 years old, and when she turned 15 her grandfather passed away of old age
Asha went on to live with her best friend Dahlia, the two became like sisters.
Though she managed to move on from the loss of her grandfather, she could never shake the feeling that he died without getting his wish granted... But she had no way to prove that, it was just a feeling
The wish granting system works different in my rewrite, instead of there being a public wish granting ceremony once a month, there would only be a public wish TAKING ceremony, that would work just like in the movie, you turn 18, you go give your wish to the king yada yada yada.
But the wish granting part would work like this: Almost every night the king would release the wishes up in the sky, they would float down like balloons to their respective owners while they sleep, and once they woke up in the morning they'd feel that their wishes were granted, for they would wake up changed.
With this method, there's no way of confirming if someone really got their wish granted or not, unless you went to ask the king.
Asha never did ask the king if he granted her grandfather's wish, but her grandfather would sometimes express how he wasn't feeling completely fulfilled in his life, he felt like there was something... missing.
This feeling of hollowness persisted in him until the very end, no matter how hard Asha tried to help her grandfather, she never knew him as his real self, because he gave part of his soul to the king, the most beautiful part of his soul, his wish.
Asha had no proof that her grandfather didn't get his wish granted, only a gut feeling.
But because of this, Asha wasn't that thrilled to give her own wish to king magnifico, knowing there was the possibility of it never being granted.
Not to mention she didn’t even know what to wish for, “I’m just 18 and you guys expect me to already know what’s my heart’s deepest desire? I’m still figuring that out, all I know is that I wanna draw”
Plus she wanted to follow her father's philosophy and achieve her wish on her own, eventually, when she figured out what her wish even was.
Asha never rebelled against the system tho, she wasn't a confrontational person. She just accepted the people of Rosas preferred to rely on the king's magic, but that just wasn't for her.
However, on her 18 birthday, when it was expected of her to give her wish to the king, she simply said she didn't have a wish, and even if she did she wouldn’t want to hand it over, she wanted to make it come true on her own. This lead to an argument with the king, and after a series of events (that I don't have time to summarize here, but you can find out about it on my rewrite) leads to her finding out a terrible truth about her kingdom. And that's how her story begins.
Design
- I’d keep these braid ornaments that Asha had in the concept art
- Since in my rewrite she’s not that invested in the kingdom of Rosas, I’d remove all the Kingdom of Rosas symbols that are present in her design (there are a LOT of them)
- I’d replace these Rosas insignia with more star and constellations themed symbols, to reflect how Asha believes that the stars are connected to people and they can guide us, just like how her father believed.
Final Thoughts
My intentions with these changes were to give Asha a strong emotional hook, and something that makes her feel relatable.
The emotional hook here is how she spent so much of her life taking care of her grandfather that she kinda never had time to worry about her own desires, that alone can be relatable to caregivers of elderly people that watch their grandparents or even their own parents lose themselves as time passes, and end up worrying more about the person they’re taking care of than themselves.
Asha has this internal emotional conflict where she feels she needs to constantly help others the same way she helped her grandfather, and one of the things she’ll learn as the story progresses is that it’s not selfish of her to want more for HERSELF.
Another thing that would be relatable about Asha is her passion for drawing, and how most people in Rosas would say she’s wasting her time practicing so much when she can just wait until she turns 18 and wish to be amazing at drawing.
She’d never stop believing that taking her time to improve on her talent and trying again and again was worth every second of her time, because let me tell ya folks, drawing is HARD, and animating like Asha’s mom did is even HARDER, it takes a whole lot of practice, and Asha was determined to keep trying.
She’d be much like Belle, remaining true to herself even tho those around her considered her odd, and very passionate about drawing just as much Belle was passionate about reading.
I also find it funny how Asha’s motivations are fairly down to earth, like in Disney movies you usually have:
I want to be free from these palace walls!
I want to explore the ocean!
I want to open a restaurant!
I want to find true love!
And then there’s Asha here like
“My life is fine, I just wanna chill and draw stuff”
And that’s it, but, in her environment where everyone is expected to have this great wish that they have to give to the king so he’ll make it a reality, she’s kinda the odd one out, and I love that. Would be a great subversion of the Disney formula.
Of course after she learns Magnifico and Amaya’s true intentions she gets a lot more agency and the desire to save her people, her “call for adventure” if you will.
But what are Magnifico and Amaya’s true intentions? Click here for part 2 and find out!
Thank You For Reading!
#disney wish#wish#reimagined#rewrite#disney#wish 2023#wish asha#wish star#king magnifico#wish movie#wish disney#wish rambles#wish rewrite#Asha#long post#wishrewrite
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I like the show version of Chishiya, and here’s why.
I love manga!Chishiya, but he always felt pretty one-dimensional to me. His backstory is one of parental neglect, similar to Arisu. Chishiya basically fails to develop a sense of empathy (unlike Arisu, who just has ye olde Main Character Syndrome). He decides to enter med school because he thinks that a profession where he saves lives might actually help him grow a Give-a-Shitter. Spoiler: it doesn’t.
Manga!Chishiya is an emotional flat line. He doesn’t care about other characters because he can’t. I remember thinking that he had a lot of the same traits as a serial killer. He viewed the world through nothing but intellect, and other people were either nonexistent or pawns to be used to further his own ends. Even the idea that maybe being responsible for the lives of others will help him grow some empathy is a chilling one.
That’s cool. I actually really like those kinds of characters. I also think there are enough characters like that in the story. Characters who you look at and think, “Okay, yes, you are terrible.” The big problem is that it makes his weird self-sacrifice with Usagi absolutely senseless. Like, it came out of nowhere. There wasn't any sort of satisfying build-up where I felt like, "Okay, yeah, this makes sense."
His updated backstory adds a dimension that wasn’t present in the manga version. Rather than simply lacking empathy for other people, you can actually see the moment in which he makes the conscious decision to turn it off. He has this light bulb moment where he realizes that the world is a cruel and unfair place. He realizes that allowing himself to feel for other people is only going to hurt him in the end because he’s powerless to change the systems that are actively harming them. It's better to protect himself and survive.
Chishiya is a selfish character, but the idea that his selfishness stems out of a desire to protect himself from pain gives his character some actual depth that was always missing for me. It also makes the King of Diamonds game a lot more meaningful. Kuzuryu went through the same exact thing, but instead of turning off his feelings, he paralyzed himself with a moral dilemma. Where Chishiya chose to treat all human life as equally worthless, Kuzuryu couldn’t stop looking for some value to assign, whether that was to ease his conscience or to inform a sense of justice he was desperately trying to find.
I really, really like how that dichotomy played out.
I also think it's interesting that Chishiya feels a lot more psychological in the show. He's clearly highly intelligent in both the manga and the show, and maybe it's just Murakami's performance, but there's something more sinister to him. He's clearly developed some sort of friendly relationship with Kuina. He displays an ability to be playful and seems to genuinely be extending an offer of friendship to Arisu (up until he sells him out for one corn chip). Seeing how he can make these connections that feel genuine to the people involved (unlike his manga self who is pretty universally despised) and still be willing to fuck those people over for his own survival makes him feel a lot more menacing to me.
This ability to flawlessly manipulate and betray also means he has a deep understanding of human emotion, which is illogical by nature. In the manga, Chishiya says outright that he isn't suited for Hearts games, but show!Chishiya feels tailor-made for them.
It's also interesting that in the manga, he seems to get harsher and more isolated. By contrast, in the show, he feels to me like he softens episode by episode. It really struck me in the Jack of Hearts game when he said something about his partner dying because he was too kind. On the surface, you could take it as a typical judgy Chishiya comment, but there actually appeared to be a glimmer of sadness, or envy, or regret. Or all of the above. Or maybe it's just Murakami Nijiro's face that made me think that. Either way, I think it was smart of the showrunners to throw him in that game.
In the end, the King of Diamonds game pushes him to the realization that he really is envious of people who have the ability to be kind. He's envious of people who can make the selfless choice. And it's not because he can't be. It's because he's closed himself off to the vulnerability that allows a person to make that kind of decision. You can't truly save others if you're always protecting yourself.
So, he saves Usagi to try to become that person. And I don't feel it was out of character at all.
#alice in borderland#sky in the borderland#chishiya shuntaro#you all can take this with a grain of salt#i spend too much time thinking about him lmfao
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One issue I don't quite get and want to briefly comment on is the idea that Alastor has to be either an old-school villain who's just evil for the sake of being evil, or more of an antagonist with actual depth, emotions, and traumatic backstory to explain his actions, letting the audience relate to him. I think we're going to extremes here. We don't have to go, "Oh, I understand why he would do that". The main goal is for us to say, "Oh, so that's his deal".
While we don't know exactly what Alstor's deal is, what the exact terms of his contract are etc., he is, without a doubt, the most complex character in the show. He's in a unique position since he technically helps Charlie achieve her goal, but it's obvious he's in it for selfish reasons, with some grander scheme going on behind the scenes. May he eventually be the one the main cast will have to fight at some point? Sure. Would it be even more fun because he is a part of the said cast? Absolutely.
