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kevin-day-is-bi · 5 days

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Beginner's Guide to Batman (and Batman-related) Media

(based on my knowledge and the things I enjoy)

Live action Batman movies are very hit or miss. Most of them are fairly middling, but the Dark Knight Trilogy is generally pretty bad. Poor Bruce characterization, white-washing, inaccurate representations of Gotham, etc. I have several thousand words written on that trilogy, and many more on live action movies in general (all of which are accessible thru my pinned post). The Batman (2022) is pretty widely regarded as being good and accurate. It has a much more emo depiction of Bruce. A major pet peeve of mine is that I, personally, don't think it's a very good Riddler, but everything else is good.

As for shows, those are generally less accurate but more enjoyable. Gotham is not technically canon I don't think but it has better aesthetics, canon accuracy, and character design than every live action movie imo. It starts with Bruce seeing his parents' murder and goes up until he first decides to become Batman. Gotham Knights is a much more AU-style show, detailing the death of Bruce and how his adopted son (invented for the show) handles it. It also has Stephanie, Harper and Cullen Row, and Duela Dent, plus great queer rep. Heavily recommended for people who want to know more about general character personalities or who enjoy AUs. Titans has Dick, Jason, and Tim, and while I personally don't think that they did well with the characterization of the other Titans, the Robins are well-done. If you want a good idea of Dick right after he became Nightwing, you want to see Jason as Robin, or you like Tim pre-Robin, this is the show for you.

As for animated shows, the usually widely loved ones are Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, and Batman: The Animated Series. B:TAS is largely accurate to the comics at that time, though it plays a little fast and loose with the Robins (goes straight from Dick to Tim). Plus, it's the first appearance of Harley Quinn! Additionally, I enjoy The Batman (2005), though it plays with the timeline a little and targets a younger audience. Batman Beyond is amazing if you want to get into the future of Batman/Terry McGinnis universe. The accompanying movie, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker covers Tim becoming Joker Jr.

Speaking of animated movies, there are a Lot. Standouts include the Batman Unlimited movies, which are some of the only ones to include Tim. They're very futuristic, so if you enjoy AUs or the science side of Batman, these are the ones. There are a lot of AU style ones, like Gotham by Gaslight (which I personally really love but don't think is anything particularly special outside of being interesting for characters), The Doom That Came to Gotham, and Batman Ninja. Batman Ninja isn't one of my favorites, but it is very good and has general good characterization. If you want to know more about how Barbara became Oracle but you don't want to read one of the most sexist comics ever, watching the Batman: The Killing Joke movie is a good way to do it. It frames the movie from Barbara's perspective and focuses on her story. If you want to know more about Damian, Son of Batman and Batman vs Robin are good. They detail him becoming Robin and his brush with the Court of Owls. Batman: Under the Red Hood is absolutely necessary viewing for anyone who likes Jason, as it details him coming back to life and becoming the Red Hood (along with having one of the all-time most depressing lines in-context ever).

When it comes to media that doesn't have Batman in it but is Batman-affiliated, Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of Harley Quinn is a really good post-Joker pre-Ivy look at Harley, and it has Helena Bertinelli (Huntress), Dinah Lance (Black Canary), Detective Renee Montoya, and an AU-ized Cassandra Cain. The show Young Justice, particularly the first season, is a really good look at Robin!Dick in non-Bat teams, as is the animated Teen Titans. Both take slightly different routes when it comes to his personality, but both are equally good (especially if most of what you know about Robin!Dick is "holy dental hygiene, Batman!" or his vague backstory). They also both provide introductions into other team families, particularly Young Justice, so if you've just gotten into DC via Batman and want to know more about other characters, YJ is the way to go.

My personal idea of best piece of media for any character:

Bruce Wayne

Pre-Batman - Gotham

Batman: The Animated Series

Alfred Pennyworth

Batman: The Animated Series

Barbara Gordon

Batman: The Animated Series and The Killing Joke

Kate Kane

Batman: Bad Blood

Dick Grayson

As Robin - Young Justice

As Nightwing - the Son of Batman/Batman vs Robin/Batman: Bad Blood trilogy

Jason Todd

As Robin - Titans

As the Red Hood - Batman: Under the Red Hood

Tim Drake

As Robin - Batman: The Animated Series

As Red Robin - Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem/Batman Unlimited: Animal Instincts

Stephanie Brown

Gotham Knights

Damian Wayne

Son of Batman/Batman vs Robin

Feel free to send an ask about a specific movie or show (or if you want a detailed list of everything a specific character has ever appeared in!) - I'm currently watching every Batman movie in existence and writing reviews literally so I can provide better recommendations to people (on part 41 rn). I will gladly provide more details about any movie or show. Also if you want to know more about specific media or what media a specific character has appeared in that is Bat-affiliated but is not a Bat, I probably have info! Anyone who's ever been a Titan, most Supers, most of the JLA, etc.

I can do another of these for comic recommendations if anyone wants bc I Do have opinions, I've just had some folks ask questions about specifically non-comic media recently!

#god do i really have to tag everyone #christ alive #bruce wayne #barbara gordon #kate kane #dick grayson #jason todd #tim drake #stephanie brown #damian wayne #cassandra cain #harley quinn

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halemerry · 10 months

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Alright, I've had a few people ask for this now so time to take a break from the big draft I’m writing to dig a little deeper on angel rankings in relation to Crowley.

Before we get into it I want to preface this by saying I am not a religious scholar. Like many of us I have a complicated relationship with religion and as a result this stuff was a long time special interest of mine but, as always, take it with a grain of salt.

To be frank, even if I was an expert, I think it’s also important to keep in mind that the Good Omens angel hierarchy has already taken some liberties on its own. It hasn’t been shy about reinterpreting things to suit its needs or about pulling from various sources to establish its own lore. It's definitely its own beast and there's no guarantee the universe operates the same rules that have become the most popular ones.

That all being said, let's get cracking.

So in canon we actually don't know that much about angelic rank. Before season two we knew there were Principalities and Archangels and that's about it. This season decides to give us a little more information. Muriel is a Scrivener (likely they'd fall under the general Angel category) and then we get a nod to Thrones and Dominions being a thing. We also learn there are orders/classes of various ranks.

With the exception of Scrivener which isn't a traditional rank at all as far as I can tell, these ideas all fit under the traditional Christian angel hierarchy.

The most influential version of this hierarchy comes mostly from Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite's De Coelesti Hierarchia (On Celestial Hierarchy). He divides angels into three Spheres, with three Orders within each Sphere. The Lowest Sphere contains the orders Angels, archangels (different from Good Omen's Archangels who are at the top of the food chain so to speak), and Principalities. The Middle Sphere contains the orders Powers, Virtues, and Dominions. And then the Highest Sphere contains Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim.

Now onto the angel that would become Crowley.

Thanks to us witnessing Crowley opening a document only accessible to Dominions and above, we can eliminate the lower half of these rankings.

This leaves us with Dominions, Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim and the Good Omen’s version of Archangel.

Dominions are tied to things like regulation. Their job is to keep passions in check and deliver justice and judgment (to be frank these last two are in some capacity apply to most rankings of angel), They’re built to keep ranks beneath them organized and optimize their performances. They’re organizers. They’re functionally middle management and are sometimes known as Lordships. They’re also occasionally tied to the set of angels that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

The really only thing that even kind of suits him here in my opinion is the interacting with lower ranks bit but the vibe doesn't seem quite right with that. Crowley as we know him is not even really a leader even in his own schemes and has a tendency to rely on his considerable talent at improvisation and quite frequently on the cues Aziraphale tends to send him. (We get a stellar example of this dynamic actively in play in Episode 2 this Season). We also know now that the angel in question tended to work alone. He seemed baffled by the concept of Earth, as if it had been a long time since he’d had a check in with Head Office.

So Thrones are what people tend to think of when you say the phrase Biblically Accurate Angel. They're the wheels with a bunch of eyeballs. They contemplate the power of God and have, you guessed it, ties to justice and judgment but in a more contemplative sort of way. They are associated with peace and submission, except for when they are sometimes also associated with the erelim - a ranking in the Jewish Hierarchy that tends to be more of a warrior class. They're maybe most famously associated with being a part of the chariot that moves God's throne around. They live where material form begins to take shape and are tasked with maintaining cosmic harmony.

Honestly I don't mind this for Crowley. That last bit especially sounds close to what we see him doing. And there's something very fun to me about a former Throne going off and getting himself a big gaudy throne. I’ll admit I have a hard time associating him with something so passive and again I feel like it doesn't quite fit how out of the loop he was about Earth, but this is probably the second favorite option of mine here.

If Thrones are the wheels of God’s Throne then the Cherubim are the ones making those wheels turn. They’re often represented as pushing Thrones about and attending God directly. Their job is to magnify God’s glory and serve as representatives of God’s power. They also, notably, were thought to be the superhumanly strong guards tasked with the protection of Eden.

Because of this we get a very old piece of theory: that Aziraphale was a Cherub who had been demoted. I’ve gone through phases with this theory but I definitely think it’s at a minimum fun to consider. And though I'm hesitant to take any Amazon promotional materials too seriously during the strike, there's a post here they've made recently that refers to Aziraphale as such.

Partially because this theory is so old and so rooted in the lexicon of my headspace for this media, I don't like this for the angel who would become Crowley particularly well. Superhuman strength feels weird in regards to him, as does situating him as a guard of Eden. And even if that line from season 2 where Crowley talks to Beelzebub about scaring that cherubs was talking about young angels and not literal cherubs, it seems like a weird phrasing for someone who was once the other kind of cherub to use. I like this better than Dominions but not nearly as much as Thrones.

Now Seraphim are a little unique. Their primary job tends to get framed as singing praise to God. They seat themselves around God's throne and sing holy, holy, holy at God. Several interpretations of them argue that they are different from angels entirely and only got grouped in with them in later texts like De Coelesti Hierarchia. They purify Isaiah in a vision he has and have strong associations with smoke and heat. They're tied to clarity and purifying via fire and occasionally are thought to help keep the world in order. Interestingly enough the word Seraph comes from saraph which means to burn and Seraphim can be translated as the fiery ones or those who kindle. Saraph is also used in certain contexts to describe a fiery flying serpent.

