#just don’t go around telling others that your interpretation is correct or canon
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I’m gonna say something that’s gonna apparently ruffle some feathers, but Enmu in no way, shape or form has anxiety or depression. He isn’t an anxious little soft boy. He’s an evil demon that takes pleasure in harming others, that was the whole point of him as a villain. Enmu was the villain to pretty much break Tanjiro of his sympathies for a bit, meaning that Enmu is in no way meant to be a sympathetic villain. KNY already has plenty of villains that we as the audience are meant to feel sympathy and pity for (i.e Rui and his spider family, Daki and Gyutaro, Akaza, Kyogai, etc) Enmu was meant to stand out from the other villains as a pure embodiment of evil (for lack of a better term) saying he canonically has anxiety or depression makes him into a sad character that the audience is supposed to feel pity for, which goes against the whole point of his character. (There is also the somewhat harmful implication that by saying a character like Enmu is depressed or has anxiety not only boils down to those very real disorders into a character trope, but it also is showing that you believe that those disorders lead a person to harm or even kill people, which isn’t a good outlook to have on those disorders. Sincerely, a person with both anxiety and depression.)
#squidposting#inkposts#ink talks#enmu#demon slayer#kimetsu no yaiba#I do want to also mention that I don’t think he should be shipped with anyone#but I’ll probably make that a separate post#all of these are just my own opinions#everyone is allowed to interpret characters how they want#just don’t go around telling others that your interpretation is correct or canon
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I was reading your metas and came across the part where you said he wanted her to already be in love with him and wanted his money back and..what does that even entail for him? He wanted an obedient slave? Ok but he still wouldn't have trusted her. He still wouldn't have been happy.
This is the full text of what I said in that previous ask on the topic:
He’s been waiting for a sun summoner for an untold amount of time and has been building all his goals and desires around it. He keeps demanding her submission but that won’t get him her respect. He wants her to idolize him and to agree with everything he does. In her he wants a companion in immortality and a starry eyed acolyte. He spent all this time thinking the sun summoner was the key to all of his life’s woes, and then Alina shows up and WRECKS his shit. he feels ripped off!! He wants his money back!! But also desperately, desperately wants her to magically have always been the person he wanted her to be.
Worth noting that that is from a meta post where I’m explaining my characterization choices for a fic I wrote. But I do think that’s still accurate of (my interpretation) of his canon characterization anyway.
I can’t tell whether you mean “happy” as in actual happiness or in the sense of being satisfied. Though either way, you’re absolutely correct!
Regardless, these two things do tie in together to be honest. In the sense of happiness: he is a withered, miserable husk of a person. I don’t think at this point he’s really capable of being happy.
There is so much about his backstory we don’t know. But it is explicit that he didn’t start out an unfeeling monster. Demon in the Wood does go out of its way to establish that. But it also establishes his ruthlessness from a very young age and ability to do difficult things to save himself. But he’s so goal oriented and those goals are usually at the cost of any immediate, real happiness. Throughout his life, he’s kept making sacrifices, of himself and others, in the name of his larger goals, but the growing cost in his wake means that the things he’s striving towards get loftier and loftier in order to be worth it. It’s pure sunk cost fallacy.
Meanwhile, age is itself corruption for him. As he accumulates wealth, luxury, and power, and in turn loses touch with humanity and becomes increasingly jaded, his concerns become more self-centered and power driven rather than based in genuine moral ideals.
Outliving everyone he’s ever known multiple times over solidifies his growing selfishness, because what is a few hundred, or thousand lives to him, when they will all be dead within a heartbeat anyway? He might be trying to “save Ravka” from a nationalist standpoint, but the people that make up the country itself are fully disposable. Like we see by Shadow and Bone, his take on Grisha liberation is literally just fascism.
So at the tail end of at least five hundred, to possibly one thousand years, we have a corrupt despot, sitting on an endless pile of corpses, and lifetimes of genuine personal misery, who still believes himself to be the ultimate martyr, and that there is going to be— there must be— some sort of return on his enormously outsized and dearly purchased investments.
And he expects that return to be Alina.
Tangentially, something that really annoys me about this series is that, for all its focus on weighing legend and fable with reality, and trying to find the truth in stories that have been twisted by time and repetition, is that we get absolutely zero sun summoner lore, despite the strong implication that it does exist. The show makes some paltry attempt at giving us something about it being almost a prophecy? That there is some sort of, explicitly religious, story that a sun summoner will come and save Ravka or some such thing. The books don’t have even that.
We know that there is concept of sun summoners as something that could potentially happen, because they have a name for Alina’s ability the moment she’s discovered— even though there’s no indication that there’s ever been anyone else who shared the same power. But we never hear how, what exactly the expectations are, or for how long that’s been known.
What also know that the Darkling is waiting for one. And from how he speaks to her, he seems to view her as almost a cosmic reward and salve for his suffering. I do not think he’s exaggerating when he talks about how she was “meant” to be his/his balance or how she was “meant” for the amplifiers that he intends to bolster his destiny to rule. I think he fully believes in some sort of fate or grand destiny for the both of them, or rather for himself, and she is just a branch of that.
This is reaching pure conjecture, but there is the implication that shadow summoning only exists because of Ilya Morozova’s dabbling with merzost. And it itself highly seems to predate any iteration of a sun summoner ever existing, so the theory that one might ever come to be is literally because someone needs to offset the Darkling. (The series is generally very “what about Baghra? idk don’t worry about it” in terms of… a lot of things when it comes to how unique Alina and the Darkling are lmaoo and I guess that applies here.) And there’s the one kind of throw away line of his in the first book about how Etherealki typically work in pairs, but *meaningful look* Alina doesn’t have one, that I feel further hints at this idea of them being a matching set. The worldbuilding itself is murky and hard to parse in its contradictions, but I think it’s safe to say that he personally views her as something created for him.
He is putting all of his misery, and insane desires and dreams accumulated over many centuries, at her feet and expecting her to be the fulfillment of it all. There’s no way she can actually satisfy that! It is a fully, completely unattainable standard. It will never be enough. “What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men” etc, etc.
I already said this in that fic meta, but it’s relevant again here: I do think that, genuinely, there’s no degree of submission Alina could ever offer that would be enough. Partially because his irrational desire for her preexisting unconditional love, where he wants an impossible scenario where she simply never went against him or hated him for anything he did, can never be met after their initial falling out, but also because his expectations are fully unattainable. It isn’t a void that any real, living person can fill.
So you’re fully correct, even if she was completely obedient, and star struck, and ready to listen to him in all things, even as he lies to her. Even if she were willing to believe he was completely justified and in the right for his plans of like cartoonish and genocidal world domination, he would not be happy with her! She would always fall short.
All of this is to say that what I find most compelling about the Grisha trilogy is its stylized-through-fantasy premise of a vulnerable protagonist whose identity is threatened to be entirely subsumed by the exacting desires of a cruel man. I think for all of its clumsy and more juvenile trappings— and how it doesn’t fully even engage with this theme that is integral to it, yet mostly exists in the margins— it’s a fairly interesting and complicated space to play with themes of abuse and grooming. And that’s usually the main lens I’m engaging with it through.
I hope that clarifies my point!
#the more I talk about this the more I see overlap with the things that appeal to me about phantom of the opera#I have a very limited pool of things I care about in fiction#grishaverse#shadow and bone#alarkling#the darkling#aleksander morozova#alina starkov#meta#all the bendy punctuations#a mysterious stranger has appeared#i ramble sometimes#*writer’s cap*
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How do you like Antigravity? And why are you always saying things are canon when they aren’t? You say Ghetsis and Colress are “canonically” best friends, yet they only are friends in the manga, which isn’t a canon universe. Don’t try to argue that it’s canon to the manga or anime, since they aren’t canon Pokemon universes. Another thing that doesn’t make sense is how you say Ghetsis and Colress are both around 43. Ghetsis clearly looks around 60 and has a 22 year old son. I doubt he would have a son at 21. Colress looks more around N’s age than 43. You’re just saying this so that you can ship this without feeling creepy. You also know that their only dialogue on screen together is Colress telling Ghetsis that he hates him, right? And whenever they mention eachother it’s in a hateful way? It’s not to avoid going to jail, Colress wouldn’t say that to a 12 year old because he thinks he’d go to jail. Also, Ghetsis talks negatively about Colress, so this take makes no sense. Not only that, but if Colress doesn’t want to be arrested, why would he even be working for Team Plasma? Hes a scientist, he can find other jobs. Everything you say to back up your ship makes no sense.
Great question! I like antigrav because it's good and doesn't hurt anybody. Your views are your own and that doesn't make them inherently correct nor does it give you permission to enforce them on people. Mine are my own and I never said they were inherently correct nor am i a huge dick about it. You're super fucking weird for coming into my asks to drop a thesis statement, trying to make me feel creepy for shipping two consenting adults together because of your personal interpretations of them. I hope someday you learn to be normal towards strangers and stop trying to flex your moral superiority over mentally ill people by telling them they're secretly evil and creepy and bad over a normal ass ship they like
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Tell me about your mlp au mischevious grin emote
@minxtheeenby!!
Ok I’m gonna go in order character by character and then just fill in extra lore.
Twilight Sparkle: Twilight is pretty similar to canon, but also not entirely. She’s always struggled with making friends, and instead dedicated herself to magic. She started training under Celestia when she was a little girl, but she only managed to earn that spot because of Rainbow Dash, and as such, she abandoned all other fields of her life over time, dedicating herself to becoming the best sorceress she could be in hopes of earning her place under Celestia. However, depriving herself socially was completely hindering her abilities. The magic system is a little more fancy cuz I don’t totally remember the rules of MLP magic so basically as a powerful sorceress Twilight couldn’t actually harness all her power on her own, and attempting to would have driven her insane. (See: Nightmare Moon, Discord.) Though this isn’t like, a death sentence, Celestia didn’t want Twilight’s pure intentions twisted. Twilight is literally the physical incarnation of the spirit of magic, so this would’ve been super bad. Anyways, with her network of friends, Twilight studies as a sorceress under the queen (sorry but my worst enemy in kids media is when they make the sole monarch of a kingdom a princess, she’s a queen). Her style consists mostly of long skirts and dress. I’m still figuring out what kinds of bells and whistles to add to her design (maybe talismans, magical charms, that kinda thing??)
Applejack: AJ has a strong sense of morality and modesty. Her headstrong nature makes her essentially the head of the Apple family despite her young age, and she keeps their business up and running without a hitch. She is also in charge of teaching Apple Bloom, who has been homeschooled most of her life, right from wrong since the loss of their parents, and as such Apple Bloom has been taught very strictly. Though not like. Really conservative?, the Apple family lives a traditional and… “conservative”???? lifestyle. Applejack is loving and gentle, but will never hesitate to correct a wrong when she sees one. Her style is mostly typical farm girl stuff you’d expect. All her clothes are worn out to hell, but she makes them work ‘cause she’s not gonna spend her family’s hard earned cash on fancy clothes she doesn’t need. She’s generally the same as canon, just a bit rougher around the edges, sweeter at her core, and more straight laced about morality since that’s a better interpretation of honesty I think.
Rarity: Rarity always wants to give the absolute best she can to those around her. This generosity has led her to also develop a will of absolute steel, because of how often it’s been taken advantage of and used to cheat her. She pushes herself to extremes to put out the best for others, often neglecting everything but what she can provide, including what she and those around her need, and while she insists it’s an annoyance to be distracted from her work, she needs her loved ones to help keep her balanced. Having grown up just in the outskirts of a major city, Rarity dreams of that luxury and the life that fame would give her. She tends to look down on others who won’t allow her to help them, but her generosity always comes from a good heart- never is it backhanded or meant to make others feel pitied. This is a misinterpretation Applejack comes away with on many occasions. (There are only so many pairs of sleek, beautiful jeans you can get in the mail before you start to feel like you and your baggy overalls are being slighted.) Rarity’s style is posh, sleek and feminine. Her magic mostly utilizes and surrounds use of gemstones.
Pinkie Pie: Pinkie takes some inspiration that I’m not very proud of. You’ll. You’ll see. She’s a former orphan who was adopted following the destruction of her small hometown which itself has some Lore bc that wasn’t just a random occurrence. She was adopted by the Pie family because she was an earth pony, who are generally known for their physical power, and they needed more hooves on their farm. It was less a family and more a business arrangement- Pinkie and the other kids got her hooves dirty helping with their business, and in return, they gave them food, company, and a roof over their head. She was a very depressed child, but she learned to use humor and joy to find a good side to everything, partially on behalf of her siblings. Eventually, she left the farm to pursue her own life as a party planner and host. She’s also known among Ponyville as a reliable and fun (if perhaps not the most conventional) babysitter for elementary age foals. Similarly to with the Pies, Pinkie works for the Cakes in exchange for a place to live, but she really wants to have a family. As such, she latches onto the idea of being a relative to the Apple family, who accept her even when it turns out she’s not a blood relative. She can often be found at the farm when she has free time, playing games with Apple Bloom and keeping AJ company since she’s no good at harvesting apples. She’s a case Twilight cannot figure out for the life of her- an earth pony who either has weirdly uncanny intuition or is somehow in tune with a type of magic only unicorns can harness. Her style is decora kei.
Fluttershy: Fluttershy’s parents were absolutely massive hippies. While most pegasi reside in the sky for obvious reasons, they lived in the prairie, which was where Fluttershy grew up. She was what the cool kids call “improperly socialized as a child”, and as such, she was socially alienated when she began school, and unable to socialize. Her only friend was Rainbow Dash, who was willing to tone down her antics around her and would die to defend Fluttershy’s honor. (They were weird kids.) Despite being bullied heavily as a kid, she believes there was a silver lining as it taught her that she could communicate with animals and helped her discover her talent, though at the same time, she does know that really, she owes that to Rainbow Dash’s kindness to her. She’s autistic and selectively mute due to her anxiety, and known to shut down in stressful situations because of her fear of conflict, but she does have a… “bad side” if you will. She can be fucking SCARY if you mistreat innocents- especially Rainbow. Her style, similar to Twilight, consists mostly of long dresses and skirts, but with goth elements as she’s known to wear gothic clothing in light colors, and dark makeup.
Rainbow Dash: Rainbow is much more actually loyal to those around her. She’s pretty much the same otherwise, just more, again, actually loyal. She especially is loyal to Fluttershy, who she will always step in for, since they’re childhood friends, but really she’ll do that for any of her friends. She fittingly got her cutie mark defending her friend from bullies, as it’s the same story as canon, but Rainbow- unlike Pinkie- had absolutely zero above average amount of magic, and most normal ponies aren’t meant to be breaking the sound barrier at nine, so this actually fucked her up a bit. Just like all the others, this event connected her directly to the spirit of her element, which has made her more magical, but at the time, it burned the hell out of her and left her with permanent scars and wing damage that meant it took a ton of time and willpower before she could fly again. Her style is… I mean I wanna say scene but I know in my heart she’s a lame ass jock. Lame ass scene jock perhaps. Whatever that may entail
Like I said, Twilight is the only one who is the literal incarnation of her element, where the others are just tied to its magic. Twilight’s full power of magic is only manageable when she’s in tandem with the other five.
Queen Celestia and Princess Luna: Celestia and Luna are the incarnations of the sun and moon respectively, but Luna’s isolation inherent to the nighttime caused her powers to drive her a bit crazy, causing her to become jealous of Celestia, which isolated her further, and eventually the insanity overcame her and she became Nightmare Moon. Celestia sealed her away and took on her powers, but all of this added magic is starting to drive Celestia a bit crazy, which is why she called on the elements of harmony, creating Twilight as the incarnation of magic. Basically she needed someone else to shoulder some of the burden to keep her sane, but this weakened her and caused her to lose control of Nightmare Moon. (Stupid name btw. Maybe I’ll give her a different name.) Nightmare Moon is well aware of what Twilight is, and she’s dead set on defeating her so she can harness her power for herself.
Speaking of which, Nightmare Moon is a longer lasting villain, and because Luna isn’t entirely lucid as her, this makes turning her back a bit of a harder task. Fittingly to the themes of friendship, Nightmare Moon’s energy is dispersed among Luna, Celestia, Twilight, Cadence, the other five, and those who Nightmare Moon controlled, becoming a smaller burden they all have to shoulder together so Luna doesn’t have to succumb alone, because magic can’t be destroyed, but it can be redirected. Most of the supernatural villains are evil entities summoned by Nightmare Moon to work under her, who still have a piece of her curse after she’s rescued, which makes them more powerful, and Luna is unable to redirect her control over them because that magic is now subject to their intentions and direction.
Discord: Discord was the original ruler of Equestria, before the horrible imbalance his chaos caused led to the incarnations of the moon and sun (the balance of day and night) being created, overthrowing him and sealing him away to restore balance. However, looking at the pattern here, there was balance before Discord, imbalance through his rule, balance after Discord, imbalance when the moon overtook the sun, etc. This is a cycle- balance cannot exist without imbalance, and as such, that chaos returns once everything is peaceful. Discord is literally chaos incarnate in this AU, and given the rules about incarnation here, he simply arises when the time is right. I briefly considered that maybe once he was sealed away, his magic was what caused Luna’s to corrupt her, but that would make his return impossible. Instead, Discord had nothing to do with that, but when he returns in the wake of the peace, he preys on the corruption that exists in everyone to play along with his version of the world.