Let's get one thing straight: Alastor is evil. He's in Hell for a good reason. He's a cannibal and a serial killer. And I know we can absolutely forgive characters for doing the absolute worst, but he is not a good person. And yes, you can like (and simp for) evil characters. (If you think being a fan of intriguing fictional creations makes you a terrible person, you need to get off twitter and tiktok to actually interact with real people.) At the same time, the finale of season 1 simply made it clear that Al does have depth, and that he's going to be a three-dimensional character. Not that his actions are going to be suddenly justified.
But why can't we explore evil characters while enjoying them and letting them be evil? We can. Alastor started his carnage in Hell before making his deal, so it's not the main reason behind his less-than-questionable actions. For now, he's looking for freedom so he can (re)gain power and be in control again. At the same time, he is growing attached to the other characters. I highly doubt he'll be redeemed; we'll just learn more about him, his backstory, and his goals.
Can you even call Al an antagonist? If you ask me, he's more of an anti-hero. Heck, do we know who he is? Not really, and that's the point. He's one of the main characters, but he makes himself separate in both the story and the writing. He's a wild card.
We don't know what's coming for the Radio Demon in season 2. The first one established that there's more to him and that he started growing fond of the other characters, while the finale made Al realise it almost got him killed. He was humiliated and it reminded him even more that he's still under someone else's control. At least, that's how I see it. Alastor may become more sinister as the story progresses, and as he's getting more and more desperate to free himself of the contract. AT THE SAME TIME, he did come back to the Hotel with a smile and consent for a group hug, so it's not like he's going to blow it up in the first episode. He's not against the Hotel itself. He's doing his own thing, knowing that the titular establishment is an inherent part of his story. All paths lead to the Hazbin Hotel. My guess is that he will simply become more active.
Alastor is already a three-dimensional character; there is no doubt about that. But it's not like he's getting reckoned here. I don't really understand where this notion of our Radio Demon being an old-school villain came from in the first place. He's always been a mystery. Okay, maybe in the pilot it was not so clear-cut, and I'll admit, it would be fun to just see the Radio Demon as a powerful entity overlooking the hotel for his own pleasure. Turning him into a villain later on? Meh, depends on what would happen in the story if that were the case. Watching Jack Horner in "Puss in Boots", reminded me how much I missed villains that were not an initial antagonist's evil-incarnate-superior. However, it was quite quickly established that there is more to Alastor. He would have to appear pretty rarely to not go through any character arc in a show with such an ambitious storyline as Hazbin Hotel (and what a delightful character would we lose if that was the direction the writing team would have taken?). I would mention the pacing actually harming that development, but it's clear this is the show's biggest problem, and we just have to take things for granted.
If anything, Alastor is being restrained from being purely evil. To me, he's a combination of both of the character types I mentioned at the beginning, leaning more toward the well-developed anti-hero. Just let evil characters be evil and three-dimensional.
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Hi fight writer! Longtime follower, I always enjoy seeing your work and the situations people put their characters in. X3 Could I ask you to look over an element of character backstory for me, to see how realistic it is?
Character is an itinerant-knight sort of fellow, fantasy setting, elven. He's missing a chunk of his ear on one side, having lost it in a fight -- but not in the usual way of getting it sliced. It's the reason he swears by using a helmet and will not let any of his students go ahead into battle without head protection. The premise I had was that somebody gave him a blow to the side of the head and the helmet he was wearing crumpled from the force, pinning the ear between skull and metal. When the helmet was peeled off, a chunk of the ear came with it, or was basically so pinched off and dead that it had to be amputated anyway. (It also gave him a whopper of a concussion, of course. ^^;) But if he hadn't been wearing the helmet? It wouldn't have just been the ear, it would have been the whole top of his head. Wear your helmets, kids.
Do you think the helmet would have had to be damaged in some way beforehand for this to happen? Or be of shoddy make? Or would the opponent have to be supernaturally strong? Thank you!
So, this question has been sitting in the inbox for a bit, and part of that is that I've had difficulty parsing the question. There's a few reasons for this, but a major element is how much of the above comment isn't part of the question.
I get that most of this is a setup for a simple, “what do you think of my idea?' and those are questions we generally avoid, simply because, “thumbs up, it works.” Or, if there are serious problems, it feels like punching down.
So, in answer, “it's fine.” You don't even really need to justify it with other factors. Someone swinging a hammer at your head can result in your head protection failing. I think we can safely scratch off the supernatural strength option, simply because that's more likely to turn the character's head into an improvised golf ball, rather than taking out an ear. This is a weirdly specific injury, but it's also the kind of injury that could, potentially, happen on the battlefield.
Ironically, the weakest part to this concept is just that a combat veteran wouldn't automatically value head protection unless they'd suffered a disfiguring injury which would have been dramatically worse if they weren't wearing a helmet.
Helmets get into a weird place for a lot of writers. A lot of visual media hates putting characters in helmets (even when they really should be wearing one), because it hides the character's face. There is a legitimate concern here (specifically in visual media), because if multiple characters are wearing uniform helmets, they will become visually interchangeable, so skipping the helmet is about keeping the characters more recognizable. This creates a situation where, in a lot of cases, a helmet is treated like an alternate haircut option, completely glazing over the part where it's extremely important safety equipment.
To a certain extent, the treatment of helmets as cosmetics also extends to the entirety of a character's armor. You see this anytime you have partially armored characters going into battle. In some cases, there may be legitimate reasons for omitting specific armor pieces, and not having the resources to be fully armored is always a real possibility, but skipping the head or torso armor are extremely questionable decisions.
The, “pinched off,” comment always struck me as a bit strange. It sounds like the ear was held away from the skull, with part of the helm inserted between the ear and skull, rather than held up against the head. This would be a bad idea, and a structural weakness, though depending on the exact physiology of your elves, it might not be possible for them to pin their ears against their skull. In which case their armor would need to be specifically designed around their physiology. That might mean a much broader helmet structure. For example similar to something like large flared guard on Japanese helmets, or even the ACH. Depending on the overall tech level, it's possible that the best solution would to simply have ear holes in the helmet, though this could result in a situation where ears could be cut off on rare occasions.
I suppose there'd also be some consideration for rigidity and how uncomfortable it would be to bind down their ears under a helmet. So there might be some kind of structural cutout to accommodate their ears, but again, you really wouldn't want your ears being encased in metal away from the head. Even in the worst case, with horizontal ear tips, you'd probably see helmet designs that fit over the ear, possibly even leaving the underside exposed for better hearing, rather than full metal encasement.
Ironically, having just brought up the ACH, the one place where fully encased ears wouldn't surprise me is with electronic headsets. Though, again, that's more likely to be plastic and softer materials, and would likely fit over the ear and seal against the scalp, rather than just encasing the ear itself.
Also, he'd be partially deaf in that ear. This is not, “deaf by human standards,” but impaired hearing by elven standards. Unless their ears really are just magical, and the tips are performative, it's extremely likely that their ear structure would result in improved hearing, and that's something he would lack if most of the external ear had been destroyed.
-Starke
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#writing reference#writing advice#writing tips#writing fantasy#howtofightwrite#Starke answers#Starke does not have an ear collection
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I feel like fic recs tend to be things that are complete, so I thought I'd rec some things that haven't been updated in a while (>a year) or abandoned, but I still like to go back and reread
with links and comments under the cut <3
Poured Over Ice in an Old-Fashioned Glass by prepandemicwriting (bealeciphers) [2016-02-04, 28k]
-classic bartender!barry fic. they're both kinda disasters all around? hilarious
Run Away With Me by asexual-fandom-queen (2016-05-23, 14k]
-the only time asking someone to run away with you has ever worked lmao.
Painting the Roses Red by Solarcat [2016-07-01, 20k]
-Family of Rogues but there's a third snart sibling that Len's got to protect. Lucy Snart that only exists in this fic and my brain ily <3
I bet these memories follow you around by MissSugarPlum [2017-06-07,5k]
-Lisa and Barry in high school at the same time, Barry being tiny and full of rage, Lisa being reluctantly charmed, mwah. chef's kiss.
Bolt from the Blue by town_without_heart [2017-06-16, 170k]
-pre-canon meeting is always delicious to me. eobard being aware of it is the cherry on top (what a creeper)
The Good in You (the Bad in Me) by blue_wonderer [2017-08-02, 26k]
-I have a soft spot for fics where Barry and Lisa are friends what can I say. set pre-canon, and barry is a goddamn delight
Get Me Through The Night by Mentalrebel [2017-08-07, 11k]
-super interesting formatting. it's a lifeline au? I have no idea what that it, but it's fun
Ties and Barricades by yersifanel [2017-09-01, 10k]
-pre-canon meet-ugly where len kidnaps his soulmate as part of his getaway.
