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yuesya · 9 months

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Suguru frowns.

“Gakuganji-gakucho. What do you think you’re doing?” In front of him, the aged principal of the Kyoto jujutsu school tenses. And for good reason –the ire of a Special Grade sorcerer is not something to take lightly, and Suguru does not appreciate the old man attempting to kill Yaga. Who was looking rather decidedly beaten and battered at the moment; if Suguru hadn’t arrived just in the nick of time, then he’d be dead.

Just the thought of it sends a cold chill down his spine.

“… What are you doing here, Geto?”

Suguru pauses. His old teacher’s voice is… strange. And not strange as in ‘surprised,’ which would only be reasonable given that Suguru had pretty much suddenly appeared out of thin air here, after solving the puzzle of that complex eightfold imprisoning barrier he’d been trapped in. He hadn’t expected there to be a teleportation mechanism built into the exit, either.

No, Yaga-gakucho’s voice sounds hostile towards him, which makes absolutely no sense. Also, ‘Geto?’ Why is Yaga-gakucho calling him ‘Geto’ and not ‘Suguru’ as he usually does? Why does he look at Suguru as if he’s an enemy? He’d literally just saved his life!

“What do you mean, ‘why are you here?’” Suguru gives his old teacher an unimpressed look. “I’m one of your teachers, where else would I be? Satoru would’ve driven you up the wall a long time ago if I wasn’t here to rein him in.”

Silence. The look that Yaga-gakucho gives him –Suguru can’t quite put his finger on it, but something about it feels wrong, wrong, wrong.

“What’s your angle here?” Yaga-gakucho scowls. “Stop lying. We know what you did at Shibuya! How long are you going to play obtuse?”

Suguru rears back, startled by the vehemence in the older man’s voice. But at the same time, “What do you mean, Shibuya? I’ve been in America for the past two weeks! You were the one who handed the assignment to me!”

“What?”

Another silence. This one is much more awkward than the previous, however, and also blatantly ringed with confusion for all parties involved. Even Gakuganji-gakucho.

... It takes awhile to sort things out. Apparently, Suguru hadn’t just teleported back to Japan when he’d solved that puzzle barrier. He’d been fucking teleported to a parallel reality, and the sheer sideways angle of everything here was absolutely mind-boggling. Firstly, he was apparently dead –but also not, because some thousand year-old curse user had hijacked his corpse? Also, the Geto Suguru of this world had gone off his rocker as a third year student and intended to massacre all non-sorcerers in the world in order to create a world without curses, which, just. What??

“Why would they ever do that?” he asks, completely flabbergasted… and just a touch morbidly curious.

Because Amanai had died. Which had then led to the Suguru of this world questioning the worth of non-sorcerers and the purpose of sorcerers –and then, madness.

… In what world was that possible? Zenin Toji had gotten past the terrifying combination of Satoru and Shiki? How?

Suguru frowns pensively. “Amanai Riko is the teacher for second year students in my world. After the mission in our second year, she rejected the merger at the end, and the Tokyo school accepted her as a new student. She traveled with Tsukumo-san for a few years after graduating, then came back to take up a teaching post.”

“I… see.” There’s a complicated note in Yaga-gakucho’s voice, accompanied by something else that’s just slightly wistful. Clearly, he had his own regrets over how that mission to protect the Star Plasma Vessel went in this world.

Suguru rubs at his forehead. This world… things are currently an utter mess. And Satoru and Shiki were sealed? How? It boggled the mind –Satoru alone was already unstoppable, and together with his sister the two were invincible. Or at least, the closest approximation to invincible that there was. However, from another perspective, it also painted the current situation in a grim light. They were really in some dire straits.

Good thing that Suguru was here to help, and hopefully he’d also be able to find a way back to his own reality where everything made sense, at the end of this mess.

“You know the students are probably going to attack you on sight, right?”

Suguru waves his hand, “It’ll be fine, Yaga-gakucho. I’m a teacher, I can deal with a few enthusiastic students.”

#Writing #zenith of stars au #twins au #au of an au #geto from twins au lands in canon-verse #@collectivetrash you are responsible for this #satoru does not show up but like #i figure that yaga and the students could have fun first haha #guys this is now dubbed the #twin cannons au #thanks to @raorica for the name haha

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faroreskiss · 8 months

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the mailman in LU? yeah. hurt no-comfort linguist reader somehow gets a letter from their world. contents of the letter could be up to you, or it could simply be the stereotypical notice that someone they cared for has died. really puts it into perspective that they’ve been gone for over 2 years (if you count the time they spent in BOTW’s world)

Oh my Hylia anon, thank you for this request, it really gets the juices flowing. And no comfort? Damn, the dark side is really calling for you, eh? This ficlet is here to ruin the Isekai!Reader inserts.

There is Hylian in this ficlet!

I'm making it extra dark by placing this on a time where the linguist reader is still NOT able to communicate so expressively with the Chain in Hylian.

This can still be read stand alone.

Realities of being an Isekai!Reader. Is that even a genre?

For anybody wondering, "The Power of Understanding" the Cheat Sheet is here, the main fic is here.

CW: Hurt/no comfort. Not proof-read, mention of death, dark basically. Maybe don't read it at night.

Ended up longer than I thought.

Ao3

The Void / The Power of Understanding Short Story

Spending time with your favorite heroes, hell, even being involved with them romantically to an extent, was amazing.

Of course, only if you didn't count the fact that you could get killed any time, attacked by a random monster and suffer a horrible death.

...Or the fact that you have been away from anybody you have ever known in your life, for over two years.

At some point, you accepted the fact that you were just going to be living the rest of your life humbly in Hateno, in your little cottage. Before that, it had been terrible for a while, right after the honeymoon stage ended. The depressive episodes, sobbing at night, the nightmares, the guilt. In the first year, you were barely able to function due to your grief. Even when Link and Zelda were there for you.

You felt guilty, even though it wasn't your fault that you had been thrown in there. You felt guilty that you enjoyed it sometimes, going for hikes in the morning, hanging out with Link, decorating your cottage, learning a new language, playing the scholar. You felt guilty you didn't try hard enough (if at all) to get back to your world. What could you have even done?

Then your mind had been occupied, busy with trying to build a life for yourself, trying to communicate with people in the post Calamity Hyrule. Then, you settled in, just started to have a new routine to your life. Time has passed fast, oh so fast. And these people didn't even have the same calendar system over here. You didn't even know when your birthday was in the Hylian calendar!

Later, you had been thrown into yet another world and met the rest of the Links. So much for settling in, huh.

You usually actively tried to push the thoughts of your loved ones in your world away. At some point, it became second nature to you. The world here was different enough, not a lot of reminders.

Except when you saw the Sailor with her sister... Or Rancher with his adopted family perhaps. The Old Man with his lovely wife Malon. You still pressed on.

_____

You just departed from the Lost Woods and a sense of rejuvenation courtesy of the swarm of fairies you came across, after the boys killed the huge moblin.

It was a bit before Wild's era, you were guessing. The existence of the Captain really confused the shit out of you. You assumed he was also on a merger timeline or something, like Wild.

Then, your attention was drawn to a lanky individual with an exceptionally prominent nose and a rather comical hat. Could that be the postman once more? The mystery of how he managed to consistently locate your group, deliver letters, and then depart as if it were the most ordinary task continued to boggle your mind. Yet, given that you had ventured across various dimensions more times than you could count, you opted not to dwell on it extensively.

You were more curious about how he was able to read all those different scripts from different eras in the first place. Or how Links could sometimes tell which one belonged to which hero. Not like some of them were that different...

"Hireulu!" he greeted your group, holding only one letter in his hand this time.

As lost in thought as you were, you couldn't have missed the next thing you heard:

"(Y/N) tiyu? Ti riemun nia kubela."

He... had a letter for you? The others also seemed a bit perplexed. Nobody in your era wrote letters that much anymore. You silently held up your hand. He gave the letter to you, and as the boys were trying to somehow talk to him, he already rushed away, shouting "Hilay su aduerin!" You smiled. You knew at this point that it meant "Goodbye" in a sense. "May Hylia protect you" was the literal translation of it.

Sounded almost similar to the story behind the phrase "Goodbye" in English. God be with you.

Seated by the roadside, you carefully examined the letter in your hands. Strangely, a wave of unease washed over you. It had been ages since you'd last encountered something written in Latin script that wasn't written by you.

While curiosity tugged at your thoughts, it also stirred memories you had long sought to bury, bringing forth a flood of thoughts you'd rather avoid.