Oh also Discord was originally a normal being, but the overwhelming power of his chaos magic drove him completely insane.
The magic system: Magic in this AU has a few rules.
Magic is an ever present sort of energy.
Like energy, it cannot be created or destroyed. It is everywhere, and instead is channeled into the world, directed and redirected by the user’s intentions.
Everyone has a certain connection to magic, but only sorcerers and sorceresses can harness it. Not all sorcerers are unicorns, but the unicorns have the most direct manifestation of magic. There are different types of sorcery that play into the powers and strengths of all types of ponies, but only the most skilled can harness all three.
Different cultures have different uses of magic. The unicorn centric sorcery of channeling magic directly into you used most is primarily of central Equestria. Other areas practice different types based in the magic that exists in the earth such as potion use and production, faith based magic, hypnosis, etc.
All of these are equally magic, yes.
Cutie marks are magic. This is about the most magic within an average pony.
Magical “spirits” such as the sun and moon, the elements of harmony, chaos and order, etc. exist and those who are closet connected with those “spirits” are more powerful. You can create these connections if you teach yourself to embody them. Sometimes you’re both with them but that’s so rare that not even the main 6 had that happen.
Sometimes these spirits just incarnate into living beings and I guess no one questions this.
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It’s Meant to Feel That Way | Part III
Pairing: Andy Barber x Reader
Summary: Two strangers in a grocery store are brought together by a little boy determined to make them a family.
Word Count: 4.7k
Warnings: SMUT 18+ Only, Minors DNI, Fluff, Defending Jacob non-canon ending, brief mention of grief/child loss, brief mention of absentee parent, brief mention of mother nervous about post-pregnancy body, idiots try to act like sexually responsible adults and instead are canon idiots.
A/N: *THIS IS A MINI-SERIES* I’m trying to jump back into writing, so feedback is both very appreciated and very scary for my anxious self. Be gentle please. Also, don’t translate or post my work on other sites. | Playlist | Dividers by @firefly-graphics | gif credit
Series Masterlist . Complete Masterlist
“Daddy!” Andy hadn’t even made it completely through your bedroom door when he heard a drowsy but excited version of his favorite greeting behind him. Turning around he scooped up the toddler before he could climb into your bed. Rubbing the little guy’s back and walking back to his own room, Andy smiled at AJ’s lisped request, “One more story?”
Andy didn’t correct AJ to tell him that he hadn’t had a story at all because he’d fallen asleep downstairs well past his bedtime. Instead, the lawyer sat on the edge of his tiny bed with AJ curled up against him rubbing small circles along his spine and balancing a book with the other hand. His broad fingers gave him leverage that yours no longer could, making you wistful for the baby days. Leaning against the door, watching the pair of them with a smile, your mind wandered to the thought of Andy holding a tiny baby and the excitement of the thought terrified you. Then you cleared your throat to get their attention, “Sorry to interrupt. I’m going to jump in the shower before bed.”
“Nigh-night kisses.” AJ puckered his lips, it was a statement and expectation and you loved him for it, your heart twisting at the thought that he wouldn’t always want your affection. Closing the space you gave him a little peck before fussing over his messy hair. Andy tapped your thigh with the book and smiled up at you, his brow furrowed with concern. Before he could ask where you’d gone, AJ was interrupting again, “Daddy needs nigh-night kisses too.”
“Oh, does he now?” You shook your head as they both nodded, your heart fluttering with that ‘I could get used to this’ feeling. With a single soft kiss to his lips, you tried not to read into the feeling of Andy’s mouth turning up into a smile against yours or how happy it made you that you’d put it there. Andy smiling was easily one of your favorite new things, something you cherished and wanted to keep drawing out of him. It was also something you realized you didn’t want to go a day without. Your cheeks warmed as that fleeting thought of his permanent presence in your family, a family you apparently wanted to expand, dinged back to the forefront of your mind. “You’ll be okay in here? It’ll just be a quick shower.”
He gave you an expression that could only be interpreted as c’mon lady and you shook your head and laughed, pausing in the door to enjoy the view one more time. Andy was already settling into the story, voices and dinosaur sounds all done in hushed tones as his hand rubbed circles into your son’s back. AJ let out a big yawn as he snuggled into the lawyer’s chest. Shower! Stop staring, you told yourself. With a shake of your head you left them to it, a fresh burst of anxiety bubbling in your chest as you tried not to think too long on the fact that this amazing man was about to climb into your bed. As your sweet mint and rain body wash circled the drain you tried not to think of the fact that your mother had called it No Man’s Land since you found out you were pregnant and how she was unknowingly correct about your non-existent sex life.
The lawyer had stayed in AJ’s room while you were in the shower, not wanting you to feel like he was snooping in your space but also completely reluctant to tuck in the sleeping boy. He listened to the toddler’s steady breathing against his chest and the sound of you in the shower. In the quiet symphony of a typical evening, Andy was left with his thoughts and desires. It was something he’d continued to mull over in moments of solitude since he’d met the two of you, how happy and welcome the pair of you had made him feel was always at the forefront of those moments. Then there were the surprising thoughts of a future, one he’d never thought he was worthy of at any point in his life.
As Andy heard the shower shut off, he tucked AJ in, smiling at the thought that he’d get to keep coming home to the scampering of AJ’s feet and the excited cheer of his arrival. Then he swallowed that undeserving feeling that had become all too familiar since he lost Jacob. All of this was a gift, but now he was faced with the reality that you would naked beside him in bed tonight and, hopefully, every night for the rest of his life. It wasn’t the first time he’d pictured a wedding that wasn’t just some rushed courthouse affair but a real celebration of what the two of you had, an instant spark lit by your son.
With a grateful kiss to the little one’s downy soft hair, Andy picked up around the room, imagining a future of candlelit dinner dates or picking up AJ from his grandparents to tell them you were expecting. He could still perfectly recall the picture of you with your parents, pregnant with AJ downstairs. Before he’d even realized he had feelings for you he’d thought about how stunning you would be carrying his baby. Now he was acutely aware that he wanted it all, the family vacations with sandcastles, a graduation where AJ followed in his footsteps and became a lawyer- or a dinosaur chasing rocket scientist. He chuckled and put away the last of the scattered toys and books in the bedroom. Every vague glimpse of this future he wanted with the two of you always seemed to be so alive; growing happy and healthy. There was an ounce of guilt in knowing that he’d loved a whole separate family he’d lost and that in just a few weeks he’d found more love, comfort, and possibility with a new one, one that was thriving before he came, a family that chose him as he was.
“Andy?” When you glanced over your bare shoulder, hearing your bedroom door close, you saw him standing by the emerald green velvet chair in the corner of your room, draping his clothes over the back one article at a time. Your arms slowly uncross from where they were covering your chest and settle around your stomach, instinctively hiding the scars that declared you a mother. His blue eyes watched you, never falling down your already bare body. By the time he was in nothing but his black boxer-briefs, the strain of his long, hard length made you aware that he was still just as needy as you were.
When you sucked your bottom lip into your mouth and nibbled on it he reached out his hand for you. Slowly closing that space felt like a lifetime and his eyes finally fell down your frame, raking in every curve, beauty mark, and scar. His tongue darted across his lips, making your body tingle with an eagerness to kiss him again- without a toddler as audience. “C’mere, sweetheart.” Sitting on the chair, Andy pulled you onto his lap, your thighs high on his so that your clit was brushing his cock. Your eyes had fallen down between your bodies, but before you could start to panic over how thick and long he was, his fingers were tipping your chin up, forcing him to look at you. “Comfy?” Squirming in his lap less out of nerves and more out of a need for attention, he ran his thumb across your bottom lip and smiled. “We can take this as slow as you want.”
Pressing your lips to his palm, you nodded and ran your hands up his stomach to his chest, finding peace in his racing pulse and how it mirrored your own. “If we were going as slow as I wanted then you would’ve been in the shower with me.” You laughed nervously, your eyes falling to his lips once more before glancing at him to gauge his reaction.
Andy’s lust-blown blue eyes closed and he pulled your mouth to his. His cock twitched against your heat, straining to be rid of the last thin piece of fabric separating you two. Unlike the way you’d kissed earlier, this was hungry, a desperate caress of tongues where your moan was met with his groan. Coming up breathless with swollen lips, his hands had moved softly down your back to your waist and then, like he’d been waiting patiently since you dropped your towel into the hamper, he moved around to your breasts. Palming the soft flesh, thumbs brushing over your taut nipples. “Every inch of you is so fucking beautiful, sweetheart. I wasn’t expecting this tonight, I-I don’t have any condoms.”
Your cheeks flushed with embarrassment and you bit your lip again, “Oh, I’m not on the pill and didn’t think we would…” He hushed away your worry by bringing one nipple to his lips, tracing the bud with the tip of his tongue before pausing to admire his glistening work. “I can make an appointment. I’m sure to get on it and I’m clean, but I’ll get tested too.” With a nod he moved to the neglected nipple and you tugged on the short hair at the nape of his neck, rocking your hips forward to find some release on your swollen clit. “Do you need an appointment too?” The words were breathless and then a gasp as he tugged gently on your nipple with his teeth.
“Sure, make one for me too and I’ll go with you.” His hands slipped down your stomach, making your muscles tighten. Thumbing the scars he smiled up at you softly after he managed to pull his gaze away from them. “I don’t think there’s anything more gorgeous than these.” His thumb moved back across the scars. “Such a symbol of your love for that amazing and special little guy.” Wrapping his hands back around your waist he slowly massaged his large palms down until they were firmly gripping your ass. “It’s saying a lot, sweetheart, because you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen and I’m absolutely serious when I say every inch of you is perfect.”
With his hands palming your bare ass it was hard to piece that together, let alone how casual and genuine his admiration seemed to be. “But you were married…”
“I meant what I said.” Andy was so matter of fact that he left no room for you to question him. While he may not be able to worship you completely tonight with his body, he planned to tell you every single thing he’d thought about you but hadn’t shared. He’d been a bystander in his past life and he wasn’t about to let that happen again.
Pulling his mouth to yours, you kissed Andy again and as your lips pressed to his, he parted them to let you taste him. The longer Andy kissed you while massaging his hands into your skin, your pulse continued to climb. It was an almost embarrassing thought, wanting to send him in the middle of the night to the store for condoms like you were both a pair of horny teenagers. With your toes barely ghosting over the bedroom floor, you couldn’t give yourself enough leverage to grind against him, and as if he could read your mind, Andy adjusted his grip to push and pull you into his clothed length. Rocking your hips with his every pull, you could feel your sex coating him as the little friction provided you with a torturous amount of attention. “I’m making a mess. So wet for you.”
His tongue traced your lips as your whimpered words poured into his mouth. He held you pressed against him and thrust his hips up off the chair, taunting your clit with a good time you clearly weren’t getting tonight. “I want the mess, sweetheart.” Andy’s lips moved across your cheek until they ghosted over the shell of your ear, his beard tickling your cheek. “I’m sorry I can’t be inside you tonight, but knowing how badly you want my cock is the most arousing thing I’ve ever heard. Let me put you to sleep another way tonight, all right?”
“Please.” Was all you could manage as you wiggled against him and if you hadn’t gasped at the ease of him picking you up and moving you onto the bed, you would have heard him him growl that he was fucking you on that chair tomorrow.
As you scooted up toward the pillows, your eyes stayed on Andy as he pulled down his boxer briefs and left them on the floor. With his hands on his hips, he shook his head and tapped your ankle. Obliged, you slowly spread your legs for him, moving your fingers up your inner thighs to find them wet with desire. “So good for me.” Andy’s tongue darted past his lips, so desperate for just a taste of you as he told himself the smart thing to do was for both of you to be responsible and wait a little longer. For now, he’d have to settle for the slow torture of his fist while his fingers were inside you.
Your body never lets you sleep past five, as if it knew AJ would be up by six expecting breakfast. With your usual in-bed slow stretching you quickly realized the warmth and weight on your naked body wasn’t from your blankets or a really vivid dream. Andy’s steady, deep breaths breeze your disheveled hair and warmed the curve of your neck. Taking the arm that was draped over you, you brought his wrist to your lips and placed a kiss on his pulse before reluctantly slipping out to head to the kitchen. Even in his sleep, Andy was looking for you. A wrinkle formed on his brow as he curled into the warm spot you’d left, his head moving to your vacant pillow with a huff. It wasn’t until you were certain that he wouldn’t wake up and you were covered in a silky robe, that you left him in bed to rest.
Andy was up just a few short minutes after you, once the bed went cold. It may have been a work day, but he only had a meeting for a case he was feeling confident about on his agenda and then a cocktail hour with the partners to welcome a new hire to the firm. With a relatively easy schedule he sent off an email to the office secretary for the non-partners and asked that the meeting be made virtual or rescheduled before getting dressed. Making it downstairs in slacks sans boxer-briefs and his slightly wrinkled undershirt, he admired the way the silk robe ghosted across the middle of your thighs and accentuated your curves with its cinched waist. He had to look away, staring at the ceiling while he approached, in an attempt to keep the blood from rushing to his cock. But when he made it to you it went out the window, instantly hard when he wrapped his arm around your waist and pressed his lips to your neck, “Morning, Sweetheart.” He kept talking, peppering kisses against your skin, “I’m waiting to hear back, but I’ll either have one virtual meeting or it will be rescheduled. We can swing by the doctor’s. I’ll go to the store and I need to get some clothes anyways.” With a flick of your gaze to his current attire you nodded. “Then, if you want and can find a babysitter, of course, maybe you can come to a work thing- cocktail hour. Only if you’d want to.”
Turning around in his arms you reached up and planted a kiss on his lips, “You changed your plans for me? I haven’t even looked at available appointments yet.”
“I made plans for us, not really changing anything if it’s just including you in my time because I want to be around you, now is it?” He was distracted and kissing you back, not even thinking about how those words would make your heart flutter. “Don’t worry about making an appointment, I’ll send you the address for my physician. He’s private practice and takes all the families from my firm. He’ll squeeze us in and get results faster.”
Swallowing you shook your head, “I doubt he’d take my crappy insurance, Andy.”
“Not how it works.” His thumb rubbed into the crease in your forehead. Andy didn’t want you worrying about anything he could take care of; money and good doctors fell into that scope. Not wanting to pressure you or infringe on your independence were two important factors for easing into this relationship, but you having self-declared crappy insurance was now filed under his list of reasons to marry you. “Don’t worry about the appointment, okay? I can take care of that. Now, I want to head out before AJ gets up or else we both know he’s going to be keeping me for breakfast and playtime, then I’m going to lose it watching you move around in this robe. I’m assuming you have some work to do yourself?” Again, you nodded, unable to speak in shock at how domestic this was and how understanding he was being. “Let me know what you decide about the cocktail hour. I’ll send you a time and address for the appointment. AJ can come, they have a little place for the kids to sit and play and the secretary keeps an eye on them.”
With a hum he pulled you flush against him, goodbye-kissing you harder and making your shocked giggle melt into a moan. It was over all too soon, Andy backing away to grab his keys and briefcase from the kitchen island but refusing to say the words. When he reached the door you called out, “Mom and Dad will take him for the day, they’re always begging to. Just, they know about you, when we pick him up they’re going to want to meet you.”
Swallowing his nerves, he nodded and closed the space between you once more. “I’m living with their daughter and grandson, I think that’s appropriate.” You bit your bottom lip and he rubbed it out of the grip of your teeth. “I’m nervous but it’s a good nervous, Sweetheart. I want them to like me and see how much both of you mean to me. Ask them if they want us to pick up take out and we’ll have dinner together. All of you can ask me as many questions as you’d like, all right?”
Following him to the door, you watched Andy do his silly backwards walk to his car where he refused to look away from you until the last possible minute. Your time with the lawyer had always been at night and the prospect of being with him in daylight and in his element flustered you. Then came the rhythmic thumb of AJ scooting down the stairs on his bottom and you turned around prepared for the usual questions about when Daddy was coming home.
After you called your parents and started your day, you tried to explain to AJ in a few different ways that Andy was staying. Each time was met with new questions: Where would he sleep? Was it forever? Would he be joining lunch time picnics? By the time you were dropping him off with your mom he was so excited you knew your parents were in for an ear full and likely going to load up on questions of their own. To your surprise, your mother had reached out and stroked your cheek, whispering that you looked beautiful in her native tongue. Andy would say the same after you stepped out of your car at the doctor’s office. He would repeat it again at the pharmacy as you picked up the new baby-preventing essentials. Then you felt it in the way he looked at you across the little bistro table on a beautiful brick patio while you had your first non-dinner meal together. Wrapping your arms around his waist as he pressed you to your car door he sighed, “Did you decide if you’re coming to meet my colleagues tonight?”
“Seems only fair since you’re meeting my parents, but what do I wear to a cocktail hour full of lawyers?” Your eyes fell down to the jeans and blouse you donned, just as casual as his jeans and henley.
“Do you have a simple dinner dress? If not something that’s interview-ish?” The corners of your mouth turned up as you thought about the handful of cute dresses in your closet, unloved but that you’d purchased in hopes of getting back into the dating game at some point or other after having AJ. “What’s that look for?”