Realignment (time & company) by writerdragonfly [2018-02-13, 12k]
-me? rec a time travel fic? of course. time traveller's wife au. gives some really interesting backstory to Len's mother/family
Unexpected Development by nirejseki [2018-04-05, 20k]
-it's so funny it's practically a crack fic. calling the reverse flash Mr. Banana is an inspired choice
since I can remember I've been runnin' from you by youmakemesoangry [2019-01-26, 14k]
-barry getting haunted by post oculus len yes oh yes
Sticky Fingers by MoriartyMastermind [2019-03-05, 18k]
-barry stealing wallets as the flash is like objectively funny okay
Resonance by Moriavis [2019-06-16, 40k]
-looove a soulmate fic and this one is so unique. Barry and Len meet when Barry's still a child, and it ends before they meet as adults, so really it's mainly a Leonard snart character study
Ice and Lightning by vomitingwords [2020-03-26, 2k]
-potentially the only figure skating au for this ship?
Zero to Sixty by scrubmarine [2020-06-26, 25k]
-barry meeting len out of costume because he's running away from Iris is a hilarious set up, and he kind of deserves it
Just Friends by Thundersnow [2021-08-11, 168k]
-a classic fake dating au, trying to figure out how a blueberry coffee could taste good has been a question that has followed me for years.
Shiva by crestfaller [2021-11-07, 17k]
-I always need more fics dealing with the loss of Henry tbh, and this is a really good exploration of grief.
What It Might Cost by Kateera [2022-05-17, 20k]
-a classic deaging fic, len is heartbreakingly cute
Stand Still by Taste_of_Bitterness [2022-09-15, 25k]
-len doesn't go on the waverider after running to stand still. Barry's kind of a mess here, tbh?
I Think I Love You by youmakemesoangry [2023-05-03, 67k]
-it's post Len and mick's legends trip, and they're helping out team flash. there's a truth spell involved. It's a classic trope. (also there's this bit where mick's reading Frankenstein and he calls creature victor's kid, and that's such a mood, my gothic fiction class spent like an hour talking about his daddy issues once)
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I don't get it.
Like seriously, I honestly don't understand it.
Sjm says that Elain was someone who she and Lucien didn't see coming. She had always envisioned him with Nesta, but realized they'd tear each other apart (not in a good way, as she loves that kind of banter, but theirs would be awful). She mentions 'without getting too spoilery' that and I quote:
"there was actually a great deal of tension, growth, and healing to be found for both of them (together)"
You mean to tell me, that she says there is a great deal of tension (which we've all been seeing between them), growth and healing for them TOGETHER ONLY to have Elain break her bond with him and leave him to suffer a broken bond?
You want to tell me that SJM planned to have Elain become Lucien's mate, so they could grow and heal together, only for her to dump him and choose Azriel, and leave Lucien alone with a broken bond?
This woman, who has written Lucien as kind, patient, understanding, and truly concerned for Elain, is planning on making his mate turn away from him? This man who is said to be fiercely loyal, who could have ANY woman in Prythian he wanted but has no interest in any females, who has suffered physical and emotional trauma to help his friends. You think Sarah is just going to be like "Yeah, I'm going to put Lucien with a girl who is all around perfect for him and just take her away so she can run into the arms of another man!"
Look, I torture my precious babies too, but that?! That's INSANE to me that anyone thinks Sarah planned to set him up with a mate and said all those things if she planned for it to be a failure.
Especially since she made a comment, unprompted mind you, about an Elucien date where they go visit the gardens in London, before heading out to the countryside, stating that they're BOTH happy in nature. So she's going to talk about Feysand, Nessien modern dating, and just throw in Elucien even though she doesn't even plan for them to be together?
it simply doesn't make any sense to me.
Like take a moment, to actually sit down and think, why would this author say those kinds of things if she as some had said "planned Elriel since MAF" when she literally states the opposite. She confirmed Nessien in that same moment as well, because the series was originally supposed to finish. Az and Elain didn't have anything together, they were never planned. She didn't change from that trajectory either (as stated in her interview that I guess people want to misquote, forget, or take her words completely out of context).
SJM did say there were SMALL changes, like some characters had been added (which I suspect are Gwyn and Em), Mor's sexual orientation, but the overall arch was still the same.
Honestly, here's what I think about that.
Azriel was always meant to have a mate. A lot of people pointed out that in MAF there was a lot of Moriel hints and they were meant to be endgame. When she got backlash for lack of LGBT representation, she just decided to have Mor's preference shift. I think it left Az without a mate, but by the time SF came around she began to leave breadcrumbs for who he'd end up with. That being Gwyn.
I personally think SJM wants Gwynriel so much so, that she retconned Az's backstory so he was the one at Sangravah. That he killed everyone in site, leaving none left alive (completely OOC for Az, yet fitting with mate behavior). Like if she had no intention for Az to be connected to her in such a way, why actively make HIM the one to save her? Why make it so that Az killed everyone and left not a single person alive?
Why did she have his shadows react to her in a very specific way, a way that's calm and happy? The way they sing and dance to her, reaching out to her in a playful way. Why would she change history and put attention on these things, if there was never any future for them? What, so we can see Az fall for Elain? You mean Sarah went out of her way to change parts of Az's story and how his shadows react specifically to Gwyn, just so he can turn from her and rush into the arms of Elain? Why bother?
And before anyone says "lightsinger" and Gwyn's 'evil powers' are causing Az's shadows to dance and sing... there's a whole bonus chapter where Az's shadows dance to Azriel's singing. Gwyn isn't even there, so that's debunked.
That's all, I just had to get that off my chest. I keep seeing so many people rant and say that SJM's old editor pushed for Elucien and her new one is pushing Elriel because it's more 'popular' and she's going in this new direction now. I have no idea where that came from when she said that nothing's changed from her drunken rant, so we'll see I guess.
#elucien#elucien supremacy#pro lucien vanserra#pro elucien#elain x lucien#pro gwynriel#gwynriel#gwyneth berdara#gwyn x azriel
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Non is either dead, he's dead and now an evil spirit terrorizing the boys or he is alive and the main killer. Thai horror films leans heavily on ghosts and supernatural but the creators of DFF seemed to have also taken inspiration from western horror/slasher films like I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Blair Witch Project, Scream and Friday the 13th.
If they are following western horror tropes then the obvious killer(s) or accomplice(s) would be Phee, Tan or both. If that is the case then Jin is clearly the classic final girl.
White has no personal stakes at this point or role in the story. He would be a pretty underwhelming final girl because I think hes boring so far. He's either cannon fodder to be slashed or he only survives because the killer is defeated. I would love if they changed my mind but we are already on episode 8. So unless we get more backstory on White that seems to be where his storyline is headed. Tee has been the more interesting character of that duo.
If they actually want to "surprise" the audience then revealing White as the killer or an accomplice would be a cool twist.
Anon, have you realized that I'm being UNREASONABLE about Dead Friend Forever? You've seen my Wild Ass Theories, so you must know I'm losing my mind with my little whiteboard and red string trying to connect the dots, right?
I'm prepared for all outcomes because I'm unhinged about his show, but . . .
"I think [White's] boring so far"
White slander? In my inbox? On a Tuesday?!
White is either an innocent bystander like his name implies caught up in this fuckery because his boyfriend Tee SUCKS, or he is a killer whose big doe eyes and kind demeanor tricked all these boys into believing he was there for love and not for *murder*, but either way, White will survive.
White realized there was no cell service.
White found the walkie-talkie.
White got the walkie-talkie working.
White found the knife.
White found the gun.
White saw part of the video.
White keeps dragging Tee's ass back when Tee wants to run.
White saw a rash on his skin.
White didn't know Tee's uncle was going to jail.
White wasn't supposed to be there.
The boy is propelling this plot forward, and it could very well be because he is Non's brother and is lying about not knowing anything about Non or Tee's uncle, which is why he swindled his way onto this trip so he would be the least suspicious and take Tee's ass down!
But what keeps me stuck is he is actively dating Tee. White is having shower sex with a man who roped his brother into money laundering, watched him get beat up, and possibly left him for dead?! Is Non's brother actually that crazy?!
In my mind, Jin could be a killer before White! But Jin is being extra creepy about Non, and I think it is being easily dismissed. Too easily.
Jin keeps touching Non. Jin keeps staring at Non. Jin convinced Non to stay with his bullies. Jin took a video of Non and planned to upload it, so regardless if the upload happened or not, the boy is still not Final Gay status.
I have not liked Jin or Tee since the first episode. Tee told White he was being disobedient and Jin had too much attitude to be on a trip with his buddies. In the words of Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz, "if yo ass wanna act, then you can keep your ass where you at."
So if Jin was sooooo upset to be on this trip, why did he come? As a killer? Possibly. But as the past as shown us, Jin does what the group does. He might protest and make side comments, but Jin is always going to do what the group wants. That's not Final Gay behavior.
This is Jin's going away celebration, so he really could be a killer and planned this entire ordeal to get everyone back together before he kills them all and peaces out to America.