Wild sat next to you, he had curious eyes as the script looked quite unfamiliar to him.

As you started reading the letter, the blood drained from your face. You were only in a few sentences in, yet you knew exactly what it meant, and who it was. You dropped the envelope to the floor, it got stuck in the grass.

No.

"We lost her. After three days in bed, on her fourth she became one with the earth."

More than two years ago now, when you were first whisked away from your world, she had only recently been diagnosed with a sinister disease that affected the communication between her brain cells, making her forget things. But she was okay. Even though the doctors said they were slowing it down significantly, the end was inevitable. She would end up forgetting the most basic body functions towards the end.

But she was okay.

She had been the most badass person you had ever known in your life.

She would ride horses and scare off the corrupt shepherds in her time. Even though she was denied education above basics, she had been a fierce advocate for it. She had always been a fierce, strong woman. She planned everything.

Including her death, it seemed.

You remembered how she would say she wouldn't want to be bedridden and taken care of for months on end. How she even bought a place in the graveyard around 10 years ago, which caused a huge family drama. She even told her children what to announce once she died. What to wear.

As you read the rest of the letter, tears were streaming from your cheeks, yet your expression was still neutral. You weren't sure if you deserved feeling sad.

Were you sad because you lost her? Or were you sad for your own parent who lost a parent? Were you sad for yourself because one day you would have to do it also for a parent? For a loved one? Or were you sad because once again you were reminded of the bitter reality of mortality? Or were you sad because you couldn't even bid her a proper farewell?

Even if you were still in your world, you weren’t sure if you could make it on time for her funeral anyway. According to the traditions you were raised with, it had to happen within 24 hours. You lived quite far away already, and this had been one of your primal fears.

Not being able to spend enough time with them, not being able to say farewell.

Wild (and everybody else) noticed the tears streaming down your cheeks, and said something as he put his hand on your shoulder, only lightly pulling you to him. You were frozen, you really weren’t in the mood to try to understand anything.You didn’t move a millimeter.

Everything came back, everything you tried to hold back. You wondered what they thought, did they think you were lost, kidnapped, dead? What about your partner? How were they doing? Your sister? All the other loved ones? How were they feeling?

Too much. It was too much. It was crashing down upon you. You were scared, the guilt was too heavy. Your vision was blurry. You were rocking yourself back and forth as you pulled your knees to your chest, mumbling to yourself. You held them always back, but it seemed like your defenses had finally given in. They broke. You broke.

You were in a void, where the only sound you could hear was your heart beating as if it was going to escape your chest and the screeching sound ringing in your ears. It was hard to breathe. You felt sick to your stomach. Your hands and feet felt as if ants were walking on them. Cold, but also too warm. You were shivering,

You couldn't hear the sound of the boys chattering, trying to figure out what to do. How some of them understood exactly what was going on, but for the moment how confused they were. The Rancher was mumbling something to your ear, something soothing maybe. Wild’s hand was still over your shoulder, but you did not feel it anymore.

The void was the only thing that embraced you.

You wailed in pain.

_______________________

The Sailor picked up the envelope from the ground noticing there was something sticking out of it. It was a... picture? Black and white.

It felt really brittled and old in his hand. It had some text he didn't understand. Two relatively young women were in it, smiling. To him, it looked like weird clothing, but they gave off a fancy air with how they posed.

One of them really looked like you.

He put it in his bag for now, to give it to you later.

01/01/1955

#farie answers #the power of understanding #linked universe x reader #linked universe au #isekai reader #linguist reader #hurt/no comfort #angst #the power of understanding shorts #linked universe #tpos

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nopointic · 5 months

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blue eye samurai was so funny to me how everyone who saw mizu's blue eyes immediately were like YUCK! 🤮 DEMON! *hides children behind them* because in modern society today it's the opposite. i remember always being bummed when a character would have blue eyes and that was their defining beauty trait. books would go on to describe characters with brown eyes as dull and lifeless and you don't think these things stick with you but it does. and then colored contacts came out. and i remember so many black people in my city buying blue contact lenses to feel "prettier". it became a huge thing. so with black girls it was ok we gotta straighten our hair with toxic chemicals and for a bigger glow up pop in blue contacts.

then photoshopping became very common. fans would give their favorite artists blue eyes. i remember this specifically with zayn in one direction. it made me so fucking mad. zayn looks like something out of perfect runway anyways. and here fans were making his eyes blue and saying "now he's perfect!" imagine thinking zayn malik needed a makeover. mind boggling then and now.

but here we have a whole show where the culture is like nah those blue eyes? that shit is demonic and ugly. it's obviously cruel and nobody should be treated as such.

but remember when fowler bragged how one day they would love a face like his and consider his beauty above their their own when he got done colonizing their country? it happened.

in damn near every country where nonwhite people exist, european features are the pinnacle of beauty.

we see this when we have "international" modeling show. a model from every country but the sharp jawlines and lightest skin always win. loose curls not tightly coiled hair like some black people have. thin bodies. tall bodies. international but those qualities are always wanted. the same fucking look. a slight shade difference at most.

hell the natural hair movement with black people is oddly just a parade of expensive products to give one the looser curl pattern that society accepts. curl puddings and products to combat "shrinkage" makes up majority of black hair products in the natural section. it's something.

chemically straightened hair. the natural hair that grows out of my black scalp has been called unprofessional and needed several laws to protect others like me from various job discrimination policies. kids with natural black hair are still being told their hair is out of dress code.

skin bleaching is popular in several ethnic cultures. i can find a bleaching soap at my local big box retail store. they're not advertised but it's still a big seller. i want you to put that into perspective.

many products today boast about glowing skin. brightening is a nicer way to say bleaching. turmeric powder and lemon in everything now.

western media loves to point fingers at koreans now due to an increase of kpop in the media. they judge those who spend a massive amount of time, money, and resources to obtain a strict set of beauty standards. lighter skin, weight loss plans, sharper cheeks, new eyelids, color contacts, chin exercises you can learn on youtube it goes on and on. western white people judge asian people on their beauty obsession standards and it's tone deaf. it's a slap in the fucking face when i see it. your ancestors told all of us people of color we were ugly and needed to look like you to succeed in life. now we do it and you wanna point fingers and talk about how vain and fickle we are? that's fucked up! it pissed me off!!!!!!

so i guess it's a bitter taste in my mouth when i do laugh at mizu's "unfortunate eye color" being the cause of so much pain. because now it's the opposite.

as the cool kids say, she would do "numbers" in beauty standard rankings now. ethnic, but not "too" ethnic. blue eyes, androgynous and athletic but not too bulky and long hair? the algorithm says money honey!

funny how all this works out. eurocentric beauty is a hell of a drug. no katana will be able to kill that. no body positivity campaign or hashtag will undo any of this global phenomenon we now live with. we can call brown eyes beautiful now in songs and yet the angels in the church will always have blue eyes. this is the first time i've not seen a fandom go batshit insane when seeing a person of color WITH blue eyes. usually it's all caps with phrases like "woke liberal bullshit" or something. the fallout from the black little mermaid with red hair showed this very well.

white people have damn near colonized every other race and then they cry foul at the thought of a non white person with eyes other than brown and hair other than black and brown. it's the funniest shit. i mean they'll accept a mermaid. but her being black with red hair? too far. we truly would have never heard the fucking end if they made halle wear blue contacts as ariel. white people would have lost their fucking minds on another level lbh!

we joke that brown contacts would have given mizu an easier life. it's sobering that blue contacts and other fucked up beauty rituals give people of color the same easier life now.

mizu in blue eye samurai during that period is shunned for their appearance. today mizu would do numbers on instagram and make money being the face of some random blue low calorie sport drinks available at big chain stores.

anyways that's my TED talk on blue eyes, eurocentric beauty standards and why i really really love how blue eyes samurai shows all of this. i am in awe of the creators making this show from them having a biracial asian baby with blue eyes. because so many don't even realize how their blue eyes will always leave them being talked about no matter what. they will be called a a faker with contacts, have to constantly prove with baby pictures their eyes were and have always been blue. people will make immediate judgements and even though you would think this would not happen in 2023 it does.

so i commend the parents for making this show. it's a conversation we need to have more. how society treats those with certain features when you are not in control of said features. and how far we go personally to try to "fit in" in a world that is hell bent on neat and tidy labels. this is good this is bad blah blah blah.

i fucking love blue eye samurai. please let there be a season 2!

