You said you didn’t enjoy Tom King’s writing, especially his take on the Joker. Most Batjokes fans avoided it because of BatCat, and personally I find his dialogue abysmal. But, what are some of your valid criticisms?

Hi! I've criticized aspects of King's writing before, when I was asked about his portrayal of Selina. You can read those discussions here, and here. As you will find though... I'm pointing out flaws but also admitting that I find his writing compelling. Because it's not quite accurate to say I don't enjoy King's writing at all. It's because I'm a masochist, and some of his stories turn me into Charlie from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and the conspiracy meme. (Here's me writing a whole-ass essay on just one issue he wrote.)

The thing is, King has stuff to say. The concepts he wants to convey can be deeply compelling. When it comes to his Batman run, I Am Suicide, Cold Days and Knightmares are some of my favorite arcs when it comes to Bruce characterization... but I will also admit there's much to be desired in execution. King often falls into the trap that in my head is named after Moffat-- trying to seem deep, without actually delivering on the foreshadowing and ideas introduced. (Can you tell I'm a Doctor Who and Sherlock BBC survivor.) Also a lot like Moffat, King can be great at telling short self-contained stories, rather than long ones that spawn multiple narrative threads and a large cast. Most of the time secondary characters suffer dearly under King's pen. They become an extension of the protagonist and lose individuality; speech patterns bleed into each other, behaviors become interchangeable. King could benefit so much from an editor who actually ensured that the dialogue doesn't feel so repetitive and choppy, and that the voices of the characters feel distinct. It'd help a lot with making it less grating.

But leaving that aside (and other more story-specific criticisms I have)... at the end of the day, to me it feels like King cares-- something that sadly doesn't apply to a lot of writers at DC. He's got many flaws as a writer, but at least to me, it's clear that Bruce Wayne means something to him. He demonstrates a deep understanding of the character on more than one occasion, which redeems him in my eyes at least partially. Even when it comes to Joker, I dislike some of the writing, not all of it. Joker in Batman (2016) #48-49 is very interesting, and the "I need him to stop me" speech is beautiful. To be honest, I think I dislike the way Mikel Janin draws Joker more, and sadly I've come to associate his art with King's Batman stuff.

Im soooooo hungry i neeed.... gaming trivia. tO live 😺

i mostly just have TF2 trivia, as its history has always been something ive always been fascinated with, so i hope these suffice:

The Pyro's Beta Head: While 8 of the 9 classes had their heads redone throughout development (to better show off Valve's new facial flex system), only the Pyro was left untouched, leaving them as the only class to still have their beta head.

Reference Posing Medics: In "Trailer 2", there are two Medics who are in their reference pose, during the first-person sequence of the Scout running through RED's base. While their role isn't clear, one likely theory is that they were meant to be camera positions for shots that were ultimately removed, in favour of the Scouts perspective, and Valve just forgot to remove or hide them. The second Medic even turns to look at the Scout as he runs by, maybe further proving their original purpose.

The Teaser Corkboard: While we don't have a clear idea as to what Valve had been planning with the "Teaser Corkboard", one likely theory is that it was created for the proposed update that would've included both Asteroid and Cactus Canyon, due to the few mentions of "Future", the blueprint of the rocket engine from Half Life 2 Episode 2, and Poopy Joe. Also worth noting, the two posters that were added with the corkboard share similar styles Asteroid and Cactus Canyon.

The Balls of Steel Taunt: Originally, The Love & War update was meant to include a lot more taunts than what ultimately shipped. One of the few to get scrapped is a taunt called "Balls of Steel", where the initiator would dare other players to kick them in the groin. While we don't have footage of this taunt, we do have voiceline files that reference the taunt's intention, as well as the name. The few files that remain were reused for other contexts, such as the Soldiers Conga taunt, where his "Ooh!" and "Ahh!" lines were originally his pain sounds for the taunt.

Hi! I’ve recently visited your page again, after a longer tumblr break and saw your posts about people’s comments on your fics. It made me both sad and angry. Sad because they’ve managed to take away your joy for writing Supercorp and angry that people feel like they can type out any hurtful thought that goes through their head, for a thing that is absolutely free and made with so much passion and care. 😒🤬

For what it’s worth, I always loved the way you write both of them. AND the fact that you don’t ignore Kara’s trauma and struggles. “i’m spilling all my words (but you keep 'em to yourself)” will forever be one of my favorites. Thank you for the hours of joy and fun you have given us! I hope you know that for every entitled commenter there are ten times more people who love your works! 🫵🏻🤘🏻

ahh thank you so much, i appreciate this. i have to say, sc still has me by the neck, i do plan to finish that fic & maybe write some more but it won't be anytime soon. i had hoped that the fandom would calm down with the kara hate after the show ended but i was wrong, it still hasn't changed.

when you've been writing for sc for so long, the frustration builds up, & there have been many times where i felt like i needed to (& did) restrict myself when writing them. it stops being enjoyable when people are constantly calling kara 'stupid' & insult her in many different ways for not being the happy sunshine kara danvers who takes care of lena all the time.

personally i love reading & writing the reverse situation (lena who's being the patient loving one & also the shoulder for kara to lean on) because the show didn't give us enough of that. unfortunately, people don't respond well whenever kara is struggling with her issues & lena isn't the one who's being comforted.

i write what i like & that's what i'm always going to do, but this build up of frustration over the past years & always anticipating kara hate every fic/chapter killed the joy a lot.

i've seen some authors speak about this too & it's genuinely sad to see! people can like & dislike whatever but it's important to note that there are readers out there who don't realize that their personal feelings against kara also affect authors & their love for writing supercorp

you know, even tho some people seem to think that reo's actions were selfish, i kind of get him tho... i'm not justifying him lashing out to nagi, but i do recognize that he did it 'cause he was hurt, and it's completely fine to feel like that. no one wants to be left behind by someone we hold so dearly, it's not selfish (even tho we all know nagi's intention wasn't to hurt him, he just wanted what was best for both). i think their main problem is their miscommunication, nagi failing to express to reo his true intentions and thus hurting him, and reo not being able to see past his insecurities and pain.

their relationship is a really interesting one. sorry for the rant! just wanted to add my two cents abt them ♡ really love your blog!

You're so right, anon!

I totally agree with the notion that Reo isn't the one in the wrong for their fight - neither is Nagi. It's a failure on both their parts to properly communicate and express their true feelings.

I don't think Reo's reaction is disproportionate at all - let's face it, when I first watched (yes, I'm an anime first) the scene where Nagi joins Isagi's team, I gasped out loud, because I knew something huge had just happened, and I knew Reo wouldn't be happy about it. I think that was the intended reaction for that moment; it comes as a shock for the audience, so it must've been even worse for Reo!