Now I’ll admit the Seraphim theory was always one of my favorites. If the show hadn’t recently been adding more ticks to the Archangel column I think I’d still probably be in this camp. There's the obvious bits that tie in here like the fire and snake imagery associated with both. But I can't help but to think of how often we get Crowley implying that just maybe God intended what they'd done to be the right thing. Or that scene where Crowley prays on the throne in season 1. He hangs off of it instead of sitting and begs God to not destroy them. It's an echo of a twist on what a Seraph would do in Heaven.

Now that just leaves us the Archangels. I won’t reiterate my other meta other than to link it here, but I do think the show at the very least wants us to consider this as a possibility.

In my opinion? Seraph and Archangel sit near the top of the metaphorical likelihood scale. I'd then follow this up with the Throne, then the Cherub, then the Dominion in order. But who knows! Half the fun of Good Omens is it doesn't always play by the traditional rules. And honestly there's something fun in never having an answer here. After all, no matter where he started, Crowley is Crowley now and that's the way it should be.

#good omens #good omens spoilers #gos2 spoilers #good omens season 2 #good omens meta #Crowley #angel hierarchy

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miraculouslbcnreactions · 2 months

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I hope I'm not being rude, this ask also isn't intended as a call out for anyone. As much as I'll be happy if you'd willing to answer, if my ask somehow make you uncomfortable, please feel free to ignore it.

Here's my question :

I've been seeing many post saying that Adrien end up being Marinette' trophy boyfriend instead of proper boyfriend and at the end of the final, Marinette's fight against Gabriel isn't just simply good vs evil rather it's a fight of Adrien's "ownership" so to speak.

I want to ask your opinion about it, especially about the former. I'm personally conflicted about the trophy boyfriend thing because the urban dictionary define it as "A boyfriend that a girl is proud of being with." Which more like what Chloe did at s1, but at the same time it does feel fitting in a way since Marinette do get Adrrien as a trophy for "winning" against Gabriel. Either way it just feels like an objectification and it doesn't seems like something good to show in a show with kids as the target audience, yet I do feels like Marinette's love for Adrien is so shallow that her objectified him like that just make senses for her character.

So, what do you think?

You're not being rude at all! As long as an ask doesn't use names or otherwise make it easy to find the source of the question, I'm cool with it. I don't even mind if it's something uncomfortable, though I will do my best to state my expertise (or lack there of) on those. I think it's really important to be willing to acknowledge your ignorance. No one can know or even be informed on everything.

On to the question.

To start, let's actually define "trophy boyfriend" because the definition you gave - a boyfriend that a girl is proud of being with - is not the one that I would use. It's way too kind!

"Trophy boyfriend" is just a male variant of the term "trophy wife" or "trophy girlfriend." I'm gonna be a little lazy here and just have wikipedia define that one for me as their definition accurately reflects the way this terms is generally used:

A trophy wife is a wife who is regarded as a status symbol for the husband. The term is often used in a derogatory or disparaging way, implying that the wife in question has little personal merit besides her physical attractiveness, requires substantial expense for maintaining her appearance, is often unintelligent or unsophisticated, does very little of substance beyond remaining attractive, and is in some ways synonymous with the term gold digger.

When someone calls Adrien a "trophy boyfriend," they're saying that he's just there to be Marinette's pretty arm candy who supports her unconditionally while requiring nothing from her. A fully one way relationship that's all take and no give.

Unfortunately, canon does seem to be going this way.

Season five was the season which saw Gabriel's slow, agonizing death and final... defeat is too strong a word, so let's just go with reveal. It also saw the end of any hope for Emilie to be revived, assuming that wasn't her at the end, which does seem to be the case. We also saw Nathalie slowly wasting away, triggering all of Adrien's trauma from losing his mother. In other words, this season was all about Adrien losing or fearing the loss of every adult that he has ever loved, none of whom he even got to say "goodbye" to even though they all knew that they were dying.

So it makes perfect sense that Adrienette's big couple conflict was Marinette getting over her trauma and being able to tell Adrien that she loved him! She was absolutely the one who needed unconditional love and support this season and it was so nice to see Adrien giving that to her by laying his own needs to the side since he knew that she needed more support right now.

To be clear, that was sarcasm.

Marinette was an awful, selfish girlfriend this season. Yes, she doesn't know the full extent of what's going on until we get to the final, but in Passion (S5E6) we get this:

Adrien: Marinette? Marinette: Adri-mine! I mean, Adri-fine! No! I mean, you're not mine and you're not fine, I mean, you are fine. (gasps) Adrien, is something wrong? Adrien: No, no, everything's fine... no, everything's not fine. Not fine at all. Somebody I care about is sick and... there's nothing I can do. I feel completely hopeless.

Gabriel then akumatizes Nathalie, leading to a fight that ends with Marinette seeing just how sick Nathalie is. All this means that, by the end of Passion, Marinette is fully aware that Adrien is really struggling with Nathalie's condition and just how bad Nathalie's condition, so it makes perfect sense that the episode ends with Marinette and Alya talking about... how thirsty Marinette is for Chat Noir.

Marinette: You should've seen him! He was so... (growls like a cat) in his cute red suit with black spots. Can you believe it? I asked him out to the movies and I didn't even stammer! True, the timing was bad, but still, everything is so easy with Cat Noir, I can tell him everything I never had the courage to tell Adrien.

Marinette, sweetie, I know that you're going through some stuff, but you're better than this! You've always been shown to care about others! I just don't believe that you wouldn't at least comment on how sick Nathalie is, which really is all that this scene needs because I don't expect Marinette to have no wants or needs outside of supporting Adrien anymore than I expect the opposite.

Marinette can thirst all she wants, especially since she's not dating Adrien yet. Just let her acknowledge that this is who Adrien must have been talking about earlier! Instead, she says nothing, forgetting about Adrien's struggles and not informing his other friends of what's going on, leaving Adrien to basically suffer alone as the Nathalie issue will continue to come up on his end, but he never again reaches out for support from others.

Remember how the NYC special saw Marinette and co protesting Adrien not being allowed to go on a school field trip? And how The Bubbler saw Nino trying to organize a birthday party for his best bro? And how Reverser saw Marinette pairing up Marc and Nathaniel into the dream comic book team? You ever look back on all that and wonder what happened to these characters wanting to love and support each other, even if their attempts where sometimes a little misguided?

Ever since the start of season four, loving and supporting each other has gone out the window. If it's not about shipping Adrienette, then no one cares even though Adrienette was totally one sided for most of the show. First it was only on Marinette, then it was only on Adrien, and it only became mutual in the episode where they... got together? Kind of? Seriously, when did they actually start dating? The second half of Kwami's choice sees Marinette say this:

Alya: Then, how did we go from “I’m pathetic and I’ll never love again” to “Yay! I’m going out with Adrien”? Marinette: I’m not going out with Adrien…

But then the very next episode starts with Chat Noir talking about his girlfriend! When did that transition occur? For a season that's all about Adrienette getting together, it's kinda funny that we never technically see them get together. It's also kinda sad that them getting together was the result of Adrien once again not taking Marinette's "no" at face value... I know it's a romcom trope, but writers, please, can we not use it in stuff aimed at little kids? Plus haven't we mostly agreed that it's a bad, lazy, overused trope? Does anyone actually like it?

This is getting long, so I'll just give some final thoughts and call it a day.

A relationship starting off of shallow feelings is totally fine and normal. Outside of your family, that's how most relationships start. You meet someone with similar interest or whose vibes you like or who is taking the same class as you. You start talking and get to know each other, which can lead to a deeper relationship in the form of a friendship or a romance, which is basically a friendship with bonus features.

The issue with the love square is that the writers are absolutely botching the "deepening relationship" part of the equation. They're not letting Marinette support Adrien or learn about his struggles or even acknowledge the struggles that she does know about, which makes her come across as ridiculously selfish, a terrible lead in to a final where she now has knowledge that could destroy him. Most of the audience doesn't trust her to tell him about this knowledge because of course they don't!

As always, I lay the blame for this at the feet of the writers because so much of Marinette's bad behavior and issues make no sense when we look at her previous writing. She's never been the best at emotional intelligence, but she has always tried to help others, a thing that the show somehow acknowledges during her fight with Gabriel, leading to his win, but doesn't in acknowledge in Marinette's own romantic relationship. Of course, that would require the writers to see Marinette's season five behavior as a flaw and I don't think that they do, which is why I blame them and not her. I have no issue writing her - or reading things that write her - as better than this.

#ml writing salt #ml writing critical #ml season 5 salt #adrien deserves better #marinette deserves better

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descendant-of-truth · 2 months

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So, these two pages from chapter 88 have been causing a lot of confusion due to inconsistent translations, and I've decided to set the record straight as best I can with the knowledge at my disposal.

Starting with the first page, this is where Mitsuki says that he and Eida are similar. In the next panel, he says: 「どうしてカワキを好きなのか。。。その理由が自分で分からない」

This is the first point where fan translations and the official VIZ translation differ. Fans generally seemed to agree that he's saying he doesn't understand why Eida loves Kawaki, while the official version has him say that he doesn't understand why he himself loves Kawaki.

And unfortunately, both of those are understandable translations. The first part of the sentence contains no indication of whether he's talking about himself or Eida; the most literal translation I can do is "Why is Kawaki loved... that reason, [I/you] don't understand."

The reason it's "I/you" is because he uses the word 自分 (jibun), which depending on context, can be equivalent to either "my" or "your." It's not really the same deal as 僕 (boku), Mitsuki's primary first-person indicator, which makes it extremely annoying to translate.

So, which is it? Well, as vague as it is, my best guess is actually based on the dialogue of the second page.

