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pigtailedgirl · 5 months

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He's got the look! Of LOVE

Seriously, re-watch is just noticing how much time Fraser spends staring uncomfortably in love, focused, at Ray, multiple editions. EXAMPLE : This is first episode right here! Fraser stare.

Or you know his doing sly smiles and reactions every five seconds too.

And I love it. Because it's hard to gif! And because it's Fraser.

He says nothing. What he doesn't say screams.

Fraser is a closed book type character. For all he shares stories with others about his values, or anecdotes or stories of his life, for all his acts and oddities, his kindness and helping, or his passive aggressive snits; he uses that and presentation and it's to put up walls to block us the audience and the other characters from seeing him fully with these things. He doesn't tell the whole truth. He manipulates so it's entirely on his terms and comfort level just what level of Fraser you get. He's scared to show people he has wants or needs or feelings for himself. Maybe I think a part of him doesn't know the how or what on those things too. When he tells others things, his personal stories, notice how often he leaves out the and this is how I felt or feel. He doesn't want that to be the focus for others. For others to see him unless he shows it.

So it's very important I think you have to look for not just what he says, but what he does and shows consistently to us or someone. And about that someone. That's the key to understanding how Fraser feels and expresses his wants.

Great thing about the show is when it understands Fraser may consciously not want to show himself but through his voyeurism and nature and we the audience, sorry Fraser you do.

Anyways...

So with Ray, he drags Ray into all kinds of things, without really honestly asking or saying the why. Because the honest answer half the time boils down to just I want you along and with and that's one you can't say without saying I want or need you. Fraser's very bad that.

They do the odd couple routine of you Canadian, me American. They, and Fraser is way more master, manipulate and operate in understanding one another is a case of really playing with or verbalizing out the differences, to get us on to continue along in sync while avoiding or letting slip well, duh, we are together because emotionally we feel easily connected, even with differences.

So Fraser shows Ray, or thinks he does best he can, by dragging and tagging along. Sticking close by choice.

He shows us the audience too.

He shows all the time by considering or studying Ray how much he's paying attention to, wanting to get to know. He shows by leaning in or reacting to, verbal or physically, or even to other's reactions of, how much Ray has an affect on him.

And to me one of the biggest ways Fraser is obvious in his feeling's with Ray, is Ray is just about the only one besides Dief and his ghost Dad, that he'll seek out or let him in enough to see him back.

Goes back to The Pilot. Of its' not like Fraser doesn't connect or have emotional scenes with others. But Ray is the one who gets the honesty back outta him. Who he can show he's emotionally down to and try an feel understood by. Like there, yeah I'm here in this diner because I'm lonely and my dads gone, this is my only way to connect or do for him now...

Fraser shows he wants Ray to see his feelings in a way he opens about the why of himself to no one else.

And it's a recurrent throughout the series, even as they have some blow-outs and screw-ups on it. He shows Ray because Fraser trusts enough to be sad around or silly, or snippy, or teasing. But also just unsure. There's a comfort level in their interactions. He wants Ray to know him as a person and relate emotionally and even when he himself struggles how to handle that within, well if Ray sees it, that's okay.

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acourtofthought · 1 year

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I don’t really get involved with the Elain ship wars, but I think both sides - especially elucien shippers - seem to miss the point about an emerging theme in Elain’s story; and that is the importance of choice.

Throughout the entirety of Elain’s life, people have always made choices for her. Growing up, that was Nesta - always protecting Elain, and always speaking on her behalf. Later on, even though it was clear that Elain wanted to marry Graysen and live a normal, mortal life - that choice was also taken away from her, as she was forced to become fae and live in Prythian. Then, throughout the entirety of ACOWAR and beyond, we witness Nesta, Feyre and Rhys (as well as multiple other characters) speak about Elain‘s wants and needs, without actually consulting her.

The cherry on top, is a mating bond that Elain clearly doesn’t want. The absolute antithesis of choice, is forcing Elain to be with someone - just because a Cauldron (the same magical object that took away her mortal body and mortal life in the first place) said so. We even see Elain outwardly express her distaste at the situation;

“He brought you a present.” Those doe-brown eyes turned toward me. Sharper than I’d ever seen them. “And that entitles him to my time, my affections?” “No.” I blinked. “But he is a good male.” Despite our harsh words. Despite this Band of Exiles bullshit. “He cares for you.” “He doesn’t know me.” “You don’t give him the chance to even try to do so.” Her mouth tightened, the only sign of anger in her graceful countenance. “I don’t want a mate.“

And sure, I get that you and other elucien’s will argue that Elain will simply change her mind, and will fall in love with Lucien in later books. But, I personally think that if Elain suddenly has a change of heart, and does indeed follow the Cauldron’s wish and accepts the mating bond - then no matter how beautiful she and Lucien could be together, it’s a complete reversal of this theme that SJM has set up. If Elain ends up with Lucien because a higher power is pulling her towards him - is it really Elain’s choice, or the Cauldron’s?

And yes, Feyre and Rhys, Nesta and Cassian, Rowan and Aelin, Hunt and Bryce - are all mates, and all have beautiful relationships. But the fundamental difference between these couples and Elain and Lucien, is that they all had the chance to get to know one another before the mating bond snapped into place. And even though some of these couples hated each other in the beginning (ie. Rowan and Aelin), hate is still an intense emotion, there’s passion and fire mixed into it - something more. With Elain and Lucien… there’s nothing. It’s very lacking - Elain seemingly feels indifferent towards him. It just doesn’t feel like the start of an epic SJM romance - especially when Elain is fully aware of the mating bond with Lucien, yet is kissing another man while he’s in the same house. How many other endgame couples kissed another person after becoming aware of the mating bond…?

And let’s not forget Elain’s connection to Blodeuwedd - a connection that you appear to be aware of, given your posts and theories on the matter. But Blodeuwedd’s story closely aligns with Elain’s; she is forced to marry a man that she has no affections for, so she ends up running away with another. The entire premise of the Blodeuwedd folklore is about having autonomy to choose your own life - including the person you love.

And, Blodeuwedd certainly didn’t just wake up one day and decide that she actually wants to be with Llew - the man she was forced to marry. That would be a complete reversal of the narrative. I’m not sure why you expect the same of Elain.

I can see Elain and Lucien being good friends, but I think SJM has better plans for both of them. Plans that involve them both choosing a love they deserve.

"How many other endgame couples kissed another person before becoming aware of the Mating Bond?"

That little excerpt right there is Nesta talking to Cassian. No, she may not have known what it meant but it was a feeling beyond her control.

From the second she met Cassian, she knew he was something to her. Just as from the second Elain looked in Lucien's eyes for the first time, she knew he was something to her.

Nesta was willing to die for Cassian in ACOWAR, a proclamation of her feelings yet she still chose to sleep with many other males after that. Because she was angry. Because she was struggling to adjust to everything that had happened. So she pretended she didn't want the very thing she was drawn to, something she couldn't stop herself from feeling. She, with an awareness of her feelings for Cassian (feelings she never asked for or decided for herself) chose to have sex with multiple other men. Which is a whole lot more than almost kissing just one.

And you claim Elain doesn't want a Mating Bond but please point me in the direction of where it says Nesta ever wanted a Mating Bond with Cassian. In fact, Nesta even tells us "husband" was as good as it got and that she specifically doesn't like the thought of a Mating Bond because it means parting with the last of her humanity.

Elain was in love with Graysen and engaged when she lost her humanity and the bond snapped into place. The girl is allowed to have a rebound / crush before making another lifelong decision.

And isn't it possible that if Nesta made the choices she did out of fear despite being drawn to Cassian, we might come to find out that Elain is saying what she says and doing what she's done because she too is afraid of being drawn to Lucien? Imagine thinking you know love with one person, being ready to marry them, then instantly feeling something more powerful than you could have imagined for another? That's going to be an overwhelming feeling, it's going to leave you questioning what you thought you knew and it's going to take some time before you're ready to face some hard truths.

"Throughout the entirety of Elain's life, people have made choices for her"

Hmmmm, I guess Nesta knew a little something about that too. Yet she still learned to fully embrace being Fae, Cassian, and her Mating Bond. Despite that she didn't have a choice in what happened to her or being drawn to him from the moment they met.

Not to mention no one is making choices for Elain that she's ever argued against (until SF). Of course being kidnapped and put into the Cauldron wasn't her choice but it wasn't Nesta's either. It wasn't Feyre's choice to be kidnapped by Tamlin in book 1. And none of the sisters decided their mother should die or they'd go into poverty. Those things were a result of misfortune and not a choice or lack of choice.

Please give me one example of where Elain was told by friends or family "you will do this" to which Elain replied, "I will not" to which the other person responded, "I don't care, you're doing it anyway" and they forced her to do it. Elain has had just as much agency as any other character. The only things that weren't her choice are the exact same things every other person in the series has dealt with. It wasn't Rhys's choice to be tricked by Amarantha, it wasn't Mor's choice to have a nail put in her, it wasn't Lucien's choice to have Jesminda murdered or be SA by Ianthe or beaten by Tamlin or Feyre's choice to be locked up by Tamlin.

These arguments about choice in regards to relationships make me laugh because picking Lucien is still a choice. Is someone holding a sword to her head? Telling her she has to pick Lucien? Since the answer to that is no, the argument holds no weight.

Elain and Lucien are basically a friend setting them up on a double date after divorce because "They'd be perfect together!" Elain can decide, "no, I'm not ready for a double date" and refuse. But she could also take a little time to do her own thing, realize she's past the crappy Tinder dates then finally agree to that double date and realize how amazing Lucien is.

I made some poor dating choices in my youth too and hated the guys my mother would have preferred I end up with. But eventually I matured, realized why the guys I dated weren't working out to well for me and ended up dating someone my mother adores. But for awhile, I of course knew better than her because what teenager / young adult doesn't? Turns out, she knew a little something about quality dating material and I was just too stubborn to accept it.

That's Elain and Fate is her parent. She's refusing to accept that Lucien is not only a choice but the right choice for her because she needs to prove no one can tell her what to do. And that's fine for now but with her emotional growth will come maturity and the awareness that Lucien is her Mate for a reason.

I also like how you conveniently left off:

If she could change her mind on not wanting a male, then why couldn't she again change her mind on wanting a Mate?

You know why Rhys's parents weren't a match?

Elain is absolutely soft and fiery at times and well liked by pretty much everyone but who is more cold and vicious? Lucien or Az? Rhys's parents weren't a match because their personalities were too different. Canonically, Elain and Lucien are extremely similar in their values, their interests, and how they handle conflict.

And I think you're missing the point of the fairytale.....

Blodeuwedd was about her being upset over not having a choice yes, but..... She was punished for the choice she did make, choosing to cheat on Llew (Lucien). And the part Az plays in the fairytale ended up getting him murdered by Llew.

And SJM doesn't do literal retellings, she samples from lore and fairytale and gives them a happy ending so her "Blodeuwedd" could end up realizing that sometimes things that happen to us are actually the best things for us.

These are fantasy books and they're less about the character proving "ain't nobody gonna tell me what I can do" and more about them learning to accept their Fates. By accepting their Fates, it sets into motion the chain of events which help them save their world.

Rhys suspected Feyre was his mate before he ever laid eyes on her and the bond snapped before he and Feyre were friends. Cassian suspected Nesta's was his Mate too which is the reason he kept holding his hand out to a literal stranger who seemingly wanted nothing to do with him.

Are their love story's less beautiful because they knew what those females were to them from the very start?

The mating bond has nothing to do with anything. The mating bond is someone, aka Fate saying, "Hey! I know this person and I think you'd be well matched!" The journey is the character then deciding when they're ready to consider Fates suggestion to see if Fate was right. And that's the thing Anti Elucien's can't seem to grasp. Because at some point Elain will get to know Lucien, even if it's just to see if they could be friends. But when they are two characters who are written as being extremely compatible in all the ways it counts, there's very little chance love won't be quick to follow.

Lucien is still a choice. The point is making the choice for the right reasons and not JUST because they have a bond. And when you look at the things Elain stands for then look at who Lucien is, it's very clear how well matched they are.

#pro elucien #elucien #elain archeron #lucien vanserra #anti e/riel #elain x lucien #lucien and elain #elain and lucien #pro lucien vanserra #lucien x elain #blodeuwedd #azriel acotar #lucien acotar #acotar elain

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lovelybrooke · 6 months

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Got heated, need to rant about House of the Dragon and its fandom for a bit. Ignore if you don't care (mainly about the Green vs Black debate).

Something I hate so much is when people watch house of the dragon and come out of the show going "wow, I am completely on the side of green/black, the other team is trash yada yada whatever whatever".

Now I don't really care if you just really happen to like the Greens/Black and that's why you side with them more, but I think if you watched the entire seasons and don't find faults with both sides than I personally think you missed something (or maybe I'm just stupid because I haven't read the book, whatever).

I find it really annoying when people boil down Rhaenyra's character to "woman throwing a fit that she can't be queen" because not only is it really annoying and sexist, but it ignores so much of her struggle as a character. Throughout the entire show we see her struggle with wanting to be free, of not being trapped in the position her mother was her entire life, the position that killed her. We hear her express how she desires to live a life with Alicent and eat cake and ride on dragons and while, at least early on, she never truly wanted to be queen, she understands that it is a task greater than herself. She, unlike Aegon, understands the importance of the role and instead of running away from it, she takes it with stride. The only person/people undermining her position are Alicent and the Greens. Viserys believes until his dying breath that Rhaenyra should be queen and in a moment of clarity Alicent agrees. You can say that the people don't agree, as we see when Daemon takes Rhaenyra to flee bottom, but as we see multiple times in this show/series the opinion of the people really doesn't matter.

