#accidentally just talks about death bc the things people point out on me is death related or smth like gOD. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

zaimta · 1 year

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Hiii! Are your requests open? I’ve been reading your OP stories and I loooove them!

So I was wondering if I can request a story where Ace and zoro are both interested in you, like hella interested and causes a lot of tension ? You can choose how it ends and who reader ends up with lol.

zai broadcasts - pre time skip zoro gotta love him man this idea was a serve anon, im gonna split this into 2 parts bc i actually love both of them and i can’t pick one and i have ideas for both that i wanna use so stay tuned for em!!

˗ˏˋzoro ver. ˗ˏˋace ver.

˗ˏˋ«────── « 𓆩♡𓆪 » ──────»

“nice to meet you everyone i’m ace, and thank you for taking care of my kid brother by the way i know he can be a bit much.”

“oh no he is the near death situations we’ve been in is insane…and you just got on the grand line??”

ace laughed at your snarkiness “that is true he has a tendency to not think!”

nami shrugged her shoulders “well if we’re being honest here i don’t get paid enough to die every five minutes.”

“agreed.” the remaining stawhats spoke in unison slightly annoying their captain.

“hey i’m an excellent captain thank you very much!”

after the reunion between brothers ace revealed he was looking for a man named blackbeard and since their paths collided he decided to travel along with luffy and his crew.

“so are you gonna stop staring at him or go talk to him?” nami nudged you with a grin becoming aware of your little crush on ace.

you nudged her back with burning cheeks “shut up! it’s not like that nami.”

she rolled her eyes and mimicked your voice while fluttering her eyelashes “oh ace you’re so handsome! oh ace you’re hotter than your devil fruit! oh ace the things i’d let you do to me-”

“nami!” you shouted in embarrassment your face growing warm at her horrible impressions and the fact that he might’ve heard.

“the logical thing here would be to just talk to him! it’s not everyday you see a catch like him on the grandline y/n.”

“yeah…” you sighed looking over to where the green haired swordsman was leaned the mast he was napping as per usual, but the way the sun hit his skin just right. you couldn’t help but to stare, accidentally zoning nami out in the process only hearing her again when he gently nudges you for your attention.

“oohhh zoro too huh” she smirked at you but then sighed “personally im team ace im pretty sure he can pay his debts on time…”

“oh speak of the devil here he comes~” nami’s eyes followed ace as he walked along the deck of the merry, she noticed how his eyes lit up once he spotted you and she smirked to herself.

you turned around making eye contact with ace and turned around immediately, which caused nami to laugh at you being to nervous. “ready or not here he comes” she giggled.

“hey y/n, how are you doing”

nami giggled “oh? so excited to see them you forgot all about me?” ace attempted to respond but nami cuts him off speaking with a devilish grin directed towards you “up bup up! i’ll leave you two love birds to talk okay?” she ways goodbye to the two of you and walks into the kitchen of the merry.

ace sighs and sits next to you on the deck, his shoulder softly brushing against yours “so what was that all about?” he chuckles while pointing in nami’s direction. you roll your eyes with a slight smile on your face “that’s just how nami is, y’a know sweet dependable, insufferable nami…so” you look him in the eyes “what’s life like for you on the seas mr. ‘fire fist’” ace smiles at you “oh you know sailing, meeting amazing people, can’t forget running from the navy.”

you chuckle a bit “you don’t say?”

he chuckles “yup, the best part has been meeting amazing people like you” he takes his hat off and places it on your head with a grin “you’re quite the catch y/n.”

from the kitchen sanji watched the two of you on the deck, and suddenly gasped loudly which got the attention of nami and zoro “that bastard?! taking my y/n like that?!?” he shouts angrily. nami raises a brow “what now?” sanji points at the window with tears welling up in his eyes “everyone knows that if a cowboy puts their hat on someone, they’re claiming that person, that bastard just claimed y/n!” he speaks through sobs “nami-swan hold meeeee” me leapt into her arm’s crying into her shirt so she had no choice but to comfort the cook “there there” nami rolls her eyes while patting his back lightly.

“so what you’re saying his y/n is his now?” zoro said suddenly grabbing the attention of nami and the weeping cook, nami smirks at the swordsman “what do you have a crush on y/n or something? y/n looks cozy with ace don’t you think, are you sure you can’t even make a dent in that?”

zoro sucks his teeth “what’s that supposed to mean?” nami’s smirk grew wider and there was a mischievous glint in her eyes “im saying that y/n seems pretty into ace, unless you’re into y/n and you want to change that.” zoro snaps at the ship’s navigator in frustration “of course i want to change that!”

zoro’s eyes grow wide at what he said and a brush quickly creeps up his neck and spreads across his face “i mean-”

sanji looks at zoro in shock while nami has a grin on her face, she points towards the deck where the two of you are sitting “so how about you go do something about it, swordsman.”

#one piece x reader #zoro x reader #ace x reader #portgas d ace x reader #roronoa zoro x reader #roronoa zoro x y/n #roronoa zoro x you #ace x you #ace x y/n #portgas d ace x y/n #portgas d ace x you #portgas ace x you #portgas ace x reader #one piece x y/n #one piece x you #one piece fluff #zoro fluff #ace fluff

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sukunasweetheart · 3 months

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//just me venting about sukuna haters sorry

Not me seeing so much discourse about whether sukuna is a well written villain or not... he essentially has no backstory shown as of yet and we barely know anything about him but he is still one of the most naturally interesting and compelling characters in the whole damn series bro 💀 buckle up bc its about to get lengthy (im just glazing sukuna in this post ngl so 🧎‍♀️)

so many whiny ass mfs are weeping about how he "doesn't have any personal goals or a proper reason to be a villain" when that is the whole point???? He lives on his own desires and satisfactions and does whatever he wants to, because he is capable enough to do that. Mfs want "real villains" but cant even handle sukuna 💀 ive seen too many shit ass threads and poorly articulated "critiques" on his character that dont make any valid points. If you can't even separate your personal dislike of a character from your analysis of their writing, dont even bother posting that shit please 😭😭😭 the fact that we haven't even gotten any information about his background yet and people are jumping the gun about him being "poorly written" is already saying a lot 🤨

The fact that yall are so bitter and angry about him that you can write 500+ words about how oh-so-terrible of a villain he is kinda proves that he's doing his job well tbh 💁‍♀️

What also bothers me to no END is how people compare him with villains of other series, who had compelling sob stories that made people empathise with them. Thats nice and all but why should all villains have grand ideals and be subject to feelings of empathy/sympathy from their audience?

Part of what makes sukuna so interesting is how he's not tied down by morals, rules or long term goals in life. He doesn't limit himself, which is what makes him an unpredictable character. He's completely left behind what it means to be human in many ways, and he's clearly not a character written to be empathised with. He is very purposefully inhumane and distant from everyone else, and that feeling transcends from within the series to real life as well. There is a clear lack of understanding bc most of us can't comprehend what its like to just live without being goal-oriented.

Sukuna is a true anomaly in the sense that he doesnt really fit in any kind of box within the series. He's born from man, but its clear that he separates himself from humans (and nobody else considers him human, either). He's not a cursed spirit. He hovers between life and death. The narrator referred to him as the honoured one, whilst angel referred to him as the disgraced one.

These little contradictions in his character make him all the more complicated and interesting to think about. And even recently, he's been shown to waver a little bit momentarily in the manga, questioning his own irritation at yuuji. He's capable of self reflection, and though sukuna does whatever he wants for the most part, he doesn't blindly go into things without some thought first, he's a constant thinker and analyser, and an intelligent one at that.

And honestly, he is always such a joy to watch and read, his personality is so flavourful, and the way he carries himself is very attractive. He's not afraid to get messy or of getting hurt, theres so much chaos in the way he does things and yet he also has a huge element of gracefulness to him, which shines through the poetic way he speaks. Its undeniable that sukuna simply oozes charisma...

And this isnt talked about enough but this man is genuinely so effortlessly funny (in a kind of sinister way i guess?) Like yes he is an old ass man having real beef with one FIFTEEN YEAR OLD for very little reason, he accidentally healed yuujis arm and somehow expected him to be grateful for it despite how he literally ripped his heart out afterwards, then he proceeded to sit on him after kicking him down likeeee 😭 what kind of behaviour is this sir

His facial expressions at yorozus yapping 💀 THE WAY HE COMPARED YUUJIS FACE OF DESPAIR TO THE HARIMA STATUE 😭😭😭💀😭💀💀😭 omg that was so foul but i was fucking losing it ngl

How he randomly compared gojo to a fish and started talking abt his scales... thats a very unique and descriptive comparison, isnt it? Even in the recent leaks, he was 100% ready and squaring up to a literal child talking abt "youre starting to get annoying" LIKE HELPPP 😭 HE FR SAID "fuck them kids and fuck you too"

I saw someone saying that sukuna has no passion, like are we talking about the same character....? This man is a literal jujutsu NERD 💀💀 he truly recognises talented sorcerers and the only time hes seen to be having genuine fun is when hes fighting a mf... is that not passion? This is literally sukuna when it comes to jujutsu: 🤓

Anyway im done here now, im pretty sure i missed a lot of things i couldve talked about as well but ive done enough yapping

#jjk #sukuna

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runespoor7 · 6 months

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For the ask meme, au where wwx kills lxc at qiangpi path instead of jzx.

Or gender swap jc au.

Ok, so it took me a while to think this over, because there’s a lot here, and then talking it over with @demoiselledefortune I realized there’s even more than I thought! (still thinking about the genderswap jc one)

Also, poor, poor LWJ. 🙁 (LQR doesn't bear thinking about. That poor, poor man. I don't talk about LQR under the cut because it's too sad for me to contemplate.)

1) So the thing is, this isn’t a noticeably better accidental killing for WWX, because while the Lans may be less the powerhouse than the Jins, JGS will definitely try and use LXC’s death to turn against WWX. And it’s going to be stupidly easy, because LXC was a sect leader and the sworn brother of his son.