Thankfully, this one is much easier to answer. In the largest panel, Eida says: 「あたし達。。。超恋バナしてるね」

The conversation around this line seemed to be, "she clearly said they're talking about romantic love!" "No, she's just using a slang term akin to 'girl talk,' so she only means that they're bonding!" And guess what? They're both right!

I consulted a friend of mine who speaks Japanese natively on Eida's word choice, and he said that while "girl talk" is closer on the basis of it being a casual/slang term, it's gender-neutral and is more about people "talking about their love."

In other words, "we're both chatting about love" or "we're having a love talk" would probably be the most accurate ways to translate it.

At this point, I want to bring attention to Daemon and Mitsuki's reactions to what Eida just said:

Daemon is flabbergasted, only able to say "Huh...?" while Mitsuki blushes for a second, then turns away and says "Well... I guess it didn't matter."

What exactly would Daemon be surprised about, if not the implication that Mitsuki loves someone who isn't Eida (and a guy, no less)? Why would he be showing that surprise now, instead of when Mitsuki allegedly announced that he loved Kawaki a few pages ago?

Likewise, while Mitsuki blushing around Eida isn't unusual, he actually spent the vast majority of this conversation remarkably composed. He only blushed for a single panel when he first noticed Eida was in the area, so having it come back after he's basically called out for being in love (real love, as it was already established that they both knew his feelings for Eida are fabricated) is a very deliberate choice.

While Mitsuki doesn't always emote very much, we can assume he was taken a little off-guard here - and again, if he was already confident enough in his love for Kawaki, why this reaction? Why all the talk before now about how he wasn't sure he'd know what romance felt like without Eida's ability?

The only conclusion I can make is that, in the first page, he's not saying "I don't know why I love Kawaki" like in the VIZ translation. It's much more likely that he's saying "I don't know why you love Kawaki." That's the only way that Mitsuki's feelings for Kawaki can be treated as a reveal, to both Daemon and himself.

And given that his love for Kawaki stems from his love for Boruto, due to the memory swap... yeah, if his side of Mitsuboru wasn't canon before, I think it's safe to say that it is now. Now excuse me while I go be extremely sane and normal about this information

#boruto #boruto tbv #boruto two blue vortex #boruto spoilers #boruto tbv spoilers #boruto two blue vortex spoilers #mitsuki (boruto)#analysis #meta #spoilers for slimes #mitsuboru #borumitsu #It almost feels weird to tag this as a ship since I was analyzing the text as objectively as possible #but I can't say they're NOT relevant tags either #Anyway I'm now just a little bit annoyed at VIZ for their translation of this scene but it's Fine I Guess

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zepskies · 4 months

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Hi!! Fanfic question here! So in Break Me Down, were you inspired by anything in particular that made you set a portion of the story in SB’s compound? I always thought that was an interesting choice as that setting felt like it was its own character and was pivotal for their relationship to develop. The isolation setting has always been a favorite of mine to get into character development and was curious what made you want to go there for this first half of the story? Apologies in advance for the nerdy writing question 😂

Hey, lovely friend!!

Omg I love it, please don't apologize. Nerdy writing questions are my favorites -- especially for Break Me Down! 💚💚

And your observations are so very interesting (and accurate)!!

I knew making South America the main setting was a bit risky in a sense. It takes readers out of the canon setting of New York, but I wanted a home base for Soldier Boy/Ben, assuming he defeated Homelander and was able to escape the U.S. -- a place for him to regroup, build himself back up, and do whatever he wanted, really.

And I knew I wanted a place where Ben and the reader would essentially be trapped together, like you said, isolated away from the rest of the Boys, thereby forced to either bond or kill each other. 😂 (That's also the reason I set the mansion on a cliffside/waterfall.)

Ben going South America seemed right, drawing narrative lines back to Nicaragua (sort of), where it all went to shit for him. I thought of Rio and Medellin being party destinations for a lot of celebrities, and that this guy would definitely be the type to have a party mansion back in his hay day. Like the Rat pack used to vacation in Cuba back in the '50s and '60s.

I listened to a lot of Frank Sinatra to get into Ben's headspace ("My Way" for instance lol), Tony Bennett, Mel Torme's "You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me," and of course, "If I Didn't Care." I also had scenes from Casablanca, with how they meet in the Prologue/Part 2 in my head, for sure.

Putting Ben and the reader in that first Spanish-style mansion also gave me the chance to explore both his character and the reader as individuals. How Ben felt as empty as that mansion, and the gradual nature of him realizing that.

And how the reader explores the house the same way she tries to figure out what makes him tick.

She also discovers places like the garden, where she finds comfort and peace; the same way she starts to find comfort in Ben, the more she risks confiding in him. They find common ground in the kitchen, often the center of a home, even if this house isn't a home for either of them...

Now that I think about it, I really found so much of them (and the side characters around them) in that house. So thank you so much for this question!! It really made me think. I hope I wasn't too long-winded though. 😂💕💕

#ask me stuff #lovely mutuals #break me down questions #feel free to ask me story or writing questions!#BMD verse #soldier boy #break me down #soldier boy x reader #the boys #soldier boy x female reader #soldier boy x you #soldier boy/ben #zepskies answers

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malleux · 7 months

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freedom. | quest for tyr [III]

[main page] | [t.o.c] | [spellbook] | [ << | >> ]

young adult!atreus x reader

-> synopsis: The only times you had ever experienced adventure was through your books. It was hard to live an exciting life while trapped in Alfheim.

You know you're meant for something greater than wasting away underground.

[loosely based on the events of Gow: Ragnarok]

-> chapter warnings: all chapters contain spoilers, cursing, anxiety, vomit mention, fighting, fight scene not accurate to canon, blood, injuries, trauma mention

The day before was nothing compared to the pain you were in today.

Just opening your eyes was a task that seemed to take all of your energy, and your body was so stiff that the smallest movements hurt. Breathing, speaking, literally anything seemed impossible as you slowly sat up the next morning.

Atreus was by your side the second he heard you curse under your breath, gently helping you up and handing you a plate of whatever leftovers were scavengable from the night before. You ate slowly, listening to him, Kratos, and Mimir formulate a plan for the day.

"Earlier, I saw a mine down below, and Mimir saw tracks to another train we could take down there. Hopefully it'll be just as safe as the last one," Atreus smiled at you reassuringly during his last sentence, remembering how much you hated them.

You pursed your lips and side-eyed him. You were appreciative of the gesture, really, but heights just really weren't your thing and an old contraption that had your death written all over it didn't help.

You didn't take long to get back to traveling. You didn't feel like holding the trio back from anything they wanted to get done just because you were a little hurt. You could grin and bear it.

The pain was almost worth it as you saw more pretty views on the mountain top.

"Father..." Atreus interrupted the peaceful silence. "What if a war with Odin isn't just Tyr's to fight? What if it's ours too?"

"War is not the only way." Kratos responded.

"But we're gods. Better gods. We're trying to stop Ragnarok, to help people, and what if the only way to do that is war?"

"Atreus."

"I'm just not sure we should immediately jump to that conclusion." You said a bit nervously, "My home was— and still is— torn apart by war. It's not something you really want, especially when you've experienced it."

"Wh— I thought you were on my side!" Atreus whined, turning to you as he continued to walk backwards.

"I'm on your side with stopping Ragnarok." You shrugged, "I just really, really want to look for any way that doesn't involve war. It's not fun."

Atreus continued to argue with you as you came upon the rest of the train tracks, but you knew it wasn't a serious thing. He had a playful glint in his eyes— one he had often when he decided to mess around with people.

You watched in almost awe as Kratos lifted the train and realigned it on the tracks. It amazed you how he barely broke a sweat— he must have been an incredibly strong god.

Atreus was the first in. Then Kratos and Mimir.

They looked at you expectantly and you shuffled your feet, looking to find a solid way up into the creaky, wooden cart. You really, really didn't want to go in.

A hand appeared in front of your face.

"Here," Atreus helped hoist you up, keeping you steady as the train car squeaked once more under the added weight. He remembered your apprehension and patted your shoulder. "We'll be fine. We don't have much farther to go now."

"The Kraken hatchling gave you a stone." Kratos pointed out as the train began moving. His voice was a good distraction from your incessant urge to look out the window and scare yourself even more.

"The Kraken...? Oh, Dinner. Yeah, it's covered in algae. I was thinking we could show it to Brok and Sindri when we got back. Here." Atreus tossed it to his father, who pocketed the stone. "Okay, we came looking for Tyr because we don't trust Odin, right? If you think about it, war could— uh oh—"

The train became shakier and shakier, it's noisy wheels creaking even louder. You stand up in a panic, frantically looking over at your companions, but they look just as confused.

A creature— a Grim, you recalled— grabbed onto the window ledge closest to Kratos, trying to scratch its way inside. Kratos quickly punched it and sent it flying, but there wasn't much time until another Grim appeared in its place.

You swallowed your nerves and raised your spear, using the butt of it to knock out a Grim from the window on the other side.

"Skjalfa!" You cried, sending them out just as quickly as they were coming in. You wanted nothing more than to use your favorite little fire spell, but with a wooden train like this you knew you'd probably set it on fire too.

"Atreus, look for a brake to stop the train!" Mimir called out, "Should be a lever of some sort!"

"I found it— but it's stuck!"

"Try harder!" You shook out your hand as you hit a Grim that had actually made it through the window. You grabbed it and threw it back out, hitting two others that threatened to enter and sending them all back.

"I'm trying! But— it's—"

The lever broke in two. The handle flew out of the window you were guarding.

You all could only stare at each other for a moment before the train began to fall— the one thing you prayed to the Nords wouldn't happen.

"Shit." Atreus grabbed your arm and pulled you between him and Kratos, presumably to shield your fall or protect you from the rest of the Grim. "Shitshitshitshitshit—"

"Ow!" You yelped as you hit the ground.

Kratos was up before you could even fathom what was going on. He pried at the opening at the top of the train, climbing out and yelling out a rough "Get up!" before taking out his axe and disappearing from your sight.