This isn't to say that the Blacks don't have faults, they do. Daemon, while we love him, is a walking fault in a lot of cases, but he cares about the people close to him, like Viserys. When he called Otto Hightower a cunt it's because he sees through him, he understands Otto's intentions. However, he's also rude to Rhaea and murdered her because his desire to wed Rhaenyra. Viserys is also not a great ruler. He's peaceful, but his insistent inaction causes fraction across the realm, which is why he doesn't do anything about the Stepstones in the beginning, or when war is sparked there again. However, it's clear he deeply loved and cared for Aemma.

Now if we're talking about the Greens, people who are team Black often claim that all Alicent only cared about was usurping Targaryen rule, which is just not true. Alicent and Rhaenyra were friends, and at one point, deeply cared about each other. Alicent only started seeing Rhaenyra as an enemy when Otto started presenting her as one. Otto told Alicent, who at this point was a child, that Rhaenyra, also a child btw, would kill her and her children if she was to come to power. Otto forced Alicent to grow close to and marry Viserys AS A CHILD, and then fills said child's head with lies about the one person she was closest with. We see Alicient try desperately to have a relationship with Rhaenyra after she marry Viserys, something that Rhaenyra shuts down (even though from her persepective it makes since because in her eyes her best friend was randomly like "surprise I'm marrying your dad!).

We see the Greens constantly villianized by the show, which I personally think was intentional since season 1 focused on the Blacks while seasons 2 (hopefully) will focus on the Greens. We see the Green children get blamed, abused, maimed, all in purpose of protecting the Black children. However, the Green children, at least two of them (since Halaena is perfect) be pieces of shit. Aegon harasses and makes fun of not only the Black children, but his own siblings, calling Halaena weird (the worst crime) and giving Aemond a pig as a joke. Aemond, while having gone through a lot, went along with a lot of the jokes about the Black children's legitimacy and even took Vhagar on Laena's funeral.

Honestly, the "stealing" of Vhagar, if you can even call it that, it how I know if people were actually thinking critically when watching this show because while yes, that was a dick move by Aemond's part, Vhagar is an intelligent being and could've just chosen to kill him if he wanted. But she didn't. Cutting out Aemond's eye wasn't necessary, however pulling a knife out on Rhaenyra wasn't either. My point being that the situation was complex and that neither side was really in the right or wrong.

I could give a lot more examples of all this, but I just find it annoying when people boil down this show as a good vs bad type thing when overall, Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon has always made a point to not have a good side or a bad side (that's why the later seasons of GOT fell downhill). It's always been about ideology vs ideology, like love vs duty or honor vs pride.

TDLR, I have a lot of opinions and sometimes I want to talk about them.

#house of the dragon #hotd #hotd s2 #team green #team black

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blueopinions49 · 2 years

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[X] Pearl ESFP 3w2 so/sx

Zodiac: Pisces

(this will have spoilers for the movie)

MBTI

ESFP (Se-Fi-Te-Ni)

Se (Extroverted Sensing)

I don't think there is any doubt that Pearl is an Se. No not because of aggressive behavior or impulsive tendencies but rather how much she constantly focuses on the present time. She tends to assess things at the moment and not thinking the future. Unlike an XNXJ she doesn't seem to focus on a future idealistic self for a reason but rather is constantly trying to push for a better present. As seen as her ambition for moving away from her farm house.

Fi (Introverted Feeling)

Pearls Fi couldn't be more overstated. I originally considered typing her as an ISFP due to how much we see it however I believe pearl doesnt lead with her Fi but rather what is in the current moment. Pearls Fi is shown all throughout the film we see what her emotional needs are and she holds them very close to her. In her Monologue at the end of movie she expresses all of her frustrations on how lonely she feels. This monologue maps out her Fi and how much she wants a better life for her self (probably one of the better monologues this year Mia Goth deserves an award).

Te (Extroverted Thinking)

While her Te isn't very presented in the movie her processes seem very much Se-Te oriented. When Pearl enters stress mode she tries to solve things hastily and trying to get things done very quickly. She becomes worrisome and tries to hide her crimes. Due to this she tends to be very forgetful and doesnt even remember saying things. For example when she is hiding her mothers body downstairs she quickly forgets she lied about it being a dog. This is an occurrence multiple times in the movie.

Ni (Introverted Intuition)

While Pearl doesn't seem to use her Ni as much as she should she still uses it or at least has some of her Ni visible. Going back to her final monologue she looks inward to her emotional state and talks about the dyer consequences she has around other peoples life. She seems to understand how she wants to have the idealize life but can't due to her circumstances.

Enneagram: 3w2 so/sx

There is no doubt in my mind that pearl is a social type 3. She craves admiration from others and wants status as a way out of her life in the farm. However people have seemed to take the line “I want to be loved by most people as possible” (or something along those lines) to mean that she is a 2w3 sx/sp however I believe this is just bad media literacy and poor comprehension of the enneagram (sorry if this sounds crude). The arguments tend to compare Maxine and Pearl however they clearly don't understand that both of these charcaters are social threes at their very core. Both of them crave status and admiration from others. They both try ignore their inner turmoil rather than deal with it like a type 2. Enneagram type 2 sx (to be specific) care about submitting themselves into a rose tinted version for someone (Maddy Perez is a great example of a 2w3 sx/sp who's core motivating drive is to be loved by someone while creating an image of perfection). While pearl craves the status first therefore 3w2>2w3. Also Side tangent I've noticed that 3w2s get their ambition downplayed allot in comparison to 3w4s. In X (2022) we can see how maxine has disintegrated into 9 and become fully detached from reality. Some other quotes that her an Maxine share are the iconic “im a star”. Idk I just don't get how a character like pearl who's wants and needs are so on the nose can go over peoples head due to one quote from the trailer.

Next is Laurie Strode...

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94erz · 9 months

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Morning tangent 'cause I hate algorithms.

Started my day seeing an ARMY Tweet forced onto my For You page all because they mentioned something else I'm interested in via my main account and now I'm thoroughly convinced k-pop makes people miserable. Like genuinely insufferable.

''Concerts are ruined for me now, Western artists don't have lightsticks, their fans don't do freebies, and what do you mean I have to sit through opening acts?'' like do these people just genuinely hate music? Serious question.

Some of the best acts I've seen live have been opening acts, it gives you an opportunity to discover an artist you otherwise might not have come into contact with. One of the best examples for me was seeing Hozier and Little Green Cars opening for him, they were fucking incredible! They opened their set with a full acapella version of one of their songs and it left such a huge impact I went home and bought their whole album. I still listen to it to this day! So like, what the fuck. Maybe people should try opening their minds a bit and let themselves enjoy new shit, it really does wonders.

Another thing they bitched about are the ''lack of freebies'' while going on about how they went and saw the Jonas Brothers whose fans ''didn't do freebies'' which is just factually wrong. Their fans do in fact make freebies, and we know this because fans will give them out to the brothers' wives and children too, not just other fans. Kevin's wife LITERALLY 3 DAYS AGO posted her freebie bracelet she got for her birthday, and that's on top of all the ones their daughters get, and plenty of other family members posting when they get freebies too...so like, it's not even true that Western artists fans don't do freebies. This person really had the audacity to try and paint a fandom as ''boring'' simply because they didn't get an experience they didn't even try to find because they closed themselves off to thinking other artists and their fans are worse compared to the group they stan. What an asshole. What an asshole way to live life.

They also complained about dancing, like bitch go and see a dancing artist then, plenty of pop artists dance, if you go to see a band that has never danced at their shows you're not going to suddenly get dancing. Just like I wouldn't go and see BTS and suddenly expect them to play instruments. If they have never presented themselves as that type of artist, why the fuck would I expect otherwise?

They also complained about not getting ending ments...and like no shit, normal people go to music shows to hear music, no one should actually need a show with an hour of music cut in order to place a whole speech there instead. Plenty of artists break throughout their shows to talk with fans and engage with their audience, they just don't do it for half the damn concert like k-pop artists do. It's not a flex like k-pop fans think it is to know they get less songs because they have to account for time to keep the parasocial dependency alive.

And I hate lightsticks, personal hot take I guess, but they were annoying when I saw Hoseok at Lolla. People had them on the entire night, waving them and blocking people's view behind them. They were honestly the worst part of the night, there's not a single video I could take without them blocking my camera at multiple points.

End rant. I just really can't stand these people. I can't imagine being invited to a concert with a friend or family member and my only take away are all the ways I now think the concert-going experience outside of k-pop is just 'the worst experience' that 'concerts are ruined for me now!' because I let myself be closed off to it. Tickets wasted on someone when an actual fan could have gone and had an amazing time. Miserable.

#Sab talks BTS stuff #the brain washing is doing wonders #anyway will be blocking accounts on main if I see little 7's 'cause I deleted my other account for a REASON goddamn it

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candycoatedanxiety · 11 months

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How to write a fanfic with the help of AI

Nowadays, with the advent of ChatGPT and its retinue of AI chatbots, asking AI about anything seems easier compared to doing a web search. Googling produces a lot of noise that hinders you from finding the data you’re looking for. Searching for recipes for me took me a long time. What if I needed a recipe that consists of specific ingredients? ChatGPT solved that problem for me. Recently I’ve relied on ChatGPT on recipes --- give it a prompt like which ingredients you have on hand and which dish. It works like a charm every. Damn. Time. I recommend you try it.

Anyway, one day I was reading two fanfics off the Arashi fandom and had a lightbulb moment. What about contributing another fanfic to the fandom? I actually have a WIP novel that I’ve decided to set aside for the meantime. Now the question is: should I enlist the help of ChatGPT?

Why did I talk to it like a human being? Because I knew it can respond in an almost human-like manner.

So I gave it my idea: I wanted to write something about Nino being the troubled person who witnessed the death of his best friend, Sho. Jun becomes his therapist, and Ohno was Sho’s boyfriend whose aim was to investigate the death of his boyfriend. Aiba is Nino’s other best friend who was also close to Sho from childhood.

A few seconds later, it responded, praising my idea and even offered a working title. But that’s not all...

It also produced a possible synopsis...

...character descriptions...

...and laid down the basic outline of the story, complete with highlights per stage. I was completely impressed with what ChatGPT can do, and I was intrigued with what it can still offer.

I offered a location idea for the story, and it came back with a list of possible areas where the characters hang out or where the story can happen, all within the city of Düsseldorf.

Wow. The list it came up with --- back then you’d pore over maps, do a web search on blogs, or even visit the areas mentioned, but now ChatGPT delivered.

Now with the basic parts laid down, you might be asking: “Did you ask it how to write the actual story?”

The answer is I did ask it to write a sample first chapter.

It looks great from the get-go, but it reads a bit stiff. If you have been reading the fic on AO3, you will notice I made some changes and added a bit of imagery, especially at the end of the chapter.

Now I realised that ChatGPT can, in fact, write a decent chapter. Rule of thumb is never rely on ChatGPT when writing the final draft 100%. So at every chapter that I pitch to it, it writes a sample chapter first, then I proofread and edit on Google Docs, adding embellishments that only human writers can do. Asking ChatGPT to make a portion of a chapter conversational is just as decent; you will still need to rewrite to perfect it.

Whenever I ask a question, it will give me multiple angles to my answer, like this one below:

ChatGPT provides you something to ponder, not just giving answers outright, which helps me as a writer imagine possibilIties and move the story forward.

Throughout the process, ChatGPT is my beta reader: I throw ideas to it and it will give suggestions, hints, and helpful reminders. It being a beta reader works only up to a point, because it changes the voice whenever I asked it to proofread a paragraph. While ChatGPT seems to be a capable and supportive beta reader, you will still need to rewrite and/or make changes to the text to make it read like you envisioned it.

To end this article, I will present its version of the 13th Chapter side by side with the one I wrote.

Here’s ChatGPT’s version:

And the published version, which you can read here.

I understand that there are many people who view AI as an instrument that will soon take over many human jobs, particularly the arts. While the fears and doubts are somewhat valid, I recommend that we all take both opinions and AI with a grain of salt and exercise caution. It is true that AI can definitely be a tool that will help you accomplish your tasks, and it has helped me write my fanfic in ways that I haven’t been able to in many years. Right now it helped me foster my love for writing and improving upon it.

Take all the time you need to think about how AI can help you with everyday tasks. There are tons of first-person accounts on how ChatGPT assisted them in their jobs and everyday life (even ADHD patients swear by it!) and I hope you all keep an open mind on it.

Good luck!

