#also i don't think they're all equally bad or good like some are different than others y'know LOL
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Andreil headcanons?.cuz you've been posting about them
I have been! Thank you for asking Anon I'm flattered<3333
I've already made a post about Neil having a bunch of random marathon t-shirts and hoodies from just signing up for them cause he runs sm and Andrew stealing said marathon shirts but I really like that one so I'm going to put it again here
They do get married but they don't have a ceremony but they do all the legal things because ofc one of them gets injured and one tries to see the other at the hospital and they're like "Sorry family only" and they're like "time to sign paperwork I guess" and like a few weeks later Andrew shows up with two rings with their initials inscribed in each other's rings (because he's a SAP at heart) and his excuse is he's tired of getting flirted with and people asking Neil put so if they wear the rings it might put a stop to it. Neil only takes it off for games.
Andrew gets cavities frequently and will go to the dentist but he hates it and every time he has to go Neil drives, he always stays in the room, and if Andrew is having a bad day he'll call and reschedule his appointment because he's simply not going to subject him to a dentist on a day he's hesitant to even let Neil touch him let alone a doctor. Before every filling he puts milkshakes in the freezer without Andrew knowing so that when the numbness goes away later he can give one to him.
Neil has a super low alcohol tolerance and normally he doesn't drink, especially if Andrew does, that way he can drive, but he can be convinced by the other foxes if he's in a good enough mood. Andrew has observed Neil's five stages of drinking. 1. At first he's fine, he's just a little more talkative than usual. 2. As he gets tipsy he can be convinced to dance (typically Nicky's fault) 3. He's suddenly very friendly but overly paranoid. He wants to talk to Matt but he also won't stop glancing at the nearest exit every 5 seconds. 4. He gets competitive but it seems like he's just joking around so on the rare occasion Neil is drunk enough and around an equally drunk Kevin, Andrew is kind of in hell 5. Passed out. Low alcohol tolerance, Neil is out.
Neil actually wears a lot of Andrew's old stuff and they fit pretty well because even though he's shorter than him, three inches isn't that much of a difference for their clothing length, and Andrew has a broader shoulder build and is generally pretty muscular (person HC) so like, Andrew's stuff fits him. Neil wears his old jerseys, mostly, especially when they become long distance. Those two aren't face timing if Neil isn't wearing Andrew's clothes that he kept when Andrew left.
Controversial headcanon, Neil gets an honest to god tattoo that he wants. He gets a sleeve on his forearm that really nicely covers up the burns, anyone looking at first glance and not knowing they were there would mostly just see the design. When Neil tells Andrew he's thinking about doing this, Andrew comes very close to death by choking on coffee. They spend the next like, week sending each other tattoo designs and Andrew starts thinking about getting some over his scars, but decides not to since he wears his arm bands all the time anyways and he's not a big fan of the idea of a stranger putting a needle in his arm for several hours.
Andrew cuts Neil's hair. He trusts no one else.
Andrew is in fact a sucker for Neil so should Neil ever get injured or sick in the slightest Andrew does have a small tendency to hover. Neil's just trying to make some breakfast and Andrew is standing behind with cough medicine like "You should rest" and Neil swears he wasn't there three seconds ago.
Actually they didn't get the cats at the same time they got them individually (agreed to) and they picked them out together when they were visiting each other. However, when they moved in together they had to introduce Sir and King and it was a bit of a painful process and Andrew eventually just sprayed catnip all over the apartment while Neil was out and waited for those two to lose their shit and fall asleep together. This was a repeated process until they stopped fighting each other and started sleeping together and getting along. Andrew refuses to tell Neil how he did it and says that he just told them to do it
Thank you Anon!! Enjoy 🤗
#aftg#all for the game#neil josten#andrew minyard#anon <3#anon's ask#andreil#aftg andreil#aftg andrew#aftg neil#andrew x neil#neil x andrew#aftg headcanon#aftg hc#aftg trilogy#aftg series#new lore#fandom lore#questioning lore
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#madds.txt#poll#polls#im procrastinating my work#i just sort of thought of these on the spot is it fun or interesting im not sure#also i don't think they're all equally bad or good like some are different than others y'know LOL
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Mike looks up to Will. Literally, and most of the time?? I looked through seasons 2-4 and this happens during most of their scenes together. Mike, who's several inches taller than Will, somehow always arranges himself to look at Will from a lower angle, or at almost equal height.
The boy has bad posture in an effort to... what? To be able to see Will's face better? To make sure Will knows that Mike doesn't figuratively look down on him, doesn't baby him? To make sure Will knows they're equals? To close the distance between them? To not seem bigger or taller than Will? To make sure Will knows he's seen and understood? All of the above?
Mike leans down to look Will in the face:
And he sits down so he can be on Will's level or look at Will from below:
Notably for the above pictures from the hospital in s2, we see that Will and Mike look fairly level in the second picture, but in the first, it's shot so that Mike is looking from such a lower angle. So this seems to be intentional.
Here are some of Mike and El to compare. Mike has much straighter posture in scenes with El, leaving him taller, further away from El, resulting in him not looking El in the face as often. We see this exacerbated in s4, as Mike is even taller, the distance is further, and he also isn't looking at El much with good eye contact or without sunglasses or the sensory deprivation glasses. When seeing Will and Mike at the same height, it feels like an equal relationship, but seeing Mike towering over El makes their relationship feel less equal. He's not looking her in the face as often in an effort to understand her.
We see a lot of Mike and Lucas together in s3, and Mike also stands fairly tall compared to Lucas in their shots together, making any height difference obvious. In the picture set below, we see that, but also some side by sides of how Mike stands when talking with Lucas, and then how Mike talks with Will just seconds later. You can see how different it is: Mike adjusts for the height difference with Will in a way we don't see him do for anyone else.
So I don't think it's just that Finn Wolfhard is too tall and he's made to lean over to make it easier to film multiple people of varying heights. It's a Mike and Will thing.
Another couple comparisons:
The rain fight: Mike stands taller in their rain fight at the beginning when he's on the defensive, but he gets lower and closer to Will the further into the fight they get, when they're saying the more important things to each other.
The phone booth: We can also see Mike bending over to look at Will in the phone booth, but standing straight and further away when Jonathan is listening to the phone.
The movie theater: when they're first sitting down in the theater, maybe when people are still looking at them, Mike sits tall, but he sits lower once the movie has started and he wants to talk with Will.
On that note, Mike stands taller around Will when in public or around others he doesn't feel as comfortable around. This might be to hide aspects of his relationship with Will, or to be protective towards Will. I didn't include these shots, but Mike also stands tall when protecting Will from Dart in s2, when he's with Will in the field after Will is possesed in s2, and in the gunfight in s4.
But one on one with Will, talking with Will, listening to Will, having heart to hearts with Will, he scrunches his back so much so that he can be at equal height or lower than Will to look Will in the face or to look up to him.
They hired Noah and Finn knowing that Noah was younger and shorter, so I don't think they meant for Will to be a taller character.
This is just their dynamic. Mike is the tall one but he wants Will to be able to feel like the tall one.
#byler#will byers#mike wheeler#stranger things#mike wheeler is gay#byer height difference#mike leans down for will#mike wheeler's posture
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Just recently discovered your tumbler and I love everything about it. Your art style, the time period you have chosen, the background you are building for the characters. Top notch.
Though I do have a question : going back through all the asks people are tending to focus on sunny boi Vasco supporting nerve wracked Machete but a relationship needs to be equal so, what's the turn around?
When/how does Machete say 'don't worry babe, I've got this'? He is after all a very accomplished and competent person inside his areas of expertise.
Because of his trusting and altruistic nature, Vasco has been burned in relationships before. Even though he's good at reading people and might sense that he's being treated unfairly, he endures it because he doesn't want to be the bad guy and upset the other person.
He's from a well known noble family, he's affluent and he's considered to be very good looking. Over the years he has met countless people who wanted to take advantage of him, his status and his assets in a way or another, and he has hard time tolerating that kind of greed and dishonesty. Machete has never been interested in his pedigree or wealth, and the way he's utterly devoted to him makes Vasco feel confident and secure.
He's been forced into various boxes and moulds all his life, his family had high expectations for him and did their hardest to whip him into a shape that satisfied them (now that I think about it, Vasco's parents probably would've been proud if their son turned out more like Machete, hard working high achiever). He tries to not let it bother him, but on some level he does feel guilty for letting them down. Machete is Vasco's biggest fan, he earnestly believes in him and loves him the way he is. He feels like he doesn't have to pretend to be something he's not around him, but at the same time Machete's influence makes him want to be a better person. Vasco admires his ambition, knowledge, diligence and perseverance. Machete tries very hard to be a good person and do a good job, but because he's so difficult to get close to and puts up such a cold facade, his efforts tend to go unnoticed. Vasco sees this side of him and finds it very charming.
Machete could use a lot of tlc and Vasco is happy to be there to provide it. The fact he's able to have such a profound positive effect on someone and their quality of life makes him feel needed, he feels like he's contributing something good to the world and that gives him strength. It's not like his only job is to pat Machete's head and tell it's going to be alright though, they enjoy each other's company and feel at ease together. In a way Machete also has a calming effect on Vasco. On his good days he can be very pleasant company, he's interesting to talk to, he's kind and gentle and even awkwardly funny at times, he has an eye for beauty and is able to appreciate small good things in their lives. He isn't an expert in expressing his affection physically, but when he does, Vasco can trust that his attempts are authentic.
Machete may not always know the correct words and gestures to comfort him, but he's a good listerer and does his best to be there for him. He never belittles or makes fun of him, he's patient and forgiving when Vasco makes mistakes, and will drop everything if he's ever in a need of help. He often makes Vasco feel seen and understood like no one else. Machete is good at solving dilemmas and coming up with working solutions (or preventing problems from ever arising, more often than not), and Vasco has the nerves of steel to keep him grounded and stable at a time of crisis. Together they make a very efficient and resourceful team.
Their jobs are very similar, Machete works for the church and Vasco is a secular politician, but they both deal with diplomacy and foreign relations. They end up working together often, and since Machete is very competent in what he's doing, he often ends up helping and advising Vasco.
I think despite their differences, they're just very well in tune with each other. In the ways that actually matter, they have common interests, tastes and worldviews. They enjoy similar things. And the parts that differ tend to augment them instead of driving them apart. A lot of their fondness stems from the fact they have a lot of shared history, they met at a young age and their friendship-turned-romantic was a very formative experience for both.
Should it be necessary, Machete would face God and walk backwards into hell to protect Vasco.
#that's how I see it at the moment#I mean there's probably more but this is already a wall of text as is#I'm imagining Vasco asking Machete's help in doing his taxes and Machete just flipping through his papers in aghast disbelief#like oh my dearest light of my life you're wonderful but this is some sloppy bookkeeping#answered#fantacyjunky#Vasco#Machete
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I think a part of the reason I feel so connected to JGY and XY is that I, too, think everyone is lying about what a good person they are. Sure, there may be a few genuinely good people, but those are in the minority and never claim the title.
I don't know about never; some people are pretty straightforward.
And in some ways the whole point of the concept of 'a good person' is that the feeling of losing the right to consider yourself one can impose instinctive recoil from doing wrong, in situations where you don't have the leisure of working your way through an ethics diagram and choosing the logically moral path before reacting to a situation. It has practical utility.
But that system can backfire pretty horribly too, in a lot of ways. It can be hijacked by definitions of 'good' that actually make you recoil from ethical acts because they're deviant. It can lead to disappearing up your own ass lmao.
And definitely the threshold for 'talking about how you're a good person' enough that it makes you suspect as either a) a liar or b) someone who values that self-image over objective reality and other people's wellbeing is. Not very high.
Jin Guangyao, ironically, is one of those people who's so performatively A Good Person in his public life that in retrospect it looks like a red flag. Which knowing this about himself in an ongoing fashion ofc just reinforces his own cynicism about everyone else lmao.
Even Lan Xichen, who I think he may see as a genuinely good person, he also sees as an easy mark who will reliably choose what is comfortable over what is 'right,' if you just structure the scenario to make that an easy choice that's easy for him to justify.
Xue Yang's bitterness is in many ways more exciting than Jin Guangyao's because he has a way more unusual relationship to reality, but it does share a lot of notes.