#blue eye samurai #Mizu #eurocentric beauty standards #beauty

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calypsoarts · 8 days

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Oh my god, I've been seeing the hollow knight pixel art animations and I didn't realize they were all from the same person! Dude! You are so skilled, all of them are so pretty I love your work (also u seem to like hermitcraft which is a major W)

Hey! Thank you very much! That means a lot to hear! <3 <3

I'm really happy to have found the support for what I do, reading and responding to all the kind things people have been saying really makes everything I do feel so fulfilling. It really boggles my mind that there's so many out there who react well to my art, and I never would've seen this coming at all when I started making pixel art just over a year ago!

(And yes I love Hermitcraft, I've been watching since the 3rd Season and to put even that into perspective I've been watching Ethoslab since his original survival world, before hunger or sprinting, all of that.)

#calypsoarts #qna #hollowknight #hollow knight #hermitcraft

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go-to-two · 2 months

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Some of it was how he wrote Antonio out but also killing Al. Losing both characters drastically changed the feel and balance of the show. I also think Eid was upset Jon came back to PD after Justice didn't work and so the choices he made in regard to how he wrote him out were personal.

As for the Burzek of it all, it is way more than Eid not putting them back together. If you watch season 4, it was clear Burzek was on their way to getting back together. And then Eid shows up and the very first episode he is in charge, he has Kim dating someone else. At the end of S5, Paddy went to him and asked for Burzek to be a thing again and what does Eid do - season 6 which was an attempt to kill Burzek for good while pushing Upstead. He could have used anyone else to date Hailey but no, he picks Adam. And it was after Paddy specifically asked him for Burzek. Eid said numerous times in interviews that Burzek was done and over. Upsteads didn't' mind S6 because the storyline was used to push their ship together but Burzek didn't get anything out of it except a very OOC Adam and Kim. He did everything possible to not make Adam the father of Kim's baby…including trying to bring Roman back. He did figure out how to get him back for the episode after Burzek lost their baby which was a dick move to the fans. He spent seasons 7-9 teasing Burzek and giving the fans hope only to wreck them at the end of an episode. He "broke" them up several times but never actually put them together first and constantly made sure the audience knew they weren't together. And then Paddy and Marina give what was probably the performance of their careers in 8x16 and it is used to get Upstead married while Burzek just got more trauma. The fact that Adam and Kim (and even Kevin) had nothing to do with the fallout from the Roy storyline is mind boggling. There were so many good storylines that could have come from all of it for all the characters and he didn't use a single one. It seemed clear that his goal was to get upstead married before he left. You could also tell Paddy and Marina were upset about their characters being ignored - it was disrespectful to them, the characters, and the fans.

Add in what he did to Al and Antonio, starting this awful centric format, removing the humor and family feel of the show (and making it really dark), and making Trudy almost nonexistent, there are a lot of reasons he is not liked by fans (and not just Burzeks). It would have been one thing if he was trying to build them back but he clearly used them for emotional storylines with no intention of ever making them a couple again. He constantly did 3 steps forward and 5 back with Burzek. So yeah...it feels like he had a vendetta against Burzek and Adam/Paddy specifically. And yes, Burzek had moments but that was because of Paddy and Marina, not Eid.

I also think some of the choices he made with Hailey's character are why she gets the hate she does...it all could have been prevented too if he had just taken a different approach to how he brought her in. But his ego got in the way. He came in acting like it was a brand new show and didn't care that there was an already established audience. He even told Paddy that the fans didn't matter (I don't think shows should cater to fans but saying they don't matter isn't right either).

Ok, I'm going to have to go point by point but if I'm being honest... a lot of this feels like it's about Kim and Adam not being together.

I've talked about the Antonio stuff. It wasn't good. I don't agree that is was vindictive and I know there was talk of trying to get him back for the beginning of season 7 and it didn't work, so it is what it is. I might be in the minority, but I understand the decision to kill Al from a storytelling perspective. I wish it had had a more lasting effect on Voight's character, but I do understand choices they made in that exit.

As for Burzek... I think we have very different definitions of what "on their way to getting back together" looked like in season 4. In seasons 1-3, they cheated together on Adam's (2nd or 3rd?) fiancée, got engaged before either were near ready, imploded, and then Adam spent a big chunk of season 4 away from Intelligence because he couldn't handle being in the unit at the same time as Kim. Sure, Paddy was filming a movie and Marina was going on maternity leave, but that's what they were working with at the time. They cared about each other, but Eid inherited a bit of a mess with them. Paddy could ask for anything he wanted, and no showrunner or writer is obligated to give it to him if it didn't make sense. Putting them back together without any development at that time would have made no sense.

You typed a lot about seasons 6-8 and again, it all feels like it boils down to Kim and Adam not being together. I personally think the term "OOC" is used too liberally. It's thrown around by all fandoms as a blanket deflection from a character's behavior we may not like, when it's really well within the scope of their character. They're flawed. I'm not saying you have to like the way Eid told the story but that goes back to my original point. There is little critique in there that doesn't come back to the idea that he didn't put the ship together.

There is a pattern that I've noticed in the Burzek fandom that fans believe Kim and Adam are "stronger than the showrunner" and somehow defeated Eid, and it's not how things work at all. No character has any story without the showrunner. The reason Kim was pregnant with Adam's baby is because Eid made that decision, even if other options were explored in the writing process. They found Makayla together because of Eid. They were still circling each other for years because he kept them in each other's orbits. He took them from where they were in season 5 to working towards co-parenting, all while giving them some of their best episodes along the way. If he wanted to end them for good, he could have. Easily. It's not fair or accurate to say that all the good moments were because of Paddy and Marina while the bad were Eid and the writers when that's simply not how writing a TV show works.

"And then Paddy and Marina give what was probably the performance of their careers in 8x16 and it is used to get Upstead married while Burzek just got more trauma." - that sentence doesn't sit right with me for a lot of reasons. First, Tracy also gave an incredible performance. I'm not going to minimize that just because her ship ended up getting married. In fact, they all did. Jason, too. Jesse and LaRoyce had a lesser presence, but they were so solid. To act like Burzek were the only ones to come out of that situation with trauma is erasing the whole other half of the storyline, which is what you are complaining they did to Kim. And I agree, Kim's role in the Roy situation should have been addressed sooner. Eid should have done it in 9A, Gwen should have done it in 9B instead of the Makayla kidnapping fallout. Kim and Adam's story was a mess in season 9, and that's at the hands of both showrunners.

I mentioned this in an ask the other day, but I don't think Eid was one who was interested in romance between canon couples at all- be it Burzek or Upstead. Was it vindictive towards Upstead when he put them together and immediately gave them nothing but angst? Probably not. Just like I don't think he was vindictive in giving Burzek angst, too. Again, there seems to be this notion that Kim and Adam were the only ones who went through shit. They all got it. It was his style, which is one of my biggest complaints against him, honestly.

Centrics aren't even my biggest gripe against him, because I saw up close how much productions had to scramble to put together Covid seasons. The centrics got bad in season 8, but I have a lot of grace for the hoops they had to jump through to get anything on screen during the pandemic. I'm more annoyed with why they're still happening now.

All that said, I don't think a viewer who has seen the whole show can objectively look at the quality of cases, involvement from each character, long-form story arcs that are actually cohesive, the development of the characters, and the dialogue and say we were worse off under Eid's leadership.

Okay, I've typed enough. I don't expect that you'll agree with everything here. It's totally fine if you don't agree with any of it, I'm just offering my perspective. I'm not saying someone has to love the way Eid ran the show but generally speaking (it's not every fan, I understand that) Burzek fans tend to villainize Eid while praising Gwen for "fixing the show". Meanwhile, she does everything they claim Eid did (centrics, dark tone, no continuity, baseless writing), only worse. That's why, to someone on the outside, it does seem like the core issue with Eid is that he didn't put the ship together.

#anon ask #yee doggies this got long #unless something really conversation-worthy comes of it #i'll probably let this topic lie after this #next tag to be safe #anti-burzek

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justatalkingface · 10 months

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I saw you responded to my Black Whip fiasco post and I just need a like-minded person to rant to about it, because my friend and I got into a little debate about it.

Izuku was clearly not in control of Black Whip and was panicking because it was destorying the area and putting himself and everyone else in danger. All Might - who at this point was in no position to physically help out and ALSO had little to no idea what was going on - can clearly see something's very wrong and tells Aizawa to stop the match.

NONE of the teachers do anything, even though Midnight and Aizawa have the Quirks necessary to do so (Mightnight could knock Izuku out, and Aizawa could erase Black Whip).