“You’ll see later.” Sticking your tongue out he groaned and kissed you again before reluctantly parting ways. “Now, go home and unpack the suitcases I saw in your back seat and have that virtual meeting. I cleared closet and dresser space for you this morning.” You left out that you had moved nearly all of your clothes to the closet in your office and only the top drawer of the dresser held your lingerie and pajamas. With Andy around you hoped you wouldn’t need more than that in the bedroom.
Andy passed the time unpacking, picking up around the house, and eating his leftovers before the meeting he took in your office. His two colleagues had lingered on after the client signed out to ask where he was and if he was coming tonight. He’d mentioned he was seeing someone, now they were catching on it was serious. It shouldn’t have surprised him. The few that knew why he’d left law and why he’d come back, and the fewer still that actually knew Laurie or Jacob, were always understanding about why he was so private about his private life. Letting you into his world felt easy, but as the clock ticked closer to five, the lawyer felt protective over what they might say or ask, offering up a plea to whatever higher power that his coworkers wouldn’t compare his past to his present.
You’d slipped into the house while he was in the shower, admiring the suit he’d laid out on the bed which he’d made with fresh sheets. After shooing him away several times, you chose a dark navy chiffon cocktail dress that would match, hiding it under a sandy lapel coat. The time you’d been out alone had been spent getting your hair trimmed and nails done, wanting to look nice next to him. It seemed to pay off even though he hadn’t seen the dress because the entire drive, he kept reaching over to touch your cheek or neck, constantly telling you how beautiful you looked before he would take your hand for a kiss.
Boston had a lot of bars and restaurants, but you never got out much, especially not to a place as polished as this. When you walked in your coat was checked and heads turned. You looked from the two speechless hostesses to Andy and your immediate worries went away. Bending down, he pressed a kiss to your temple and groaned in your ear. “So that’s why you wouldn’t let me know what you were wearing? Trying to torture me for not letting you cum last night?”
Your whole body shivered and he took your hand, leading you toward a waving crowd of suits. Lacing your fingers through his so you didn’t start fidgeting with your necklace, he let people approach while you sipped on a glass of wine and he held a beer he hardly touched. It was more talking than you expected but everyone seemed overjoyed to see Andy beaming. You admired the way he stood tall, his shoulders back and chin up as you answered a few questions about your job and family. He was content being a fly on the wall, admiring how charmed everyone was by you and how you seemed most content hugging into his side while you listened to them talk about their own families or how much they admired both of your work ethic. No one said anything about Laurie or Jacob, but as you excused yourself to the bathroom, he was met with firm handshakes and claps on the shoulder, knowing glances that they were happy he had found you.
As if that wasn’t his cue to leave, then the chime on his phone was. With an email from the doctor giving you both the all clear, Andy gave his goodbyes on behalf of the pair of you, not a full lie when you both did have a dinner to get to. Luckily, the bathroom was by coat checkout and no one would be looking for either of you or notice if or when you did leave… and he had a plan.
When you opened the bathroom door Andy was walking toward you, a contagious smile on his face. “Came to get you.”
“Oh?” Any confusion was met with understanding as he stepped into the bathroom behind you, shutting and locking the door. “Oh!”
“Mmhm. You check your email?” With a nod, you swallowed knowing what he meant, your hands covering his as he planted them on your hips and led you to the marble sink with its massive counter and bright mirror. It was more like an expensive hotel’s bathroom than a bar’s but it was still a bathroom. “Do you know how hard it was to not say fuck it and take you last night?”
“It wasn’t easy for me either. I mean… look at you.” Your words were a whisper, completely aware of how hard he was when his thigh was pressed between your legs pinning you to the counter. Andy chuckled, immediately reminded of that hungry look you gave him when he stood in front of you naked last night and you obediently opened your legs for him. Seeing you wet and needy like that was going to be burned into his brain for the rest of his life.
“I meant what I said last night.” He swallowed, blue eyes piercing yours as he reached in his pocket and pulled out a condom. “The first time you cum for me I’m going to be inside you, Sweetheart.”
“Andy this isn’t fair! I want you and… we deserve better than a bathroom.” Covering his hand and taking the condom, dropping it back into his pocket. The act alone taking every ounce of responsible adulting you had left in your system and the second it was in his pocket you were cursing yourself as your cunt throbbed around nothing.
He pressed his forehead to yours and picked you up, setting you on the counter and bring your lips to his in a heated kiss that brought back thoughts of the sound of him getting off onto your stomach after you took over stroking him. When he pulled away he was breathless and your body was, once again, a live wire. “Oh, I know. Can’t have you sitting at dinner with your parents all fucked out, can we?” Your mouth fell open in shock and a moan poured out when he slipped his fingers under the dress to stroke your core over your panties. “Just want to make sure you’re wet as hell for the second we’re home and AJ’s asleep because I won’t lose another second before I’m inside you.” Pulling your panties to the side, Andy’s fingertips circled and pinched your swollen clit, eliciting another whimper from your lips. “I want you as needy as you were last night.”
“O-okay…” It was almost pathetic how quickly you nodded, hips rocking into his fingers, desperate for friction. “Let’s get to dinner then, like… yesterday.” When he pulled his hands away and stepped back to help you hop off the counter you took the opportunity to crash into him, loving on him exactly how he’d just tortured you. You tugged on his tie, pulling his lips to yours while your other hand stroked him over his slacks. It wasn’t until he was gasping and groaning into your mouth that you pulled away. “Just remember, big guy, two can play this game.”
Nipping at his lip, you sauntered back with a giggle as he stood there staring at you. His shocked smile quickly morphed into a smirk, knowing exactly what you were thinking while being simultaneously fascinated by how equal you were to him in this desperate sexual need for each other. “Trust me, Sweetheart, I’m counting on it.”
A/N: Y’all make responsible choices with new partners especially, please. 🤣 I know this fluff is self indulgent, but what do I do? Cut it and give you outtakes upon request? Nah. Here’s the whole thing (it’s actually not, I did cut it a bit) and you just get to have the whole of the domestic fluff and needy hoe shit that isn’t hoe hours. I ALMOST FEEL BAD FOR NOT GIVING YOU P IN V BUT BE PATIENT FRIENDS! Seriously though, Part IV? Do you want to know what meeting the parents is like? Should we skip to the hoe hours I deprived you of? Both? ORRRR Do you want an AJ’s first morning/full day with Andy?
I love this obnoxiously long chapter because it’s a new perspective on these two because people are multifaceted ... I hope it didn’t disappoint y’all 🥺👉🏼👈🏼
Tags are open, just send an ask.
Taglist: @tom-hlover @marvelouslytrekking @https-cali @saiyanprincessswanie @velvetcardiganbucky @caplanbuckybarnes @traumschiffe @dumb-ass-writer @meetmeatyourworst @exhaustedfangirl @patzammit @drabblewithfrannybarnes @astridmargrethe @deepintothenature @maroonsunrise83 @firefly-in-darkness
#andy barber fic#andy barber x reader#andy barber x you#andy barber x y/n#andy barber smut#fic: andy barber#writer: writerwrites
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1, 2, 7 and 19 for the ask game?
What of your fics would you keep the basic plot of but rewrite completely?
Oh, this is super interesting because I went in assuming that there must be a fic I would want to rewrite in the sense of correcting or fine-tuning it, only to realise I really....don't want to do that. I think those fics are not only a statement of what I made at the time, but a marker for me of where my life was at around them, for better or for worse. Having said that, and interpreting rewriting differently, I have heavily and seriously considered a second version/retelling of let you blow what's left of my right mind but from Hei Xiazi's POV, which would fill in a lot of the implied emotional interiority we get from him - which had to be implied in that story, because it's a story about learning who someone is, and so needed to keep Hei Xiazi at a degree of opacity to the reader/Xie Yuchen.
2. Anything you'd like to write but feel you're unable to?
aside from my current WIPs due to lack of energy you mean?
Honestly, there's multiple, and usually it comes down to time/energy constraints as opposed to those of ambition or assessment of my own ability. I would love to write the longform post-canon Fang Duobing/Di Feisheng fic about jianghu politics with Fang Duobing as the main character POV, for example, but I'm aware it's easily a 10 chapter commitment and I look at how many WIPs I have and worry I am setting people up for disappointment. Realistically the more I start the longer it takes me to finish others, and also the harder it becomes to finish them all.
7. Your favourite ao3 tag
My favourite one to use is probably Character Study, and I'm not sure what my favourite to read is, honestly? Probably Politics/Political Intrigue for plot, and Character Study as well - I'm really fascinated by character-driven plots.
19. Share a snippet from a WIP without giving any context for it
“Don’t tell me,” Hei Xiazi replies, deadpan, acerbic, “He told you how mature you were for your age.”
“Fuck off, Xiazi,” Xie Yuchen spits from between his teeth, and turns the car into the correct lane with a jerk rather than a segue.
“No, let me guess. Did he say boys your age wouldn’t know how to treat you?”
“Did you stay in here just to wait and sneer at me?” Xie Yuchen says, because it’s all he can muster up. Outside of the car, the streetlights spill unflinching white onto the roads. “Go fight him for my virginity back if you like, but you’ll have to walk home yourself.”
(from these questions)
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Your BFDI human designs are soo good!!! What's your process on designing them? :3
Also, what inspirations do you use for them?? Just curious!!
Okay long answer so everything is gonna be undercut! Thanks for asking btw!
One reason my humanizations take forever is because I really wanna make sure I understand that character, so I have a design that I think fits for them. It’s different from humanizing Pokemon characters because typically your making your own personality for your Pokemon humanization in the process. (Unless your humanizing your Nuzlock or Pokemon OCs, then that’s different but you get what I mean)
I’m was already pretty hardcore into humanizing, or furrify, characters prior getting into object shows so this is really nothing new! I mainly did My Little Pony humanizations for a fanseries that most likely is never seeing the light of day, and I had alot of fun doing that!
When looking at other people who have done humanizations, the ones I always remember were the ones where they dresses like normal people, like people you see on the street, and had exclusively natural haircolors. Like take BixelWixels MLP humanizations. No bright hair colors but still readable as the character! I think those are shows of super good character design.
I knew right when I got into BFDI though, the Algebraliens would be the only ones with bright colored hair. While the contestants they would have exclusively natural hair colors, with exceptions. (Ex: Puffball, Tree, etc).
I really try to understand and study the characters before I finalize a design for them! Trust me so much writing and scrapping goes on behind scenes. For some characters, I had an idea for immediately and ran with it. Others, I had to do so much research for it. Some research included reading fanfics and me annotating them so I could deem if it was in character or not and rewatching episodes a ridiculous amount of times. Once I finish that we can finally get to designing!
So first I refer back to a master sheet which has my race and age head canon for them. Usually it will stay the same as the chart but sometimes a friend can convince me to change it or I changed my mind about things on the list. I won’t show the full list but here’s where the character were using today (Clock :33) was in!
Also has a show of how much changes, I believe my original head canon for them said he was Wasian so things can always change!
Now let’s take a look at my first ever concept for Clock
At this at this point Clock was really young? I believe if my memory serves me correct in this concept Clock was 17. Also he would have worn a see threw shirt so you could see his cool arms.
I really struggled with Clock design but I had a cool idea for his arms to actually look like clock arms kinda and I ran with it so hard. Although I did get the inspiration to make him blasian after taking some inspi from the Timekeeper cookies in cookie run and I thought hey maybe locs could somehow resemble clock arms??
So we got to the sketching finalization stage and again things are going to change!
Since that concept he’s 23 now! Um my sketches are messy so sorry! I messed around with his clothing more to the point we got to the this and I must say I am quire endeared by his design and in the process I’ve grown to have a really nice fondness for Clock! I like him alot actually!
One word of advice is, don’t follow what everyone else does just because everyone does it their’s so many cool ways to interpret things. Like show don’t tell and what not! Personally I like to not look at other humanizations for inspo while concepting them usually because I wanna make sure I’m not being to heavily influenced by anything. As far as I’m aware I’ve never seen a Clock design with locs. (If you have one PLEASE DM ME I WANNA SEE) Just have fun with it at the end of the day!
I’ll ramble about clock’s design in a second when I post him
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Season 1 Episode 1- “Midoriya Izuku: Origin” (part 2)
i really like mha’s commercial break screens. i like the ones that give the character profiles more, certainly, but it’s nice to just have a little two second cue that it’s commercial break time. it’s no fullmetal alchemist, but it’ll do
izuku is so dang happy about writing some notes on mt lady after school. it’s like the shitshow that happened earlier is just out of his brain. he’s such an optimistic pessimist. i see a lot of people write stories where izuku’s this jaded and tired kid who’s all bitter about the shit that’s happened in his life, and these days they just sort of make me cringe. because izuku’s whole thing is that no matter how hard the world tries to bring him down, he always gets right back up. he might be skittish and self-loathing, but he always tries to see the best in people and situations, and i think a lot of people tend to forget that while they look at the bigger picture. izuku’s just a little guy puttering through life. he’s not bitter or jaded. he’s sad, certainly, but he’s still moving forward. or trying to, at least
and then katsuki shows up to remind izuku that, as the main character, he’s obligated to go through trials and tribulations.
i also like the various changes of brand names. anyone got a campos notebook on ya?
ah, i haven’t mentioned it yet, but katsuki’s kind of a huge douchebag.
katsuki may not be actually using his quirk on izuku in this shot, but the threat is there and it’s very real. there is no doubt in my mind that katsuki has maliciously used his quirk on izuku in the past— and not just when they were brats who didn’t know any better.
so uh. there aren’t any captions, but this is the moment where katsuki tells izuku to kill himself. and this is the lowest point of katsuki’s character. for a lot of people, this is the moment where they have to decide whether they’re going to be open-minded about katsuki going forward, or if that was the breaking point. as someone who has faced bullying of this particular variety, i know how serious shit like this is. but as the years go by and as i get older, i’ve started to have more complicated thoughts about this particular moment. see, in this scene, katsuki is fourteen. do you know how much shit fourteen year olds say without meaning or even understanding what they’re saying? yes, what katsuki said was very bad, and i don’t fault people for finding this sin unforgivable, but as someone who was fourteen pretty recently (in the grand scheme of things, at least) i know that there were things i said at fourteen that i didn’t mean and there were things said to me that i doubt other people meant. again, this is the make it or break it moment for most people when it comes to katsuki’s character, but for me personally— i chose to give katsuki the benefit of the doubt.
i would still like to emphasize, however, that katsuki is still a huge douchebag
unfortunately, we’re going to have to wait until season 3 for things to start getting better
it’s very sad that some of the first things we hear izuku think after literally getting told to kill himself are “you can’t go around telling people to kill themselves, think of your record!” it’s a sad thing, but one of the things that suicidal people often do to stop themselves from committing suicide is thinking of the small things. this may not be a super correct interpretation (i don’t know if izuku’s suicidal or not, but i wouldn’t be surprised), but izuku might be thinking something like, “i can’t kill myself because if i do, it might get kacchan in trouble”
this notebook is probably intensely messed up after the ordeal it went through. water damage is no joke. that entire thing is illegible.
anyways, it’s baby time!!
i used to think that inko was a lot taller in these prologue scenes, but seeing her next to four year old izuku really puts into perspective how short she is.
also, you can see the bottoms of some really tall cabinets in this shot, which is one step closer to tall hisashi being canon. why does that matter? well you see, you know who else in mha is really tall? a whopping 225 centimeters, in fact (or 7’2” for those of you more familiar with the imperial system)? that’s right, all for one. dad for one canon?
you know, izuku should not have been watching these videos as a four year old. i can see at least two people bleeding (real blood!! in universe, anyways) and i know for a fact that it’s probably a lot more gruesome than the anime’s depicting for us. inko should not have been letting him watch this on loop as a kid
i hadn’t much thought of it until recently, but this video is of all might’s debut. i’m pretty sure it was stated somewhere (genuinely i don’t know where, this might be made up) that he had one for all for something like 4 decades. ignoring the fact that this would make him, like, 54 at the youngest, it’s also interesting to note that all might didn’t spend all of those four decades in japan. we know he started out as an american hero and only returned to japan when he was confident that he could face all for one and win. what i want to know is how long all might was in america before he came back to japan. he went to college in america (??? i think) which means he spent at least four years there after graduating from ua, but i don’t know how much more. he was already a pretty prominent figure when endeavor was in high school (???? i think?????) so does that mean he came back to japan, like. really early? punches the wall, i need to know!!!!
is this… not all for one’s doctor? the wiki lists them as different people, with this guy being named dr. tsubasa (though he doesn’t have a FUCKING page so i don’t really know), but like… i’m pretty sure this is just garaki/ujiko??? how are there two guys who look identical to each other but are ??? different people??????? note to self: look at the cast list for episode 1 and figure out if both doctors are voiced by the same people
what counts as a small object? can inko pull them faster towards each other if she tries? or is it always at that sort of languid speed? could she pull out a person’s eye? a handful of blood? does her quirk work with liquid at all or just solids? could she tug on a small part of a person’s brain and cause irreparable damage? does izuku count as a small object? is it a purely size thing or does weight matter too? if she were given an object the size of a pinhead with the weight of a black hole, would her quirk work on it? if it is weight and not size, then what about extremely large but extremely light objects? would her quirk work on those, then?