But at this point, I'm completely biased.
Jin is my #1 enemy
Tee needs to die by White's hands
Tan and Phi are in this together
Non is alive
White will be the Final Gay because Phi and Tan wouldn't take out an innocent boy who wasn't even supposed to be there
And I'm quickly losing my mind
White lives.
Or else.
#dead friend forever#dead friend forever the series#Wild Theories#I have theories for days#and they only get wilder#but why do y'all keep asking me about them#I'm being unreasonable#I cannot see the light#because I don't want to#White will live#or else!
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A look at the victims of tcmg
With the new release of Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Game, we have been exposed to a terrifying and tense world with lovely brand new characters in addition to the iconic Sawyers. The victims, all original to the game, are just fantastic. Each of them has a rich backstory to them and more so, clear personalities!
Playing the game and playing a good amount with each victim, I have noticed some clear markers of personality in every character through their dialogue.
Sonny, my main, is a anxious yet steadfast kind of guy. He speaks timidly as a mouse, commenting quietly about how horrifying things are while trying to keep brave. Although in stature he is smaller than the other victims, Sonny is brave despite his greatest fears. He constantly amps himself up, urging himself to not loose hope and to get out of tough spots. I really love how Sonny, alongside Ana, are the friends that try to bring peace of mind to everyone else. Sonny isn't a leader but he is strong support to the other survivors and that fact shows even more in his ability to hear other survivors and the killers from far distances. He's a sort of lookout for the group, staying cunning and brave despite clearly being scared. Another thing I have to point out with Sonny is his connection to Maria. Sonny, alongside Ana, clearly want to find Maria the most out of anyone. Sonny constantly talks about how he recognizes the family members from his investigations. Sonny likely spied on the family members and is likely the one who figured everything out, connecting Maria's disappearance to the family. Sonny clearly was adamant on finding his friend and helping Ana out, he's a true friend.
Then there is Julie and... she is a completely different type of character but I love her for that. She isn't a resilient survivor or a strong willed person. In fact, Julie is like an innocent girl stuck in the worst place she could possibly be. Julie is probably the least hopeful victim in tcmg, she constantly comments on how they are all probably going to die and that there is no hope of them escaping. She is extremely fearful about everything happening and that's the dominant emotion that controls what she does. Julie may be extremely scared but that doesn't change the fact that she's way more adept towards survival than she might think. Her extreme fear helps her as because of it she is much more cautious and stealthy than any other victim. Julie is one of the more tragic victims in this game I feel, she always cries extremely hard when she gets killed and I hate whenever she dies. Julie is a sweet soul and the other survivors comment on that when they find her dead body. Connie for example says "Oh sweetie what did they do to you..." Julie to me is clearly a girl who is a sweet soul and wanted to help find her missing friend but she never thought it would go somewhere so horrible. Out of all the victims, she is the only one who regrets coming her and constantly says that they never should of come here. Julie is also super caring! She asks if the other survivors are hurt and she tells each other to stick together. I also love how she casually calls everyone babe, I think it's just a small detail since she is from California but I still think it's cool. She is an extremely scared person but still has a kind and caring heart.
Ana is probably my favorite character, she is just so extremely bad ass and is for sure the final girl of the game. Not only is she the youngest in the group but she is also the toughest. Not just because her toughness stat is crazy high but because Ana herself is a tough person. Out of all the victims, I'd say she is the most fearless and she uses that to her advantage completely. She fearlessly stands up to the family and she has such devotion for her friends and her sister. Everytime she attacks a family member she screams "This is for Maria" or "What did you do to my sister?!" She is a badass in everyway frankly and I love her for it. Her ability shows that too, SHE LITERALLY IGNORES PAIN BECAUSE HER RESOLVE IS SO STRONG. I mean seriously, talk about final girl. If Ana was armed with more dangerous weapons than just bone knives, she would bring hell upon the family I'm sure.
Okay now we have Leland, who is all around a pretty cool guy. He's loyal, strong, and caring. Leland however, is not tough. He literally whimpers on low health, if you want Leland whimper audio just play him for one game and there you go. Leland has a low tough stat and that shows in his personality too. Leland's voicelines suggest he isn't a very brave person but when worst comes to worst, bravery springs up in Leland when he would least expect it. He does great fighting back against family members better than he does sneaking around hoping they won't find him. I feel like Leland is a little self consious about himself, he doesn't think he has what it takes to survive when it actuality he does. He has a true heart of gold and wrecklessly, yet bravely shoulder charges those killers head on despite his fear.
Last but not least, Connie is our last victim. She's crafty and picks locks faster than Bubba can rev his chainsaw, we all know it and we love her for it. Connie is another character I love, although I think her true personality is dulled down a little in such a tense situation. Some of Connie's voice lines suggest she is a kind hearted and witty woman but most of the time she is completely focused on getting the hell out of here. Connie switches from being a kind friend to a girl with more survival potential than anyone could have guessed. Connie, like Sonny, is scared but at the same time she has the strength to mostly ignore it so she can focus on getting out. Perhaps sometimes too much however as her ability makes her too focused on locks to escape to realize the family is around her. I really like this about her though, it really shows how she gets in a tense situation.
Overall I have been loving the tcm game and it's victims are wonderfully fleshed out. It's really refreshing to see these characters, know their motives for being here and their vastly different personalities. It's really refreshing and it just adds onto the intensity of the game. I want the victims to survive and I feel horrible when they don't because they are all so likeable 😭 tcm is just a great game so far and I'm hopeful that the game will continue going strong and just keep improving.
#tcm game#texas chainsaw massacre#texas chainsaw massacre game#tcm#sonny williams#ana flores#connie taylor#leland mckinney#julie crawford#I've been loving this game so much!!!!!#Just examining how unique and full of life each of the victims are#I love that they all have motivations and clear personalities
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Good day! I was wondering if your review on Restart Heart has changed after the new demo came out recently? If you haven't played it yet, I suggest trying it out and letting us know what you think of it.
After trying my hand at the updated demo, I can safely say that my personal opinion has changed quite a bit since the very first version. The MC seems a touch more like an insufferable prick now with how rude they are towards some characters, how "Mary Sue" they act in given situations, and how they overreact to certain events occurring around them. Their inner thoughts and rational thinking are nothing like mine as well, but that's more of a personal thing. While I'm aware it's currently still a demo and these events aren't considered "canon" by the dev, it isn't exactly doing a good job at persuading me to try out the finished version of the game once it comes out.
I do like that there are more than one "main" yandere now, however unfortunately none of the other characters aside from Ezra and Sammy really appeal to me. Each character seems very "stereotypical" and play into a very specific trope, but it's been like that since the first release so I'm not too bothered by it. I guess I was hoping for more developed and interesting characters in the update and got let down with the lack of improvement from the first version.
I'm also unsure how I feel about how overly "woke" the demo is trying to be? The overuse of Arabic phrases by Bess seems somewhat out of place and repetitive, so many characters are overtly trans or use their ethnicity as a base for their personality (especially seen on tumblr), the NSFW scenes [in the first version] feel like I was being babysat with the constant "consent check ins" and boundary implementations, and characters like Steph talk about their job [a pornstar] as though it's something to glorify or romanticize. The game's job is to make these characters appealing enough for us to pursue but I can't get over how forced/unnecessary their backstories and personalities feel. I'm transmasc myself but I'm put off by these constant reminders being shoved in my face at every turn, especially on the official tumblr page. I like that these sorts of things are being represented in a positive way (much less in a visual novel where it's so rare), but I don't like how constant and overplayed they are.
I will say that the writing has definitely improved in the new demo and it doesn't feel as overtly casual with the grammar and punctuation anymore (almost as if the narrator was texting me rather than talking to me). The characters have established connections with the MC now which I like, though I understand that this may not be everyone's cup of tea. The new CGs are nice too, however I won't comment on the updated art style since I personally prefer the scratchy anime style of games like TKATB, Mushroom Oasis, and even 14DWY [the first version]. I've always liked the music used and the GUI looks good, so I didn't mind not seeing much of an update for them in the new demo.
Overall, I have mixed feelings but I'm hopeful and optimistic that the finished version will be much better if the updated demo is anything to go by. I also hope there won't be a price tag on the finished product because as good as it is now, there is still so much that needs to be improved on to justify even a $5 label. These are my personal thoughts, though I'd love to hear yours as well.
It took me a while to replay the new demo and then find the older demos since it's no longer on the itchio page (There is still a link for the third day, but I had to watch epsylion's video on the fourth day, which excludes some routes). I admit that while I am generally aware of what is going on with various vns and their updates, I haven't had time to really go through and play most of them, so if there is a game that I have gone over before but it has updated, feel free to send me an ask.
