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illiterateaffairs · 9 months

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behind the scenes chapter five | fifty fake dates

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pairing: jamie tartt x actress!reader (ted lasso)

rating: T

word count: 6,388

summary: you and jamie face the biggest test of your fake relationship so far; a double date with keeley and roy

a/n: this is once again a bit later than i had hoped to post, but this is my favorite chapter so far so i hope its worth the wait! i cannot wait to hear what you all think, especially in regards to the reader's scenes with roy and keeley :)

Jamie could be a very cocky person, but he could honestly say, in a completely unbiased way that you two were absolutely crushing this fake dating thing.

Not only had your movie premiere hard launch gone incredibly well the other week, you’d had many successful fake dates since. You’d been seen on various breakfast, lunch and dinner dates, as well as on walks together and even outside your flat again. You’d also posted a couple Instagram posts and stories here and there for good measure, slowly ramping up in a way that felt natural to a real relationship.

The public was eating it up. From fans to journalists, everyone thought you were adorable together. Jamie knew for a fact no one in the world suspected this was all for show.

Unfortunately, the pitfall of doing such a good job meant that not only had his coworkers bought the whole ordeal, but demanded to see it up close. And while fooling Roy and Keeley was a major cornerstone of the whole plot, he wasn’t exactly prepared for what Keeley had in store for them.

“A double date?” Jamie squints at her, after she’d cornered him in the locker room at the end of training one evening.

“Yeah, doesn’t that sound like fun!” Keeley nods, “It was actually Roy’s idea.”

“No!” Roy exclaims raspily from where he was sitting in the coaches office. The three of them were conveniently the last ones to leave for the night.

Keeley shakes her head, “You were the one who said you wanted to meet her.” She turns back to Jamie, “And I for one think a night out, just the four of us, would be a perfect way for all of us to get to know each other.”

Jamie hesitates. Again, he knows that’s the whole point of this charade. But he hadn’t been mentally prepared for when the opportunity to show you off actually came.

“I mean, I’m having dinner with her tonight,” he starts out slowly, “There’s no guarantee she’ll be available, you know, her being a hugely popular and successful actress and everything. But I’ll bring it up.”

Keeley smiles, “That’s all I ask!”

Jamie gives her a tight smile, before bidding her and Roy a good night.

Well, this should be fun.

“Hi, sorry I’m late. Filming ran long,” you say hurriedly as you breeze over to the table Jamie is sitting at. Despite there not being any photographers in this dimly lit restaurant, you feel the need to press a kiss onto his cheek, and he doesn’t seem to mind at all.

Jamie shrugs as you slide into the seat across from him, “No worries.”

You sigh, and mutter quietly, “Well, isn’t the point of this whole thing to be seen entering places together?”

“It's fine, really,” he insists. And then with a smirk, “We’ll be seen leaving together and I think that’s a little more important.”

You can’t help but chuckle as you finally catch your breath from rushing in. As you’re collecting yourself, you notice a glass of wine and an otherwise empty table in front of you.

“No menu?” you question.

Jamie shrugs again, this time a little awkwardly, “I went ahead and ordered for you. I figured you were filming late and thought you’d be eager to eat quickly. You like chicken parmesan, right?”

An impressed smile takes over your face, “Wow. As far as fake boyfriends go, you’re pretty good.”

A bashful smile takes over his own face. “I do my best.”

“And let me guess, you got the steak but you’re going to tell Roy you got a salad.”

Jamie quirks an amused eyebrow, “You’re not so bad yourself.”

You’re both equally proud and yet surprised at how quickly you’d become accustomed to each other’s lives and habits. And how natural it felt to fold one another into your own.

Jamie lets you take a healthy sip of wine before taking a deep breath, “Speaking of Roy.”

“Oh?” You raise an eyebrow this time in question.

“Yeah, uh, he and Keeley actually asked me something earlier. They - well, more Keeley - thought it would be fun for us to go on a sort-of double date? I told them I’d ask you, but I didn’t promise them anything. So, if it's not something you’re up for that's totally fine, I can blow them off.”

You bite back a laugh at how quickly and anxiously he’s speaking. You think it's best to cut him off before he passes out. “Jamie,” you reach across the table and take his hand, “I think that sounds fun.”

Jamie squints, “Really? Because we seriously don’t have to.”

“I’m serious! I think it would be fun to meet the people that sent you into a spiral and made you ask to fake date me,” Jamie scoffs but a smile starts breaking through again, “Besides, this deal is a two way street. You’ve done plenty to help boost my rep so far, it's time I return the favor.”

Now Jamie fully smiles, but still asks, “If you’re sure?”

“I’m positive!”

“Alright. Well, since you’re the one that has to pretend to be obsessed with me all night, I think it’s only fair that you get to pick the activity. What do you want to do?”

You mull it over in your end until the perfect idea strikes you.

“Can I tell you something?”

“Of course.”

“I am absolutely shit at bowling.”

From the passenger's seat of Jamie’s car, you let out a cackle. “There’s no way that’s true.”

“There absolutely is.” Jamie frowns beside you, completely unamused.

“Wow, finally something Jamie Tartt isn’t amazing at.”

“You know you haven’t seen me do that much,” he points out.

You hold your hand up and tick things off, “Amazing footballer, amazing fake-boyfriend. What else is there?”

This gets a laugh out of him.

The two of you are currently parked outside a bowling alley that is surprisingly empty for a Saturday evening. Jamie had received a text from Keeley saying she and Roy had arrived a few minutes prior, so now the two of your were mentally preparing for the night ahead.

“You know you could have told me this before and we could have done something else?” you asked after a few moments had passed.

Jamie lets out a deep breath, “But you were so excited about it when you brought it up.”

You chew the inside of your cheek to prevent yourself from smiling. “Well, I appreciate that. And I’m sure you’re not as bad as you think.”

“Let me know if you think that when you see me play.”

“Well, I can’t do that unless we actually go inside,” you whisper to him like it's a secret he hadn’t caught onto.

Jamie sighs deeply again.

“Hey,” you reach across the console and squeeze his hand briefly, “Tonight’s gonna be great. We’re gonna play a game, I’m gonna wow your friends, we’re gonna drink a shit ton of beers and have a shit ton of nachos, and have a good time.”

The side of Jamie’s mouth tilts up, “I think my vocabulary is rubbing off on you.”

You chuckle, shoving him lightly, “Come on, let’s get this show on the road already.”

“God, you’re impatient,” Jamie teases, but he’s finally pushing his car door open.

“Time is money, money is power, power is pizza, let's do this!”

If you were being honest, you had googled Roy Kent and Keeley Jones before. However, nothing could prepare you for how intimidating Roy was and how drop-dead gorgeous Keeley was in real life.

You and Jamie approached them hand-in-hand, and took little to no time for you to clock that you were the only people in the establishment. You’re confused about this, but you have to quickly bury any questions when Keeley pulls you into a tight hug.

“Hi, it’s so great to meet you, I’m Keeley!” she greets enthusiastically, before pulling away from you abruptly, “Holy shit, I’m sorry. The last thing you probably want is a random stranger hugging you out of nowhere. I’m sure you’re on edge all the time from the attention you get.”

You can’t help but flush when anyone makes a reference to your level of fame, not one to dwell on it yourself. However, Keeley’s energy is so bubbly and kind, you can’t help but feel comfortable as well as amused at how hard she’s trying.

“No, no, not at all. Hugging is great,” You give her a big smile as reassurance, “Besides, you’re not a random stranger, you’re one of Jamie’s best friends, so you’re automatically already a cool person in my book.”

Keeley matches your smile before turning to Jamie, “Oh, my God, you were right about how nice she is.”

You turn to Jamie as well with a curious look, and he can barely make eye contact with you. “So, now you know Keeley, and that scruffy old-man behind her is Roy.”

You turn to the man in question, and give him a kind smile and small wave, “Hey! I take it you’re probably not going to bear-hug me like your girlfriend, but it’d be funny if you did.”

To everyone’s surprise, Roy cracks a smile at your joke. It’s a small one but it's there. The bearded man gives you an approving nod before the four of you start making your way to your table. As you and Jamie trail behind the other couple, he gives you an impressed smile and you beam back at him.

Once you’re seated, you and Keeley send the boys off to grab bowling shoes and snacks for the group.

“So, am I crazy or is this place extremely vacant for a Saturday night?” you ask the blonde as you type your name into the scoreboard.

Keeley chuckles, “Oh yeah, we actually rented the place out for the next couple of hours.”

Your eyebrows shoot up, “Okay. Boujee.”

Keeley shrugs, “We don’t normally do things like that, but Jamie thought you’d prefer a night not being bothered by fans and such.”

Oh.

“While I normally don’t do things like this either, it does sound nice to have a normal night out.”

“It’ll be fun!” Keeley says cheerfully.

“Definitely,” you nod along, feeling warmed by her vibrant personality. “Even more so because apparently Jamie is really bad at bowling.”

Keeley snorts, “Oh, good. I mean, I’m not so great myself and Roy didn’t seem too enthused about this,” at your alarmed look, she quickly continues, “He’s never enthused about anything, don’t take it personally.”

You nod again, still a bit unsure. While you’d seemingly appeased Roy with your joke earlier, you were still anxious to get on his good side for some reason. You were a people pleaser through and through, but especially when the people in question were hard to crack.

You don’t have much time to dwell on your thoughts when Jamie and Roy reappear with beer, nachos, and bowling shoes.

Soon after the game begins. Between the consistent and easy flowing small talk, you bowl first with a respectable 8 pins down for your first go. You were just getting warmed up. Then Keeley takes a turn and manages 5 pins. You try to keep your laughter at bay when Jamie lands his first roll in the gutter, before just barely hitting 2 pins on his second attempt.

“I told you I was shit,” Jamie frowns, plopping down beside you after his turn.

You give him a playful pout, rubbing his arm. “Hey, the night is young, babe. You can still redeem yourself.”

You miss the flush on his cheeks from the pet name, as you and Keeley turn to Roy stepping up to the lane.

“You got this Roy-o!” Keeley claps.

Roy lets out a deep sigh before casually rolling the ball down the lane only to get a strike.

You and Jamie sit up straight in surprise, as Keeley’s eyes nearly bulge out of their sockets.

“I thought you hated bowling?” she exclaims, Roy sitting beside her and taking a gulp of his beer.

“I said I didn’t like it, never said I was bad at it,” he corrects, “Phoebe had like 3 birthdays here.”

“Phoebe’s Roy’s niece,” Keeley says, facing you before you could even ask, “You’d love her.”

You hum in response. You give Roy a friendly yet challenging grin, “Looks like I have stiffer competition than I expected.”

You catch a glimmer of competitiveness in Roy’s eye as you stand up to take your next turn. While you weren’t sure he’d be down for a little competition, he seems intrigued by your retort.

You’re pleased when you score a spare this round. Jamie and Keeley cheer for you, the former planting a celebratory kiss on your cheek when you return. Roy, for his part, looks impressed. It was on.

The game practically flies by after that. You and Roy are pretty evenly matched, taking turns between scoring strikes and fumbling a bit under the pressure. Keeley holds her own as well, but she’s mostly just happy to be there, cheering both you and Roy on. Jamie for his part manages to do better little by little, but he’s certainly no stranger to a gutter-bar or ill-fated split. And while he was resistant at first, he starts laughing along with your groups playful jabs at his expense.

Between rounds, you thoroughly enjoy getting to know Roy and Keeley. Keeley is a bit more forthcoming in conversations, but after a couple beers, Roy loosens up a bit himself and you’re pleased to learn he has a fun sense of humor.

By the end of the game, you manage to one-up Roy Kent by mere single digits. And while he’s graceful in the loss, he can’t help but point out he was a bit rusty.

“Okay, now that you’re warmed up, why don’t we make the next game a little more interesting,” you challenge.

Roy raises one of his thick eyebrows, “Go on.”

“Let’s say the next loser between us picks up the tab for the night?” you suggest.

Roy chuckles, “Big talk from someone with all that Hollywood money.”

“Oh, come on, I’m sure the highest paid coach in the premier league can handle it,” you throw back.

Keeley and Jamie amusedly watch you two like a tennis match.

A mischievous smile makes its way onto Roy’s face, before he extends his hand to you, “It’s a deal.”

You smirk, shaking his hand.