At the moment Reo doesn't even lash out, he shuts down and tells Nagi "to do whatever he wants", which I actually think is a much more mature answer rather than start losing it in front of them. We now know thanks to Episode Nagi that he cries after that, and well - he just lost (or he believes he's lost) the person he's been building his future dream around for the last 6 months... of course he's upset!

And really, if we hadn't gotten to see Nagi's pov of that moment.... we wouldn't have known he was doing it for their sake, either. Sure, in the main manga you get the idea in later episodes that he doesn't hold any kind of grudge against Reo and that he actually looks forward to seeing him again, but... from a third person pov, it looks like a solo move, with the goal of "I want to get stronger", not "I want to get stronger so that we can reach our dream."

And the first option would've been totally fine too, but man, cut Reo some slack. He deserves to be a bit upset. Later things get worse before they get better, and I believe that's due to Reo having too much time to wallow in self-pity and listen to his insecurities.

Reo's denial -> depression -> anger -> acceptance emotional pipeline is really well-written IMO.

In the end, I think their behavior is... human, and very realistic at that. I was genuinely impressed to see such a complex dynamic between two characters in a shounen about football of all things, and honestly, that's what got me hooked.

TL;DR: Reo isn't selfish, he's insecure, and Nagi didn't help him realize he wasn't just moving on without him.

If people aren't comfortable reblogging fics to their blog (which I am not, due to a personal history of being doxxed and humiliated to my irl friends and family), are comments sufficient enough engagement or would you rather that reader not engage with your work at all?

I feel like that came out sounding passive aggressive but I truly mean it as a genuine question and am just not sure how to rework it to sound less snarky! I see this discourse on and off from different fic writers and respect both opinions and think everyone should be able to curate interaction with their fics as they see fit.

Hi, anon.

I've been thinking carefully on how to respond to this. I can tell you're not trying to come off as snarky– which i say as someone who can't read tone for shit most of the time and whose own tone can come off aggressive or bitchy when I don't mean it to be.

I'm gonna address your ask as thoroughly as I can, if that's cool. Sorry if it's a long response. I'll put a cut in so I don't interrupt feeds ✂️

First, I want to pose a question to your question, which I mean genuinely with no spite whatsoever: why are you on Tumblr if you're not reblogging or don't even reblog?

As I've stated in other replies to the post I made a few weeks back, from the way I see it, Tumblr is literally built upon the foundation of sharing creations and content. There is no dead-set algorithm here like there is for Instagram or TikTok. Sharing is, quite fucking literally, caring here. We are able to form communities of all sizes because we share things. Reblogging is essential to the upkeep, and quite frankly the existence, of fandom and communities. Without sharing, our communities crumble and become ruins. We are actively seeing this as we speak: many mutuals and authors I follow are starting to quit writing due to passive, demanding consumption patterns and 0 engagement.

I know you probably know this, but I thought I'd restate it for answer's sake.

To answer the meat of your ask, I will pull from both personal experience and mutuals' experiences and input.

In my own personal opinion, if you are solely commenting on fics and are not engaging in anything else (no likes, no reblogs, etc.) then I personally think that Tumblr is not the site you should be on and, frankly, you should go sign up for AO3 if that's all you're going to do.

And I mean this earnestly. If all you want to do for engagement is commenting, then AO3 needs you because sharing does NOT affect authors nearly as much over there as it does here. In fact comments on AO3 are the literal equivalent to reblog on Tumblr: we don't get any and when we do it's like finding an oasis in a never ending desert.

Now in terms of what mutuals and other authors have said on the matter, it seems the consensus is that commenting without reblogging is a case-by-case basis. I'm going to quote a mutual of mine here:

"...if someone is commenting on my work but not reblogging… I'd say it's case by case. If it's just MY fics they aren’t reblogging, then it'd be a problem, but if they don’t reblog ANY [fics] I'd be more okay."

Another mutuals also put it this way:

"... I feel like there *is* both sides in this sense; yes comments are nice and engaging even though they aren't the preferred and most helpful way to boost writers..."

I feel like both of them put it into words where I struggled to. I will also say that I do agree with the point being that if you're not gonna reblog ANYTHING– no art, no content, no photos, no other fics, nothing– AND your profile adheres to the guidelines set forth in basic Tumblr etiquette (not looking like a bot and not a minor) then sure, comment away.

The verdict, in summary with my opinion and mutuals': it depends on your behavior and your interactions with other works and content.

I hate the word content but I couldn't think of another one.

But, my question still stands: why are you on Tumblr when you don't even participate in the basic fundamental function of this site?

I also wanted to take the time to address the other part of your ask regarding the doxxing and people finding out your identity.

It has been very widely known for (close to) two decades now that Tumblr is the place where you can have an anonymous identity. Truly. I've been on here for the collective half of the last decade and have been on the Internet for a little more than half my life, now, and Tumblr and fandom are literally the biggest and best places where you can be someone else. You can be completely anonymous.

The common denominator, however, is you.

The amount of information you have on your blog is what you choose to put on it. If you state your real name, your state and city, have one of those (imo stupid) carrd things or whatever, then honey– and I mean this in the nicest way possible, truly– that is on you. I know for a fact (from good and bad experiences) that you have all of the power in the world to annonymize yourself while still maintaining yourself on the Internet. That make sense?

A couple of mutuals made very excellent points regarding this:

"...I have a best friend irl who has Tumblr and is so close to the fandoms I'm in, and she doesn't know I write here. I am anonymous on here. I'm suprised she hasnt connected the dots because my aesthetics are the same in real life..."

"...I personally think its pretty easy to be anonymous on tumblr. Especially since usually all we ask is you have that you aren’t a minor at the top of your blog..."

"...it's really easy to be anonymous on the internet [...] you can be an ENTIRELY different person on the internet..."

From that last mutual, I'll paraphrase and go off of another point they made: the fact that you do want to participate and comment negates your ENTIRE arguement because someone– anyone– can find you and your blog through said comment(s).

Your digital footprint is what you leave behind. So if you have your city and state and grade and real name and all this other shit in your blog or carrd or whatever, then you are the only one who is responsible for having put said information out there.

Hell, I've been mutuals with some people going on 2-3 YEARS at this point and the only other things they know about me is my state, general city vicinity, my cat, and what I do for a living. That's it. And we span from early twenties to married with a kid or two.

We are in charge of what we share and I implore you– as someone with a certification in legal information technology– to please educate yourself on your Internet privacy and digital footprint. Please take the time to think about your actions and the information you have online. I STILL do this to this day, even after getting certified and being on the Internet for half my life.

I am sorry that you've gotten doxxed in the past. Truly, I am. It's a horrible act and I hope you never have to experience that again. Please know I am not being dismissive of that nor trying to blame you for said acts.