Restart Heart seems to have an interesting conception, with the game going up to it's fourth day, before eventually being pulled back into a shorter demo that encapsulates the first day, likely to revamp and improve on the game as a whole. As such, I'm not sure if I've missed anything specifically as I'm not on the patreon . As a quick recap, the general plot of the first demo was that the MC, Sugar basically went on a huge party rager after finding out their ex fiance cheated on them and got their younger sister pregnant. As a result, the four days that we do spend with Sugar and the other characters are generally Sugar attempting to get back on their feet with the help of Ezra and the other characters, Bess, Blaire, Sammy, Chris and Steph along with sleeping with some of them if you so choose to. The new demo is a bit similar but only covers Sugar before finding out about the cheating, with them having a smaller interaction with the rest of the crew at the chocolate place they work at (namely that they almost got crushed by a bunch of staplers).
I think compared to the four day version of Restart Heart, I actually prefer this new demo's Sugar to the old one, though that's likely going to change once they find out about the cheating that's going on. While I understand that Sugar is going through a generally horrible situation of someone cheating on them, I also find their behavior kind of hard to deal with and not that much fun to play with. This is just my general gripe with a lot of yandere vns, not just Restart Heart in particular, where the MC tends to be very cynical and dislikes doing... well anything, which to me is a touch tedious and kind of annoying at times. I also feel like from the four day version, they feel a lot more bitter and angry (again due to the break up) but also coddled very heavily as well. Understandably it is nice to have someone who is able to care about you and try to make things feel better when everything feels like it's falling apart, but to me it still feels very infantalizing in some aspects, with every character seemingly trying to nurse Sugar back to feeling better. It's likely more of a me thing since I've always been the type of person to drag myself back up by my feet, rather than attempt to rely too much on other people. In the new demo, Sugar has yet to experience this (at least from what I can tell) so is generally more stable and less prickly. I don't think it's particularly Mary Sue like in the new demo, considering that I feel like if my friend almost got crushed by a bunch of staplers, we'd all run over there too and make sure that they're okay, though I can see where you're coming from since most of the characters are revolving around Sugar in that sort of way. It's hard to say what kind of characters the Restart Heart gang will be considering that it is still a demo, but considering it did have four days already out, I can see what you mean. We don't get to see too much into their lives (outside of Blaire, I think which probably has the most characterization out of Chris and of course Ezra). It would be nice for them to do other things as well like go out on dates or just hang out more one on one (like going to hang out at the library with Sammy, for instance) to get to know them a bit more.
Interesting take on it. I did notice that Bess uses a lot of Arabic phrases, kind of like someone who is trying to learn the language and is attempting to use it in their every day life so that they can remember it. I don't think that specifically was the intention, but it did come off like that for me. I'm not really sure what you mean by "overtly trans or use their ethnicity as a base for their personality", do you mean as more of like that's their main personality trait? A very minor confusion I have with the game is the use of pronouns that are attached onto the characters. That in itself isn't really a problem but it does seem a touch redundant because there is a character bio for all of the characters that already has the pronouns on it. Not anything huge, but it is a strange decision to make. The checkins for nsfw content is generally a thing that happens in a lot of r18 yandere vns, but I do get that it does feel very babysitting like, especially if it's something that happens after the initial agreement.
I do agree that the writing has improved a lot more, with the characters written in a more lifelike manner and feels more like they have known Sugar for a while. I also agree that it's nice that they have more stronger connections to Sugar this time around. I think the music is good, though I do wish that they would change it up more since the same soundtrack repeated does make it a bit tiring (though this is likely just a demo thing). Lilith did a good job of coding everything as expected, especially with the pronoun, name, partner, nickname choices in the very beginning. There is a lot of variation for people who want to be called a specific way during the NSFW parts (though admittedly I don't really like most of them since well, I prefer submissive yanderes). They are doing a lot of projects right now, so it is hard to say when the full version will come out and what the quality will be right now. Hopefully it will come out well though, and there will be more yandere content that I can shift through.
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A collection of my thoughts and headcanons to improve TFATWS
(Warning: Long post ahead!)
I was rewatching The Last of Us the other night and I really appreciated how, in a 9 episode (10 really with the 2ep pilot), it delivered so much plot momentum while still delving into multiple characters' backstories, with multiple episodes almost entirely devoted to flashbacks.
Like... with a somewhat modified plot and longer run time, TFATWS could've added so much backstory for both Sam and Bucky. Hell, they didn't mind spending CGI de-aging money on Fury in Secret Invasion so we could've used a little here too, no?
So, in a similar series structure, we could've had a 2ep opening pilot, really setting the foundational themes, then after Walker gets introduced as Walmart Cap, the next episode (after the recap) could've opened with an almost entirely flashback episode of Sam's time in the air force. (Walker might’ve even been in Afghanistan at the same time, depending on age/Blip years, etc. if you wanted to show them crossing paths, show Walker's always been entitled and a loose cannon, etc).
The episode could've A) shown Sam's awesome Falcon skills as a pararescue, B) given us Riley, whose loss we'd see echoed in Sam's grief and mixed emotions about Steve (and NAT!), and C) could've shown more Sam's reasons for being anti-authority and anti-institutional power, and a distrust in power structures that change their minds and agendas.
A headcanon I've had for a while is that even though Sam and Riley were trained and deployed as pararescue, eventually, maybe after their first tour trialling the EXO-7s, the military higher-ups realised that the Falcons could get in and out of certain regions/facilities, far better than a lot of other special forces crew. This meant that very quickly, Sam and Riley were being pulled from their pararescue unit and sent on more and more ops that weren't what they signed up for. Weren't of the 'rescue and recovery, saving people, bringing them home' variety. And this would weigh heavily on Sam's morals. Not only does he either not get all the info on these ops or doesn't agree with them, but he's also leaving his unit, the 58th, without him. Which could lead to guilt if some of his fellow soldiers are killed or wounded and not rescued in time, because the Falcons weren't there to save them. And of course, Riley's eventually death perhaps resulting from one of these dangerous ops. (Covered up officially as that 'standard night mission' which is all Sam's allowed to say.)
I think something like that could've shown Sam's disillusionment with government agencies and military institutions (especially when propped up by propaganda). And mirrored comments made by both Steve and Sam in Winter Solider and Civil War.
"The people giving me orders are down to zero..."
"Agendas change."
"What if this sends us somewhere we don't think we should go? What if there's somewhere we need to go and they don't let us?"
"How long you gonna play both sides?"
Part of Sam's reluctance in taking up the shield could've been his past experience in his abilities being turned to something he didn't sign up for and ultimately misused. (Also a parallel to Bucky!) A conversation prior to Riley's death, between him and Sam, could've shown that growing distrust in what they've been made to do.
Anyway, then (this post's already too long lol), later in the season, there's an almost entirely Bucky-centric flashback episode (like Ellie's ep7 in TLoU). Maybe Sam's injured and in hospital after the fight with Walker for the shield (but also Lemar doesn't get killed, because i say so), and this leaves Bucky in crisis mode for personal and plot reasons.
I haven't nailed down the specifics of these flashbacks as much, but the general scope would include: Bucky being drafted (not freely enlisting), seeing his family happy pre-War (little Rebecca?!), Hydra (not torture porn, just as in he's turned into a weapon and ties in with his guilt/list later), hiding out post CAWS (bonus points if Sam DID find Bucky first, I can't help it 😉), isolation, but sees someone that embodies so much that's good and worth believing in (Sam), starting to heal in Wakanda (like with Ayo) (again, bonus points if Sam's there at least once).
All that to say, Bucky's themes could highlight his displacement and disenfranchisement from his time, all his family, himself, and that clawing back of identity and belief in Good Things. And because in my scenario, I have Sam incapacitated to prompt this time of Bucky self-reflection, these flashbacks show that Sam is one of those Good Things that Bucky has grown to believe in and gravitate to. Which shows onscreen WHY he's been so adamant that Sam take up the shield. (Even though he went about this is a counter-intuitive and unhelpful way, we can fix this too). Sam inspired good in him, 'brought him home' (pararescue parallel!), and Bucky believes Sam can do the same for a broken world.
*Sam obviously wakes up, plot continues, he goes home while Bucky (being unable to verbalise yet everything we the audience now understands) has gone off to find Zemo, beg Wakanda for a fancy, over the top, 'I'm sorry I've been a dick, but I love you, I believe in you, and this is here should you choose it and if you need it' apology proposal present.
(I jest. This can all be read as strictly MCU-approved platonic. But this is tumblr, and me, so let's be real 😉)
I also would add, in the last episode, when Bucky is in NY, a scene of him contacting an older Rebecca. (Maybe this is something Sam asks him early in the show if he's done yet and Bucky brushes off, aggravated. Showing that he knows he has family alive, but his fear and other issues have been keeping him from reaching out - like what's kept him from Sam.) Because then you have back to back scenes of Bucky reconnecting to his old family, leading right into the dock party with Sam (his new family!) Visually showing he's healing that bridge of displacement and isolation.
Anyway, if you've stuck around to the end, thank you! That's how I would've incorporated flashbacks into a rough approximation of a TFATWS show to flesh out Sam and Bucky in relation to the show's themes and each other. (Obviously, we could fix all the Flagsmasher, power broker, serum stuff too. But the general plot outline still works for the purpose of this idea.)