Instead, Ochako puts herself at risk to snap Izuku out of it... and is fucking PRAISED by Midnight and Aizawa for it, meaning they're basically proud that they sat back and could have let their students get seriously injured due to their own idiocy/negligence.

Like I know this is a hero school and all, but what tf are the teachers even at the trainings for if they won't step in when situations escalate like this? In the Battle Trials, All Might at least WARNED Bakugou that he'd interviene if he kept going for the kill (but he, of course, didn't 🙃) and the other students were begging him to stop the match. Even in Naruto where the kids are expressly being trained to be child soldiers, the squad instructors fucking interviened in the Chunin Exams when students were disobeying the rules and going for the kill.

Oh, Black Whip showing up is a clusterfuck for everyone involved (looking at you, Remnants!) and it's one of many points that make Aizawa look like a shit teacher... but wait! It's worse than you think!

Here's the thing: we know what that was. We had all the hints to expect that, yeah, at some point Izuku would get a new power, followed promptly by a monologue about what it was (and also, how Izuku was so bad for failing at standards he didn't have until just now, thanks Remnants!) but look at it from an outside perspective:

There's the exercise, things as normal, then combat tentacles explode from Izuku like he's hosting a new and exciting type of xenomorph. He grunts and groans, clearly trying to fight it. He yells, 'Run away!'

This looks nothing like his Quirk.

MHA is a one-Quirk setting, outside of high tier Mad Science, or a setting breaking Quirk. Shoto calls his Quirk two, but it's explicitly one, that's just him artificially separating it in his mind because of his trauma/how his dad seemed to have trained him with fire. So... why would anyone assume that was Izuku's Quirk, when edgy black tentacles have nothing to do with super strength? Why did everyone look at that and go, 'Yeah, that's totally Izuku'.

Why didn't anyone think it was something else?

And as for what else it could be? Well, you remember the first chapter? The slime guy, trying to parasite Bakugou? Sounds pretty similar to me! An energy version, sure, but still. With any normal amount of context these characters should have had, they shouldn't have treated this as, 'Izuku's having an accident with his powers'.

They should have been treating this as him being attacked.

I mean, fuck. In that next chapter (where they make it seem like Aizawa has been 'responsibly' keeping any eye on this the whole time), he even says 'if' this thing is a Quirk. He doesn't know what it is. The fact he's so laid back about letting an unknown element just... be there is mind-boggling. What if it isn't a Quirk? What if it was like the slime-guy, some Quirk that couldn't be canceled with a glance from, like, half a mile away? What the fuck is he going to do if breaks the neck of some kid a foot away from Izuku while Aizawa, who is way the fuck over there, is too far away to intervene?

It's so irresponsible it's insane.

And yeah, 'They still want to win'. Big whoop, they all do! I mean, hell, the losers are still going to want to win even after they lose; are you going to let them just have another shot because they want to win? He's clearly fine with letting them risk their lives to what the fuck ever that was, so breaking the rules and invalidating the win should be nothing in comparison, right?

This is the logic of an actual child. Consequences exist. Things happen beyond your control; hell, make it part of the lesson.

'You all lose, yes, just like when you're trying to catch a bank robber and them some gigantified asshole knocks over a building and suddenly you need to do something else. Get over it.'

But you know what? Even if they all did know, it shouldn't have mattered, because there's a point where things have crossed the line and when someone yells, 'Run away, my power is going to murder you!', the situation has clearly reached that point. They should have stopped it, instantly, and then at worst maybe have marked Izuku's team as an automatic loss if he was faking or something, but... it was smashing buildings. It clearly could have killed someone. I mean, at least Vlad King was concerned, but Aizawa? Nah.

I guess nobody died yet, so it wasn't worth stopping.

Is Izuku OK after all that? Eh, the boy who fought past breaking his arms, doing himself permanent damage, wants to keep going; clearly he's fine and we can trust his decision making process. What if it happens again? Well, I handled it so well before (by doing nothing), that clearly I can handle it if that thing tries to murder my pride and joy, even if I'm blinking when it happens, or maybe Shinsou is blocking my view of Izuku so I can't use my Quirk on him, or any other factor that might prevent me from intervening when I am nowhere nearby.

God, the fact that nobody has died in the process of being trained by this man is genuinely awe-inspiring. I guess Shinsou's greatest proof of how great a hero he'll be isn't his Quirk, or how fast he picked up scarf-jutsu, but the fact he got one-on-one training with Aizawa and lived!

#ask #bnha critical #mha critical #aizawa critical #'nobody died so clearly everything is fine'#is not in fact fine

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natasha-in-space · 4 months

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Hey ive a small request. I just thought of yoosung route with an mc who....actually knew him for a long time and had secretly crushed on him and admired him when both of them were in school. It is pretty canon that yoosung was a popular kid at his school and had many girls crushing on him. One of the girls happened to be mc who cant help but admire him from afar. Back in the day yoosung was the first guy who had been kind and sweet towards her and that stuck with her for the rest of her life. She never confessed her feelings, thinking that she might be "too weird" for him (since she was one of the "weird girls" of the class because of her shyness).

She however never found out about his grief regarding rika, she has a faint memory of him appearing sad on the day of graduation and she has no idea why...it just felt very unusual of him from her perspective. She mustered up some courage to ask him why he is sad but he pushed her away by plastering a fake smile and saying "im actually fine dont worry", she knew he was lying but that day she couldnt ask him more and force him to talk. Few days later she moves out to a different country with her family

Fast forward to current time she ends up being stuck in the apartment because she could not say no to an obviously shady man and finds the same guy she had once admired.

Because the mc here is a very socially awkward person, I am pretty sure she would end up only inviting a handful of people so its going to be the normal ending instead of good ending (which basically means that she would meet him at the hospital and not at the party)

So how do you think the reunion will be. I love your writings very much i want to see your take on this

Life can be so peculiar.

You can meet people by who's side you will end up spending the rest life with, by pure chance. Or, you can lose the one person you thought understood you more than anyone else could. It's unpredictable. And that's a thought that is both terrifying and relieving to ponder over late in the night, when there is nothing else fot you to do but just lay there and stare at the ceiling of your bedroom, deep in thought.

It was unexpected to meet Yoosung again, to say the least. It seems like such cliche story, ripped straight from some generic k-drama and not real life, doesn't it? A shy, closed off kid meeting their popular high school crush further down the line, when they are both now established adults with their own individual lives. But, then again, maybe it wasn't as strange. It's not like you went through some mind-boggling 'glow-up' in these few years, like characters in k-dramas usually do. You were still the same introverted and kind of nerdy dork you were in high school, just a bit more capable of putting up a somewhat acceptable front in public.

Yoosung, though? He was almost an entirely different person.

Well, not entirely, but he was still a far cry from the popular and academic boy you knew back in high school. Not in a bad way, per se... But, it still shocked you quite a bit once you got to know him fully. Then again, it's not like you have really known him at all until now. That doesn't mean your past crush on him was superficial by any means, but it was still rather innocent and puppy-like on your end. You wanted to get to know him better, to see sides of him you couldn't see when he was in public... but, you were far too insecure and skittish to be so bold.

Alas, life had other plans for you.

His hair was not the same neatly styled brunette you remembered. In its place, was a new bright blonde hue that fit him surprisingly well, layered in an adorably casual look that made your heart skip a beat the moment you saw his selfie in the chat, when you first joined. His choice of clothing was more free-spirited, less classy and uptight. The type that made you wonder how his shirts would look and feel on you if you were to borrow them. And his overall attitude seemed to have become a bit more carefree and lighthearted. These major changes surprised you. But, they weren't unwelcome by any means. They intrigued you. Made you want to talk to him, and learn all the ways that he has changed in these couple of years.

Thankfully, you were a bit more chatty behind the safety of your phone.

With chatting, you could take your time and make sure your wordings are correct. You didn't have to just say the first thing that came to mind and then follow through with it. You could express yourself accurately. And you would use that lucky opportunity to its full potential.

Yoosung's apparent active neglect of his studies was surprising to you. The straight-A student you knew back in high school was completely different from this older Yoosung. Maybe you should have been put off by this particular negative change of his, but it only made you grow concerned for him. The more you talked, the less... happy he appeared to you. Sure, his attitude was cheery and carefree on the surface. But, sometimes, you would read upon a phrase or two that would make you pause, your brows furrowing in concern and your heart clenching in your chest, despite it being passed around like a light joke or something.

I don't really know what my talents are.

I don't really know what I want to do.

I just play games to get rid of stress or feel less lonely.