(I assume LXC was there because he was invited to JL’s 100 days ceremony and his passing there was a coincidence, while in canon he was already at Jinlintai. So maybe JZX is still in Jinlintai here, the confrontation happening earlier and thus before JZX departed; or JZX is here as well as he was in canon, and LXC was the one running late - in which case, JZX is alive and a witness and might speak up on WWX’s behalf at least to his wife and his BIL, at least to tell them that it seemed an accident. This turns out not to have much of an impact on the grand scale of things OR on JYL and JC’s understanding of what happened, bc they already trust WWX so much, but it does have an impact on JZX’s view of the world and himself. This is less about WWX than it is about politics in general and his father in specific. In that version he’s much more in-the-middle of things, much more aware of being personally dismissed. In that version there’s a chance he and JYL go live in LP.)

Besides the Jins, there’s also NMJ, who is a big fan of his sworn brothers not getting killed and of not shielding people from the consequences of their actions. Just putting it out there where we can see it. On the other hand, they’re not LXC’s most direct family. LWJ and the Lans are, so NMJ lets LWJ take point.

(There's a version of this prompt where NMJ qi-deviates when he hears about LXC's death. In that timeline should WWX get killed NHS' plans never feature bringing him back.)

2) Know for whom LXC dying instead of JZX changes things a lot, though? WQ and WN. When they decide to surrender themselves, they go to Cloud Recesses, not Jinlintai. LWJ and his sect I feel wouldn't punish WQ for LXC’s death. She wasn't there.

(WN, otoh, is very done for. There is no way GSL pulls a Jin to keep him around. He's a fierce corpse and the one who killed their sect leader at that. They execute him/lay his soul to rest. There's no further desacration of WN and that's probably the bitterest comfort WQ could hope for. WQ does try to shield WN when she realizes the Lans aren't planning on executing her, but she doesn't get that.)

WQ would easily get a promise of safety from LWJ for at least A-Yuan, probably Granny, maybe the others - on the sterner end of the scale for the adult cultivators. This is somewhat dependent on what JGS (and NMJ) are clamoring for but JGS wants the Stygian Seal more than he does the Wens and NMJ would be satisfied with the Lans supervising the fate of the Wen remnants. Besides, the most high-profile of the Wen remnants is WQ and she just surrendered herself. WN would say WWX isn’t responsible for LXC’s death, it was a freak resentful energy accident–

3) I think what LWJ does demand about WWX is... that WWX be given over to Gusu Lan. They can lock him up. And purify him of the resentful energy.

LWJ is in a frankly abysmal mental space - it’s only because his cultivation is so orthodox that he doesn't qi deviate. It’s all tearing him up, LXC’s death because of the guy LWJ has a crush on, LWJ’s want for WWX and LWJ’s wish that he could (imitate his father) bring someone back to CR and lock them up and LWJ suddenly being in the horrendous situation where he is imitating his father. The memory of the kiss is now a nightmare. It was always a mixed memory (how shameful, to lose control of himself thus - to take advantage of the one he loved - to lack even the courage to simply ask, either for the kiss, or at least for forgiveness) but now it makes him retch.

It's all twisted in the fact that LXC is dead, because of WWX. There can be nothing between LWJ and WWX now. Simply wishing there could be would be the worst betrayal.

(LWJ remembers the days of their youth, LXC’s delight and gentle teasing at LWJ’s inexplicable liking of WWX. The Water Abyss. And now LXC is dead, because of the boy he was so happy LWJ wanted for a friend. LXC always wanted LWJ to have friends, something akin to his own friendship with NMJ.)

0) (the Problem. The Problem is that I cannot see WWX staying in the Cloud Recesses if he's imprisoned there. If he wouldn't rather die at first, he will afterwards. LWJ thinks of his mother. If WWX dies LWJ would enter seclusion like his father once did. This isn’t something LWJ tells himself consciously.)

4) JC and JYL visit WWX in the Cloud Recesses while he's imprisoned there. JC hates LWJ for it, but I think he's self-aware enough to think “what if it had been Jiejie.” It’s hard to hate LWJ wholeheartedly.

5) WQ is in Cloud Recesses, too. She’ll never live outside the Cloud Recesses again, but it could have been far worse. She’s allowed time with A-Yuan (she is not in forced seclusion and neither is she A-Yuan’s mother but LWJ cannot let himself see them together, or else he starts to think of how she isn’t allowed to raise her kin herself.)

When it comes out *pretty damn early* that WWX doesn’t have a core, she’s the one who implies WZL got him.

(JC is in LWJ’s office clamoring, begging for WWX to be released into the care of YMJ in a hot minute after he finds out - which takes at least one or two visits, because no-one wrote to tell him, and it takes him asking a question about how getting WWX rid of resentful energy and not letting go when the answer’s too cagey to his taste for him to know. If it were just LWJ– but LWJ has elders. plus there’s also LXC’s sworn brothers to contend with; LWJ isn’t thinking of that, and JC will think of it later, after LWJ has refused to return WWX to YMJ.) JC is so so so angry at everyone involved - WWX for *lying to him*, why didn’t you *tell me*, I would have *helped* - WQ for hiding it from him AND not telling him when she told the Lans (to which she retorts that she isn’t exactly allowed a free correspondence. Hmph. Okay. JC allows that. WQ has negative scruples about lying to him about the core rn.) - LWJ for keeping WWX a prisoner here even though WWX is, is, WWX isn’t a cultivator anymore he’s a normal person let YMJ watch over him, let JC - even JYL for having something else in her life that she loves, that isn’t WWX locked up in another sect.

WQ is also the one who sees when WWX is seriously at risk of his life just fading away, and this time she tells JC: if WWX doesn’t get out, he will die.

The fic ends with WQ and JC breaking WWX out of the Cloud Recesses (it’s implied LWJ is looking the other way). WQ stays in CR, of course, but JC is taking WWX to Lotus Pier. There’s no plan for “later”.

#ask answered #mdzs #ship-wise there is liberal subtext about every variation of wwx-wq-lwj-jc #it is extremely probable that wwx leaves lotus pier after due to being entirely unable to deal with jc being stronger than him #and jc and lwj (and maybe possibly wq) fuck about it #maybe the jin demonic cultivators bring back wn's soul and lock it in a jar that they sew up into a fresh corpse or something idk

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mdhwrites · 4 months

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you've said the collector isn't a kid bc he's been alive for thousands of years, but isn't he still mentally (and physically for that matter) a kid though? or at least that's how i think the show wanted us to perceive him as

(though the show never makes it clear if the collector's species just age much more slowly than others, or if being trapped for so long caused this specific collector to never age during that time)

for the record i do 100% agree abt the collector being a monster, so i'm not trying to argue with you on that/excuse the collector's actions just bc """""he's a kid"""""

So... This is one of those things that can't really be proven or disproven. On the one hand, you have the fact that you do not need to be mentally a child to be childish. Also, you can also be a child physically but have had to grow up quickly so you have the worldview of an adult. Not only that but we don't know how his people age. He was apparently old enough to work with his brothers (he knew their guidebook on genocide) but... Apparently a couple thousand years hasn't changed him whatsoever.

The thing that stops me most from claiming he is a child... Is the Draining Spell. In fact, even more than his lines about playing in bones, how Belos likes to torture the Grimmwalkers, destroy them, etc. like that that proves he knows what death is and is kind of extremely evil with how much glee he takes of all of this, just the fact that he KNOWS the draining spell at all is not a good sign.

That is not a spell a kid learns. That is not a spell a kid is taught. MAYBE some very evil or naive kids might accidentally read it but to be able to regurgitate after having been away from such books for literally thousands of years? Let alone to be able to even theorize with someone else on how to do it on a race of people that didn't exist before you were imprisoned. That means you mastered that fucker. You are the draining king! You sapped the magic out of people for FUN. That is how much you like this spell.

Also, if we want to claim he's just a dumb kid who doesn't like death or hurting people, doesn't like mass genocide like his brothers did... What the fuck was the conversation with Belos? What was ANY of them?

"I wish for a spell that can kill all witches upon this land. To make them extinct."

"Oh, you just mean make them sleepy, right?"

"...What?"

Belos is not exactly a subtle person at the height of his ability, let alone as Philip who BARELY is even okay at his job. He used mercenaries and two people who obviously were ready to believe anything he said. MASTER MANIPULATOR! So how is it that the Collector's childish views made him okay with this? It's not like the witches imprisoned him? Hell, he was willing to work with the Titan Trappers who VERY explicitly wanted to murder Titans for him but he just calls them weird. Like... Collector, you had literally NOTHING else to do than talk to these two people. Did you literally never listen to ANYTHING they said?

It doesn't make the Collector come off as a child. It just makes it so S2 Collector is literally a different character. The two are entirely incompatible. Even if they acted the same, the knowledge base and morality of the two Collectors is too severe for them to co-exist.

BUT. Like I said: I can't firmly prove that the Collector does not have a child's mind because while S2 Collector absolutely is just childish and gullible, he is not naive nor is he a child, except in physical appearance. S3 Collector though? That's a lot harder of a sell. He literally just wants to have fun and friends and is too self centered to care about if other people are having fun too. His fun prioritizes everything. That... Honestly still isn't actually a kid's point of view. Kids aren't inherently monsters. They do feel bad for their actions, even if they want to be justified in having fun. Admittedly, the Collector does EVENTUALLY do this as well so it's still kind of there but really awkwardly when put beside even everything else in S3.

After all, he presents King with the same book that has his brother's instructions to kill everything. A kid would not pull that out. They wouldn't risk for a SECOND that being seen. At least... Not a ten year old like this. Not unless we want to say that the Collector is a literal toddler, which is not the vibe TOH is going for. No, he's old enough to know what he's doing is wrong, just not old enough to actually do something about it I GUESS.

You're not supposed to think about it, like most elements in the show. Just like how you aren't supposed to think about how Amity bullied Willow for YEARS. Or how Hunter has probably killed wild witches in the past. There are inherent, core parts of these characters that you're just supposed to ignore so that they can be redeemed and given hugs because they never actually did anything wrong. So the show can tell you they're good people, rather than addressing and showing how they've stopped being bad people.

So yeah, we can argue about if The Collector is or isn't meant to be a child. It doesn't really matter at the end of the day, especially when good luck being actually able to say one way or another. I still won't claim it. I will just claim that he is a monster before he is ANYTHING else.