The role of deception in his psychology fascinates me because as far as I can tell he's as instinctively straightforward a person as Lan Wangji, albeit along quite different lines involving a total lack of impulse control, but has adopted 'deceit' as a weapon against the wicked world in the same way he has adopted 'murder.'
But when he feels someone is not merely lying but papering over bad behavior with principles they are not living up to he is livid.
People claiming to be better than him because they're 'good' when 'good' is a construct of privilege, is the underlying idea he's not equipped to articulate. Except he takes that and applies it to 'hitting me to interrupt my random murder of some guy who happened to be within arm's reach when I wanted to hurt someone.'
Which isn't like philosophically perfect, but the underlying problem he's actually reacting to is that he understands the social contract as a lie that has never protected him but seeks to control him, while protecting rich men it has no power to control.
Which it is fair to be mad about, but then his feeling is that since that's the nature of the world and all people, he is entitled to amass for himself the power to inflict hurt without consequences as much as he possibly can, and to use it against the vulnerable for fun, and no one is entitled to interfere.
Which brings him to a place where he is violently angry at anyone talking about trying to treat other people well as a value, because either they're a hypocrite and a liar or they threaten his entire system of rationalization for why he can be The Worst and still In The Right.
'Everyone is equally bad, actually' is like, an understandable take for anyone who's had cause to become embittered. Everyone is free to make whatever philosophical peace they can with the world and by and large there's no ethical weight to any such opinion, in itself.
But it's an ideological crutch people tend to wind up leaning on very heavily when they can't or don't want to take responsibility for their own behavior.
Which is an approach that Xue Yang, Jin Guangyao, and Su She all share, and which not only is shitty of them, it...traps them in a wheel of doubling down on their own worst impulses because rather than going 'that was bad and I shouldn't do it again' they've repeatedly invested all this energy into making what they did actually the correct thing, according to their interpretation of the context. Which means they're more likely to do it again.
(I think this is how Jin Guangyao became a serial killer, for example. He followed a doing-a-murder-impulse and then internally doubled down on how he had nothing to be ashamed of, so he was more likely to do it again, every time.
Wei Wuxian's strain of self-righteousness about his revenge was less...thorough than Jin Guangyao's, because he had the benefit of going after people on the opposite side of a war from him while Meng Yao's first known murder plot was against a shitty boss. But it probably didn't help him not try to solve army-shaped problems with mass murder, even after that stopped being allowed.)
If any of them had just like, zero moral sensibilities they would have created very different problems, and very possibly fewer of them. It's making a central goal of your operations 'self-vindication in your own internal narrative, created retroactively via reframing' rather than 'figuring out what I think I should do and trying to do that' that traps them in the self-reinforcing murder pissbaby vortex.
So if you look at it one way, these three villains are themselves perfect examples of how pursuit of the 'feeling of being good' (or at least 'not the bad guy') can make you worse.
Notably Wei Wuxian was also extremely sensitive to hypocrisy in his youth; it was the only part of Madam Yu's behavior he was ever shown objecting to. But he's sufficiently mellow and cynical from regret and burnout by the 'present' timespan after his resurrection to just get disgusted and alienated about it, rather than outraged.
He wasn't even all that mad at Xue Yang, though honestly that may be partly because he stopped entirely characterizing him as a person at some point during their interaction. Like, there's no point being angry at someone whose moral sensibilities operate exclusively on the plane of 'is this unfair to me' for manipulating and destroying people who were good to him, and then getting obsessed with his own self-pity about it. This is not a person who understands how not to be, metaphorically speaking, a cannibal.
And Wei Wuxian did know better and still got roughly the same result, so what business does he have getting angry?
Anyway yeah those two villains are both delightfully relatable if you sit down and put their perspectives together; they are clearly operating with the same basic suite of human needs and emotions as everybody else, without that being in itself particularly exculpatory, which is honestly refreshing. They've just got the most fantastically toxic interpersonal habits that knowing them counts as some level of Suffering A Curse.
Jin Guangyao and Xue Yang do both stand as scathing rebukes of the society that created them. But within the narrative, wherein they're people, the fact is that each of them had agency and one of the things they chose to do with it was develop rationales for why they were the most special little guy and everything was someone else's fault.
And their moral nihilisms, while also grounded in serious trauma, ping me as emotional masturbation of this variety.
#ask#hoc est meum#Anonymous#rambling about ethics and villains lol#this isn't an organized essay but it's the best i'm going to manage#wei wuxian#xue yang#jin guangyao#meta#mdzs#this is why wwx is not that invested in how the underlying machinations made his bad choices 'not his fault' btw#spending too much time chewing your own vomit narrows your view until you can only be selfish#jiang cheng is also somewhat trapped in the pissbaby vortex#but he did get deliberately stuck there by people who loved him (his mom and wwx mostly)#and he has much higher standards than the villains about who he takes it out on and how#and there is a non-zero chance he will claw his way out post-canon#which none of those three was ever going to do no matter how much time and paradigm shifting information you gave them#so i cut him more slack
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I did a redesign for Sir Pentious! (Opinions below)
I really enjoy this silly goober, no natter how good or bad I think the show is, but my god...the og design...I feel really negative about it. Something just feels so frustrating when I look at it!
So here's some of my thoughts:
Considering his role in the show as more of a comic relief (though he's truly trying to redeem himself and takes it more seriously than, for example, Angel Dust), I wanted to give him a softer shape. Something to indicate that he's not really a threat to anyone, given how easily he's beat by Cherri Bomb (thats her name, right?)and, of course, Alastor.
I also gave him a bit different clothing, so instead of a suit he's wearing a vest. I think it looks better on him, as well as underlines the fact that he's an inventor (along with his visible goggles and a differently shaped hat). Bowtie became a simple tie and I gave him gloves! I don't find the "claws" thing about the designs cringe since animating fingers like that is probably more simple, but the fact that the patters of different characters are same recolored stuff definitely is!
Then, of course, I gave him a snake face with his fangs out. Because despite his goofiness, he's still supposed to be a demon (or, well, a sinner, more specifically).
What I REALLY dislike about the og design is the fact that he has a lot of eyes which are the same color!!!! I feel like it makes the design a little heavy and hard to look at, at least for me. So I left him with normal eyes, as well as giving him (somewhat of) an eye pattern on his hood. I also left the eye on the hat, but it's not really his, rather just a useful hypnotic device in the shape of an eye!
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What I dislike about the og, is the color scheme and the similarity of the design with other "sexy handsome" characters (though, in this regard he is a little more unique)
I mean sure, he fits with the world in terms of colors. But that doesn't mean the colors arepicked great! I'm a big enjoyer of 1 character = 1 color thing. It makes you realise how different the cast is! However, when 1 color is associated with muktiple characters, it's pretty hard to see their differences and what makes them their own self. Sir Pentious looks like yellow Alastor, when he's supposed to be just himself!
If I haven't watched the show and only knew one character - Alastor (for understandable reasons), I'd think they're somehow related. Friends, enemies, boss - employee, equals as overlords - that kind of stuff. I'd never guess Sir Pentios acts differently. I'd just assume they have same character traits or same motives! I'd never be able to tell actually tell the difference!
That's not how you get people to watch your show! You're not supposed to offer them a cast of similarly looking characters and then say "oh, well, they're actually all very different! You just have to watch it to find out!"
No! You have to visually tell them "They're very different, but they're together for a reason. What reason? Why don't you watch my show? Wink wink"
That is how you do it!
Overall, I hope you guys can give me some thoughts! I'm not a professional, of course. And I'm not telling anyone that they have to abide by what I say. It's simply my opinion and hiw I feel about it. If you like Viv's designs, then that's great! Hope you have a great day!
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I don't think Kaiser and Ness would be good together
Which is why i think about their relationship constantly despite that, i love these freaky little soccer dudes and their obsessive codependency
If there's one ship in bllk that I absolutely adore the content for and think about constantly besides Kunigiri, it's Kainess. And it's not because I think "Oh they'd be such a wonderful couple" or "They look good together", this is one of those ships where if they ever got together I feel like they'd actively make each other worse because they have so much internal stuff to work on alone first, you know? And just thinking about that potential train wreck of a relationship is enough to keep me entertained for weeks on end.
I've said before that Kaiser and Ness are a Bachira and Isagi parallel in that they show the toxic bad sides of a codependent relationship, but I think there's more to it than that. Like Kaiser and Ness are reliant on each other for both ego and attention, but they're also both deeply lonely people at the end of the day. Even in the scenes where it's just the two of them, they never let up the act of trying to surpass everyone and be at the top.
They have no silly banter or back and forth, even in this panel Ness looks more like Kaiser's personal servant than his friend or partner.
Where as everyone else in the Blue Lock compound has some healthy way of destressing after a match, these two weirdos (affectionate) sit in dark rooms and watch the same matches over and over again while plotting like saturday morning cartoon villains on what to do next game. I mean, even Itoshi Rin has a destress activity he does that's NOT soccer related that helps him not morph into some soccer obsessed monolouging freak, so to see these guys just constantly always planning and thinking and practicing it really puts into perspective how much of the time that they spend together is them not having a fun time casually. And if you compare what they do on their down time with what the other "partners" in Blue Lock do, this difference becomes even more apparent.
And I don't know, I find that to be a really interesting aspect of their relationship just because even though they are so clearly missing all of the key elements meant to make a healthy partnership, it still works on the field anyways because they're both equally obsessed with the same thing. Kaiser loves football and wants to be the best. Ness want's to see Kaiser become the best because he loves football. Their devotion to the game drives them closer to one another, but it's clear only one side holds any real "affection" for the other directly outside of the game.
Now, I do NOT think Kaiser hates Ness which I think people assume if you say "Kaiser doesn't hold a lot of empathy for Ness, or cares for him" that it translates to "Kaiser hates him".
I think Kaiser keeps Ness around because deep down he knows that at the end of the day the only person who would be willing to follow him even if he couldn't become the worlds best is Ness. And I think that's because Ness loves soccer in a different way than Kaiser does. To Ness, soccer is a really magical sport and one where amazing things can happen. And Kaiser is the only character who has done the most insane feats in the manga so far. Kaiser does things on the field that seem impossible until he pulls it off, which is the whole crux of his ego anyways: Making the impossible, Possible.
So as long as Kaiser plays that way and does all of the amazing things he's been doing, Ness would follow him literally anywhere because that's what drives him.
But Kaiser is different, it's clear that to him soccer/football is not something that is grounded in the fantastical, but something that's tangible and real to him. He takes it seriously even if he goes about it in the most dramatic and campy way possible. Looking at old chapters of Blue Lock when Kaiser was first introduced is so interesting to me because I forgot about Kaiser's whole "king" attitude where he pretty much talks and acts like some nobleman with a crown and scepter.
He even makes Ness "bow" to others or makes Ness physically lower than him like a king does with some peasant. You could chalk it up to him making Ness "apologize" in the Japanese way by also bowing, but I don't think that's why he does it just because his entire character is just so "king" coded.
It's worth noting that he also makes Ness "bow" whenever Ness seems to lose any kind of faith in them winning. Which is why I don't think the above two times was him making Ness apologize, but that its something he does to ground himself or make Ness fall more in line with how he's thinking at the moment. Notice how he seems to only do it when Ness isn't sticking to the right "script" or seems to show the wrong reaction openly etc.
But anyways, Kaiser and Ness love soccer but they don't love it for the same reasons and that is what ultimately conflicts with their relationship in the end. That, and they've both got their own issues to work out.
I feel like if they did ever get together, it just wouldn't work because in order for it to work, Kaiser has to first realize that he can still be an amazing player and have people regard him as the best without obsessing over where he sits in the rankings. That he can perform things nobody else can and never will and that is the thing that will separate him from the rest of the crop, not a trophy saying "Number 1" on it.
Maybe before when they first met things could've worked out well, but even still I think Kaiser was dead set on his goals of becoming number 1 long before he ever met Ness. We will definitely get to see the extent of that next week for sure I hope, when we learn more about Kaiser's past.
#kainess#micheal kaiser#alexis ness#bllk#blue lock manga#recent chapters had my brain churning out thoughts on kainess
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I'd also like to add that when people who approach media like this have decided that a certain person is "problematic" = bad, they can never escape from that epithet and will *always* be bad: even if they do something good, that can and will be framed as deflection/damage control/PR/otherwise ingenuine so it doesn't count.