#chatgpt #writing #fanfic #arashific #arashi #ao3 writer

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cr0g-0 · 2 years

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Hello, I’m Marmo (@pygmy-marmo) here to drop more Goncharov information on you (because it’s wild out there)

So, basically, everyone is doing the improvisation exercise of “yes and” to each other. This has lead to a fairly consistent plot, albeit the details vary (this has been fixed by asserting that multiple edits and versions of the film exist and were made in different languages, for various countries releases, and at different times so there is a general consensus)

The key points include that Katya wears white all of the time throughout the film. There is a boat scene, set in the Bay of Naples (the film is set in Naples, which is a city in Italy) and Katya dies or fakes her death there

Katya shoots Goncharov (her supposed fiance/husband/partner) at some point in the scene, betraying him. The man that Tumblr has decided is the gay love interest, Adrey/Adrei/Adrea (spelling varies dependant on person) also betrays Goncharov. This betrayal takes place later in the film, on a bridge, with a clocktower in the background, and Goncharov is shot

At some point Goncharov says a variation of the phrase “It’s Gonchin’ time” which is referenced by Morbius

Clocks are a large part of the film’s symbolism. Katya has a sapphic love interest in a woman named Sofia, who might have died (this is unclear). A man known as Ice Pick Joe is an antagonist of sorts who kills with an ice pick. He’s an immigrant from America and some versions of the film imply that he was lobotomized by an ice pick hence his use of it. He gets murdered at some point

There is the Fruit Scene. This seems to be referring to two events that are similar, but might not both be present. In the gay version, it’s between Goncharov and Andrey, in the lesbian version it’s Sofia and Katya

In short, the film is explained a bit like this. Goncharov moves to Naples (or might have already been living there) and is involved in the mafia there. He might be in control of it or trying to gain control of it, depends on what cut of the film you watch. Goncharov is married or is implied to be married to a woman named Katya, who is Russian in origin—Goncharov is also from Russia or implied to be. Goncharov meets a man named Andrey who is a banker, and they become close, while Katya meets a woman named Sofia, and they become close. At some point, Katya betrays Goncharov and attempts to kill him, and later, Goncharov is betrayed by Andrey and dies. Katya dies or fakes her death, probably during the Boat Scene in the Bay of Naples, and Sofia is seemingly the only person of the main group left alive

Meanwhile, Ice Pick Joe is going around during murder at the orders of a mafia man named Mario something (forget his last name). He is murdered, presumably because of his actions. It has been implied that Ice Pick Joe and Katya knew each other to some degree, but it is not a romantic bond. Ice Pick Joe is generally agreed to be a cat owner

Clocks are very important as a theme and motif of the story. It is very gay and very sapphic even if there’s not an explicit kiss in most cuts of the film

And I cannot stress this enough; this film does not exist and never has. People are composing a score, writing fanfiction, making trailers, etc, but there is No Canon or Source. At all

This is all very intesting and makes my brain feel better and less confused because I legitmatly cannot handle unreality anymore its odd i used to but now i cant

#smog ramble

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script-a-world · 2 years

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Submitted via Google Form: A Follow Up Ask Regarding Time Travel/History

Hi, your answers isn't exactly what I meant. I'm not talking about plotlines and changes that directly influence my story but everything else, the hundreds and thousands of other things that government do that I generally don't think of. I might have a original character who is the president/emperor/prime minister/mayor etc... They absolutely change things and it does make stuff different, but I can't focus on the thousands of changes that would cause ripples throughout the entire timeline. Especially with policies that have little point in my actual story. A big important thing that my fictional politicans are going to focus on would be off-world and top secret things that need changing. Generally not the daily life stuff. Things like mundane daily life policies, insurance, health, traffic, marriage, criminal, postal, schooling, etc all these random types of law and government institutions that do not have anything to do with my main story and are peripheral to the story. So yes, my entire world would be divergent, but I absolutely could not fully redesign and research every single law that's been in the world and the paying close attention to the removal of which real life politican and inputting a fictional one would cause exactly what policies possibly get changed. What I do know about the world, is things that are in real life, that is generally what I'm going to put in. For example, the replacement of a single US president in my story within the last 20 years. Do I know exactly every single thing tiny policy the removal of one president would affect the US or foreign policy? No. My replacement president is required because I need a president that is non-human and a time traveller. Which means if I don't look into every single change that the real president would have influenced, something could very well be different if I can't assume my replacement does everything else the same and only edit what's directly influenced in my main story. I obviously can't. I need to world-build the important bits in my story not go through every single ripple from new politicians inserted. I've had to input fictional replacements for several Russian politicians from the 1700s. So there might be numerous ripples from there too. Also a few multiple kings/queens/prime ministers of the UK. Actually, way back to Ancient Egypt too. Which means... basically ripples EVERYWHERE thoughout time. This is such a massively large scale of changes. It honestly could possibly mean countries as we know it these days may not even exist - but they for the very most part absolutely do. It could even mean politicians that I do not intend to replace but very well not be elected (but they have do, as I can't replace everything in the entire world) How should I be world building with all of these massive changes in mind? Because if I have to world build the entire world it really wouldn't be just minorly divergent from history but a possibly a complete total new world from the ancient past where nothing in modern day could happen, so by only replacing (currently) 27 real politicians to fictional, from 3000BC until the present day, and trying to force the rest of the 100,000 real life politicans to take their normal place (especially with the state of the world would affect their policies too) could still be a feat.

Mod Note: This is a follow up to This Previous Ask

Wootzel: Thank you for the clarification!

With the additional explanation, it sounds like you’re struggling with how to handle time travel conventions. You seem to be leaning towards preferring harder rules of time travel, but I think that your sanity would benefit greatly if you think about some softer rules for a while. If you change just what is important to your story, and/or what is obvious to change, but then intentionally keep everything else exactly the same, you’ll be in good company. Lots of authors do this, and it’s common enough that most people are happy to suspend disbelief when they encounter it.

Here is a TV Tropes page that explains this approach much better than I can. Check down at the bottom of the article (above the examples area) for a bunch of links to similar articles that expound on related topics.

Note that this approach tends to treat fate as a force in the universe; fate being the idea that things will happen the same way unless forced into a different course. Fate can even be the idea that the timeline tends to “course correct” to resemble its usual course after an event which might otherwise alter all of history via the butterfly effect. If you choose to implement this but still want to have more of a “hard rules” vibe, you do not have to acknowledge it. Your story does not have to have a theme of characters fighting against fate if you don’t want to! You can literally just keep real life events in place when it’s convenient, say nothing about it, and as long as your internal consistency seems to make some kind of sense, most readers will nod right along.

#google submitted #alternate timeline #history

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reanimatedcourier · 4 years

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How to Write Indigenous Characters Without Looking like a Jackass:

Update as of December 26th, 2020: I have added a couple new sections about naming and legal terms, as well as a bit of reading on the Cherokee Princess phenomenon.

Boozhoo (hello) Fallout fandom! I'm a card-carrying Anishinaabe delivering this rough guide about writing Indigenous characters because wow, do I see a lot of shit.

Let's get something out of the way first: Fallout's portrayal of Indigenous people is racist. From a vague definition of "tribal" to the claims of them being "savage" and "uncivilized" mirror real-world stereotypes used to dehumanize us. Fallout New Vegas' narrated intro has Ron Perlman saying Mr. House "rehabilitated" tribals to create New Vegas' Three Families. You know. Rehabilitate. As if we are animals. Top it off with an erasure of Indigenous people in the American Southwest and no real tribe names, and you've got some pretty shitty representation. The absence of Native American as a race option in the GECK isn't too great, given that two Native characters are marked "Caucasian" despite being brown. Butch Deloria is a pretty well-known example of this effect. (Addendum: Indigenous people can have any mix of dominant and recessive traits, as well as present different phenotypes. What bothers me is it doesn't accommodate us or mixed people, which is another post entirely.)

As a precautionary warning: this post and the sources linked will discuss racism and genocide. There will also be discussion of multiple kinds of abuse.

Now, your best approach will be to pick a nation or tribe and research them. However, what follows will be general references.

Terms that may come up in your research include Aboriginal/Native Canadian, American Indian/Native American, Inuit, Métis, and Mestizo. The latter two refer to cultural groups created after the discovery of the so-called New World. (Addendum made September 5th, 2020: Mestizo has negative connotations and originally meant "half breed" so stick with referring to your mixed Latine and Indigenous characters as mixed Indigenous or simply by the name of their people [Maya, Nahua].)

As a note, not every mixed person is Métis or Mestizo. If you are, say, Serbian and Anishinaabe, you would be mixed, but not Métis (the big M is important here, as it refers to a specific culture). Even the most liberal definition caps off at French and British ancestry alongside Indigenous (some say Scottish and English). Mestizo works the same, since it refers to descendants of Spanish conquistadors/settlers and Indigenous people.

Trouble figuring out whose land is where? No problem, check out this map.

Drawing

Don't draw us with red skin. It's offensive and stereotypical.

Tutorial for Native Skintones

Tutorial for Mixed Native Skintones

Why Many Natives Have Long Hair (this would technically fit better under another category, but give your Native men long hair!)

If You're Including Traditional Wear, Research! It's Out There

Languages

Remember, there are a variety of languages spoken by Indigenous people today. No two tribes will speak the same language, though there are some that are close and may have loan words from each other (Cree and Anishinaabemowin come to mind). Make sure your Diné (you may know them as Navajo) character doesn't start dropping Cree words.

Here's a Site With a Map and Voice Clips

Here's an Extensive List of Amerindian Languages

Keep in mind there are some sounds that have no direct English equivalents. But while we're at it, remember a lot of us speak English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese. The languages of the countries that colonized us.

Words in Amerindian languages tend to be longer than English ones and are in the format of prefix + verb + suffix to get concepts across. Gaawiin miskwaasinoon is a complete sentence in Anishinaabemowin, for example (it is not red).

Names

Surprisingly, we don't have names like Passing Dawn or Two-Bears-High-Fiving in real life. A lot of us have, for lack of better phrasing, white people names. We may have family traditions of passing a name down from generation to generation (I am the fourth person in my maternal line to have my middle name), but not everyone is going to do that. If you do opt for a name from a specific tribe, make sure you haven't chosen a last name from another tribe.

Baby name sites aren't reliable, because most of the names on there will be made up by people who aren't Indigenous. That site does list some notable exceptions and debunks misconceptions.

Here's a list of last names from the American census.

Indian Names

You may also hear "spirit names" because that's what they are for. You know the sort of mystical nature-related name getting slapped on an Indigenous character? Let's dive into that for a moment.

The concept of a spirit name seems to have gotten mistranslated at some point in time. It is the name Creator calls you throughout all your time both here and in the spirit world. These names are given (note the word usage) to you in a ceremony performed by an elder. This is not done lightly.

A lot of imitations of this end up sounding strange because they don't follow traditional guidelines. (I realize this has spread out of the original circle, but Fallout fans may recall other characters in Honest Hearts and mods that do this. They have really weird and racist results.)

If you're not Indigenous: don't try this. You will be wrong.

Legal Terms

Now, sometimes the legal term (or terms) for a tribe may not be what they refer to themselves as. A really great example of this would be the Oceti Sakowin and "Sioux". How did that happen, you might be wondering. Smoky Mountain News has an article about this word and others, including the history of these terms.

For the most accurate information, you are best off having your character refer to themselves by the name their nation uses outside of legislation. A band name would be pretty good for this (Oglala Lakota, for example). I personally refer to myself by my band.

Cowboys

And something the Fallout New Vegas fans might be interested in, cowboys! Here's a link to a post with several books about Black and Indigenous cowboys in the Wild West.

Representation: Stereotypes and Critical Thought

Now, you'll need to think critically about why you want to write your Indigenous character a certain way. Here is a comprehensive post about stereotypes versus nuance.

Familiarize yourself with tropes. The Magical Indian is a pretty prominent one, with lots of shaman-type characters in movies and television shows. This post touches on its sister tropes (The Magical Asian and The Magical Negro), but is primarily about the latter.

Say you want to write an Indigenous woman. Awesome! Characters I love to see. Just make sure you're aware of the stereotypes surrounding her and other Women of Color.

Word to the wise: do not make your Indigenous character an alcoholic. "What, so they can't even drink?" You might be asking. That is not what I'm saying. There is a pervasive stereotype about Drunk Indians, painting a reaction to trauma as an inherent genetic failing, as stated in this piece about Indigenous social worker Jessica Elm's research. The same goes for drugs. Ellen Deloria is an example of this stereotype.

Familiarize yourself with and avoid the Noble Savage trope. This was used to dehumanize us and paint us as "childlike" for the sake of a plot device. It unfortunately persists today.

Casinos are one of the few ways for tribes to make money so they can build homes and maintain roads. However, some are planning on diversifying into other business ventures.

There's a stereotype where we all live off government handouts. Buddy, some of these long-term boil water advisories have been in place for over twenty years. The funding allocated to us as a percentage is 0.39%: less than half a percent to fight the coronavirus. They don't give us money.

"But what about people claiming to be descended from a Cherokee princess?" Cherokee don't and never had anything resembling princesses. White southerners made that up prior to the Civil War. As the article mentions, they fancied themselves "defending their lands as the Indians did".

Also, don't make your Indigenous character a cannibal. Cannibalism is a serious taboo in a lot of our cultures, particularly northern ones.

Our lands are not cursed. We don't have a litany of curses to cast on white people in found footage films. Seriously. We have better things to be doing. Why on earth would our ancestors be haunting you when they could be with their families? Very egotistical assumption.

Indigenous Ties and Blood Quantum

Blood quantum is a colonial system that was initially designed to "breed out the Indian" in people. To dilute our bloodlines until we assimilated properly into white society. NPR has an article on it here.

However, this isn't how a vast majority of us define our identities. What makes us Indigenous is our connections (or reconnection) to our families, tribes, bands, clans, and communities.

Blood quantum has also historically been used to exclude Black Natives from tribal enrollment, given that it was first based on appearance. So, if you looked Black and not the image of "Indian" the white census taker had in his brain, you were excluded and so were your descendants.

Here are two tumblrs that talk about Black Indigenous issues and their perspectives. They also talk about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia.

However, if you aren't Indigenous, don't bring up blood quantum. Don't. This is an issue you should not be speaking about.

Cherokee Princess Myth

"Princess" was not a real position in any tribe. The European idea of monarchy did not suddenly manifest somewhere else. The closest probable approximation may have been the daughter of a chief or other politically prominent person. But princess? No.

Here is an article talking about possible origins of this myth. Several things are of note here: women from other tribes may have bee shoved under this label and the idea of a "Cherokee Princess" had been brought up to explain the sudden appearance of a brown-skinned (read: half Black) family member.

For a somewhat more in depth discussion of why, specifically, this myth gets touted around so often, Timeline has this piece.

Religion

Our religions are closed. We are not going to tell you how we worship. Mostly because every little bit we choose to share gets appropriated. Smudging is the most recent example. If you aren't Indigenous, that's smoke cleansing. Smudging is done in a specific way with ceremonies and prayers.