Thanks for reading 😘
#i've forgotten so much while writing this#and the formatting kept doing weird things since i typed this on my phone#i hope this makes sense#tfatws#sambucky#sam wilson#bucky barnes#sambucky headcanons#sam wilson meta#i'll be very surprised if anyone reads to the end of this#long post#this is what i mean when i say all my headcanons interlink into one giant mega rewrite of tweaks#sam wilson headcanons#staying-elive#sambucky meta#tfatws meta
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Errand Boy
Divider by @cafekitsune !
[ This short story is important to the main story of the central character ]
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Central Character ; 『 Sumeragi Yuuta, “The Golden Rule” 』
Mentioned (Central) ; 『 “Rei-Rei”, ‘The Secret Silly Symphony’ 』
【 This is both a short story important to the central character's story; All Ocs belong to their respective owners and will be credited at the end. 】
Synopsis: Crowley's favorite errand boy just can't catch a break, can he? Well, at least it isn't most of his errands Yuuta has to run.
Warning(s): Angst, comfort at the end(?), backstory spoilers, nobody knows it's his birthday :(, not proofread because grammarly sucks now and we die like men
⊱────────────────────⊰
Whatever they were talking about, Yuuta wasn't putting in any effort in listening. It was just how he operated most of the time.
Disassociation; a brief hum and nod as though he were paying attention; a snarky comment thrown in when he gets asked the age-old “are you even listening?”— all culminating into one of the most mundane ways for Yuuta to start his day.
Well, maybe that was a little cruel to say; Ellis and Circe seemed to be enjoying themselves just fine. Something about the former trying on a new shade of pink she, quote on quote, invented.
Yuuta sat on the couch he'd recently helped implement into Ellis' eyesore of a room, his eyes focused on the ceiling to refrain from rolling his eyes so far back they'd get stuck.
Are they done yet? Yuuta asked himself, completely disassociating from whatever conversation Ellis and Circe were currently having. He felt a little bad for being so inattentive; fashion was one of the few things he had in common with the duo.
Yet there he was, barely even paying a sliver of attention to whatever nonsense they were talking about. Something about ‘inventing new colors’, but he was too busy thinking to actually listen.
“Yuuta?”
He blinked, his gaze flitting between the pink ceiling — that he painted for Ellis — to Ellis herself. Seemed like while he was occupied with… anything other than what they were talking about.
“Hm?” He quirked up an eyebrow. “What?”
“We were just asking what you thought of this new design Ellis came up with,” Circe took hold of Ellis’ sketchbook and went over to Yuuta, handing it to him.
Yuuta got a good look at the sketch. It was good, he believed. Then again, Ellis always did have a knack for design.
“Well?” Ellis strode over to them, tilting her head to the side with a smile Yuuta couldn't dare break.
“What do you think?”
Why do you always ask me that? Yuuta thought. The praise Ellis received for her talent in fashion and all things related to it weren't unwarranted. She didn’t need to ask him, or Circe, or anyone about if a design looked good or not— there was no need to.
It was Circe's turn to raise an eyebrow. “Yuuta?” It was as though Yuuta couldn't hear them, hear anything.
Circe snapped his fingers twice, that hint of concern plastered on his face barely even comparable to Ellis’, who seemed to take that wave of concern and multiplied it by tenfold.
Yuuta couldn't stop thinking. About the day it was, about how nobody will know about the significance of it; about the errands he'll have to deal with today to keep Ramshackle afloat, about…
The buzzing noise of Yuuta's phone gave him that opening to leave as soon as possible. Better for him to complete his everyday tasks than to deal with the concern his friends had over him.
Yuuta stood, towering over Ellis but not quite doing the same for Circe. “I have to go,” he said in such a way that implied that whatever conversation they were going to have, it wasn't going to happen anytime soon, if at all.
“Huh?” Circe scrunched their nose. “What are you- No, where are you-”
“Errands,” Yuuta dismissed far too quickly than necessary, already making a break for the door before Ellis could intercept.
At least, he would have. Not until a thought popped into his head. So much so that he stood with his body halfway out of the door, frozen in place.
Circe's face contorted from silent concern, to surprise, to just straight up befuddlement. Ellis wasn't doing much better, tucking her arms behind her back with a similar expression on her face.
“What's he doing…-?” Circe whispered to Ellis, his nose wrinkling.
“I’m…” Ellis took a slight step forward, “... Not too sure.” Hence, from there, she walked up to Yuuta, tapping his shoulder with a featherlight touch to bring him back to his senses.
She could only hope that he wouldn't be like this for the rest of the day. The mere thought just made her even more worried than she already was.
“Erm… Yuuta?” Ellis called out to him, shaking him gently; body halfway out of her room, with his head hanging low. “Yuuta, are- Are you okay? Do you need a break, or something? I'm sure if we asked Crowley, he could let you take a bre-”
“Ribbon.”
Ellis blinked. “... Pardon?”
Ellis watched Yuuta turn his head to look her directly in the eye, his expression devoid of emotion.
“I'm gonna have to ask for some ribbons. Black, purple, and blue.”
⊱───────────────⊰
Crowley had been kind in the number of errands Yuuta had to run for today. Try as he may to hate the pathetic birdbrain, he could — at the very least — feel thankful.
Though…. If he continues to go on and on about his ‘kindness’, I might just punch my way through this goddamn maze.
Yuuta had already been in a questionable mood ever since the incident with Ellis and Circe earlier in the day, it just seemed like his mood worsened when he had to perform the tasks bestowed upon him by his “enigmatic” headmaster.
“Something on your mind?” Juvia asked, noting the grumbling Yuuta's been doing for the past few minutes while they assisted in painting the roses in Heartslabyul.
Juvia, bless her heart, knew that Yuuta wasn't going to be able to do everything himself, and out of the kindness of her blot-covered heart, had convinced Yuuta to allow her to help him out; well aware of his stubborn nature and his utmost refusal to receive help most of the time.
“I'm fine,” like everyone else, Juvia played victim to the dismissiveness of Sumeragi Yuuta. May the Great Seven bless her with more patience than anyone in NRC could muster.
Yuuta picked up another bucket of paint, heading for the next bush of unpainted roses with a look so nonchalant it almost disturbed Juvia to see him in such a state.
“You're clearly thinking of something.” Juvia climbed up a ladder to reach the upper parts of the rose bush she was painting; which just so happened to be next to Yuuta's. He wondered if that'd been intentional on her part.
But that thought faded very quickly. “Well, whatever I'm thinking of, it isn't any of your business.”
“I feel like as your roommate—”
“I'm basically your landlord.”
“No you're not! Crowley's the landlord!”
“Yeah, and he's a shitty one, too.”
He let out a tsk, proceeding with the tedious task of painting the roses red without staining his uniform.
Juvia’s frown deepened. “You're clearly thinking of something, y'know.”
Yuuta's eyes rolled. “And why’re you assuming that, of all things?”
“Because,”— Juvia pursed her lips in hesitation —“you have that look.”
He blinked. “What look-?”
“Y'know! The look!” To try and prove — as well as emphasize — her point, Juvia mimicked the expression currently worn on Yuuta's face.
Yuuta merely deadpanned, unimpressed by her feeble efforts at trying to get his thoughts out of him. She's too much like her.
He shook that thought away faster than the last one. No. She isn't her, and it isn't good to try and pretend that she is.
Bad, Yuuta. Bad.
Ignoring whatever Juvia had to say next, Yuuta finished his last batch of painted roses before he could leave to fulfill the rest of his errands of the day— not without taking two deliberately unpainted white roses from the bush, of course.
That was when Noriko ‘You must not bring dishonor to Lady Victoria's name!’ Dolion intercepted him on his way out.
“Where do you think you're going?” Noriko challenged, crossing their arms in disapproval. “Housewarden Rosehearts won't exactly be pleased if he saw you with those… it violates the conduct of the Queen of Hearts.”
Yuuta chortled, brushing past Noriko and retorting back, “As if you didn't plan on doing the same thing for your favorite Fae in Pomefiore.”
And so, Yuuta left Heartslabyul with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes; with Juvia falling from her ladder, caught into the arms of a blue-haired Spade, and Noriko red in the face in shame.
⊱───────────────⊰
“You didn't have to do this, you know.”
“Yeah, well, I insist,” despite all of the errands he had to deal with earlier in the day, Yuuta had graciously offered to help Miren with two of his latest concoctions.
Some pastries, mostly cupcakes; as well as a creation so spicy it could potentially challenge Miren’s spice tolerance if he wasn't careful.
What confused Miren was Yuuta's insistence on making cupcakes while he was making that spiced up monstrosity.
“Didn't take you as much of a cupcake person,” Miren narrowed his eyes. Skeptical, and almost intrigued. At least until Yuuta got some frosting on his cheek.
Yuuta clicked his tongue. “What made you think that?”