But it all comes down to you at the end of the day. In general, it's you, your actions, and the consequences of your actions. And if you happen to be a minor, then I strongly urge you to rethink your decisions and maybe step away from social media and utilize critical thinking in order to asses your situation and who you surround yourself with, both online and offline. I wish I had someone to tell me that when I was 14– fuck, even when I was 18.

And I mean it when I say AO3 might suit you more than Tumblr. If any fandom site has more capabilities to be anonymous than Tumblr itself, it's AO3.

Anyways, I think that's all I have to say for you. My DMs and ask box are always open and I am open to more commentary on the matter and related ones so long as it is civil and respectful. I refuse to stop having this conversation.

Thank you for listening ❤️

any thoughts on beastzai?? (he’s basically dazai but 10 times more melancholic, depressed, and hot AND tyrannical)

imagine him using u as his fleshlight</3

OOOOH so i read beast n thought he was so insanely attractive because he is so insanely terrifying, and i’m also just incredibly attracted to the fact that he is the Boss of the mafia <33333 the sheer power and prowess he exudes is unparalleled, and you can feel it radiating off of him in thick waves; you can sense it the moment he enters a room—this dense, heavy, suffocating darkness that commands immediate attention, that devours your attention, that blots out and sucks up all of the light and warmth in the space. it looms over him like some sort of hellish creature completely at his fingertips, his every beck and call and will, instantly ready to spike the moment he demands it to...and that’s just so sexy to me <33

i don’t have any specific thoughts at this moment but i do think he would be so unbelievably sadistic when he fucks <3 like he can’t cum unless you’re bruised and bloodied and entirely broken—body, mind, soul—otherwise it just doesn’t do it for him </3 i think he just needs everything in the EXTREME to feel even the faintest flickers of anything at all—he needs the most vile, vicious murders to feel a shred of satisfaction, he needs the most brutal, ruthless sex to even come close to getting off, etc. <3

here's two songs about you, review them, don't, up to you. i personally think they're pretty nice and a fitting tribute to you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ChY-lq88Gs 'Kim Pine' by The Barking Gugs. AND https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjy7LpqCirI 'Kim Pine' by Sitting In An Elevator. -signed, that guy who said he had a crush on you. *enclosed is a small, decently drawn hand-painted painting depicting two figures, one with red hair, presumably Kim. dancing under the stars, in the snow. and a pair of carved, emerald studded drumsticks, with a small pine tree engraved on each, and a small sleeve of Golden Oreos.*

*Kim appears uncomfortable, but again, she pockets the Oreos before setting the other items aside, grimacing.*

People write songs about me? Why? I'm not-

*She takes a deep breath; deciding to listen to the songs before saying anything further, she types up the links into her PC. She listens to both, expression shifting between various stages of grief. Eventually the second song ends, and she spends a moment tapping her fingers against her desk, unsure if she should curb her response.*

... Not really my kind of music. Of the two, I guess I prefer the second? Not really sure I'm comfortable with the sentiments being expressed by men I don't think I've ever spoken to once in my life...

*Her right eye twitches slightly, the corner of her mouth curling in displeasure.*

Look, guy, I appreciate that you like me, but this is... wildly uncomfortable to experience. I mean, you've been pretty nice, really, and thank you for the gifts and all, but... I don't know you. You know to expect nothing, right?

If necessary, I will kick your ass, and I won't feel very badly about it. Hell, I'd use the drumsticks you just gave me to do it.

Just... keep that in mind, I guess. Tred lightly.

i totally misunderstood the intent of the poll sorry, thank you for the update

what counts as composition? the pure sound part or the whole songwriting process like 'this is the first song we wrote with the p2 dynamic' and 'the post this got lines from has extra peterick implications' is also something that weighs on this? (i assume the process doesn't since that type of context surrounding the song is far removed from the lyricism for this and more in line with the 'it's the song they end all shows with' extras that you just clarified is not the point of this poll)

too late to change what's already been voted on ofc but to have an idea of what was intended and vote according to that instead

Hi! It's no problem no need to apologise aha, at the end of the day this is just for fun. I just know I personally like to come into things with clear understanding and wanted to give that to anyone who felt more unsure.

As for what counts as composition I'd say both the sound and the process; I don't think it's reasonable to really divorce the 'lore' or the way they write from these songs, I think personally they imply a lot about it, so things like 'Baby was the first thing written in their current style', 'sometimes it was Patrick confirming that Disloyal is about them', 'What a Catch, Donnie was written from Patricks POV', 'Where Did The Party Go is the first song written post hiatus', or, and I know it's contentious, but the fact that 'Miss Missing You was written by Patrick during hiatus' (whether you take that as pure sound or the lyrics too is up to you)... I think all of these things are fair game; I think they all influence the meaning and understanding we have of these songs and so personally I think it's fine to have those weigh on your choices. If you (general you not just you anon) disagree that's okay, just vote however you like :)

Also just an extra thought to add on, when I say the sound I do mean less 'I like how this sounds so I'll vote it' and more about the composition choices and how they impact and accentuate meaning to the overall song, especially if we're talking smaller details like the church bells in Church (or Headfirst Slide/Disloyal), or that part in Twin Skeleton's where it gets quiet after the jet black crow line. Again, it's your choice how you vote but this is what I was intending.

gently knocks on your door

hi its me again. you are amazing and i love love your himerus (and rinnes) it’s what he deserves <3 i bow down to your big brain

the fantasy au looks so intriguing may i know more? i would do anything for chubby niki, pureboy kohaku and sexy as hell himeru and rinne. tatsumi too maybe squints

anon- thank you so much for ur genuine interest it makes me so emotional really really thank you. imagine when you open my door you look in and just see this

anyways fantasy au details down here

ESSENTIALLY when i was on a rinhime kick i doodled this thinking about an au where rinne was actually a prince and himeru was like... his advisor

the fantasy au developed off this and now is. very different.

Essentially Rinne is a foxboy prince who keeps trying to runaway from his duties, and keeps bringing back special people to work in his retinue everytime.

First he brings home Niki, who took care of him when he didnt know Rinne literally owned the land he was staying on. Niki is formally a retainer and does know how to fight, but functionally hes a friend and personal chef.

Then he brings home Kohaku, a boy who was raised in isolation and has been put to work as a professional guard.

Lastly, he's brought home Himeru, a masked spy master. He works under a lot of disguises, and is often on recons with Kohaku because I love the idea of Himeru and Kohaku getting to do buddy cop adventures where they meet Madara. Rinne is horrifically jealous because he wants to do adventures SO BAD he cannot believe they're doing adventures without him. So he follows them a lot of the time.