Now, a lot of us were forcibly converted. Every residential school was run by Christians. So plenty of us are Catholic, Baptist, Anglican, Lutheran, etc. Catholicism in Latin America also has influence from the Indigenous religions in that region.

Having your Indigenous character pray or carry rosaries wouldn't be a bad thing, if that religion was important to them. Even if they are atheist, if they lived outside of a reserve or other Indigenous communities, they might have Christian influences due to its domination of the Western world.

Settler Colonialism and the White Savior Trope

Now we've come to our most painful section yet. Fallout unintentionally has an excellent agent of settler-colonialism, in particular the Western Christian European variety, in Caesar's Legion and Joshua Graham.

(Addendum: Honest Hearts is extremely offensive in its portrayal of Indigenous people, and egregiously shows a white man needing to "civilize" tribals and having to teach them basic skills. These skills include cooking, finding safe water, and defending themselves from other tribes.)

Before we dive in, here is a post explaining the concept of cultural Christianity, if you are unfamiliar with it.

We also need to familiarize ourselves with The White Man's Burden. While the poem was written regarding the American-Philippine war, it still captures the attitudes toward Indigenous folks all over the world at the time.

As this article in Teen Vogue points out, white people like to believe they need to save People of Color. You don't need to. People of Color can save themselves.

Now, cultural Christianity isn't alone on this side of the pond. Writer Teju Cole authored a piece on the White Savior Industrial Complex to describe mission trips undertaken by white missionaries to Africa to feed their egos.

Colonialism has always been about the acquisition of wealth. To share a quote from this paper about the ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples: "Negatively, [settler colonialism] strives for the dissolution of native societies. Positively, it erects a new colonial society on the expropriated land base—as I put it, settler colonizers come to stay: invasion is a structure not an event. In its positive aspect, elimination is an organizing principal of settler-colonial society rather than a one-off (and superseded) occurrence. The positive outcomes of the logic of elimination can include officially encouraged miscegenation, the breaking-down of native title into alienable individual freeholds, native citizenship, child abduction, religious conversion, resocialization in total institutions such as missions or boarding schools, and a whole range of cognate biocultural assimilations. All these strategies, including frontier homicide, are characteristic of settler colonialism. Some of them are more controversial in genocide studies than others." (Positive, here, is referring to "benefits" for the colonizers. Indigenous people don't consider colonization beneficial.)

An example of a non-benefit, the Church Rock disaster had Diné children playing in radioactive water so the company involved could avoid bad publicity.

Moving on, don't sterilize your Indigenous people. Sterilization, particularly when it is done without consent, has long been used as a tool by the white system to prevent "undesirables" (read, People of Color and disabled people) from having children. Somehow, as of 2018, it wasn't officially considered a crime.

The goal of colonization was to eliminate us entirely. Millions died because of exposure to European diseases. Settlers used to and still do separate our children from us for reasons so small as having a dirty dish in the sink. You read that right, a single dirty dish in your kitchen sink was enough to get your children taken and adopted out to white families. This information was told to me by an Indigenous social work student whose name I will keep anonymous.

It wasn't until recently they made amendments to the Indian Act that wouldn't automatically render Indigenous women non-status if they married someone not Indigenous. It also took much too long for Indigenous families to take priority in child placement over white ones. Canada used to adopt Indigenous out to white American families. The source for that statement is further down, but adoption has been used as a tool to destroy cultures.

I am also begging you to cast aside whatever colonialist systems have told you about us. We are alive. People with a past, not people of the past, which was wonderfully said here by Frank Waln.

Topics to Avoid if You Aren't Indigenous

Child Separation. Just don't. We deserve to remain with our families and our communities. Let us stay together and be happy that way.

Assimilation schools. Do not bring up a tool for cultural genocide that has left lasting trauma in our communities.

W/ndigos. I don't care that they're in Fallout 76. They shouldn't be. Besides, you never get them right anyway.

Sk/nwalkers. Absolutely do not. Diné stories are not your playthings either.

I've already talked about drugs and alcohol. Do your research with compassion and empathy in mind. Indigenous people have a lot of pain and generational trauma. You will need to be extremely careful having your Indigenous characters use drugs and alcohol. If your character can be reduced to their (possible) substance abuse issues, you need to step back and rework it. As mentioned in Jessica Elm's research, remember that it isn't inherent to us.

For our final note: remember that we're complex, autonomous human beings. Don't use our deaths to further the stories of your white characters. Don't reduce us to some childlike thing that needs to be raised and civilized by white characters. We interact with society a little differently than you do, but we interact nonetheless.

Meegwetch (thank you) for reading! Remember to do your research and portray us well, but also back off when you are told by an Indigenous person.

This may be updated in the future, it depends on what information I come across or, if other Indigenous people are so inclined, what is added to this post.

#fallout 3 #fallout 4 #fallout 76 #fallout new vegas #fallout 1 #fallout 2 #fallout: new vegas #ozhibii'ige

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mysticalrambling · 3 years

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Hello

I m new on your blog and read your work and i fell in love with your stories. I read you were interested in taking request so can you take my request too? I was wondering if you can write a steve rogers x reader, where y/n is his girlfriend and he leaves her after civil war and then they see each other in infinity war, he tries to patchup with her but she ignores him because in past he often compared her to peggy and also because she knew about him kissing sharon and she is hurt. During the fight she doesn't talks to him and when tony returns from space she still continues to ignore Steve and when he confronts her she snaps at him for hurting her for a long time. He apologizes and somehow they makeup and also him kissing sharon was misunderstanding because sharon kissed him. And then they are happy together and also in endgame the reader is worried steve will stay in past but he comes back and they get married with the team present and have kids and live happily

Happily Ever After (S.R)

A/N: Thank you so much lovely and I loved the plot line. I loved writing about it and I made a few additions to the story. Hope you like it and I am open to more requests.

Steve Rogers Fanfiction (Fanfiction Master List)

Summary: Steve comes back after Civil War and you are angry with him because he left you. You do not forgive him because you thought he cheated on you and he always compared you with Peggy. But he returns from the past when he chose you over Peggy and you forgive him. You eventually get married and expand your family.

Warnings: Angst but eventual fluff.

._._._._.

He stood right there in his Captain America shield with all his former glory. Your ex boyfriend looked the same but there were some differences like he had a full grown beard and he was more muscular. He kept staring at you with longing and pain but it was not even the half of what you experienced while he was gone.

“(Y/N), you need to take the position left to Steve.” Tony pulled you out of your trance and you just stared at him when you comprehended his order. He had been there for you from the moment Steve left you after the Civil War. Sitting with you when you couldn’t sleep at night and forcefully feeding you when you spent the whole day starving. He didn’t want you anywhere near Captain but you both always worked best together and there were much more important matters at hand.

“But Tony, I can be with Steve.” As much as Rhodey wanted to be away from all of the people that were responsible for his fall, he didn’t want you to suffer. They all had seen you fall apart on the Avenger base when you realised that your boyfriend left without saying good bye to you and without an explanation. Just telling Tony on a voice message to take care of you wasn’t enough.

“I’ll be okay, Rhodey. You are needed near the buildings so if some of the aliens escape our defenses, you can be there to protect the city.”

All of the avengers kept stealing glances at the both of you because they knew that it was only a matter of time before you exploded. But they were wrong. You were not the stubborn, hot headed woman that did not let anyone walk over her. That woman died when Steve left. He took her with himself.

"Take your positions and give them hell." Steve and you made your way towards your designated place.

"(Y/N), listen to me. I-"

"Do not talk to me. We are done." Keeping your eyes trained on the path, you avoided meeting his eyes.

"But, let me explain. I did not have a choice. You sided with Tony and I couldn't tell you that we were leaving." He tried to catch up with you but you were a woman on a mission.

"I did not side with Tony, I sided with the accords. And I was working my ass off to get you all out of there and I looked like a fool in the end." He collided in you as you abruptly stopped in your tracks.

"(Y/N), I didn't know-"

"You didn't know because you never tried to contact me. I was the one who had to go through multiple trials with the government because they thought I helped you all to escape." There were tears pooling in your eyes and Steve wanted to kill himself for being the cause. "I was benched for four months, for Gods sake."

You are reminded of those horrible times when you didn't know what your next step was going to be. The others tried to help you but you had to suffer through all the criticism alone. Some days you just wanted to leave it all behind and start a new life. But you weren't a coward. You wouldn't let anyone run over you like this and ruin your life. Getting back up was tough but you managed it. The day that you were allowed back on the field was the day that you decided you were not going to let anyone ruin your life.

"(Y/N), I made a mistake and I missed you so much." He tried to touch you but you flinched. A look of hurt passed his eyes and retracted his hands.

"Let's just fight. I want to kick some ass." The war crafts soon landed and you all got to fight. You had to admit that Steve was one of the best teammate that you had. He knew when to defend you and when to let you attack. You were busy fighting two of the aliens when one came from the back. Steve saw it and immediately came to your defense. You were never going to admit it but you missed this.

When the fight ended, you both made your way towards the main compound and saw all the avengers gathered together. Steve and you only had minor cuts throughout your body but nothing major. The moment you saw what all the commotion is about, your breath hitched. It was Tony with half of his skin burnt and taking his last breath.

Kneeling down beside him, you started crying. "Hey, it's okay. Just be happy and do not hold on to old grudges. Take care of family for me, please." Pepper was beside you and she started crying harder when she heard him. "Steve, come here for a second."

"I am so sorry for everything. You will always be my friend, Stark."

"We both were in the wrong, Cap. For what it's worth, do not lose (Y/N) because she is the best thing that has happened to you."

Tony was on his last breaths now and you both moved aside because Pepper wanted to have some last moments with him. There were some rifts in the team since the civil war but at this moment, you all were in this together. Tony was the one who brought you all together and saved many of you from your abusive lives. He was your best friend and you didn't know how you would spend your life without his sarcastic comments and his new inventions.

"You go, Tony. We are going to be okay. I love you." The words that left Pepper were a mere whisper but because of the pin drop silence, you were able to hear her.

"I love you too," Uttering his last words, he finally closed his eyes and all that could be heard were Pepper's wails of agony. Everything after it was a blur; the med bay, the briefing, the funeral. Time seemed to pass you by and you were numb the whole time. It was like a large piece of your heart was torn away from you and you didn't know how to react.

"(Y/N), can we talk?" Natasha lightly knocked on your door before you muttered a small come in. She looked around the room and noticed the lack of pictures in your room. The warmth that once radiated from your room was now gone. There were pictures of you with the team, with Steve and with Natasha. You liked to capture all the memories and it was one of the things the team loved about you.

"Hi."

"Hello. I just wanted to see how you were doing after everything."

"I am fine. Just processing everything." The loose thread on your blanket was the main focus of your attention right now.

"You don't seem fine. I know you, (Y/N)."

"No, you don't." Scoffing at her ridiculous statement, you felt anger bubbling inside your chest. "You were one of the first people who became my friend when I came to this tower. You knew I couldn't live without Chris and you. You both were my support system."

"(Y/N), I wanted to tell you everything. Believe me, I did. But we had to keep it a secret because we had to protect the other avengers as well."

"I have been listening to this reason from the past few days and I am done. I was ready to help you guys and you could have just contacted me once. I didn't know if you were dead or alive."

"I am sorry. I wanted to do it but it was never the right time. Half of the times you were surrounded by government officials. Can you forgive me?" The red head came and sat next to you on the bed.

"I can but I don't know if we can go back to the way things were."

"It's okay. We will be friends again. And as a new friend, I just want to tell you that Steve was miserable these past two years and he loves you so much."

"I don't want to talk about him, Nat. Let's go to the gym and spar."

"I am going to kick your ass as alway, (Y/L/N)."

"I have been practicing, Romanoff." You both went on to sparring and Natasha won in the end. However, the whole day you kept thinking about your ex boyfriend. He had been trying to talk to you from the past two weeks. It was hard for you to ignore him but you were now reminded of the times when he compared you with Peggy.

The small things that you did was always met with criticism like Peggy did not work in the field like this or Peggy wouldn't talk to him like a brat. Apparently, she was the mature one and you could never compare to her. Most of the times, you tried not to let the comments get to you but you were human. He might have done it unintentionally and you didn't want to hold it against him. But it hurt.

"We are going to talk today and you are not going to run away this time." He blocked you in the kitchen when you came out of your room to drink some water.

"Funny how you are saying that I am the one that is running away. Hypocrite much now, are we?"

"(Y/N), I am apologising to you because I can't live without you."

"You did so well for two years, I don't know why it is a problem now."

"I understand that you are angry with me. I wanted to be with you so bad but my duty as Captain prevented me from it." Your face was turned away from Steve but you turned towards him when you heard the words leave his mouth.

"Your job is more important than me?" Enraged, all you could see was red and you wanted to punch the daylights out of him.

"I thought it was but not anymore. You are the most important thing in my life and I don't want to lose you."

"Well, you have other women in your life so you don't need me."

"What other women?" Steve's confused gaze swept over your face when you spit those words out.

"I know about Sharon. You kissed her when we were still together. You cheated on me and I hate you for it." Pointing your fingers at his chest, you didn't realise when your voice started to rise.

Steve held your hands and pulled you close to his chest. "Sharon kissed me and I immediately backed off. I would never cheat on you."

You couldn't believe your ears right now. This was one of the things that helped you get over Steve. Believing that he cheated on you, made it a lot easier for you to despise him. Granted that never happened but it was still easier. However, he was still stuck in the past and he did not want to admit it.

"Even if Sharon is not a problem, you are still stuck in the past."

"What do you mean?"

"You are still in love with Peggy and I can not be your second choice anymore."

"Peggy has got nothing to do with this. She is dead and I love you."

"But I would have never been the one you loved if Peggy was here."