Trying to find what you're interested in itself is a luxury.

It felt like... he just gave up on himself. On his future, and, subsequently, his own happiness. That thought was gnawing at you. It's like he didn't... believe he was capable of finding fulfillment in life, so he gave up on trying altogether. It wasn't right.

Although he may have neglected his studies, he remained the same passionate and lively person you fell for in back in high school. His drive was still there, but it was almost like it got fizzled out due to something you couldn't quite figure out yet. You did remember him seeming rather... downcast back at your graduation. No, he looked downright crushed.

You have a distinct memory of wanting to approach him and inquire about his wellbeing. Maybe you could have offered for him to come and spend some time with you. Yet, as always, you were far too big of a scaredy cat to do so.

Things had changed since then. You may be shy and timid, but you weren't going to let your fears and insecurities hold you back from doing something you knew in your heart was right. Not when life has given you a second chance like this.

And so, that's how you got here. You finally got to see him face to face after eleven days of complete and utter rollercoaster of emotions. Meeting Yoosung in the hospital ward wasn't how you planned it... but, you were just glad to see him smiling and safe.

Furthermore, his smile was meant for you. An observation that left you reeling as you walked sheepishly into his hospital ward, knowing that everyone has left to give you some alone time. It was just you and him now.

"...Hi."

He smiles wider, as if he's excited to finally hear your voice in person, no longer muffled by his speaker phone. You can see him straining a little bit to sit upright, but ultimately deciding against it. "Hi."

So much to say, yet so little time... You find yourself just staring at him for a few moments, before deciding to just go for it. Considering everything that happened during these eleven days between you two, there was no need for you to be cautious or distant. He was pretty straightforward with you about his feelings. Much more upfront than you could ever be. And, some part of you was still in disbelief that he has actually come to love you in such a short amount of time.

It was too good to be true.

You reach his bedside and sit on the chair placed neatly next to it. Without thinking much about it, you reach out and place a gentle hand on his palm, his skin soft and warm under your touch. It makes you smile almost inadvertently. "It's... so good to finally see you. Are you alright? We were all so shocked when Seven..."

"-I'm okay. You don't have to worry." Yoosung cuts you off in a soft tone, his smile turning a bit bashful, and you feel his fingers cautiously intertwining with yours, almost like he was testing the waters, wanting to see if you will pull away from his touch. Of course, you didn't. He sighs, seeming to be enjoying the comfortable silence for a brief moment, before continuing, his thumb warmly brushing the back of your hand. "I promise I'll tell you everything a bit later. There will be no secrets between us. I just... I want this moment to be about us, you know?"

Your heart flutters in your chest as you nod in response to such sweet words. You knew what he meant, though. You really did. He was brave enough to say it openly while you weren't. "What... do you want to talk about?"

You opt to give him the initiative here. To see where this would go. He hums softly, pondering for a few moments before replying, his eye always fixed on you. Not like you could blame him. Finally talking to him face to face and not having to imagine what he actually looks like, was having the same effect on you. You two might be more similar than you think.

"...I just... I can't help but think that this was fate, you know? That Rika really did bring you to me. To help me find what I have lost back when she left us. To help me move forward with my life." He licks his lips, and you give him an encouraging nod, letting him know that you are indeed listening. Rushing this was not necessary. He seemed to appreciate your gesture, with an adorably sweet smile tugging at the corners of his mouth that made your heart swell. "It's funny... I was so popular back in high school, I had so many people I called my friends, and yet, I barely have seen them since then. Yet, the one who made their way back into my life like a hurricane was... you."

You can't help but chuckle and shake your head a little bit. "I would say it was the other way around... but, I am flattered to hear that."

You sway in your seat, unsure if you should mention it or not. In the end, you make the decision to be truthful. You two are technically a couple now, after all. It's only right to be honest with him. And... a huge part of you was always longing for a chance to tell him what you were far too scared to tell all those years ago.

So, you go for it.

"...How surprised would you be, if I told you that I actually had a huge crush on you back in high school?"

You watch his eyes widen and his mouth fall open as he just stares at you for a few moments, completely taken aback by your revelation. It was both endearing and a bit embarrassing to witness. You chuckle nervously, feeling your cheeks grow warm as you look down at your hands locked together, suddenly far too shy to look him in the eye.

"You just seemed so out of my league back then... You were the popular guy - one everyone liked. And, I mean... who was I? Just an anxious mess always sitting in the back of the class. Invisible and weird. So, I... never really approached you about it." You pause, your expression growing a bit somber as you call back to the day of your graduation. An event that was meant to be a moment of triumph and joy. A celebration of the start of your future. Yet, for you two, it wasn't anything like that. "What I always regretted the most, though... was not talking to you back at our graduation. I could tell that something was wrong, but I was too much of a chicken to actually do anything about it. So, I... when I walked into that apartment, and realized it was actually you... I don't know. I just felt like life has given me a second chance. To make things right this time."

There are a few minutes of silence between you two, nothing but the muffled noises of the hospital bustling with life on the other side of the door, and your shared breathing. Despite this, it's not suffocating or uncomfortable at all. It's oddly peaceful. You know he's processing all that you just told him, and you feel strangely calm as you give him all the time he needs before he responds.

Yoosung gently tugs your hand, a silent request for you to look up at him, and you grant him that request without any reservations on your part. His rosy eye is soft as he looks at you, and his brows slightly knit together, but it is not an expression of displeasure or unhappiness. Rather, it's a look of curiosity and disbelief that makes your breath catch in your throat. You remain silent, though, just waiting for him to come up with his piece.

You told your truth. Now, it was his turn.

"All this time... All this time you were right there, by my side, and I didn't even know it. You really are my blessing, aren't you, Y/N?"

His voice shakes as he speaks, his throat bobbing as he clearly attempts to swallow his emotions. It doesn't seem to work, though, as you can see his eye glistening slightly with unshed tears. So much for not getting emotional. As you gently squeeze his hand, you feel yourself becoming quite choked up too. A small laugh escapes you: a natural response to a rather emotional exchange happening between you. "I wouldn't call it that... I was too much of an anxious mess to do anything for the majority of that time. I'm still that awkward, scared kid, to be quite honest. Just a little bit more mature now."

Yoosung shakes his head, and an adorable pout takes its place on his cheeks. He almost seems offended when he hears you talk about yourself in this manner. "You are so much more than that."

"Yeah?" You smile, finding his insistence rather cute.

"Your words, your encouragements, your trust in me - it all gave me strength to let go of my grief and move forward with my life. Before you came along, I... I was just adrift. After Rika passed, I... I honestly felt like a big part of me died with her. I no longer knew who I was, or what I was meant to do, or if there was any point to what I do, if all my efforts could be just ripped away from so cruelly. I gave up on myself. Truth is, deep down, I didn't believe I could be happy. But, you..." he squeezes your hand, laying his other palm atop of it now as well. "You came along, and you believed in me, when no one else did. You encouraged me and told me that it's never too late to seek out that happiness I thought I lost. You never judged me, never made fun of me. You just... listened. Listened and accepted me for who I was. No, you saw things no one else saw, not even me. I can finally say that I am proud of who I am, and that's because of the way your words have motivated and encouraged me. You are the most brave and amazing person I know. And I'll be damned if I don't tell you that every single day from now on."

You're at a loss for words when faced with such a heartfelt speech. It's just too much. In the best way possible. You are pretty sure you can feel a couple of tears sliding down your cheeks now, as a tiny laugh slips from your lips. You wipe your eyes with your free hand, sniffing.

"...I forgot how great you are at giving motivational speeches."

Your blunt response makes you both laugh, a new lightness filling your chest as you suddenly feel all your nerves fade from your mind. Yoosung didn't make you nervous. Not at all. You knew you were safe with him. Just like you always took his problems and struggles seriously, he would do the same for you.

"I wasn't the class president for nothing, you know."

"That you weren't."

#mystic messenger #mysmes #mysme #mm #yoosung kim #kim yoosung #mystic messenger yoosung #yoosung x reader #woo! sorry it took so long anon!#i actually wrote out the first draft before my surgery but didn't finish it before it 💀#but i quite like how it turned out!#yoosung is honesty a big sweetheart reading through his route for this request made me appreciate him even more

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bearhugsandshrugs · 2 months

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If you feel down with this amount of comments and feedback, then I should probably kill myself :-( Sorry, I don't mean to be mean.

You are one of the most popular authors I know. I am so jealous of the amount of comments you get. Does the anxiety and self-doubt never get better when even you feel like this?