Also!! Yes!! that is tatsumi!!! Essentially, Tatsumi is a cleric turned necromancer. He and Kaname used to be adventuring partners and he fully believes he killed Kaname, and took a dark turn trying to think of ways to bring him back. After all that effort, just seeing essentially the love of your life walking around masked has made him... really weird. He works under Eichi, with the rest of Alkaloid. He thinks Himeru is Kaname and also that theyre living dead, and is trying to reunite with them. Kaname is still alive though, because I'm obsessed with the idea of Tatsumi learning a dark art and warping himself when it was always pointless.

Thats what I have now essentially!!! I want to explore it more but am... unsure where to go lmao but yes I hope this was!!! what you like n wanted to know!! If you'd like to know more my door is always open and again thank you so much for your interest hehrhrf

i am very curious (and i'm asking this not with any malicious intent) but what ages do you see the genshin characters! i personally see them (most of them) as adults, even collei. even if they were teenagers, time passes in-game (i.e. lantern rite happens every year and we already had 2 lantern rites in-game) so they'll eventually grow to be adults.

tldr: I have schrodinger's age headcanons

long answer: if they're in a ship with a ""clearly"" adult character, I'll assume they're young adults; idk I feel like there's some blurring of age and what growth stage you're in when people are around 17 to 20 (from my experience) so I think it's vague-ish enough that you could probably do what you want.

If they're not in a ship I see some of them as adults and some as still teens/underage. as a general rule of thumb a character's age is solely dependent on what I want at the moment, although I do think the way some characters are written (ie character arcs, character stories and general personality) pushes me to view them as underage (will explain more but the character I'm thinking about most w this is Xingqiu). Some of them read to me as clear adults, and then there are some in-betweens where I just have "vaguely young looking" in my hcs LOL

you bring up a good point that time is passing in game although we don't see it reflected in the character models—everyone points out that Xiao opens up a bit more every lantern rite, but fandom (and genshin devs too ig 💀) definitely forgets that all the other characters are also growing/changing. w/ 4.1 around the corner my personal wish is for hu tao, xingqiu, and chongyun's relationships to each other get developed more so that their relationships (as described through their voicelines abt each other) don't feel so flat,,,,,, it would also help with the sense of "time is passing in game for ALL characters", since we almost never get this kind of evolving relationship portrayed between 4*s/non endgame important charas.

I have too much time on my hands so I'll also just run through all the teen/short models there are for each region and list whether my personal headcanons are adult or minor (at least their ages when we "meet" them in canon):

liyue (mortal/mortal adjacent characters): yanfei, chongyun, xingqiu, hu tao, xiangling, xinyan, yun jin, keqing

yanfei and keqing are solidly adults to me, yanfei's a lawyer and keqing's also in a govt job so both of them feel around like 25-27 to me. Definitely somewhere around their mid-20s, although I can also see them as younger, especially Keqing, because of her overall attitude/perspective on life and the gods. iirc her character stories show how her worldview's grown/broadened to be not as naive/black and white, so I feel like she's still in the process of maturing. If you told me Yanfei was like 23 (appearance wise) I guess I'd believe you too, since she's a very peppy person who seems to be running all over the place all the time, doing errands for madame ping, checking on her clients, taking new cases etc. I feel like it gives her youthful energy, so I can see it if people hc her on the younger side of her 20s (in human years I forgot how her half-adeptal blood works).

I see the other 6 as a friend group (liyue 6ang let's go) so they're either all teens or all adults depending on the portrayal. You can obviously view them as adults all the time, but I don't get those vibes. Xinyan and Yun Jin might be like 18-19, but if that's the case, I can't see the other 4 being any younger than 17, just because I think they're all almost the same age or 1-2 years apart maximum. For some reason so many people view Hu Tao and Yun Jin as adults but at the same time think the others are minors? Idk about that.. genshin has shown that Xiangling, Xinyan, and Yun Jin are pretty close friends, and then always put Xingqiu and Chongyun together for the ship bait, so maybe that's the root of fanon's age hcs. However, I think if some of them are young adults, then all of them are. There's a max 2 year age gap between all 6 of them idk idk I really can't see it otherwise.

To me, Xingqiu's arc reads like a 16 year old finding his footing in the world. Hiding martial arts novels under his bed, tired of playing dutiful 2nd son and sneaking out to live out his idealized wuxia dreams, his multiple voicelines where he's implied to be super worried about us giving away his involvings in the Guhua sect, they all read like he's still trying to figure out his role in his family (what he wants it to be, and what his parents want it to be). He's also very naive about the world, but learning. He just feels a lot like how (chinese) teenagers grow up and like. growing into or out of the paths given to us by our parents. ... or i could just be projecting! Anyways, in my no ships world, he's a 16-17 yr old. Chongyun's clan and family play a not-insignificant role in his backstory, so I think he's the same age as Xingqiu, just older by a month for the flex. Lowkey I don't have as much reason for him as the others, but I think they're in the same age range by association; probably almost 18 at most. Hu Tao's character stories explicitly state she's 13 when her grandfather passed away, and I think she becomes Director not long after this, so I would say she's also around 16-17 when the game starts. @.acatoner who draws quite possibly my favorite interpretations of the gang(TM) once mentioned they see her with spoiled younger sister energy and honestly yeah. she's an only child but has the strongest solidarity with Xingqiu (they're the bratty younger siblings of the friendgroup). Out of all of them, Xiangling is the one with the most plausible job if she was like, young: being a chef apprentice with her dad to continue the family business is pretty reasonable. Middle child energy, probably 17. We did meet her when she was in Mondstadt foraging ingredients, so I'd say she's not very young, but still young enough for her dad to chew her out during moonchase for being like messy or clumsy or smth? Xinyan and Yun Jin.... I think Yun Jin is at least almost 18—running a well acclaimed opera troupe is a pretty big undertaking imo, even if her parents are there to like guide her and whatnot. Same with Xinyan, 17-18 range, although she def started playing rock publicly when she was way younger.

inazuma: shinobu, heizou, kazuha, kirara, gorou, kokomi, ayaka, yoimiya

Disclaimer I have not read the Lore and don't know whether actual ages are given for Ayaka and Ayato (specifically pointing them out because iirc their and Thoma's character stories are the most specific ones wrt the timeline).