“Alright, if we’re doing this again, I need another beer,” Jamie announces, standing up from the booth.

“Ooh, I’ll come with,” Keeley says, jumping up as well.

“Wait, wait,” you call out, grabbing Jamie’s hand so he turns back around.

“Yeah, love?” Jamie asks, startled by the ease in which the pet name rolls off his own tongue.

“Can you get me some chicken wings, please?” you ask, with the sweetest smile you can muster.

Jamie chuckles, “Of course.”

“Thank you,” you sing-song. He watches your eyes glance over at Roy and Keeley quickly and discreetly, before looking back up at him. Then you blink twice.

Jamie doesn’t hold back the small smile that takes over his face as he leans down to press a chaste kiss on your lips. He forces himself not to linger, so he and Keeley can head to the snack bar.

This leaves you alone with Roy for the first time tonight. You have half a second to worry you’d be sitting in awkward silence before the man himself is speaking up.

“I like you,” he says suddenly.

You sit up in surprise for the second time tonight. Roy didn’t come across as the most transparent person when it came to feelings, and you’re once again sure the alcohol was helping, but it still took you aback.

“Oh?” is all you can manage to say in response.

He nods, sipping on his beverage. “You’re good for Jamie. You treat him well, but you don’t take his shit. He needs that.”

You give him a small smile, touched by his words. You were both relieved you were pulling off the girlfriend thing so well, and also happy that he thought you were making a positive impact on Jamie. Your situation may be temporary - and mostly fake - but it felt good that you were a decent influence in the time you have.

“Thanks, Roy.”

He tilts his beer bottle in your direction, and you raise yours as well.

“You’re also a hell of a bowler, but you are going down this next game.”

You scoff, “You wish, Kent.”

Meanwhile, Keeley is also singing your praises at the concessions stand with Jamie.

“Bravo, Jamie,” Keeley grins, shaking Jamie’s arm with an affectionate squeeze, “Not only is she fucking fit and talented - at acting and bowling nonetheless - she’s so fucking cool. She’s perfect for you.”

Jamie smiles bashfully, but accepts Keeley’s compliments of you. She was right. You were amazing.

“And, I’m so happy you’re happy,” she adds, even more sincerely, “It always seemed like you were going through the motions in your past relationships, before and after me. And during me, I guess.”

Jamie moves to apologize but she shakes her head.

“You don’t need to do that,” she states forcefully, “You’ve grown so much. You deserve all the good things happening in your life. And this,” she nods in the direction you and Roy were sitting, “Is such a good thing.”

Jamie’s smile wobbles a little, “You know I wasn’t just going through the motions with you, right? I really, really cared about you Keeley.”

Keeley instantly sobers as well, nodding aggressively, “I know that.”

“Good.”

“But I can tell this is different,” she insists. “You’re different. She’s different. And like I said, that’s a good thing.”

Jamie nods. Keeley’s words weigh heavily on him. Maybe that was the thing about him and her all along. You could care about a person, but that didn’t make you two the right fit. He considers this thought as he and Keeley carry their food back to the table. You and him were different. But not the different Keeley thought. You were just acting, and you were doing a hell of a good job of it. But that was the point, wasn’t it? Keeley and Roy were believing all of it, just like he wanted. So why doesn’t he feel as relieved as he should?

He buries those thoughts as you excitedly stand up to start the next game. That wasn’t before you happily thank him for the wings with yet another peck on the lips. And with that and more alcohol flowing through his veins, he can hardly remember any of his worries.

After you score another strike right off the bat, instead of returning to your seat you gesture for Jamie to join you in front of the lane.

“What are you gonna do?” he questions, “Wrap your arms around me to show me the right technique?”

“While that would be adorable, no,” you retort with a laugh, “But I can give you some pointers.”

Jamie can barely focus on the tips you’re telling him, because even if you’re not physically showing him how to move, you’re still standing in such close proximity, and whispering to him nonetheless. How was he meant to pay attention? When you’re done with your explanation, you give him another quick kiss, wishing him good luck, before skipping back to the booth.

Whether it was the tutorial or the kiss, he’d never know, but he somehow managed 7 pins that first try, and knocked down 2 more his second go. That was almost a spare. He’d be proud either way, but was even more so when you excitedly cheered for him on his way back to the table.

The second game is just as much of a blur as the first, except this time as the competition and the alcohol levels grow, you and Jamie become much more affectionate. He knows you don’t love PDA, so you keep the kissing to a minimum around Roy and Keeley, but there’s no shortage of hugging and hand holding as you rack up points on the scoreboard. Towards the end of the game, you manage the first Turkey of the night, and Jamie picks you up and spins you around.

Before you know it, everyone’s down to their last shot. The score is so close, with you getting yet another strike at the last moment. Jamie and Keeley finish with respectable scores - Jamie having improved a lot this go - but they’re nowhere near you and Roy.

Roy’s final roll is what makes or breaks the game. If he scores a strike, he wins. But even a spare means you’d win. Everyone watches with baited breath as he steps up to the lane. Its as if the ball rolls in slow motion, but as it hits the pins and you all watch as each and every pin gets knocked down, various exclamations are shouted.

“He must’ve cheated!” is Jamie’s contribution to the yelling, but he and you are both half laughing at the same time.

You, for your part, can’t be too disappointed when you’ve had such a fun night with more than amazing company. You also watch as Keeley gives Roy a sweet, congratulatory kiss, which was the first time they’d done so all night. Your heart pangs in your chest a little, feeling envious for the first time for what another couple had. It’s not something you’ve felt often in your life, but seeing how well the pair complemented each other all night made you long for the same thing with someone one day.

“You put up a good fight,” Roy salutes you, settling back down next to his girlfriend.

You smile, “It was a close game, but I’ll hand it to you.”

You begin to take out your credit card, when Jamie pushes your hand away, already taking out his own wallet.

“I’ve got this,” he says.

You frown, “I don’t remember you being a part of the deal.”

Jamie shrugs, “A lady should never pay on a date, so your bill is now my bill.”

Normally, you’d argue on account of feminism, but you’re feeling a little loopy. Most likely from the beer and not at all from the boy in front of you with that lopsided grin.

After Jamie closes your group’s tab, the four of you change back into your regular shoes and start saying your goodbyes.

“This was so fun!” Keeley smiles, pulling you in for another hug, which you gladly reciprocate, “We should do it again soon.”

“For sure,” you agree, before pulling away and addressing Roy, “I would like a rematch.”

Roy chuckles, “You’re on.” And then he surprises you by giving you a quick hug himself.

With a final goodbye, Roy and Keeley start heading for the exit. Jamie gives you a sly grin once they’re far enough away.

“I’d say we did a good job tonight,” he says.

You nod, “We definitely did. You’re friends love me, and you know what? I love them, too.”

Jamie laughs, “Good.” He gestures his hand to the doors, “Shall we?”

You give Jamie your own secretive grin, “There’s one more thing I have to do before we leave.”

Jamie furrows his brows, “What’s that?”

Your grin only grows, before you grip his hand and pull him towards the far side of the bowling alley that housed a handful of arcade games.

Jamie cackles when you stop in front of one of them.

“The claw machine?”

You only nod, already shoving quarters into the machine, “I was hoping they’d have one of these.”

Jamie shakes his head, watching as you navigate the claw around the machine, “There’s no way you win this. You know these things are rigged, right?”

Before the words are fully out of his mouth, you’re already dropping a bright orange dragon in to the opening before pulling it out of the bottom.

Jamie stares at you with wide eyes, “How the fuck did you do that?”

You shrug, “I’m amazing at arcade games. And I needed a win.”

Jamie laughs again, “I’d say you’re far from a loser. Did you see whose name was at the bottom of the scoreboard?”

You giggle, and then hold out the dragon to him, “Well here. A consolation prize.”

Jamie takes the stuffed toy from your hands, “For me?”

“Of course. I mean, as long as you treat him right and give him a name.”

Jamie studies the dragon’s face for a moment. “Alfred.”

You snort, “Alfred?”

“Alfred the Dragon.” Jamie says, assuredly.

“Well, I love it.”

“Good,” Jamie laughs along with you. “Well, the reservation we had on this place is about to end. People are going to start showing up any second so we should probably go.”

“Wait,” you grab Jamie’s hands again, “It's only, what, 9PM? Let’s go out and do something else.”

“Really?” Jamie asks, both surprised and amused.

“Yeah, why not? I hardly ever get out like this, might as well make the most of it while I have the mental energy,” you say with a laugh. “Come on, you’re the guy who knows all the spots where we can enjoy a drink on the down low right? Any bars like that?”

A smile starts to grow on Jamie’s face again, “Well, there is one.”

“Did you bring me to a karaoke bar?” you question, but there’s an excited grin on your face.

Jamie shrugs from the driver’s seat of his car, relieved he’d stayed sober enough to keep the night going. He feared that wouldn’t last much longer, though.

“Everyone at this place is so pissed they’d never realize they were around a famous actress, even if you wore a shirt that said ‘I was in Study Break’.”

You laugh embarrassedly, rubbing your face. “Of course you’ve seen the sitcom I was in.”

Jamie smiles, “That and Parks and Rec are only two of the greatest comedies of all time.”

“That’s generous,” you say. “If we’re at a karaoke bar, does that mean you’re going to sing?”

Jamie huffs, “Hell no. I would need several drinks for that.”

“I think we can make that happen,” you smirk. “Do you think Alfred will be okay to wait in the car?”

You both turn back to where Jamie had buckled the plush dragon in behind the two of you.

“Does that make us neglectful parents to leave our kid in the car?” he asks.

“Eh, he’ll survive.” You shrug, before the two of you jump out of the car.

You and Jamie immediately camp out at open spots at the bar and order drinks. While much of the beer from earlier had worn off, Jamie could still tell you were feeling lighter, bopping along to the horrible singing from the karaoke performer on the stage in the front of the room. He’s adored getting to see such a playful side of you tonight. He hopes he can start to bring it out of you even when alcohol wasn’t involved.

“I just realized when we conducted our research on each other, I didn’t ask if you had a go to karaoke song,” you ask him after a few minutes of quiet between the two of you.

Jamie thinks for a beat. Not that he’d participated in the activity often, he did have a few go-to’s. “Probably something by The Beatles. Or Britney Spears.”

You cackle, “Those two couldn’t be more different options and yet they’re both so perfect for you.”

Jamie laughs along with you, “What about you?”

“Hmm, I like a good 80’s song. Some Madonna, or Pat Benetar.”

“Those are solid.”

“And this isn't the 80's, but if I can get someone to do a duet with me, The Chain by Fleetwood Mac.”

“That is a bold karaoke song.”

“Sure, but it's so powerful.”

You both sip on your drinks as you keep humming along to the next singer who's doing a rough version of Bennie and the Jets.

“I know another question I didn’t ask you that feels like an oversight,” Jamie says this time, “What is Miss Movie Star’s favorite movie?” Jamie’s immediately intrigued when you become embarrassed by the question. He pokes your stomach gently. “What? Now you’ve got to tell me.”

You answer so softly, he can barely hear you over the music. “When Harry Met Sally.”

Jamie’s mouth is agape, “Excuse me, When Harry Met Sally? The girl who hates romance’s favorite movie is a romantic comedy?”

You squeeze your eyes shut, “I never said I hated romance, I just said some movies set unrealistic expectations.”

“Still!” Jamie exclaims with wide eyes.

“I know, I know. But it’s just so comforting! And Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal are so good together.”

“I mean, yeah.” Jamie agrees, like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

“But I stand by the fact that most romcoms can be a bit far fetched.”

“Okay, that’s fair. What other movies are your favorites then?”

You once again look afraid to answer, but inevitably do. “13 Going on 30…Notting Hill…”

“Are you kidding me? 13 Going On 30 is the most unrealistic. It's about a girl who goes from a 13 year old to a full grown adult overnight!”

“Yes, but Mark Ruffalo!”

“And Notting Hill is about the biggest actress in the world moving across the world for a random bookstore owner, how is that realistic?”

“Well, I mean I’m pretending to date you!” you retort before thinking through what you’re saying.

Jamie doesn’t dwell on it, “Did you just compare yourself to Julia Roberts?”

You sputter, “Not fully, but that would make you Hugh Grant!”