He reached back down once he returned, grabbing both you and Atreus and setting you down on top of the cart. You were definitely put down more gently than Atreus, but you wouldn't point that out.

"I can't believe we surv— are you serious?" Atreus was frustrated now, more Grim coming from seemingly out of nowhere to attack you.

You whipped around to survey your surroundings, choosing to stay further away from the heat of the fight. The headless troll that laid to your right told you what Kratos had done earlier, and you silently thanked him for making things easier.

You pointed your spear at Grim that tried to tag-team Kratos or Atreus, choosing to save your magic energy and use some Dark Elf skills. An energy beam shot out from the tip of your spear, slicing the unsuspecting Grim in two.

This continued for only a few moments longer, then you finally could drop your weapon. You still held onto it tightly, though, still on guard. You jumped down to rejoin everyone.

"That was crazy." Atreus breathed out.

"You said it, little brother."

"That was awful." You shuddered. "I hate heights. I also now hate trains. I knew something was going to happen."

"You jinxed us, then!" Atreus teased, "You can't sit there and think bad thoughts and then expect good things to come. You gotta look on the bright side."

"I didn't jinx shit." You mumbled, watching as Kratos looked around for where to go next. "I was looking on the bright side. I felt like I was going to pass out, and if I was unconscious at least I wouldn't feel it when I died."

"That's— that is not what I meant. Just, come on, I think Father found something."

It was a small crawl space, which all things considered could be either better or worse than falling off of the side of a mountain on a train.

Atreus went first, then you, followed by Kratos. You noticed he always took up the back— probably to protect you both from whatever may sneak up behind. Smart.

"Quite the mouth you had back there, lad." Mimir broke the silence.

"It's just a word." Atreus rolled his eyes. "I've heard way worse from Br-"

"The word does not matter. You lost control." Kratos reprimanded. His voice was always stern, but this held an even harsher tone.

"We were falling. Through the air." Atreus defended, "I thought we were gonna die." He gestured to you, "She says it all the time!"

"She was not raised the same way you were. What is acceptable for her is different from you. Is that truly what you wish your last words to be?"

You were glad that was Kratos's view, because the second Atreus brought you into it your heart seized. You did not want to get scolded by Kratos.

"No." Atreus gave up arguing. You thought that was a wise choice.

"In moments of crisis, panic does nothing. Harness it. Let it serve you."

You let his words sink in as you came across another area, this time finally in the open. You kind of wanted to laugh— Kratos wasn't even talking to you, and yet you held onto his words more than you'd ever held onto your own father's. Kratos had a lot of wisdom, but Atreus wouldn't heed it.

You figured it just be a father-child thing for you and Atreus to never listen.

"What is this?" You looked around the area in a bit of awe, taking in the wooden structures and water wheels around you.

"The Jarnsmida Pitmines, lass." Mimir answered joyfully, as if he was reminiscing on something. Probably some memories that he has in that infinite brain of his.

"Look on the ground. Tracks." Atreus pointed out, "They must lead into the mines."

"And what exactly is in these mines?" You stood beside him, eyeing Kratos once more as he studied the area. It seemed like every place you went to had some gods-awful puzzle just to make it through and it made your brain hurt.

"Hopefully Tyr." He smiled at you, and you pursed your lips into a half-smile in return. Your adrenaline was wearing off and the impact from the train crash made your injuries from the Dreki feel brand new again.

You took a deep breath, only being able to inhale so deeply, and nodded. "Hopefully. I just want him to be here and us not just find another clue and be on a wild goose chase."

"This is a super prominent mine, I'm pretty sure. If he's anywhere in Svartalfheim, he's gotta be here."

Atreus's words did little to comfort you, but you couldn't say much as Kratos summoned him to help with a mechanism to open the mine.

You reached into your pocket and toyed with a piece of paper— the one Sindri gave to you before you left. You didn't have time to read the rest of the spells he had written down for you, so you pulled it out to scan over it.

You already knew the three first ones, even if you hadn't gotten to use most of them yet: 'Logi: fire. Sverð: sword. Verja: defend.'

Turning the paper over, you saw three more spells written down in neat handwriting— characteristic of Sindri.

'Iss: ice. Kanna: search. Ausa: water.'

You hummed. One of these spells was not like the other. Every one of them seemed self-explanatory, except for Kanna. What could it mean to search? Would it help you find something?

Folding the paper back in your pocket, you took a deep breath and closed your eyes. You felt like you'd have to have an idea of what you were trying to search for, so you sent your intentions to something simple.

You'd ask for it to find anything with magic in it.

"Kanna."

You waited for a second. You waited for something— a feeling, a voice, a tug, anything. Assuming nothing had changed or you'd done the spell wrong, you opened your eyes only to gasp out loud.

Everything around you was covered in a very, very translucent light blue. You looked around— the weapons on Kratos's back glowed a bright blue, much more opaque and noticeable than the blue that spanned the rest of the terrain. Your own spear emitted the same light, as did the palms of your hands where you felt the burn when you did your fire spell.

Atreus's bow was blue, and so was Mimir's head. Small rocks that blocked entrances glowed as well— rocks that you or Atreus could easily use Skjálfa to destroy.

Ah. Kanna did work.

And from the way Kratos, Mimir, nor Atreus said anything about the sudden shift in color from the original terrain, you could assume you were the only one seeing it.

You whispered the spell under your breath again and slowly, the blue hue faded from your vision. The mines were restored to their normal, dull brown color.

'Kanna.'

Your intention this time included living things— bugs, monsters, whatever.

The blue crept back into your vision like a rapid flood, but this time the brights were different. You could see Kratos and Atreus shining brightly as they worked together. Mimir's blue flickered a bit, but it made sense. Was the decapitated cursed head really alive?

You could see little glowing dots shining through rocks like x-rays, showing you where all the little bugs hid underneath.

More brights caught your eye as they moved towards Kratos and Atreus.

"Guys, watch out!" You called, "Logi!"

Fire erupted from below the feet of the monsters. You were able to see them easily with how they shined against the rest of the area.

You were aware of many more, but this was starting to hurt your eyes. You turned off the spell and rubbed your eyes. They felt sore— sunken in deep and dryer than usual. You'd definitely have to use this sparingly, or risk a massive headache.

Kratos and Atreus quickly took out the few Wretches that threatened them and as soon as it began, it was over.

The three of you— plus Mimir, but you really couldn't figure out if he counted as a full person or not— stood in front of a crane, watching water flow through it. A large wooden box blocked your path to the next ledge of land. Your hands were on your hips and nobody spoke, trying to find something to help you get across.

"Looks like the water powers the crane that's keeping the cargo up." Atreus pointed out.

"Think freezing it could stop the water?" Mimir suggested.

You quickly held out your hand, aiming it near the end of the crane where the water flowed out. "Iss!"

Ice crystallized in the middle of the flow, encompassing part of the crane in cold fractals. The water built up on the other side of the crane and began to pour out of one of the sides, effectively stopping the flow from hitting the water wheel that was beneath it. The cargo box lowered and you made your way across.

"When did you learn that trick?" Atreus asked as you continued to push forward, coming across the next stupid little platform of puzzles.

You shrugged. "Just got a little help from some people."

"Atreus, Y/n, come."

You headed towards Kratos, who assumed a squatting position near the next contraption you came across. Atreus automatically stepped into his hands and was hoisted up onto the wood, and then it was your turn. You assumed he wanted you to do the same, so you quickly followed and hoisted yourself the rest of the way up.

You explored the area for a minute, Atreus straying away from you for a second before he spoke up. "Father, there's a gate up here heading towards the entrance to the mine. If you can get up here, we'll need your help lifting it."

"If..." Kratos mumbled under his breath.

"Oh come on, you can jump that! Your knees aren't that bad."

"Atreus." Kratos warned. He used his axe to freeze a water flow that was causing a platform to move unstably and jumped across.

"I hope you can make that jump!" Atreus joked again and you elbowed him in the side. "Hey!"

"Give the man a break." You laughed.

Kratos soon joined you both and you headed towards the entrance of the mine. It was covered in debris and a gate that seemed quite heavy. Atreus was right about needing Kratos's help.

"I sure hope Tyr is here..." He mumbled.

"Atreus, we seek information." Kratos reminded him. Atreus rolled his eyes.

"I know. Stop acting like I'm trying to start a war."

"Yet you do not say otherwise--"

"Brothers, maybe we can lay this to rest a bit, eh?"

You were thankful for Mimir's interjection. It was always awkward to be in a a group with two people arguing, but it felt a bit more powerful between Kratos and Atreus. They were both very prominent, strong presences and you knew enough about them already to know that neither of them were likely to back down should the conversation get more heated.

Kratos was right-- you didn't want to start a war. Atreus had told you numerous times that war wasn't his intention, but once more Kratos seemed right to you. He wasn't denouncing it very hard. He may be against the idea of a war, but he wasn't taking many precautions to truly prevent it.

You continued on in silence, helping out if needed but mostly staying in the back. This wasn't your journey— you were just lucky enough to be allowed to tag along. You did what you were asked, including helping Atreus push back a cart that blocked the way to the mine, finally revealing the rest of the entrance and—

"Sindri?"

The dwarf waved awkwardly, as if he hadn't just appeared out of nowhere for the second time in Svartalfheim. "Got something else for you." He waited until you all were near to continue. "Since you're currently lacking a light source--sorry-- and have no way of seeing exactly what untold horrors lurk in the dark, these will help."

"Thanks for making me feel better." You mumbled under your breath. Sindri gave you an apologetic look before pulling out three... things.

"Okay, back to your exploring now. Off with you."

"Thanks Sindri," Atreus commented, "What, uh, do you mean by untold horrors?"

You were wondering the same thing, but Sindri gave no answer. You all put away the light sources that he had given you and turned back to where the dwarf stood, but he was nowhere to be found.

"How does he do that?" You tilted your head.