I see basically all of them as adults, ayaka might be an exception but she's like 17 minimum in my head. That's pretty interesting considering I labeled almost all the liyue short models as teens. From what I can remember of their character stories, the Inazuman characters seem to be portrayed as having their formative struggles set In the Past (probably a couple years before we meet them) so perhaps that's why I see them as solidly young adults. Additionally, Inazuma's arc and its war pushes me to see all of them as adults, even if they're still obscenely young to be generals and strategicians. The exceptions I can see to this are only Yoimiya (smaller role in archon quest and not related to the government), and Shinobu + Heizou, who were released later. Yoimiya's maturity really stands out to me—from the way her neighbors and old people converse with her, and her overall character arc + second story quest, I cannot see her as below like 19 at least. Shinobu manages an entire unofficial gang and has countless certifications under her belt plus ex-shrine maiden stint—she probably isn't less than 23. It would be cute if she were the same age as Yanfei but just started law school later, so Yanfei's still her senior. I think there's not much to say on Heizou either, he's friends with Kazuha and has a real job, so I can't read him below 20-21. I don't know anything about Kirara (don't have her, haven't read her stories) but I also just get the vibes of like 20-something errand girl SDFDSSKDFJS in a modern au she'd deliver to teyvat/inazuma's college campus for sure

mondstadt (humans): barbara, razor, bennett, fischl, mika, amber, noelle, sucrose

this is a mix again, for Barbara Razor Bennett and Fischl they give me kid vibes, like little adventure gang things. Reddit apparently cites Mona called Fischl an adult in the 2.8 Midsummer Fantasia GAA event, so I mean. I guess she's 18 there—might've been 16 when we met in game the first time (1.2?? scaramouche fake stars event or something?) Idk really. Their group collectively gives me 16 year old vibes, at least when we start the game. I can see it if all of them have aged to 18 now—it just makes sense in my head lol. Mika feels like an 18 year old; mostly because of his relationship with Huffman. Amber seems vaguely adult-ish, I'd say 19 or so, maybe 20 during shadows amidst snowstorms in 2.3. there's some logic behind this that ties into her search for her grandfather but it's like vague and hazy in my head. I haven't given much thought to Noelle and Sucrose— Sucrose also gives "vaguely adult" vibes, idk if her character story about wanting to make a wonderland to meet her past friends in has any relevance to timeline estimation. I'd say Noelle also falls into the vague adult age range, but to me she's a puzzle, because her personality seems incongruent to how I thought she might act if she's like 23 or so.

anyways, anon if you read all this i will declare my love for you. thanks for giving me an excuse to genuinely think on this and then dump my thoughts out for the internet. you can clearly see none of my braincells really go towards Mondstadt headcanons but I hope you're happy w my response ehe

i so need your opinion on this - what was lyall lupin like as a father to remus ? the fandom seems so divided on his character i'd love to hear your thoughts!

HIII OMG!!! was so pleased to see this ask come through become i LOVE talking about this guy and especially how similar i imagine him and remus to be. god. okay. under the cut i love talking about this and repeating myself and failing miserably to be concise in my responses!! as always--disclaimer that im in no way calling my interpretation correct or most true to canon, it's just what i've settled on xox

i agree there's a BIG difference between the way he's written (less so with hope, though it does still vary), and there's a bit of a spectrum ranging from perfect, accepting, repentant father who renounces his past attitudes which led to The Bite (A), and horrible, evil monster who wants nothing to do with remus or what he is even as remus gets older and starts school, and essentially wishes he were dead (B). i've read both of these! but my opinion lies roughly in the middle.

version A, for me, lets lyall off the hook too easily. remus was targeted by greyback because lyall was a prejudiced man; the quote we've got is ‘soulless, evil, deserving nothing but death’ if you want to treat pottermore as canon. realistically i don't think that that prejudice he harbours towards werewolves dissipates the second his son is bitten. it's going to stick around, and though it might not manifest in him rejecting remus as his son after the bite, he hardly becomes a perfect parent after greyback 'teaches him a lesson', so to speak. hell, he isn't even a particularly good father. i imagine his relationship with remus to be strained: remus is always going to be a walking reminder of the biggest mistake of lyall's life, and thus arguably his biggest source of guilt, anger, sadness. he loves his son fiercely, but has no idea how to express that--an inability/reluctance to communicate emotions that he passes down to remus. also, from what we've got from canon (next to nothing), he's a man with a temper. i think he also passes this to remus. realistically i find it difficult to believe that they could have a perfect relationship once lyall realises--maybe i was wrong to say that stuff about werewolves, since ive got one for a son now! it's too simplistic. that is going to have an after effect, both in the way lyall looks at remus and the way remus comes to view his father as he grows up and finds out why he was bitten. to some extent, lyall uses this to convince himself remus probably wants to keep his distance--he must hate me, he has reason to hate me, it's better this way--which establishes a bit of a barrier in their relationship (especially when remus is a teenager).

on the other hand, i also don't think that he was B: flat-out terrible, or evil, or disgusted by his son once he was bitten. i imagine lyall being a strict father (a further strain on their relationship) in as much as he was the one most terrified of people finding out what remus was, which in turn led him be overly harsh on remus about keeping his condition at school secret, staying away from people, keeping his grades up, because he thinks that's how remus is going to have the best chance at life and he knows its his fault that he suffers so much. he considers it his responsibility to make sure remus has some sort future, and as far as he is concerned that means working twice as hard--he knows how society sees werewolves, because he was in that position, he held those views himself. as remus gets older this results in them arguing a lot, because getting angry with your son because you love him and you're terribly, terribly frightened for him isn't an acceptable way of expressing that love. it's pretty fucking poor. he's a coward. to some extent, remus gets this from him too.

remus is the spitting image of him. lyall sometimes finds that too much to bear. remus inevitably wonders if the reason his father is distant is because he still hates what he is, deep down/he doesn't see remus as a 'proper', loveable son because of his attitudes towards lycanthropy, whereas its actually more because lyall sees so much of himself in remus that he's never going to be quite able to forgive himself.

Hey you don't have to respond (I only just have found your tumblr and subsequently your post on the damage to and by ef) but it warms my heart to your understanding of human rights and how normal it is for people to behave when they have been denied those things, even if it doesn't completely excuse it. Thank you. Sometimes I feel like people are purposefully prejudiced and without any basic empathy toward people in this situation. They want revenge not justice.

Hi anon!

I care an awful lot about writing trauma and trauma recovery, and in my studies of trauma and trauma formation over the years, you just learn that an awful lot of it comes about due to the deprivation of basic human rights, especially rights to safety and care, but even shelter and water (natural disasters are a huge cause of PTSD, and will become moreso as the climate crisis continues).

I also think people just get emotionally attached to different characters and don't have to have 'logical emotional reactions' to them. Someone getting angry at Efnisien because they love Gary is like, completely okay, someone trying to convince me that Efnisien doesn't deserve access to basic human rights because of the trauma that came about due to him being denied basic human rights is something that I'll staunchly argue against!

I have no problems with people being hateful towards characters in fiction, that's what fiction does to us, and our emotions don't have to be logical, and they don't have to make sense. No one owes Efnisien basic empathy, he's really just a fictional construct at the end of the day, and if a person's main reason for reading is like...Gary as a character, they can hate Efnisien to the moon and back, though I question if they'll actually enjoy the story at all, but that's a whole different matter.