Jamie gives you a look, “I’m of a little higher rank than a bookstore owner.”

You gesture between the two of you, “So you’re saying the two of us come across as realistic. That’s good, that's what we want.”

Jamie chuckles, as you ground your conversation back in reality. “That’s fair.”

You smile slightly, “And again; I never said I hated romance and stuff. I just wish it was easier to come by like it seems on screen.”

Jamie nods, speaking more softly, “Yeah, me too.”

Before you lose yourself in Jamie’s gaze, you turn the topic on him, “What’s your favorite movie, then? Bend It Like Beckham?”

Jamie snorts, “While that’s a great film, I wouldn’t say it's my favorite.”

“Fair. But if you say another one of my movies, I’ll punch you.”

Your conversation continues just as smoothly as your cocktails go down after that. You bounce between learning more about one another, to mindless conversations about seemingly nothing. You also take many breaks to belt the lyrics to songs you love as more and more drunk patrons lousily perform.

Before you know it, you’re both nearly as drunk as the karaoke singers. Jamie soon realizes though, you’re much more of a lightweight, constantly coming up with random topics.

“I like the way you say Keeley’s name,” you tell him at one point, completely unrelated to the conversation you were having.

Jamie furrows his eyebrows, “Keeley?”

You shove your index finger in his face, “See, like that! Keeley.”

He chuckles at your poor, yet adorable imitation of his accent.

“You’re from where again?” you ask.

“Manchester.”

“So, that’s what? A Manchester-an accent?”

Jamie laughs again, “Mancunian.”

“Mancunian,” you slur, making yourself laugh this time. “I like it.”

“Do you like the way I say your name?” Jamie asks teasingly.

You bob your head up and down, “I like the way you say everything.”

Jamie didn’t expect that answer. Even in his inebriated state, he feels his stomach flip.

It’s around midnight that Jamie realizes that even under the influence, you were still a sneaky one. You’re laughing through a story about you and your friend Katie, when the MC calls Jamie’s name out as the next singer. Jamie looks towards the stage in confusion, before it dawns on him. His suspicions are confirmed when he sees the cheeky grin plastered across your face.

“How did you- when did you??” he stutters.

“When I said I had to go to the bathroom like 20 minutes ago,” you hiccup.

Jamie shakes his head, “I can’t go up there.”

“Sure you can!” you exclaim, attempting to push him off the barstool, although you’re doing a pretty pathetic job of it.

As the MC repeats his name, some people around you clock that he’s The Jamie Tartt and start chanting for him.

He gives you a look, “So much for staying under the radar.”

In your state, you don’t even seem to care, instead joining the crowd, “Jamie. Jamie. Jamie.”

He truly believes if he were a little less drunk, he would have resisted harder. But what was Jamie Tartt if not a crowd pleaser?

He eventually makes his way to the stage, receiving a louder than normal applause from the bar crowd. He reminds himself that even if they’re aware of who he is now, they certainly won't remember this tomorrow. As he pulls the microphone off the stand, he realizes he doesn’t know what song he’s singing, until the unmistakable first beats of Toxic by Britney Spears play through the speakers. He locks eyes with you immediately back by the bar, and you have a shit eating grin still plastered on your face. He can’t help but smile back.

At this point Jamie’s inevitably given into the absurdity of the night, and unashamedly gives a full fledged performance. The bar goes wild, but he’s only really aware of you. He somehow hears your cheers above the roar of the crowd, and is egged on by your amusement. Under normal circumstances, he may be embarrassed by how seriously he was taking this, but he’s surrendered to the simple fact that if it made you happy, he didn’t care how ridiculous he looked.

By the time he’s reached the final chorus of the song, you were up from your seat and the whole bar was singing along. Everyone cheers even louder when he’s done, and he gives them an over dramatic bow. As he bounds back down the stage, the people he passes offer high fives and tell him they’re huge fans. He even hears a few people breakout into his football chant.

“Wow, you were so good!” you tell him genuinely, putting each one of your hands on his shoulders, “Football better watch out, cause you could have a real career as a singer.”

Jamie rolls his eyes with a laugh, “Sure I do.”

You laugh along with him, “Either way, now that I know you kill at karaoke, we definitely have to come back.”

“Alright, alright, but next time you’re singing with me.”

“As long as its Fleetwood Mac, I’m down.”

The two of you don’t last much longer after that. As soon as Jamie can tell you’re starting to grow tired, he announces you should call it a night. He calls a car this time though, planning to pick up his car the following day when he was much more sober. You beg him to take Alfred the Dragon, though, stating sincerely that you’d cry if he was left in the car alone all night long. He immediately hates the idea of you crying and hurriedly unlocked the car to retrieve the stuffed animal.

When the car pulls up to your flat, he tells the driver he’d be a few minutes while he walked you to the door.

Jamie amusedly watches you very carefully walk up the concrete stairs. Despite not feeling quite that steady himself, he still follows closely behind in case you trip.

You stumble a little when you reach the top and Jamie gently takes hold of your arms, the two of you unable to keep from giggling.

“Well, this is me!” you announce, standing up straight in his arms.

“You don’t say?” Jamie jokes.

“You can stay here, you know,” you say, “The couch is pretty comfortable. I fell right to sleep at the end of Ratatouille the other night.”

“You were watching Ratatouille?” he asks incredulously.

“Ratatouille,” you mimic his accent again, pinching one of his cheeks lightly, “I fucking love your accent.”

Jamie laughs, a little less amused this time with you in such close proximity, “Well, thank you.”

You nod to the door, “So, you wanna stay? I bet people would go crazy if they heard about you leaving my place tomorrow morning.”

Jamie huffs. He considers it. He does. He’s exhausted, and he’d also love more time with you. And you’re right, this would be good for the ruse. But even as the alcohol slowly wears off of both of you, he thinks maybe tonight isn’t the best time

“Maybe another night,” he eventually responds softly. He nods behind him, “I can’t keep the driver waiting much longer.”

You pout playfully but nod, “Okayyy. I’ll talk to you tomorrow though?”

He nods back, “Of course.” A beat passes, “Thank you again for coming out tonight. With Keeley and Roy. Meant a lot.”

You smile at him brightly, “Anytime. Like you said, we’re a team.” Then you slide out of his arms that he’s long forgotten were even wound around you. “Good night, boyfriend.” you say dramatically, before turning to the door.

He smiles wistfully at the back of your head, “Good night, girlfriend.”

Just as you manage to get your door unlocked, you abruptly turn back around to face him. Before he can question anything, you’re gripping his shoulders and pulling him in for a quick, albeit sloppy kiss - and not on the cheek, but the lips.

Jamie can hardly process what is happening before you pull away from him. He looks at you curiously as you give him a coy smile and whisper, “Google Earth.”

Jamie breathes out a surprised and shaky laugh, “Always taking pics.”

You giggle with him, before once again going back to your front door. You wish him another good night, before entering your flat and shutting the door.

Jamie shakes his head. You definitely wouldn’t remember much of the last couple hours of your night. Part of him wishes he could forget some of it, too. That would make things a lot simpler.

a/n: it's a race to the who falls first finish line! who do we think will admit to it first? also two notes- 1) criminal that jamie wasn't on the team when they went to karaoke in season 1, 2) idk enough about bowling scores to make this completely accurate, so work with me on this haha

taglist: @respondingtoshowerthoughts-blog @royalestrellas @torpedo--belly @skewedcherries @littlemisssunshine192 @hopefulromances @breakmyheartlater @ohpuckyeah @alipap3 @meg-ro @rexorangecouny @pythagothug @bonesbonesetc @xxenia14 @rockchickrebel @thatonedogwithablog @percysaidnever @msjb2002 @loveforaugust @dicgohargreeves @whimsical-roasting @tortilla-maria1 @rubyliquor @taytaylala12 @kno-way-home @gcidrvsh @lightninginab0ttle @beekprsdaughter it wouldn’t let me tag the last couple of you, but i will keep trying <3

#jamie tartt x reader #jamie tartt imagine #jamie tartt fanfiction #jamie tartt x female reader #jamie tartt fanfic #jamie tartt x f!reader #mine #ted lasso fanfiction #ted lasso fanfic #behind the scenes series

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wisteriainslumber · 1 year

Text

“Wait, this is supposed to be relaxing?”

alternatively: TWST cast discover ways in which animal crossing: nh should not be played

once upon a time my playstyle was the entirety of ace’s section and then i thought “what if it was Worse” and this post was born

warnings: swearing, the aggravating process of getting villagers to move out, tom nook slander

Riddle

claims he doesn’t choose favourites but everyone & their mother knows he’s particularly fond of Merengue

would participate in the stalk market because he wakes up at 6AM like a maniac

also because he refuses to time travel

has a very neat island. he uses whatever time he can to improve on his island layout and is a very good form of stress relief for him

finally, a good coping method

gifts his villagers fruit most of the time, but will occasionally give them furniture and stuffed animals

taken back by Pietro’s appearance in his campsite but now he is appointed the court jester

will tell no one that he adores the music in Pietro’s house

gets gold roses the quickest out of his classmates, but now he’s struggling with a major flower infestation

pls it won’t stop raining and he’s getting buried in petals

he really plays this game just to garden. this is not animal crossing this is Gardener Riddle Simulator now

when he gets visitors, he demands they greet every villager in town as well. its the polite thing to do, after all

blathers is a fine lad but there’s one thing about him that really irks riddle

why is he complaining about doing his job?

he owns a museum, he asks for donations, and lets his personal bias get the better of him if given a bug (he says, yk, like a hypocrite)

bugs are part of the island and fit the criteria of things blathers asks for. there is even an entire wing of the museum dedicated to insects.

even if he has a distaste for bugs, the least the owl can do is his job. no one likes a biased educator

riddle wears a pretty little shirt customed designed with stars by sebek

cute, it’s really cute. except those stars are pentagrams, and both the wearer and designer still think they are a neat star pattern

this was a relaxing game until riddle found out about the island rating system

he will settle for no less than a 6, yes, six star rating

the bulletin board isn’t used for announcements it’s used for impromptu laws he declared

such laws include no vandalizing the board (only applies to ace), no slander towards one another (watch ur tone, Blanche), no tampering with the able sisters displays (he sees you, azul), and what looks like a wanted ad for Redd

yeah, it seems that azul & riddle have a common goal

sending literal long ass letters to his villagers if he catches them being mean to each other.

after being enraged by the character limit because he wasnt finISHED, he settled for reporting them to isabelle

the peace era lasted a week

Trey

he loves the squirrel villagers so much, namely Mint. i’ll give you two guesses as to why

besides Mint he has a unique fascination for Blaire because she’s got the attitude of his classmates 😭😭

has the most variety of villager personality types on his island. the most normal villagers he’s had on there have peaked at 2 at one time. he likes the variety

or maybe he likes to convince himself hes the most normal one there who knows

gifts his villagers sunglasses when it’s sunny but then they kinda look like douches especially his jock villagers

keeps Flora on his island specifically so riddle can come visit her and chat in her home

it’s like an unbirthday party, but without any of the work #hallelujah

unsurprisingly his bathroom is the most furnished room in his home. other than that, he loves to decorate the outside of his house with flowers and has a constant rotation of wreaths on his door

big fan of Mable and Sable, they’re so sweet, reminds him of his go-to hedgehogs in croquet

accidental dealer of furniture in heartslabyul

heartslabyul student C wanted a nice moon rug and asked trey if he knew how to get one, and trey went the extra mile to find & give it to him himself

the story spread and now all his students come ask him for stuff

he did not ask for this job </3

stocks up on mystery floorings and wallpapers whenever Saharah comes to visit

perhaps it is in his heartslabyul soul to make everything in his house whack

10000% laughs at the dad jokes in this game

let out a hearty ass chuckle at "i caught a snapper! its pretty dapper!"

no one but trey thinks they’re funny. clever maybe, but not funny

every time he sees C.J he points him out to cater and asks him about his hidden beaver relative

they talk the EXACT SAME. and trey thinks hes so funny for this (okay acc hes so right for this one)

everyone’s least favourite villager has to have some fans and that fan is trey. he has major “i can fix them” energy therefore he would love the most unpopular villagers

and by love i mean he is the only one that disapproves when lilia and leona form a temporary alliance to chase Barold around the island to hit him with nets