It's basically unfalsifiable, which just so happens to be the type of logic conspiracy theorists use to reinforce their theories: any evidence superficially working against the assumption that So-and-so Is A Bad Person is actually extra proof that they're a bad person!
yeah, that's definitely what i saying in my post. it's not productive or healthy to judge people by the amount of good and bad things they've done in life - but it's also not equal. the whole "my fave is problematic" view of life is twisted. but good point about how it's unfalsifiable - it's a logical fallacy that creates an echo chamber.
and i'm absolutely not saying to ignore public figures' shitty behavior. actually, in a way, i think all wealthy people should feel some heat for their actions. but if you do want to engage in celebrity stanning, it's critical to understand that a celeb's actions don't dictate your own political stances. also, talking shit about a celebrity isn't meaningful political action.
like, hot take, but i disagree with a lot of taylor's politics. but i also just... accept she is an extremely different person, politically, than i am. the idea that her behaviors reflect my politics is wild. i'm a leftist LMAO i'm just here for fun.
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There's this account Pinterest that does some takes on TOH and they're uhm...
Kinda bad? Like, some of their opinions are good some are bad???
I'll give you an example real quick
They compared Amphibia to Owl house...AMPHIBIA!!
A show equally popular but have barley any similarities, the only thing they have in common is both shows have two teenage girls who get transported to a different realm and spend the entire show trying to get back home while also figuring out a bigger mystery and have a shorter non human sidekick
They said Amphibia's word building, plot, and literally everything about is somehow better than TOH...?? And shamed TOH fans for watching the show because there is a same sex couple (Luz and Amity :P) and somehow "indulging in all fan desires"???
They never responded to my comment and don't give us explanation, its all just really vague
I don't think them comparing Amphibia to TOH is bad because well, the shows have many similarities, they are also perfectly entitled to prefer Amphibia to TOH, that's their opinion. That being said, I disagree with the idea that Amphibia is better than TOH in every single way (Amphibia is good but TOH is leagues better than in every single way).
And unironically shaming people for liking a show they don't because of Lumity is just flat-out homophobia.
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Thoughts on Kalego VS. Aizawa as teachers
They're an interesting comparison because while being similar on paper, there's a lot of differences in how they actually play their role in the plot
bnha is more focused on the hero part than the academia part, where m!ik is equally focused on the "welcome", the "demon world", and the "iruma" parts of the title. bnha is all about Izuku's path to best hero ever, we're told that almost right away and it's all about that destination, and while it is obvious that Iruma is going to end up being the next demon king, that destination is not as important to the story as the journey to it.
Since these stories are fundamentally structured differently in their protagonists and focuses, the roles of "grumpy teacher to protagonist" is also going to be structured differently.
Well, m!ik is an isekai. Iruma is a normal enough human, though one with a tragic backstory, taken to a very different world. bnha is the opposite- Izuku's initially the fish out of water in his own world, but once he gets his quirk that kinda goes away. As much as fic writers would like to pretend otherwise, Izuku does not think of his own former quirkless status that much. Iruma, on the other hand, is rather aware of his human status. and those two differences feed into the socieity examining aspect of the stories, which influences the roles the teachers play.
Both teacher's initial purposes involve being an obstacle to the main character- Kalego's flying race for ranking, and Aizawa's quirk assessment ranked test. Both are pretty antogonistic and already don't have high opinions of Iruma/Izuku due to things that happened before they properly met.
But Aizawa is representative of a good hero who does not mesh well with hero society expectations, and Kalego is representative of a bad demon who does mesh very well with demon society expectations.
So Aizawa's expulsion threat is an anomaly, as is his underground status. That said, he is very good at his hero job and is someone that the student characters are supposed to look up to and emulate in at least some ways
Kalego, on the other hand, doesn't even actually control the initial ranking, he just facilitates it. the ten-rank system is built into demon society and Kalego fits well in that way, with his own high rank and power level. But Kalego is also not a demon the student characters are supposed to take as an example, at least not at first and not in the same way as Aizawa. The Naberius clan is weird for demons, they've got a dog blood curse instead of a proper familiar or bloodline magic, and they're disciplined in a way demons usually aren't. I wouldn't be surprised if there were Naberius archers out there, for example. But Kalego's discipline is not like Iruma's human discipline, nor are Kalego's traits ones that Iruma particularly needs to pick up to grow into a demon king. Maybe later with the music festival, but overall? eh.
And their later actions can be compared too- the Heartbreaker Exam is 95% a better designed test for the students than the Hero Course Semester Exams, even though both involve the basic idea of students v teachers. Kalego and demon teachers had a better plan for testing each student.... uuuuuntil you get to "jazz actually getting tortured" and then the test continuing after iruma is almost kidnapped by a traitor on the staff. It'd be like if Aizawa said "hey nedzu and snipe, keep going with the rescue lesson with any uninjured students while the injured are hospitalized with me, they won't get a break after a villain attack in the real world!" and um. yeah i don't think Aizawa would have said that even if he had been conscious. Kalego... did. and that difference ties back to what exactly the main characters are supposed to learn. Both Izuku and Iruma are supposed to trust their teachers with their learning and well-being, but while Iruma is also supposed to learn about the mechanisms of demon society and how to command powerful demons like Kalego, Izuku is really only supposed to pick up various strategies from Aizawa so he doesn't only have All Might to mimic.
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Shantae Headcanons - Couples/Romance
So! This is a bit different! Currently, I'm trying to get my writer brain back in gear (or more accurately get it focused on Shantae) so I can finish up that Halloween fic that is very late right now, and I tend to find that my writer brain is far more stimulated when I write down these headcanon posts. So, naturally, I got to thinking about what to write a headcanon post about, and I figured, "hey! romance is a fairly good topic!"
The only issue with that is, well...as any long-time followers of this blog will know, aside from Shantops and Skylo (and also Twitchegar but they're fairly minor characters so yknow), which are fairly locked in as my headcanons at this point, I don't really have any solid headcanons for couples. Even with some couples that make frequent appearances on this blog, I'm willing to go for different options if it's submitted or if it'd make a particular quote that much funnier. And, honestly? I do not see that changing as I write these down.
...buuuuuuuuut that isn't going to stop me from writing down headcanons regarding what these characters are seeking out in a relationship! And also writing down how the dynamics for a character's various options would work out. So, with that in mind, let's hop to it!
NOTE: EXTREMELY LONG POST UP AHEAD. Like I say that a lot but good god this is a long one. I thought I ran into a text limit like twice and for good reason. You've been warned
Shantae/Rottytops
Starting strong with the fan favorite half-genie and zombie couple...when it comes to who started crushing on who first, obviously, Rottytops was first, like, right from the get-go - with her initial internal thought of "oh hey this girl's cute" rapidly spiraling into "I would propose to her on the spot without hesitation." Shantae, meanwhile, only started reciprocating around Pirate's Curse, but while she might not show it as blatantly or as frequently as Rotty, she is equally down bad for the zombie.
I imagine Rottytops as something of a casual flirt - before she met Shantae, during the games themselves, and even after they've gotten together to some extent! She enjoys getting a rise out of people, and flirting with them is both fairly simple and something she doesn't mind doing. She's definitely had a few relationships before Shantae, but nothing particularly serious. All of which is to say that, when she started having actual, deep, serious feelings for Shantae, Rotty had absolutely zero frame of reference, which was both frightening and incredibly exciting at the same time.
Rotty's exact reasons as to why she's so attracted to Shantae are...basically what's stated in-game, but to dig deeper into it, it's that right from the start, Shantae has looked at Rotty - a zombie girl who introduced herself by trying to eat Shantae's brains, a known trickster who wasn't that well-liked even among her fellow zombies, and who Shantae has no reason to trust or have any faith in, especially right after Risky's Revenge - and saw someone who could do better. Someone with potential to do good. Granted, that sentiment was initially expressed as frustrated disappointment, but even then Rotty was dumbfounded once she absorbed the implications of that. Even her brothers haven't expressed that kind of faith in her...more because they think she's fine as is than anything, but still! And while her initial reaction was to try and cling to that bit of faith before what she felt to be an inevitable loss of it, eventually, Rotty decided to take up the hard task of actually improving herself, and doing good, showing Shantae that that tiny bit of faith wasn't misplaced. And that one change in philosophy really made all the difference.
As for what draws Shantae to Rotty...well, after she realized that Rotty was never really malicious, and just trying to connect with her the only way she knew how, she naturally started viewing her a lot more charitably. And it was with that fresh perspective that she started noticing a few things. Like, for instance, how adventurous Rotty is. Daring. Bold. Everyone else Shantae knows tends to think at least a little bit before they say something, but Rotty is never afraid to speak her mind. She is loud, outspoken, and everything Shantae can't - refuses, really - let herself be, and as someone who's always at least a little worried about presenting herself as an ideal hero, a shining beacon to look to and inspire, there's something very appealing about a girl who just. Doesn't give a shit about any of that. And what really did it for Shantae is just how outspoken Rotty is regarding her. Rottytops has seen some of the aspects Shantae views least charitably about herself, mainly her temper, and in spite of it all, Rotty sees the world in her - and as the queen of self-esteem issues (even if most of them were ironed out post-Pirate's Curse), there's something very awe-inspiring about that to Shantae. Especially as Rottytops became more of an ally, her mind just...she had to wonder. Consider the possibilities. Something about the prospect of getting closer to Rotty got her heart racing, and yet- Rotty would have said something if she felt the same, right? Did she really want to risk losing it all?
Then Seven Sirens happened, and as Shantae and her friends were heading home, her mind happened to wander back to the moment where she encountered "Fillin" in her cage, and without the stress of dealing with the Sirens getting in the way, she then properly processed...literally everything in that scene, and that was when it clicked for Shantae that, "oh. OH. I don't think either of us are normal about this, actually." That was what finally compelled Shantae to confess, because, well...even if she was wrong, after all the shenanigans Rotty went through to get in just because she thought she might not be invited, she was fairly certain a love confession wouldn't get her to leave. And she was right on that front! Very, very right.
Their exact relationship hasn't overtly changed that much on Rotty's end, it's just that Rotty's turned her more subtle flirting into something significantly more blatant. She loves showering Shantae with affection, both physical and emotional, both because she feels Shantae deserves more of it and because she enjoys how easy it is to fluster Shantae with her flirting. She's also made more of a habit to let Shantae in on her schemes, which Shantae appreciates since it helps avoid another Fillin incident - not to mention, it lets her help Rotty be more reasonable with her schemes, pull her back when she might be going too far or redirecting her efforts if she thinks they might be a bit much...and, on the occasion that one of Rotty's schemes is perfectly fine and harmless, give Shantae a chance to lend a helping hand. Never let it be said that she doesn't have a mischievous side to her.
As for Shantae, she doesn't have nearly as much dating experience as Rotty does, so while she'll gladly return the favor when it comes to giving her affection, she doesn't do it to quite the same frequency as Rotty does, at least in public - partially because some irrational part of Shantae's brain is worried about doing too much, partially because Shantae personally likes to be a bit more deliberate with her affection. When in private, however, she's willing to get very intimate in a way that Rotty's previous relationships have not prepared her for in the slightest. She'll hold her close, whisper sweet nothings in her ear, slowly run her hands through Rotty's hair and down her back...and, honestly, Shantae would be lying if she said that there wasn't any appeal in flustering Rotty just as much as she can fluster her.
Rottytops personally gets a bit thrilled about the idea of Shantae having a darker side to her - I mean, just look at her initial reaction to Nega Shantae in Friends to the End - and it's a subject that comes up rather frequently in her more wild fantasies. Though, if push were to come to shove...she fell in love with Shantae for her kind and caring nature, and ultimately, Rotty prefers Shantae as she is. Although she'd never publicly admit it. She has a reputation to maintain as a bad influence, after all! That being said, Shantae is a lot more willing to play ball than you might think, at least in private, and has a few ideas of her own that she'd be far too embarrassed to try with anyone else, much to Rottytops' delight.
The most anyone else knows about that last part is when, one time, Rotty was walking home with about two dozen obvious bite marks and a dopey smile on her face, and Sky felt the need to stop her because she was worried that Rotty had run into a pack of feral zombies. She did not understand why Rottytops burst out laughing until she brought it up with Shantae and the half-genie went about as red as her outfit, muttering that she didn't think it was THAT obvious...at which point, Sky resolutely decided to never ask about Shantae and Rotty's private life. Ever.