And I think that's way more important.

======+++++======

It is fun how TOH takes a shot at redeeming the gems in SU and how the fandom rallies around killing the villain being TOH's final subversion when the Collector is RIGHT THERE. You know what also redeemed one character who then went into personally decided exile while also killing the big bad but did it way better? Amphibia with Andrias and the Core. *sigh* Just a side tangent from my Discord recently I wanted to share.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#the owl house criticism #toh critical #toh #the owl house #The Collector

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relatableblorbopoll · 6 months

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Round 1 of preliminaries, group 10

The first two places get a place on the bracket

Little reminder: there will be 2 more rounds of preliminaries, the losing blorbos of this poll still have 2 chances of getting in the official bracket

Propaganda under the cut

Nagisa Ran (Ensemble Stars)

"- autistic - grew up very isolated - nonbinary. to me. - they had a speech impediment veeeery similar to the one i used to have and their current speaking patterns are very similar to the way i speak - we both have a special interest in geology - i'd list more but the rest are just autism symptoms so. uhhh"

Waver Velvet (Fate series /The Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II)

No propaganda

Shuichi Saihara (Danganronpa V3)

"sorry for submitting a danganronpa character but hear me out!! there's many reasons shuichi is a relatable character, such as: 1. he's def lgbtq+ actually. in the free time events with kaito momota (another male character), shuichi's inner monologue says "only someone like him could tell me what i need to hear." before he internally scolds himself saying he "shouldn't talk about another boy like that" 2. self doubt. throughout the game, he doubts his detective skills a lot. well, in earlier chapters. he grows out of it but yk. he feels like he isn't a "real detective" n all 3. a. autism. throughout the entire prologue and chapter 1, he wears a hat to avoid eye contact. while there is an actual reason that isn't autism, i still think that's autism behavior. also he seemingly knows a lot about true crime and at one point, when another character brings up the victorian era, he responds by mentioning jack the ripper. 4. he's very sad. chapter 1? cries. chapter 3? cries. chapter 5? cries. chapter 6? cries. he might've cried other times i don't remember though. although it is fair bc people are dying. but even outside of the death, he is sad. refer to number 2. also he feels like he shouldn't have solved the case that made him the ultimate detective. (there are reasons for that. also linked to the hat.) and more"

Opossums (real life)

"Nocturnal creatures that just like wanna chill and eat, plus they have to lay down when really stressed, they are like me for real."

Midori Takamine (Ensemble Stars!! Music)

"- literally just some guy that gets dragged into things (accidentally became an idol somehow) - his only real interests are mascot characters and vegetables + he finds talking to people bothersome - all of his friends are extroverted or very friendly while midori is just… there. - cringefail loser who can’t talk to people without being nervous despite being a 5’10 giant and an idol (179cm), only really talks a lot when discussing mascots - depressed, just straight up clinical depression but its ok cause he’s working on it and doesn’t let it get him too down"

Seven of nine (Star Trek)

"seven of nine is a big ball of identity questioning in one person. she literally has a whole section on her wiki page titled "identity crises". mood. as a child she's snatched up and made part of a hivemind, all these cyborg augments put into her, the usual scifi stuff. but her story begins when she's freed. against her will, even if it's ultimately for the best. she has no idea how to relate to these people, how to speak or act or dress or sound. big autism mood. big trans mood. big gay mood, because she has no idea what anyone is supposed to do when dating and it turns out she's into women and ends up with a girlfriend so it's no wonder she couldn't connect to all the lessons about boyfriends and the attempt to date a man! multiple times she's forced to assimilate and act more "human" and change her name but she won't! and the people who make an effort to understand end up important found family and friends. and she ends up in control of her own life and a captain!! legend."

#nagisa ran #ensemble stars #waver velvet #fate series #shuichi saihara #danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #opossum #midori takamine #ensemble stars music #seven of nine #star trek #preliminaries #tumblr polls #tumblr tournament #character bracket #character tournament

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chromotps · 4 months

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*immediately pounces on you to talk about CoraLaw bc no one else does anymore (at least, not on Tumblr and not English speakers)* I wanna know so bad how adult Law and Cora would interact bc that'd seem so interesting. Especially on a Cora Lives AU. Imagine coming back to life to find out the boy you saved turned out to be a pirate and a(n) (ex)warlord but also a doctor slash (advanced, bc of his devil-fruit lmao) surgeon. It was probably what most would expect what Law would occupy when he was given the devil-fruit (minus the whole pirate and warlord thing I guess) but at that time all Cora expected and hoped what law would be was free. And thinking of that, Cora would realise just how much Law had grown and how he's far from the kid he was then and how little he knows about the man (not that he knew much about Law even when he was a kid anyway, both their pasts were a touchy subject for them but they did get to know each other a little bit and got close, and at that time that was enough for both of them. They didn't need to know about each other's past or something to love and care for each other. I'm not saying your past defines you but sometimes it kinda does. Not fully, no, but it does help shape you into what you are now). And Cora realises that he missed out on so many things. They both wanted to live together, fully and freely. But Law spent 13(?? Or so) years without him but also, Law hadn't been exactly free, not when Doflamingo was alive and Cora-san's death was a wound that will never be healed. Yk what I'm spitting nonsense at this point and I'm probably projecting but yuh... I just badly wanna know how adult Law and Cora would interact when Cora steps into the light again (AKA brought back to life lmao).

Argh I wanna talk about them but I don't know what to say!!!! These idiots make me cry and sob and scream and smile and laugh and I cannot get them out of my head.

But oh! Regarding of their relationship dynamics, I do love the idea of Law being so openly devoted to Cora (and also possessive and obsessed but the latter is almost a fact that he doesn't even need to so anything or say anything for anybody to notice. I mean, look at this guy. He has tattoos dedicated to his lover. The Jolly Roger on his ship is dedicated to his lover. One of his techniques is dedicated to his lover. He steals hearts because his lover's name is Corazon which means heart in Spanish. Yes the last is a HC of mine but idc he'll still be obsessed even when my HC is removed lol). Idk if Cora would leave a kiss mark on anywhere on his skin he'd leave it there until it gets accidentally (and only accidentally, if anybody tries to wipe it off he'd replace their heads with a mop) wiped off. Cora would also be open about their relationship and would proudly gush about his lover who grins when he's kissed on the nose and could cuddle whenever Cora wants to (then he'd introduce said lover to the people and they're a bit shocked to see a 6 foot tall emo looking mf—). They'd fr be the Mom and Dad of the Heart Pirates. But that doesn't make them any less troublesome lmao.

...I had another thought pop up in my head and I— sigh... thinking about Strawhats meeting Cora and him and Sanji bonding over make-up (implied Zosan. Yes I did just imply Zosan without saying anything that could imply Zosan. I'm brilliant. Also implied Genderfluid Sanji. I love my HCs). And also— what. What does that have to do with– sorry, I was talking to my brain bc it suddenly brought Cross Guild Polycule (+ Shanks) in too. I remembered a fanart where Crocodile, Buggy and Cora were talking about jewellery and make-up while their significant others (Mihawk, Shanks and Law) are staring intensely at them xD not sure if that was a ship fanart tho! Also, I made it into Cross Guild (+ Shanks) polycule bc I can *blinks cutely*. So yeah. Just Bottoms bonding over treasure, jewellery, cosmetics and maybe their lovers (Pls we don't get enough Bottom Cora fics I am begging on my knees for them—).

I am making zero sense and I'm yapping at this point but *breathes heavily* I love talking about CoraLaw. I need more fanart. I need more fics. I need more content, posts about them. I– *dissolves into thin air*

hello!! wowza that's a lot of headcanons ahaha. I need to organize my answer lmaoooo

My brain caught on one of the points you made about adult Law and Cora—like, how surprised Cora would be at Law being a pirate. Maybe, after only really having Doflamingo as an idea of what pirates are like, Cora is a little... not disappointed, but like, worried when he finds out. Part of that worry goes away when he sees that Law isn't cruel. But he does slowly understand that, like you said, Law wasn't totally free after living with all that anger and guilt. I think I saw a post a while ago that talked about how Law never claims that he wants to be the King of the Pirates or anything—his "dream" was really just to avenge Cora, and might not have expected he'd survive after that. SOOOOOOO. I think once Cora totally catches up on who Law is as an adult (and realizes he still loves him :3c), he forces Law to sit down and have a conversation about what his new dream should be—it isn't about what he'd die for anymore, but what does he want to live for? Then, I guess the headcanons could be anything... maybe they decide they want to focus on bringing medical help to people who need it, and Law becomes some kind of renegade pirate doctor who goes into places the world government has quarantined... i don't know!! the world is their oyster!!

Ah... the two of them being lovey-dovey around the Heart Pirates........;w; I do also like the idea of them being a little secretive about it, at least maybe at first—like, Law is such a private person, and he doesn't want to "share" Cora after just getting him back... even if it's his own crew just seeing Cora blush or something, haha. And I love cute, open-with-his-feelings Cora, but also liked that rough side of him that would curse out useless doctors and stand up to Doflamingo—I could see him actually being more flustered than Law telling others about their relationship... Like, Cora is talking to Sengoku over transponder snail, and saying stuff like "yeah... I'm... kind of getting dinner with Law tonight. Yes, that Law—don't laugh, damn it, Dad!" and struggling to get his words out. Then Law comes up and takes the receiver from Cora to say, "Then we're gonna make out afterward. Have a nice evening," and hangs up.

my brain is unfortunately too obsessed full with ace/lu and lawcora to come up with anything fun for those other characters, but I'm sure someone out in the world could add on! I'd also love more fics for themmm. I know sometimes you have to "make your own food", but I'm still too deep in my Ace Era to do anything about it yet haha

#headcanons #lawcora #meta #op

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alicelufenia · 3 months

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It really bums me how the Durge breakup dialogue getting removed seems to have divided the Minthara fandom, at least here (I remain blissfully unaware of how it is on twitter tho I imagine it can't NOT be a dumpster fire there)

Especially disappointed at all the conclusions being jumped to that it was a reaction to fan backlash bc... What? Where to even begin with that

I know we're used to a haphazard pattern of updates with Minthara, but the idea that they would add a whole dialogue scene with no announcement in the same patches where they announce tweaks to kissing animation well, that's just silly

It's not even the strangest bug that was introduced to her dialogue this patch

Those who disbelieve it could have been a bug you're free to think that but, past record plus knowing how baffling every bug looks like to a non-dev leaves me thinking that no, it's actually totally believable that snippets of dialogue from cut content could not only be in the game fully voiced and mocapped but also accidentally enabled in a patch of (from the outside) completely unrelated lines. Game dev is smoke and mirrors with code and it will never not make sense what breaks and why

No matter what your opinion on the dialogue, nothing points to it being an intentional update:

If it was intended to be a no takebacksies breakup well, it literally wasn't.