Cater

you know damn well he went for the customizable phone case first

that horrific ugly phone case is so persistent in its survival that it transcends beyond the physical realm to do so

doodling on everyone’s bulletin boards so they get messages from their favourite senior <3

keeps one or two peppy villagers, but ultimately enjoys the chill of normal and lazy villagers the most

theyre just so kind.. and supportive :((

wants to collect all of the heart themed characters because they are pink and cute and full of love (is he convincing others or himself?)

ironically he doesnt end up collecting any of those villagers and his favourite villager is Cousteau because he has a funny mustache

let his favourite villager leave when they ask. he takes this so personally. thinks they didn’t wanna be there </3

Cousteau immediately went to rooks island too like. bruh okay then a fake french for a fake french >:(

cater now has a new favourite villager and it is Nate. they are besties, they are 4lyfers, he gets the best flowers around his house and the rarest of fruit

passes off the furniture he doesnt want to deuce and tells them they're gifts😭😭

obsessively putting smiley faces everywhere in his home to resemble his own room (???)

has matching mama bears with trey but instead of putting it inside it guards his house from the outside

having an identity crisis after the C.J comparison

he is not beating the C.J allegations but he loves to catch fish for him so they can take photos together

has a legitimate fear of Lloid because of the hollow eyes that crazy thing has. its like he can see into your soul

because cater wants Lloid out of his island pronto he doesn’t wait for donations from his villagers he just pays up front

go away ASAP s’il vous plait🙏🙏

if you thought his dialogue consisted of 60% kaomoji before, its upped to the ninteys now

he's found a way to perform the reactions IRL and hasnt stopped since

in fact this is caters and kalims main form of communication

has a vacation area on the beach specifically designed with jamil in mind

not that jamil never visits, but his visits have increased to just chillax and take photos

jamil is noticeably kinder to cater, and ruggie is seething in the back (gotta respect ur elders or smth idk)

has a million different fruit trees everywhere for the sake of fruit jokes

this is fruity island now, leave your zebra merch at the airport

unfortunately he gets unsatisfied with his island or villagers and wipes the file once every few months to start anew again

and because he’s indecisive, his name and island name will be the exact same too.

rip to his classmates that have to scroll through 5 cater copies to find his current file. this is not how they imagined Split Card was supposed to be used for

Ace

uses the type in your own answer function for evil

makes his villagers call him weird names and makes them say inappropriate things

vendetta against the smug villagers. they sound like his bossy brother and grim

Wart Jr. happens to be his favourite villager. he’s never explained why

but grim & deuce say that he and ace both share the same smug ass look

ace does not agree with this statement

unspoken agreement from the dorm to not let ace into their world but he finds a way to break in and vandalizes their notice boards for the trouble

gave Hamlet a hamster cage and laughed when he displayed it

why cant he be nice😔

karma does come back around though, and it came in the form of Francine moving onto aces island

ace has never felt so much rage in a seemingly relaxing game

he doesnt even have a good reason for disliking her either she’s just too vibrantly blue for his liking

now all of the first years terrorize him with homemade good morning gifs of Francine that they edit themselves

high effort to cause ace as much inconvenience as possible, of course

his friends hate him because he blows up their console with “Ace Trappola is Online!” from all his time travelling

he’s trying to get this bitchass villager to move out why the hell is the STUPID bubble on everyone else but Francine!!?!?!?

100000% ready to reset his island just to purge his console of that damn bunny

hes so lucky that riddle does not do island inspections because his console would be forcibly taken away

at least isabelle is nice about it, but riddle would flame him

way too lazy to make his own custom designs so he steals them and subjects all his villagers to them

despite all of the chaos he sows, he’s one of the best terraformers and genuinely helps grim with his island. still bullies him the whole time tho💀

he reaches extremely high friendships with his villagers

yeah hes been working hard on the DL why is that so surprising >:(

Deuce

he loves Celia

he imagines this is what those indentured princesses in the fairy tales look like before their big transformation

plus Celia looks and is so friendly. she reminds him of his neighbours back home

making a gift out of anything he finds in the nook store.

wraps all his gifts too! has a bunch of wrapping to choose from to match his villagers. his villagers deserve the most!

gets giddy every time he receives a letter from Mom. gets angy that he cannot send letters or gifts back to her

at first he didnt really vibe with Cherry's punk look but shes got a soft place in deuces heart now. appearances can be deceiving and he respects that (some say he has a RBF). Celia has competition

sebek had told deuce that he and Cherry look alike and deuce pestered sebek for a while asking how to look less like a bad boy :((

even in game ace & deuce have matching everything. ace has Hamlet and deuce has Hamphrey to match

they both complain endlessly about their matching stuff but always refuse when their villagers request to move out

still keep up appearances though, they start wars trying to nab a villager the other wanted first

keeps being bitten by wasps because he doesnt know you can catch them with nets

whenever riddle visits he runs around and picks up weeds for him without scolding him

takes his job as the island representative very seriously. you will not catch him slacking in making sure his island is a well decorated habitat

hasn’t gotten the hang of custom designs but trades the holiday DIYs to floyd in exchange for a few sidewalk/clothing designs

treats any request by his villagers as his god given duty

he was placed on this island to look after everyone and he is going to do his job WELL.

takes every and any opportunity he can to go on leonas island to admire the architecture and try to recreate it himself

has many heart ponds on his island after he unlocked terraforming

once he had a sleepover with the first years and they switched consoles for the night

deuce was extremely nice and helped catch a few bugs and increase friendship with villagers for sebek. wholesome stuff

but of course the terror that is ace trappola was fighting for everyone else’s console to vandalize- i mean, terraform their island

safe to say no one’s island was safe from a pp pond. thanks ace >:(

deuce did get his revenge though, he teamed up with epel just to make a trash moat around aces house

even though ace is aware that deuce put up a bulletin post on his board calling him stinky, it has not been deleted lmao

Leona

gets rid of all the lion villagers, there can only be one member of the kingscholar family on this terf

he keeps a lot of the peppy villagers on his island

if asked, he will say they are annoying and won’t gtfo but it’s because its too silent and peaceful without the annoyance

hes too used to being interrupted all the time by a tiny cub jumping on him that he doesnt know how to function without it anymore wbk

not that he would kick out as many male villagers as possible but these jock villagers are getting on his nerves. like not even jack is that muscle obsessed

plus, big macho muscle men is such an outdated thing, grow up, Dom.

leaves gulliver alone. his business is his business

for someone so cranky, he beefs with the cranky villagers the most. says theyre so entitled and annoying LMAO

only one he doesnt beef with is isabelle. yeah, she gives him shitty ratings on his island but she’s so sweet, and she’s stuck with ruggies #1 enemy so she deserves the special treatment, you hear?

leona is the first out of his classmates to get his friendship high enough to receive a villager’s photo. no one knows how, but yea, leona and Stella are like besties now. they’re 4lyfers. BFFLS <33

what can he say, that island is his pride

makes a little library in his house, it sucks that there aren’t any readable books in this game so he studies the lore instead

he gets to one-up idia on the animal crossing expertise if nothing else🎉

places down mats and pet beds anywhere in case his lazy villagers need a lil nap (it’s not how it works but gotta appreciate the thought)

ruggie and idia have this weird cahoots going on where they leave pitfall traps everywhere for him.

rivalry with malleus ended, new rivalry with these two gremlins

leona has beat the 'lazy' (is it really?) allegations hes making custom design after custom design just to spite his classmates

his interest solely lies in giving his juniors the True High School Experience

posts loving reminders on his classmates’ notice boards. such as a very “clean up ur island” on kalim’s and a very kind “the onceler called, he wants his island back” on azul’s

actually they’re not reminders at all, they’re just disguised insults

he also very kindly leaves fruit that epel doesn’t have on his island. he says it was his starter fruit (it was not) so he doesn’t need it

in fact for some reason his island has become a playground for the first years

despite his complaints about bothering him, he always ends up opening up his island for them, even if hes still complaining during it

do not comment on it if you’d like to keep your eyeballs

Ruggie

runs a not-very-lowkey nook miles ticket business

take that azul, he’s the one drowning in riches now

made mad tickets by being an animal slave trader

azul felt it was morally wrong because they were so cute but ruggie does not give a flying eff

you all think azul's the person who treats people like pawns? absolutely the hell not

my guy ruggie & jamil are the kings of human (in this case, animal) meat shields & theres no time to debate morals in this economy

only one hes not keen on slaving away is Tutu. she simply looks too sweet for ruggie to subject that treatment onto

tries really hard to draw a lil picture of his classmates’ favourite villagers onto the notice boards, because he’s nice like that

plus it doesnt hurt to have a few brownie points with everyone :)

extends extra effort to get into jades good graces because 1. no one wants to be in his bad graces and 2. he is so high maintenance >:(

ruggie is probably being hella scammed bc jade has been eating up his iron stash with nothing to show for until a few months later

living his fun little fishing dad life

bro’s a pro fisher, he’s beating the fishing tourney with flying colours. knows every fishing trick in the book & helps sebek catch all the fish he keeps scaring away

doesn’t matter who hates tom nook the most, because ruggie hates him more

his villagers are going to unionize. we rally under comrade ruggie

doesnt listen to a damn thing the raccoon tells him after the tutorial and only pays for his house if he runs out of storage

he writes letters to his villagers and has a daily graffiti notice board post to remind everyone that their island motto is “down with tom nook”

vive la revolutione

because history is important or whatever blathers said, ruggie decided to honour her majesty the queen of hearts with his island flag

it depicts tom nook under a guillotine

riddle is slightly horrified

that One Time trey visited, he left with a new anti tom nook shirt bc ruggie insisted trey show off his hard work

unlike all of his other classmates, lilia is delighted to see so much passion and joins in on the revolution not knowing a single thing

one peruse into ruggies island and malleus is now convinced that tom nook is some sort of evil mastermind keeping the player and his villagers captive

Jack

increasingly disturbed by a villager named Ace who moved in

he gifted the villager a basketball out of kindness

but seeing how different the villager was from the ace he knew (cough cough, hardworking), jack would prefer if he moved out

also a time travel anti. his friends are all time travelling but he will refuse to be tempted

stretches with his villagers every morning. it’s good to get the oxygen flowing for a good, energizing start to the day

all of his buildings have either hedges or flowers around them. hes very committed to the aesthetic of Mother Nature

joining riddle in the Gardener Simulator squad. his sole goal is making his entire island a pretty little garden

sometimes he does wish he could have Leif on his island permanently. he likes the friendly lil sloth creechure

not much preference in who moves into his island but he does have a penchant for the sisterly and jock villagers

they’re friendly and always keeping each other in check. it’s a mutually beneficial relationship

plus they have way more integrity than the rest of his friends lmao bye

personally vibes with Sterling for that diligent knight energy. jack has plenty of role models to choose from and this time he happened to want to learn from silver

even though his entire island is the most jock-oriented place, his favourite villager is Bangle. she gets along with almost all of his villagers and is always in a good mood.

he thinks she has a good personality to lead the island pack

one of the few that tries to even give tom nook an ounce of respect. he wont join in on the hate but he wont necessarily defend the raccoon either

bless his big heart

the savanaclaw students adore jacks island and his complete butterfly exhibit

every friday after dinner, the savanaclaw students all huddle and play animal crossing together i will die on this hill

they love to camp out in jacks island and by the savanaclaw lounge, you’ll see a string of photoshoots in jack’s butterfly exhibit

who initiated this? why, leona of course! he’s giving jack the recognition he deserves & it gets the dorm bonding

(it also gets ppl to visit jack’s island more, which means ppl visit leonas island less😏)

puts up a daily motivational quote on the boards

got highly offended when sebek once compared him to a jock villager. it wasnt bc he hated the villager, it was bc sebek meant it as an insult >:(

Azul

his favourite villager is Marina

she’s super nice and has never hurt a fly. he complies to all of her whims. how can you say no to her??

finally, someone can understand idias penchant for cute things

in tears after knowing the octopi are sought after by the masses he’s so proud

was less proud when jade joked the octopi were endangered bc they were getting eaten like can you not >:((

cannot participate in the stalk market he time travels so much

sure, the weeds will increase but it’s a small price to pay for efficiency

pays his debts as fast as possible. not because he’s a good noodle, but because he won’t risk interest (even though there is no interest)

has an ongoing (one-sided) rivalry with redd and gathers all of the real artworks he can get

the paintings are a good deal he supposes but redd truly needs a better atmosphere if he wishes to continue selling

his boat doesnt even look approachable, & ambiance is a big factor when getting your clients to be comfortable. azul could totally lend out a few tips. all for the generous price of free!