Sky/Bolo
Moving on to our OTHER main protagonists...Sky and Bolo, despite being the only two characters who actively pursue romantic relationships in the games, have somehow never caught on that a potential romantic relationship with the potential to fill both of their needs is right there, and I imagine it takes them a little while longer for either of them to catch onto that little fact yet...as in, several months after Shantae and Rottytops have officially begun dating longer. I internally like calling this ship "Three Feet in Front of You" after the famous Mulan bit of "You missed! How could you miss, it was three feet in front of you!", because if that isn't a perfect summary of their relationship up until they actually start dating, I don't know what is.
I'm not going to get into how they start dating because I have an entire fic about that - a fic which I really need to get to writing the other three chapters for at some point - but the tl;dr is that Rottytops, tired of waiting for them to get their heads out of their asses, decided to play matchmaker, and while said plan...didn't quite work the way she intended, it DID ultimately help get them together, albeit in a very roundabout way.
Both Sky and Bolo are bisexual. For Bolo, it was more of a quiet "huh" realization, with a very casual acceptance and slight change in lifestyle, but nothing particularly groundbreaking for him. Probably realized it before the events of the games, even. Sky, on the other hand...as I've said before, I imagine she was repressed for a WHILE on account of her parent's pressure, so she just assumed she was straight because she did experience attraction to men, and it wasn't like her parents would accept any other option. right? Or so she assumed. So, what exactly got Sky to realize she was bisexual? ...Rottytops. It was Rottytops. And that is a secret she fully intends on taking to her grave - no pun intended - because she knows Rotty would never let her live it down if she knew.
That being said, Rottytops was not Sky's first sapphic crush, at least beyond anything superficial. This is going to slightly spoil that fic I mentioned earlier whenever I DO get to finishing that second chapter, but that honor actually goes to Harmony - Rotty's plan to get Sky and Bolo together involved using Harmony to inspire jealousy in Sky, but what happened instead was that Sky quickly found herself to be incredibly attracted to the half-genie, and ended up asking her out. The relationship was short-lived, but they're on good terms, and Sky has entertained the idea of opening up her and Bolo's relationship and bringing Harmony in...but it'd take a while for her to bring up that possibility to Bolo, both because she'd want to get a good feel for what a stable, long-term relationship feels like before potentially shaking it up, and because Sky feels incredibly guilty about how she acted back then, even with Harmony being understanding, and it'd take a long time for that guilt to fade. Everyone agrees that Harmony was a significantly better choice than Barracuda Joe and Armor Baron, though.
Sky has a very specific type that pretty much all of her romantic endeavors fall under. She looks for someone who's...responsible. Someone grounded. Strong, both in a physical and metaphorical sense, someone she feels she can entrust her life to and be safe with. Barracuda Joe counted as a high-ranking lieutenant in the Ammonian Army who plays the straight man to Ammo Baron's over-the-top antics, Armor Baron...was at least able to act the part as a trusted authority figure in Armor Town up until he pulled out the rug from under her with his enchanted armor, Harmony goes without saying, and even if he can be a bit dense sometimes, Bolo was the one who taught Shantae how to fight, and he was shown to act as a babysitter for a bunch of zombie kids, so he can clearly be responsible if the situation calls for it. Bolo, meanwhile, is a lot less picky, more just looking for someone who appreciates him for who he is and doesn't automatically write him off as some meathead, and Sky is more than happy to oblige on that front.
Another criteria for Sky's romantic partners that Harmony accidentally introduced is "do Sky's birds like them?" Both Harmony and Bolo pass this criteria with flying colors, with Sky's birds absolutely adoring Harmony, and Bolo being the only human besides Sky who they trust and can really handle them. This has been a major relief for Sky, as she can often worry about how her birds are handling things without her whenever she leaves for an extended period of time, so having someone she can trust to keep an eye on them is...nice! Especially considering how both Shantae and Rottytops swear that Sky's birds are demons in disguise after one extended babysitting session. She had no idea they could get that agitated just from her not being there.
Sky and Bolo aren't the most physically affectionate couple, especially compared to Shantae and Rottytops, but that's more because they just show their affection in significantly different ways. For Sky, that comes in the form of meticulous planning, though she's thankfully toned it down to a much more reasonable level from the control freak/"planning their marriage after only a few hours" level of planning shown in Pirate's Curse. In Sky's eyes, the best way to show her love to Bolo is to give him the perfect date, or the perfect gift, and the level of planning and scheming she will do to achieve that is enough to impress even Rottytops. Bolo, meanwhile, is the more physically affectionate of the two, but for the most part his love tends to come in the form of gifts, whether it be traditional things like flowers and chocolates to the significantly less conventional when he puts his metalworking skills to good use. Sky actually finds herself more interested in the latter than the former, because Bolo's fairly good at doing metal sculptures - even if the finer details can escape him - and she's found herself far more entranced by the level of love and heart he puts into them than any of the traditional gifts she used to daydream about. It's a surprise for both of them, but it works.
Sky's always supported Bolo and helped with his insecurities, but now that she's DATING him, that support has become a lot more vocal. She's formed an unofficial alliance with Rottytops with the mutual sentiment of "if anyone talks shit about either of our partners we will beat them to death," and the intensity of this alliance is honestly a bit frightening for both Bolo and Shantae, but at the same time extremely flattering for both of them.
Risky Boots
This section is going to be a lot shorter than the other ones, because, well...I don't really ship Risky with anyone? And the amount of people she CAN be shipped with is very slim, especially considering that she is absolutely a lesbian in my mind and there is no budging on that front. It also doesn't help that romantic relationships require a lot of emotional vulnerability and getting Risky to be emotionally vulnerable in any capacity is like pulling teeth through a maze made entirely of knifes and trying not to get a single scratch. Buuuuuut, she IS the main antagonist of the franchise, and I have thought over a few options before, so getting into those now...
Risky/Empress Siren: AKA the "hand in unlovable hand" route. Noooooooot even remotely healthy for either party but it's definitely an option! In this case, I imagine the relationship springs up relatively naturally after Seven Sirens - Empress Siren survives, pulls herself together like I've described in my previous Siren headcanon posts...and at some point, her mind wanders to Risky. The treacherous pirate who hoodwinked her, keeping her just out of reach of pure ultimate power, and ultimately equally responsible for her downfall as that accursed half-genie...but. She's cunning, incredibly vicious, has a lofty ambition, and isn't exactly bad on the eyes, either - all of which are traits Empress Siren can admire and approve of. So, compared to Shantae, who she just actively wants dead, Empress views Risky both as a respectable and worthy rival AND as a potential romantic prospect. She either wants to kill Risky in a climactic battle or to have her as a consort when she launches her reign over the world; they're interchangeable to Empress, really, and either way she WILL openly flirt with Risky...though, exactly what Empress Siren considers flirting is not quite what most people would consider flirting.
Naturally, Risky is not at all enthusiastic about this, for a multitude of reasons - Empress Siren is vile even by her standards, she doesn't appreciate being viewed as some sort of prize, and she's still a bit pissed about the whole "stealing her body" stunt. Yes, she expected Empress Siren to betray her in advance and made sure to prepare properly, but she wasn't expecting it to happen it like THAT! ...But. As much as she hates to admit it, Empress Siren is a formidable opponent, and her twisted affections are one of the few weaknesses she can readily and easily exploit, so sometimes it's more practical to just suck it up and play into it, if only so she can get the upper hand. And if she has the occasional fantasy of a better world - one where Empress Siren isn't an egomaniacal ex-tyrant to make the Pirate Master proud, one where she's interested in Risky for who she is rather than what she has to offer her, one where Risky could, just maybe, have a partner who wouldn't be scared of her reputation or her many, many enemies, one who could keep up with Risky in a fight and on the sea, one who she could share her self-proclaimed throne as the Queen of the Seven Seas with? Well, that's none of Empress Siren's business. Even if sometimes those fantasies are the only way Risky can manage to lock lips with the siren without giving the game away. ESPECIALLY considering that, actually.
Risky/Giga Mermaid: If you want an actually HEALTHY relationship for Risky that's also at least somewhat feasible...Giga Mermaid. This sounds like a crack ship and I can't really blame you if you think that but let me explain my reasoning here. As I sorta went into near the end of the Risky/Empress Siren section there, on top of literally ALL the aforementioned issues I mentioned before, I imagine Risky would have a few...concerns about how her lifestyle would affect the life of any potential romantic partner. Empress Siren side steps all of those concerns and would be PERFECT if not for her entire personality being a red flag in and of itself, but Giga Mermaid also manages to avoid most of the concerns Risky would have. Intimidated by Risky's reputation? Well, she's giant, so I imagine that not a lot actually intimidates her to begin with, and besides that Risky saved Giga Mermaid in Pirate Queen's Quest, marking her as one of the few people Risky has actually been nice to and meaning she actually has reason to see Risky in a positive light. Risky's enemies? After Techno Baron kidnaps her twice, Giga Mermaid would definitely invest in better security, and with her size and at least some magic she can hold her own in a fight when she's actually thinking straight. Risky being at sea most of the time isn't an issue for someone who's naturally aquatic, either. The only real potential issue is how Giga Mermaid would react to Risky's ambition, as well as one on Giga Mermaid's side: her reputation as a ruler. Oh, and also how they would even meet up again, but I have that covered.
The way I'm envisioning this would start is fairly simple: Risky's out on the sea, figuring out her next plan after Seven Sirens, and she finds that resources on her ship are running low, so she elects to head to a nearby island for a quick and quiet supply run...only for Giga Mermaid to suddenly emerge from the water and stop the ship in its tracks. After a bit of outraged raving from Risky, Giga Mermaid very calmly explains that the island Risky's trying to head to is currently home to a secret but very IMPORTANT meeting between a bunch of major political powers, meaning that the island is currently armed to the teeth. That gets Risky to shut up real fast. Right now, that island is a death trap for any criminal there, let alone one so infamous as Risky. Even with a disguise she'd get figured out pretty quickly with so many on the look out for potential miscreants who might want to crash the party, and she can't exactly go on the offensive with her supplies being low...so Giga Mermaid gives her a simple offer: she'll give Risky that favor Risky insisted she owed her for saving her life back then, stowing Risky and her crew away somewhere secret and away from prying eyes until the meeting is done in a few days. It burns at Risky's pride a bit, but she really doesn't have any other option that ends in her favor, so she takes Giga Mermaid up on that offer.
Once Giga Mermaid settles her and the Tinkerbats in, Risky initially assumes that it's going to be a quiet couple of days without much to do, except...as the sun begins to set on the first day, Giga Mermaid shows up, done with the meeting for the day, and just. Talks to her. Initially she tries to ask about Risky in an attempt to understand her more, which naturally results in Risky dodging those questions like the plague, but the pirate ends up opening up more the second day when Giga Mermaid comes in steaming and vents about some of the politicians she had to deal with, inadvertently revealing more about herself in the process. This continues on as the days go by, with Risky gradually becoming more comfortable with Giga Mermaid, up until the sixth and final day of Risky's stay, where she can tentatively call Giga Mermaid a friend...and, possibly, a bit more in her dreams. But she's also sure it won't last. And when all the other political parties leave, and Risky is finally able to get her supplies, she bids Giga Mermaid what she assumes to be a final farewell, because she isn't giving up being the Queen of the Seven Seas for anyone, not even for royalty, and having a friendly relationship with a pirate has to be a breaking point for her, if just because of her reputation...only to abruptly have those assumptions thrown out the window when Giga Mermaid bluntly informs her that she doesn't care what wild assumptions people might make about her for hanging out with a pirate, and for that matter she isn't going to fight Risky on her ambition either.
Naturally, Giga Mermaid's blunt confession confuses Risky to the point where she gets right in her face and asks if she's lost her mind. Giga Mermaid admits that, while she does have a few issues with Risky's choice of career, she can acknowledge that Risky is her own woman and she can't exactly STOP her. She does, however, have one suggestion: speaking from her experience dealing with other politicians and her own royal court, there are quite a few corrupt nobles out there. Ones that people probably wouldn't miss if they were gone…and also happen to have quite the mass of wealth to their name. If Risky shifts targets from large towns to those few nobles, she'll get just as much, if not MORE than she did before, and still maintain her fearsome reputation as Queen of the Seven Seas without anyone questioning her too much. It'd just be that who fears her the most would be a bit, ah, shifted, is all. And…Risky has to admit that she raises a valid point. Incredibly valid, actually. Some could accuse her of becoming soft, sure, but those voices wouldn't be quite so bold with a sword at their throat. The only real potential protestor to all this would really be herself. And while that's not enough to sway her completely…Risky does say she'll think on it.