I think for me the difference is - like in the situation you're talking about - an anon coming to me and trying to convince me that Efnisien doesn't deserve care. An irrational emotional reaction of hatred to a beloved character is actually not that uncommon in the experience of fiction. People hate Iron Man, people hate Thor, people hate Captain America, yet these characters are pretty obviously drawn as sympathetic heroes. That's just the experience of immersing in fiction.

But when someone believes their irrational emotional reactions entitle them to sort of...emotionally dump on the creator of something with a really shitty grasp of human rights in general - then I'll stand up for the character and the story and general human rights lmao. :D

Tl;dr: People can hate on a character and lack empathy and wish all sorts of horrible things on them in the privacy of their own brain (or in a tiny group of people who also hate that character lmao). Coming out in public and trying to justify illogical responses to characters so we can all see it, sure is a take, and not one most of us agree with, because most of us do have empathy for this character because like...many of us find him relatable. Also human rights. I think the issue there was maybe the lack of a filter on the anon's behalf, or the lack of understanding that their emotions =/= reality.

So it's like, I agree with you anon! But I also think people have the right to feel all sorts of emotions towards fictional characters they wouldn't let themselves feel (I hope) towards real people (or would have their empathy brain kick in after their lizard brain goes GRR). Efnisien isn't a real person, even if he's real in my head and in the heads of many others, but just like underage fiction doesn't hurt real minors, someone hating on a character doesn't hurt real people - until that person airs their thoughts in a way that implies that all humans who behave the way don't deserve basic respect, and then it's like...well, that's shitty as fuck.

I'm not interested in being a member of the thought police. People want to torture and hate a character in their heads, they can! No one has a logical perfect brain, it's all just meat up there, some of that meat is vengeful lol. It's when you bring that out into the world in a way that's harmful or shows a prejudice towards people, or that hurts people, that we have a biiiiig problem.

It seems like you have a vendetta against Shulk/Fiora. Like, not just disliking it and preferring Shulkelia but straight up hate the canon ship of the game. Why?

Thank you for asking this! It's an interesting question and I have a quite a bit to say about it (as usual with me aha). So I'll put the details under the cut, but yes, I personally do not like any aspect of the canon relationship/writing of it at all (although I don't go into that here since I talked about much more than I expected lol, if you're curious specifically about what my opinions are on the dialogue/choices in the game regarding Shiora feel free to send me another ask!). Also if you've read my fanfics (genuinely not trying to plug my work haha I swear) and see how I write Fiora and her friendship with Shulk, and especially the fic where I write from her pov for the whole thing, you can see I don't hate her and try to be respectful to her creators and fans! Anyway, for a TL;DR:

Aside from my personal history (which also is part of why I like Shulkelia as much as I do) causing the way Fiora's attraction to Shulk is written to not come off very well to me, and even ignoring what I've seen on the Internet about how people react to these ships and those who like or dislike them, it's just A Thing About Life that there will be parts of media you really like and parts of the same media you really don't, and that's what makes art engaging and impactful and personal and fun to talk about! I'm just someone who always has a lot to say about anything, so don't take my diatribes as anything more than me being passionate about analyzing stuff haha. I still love Xenoblade 1 with all my heart, and me not liking parts of the series such as Xenoblade 2 (very much) or Shiora (at all) doesn't affect how much I enjoy what I do like! It's just another fun facet to delve into for me, whether it's a thing I like or a thing I dislike.

And when all you see and know of me is from a blog that's specifically just for talking about a small facet of one piece of media, I can come off as more melodramatic about my liking of Shulkelia and disliking of Shiora since I don't talk too much about the rest of Xenoblade as a whole, nor anything else for that matter, on here. I promise I don't truly care that much about this fictional love triangle in my day-to-day life, and I'm sorry if I came off as rude about it! If you like their relationship then... I do want to say more power to you, and count this as me having said so, but also I don't feel like I need to because, as you said, it is canon so the Xenoblade devs have been (and probably will be!) providing plenty of enjoyment for you, and so no one should care what a silly singular stranger like me thinks at the end of the day haha.

But if you do, then here's what I have to say:

First off, I just enjoy really thoroughly dissecting everything I like, as well as dislike (as you will soon see!). I like delving into details and analyzing stuff, and sometimes that passion can be a little too obsessive, which can come off as me being passionate in my hatred of The Thing rather than passionate about analyzing why I hate The Thing (which is what's really going on). So it's important to me to say that when I talk about anything I dislike in depth like this, it's not ever meant to be hating on or attacking people who do like it! I just really find it fun to put things under a microscope, both when I really like them and really dislike them, because I enjoy discovering what, specifically, about them makes me feel that way.

I also think it's important to repeat that point about how this blog is both 1) meant to be near-exclusively about Shulkelia and 2) the posts I make here are pretty much my entire online footprint (outside of my fanfic account which is p much about the same topic aha), and as such these are the only things that strangers have to form an opinion about me (much like the common criticism brought up about parasocial relationships). When I log on to this blog I'm here to talk about my Xenoblade OTP or things related to it, and so that's all you see of/know about me. And even though the reason I made this blog is because of how much I like it (I'm kind of obsessive about the things I'm really passionate about, I've been that way my whole life, so that certainly doesn't help either haha), there are things I may like equally or even more, but because they aren't what this blog is for I don't mention them, and so anyone who doesn't know me won't know about them unless I talk about them. When you only see the fraction of me that I'm willing to share, then of course it'll seem like that fraction is the whole me if you never get to see the other 99%.

So much in the same way that I can seem super obsessed about Shulkelia (which, to be fair, I do get that way some days haha) it can seem like I really really hate Shiora too, since the only time I'm going to talk about it is on a blog that's dedicated to a different ship, and since I'm not really a multishipper nor do I enjoy the writing of it in canon, I won't ever have much nice to say about it. And because it's a canon ship that most people seem to enjoy, it's going to come up from time to time on art that either has Fiora/the love triangle involved or in the comments I see on it, and since I have something to say about it I do. Although I do genuinely not like it at all, I try to do it in a way where it's clear I'm not hating on people who enjoy it, either by trying to hammer home that it's just my personal opinion about it, or being super hyperbolic about disliking it in an attempt at humor. But tone and meaning can get lost from brain to text and I'm surely not the best at wording things sometimes, so I don't blame anyone for getting the wrong impression, and if that's happened I do apologize!