he changed his mind after he misclicked and bought a fake painting, so he decided to pawn it off saying it was real. as a famous princess once said, some things never change

he’s long completed his art collection, but if you’re in need of a certain artwork, you can have it for the right price <3

pissed as hell over the snooty villagers. you think you’re better than him huh???

or, that’s what he wishes he feels. he just feels bullied in his own domain

money DOES grow on trees so therefore azul’s island is decorated in bell trees

he got excited when a tree dropped a coin.

got less excited when he picked up the coin and it got put in his wallet

he thought there were different coins and he could have a digital coin collection too :(

builds something akin to a mostro lounge 2.0, not really for monetary purposes, it’s just a nice outdoor plaza for his villagers to hang out in :)

mad respect for his villagers who go to the lounge during winter season. it is very cold :(

but they look so adorable in their sweaters and hats and scarves🥺 jade, floyd, perhaps its time to invest in a miniature clothing line

a completionist! he will try to earn every achievement, and complete his critterpedia!

he heard riddle wanted to complete the critterpedia so azul did it first to impress him, but all riddle told azul is that he needed to spend less time on the game osijfgnrfg big L

Jade

starting hissy fights with floyd over the villager he wanted moving into floyd’s island

refuses to let floyd on his island for weeks because he’s So Hurt. just look at how upset he is :'(

had Raymond during his hype and refuses to let him go to this day. he’s gotten attached

hes got some cool ass preppy vest and their eyes match!!

often mentions that he wants to invite Tia on his island in hopes someone gets the hint

(so far no one has yet, but jade is a master at playing the long game)

has a concerning amount of sharks on display: both in tanks and as plaques

he misses the hunt <3

kept refusing to give back wisp’s body in hopes something would happen but ur basically forced to give it back ugh

how boring. he hoped there wouldve been consequences or something

actually he hoped that wisp would lose his shit

his house isn’t really for living in, it’s for storage. his home is the outdoors and hes placing down the furnishing to prove it

many forget that jade is also just living his best life, just a little guy. hes so jealous of his villagers. he too wants to only water flowers, fish for hours, and visit his nice neighbours in their pretty little homes

almost always wearing some kind of wide-brimmed hat to really sell the image that his home is the outdoors

cater is constantly handing jade some more trendy clothes because he thinks jade’s fashion is atrocious, but jade. never. wears. them.

hell, next year he might just use his island as a way to recruit people into the mountain-lovers club

makes ugly ass custom designs and genuinely think it looks good (anyone remember that one time jade dressed himself?)

forget leona, maybe it’s jade that has the uncle fashion. socks with sandals and all

aside from his own kin, no one has seen him physically hold a console in his hands, yet, his hours in this game would give idia a run for his money

theres some skeletons in the basement yeah

no seriously, he has skeletons in the basement. it looks like a jail. theres custom design blood on the floor

all that iron he's been pilfering from ruggie goes into steel bars👍👍

but he’ll say its for educational purposes

between you and me though, thats the corpse of Chadder. he hates rats- wait what do you mean wrong game??

Floyd

loves Zucker because “he looks edible”

because of course he’d say that

terrorizing one octopus wasn’t enough he needed to terrorize two

obsessively resets his island until he gets peaches

fighting with jade over his console to drop iron for him

his house looks fine and normal in every room besides the basement.

there’s seven skeletons chilling in there with bubblegum k on 24/7 loop

its a skeleton rave because they deserve to have fun too goddamnit

out of the twins, floyd has the neater house. hes quite committed to the aesthetics of his virtual space

his happy home academy scores have reached the peak and hasn’t moved from there at all

it’s also vil certified! he really liked floyd’s home and told him he could land a career in interior design

says he’s gonna custom design the octavinelle uniform for azul and yassified it up so its a crop top & shorts now :D

dont forget them knee high boots

had fun designing but it was less of a “mini matching octavinelle uniform for us awww” and more of a “what would azul hate to wear”

(azul absolutely fuckin hates it to shreds so yay!! mission accomplished!)

even though azul reluctantly wears it, floyd had legitimately made the real uniform for him should azul choose to change clothes

his home storage is filled with 80% clothes bc of course his shoe collection carries over to the virtual space

horrible person he loves to scare wisp but will never hunt the ghost bits to give back to him

once he got his hands on the ocarina it was over for his multiplayer invites

his most used tool frfr. depending on the day he’ll play a pop song he memorized or a cacophony of sounds

kalim is the only one who thinks its a good idea to extend floyd an invite to the pop music club

like ace, also uses the type in your own answer function for evil. except he forgets what he writes all the time and it jumps back in his face

villagers be asking him a month later if his favourite hobby was “de-boning Blathers” and then saying they “should try it out themselves”

probably owns Saharah’s entire collection of mystery everything, and just like lilia he will run around and bury them on other peoples islands like some kinda hamster

another one that just pawns off stuff to his juniors, but instead of calling them gifts he straight up says he doesnt want it before handing them off

at least he’s honest LMAO

Kalim

his entire head is a radio that is constantly playing bubblegum k on loop

leaves stuff all over the place then forgets about it

when a villager gifts him something he will make sure to put it on or find a place for it to display right away

look at the cool leaf umbrella Pashmina gave him!!

personally vibes with the peppy villagers the most since they’re so upbeat. he tries his best to talk to Wendy every day

spends most of his bells on random furniture to place everywhere. his home storage has always been empty because he wants to display everything

he especially puts in extra work for the seasonal furniture but he’s constantly out of materials

runs circles around his villagers in greeting

takes advantage of the many reactions at his disposal. makes happy gestures at his villagers in greeting

he leaves fruit and picnic baskets all over the island in case his villagers wants to hold an impromptu party or have a lil snack

vending machines are a MUST

food is his love language!

gifts too but you can only give one a day :(

gets super sad when his villagers dont want to repeatedly talk to him

puts nice lil messages into his friends notice boards and draws a lil stick figure of himself to accompany them

kalim mentioned one day that he would wear an entire line of clothes vil designed and vil puts a few of them on kalim’s island

kalim most enjoys it when his villagers wear vil’s designs because he can match with them! thanks vil :DD

hes always wearing a wetsuit underneath in case he wants to go for a dive

adores the little seal, he goes swimming often just to bump into him to give him scallops

sticks around after he hands over the scallops just to see the seal hold it

encourages his classmates to take lots of photos with him

only his fossil and art exhibits are full

(the art exhibit not really because he doesn’t know how to spot the counterfeit artworks)

he doesn’t want to take the sea creatures away from their home

this does not apply to the insects though. call him blathers’ comrade because he is a valiant knight in chasing away the bugs on jamil’s island

in exchange, jamil farms materials for kalim (why is he always short on softwood???)

Jamil

floyd breaks into his island to hit all of his villagers with nets

emphasizes with blathers because of the mutual hate for bugs

not appreciating ace making crappy renditions of jamil as blathers on the notice boards

steers clear of flick. that has got to be the freakiest thing hes ever met and hes had several conversations with rook hunt

he can take all the bugs tho, if jamil was brave enough to catch any

the lazy villagers are absolutely adorable and wholesome but jamil is sobbing on the inside. listen its nice that you want to share your fruit with your friends but u can do better than insects

if those six-legged devils are invading your space, sooner or later, you’ll be contracting the entire alphabet of hepatitis

drives all the smug villagers out of his island. he doesn’t want this negative energy in his safe haven

he keeps a few peppy villagers. he thought he would tire of them quickly, but sometimes u need a lil happy-go-lucky energy as a pick-me-up

lets kalim pillage all of the coconuts on his island for his coconut tree forest

silver’s favourite villager resides on jamils island and he asks all the time if he can come over to say hi to them

silver keeps telling him that Plucky reminds him of his dad because he also gives silver daily self-defence tips and sleeps hella late

and u know what the more jamil hears of silvers father the more confused he gets. its hard to condense so many unrelated characteristics into a single personality, but apparently silver’s dad has it all

spends an ungodly amount of time in the able sisters and nooks cranny because the characters follow him around like little ducks and he likes the sound of their liddol footsteps

also very much appreciates all the authority he has on this island its the small semblance of control his virgo ass can get

he can legit tell a villager to move their house somewhere and they’ll agree with a smile

always treats his villagers with respect

has a strange obsession with fire. he places campfires and torches all over the place

will not rest until his island looks exactly the way he wants, down to the last detail

hella annoyed during island recruiting because he cannot pick his villagers, and everyone’s uniqueness is clashing with the aesthetic jamil was going for, now he has to change it

his favourite villagers are the normal personality ones, and if he could control the villagers that move in, he would have an island to Poppy and Bertha’s liking

another one of the cries when he receives letters from mom squad. shes just really sweet.

Vil

when Whitney moved on his island he got reminded of jack then took it back after getting to know her personality. ik it looks like a bad thing but its not, she grew on him very quick

not very fussy about his villagers, no matter how strange their designs are

ik ur probably thinking “but some of them are so ugly”, yeah but vil lives with twink he-man tailing him every day

nah im joking its bc he talks to his villagers often and they’re so nice and vil Gets Attached Easily

besides, they love all the clothing and furniture vil gives them. vil can’t even get epel to appreciate his own looks, this is a certified W for vil

sometimes its the inside that matters most <3

while vil kind of still has a bit of celeb status in-game, it’s not over-the-top, so it feels extremely refreshing to be regarded as Just Vil

plus the close-knitted community in the island reminds vil of home. its nice

wishes his villagers were nicer to each other but there isn’t a scold option in the game >:( might report them to isabelle

makes it a mission to get rid of a cranky villager after seeing them be mean to Gala. Whitney is the only ‘mean’ one allowed here

dreaded inviting leona to his island for one reason and one reason only: he put his own designs into able sisters

please, Gala is wearing leopard print, this is a crime

made his own custom designs to fill leonas island with them. the third years stay beefing for eternity

(according to trey, leona camps on vils island waiting to snatch Gala up)

besides the weaponry potential he has, vil spends most of his talents on making really nice designs

rook loves to wax poetry on the artistry of vil’s mind & then he ends up creating more. it’s a continuous cycle of art appreciation <33

speaking of rook, he had gifted vil an amiibo card of Étoile telling him ‘a star for a star’

vil does a very bad job hiding his favour towards her

but he does let rook take any lion, tiger, or gorilla villagers off his island (sigh)

found the most enjoyment after one of leonas favourite villagers left and came to vils island, saying that they finally realized they deserved better💀

but cater so graciously opened his mouth to dub Cheri as “leonas leftovers” and yeah, you can probably imagine how that turned out

Rook

the hunting instinct has Awoken

mans has every fish & bug & sea creature in the critterpedia

he did lots of island hopping to do so

need a tarantula? he’s got cages of them. they’re so fuzzy and fast and their eyes are so cute!

jamil has sworn off ever visiting rooks island. evidence of his hunting instinct are inescapable

unfortunately for jamil, rook is loud and proud about the fruits of his labour. invites everyone to come take a look at his island and museum

azul comes in frequently to take pictures in the aquarium

jade would be bonding with rook more over the hunt but, they started a bet over who gets the highest score in the fishing tourney so, no bonding today

(there was no competition to begin with since ruggie swept up the entire tourney anyways)

never fails to send each and every one of his villagers a personalized letter telling them how much he adores them

‘you look radiant when you’re asleep’ holds merit because some of his villagers do nap under the trees, but it’s a still a pretty unusual comment to receive

nevertheless, his villagers are very receptive to him and tend to send him many letters back

gets max friendship with so many villagers so quickly and for why?? he just wants their portrait to display in his house

theres a room full of portraits and really it looks more like a hitlist than a documentation of his journey of friendship

do not ask him to choose a favourite villager, for he finds beauty in them all. it is simply too cruel to ask him to pick just one

unleashes the voices in his head onto the bulletin boards

they are mostly love musings and occasional tiny drawings

some of the times they are helpful hunting tips!