It’s not mean at all.

I get what you are referring to. To be clear I wasn’t necessarily feeling down in this instance because of lack of feedback – but there are some WIPs I’m struggling with, and some sections I wrote I didn’t like as much as others, and I was feeling a bit down. It’s normal, I think.

But I still compare myself to others. Everyone does.

I’ve had so many conversations with writer and artist friends these past weeks about exactly that type of struggle.

Let me get into more depth under the cut.

There are writers who have followings in the thousands and/or write for larger fandoms/ships who struggle with feeling good about their work literally as much as people just starting out, even if their posts have hundreds or thousands of notes. They would say "I get less notes and it's frustrating" and I check their posts and I would go "....those are amouns of notes I can only dream of" lmao. Which doesn't mean they don't struggle! It simply means we have different measures. Different reference points.

There are writers who barely get any comments, or any feedback, who feel completely discouraged. Wondering why they don't get the attention that others are getting.

There are writers who do well with one particular type of content, or they throw stuff out quickly as a joke, and that outperforms the things they pour their heart and soul into. They feel caged. Like what they truly care about isn't good enough. For me one example is an Emperor oneshot that outperforms many of my personal favorite fics. It boggles the mind?! But it's no use wrecking my mind about that. It just is.

Almost all writers I know get super discouraged about how artists get multiple times the reblogs and attention that fic writers get, even though we all know rationally why. It still hurts.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't comparing myself to others. I do. I get jealous. I get insecure. I do occasionally think my writing is not "good enough".

To this day I barely read other Gortash or Raph fics for that reason because early on I did that and once read a Gorty fic that I thought was so good, why would I ever write Gortash myself? Like what business would I have putting something out, if writers like that exist? Imagine if I hadn't forced myself out of that slump. Most of my writing would have never seen the light of day.

It's not good to compare myself, I know. But it's human.

Sometimes people send asks like yours and insinuate I'm super popular. But then.... I... don't think so?

Don't get me wrong, I have this amazing community in my comments and I am so grateful for them. I know that is rare and I am so appreciative of that. I know that I have quite a good chunk of fics that do really well on AO3, especially for Tavtash. But if you then check out.... Astarion fics? Or literally any blog that does Durgetash headcanons? It puts things into perspective.

Ultimately it doesn't matter of course to know that "popular" authors like me (??? it just feels so weird to say! I'm sorry! Not to be mean!) also get insecure.

But maybe it is reassuring to know that the anxiety, or jealousy, or self-doubt doesn't say anything about you other than that you care about your writing.

Because at the heart of it, that's that. We all create because we love creating. We share it, because we seek to go into community with others. Only when people share our writing, or comment, or feedback, do we get to feel that community. Without it, it feels hollow. And this hollowness then gets filled with jealousy, anxiety, or self-doubt. This is why I keep repeating that thing about people needing to reblog fics. Needing to comment on fics. It might just be the one thing that keeps someone going.

I hope you know that popularity, comments, hits, don't necessarily say something about the work, other than that it fits what a fandom-cultural norm considers "good" at that given time.

I am more than ever motivated to create that Discord server for fic writers to have exactly these types of conversations.

Thanks for sending me the comment. I hope you keep writing and creating and you know that these emotions are human.

Sending you love anon!

#my writing #anon asks #anon if you want to keep talking assign yourself an emoji please #bg3 fanfic #fanfic writing

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absolutebl · 2 years

Text

10 Favorite Complex Characters in BL

This post sparked by @solitaryandwandering ‘s question here.

Essentially they wanted to know some of my favorite fully realized (deep) characters rather than one dimensional archetypes. This is a challenge in BL. Especially for fans like me who are often attracted to characters with the least screen time, because we can make them whatever we want with our imaginations.

But this is about portrayal of complex, thoughtful, well rounded characters. The least artificial, tropey, and archetypal. I started this blog to track the later, not the former. Because the former is all too often in the gritty, sad, dark, heavily queer narratives. But I will take up the challenge and confine myself to picking leads only.

1. Nosue

Actually the first character who came to mind when asked this question. I have talked about Old Fashion Cupcake at length and I ADORE Togawa, but Nosue is a much more complicated character. He is outgoing, popular, and a blatant flirt, but closed off and lonely. He knows he is in trouble, and he knows he did it to himself, but can’t figure out how to get out of his life state or malaise. He is profoundly self aware and instinctively empathic, while being entirely unable to understand how anyone actually feels about him. He can see his own flaws but not anyone else’s. He has capacity to love but doesn't trust himself to do so, and cannot recognize affection when it surrounds him. This character could only be at this point in his life journey, no younger character or actor could ever have carried off this role with all its contrasts and nuance. He is the opposite of one dimensional. He’s almost 4th dimensional, where he occupies time and space on this plane of existence is an integral part of his identity.

2. Ae

Crazy to put a Mame character on this list but I defy you to dislike Ae from Love By Chance. He was probubly my first great love in the arena of complex characters in BL. He comes off as deceptively simple at first, and then we keep learning things about him - his demi nature contrasted to his tough defensive personality. His instant and unprecedented affection and need to care for the lost hurt extremely shy rich gay boy is both very weird and totally understandable. We know his character: sarcastic, brash, grumpy, and street smart but also loyal and casually affectionate. Pete permits Ae to showcase his best and softest nature, without any risk of hurt or damage. (Although Ae can, of course, damage Pete with his ignorance.) Watching Ae figure out himself, and what his strange sudden need to look after Pete is all about (love rather than friendship) is such a joyful ride. For all his rough exterior we know Ae will make it through his own confusion into solid affection, there is no other way his character would allow them to be. Ae is very solid in himself as a person, even if he has some shock realizing that personhood is queer. The fact that Perth acted this complex of a part when his was 16 is mind boggling. What Mame did to Ae’s character in LBC2 is unforgivable.

3. JiWoo

To My Star 1 & 2. I didn’t like the 2nd installment, but that doesn’t mean I didn't understand it or his character’s behavior, because it was set up so well in the first. (I just didn’t enjoy the pacing or structure of season 2.)

Korea doesn’t normally specialize in complex characters for their BL. In fact, they tend to go for the most archetypal, which is fine with me. I mean Semantic Error is top of my list and those 2 couldn’t be more basic archetypes. Okay, so why does Korea do this? Well partly because Korea doesn't have enough screen time to build backstory, and also because of their “queer bubble” perspective we never get depth of character from home life, parents, or coming out sequences.

JiWoo is the opposite. We learn (eventually) all about him but that isn’t even particularly necessary. JiWoo has walls, tall thick well-established walls, but it is very clear those walls are from being hurt by the world. Slowly we learn bits of why, but what makes JiWoo deep and complicated, is that despite his walls we can still see him falling in love. And who does he pick? The most inappropriate person for someone scared of being hurt: a capricious, outgoing, sunshine, famous actor. And a man. It’s like JiWoo’s own heart wants to give hem more reasons to build more walls. Every time JiWoo allows himself the luxury of that despite-himself-charmed sudden bright smile, our hearts break for him. Because it cost him, and will cost him, so much to be happy. Because of what he has allowed the world to do to him, and his own natural reactions to it. JiWoo doesn’t want to be loved because he is terrified of loving someone back, because he knows how much of himself he is willing to give up when he does that. And who, in all honestly, hasn’t been there?

4. Yuzuru

Seven Days. I know, I KNOW. Look, I realize his is a character type that Japan explores often. But that doesn’t make him any less interesting or complex. Yuzuru is beautiful but also very bold, brash, blunt, uncompromising, and stubborn, and he won’t change himself for any reason. This blatant mercurial individualism in a culture that finds such behavior confusing at best and worth crushing at worst, enables Yuzuru’s classic tsundere behavior beautifully. Yuzuru shows us how deep characterization can be activated to bolster one of the genre’s most enduring archetypes, and that’s really fun to watch. Yuzuru is not just “tsundere with good reason,” (which is all we can usually hope for) he’s tsundere with INTENT. His love for Sereyo springs from his conflict with society, because for the first time someone likes him not despite his uncompromising personality, but because of it.