For example, if this blog was instead about my love of Mexican food (which is true!) and was meant for being a catalogue of recipes I come across, I'd probably talk in the tags pretty often about how I lament that so many recipes have cilantro in them because I have the weird cilantro-tastes-like-soap gene and so it tastes awful to me (which is also true!). When this happens over and over again on so many recipes that have cilantro, and when this repetition is all you ever get to see about me, it would probably seem like I have a burning hatred for cilantro, when in reality I barely think about it at all, and if something I want to eat has it I'll just politely ask for no cilantro or silently pick it off. I do think the weird gene is interesting, and I have a fun story about how I found out I have it which I enjoy telling, but I'm also just fine eating my food if no one wants to talk about it.

But that comparison isn't perfect, because there's a lot more going on in interpersonal relationships (fictional or not) and why people enjoy them or not. So let's get into that!

I did mention there were personal reasons why I feel the way I do, and to the extent I do, about these pairings, so it's only fair to explain what that's about. All throughout my life up until college I never had anyone show any romantic interest in me, even in high school, while in contrast all my friends as well as my sister had been in multiple relationships, so I felt rather lonely and figured there was something wrong with me if no one would want to date me haha. But I did of course have crushes of my own (that because of the aforementioned thought I had that I was unlikable I never acted on) and one of them was on a mutual friend that my best friend at the time also knew, as well as knew that I liked him. And all of a sudden one day they were going out and being affectionate all the time, including right in front of me even though my friend knew I liked him. That plus my loneliness from before obviously hurt really bad and made me pretty upset for a while haha.

Then on top of that later that year I would connect with someone like I never had before in my life and he "felt the same way", the very first person to ever tell me they liked me and I believed it. I honestly do still think he did like me... yet he would go on to get into a relationship with someone else and all the while repeatedly promise me that I was special to him and that she didn't get him like I did and he'd leave her for me but of course we can still have our deep talks about his personal problems and blah blah blah. There's a lot more to it than that but I'll cut it short and just say this happened for literally every single day for an entire year of my life, and it really deeply affected me for a long time, though I'm fine now of course. Well, it did change me as a human being, but you know what I mean haha. I don't say this to elicit pity (really, don't, I promise I'm fine) but to give you some puzzle pieces to help figure out the mystery of why I dislike Shiora.

So I'm sure you can see the parallels from my life to what Melia goes through, and that's precisely the mechanism that everyone uses to relate to and love fictional characters: they deal with horrible stuff that we can connect back to horrible stuff we've been through, and we empathize with them. That's one reason why so many people love Shulk (including me!), and Melia, and countless other characters. That's kind of what they're here for: to relate to. He just like me for real and all that. So, in the same way my life experiences make me relate so much to Melia, I can also relate those who I liked but never could be with to Shulk and relate their girlfriends to Fiora. And knowing how those real-life relationships ended up and why they didn't work out, I can really see parallels to how Fiora and Shulk's relationship is written, at least with the vibe I got from it on first and second impression. Therefore I both dislike it for personal reasons and the information those reasons gave me about good and bad relationships.

On a lighter note though, there's another aspect to the whole we-like-characters-we-identify-with thing with regards to shipping: I really do think the ships we like (if any) are based on and a reflection of ourselves and what we want in a partner (should we want to have one). Or in simpler terms, our OTPs are often made up of a character we can self-insert as and a character we would marry if they were real haha. And I don't mean that in a bad way at all! It's fun to make up fake scenarios with fake characters that you want to kiss, even when you're not writing direct-self-insert or xReader stuff (which I also don't bash)! I'm certainly guilty of this myself, even as much as I try to write them true to their character, relating so much to Melia and finding a lot about Shulk attractive for reasons that Melia also does means I'm just like everyone else haha. But on the other side of the coin, the fact that I cannot relate to Fiora in so many ways as well as do not vibe with how she treats her attraction to Shulk means I can't really enjoy the thought of them as a couple.

But outside of talking about the canon for just a second more, I think there's an interesting phenomenon(? idk what to call it lol) here that is in this ask as well as many other people's vocalized opinions regarding this game's love triangle: said canon. As in, the concept that someone could like Xenoblade 1 overall but dislike the canon relationship either confuses and/or upsets some people. Which is strange to me on its own, like do these people also get confused and/or mad when someone says they love hamburgers but hate when they have pickles on them? Everyone has their own tastes, and what you like or how much of it you do is just part of being an individual. (Plus I must say it's extra odd with regards to Shulkelia, as I've never seen the same comments/reactions to ships like Meliora, Shulk/Reyn, Shalvis, Dunban/Melia, etc, despite the fact that they're all equally as non-canon as Shulkelia. Maybe it's because the game firmly shoots down Shulk liking Melia so hard? But it also shows how much Fiora likes Shulk, so wouldn't Meliora [which is pretty darn popular as far as Xenoblade 1 ships go, at least from my browsing] be just as "anti-canon"?).

For extra context too, there are. SO. many friendzoned/"haha Shulk doesn't like Melia" memes and jokes out there (and if these people are so concerned with canon, it's weird how often they make Shulk and/or Melia act out of character super hard to push the joke!) which don't really exist to be pro-Shiora and more just anti-Shulkelia. I even came across a guy on reddit who would post Melia fanart every day, and so many of his posts were stalked by this one dude who would write a little rant about how Melia sucks and Fiora is the best, and would really go off if the fanart showed Melia's crush on Shulk in any way. Now he was super downvoted every time but... I've never seen anyone do that for Shulkelia. And yet I have seen quite a few posts of people complaining about Shulk/Melia fans shoving their ship in their faces and how much it sucks as a ship and I'm like i have been trying for MONTHS to find a single scrap of shulkelia content yet find barely anything and what i do find has SO many comments saying they still like shiora or that they hate the art since it's not shiora literally WHO are you talking about??? Like maybe I just am unlucky and have seen literally all 20 or whatever number of instances of Shiora fans being rude that ever existed but... they still do exist. I'm not making this up, in fact I encourage you to go out and search for Xenoblade fan content regarding this love triangle and see how people react to it! That's what I did and that's how I came across all of this!

Anyway, like was there a huge ship war in the early fandom days or something??? If so why can I find no mention of it anywhere except from salty Shiora shippers/Fiora fanboys, like barely any Shulkelia art even exists and I see zero talk from the supposed pushy Shulkelia fans? They have like 30 freaking fics in existence and half of them are Melia sulking about how Fiora is being lovey dovey with Shulk and showing they actually got together after all so don't even really count as Shulkelia fics!! In my searching for Shulkelia content I come across so many comments from people who like the ship trying to downplay their enjoyment of it and placate any potential Shiora fans reading their comments with "oh but Shulk/Fiora is cute too! i still like them together! i only like Shulk/Melia in a close friends kind of way, or just to make Melia happy idc about the ship i just like seeing her smile!" so like... What reality do these other guys live in where they got bombarded with Shulkelia over and over because I wish I lived in it!!! Something's up with some Fiora fans idk. Maybe I just had back luck in my searching, but try it yourself and see. I'm not crazy or making this up, I could just have been seeing all 20 or whatever number of Shiora's rude fans but... they do exist, and I have yet to see similar behavior from Shulkelia fans.