i’d like to point out that this scene contains the only canonical mention of izuku’s father. he’s not even mentioned by name, he isn’t midoriya hisashi, he’s just “my husband with a fire breathing quirk”. and this is the only time he’s mentioned in mha. it’s been eight years. who is midoriya hisashi. you know who i think it is? all for one. dad for one canon when
question: i know quirkless people have a second pinkie toe joint, but does that mean quirked people’s pinkie toes have a fused joint or are they straight up missing a bone in their feet? do you think chisaki kai paid quirkless people to send him feet pics?
this whole sequence is. also kind of fucked. i love mamadoriya as much as the next person, but she makes some… blunders while parenting. izuku loves her, but i know well that even when your parents are kind of shitty and neglectful, it’s really hard to hate them for it. do i think inko’s a bad parent? mh. probably not. do i think she’s an exemplary one? haha! no! i might be projecting.
my guy just got his notebook destroyed, got suicide baited by his former best friend, and even still he’s trying his best to be as optimistic as he can. i’ll say it again, i’ve never understood how you can watch this show and interpret izuku as some edgy and hopeless kid. he has so much hope!!! even when thing’s aren’t going his way, he tries so hard to just keep his head up. that’s what’s always made him a hero
haha funney shot. if the sludge villain was wearing pants earlier, does that mean he’s naked right now? does he have genitalia in there somewhere? does this count as sexual assault?
ugh, it should. how did izuku not get, like, ten million diseases from this moment alone? the sludge villain was literally just in the sewers!
y’know how did the sludge villain manage to avoid all might for that long? i thought all might was supposed to be the best? guess our number one’s not as infallible as he looks
izuku looks very small here which is pretty cute. also what happened to the parts of the sludge villain that were already inside of him? just not even gonna address that? alright
after momentarily conking out, i like the implication that all might picked izuku up, laid him down on the road, looked through his notebook for a blank page to sign, and then tried to wake izuku up by patting his cheek a couple times. this scene is also funnier in the japanese version, for the record
get bottled idiot. how on earth did all the sludge of the sludge villain fit inside two liter bottles? also, anyone know what “torrent” is referencing? i have no clue
one of the sad things about moving to the english format is that you don’t get all might’s random english swearing. i like to headcanon that he picked it up from david shield
a lot of people talk about how izuku cries easily, but he also flushes pretty easily too! oh also “can i be a hero even if i don’t have a quirk,” yadda yadda
watching this episode again for the first time in four years was weird! mostly because i remember so much of it. i suppose it’s just because i’ve seen people retread these opening scenes so many times, they’re just sort of burnt into my brain at this point.
you know what i didn’t remember? this ending. i’ve never been one to pay much attention to anime endings the same way i might for openings. very rarely do they stand out to me much and their habit of being mostly PMVs make it so they’re not all that visually engaging either. there will usually be some cute sequences here and there, but most anime endings are pretty skippable for me. the only anime where i routinely tuned in for the ending was brand new animal, where not only does the ending have a sick ass song but it also has weirdly smooth and beautiful animation, and i’m kind of a sucker for pretty animation
every story has to start somewhere. not all introductions are bombastic or done in a trial by fire. one of the biggest issues i hear people have with season one of mha is that it’s slow as hell. and, in all honesty, i completely agree. but sometimes we need to take our time with content and really just absorb it at our own pace. yes, season 1 is kind of mediocre, yes, season 2 is when mha actually starts in a more spiritual sense, but i think there’s an importance to these first thirteen (thirteen? is it thirteen?) episodes. not a one of them is particularly memorable by itself, but season 1 is just the one that we kind of have to get through to get to the really good stuff. have patience, the story has only just begun.
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Girl From Nowhere S2 Theory
MAJOR SPOILER ALERT: I will be talking entirely about events in the 2nd season.
**Very long**
**I will tell the story of the episodes as well**
! ! WHAT I SAY ISN'T CANON IT'S JUST A THEORY !!
In episode 4 We're introduced to Yuri, who's up for revenge on her "friends". This is when Nanno realized it's going to be a whole lot different.
In the last season we see Nanno bringing karma to those around her. May it be a teacher or a student. In those instances, they either regret all the things they did and die or learn from their mistakes and live to be a better person.
In Yuri's case, all she wants is revenge because she's been used by her rich friends. In this episode, everyone is in the wrong and they all deserved bad karma.
Towards the end of that episode we see that Nanno was "dead" and put in a bathtub, while Yuri's head was inside, because she drowned to death in that tub by men she used to get her revenge.
Yuri's plan backfired on her. And of course in old Nanno fashion when the coast is clear, Nanno goes back to life and leaves the room.
But in the last scene, we see Nanno's blood going in Yuri's nose and bringing her back to life.
But was is intentional? We know that Nanno does not make mistakes, at all because everything she does happens for a reason.
For the rest of the season we have Nanno and Yuri competing over what the people in the wrong deserve.
Yuri is impatient and all about death and revenge without teaching them what they did wrong.
Nanno is patient, all about giving them the punishment they deserve and them learning from their mistakes.
Nanno does not doubt her tactics and knows exactly what to do to give the bad people what they deserve.
We know that in the end of every episode, everyone who lived and learned their lesson got to go back to their normal lives with their families.
We see a crack in Nanno's façade in episode 7: JennyX when Jenny slit Nanno's throat that didn't heal and where she had to take Jenny's identity because of Yuri's interferance.
In this episode we see that Nanno is capable of taking people's identities. But that wasn't part of her plan. She herself knew that this was not what Jenny deserved, it was too much and she doubted herself.
JennyX was a failed 'mission' on Nanno's part, because even if Jenny learned her lesson, she didn't get to go back to the life she had and correct her mistakes.
In the season finale Nanno and Yuri were arguing over who deserved to be punished.
Yuri says Junko's the victim because she was bullied by teachers and students and her mother purposely paralyzed her legs.
Nanno calls both Yuri and Junko out by saying both of them are hardly victims because they choose to kill people.
Junko was killing off students and faculty staff and studying their organs (Junko was interested in anatomy) her mother had no choice but to paralyze Junko so she would stop killing people because the mom always had to get rid of the bodies.
Towards the end of the finale Nanno tried to stop Junko from stabbing the mother but she gets injured and it didn't heal.
In the scene we see Nanno being stabbed to death by Junko and her mother, Yuri letting out an evil laugh. After stabbing Nanno to death, Junko slit her mother's throat.
At that final scene we see Yuri giving Junko her blood and going their separate ways. And looking down on them from the rooftop, was none other than Nanno herself narrarating.
"In a world where everyone thinks they are free and does whatever the hell they want. Am I really necessary anymore?" ~ Nanno
THEORY:
From the 4th episode, Nanno has been waiting patiently for the moment to teach Yuri a lesson.
Come to think of it, Nanno still didn't punish Yuri in that 4th episode. Yuri didn't regret any of the horrible things she did because to her it was all necessary for revenge. She didn't deserve to die because that was too easy. So Nanno intentionally made her immortal to teach her a lesson.
In episode 6 Yuri impatiently tried to get rid of Nanno and deliver her "justice" by making the students revolt. It worked for a moment but when the students came to one of them killing a teacher, the students fell apart and started blaming one another. So when their principal said they'll take care of the mess students made as long as they go back to doing everything the faculty says, most of the students agreed leaving the students who believed in revolting to face the consequences for everyone.
Yuri then sees her plan does not work and Nannos (yes plural) appear to finish the job. In the last scenes of the episode, the original Nanno locks Yuri in a room with her clones and the faculty, telling her they'll starve to death unless they start eating each other.
This could have been Yuri's karma if she just learned that her way doesn't help anyone. But it didn't, it just fueled her thirst for revenge more.
In the last scene of the finale, we see Nanno's neck fully healed. Meaning everything was part of her plan. If Yuri thinks Nanno's dead she would let down her guard down and it would be easy for Nanno to strike back.
But then what about the Nanno who was stabbed? It could be none other than one of her clones. We've seen her use her clones before to punish people in S1 ep2.
We don't know for sure if her clones can have lasting effects but in ep7 we see her clone's tongue cut off and it was still cut off in the end of that episode. When it was cut off, we also know that it made them bleed so the thought of of Nanno faking her death in front of Yuri isn't impossible.
Yuri already thinks that when Nanno's in doubt she can lose her immortality and make her vulnerable. Why? Maybe because Nanno planted that idea in Yuri's head.
This is Nanno we're talking about, she's what? a demon? a spirit? Let's say she's the spirit of karma because from what we see, she brings karma to everyone around her. Karma can't die, karma is just there. Nanno can't die, Nanno is just there.
What does she mean by her narration at the finale?
"In a world where everyone thinks they are free and does whatever the hell they want. Am I really necessary anymore?"
She's saying, if everyone does terrible things knowing very clear that they will be caught and there will be consequences but keep doing it anyway, what's the point of karma?
So instead of learning from their mistakes, they continue to make them, if that's it then is punishing them over and over again really necessary when it changes nothing?
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME IN READING THIS
This is just a theory and my own interpretation, I know there are different opinions and this is my own. You can disagree and find my opinions, interpretations and theories stupid and I'm okay with that and I respect your opinion, but please refrain from harsh/foul language. Thank you!
#i nanno you#girl from nowhere#kitty chicha#nanno girl from nowhere#nanno#girl from nowhere season 2#gfn#theory#netflix#series#spoiler#spoilers#girl from nowhere spoilers#girl from nowhere theories
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A Will Solace Character Analysis: the Underappreciated Soft Side
I've noticed many fanfictions have Will Solace OOC. So I’ve been thinking about aspects of Will’s personality fans seem to either gloss over or exaggerate. Here, this post is me doing an in-depth analysis explaining Will Solace’s canon personality in the books, and how it can sometimes differ from fanfictions. Sprinkled in this analysis are tips to fanfiction writers on how they write Will as more in-character.
There is one major aspect of Will that people seem to ignore or underemphasize. Nico best explains it when describing Will in this quote
Jason was a fighter. You could tell from the intensity of his stare, his constant alertness, the coiled-up energy in his frame. Will Solace was more like a lanky cat stretched out in sunshine. His movements were relaxed and nonthreatening, his gaze soft and far away. In his faded SURF BARBADOS T-shirt, his cutoff shorts and flip-flops, he looked about as aggressive as a demigod could get, but Nico knew he was brave under fire. During the Battle of Manhattan, Nico had seen him in action - the camp's best combat medic, risking his life to save wounded campers.
To sum it up, Will Solace is a very chill and calm character. A lot of writers make Will more irrational, impulsive, overbearing, and emotional than he actually is. Will is not the type of character to create drama unless he's, as Nico puts it, "under fire." In other words, the intense side of his personality doesn't come out unless the situation is urgent or dire.
Fans remember during the Second Giant War how he gets angry and argues with Nico over Nico's health and shadow-traveling, so many assume Will is going to be this fiery over a lot of other things regarding their relationship. For example, fanfic writers may make Will controlling or overly sensitive with Nico. However, keep in mind, Will gets heated with Nico during the Second Giant War because Nico's shadow-traveling is killing him. This is how Will describes Nico's dire state.
"Coach Hedge told me all about your shadow-travel. You can’t try that again."
"I just did try it again, Solace. I’m fine."
"No, you’re not. I’m a healer. I could feel the darkness in your hand as soon as I touched it. Even if you made it to that tent, you’d be in no shape to fight. But you wouldn’t make it. One more slip, and you won’t come back. You are not shadow-travelling. Doctor’s orders."
Will is a healer. When he touches Nico's hand, he can sense how little sleep and food Nico has been getting and how Nico's being taken over by darkness. Nico is on the verge of death and hasn't cared about his health for a long time. Nico is also stubborn about it, so Will has to be aggressive in order to save Nico's life. This aggressive behavior is not the norm for Will, but it can sometimes come out when he has to assert control in a life-or-death situation.
Will is a calming prescence. He's a diplomat. He stops violence on multiple occassions.
He's one of the few people who's able to calm Clarisse's violent rage, and he does so in a gentle manner.
Clarisse pointed her dagger at Rachel. "What about their allies, huh? Did you see that tribe of two-headed men that arrived yesterday? Or the glowing red dog-headed guys with the big poleaxes? They look pretty barbaric to me. It would’ve been nice if you’d foreseen any of that, if your Oracle power didn’t break down when we needed it most!"
Rachel’s face turned as red as her hair. "That’s hardly my fault. Something is wrong with Apollo’s gifts of prophecy. If I knew how to fix it –"
"She’s right." Will Solace, head counsellor for the Apollo cabin, put his hand gently on Clarisse’s wrist. Not many campers could’ve done that without getting stabbed, but Will had a way of defusing people’s anger. He got her to lower her dagger. "Everyone in our cabin has been affected. It’s not just Rachel."
One of the most underrated Will Solace moments is when he stops a bloody battle from happening between Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter.
But he knew it wouldn’t do any good. After weeks of waiting, agonizing and steaming, the Greeks and Romans wanted blood. Trying to stop the battle now would be like trying to push back a flood after the dam broke.
Will Solace saved the day.
He put his fingers in his mouth and did a taxicab whistle even more horrible than the last. Several Greeks dropped their swords. A ripple went through the Roman line like the entire First Cohort was shuddering.
"DON’T BE STUPID!" Will yelled. "LOOK!"
People are so used to seeing demigods, especially male demigods, being aggressive fighters that they can't wrap their heads around a brave and strong demigod who actively tries to avoid unnecessary conflict and destruction as much as he can.
And that's Will Solace's strength: he has the ability to prevent as much harm as possible.
Will is a difficult character to write. There's a lot of dueling factors with his personality. He's calm and pacifying while also being brave and assertive. He's fun and lighthearted while also being intelligent, logical, and grounded. He's laidback while also being responsible and hardworking. He's insecure but not melodramatic. He's very caring and protective but not pushy.
Will's personality confuses Nico sometimes too.
He’d always thought of Will as easygoing and laid back. Apparently he could also be stubborn and aggravating.
The trick to writing Will is to keep in mind his default personality is a soft and lighthearted character. Writers tend to overemphasize the hard side of his personality when his default personality is actually the soft side.
Think of the relaxing, lanky cat metaphor Nico uses for him. He and Nico bicker often, and it works for Will because he rolls with everything and doesn't take things too seriously. He's able to alleviate Nico's moodiness with humor, wittiness, groundedness, and patience. Nico affectionately calls Will a "dork" because Will usually keeps things light. Interestingly enough, he's able to be lighthearted without coming across as insensitive or an airheaded goofball, the latter of which is something Nico dislikes about Percy's personality. On a related sidenote, another way writers make Will OOC is they make him too dumb or too immature. I know I mentioned to focus on Will's soft side, but be careful to avoid that too. He's a SENSIBLE, lanky cat.
The way Will keeps his composure during a stressful situation by using laughter while still being mature is expressed well in this exchange with Apollo. (Yes, Will has a lot to manage.)
It was difficult to think of this young man as my son. He was so poised, so unassuming, so free of acne. He also didn’t appear to be awestruck in my presence. In fact, the corner of his mouth had started twitching.
“Are—are you amused?” I demanded.
Will shrugged. “Well, it’s either find this funny or freak out. My dad, the god Apollo, is a fifteen-year-old—”
“Sixteen,” I corrected. “Let’s go with sixteen.”
“A sixteen-year-old mortal, lying in a cot in my cabin, and with all my healing arts—which I got from you—I still can’t figure out how to fix you.”
“There is no fixing this,” I said miserably. “I am cast out of Olympus. My fate is tied to a girl named Meg. It could not be worse!”
Will laughed, which I thought took a great deal of gall. “Meg seems cool. She’s already poked Connor Stoll in the eyes and kicked Sherman Yang in the crotch.”
The fiercer side of Will's personality comes out only when the situation calls for it; this happens sometimes when he has to be a caring family member, a responsible healer, or a warrior in a dire situation. Even when he gets more forceful, he doesn't get more forceful than he has to.
Since Will has such a balanced and lighthearted personality, what are his flaws? What are the dark sides of his personality? There are four main things that stick out.
1. He's insecure about his self-perceived lack of abilities.
"I agree," Will said. "I wish I was a better archer … I wouldn’t mind shooting my Roman relative off his high horse. Actually, I wish I could use any of my father’s gifts to stop this war." He looked down at his own hands with distaste. "Unfortunately, I’m just a healer."
2. He sometimes struggles to endure the heavy responsibilities he has as a healer and as a protector to his family.
“I got it reattached,” Will told me, his voice shaky with exhaustion. His scrubs were speckled with blood. “I need somebody to keep him stable.”
I pointed to the woods. “But—”
“I know!” Will snapped. “Don’t you think I want to be out there searching too? We’re shorthanded for healers. There’s some salve and nectar in that pack. Go!”
I was stunned by his tone. I realized he was just as concerned about Kayla and Austin as I was. The only difference: Will knew his duty. He had to heal the injured first. And he needed my help.
3. He forces himself to bottle his emotions to keep his composure.
Will laughed under his breath. “I’m terrified. But one thing you learn as head counselor: you have to keep it together for everyone else. Let’s get you on your feet."
Here's a second example.
I rested my hand on Will’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll be back by dawn.”