5. Amber

DNA Says Love You. The ultimate complicated character who could have been profoundly miss-handled with one tiny misstep. But this performance got handed off to an actor who made the character incandescent instead. Amber is extremely scared and keeps his identity and past intentionally hidden from us and the other characters, which easily could have felt manipulative or frustrating for audiences. Instead, we feel that this is for very good reason, so much so that the twist isn’t a twist anymore. Instead of hiding and lying without fault, instead of being a wet blanket without reason, Amber hurts to lie but does it because he wants one taste of what could have been. He doesn't expect anything more. He expects to be shunned. And he is gentle and kind and sweet about it, because that is who he is as a person, even as he struggles to protect himself and his new friends from the truth. It was deft handling of questionable content, and we don’t get adroitness from Taiwan often. Because of the way Amber is portrayed the character seems more deep and complex. This is one of those where the actor brought much more to the role than the role provided, and it’s rather remarkable to watch.

6. Thun

He’s Coming to Me. Imagine growing up as a kid who can see ghosts, but being mature enough from the start not to tell anyone about it. Then imagine falling in love with the ghost of your mother’s ex-boyfriend. Oh the drama of it all! Ohm is in peak form for this role, and his performance is outstanding. Thun is a very lovable character, brash and open, but treasuring this intense secret, while being devoted to uncovering other people’s truths. Thun is able to stand up to authority in a way that is beaten out of most men of his age and social status. His relationship to his mother, to his friends, and to his lover is varied and nuanced, and that gives him, the cheerful himbo character, so much more nuance too, because he is so clearly defined by all the tendrils and threads that anchor him to reality, vital when one lives partly stuck in the afterlife.

7. Shun

His the movie. Another character type that Japan loves, the introvert, and another execution where it is given reason and intent. Shun always had it in him to withdraw in order to protect himself from the world, but after Nagisa left him, he withdrew from the world entirely. His is about the world trying to reclaim him. The tiny country retirement village who adopted him while he wasn’t looking. Add to that Nagisa, and his daughter, coming back. What we watch is Shun’s quiet struggle to accept all three, despite the hurt that opening himself back up to relationships (family, fatherhood, lover) carries with it. He is a wonderfully complex character.

8. Pete

The Kiss series and Dark Blue Kiss. Tay’s portrayal of Pete is consistent even across a conflicted timeline and some weird narrative choices. By the time DBK rolls around we know exactly who Pete is. In any other hands this kind of drawn-out tsundere seme would have been very one dimensional. But Pete is complicated for your standard himbo bisexual character. He’s conflicted about his responsibilities as a son but proud to have the support of such a kind father, frustrated about not being open but not intersted in being famous. His love is devoted, but he is a capricious person. He isn’t very academically smart but he has a high emotional IQ, he reads people well. He is quick to anger but also quick to forgive. He is fiercely loyal even to his ex-boyfriend, but also willfully obtuse. For a character who, in Thailand’s hands, should have been one note, Pete is as consuming and as sweeping as the intro music to DBK, and just like that music a bit overdramatic. But I love this drama queen clown.

9. Mork

My Ride’s Mork is kinda like the Ae of the next generation. He’s more lively and cheerful, less of a grump, but he does represent for the lower class. Struggling with money, work, family, and romance, he falls deeply in love with a doctor even though he thinks he hasn’t anything to offer. Mork’s struggles around bisexual identity play second fiddle to the fact that Tawan is already in love with someone else and socially so far above him that Mork consigns himself to friendship. He knows how to love though, and he does it deeply and from the sidelines, as a support network and as a friend to Tawan. And he would have willingly stayed there, had Tawan had a happy relationship. It’s really great to see pining executed from start to finish, as in: Mork isn’t a “pining since childhood” trope. We see him meet and like Tawan as a friend, fall in love with him, and then have to take a back seat and wait for his love to be returned. Mork has a developed depth of character because of this, and we are never angry with him for this behavior. We know exactly why he does it, and we too are willing to wait. A Thai pulp that not only requires patience (they all do) but teaches it? That’s some great characterization.

Also, SINGLE DIMPLE. (Look, these characters may be deep, but I’m not.)

10. Noh

Love Sick. Another very young actor handed an extremely complicated role and pulling it off with aplomb. Noh is awkward and popular, sweet and tough, kind and loving, and really profoundly unwilling to hurt. Watching him slowly fall in love with Phun, and Phun’s casual rich-kid entitled hot/cold affection, is heart wrenching. Watching Noh tackle Yuri’s demanding attentions while not wanting to cause her pain, even though he is deeply in love with someone else, hurts us, and both of them. Love Sick is a great coming of age narrative. It handles all the ramifications of queerness that a kid of that age might deal with but with in a dexterous and deeply private way. Plus Noh’s LINES. The words Captain gets to say are some of the greatest ever scripted in BL.

“It is a terrible thing not knowing where the line is between us.”

Could there be any better way of putting the conflict over moving from friends to lovers? From heterosexual to something more? The fear of not knowing if you should move towards romance when friendship is put at risk. COME ON. Noh is a remarkable character.

Honorable mention:

Hasimoto

My Love Mix Up. Trust Japan to take the character that any other country would have turned into evil femme fetale and make her the heroine of this narrative. She’s a spectacular character, she handles her own crush and other people’s with humor and aplomb. She is fiercely defensive of her friends, tiny but mighty. One she decides to love someone, she does it with every fiber of her being, even though she can get very shy. We don’t know a ton about her, because she is a support role, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying all the layers that are revealed about her during the course of this narrative. One of my favorite things about this show was watching her and Aoki’s friendship grow and evolve, more so even than Aoki and Ida’s romance.

White & Black

Gun’s execution of the twins in Not Me. I doubted he could do it. He did it. Each one was complicated and different and so was their relationship. All the cheering, it was IMPRESSIVE.

Some others I considered but did not make the list for various reasons:

Tutor in Why R U?

Dean in Until We Meet Again

Pick in Puppy Honey

Vald in Like in the Movies

SiWon in Blueming

(source)

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idontwanttospoiltheparty · 1 year

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I think about Tim McGraw (the song) a lot. I remember when that song first hit country radio, and it made me a fan right away. And I've always thought it was a great song. I go back to it regularly and am sad by how underappreciated it is as a fandom. But seeing it in the context of the eras tour has shifted my view of it. I don't think I ever fully appreciated how powerful those opening lines are as an introduction to Taylor's career. "He said the way my blue eyes shined/put those Georgia stars to shame that night/I said that's a lie" tells us so much about who Taylor was, is, and intended to be as an artist. It's honestly mind-boggling that so much of her career is predicted in those lyrics. You can maybe argue that there are better songs on debut (although I wouldn't agree). But I don't think there was a better choice for introducing Taylor Swift to the world. Her storytelling, her insistence on centering her own perspective even when it's a perspective the world isn't interested in (i.e. a teenage girl), her love for flowering romance, and how it contrasts with her commitment to honesty, her need to make her voice heard. There's so much there. I don't have a question, I just wanted to share this with someone who would care. (Also, since this is Swiftles land. Love Me Do is nowhere near as good a song as Tim McGraw. But The Beatles insisting their first song be self-written does do a similar thing given the musical conventions of the era. Even though Love Me Do is arguably their worst song.)

Anon I love you, I love you, I love you FOREVER.

I've not been a fan since Tim McGraw, but it's a song I've only grown to appreciate more and more as time has passed and just a few months ago I was having very similar thoughts about it being the perfect introduction to Taylor as a person and artist we could have asked for.

Additionally to your amazing points about the opening lines, I also think there's something so powerful about beginning your career in music by evoking your musical influences* – except she's framed it in this deeply personal way that doesn't require one to be a musician to find relatable: she simply wants her high school sweetheart to think of her when he hears her favourite song and, as someone who's felt solace in music like no other place, that resonates with me profoundly.

I also think one of the most quintessential things about her songwriting is that her memories are always sensual and picturesque. She connects memories to places ("Backroads at night"), to the weather ("The moon like a spotlight") and, especially, to clothes. ("I hope you think that little black dress").

So yes, 100%, Tim McGraw is lowkey a masterpiece and a gorgeous debut.

And your point about Love Me Do being a self-written debut when that wasn't at all an obvious choice at the time is so <33333

*I also read somewhere recently that this is a classic country thing, name-dropping your influences.