"That's not true. You both are totally different people and I love you now." Steve didn't know how to explain it to you. The things he felt for you were totally different for what he felt for Peggy. You made his breath hitch and his heart pounded whenever you smiled at him. He was so in love with you that he didn't think it was possible to love someone this much.

He knew that he compared you with Peggy before he left but at that time he was not ready to leave the past. It was unfair of him to do that to you while you tried very hard to meet all his expectations. However, he realised afterwards that you did not have to meet any of his expectations because you exceeded all of them. He felt so guilty and he just wanted to have you back in his life and forget about all the things that happened.

"I don't believe you."

"Please do. I want us to be okay before I go to return all the stones."

"You do that and then we can talk about us." He gave you a quick peck on the cheek before you could say anything. You were pretty sure that would stay back with Peggy and that's why you didn't want to reconcile things. You didn't want him to break your heart again.

"Ready to go, Cap?" Scott asked as he rechecked the time machine again. Everyone glanced at each other when he said that because they all thought that Steve might remain in the past for Peggy. They all had their doubts but everyone was scared to say them out loud. "You only have five seconds to get back before you are stuck."

"Ready." He glanced at you one last time and stepped in to the machine. You held your breath as Scott counted out loud and when he reached the number four, you were sure that he wasn't coming back. You were about to turn back when a snapping sound echoed throughout the room.

"I told you I will come back." Coming to a halt right in front of you, you couldn't believe your eyes. You pulled him in and kissed him ferociously.

"I love you."

"I love you too and remember that no one compares to you. I am really sorry."

"It's okay. You passed the test." When you both kissed again, all of your friends cheered for you.

As time passed by, you realised that Steve was the best person you could have possibly ended up. He was the literally the man of your dreams. Waking up to him every morning, cuddled up in your bed to going to bed with him kissing you goodnight. Steve made you breakfast every morning even when he was getting late and weekends were only reserved you.

The day that he proposed was still so clear on your mind. You remembered how he was nervous for a week that you thought something was seriously wrong with him. He would stutter and sweat when you got too close to him like it was a new relationship. There was a barbecue for the whole team on the compound and you all were gathered around the garden with drinks in hand. Everyone was enjoying it to the fullest when out of nowhere Steve knelt in front of you with a ring in his hand. After listening to his speech, you said yes with tears in your eyes.

"Are you ready?" Natasha asked you as she smoothed down your wedding dress that you spent months picking out.

"Yes." Pepper helped Morgan with the flower basket because the seven year old wanted to be the flower girl.

"Okay, then it's time." Walking down the aisle was worth it when you saw the adoration flicker in his eyes. He said some of the most heart warming words that had you ruining your eye makeup. It was a beautiful ceremony that only included close family and friends. You wanted a private wedding and you announced it to the world the next day. They all went crazy but the positive response was overwhelming to say the least.

Four months in to the wedding, you realised you were pregnant. Natasha was the one who sat beside when you waited for the test while Pepper brought a million of them for you. You were scared to tell him because you never discussed the possibility of having kids in detail.

"Just tell him. He is going to be ecstatic." Natasha tried to soothe you when you started crying with your face in between your hands.

"Okay. Steve will be home anytime soon."

"We should probably get going." Pepper and Natasha made their way towards the door and gently closed it.

"Hey, babe." Kissing you on the cheek, he immediately went to the washroom to take a shower.

"We need to talk."

"Sure. What's up?"

"I am pregnant." Blurting it out was not what you had planned but you couldn't think of another way. He stopped folding his armor midway and just looked at you with disbelief in his eyes.

"Are you serious? Oh my god. When did you find out? I am so happy, baby."

"I found out about an hour ago. And you are seriously happy?"

"Of course, I am. We will have a mini you or me with us in nine months. I love you, baby."

"I love you too." Keeping his hands on your stomach, he hugged you tightly and you knew that you got your happy ending. You were one of the luckiest people alive because you have a husband like Steve and now you were going to have family with him.

Hope you guys enjoyed it!!

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A/N: I love Captain America and I was happy to write a fanfiction about him. If you guys have any more request, I will be happy to write about them and message me if you want to be added to the tag list.

Taglist: @justile

Like, comment and reblog.

._._._._.

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jaeheewillalwaysbemyfav · 3 years

Note

Could you please write the brothers with a genderfluid MC? You’re writing is so amazing! 😍😍

At what temperature does gender fluid become a solid? It varies, welcome to my bad jokes and fluffy headcanons

I use they/them pronouns for this MC throughout the headcanons for ease of reading, but naturally some genderfluid people use multiple sets of pronouns which may or may not include they/them. Know that the brothers would absolutely use whatever pronouns you tell them to!

Also uhhhhhhhhhh… this ended up including some of my HCs about the “brothers’” genders as well. Quick rundown of that, I see Luci, Mammon and Beel as trans guys, Levi as genderfluid but an egg (ie. closeted/still figuring himself out), Satan as demigender/Spite, Asmo as genderfluid/nonbinary, and Belphie as agender/*snoring cow noises*

No I don’t always use these headcanons when writing requests, and in this all the characters are still referred to with he/him pronouns, but if people do want to see more of my Obey Me gender HCs, feel free to ask!

Also thank you for the compliment uwu I definitely did not turn beet red and spin in my chair for several minutes after reading it

The Brothers With a Genderfluid MC feat. some Trans/NB Brothers HCs

Lucifer

When MC first showed up to the Devildom, their presentation didn’t match the gender Lucifer had on file

He didn’t think anything of it, just quietly made a note to correct the information later

But then a couple of weeks later MC starts presenting differently and he’s like, “??? Oh wait I get it”

Decides that the easiest thing to do is just approach MC directly and ask them what they’d like him to write on their file

If they ever got a hold of it, they would see a couple scribbles on it lol

Lots of things give Lucifer headaches

MC’s gender is never one of them

He takes any fluctuations in stride: change of name? Sure. Multiple names? No problem. Feeling more masc/fem but don’t want to go through the effort of necessarily presenting that way? Just let him know how to refer to you and he’ll follow your lead

It’s a complete non-issue for him basically, totally normal

Though because for him gender is a Private Matter, he won’t make a big deal of it unless he senses that they’re nervous about it and his reaction

In that case, he will assure them that he’s not acting the way he is to be cold, he just doesn’t want to make them feel othered or like a spectacle

Will Not talk about his own past though, unless you’re really really Really Super Mega Close

Perhaps post-pact he might be more forthcoming...

Mammon

Wait, so MC has to buy multiple wardrobes?? Isn’t that expensive?

Not necessarily how it works bud, but go off

His most common nickname for MC is “human”, so no need to worry about any accidental misgendering there

Should any gendered terms/pronouns come up though, Mammon might stumble a bit at first, before he knows MC’s rhythm and preferences

Not in a “ugh it’s too hard to keep track” way but in a “oh shit I don’t wanna get this wrong” way, you know?

This resulted in a lot of “MC’s so stubborn, h— sh— they— OY HUMAN! WHICH PRONOUNS IS IT TODAY?”

While in the Devildom changing names and pronouns aren’t really a big deal, if MC doesn’t like extra attention being drawn to themself this way, they’ll quickly figure out a system to let Mammon know how to refer to them

It makes his whole tsundere act infinitely funnier tbh

Hard to play the “I don’t care about you” card when you meticulously respect someone’s identity and always ensure they feel comfortable

Nooooo, he totally didn’t get MC that outfit they were wishing for because it’s easy to make more masc or fem!! That’s ridiculous!! NO DON’T LOOK AT HIS CREDIT CARD RECEIPT—!

Leviathan

*Leviathan has added Gender Envy to his list of envies*

Someone please crack this egg, he’s got a job in there it’s been so long

I hc that Levi is genderfluid, but because Insecurity and deeply internalized transphobia some Certain Corners of human world fandom, he’s never tried just casually presenting differently

When it’s a costume/cosplay people are generally receptive, but would they accept it if it was just him?

But seeing a genderfluid MC? Either just casually doing their thing, or quietly confiding in him about their identity? It gives him hope

His Henry understands!

If MC is still experimenting with presentation or names/pronouns, Levi is super supportive, even if his proposals are very… particular

And through helping them, he gets a bit more comfortable with himself as well

He’s still a bit nervous to officially come out, that lingering fear and doubt is hard to kick, but it’s nice to know he has someone who will stick by him no matter what

He’ll do little things with MC, if anyone asks he’ll say it’s in solidarity with them, but his brothers start to pick up that something Else is going on

Do Levi and MC get matching TSL pride pins at some point? :3c

It’s at this point that Asmo, known Gender Trapeze Artist, loses his shit and Demands that the others let him help Levi with his Gender Makeover, but they all furtively tell him to zip it. Levi will tell them when he’s ready, and IF he wants help with anything

Satan

Satan has more Spite than gender, but is very intrigued by the concept of gender fluidity

Asks a Ton of questions, not out of ignorance but curiosity over the particulars of MC’s specific experience

He’s internally comparing it to his own, as well as others he knows — it’s interesting to see the differences in how humans and demons understand gender!

If MC’s not down to talk about it or gets annoyed by the questions, he’ll of course back off and apologize

He knows there’s a lot of issues in the human world with people asking invasive questions and feeling entitled to trans people’s entire life stories

However if MC accepts and even reciprocates his curiosity?

*Accidentally acquires a degree in Devildom Gender Studies*

Is always ready to help MC stand up for themself and assert their identity

No one misgenders them on his watch

No One

Asmodeus

TWINS!!!!! :D

Asmo is very excited to find out the human exchange is just like him!!!

Okay, they might not necessarily be exactly like him in terms of presentation: maybe MC prefers a more consistently masc/fem style, or is more lowkey in general, or— oh no, they’re not too insecure to even try to present how they’d like to, right?!

If MC does find something about their presentation lacking or unsatisfactory, Asmo is 3000% willing and ready to help

But more importantly, if it’s MC’s confidence he cares about most

He’ll help an insecure MC find their inner strength and confidence, and be the Best Hype-Person for an MC who’s already confident

Asmo’s brand of genderfluidity is usually pretty loosey-goosey, his general sense of fashion leaning more towards the fem side but internal identity swinging about wildly, but should he and MC ever “synch up” at any point, he Will make a joke about it and how it must mean they’re meant to be! ;p

Also knows the best tips for coping with fluctuating dysphoria because although he publicly hides it, sometimes it does get him down

It tends to blend into his pre existing issues with public image and his body and even with shapeshifting sometimes things just Don’t Feel Right

So if MC’s ever having a rough time, they know who to turn to

Beelzebub

Like Lucifer, he’s very chill about it

It’s the content of MC’s character that matters, not their gender

And he thinks they’re a great person, so any way they want to be referred to, he will respect it without question

If MC is the type to change their presentation to suit their feelings, he’s lowkey in awe that they pull it off so well

Even before he transitioned, Beel was never very good with fashion beyond finding what makes him most comfortable and what’s most practical

But he respects the skill, and sometimes wonders if it would have made some of his pre-transition time easier to cope with

However unlike Lucifer, he’s fine confiding in MC about his experiences if he thinks it will make them feel better

Lots of Support Hugs

Sometimes it feels like he’s trying to hug the dysphoria out of them

Also re: the Lilith thing, if MC ever feels Extra awkward being compared to Lilith because she was a girl and MC Isn’t, Beel will take extra care to remind them that he and the rest of the House of Lamentation love MC for who they are, not because of their connection to Lilith

Belphegor

Ughhhhhh that sounds like so much effort

Uhhh, explain yourself cowboy, and talk fast

Belphie’s not really a boy, but whatever.

See? That’s so fast, “ehh I don’t really Do the gender thing, k byeeee” Done

Or at least it would be if people weren’t so stupid and kept pestering him about it

But MC… if their gender changes over time and people ask about it, that must take so much explaining

Doesn’t it get annoying?

Ohhhh… He’s trying to empathize!

Belphie has a weird way of showing support, but he means well

Like Satan, he doesn’t take any shit vis a vis misgendering, but instead of righteous fury, it’s more of an exasperation

“Just use the right pronouns! It’s not that hard! Mammon can do it, for fuck’s sake, are you saying you’re so dumb you can’t keep track of what even he can?!”

If MC’s having a mini Gender Crisis because sometimes gender is just weird, Belphie will absolutely say something stupid like “Nah, your gender is just taking a nap. You should too. C’mere *grabby hands*”

He’s insufferable, but also a stalwart supporter of MC

#obey me #obey me headcanons #obey me imagines #trans obey me #obey me trans mc #lucifer #mammon #leviathan #satan #asmodeus #beelzebub #belphegor #mine #my writing

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nixxx11 · 3 years

Text

Ending Umbrella Scene Analysis (Mr. Pigeon 72)

I loved this scene so, so much from the new episode, I'm going to be rewatching it on repeat for 5 years 😍

So anyways, I noticed some interesting things about the parallels of the umbrella scenes...thought I'd share...

Marinette got trapped under the umbrella when she was standing alone under it in Stoneheart.

In Mr. Pigeon 72, they are both trapped under the umbrella together and are standing next to each other.

It symbolizes the fact that now both of them hold the umbrella, showing their mutual love for each other, Marinette not being alone in her feelings for Adrien anymore.

“Wow, have you kept it all this time?”

Immediately after, the scene shows us rain and lighting, the same situation in Origins when Marinette first fell in love with Adrien. It’s indicating that she’s fallen in love with him again.

Marinette's love for Adrien was originally depicted in the umbrella scene. He gave her the umbrella. It’s the moment that sparked her love. But it doesn’t end there. He's also given her something else, which she's kept for a long time. It's not just an umbrella. The umbrella is supposed to symbolize love between them. More than a reverse in the love square, it’s a reset.

Adrien's question about keeping the umbrella doesn't just refer to the umbrella. It refers to her feelings.