“You don't eat sweets that much, clearly.”
“Well you clearly haven't seen me during a Heartslabyul unbirthday party.”
“That's only because your schedule's so jam-packed, you barely have time to attend them anymore,” Miren groaned out a sigh.
“Seriously, I'm starting to think you're only running so many errands for a better paycheck.”
That's one of the reasons, an unsaid reply from Yuuta. At least for today.
“Come to think of it…” Miren hummed. “You've been…. Busier, today.”
Yuuta arched up an eyebrow. “Hah?”
“You know what I mean. It's like you're overexerting yourself on purpose,” it had, very clearly, occurred to Yuuta that Miren Lockhart wasn't going to back down from this topic; possibly more so than stubborn Ellis, sassy Circe, and worrisome Juvia.
Miren leaned against the kitchen counter. It was hard to take him seriously with that smudge of frosting on his cheek, Yuuta thought.
Wanting nothing more than to just leave, Yuuta did just that. Taking the two of the dozen cupcakes he'd made, one with purple icing and the other with light blue icing, he held them with one hand to focus his free hand on lifting Miren's chin.
Once he'd done so, Yuuta had teasingly licked the frosting off of Miren's cheek. Which… just happened to be the same time Carol came in, with Mayuu and Chizuko in tow.
Carol wasn't even the least bit surprised. “I'm not even going to ask,” she said with a disapproving huff of breath as Yuuta brushed past her, Mayuu, and Chizuko.
Chizuko squinted her eyes, thinking it relevant that the look on Yuuta's was most uncharacteristic for him, indeed, but not putting in the effort to say anything about it. Simply crossing her arms and shaking her head.
Mayuu went over to Miren, slightly disgusted at Yuuta's embarrassing display. “What's going on with him?”
Miren looked off at the kitchen's doorway, his hand covering his right cheek, his face reddened with blush.
Miren just sighed, letting go of his cheek and shrugging his shoulders. Whatever bothered Yuuta about today, it was clear he wouldn't tell any of them about it.
⊱───────────────⊰
Finally, it was night. Yuuta liked late night walks; he'd indulged in them every so often with Ellis, often encountering ‘Tsunotarou’ on their walk around campus.
But tonight was a special night. A night where he wasn't burdened by a constant demand to help those around him, where it was just him. Alone. No Tsunatarou, no Ellis, no anyone.
He sighed to himself, his eyes fixated on the glimmering lights in the dark midnight sky. Gods….
He cursed to himself, far below his breath. Why had it come to this? Why was his persistence in pretending today wasn't special getting him to such a sad, pathetic, point?
He didn't know the answer to that. Yuuta didn't know if he'd ever know the answer to that. And maybe he'll know one day, and maybe he won't.
Clearly, it wouldn't be tonight.
“Maybe in some alternate timeline where I'm not… me,” Yuuta murmured, taking out a ring of keys from his pocket.
He unlocked the doors to the botanical gardens, making sure to not make the doors creak too much; Crowley had been surprisingly easy to bribe to get the keys, the old coot was even ‘generous’ enough to give Yuuta full ownership of the keys.
He made sure not to wake any of the others when he snuck out. And any opportunities to run into Malleus were quickly evaded with, in his words, “some impressive maneuvering skills”.
But that wasn't as important as what he was to do next. Other than the keys to botanical garden, Yuuta had brought a small bag containing… stuff.
He'd gone to the most secluded part of the garden, one where the glass walls couldn't see him, and a spot not even Leona knew about. A spot personal only to Yuuta.
He sat down, setting everything up with a forlorn, almost sorrowful smile on his face.
Two cupcakes with purple and blue icing respectively, with candles of the opposite color stuck on the top; two unpainted white roses with purple, blue, and black ribbons crudely tying them together.
And finally, a black rabbit stuffed animal with a blue ribbon bowtie, and bracelet.
The stuffed animal, in particular, had the added consequence of getting Yuuta relentlessly teased by his friends when they found it in his room. He never elaborated on why he got it, or where he got it, because it simply wasn't their business.
They didn't need to know any more about him than they already did.
Besides, Yuuta sucked in a breath, his throat tightening. it was her favorite animal…
Lighting the two candles of the two cupcakes together, Yuuta held in a breath, singing a soft, melancholic version of the birthday song. He sang it in such a short, hiccupped manner, that he knew — he just knew — he was on the brink of tears.
And he didn't fight them. He never fought those tears. Not when they were for her. His only true friend, his truest, kindest, friend.
A friend — a girl he saw as a sister — he'll forever miss.
“Happy birthday,” he breathed out, tears barely wiped, “to… me.”
Yuuta looked up at the glass ceiling, crying his little, broken heart out. Things couldn't be changed. He couldn't change the past for what it was, and he knew he couldn't change the way he treated her.
He wondered where she was, often. He cried himself to sleep, sometimes, at the idea she could be hurt. She didn't deserve that, she never deserved that.
Yuuta sniffled, closing his eyes after making his birthday wish. A wish he'd been making ever since her departure from his life, all those years ago.
I want to see you again, Rei-Rei. And just like all the times I've said it before, I'm sorry.
⊱────────────────────⊰
【 Taglist / Credits 】
↳ In order of OC appearances/mentions
Ellis Clawthorne — @starry-night-rose 💖
Circe Erfinderin — @geminiiviolets 👾
Juvia Yuyi Espejo — @jasdiary 🧡
Noriko Dolion — @terrovaniadorm / @hallowed-delights ‼️
Victoria Shard — Me! 😈
Miren Lockhart — @authoruio 💙
Carol Ann — @fumikomiyasaki 💚
Chizuko Minato — @sakuramidnight15 ⛓️
Mayuu — @nem0-nee ⏰
“Rei-Rei” (UNRELEASED) — @jasdiary
|| @twsted-princess || @mystery-skulls-ghost || @abyss-wonderer || @absolutelyobsessedkiya / @twistedsongstressofstarz || @spadecentral || @oseathepebble || @valse-a-mille-temps || @twst-stupid-ocs || @mintychocolate04 ||
#twisted wonderland oc#twst oc#twst ocs#mutuals oc#mutuals' ocs#friends' ocs#twst#disney twst#ツイステ#ツイステッドワンダーランド#twistedwonderland#twisted wonderland#rosie writings! (💖)#twst yuu#twst mc#sumeragi yuuta#yuuta sumeragi#『 yuuta ❀ 』#ellis clawthorne#circe erfinderin#juvia yuyi espejo#noriko dolion#⚖️ — the disgraced knight#etteilla twst#「 etteilla ♢」#miren lockhart#glutton miren#oc centric#ANGST‼️‼️‼️ ANGST FOR DAYS🔥🔥🔥🔥#mutuals <3
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The ace asks about how asexuality and being aromantic is increasingly seen to mean "has sex and romance like a normal person" reminds me of the time I accidentally deeply angered an author. She had the tag 'asexual character' in her fic's tags, but since it's a 300k word long fic involving a lot of characters, it wasn't clear who that referred to right away. I left long comments on each chapter, talking about what I liked, sections that hit really hard, lines that I loved, etc., as I always do. (I like to ramble IRL and I can't turn it off even online.) At the halfway point of the fanfic, during a long comment about the OCs that helped flesh out the oft-mentioned but barely explored organizations and companies in the world of canon, I said that I hoped This One Specific OC or That Other Specific OC would turn out to be the asexual character, as I saw in them echoes of myself and a friend of mine (we're both ace).
She had never responded to a comment of mine before, but she did for that one... to yell at me about how the main character OC was aroace, actually. This was apparently supposed to be obvious since the word ace was used in the tie-in prequel fic, which I had held off on reading because the author's note mentioned it would have spoilers if you hadn't read the whole main fic. The character in question has a relationship not remotely different from any of the cishetallo or cisqueerallo relationships presented in the text. She develops a snarky sarcastic friendship with someone she finds visually beautiful and impossible to look away from, gets to know him a little, watches movies with him, they get into urban fantasy danger which they help each other through, they fuck and do so extremely regularly, and she has past exes who she also did all of this with.
And I was, apparently, a bigot with internalized aphobia and negative attitudes towards women who have sex because I didn't look at her and go, "Ah, yes, an aroace!" She informed me I was forcing unrealistic stereotypes no one adhered to onto ace people by thinking aces had to be a certain way and by refusing to see that
Her angry reply was so long it took three AO3 comments to send to me, and it didn't really make me convinced I'd misread the situation. It just made me convinced this wasn't an author I wanted to read more fic from, because 1. this is a lot of anger, holy crap and 2., I really think this is an excusable mistake on my part. I saw no signs this character was in any way different from any other couple in the fic beyond that she and her love interest didn't get to know each other's backstories as much and instead bonded more through experiences they shared, which in my opinion is not something that can be linked to any sexuality or lack thereof.