His mouth trembled ever so slightly. “How can you be sure?”
4. He constantly worries about his loved ones.
Nico rested his hand on Will’s shoulder. “Apollo, we were worried. Will was especially.”
In conclusion, Will Solace's personality is difficult to get correct. But don't worry, if you write Will as a laidback, witty cat in your fanfics, I guarantee he'll be more in-character than many other fanfics with Will Solace.
(Note: I am only human. If you believe I'm misinterpreting some aspects of Will's personality, feel free to express it. What I say isn't 100 percent the right interpretation.)
#pjo#percy jackson and the olympians#will solace#nico di angelo#solangelo#percy jackson#heroes of olympus#trials of apollo#spoilers#meta#character analysis#fanfic#fanfiction#blood of olympus#hidden oracle#long post#toa#hoo#apollo
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Okay, time for another overly long analysis of our favourite green blob with a god complex and traumatized teen!
I will be discussing both the “Trapped in prison with Dream” stream and the “Am I dead?” stream as I think they should be analyzed together, so espect spoilers for those. It also goes without saying that, from here on out, unless stated otherwise, I’ll be talking about the characters and the roleplay only!
So here we go! More under the cut and be advised that this will be a long one!
First of all it’s essential to keep in mind that Dream’s view of his relationship with Tommy is extremely different from Tommy’s. I will be going more into details as the analysis proceeds, but it’s very clear by now that Dream is under the delusion that Tommy’s attachment to him is as strong as his for Tommy.
We have multiple examples of this, but the strongest one (until the revival stream at least) was back in the season 2 finale when he kept believing that Tommy wouldn’t kill him as he wouldn’t kill Tommy. We also have instances like him saying “exile wasn’t that bad, you had me” and his insistence on them having “so much fun together” that all point to the conclusion of Dream believing their game is played on both side.
Tommy, on the other hand, made it abundantly clear that he despises Dream entirely. He recognizes that Dream actively makes him a worse person when they’re together and he recognizes that he abused and manipulated him along with many others. Tommy doesn’t reciprocate Dream’s obsession in the slightest and actually seems extremely taken aback any time the green man proposes the idea of them being a theme.
On that last point it’s interesting to notice that the actual idea of them working together (Tommy and Dream vs the world style) is actually something new that Dream introduced with his stay in prison. Proposing they could “escape tigether” when they first ended up stuck there and even more in the two latest streams... Dream’s interpretation of their relationship seems to have shifted from “fated nemesis who have fun together” to “friends”. No, this is not a positive shift, and I’m not framing it as one. Dream’s idea of friendship is as twisted as can be and Tommy has zero say in the matter.
Now that the introduction is done, let’s get to the actual analysis!
Trapped in prison with Dream
So the stream starts with Tommy trying his best to annoy the Hell out of Dream. Then PussBoy is introduced...
One thing to point out is that Tommy seems to fear silence and lonliness over everything (as we’ll see proof of later on), so it’s honestly no surprise that he would not be able to bear the silence for too long.
“The cat is the best thing that’s happened to us” Dream is already sort of shifting from the “me” talk to the “us” talk, which is rather interesting. That also mirrors his “You being stuck here is the best thing that’s happened to me since I got to prison” statement.
Then there is the interaction with Sam where he decided to leave Tommy in there longer in order to solve the issue. We also get a very rare instance of Tommy showing a lot of his vulnerability, talking about exile (though it’s clear he doesn’t know Sam knows as much as he does about exile), which promptly gets ignored in favour of Sam continuing to work on the security issue.
A few seconds after Sam left Dream already burns the new clock. The reason he’s doing it is obviously to keep Tommy in a more vulnerable state of mind by continiously insuring he has no way to tell how much time has passed. All the while acting like it’s no big deal of course. Like his actions aren’t deliberate.
“What if we get out together?” “No, no! Because then you’ll break out with me, I don’t want you to break out with me” Dream already gave a similar proposition when they had just got stuck together and, again, the reason why this is so important, is because it seems to indicate a shift in Dream’s mind between the “me vs you” mentality to the “me and you vs the rest”.
There is then the whole debacle with PussBoy where he’s killed. There isn’t really much reaction from Dream for it (really, Tommy shows more panic about it then Dream does any emotion. Please people, re-watch that scene and stop using the damn cat as a motivator there). “Look Tommy, I’m gonna get out” is literally his only reaction. That and saying that Tommy is and always has been his motivator: “You motivated me, well, you motivate me all the time”. It really couldn’t be clearer here.
“I’ll get out and, when I do, I’ll get my revenge” (...) “On who” “On everyone who’s wronged me” “Oh on fucking everyone won’t you! You’ll go and you’ll kill fucking... you wouldn’t kill anyone would you? You wouldn’t, you wouldn’t kill someone (long pause)... of course you fucking would...” Now, why did I highlight this whole thing? Well, because there’s a lot to unpack here.
1) Dream is still fully of the idea that he was in the right, hence his desire to get revenge on “those who wronged him”. His mentality has not shifted at all so we can conclude, once and for all, that his “meek” act during most of the visit was indeed just that: an act.
2) Callback to Tommy saying he feels like his brain is “wired to be Dream’s friend”, despite having already been killed 2 times by Dream, Tubbo more recently almost dying to him and knowing what he is capable of in general, it still takes him quite a bit to remember that yes, Dream would kill someone, he would hurt people. Tommy still has a hard time admitting to what happened to him and the impact Dream has had on him and he’s not entirely out of Dream’s manipulation (once again, good representation, because you don’t heal from something like that in a month), he is however now better at recognizing it and correcting his own faulty thinking.
“I have a plan” I did not notice this on first watch, but was Dream’s plan to send Tommy to the afterlife from the start? Or, at least, to send someone there so he could study it? It could very well have been. He’s shown in the next stream that he wanted talk to Schlatt immediately asking Tommy about him once he was back. We can’t however ignore that he mentione that “someone who owes him a favour” may be a part of his escape plan, so that feels rather important for the future once he’ll have brought Willbur back to life.
So then there is more of fight that start. Dream is getting annoyed at Tommy’s “whining” and tries to make him see things from his perspective (aka “it’s not so bad because we have each other” again with the trying to establish their “friendship”).
“You don’t have ME, you never have ME, we don’t have each other, alright? I am me and you are this fucking looser who goes around manipulating people and lying to get what he wants” What this is is 2 things:
1) Tommy recognizing what Dream is trying to do, the subtext of what he’s saying and refuting his claims (hurray for the bit of healing he’s had!)
2) Tommy actually recognizing the possessive side of the claims Dream keeps making. I don’t see this talked about that much, but, to Dream, Tommy is most definitely his propriety, just like Tommy’s disks were Dream’s in his mind (remember that speach? He literally referred to them as “my disks”). I mean, he clearly acts like that’s the case, enphasizing time and time again how he has absolute power over Tommy (I’ll go a bit more into it towards the end of the analysis of the other stream, for now though, keep this in mind)
“Even when I’m in here I’m more powerful then you are when you are outside” back on the theme of Dream’s God Complex I see. He seems to like showing off as often as he can “how powerful he is and how powerless Tommy is” (in Dream’s words from the season 2 finale), though that’s most probably to keep enforcing the dynamic that he already established in exile, the whole thing with Tommy being entirely dependent on Dream. He seems to like that aspect of their dynamic as he has expressed multiple times his appreciation for that specific period of time.
“If I wanted to, right now, I could just kill you. And the only reason I’m NOT is because of my friends, for Tubbo, because WE need that fucking revive book, alright? That’s the only reason I’m not killing you” well, I mean, we’ve known this for quite a while. The only reason Dream got to keep his last life was because of Tommy’s attachment to his friends. I’ve seen a few people saying that it was specifically to revive Wilbur and, while that may have been an idea at first, by now he had already shown multiple times that that was not the case (even before spending time with him in the afterlife). When he went to “Wilbur’s revival” (the failed one) he showed that he was already incredibly uncertain about wanting Wilbur back (describing him as “not so poggers” in very Tommyinnit fashion). No, the actual reason why he wants the book is most likely because Tubbo is on his last life and we know he can’t live without his best friend.
“Tommy, I’m never, I am NEVER EVER going to use the revive book to help you or any of your stupid little friends, okay?” So now the question is: was this a lie or a twisted version of the truth?
I’m gonna say the latter and here is why: Dream DID, in fact, revive Tommy. We know this now, it’s canon. But he really didn’t do it FOR Tommy. One thing I want to make clear is this: while Dream may, in fact, consider himself and Tommy “friends” he doesn’t CARE for Tommy himself, not in a way that’s commonly considered as “caring” at the very least. He finds him fun, entertaining and he seems to be rather dependent on him, but NONE of this things equate to caring about HIM. So, now that that’s cleard up, the resons why he revived him in the first place should be rather obvious:
1) He wanted to see if he could and learn more about his power in general
2) As I said before, there is a degree of dependency Dream has on Tommy. It’s very obvious in the fact that, despite having let go of every other attachment, he doesn’t seem able of letting go of Tommy, not permanently anyway. He seems to actually need to have a degree of control over Tommy at all times
“I will never use the revive book. I will NEVER use it on you, I will never use it on any of your friends, I will never use it to save ANY of you” now THIS one is a straight up lie. What Dream was trying to do here was provoking Tommy enough to see if he’d actually kill Dream or not (which was a useful information for him for later). To see if Tommy could bring himself to do it (he can’t)
“I’ll get out eventually because, either you’ll let me out or... people will be dead” way to be ominous green man! We could assume by this point that his plan to escape may have been along the lines of “getting Techno to repay him by killing one of Tommy’s friends therefore forcing him to let Dream out to bring them back”, or something of the sort.
“This isn’t worse then exile (...) because in exile I thought you had all the power (...) here’s the thing Dream, here’s the thing I know: I don’t think the revive- I- how could I be so fucking...? The revive book Dream, it’s not real is it?” Here is where things start to actually go downhill fast. There is nothing Dream hates more then Tommy questioning his power, there is nothing that makes him angry faster (I’m sure the whole “I don’t give a fuck about Spirit” speach comes to everyone’s mind when I say this, as it should). Dream, as much as he presents himself to be a logical mastermind, is actually very emotional in the way that he is very easily overtaken by anger. He does irrational stuff every time he gets mad, that’s no secret. If he wasn’t already planning to kill Tommy to test his power, this push is what convinced him to do it. Also this is the exact reason why he likes Tommy (weirdly enough, their relationship is so very complicated) in the first place, because he’s the only one who’s constantly questioning him and challenging him.
As we know the fight escalated and Dream ended up killing Tommy telling him to ask “Schlatt” about the book. Though before that there are quite a few exchanges were Tommy expresses that he thinks Dream is powerless now and was lying about the book all along because that’s generally what he does and Dream keeps insisting that he’s not lying and that Tommy’s life is still in his hands, that he still has all the power (turns out he wasn’t so wrong...).
Also, last line to analyze from this: “I might as well be a God Tommy! You can’t kill me and I can kill you” pretty sure this is the first time Dream outwardly announces his God Complex and it’s interesting that his idea of power revolves entirely around having power over Tommy specifically. Because, even having power over Tommy’s life he’s still in prison, he stil has no real power of any kind. Everyone on the outside still hates him (aside from the anarchist duo), they still aren’t letting him out. Who comes to see him and what he can keep in his cell is still entirely dependent on Sam and not on him. But the fact that he has power over Tommy is enough to make him a God in Dream’s eyes.
Am I dead?
Fisrst things first, the afterlife part:
It seems that we may be seeing pieces of conversation had at different times. Let me explain myself:
Tommy opens up asking if he’s dead, then he has an interaction with Wilbur that sounds like it could be their first interaction after his Tommy’s death as Wilbur asks how he’s doing.
We know however that he’s been ther for at least 2 months, probably more considering he seems to have interacted with Schlatt, but Schlatt has been comatose for 3 months. We could then assume that what we see is a sort of very short montage of Tommy’s time in the afterlife.
The next scene we have Tommy asking “How long is left?” (we don’t know what he’s referring to, though it could be to his revival) and Wilbur responds saying that, to the end of the Universe it would be still 8 eons. Then Wilbur asks him to play competitive solitary and they randomly chat for a bit.
New change of topic (probably next scene again) we have Wilbur telling Tommy he’s happy Tommy is there (dead) with him as the tw of them were never good for the server and caused all the problems (which we know to be incorrect, but it was Wilbur’s mentality at the time of his death and it makes sense that he would have kept it). Tommy also has a very clear panic attack which Wilbur generally ignores. Wilbur also says that, if he’s brought back to life, he knows for a fact that the server will be in shambles because, in his words: “I know what I’m like, that’s the issue”.
Like it or not people Wilbur is most definitely implying that he knows he wasn’t a good person and that he won’t be different when he comes back. Simple as that. It’s also a further confirmation of his self-deprecating nature that brought him to self-destruct in the first place.
There is another pause that we could consider a cut scene and Wilbur is then talking about making a solitaire arena in a couple of months to an exasperated Tommy
Now for the revival itself:
First thing we notice once Tommy is back to life is that he’s most definitely experiencing a sensory overload. He’d gotten used to living in a colorless dimension with almost no sounds (aside from Wilbur’s and Mexican Dream’s voices I’m guessing) and no sense of touch aside from the constant pain that being back on the living plain may be quite ovewhelming for him.
“So what was it like?” Dream doesn’t loose a beat once Tommy is back before starting to ask him questions. He literally sounds like an eager kid who just got a new toy (and I gotta commend cc!Dream for the voice acting here!). The book worked and now he needs to find out exactly to what extent he can use it (the idea of immortality being on his mind as we’ll see later).
“Void, it was dark, it was all dark” “There was Schlatt, there was Mexican Dream” “There’s so many more drugs then just alcohol” “Mexican Dream, he was there, which was confusing, he was loud. And then there was Wilbur...” “(Continuation from below) and then I came out and I was in a long long hole, a tunnel of black and void, not even black just colorless” “When I was there it all felt so real, but so torn apart. It felt like I was in pieces, like I was stomped on” This is our best description of the Afterlife so far. A static void with no colors or viable sensations, with only 3 known residents now that Tommy is not there any longer. A weird reality with a seemingly entirely different set of rules to our own.
“Death felt like my body was taken apart and then put together and then taken apart and put together here. It felt stretched man” “It felt like I was shredded to dust” “No it didn’t feel goo- it felt like I was put through a shredder, but there was no blood, there was no flesh it was just essence, like a powder and I was put through (continues in previous section)” This is Tommy’s complete description of his experience with death and what it felt like. Having to stay for months with this constant sensation it’s really no surprise he would be so hypersensitive to touch.
“Honestly I was kind of scared it wouldn’t work” So, here we got another indication of the fact that, while Dream killed Tommy in rage, having him stay dead was never his intention (despite him claiming he would never use the book on Tommy a couple of days prior). He never intended to severe his last attachment (I’m honestly not sure he even CAN seeing as how dependent he actually seem on Tommy), he literally only killed him because he was mad Tommy would question him and wanted to prove a point, but to prove his point in the first place he needed Tommy back. It’s also probably why he revived him so fast, his weird need to have control over Tommy, which he couldn’t have while Tommy was dead.
Why did he care so much about Tommy not believing him on the book, you may ask? Was it to save his own skin? It’s possible and I think that’s part of it, others being convinced that the only reason they kept Dream alive was a lie could cause his death. The other reason is that he seems, as I said before, to want to shift his and Tommy’s dynamic to an “us vs the world” type of deal, which would require Tommy in particular to believe everything he says.
We can now add being hit at all by Dream to Tommy’s ever growing list of trauma triggers as he seems to have a very vivid recollection of his death by Dream’s hands... also we need to point out their body language in this: Dream is constantly trying to get close to Tommy as much as he’s constantly insisting on getting more information, while Tommy alternates between getting close to Dream and pushing him away (could be he’s both seeking some kind of comfort, but is also very overwhelmed).
“Tell me, one more time: what was it like when you died?” “Did it feel good?” Dream’s insistence and exitment about Tommy’s very obvious extreme distress is honestly concerning, but expected. By now we can safely assume that he doesn’t really have any empathy, I know, bold claim, but is there any evidence to refute it? Any evidence at all? Because, so far, he has shown a distinct lack of empathy in any and all situations...
Another interesting thing was Tommy’s reaction to Dream’s probing questions: while he seemed to get increasingly distressed by them, he kept answering Dream every time with little hesitation only at times adding on things like calling Dream a monster for the way he was treating him. I honestly think this may have been because he was in desperate need of comfort, and having someone to confide into is part of that. And Dream was the only “someone” he had there.
We then get the whole exchange about how time in the Afterlife is different then in the normal plain of existence. I’ve seen people equate 1 day to 1 month, however that’s incorrect. That was Dream’s wrong assumption but, from whet Tommy said, we can guess that it was much more then that. Frist of all, the first month and 18-20 days Schlatt was still awake and he was the one making them keep count. That said, we know Schlatt has been asleep for around 3 months (we don’t know exactly how much as they lost count). Which means that Tommy’s stay in the Afterlife was much more around 5 months then 2, meaning 1 day in the Real World should equate to roughly 2.5 months in the Afterlife give or take. That is, of course, assuming time there moves in a regular way and there is an actual correspondence between Real World time and Afterlife time, which is not a given.