Marinette has kept the umbrella concealed, the same way she’s kept her feelings concealed. What’s special about this scene? The fact that she didn’t conceal her feelings. She’s been trapped, like an umbrella, but she’s finally opening it up in this scene.

The symbol here is that she’s had the umbrella the entire time.

She’s kept her feelings for Adrien buried inside the entire time, finally taking them out during this scene and falling in love again.

The umbrella served as a symbol of her love for him, and by showing that she kept it, it suggests she never lost it.

Yes, Marinette spent so much time in denial of her feelings. She even tried dating Luka. She tried to forget about Adrien. But she never did let go of Adrien. Marinette still has the umbrella, but she's using it for the first time after falling in love during this scene.

I can't go to describe how well the dialogues are written in this scene.

Although Marinette wanted to return the umbrella, Adrien told her she would need it to get back home.

They're literally speaking through the umbrella's terms here-

Their love is symbolized by the reoccuring situation. Adrien is telling her that it’s too early for him to accept the umbrella. He tells her she needs it to go home. Before he can accept it, Marientte needs to accept her feelings for him and become comfortable with herself. She needs to feel comfortable around Adrien before he can accept his love for her. That’s why they’re both standing under the umbrella this time. Not just Marinette.

When they were both holding the umbrella, Marinette asked him to walk home with her. The way she asks for love is indirect. He was happy that Marinette wanted him to walk alongside her, but looked back and realized there were still too many responsibilities for him too. That it wasn’t time yet.

I think this scene was trying to tell us that it’s too early. It’s not time yet to hold the umbrella together, before walking beside each other, before accepting those feelings. He first needs to get control over his life. They must be prepared to hold the umbrella together, not just as Marinette and Adrien. As a team.

But he can’t accept the umbrella just yet.

Life is not waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to dance in the rain.

I love what Alya said here. The quote essentially suggests that you should enjoy the present moment for what it is, rather than wasting time watching it pass.

Adrien and Marinette falling in love under the umbrella happened all over again, and it’s really not a coincidence. Alya said that she wanted Marinette to understand that she needs to live for the present rather than constantly worrying about being a guardian night and day. No matter how bad the circumstances are, she's still got to take breaks. Marinette found out immediately after that Adrigami had split up. But instead of going to console Adrien, she went to console Kagami because she knew Kagami’s only friend was her. She learned to accept circumstances as they are and immediately decided to go to Kagami. Because that’s what (girl)friends do.

When the storm passes, you can dance in the rain. When you wait for a storm to pass, you will freeze. Life is a struggle, and you will have to deal with daily struggles that are outside of your control. Depending on how you handle your struggles in life, you’ll either build yourself up or break yourself down. In the midst of the storm, you can find peace if you take the right steps.

‘Learning to dance in the rain' refers to the need to prepare for difficult times rather than merely wait for them to pass. This means that, despite all the challenges in life, it is still possible to find happiness. Despite being stuck in the middle of a bad storm, it’s important that Marinette learns to dance in the rain. It’s about how to view things, and how we keep optimism about our future, and recognize that we're heading in the right direction. You won't put your life on hold if you make it a point to enjoy life, even if it means you might have to sacrifice something to let loose once in a while. When the storm passes, you shouldn’t sit down to wait for it to pass since you may forget to get back up and continue your life. That’s what Alya is trying to tell Marinette. You’re going to get tired, and you can pause for a break in the weather, but dancing in the rain helps you get back up and finish what needs to be done.

Whenever there is a storm, Marinette isolates herself from love. Not just Adrien. Any type of affection. Her friends, her family, Luka...That’s what happened in Gang of Secrets. Marinette wants to keep her friendships but she doesn’t want to reveal her secret. It's important to her not to involve her friends in this. They shouldn't be burdened by her. It’s safer if no one finds out. Having a secret, and a struggle to prioritize, and maintaining her relationships causes her to do that to herself and people around her. In spite of the fact that it hurts, she's avoiding relationships entirely because she hopes it will protect those around her. Her time and energy is limited because relationships take a lot of effort and time. As a result, she avoided any type of romance. To the point where she was in clear denial of her feelings.

Now that she has Alya, she can help her. Of course, Alya's support for Marinette cannot be underestimated, but the episode is also a reminder that things aren't close to being ideal. As strong as Alya is, she isn't so strong that she can completely reverse Marinette's fall and reset everything back to normal.

Marinette’s definitely recovering. Nevertheless, the show is doing a lot to demonstrate that it is still a process. She’s still spending lots of time battling Shadowmoth. She has been making all kinds of crazy contraptions to hide the miracle box and kwamis in her room, and it’s driving her a little insane. She’s spending most of her time working on translating the grimoire while maintaining her double life and duties as a civilian. The storm is waning- but it isn’t over yet.

Why is that line from Alya so important? Because Marinette does need to let loose. Take a break from all the plans and simplify her life sometimes. Her approach is to take charge of situations, make plans, and set up things to make them happen. When she’s Ladybug, her assertive behavior means she is automatically paid attention to, and her clever plans save the day. Sometimes her anxiety is spiking and it goes a little too far. A flaw shown throughout the show: She goes from trying to lead a situation to trying to control it, steamrolling the other people involved. Complicating things often stresses her more.

Gamer 2.0 is a perfect example of this. This episode shows how she goes to great lengths to make people happy and even overworks herself in order to do so. She attempted the same approach over and over again out of stress and confusion in response to the situation. The concept of “dancing in the rain” is actually what Chat Noir did and was trying to tell Ladybug in the episode. Yes, there was indeed a storm. Yet, it was the enjoyment he found in the midst of it that helped them in the end, wasn't it?

Another example from this episode. Marinette did that with Kagami. Marinette was determined to reconcile Kagami and Adrien since she thought that would be the best outcome for their relationship, regardless of Kagami’s multiple attempts to tell her she didn’t want to make up with Adrien.

She, however, reevaluates the situation and reconsiders her approach when she's calmed down.

It took Marinette a while to allow herself to be happy again because she was waiting for the storm to pass. Alya advised Marinette to take a break and get her mind off of those things, but Marinette kept insisting that she couldn’t until she had everything figured out. While Alya tried to make Marinette forget about her stress by telling her about Adrien's commercial and the breakup, Marinette denied any sort of feelings she had for him, because if she tried to pursue Adrien while Shadowmoth was still active, it would end in the same way as Luka. And she doesn’t want a repeat of that. That’s why she seems to be avoiding romance.

Her avoidance doesn't just stop there- she fights as hard as she can to keep Kagami and Adrien together. Why? Because she can’t get distracted. Because she’s put a barrier on herself. Marinette is evidently not allowing herself to be happy until Shadowmoth has been defeated and her life calms down.

Marinette unknowingly recreated the moment where she first fell in love with Adrien, except this time they were holding the umbrella together. It's a symbol of reciprocation.

Kagami: The beating heart, the tingling..I felt all this. At your place. You’re the one that blushes and stutters when you’re around Adrien. You know his schedule over three years. You’re right, Adrien is perfect. He’s perfect for you.

The whole point; Marinette had a very specific goal in mind: scheming to make Kagami realize that Adrien loved her. Yet it clearly did not work that way. Mariette managed to avoid all that pressure once Adrien found interest in someone else and for once, she didn't have to worry about it. Because she didn't aim to be the one with Adrien, she didn't obsess over how every move she made could lead to him disliking her. Her downfall in past episodes was that she anticipated Adrien's reaction and panic over how it would ruin her life.

In much the same way as the first umbrella scene, Marinette didn't focus on her feelings for Adrien due to the fact that she didn't develop them until after the moment. As a result, her romantic feelings were able to blossom without thought or hesitation. In this interaction with Adrien, Marinette conveyed exactly what she wanted. She barely even stuttered or stumbled over her words when asking him to walk home with her.

Since Marinette was still convinced Kagami had a chance with Adrien, when Kagami told her that she’s the one who should be with Adrien and then walked away, she had little time to reflect, since Adrien immediately approached her.

Marinette and Adrien allowed themselves to be themselves and let the unfolding of events be an unplanned event.

Adrien still has a special place in her heart, despite it taking her longer to recreate a moment with him. The parallels show that this is the moment they fell in love all over again.

Marinette took advantage of being alone with Adrien in the rain to ask him to walk her home with her, spending more time with her. His father wouldn't approve of him skipping Chinese lessons if he turned her down despite the fact that he wants to.

In that moment of walking home, she was not only smiling, but also enjoying "dancing in the rain." Both literally and figuratively.

And I really, really want to talk about the end card. After three episodes of Marinette being curled up alone, crying, depressed and helpless, look at her now- She’s happy, she’s dancing, laughing and so in love!!

Marinette dances in the rain, as Alya suggested, indicating that we can still let loose even in tough times.

Not everything is fixed; it's clear that there’s still lots of duties for her. But even though she has a storm coming, she's in one at present in the midst of it all, but despite these responsibilities, it's fine to enjoy herself in the moment!

Another very important thing to note from the scene…

When Marinette takes out the umbrella….

She didn’t give it back to him. But he didn’t take it back.

She isn’t losing hope or giving up on her feelings for him, she’s content to keep and enjoy the feelings and accept wherever that leads her.

Despite still having much to think and reflect about, she now acknowledges her feelings, something we’ve seen her struggle with since the end of S3.

Another thing on the end card...the pictures of Adrien. In the pictures, she’s dancing in the rain, so it emphasizes yet again her happiness to enjoy her feelings for Adrien. In one of the pictures, Adrien is wearing the scarf Marinette made for him; I feel that this could be foreshadowing? Because if what was needed was pictures of Adrien, what was the need to include the scarf in two of the pictures? I’m thinking maybe it has something to do with a scarf reveal in the future. (That’s just a theory though)

And the most important thing from this end card was also because of the scarf. Marinette was the one who gave Adrien the scarf, and Gabriel is the one responsible for Adrien not knowing about it. He’s like a barrier between them- both as Gabriel and as Hawkmoth. (@sugarcubetikki Sugar I was talking to you on Discord about that so I thought you might want to be tagged)

Adrien has no idea that it's from Marinette, he thinks it's from his father. The thing standing in their way is his father.

Similarly to this scene- what gets in the way of him walking home with Marinette is his father. He has too many responsibilities. He needs to go home. Same with the scarf. It's his father's actions that limits him and hides the truth, it's the same reason he isn't able to realize Marinette's love for him in both situations. Gabriel’s like a strain putting a restriction on them. It’s the same thing that happened in Chat Blanc. That’s why they couldn’t date.

The next part is probably my favorite :)

It’s so silly and cute. The umbrellas closing in on them.

But even that, note the difference between the two- Marinette was trapped under the umbrella by herself before. Now they’re trapped under it together. They’re both trapped under their own love. That’s why this scene wasn’t necessarily a reverse love square. It’s indicating that the next step is for both of them to carry the umbrella.

In a tender moment with Adrien where they retrace past steps, Marinette falls in love for the second time after getting Kagami's blessing to pursue Adrien. Her umbrella symbolizes the love between them, and thus she offers it to Adrien.

The difference this time is that she is in control of her feelings, rather than allowing it to be given to her.

She willingly offers the umbrella to Adrien. She isn’t trying to make a disinterested Kagami try to date Adrien anymore.

There’s also something so different about his look. When he initially befriends her, he’s careful because he’s never done it before. He’s never had friends, it’s all new to him and doesn’t want to mess up. At this moment, he isn’t really going for friendship or romance or anything specifically, it’s just a relationship he wants to fix. Adrien has made a friend for the first time, and Marinette wouldn't even look at Adrien before that happened. It’s a situation where he’s happy to have befriended her. He is delighted that after several attempts he managed to become her friend. But this scene is so different. It’s almost like a realization. It’s perfectly reflected along with the fact that he isn’t the one lending his umbrella this time.

In the first umbrella scene, Adrien passed the umbrella to Marinette. The love is something he gave to her.

But in this scene? They’re holding it together. This perfectly represents that love is reciprocal and it takes the two of them to hold on to it.

Literally nothing to analyze here, I just love them so much lol-

The parallels here are absolutely adorable, they’re laughing at each other’s clumsiness and being silly. They’re both nervous and making silly mistakes out of love. It’s one of the times we get to see Adrien’s goofy, clumsy side around Marinette and it’s a parallel to the same reason they fell in love in the first place. Their reactions to each other here are so genuine and full of warmth. They’re so in love.

Adrien gave the umbrella to her in the first scene. She accepted that gesture of love and carried it with her, sometimes in denial but ultimately ended up taking it out. When she tries to give it back in this scene, Adrien tells her she still needs it.

She can’t give up just yet. That’s why she’s full of happiness at the end of the episode. Marinette wants to enjoy her feelings for Adrien, she’s overjoyed to be in love again.

Adrien can’t accept the umbrella from her just yet because…

Marinette needs it.

It’s too early for him to.

But it’s such an important moment of growth.

It’s vital that they’re ready to hold the umbrella together, not just as Adrien or Marinette.

Those two are made for each other. Kagami said it. Master Fu said it. There’s no doubt there anymore.

This episode carries a very important theme. The entire show does, actually. While life isn’t all about waiting for the storm to pass, we all have to learn to deal with the thunder and rain through experience and learning. It’s what Marinette and Adrien do every single day. We can allow life-threatening challenges to overwhelm us and leave us in darkness or we can embrace them with well-lit light. What made Marinette grow in this episode was that realization.

It’s about deciding if we want to embrace the rain by learning to dance in it, or if we want to make it even harder by waiting the storm out. Marinette finally danced in the rain. Things are headed in a good direction.

An important symbol I personally found memorable from the episode; Even in the middle of the storm, Adrien and Marinette are still tied together by their umbrella, they’re trapped under it, because they’re trapped under their love for each other.