#also not the LMD drag though for the record I agree – well I wouldn't say it's their worst dfjshfjkshfdk #ask #anon #taylor #lyrics #fave #swiftles

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carnalhaus · 21 days

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if you STILL find yourself wondering why exactly sledge is so insanely fixated on praline, here u go :p

the whole reason sledge exists as a character is to show the impact praline can have on people. he’s actually not the only character used for this purpose, he just happens to be the only one still presently with her.

it’s worth mentioning that because of this, sledge has nothing else going on in his life. he had a completely normal youth with absolutely nothing traumatizing or strange. and then he met praline, and i think that’s when you really have to put yourself in his position. she quite literally plagues his daily life, he’s constantly responding to calls about this girl, she is the root of everything stressing him out. she’s doing crazy shit, cutting her face open, ripping her trailer apart (in the most literal sense), pulling knives on people, it’s the kind of thing that stays stuck in your mind when it’s the only interesting thing you’ve experienced in your mundane life.

he is very afraid of her because he doesn’t understand her or why she does what she does. he sees her throw herself into these dangerous situations without a care in the world and it’s mind boggling. it’s like watching a deer stare at the headlights. she can save herself, but she doesn’t, and he doesn’t understand. throughout the years that quite literally kept him up at night.

when she dies, the reason he becomes so fixated on it is because of guilt. he ends up realizing how much he failed her when he meets enid and actually *talks* to her, something he never did with praline, and figures out that these girls are just suffering. they were both beyond frustrating and hard to understand, yes, but all they needed was for someone to look at them and listen. he tries repairing this with enid, doing it right this time and actually trying to offer her support outside of her family that doesn’t care for her. hell, he even defends what she does sometimes because he’s so desperate to understand and protect her like he failed to protect praline. enid dying was his worst fear come true, and just a few months later, praline is killed too. both of those are enough to cement in his mind that he has amounted to absolutely nothing in his life. he goes off the rails from carrying the responsibility of two lives, two girls that looked to him for protection, and he didn’t protect them from jack shit.

keep in mind stuff like this isn’t really uncommon, in a sense. i went to an alternative school where a majority of the students there had horrible behavioral issues sparked by abusive homes, witnessing murders, involvement in gang activity, the foster system, etc etc. i even found myself getting irritated with certain people sometimes because no matter how hard you tried to understand why they did what they did, it just wouldn’t make sense, they wouldn’t listen. to put it in perspective, praline is exactly like these kids. she’s frustrating to the point where all you want to do is give up on her because she’s a lost cause. that’s what sledge did, that’s what most people do to kids like this.

he views her as a jesus christ figure because above all else, she quite literally “came back.” he ruined his life over guilt, and now he has to live with the fact that she’s alive, here, in front of him, staring at him, and he can’t go back and undo anything. he can’t get his job back, he can’t go back home, he can’t show his face anywhere, and it’s all because of her. he really has no other choice at this point but to stay with her, stat, and enid, because what else is he good for ? absolutely nothing. finding her was probably the only influential thing he’s ever amounted to in his boring miserable life. he’s dedicated to them because there is genuinely nothing else he’s useful for in the world.

it’s still mind boggling to him that she’s still alive, again put yourself in his position. that trailer had the bodies of six girls in it, all killed and torn apart, there is no logical way that she should’ve been able to get away that night. he was hanging onto a delusion that he wasn’t even fully sure he believed in because it was so outrageous, and it turned out to be true.

meanwhile, praline doesn’t think about him much. he’s not any different from other people in her life, ignoring her, doubting her, turning a blind eye. but there’s something deep down, in her 16 year old self way down there, that wants to keep him here. maybe not consciously, but she still holds onto the silly fantasy that maybe he actually can help her one day. but i think she knows that time has already long passed and now he’s just hanging around like a useless ghost repeating the motions from way back when. she can still wish he did something though.

#carnalposting #my ocs #praline #sledge #sorry for the spam but not really #i haven’t been posting on here for a while so now that i actually have content i gotta #i need to update u on the lore. i can’t keep u all in the dark

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misteria247 · 1 year

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Bro this episode actually like puts into perspective just how much the boys have to give up in order to defend the city and their loved ones. Like they come back to the lair after the movie and they find out that Splinter's now in a coma and April's tending to him. And that the cause of said coma was due to the Shredder and the boys immediately start blaming themselves saying that they should have never gone to see that movie or go out to have some pizza afterwards and I'm just sitting here. Boggled out of my mind cuz like??? They're teenagers??? And they should be allowed to relax and to have some down time to go out and get a bite to eat or to go see a movie.

Like it really puts it out there that these kids can't be kids, even for a moment cuz one moment can lead to disaster. Honestly it's just kinda sad, makes me wanna wrap these four up in a blanket and smother them with affection and all the good things in the world ohmigosh.

#oli talks #ooc #muns ramblings #mindless ramblings of a madman #teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #tmnt #rottmnt #tmnt 1987 #tmnt 87 #teenage mutant ninja turtles 1987 #tmnt: beneath these streets #my guy they're like what?? 14??? 15????#and they got the literal world on their shoulders

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ankle-beez · 11 months

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i rewatched the first spiderverse movie last night after seeing across the spiderverse and i didnt even think about like.. when we have the scene where Miles gets bit by the spider, the spider itself glitches and has that same effect of how the others are when they aren't in their own universe

at the time when I first saw it in 2018, i just thought it was just a cool effect they wanted to do but my god they really hinted that this spider wasn't from miles' universe from the get go but in a way that was subtle yet.. not subtle ig??? .. these movies are fantastic

yea the amount of shit from the first movie atsv puts into perspective is absolutely mind-boggling. atsv was written by people who are insane

#angel.post #atsv spoilers

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nanabansama · 1 year

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"Of Course!"

Hello, followers! Today I wanted to take another look at this scene, because I personally find it fascinating.

Obviously, you might immediately be saying... "hey! Why are you using that screenshot!? That's a mistranslation!"

To which I would say... m'yeah kinda.

Actually, this scene has perplexed a few people, including myself. The issue being Tsukasa's later line, seen here:

Which is... absolutely mind-boggling! To reach this conclusion truly makes Tsukasa one of the most sensitive babies in the manga.

But... I think he actually has a point!

But I wanted to examine this phrase: "Of course"...

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Some are quick to point out that Amane doesn't actually say the word "love" in Japanese. And I do think that has relevancy. "Of Course" is not "I Love You", and there's an important distinction between the two!

You may remember that I once analyzed his line in Japanese, 「あたりまえじゃん！」 as being similar to "duh." "Draw your own conclusions, Tsukasa!" But I actually want to go back on that a little.

Much like "of course," the phrase あたりまえ is used to emphasize that something is true. So true that you don't even have to think about it. There's no befuddlement here: the answer is obvious, and Amane does love Tsukasa.

...but the question really is, WHY does he love him?

I don't think Amane, age 4, has put any thought into this at all. (I mean just look at him, with his stupid round little eyes and his gaping mouth... he has thought about nothing ever in his life. He is 4.)

Tsukasa is Amane's younger brother. Tsukasa is Amane's family member. These are both things people are supposed to "love." You are born into this world, loved by your mother, and you are to love her back. I believe Amane's reply to Tsukasa encompasses this idea.

There is no grand reason for loving Tsukasa here. There is no easy admittance of love, there is no speech listing out what he likes about Tsukasa. There is just inevitability: an older brother would love his younger brother, there is no other "course" you can take.

And, well... considering the circumstances of the Yugi family, I think you could see why an idea like that doesn't hold much weight.

I realize I might be describing Amane like some kind of unfeeling 4-year-old monster here, but that is not the case!!! I think he does truly love Tsukasa, but I think this line from him lacks any real weight. It’s a vapid confirmation. “Why is the sky blue?” “I dunno, it’s just blue!!”

And I do not fault him for that, need I remind you again that he is 4?

I think Amane found his reply to Tsukasa satisfactory to himself. I think he thought it was silly to even imagine he wouldn't like Tsukasa, but this love is ultimately a shallow one. He hasn't poured enough water into the love bathtub yet. He is splishing around in a shallow love kiddy pool.

(It goes without saying, I think, that he has since matured, and is now drowning in a love ocean.)

While 4-year-old Amane's love hadn't matured, though, I think Tsukasa's had. His love was more developed love than Amane's at that point, and I think learning that Amane didn't feel the same really hurt.

Do I think “hate” is dramatic? Maybe. But when his older brother pushed him on the floor a few days before, and essentially said he didn’t care about Tsukasa, how can you really blame him?

In the end, maybe Tsukasa is still a sensitive baby, but I think he's got a very mature definition of love! Who knew the guy who later force-feeds Mitsuba a chicken heart would be such a softie...?

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Anyways, thanks for reading!

This is just one way to interpret the scene, and maybe I'm wrong, but I like the message this interpretation of the events sends. It's a very deep thing to define different kinds of "love", and I think it makes Tsukasa look a little more reasonable to look at things from this perspective.

#jshk #tsukasa yugi #amane yugi #yugi twins #analysis #japanese #地縛少年花子くん #tbhk #tbhk spoilers

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