Tommy keeps asking for the people he find reassurance in (at least we can assume so) which, in this case, are: Tubbo, Jack, Phil, Fundy an Sapnap. It’s a pretty weirdly matched group of people but, apparently, they are the ones Tommy seeks out when he’s distressed. It would be interesting to see an analysis of his relationship with each of them, but this one is not about that I’m afraid.
“Wait shut- shut up! Shut up! Sorry, I’m sorry” Tommy seems to have re-acquired some of his exile mannerism such as being overly apologetic and skittish, together with the lashing out more. None of this are good signs... he had just started healing as well...
“I... I’m a God! I can bring people back to life, I wasn’t even sure that I could, but I can!” Bringing Tommy back to life worsened Dream’s God Complex even further, because now he doesn’t only have power over Tommy, but everyone else as well. And, I mean... at this point he IS basically a God, he’s not even wrong on that.
“Dream, Dream, listen to me. The things I saw, the things he talked about, the things he said he will and the things he WILL do... do not- promise me, never EVER bring back Wilbur! Please, please, please” In case anyone was wondering this is the exact thing Tommy said on Wilbur. He didn’t say he’s worse then Dream here, but he IS bad news, at least if we trust Tommy on it. Wilbur wasn’t only self-destructive when alive, he was destructive in general. He was dangerous to others as much as he was to himself and he DID hurt people. And this side of him seems to only have been accentuated by death.
“Do NOT bring back Wilbur. Ever! Promise me you’ll never do that, alright? Dream, Dream, you are nothing, you’re nothing, you’re fine Dream! We can be friends if you don’t bring him back! You’re not even- all the tragedies you’ve done-” and here’s the part that I’m guessing people are interpreting as Tommy saying Wilbur is worst then Dream which is... a fair interpretation actually (considering that Tommy is not a reliable narrator). Now please don’t get me wrong, Alivebur as he was, wasn’t worse then Dream, but he had years in the afterlife to become even more radicalized in his beliefs. There is also the fact that Tommy doesn’t seem to put the harm done against him on the same level as that done against others: Dream has hurt Tommy worse then Wilbur ever did, but Wilbur’s potential harm against others might be greater in Tommy’s mind then Dream’s. That’s the reason why he’s offering something he knows Dream wants, which is his friendship, in order to keep Wilbur from coming back: because he truly doesn’t care about his own wellbeing as long as others are safe. Of course Dream’s response to this is: "It’s not up to you. It’s up to me because I- I have that control” which is very in character for the green blob with a God Complex
“What if, now that we know, we could send you back and you could figure out-” We can see that Dream has an utter fascination with this whole concept and, now that he knows revival works, he has no qualms with sending Tommy back (no matter how obviously traumatic it was for him) to get further information because, guess what? Death is not in any way an escape anymore. He can simply pull Tommy back as he pleases.
There is then the exchange about burning the book, but, as Dream has it memorized, they would need to kill Dream to get rid of the knowledge, but Tommy can’t bring himself to do it because he’s even more terrified of being stuck alone in the cell then he is of Dream bringing Wilbur back.
“I wanna know about death. We can study it! We can study it together! We can become immortal together!” Again, if there were any doubts on Dream’s constant need of having Tommy under his control, this should dissolve them. There is truly not much more he can do to show how obsessed he is then offering Tommy to be immortals together, especially because we know that the ideal for him would be to have Tommy be completely dependent on him again. To have his favourite puppet under his control for eternity apparently... “I want absolutely fucking nothing to do with you” of course, as we said many times, Tommy doesn’t view their relationship in the same way. Tommy actually hates Dream and truly doesn’t want anything to do with him.
“You owe me your life” “Owe you my life? You beat m-!” Who’d know that Dream had some similar arguments to his apologists huh? But this does show how warped his view of reality is. I mean, he’s fully aware that he beat Tommy to death, but he still think Tommy should be grateful to him for bringing him back.
“Now you can tell everyone that the book exists, that I'm not a liar!” Dream really went hard with the whole God Complex thing, even going as far as choosing his profet huh? Man’s just on a high horse and will never get down...
“Everyone... is my puppet” Welp, this is the culmination of his God Complex. The realisation that he has absolute power of life and death over everyone else. That he can play with them as he pleases. Also, may I add that, for basically this whole stream, he has used the “soft voice” he tends to do with Tommy whenever he’s trying to get him to comply? Like, I’m mentioining it now because it was particularly obvious in this last exchange, but it’s been there on and off the WHOLE time.
“You killed me to prove your own point. You could have just showed me! You could have just- this is so evil. This is- this is- this isn’t like before. This isn’t you’ve blown up and- you’ve put me through torture, through pain, to prove a point, that’s fucked! You can’t do that to me... to anyone!” It took almost half an hour but Tommy has finally come to the full realisation of what happened to him, of why it happened and he’s honestly very understandably distraught about it (though it is to be said that it's arguably quite good that he understands that it wasn't okay for him either to be put through that as he tends to downplay his own suffering greatly). He has been through something unimaginable for us because Dream was upset that he didn’t believe him about the book. That’s all there was to it, that’s all the reason for his suffering. Like, he’s not wrong at all when he describes Dream as a monster, that’s literally the only accurate description of him. No normal person would put someone else through this for such a petty reason.
“You’re soft Dream, you’re soft” Another valid point by Tommy. While Dream IS undoubtedly extremely powerful and extremely clever, he’s also petty, stubborn and childish. He throws violent temper tanrtums every time someone (especially Tommy) disagrees with him and mostly gets away with his bs because he has the power to back them up. That said he hardly ever lost, the only true loss he had was being locked in prison, and he managed to turn even that in his favour! But that’s the think: loosing makes you stronger, it often teaches you a lot and pushes you to get better. He (along with a couple of others) basically never had that. Tommy’s been through literal Hell and he survived that, he knows he can survive that. Dream? He may break at the first real hardship as far as we know!
“I’ll let you free, I’ll let you free alright? We’ll call for Sam, we’ll get him in here, he’ll let you out, but... I’m gonna bring back Wilbur and Wilbur- Wilbur is gonna help me escape” 2 things to unpack here (aside from the fact that he’s using the “soft voice” to say something extremely disturbing again):
1) Dream is, once again asserting his power over Tommy in two ways: by frasing it in a way that implies that it’s up to Dream wether Tommy leaves or not and by confirming again that Wilbur’s resurrection is entirely up to him and that Tommy’s opinion on the matter is utterly worthless
2) He fully intends to use Wilbur as a puppet as well because, as he says a bit later, if he brings him back then Wilbur will be indebted to him
And that’s how it’s concluded!
My closing thoughts on this are that, generally, Dream’s level of dependence on Tommy seems to worsen as fast as his God Complex. man went from telling him that their story “would never be over” to offering him immortality in the span of little over a month. Tommy is Not Doing Good, AT ALL, but I’m hoping he’ll ask for help this time from other people because he literally cannot deal with this on his own. Wilbur will not be good news, but what he’ll do is still entirely uncertain, it is to be pointed out however that, at the beginning, his frasing at a certain point sounded scarily similar to Dream’s idea of “us vs the world” when he said that him and Tommy specifically are the single cause of conflict. I hope I’m wrong there because the LAST thing Tommy needs is another obsessive God-like individual in his life!
@mysweatymakerstudentworld
#long post#I'm not jocking this gotta be the longest I've ever written!#tw abuse#tw death#prison arc#analysis#character analysis#dream smp#dreamwastaken#tommyinnit#c!dream negativity#don't know if that needs tagging#god this was exausting to write#I'm spent#utterly deceased#hope it helps those who were still confused though#/rp#my post
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My Lady (Boromir x Fem!Reader)
Warnings: Fluff, fighting
Word Count: 1719
Requested: @thespiritoflife
A/N I really liked writing this, and I hope you enjoy it! I figure it was about time to write for Boromir. For some reason, my first thought went to the Rohan, I don’t know why, so yeah, enjoy a person from Rohan falling for the captain of Gondor lol. Also, screw canon, Boromir lives y'all.
“So, this is the Captain I’ve been hearing about lately, fighting in all those battles,” I leaned over the counter, handing a mug to the rugged, handsome man across from me. He shook his dirty blond hair out of his face, smiling.
“I suppose that would be me,” He said modestly. “But really, you should see my companion Aragorn in action, he is the best out of everyone.” I was surprised with the way he talked about this other person, rather than talking about himself. Most of the men I have talked to were like that. I looked into his eyes, searching for any hint of malice or dishonesty, but he was being truthful. He meant it. I was surprised, but after all, I should expect nothing less from a man of honor.
I smiled cheekily. “Well, I guess I should then. Tell me, a fine man like yourself must have a sweet lady at home. She’s very lucky to have someone like you,” I blurted out without thinking.
He choked a little on his drink and wiped his mouth before smiling again. “Well my lady, you would be surprised to hear that this is not the case. I wish I had something like that, but not just one that sits at home.” He winked, and I hid a giggle, still embarrassed about what I said.
“Now, go enjoy your drink, Captain.” The minute he turned around, I cursed myself for being so forward. This was one of the reasons I wasn’t married yet, and my mother definitely liked to tease me about it. Very well, I went back to cleaning mugs, as the joyous noise swelled. Everyone was celebrating, for good reason, after all, these men helped to save us from ruin and despair. It was terrifying at Helm’s Deep, all of us women and children were shoved into the caves. Well, most of them...
The night began to draw to a close as the noise dwindled down. But there was still the hint of celebration in the air, and I smiled for the sake of it. A few people came back for their last drinks, and drunken steps followed. One person came back, that I had hoped to not see again. Alas, the Captain of Gondor stopped in front of me, not quite taken by drink and exhaustion.
“Enjoyed the party?” I asked, cleaning up the last of the drinks. He grinned and nodded. “Glad to hear it,” I said, avoiding his gaze. I was still embarrassed about what happened earlier, and I really hoped it wouldn’t come up.
Instead, he brought up something else. “I never got your name,” he said, moving his hand on top of mine. My stomach flipped over, how was his touch so intoxicating? I barely knew him.
I swallowed the butterflies, and replied confidently, “My name is y/n. And I must admit, I have heard so much about you, but I’m not even sure as to what your name might be. It is Boromir, am I correct?”
“Yes, that would be me. Y/n, such a beautiful name.” He spoke thoughtfully, and my breath caught in my throat. We talked a bit more, but I slowed the conversation down.
I withdrew my hand from his and went back to cleaning mugs. I couldn’t get involved with him, he was basically a prince after all. An emotion I couldn’t quite interpret flashed through his face, but he quickly stood up, understanding I wanted to be alone.
“Well, my lady y/n, I do hope we meet again.” He nodded his head and walked away.
As soon as he turned a corner, I slumped down behind the counter. I knew that I could not be with him. I was just a woman of Rohan, nothing else. But there were so few men like him. Far too many would look down upon me, and there were only a few that would be respectful. But he was something completely different. It was such a short conversation, but I already regretted sending him away. At this point, there was nothing left I could do.
---------------------------------------Time Skip-------------------------------------
Death. Destruction. The ruins of Gondor loomed over me. Eowyn is missing. So many dead. I whirled around, trying my best to defend myself. Exhaustion wore me down. An orc hit me from behind, sinking its blade into my arm. I cried out, and with the last strength I had, I sliced its throat. I clutched my arm, trying to stop the blood from running down to my hands. I collapsed, curling up. As the world became dark, I could have sworn I heard someone yelling my name.
My head was ringing as I slowly opened my eyes, adjusting them to the light. I moved sluggishly, still trying to figure out what happened. I felt a cloth around my arm, binding it, and my face felt clean. Free of the blood and dirt that had been caked on it. But where was I? I sat up, breathing in the cool air. It looked like a healing ward, and someone else was here.
“Excuse me? Miss?” I called out to the other woman. She walked over briskly and set some pillows behind my back.
She flittered about, changing my dressings, all the while talking. “Oh I’m so sorry dear, I didn’t see that you were awake yet. I was told to give you the best treatment and to get you your own room, so here we are. I wasn’t sure when you were going to wake up, oh dear me. You should probably lay down for longer, you still have circles under your eyes. My you had a bunch of blood on you. I was so surprised to see such a young lady like yourself in such a horrid place. Bad luck I say, bad luck. Although I am so old, I have seen so much, but not something like this!” She babbled on, much to my amusement. She was a mother hen, pecking and poking into other’s business. But she was sweet.
I interrupted her on another spiel, trying to get a straight answer. “I’m sorry, but who gave you these orders, to take care of me and such? I don’t mean to pry, I just want to know. Also, do you know how long this will take? I need to find some people.”
She smiled. “Oh dear, you have a lot in store for you. You’re fine to go walk around and find some people. However, I do suggest you take the path to the gardens, it is quite beautiful.” She winked, and exited the room, leaving the door open. I was slightly stunned, this was a lot to take in. I could not tell what she was hinting at though.
I pulled on some shoes and slowly began my way down. It was a clear path to where I was supposed to go, but I hesitated. What was with all this secrecy? I felt a knot in my stomach as I continued, wary of my surroundings. I knew there were no orcs, but something seemed off.
I turned a corner and heard a voice I did not expect. “I see your injuries have begun healing. I am glad to see it.” Boromir spoke softly, his gaze moving over me.
“Boromir?” I whispered, shocked to see him. “Wh-what is this? What’s going on?” He motioned me to sit next to him on the bench, and I did, a healthy distance away from him.
“I found you. On the field. I didn’t believe it was you at first, I thought my eyes were deceiving me, trying to give me what I wanted most. But it truly was you, and you were lying there, still, bleeding. I assumed the worst. I know we don’t know each other that well, so it must seem odd for me to care so much. But dear, you mean so much to me. More than you know. I’m not mad like the others for you being out there. I admire your bravery and the skills it must’ve taken to slay all the orcs around you. I wasn’t there, but based on the number of bodies around you, I would assume that would be your work. Well, I’m going on and on here, but what I’m really trying to say is, stay. Stay here, with me.” Boromir took a breath, his cheeks full of color.
At this point, my stomach was exploding, I could feel that I was shaking a little. Sure, it wasn’t some love confession, but I didn’t need that from him. The fact that he wanted me to stay was enough.
“I think I will stay, as long as we can visit Rohan often,” I said nervously. His cheeks grew even darker, and he held my hand and pressed the lightest kiss to it. I giggled, and he drew me into a warm hug. I nestled into his chest, hearing his heartbeat. Now, this is what I was missing out on this entire time.
“Wait,” I said, remembering what had happened at Helm’s Deep, what I hadn’t told anyone. “There is something you should know.”
Boromir cocked an eyebrow, obviously confused. “What do you mean?” He asked.
I looked down. “I, uh, might not have been in the caves with everyone else. In fact, do you remember the soldier that you saved from the spear? That might have been me. Possibly.” I smiled, and his face brightened.
“Oh yes, I know exactly who you’re talking abo- wait a minute. That was you? My lady, you are a brilliant warrior. The spear was a minor setback, you did amazing that night.” He gushed, and I grinned at how sweet he was being.
“Boromir, this does not bother you? That I was out fighting? That I, a woman, was part of a battle?” I questioned.
He started laughing, his smile lighting up his eyes. He really was handsome. “No dear, not at all. In fact, it makes things even better. You are an amazing fighter and an amazing person. No, it doesn’t bother me one bit.”
The sun moved through the clouds, the rays hitting us perfectly. We sat and joked in the warmth all afternoon, forgetting the looming war for just a little bit.
Everything taglist: @hey-its-nonny
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love seeing ur tags on my posts it means i get to think 🥰🥰 anyway mostly agree but at least to me nico’s constant need to prove himself is a sign of feeling like he’s not worth other people’s time and effort and he has to MAKE himself worth it. he does all he can in the hopes that people will notice him and tell him that he’s good enough because he relies on the approval of people he loves. he thinks love is something conditional for him and that he always has to be earning it because he doesn’t have enough worth to have it just granted to him. again this is more my own interpretation of his character and possibly a bit of projection
(Post)
I will not fail to acknowledge that I might also be projecting somewhat onto Nico, what is media but self reflection? I think there's a couple ways you can see Nico that are canonically "correct"
What I personally think happened with Nico is that he was aware he was worth more than the treatment he was receiving, but because so much rejection occurred he eventually just assumed he was the problem. There's things on this I would rewrite now but it holds up okay in what I'm about to try and explain.
The thing about being rejected is that the first time you argue it's the other person. And the second time you'll argue it's still them. If you're still arguing it's other people the third time, maybe but it's thin ice... But eventually you just have to accept that you're at fault.
I think this is something that really describes Nico. He is never able to nestle himself in the comfort of sameness after a certain point. He is not given authority in his own story in the beginning, he is thrust into solitude, he is told he is a monster already and if not then he has no choice but to become one.
And he takes this blame upon himself, believing that it's him who has to prove himself. He doesn't acknowledge that maybe other people have their own biases against him, he says "I have to prove them wrong," and then does his best.
It's important to note that Nico is definitely grappling with Childhood Emotional Neglect, he's in a broken situation- and he recognizes that nobody wants him around, and that he's just more stress for an already stressed group of people, so he just backs down and starts to figure stuff out for himself. We see him accept some help and friendship from The Stolls in TTC but eventually he stops doing this at some point.