(Or you know, you can just ship Marigami and move on with your life)

#miraculous ladybug #mr pigeon 72 #miraculous analysis #mr pigeon 72 analysis #ml season 4 #ml spoilers #ml season 4 spoilers #mr pigeon 72 spoilers #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #umbrella scene #miraculous #ml season 4 analysis #long post #tw long post #adrienette #marigami #ml love square #my analysis

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closhelby · 3 years

Text

HER. - Thomas Shelby

Smut

Pairing: Tommy Shelby x Reader

Warning: it’s peaky blinders, with smut

Word Count: 2472

AN: this is my first time writing smut, please give me any tips pls, it’s appreciate. It’s probably shite.

::::::

She always was on his mind. The woman, that always read between the lines, always two steps ahead of him, and had an incredible eye for business. She had left him years prior, leaving for a top business school in London. they never had a title, a label on their relationship, but it wasn’t exactly a secret that they always, somehow, gravitated back to one another. Often people, especially Polly, would say that there was no way two people would be so alike, strong headed but only rarely clashed.

However y/n’s degree had finished and she was coming back to Small Heath for a period of time before she was going to figure out what exactly what she wanted to do. Y/n was actually great friends with the Shelby family, since growing up with them, living just down the road, they practically lived together. Y/n was actually younger than Tommy, she was ages with Ada and John. They were in the same class throughout school, Ada and y/n regularly wrote to each other, updating each other on Ada’s eventful life as a Shelby still in Small Heath and y/n’s very exciting studying life in London.

They had actually planned to meet up, for a nice and quiet drink at the Garrison on her return. The thoughts swirled in y/n’s mind as she approached the Garrison, it had just gone 6pm, and she knew as it was a Friday, she did have a possibly of bumping into her first, arguably her only love. Pushing the thoughts to the back of her head, she pushed open the door to see a fairly crowded Garrison.

“Ah, y/n, how was London?” Harry shouted, from behind the bar. Y/n smiled at him, walking over to Ada sitting in the back corner. “It was good Harry, nice to be back in this clear Birmingham air”. He chuckled slightly, “Whiskey coming up love”.

Y/n nodded, taking a seat next to Ada, giving her a cuddle, “Unsure if ive missed this place or not” y/n laughed slightly, eyes scanning the pub, looking for the one man she questioned if she did want to bump into. The pair was throwing back drinks like it was going out of fashion, knowing they would both regret this in the morning. Apparently, Ada wasn't allowing y/n to go back home, and in fact y/n didn't have a home yet and wasn't willing to go back to her parents, so Ada was insisting that she stayed at hers until y/n found a suitable place. Y/n didnt put up a fight, despite them both being hot heads, and taking absolutely no shit from anyone, men or woman, y/n didn't argue. She was actually really thankful for her.

They eventually stumbled into the house in the early hours of the morning, their laughs echoing throughout the silent house.

::::

The sun caught y/n directly in the eyes, quickly awoke y/n from her sleep. Her head felt as though someone had been hitting her head against the floor multiple times. Y/n continued to lay there, turning away from the sun, trying to keep the contents of her stomach from getting sprayed all over her and the sleeping Ada. She made an attempt at moving, sat with her head in her hands as she was trying to give herself words of encouragement to get up and make herself something to eat.

“Fuck sake, why do we do this to ourselves?” Ada moaned from behind her. Y/n scoffed, “ Your bloody idea”.

Quickly standing up, in hope she could get it over with quickly. The room continuing to spin, as she attempted to walk to the door. Ada following closely behind.

They both sat slumped over the dining room table, as they attempted to sober up and embrace the oncoming hangover. John now present, laughing at the two dying woman in front of him.

“Good night?”

“Always.” Ada grumbled.

Pol placed a plate in front of them, toast with jam, “Does Tommy know your back?

Eyes falling onto y/n from every person in their, “No.” answering quietly.

Attempting to change the subject, “Told myself I would start looking for a new job today, since I shall be staying here for a decent period of time.”

John raised his eyebrow, “Tommy’s looking for a new secretary.” A slight smile on his face, “You've got a good background, business and that”.

“hm, I don't think so Johny boy”.

“Don’t say no too soon, your a good asset to the business.” Pol added. No one was ever in y/n’s corner more than Pol, they would bang heads sometimes, as neither of them would back down. But she accepted y/n was the only one that had the best interest for Tommy.

The front door closed, and there he stood, the room turning to face Tommy, silence filling the room, then he broke it, “Heard you were back.”

“Yeah,” she replied quietly.

“Well, you know where I am if you need that job, I’m sure you’ve already been told,” he spoke, cigarette hanging from his mouth, as he walked away from them and into his office.

Y/n let out a breath, as though she hadn’t been breathing the whole time he was there. Ada smiled at her, placing her hand onto y/n’s, “I’m just going to get ready for the day love,” and off she went upstairs. The boys getting on with their day, and Pol following suit.

Y/n sat collecting her thoughts while trying to tell herself to face her ex lover, who she was still so deeply in love with. She tapped on the door slightly, opening it before opening it, “hi”, seeing his eyes flutter onto her shot tingles throughout her body, his eyes quickly looking away

“You can start tomorrow if you wish, I need a few papers signed and sent tomorrow. I can get your contract drawn up tonight.” He spoke, his eyes still not lifting from the paper in front of him.

“Yes, that’s fine 8am?”

“8.45, shop doesn’t open until 9. And there are others to set it up, that’s not your job.”

Nodding, “I heard you have a new woman.”

At this point he did look up at her, “I heard you had plenty men in London,”

She laughed slightly, nodding before heading to the door, “none were ever a patch on you,” closing the door, leaving a smirk on Thomas Shelbys face.

The following day came around, as y/n got ready for the day. Putting on a formal black tightly fitted dress, flats and pin curled hair. A slight tint of red lippy, remembering it used to be Tom’s favourite. Assuming Tommy wouldn’t be at the shop at this time, she took a whiskey with her placing it on the desk infront of Tommy’s office. The place was silent, despite there being other employees now starting to arrive, something calming about the place, almost the calm before the storm, she thought.

The hour was now around ten thirty, and there was still no sign of Tommy. She had already finished the papers he had left for her on her desk. It wasn’t the usual small Heath lady, she was educated, and to a very high level. y/n was sat twiddling her thumbs, awaiting Tommy’s arrival to get other things done.

“Y/n. My office please,” his voice low, as he stood behind her. She stood up quickly, following him into the private room.

“There’s your contract, if you wish to have a read over it. I see you’ve finished the work I gave given you for the day.”

Y/n took the contract into her hands, scanning for any mistakes or anything to question. But he actually was paying her nearly double the rate of other staff, and just over that the London rate was, “you’ve done your research eh. More than London rates, impressive. The peaky’s are stepping up in the world” Y/n smiled at him, as she placed the documents on the desk, picking up his pen, and signing it. Y/n Y/l/n. Followed with today’s date. That was now it, she was a Shelby Co Ltd employee.

...

The days turned into weeks, spending time with tommy while no one else was looking was becoming a regular thing. She now had her own place, just doors down from the shop. He would regularly call her into the office, and discuss things that he would usually never utter a word about. It had always been that way with them, since they were little, he would confine in her, telling her all the issue and problems he was facing, both in his mind and with others. But it was also coming to her attention that he was still seeing Grace.

Later on in the day, the clock chimes 11pm, as y/n sat listening to the music that takes her back to a child, while sipping a whiskey. The knock of her front door bringing her out of her daydream, she picked up her handgun that she kept on her at all times. Growing up with The Shelby’s, she had to protect herself in someway. She kept it behind her, out of view for anyone who was in front of her, slowly creeping up to answer the door. She swung it open, gun clocked and pointed directly in the face of Thomas Shelby. Not wasted, but defiantly had a few.

“Ah, can never change a Shelby girl eh” He spoke, laughing slightly as she lowered the gun and he stepped inside.

“Although, I’ve never been a Shelby girl, have I Tom?”

“Depends who you ask.”

She sighed, stepping in to the fire lit living room, “Drink?”

He nodded in response, and y/n began to pour him a whiskey, topping up hers and handing a full glass over to him. “Why are you here?”

He stepped over to her, the closest they had been together since before she left for London. He placed a hand on her back, pulling her head into touch his, their foreheads touching. The sensation ran through her body like the first time they had ever touched. He placed his hand on around the back of her neck, pulling her into him, his lips crashing onto hers. Their tongues intertwining with each others as the kiss started to deepen. Y/n reached for his jacket, pulling it off his back, before making her way on to unbuttoning his shirt. Tommy pulled the bottom of her nightdress up, y/n only allowing the kiss to be broken to allow it to come over her head.

Their lips syncing with each other once again as tommy took his now unbuttoned shirt off, moving onto unbuckling his trousers revealing his already hard length. He began to push her back onto the couch, untangling her lace thongs from around her legs. His fingers trailing over her already wet pussy, “Do it” y/n whispered as she pulled his face back up to kiss hers.

He didn't even wait as he shoved his length into her. Their bodies rocked in sync together, “Tommy...” Y/n moaned, her fingers trailing down his shirtless torso. The stars were starting to align, the room was warm, full of love. It felt as though it was five minutes but in reality it was around fifteen all in.

Their breath shortened as y/n’s back started to arch as she came close to climax, “cum for me”. He spoke, looking at her directly in the eyes as he rocked her world. The love, chemistry, love and lust, all so very present just as it was back how they were before. Both of them moaning in pleasure, as they both came at the same time. The deep breaths and steamy windows showing the passion that had just unfolded.

::::::::::::::::::::

It was a Friday evening, a week following the night of sin that taken place between Tommy and Y/n. They had still had the talks in private in the office, and on another occasion she was fucked bent over his desk after closing time. Y/n wasn't one to hide her feelings, it would always be present on her face so when it came to facing Grace in the Garrison, it wasn't hard to tell how y/n’s feelings were over her.

Pol chuckled softly, clocking the glare Grace was on the opposite end of, “If looks could kill” Ada joining in on the hilarity.

“She would've been killed 8 times over” Y/n replied, turning back to face the women. Whiskey in hand.

“Feelings still there for him then?” Ada asked.

“No, I wouldnt say so” y/n lied.

“Cant lie to a gypsy woman love” Pol laughed, y/n begining to laugh with her when the doors open to reveal Tommy and his two bothers. Tommy’s icy blue eyes scanning the room, a slight smile shooting over to Y/n before approching the bar where Grace was, where he stood there for a good twenty minutes chatting away to her.

“I cant take this anymore.” y/n looked over to Ada, who was rising her eyebrow while taking a sip of her drink. She was fairly close to them, and y/n being y/n liked to have a slight stir up now and again. She stood up, smile showing on her face as Pol and Ada laughed, watching her approach them both.

“So, hows your little fling going?” she spok loud enough that Pol, Ada, Arthur and John could hear her.

“Y/n” Tommy warned.

“Who are you?” Grace questioned.

“Y/N,” she responded, leaning herself against the bar, “The woman he has fucked behind your back multiple times this week.”

Pol snorted, almost chocking on her drink, “ I fucking knew it. Gypsy senses never lie.”

“To be honest with you Grace, you had absolutely no chance when Y/N came back” Ada added.

At this point, Tommy had moved y/n away from the bar, into the small room, “what are you doing?”

“You cant take the piss out of me, fucking me but then fucking her thinking youll get away with it.” she was pissed, and he could see it in her face. They had never spoke on their feelings toward each other. Everyone knew that it was always each other but there was nothing that compared to them, they always seemed to go back.

“I have always loved you but you left to go to London, I had people follow you. I knew what you were up to so I assumed you would stay down there, I assumed you had moved on.” He spoke, almost showing vulnerability.

“Oh I know. I can remember faces Tom. I think you forget I can see right through you,” she seethed, through her teeth, “what are you going to do about this?”

Tommy cupped her face, pulling her into kiss her.

“I love you.” He mumbled, feeling her smile into their kiss.

“I love you Tom,”

#thomas shelby imagine #peaky blinders #cillian murphy #tommy shelby #tommy shelby smut #tommy shelby x you #tommy shelby x y/n #tommy shelby fluff #tommy shelby x reader #tommy Shelby #tommy shelby imagine #peaky blinder fanfic

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handsmotif · 3 years

Text

The Queercoding of Pinky and the Brain

This originally was just me infodumping to my friends on discord, but I decided it might be interesting to some people on here, so I polished it up and made it an actual essay lmao

To start, we’re going to break this into 2 sections -- the relationship between the mice, and Pinky’s relationship with gender, because queercoding doesn’t just mean gay!

For a 90′s show, Pinky and the Brain (and its mother show, Animaniacs) was very progressive for its time! But there were still lots of things that they couldn’t slip by censors, and thus, that’s where we have to read between the lines. And that is something I wanted to clarify here before we dive in, the actual meaning of queercoding. It’s NOT the same as queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is when the people producing certain media purposefully dangle the possibility of queer representation to lure in audiences (most prominent examples are BBC Sherlock, Riverdale, and Supernatural I GUESS? who knows abt that last one anymore), but never follow through, purely for profit. Queercoding is when media producers WANT to write in queer representation, but can’t, usually because the censors won’t let them. So, they must resort to subtext. (example: the policemen from Gravity Falls) It could also be unintentional, simply assigning certain characteristics associated with the LGBT community to characters. (example: Bugs Bunny, many Disney villains) Either way, it heavily relies on the audience picking up subtext, but whether it’s malicious or not varies, depending on the media. Bugs Bunny is an example of positive accidental queercoding, while a lot of Disney villains are negative examples.

Now, to actually discuss the gay little mice! Pinky and the Brain, whether it be intentional or not (based off comments from Maurice LaMarche, Rob Paulsen, and Tom Ruegger, signs strongly point to intentional, but it’s never been explicitly confirmed), is an example of positive queercoding.