If it was meant as a lover's spat (my and many other's preferred outcome), it lacked follow up to give that teeth outside our headcanons.

If it seems odd that she praises Bhaal one second but says Bhaal rewards devotion with death the next, again it needed follow up that doesn't exist, at least not in game files (and let's be honest, most people don't even know about her desire to worship Bhaal cause it's totally missable even as a Durge, heck most don't even know she hates Lolth cause she was abandoned by Her, she didn't leave Lolth's service for the Absolute by choice).

I can't emphasize enough that it wasn't even announced in the patch notes, which is not the pattern they've shown when it comes to intentional updates of character content.

Added dialogue being recorded and acted DOES NOT mean it was recorded and acted RECENTLY. Hearing the actors talk about their recording experience makes that much clear, the vast majority of dialogue is recorded off a spreadsheet of critical to less important lines, over the course of the development of the game, and the mocap too was done as needed throughout. I guarantee you the Halsin Ultimatum was recorded and acted pre-release, along with any number of unseen lines that were cut for time, or lack of development, or course corrections in directing. I'm pretty sure Emma Gregory talked in an interview about her favorite romance in game being Karlach's even though Minthara's romance was broken in game at the time. The vast majority of the post-release updates to the game have been on the coding side of things, not actor or writer contributions.

Obligatory disclaimers: No it wasn't out of character, but as implemented in game it kinda was. Having NO reaction is also out of character imo. I'd rather they release an update to her writing when it was finished than halfway like this was. I'd Vastly prefer they fix her bugs over adding new dialogue anyway. No this doesn't mean I can't be upset for a lack of content because they removed dialogue that wasn't intended to be published in the state it was in.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate iii #bg3 minthara #minthara #minthara baenre #minthara bg3 #nightwarden minthara #I knew when it was announced removed that it would be attributed to fan backlash #still disappointing to see #anyway watch a dev come out and say 'lol yeah it was removed cause of backlash' and make me look the clown #if that's the case I'd insist the devs wear the clown makeup with me for the reasons I outlined of how it doesn't make sense it was intende

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butwhatifidothis · 1 year

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bl stans are sooo much stronger than me bc if someone said something so blatantly and heinously wrong about my faves like this i’d snap. like i’m so serious this would send me straight into my joker arc

(guess you accidentally put it in twice lol rip)

I'm not gonna address any kind of defense for Not Just Kills But Murders OP, we all know that the original tweet was silly. The fastest way to spot a clown is the funny clown nose and wig, but another, more subtle way is to watch if they've ever tried to make NJKBM anything but the accidental joke that it is.

But I kinda wanna actually talk about the Fleche one a bit, because there is such a weird amount of going-to-bat for her and Randolph that's actually kinda baffling.

Fleche and Randolph are bit characters. They barely even are characters. They are devices the writers put into the story so that specifically AM and specifically Dimitri benefit from what they give, which is a solidification of the message that letting vengeance be your one driving force will lead to your end. They are completely irrelevant to all other parts of the game, with Fleche even being completely absent in half of the routes save for one mention of her name as Randolph is literally dying. She loved Randolph so much that she was willing to kill Dimitri to avenge him, but apparently not enough to kill Seteth or Claude for doing literally the same thing.

Except, hey, wait a hingly-dingly minute there, that's not right. Seteth and Claude can only potentially be the ones to kill Randolph in their respective routes, while Dimitri is literally the only one hard-confirmed to not be the one to kill Randolph. Byleth does. They kill him. But Fleche still singles out Dimitri as to one to kill him - not threaten to torture like is the case, but to kill him outright. She calls Dimitri a monster, she hates Dimitri with all she has, she'll never forgive Dimitri, while not giving a single shit about Byleth despite them being the one to kill Randolph. She doesn't give a single shit about the multitude of other people that could have potentially killed Randolph in SS or VW.

Hell, it's not even clear how she knew about Randolph's death, only that she knew that a "monster" (aka Dimitri) was in the ranks of the army in AM, so it looks like she kinda just assumes "the monster" killed her brother without having any actual knowledge on who did what. And even giving the benefit of the doubt in that "well Dimitri MADE Byleth kill Randolph so same difference," that still doesn't explain Fleche's radio silence in the other two routes this can happen in. And still doesn't actually explain why Byleth wouldn't just be lumped in the vengeance quest for, like, still being the one to actually kill her brother outright?

Because we as players aren't meant to really care that much about her - she and Randolph are given no point in the story other than showing off to Dimitri why his quest for revenge is Cringe And Not Based like he thinks it is. They are literally meant to show off why Dimitri's misguided quest for vengeance is dangerous and unfulfilling, which is why when Fleche stabs and kills Rodrigue Dimitri comes to his senses and rejects vengeance as a motivation. That is all Fleche and Randolph do.

(we ignore the "Edelgard did nothing to Dimitri" lie - because at this point they've got to just be outright lying to cope - we know it's not true and we move on from it)

They are given no focus whatsoever on any other route because it is AM where their one, singular purpose is found. Even on CF, the route where you can actually talk to them, at best Randolph is given one cutscene where he dies and makes Edelgard Sadge before she immediately gets over it and moves on never to mention or think about Randolph ever again. And Fleche does literally nothing - she just stands there for the rest of the game as a lump on a log. So seeing multiple people saying "Fleche wasn't allowed vengeance when Dimitri was!" when Dimitri literally isn't allowed vengeance and always dies should he continue to strive for it is just weird. They're, again, trying to go to bat for two bit characters that are solely meant to encapsulate the opposite of what the batters are saying lmao

#ask #anti edelgard #anti-edelgard #edelgard discourse #edelgard critical #just to be safe #and this is all ignoring that Randolph was literally trying to kill Dimitri and his men/friends first. for clout.#and how he attacked a building that housed defenseless people in it five years prior to that. for clout.#so it's literally not that fuckin' boo hoo sad that he dies because he is a giant dick who has no qualms killing/endangering innocent people #for clout.

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practically-an-x-man · 1 month

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What was Nikoletta like before she was the Nikoletta we know and love?

Oooh thank you!!

So I actually answered this pretty well here, at least in regards to her powers and all, but that's still the abridged version. For the full changelog, let's see... (fair warning, LONG ramble ahead)

What Stayed the Same:

Her name being Nikoletta Bordeaux

Her living in New Orleans

Her gaining her powers from STAR Labs

Her time in STAR Labs overlapping Abner's

Her powers isolating her, traumatizing her, and leaving her uncomfortable with both other people and herself

Her being known as the Queen of Belle Reve, holding a self-built position of power over the other prisoners

Her uneasy alliance with Waller, where she tolerates Nik operating outside the rules in exchange for getting rid of prisoners Waller doesn't want around

Her finding a connection with Abner, and that connection being built over the Corto Maltese mission

Her saving Abner from Starro (this was literally the first thing I decided, his death pissed me the fuck off, I hate when characters get nerfed right after finding happiness/closure)

What Changed:

Her name... sort of: While real name has always been Nikoletta Bordeaux, originally her hero name as Nyx Bastion was a lot more prominent as the name she goes by in Belle Reve and while out on missions (now, it's in her OC bio but I've never actually used it). In the end, I kinda tossed away "Nyx", and it turned into her nickname being Nik instead. I'm probably going to go remove Nyx Bastion from her OC bio too, now that I think about it, since I've literally never used it and don't really plan to at this point.

Her backstory: Originally, her family was French in origin - actual from-France French, not Louisiana French. She also was not a Woman of Color, mainly because at that point I was still a new writer and worried about accidentally offending someone by writing outside my own demographic. I honestly didn't decide much more of her backstory than that, which led to her feeling very flat and not having much dimension outside her persona in Belle Reve. I'm much, much prouder of her final backstory, and I think it gives her a lot of necessary background for how she was able to make her Queen of Belle Reve persona so successful

Her powers: Originally, her powers weren't shadow-based as much as they were nightmare-based. Any skin-to-skin contact or direct eye contact with someone would send them into a waking nightmare that eventually led them to a brain aneurysm. Some people were mysteriously immune to her abilities, with no apparent pattern at first, until it's discovered that all the survivors had experienced significant mental trauma in their lives and were able to encode Nikoletta's nightmare-illusions without growing overwhelmed. This included war vets, domestic abuse victims, and metahumans with significantly traumatic backstories.

How her powers interact with others: In the current version of her story, Nikoletta is hesitant to reach out to people because she knows her touch will leave a mark. The mark is technically harmless, but inevitable. Originally, her powers made it so the options were either near-certain death or complete immunity, so it was either to gamble or to shut herself down for safety. Once she learns the nature of the immunity and how it stems from surviving past traumas (which honestly makes most of the Squad immune to her bc damn they've been through some shit), she's able to make more of an educated guess and risk reaching out more, but I think think the inevitability of Nikoletta's final shadow-touch is what really drives her. I mean, if it's a gamble, eventually she'd get so touch-starved that she takes that risk, but if it's inevitable then there's no gaps to wriggle through.

Her appearance: And not just talking about the fact that first-draft Nikoletta was white. Originally, her nightmare-powers also caused an illusion over her appearance, where she appeared physically nightmarish or demonic to anyone who wasn't immune to her abilities. This isolated her even further, since direct eye contact was outright dangerous and even indirect glances were frightening.

Her reputation: Okay, her reputation itself didn't actually change much, I just couldn't think of a better way to work this. She still was the Queen of Belle Reve, but since her abilities were a lot more genuinely deadly, the fear she generated was completely real, and very hard to raise dissent against. Nikoletta's final shadow-powers aren't technically dangerous in any legitimate way, and it's all her skill at manipulating social situations that gives her the mystique and power to control Belle Reve. She built a lot more of it herself, when originally a lot more was handed to her thanks to her powers.