idia claims that there was no need to inform his villagers about how to preserve the hide of a jaguar but you never know when his villagers need to defend themselves against The Unknown (no he will not elaborate)

camps on everyone’s island to take the villagers that are moving out

yes, it is a shame that they must leave monsieur magicam's island, but he too understands the calling of adventure. please, come join his island for a rest until the next island awaits :))

hosts bigger goodbye parties than kalim. rook would be a terrible island representative if he did not give a heartwarming farewell to his now former villager, oui?

their time spent together was enriching, but who is rook to stop them from pursuing another destination on their journey? people often forget that there is beauty in endings

Epel

also obsessively reset his island until he got a certain fruit

once he got his pears he traded them with jack for his apples

almost exclusively keeps his island in winter as it reminds him of harveston aww

not appreciating the comparisons to Apple

extremely not appreciating sebek putting her into an enclosure because he doesnt like the interior of her home

considering sebek partook in the comparisons to Apple, epel is now banishing any crocodile villagers to the furthest corner of his island. they can live in isolation😡

it really doesnt last long, he got attached to Gayle. like father like son fr

even funnier his favourite villager is Judy but he will tell everyone that its Boots

he also has the most fruit trees on his island out of everyone. ace raids epels island all the time to steal fruit and sell it off (mostly with permission, but theres always that one time without)

happily gave azul some tips on tree placement & how to display as much as possible bc this is his Expertise

cue the next week azul was constantly asking epel if he needed any furniture and epel finally named something he wanted

low and behold he got it in the mail and azul stopped pestering him

huh. his seniors are really nice, arent they? :D

vil made a regal little flag design for epels island that epel swore he would never use but it’s always there when vil visits

he absolutely keeps the tune rook composed though. it sounds like boss music #weballin

highkey adores the able sisters (especially sable) they’re so kind they remind him of his town’s elders

his villagers constantly compliment him and give him clothes🥺

unlike with vil he will happily wear whatever cute shit his villagers give him, even if he prefers the cool stuff

like you said vil, charm & cuteness is a weapon and its one his villagers exploit heavily. he’s jotting down notes the next time he wants vils lessons to end sooner😏

diligent with his landscape you will never see a single weed anywhere

his tree stumps are intentional and his tree placement is all arranged nicely

takes up gardening too and is the second to get the gold roses, but it didn’t fit with his island, so he passed them off them to malleus instead

kindly takes off the flowers colonizing riddle’s island to put them in his

can we get a round of applause? for epel has every species of flower on his island !!

Idia

finally, a place where he is The Boss and people will respect him for it

ortho recommended this game to him so they can play together

(it was mostly to comfort him after his favourite ship didn’t become canon)

cried the first time his villagers gave him a compliment :((

When Audie tells him “I managed to make some awesome friends, like you, Idia!”, he understands now why ortho told him to download this game

sniffling through this game it’s so wholesome

ofc he knows the lore about Audie its why shes his favourite

idia decides to keep his island full of peppy villagers to suit the vibe, match the aesthetic, etc

the only exception to the personality rule is if theres a cat villager, then they’re forgiven for any and all crimes

(this is a trick question, for they can do no wrong)

memorizes his villagers’ preferred gifts bc they get nothing else but the best!

actually all of his custom designs are cosplays. his villagers wear his designs. hes leaked water over this game more than hes ever in his life

isabelles soft, cheerful energy is really what gets idia through his day. shes the perfect amounts of outgoing without being too overwhelming

many people often believe that vil is catty but idia is literally right There

hes a bitch and everyone knows it. its just super forgettable because theres so many other aspects of idias personality that overshadows his mean bitch energy

idia will specifically go to azuls domain just to insult his trees and the placement of his furniture

he approves of the yassified octavinelle outfit tho its very tasteful

judges people who don’t know super obscure details like why do you have to be a casual AND normal about the game pick a struggle >:(

makes little mods and tweaks to the game. he coded in that his villagers can lie down on the mats, hammocks, and on the beach

four updates in though, a bug occurred and his villagers roll around on the ground like how they do in beds

it was way too funny so idia kept it that way and didnt patch up the bug

if anyone passes by him in the halls they might hear him singing acnh tunes

absolutely evil. doxxing people (its ruggie) for trying to auction off Bob & kicking his feet and wiggling his toes while talking to Audie the next second

he finds out that ace really wants to get rid of Francine so yeah, idias making derogatory drawings of Francine on ace’s notice boards and sending him anti-Francine memes

nothing brings two people closer together more than mutual hatred they said

Ortho

he’s inviting all of the robot villagers and they are having a blast

is very supportive of Ketchup’s dreams to be a popstar! he regularly puts microphone stands near her house and gives her lots of sparkly clothing

hes a fan of all the duck villagers, really. their little beaks and happy faces :)

his favourite villager is Doc. no particular reason but ortho has always wanted a grandparent

plus Doc talks about comics and superheros and ortho will not miss an opportunity to nerd out (even though Doc’s opinions are very on the safe side. ortho thirsts for controversy)

once ortho visited riddle’s island and asked for Kid Cat if he moved out

riddle gave him a generous donation of flowers to send Kid Cat off with😭😭

if idias skipping his 8 hours of sleep, ortho will make him do the stretches with the villagers (hes the reason why they're all out of sync)

technically ortho joins in but he doesnt exactly need any stretching

hacked the star fragment trees into his world. low risk, high reward!!

uses those trees to recreate the stargazer tree and designed his own starsending gear to go along with it☺️

shared the design with jack and invited him onto his island for a photoshoot

jack is amazed by the trees and says he cant wait until he can grow star fragment trees and ortho just smiles through it all

jack would be so disappointed to learn ortho got them in less than legal means

maybe he'll hack them onto his island in secret

also puts his own little mods in. he makes some custom design furniture and FINALLY PUTS THE FROG CHAIR IN

even adds some characters he wants and brings back the ruthless dialogue from the past AC games

personally makes an entire set of furniture that references his favourite movies (extra care is given to ones vil has starred in)

ortho’s playstyle is a lot less wholesome than idias because he likes a challenge

he made an entire DLC called animal crossing: survival island because he heard silver talking about it (probably works like minecraft hard mode)

put pride flag custom designs in the shop to wait for his villagers to come out :)

after they “come out”, ortho makes a little backstory on it and gets idia to guess their stories. he’s got lore in this island now !!

fluent in the entire soundtrack. he makes the noises, hes downloaded the bgm

ortho wants an irl isabelle and he’s preparing a 70-slide powerpoint presentation to convince idia to get him a dog

kinda overkill since all ortho needs is to give him the puppy dog eyes

Malleus

for the sake of this hc lets say he at least knows the controls

confuses this game for pokemon and tries to “catch” his villagers with the net

gets confused when they get mad at him

hes very very amused by how normal his villagers treat him

these tiny little animals are cowering in fear by the thought of ghosts even though they are technically walking over bones of the dead

they gas him up so much for the tiniest things he does and if it were anyone else but these fluffy animals he would think it was belittlement

it feels like he’s important, not for his titles nor his accomplishments, but just because his animal friends love him

he can see why silver loves to talk to the birds now

when he’s on someone’s island he can lurk and be afk until he’s kicked off

has statues everywhere. he doesn’t really know how to pick them up after theyre put down so don’t mind the random statues by the airport

tries to put down as least furniture as possible bc of one too many incidents of him picking up the sidewalk instead of his fruit

anyone near him during this can add many ancient curses to their forbidden vocabulary👀👀

when his villagers threw a birthday party for him...

rumours say the valley of thorns was sunny for the first time that day!!

his favourite villager is Coco and he cherishes her with his life

he also has a certain favour towards crocodile villagers as well, namely Drago bc he shares the name of one of his tamagotchis

doesnt do much in this game but talk to his villagers

loves the night walks in the game because he can bump into two things Celeste, or Wisp

hes so intrigued by Celeste shes fr just chilling and living her best life looking at the stars. it reminds him of lilia

given lilia is way more devious so maybe not😔

Wisp is a lot less brave than any ghost hes met and malleus thinks hes adorable. he feels very guilty for frightening him all the time however

it felt so dehumanizing trying to catch a dragonfly he was pouting for weeks

highkey cannot drop the game because he left for a while and when he came back his villagers were wailing about how he left them alone for months

hes never leaving them alone again he doesnt want them to feel abandoned

Lilia

his name in the game is not lilia, oh no

his name is dad. he is now the proud father of 10 more children

11 counting isabelle

debates are still on the table of whether or not tom nook is a legitimate dignified son of lilias

he even has a time out corner for his naughty villagers

its just him barricading that villagers house

he did barricade resident services for a good 15 minutes before receiving an amiibo card from silver and he wanted to use it

favours the lazy villagers because they are a certain brand of adorable and they try to make friends with everyone

technically loves all his villagers but he always points out Kevin because he ‘looks very friendly’

had a big ass laugh after deuce compared Kevin’s smile to treys

when he’s on someones island he treats it like hide and seek. he will never be found

getting access to the custom design was fun for lillia, but not for anyone else

sometimes he throws down some eldritch horror, sometimes his outfits look like a glowstick exploded

his island is in permanent halloween mode

buries random shit on other peoples islands. they dig it up thinking it’s a fossil and instead get mystery wallpaper, random stacks of clay, and random diys

call it an everyday egg hunt if you will

he has three rooms dedicated to kitchenware and is trying to (more like going to) find a way to cook smth nice for his villagers. its the least he could do as thanks

if not then he’ll just buy fruit baskets and hand them out to his villagers. he’s such an asian dad

doesnt bat in eye when his villagers knock up on his door and barge into his house

he's welcoming them with open arms. why of course Pudge you can sit on the ground and read ur book for as long as you want ^^

he'll be doing his own thing too #parallelplay or something idk

(on a side note, Pudge’s face is probably how every visitor on lilia’s island feels)

Silver

thought there were going to be more survival elements to the game since it starts with himself & a group of animals on some remote island

as soon as the plane was hovering over the island, silver was ticking off potential water, food, & shelter sources

threw him for a loop when he found out how peaceful this game was. it’s pleasant :)

doesn’t stop him from valiantly chasing off the wasps and scorpions and fleas away from his villagers

don’t worry Lolly, you’re under silver’s protection now. nothing will hurt you :)

even though the threats in this game are minimal, silver keeps lights & campfires all over just for safety reasons

if his villagers end up lost, all they need to do is follow the light! and if they want some alone time, the fire can keep them safe & warm <3

he thinks Flick is adorable. has a shy little personality and likes to make art and bug friends (?)

constantly supports Flick by giving him bugs for commissions. everyone deserves the chance to follow their dreams :)

peacefully picking seashells on the beach while sebek is scaring away all of the fish

really fond of the zodiac furniture. he wants to collect them all

he makes around 100 wishes every time. just lays his console down and presses A

thinks celeste is very sweet. sad that she doesnt visit often

certified photographer. he takes a lot of pictures with his villagers because he’s just. so happy they like his island, they like each other, it’s such a wholesome atmosphere

cater and silver have a shared magicam account dedicated to their pics it’s very cute and the followers mostly consist of savanaclaw and diasomnia members

loves seeing his villagers interact with each other. their conversations are so cute, they visit each others homes!! bros gonna sink into his mattress and flood it with tears

do not underestimate him, even if it is most likely made up, silver will become fluent in the Language of the Coded Animals

he will not curse but the animal noises are the closest he’ll get if he ever chooses to

all of his villagers get a royalty treatment. silver's residents are the most spoiled residents ever

fills his notice boards with drawings of his villagers saying nice things, like reminding him to drink water, or to hug his friends

at the same time he also puts in survival tips just like how lilia raised him. its a very contrasting mix of messages

Sebek

even online he is Too Much

sprints everywhere and wonders why all the bugs and fish flee

hes got places to be and no amount of time to waste

his home interior is a lot like diasomnia but bro do not let him get ahold of the custom designs

im sure hes a really good artist but anyone who's tried operating the custom designs knows that it zaps any artistic skill you've ever learned

traditional art? fucking amazing. acnh art? now ur kid with a purple crayon

stick figures. drawing the diasomnifam does not work. theres 4 stick figures. one has horns, one has bat wings, ones surrounded by animals, and one is Just Green.

his priorities shifted to practicing custom design until he mastered it

does not take commissions. if he ever bestows a custom design onto someone, its a sign of sebek’s approval/respect of them

hes very committed to the aesthetic. hes terraforming his island every single week based on his current mood (bros going thru it)

competes with silver for every kind of grading they get (happy home academy, island rating, etc)

this is what motivates him to come back and play

dont be mistaken either this is not one-sided. mutual rivalry is the best way to keep the other improving !!

hoards all of the holiday materials to make the diys that he doesnt have or collect

personally having the maddest beef with the snowboys bc one accidental nudge of a snowball resulted in them insulting sebek’s snowmen-building competence

sebek obviously does better the next time, but then the snowboys are just so egotistic for no reason. all they did was sit there and get built, they could never measure up to his master malleus, or lilia

by the third run-in with the snowboys, he just opts to crush or drown the snowballs. the winter DIYs weren’t worth the effort

the fued w/ one Ace Trappola has not ended since the day he got the console because they wanted the same villager and started fighting over Agnes’ amiibo card

amiibo cards can be used multiple times and clearly they both do not know this

probably the only one out of the cast to actually use the 'ask blathers' feature

the owl is a very dutiful and knowledgeable curator. sebek believes he can learn much from him

only thing to complain about is how often blathers is asleep during the day. if blathers were a retainer he most certainly would not make the cut.