"No idea." Atreus sighed, but then turned to you and grinned. "Let's get going. It looks like the actual entrance to the mine is blocked, but there's gotta be another away."

"This way." Kratos began moving.

"Nice. Not a dead end. Let's see where this goes."

You jumped down from a ledge into a deep pit-like area. A few Wretches came from the shadows, but you all were able to quickly cut them down. They were nothing more than a nuisance now-- this weird lizard things were so annoying.

Atreus used his bow's sonic vibrations to break a few rocks to reveal a crawlspace. You internally cringed at the tight quarters. After being locked up your whole life, you didn't necessarily want to be trapped again in something even smaller. Nevertheless, you followed after Atreus with Kratos once again taking up the back.

"It certainly smells like we're headed into a mine." Mimir piped up.

"I think I can hear the water too."

"Slow down, Atreus. Take care. Be ready."

If Kratos had a bad feeling, then you did too. Especially once you heard the loud, gurgling roar of a monster when you crawled out of the space. The area you were in now was rather open and spacious, save for the pillar in the middle, the numerous Wretches that seemed to swarm around your feet, and the giant... creature across the room that grew angrier by the second.

"What the Hel that?" You grabbed your spear and held it across your front.

"It's called a Bergsra." Mimir answered, his voice echoing through the cavern as Kratos took out a few Wretches.

"Its like the Grim if Thor decided to procreate with them." You huffed, kicking a Wretch that decided to bite your ankle. "Ugly and huge."

The Bergsra did not like your analogy and yelled out loud enough to shake the cavern walls. You watched as Kratos landed his first hit against it, and decided to join in on the fun. You ran towards it while Kratos distracted it, but you must have severely pissed it off when you called it an offspring of Thor. The Bergsra turned toward you and knocked its head back, lurching a giant green blob out of its mouth in your direction.

"Verja!" You quickly yelled out. Defend.

Light emitted from your non-dominant arm-- the one that wasn't holding your spear-- and you instinctually held it up as the blob came closer. It didn't hit you, instead exploding across the large bronze shield you had managed to conjure.

You looked at your arm in surprise. In hindsight, Verja was a lot more self-explanatory than you'd expected. Especially considering the spell next to it-- Sverð-- was literally sword.

Another green blob was coming your way. Kratos had been knocked back for a second and Atreus was attacking from long distance, so the Bergsra's attention was once more turned towards you. In a split decision, you rushed towards the creature and it's blob, using your shield to hit the poison back at it. It hit the Bergsra in the face and it roared out in pain, clawing at its face.

Kratos was back up and threw his blades towards the Bergsra's back. They latched on and he propelled himself forward, kicking it down and landing on top of it. Using his bare hands, Kratos grabbed the head of the monster and twisted. It came off in a loud, gruesome snap and you had to look away from the scene just to keep your breakfast.

The Wretches stopped attacking as the Bergsra was killed and crawled back into the little nooks and crannies that they came from. And it was over.

"Ugh, the smell these things leave behind is so gross." Atreus groaned.

"A small consequence for disturbing their home." Kratos replied. You tilted your head at how he almost humanized them.

"...Let's keep moving."

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dreamsgazer · 1 year

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OK SO mine isn't really a request because I have ideas but I can't write so they go nowhere and stay in my head because I'm incapable!!! anyway, I was thinking about a situation where reader and tangerine met on the train and they hit off right away like there's something special between them eheh, like they like each other but turns out that they're both on a mission and have the same goal - so they fight because reader steals the WHATEVER IT IS IDK that's in both their interest and manages to get off the train right under tangerine's nose when he was about to stop them, doing so in a fight reader rips tangerine's necklace, and basically breaks it and ultimately keeps it (and fixes it) . just in case. because they like him. genuinely. in fact she's very sorry for ruining the mission of the twins but it's a matter of life or death sooo rip AND they're also indirectly but maybe directly? the cause of the nasty scar tangerine now has on his neck because he risked his life because of this failed mission. and then I mean we all know what happens canonically but we Dont Care do we.... it's all a scar and a memory in the end.

ANYWAY they finally meet again when they're forced to team up by their handlers for another mission and like tangerine and lemon are mad mad because everyone was about to die on that train!! because of reader!!!! duh. also R feels very guilty because all that has happened / could've happened. and tangerine of course is angry because he was losing his life but also because he kinda was disappointed in their behavior and maybe in himself for trusting so easily a person.. anddd idk maybe there could be some angst because I love it and that's it THIS IS SO DUMB AND LONG I'm sorry I know I'll probably look to this request in a while and cringe so bad. but I'm just curious to see how you would continue it, like what do you think would happen, what are the first things they say to each other, how does it evolve things like that 🥰

of course, if you don't feel like writing anything that's totally fine and don't worry at all❤️❤️

p. s. : im sure ive taken the prompt where reader steals / ruins tangerine's mission from other fics as well so kudos to whoever came up with the idea :)

Dear Anon, first of all, thank you so much for your patience. I’m usually slow to answer, and with things being very busy at work I’m even slower. Please, do not cringe, it was awesome to read your ideas, and I was so happy you sent this message. Thank you so much ❤️ , and I hope you enjoy how this turned out!

A Darling Mess

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" you groan, letting your head hit the wall behind you. The golden necklace glints between your fingers.

You didn't mean to steal it. You really didn't. You didn't mean to run into the Twins and most certainly didn't mean to hook up with the moustached one in one of the bathrooms on that cursed train either.

More accurately, you shouldn't have wanted to hook up with him, but as soon as the two of you had crossed paths in one of the carriages, you knew it was going to happen. And when it happened it was quick and glorious and earth-shaking, and you hoped you were going to see him again.

Then everything went to shit, you two fought for that damned suitcase - his hands apparently were really good for many different things - and you barely ran away from that train with all your limbs.

Your smartphone buzzes incessantly. It's your handler.

"Where are you?"

It's not like him to sound so distressed.

"Not sure about the exact position, it's an alley near Nagoya station. I think I need a lift."

He tells you about a derailed bullet train and how it seems a lot of people - assassins like you, but still... people - died. One of the Twins as well, according to the info he got. The moustached one. You feel a pang of pain in your chest, which is stupid because he was just a stranger you fucked on a train.

A year has passed. Tokyo has slowly just started to become a mission you will remember with regret for a long time when you find yourself pointing your weapon at Moustache Guy again. While he's doing the same. And his brother is aiming a gun at you as well.

Shit.

You are more surprised to see him most definitely alive than to have him threatening you.

“You owe me a great deal,” he hisses, low and dangerous “You fucked up our mission, stole my fucking necklace, and almost got me killed. Almost got my brother killed as well! Why shouldn’t I murder you on the spot?”

You frown “First of all, the necklace got caught in my jacket while you were using me as a human punching ball. Second,” you add, eyes only quickly flickering on the huge, angry scar on his neck “one of you is going to kill me for sure, but I can guarantee you I will take the other down with me.”

Anger blazes in his eyes and you push further, adrenaline pumping in your veins “Third, asshole, you and your brother here screwed up since the moment you decided to leave the suitcase and the boy you were supposed to escort unguarded! What utterly morons do that?”

A pause and then you decide to further test your luck “Last but not least, I’m sorry you two almost got killed. I can apologize for my part in that, even if it’s a small one. But I won’t accept you blaming me for the rest, Moustache Boy!”

His nostrils flare, and he glares at you. It’s unfair that he looks even more ravishing with that savagery seeping from him in hot waves. Also, you probably shouldn’t get distracted by that, since the danger of being shot is a very real one.

Lemon’s laughter is short, and he nods at you, interrupting the impasse “This one got quite a temper, uh? I kind of see the fascination with the... situation.”

Tangerine snarls an insult at him, but it carries no real venom.

In the end, after some calls from your handler and his reminders to the Twins that they have to collaborate with you on this mission and an offer to triple the pay for all of your messed up trio, guns are put away, hands tentatively shaken, and scowls mostly kept under control.

You know they still blame you for your part in the train debacle. Yet, true to their professional reputation, they carry through the mission. It’s a long one.

Living in such proximity inevitably leads to some kind of tepid intimacy. Lemon is the first one to soften up a bit. He starts to ask you if you want some coffee. He asks you about your favourite book, once he spots you reading it to fight your insomnia. He thanks you after you retrieve a USB pen that will help with the job. And one day he gives you a sticker of some train and tells you that despite everything you are not a Diesel. You are not sure what it means, and Tangerine indeed scoffs at the words, but after that things are a little less tense, between the three of you.

Tangerine slowly stops glaring at you and once he almost compliments your ability in combat, after you knock out a goon that was going to stab him.

The progress is little but steady, and one night, for a hilarious twist of the events, the moon finds you two looking outside the same window, in the little apartment you have been given as a base.

“I’m sorry you got shot.”

He nods at your words, slightly sniffing and making his moustache move over his very kissable lips.

“Thanks,” he hesitates before quickly murmuring his own apology about blaming you and only you “I think my ego got a tad hurt realizing you shagged me just because of a honeypot mission.”

“I didn’t,” it's the quiet murmur that gently interrupts his gruff confession.

He scoffs “I very much think we did it in that bathroom, love.”

“Not that,” you roll your eyes at him “I meant it wasn’t a honeypot mission. I- I did not hook up with you because of work. I didn’t even know you and Lemon were the ones having that cursed briefcase, at the time.”

Tangerine just looks at you, and you look back at him “I have your necklace. It got a bit damaged, but I had a jeweller fix it. I know it’s stupid, but I thought-”

Your voice dies down a bit and you are not really shocked to feel his calloused hand gently cupping your face, making you look at him “What did you think?”

You swallow “I thought I was going to find out where Lemon put your grave and bring the necklace there.”

You feel a tear roll down your cheek, and then another, and another. He kisses them, one by one, his lips lingering on your soft skin, and you sob “I’m so stupidly glad you didn’t die.”

He chuckles against your lips “So am I, my darling.”

You kiss him and he kisses you back, and the morning after Lemon is not surprised to catch you coming out from Tangerine’s bedroom.