And this isn't all just me being a lurker looking at rando's comments as well. I even have a bit of a secondhand-experience story to tell about it! (The specific timeline of the initial details might be jumbled a bit, but I do remember the gist of it and still have the DMs to confirm some of the facts!)

I used to be active on Twitter, and I followed a lot of different Xenoblade fan artists on there. One day a certain artist posted a WIP of Melia and Shulk laying next to each other on a hill where Shulk was smiling at her, and although the artist deleted it (for reasons you will soon learn about) I think they wrote the Japanese ship name of the two on the tweet for it. Either way, I do recall before the WIP was posted they tweeted about liking Shulkelia, or rather ShuMeri as the Japanese ship name is called, (although in much the same "i like Melia so i like the thought of her being happy. Shulk belongs with Fiora though! i still ship them!" please-don't-be-mad-at-me way that I have never seen a Fiora/Shiora fan do) and wanting to draw something for it. Even though this particular artist posted in Japanese, a language I don't know 99% of, I was able to get the gist of their tweets through the translation feature and my knowledge of what the characters' names are in Japanese. And despite how hard this artist tried to be nice, tried to show how much they weren't trying to be mean to Shiora fans (they even had drawn Shiora art months earlier!), they got a wave of hate directed at them from Japanese fans which I saw in real time.

And if you doubt this because the tweets are now deleted, and because even when they were up I only read them through an A.I. translation, I felt so bad for this poor artist that I DM-ed them (regrettably in English, since I didn't trust my knowledge of Japanese to not end up making me say something I didn't intend or in a rude/informal tone) to show there was at least one other person out there that enjoyed ShuMeri and was excited to see their art. And they fortunately understood my message and knew English to message me back and told me direct quotes of what was thrown at them, which I still have in my DMs and will quote:

"'You are denying the original story. It's too unsatisfying and ugly' 'It's not right to make Shulk and Melia lovers.' someone said. At other times, people have replied to my art, complaining about Melia's behavior in the story, as I tweeted the other day. I've had a lot of negative comments about ShuMeri and Melia." (With regards to the whole "complaining about Melia's behavior in the story" thing, if I recall that was from people saying she had no right to have a crush on Shulk in the first place, which... I thought you guys said canon is sacrosanct? It is canon that Melia had a crush on Shulk, and if you don't like that then you don't respect the canon/story and aren't a real fan. Do you see how silly this sounds???)

So. Tell me if you have ever seen any Melia fans or Shulkelia fans ever behave like this. Because I sure haven't. (Like even this ask [which I am not upset about nor trying to be rude to the anon at all, on the contrary I'm super enjoying talking about this topic! it's just the dichotomy here is interesting to me!) is proof to me: how many times can you say you've seen comments on Shiora art or asks sent to Xenoblade fanblogs asking why someone doesn't like Shulkelia, do you hate Shulkelia, what's wrong with Shulkelia? Like I get one is canon and the other isn't, but like... have you seen shipping culture? Literally all of the most popular ships for any given media are non-canon, that's half the fun of shipping!!!

"Don't let mean fans sour the original work" (and again, just to make sure I'm clear, I do not consider the anon who sent this ask to be mean or rude in any way! I'm referring to other randos here!) and all that, but it's kind of hard for me to like a ship when it has fans that act like this... going around projecting by accusing fans of a different ship of their own behavior, or saying things that contradict their own points about how important canon is to them. Thinking back on how we like characters we can relate to, isn't it interesting how fans of a brash, headstrong, do-what-I-want-and-fuck-the-consequences character who gets everything she wants in canon act in a pushy or even rude way to fans of a reserved, self-reproaching, I-will-do-what-is-best-for-others-first character who has so much taken away from her, and the latter fans always defer to the former and feel guilty when they talk about liking their character even as they do so much to be nice to them? It's pretty interesting I think, it's like when dogs look like their owners or something haha.

To end this off, since even though I have more to say (which if you would like to hear please let me know!) I've talked for far too long now haha, I really want to post the rest of the DM that the artist I talked to (who to this day hasn't made another Shulkelia/Shulkelia-esque fanart again, and interestingly never gets hate on their Shalvis art which is again a non-canon "story-denying" ship, too. Maybe they just blocked the rude people and if so good for them, but it's interesting still that they haven't draw Shulkelia since):

"I think it's useless to argue about who is better, Fiora or Melia, and I don't want them to get me involved in that fight. However, I received words of encouragement from many kind followers like you. I now understand important things; 'Don't worry about mean people' and 'Draw what I like.' Fan art should be free, shouldn't it? If I draw ShuMeri, some mean people might appear again. But there are many more kind people like you. When I think of that, I'm not afraid anymore. I will try to draw ShuMeri one day. Maybe I'll get depressed again because of mean people, but then you can tell me, 'You draw fanart freely, right!'... Please tell me that. You made me feel better and made me cry with happiness. Thank you so much. :)"

-Mirim, who can be found here currently, and their old account where the drama happened is here. This is the piece of artwork they got so much hate for. Shulk and Melia aren't even touching in it and Mirim didn't even mention their ship name.

Atp I’m more animal than Otto is reADING THOSE AMAZING SNIPPETS YOU’VE GOT SO FAR AWOOGA AAAAHHH god I can’t wait

FKHSHSKF I’M GLAD YOU’RE EXCITED!!! Hopefully the full piece will live up to the hype😅👀

Trick or treat!

-let’s just pretend we’re Nanny Ashtoreth and the Collector (toh)

Sorry it's late, I went to bed! XD

Oh, I mean, ahem, *Nanny Ashtoreth voice* "Hello dear, what a delightful costume you're wearing. You must love the stars. Here, take whatever you'd like."

I just don't understand why people are suddenly mourning wenclair when it can still happen? Sure not in the first season but I think we all knew this. Just because there are love interests it doesn't mean these het pairings will happen / will last. Every review keeps repeating that the love triangle is weak and lame because Wednesday isn't insterested in either of the boys. We don't know much about Enid but her biggest fear is dying alone and unloved so if she's shown attention she will surely respond. She doesn't know what true love is, never experienced it so she gotta take time and figure it out. What and who she really wants. If the show gets renewed for more seasons there's no reason why wenclair couldn't happen.

my same thoughts exactly my dear anon

I personally think wenclair gets egged alot bcs is a queer ship. and since again hetero normativity exist ppl don't think about it being canon is future seasons, expect other few people.

either way again idrc if it's Canon or not. I would love it to be canon because I love having more queer relationship representation, as I am myself am queer. but Its a Netflix show the boat is unpredictable also predictable all at the same time.