And so, the unlikely friendship carries on, albeit meeting in secret - more at Risky's insistence than Giga Mermaid's - with Risky gradually leaning more into morally gray territory rather than being an outright villain as she speaks more and more with Giga Mermaid, even if she'd never admit it. And then - it happens. Risky doesn't know what prompts it. Maybe it's being at sea with no one to interact but the Tinkerbats for a while, maybe it's the way Giga Mermaid laughs when she regales the queen with the tale of how she utterly humiliated a major noble - one who, coincidentally, happened to give Giga Mermaid a lot of trouble during that fateful political meeting - or maybe it's just because she's wanted to do it for a while, but during one of their meetings, Risky ends up kissing Giga Mermaid. Just a simple peck on the tip of the queen's nose, nothing more, but it's still enough to get Risky to freeze up, internally reprimand herself because what is she DOING, and immediately start barking out half-baked threats to keep Giga Mermaid from mentioning the incident to anyone…which all promptly fall short in the face of the surprised, but sly smile on Giga Mermaid's face. She wasn't EXPECTING for Risky to feel that way towards her, but she isn't complaining, and casually mentions that there's a spell she uses whenever she has to go to a political meeting not in her own kingdom, and therefore not built for her size, that she'd like to show Risky next time they meet. Confused, but mostly just relieved that Giga Mermaid isn't going to say anything, Risky agrees to see the spell. Cut to a few days later, when something suddenly stops Risky's ship. She instinctively looks around to see if she can spot Giga Mermaid…only to hear her clear her throat at a considerably quieter volume than usual. Risky turns around to see the Giga Mermaid at a more human size with the slightest of smirks and a raised eyebrow. Turns out, that's the spell - something that shrinks Giga Mermaid down to a more manageable size, if only for a few hours. And that's when she gives Risky another offer: a true, proper kiss this time. Risky takes the deal without any hesitation.
OKAY. Risky/Giga Mermaid scenario over. So, what relationship could possibly top that? …honestly, nothing; that scenario ended up being more intensive than I expected, but! Anyway, for the last Risky ship, I have one quick offering: Risky/Squidsmith. This one is definitely a crackship since the two haven't even interacted, but it IS pretty funny to me because, if you don't already know, I headcanon Squidsmith to be Bolo's mom, as detailed here. So the way I imagine this working is that Risky ends up walking into a bar where the Squidsmith is at after a long day of work. And in a brilliant moment that shows exactly where her son got his denseness from, she proceeds to not recognize Risky at all and casually flirt with her. Risky attempts to dissuade her, but Squidsmith is insistent, and eventually…Risky sighs, deciding to humor the woman and stay at her temporary home for her work for the night. And then that night goes very well for her, so when Risky happens to run into Squidsmith again…she a bit more easily persuaded this time. And the next time. And the next time. And the next time…and all the while, Squidsmith STILL doesn't connect the dots, and does not until word eventually spreads to Shantae via Bolo and she promptly realizes just who Bolo's mom has been dating. Naturally, hilarity ensues.
The Half Genies
So! Onto the half-genies! These four tend to be subject to the whole "whoever I ship is subject to whatever would be funniest" phenomenon the most frequently, since I don't really have any particular ships in mind for them. There's still more to talk about than Risky, though...which, uh, might not QUITE be the right thing to say considering how long that Risky/Giga Mermaid section ended up being. Hopefully I don't have to break up the list this time.
Starting with a half-genie I've already mentioned - and have notably more solid headcanons for - Harmony! I've only very briefly mentioned it before in a different post, but I firmly think she's asexual, though still open to romantic relationships of the sapphic variety. There's a certain level of irony to this because Harmony is also built like an Amazon, and there are a lot of people who find her attractive...and Harmony, through a combination of the aforementioned asexuality and just not having a lot of social interaction to go off of, has been completely oblivious to this up until recently. Up until she was used for the set up for Rottytops' plan to get Sky and Bolo together that ended up resulting in her briefly dating Sky, to be precise. It was her first experience being in a romantic relationship, and even if it wasn't exactly perfect by any stretch, Harmony still thinks of it fondly. If Sky were to approach her with the prospect of including her in Sky and Bolo's relationship, she'd be more than happy to say yes.
Harmony is actually fairly similar to Shantae when it comes to romantic relationships - she may be incredibly confident in herself, with a lot of experience in defending her town, being a leader, and keeping a calm and level-headed demeanor, but a romantic relationship is still a relatively new and exciting prospect for her, so she can be a bit nervous, especially in public settings. To be quite honest, though, she doesn't mind. It's actually part of the appeal of a romantic relationship to her, that she's so incredibly new to the whole thing and vulnerable in a way she normally isn't. Harmony takes her duties as a Guardian Genie very seriously, making herself a pillar of strength and self-confidence that others can look up to and depend on...but that doesn't mean that Harmony doesn't want some support herself, sometimes. And sure, with the Half-Genie festival she's gotten some friends who are more than willing to help in that regard, and she's very thankful for it, but- part of what appeals so much about a romantic relationship to Harmony is the prospect of someone who she can always trust to have her back when it all gets to be a bit too much. Someone she can trust to protect her at her weakest, and someone she can protect in turn. It's part of what made Sky so appealing to her - she'd heard how Sky helped Shantae through some of her lowest moments, and then seeing Sky with her birds, being so gentle and caring and kind...she may not have been the one to ask for a relationship, but she accepted it incredibly quick.
With all that being said, I, uh. Don't really have anyone I ship with Harmony besides the whole "did previously date Sky"/"would be open to a Sky/Bolo/Harmony polycule" thing. Like, I see a lot of people attracted to Harmony, sure, but not so much in a romantic relationship with her. In all honesty besides the polycule scenario I think Harmony's best romantic option would probably be a civilian? Which we don't really have any particularly stand-out examples of, so...yeah. I did have a fic idea for where Harmony strikes it up with that one zombie tourist girl NPC we see in Seven Sirens, though. Unfortunately I do not remember any of the details in the slightest so you'll have to get back to me on that one.
Getting to the other three...the two most prominent ships involving them are here are Zapple/Vera and Plink/Vera, and while I still don't plan on locking down a solid headcanon for which one I'd go with...I will say that, at least in the early days of the blog, I tended to lean more towards Zapple/Vera, but I have been seeing the appeal of Plink/Vera these days. So, getting into those ships now-
With Zapple/Vera, I imagine the dynamic doesn't really change much from the one I've given them as friends. Zapple is similar to Rottytops in that she can be a bit of a troublemaker, but whereas Rottytops just loves causing problems on purpose, in Zapple's case it's moreso because she has at least five different conspiracies in her head at all times and doesn't fear god. Vera's used to this just from knowing Zapple for so long, but dating her ratchets up the intensity somehow just because her dating ideas really aren't too different from the multitude of times she's gone "hey Vera you know what would be a cool idea" or went "Vera there's no time to explain we need to commit arson." You can never say a date Zapple plans is a dull one, that's for sure. But she's also a lot more...attentive to Vera than before. She's always known Zapple cares, willing to help her with any problem that arises and helping lift her spirits with her dry sense of humor and sheer enthusiasm, but now she pays attention to Vera's physical and mental health with the same paranoid intensity she gives her various conspiracies, declaring herself Vera's medic and fussing over the smallest things in a way that Vera finds both hilarious and heartwarming. As for Vera's side of things...again, it's similar to before, where she acts as a grounding presence for Zapple both in terms of her more adventurous ideas and her wild conspiracies, it's just that it's gotten notably easier - partially because Zapple is more willing to listen to her, and partially because Vera's found that any sort of physical intimacy makes Zapple's brain short circuit, and she's more than willing to take advantage of that if it keeps Zapple from staying up all night with a conspiracy board.
As for Plink/Vera...while the two might PHYSICALLY be far apart, when you have friends with teleportation magic, any given "long distance" relationship becomes a lot easier to manage, and this one would be no exception. Vera's taken a liking to showing Plink some of the natural wonders of Siren Island she never got around to seeing during her brief stay with the Half-Genie Fesitval, and seeing her eyes light up with delight at whatever Vera shows her is always worth a smile in her eyes. Plink, meanwhile, doesn't come up with the date ideas that often, but when she does, they're always spectacular. One particularly memorable moment in their relationship for both Plink and Vera is when Plink took Vera up a grassy hill late one night, refusing to elaborate what for to avoid spoiling the surprise, sitting her down, and then using her magic to let Vera see what was effectively the supernatural equivalent of an aurora borealis, with equally fantastical sights and colors to be seen. Both of them are also fairly physically intimate, with Vera being especially so when Plink is distressed, holding her close to calm her down. Meanwhile, Plink will give Vera hugs and hold hands with her often, but can be a bit nervous to take it beyond that. Doesn't mean she hasn't, though. Overall, just a particularly nice relationship...nothing crazy, but neither Vera nor Plink mind that at all.
Slightly breaking the mold and going back to Zapple here - ever since I've written my updated Siren headcanons post, which I linked earlier in Risky's section, one ship idea involving Zapple that showed up out of nowhere but has grown on me is Zapple/Octo Siren. Again, this makes more sense if you read that headcanon post, so I recommend you read that, but anyway…after all the Sirens are redeemed, I imagine Octo Siren just. Lives in Zapple's house now. They threw her in there when they kidnapped her for her own good, and she sees zero reason to leave after the fact. I stand by this regardless of whether they'd be in a romantic relationship or not, but it also happens to make for a great starting point for one! Because, as mentioned earlier, Zapple's brain short circuits with physical intimacy, and pretty much all of the Seven Sirens have zero sense of personal space. Which, well. Zapple DID catch onto that a bit with Lobster Siren, but she just figured that she didn't get out much and shrugged it off. It was only when the dust settled and everyone could let out a sigh of relief that she realized that, oh, no, they're all just like this. And now she's living with a girl that is not only fairly attractive, around her age, if a bit older - or at least the equivalent of that by Siren standards - and she shares a mutual understanding with, but also just...has a habit of casually draping herself over Zapple like she's a living lounge chair? Forget short circuiting, something in Zapple's brain has caught fire at this point and the fans are working overtime in a feeble effort to solve the issue while smoke blows out her ears.
Meanwhile, completely oblivious to Zapple's plight, Octo Siren...well. She has to admit, there's actually something of a romantic spark in her heart regarding Zapple, what with the softer side Zapple showed her that fateful night, the way she can relate to her mental struggles, the more wild side of her life that seems both a bit frightening and exciting at the same time...but, she also doesn't want to make the same mistake did with Shantae, even if the half-genie wasn't dating Rottytops at the time, and she's about...75% sure that Zapple and Vera are dating. So, Octo Siren doesn't say anything, intending to latch that romantic spark down, only to find it growing stronger and stronger until one day, she finally cracks a little and asks Zapple if she and Vera are dating. Whatever response she was expecting, it was not Zapple snapping her head over to Octo Siren and very bluntly informing her that Vera and Plink are dating, and also you have been driving me insane for the past three weeks for the love of god please date me.
Needless to say, after a lot of confusion and some explanations, the two ended up dating. Now with something of a proper sense of boundaries, Octo Siren has actually toned down how physical she is with Zapple, which is both a slight disappointment and a MAJOR relief because, as nice as all that contact and touching was, she also kinda needs her brain intact to do her job properly. Octo Siren will still drape herself over Zapple like she's a lounge chair, though, especially if she can tell Zapple's had a long day or that she's making a bad decision for herself - like, say, staying up all night to figure out conspiracies. Octo Siren doesn't have that many date ideas, but everything I said about Zapple's dates regarding the Zapple/Vera ship applies here as well, and while at first Octo Siren finds herself terrified...she also loves it a little? It does not take long into her and Zapple's relationship to become an adrenaline junkie, though thankfully one with more common sense, much to Vera's relief. Zapple is also equally attentive to Octo Siren, which is maybe a bit weird for her since she really hasn't anyone hovering over her like that in her life, but still rather flattering. Octo Siren has found that a good way to keep Zapple from committing to a bad idea - or just to receive a LOT of comfort after a particularly bad day - is to fake having a minor cold, and then watching as Zapple drops everything to help Octo Siren out.