Sensing your hesitation, he winks at you “Glad it happened. Be good to him, ya?”.

And of course, you nod back, with all your heart.

#tangerine x reader #lemon and tangerine #bullet train fanfic #bullet train movie #lemon bullet train #tangerine bullet train

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sectumsempress1 · 9 months

Text

Good Omens Season 3: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Sectumsempress1, Hag

Or that one time I watched Good Omens, felt the claws of hyperfixation sink into my flesh for the first time in years, re-watched Good Omens more times than I care to admit and then drowned in a mind palace of analysis and delusion, resulting in this season 3 predictions bingo card coupled with unnecessarily long explanations for each square.

I'm gonna post these explanations one or two squares at a time, and honestly my first theory (probably not mine, I'm sure others have also come to this conclusion) deserves its own post because wowee I'm insane about this one.

Let's talk about why I think Crowley may have been Jophiel or Jeremiel before they fell.

I have seen endless theories about who Crowley could have been before The Fall; Lucifer, Barachiel, Raphael, Samael... and I see some evidence for all of these. However, I raise you;

Great question babygirl.

Okay me when I lie.

Yes, I took this throwaway line and went insane over it don't worry about it. Anyway. First J angel that I think could make sense is:

Jophiel "Beauty of God"

Jophiel is described in some texts as the guardian of wisdom and a teacher of languages to souls at the dawn of creation. She is also recognised as a teacher to Noah's children (specifically Shem) by C.E. Clement, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and Thomas Rudd.

And yes I am aware this is post-Fall Crowley and not the angel they were, but it's interesting that Shem was mentioned specifically regardless. Neil has wounded me so, I just feel that nothing is unintentional. Anyway, any iteration of Crowley as a teacher just feels right based on all we've seen of them.

(How he acts with Muriel, answering Jim's questions, showing Jesus the kingdoms of the world.)

Jophiel is also heavily associated with beauty and creativity.

Okay Mr. 'Pointedly Unusual Imagination.' Bit beautiful and creative of you.

Now here's where it gets buck wild. So Jophiel is not explicitly mentioned in the bible (in fact only Michael, Raphael and Gabriel are consistently mentioned) but scholars interpret Genesis 3:24 as referring to him.

"He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and aflaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life."

Yeah. It is widely agreed upon that Archangel Jophiel wielded the flaming sword and cast Adam and Eve out of Eden. Now, obviously, in Good Omens canon, Aziraphale did this. But... what if that wasn't the original plan? What if, after Jophiel and the others were cast out, the work rosters in Heaven had to be shuffled around a bit? And what if Aziraphale, having met this beautiful, curious starmaker so long ago took on their role himself?

What if Crowley and Aziraphale began the arrangement long before either of them had the words to understand what it was? All because the angel couldn't understand why he felt so drawn to the Fallen who couldn't remember.

(Edited because I've already come up with a new theory. I still stand by all of this and want it to be true so badly, but I think that Crowley does remember. I think Aziraphale is the one whose memory may have been tampered with. That doesn't change the core of the Jophiel theory, I just think that upon reflection, a personal relationship with Crowley is not what caused Aziraphale to take his old job.)

It also makes sense to then make Crowley the Serpent of Eden, if they had perhaps already planned to go to Eden anyway.

Jophiel is also widely known as Metatron's companion, which explains why he is so aggressive towards Crowley in a really cold, personal way. Yes, Metatron knows of everyone and everything so him knowing Crowley's story isn't odd in itself. But the glare...

To me, this reads as "I know you. I've known you. I know exactly what you're capable of and I will not take it. Not again. Behave." It's like a glare a parent would give their toddler for misbehaving in public. It feels pointedly personal. Almost as though they've worked together in the past in a way that ended badly for Metatron and he is on high alert to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Again here. Metatron doesn't speak about Crowley in a general 'all fallen angels suck' sense. It's personal. His choice of words, the tone, everything points to him having been personally wronged by the angel Crowley was.

Also just look at Jophiel's goddamn curly little red hair are you kidding me right now Neil Gaiman I am in your WALLS.

Also some more fun facts: Jophiel is shown as male and female presenting, leads people to a deeper understanding of the beauty of the universe, is regarded as an angel of wisdom, is known to protect those who seek truth, battles against forces of darkness and ignorance... and is strongly associated with the colour yellow.

Nice eyes babe.

Anyway, I am so delulu about this specific theory because if it is true it would show Aziraphale and Crowley's grand cosmic connection in a way that is honestly just ineffable.

But however much I long for Jophiel to be it... there is also some evidence for it being:

Jeramheel/Jeremiel "God shall have mercy"

In religious texts, Jeremiel is known as the angel who presides over true visions, often appearing in dreams and visions to bring truth. He appears to decipher Baruch's visions and give him a tour of heaven in the book '2 Baruch', and God sends him to answer the prophet Ezra's questions regarding the apocalypse in the book '2 Esdras'.

He also served as an angel of death, watching over and guiding souls to heaven and helping them learn from their earthly experiences.

This again goes back to Crowley's belief that everyone has the right to answers and being a good teacher because of that. It would make sense for them to have had this role in their angelic days as well, despite it eventually coming back to bite them.

Jeremiel is often depicted with a book or a scroll, symbolising the importance of knowledge.

Also, while Zadkiel is known as the angel of forgiveness and mercy, many people also consider Jeremiel (god shall have mercy) in this role... which would make Aziraphale's constant attempts to forgive him and his insistence that he is unforgivable even more devastating, and why I have ongoing theories about a role reversal occurring when it comes to this theme of forgiveness (more on this later).

Right. So I am obviously clutching at my delusion of it being Jophiel, but Jeremiel is a wider known angel with more canonical basis for actually being an archangel, which is why he also makes a lot of sense to me.

Thank you for joining me in this downward spiral into insanity. Look forward to part two!

#good omens #aziraphale #crowley #good omens spoilers #good omens predictions #good omens season 3 #angel crowley #good omens theory

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panlight · 2 months

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I know you did astrological charts and the birthdays of the Cullens a while back (btw I want to see an updated version in case your opinions changed becuz mine have lol) but I'm pondering those of Bella, Edward, and Jacob. (Also if Ren was a "normal" pregnancy what could her sign be?) I know canon has them as Virgo, Gemini, and Capricorn respectively, but I feel like at least one of those signs isn't very accurate. I'm especially conflicted about Jacob as I did research on the 12 signs but it didn't connect. Your thoughts? Any new headcanons for the main trio and/or the Cullens?

I don't really know enough about the common traits of the signs off the top of my head to say. I'm not so much an astrology girl in real life, but I think it's fun in fiction as a tool to help flesh out a character. Pick a birthday and look up the astrological traits and pick some of those for your character, etc. Or, to work backwards when the author didn't give any of the major secondary characters birthdays to try and pick one for them based on traits. That's sort of how I settled on Feb 18 for Carlisle. We knew he "recently" had a birthday when Bella visits the house in March, so his birthday would be presumably in March or the later half of February. Feb 18th puts him on the cusp of humanitarian Aquarius and compassionate Pisces so that seemed like a good fit.

I think Virgo broadly works for Bella; they're practical, useful, hardworking, can be judge-y and perfectionistic. They aren't super creative or artistic, but they get stuff done but are prone to stress for all the pressure they put on themselves.

Edward's a Gemini (Jun 20) but on the cusp with Cancer, so he could have traits of both. From one website: "Gemini-Cancer cusps are playful, sensitive, romantic, and intelligent. They're highly perceptive and are more emotional and sentimental than they outwardly seem." I mean other than maybe playful (he has his moments but overall takes everything Super Seriously) that's not a terrible surface description of our vampire Romeo.

Jacob's a Capricorn (Jan 14). In descriptions I see a lot of words like persistent and loyal, which works. Negative traits like arrogant and controlling, which could fall into his post-wolfening character shift I guess. They aren't conventionally romantic but show affection and love with smaller gestures. He's not saying Bella is his life now or his life has no meaning without her, but he gives her candy hearts and warm sodas and spends time with her when she needs his sunny presence.

If I could assign a different birthday to one of the three it would probably be Jacob. I could definitely see him as more of Leo; loyal, a natural leader, generous, charming, talkative (telling Bella the secret history like, right away). I think that might fit his original sunny personality better?

Renesmee would probably have been born in late April or early May if she had been the product of a typical human pregnancy based on some rough dates I threw into a pregnancy calculator. That would make her a Taurus (like me!). Stubborn, dependable, set in their ways, appreciates the good things in life, gentle until riled, maybe with an artistic streak. I don't think I'm a very good Taurus example (the whole hedonistic thing is not me, lmao), but maybe Nessie would have been? I see some common traits with Virgo, which might complicate the mother-daughter relationship in the future. Sometimes people who are too similar don't get along well (looking at you, Rosalie and Edward).

#asks

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just-prime · 8 months

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Parachuting into your inbox because I'm ready to throw my phone into the sea, after seeing all of these posts about Ahsoka showing Luke Anakin's training holocrons.

IT WOULD BE CUTE, YES.

That is, if it made ANY sense for Ahsoka to have them at this point in time, let alone for them to still exist.

More terrible writing for fan service and we can't keep letting them get away with it.

Ahsoka left the temple with nothing but the dress on her back.

As far as we know and can easily gather from her living in the lower levels and having presumably sold her akul tooth headdress - the one symbolic tie she had to the only cultural identity she had that wasn't the Jedi, the only one she could still associate positive feelings with, she was not meeting up with any Jedi or Padme, and therefore was not hiding them at the Martez warehouse.

And it isn't likely that Anakin would have tried to find a way to find them to her. It isn't illegal to own a lightsaber, but Anakin kept them hoping that she would one day come back, making it even more likely that he kept her training holocrons.

Why, after all, when Ahsoka said she didn't want to be a Jedi, would she have either found a way to ask for them, or Anakin thought they would be a welcome parting gift, and there was no time.