183 notes · View notes

bulbabutt · 2 months

Text

so im white, lets just get that out of the way, but i wanna talk about the orientalism in windblades design.

this doesnt feel like my place to talk about but if no one brings it up then no ones gonna learn about it or second guess it. im tired of other white people not noticing this problem or thinking its fine. if anyone asian (specifically japanese) has any thoughts or personal input it is SUPER fucking welcome! its hard to find people talking about this.

so transformers has a women problem in general. they set up women in the 80s in one episode and never elaborated on it in that show. they added arcee in the movie. they put a couple in the beast wars era, but outside of blackarachnia (becoming a literal succubus) we dont really get any of those characters adapted (besides arcee) over iterations. never any new ones really.

then the comics get windblade. i havent read the comics, this isnt about anything that happens in them. this is about her design how she comes off as as shes been adapted into cartoons. i wont comment on events from the comics outside of her origin, as i know fuck all about it.

so she was supposedly a fan-voted character, but her 'fan-voted' aspects have nothing to do with the problem (in fact the fan-vote was more of a suggestion because a few things dont end up being true) the voted aspects are as follows:

autobot. jet. fights with swords. red & black. named windblade. female. valiant. telepath. from Kaon.

so here's what that ends up looking like.

so they took some liberties. there was other concepts where she was a european knight etc, but this is where they landed. she has this extremely feminine figure, complete with makeup and sculpted hair. many people immediately mistake this look for a geisha (though supposedly being kabuki) she gets little pump heels, it makes her very human woman shaped. birthing hips and all. thats classic girl robot stuff. its the specifics of it that are an issue.

so thats kind of a lot of japanese motifs. the makeup, the swords, the hair... why does it look like human hair? thats a very specific hairstyle on a character who doesnt have hair...

on its own, having a japanese inspired aesthetic isnt the problem. i mean, coding characters to be from different places is fine. having characters coded as a specific race could be fine. jazz already exists, and despite being taken by racist creators sometimes (cough michael bay cough) its not inherently bad that he is black coded, specifically when in the hands of black creators/voices. thats key.

so having a transformer who landed in japan and took on some culture from there. you could see that happening. that could work if in the hands of people who were japanese.

but thats not even her backstory. shes not even from Kaon (as was voted), instead she's from another planet entirely, a more spiritual one, which narratively makes her alienated from cybertronians. this alienation adds to the problem. "shes not from here." "shes not like us."

you'll see many people look at this design and think "is that geisha transformer?" and as the character isnt from japan and knows nothing about the culture that inspired her, the media itself never corrects anyone. no one in the text goes "no shes not a geisha shes actually based on a kabuki performer", no one says any words about it, its just how she looks, its just aesthetics without explanation or cultural background. shes not literally japanese, she just looks it. its easy to mistake without cultural context from a western perspective, so calling her a geisha becomes a rampant problem. general audiences arent looking at forum posts form 2014 where someone correctly explains what the motifs are. shes made by white people, and white people are largely the ones consuming the media. its unfortunate, and could have been avoided if the culture shes inspired by was relevant to her character.

so she's clearly heavily inspired by japanese aesthetics, which codes her as being an asian woman in this media but written by non japanese people. and then she becomes so popular that she has to start making appearances in shows.

she shows up in robots in disguise first. lets compare her to strongarm (the only other girl in the show)

having this japanese woman be far more thin and feminized than the other girl characters is the problem. strongarm is literally the first non feminized main girl transformer (not counting strika) she is much more in line with the men around her, square and broadshouldered, shes the largest car of the bunch. that was an upgrade finally. and then we get windblade. she has ruby red lipstick, human hair, heels, jewellery. on its own? thats fine. but keep in mind, shes heavily japanese coded already. then shes immediately seen as a romantic conquest for sideswipe (though he never gets anywhere, he literally claims ownership) it leans into tropes of sexualizing asian women because she stands apart from strongarm. shes the flirt, shes the very feminine one. is this on purpose? its not their fault windblade looks like that in the comics and strongarm looks like this. but side by side what is it saying? did they intend to say this about their asian woman? no, probably not intentionally. its kind of unconscious bias that tends to happen when you dont have a diverse writers room. no one notices until it hits the audience.

but lets just jump in here with the other weird problem in RID, because shes not the only one who jumped from the comics.

drift (who while being a samurai in the comics (literal?) doesnt.... LITERALLY wear a suit of samurai armour) shows up. with his two minicons who act as his children (who hes very strict with). theres a heavy overuse of the word honour. he owes a life debt, hes very humourless etc... they also never explain why he wears this armour. he came straight from space. he doesnt even turn into anything big that warrants it, hes just another sports car. bumblebee and sideswipe are sports cars too. but why is drift a sports car? tokyo drifting. drift. you get it.

so drift also is a comics original character. he, however, looks nothing like that

i will assume that drift looks different for one reason....

i mean. i shouldnt have to tell you why that was bad, right? you guys get why michael bay movies are bad? (if you genuinely dont please enjoy this series as a starter) ill just assume you do. knowing that that drift is bad, can we also say windblade is suffering from a similar problem?

this show brings in these FOUR new characters and heres how they look side by side.

so. okay the minicons are raised by drift, they share his aesthetic, okay. we dont know where he got that aesthetic but yeah they share it. windblade.... its unclear in this show if she shares the being from another planet like idw part. shes on a mission from god to be here and thats all we know. but the point is they have no similar origin. yet they all look like they could be from the same place. that they shares a (japanese inspired/coded/stereotyped take your pick) culture. meanwhile our from ep1 mains look like this:

so that feels. specific.

its not inherently bad to code robots as japanese, however its a problem when it seems to be for aesthetics alone. its stereotyping. they look nothing like the rest of the cast, everything like each other, and are from completely different backgrounds. they literally have the same colour palette? theyre not even like that in the comics.

sidenote, if you add sideswipe (who's alt mode has kanji on it and an asian voice actor so we can assume some coding there too) they look like this. yes they all have swords.... no one else does!

yes, windblade is the only character with a white face. makeup. yes sideswipe claims ownership over her to fight off one of the minicons. its not wrong to show windblade being harassed by a man, but it is wrong that no one ever says "leave her alone" you know? like thats just whats to be expected of her. it sucks. but at least her voice actress was asian! that wont happen again.

so. moving on to cyberverse, she becomes a central character. character wise? shes great. she gets to do a lot, no one sexually harasses her here, we're free of that era.

comparing her to the other autobot women, shes more in line now. if thats a good or bad thing overall is less the point (ie theres no autobots built like strongarm was, they are all just as thin and curvy as windblade is) but to me its still very apparent that shes still implying human hair. even with how simplified all these designs are.

like you can see how these red lines around her eyes get lost at a distance, same with the clips in her 'hair'. its clearly just trying to adapt her original design and im not saying thats a wrong choice they made, but i am saying its really busy in comparison

maybe thats a nitpick. but here it seems much more pronounced just how specific her head piece is because we can compare her to chromia, who is from the same place. do these two characters look like they have the same culture? not really. chromia and arcee look more alike. maybe thats just because they were designed later, but its unfortunate none the less.

even comparing her head to the seekers, what she is kind of supposed to be, they get the same old starscream mold. maybe she'd look better if they just did that? or something similar? like, give her a helmet. no one has hair. please stop implying hair. we all know what youre doing.

none of this is me saying i find these shows bad or that i hate windblade, i genuinely love her! and i love both these shows! it just feels hard to love her because of how she was designed. its not a problem with having a japanese coded character, its how stereotyped the look is. how othered it is. it leans into racist tropes. its orientalism, using japanese aesthetics to make her look interesting and different. you can tell she was made by white people.

how is it that despite being around for 10 years now, no ones tried to redesign her?

also look at the toys! look at the god damn toys!

she can take that head piece out to have a FAN. why does she need a fan?? shes got fucking WIND JETS ON HER BACK! its very obvious why they did this. shes a japanese woman, she can fight with a fan to complete the aesthetic! despite her character never having even been there! and no other transformer using a fan weapon! shes so COOL AND DIFFERENT like that isnt she?? holy fucking shit

to go back to those original voted concepts for a second? if we went back to the drawing board?

a telepathic valiant female autobot who can fly, has a red/blue/black colour combo (with yellow accents) uses swords, and maybe even with canonical asian heritage....

could they even do that? is it possible?

...

OH! wait it SUPER IS! who'd have thought!?

im NOT saying "we dont need windblade! we have a better girl with the same concept!" cuz thats stupid. do not misunderstand, theres room for WAYYYY MORE TF GIRLS! the literal 1:13 ratio is FUCKED! i know windblade had to fight to exist too and that sucks!

i just think it's CLEARLY possible to do this better, and it SHOULD be entirely possible to have windblade (who was LITERALLY holding court as the MAIN girl transformer for years) to be, i dont know, not so racistly designed? i think its entirely possible to fix, i just wish they would have tried already.

and this is just what my white ass has thought about since meeting her and not seeing anyone else bring it up. like going hunting for a real take about it just meets you with the rampant misogyny problem in fan spaces. its hard to find people talking about it in a normal way, but if they have before id love to know.

i just wanted to put my thoughts about it down, maybe get people to think about it more or talk about it more. cuz jeez, i would really like them to fix the problem. like they fixed the arcee problem in idw, right? can they fix windblade next?

#the tf binge thoughts #maccadam #windblade #transformers #tf windblade #long post

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highdio · 2 years

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I got an ask about the model boat that DIO's building as he and Pucci hang out and talk about the stand ‘Survivor’ in Part 6. The scene deserves its own post because it's the basis for one of my least-favorite wrong takes: that Dio is re-living a trauma by re-creating a "shipwreck" scene. Also no dw anon I don't think you implied this. This take's been repeated so often and without reflection that it's wound up being treated as something canon, check out this TV tropes entry to see how reflexively it gets parroted:

Dio's building a model ship in the middle of a wreck??? Fanon takes can take on a life of their own and, in Dio's case, so many people know his character through the caricature constructed around and outside of the canon instead of through how Araki actually wrote and drew him. So I'm going to break down the actual Part 6 scene to examine how we wound up so far from the truth of what's actually going on in it.

1. The first thing we need to get clear is whether Dio's model even resembles the ship he killed Jonathan on in Part 1, and the short answer is no, it doesn't. For reference here's the model:

and here's the ship from Part 1:

Both are hybrid sail/steam (implied on the model by the paddle wheels even though there's no smokestacks) but the ill-fated ocean liner that took Jonathan and Erina 1/2 way across the Atlantic is a lot bigger and grander. The OVA adaptation's helpful because it’s spot-on faithful to the manga:

It's gigantic, you can see three full decks and two large smokestacks, along with elaborate baroque-looking detailing all over the stern end. Dio's model ship looks entirely different. It's simple by comparison and, were it scaled up to full size, it'd still be a lot smaller (check out the model rowboats and their oars around it for size reference).

So it's not clear that the model Dio's building is even a callback to Part 1 or some sort of easter egg on Araki's part (after looking at the two ships side-by-side my gut tells me it’s not). Keep that in mind as we step through how much the scene's gotten mangled in fanon.