Her time in STAR Labs: Originally, she and Abner were in much closer proximity while in STAR Labs, and would talk through the vents to console each other through the experimentation. They had a close connection, though they never met face-to-face. They also escaped at the same time, rather than Nikoletta slipping away years before and not even realizing Abner's time lined up with hers until years later.

Her time in Corto Maltese: Not a whole lot changes her overall, though she doesn't go into La Gatita Amable like she does in the final story. Aside from that, she and Abner would have a heart-to-heart in the jungle where they talk about STAR Labs, and Nikoletta would pull down her sleeve to reveal a perfectly-circular burn scar, left by one of Abner's dots in the escape from STAR Labs. This leads to the two of them realizing they'd met years before, and "Nyx" (since she doesn't reveal her real name in Belle Reve, in the original version) is in fact Nikoletta, Abner's only real friend who talked to him through the vents. I do still like this backstory in theory, but I thought it made things a lot deeper and more impactful for her and Abner not to have any prior history.

Baron and Barbie: Yeah, she didn't have cats in the original version. They were a spur-of-the-moment add after I started writing for her, you had mentioned something about her getting a cat and I just thought it fit so well that I had to include it.

Thanks for the ask!! Out of all my OCs, I think Nikoletta's changed the most, and I actually remember all the changes she went through (unlike most of the others)

#my friends!!!#answered asks #my ocs #nikoletta bordeaux

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o-wild-west-wind · 8 months

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A Biracial Reading of OFMD, ft. Iggy’s Revenge Izcourse

a.k.a. I typed out a sentence that turned into an accidental essay of meta, whoops!

Y’all…I love this fandom to pieces, but I don’t think some of you realize why not all of us love Izzy/may be critiquing him. And major disclaimer—I am in NO WAY telling anyone to stop enjoying him as a character. This is NOT an anti-Izzy post (I will go into more detail on why I in fact encourage you to keep doing so later, and to the people who are sending unsolicited hate mail to Izzy fans & haters alike: please don’t!)—I’m just tired of seeing vitriolic hate against the people writing about him as an antagonist, or critiquing his actions based on canon, or post after post of “why don’t people love Izzy like I do!!” and then aggression when people explain their honest opinions. Look: we all have our skrungly little bad guys. I get it!! I’ve got my own collection!! I too have become a consumer and enjoyer of the Izzy fanon!!! PLEASE don’t take this as an attack—I just want to provide some personal, potentially fresh context from at least one (obviously non-exhaustive) perspective for those who want to know why Izzy isn’t universally adored, and also to make a plea for a safer fandom space where we can talk about our perspectives on these fictional characters without escalating to unnecessary vitriol, especially as s2 be upon ye (bc holy shit fandom is supposed to be fun, we’re having fun and that’s an order 😤)

(Oh, and I know I’m potentially stirring the pot with this post, but this should go without saying: don’t send each other death threats. What the fuck. Nobody do this?!)

So now that the legalize is out of the way: I want to share that the reason I initially imprinted on this show—and on Ed specifically—was because I’d never seen an explicitly biracial character treated with such complexity, nuance, and grace. While our ethnic makeups are vastly different, I too am half-white & half-brown—which means we’re absolutely nothing culturally alike, but our worlds view and treat us as pretty much the same regardless. And like Ed, my dad resents my mom and my racial makeup, and is prone to what I like to call “white violence.” Not going to overshare on the internet, but let’s just say that all this compounded makes Ed feel highly relatable to me (although for legal purposes I promise I have not krakened my dad 🙃).

When I first watched the show (and honestly also until my 3rd or 4th rewatch), Izzy IMMEDIATELY made me think of my dad. He also immediately made me think of Ed’s dad. Their mannerisms, word choices, and tones of voice; the obsessive need for control; the default of violence; the gradual dehumanization until an ultimate kraken-ifying breaking point—it all read to me like an intentional parallel. A shadow of white violence following Ed around that he hasn’t been able to shake, and mirroring to him the things he fears the most, including the things he fears within himself and feels forced to become (he is half-white after all, and this is a whole other post, but tl;dr there can be a lot of baggage that comes with being half-white/half-poc in regards to grappling with your toxic relationship to that white side of yourself, and especially if your white parent was racist and/or violent). And you can claim a different reading of all of this if you want (I genuinely mean that, like I’m in favor of meta & I think it’s great to analyze these things) BUT. that does not change the fact that I felt what I felt as a result of what was portrayed on screen and combined with my lived experience. Because fictional characters are just that—fictional—and are vessels by which you can process the world; we will always bring our personal lived experiences to anything we consume, and that’s okay—that can be the point, even. Art imitates life imitates art. Interpretation is the name of the game!

(more under the cut)

So when I watch this show, it’s a helpful tool for me to process my own feelings of being victimized by the white violence that’s followed me around my whole life, as well as the ways in which I’ve rebelled against it/tried to make peace with a non-toxic version of whiteness (in parallel to the more overt theme of masculinity, which is—ding ding—inexplicably tied to whiteness and western colonialism) via chaos, love, hurt, and sometimes giving up and giving in—and in this process, Izzy is a safe target. And you know why that is? Because he’s FICTIONAL. I can feel rage towards him because he’s NOT REAL. I can better understand and process the pain I’ve felt and rarely seen societally acknowledged by watching it paralleled on screen via actors and writers who have likely also grappled with similar feelings (I mean, I genuinely have made more progress with my personal biracial trauma via this show vs. years of therapy), and if I want to assume the worst of Izzy based on my interpretation of canon to help me through this? That’s fine! Because I can’t hurt his feelings and he can’t hurt mine!! Because he’s not real!!!

And here’s why I still support the Izzy-enjoyment: I am sure that many of the people who love Izzy and defend him to the ends of the earth probably feel a similar way that I do about Ed. It’s why we get all riled up and protective of these characters, why we might take attacks on them as attacks on ourselves; recognition of the self in the form of the other, and all that. Izzy is a vessel by which to safely work through the dark feelings and the pain you’ve bottled up—and he’s a safe way to do that because he’s FICTIONAL. And that’s a beautiful thing imo!! That’s truly the beauty of art—it is what we make of it, and what we make of it helps make ourselves better. It’s good to be open to interpretation.

HOWEVER: that does not give you permission to discount my relationship to this show (as I will not discount yours), and more importantly: that does NOT give you permission to reject the notion that canonically in s1, Izzy is literally and thematically (emphasis on thematically) an antagonist who is purposefully written to cause harm that can be interpreted as a hate crime, especially to those with lived experience of homophobia/racism/ableism/bullying/etc.—and you cannot harass people about this when conversing about theories of canon. If someone sees Izzy’s dialogue as cutting, degrading, and even triggering, that’s extremely fair of them to do so—clearly Ed was written to feel it that way! Con himself has paralleled Izzy with Judas! And can interpret it all differently? Sure! But you CANNOT assume that everyone else will, and then get upset when people don’t. I can’t believe I need to spell this out about an angry white guy in a show about toxic masculinity, but if someone does not like Izzy, it is likely due to a personal history of harassment (or worse) that he is reminiscent of; by making a point to defend him to someone—even if you are well-intentioned—you are very much putting salt in a wound.

I want to take this opportunity to further emphasize some tenets of fandom in general:

you can like characters who do horrible things without needing to jump hoops to argue their morals as pure 👏

conversely, you can critique their actions and still like them (encouraged, even) 👏

you can like characters who do horrible things simply because they’re cool and hot and interesting—don’t worry, we know it’s not the same as liking people like them irl 👏

your liking a villain archetype says nothing about your own moral virtue 👏

you can like horrible characters and see reasons for why they are the way they are/view them as tragic/note sympathetic dimensions of their personality/root for them to have redemption arcs while acknowledging that said redemption arc may not have happened in canon yet and that these are implicit, not explicit, readings of canon 👏

and you can also reimagine canon and change their contexts in fan works so that they ARE morally virtuous 👏 but PLEASE just be mindful and accountable when you do this in a context where not everyone will see a character the same way as you, and where multiple of people of marginalized identities have spoken out about the harm not doing so can cause. Just be honest, sincere, and kind, listen and learn, and don’t harass people for understandably needing space from a character that symbolizes something different to them than it does to you.

Also: blocking tags or people just because they have character opinions different than yours is totally okay and does not mean anything other than “I am curating my online space to have a better time,” it’s NOT personal

And most importantly: FANDOM IS FOR FUN! This isn’t our day job! We come to fandom to decompress. Don’t ruin people’s safe spaces!!!

Like I said, I’ve grown to enjoy Izzy over time thanks to fandom and fanon, and I think it’s fantastic that fandom can have such diversity in the way it interprets canon. I can’t wait for his probable redemption arc (it will likely be a healing thing to witness for many of us) and I’m truly glad that we can all have different relationships to the same characters. But please—when some of us need Izzy to be a punching bag, just let him be a punching bag. No, it’s not homophobic and DEFINTELY not misogynistic to view him as an obstacle in Ed and Stede’s relationship (baffled by the amount of times I’ve seen this take—it’s a funny joke but if you actually think Izzy is treated the way female characters related to other mlm ships have been treated, the point is very much going whoosh). You don’t have to engage; it’s not personal. It’s not about YOUR relationship with him—it’s about MINE. Please let me feel and even discuss rage towards him when I think about episode 10. Please let me throw as many sandwiches at his head as I need to. Because I PROMISE, it won’t hurt him—because he, and none of these characters, are real; and yet we, the fans, very much are.