Holly Lingerbean
Now, ending on a bit of a high note...Holly Lingerbean! Some of you are probably wondering WHY Holly in particular instead of, say, the Barons, but I went with Holly for three reasons: firstly, I am incredibly biased. Holly is one of my personal favorite Shantae characters just because she hits a lot of the right buttons for me. Secondly, there's only like two things to talk about for Holly, whereas with the Barons I'd probably have to break up their list twice just going off of Risky and the section with the half-genies. Thirdly, she's like half the reason I had the idea to write this PARTICULAR headcanon post in the first place, but I'll get to that in a bit.
Getting into the first ship, which long-time followers of the blog are probably expecting a bit...Holly Lingerbean/Nega Shantae! These two actually fairly consistently show up in my quotes as a couple, whether that be in a romantic sense or a platonic one, and, well...to be completely honest, I don't really ship the two romantically, it's just that: A.), Holly's like, one of the only few characters Nega Shantae could plausibly be interacting with besides the main four and Uncle Mimic, so it makes sense to put them together, and B.), like I mentioned before, Holly's one of my favorite Shantae characters, and she and Nega Shantae have a very interesting dynamic where, with Nega Shantae's over the top villainous personality, it's maybe one of the few times Holly can actually reasonably play the straight man, and obviously Nega Shantae can play the straight man to Holly just as well. So, in other words, this was mostly a pairing formed out of convenience that serves the actual gimmick of this blog pretty nicely...but, uh, again, I honestly don't ship them that seriously. I DO think they could work as a couple, but I'm personally not that invested in figuring out the specifics. I imagine they'd give off old married couple vibes, i.e. Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in the Looney Tunes Show.
Now, to the main event...some of you are probably aware of the Holly redemption AU I have going on with Living Memoir, though I haven't really added to it beyond that initial fic. But that's hardly for lack of trying! I've had plenty of ideas for it, some of which have shown up in other places - hell, the thing about Giga Mermaid having a spell to shrink herself down to a more normal size is actually from one of those fic ideas - and when it got around to pride month last year...well. I ended up having an idea. An idea completely out of left field, mind you, but one that seemed only captivating, so I mused on it. And mused on it. And then I mused on it a bit too hard, and it has been driving me insane ever since, DOUBLY so after I did my updated siren headcanon post and my brain was filled with ideas anew. But I have had approximately no place to really talk about it...until now, when I wrote this headcanon post specifically talking about couples. So, without further ado - Holly Lingerbean/Lobster Siren! ...I swear I can make this make sense
I'm not going to go too much into how they meet because I DO plan on writing that fic at some point, but to make a long story short - Shantae teleports to Siren Island with Holly, still early on in her path to redemption, in order to talk with Zapple and Vera and figure out where Harmony is, since she figures Harmony would be the best mentor for helping Holly expand her magical repertoire beyond...existing, and also messing with memories. Holly, meanwhile, doesn't really care too much about all that jazz, and just wants to get a tan...or at least act like she's getting one. But, as she manages to set herself up in a resort and get out the tanning board, she happens to spot someone out of the corner of her eye - Lobster Siren, currently hiding the best she can and spying on her. Vaguely knowing who she is from Shantae's brief rundown and not really having any thoughts about Lobster besides "huh, she's kinda cute now that I see her in person," Holly asks if she can get the waiting staff so she can order a drink. When Lobster doesn't respond, Holly remembers that she doesn't speak English, and considering her silent nature, opts for sign language instead. She is beyond pleased with herself when she gets a response, Lobster Siren asking in sign how she knows that - ha, success! - only for that pleasure to promptly shatter into a million pieces as she's informed that the particular sign language she's speaking is several centuries out of date.
Legitimately distressed from this news, as taking the time to learn that language to speak to the deaf and mute was one of the few achievements about herself she could still hold high, Holly does what she deems to be the most healthy and normal method of dealing with this issue and very quickly speedwalks away from the problem, ignoring Lobster Siren's cry of concern. This seems like a perfect plan up until Lobster Siren, very quickly fed up with being ignored, teleports directly in front of Holly and physically holds her in place so she can get her to stand still and tell her what's wrong. Because, with Lobster Siren...well. She'd been intending to avoid Holly - first impression spotting her arrival with Shantae a biiiiiiiiit too similar to Empress Siren for her tastes - but now that she's actually interacted with her...there's clearly something different going on here. Empress Siren only bothered learning the language of the surface to better convey her superiority to them, while Holly, as rude as she might have been at first, clearly learned sign language to actually TALK to people considering her reaction. So, beyond feeling a bit guilty for inadvertently causing Holly distress, Lobster Siren wants to take the time to understand Holly better - both how she knows a language lost to time, and how she is as a person. Holly, meanwhile, had pretty much all of her thoughts leave the room as soon as Lobster Siren grabbed her by the wrists and looked at her with that intense gaze, as her status of "mildly interested" very quickly spiraled into "down atrocious," and it goes from there.
Holly is a similar case to Zapple where physical intimacy makes her brain go blank, only with the main difference that she has not had any kind of physical intimacy for a good few centuries, so it is notably worse. Less touch starved and more touch drought. Also, since Holly's not the best at reading people and Lobster is not the best at communicating, for a good while Holly completely misinterpreted Lobster's complete lack of personal space as her being physically possessive, which, ah...really, only made Lobster Siren that much more attractive to Holly. As big as her ego is, it's all mostly hot air, so the idea of someone finding her valuable, someone treating her as important and worthy, even if she's not busy being a hero or a showman or whatever and just being HOLLY? To the point of them physically pulling her close, as if to say "back off, she's mine?" Oh, that gets Holly's heart racing and her brain to melt out her ears. Even when the misconception is cleared up, her immediate first thought is "okay I know you aren't actually like that and that's fine but maybe you could act like you are? for me? please? pretty please?" And Lobster Siren...is actually completely fine with that, since, as previously established, all Lobster Siren did for Holly to think that was act as her usual, lack of personal space self, so she just...deliberately does that afterwards. And Holly loves it.
As for Lobster Siren's end…she's not down as bad as Holly is, but once Holly does tell her exactly how she feels? She can't help but love her back. For one thing, Holly's one of the few people she knows who isn't either frightened of her - i.e., most of Siren Island's tourists - or babies her, and instead just…treats her with respect like an actual adult. Sure, the two aforementioned groups are getting better at that, but Holly did it right from the start and has no intention of stopping. It also helps that, even if Holly's not the best person in the world by a long shot, she is willing to try and get better, which is very admirable in Lobster's eyes. And, what ultimately ends up sealing the deal for Lobster Siren, at least when it comes to turning their friendship into an actual romance, is just how deep Holly's devotion is for her. How much Holly wants to be with her, how much she sees in her that, honestly, Lobster Siren doesn't see in herself most days, how she is 100% willing to spend the rest of her life with her, without hesitation, and without regret. It's frankly surprising how devoted Holly is to Lobster, but she finds it very sweet...if not mildly concerning at times. Again, down atrocious. Once, Holly described an elaborate fantasy she had of Lobster Siren within minutes of them first meeting to her, of her dragging Holly down to the depths and then showing her all the incredible underwater sights, holding her close to make sure she doesn't fall into the abyss of the sea, scaring off any undersea predator that dared draw near, and Lobster politely waited for her to finish before interjecting with a concerned [So did you forget the part where you need to breathe?] in sign, to which Holly went, "Huh? Oh, no, I'm a memory; I don't actually have to breathe if I want to. Why? Are you interested?"
Holly may not be much of a physical fighter, but if you cause Lobster Siren distress in any way, well...she can certainly verbally eviscerate you, and she is damn good at it, what being a former villain and all. Shantae, Bolo, and Lobster Siren are all quietly relieved that Sky and Rottytops don't like Holly enough to include her in their unofficial "if anyone talks shit about our partners we beat them to death" alliance. They fear what the world would look like if they did.
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you've been writing a lot about parentified Mike lately, and while I appreciate it, from a story perspective I just don't understand why.
Maybe its just because I'm an elmike truther, but it really doesn't make sense to me why they would put such an unpleasant aspect into their friendship or romance when they could have just had her upset at him over Max's death or not sharing interests? With steve and nancy they broke up over barb and nancy wanting something else which made of sense without making steve "parent" her. idk. Maybe you're the wrong person to ask lol I'm just thinking out loud
I mean. Maybe I'm not the best person to give insight into why the duffers do what they do, but I can give why I think they did it?
Forewarning: this got really long, apologies lmao
Honestly (and take this from an out-of-universe perspective): I think they're fully aware of the strangeness of El as a character, and how she has a lot of narrative/personal "growth needs" that other characters don't just by nature of her background. She even from the pitch is referred to as "the outsider," and all of her arc, not just the romantic one, has been centered around finding a 'home' in the world, on top of finding the family she lacked before.
This, I'm almost certain, is why she always ends up on different paths than every other person she interacts with—she started with almost no sense of self as an individual, which means a sense of "self" has to be built and discovered (and remembered) for El in a way it already has been for our other characters. Max, Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas—all of them have interests and desires, a sense of family (good or bad), know what they enjoy, and are evolving as they go along...but El didn't at the start of ST beyond lab trauma, which is why The Duffers have centered almost all of her character growth since then around discovering where she came from & who she wants to be.
With Mike though...there is an entirely different set of relational and character needs that have to be addressed. With Mike, the main struggles he has (from the pitch, again) are with insecurity, his belief that a girl will resolve that insecurity, his feeling valueless unless he can do something for the people he loves (almost like 'earning his place' in their lives) and his (almost certain) queerness...combined with how he is, at the end of the day, just another "everyman" guy.
Unlike El, Mike has some sense of personhood, his own established friends and interests and a home—but he doesn't feel like he has a place he's intrinsically appreciated, because (for whatever reason) he feels who he is inherently inadequate. Its why every season (and every time we hear Finn dig a little into Mike's character) we hear about Mike trying to serve others and "feel needed again," despite being hesitant to let them in—he desires unconditional acceptance, and to be valued for who he is inherently...while also being terrified to let people in enough to see him (lest his core identity be rejected).
When Mike and El were just friends, it was easier to sort them out as some version of "equals;" we all have friends who are in different life phases than us, or who have different needs we're trying to walk alongside as they try to meet them, which is why their friendship is cute in S1. With actual romantic partners though, we introduce an element of "trying to get your needs met" with the person you're most closely involved with...and for Mike and El, that means blending "a nebulous sense of self and desire to find an identity + family" with "a desire to have a girl fill a sense of inherent unworthiness," which, as most of us can see, leads to disaster.
Basically: From the snowball onward, writing romantic mlvn meant exploring what happens when you mix what El is looking for with what Mike tries to do to feel valued...and The Duffers have decided (rightfully, I think) that this means Mike is going to (consciously or not) move towards becoming the things El lacks to "become valuable," aka: protection from the "bad men," someone who is able to keep her safe from them, and...someone who can help her fill her needs for home + family, even though he is dramatically under-equipped at all of 12-15 to meet that task.
Because (especially s4) one of El's core needs has become a healthy father figure and found family, Mike is going to move toward behaving that way to be valuable...which means he's going to inadvertently conflate himself with the men who have also placed themselves in that role: Hopper and Brenner. It also means that Mike is going to feel that same "my child is leaving the nest" energy when El "grows up" and into herself as a wholly independent entity—which is why we see him say as much to Will in the van before the painting—
—and why it sometimes seems like El is almost "rebelling" against Mike as much as she has Hopper and Brenner over the seasons.
To your point though: all of this is inherently different from Steve and Nancy...because both Steve and Nancy had that sense of individual identity that El lacked at the start of the show. There was no space for a "parental" aspect to enter their romance in that sense—it was just two people who were incompatible, which is why they failed. Similarly, if Mike and El would have started the romantic part of their relationship at end of S4 points of the narrative—or even end of S3, after El had a second to come into her own with Max—things would have been a lot different for them, I think.