I feel like there's a moral in here. Like, authors, as a fellow author, I get that it sucks when someone else doesn't see the characters like you do, or misses something you thought was clear, etc. I get that it's frustrating. But don't rip into someone who's been gushing about every chapter of your fic individually just because they didn't catch one thing. I failed to realize one character's sexuality. That's not the same as hating you, the character or the writing.
Mostly I remember that incident as the day I stopped asking questions in my long comments. A sea of gushing does not make up for a mistake and the best way not to make those is to not ask if a tag relates to a character or line.
--
Oof. I mean, sure, there's a diversity of experience. Everything is a spectrum. Yada yadda. But if two labels become entirely indistinguishable, what's the point of even having them, much less getting mad when people can't spot the difference?
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something i think is really funny about me compared to everyone else i know in this fandom:
i have always liked katsuki bakugou.
day one, episode one, april 2022 and i hate anime more than anything else in the world, sitting at my desk with my laptop dimmed in a pitch-black bedroom. the show starts. “why are you being so mean? you’re making him cry, kacchan!”
and then this brat of a boy pops up on screen, and he looks menacing as hell and his little fists are sparking and i’m sitting there going “yeah, he’s gonna be one hell of a little bastard.”
and i loved that about him!
i think it’s funny that so many people watch the first season and go “man i hate bakugou” and then either decide to hate him forever or they stop hating him once they see his progress.
but i never had that phase of “oh look this kid’s a fucking bully and i hate him”. it was always just “man, he’s a little shit! i love it!”
and i wonder why i had that reaction compared to seemingly everyone else in the fandom who hated him at first.
and it’s not because i didn’t like deku! i loved deku, too! he was a little nerd and he was so observant and smart and eager! and baby deku watching that video of all might, man, talk about cute.
maybe it’s because i knew from the beginning that neither of them were the bad guy in the story. for all my skill at writing, i really don’t know much about character elements — protagonist, antagonist sure, but when you get into the nitty-gritty (what’s a deuteragonist? no clue), i get lost. but i didn’t need to know any of that to look at that first episode and go, “yeah, neither of them are the villain in this story.” because man, idk about the rest of you but it’s glaringly obvious from day one. bakugou might’ve been a bully, but he wasn’t a bad guy.
or maybe it’s because i understood bakugou from the beginning and i didn’t need any of his backstory to know why he was like that. could be either.
i dunno. but anyways. did you guys like bakugou at first or are you part of the “hated him when i first saw it/before i understood him but i like him now” crowd?
edit: here’s me saying it again I LOVE YOU GUYS BUT INTERACT WITH MY SHIT MORE THAN JUST LIKING IT
IM NOT GOING TO BITE YOU ITS OKAY TO COMMENT YOUR THOUGHTS OR REBLOG MY POSTS. MY BLOG IS HERE FOR YOU TO INTERACT WITH NOT IGNORE
#mha#kats rambles#bnha#my hero academia#boku no hero academia#katsuki bakugo#Bakugou katsuki#bakugo katsuki#katsuki bakugou#bkdk#kacchan#dkbk#dekubaku#bakudeku#if anti bakugou is a tag can i make pro bakugou a tag#pro bakugou
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This is legit just a way for me to rant and express my frustration on certain things regarding buck and tommy and the scene *wink wink*. This is not meant to cause discourse of any kind, so please if you’re gonna hate just move along.
So as far as i can tell most of the bucktommy hate is relegated to twitter -which i am thankful for as i don’t really go on twitter all that much anymore. I personally haven’t seen much of the negativity on here, and what i have seen is few and far between.
And i’m going to be clear, i know a good majority of buddie shippers legit don’t care about any of this or are just as frustrated by it. I have seen quite a few comments on edits and videos on youtube saying people like both or that they’ll always be a buddie shipper first but they still think buck and tommy are cute. But there’s also the comments ignoring ryan guzman’s opinions on eddie’s sexuality (which i get and stand behind the actor on) or saying something at least a little intolerant.
Now i went on twitter to see some of the shit people were saying because i was curious and most of the ones with issues were saying that tommy was trying to sexualize the moment.
I think that’s pretty clearly not what’s happening.
The very start of the scene is tommy asking if bobby was okay and then, upon seeing that buck was clearly shaken, making sure the buck was okay too. Those were his first two lines in order.
They then proceeded to have a conversation on their mutual issues with their fathers (where we got some much needed backstory on tommy, thank you ABC). After that the flirty flirt started, with buck more than likely being the one to start it.
He quite literally said, maybe we both have daddy issues. and with a little smirk too. Tommy’s “God, i hope so” was, as far as i can tell, a response to the energy he was getting from Buck.
That energy being they are both kinky, horny queer men.
I don’t know though, that was my take on the scene. The only people’s opinions that really matter are the actors -the people who literally make the characters who they are- and the writers as they know the intentions behind the scenes.
#bucktommy#tommy kinard#evan buckley#tommy has a daddy kink and i am here for it#excuse the length of my rant#911 abc
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How Sakura’s Love Interest Ruined Her Character Development
Alright. I promise this is the last Sakura related content I’ll do for a while. But after seeing several other people on here talk about about this subject, I thought it would be interesting to discuss. This isn’t gonna be a full on analysis, rather my thoughts as someone who loves Sakura and was disappointed to see how her character was handled in canon.
I think a lot of the fandom can be agree that Sakura’s biggest flaw was her love for Sasuke. Love is typically supposed to be a character’s strength, but unfortunately for our pink cherry blossom, it’s her weakness. And her downfall.
Now, I’ve already made it clear what my feelings on SasuSaku are. I like the pairing, they could have been better developed and aren’t nearly terrible as people claim they are. However, it would be ignorant of me to not acknowledge that canon Sasusaku is… kinda shitty.
Don’t get my wrong, they have their cute moments in blank period, like Sasuke asking Sakura to wear the clan crest, but things start going downhill when they get married and the plot of Burrito rolls around. Sakura is left to be a single mother while Sasuke is off god knows where for that stupid space alien/ “remains of Kaguya” whatever plot. Sasuke never writes to check up on his family, it’s implied that Sarada doesn’t remember him at all or what he looks like, and Sakura is left there trying to assure her poor daughter that Sasuke is doing this because he loves them. But when Sasuke comes back, he rarely acknowledges or wants to spend time with them at all. Not to mention, he seems to care more about Naruto’s kid than his own. Naruto suffers from this problem as well, but that’s a discussion for another time.
For the canon endgame, Kishimoto certainly doesn’t write any of his characters being happy in their relationships.
Anyway, Sakura and her character development. It may not have been grand as her teammates, but it was still there. Sakura went from a naive girl that was obsessed with boys and her looks to someone who acknowledged that she had to work harder if she wanted to help and protect those she cared for. She went from disliking and envying Naruto to someone who was willing to throw her ninja career away so her friend could follow his dream. She wanted to help Naruto to bring Sasuke back, but realized she wasn’t strong enough, so she went to Tsuande for help and become a damn good medical ninja as a result. She became more confident in herself and was always there to support her friends. She never needed an epic fight or a tramatic backstory, I would say her development was pretty great.
But then all of that gets thrown away whenever Sasuke comes into the picture. Sakura may be able to stand up for others, but never does she stand up for herself when it comes to Sasuke. When he belittles her in the War Arc for simply asking him what was going on, she gets all quiet and sad. Defeated. Worst part is that Naruto can’t even stand up for her properly.
The kunoichi who broke off Kaguya’s horn and aided in sealing her, therefore saving the world, is left a begging, whimpering mess for Sasuke to come back to her, to come back to team 7. And what does she get in return? A genjustu of him killing her.
And just when you think oh this has to finally get her to realize that she can do so much better than him, or at least get her to step back and reevaluate her feelings, let her spend time away from him, it’s just forgotten about! Forget traumatizing and hurting her, it’s okay because Sasuke apologized and now she wants to go with him. Don’t get me wrong, I do think that was a genuine apology, but the fact that she was just expected to forgive him at the snap of a finger was infuriating. And down right sad.
It doesn’t help that nobody else comments on it, or tells Sakura “hey, what he did was pretty shitty, you didn’t deserve that.” Or stand up for her at all. Kakashi kinda did, but it was so weak.
In Naruto, a woman’s role is to support the men, because what else are they good for? And if they ever move on from a guy they like, they’re a “terrible person,” in Kishimoto’s words. Whatever improved or developed Sakura’s character, it reverted backwards or was simply forgotten for Sasuke. Because Sakura loves him, she can never disagree or argue or fight with him, because that would make her a bad person.
Sakura had the potential to become one of the greatest heroines in anime, but that was all thrown away becasue of her misogynistic creator and his idiotic editors. She deserved better, every female character in Naruto deserved better, and burrito should have never happened because it’s an abomination to the Naruto franchise.
#naruto fandom#naruto shippuden#naruto manga#haruno sakura#sakura haruno#sasuke uchiha#uchiha sasuke#pro sakura haruno#sakura haruno deserved better#anti canon sasusaku#anti canon#anti kishimoto#anti studio pierrot
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