#woof #did I add enough disclaimers?#this was longer than intended so if you read all the way through I’m giving you a kiss #I wasn’t going to engage but I keep seeing vitriol in the tag when all I want to do is decompress and I just…#I just came here to see gay ppl kiss sir this is a Wendy’s #fandom should be a safe space and I hate getting an ick from tumblr when it’s what I’m trying to use to escape the bad shit #life is hard enough lmao #anyway #please be kind to each other #I could go into the whole other topic of what the trauma of Covid did to our virtual affect and interpersonal skills but #alas that’s a thesis within itself #and on that note I have my actual thesis to work on so i won’t be closely monitoring this post just needed to get this all off my chest #and for what it’s worth I’ve been trying to avoid s2 spoilers so I haven’t seen the Izzy clip yet but that’s honestly irrelevant to this #bc this is in relation to s1 and I hope we can all just have a good time again this season #ofmd #our flag means death #the izcourse #ofmd meta #trauma #racism

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julystruck · 1 year

Text

Oh, my friend, you've got a friend in me // Let's go and make more enemies

More versions and extra info under the cut ♡♡

No flowers | No text and no flowers | No text

Hi <3 I'm gonna talk about my art because I put a lot of effort into it and arg. I need people to NOTICE things.

Redrawing of this art ♡. It's been about a year, give or take a couple months, so I wanted to redraw it with the shock character designs, because that's the "one year later" story arc.

---

Staring with Keys. She got longer hair and more piercings. The flowers around him are red, pink, and white Camellias. Red is for passion and romance, pink is longing, and white is innocence or like. adorable-ness?

Finny and OP!! Op's design hasn't changed much tbh. They gets washed and better taken care of, but bun insists that their torn ear remains the same. Finny also doesn't change a lot. The big thing is adding patches to star's jacket as the story progresses. Unfortunately, I did not have the space for everything I wanted to get to. We have the Moon sleeve for lux's space powers, and tentacles for Kraken. Flowers and rocket are there because I vaguely remember them being on Kep's jacket. The anatomical heart is for Sweet, and I wanted to include a lock and an orange for OP and Keys. Around them is Ivy for friendship <33

Bunny!! I am just realizing I forgor to put finger joints but its ok. Ignore it. Her flower is lavender, symbolizing distrust. The cuppy cake in her hand is a ref to the Baby Sweet and Bunny story Kep wrote <3

Lambent!!! I'm trying to branch out a little more with dark academia fashion for them, but a small square doesn't show much. I do kinda feel guilty bc I gave them the most static pose :(( but I didn't really know what to do, and it is the one who is most likely to follow the "stay in frame" rule. It had two necklaces, blue and yellow, for Depths and Madelyn. The flowers around them are baby's breath and blue asters, both for brotherly love.

Static! I accidentally swapped his eye base color and hair base color here, but I kinda like the lighter hair for him. He gained an extra pair of eyes!! Because indulgence. Also I put him in something that was NOT a suit. A collared shirt/sweater vest combo still seems kinda formal, but slightly more comfy, and he is supposed to be working on control issues, so I feel like he'd stop constantly wearing full blown formal attire. There is less flowers around him and Bronze bc Sweet doesn't really like either of them. His flowers are black dahlias :D They are meant to be betrayal and death.

Bronze!! I changed the scaring on her body to sheets of metal. I feel like he'd change the burnt skin to metal because. She also has issues with showing weakness. I also updated the metal streaks in her hair so they look more metal-y. Her flowers are lily of the valley, which represent two things. The first is pain due to death. I feel like that's very fitting for EL, but is more of a generic deity thing. The second is "return to happiness". This is more directed towards Static's story, but it's because she is returning, and they both are healing and being happier.

Last but not least! Sweetheart!! my girl!! In the sketch I had her hair in pigtails but I feel like that looked dumb so I took it out. The whole art piece has really been leaning into the plants and flowers, and that's because she is expanding her flower and plant abilities. Her plant is pomegranates. Because uh, Persephone. Also they mean death and sanctity! which I also thought was fitting. Just ignore they also mean fertility we are picking and choosing our meanings here.

Anyways! I think that's it!! if you read to this point thank u sm for sticking around

#evil lovecore #spilled ink #augh #this took me like. 3 days bc of the holidays #like probably 9-10 hours in total? Please please please look at it

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adanaac · 11 months

Note

Could I ask about your OC's? Specifically Ophicucus and Tsuru, I love how majestic Ophi is drawn and Tsuru fascinates me both with the concept and also how lovely you have illustrated him.

I hope you are well, and thank you again for helping me with my questions o7.

Sincerely HMAD.

oh good i get to talk about my son!!

my blorbo my beloved my babygirl he means everything to me

i made him in 2017 so hes sort of grown up with me (or i've grown up and realised things about him that i couldn't have when i was younger. i have so many complicated feelings abt this that i made a short comic about it last year)

to preface this im not a great writer dont expect good writing from me lol all i have is my personal experience and stealing tropes from stories i like

(got a lot to say so its all going under the cut. also a lot of death mention)

So. who is this dude

Tsuru (not his real name in-story, i havent come up with one im happy with), 18 years old, a ghost

he has a little sister, Ori, 15, who was meant to be my sona but then i just drew him more and like drawing him more anyway

first 2 drawings i ever did of him. he was based off natori natsume yuujinchou at this point, i dont remember why or if i even liked natori that much, but i remember distinctly hes based off him

u may have noticed he sort of looks older in my older art. this is because first of all art style drift lol but also as ive gotten older ive figured out that 18 isnt actually that old.

theres also a black haired version of him (two actually) its basically something like this ⬇️

important to know that everything about this dude is a convoluted metaphor

i lovingly summarize white tsuru as "people pleaser" and black tsuru as "nihilist prick" in my head and those are the things consistent throughout all the AU versions of him

(important differences only to me) alive tsuru doesnt act like black tsuru at all thats just his warped self perception (he also doesnt act exactly like white tsuru either)

also alive tsuru has black eyes and the shortest hair, black tsuru has blue eyes and slightly longer hair (also white tsuru is slightly taller than both of them)

if they all existed at the same time they would hate each other on sight but fortunately (unfortunately?) he is just 1 dude with issues

the general vibe is white tsuru is the "yippee floaty trickster" brand of ghost and black tsuru is the sort of ghost in horror media that stands just outside your field of view in the darkness dripping with blood

for the longest time only white haired tsuru was a "character", "black haired tsuru" existed just as his corpse at most, a footnote

but over the past 2 years ive figured that hes actually really fun to draw and play with, and in a different way than white tsuru

(wait fuck isnt this just abe trio. i do always almost accidentally draw tsuru when im trying to draw haruaki.... fuck.....)

(ive had tsuru for long enough that i just keep tacking details from my fav characters onto him.....)

halls smp

so ive been on this minecraft roleplay server called halls smp with other artists for the past 2 years, theres a new season of it every few months with a different theme each time to keep things fresh and ive just been making AU versions of tsuru for it so ive had a lot of opportunity to think about him

season 1 - halloween - jiangshi tsuru

this one is almost entirely unchanged from his base characterization because i didnt want to rp too much and also didnt know there would be future seasons at this point (also basically after the first day i gave up on being called "tsuru" bc its too hard to pronounce and everyone called me canada anyway)

same basic story, guy dies and theres now a white haired version of him (actually this is the same for all the AUs). in fact im pretty sure the black haired version of this one is exactly base alivetsuru. basically what ive been interested in exploring is different kinds of death, the events leading up to it, and what kind of person he becomes afterwards (but also in equal amounts im interested in making fun designs and playing minecraft and fucking around)

(this feels like the start of the beginners guide...)

i associate him with doves and at the time, tarot card 18: the moon, but in retrospect i now think he's card 0: the fool.

season 2 - winter - ishmael

guy who died at sea and eaten by a interdimensional whale and got isekaied. loosely conceptually based off moby dick, although i havent actually read it LOL but i did spend a week reading up on drowning and hypothermia

strangely, his death didnt create a white haired version of him, perhaps because he didnt have anything in life to give up his identity and replace it with. (and also remember the hair color doesnt actually mean dead/alive)

im only calling him ishmael now in retrospect, at the time he was just tsuru/canada

while designing him i had the biggest crisis bc i didnt want him to look to much like this old old oc i had (pic 1) but then i sucked it up and went with it anyway

i never got around to drawing it but his fingers are black from frostbite thats why he wears gloves all the time.

hes one of my favorite iterations of tsuru he looks so mad or upset all the time it makes me want to tease him, and also i think the grey skin and eyebags are very cute

i associate him with whales and tarot card 18: the moon

season 3 - golden grove - fox tsuru

honestly i think this is my favorite design of him i kinda popped off. i think im just a lot more comfortable working with warm colors. and also i associate white tsuru with foxes anyway (black tsuru is totally a catboy btw) (why is he not associated with cranes if his name is tsuru you ask?? bc cranes are hard to draw next question. he did start out based off cranes tbf, thats where the white hair and the tallness comes from)

dead fox possessing his dead human friend's body (although thats only the most literal interpretation of events; in all these iterations there's only ever been 1 person) the white tsurus are mostly interested in "moving on", whatever that means to each of them

btw my banner on this blog is him

hes sort of a set with s2 tsuru to me, mostly bc theyre the ideals that "white tsuru" and "black tsuru" hold taken to the extremes, and also theyre on opposite ends of the "hates people hates talking" and "loves to talk and mess with people" scale

anyway. hes tarot card 10: wheel of fortune to me

season 4 - wild west - mirage

the desert dragon, mirage. this is the season i started giving them actual names that arent "tsuru" and putting actual thought into the story lol previously it was just vibes-based character design. i have a short thing written about him thats meant to be the script for a comic, but i never got around to drawing it.

a sandworm-esque dragon that got tired of being a dragon and took up a passing witch's offer to give him a human form. this is all a metaphor i think. he has longer hair bc i wanted to spice things up a little

(also i consider this a form of death bc he left behind a giant sandworm/dragon skeleton somewhere in the desert)

the mirage-dragon thing comes from the shen 蜃 (which is used in the chinese word for mirage, 海市蜃楼 haishi shenlou, literally translating to "ocean city and shen's castle"). it's a clam-like dragon that produces foam that creates mirages over the ocean.

if u read "even if you slit my mouth", this is what the "shinkiro" or "shin" in recent chapters is. (i had one of those "smug because i already know all about the mythological creature a story is referencing" moments, which i also had with the four gods in yohaji bc i used to translate a game that mentioned them too)

isnt it romantic in a way? that the two places mirages are most known for happening are the ocean and the desert.

i dont have too much art of him because around this time i was uhhh (checks calendar) got back into yohaji and got consumed by it for a couple months lol (can u even blame me. it was july to september that was when like chapter 91 came out lol)

an earlier version of his design that i didnt end up using but i still really like this art

hes tarot card 9: the hermit to me

season 5 - fairytales/medieval - ophiuchus

NO FUCKING WAY YOURE NEVER GOING TO BELIEVE THIS for this one i actually ironed out what kind of people the black haired and white haired versions of him are. and also specifically this one isnt black tsuru but alive tsuru

i have a short poem thing about him, to summarize its like so many other fairytales about grateful animals granting their saviors something, but it doesnt end well for anyone

hes based off ophiuchus and asclepius of course, but also a lot of other snake stories in general, like the lindwurm and baishezhuan

to reiterate, for none of these stories do i consider there to ever actually have been 2 separate people, its always just 1 fucked up guy

i also sort of consider him to be a set with mirage, for both being serpents, and also for being "black tsuru whose personality is like white tsuru" and "white tsuru whose personality is like black tsuru", thereby codifying for myself that to him, someone who's stuck in his own head a lot, what matters most to him is his ideals, what all his actions are in pursuit of

he's tarot card 12: the hanged man to me

bonus: dnd character - alba

i also have a version of him i play for dnd, named alba to match with my party who all have color themed names. a halfling ranger who's very small and very loud. except he has amnesia and cant remember anything from before he was 12 (hes around 18 now according to him), including that he's actually a changeling who just transformed into a halfling to seem older than he is to work at a bar and nearly died in a bar fight.