Only...that's not what happened, and...not how they're resolving Mike's insecurity about being inherently valuable. They broke Mike and El down romantically vis a vis this "she's looking for herself and he's trying to fill his own void with her" track, and then gave Will the entirety of the hand to soothe Mike's deepest fears instead, which is why Mike and El will break up and Mike will end up with and around Will more, because Will knows Mike’s heart and sees Mike as an equal even with his flaws...and loves him for it. 🤷🏽♀️
(There are also (in my opinion) fundamental thematic reasons they were working toward as reason why they wrote even the breakdown of mlvn that way (the themes of rejecting forced conformity, found family, and even embracing your love for things other people might think are childish are served by this "version" of the Mlvn to Byler transition) but. I can see why someone wouldn't like it if they were attached to Mike and El being close anyway lmao).
Anyway! I hope...that helps? Honestly that's just how I've come to understand it, and hope that offers some sort of solace or explanation. Its what makes the most sense to me anyway (lol).
Regardless, thanks for the ask! :)
#anti mlvn#elmike#stranger things#byler#mike wheeler#el hopper#st analysis#my st commentary#st writing#asks#the me tag#duffer brothers#the come back tag
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headcanons: Luke Skywalker and a mentally ill reader🫂🩵
A/N: I received several requests for Luke with a reader that struggles with their psychological health and decided to do one big post instead of three small ones.
Since I'm heavily affected myself I have a hard time talking about it, meaning this will be shorter than what I usually do; thank you for understanding <3
Nevertheless it's an important topic that shouldn't be ignored so here we goooo
Luke comforting you when you're afraid of being a bad Jedi due to your mental illness
• like I often mention, Luke always has an open ear for you
• I think he's especially understanding when you tell him you struggle with your personal image as a Jedi
• because in a similar way Luke often worries about this as well
• is he doing the right thing? Did he make the right choices? He doesn't know
• more often than not he wishes for Obi-Wan or Yoda to be with him still, to guide him
• his insecurities might stem from a different place than yours but in many ways you are able to draw parallels
• just like you he's afraid of not being good enough
• I think he'd let himself be really vulnerable in sharing this with you, hoping that it makes you feel less alone
• he doesn't want you to think you are in any way failing him or yourself
• most importantly though he wants to prevent you from thinking he's without faults
• he wants to give you an opening to relax, to show you that it's going to be okay as long as you're genuinely trying your best
• he does his best and is he not doing a good job?
• he wants to relieve you of the burden of perfectionism
• both of you are human and that is very much okay
• additionally the both of you don't have much information about what a Jedi should or should not be and while that certainly makes things harder, it can also mean a new beginning
• Luke spends a lot of time thinking about the principles and teachings he wants to pass along to a new generation of Jedi
• and I think a big part of that would be to embrace one's nature and being as they are
• some things can't be changed, it's the will of the Force
• in this regard he is big on following his senses and his heart and how could you ever be a bad Jedi if he sees so much goodness in you?
• while it may be hard to see for yourself, Luke will do his best to show you that your personal struggles don't equal being a failure
• mental illness isn't a flaw that makes you less capable or less intelligent
• you are not your mental illness
• it doesn't define you as a person even though it often times feels like it
• he will list many wonderful character traits of yours, trying to convey how others may see you
• he retells situations where you were able to overcome or even use your struggles in order to help another person
• you are allowed to be yourself and he's glad to have you by his side
• he values your opinions and insights
• in many ways you are able to view certain aspects from a totally different point
• with your unique experiences you are able to offer comfort to those in similar situations better than Luke ever could
Not wanting to burden Luke with your trauma
• Luke is familiar with the notion of keeping ones struggles to oneself
• especially when it's done out of consideration for others
• I don't think you'd manage to hide your mental state from him though, not post ROTJ and not when you're force sensitive as well
• he might have been rather blind to his surroundings earlier on, but has long grown past it
• of course he respects if and when you want to open up at all and will put no pressure on you to tell him anything whatsoever
• however I think he prefers his family and friends to be outspoken about how they're feeling
• not only does he want to help but is also aware that it's only going to get worse over time otherwise
• he knows what can happen when one gets lost in an endless maze of the same recurring thoughts
• to be able to realease something into the Force, to let it go, one has to confront it
• how this is done varies for each person though
• you know best where your trauma stems from and only you know what you are able to take on in order to leave it behind
• as much as Luke would love to be able to simply tell you what to do, he can't
• it's a journey everyone has to go on for themselves
• he'll want to be your company though
• Luke is happy to let you take your time
• if the possibility to retreat is important to you, it's what you get
• he wants your healing to come from a place of security and with the knowledge that he's there to catch you when you're not able to do so on your own
• still he remains firm in his believes and will tell you so
• nobody said it was easy, he knows for a fact it isn't and he is ready to be by your side when you are
• depending on your relationship he might give you gentle nudge in the right direction or, alternatively, a kick in the butt if that's what you need
• he won't stand by and watch you destroy yourself
Dilf!Luke realizing you're not doing well mentally
• since he always has his eyes on you, he can tell when something is just a little bit different
• depending on how well you're able to hide your mental condition though, it possibly takes him a while
• unlike is child he can't be around you all the time and during your car rides home the both of you don't talk
• maybe he realizes how tense you grow when a member of your family contacts you
• maybe he overhears parts of a conversation either when you have to take their calls or when you talk with your friend
• I think he'd ask his child if everything's okay with you
• he doesn't want to seem overbearing or like he's invading your privacy
• since they are your best friend they wouldn't tell him any details but maybe mention you're struggling
• again it depends on you as a person
• are you open about your mental health or not?
• if not they will lie for you
• otherwise they know what they can share without revealing too much
• after all it's your decision what you want others to know
• either way he's worried
• he will offer his help right away
• if you need someone to talk to, he's there
• he's not a professional of course but he'll listen! A second perspective can change a lot!
• the house is easily big enough for one more person, he doesn't mind you staying for the night or a few more
• you can always come over when you need space or a place to rest
• he'll look after you
• have you thought about moving out?
• are you making enough money to be independent?
• are you seeing a therapist?
• "Dad please calm down, I can't tell them you said any of this!"
• your friend will give you a watered down version of what happened because they're kinda afraid that you'll be creeped out by Luke's behavior
• you aren't
• in fact there's nothing you want more than for Mr. Skywalker to take care of you
• he may ask you about it himself once you are better acquainted
• if you're comfortable enough to drop a comment or two he definitely catches on to them
• you are welcome to celebrate the holidays with him and his child, you know?
• he's sure they would be more than okay with it too
• it's your choice of course but he'd be happy to have you
#ask#asks#luke skywalker#luke skywalker x reader#luke skywalker x you#luke skywalker fanfiction#star wars#luke star wars#star wars fanfiction#star wars headcanons#star wars a new hope#star wars empire strikes back#star wars return of the jedi#dilf luke#dilf luke skywalker#luke headcanons#fanfic
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Out of curiosity, why are you anti feminist? your whole set up here is kind of odd to me but this specifically baffles me (not out of hate or anything, just genuine ‘what is happening here’ energy). Feminism is just the supporting of gender equality so I don’t understand
-sincerely, some random feminist dude on the internet
Also, I hope your father is okay
Regarding my dad--thank you. The masses turned out not to be cancerous and he had his surgery and is all good now!
Onto the rest:
I'm curious what you mean by your whole set up here is kind of odd to me. Why is it odd?
Feminism is just the supporting of gender equality so I don’t understand
That may be what it technically means, but how people are upholding the movements makes me question it. And I'm not the only one. While I don't view all feminists negatively, I think quite a few have this distorted view of what equality is.
First off, I disagree that feminism as a movement cares about men's issues as much as they claim to. That's not to say that feminists as a whole don't care, because there are those that do and that's great. But they'll often say that feminism is for men too, that they've done more for men's rights than the men's rights movement has, etc. But then they'll immediately contradict this. Consider the reaction that you'll see if men's issues are brought up. If you don't have a problem with it, then you shouldn't be getting angry. But that's what happens. We're told that women suffer more on X issue (whether that is true or not, because sometimes the research is skewed) so they should be our priority. We're also told that it's not a woman's job to fix men and their issues. But that's not what majority of us, I'd say, are seeking. I know I want acknowledgment of these issues. I want there to be less hypocrisy and double standards. I don't think that's too much to ask for.
There's far too much pushback against criticism and questions. Now granted, this may not represent everyone's experiences and I get that. But it's been mine and it's something I've seen on various posts online. I understand that they probably get plenty of questions that are not in good faith, they probably get plenty of assumptions too. I get that. I've dealt with that as well. But there can't be this unwillingness to engage with people unless they agree with you. There can't be an unwillingness to answer questions because you* think it's not your job to educate them. You have to understand how that looks. It looks like you can't properly articulate your point, it looks like you don't have much of a point and it weakens your group and what you stand for.
There's a lack of accountability. I know that with a movement as big as this, it's not something that can be easily wrangled up and fixed. I'm not looking for perfection. What am I looking for more feminists to acknowledge the problems within the feminism movement. Oftentimes, this doesn't happen. I'm told that I simply do not understand feminism and what it's truly about. If I give an example of something that I find to be a problem, I'm usually told those aren't "real feminists." That just feels like a huge cop out. You can't just say that those people aren't feminists because it doesn't erase what's happening. It doesn't erase the terrible things they say. It doesn't erase what we're seeing on those social media pages. Those people will still see themselves as feminists. They'll still keep saying what they're saying while packaging it as feminism. Instead of trying to pretend that they're not part of the movement, there should be more effort in trying to combating that. Speak up. Speak up against the hypocrisy (example: body shaming is bad but penis shaming is different because with how you're acting, you probably have a small penis so it's okay. Or denying it altogether by claiming that only men care about their size).
I want to go back to my first point-I didn't want to make it too long. Men are told conflicting things about their own issues. They'll be told that if they want X issue to be discussed then they need to go make their own post instead of expecting feminists to do it. Okay, so they make their own post but suddenly that's not alright either. That's taken as a sign that they don't care about women's issues. For example, by talking about false accusations, you don't care about actual rape victims or you see all women as liars. That isn't true. And while I don't believe that false accusations occur as little as 2%, 2% isn't zero. There are still men that are suffering and having their lives turned upside down by those accusations. They don't simply cease to happen just because you don't talk about them. Talking about false accusations don't hurt rape victims. False accusations hurt rape victims.
I could go on. But I think this is enough. I hope this answers your question, though I can elaborate further if you wish
*I don't mean you. I just mean in general
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Sailor Moon Thoughts - i know i'm 10yrs late but Crystal's not that bad actually
so i recently got back into sailor moon
grew up on the english dub 90s anime (watch the jpn sub in 9th grade)
had only read the manga once in the past and that was in college; however i just recently bought the first 2 volumes of the collector's edition (just finished V2 actually!)
but this is my first time watching Crystal (mostly bc when it was first coming out there was so much backlash and hate and it made me turn away from it)
now that i've read volumes 1&2 and watched S1 i gotta say...when compared to the manga Crystal's honestly not that bad and i'd say overall pretty faithful
Spoilers for Sailor Moon Crystal!
Usagi and Mamoru
first thing's first! mamoru's age is fixed! fucking yay!
in both the manga and crystal he's a 16yr old 2nd year high school kid! not a 1st year college student dating at 14yr old little girl! he and usagi compliment each other and it really shows in crystal imo
90s-SM fleshes out this couple individually more in the first season and i'm in love with that and they have some really sweet moments and i still ship it ofc i do BUT the age difference got so iffy and squeakable for me when watching again as a grown ass adult!
some of usagi's emotional intelligence is downplayed and she sometimes comes off as even younger than she is and that makes the ship feel uneven and i just keep thinking "there he goes off with his child bride 👋🏽" and it really doesn't help that they animated mamoru looking so much older and acting like a mature 20-something (even tho yes, he's closer to 18 but an 18yr old dating a 14yr old is still so squeakable to me)
the manga is where this ship thrives and it's more believable that they fall for each other especially bc they're on more equal footing but crystal adds in a scene in S1 that i personally love that's when sailor moon and tuxedo mask are fighting zoisite toward the middle of the season (before venus shows up)
i'm massively paraphraseing but in this scene usagi doesn't just tell but shows mamoru through her tears and pained expression that she understands he's deeply lonely and that it hurts her, she doesn't want that for him, she wants to do everything in her power to make sure he never feels that way again
and mamoru tells her that SHE is everything he wants and he doesn't need a magical stone to find out who he is and where he belongs not when she's standing beside him bc her strength and kindness are inspiring and he's not afraid or lonely when around her
"i won't let you be alone anymore" / "seeing your strength makes me so happy" couples are my downfall and this scene cracks me right open
and this is BEFORE they regain their memories i'm fucking dead!