His leave from camp and time with Minos is when he is used:
you unknowingly wear your heart on your sleeve and people will see this and take advantage of your trusting nature and unconditional love and they’ll never really love you they’ll just see you as an easy tool to be manipulated and used how they see fit and you won’t recognize that this is a bad thing because you don’t believe you’re worth anything more than this
This is something I would say is very true about this time period of Nico's life. Minos emotionally exploits Nico, emotional neglect and abuse (possibly physical abuse, who knows) are defining characteristics of their interactions. Nico talks about how Minos will just randomly leave him for extremely long periods with no assistance, and about how when he's around he's always telling Nico to try harder, to do better, do more. Note the time he tells Nico "you have no power over me", he's definitely holding things over Nico's head. I don't think it's wrong to assume comfort is a part of that, Nico is alone all the time at this point, and I'm sure he's starved for touch, and support, and connection- and he will take whatever he can get whether or not it is good or right.
At first he doesn't do anything against this, and it might be because he was so starved for attention that he was willing to endure abuse to receive somewhat a consistent form of it. I also think there's some evidence that points to the idea Nico was getting something from Minos, training and similar stuff, it's possible he was willing to form and upkeep a toxic relationship with him in order to gain experience.
However, I do disagree with "and you won’t recognize that this is a bad thing because you don’t believe you’re worth anything more than this" because Nico does realize eventually that his situation isn't sustainable and that he has to do something- so he takes his narrative back into his own hands:
“Minos laughed. "You have no power over me. I am the god of spirits! The ghost king!"
"No." Nico drew his sword. "I am.” (X)
So Nico, if he ever thought he was worth the treatment of being used for someone elses personal gain, he definitely overcomes some of it here, if not all of it. Nico is manipulated and used for Minos's personal gain, but he recognizes that it's not sustainable and makes a stand for himself. And this is the first time in the series where Nico truly is able to take control of his own narrative, everything before this moment is Nico being forced, or Nico with something looming over him, Nico crowning himself is him claiming his story.
So let's consider Hades in all of this, I don't think Hades manipulated Nico to the extent Minos did- but nonetheless, he did manipulate and abuse him, and this hurt Nico more than when Minos did it. Again, in the situation with Hades this is also true, "you unknowingly wear your heart on your sleeve and people will see this and take advantage of your trusting nature and unconditional love and they’ll never really love you they’ll just see you as an easy tool to be manipulated and used how they see fit and you won’t recognize that this is a bad thing". By the time Nico and Hades truly start interacting, we see that Nico's heart hasn't been fully removed from his sleeve, but it may have been lightened.
Here's the thing about the way Nico approached Hades, it's not naïve to trust family. The text in multiple places implies that Hades was around for at least a handful of years when Nico was a kid, it's not unlikely that Nico may have taken naps on his shoulder, held his hand to cross the street, maybe called him "Papa", "Dad", or "Tata" (Italian, English, old Greek). It makes sense that Nico goes to him, what doesn't make sense to Nico at first is that Hades would manipulate him. Unlike many of the other demigods, Nico knows he was a choice, and that at some point he was something wanted, so he expects some level of okay treatment from Hades. Hades loved his mother, and Hades if not wanting of Nico would have wanted Maria's wishes fulfilled, and Nico probably remembers Hades treating him warmly- or at least not harshly. The way Nico went to Hades makes sense, he wasn't expecting open arms surely, but he also wasn't expecting abuse.
Hades emotionally exploits Nico by using information about Maria, what would a little boy want more than the safety of his mother? He's so starved for human contact, who ever held him more than his mother? Who ever loved him more than her? Once Nico delivers Percy to Hades, his father crushes him, not only by harming Percy but by exploiting Nico's trust through Nico's mother- one of the things he's most desperate for.
We see Nico's heart come off his sleeve at this point, maybe not fully, but enough to where a stranger couldn't recognize it at first glance, and in a way where he has the means to hide it from most.
Except we don't see much of this, because the series is narrated by Percy- and Nico can't hide his heart from Percy.
Almost everything Nico does, everything he tries to do, is for Percy. Nico is so desperate for contact that he is pliant, but in Percy's hands Nico actually wants that contact, he's not interested in imitations of love or substitutes- he's looking for the real thing.
And Mr. Oblivious does-Annabeth-like-me Jackson isn't in any headspace to realize that a boy might like him, let alone Nico. This concern that Nico will join Luke, isn't entirely because Percy is misreading signals, but it's definitely part of it. Nico likes Percy so much that at one point he is willing to go to Tartarus if not entirely for him, then partially for him.
If Percy had realized, and rejected Nico- maybe he would have joined Luke, or at least he definitely would have been more likely to. The perception of Nico we get in PJO from Percy is unreliable, because Percy looks at Nico through the lenses of a concerned older brother, and Percy feels guilty in some way for the situation Nico is in. This gives not only a skewed, but slightly falsified narrative of who Nico is.
The original post of mine I linked, although yes, I would like to rewrite aspects of it now it holds up in the sense that Nico is always trying to prove himself, and this is a bit different than being a puppet. Nico is so starved that it is present in everything, @/arabnico gets it right:
nico’s longing is just so raw it consumes him whole and he cannot hide it at all because it reflects in absolutely everything he does and is nico’s just the means of the way for them and he settles for being it because he doesn’t think he can be much better or even deserves to it is sometting so twisted because nico has this innate utalitarian desire to be useful and to do something and to do the right thing but in the game of things he’s reduced to that puppet in the hands of fate and deities millennia older than him that see a wounded wandering soul doomed to be forever alone by a destiny so cruel it keeps him on his knees
Nico, in PJO especially, has little control over his own narrative. His mother is killed in punishment for his father's "wrongs", Nico is forced to endure this. Bianca grows tired of caring for Nico and leaves him behind, this is not Nico's fault but Nico is forced to endure the consequences of her actions. Bianca's fate is decided on a quest Nico isn't even able to go on, he is forced to endure the results. Nico then breaks the cycle, declaring himself The Ghost King, and dethroning Minos. Nico is forced to endure Hades's manipulation only because he did not see it coming, this wasn't an aspect in which Nico didn't have his narrative (he had already taken ownership of his narrative) but a blind spot in his rational.
The place where we vary is why Nico behaves this way, we can agree that it's because he's starving for human connection- but you believe it's because he has no confidence he is willing to submit himself, while I see his submission as an act of desperation.
Personally, I think to argue that Nico is like this as a result of lack of confidence does a disservice to his narrative (obviously it's fine to view him however you wish, and I wish you all the fun in doing so!). To boil this down to starvation and lack of confidence removes some level of Nico's autonomy in his own life, but also strips him of one of his strongest characteristics- those qualities of him which are like Orpheus.
Nico willing to go to the ends of the earth for love is not a weakness but a strength, his ability to carry on beyond the point in which he needs a rest is not a weakness but a sign of strength. His ability to go to the ends of the earth to right wrongs, and to show his love:
"... Cupid struck, slapping Nico sideways into a granite pedestal. Love is no game! It is no flowery softness! It is hard work- a quest that never ends. It demands everything from you- especially the truth. Only then does it yield rewards."
Cupid is explaining Nico's idea of love in this scene, we see Jason say he prefers Piper's idea of love- but Nico only knows love in the way cupid describes, working desperately for a few moments with Bianca, working just to hear any scrap of information about his mother, always trying to prove himself to Percy- to overcome the way he feels about Percy (and boys in general).
Nico has only known love as something you walk to the ends of the Earth for, but he never stops fighting to be loved and acknowledged. Lesser men would give up and lay down, accept they are unworthy, but Nico keeps pushing to be acknowledged and accepted- to be recognized and loved without having to walk to the end of the Earth, but Nico knows he has to walk to that edge and face it before unconditional love will come to him.
To imply that Nico seeks love the way he does because he's unconfident in his ability to receive love ignores the idea that he's had his life forced into this position because of the fates. It loses acknowledgment to the strength it takes to pick yourself up and walk to the end of the Earth time and time again, because if he was unconfident then he would eventually lay down and accept he shouldn't be loved ever again.
I don't think confidence doesn't play into this at all though, it definitely has some impact on Nico, he does view himself as inherently less (he is overly self sacrificial- think Tartarus :/), and he does try to remove himself from others:
You yourself said: you blame yourself for the way people have hurt you, taken advantage of you, and abandoned you. they exploit your love and your naïveté time and time again. you tell yourself, surely, there must be something wrong with you. because—you are convinced—that people are good. “if they hurt me, it is because i am flawed. it is because i am weak. people will always hurt me—even people i love. it’s an inevitable truth for me.” (X)
And this connects to what I said: "The thing about being rejected is that the first time you argue it's the other person. And the second time you'll argue it's still them. If you're still arguing it's other people the third time, maybe but it's thin ice... But eventually you just have to accept that you're at fault."
I do think there's a reason Nico makes himself so "utilitarian", because he hasn't been handed unconditional love since Bianca. But again we disagree on the why, I see Nico's behavior in his utilitarian example of love as caring, the way more people should be in love. Too many people see love as something given without restraint, and yeah, love should be unconditional but in order for love to be unconditional you have to do the work to lay good foundation. To be utilitarian in loving is not an act of weakness, or a symbol of lack of confidence, it is a showcase of more care in love than most have to offer. We care for things, and place value on them determined by how much love and care goes into those things.
I also don't see Nico's self blaming for what happened as flawed, it's logical in his situation, and a common result of CEN. This self blame shows care and kindness, and this coincides with Nico's arcs, "If I am bad, how do I improve? If I have no choice but to be evil, how do I still be good?". Nico is always fighting not to be recognized for good or bad, but to be recognized for what he is.
Trust is not naivety either, the only reason Nico is regarded as naïve is because of the extreme circumstances of his life. People shouldn't have to expect abuse from people who are supposed to love them, people should have to accept abuse in order to receive love. If Nico's life had turned out different, his naivety wouldn't be viewed as a weakness but a strength- a kindness.
We're not actually viewing Nico all that different, there's this space where his character blurs together, and it becomes an individual duty to determine at what point a flaw becomes a strength, and a strength a flaw. Nico's stubbornness is a flaw if we're thinking about grudges, but it's a strength in his work ethic. Nico's ability to stand on his own is a strength in terms of questing, but it's a flaw when it prevents him from experiencing love in fullness.
#asks#gayleafpool#idk the ending of this is shit but idk how to close ends so hopefully you understand anyhow#also i don't want this to come off as there's a right and wrong way to view something because that's not true#i was just trying to elaborate further on why i view nico a certain way#i can definitely see why you view him how you do#i think we're both definitely projecting a bit because we're both right in a flawed wya#*way#but what is the human mind but flawed?#uhh to tag or not to tag?#i'll tag#nico di angelo#pjo#long post
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can you expand on the canon and fanon ableism in solangelo? I sort of picked up on the infantilisation of nico (hes dealing with ptsd and i guess chronic fatigue, hes not a baby) but i always thought that was handled better in canon than in fanon? But then i havent read ToN i admit
Sure! I don’t know that I’m the best person to ask this because while I am disabled, I’m still unlearning a lot of ableism myself. But I’ll try my best to explain! Maybe some people could recommend some good posts about this if they know any?
Infantilizing—like you mentioned, this is one of the biggest problems with ableism in the fandom. There isn’t much of this in canon, but in fanon Nico’s often characterized as helpless and he’s not taken seriously. Will often plays the role of caretaker rather than boyfriend to an infantilized Nico, which creates an inherent and unhealthy power imbalance.
Will being portrayed as a savior—a common and dangerous trope in romance is that one character is saved by the love of another. It’s especially damaging when the character being saved has mental health problems or physical disabilities. I think most people realize nowadays that this isn’t okay, but you’ll still occasionally see things that portray Will as a savior. Nico entering a relationship because he’s healing and accepting himself is great! But Nico being saved by a relationship? Bad.
Victim blaming—honestly most characters who interact with Nico in canon engage in some level of victim blaming, but by far the worst one was Will (aside from like. Hades and Minos.) In BoO, Will went on an entire rant telling Nico that he was responsible for his own problems and that he manufactured his own abandonment by pushing people away, when really, Nico was the victim of bullying, rejection, abuse, and serious mental health problems—and he already blamed himself for all that so Will’s rant only would have made him feel more invalidated. Later books definitely pulled back on the victim blaming, but it was such a prevalent part of the foundation of their relationship that it’s been ingrained in the ship. It shows a severe and dangerous misunderstanding of mental health on the part of both Riordan and the fandom.
Will being Nico’s healthcare provider—What makes Will being portrayed as a savior even worse is the fact that Will is a healer. Doctors shouldn’t date their patients. Much like the caretaker issue I mentioned above, it creates a power imbalance which is usually satisfied because the doctor is paid for doing their job, but things get messy when any kind of personal relationship is involved. Will should not be in charge of Nico’s medical care. Of course he can act as Nico’s healer in emergencies, but Nico’s primary medical care provider should be someone else. If Will acts as Nico’s medical care provider out of necessity (eg, because he’s the only healer at camp halfblood), then they need to set up clear boundaries and rules. Will being Nico’s doctor should never be spun as a good thing.
Will abusing his authority as a medical care provider—most notably the “doctor’s orders” and “doctor’s note” scenes. Will was extremely overbearing in BoO, from forbidding Nico from using his powers to ordering him to stay in the infirmary, and that kind of pushiness isn’t okay. He was abusing his power, doubting Nico’s judgement and capabilities, and denying Nico’s right to make his own decisions (again, infantilizing). Disabled people’s agency is often denied and autonomy is so important. Nico should have been allowed to make the choice to stay in the infirmary on his own (or not to stay, or to follow through with his plan to leave chb; he should have had the freedom to make those choices, too), and frankly, it would have been a much more powerful ending to Nico’s pov if he had. He should have chosen to go to the infirmary because he decided he wanted to get better, not because he wanted to be around Will (see previous point about Will being portrayed as a savior) (although it would have been fine if Nico thought of Will as an added bonus). I said in the previous post that Will writing a doctor’s note to allow Nico to sit at the Apollo table doesn’t bother me, but that’s because I imagine that situation being like, Nico was denied accommodations so Will and Nico hatched a plan together to use what little leverage they have to get adults to listen to Nico’s needs and take him seriously, but both of them fully understood that Will should not act as Nico’s doctor again unless there were serious medical reasons. Other people interpret that scene as Will abusing his power as the head medic to sit next to his boyfriend. And I’m not saying that my interpretation of that scene is necessarily the correct one, just that I don’t interpret it as Will being ableist.
Nico faking his disability to get things—I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone bring this point up, but it’s something that really bothers me. The ableism regarding the “doctor’s note” for me isn’t the scene itself, but when the fandom portrays Will and Nico constantly using the doctor’s note excuse to get what they want, often having Nico fake some sort of symptom. Besides the abuse of power I mentioned before, promoting the idea that disabled people fake disabilities to get certain privileges is not okay. This is the sort of thinking that leads to stereotyping disabled people as lazy and it’s so prevalent that it makes a lot of disabled people wonder if they’re really disabled or if they’re making it all up (which ties in with the victim blaming point again).
Sometimes I agree that canon Solanagelo is less ableist than fanon, but sometimes fans do a better job than Riordan. It really just depends. I definitely think that both Riordan and the fandom have gotten better though! Will’s character and his relationship with Nico was very different in ToN than it was in previous books (different for the better but also to the point of inconsistency, but that’s a different critique). There were a lot of things in ToN that made it clear that Riordan was listening to the responses of disabled people. Some fans seem to be listening, too. There’s still rampant ableism in the fandom, but people are getting better at responding to criticism and realizing that a lot of tropes that used to be popular just aren’t ok.
Thank you for your ask! I’m glad you reached out to learn more. Again, if anyone knows good posts to read or blogs to visit for further information, please reply with them!
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I saw your post about the FA's translations, and I totally agree. Sometimes, when they do not translate accurately, is to make it sound better or cooler in English, but it just ends up taking away a lot from the context and characters. We know how one of the most affected character interpretations is Katsuki's, a main character, no less. And Izuku and Katsuki's relationship too, which is something super super wrong, considering is deeply intertwined with the main plot of the series, thus if someone misinterpreted their dynamic, this person would miss a bigass chunk of the message the story has.
Here is the panel you mentioned before btw
I remember when I read this, only 10 or 11 chapters into the manga (?), and I was like "...I'm...pretty sure this guy didn't say that" khshsjdhs
OK FIRST OF ALL LMAO HELLO MANG!! THANK YOU SO MUCH AND DW ABOUT IT I TOTALLY GET WHAT YOU MEAN !!
(this is your warning for a long post ahead!)
In any case, I still think you're very correct on this! Not to ramble a bit, but Horikoshi's particular talent in developing the plot of MHA is actually very very brilliant and there are a lot of blink-and-you'll-miss-it details that together, assemble the big picture of what MHA is.
Translations are such an integral part of being able to understand foreign media. MHA or otherwise. The simplest of details say a lot about a character and often times make or break a series because everyone knows that strong character dynamics are what carry even the shittiest of plots.
First and foremost, I want to clarify that because of the nature of fan translations and the fact that most of it is volunteer work/ written out of pure enjoyment of the manga--we shouldn't judge these fan translators too harshly (if at all) for interpreting it the way they want to. FA, as far as I can tell, is a fan-based group that works out of donations.