We can then easily infer that the holocrons could only possibly have been relocated from her quarters to four places:

- Anakin's quarters in the temple

- Anakin's quarters on his Venator

- Ahsoka's quarters on the Tribunal, in the unlikely event that in the flurry of Anakin only being able to give her sabers back and leaving for Coruscant

- The archives in the Jedi temple, possibly to be used for training other Padawans, or for more secure storage

One of those three places (and the most unlikely) were destroyed, the other Vader had direct access to.

Are we really to believe he didn't ensure there wasn't a single trace left of any of the virtual time capsules of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker?

He minimally took them to Mustafar and hid them in a closet, but it's much more likely that he destroyed them.

I want as much Anakin and Ahsoka content as the next person, but I am beyond tired of heartstrings, including mine, being tugged on through shoddy writing that insists on breaking canon and logic repeatedly in order to evoke said emotional response from the audience, and distract them from the fact that this show is riding on nostalgiabaiting and milking beloved relationships from much better written shows (when this show didn't put in the work to earn it).

The sad reality is that this clusterfuck of a show isn't actually delivering satisfying nor compelling storytelling at all.

Name dropping fan favorites while saying absolutely nothing about them, while depending on Ray Stevenson and Hayden to carry this show on their backs through their excellent performances isn't good enough.

I really think that people either feel afraid of speaking openly about the show, or they are settling for worse than mediocrity, while Filoni is getting away with murder, giving Ahsoka holocrons and psychometry she shouldn't have, because he doesn't know how to tell his story without doing so.

I wanted Ahsoka to have a show worthy of the character she was up until the end of Rebels. Those who haven't watched her in animation aren't going to walk away from this series understanding why Ahsoka is so beloved, and it's a tragedy.

I wanted live-action only audiences to watch this show and be driven to give The Clone Wars and Rebels a chance, instead of doing the opposite.

I wanted to love this show instead of wanting to eat a plank of wood. Your scathing and accurate reviews are a balm for my soul right now. Wednesday can't come soon enough. Then the healing can begin.

Until the next Filoniverse show.

Exactly. All of this is so fucking true.

Filoni's playing around like a child in a sandbox. Except he doesn't care if the sandcastles he's knocking down are his or not.

The one of the earliest examples, but also the deepest cut that I can think of is the needless recon (and weird whitification) of Kanan in the beginning of The Bad Batch.

Now, a lot of people don't know this, but Kanan had his own book, exploring his backstory and how he came to meet Hera. It was also turned into a 12 issue comic run called Star Wars: Kanan: The Last Padawan which was how I knew about it. The story depicts Kanan and Depa Billaba final moments together, including banter with their clone troopers, on a very obviously desert planet, with no Bad Batch people in sight.

And there are numerous other examples of written Star Wars content being thrown in the bin by Filoni, like massive portions of the Ahsoka novel that was needlessly condensed for Tales of the Jedi. It's obvious that he must have nothing but contempt for the canon Thrawn books given how he's made Thrawn into some insane pro-imperial warlord that doesn't even fit with his Rebels characterization in a void, let alone his book characterization on top of it.

AND we all know it doesn't stop at written works either. Midichlorians, while incredibly stupid, are a pivotal part of Star Wars now and don't just get to be thrown away cuz Filoni doesn't like them. Entire character arcs have been utterly scrapped for the sake of the disgusting GirlBossification of Bo Katan, for the sake of making Luke more mystifying while seeking synergy with the sequels, for the sake of having an easy marketing ploy with Ahsoka the Jedi.

For me, this all ties back to the fact that Filoni actively discouraged people from watching the previous shows. It was a warning flag then that has morphed into the massive red flag that it is now. He doesn't want people watching the old shows, because he wants to appeal to a larger audience who is naive and will eat this shit up. The amount of people who I've seen online who are singing the praises of the show, but admit to having never watched Rebels let alone Clone Wars is really concerning. Because it proves exactly who his target audience was with this.

Which is such a shame because even on it's own, Ahsoka is a bad show. As previously discussed here, the choreography is laughable and the acting from everyone is that of a cardboard cutout and how the pacing is absolutely fucked and how the costumes could be outdone by a 5 year old's first cosplay. But that's not even touching the lackluster sets, and the really weird messaging (both @trashquisitor-shirozora and @kanansdume have extensive metas on the show's treatment of Xiono that are definitely worth the read), and so much more.

But to return to your original reason for persecuting in, yes. Those cards should not exist, in any way shape or form, and the fact that they do without explanation is fucking ridiculous.

#rambles #dave filoni critical #ahsoka critical #ahsoka series #ahsoka spoilers #star wars #prime responds #anti filoni

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yujeong · 10 months

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So I've been talking to a fellow Greek KP fan for some time now - thank God I even found one since Thai BL isn't known here - and even though she is a KP/Kinn/Mile fan, she can appreciate all the couples in canon and fanfic form.

(She also doesn't hate Build or BOC, she's amazing, I love her)

So, one day she said this: "I don't understand why Pete wanted Vegas" to which I replied "Because Vegas unlocked a part of him he didn't even know existed inside him. He made him feel like a person and not background decor in his own life"

I'm sure I didn't really explain it properly to her but this exchange reminded me of the thought that this is probably the main issue VP haters (or just not appreciators, let's not drag everyone for no reason) have with VP. They think Pete has no reason to love Vegas since throughout their storyline, it's Vegas who does horrible things to him and Pete seems like a victim to his abusive tendencies. Plus, they mostly saw how Vegas changed due to Pete's love but discard how Pete changed since the safehouse.

Tbh, this just shows to me how Pete's arc just passed through some people's heads. They didn't get it and even if they did, they think it wasn't shown well. And OH BOY do I have opinions about that.

Idk if you have to relate to Pete to understand him and his arc (something that happened to me for example) but I don't think so because I've talked to a lot of VP/Vegas fans who understand his character completely and it warms my heart every time.

All of this has made me realize how subtle yet obvious his character is. How the show treated his journey of, basically, self discovery and gaining agency as maturely and realistically as humanly possible. Pete never says those things out loud; he never says "I love you" to Vegas (which I've explained in another meta post of mine), he never tells him "I now know what it's like to feel like a person with desires and feelings and you're the reason for it", he never says ANYTHING up front and ooh God, is it delicious and incredible to witness.

Because he does say them differently and he does show them through his actions.

I had a lot of talks about the fact that Pete is a man of few words and many actions. I appreciate immensely how many, many VP scenes are with minimal dialogue (the hedgehog burial scene and the Hum Bar scene are great examples of this), while even those who do have more dialogue feel like they don’t? Or, more accurately, it feels like VP are talking past each other (Pete's breakdown being the BEST example of this, holy fuck this scene haunts my dreams). The main reason for that in my humble opinion is Pete and the way he communicates.

He returns when he sees Vegas crying, he kisses him, he punches him to leave after not being able to take it anymore, he shoots him in the shoulder to save him, he HUGS him from behind by the pool, like, that hug has rewired my brain and I need to write my meta post about Pete and being touched because I've been losing my mind for ages because of it. ANYWAY, my point is, Pete may not tell you how he feels but he sure as fuck will show you in one way or another.

Also, Pete is a man of few words but those words HIT you like a train every time. I seriously want to print every quote of his and put it on my wall, he's fascnating. This makes people who don't search beneath the surface of what is said and shown to lose a LOT of subtext about him.

All in all, there are many reasons why Pete would want Vegas and they're all beautiful. I love him with all my heart and every day I'm thankful I watched the show and his arc through VP ❤️

#It's been a while since I made a Pete meta post #Not my proudest work but I wanted to talk a little (a lot) about my son again #Hopefully someone more intelligent than me will grab the chance to explain what I tried to here better #kinnporche the series #pete phongsakorn saengtham #vegaspete

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tnbc-thoughtsandheadcanons · 10 months

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Megan Shepherd's TNBC Novelization: Review

Here are my thoughts and full review on Megan Shepherd's Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (Novel). Although the book is closely based on the movie, there are a few unique things about it that I deem necessary to hide under a 'Read More', for spoilers to those who wish to avoid them.

Review + my thoughts below!

The book closely follows the movie with descriptives for each scene, except it doesn't contain any of the songs or lyrics, so substitutional dialogue is used instead. Most of these went well to describe/summarize the songs they replaced. I have no complaints with how Megan followed the movie in novel form, it's pretty accurate beyond some...minor things.

One example: Halloween just ended when Jack goes missing and stumbles upon Christmas Town, and when he comes back, he decides to have Halloween Town handle Christmas themselves. It's noteworthy to mention that they manage to do this from only November 1st - December 25th, a timespan of only 2 months. However. In this novel, the timing is changed - and it takes the Town a whole year to manage their own Christmas, and it is stated in the text that they "skipped their first Halloween" in order to do it.

Wouldn't the humans notice something different with Halloween, without the monsters and creatures of the night to scare them? Wouldn't it be kind of lame, and warrant the title of a "bad Halloween"? When Santa Claus and his gifts were missing, the humans nearly brought an end to Christmas. Is Halloween exempt from impacting the humans like this? Wouldn't there be any repercussions? Isn't it the Holiday World's purpose/job to bring the holiday TO the humans??

Anyway!

The text is beautifully written and I loved Megan's portrayal of Jack Skellington's internal struggle and depression, and how Sally related to it. She wrote the two of them wonderfully in the novel and even brought new details into the picture, mentioning Sally had done sewing tasks for him and is the one who recommended putting white stripes on his suit. She also delivered his book of The Scientific Method from the Doctor to him. <3

The novel contains a lot of little details/changes like these. I loved most of them and only had minor issues with a couple choices. One particular recurring mention, that I and other readers have disliked, was the heavy reference and implication to Jack Skellington's death. A few times in the novel, he thinks of his "previous life" and how he died. I share a fandom headcanon that Jack is a special skeleton from a species in Halloween Town itself, rather than him just dying. But this is a personal nitpick and doesn't impact anything, really - it's Megan's choice for his backstory, and I respect that!