5/5🌙
English Dub
i vaguely remember ppl shitting on the English dub of Crystal and yes i watched it in Japanese first but the English dub is actually really great?! especially when compared to the 90's English dub!! i love Usagi's VA and i think all the voices match the characters pretty well
4.5/5🌙
The Transformations and Character Designs
okay so those 3D transformations are bad
the animation is really jarring at first and yeah it's not good i don't like it but after a while you just sort of...idk get used to it and it's not a make-or-break thing imo now did the 90s anime do it better? fuck yeah! but by the end of the season i just felt meh about them and barely cared
1/5🌙
i remember the character designs getting A. LOT. of hate and yeah i agree that they are too sharp and angular and that the manga was more a cross between the 90s and crystal character designs - but that's another thing you get used to and also doesn't that get fixed later?
plus idk i kind like that both animated versions each take one end of the spectrum with the manga in the middle 🤷🏾♀️
2/5🌙
The Big One
okay now the big one - the supposed past love between the 4 heavenly kings and the inner planet guardians that wasn't in the manga and definitely not in the 90s version where these guys are handled more interestingly
i think this subby-subplot that's not even really a subplot is stupid and doesn't amount to anything and doesn't actually make a ton of sense if earthlings and...and moonlings being together is forbidden the serenity had to SNEAK AWAY to see her earth prince and it does sort of take away some of the tragedy that is serenity and endymion's doomed love
like i was going "what was the point of that" when the kings all die and the sailor girls are weeping for 2secs before getting back to busniess and i get wanting to expand more on all 8 of these characters, but that's not how you do it - 90s-SM expanded on these characters better because plot points were stretched out and we got to know the characters more slowly over a longer period of time (plus 2 of the kings were lovers! that's cute as hell!!)
basically this whole thing was shoved into the story last minute with very minimal build up barely any conclusion and it's really uninteresting
0.3/5🌙 (only bc venus dropping a few hints every few episodes was done well enough-ish but it was still stupid in the end and shouldn't have been included the way it was)
Conclusion
even with that though crystal still isn't that bad - overall it's actually pretty good and i love experiencing the manga coming to animated live
the OST is beautiful! and even tho NOTHING tops the 90s theme song that crystal usamamo love theme is fucking gorgeous 😍 in fact all the music in crystal is top teir imo
i do miss the focus on the female friendship tho and kinda wish crystal took some of that 90s-SM female friendship focus BUT 90s-SM just had so much more time to work with and at the end of the day SM is a romance so i understand why the anime adapting the manga more closely focused on the romance more heavily (and that usamamo scene i talked about above is still so. damn. good!)
anyway if you're like me and didn't bother watching crystal bc the hate and backlash when it first came out i say give it a try
it's still cute and still sailor moon and so far it's getting a 4/5🌙
i'll probably do another one of these when i finish S2 (jon and eng) and the volumes it adapted
#sailor moon#sailor moon crystal#pretty guardian sailor moon#usagi tsukino#mamoru chiba#prince endymion#king endymion#sailor mars#sailor mercury#sailor venus#sailor jupiter#sailor moon manga#sailor moon anime#sailor moon analysis#manga analysis#anime analysis#rei hino#minako aino#sailor moon thoughts#manga#anime#90s sailor moon#sailor moon 90s#sailor moon 2014#anaylsis#my post#mine#bishoujo senshi sailor moon#bssm#pretty soldier sailor moon
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Priority Research 7 Predictions - Northern Parliament
Hoo boy, let's get this one over with. This one is going to be a long, long post.
As established in the Dragon Empery post, I will attempt to predict their possible skills as well based on their World of Warships gimmicks.
The thing is, the Soviet navy has a lot of made-up warships in World of Warships.
Let's begin with cruisers, since they're gonna take the longest to get through. There is a chance some of these ships end up being gacha units in the future, though; although with different names.
Pyotr Bagration
Pyotr Bagration is a Tier 8... cruiser. With 180mm guns, she classifies as a light cruiser; however, her 180mm guns have insane ballistics that make them hit harder than a lot of other heavy cruisers, even Tallinn.
Bagration is based off of Project 65, specifically one of the largest draft for Project 65, which is equipped with 3 triple 180mm gun turrets and a 15k ton displacement.
Unlike basically every Soviet cruiser from Tier 8 and above, she does not have access to radar. Her speed is high, but her general maneuverability isn't that good. I genuinely can't figure out a skill for her, but she's an option for a PR.
Ochakov
I like comparing Ochakov to Mainz in terms of performance. Ochakov is a light cruiser equipped with fast-firing 152mm guns in dual turrets. Compared to Mainz, she has worse armor, worse alpha damage, and worse DPM; but has an overall better AA and access to radar. Also, in WoWs, I think Ochakov is prettier. Not applicable in Azur Lane of course.
Her skills could involve something related to her fire rate, allowing her to fire faster; or a skill that allows her to detect all enemies and make them more susceptible to damage. Or something.
Dmitri Donskoi
Alright, I don't have much to say about Donskoi. She's literally a bigger Pyotr Bagration; she gets access to radar and a fourth triple 180mm turret with slightly worse reload (12.5s for Donskoi and 11s for Bagration). As a Tier 9 ship, she naturally has more health than her predecessors.
Both Donskoi and Bagration are equally as likely, and both are PR material.
Riga
Not only does she have a cool name (Riga seems like a very pretty city), she's also an interesting ship. Her alpha damage ('alpha damage' being the damage she can dish out in one salvo) is brutal with nine 220mm guns, although her turret traverse time resembles more a battleship than a cruiser (32.7 seconds to turn 180º. Soyuz's gigantic 406mm turrets are faster at 30s for 180º).
Riga is not very stealthy, nor very maneuvrable. However, she is a bit of a grandmother to the Stalingrad, which we'll see below in a second.
Riga's gimmick in AL could make her do vastly improved damage with AP guns, or make her outright ignore stuff like medium armor. If that's too broken for AL or not is above me. Both Riga and Donskoi could be PRs, tho.
Alexander Nevsky
Now onto the three possible DR cruisers.
Nevsky is a unique HE spammer. HE spamming is, as the name implies, spamming High Explosive; a tactic many kinds of ship can perform very effectively (Harbin, for example, is a dedicated HE spammer in WoWs). However, Nevsky trades damage per minute for alpha damage.
Her reload of 6 seconds is not bad at all, however, much better ships exist for the task - Jinan's reload is 3.5 seconds, and she has 4 more guns. However, Jinan has weak, pathetic, American 127mm guns; while Nevsky has glorious, patriotic Soviet 180mm guns. These eight 180mm guns are considerably better than those found on Tallinn, Bagration or Donskoi.
To top it all off, she has access to the usual convo of radar + hydroacoustic search, meaning she can find you no matter what.
Her skills could involve a much improved damage output or fire chance for HE guns, and a skill that allows her to instantly detect submarines the moment they appear, or similar. DR material.
Petropavlovsk
There was some controversy the moment Petropavlovsk was introduced as a replacement for the previous Tier 10 heavy cruiser (Moskva), as both ships share the same gun calliber of 220mm, but Petropavlovsk's shells do almost as much damage and have almost the same penetration values as Bismarck.
Bismarck is not the best Tier 8 battleship, of course. But Bismarck is a battleship, Petropavlovsk is a cruiser. And her reload of 14 seconds means this cruiser that has 1 more gun than Bismarck and almost the same values as Bismarck could have almost twice the damage per minute of poor old Bismarck (Bismarck's reload is 26 seconds).
That should tell you a lot already.
Petropavlovsk is a "heavy cruiser", the same way Ägir or Alaska are "heavy cruisers". Her guns are insane, and the ship has a very good armor scheme as well. Since she sits so low above the water, it's harder to hit her from a distance - your shells will hit the waves before they touch her hull, losing momentum. She's fast too, although her concealment is... well, she can be seen from 16.3km away (base values). Kremlin (remember that name) can be seen from 16.5km, and she's considerably bigger than Petropavlovsk.
Stalingrad
Known as 'Battlecruiser Stalingrad' by the WoWs community, Stalingrad is a Tier 10 Soviet heavy cruiser armed with nine 305mm guns.
They're legitimately one of the best 305mm guns in the whole game. Mecklenburg, a German Tier 10 battleship with sixteen 305mm guns, deals considerably less damage per gun than Stalingrad.
Typical of Soviet heavy cruisers, Stalingrad's high explosive is pathetic while her armor piercing is beyond excellent. Stalin himself guides each projectile with an unnatural accuracy, his hand reaching from beyond the grave to ensure Stalingrad's shells land on the target.
Stalingrad could be a large cruiser meant to spam AP, dealing raw damage to anyone that crosses her path. All her skills could be self-buffs, as the ship is very egocentric in WoWs.
Borodino
Now onto the battleships. There's only 3 so this should be quick.
Borodino is a weird design. Vodka was involved.
She takes the Richelieu approach of only having front-facing turrets. Borodino is equipped with two triple 406mm gun turrets, the same one found on the Sovetsky-Soyuz class. They are above average in terms of accuracy, earning her the nickname of "tier 8 Stalingrad". In my own personal experience, they're very (literally) hit or miss.
Borodino has a radar, though. That's unique among battleships, with only 2 other ones having radar to the best of my knowledge (Missouri and Constellation).
Borodino is a tank. She is best played around islands, bow-in. Her small superstructure and large, well protected bow, as well as front-facing turrets; means Borodino is perfect for bow tanking at Tier 8.
She's PR material for sure, but she could be an interesting PR.
Navarin
I'm torn about Navarin.
On the one hand, Navarin could easily be DR material. She's unique among all Soviet warships in WoWs, no other ship in the entire nation sharing her gimmick even remotely. There are two Italian battleships and two Italian cruisers that excell at secondary gun warfare; France has at least 2 ships, the US Navy has West Virginia '44, Massachussetts, Georgia and Ohio. Japan has Iwami, Shikishima and Kii. But the Soviet Union? Their only ship that's good at secondary guns is Navarin.
Besides, look at her design. She's old! Her design began in 1914; the Soviet Union wasn't even a thing back then. This monstrosity has three quadruple 406mm guns with rifles that aren't bad at all, as well as a wall of 130mm secondary guns on each side. She even has casemate guns, at Tier 9! She fights against modern warships such as Iowa, Swedish post-war destroyers, and aircraft carriers with jet planes. Granny needs DR status.
But yes, her gimmick in WoWs is that - just like Friedrich der Grosse, Prinz Rupprecht or Odin; she's a secondary gun brawler. She's meant to get close to the enemy and blast her 17 130mm guns per side, and 12 406mm guns, at 10km or less. And yes, this girl is covered in guns.
Kremlin
I don't lose anything by mentioning her.
With the introduction of gacha UR Sovetsky Soyuz, DR Kremlin is unlikely. Well, so was Hindenburg.
Kremlin is the epitome of Soviet battleships. Extremely tanky when bow-in, vulnerable when broadside, big guns that do big damage but have unreliable accuracy. I love her. Kremlin is a big, slow, slumbering warship that still somehow manages to have a 29 second reload on her monstrous 457mm guns.
Her skills would represent this sheer damage potential, maybe allowing a skill that redirects the damage the vanguard takes into a shield she generates - like a much, much better Illustrious.
Admiral Nakhimov
Finally, we have another aircraft carrier.
Nakhimov is different enough from Chkalov, as well as being a Tier 10 while Chkalov is Tier 8.
Nakhimov shares the same gameplay as the other Soviet CVs - big number of planes in a single squadron. Her torpedo bombers consist of a flight of 7 planes, each one dropping a torpedo, all at the same time. She fires a total of 32 rockets from her 8 attack aircraft, all at the same time. She drops 7 powerful bombs with her skip bombers.
That's right, Nakhimov doesn't have dive bombers. She is equipped with skip bombers, which are bombers that drop their payload in such a way that it bounces on the water like a rock until it hits the enemy. Yes, those things existed in real life.
Nakhimov could be an extremely versatile and hyper-aggressive DR CV, capable of taking on all sorts of enemies.
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