There are many moments that I could pick out to discuss here, but we’ll start with some VERY on the nose gay metaphors.

Remember Romy? If you don’t, that’s their actual biological son! Romy came about due to a cloning accident, where their DNA got combined and spat him out.

There’s SO many things I could say about Romy. Every appearance he makes has an overarching gay metaphor as the plot. His first appearance in the episode Brinky (yeah it’s literally titled their ship name), it deals with his dads (WHICH I ALSO WANT TO POINT OUT, he DOES call them both dad, and they do both call him their son) disapproving of the fact that he wants to leave home and not follow in their footsteps of taking over the world. Brain even goes as far as disowning him whenever he tells him, which is certainly something a lot of queer people can unfortunately relate to. Also seen a lot in this episode is Pinky and Brain arguing even more than a married couple than usual, which pushes Romy away even further. Later, when Romy eventually does leave, and Brain starts to regret chasing him away, he tries desperately to reach out to him, but Romy doesn’t want anything to do with him. They end up tracking him down to an apartment building, where Romy is now living with his human girlfriend. When questioned about their relationship, the girlfriend, named Bunny, goes off on a tangent about how people shouldn’t judge others based on labels or relationships (hello?), and that Brain needs to be more tolerant. Brain apologizes and Romy forgives him. Happy ending.

Romy’s only other appearance is in the comics. Essentially, the plot of this one is that Brain wants to become the president of the local high school’s PTA, but he needs Romy’s help to make it look like he has a normal home life. He also enlists the help of Billie, the obligatory Woman introduced to make sure Brain doesn’t look as gay as he actually is, that he has a crush on. She pretends to be his girlfriend, and Pinky pretends to be Romy’s uncle, while they make up the story that Romy’s actual mother was lost at sea. Because if the organization found out that Brain has a son with a MAN??? THINK of the controversy! Anyway, the plan works, and Brain actually manages to get elected as president. Throughout this though, Pinky gets WEIRDLY jealous that Brain keeps brushing him aside for Billie. To the point where during Brain’s inauguration, Pinky actually dresses up as the wife/mother lost at sea and storms into the room.

[ID: Comic panels of Pinky, Brain, and Romy on stage at the inauguration ceremony. Pinky busts into room wearing drag, saying, “Yoo hoo! I’m back from years lost at sea to be with my son and ungrateful husband! Narf!” He then hugs Romy, while glaring at Brain. He goes on to say, “I’ll stand by your side, even though you left me behind!” The people in the audience begin to question this, saying, “Oh great fuzzy bangs!”, “What’d she say?!”, “He deserted her to be with that other woman!”, “What kind of monster is he?!”. Brain then rips off Pinky’s wig and says, “This isn’t my wife! This isn’t even a woman! It’s my roommate, Pinky.” Pinky replies, “Well, yes... But Romy really is my son! Poit!” And Brain responds, “N-Nonsense! He’s my son!” More people in the audience angrily speak up, saying, “What’s that?”, “He lives with a guy who likes to dress up in women’s clothing and the both claim to be that kid’s father!”, “Grumble! Mutter!” /END ID]

Needless to say, this doesn’t end well for them. What we can conclude from this is that homophobia exists in the Pinky and the Brain universe, and our characters are directly affected by it.

Moving on, And-There-Was-Only-One-Bed is a pretty common occurrence with these two. Their cage is big, they have plenty of room for two beds, but? They choose to sleep together? Even in some times where this has been inconsistent and they DO have separate beds, they’re always RIGHT next to each other. (what if we put our minecraft beds together ❤😳)

I would like to mention the episode, You’ll Never Eat Food Pellets In This Town Again! This episode is interesting to say the least. Deals with a lot of the meta of the show. Anyway. In this episode, Brain has a nightmare that he’s in a loveless marriage with Billie. You know, the woman he’s supposed to have a crush on. In the end, he wakes up from the nightmare in the same bed as Pinky.

Speaking of female love interests, Pinky is seen having multiple relationships with characters of different species. Any time this is brought up by Brain, Pinky counters with Brain being too intolerant. An honorable mention with this is in Wakko’s Wish, when Pinky is with Pharfignewton, and Brain’s constant pestering about their relationship could be read as jealousy. Pinky needs a mousy date, after all!

Something else I would like to mention is in one episode (I forget what it’s called, I’ll try to look it up later and edit this), Brain is applying for a job. The employer asks Brain if he’s married, and Brain hesitates before saying he “has a roommate,” but that he’s occupied with his own things, which then cuts to a shot of Pinky applying lipstick.

Leading into part two of this essay, Pinky’s relationship with gender! Pinky has always been very gender nonconforming, and loves to wear dresses, do his makeup, and make himself look pretty. For the most part, this is played pretty straight, and not as a gag, like a lot of shows tend to do! It’s just a casual fact about him that he likes to present femininely sometimes.

This does play into their taking over the world plans pretty often, where Pinky wears drag, usually either to sneak into somewhere. Like in one of their earliest appearances on Animaniacs, Noah’s Lark, where they pose as a couple to board Noah’s, and I quote, “love boat.” After boarding, Noah says to himself, “Who am I to judge?” Okay. Yeah. Alright. Anyway.

I actually had less to say on this than I thought I did, but I wanted to make sure to emphasize that Pinky at the very least is coded as being Not Quite Cis, and that he’s played a key part in helping a lot of people watching the show figure out that they’re also Not Quite Cis.

Wrapping this up because I’m hungry, but I want to throw in some more honorable mentions that I really do not see any type of cishet explanations for:

They literally go on a romantic date at a very fancy restaurant in Brain’s Night Off. This is played extremely casually, and the only remark from anyone that they receive is that they are “much smaller than the usual clients.”

Pinky, on at least one occasion, daydreams about him and Brain being a married couple, and wanting to be a housewife (the original malewife ❤)

There’s an issue in the comics where Pinky has a crush on another male mouse, and when Brain gets annoyed, Pinky reassures him that he thinks Brain is cute and quite the catch too

Brain attempting to kiss Pinky in the reboot??????

Brain actually did conquer the world once in the Halloween special, because Pinky made a deal with the devil for it, and thus Pinky got sent to hell! Brain actually went to hell and gave up the world to bring him back

Brain was extremely close to conquering the world once more in the Christmas special, but after reading what Pinky’s feelings for him were (nothing romantic, just Pinky basically just praising Brain for being so hardworking and an amazing mouse, and lamenting that he never gets anything for it), he gets so emotional that he sabotages himself and wishes everyone a Merry Christmas instead

TLDR; these mice are very queer and need therapy, and are probably the most heavily queercoded characters that I can think of in children’s media.

#animaniacs #pinky and the brain #patb #brinky #FLOPS ON THE FLOOR this took a long time to write

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nativehueofresolution · 3 years

Text

i think it’s so fascinating how mj is someone who is naturally empathetic and easily picks up on the feelings of others, but she is not someone for whom being kind is always easy or automatic. it’s a skill she has to work for, and something she gets better at as she grows. and it’s part of why i love her so much.

(image heavy meta under the cut)

mj in general is uncannily perceptive and finds it second nature to put herself in someone else’s shoes--part of the reason being an actress makes perfect sense for her character. in spectacular spider-man 85, there’s a small gag where mj tells peter he looks troubled, and peter responds “tell me about it”, only for mj to go “okay!” and immediately list off the reasons why he’s upset. peter notes that mary jane “read [him] like a book” (keep in mind at this point they’d been broken up after peter’s failed first proposal and had fallen out of touch, and mj still doesn’t miss a step).

with peter/mj being one of the cornerstone relationships for spider-man, it’s not hard to find moments throughout their time together where mj reads peter in a way no one else can--she’s one of the few people in the world that peter completely opens up to. but i think it’s notable that she still is attuned to peter’s emotions before they become close. she’s there for peter as they grieve over gwen together--most famously in the epilogue for tasm #122, but also in lots of smaller ways. she’s the only one who notices peter struggling to get through school after gwen passes, and she seeks him out when he isolates himself, repeatedly inviting him out of his shell.

(tasm #124)

but we don’t just see her do this with peter; she also steps in to help liz after harry dies, despite the way their relationship fractured once mary jane started suspecting harry was acting as the goblin.

(web of spider-man #101)

she sees past may’s folksy surface and seeming frailty, acknowledging the many difficulties she’s endured and the will of steel she has.

(spectacular spider-man #186)

she uses her class clown routine to help cheer gwen up after her father dies.

notably, she also is the first one to realize gwen has run off after flash gets into a fight, and she volunteers to be the one to go after gwen--admitting that even though it’s unlikely she’ll get through to gwen, she still feels like she has to try. meanwhile peter, the guy gwen was on the verge of marrying, was too caught up in his own feelings to check in with her.

(spider-man: death and destiny #2)

she defends peter and harry for being standoffish after gwen dies and harry overdoses.

(tasm #125)

she has a real sense for when people are hurting or in need, and when you put all of this together, mj starts to sound like a saint. and she is an incredibly compassionate and supportive person! but harry’s above reaction- while cruel and possessive -- isn’t coming out of nowhere. the end of their relationship was pretty terrible. mary jane flirted with peter a lot after gwen left him to go to england, and it clearly made harry feel hurt. there are lots of ways you can interpret her actions--she never considered their relationship to be serious, her feelings for peter were already present, she was trying to give harry a reason to end things between them. x-men/spider-man #1 has gwen suggest it’s a sort a reverse psychology mind trick to keep harry’s attention on her (something peter also suggests in another issue), and mj more or less agrees with her. regardless of her motive, she’s told multiple times that her behavior is hurting harry, and she keeps doing it. his anxiety about their relationship is part of what leads to him to start taking drugs. when she does eventually dump him, mj tells harry he’s “always been good for a few laughs”, but shouldn’t let it go to his head... words clearly designed to sting.

to be absolutely clear, harry had lots of his own issues that had nothing to do with her (including his deep insecurity that could often make him an insecure jerk), and mary jane isn’t responsible for anyone’s actions besides her own. but i do think it’s notable that she was dismissive of harry’s feelings and the fact she was hurting him, even though it’s repeatedly made clear in other issues mj does love harry as a friend; interestingly, she also had similar, though less extreme, behavior with flash when she and peter were dating.

(mj in tasm #97 / mj in tasm #162)

the difference here is that we get more insight into mj’s feelings and mindset, as her character has become more developed. when peter confronts flash about flirting with his girlfriend, he learns mary jane had been hiding the fact she and peter were seeing one another from flash. both of them are upset (peter acts just as petty and jealous as harry did), and mj describes just seeing peter again as “something that took more courage than i thought i had”. but she shows up anyways, and she and peter actually communicate with one another.

(tasm #165)

mj flirting with flash is just a reaction to all the messy and contradictory feelings being that come with being in a relationship, and the specific issues that are present in a relationship with peter. but the fact that she can explain all of this peter shows she’s still pretty in touch with her emotions, and it seems like a part of her suspected all along something like this would happen, as she tells betty in tasm #130 that she doesn’t want to fall in love with peter because she likes him too much. she’d rather keep things simple, even if it damages the relationship.

(also, just to be clear-- mj wants a real relationship. in web of spider-man #6, when she and peter are split up, she bemoans her single life and thinks longingly of what it would be like to be married and start a family. of what it’d be like to be with peter. but she cuts herself from this dreaming, because she says it’s useless to think of something she’ll never be brave enough to pursue.)

another prime example of this ‘being alone is easier’ attitude is how she acts around her sister gayle - whether it be leaving her to do the chores while she danced and played when they were growing up, or refusing to live with gayle after their mom died and running off to aunt anna’s. by the time we get to mj’s backstory, we as readers have started to get inside her head and listen to her inner monologues, so we know at this point that mary jane cares deeply about her loved ones and is acting out of fear and self-preservation because of the trauma she’s been through. but mj is also careful to show none of that to her sister, instead just putting up a “party girl” wall.

(spider-man: parallel lives)

mary jane is, once again, the only one noticing her brother-in-law feels trapped by the news of expecting a child, and it reminds her all the abandonment and forgotten dreams that have caused her family so much pain. in this case, empathizing with timmy - seeing his pain - caused mary jane to rudely brush off her pregnant sister, because she couldn’t handle being vulnerable about her feelings or getting involved in another tense family fight. it’s easier just to keep them at arm’s length.

(spider-man: parallel lives)

yes, mj can read people... but that doesn’t automatically mean she’s going to know how or even want to reach out to them. that’s the emotionally heavy stuff we know terrifies her. she’s just as likely to self-sabotage as she is to reach out to someone if she knows they’re dealing with something serious.

why do i bring this up? because it makes mj a richer, more human character, and it also makes her acts of kindness even more meaningful. it is very hard for mj to let herself become emotionally involved. even when she can read someone is hurting in a situation, she doesn’t automatically become considerate or comforting, even with people she loves.

that’s why her choice in tasm #122 is so outstanding--it’s not what mj wants to do, but she makes the choice to commit to peter and stay there for the hard parts. she chooses to be peter’s friend, she chooses to rekindle their relationship and marry him, she choose to stay with him even when their marriage is harder than she ever imagined. she’s a fierce friend to harry, even after everything that’s happened between them. she welcomes him back to school, she doesn’t give up on him when he’s the goblin, she notices he’s living out of his store when norman cuts him off and makes sure he has a place to go. she becomes so close with may that, after peter’s presumed dead, may calls mj peter’s great gift to her, and the reason she has to keep on living. she helps keep gwen’s memory alive. she chooses the people she loves. the fact that she fails, that she’s scared, doesn’t make her stop trying. she does it over and over again, and that’s what so heroic about her.

(tasm #275)

#mary jane watson #mj watson #petermj #peter x mary jane #spiderman #meta #marvel #kaitlin speaks

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