The first thing I wanna bring up is that when it comes to fandom and its works, there are two types: Curatorial and Transformative. Now, the transformative part is something that must be very familiar to a lot of you. Fanfiction, fanart, and most headcanons fall under Transformative Works (i.e. AO3) because they are all about transforming the canon world to fit each individual's personal preferences. Meta-analysis posts and Character Breakdowns are also classified under this.
Curatorial on the other hand are fandom interactions made with the explicit purpose of being as close to canon material as possible. This is working out the logic of quirks, for example, or memorizing as much canon content about your favorite villain as possible. These are more cold, hard undeniable facts that lend themselves to the DIRECT VISION the creator/author had while making this media. If you were to ask me my opinion on this, this would be the moment where I tell you that the Curatorial side of fandom is where fan translations should (for the most part) fall under.
What people need to know though is that oftentimes, fan translations do not.
Translating isn't and has never been a one-is-to-one process. There are hundreds of thousands of aspects in a language that make it so that it isn't perfectly translatable. Colloquialisms to sayings to dialects, to just plain-out words that don't have a proper English translation to them! Manga is made by and for a Japanese audience, so obviously in a lot of instances, there will be cultural nuances that will not be understood by anyone who hasn't immersed themselves in Japanese culture/language.
So what does this mean then for fan scanlations?
It means that a vast majority of translators teach themselves to only get the essence of the message. They take the dialogue as they understand it and translate it to something of their interpretation. When language and cultural barriers exist, translators do what they can in order to make it understandable to the general populace. This means making their own executive decisions on how they see a character speaking. In example, if they see Todoroki using very direct and impersonal Japanese--one translator might interpret it to mean that Shouto is stiff and overly formal, while another may see it as him being rude and aloof.
The problem is, translators are fans just like us.
Like with the image Mang posted above, the translator based the usage of curse words off of their understanding of Bakugou's character. The lack of foul language in the original Japanese might have made the translator think "Oh. There just aren't enough Japanese cusses for his character." And took that as an initiative to make Bakugou's lines more colorful and violent because this was working off of the image Bakugou had had at this point in canon.
But Codi! You may cry. Wasn't it proven multiple times that Bakugou prefers concise and short lines? They should've known better!
Yes. Maybe they should've known better. But tell me honestly in your first watch-through of MHA, did you perfectly understand Bakugou's character either? Did you catch the whole 'direct and no flowery language' aspect of his language when you first saw Season 2?
Most people don't. I only really understood this fact after I'd read multiple discussions of it and even double-checked the manga myself. These are the kinds of things that only become noticeable with a sharp eye and some time to scrutiny. But the fact of the matter is that when it comes to fan translations, the clout and recognition are always going to go to who can post the quickest.
Am I excusing erroneous translations? A bit, I guess. It's hard for us to go in and expect translators to catch all these errors before release when we ourselves only catch these errors like 4 months in with a hundred times more canon context than these scanlation groups did at the time of its release.
Still, there are plenty of harms that come with faulty translations.
When a translation is more divorced from the original's meaning than usual, it creates a dissonance between what is actually happening versus what the audience sees is happening. This looks like decently-written character arcs being overruled and rejected by most of the readers because of how 'jarring' and 'clumsy' it seems. By the time translators had caught on to the fact that Bakugou was more than just a ticking time bomb, we were already several steps into showing how significantly he cares for Deku.
The characters affected most by these translation errors are often those with the most subtle and well-written character arcs. A single mistake in how the source material is translated can make or break the international reception of a certain character to everyone who isn't invested enough in them to look deeper into the canon source.
It creates hiccups in plots. Things that seem out of character but really aren't. Going back to MHA in specific, the way that inaccurate translations hurt both the 'curatorial' and 'transformative' parts of the fandom is that people have begun to cite them as proof of the main cast's characterization.
Bakugou and Todoroki are undeniably some of the biggest examples of mistranslation injustices.
Katsuki, in a lot of people's minds, has yet to break out of the 'overly-aggressive rival' archetype box that people had been placing him in since Season 1. One of the most amazing aspects and biggest downfalls of Hori's writing was that at first, nearly every character fit into a very neat stereotype for Shonen Animes (Deku being the talking-no-jutsu sunshine MC, Uraraka being the overly bubbly main girl, Todoroki being the aloof and formal rival). He made the audience make assumptions about everyone's characters and then pulled the rug beneath our feet when he revealed deeper sides of them to play around within canon.
What made this part about Horikoshi's set-up so good though were the many clues we were given from the very beginning that these characters were more than what they acted like. Even from the very first chapters, for example, we learn that Katsuki (as much as he acts like a delinquent) dislikes smoking because it could get him in trouble.
That is just a single instance of MHA's use of dialogue to subtly divert our expectations of a character.
Another example is when they replaced 318's dialogue of the Second User saying that Katsuki "completes" Deku with him saying that Katsuki merely "bolsters" him. This presents a different situation, as that line was meant to reinforce the importance of those two's relationship as well as complete the character foils that MHA is partially centered around. By downplaying their developed connection, it becomes harder for the MHA manga scanlations to justify any future significance these two's words have on each other without mottling the pacing of the story.
AKA, it butchers the plot.
With every new volume, there are dozens and dozens more of these hints and bits scattered around! So many cues and subtle foreshadowing at the trajectory of everyone's character arcs--yet mistranslations or inaccurate scans make it so that we don't notice them. This is what I mean when I said that some character arcs are being done great injustices.
Until now, many people can't accept that Katsuki Bakugou cares for anyone other than himself (much less his rival and MC, Izuku Midoriya), nor can they accept that Todoroki would ever willingly work by Endeavor's side. The bottom-line then becomes that because of people missing heavy bits of characterization that become very plot-significant in the future.
When it comes to the point where people can no longer accept or fit their interpretation of the earlier manga events to what is happening in canon, the point of a translation fails completely because it has lead people to follow an entirely different story.
TL;DR - Fan scans are hard. Translating is hard. Don't get too mad at fan translations, but also maybe don't treat them as the catch-all for how characters truly operate. Thanks.
Side note: DO NOT harass FA for any of these things. FA is actually a pretty legit and okay source for scans (they've been operating since like 2014 ffs), but regardless of that they still don't deserve to get flack for their work. You can have any opinion or perspective of canon that you want, I don't care. These are just my two (more like two million tbh) cents on translations. I suggest reading takes from actual Japanese audiences tbh if you wanna know more about the source material of MHA. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
#IM SO SORRY MANG I RLLY WENT ON A RAMBLE FOR THIS#asks#mang#bnha#mha#my hero academia#boku no hero academia
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What’s your opinion on pre-canon Renruki?
I think that they already had a romantic or almost romantic relationship back in the Academy, maybe even back in Rukongai, and the reason it wasn’t explicit is because firstly it would have spoiled the endgame couples, and secondly it’s a shonen, so it’s implied.
I think they fooled around when they were orphans in Inuzuri. They grew up together, they were always together in their “teenage” years (however adolescence works for souls😅), I think it’s not impossible that they had their first experience, if just their first kiss and make out session, with each other. When they joined the Academy, they spent less time together due to their different courses, and I think Rukia’s sad expression when Renji leaves for the mission in the real world depicts that (along with worry for him, and maybe even jealousy for his achievements compared to hers). By then I think they were quite intimate, they fooled around sometimes (with the little time they had) and knew the other’s and their own feelings, but never said anything like “I love you”, or talked seriously about the depth of their relationship. If they were “just friends”, as some antis like to claim, they wouldn’t have been so heartbroken, have so many regrets and felt so guilty during their separation. And why that separation in the first place? It’s not a matter of class difference, because Rukia did talk to people of inferior status, like her Squad mates. What’s actually forbidden to people from different classes is relationships. If Renruki was just a friendship, there would have been no problem, but their bond was beyond that. Rukia wanted Renji to tell her to stay with him, but his feelings of inferiority and belief that Rukia deserved better (maybe even better than him) prevented him to do it. Their separation doesn’t feel like an end to a friendship to me, it feels like a breakup. They avoided each other because it hurt so much, and they couldn’t bear to have any relationship other than a romantic one, which was impossible once she became a Kuchiki.
After the Soul Society arc, they got back together. They were physically too comfortable around each other to be just friends, like when he basically hugged her to encourage her to go back to Soul Society when Orihime is kidnapped (and maybe he was also comforting her), or when, during the fight with the Fullbringers, he casually placed her head resting on his thigh. By then they were secretly dating, in my opinion. In the last arc they were always together, it’s so easy imagining them as a couple.
What do you think? Is my interpretation far fetched? I’d like to hear your theories about their feelings, when they blossomed, when they confessed, if they had something going on during their Academy years…
Thank you if you decide to answer!🤍
Well, as you say, Bleach is a shounen, and also I don’t think Kubo was particularly interested in including romance in the story, so I don’t think there is a correct or incorrect interpretation. It’s left to the reader to imagine what they like. I don’t think “spoiling the endgame” has anything to do with anything.
I don’t think your interpretation is “too far-fetched,” although I don’t happen to agree with it. There’s very little to go on in canon, people can fill in the gaps in whatever way makes them happy/makes sense to them. I have exactly 0 interest in arguing with people on the internet about stuff like this. I enjoy reading fanfiction that has wildly different interpretations from my own, I generally love to hear a variety of ideas, although I generally prefer the format of a narrative over Tumblr posts (funny, since I do seem to write a lot of them).
Anyway, here are a bunch of opinions. This is way, way too long, so I'm gonna throw it under a cut.
That being said, you have some really amatonormative ideas in there that I do take issue with. Friendships absolutely can be as deep and important as romantic relationships. I categorically reject the idea that a romantic bond is stronger than a friendship one or that acts of physical affection necessarily imply a romantic relationship. I actually have no beef at all with people who want to read Rukia and Renji’s story as a very strong friendship. I do think it was still reasonable for Renji to avoid her during their separation, even if his goal wasn’t romance. He wanted to see her live a better life, and didn’t want to drag her down. Yeah, sure, if he just wanted to be a casual workplace friend, he probably could have joined Squad 13 and seen her once in a while. But, especially in the early days, it would have been a bad look for Rukia to continue socializing with people deeply below her station, and I feel in my heart that Byakuya would have forbidden her from seeing Renji if he found out she was hanging out with someone from her Inuzuri days, even if it was just casual. Yeah, there exist people who say Rukia and Renji are "just friends" for the sake of other preferred ships, but also, like, so what? Who cares? That’s a lot better than making Renji out to be a bad person or trashing his character. To be honest, I am generally happy to read a fanfic that had some other Renji or Rukia pairing if it actually contained some solid Renruki best friend content (I have found a few 369 fics that do this, and maybe also in the little bit of RenIchi content I have read, so, uh, good job, my gays. This is sometimes touched on in ByaRen fics, but usually not as much as I want, althought I also tend to hold these to a high bar, because if I have to deal with Byakuya in my fanfics, they should have to deal with the Rukia-Renji friendship 😂)
Anyway, you asked for my interpretation, so here it is . These are all just, like, my opinions, man:
Life in Inuzuri just really, really, really sucks, and Rukia and Renji both have a lot of trauma and emotional hang-ups from that time. I think they forged a deep emotional connection during this time that was probably a little too codependent to actually be healthy. They had no models of healthy families or relationships. I also think they were incredibly close to Fujimaru, Kosaburou, and Mameji, and that even if they wanted to have a romantic relationship, they wouldn’t have, at the risk of ruining the more important bonds of the larger group.
In my fanfic, in their last days in Inuzuri, I do have them fool around for a brief period. It coincides with the deterioration of the bond with their last surviving friend, leading to his death. I did this for trauma reasons, because that’s how writers are.
“Communication” is probably the most important theme in my writing, and a thing I bring up all the time is that young Rukia and Renji had a thousand ways of communicating survival-based things between each other, and 0 ways of communicating how they felt about each other.
I did a post on this recently, but their whole gang was incredibly powerless in Inuzuri. They lived on the fringes of society and stole scraps to survive. I think that their number one duty to one another was to survive. In the anime, Rukia swears that she will never leave Inuzuri, that she will always stay with her friends. I think the reason she does an about-face is not just because their friends are gone, but because she realizes that she will lose Renji next, and the only way to prevent that is for both of them to get stronger. Neither of them actually wants to become a soul reaper. They do it for each other.
I think that Renji would have remained in Inuzuri and tried to make a life as best they could, but Rukia knew this was futile, and where Rukia goes, Renji follows.
I think they purposely maintained distance at the Academy. Just as in Inuzuri, their primary duty to one another is to survive and thrive. They were rejected and mocked for their low origins, and hanging out together would have made this worse. I think it hurt Rukia that Renji made new friends, but on the other hand, they were exactly the sort of people who would help him get a leg up in the Gotei. Rukia’s Academy days were very painful because she saw Renji succeeding, just as she wanted, but leaving her behind in the process. Conversely, Renji got super focused on doing well, with the idea that he could pull Rukia up behind him, except for the part where he never actually told her that.
I feel like I��m in the minority here, but so much fanfic focuses on Rukia and/or Renji being “wrong” in the scene where he tells her to go to the Kuchiki, but I disagree! Everything they have done is in order to get to a better life! It is Renji’s duty to encourage her to leave him behind. He doesn’t want to be an anchor holding her down. Likewise, Rukia knows that if she doesn’t go, she’s just gonna be a burden on him. Their relationship has always been about each of them surviving separately over having happiness together. Up to now, they’ve always managed to find each other again, although this kinda looks like it might be it for them. Do these kids need to go to therapy? Yes! Did they do anything wrong? No!
I think about this a lot, but even if Rukia had turned down the adoption (which… I’m not actually sure she could have), even the offer would have ruined their relationship. Imagine that Renji asks her to stay, and she does. Maybe they even get together at this point. Every rough patch, every time there’s money troubles, this spectre of “Rukia could have been a Kuchiki” is going to hang over them. In fiction, there is often an idea of sacrifice being a one-time romantic gesture, but in my real life experience, this sort of thing hangs around like an unwanted ghost. I can, in fact, envision a scenario where this is exactly how Aizen manages to get his hooks in Renji, by offering Rukia an unseated spot in Squad 5, even though she “isn’t really good enough to deserve it” and “taking care of them.”
I am really fascinated with Rukia’s crush on Kaien/Miyako. Bold proclamation here, but I think there is something developmentally healthy about young people having crushes on the older people in their lives, provided that said older people treat them with respect and dignity and don’t take advantage of it in any way. Crushes are, by their nature of being unreciprocated, a safe way for young folks to imagine the sort of people and relationships they want to have in their lives. I headcanon Rukia as bisexual, and maybe also a little bit genderfluid, and she had these two extremely cool people in her life, whom she maybe wanted to be and maybe wanted to kiss and maybe to have a marriage like that some day. I… like to think that their role in her life healed some of her trauma before their death caused even more.
Fully into headcanons now, but I like to think that Renji had a parallel experience, with, of all people, Ikkaku and Yumichika. Like him, they came from the ass-end of Rukongai, but they stuck together instead of bowing to the social mores of the Seireitei. It is critical to note that they were able to do this through strength. This is literally not a thing that Renji and Rukia could have done, but at the same time, Renji sees this as the kind of relationship he wants to have with a partner. He doesn’t want to look after Rukia and protect her, he wants to fight back-to-back with her and then make out afterwards. He’s still convinced that he needs to go through the proper class channels to see Rukia again, but without their influence, I don’t think he ever would have been able to say “fuck it” and turn on his captain during the Soul Society Arc.
Meeting Ichigo and dealing with his unreasonable need to protect everyone he cares about, personally, was also a huge blow to Rukia and Renji’s “I cannot allow the other person to take any risks for my sake” hang-up. Ichigo has his own traumas, which are entirely different from Renruki’s, but the one thing he had was growing up in a loving family. (Isshin has his problems, but I feel strongly that he always made his kids feel like his love was unconditional). I’m not saying that making friends with a shounen protagonist is a good replacement for therapy, but it does have healing properties.
Entirely off-topic, but I feel like Ichigo is incredibly selfish in the way of Terry Pratchett’s witches: “All witches are selfish, the Queen had said. But Tiffany’s Third Thoughts said: Then turn selfishness into a weapon! Make all things yours! Make other lives and dreams and hopes yours! Protect them! Save them! Bring them into the sheepfold! Walk the gale for them! Keep away the wolf! My dreams! My brother! My family! My land! My world! How dare you try to take these things, because they are mine!
Where were we? Oh, yeah. I honestly think that it is unknowable when in canon Rukia and Renji confessed. I already covered this pretty thoroughly in this post. I hate the idea that they were secretly dating. Renji worked incredibly hard to get his post and I think that both his job and Byakuya’s respect are very important to him. I do not think he would put either of those things at risk like that, nor would Rukia want him to. I tend to prefer a slow-burn approached, and I honestly think they got together during the 17-mo timeskip at the earliest, and more likely post-canon entirely, although I think them confessing in the Royal Realm is the spiciest possible outcome, so that’s what most of my fanfic cleaves to.
#renruki#did tumblr increase number of characters you can have in an ask?#i was honestly surprised when i opened this one and saw how long it was
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