(if you spend as much time fretting over semantics as me, you may note that changelings are medium sized and cannot transform into halflings which are small sized, for which my explanation is that he's been in halfling form since he was a kid, and after the amnesia he thought he actually was a halfling. this is also why his hair is white btw bc changelings have white hair. pre-amnesia in his "actual" halfling transformation he had black hair. i care too much about semantics but hey isnt dnd the semantics game anyway?)

anyway congrats alba for being the only version of tsuru that hasn't outright "died"!! if only because dnd has actual rules and i can't pull my usual death-ghost nonsense as easily!!!

hes very ship of theseus to me, all versions of him are. what makes up a person? what defines them? is it their face, their appearance, their name? their personality, their memories, their ideals? if you slowly replace each of those, one at a time, with a copy thats very similar to the original, at what point are you a different person?

as thanks for reading all of this i'll reveal what some of the metaphors are, the core of who tsuru, as a character, is to me. maybe this is fairly obvious, but all the death and personality weirdness stuff is a convoluted metaphor for depression and autism, as well as the experience of reading the things you've written years ago, seeing old photos and others talking about who you were years ago and finding that person wholly unfamiliar, that you understand the thought process of that person no more than you would a stranger's, as a result of having taken apart your identity and replaced it piece by piece with things from people you like more than yourself.

im always scared of scrutinizing tsuru too hard because he's just a weird reflection of myself, and i think i'll only be able to write a version of him thats more of a "whole person" once i figure that out for myself. the only way you see your own reflection is through a mirror after all, a flattened 2D surface.

haha this got kinda weird and depressing and personal at the end (mostly bc ive been writing this in the middle of the night, its now 4am)

after seeing my soul laid bare like this, if theres one takeaway, i think its pretty obvious why i'm so enamored by the parts of yohaji that i talk about often (huh wasnt this a post about my oc why did it become about yohaji)

oh yeah i just realised u probably also wanted to hear more about my yohaji version of tsuru specifically. honestly theres not really more to it i just like drawing him in situations. like of course the same themes apply but i just like drawing this dude thats 90% the reason hes my sona. like heres a pokemon au of him i drew recently bc i wanted to draw them as kids and also as pokemon gijinkas

anyway thats all. not really bc i could go on and on about him but this is way too long and also way too personal at this point. i think about him a disproportionate amount, i only have 2 other ocs i remotely care about and the extent of my thoughts for those guys is "i think hes fun 👍"

this has probably also been like, the 3rd most comprehensive description of tsuru that ive made, 1st being the thoughts in my head and 2nd being the past 5 years worth of DMs with my friend who i talk about tsuru with

(why was this sort of structured like the beginners guide. if youve seen the beginners guide tell me if im right or delusional. if u havent, go watch a playthrough of it, have an existential crisis, and then afterwards tell me)

#canada art #canada ocs #this hit the 30 image per post limit lmaoo

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spyrkle4 · 1 year

Text

Welp trial 2 is off to a *great* start

details under the cut so I don’t accidentally spoil the trial

-A couple secrets got confirmed in this one! which makes me sad : (

-Whit’s mom is dead : ( Ace has an eating disorder : ( Eden : ( just Eden is sad

(this kind of makes me feel like that the world of DT is not very lgbt friendly, as Nico was constantly bullied for being non-binary and Eden worries her sexuality is going to ruin her friendships, I mean the DT world clearly has problems as shown in the backstories of several characters and in the bonus videos, even when the Tragedy happened because of the messed up expectations of society (teenagers being pressured to be the best of the best), society still didn’t change : ()

that was probably a little off topic but if we get bonus videos for the dead people in this chapter it’ll probably worldbuild a bit more

-Also I am 100% certain David lied, not bc he said he got a dead person’s secret but we can guess Xander’s secret if you’ve seen the bonus videos, I mean it could be that it’s both Xander’s secret (Teruko having no idea what her secret is and the remaining few are kinda morbid), but David lying seems accurate

-And it was basically confirmed Nico did try to murder Ace, and J making a VERY good point that it’s something they have to live with, even if they didn’t kill Ace

-Them talking about the rules (Arei potentially being complicit in her own murder) is interesting, makes me think it’s something that’ll apply to future cases

-Speaking of that I love how Veronika is casually like “oh yeah I’m keeping my secrets to pan out the drama” like she has 0 fear of death and is just here for the chaos

-Everyone’s reaction to the murder secret being “wtf which one of you is a murderer?!?!” XD

-And of course the dead students having a presence still, (I repeat my statement of not taking a drinking game every time the dead cast are brought up, your liver will die), it makes seeing their portraits in the trial room more... spooky? I’d say? Like they def aren’t forgotten, not even dying in canon will prevent you from having effect on the plot, you will haunt the narrative

-Xander def haunts the narrative the most since David pinned the mastermind secret on him

-I kinda figured the ep would end on the note, I’m dying to see what that note is

-Also I wonder if it has to do with the Arei/J switch theory going around. Am I 100% percent certain it’s true? not really. Do I think it’s possible? Yes. Do I think there’s a lot behind the scenes we haven’t seen due to Teruko not being involved it things? Y E S

-Teruko’s actions are gonna hit her in the face as her removing herself from situations causes her to not be able to get all the information or even be able to help out, like she’ll probably slowly start trusting the others after this, since they’ve given no reason for her to distrust them

-Esp Eden, she’s trying her best over here

-Also omg I love the voicing for the nonstop debates, and the details of the trial look so awesome <3

#danganronpa #danganronpa despair time #fanganronpa #drdt #sparky talks danganronpa

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ragecndybars · 1 year

Note

Top five poor little meow meows, any medium but limit it to one per series or you're just gonna talk about Akihiko five times

this ask is a landmine. and i'm about to step on it.

Anthy Himemiya. Hashtag Anthy Did Nothing Wrong. Everything she did is retroactively morally correct purely because it was her who did it. True, she has a bodycount of, at an absolute minimum, 100 students who burned to death + Mikage himself + Kanae, but have you considered: she is terminally in middle school. Using magic illusions and or hallucinations to drive Mikage to mass murder and eventual death? They hate to see a girlboss winning. That last episode and her whole, uh, thing with Utena? God forbid women do anything. The way she fucks with Nanami, too, simply because of the Recognition of the Self through the Other (derogatory). ALSO IS SHE MIKI AND KOZUE'S STEP MOTHER OR WAS THAT A METAPHOR. ANSWER ME IKUHARA. Not that it actually matters bc she was just having a category five girl moment. Get your princess witch dichotomy out of here she's my special little meow meow and she deserves to travel the world with Chuchu and Utena while Akio rots underground <3

Edelgard von Hresvelg. Sorry but nothing need be said here. Other ppl have said it all already. Black Eagles 4 Lyfe.

Chidori Yoshino. Yes, she was party to multiple murders. No, there was no real goal or justification beyond money. Yes, she was utterly indifferent to the blood on her hands. No, she never really changed her mind about that or ever came to understand why standing idly by and letting Takaya murder people who she helped track down was bad, nor did anyone ever really try to explain it to her. Yes, she kind of just said "whatever man" and went off to have her own character arc completely divorced from the murder. No, I do not care. She is my precious little angel she didn't deserve anything that happened to her she needs all the love and understanding in the world.

Clive Dove. MFW I'm traumatized and orphaned as a child and the man responsible not only faces no consequences but even becomes Prime Minister and so I build an entire fake future London underground beneath the real London and conspire with a man who created an actual real functional time machine to trick some people and kidnap the prime minister and smuggle him away and make a fake evil future version of the guy who comforted me after my parents died and then pose as the future version of his apprentice to get close to him and kidnap his daughter also at one point and really just let everything get out of hand up until the point I get caught and hop into an enormous mechanical fortress and pop out through the ground slash ceiling of my fake future london to start smashing the shit out of the real london all the while the woman who literally travelled through time is like damn i'm dying and now my bf and i cant even have a nice last date. Anyway Clive is peak and he should have faced zero consequences for this. But Bill Hawks needs to die ASAP.

Leonard Church. The misogynist of all time. He loved his wife who he constantly referred to as a horrid bitch so much. He loved his daughter who he neglected and emotionally abused by comparing her to the impossible standard of her dead mother soooo much. He loved himself so fucking little that he tortured himself to create an AI out of himself and then he tortured the AI to try to create a new version of his wife out of his own memories. The neglect and emotional abuse of his daughter is continuing in a big way throughout this tbh. Then he accidentally tortures his AI self too much to the point where AI him loses his memory and his fake-ass AI wife who despises him now for what he did has to kidnap him from himself and now he's just back to being a huge asshole who calls his wife a horrid bitch all the time. And then he can eventually develop a conscience and start to remember more and more (and cause irreversible trauma and brain damage to wash at one point in there oops) and then even though he still doesn't remember her, he can team up with his daughter to track down his original, human self to stop him from continuously committing war crimes and human rights violations in his efforts to resurrect his wife. and he can finally put his wife who he calls a bitch to rest. I'm not gonna say I love you... I'm gonna say... I forget you. I'm letting you go. And then he can die pathetically as a human while his better AI version sticks around with his daughter who he still doesn't really remember for a while until he eventually has to sacrifice himself as well. And ain't that just a bitch.