Another small nitpick of mine is that I always thought Jack nabbed all the Christmas books from Christmas Town, but in this novel, it says that he got them from Halloween Town's Library. This brings all sorts of confusing questions into my mind...

A couple of my favorite lines from the book:

Also, the MOST interesting part of this novel, for me, is how it follows The Pumpkin King Game's backstory for Oogie Boogie, where he attempted to overthrow Jack Skellington to become Bug King. The novel mentions this a few times, and it's one of my favorite takes of Oogie Boogie - so I was delighted to see canon from my favorite TNBC game implemented into the novel!

Overall, I loved this novelization and the new headcanons it brought to me. It was wonderfully written and stayed close to the movie while also portraying the author's own takes on the characters and their feelings. Beyond my few minor nitpicks, it was great and I can't wait to see what the author will do with Long Live the Pumpkin Queen's sequel.

Check out this novelization if you can!

#the nightmare before christmas #nightmare before christmas #tim burton #disney #henry selick #oogie boogie #jack and sally #jack skellington #jack x sally #tnbc #megan shepherd #novelization #review #spoilers #sally skellington #dr finkelstein

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dream-meltic · 1 year

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Hi, hello, I've been meaning to use my Tumblr account for like AGES but so far haven't. So I'm letting it be a space where I can just talk about Bedman (and Delilah)'s lore, development etc and have it as a resource for myself and others to refer back to. I'm just very autistic about him and express my love through analysis, okay

The thing with Bedman is that because his lore can seem a little all over the place or is hidden behind JP-only content, there's a lot of misconceptions about him floating around! I'm going to make two posts on the major misconceptions I see everywhere (one about Romeo himself, the other about the bed) and will talk about other aspects of his lore later.

So let's talk about a dreaded subject of mine: Bedman's age, and the really bad evidence people use when talking about it. It's going to be a long post under here just so I'm completely clear, so buckle up, and take a nice reminder that you can headcanon what you like and to just send an ask over if you want further clarification, evidence etc! (But please read all of it before you do just in case I answer your question during it)

Let's begin with the most obvious thing. Is his age confirmed? Do we have a number? No. Despite very common claims he is specifically either 14 or 16, neither of these numbers have ever come up officially in relation to Bedman's age. If you see someone saying this, chances are they heard it from someone else, and didn't really question where they got that information. The large majority of Guilty Gear characters are not given an actual age. Plenty of them still don't have a birthday, you know….

The main problem and misconception comes with the next part where people believe he is canonically, or canonically implied to be, a minor. Usually based on other character's dialogue. I'm all for headcanon, but when you begin insisting that it's canonical and start being rude to others over it I do have to draw a line there, so let me explain why the evidence used for him being either of those things is actually not good enough:

1. Chipp/Answer dialogue

In Xrd SIGN's story mode, Chipp and Bedman have a brief fight and during it, he calls Answer to try and figure out who he is and gives him a brief description of what he looks like. Here's a full quote of what he says to him:

"Looks human, or at least humanoid, but he's strapped to a person-shaped bed. Looks to be in the mid-to-late teens--the kid, not the bed. Caucasian, short purple hair, glasses. He's sleeping, but the bed's walking around. Too dark to tell eye color. He's wearing what appears to be a hospital gown... Getting anything?"

Later, when Answer becomes playable in Rev2, he repeats some of his exact same words from the Japanese version of this dialogue when selecting Bedman with him as your system voice.

These two are usually used very first when asked to provide evidence of him supposedly being a minor canonically, but people seem to miss out entire words of what both of them say: rather than saying Bedman is mid-to-late teens, they're saying he looks like he is mid-to-late teens. Chipp is describing his physical appearance to Answer- not his biological data.

When you consider another official line about Bedman, that there is "no official documents that can prove he exists", sorry to say that someone who just met him three minutes ago won't have a complete dead-on accurate guess of his age. Chipp isn't telling us Bedman's age range (which in the case of his dialogue specifically, would mean he is 15-19, which counts as an adult regardless), he's saying what he thinks Bedman looks like.

Answer is just repeating Chipp's dialogue. In other words, he's doing the exact same thing.

And just saying, as an adult, I get mistaken for a teenager all the time. It's very, very common especially with short adults.

2. Other character's dialogue- such as calling him "child" and "kid"

I have to make this a separate section because it's used less than Chipp and Answer's dialogue, but this is the other thing I see the most. Throughout the story mode you'll find Bedman is frequently referred to as a child or a kid. So I ask you to go back up to the previous section and ask yourself: how would any of these people actually know?

I'm going to use May here to prove a point. In Xrd alone, there are several cases of her being referred to with words like "little girl", "child", "kid", etc. However, Xrd May is at bare minimum in her 20s. This is also the case for her official profiles, where she's referred to with similar terms to Bedman.

If you didn't know May was an adult, congratulations on discovering the main joke with her. TL;DR: By Xrd, May is 20+. In the English dub, she even says "22", but because that's not present in Japanese we can't say that's her exact age. All we know is, by that point, she was in her 20s. So why does everyone still call her a little girl? Why do people still treat her like a child, Bedman included? The same reason they do it to Bedman: they are assuming based on her appearance.

In other words, why on earth are you taking Slayer's word as gospel of all people when he didn't even know he existed until he was beating his ass?

3. Bedman's height/weight

This one particularly infuriates me as an adult who does get mistaken for a kid for these things, but I'll let that anger slide to explain why you can't use this as evidence.

For starters… well, May, once again. I won't repeat my previous talking points, but you genuinely can't use Bedman's stature as proof when May, who is just the tiniest bit taller and heavier than him, is right there. Like, no actually, why are you using his height as proof??

Next, he and Delilah have the exact same height and weight. But they're not twins. In fact, they can't even be close in age, for a reason I'll go in depth on later just to keep this section about the evidence itself. Bedman is her older brother- Delilah being 12 at that height and weight, and then Bedman being somewhere in his teens at that exact height and weight is… um, impossible. Instead, we get an interesting confirmation from Faust about the reason for Bedman being as tiny as he is. Unlike other characters, Faust can be trusted on this information because he's an actual medical professional who may as well have seen this kind of situation before. He also isn't saying his age is one thing or the other, just talking about his appearance.

"They say children who sleep well grow up healthy, but that doesn't mean children who don't sleep aren't healthy. Hm... what is it that makes you look like - ah, your brain."

Japanese dialogue:

"寝る子は育つといいますが寝ない子が育たない訳ではないですよ? 貴方のスタイルの必然性は･･･そうか、脳ですね?"

The Japanese dialogue makes this a lot more obvious, but Faust is asking why he looks like a child. And the reason is his coma.

…In other words, he and Delilah can't grow. Their bodies are frozen as is to stop them from dying. Without constant care, they'd both die in their coma without it. Now that Delilah's awake, it's possible we'll see some growth from her, but Bedman was stuck like that for who knows how long.

So yes, you can't use how he looks as evidence.

And thank god, that's about all the major points used. You can see why they're so shaky as evidence, can't you? All are based entirely on assumptions, which were based on appearance, being treated as confirmations. But they're not, they're just looks into how other characters view him- not how we, the viewer, should.

But let me argue for the other end of it here, that Bedman is implied to be an adult instead, just to prove a point about how bad the evidence is in comparison to the other side's.

Let me go back to what I mentioned previously- that he and Delilah can't be close in age. For this, the main answer is in Xrd Revelator's story mode, and more specifically his long talk with Axl Low. I truly believe it is extremely important for understanding Bedman and Delilah, so if you haven't yet, I highly recommend watching it!

From Bedman's dialogue both there and elsewhere, we learn the following about Delilah:

- She is far deeper in her dream world than he is, and her senses are "blocked off" so to speak from the outside world.

- She doesn't know her own mother.

- She only people that have even been capable of speaking to Delilah are Bedman and Ariels. However, Ariels has not known either of them all their life.

- She was born like this.

Why are all these important, you ask? Think for a moment, think about all those factors together.

Now, riddle me this:

Who raised Delilah, then?

Bedman had his mother, we know this. But if Delilah couldn't even feel anything happening to her in the outside world, how would their mother have raised her? How does Delilah know how to talk, read, anything at all? When you put how she refers to Baiken in with all this, the answer is kind of clear: Bedman was the one who raised her. Despite Baiken acting like a traditional parent, Delilah gives her the nickname of "big sis". Because these behaviors, to her, are a sibling thing. Delilah never met her mother to be able to know what a mother would act like. Who she does know is her big sibling.

Which means, in order for Bedman to be 13-17, he would need to have been 1-5 years old while that happened. I don't think you need me to tell you that for a non-gear, even a hyper intelligent one, that's just not happening. Especially considering that he is also inside of his dream and has seemingly only one person on the outside to raise and provide for him. When your brain is literally still in the earliest stages of development, you're not going to suddenly become a genius at age 3 and be capable of raising a baby on your own. You'd see that kind of insufferable intelligence come out more around age 7.

If you didn't catch the difference between that piece of evidence and the previous ones, here it is: the evidence used for him being a minor is based solely on dialogue from characters who have no way of knowing his age, and assumptions based on appearance. The evidence used here is based on Bedman and Delilah's own dialogue, two people that WOULD know this information, and some very basic literature analysis skills you'll learn when you're like 14.

When you're talking about character lore without a definitive answer written down somewhere, the priority must be put on their own dialogue and the dialogue of people who, canonically, would have access to the information you want. So unfortunately, Chipp saying he looks like a teenager has no weight compared to a major implication that he raised Delilah from the bedsiblings' dialogue. Thaat's how analysis works

So wow that was long! I just really wanted to make sure I was understood but in case anyone still has any questions, needs me to clarify something or provide more evidence of something, anything like that: just send an ask over. They should be open and anon should be on too so don't be scared, no judgment to be found here. My only hope is that I didn't sound like I was rambling nonsense…….

#long post #bedman #guilty gear #ill probably make tags to organise my blog when i actually post more #next post will be about the bedframe in strive so Stay Tuned

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