#ask #idk what to even tag this #thank you terri this unlocked mental illnesses previously unknown to even god in me #Revolutionary Girl Utena #RGU spoilers #Fire Emblem #Persona 3 #P3 spoilers #Professor Layton #PL3 spoilers #Red vs Blue #RvB spoilers

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quillyfied · 8 months

Text

Okay next batch of episode thoughts that I don’t know that I can expand into real coherent thoughts so heck it we’re doing it live and cramming them together, no chronology just memory vibes, PART THREE:

- proud member of the “clocked those clocks” gang, literally said out loud “oh those clocks are bombs” AND!!!!

- And pair that with Stede’s “you never see the mediocre guys coming” SHE LITERALLY DID NOT

- Going back in time to the start of that endeavor, though, the tension and discomfort in watching Ricky and Zheng interact was just…it was a lot. Bc she’s trying her best to good cop/bad cop him, and it’s worked on every other person she’s tried it on (because she’s amazing at it and uses her own chronically overlooked charms as both a woman and a woman of color to make herself seem less threatening than she is until she drives home the point), but. Ricky is sort of a foil to Stede in that he’s an odd duck in aristocratic circles thinking that playing pirates will soothe something in him; the difference is that Ricky is an arrogant bastard down to his bones and has that Rich White Man thing of “if I can’t dominate this field then I will burn it down.” Zheng accidentally handing him the keys to destroying piracy is just. Oof. Ouch. Yikes.

- But!!! BUT!!! Zheng’s plan of “for a livable wage we will stop” is, to my memory, actually historically accurate!! China did have to pay her to stop. Twice, I believe. I might be wrong. I’ll be honest, I just watched the Puppet History episode about her when it came out and did no further research. But I should tbh.

- Patiently waiting for Calypso’s Birthday to be incorporated into the tumblr holiday pantheon. Wish we knew what day it was in-show.

- I looked up Ned Low bc I hadn’t heard of him (and oh the sweet irony in that), and was, I think, rightfully horrified and then greatly anticipatory for what was to come.

- And what do we get? Here’s another fancy lad who treats people as disposable and pokes right at Stede’s most vulnerable spots. And also has the most unhinged one-liners like I’m sorry your death was so well-deserved bc watching him verbally spar across the episode was a surprising delight.

- Not nearly as delightful as Stede dealing with the problem by unionizing Ned’s crew, and Lucius and Pete being the ones left to try and rush in and save the crew (thank goodness Stede had it handled, and OH MY WORD STEDE HAD IT HANDLED)

- Hellkat Maggie! A delight! And possibly historically real? One moment please.

- Holy crap she was! Not a pirate, actually an Irish American gangster in the mid 1800s, but heck!! Filed teeth and everything!

- And while I’m on Wikipedia: Zheng Yi Sao only surrendered/was paid to stop piracy once. But what a dramatic story that makes.

- Anyway can we stop everything to talk about how we got IZZY HANDS SINGING. AND WEE JOHN IN DRAG!!!!

- Also glad to see I wasn’t mistaken, Roach was actually laughing his head off for the torture sequence. Of course he was.

- Fang hanging off the side with the goat though ;A;

- Also a hearty congrats to all the fic writers who not only called that Ed would not handle Stede being tortured well, but who also called that the “going slow” thing. Maybe. Wasn’t gonna last. I have a whole emotional maelstrom going over that so let’s unpack it a bit at a time.

- First, though: the Boatmance throuple dancing. I cry.

- Second: Stede going defensive over not just Ed, but all of his crew. Like a lot over Ed, bc Ned was a grade-A racist classist dick. But Stede’s reaction was not JUST about Ed.

- Also the encouragement of the crew to kill Ned versus Ed’s quiet begging for Stede not to. Because he knew it wasn’t going to rest easy on Stede’s shoulders. And it doesn’t—maybe it’s just me but Stede looks devastated the entire time, not just angry. It’s a Lot. What happened was objectively a Lot.

- Now the juiciest piece of the episode: Going Not Slow (while Izzy sings La Vie En Rose IN FRENCH—side note but for the next installment of my fishing AU, I had it as a note for MONTHS that Ed and Stede would be slow dancing to that song, under a very different emotional context but THAT SONG, because I listened to it out of the blue one day and it just hit me how tender and romantic a song it is and how they deserve a tender and romantic thing, oh my LORD ALMIGHTY)

- First, the elephant in the room: the footage was flipped. Why was it flipped. Why did they do that.

- Second, not sure if Ed is actually nodding at Stede before the kissing starts, but I love to interpret it that way. It’s such a slight movement, could just be natural head bobbing, but. A nod makes it so much sweeter.

- The whole thing being sort of overlaid by the undercurrent of grief, though; Stede isn’t okay, Ed isn’t okay, they aren’t okay and maybe need some comfort and reassurance in and from each other. Certainly an enjoyable way to get it, but it seems to be a subtle theme of the show that words alone and actions alone don’t fix things. They have to work together. Which is how we get a THIRD BREAKUP OKAY GOOD GRIEF BOYS GET IT TOGETHER

- Ed tossing his leathers sort of loses its impact some when you know he’s gonna fish them back up later but. Also. Just sort of builds that anticipation. And deepens the narrative, too—Ed doesn’t want Blackbeard anymore, he doesn’t want that life, but. Other people, Ed included, might NEED Blackbeard for what’s coming. He’s a symbol. A violent and dark one, but that’s piracy itself, too—dark and violent but also a gateway to freedom. The two sides of that coin are a great asset against the coming storm. Because THIS is the storm, Ricky and his navy mates cracking down for good on piracy.

- Also the storm is Ed and Stede’s hurricane of a relationship but uh also life threatening exploding clocks and the Republic of Pirates a sitting duck with a ton of ships and buildings damaged.

- Ed isn’t wrong for wanting to retire though. And Stede isn’t wrong for wanting to continue piracy now that he’s just getting the hang of it. I don’t know the solution. Pretty sure the show does. And I’m even more convinced that with one episode left and the showrunners angling for a third, we’re gonna leave on a pretty big doozy of a cliffhanger, both emotionally and plot-wise.

- Feel a little cheated that we didn’t get to see Stede’s shirt and Ed’s jacket come off before the fade to black but also perfectly content with what we got, euphemistic fireworks and gauzy curtain draw and all. Have I stared too long at the gifs to know that Ed is down to his t shirt and Stede’s trousers fit his waist in a lovely way? Maybe. You can’t prove anything.

- Anyone else screaming internally about how they LEFT THE DOOR OPEN THOUGH.

- I want a full shot of Ed’s pretty teal robe, though. Yummy.

- The domesticity of Ed’s beautiful breakfast in bed is not quite overcome by Stede being half-uncovered while Ed is covered head to toe though. Something something emotional vulnerability states, something something trajectory of relationship

- Bout time Ed got scared by the pace, though. Ed and Stede have swapped places. It doesn’t really suit either of them, and my goodness was it kind of cathartic to watch Zheng beat the crap out of Stede. Because. Let’s be honest: he deserved it. But back to my original point: seems like Ed and Stede are overcorrecting at this stage in their relationship. Came from different worlds, met briefly in the middle, now swinging back out to opposite extremes before coming back to the middle. Other people have said it and will continue to say it better, but. That’s how it seems to me right now.

- The little quiet ways that Izzy is reaching out to Ed and Stede both, though. And bonding with the crew. I love that we get that for him. It would have been just as narratively appropriate for Izzy to sink deeper into his own muck and toxicity, but to show that once given the space to feel safe and vulnerable, it can turn even the most “piratey” character into an actual member of the crew?? Who cracks amazing jokes and does himself up in drag makeup with Wee John and SINGS??? Love that for him. Love the message of that. Love how much that’s reflected in the rest of the crew, too.

- Frenchie getting the crew going on multiple grifts, though. Nice. Niccccce. A+++++.

- SWEDE IS HOT NOW. LOVE IT FOR HIM.

- Jim and Archie helping Oluwande out with Zheng, though. I’m hoping this polycule thrives. Because Jim and Olu deserve so many nice things.

- Stede’s whole fame drunk thing was so painful to watch but ALSO is anyone gonna talk about how Stede was accosted by a Freddy Krueger looking dude?? I hope he survived his (frankly astonishingly hot, pun slightly intended) immolation bc I want him showing up later with knife hands to complete the reference

- Painful to watch but so understandable. Stede letting it all go to his head is so so SO like Ed on the aristocrat ship, just naive and full up on the attention and not ready for that rug pull later.

- FANG AND ROACH TAKING A SELF CARE DAY BY A STREAM I AM SCREECHING

- Ed is absolutely in a panic. Stede is also in something of a panic. They both said things they don’t mean because they both need to have the last word, don’t they. Fishermen and pirates are nothing alike, Ed what even are you talking about. (I know what he’s talking about, I’m choosing to nitpick his choice of metaphor to illustrate he is wrong on both a surface and metaphorical level)

- TALK IT THROUGH AS A CREW MY ASS, STEDE

- Is there anything as attractive as Zheng Yi Sao competently and confidently taking down not just Steak Knife, but Stede? She hasn’t been seen in action all season. Now we get it. And she’s just as banter-prone as Stede, I love that for them. And for us.

- rip steak knife. You will be missed.

- Can’t wait to see Ricky’s pomposity getting smashed in. He’s a mediocre man. You don’t see them coming.

- I know I’m glossing over probably a lot but that was SUCH an episode batch. Such an emotional whiplash. Cannot WAIT to see the finale, and how the story is gonna end with that third season we are pretty please getting please PLEASE.

#our flag means death #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #don’t mind me just quietly screaming to myself #ignoring real life for a bit

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