Like I said, the model-building panels form the basis for an oft-repeated bad take you see a lot online, where people say it's a "shipwreck" scene (I guess because there's rowboats around it?) and, therefore, a re-enactment of trauma. Ofc that's bogus. The ship's fine, and rowboats are how crew come ashore whenever a tall ship drops anchor. There's even a lighthouse and the ship is resting in a tranquil harbor. The anime version of the scene shows these details clearly:

Hopefully it's easy to see the scene for what it is: Dio engaged in the most mundane hobby you can think of, while having a leisurely conversation with his BFF. As Pucci explains it, they're talking like children ranking their favorite action heroes by how strong they are. It's a very chill little scene, remarkable for how unremarkable it would be if this wasn't DIO and Pucci.

It's worth including the official digital color version here too because, apparently, they forgot DIO was a vampire and gave the scene a cheery sunlit mood by making the sky outside the windows as blue as day:

It's a mistake ofc but it also underscores the relaxed feel to the scene: out of context, the day-lit color choice feels natural because the scene's got such a comfy vibe.

So how do we get from a chill guy chilling (canon) to a guy re-living a trauma (fanon)? Answer is, ofc, projection.

It's a fandom thing to need a villain's evilness to be justified - explained (excused?) in a way - through past trauma, say, or a series of unavoidable circumstances (or maybe some valid ideology they hold). A villain's villainy is only legitimized, validated, or complex enough *if* they've earned it by having a "good enough" reason to act bad. In Dio's case, where 'bad' is a wild understatement, some fans simply need him to be hurt, traumatized, or otherwise sufficiently suffering in ways that Araki just never intended. And this need is so strong it can override what's in front of their own eyes, even where the author and the text suggest the exact opposite.

In this way the Survivor scene acts as a Rorschach test where some people see the traces of trauma where there are none - in fact, it's the one scene where DIO seems most at ease, relaxed and unguarded (and ofc without his "shadow"). As such the scene and its misreading encompasses a lot of that's wrong about how fanon can sometimes view Dio and a lot of what's right about how Araki wrote him.

_____________________________________________________

Thanks to the anime there's an additional coda to all this. The Survivor scene in the Stone Ocean anime is faithful to the manga, but there's a twist: DavidPro gives us a sort of 'easter egg in reverse.' Remember the grand multi-deck ship Jonathan and Erina left for their honeymoon on? Here's the anime version, from all the way back in Season 1:

It looks a lot like Dio's model.

So here we have something from the manga that's likely not originally a callback getting turned into part of a callback, but in reverse order since the callback gets shown four seasons prior.

Of course, none of that negates the fact that the Stone Ocean anime scene is remains one of safety and comfort. The model ship isn't wrecked and DIO and Pucci are at their most relaxed and conversational. The scene hasn't been reshaped into any indice of trauma. What you have then is a fun little callback for the observant, and with it a wicked re-contextualization of this panel:

Now it’s become Dio towering over a model of the ship he killed everyone on. And somehow this feels appropriate: Dio's got a gift for casually being a jackass when referring back to some of the worst things that he's done. Aside from the obvious comparing human lives to slices of bread, a good example is this panel where he refers to Zeppeli's horrific death in the most deliberately offhand way:

So, anime Dio leisurely building a model resembling the ship he accidently destroyed while killing and then desecrating the body of the only man to ever defeat him? It feels right in character: a subtle nod to one of the many calamities he's caused. Assuming the viewer's more Joestar-sympathetic than me, I feel like what Dio's doing here and, on a meta level, what DavidPro either intentionally or unintentionally is doing is having some fun at the viewer's expense.

#jjba #dio talk #jojo's bizarre adventure #stone ocean #dio brando #dioposts #mp #jojo #jojo no kimyou na bouken #jonathan joestar #so anime

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prototypelq · 1 year

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What are you favorite DMC character dynamics? (outside of Dante and Patty) Which ones would you want to see more of?

Hi, dear anon, thank you for sending the asks! It`s pretty fun to write them and I hope it is entertaining for you to read the replies

Sooo, the answer should be fairly obvious here hehe. DMC is a series that is literally built around the Loser Sparda Twins, much more than any other game series that comes to my mind. Dante is the heart and soul of the games - he is the living impersonation of the family theme, which is the underlying main theme of the games, underneath all the fun demon slaying; Dante is the core of the games, so that makes Vergil the living impersonation of all the struggles that come with family bonds, and at the same time he is the main advocate and victim of the 'fun violence' the series is known for. I don`t think you can like the series without falling heels over for these two blockheaded idiots and their family drama.

Actually, the family drama is how I ended up in the DMC. I saw the trailer for definitive 5 (the one that goes 'Hes your brother?; Hes your father; Nero is my son?'), the one that shamelessly spoils the plot, and hell yeah I`m down for that. So I checked some videos, bought 5 and Vergil, and here I am, in this very deep and sticky swamp known as DMC.

As you can probably tell, I adore Dante&Vergil trying, failing, and trying again to restore their brotherly bond. I have all the angst/hurt/comfort gen fics bookmarked in their respective tag on ao3, and I mean ALL of them.

Their duality and the way twins embody the principle of complementarity towards each other is fascinating to me. It is also why I adore the ending of 5, and have no idea where to take the series in a possible next game, since the conflict that the series was built upon since the beginning has been solved.

You`ve asked about the relationships other than Dante&Patty, but its like my second favorite in the franchise, I have to write some words about it. I adore them because I believe Patty came into Dante`s life at a very low place, and he really needed someone to be there for him, even if he himself out loud said he wanted to be left alone. Patty was persistent and sweet in a way a small girl can be, and her constant pestering was a good distraction and a helpful nudge for Dante. Also, her backstory is way too close to home for him (an orphan on the run from demons) and I think that protecting her (like covering her eyes to hide the bloodshed) did give him some closure with his own childhood trauma.

Other relationships... and mostly fanon-made. DMC is extremely character-centric, yet not character-centric at all because most of the emotional stuff about anyone fans have to guess or make up. Sooo this is just headcanons below mostly.

Dante&Nero! I think Dante is the Uncle material, if post-twins-return he will start actually trying to be an uncle he would win the Worlds Best Uncle Award for sure. However, first he would have to explain a lot to Nero and that would be...interesting to see. Weve seen that Nero can hold his grudges for a long time (just like his dad), so fixing their relationship is gonna be a big task for Dante, but I also think Nero can come to understand why Dante acted the way he did and forgive him. Nero also very slightly partially to blame because, kid have you looked in a mirror? Ever? But its probably just...a writing loophole. Anyway, back to the uncle and nephew - I`d love to see them share interests! These two obviously have a lot in common, so it`d be fun if they tried to rock jam sometime, have an arms practice, talked guns, etc. It feels like Dante would be up for pretty much any activity together. Also, the noogies. Nero gets ALL the noogies for the 20+ years they should have known each other. There is no escape.

Vergil&Nero are great, of course! I`m sure they can work out their relationship together. Vergil is good father material, he`ll do just fine.

I`d love to see the sparda trio do something together! My personal headcanon is that they would all enjoy a symphonic rock orchestra show (because orchestra makes the classic rock songs sound almost better than the original, and I`m projecting very much here)

I really want to see more Nero/Kyrie! They had very little time to show their relationship and they are very sweet) And Kyrie herself really needs more screentime, her only character trait is pretty much 'neros girlfriend' and she needs more than that. Her concept art in armor is GREAT actually, and it should`ve been the one in-game. There is a fic on fanfiction The Emptiness is so Real by Night Companion where I think the author capture the Kyrie we should have gotten. The Kyrie that has grown around church, but also very close to military men and she should know the consequences of their lifestyle, as well as be able to help them. Her kindness should not be unassuming and naive, but firm and deliberate.

The undercharacterisation issue goes the same for Lady, Trish and Lucia. All of them need actual arcs and development and badly. Lady had a very tiny little bitty hint at having her own emotional struggle with family drama in 5, but that`s just not enough. All of them are almost identical to their first appearance in the series, and while, understandable as they are side-characters, this becomes a huge problem when they are returning side-characters, in every game entry. The ladies need their own stories.

(sidenote: I don`t ship Dante with anyone, mostly because I feel like he has had quite enough problems on his own and a relationship on top of that would only drag him, and the person down. But if I were to ship Dante with someone I`d go with Lucia)

Other characters that I wish had more character are the Devil Arms! They were very sentient and talktative in 3 and we had Balrog in 5 ('Ignite the flame NOW' gives me freakin chills every time), so I hope we get a little bit more of that. There is a headcanon that Yamato is 'she', and I fully support it and want other Devil Arms to have some character traits of their own! (King Cerberus, my beloved, gimme more of the elemental doggo)

Thank you for the ask! Have a great May day)

#ooh tagging this one is gonna be fun #thank you for the ask really #its been my pleasure #dmc #dante sparda #vergil sparda #nero sparda #patty lowell #dmc trish #dmc kyrie #dmc lady #king cerberus #dmc lucia #there is very little patty propaganda here #see i held myself back as long as i could

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no1ryomafan · 9 months

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Yknow for most of my tumblr rants I like to keep stuff vague even when it’s apparent what thing I’m aiming at because I don’t like to trash talk people openly who I don’t know or formally knew especially on the most mundane subjects but there’s one particular thing that has been bothering me about fandom culture that I’ve noticed as of late that I gotta rant about:

And that’s the whole ordeal of “you need to consume this series in a certain way” mindset as apart from leading into general bad traits fandom culture has-toxicity and gatekeeping-I feel this is just another reason why some people get easily scared off by getting into certain things.

To further elaborate I wanna first say there’s nothing particularly wrong with advising a set order of things to consume in a series under the context of either:

<someone asked to begin with what order to watch/read/play something <a series has multiple sequels that are connected in some capacity so advising the correct order because sometimes it’s not the “chronological” that’s the correct way

Those cases you are making sure the person gets into a series by following the story the way it’s intended, that’s fine, I’m more so talking about how a handful of certain fandoms are centered a series with multiple canons and they don’t really overlap yet fans try to act authority over how you should consume the media when at that point it’s just a matter of “which series looks the most interesting too you”.

I’ve seen this behavior pop up a bit in getter fandom and while it’s not anything toxic-thankfully-I really don’t agree to the notion of you need to read all of the mangas JUST to understand the Animes when they’re ALL in their own canon. But this post isn’t actually about Getter because the general atmosphere I’ve seen in my own circle is “we really don’t care where you start as long as you’ve seen Getter” which I appreciate and can’t really get too upset over the series discourse, I’m more so noticing this happening in a different older anime fandom I was kinda apart of being Soul Eater.

Now I’ve only seen this said by two people so I’m not gonna claim this is a general thing by the fandom-fuck knows how many soul eater fans there are anymore even if it’s more recognizable than getter-however I get the vibe this is something fans when newbies get into the series advise: To not get super into SE as it be unnecessary, for those who don’t know it’s one of those animes that was unfortunately cursed with “starting off a solid adaption for the first half but by the second half it completely diverted from the manga and the anime content is not only different but inferior from its source” which from what I seen, had a lot of old SE fans advise newer fans to watch the anime up to a certain point aka right where it changes from the manga and than going to read the manga with the stuff the anime didn’t adapt, and than after you finish the manga you can go back to watch the anime if you so choose.

I really, really, REALLY do not like this approach and despite what I said early about “different iterations” this one even worse given the context SE doesn’t have that many canons outside of these and a spin off series.

Literally this entire process could be avoided if someone just said “don’t watch the anime because it’s not a good adaption, read the manga” because even if that sounds gatekeepy it’s at least not a unnecessary back and forth process with the anime being CLEARLY redundant. Sure, SE like 100+ or so chapters but even if watching the anime adapt the first half is faster than reading it, it just makes things needlessly complicated to newer fans.

It’s also not the end of the world if someone watches the show and never reads the manga because guess what? We all like stuff that is FUNDAMENTALLY flawed. People are too worried about their media being perfect when no series is and there’s nothing wrong with liking something that’s a bit messy because people still keep up with series that are hella fucking messy. If they complain about the anime sucking but refuse to read the manga that’s on them, not your issue because they knew what they were getting themselves into if someone was warning them. We also just gotta deal with people not giving stuff we like a second chance after the first time because needlessly shoving a “order” in their face isn’t gonna make them feel inclined to check it out again.

My only advice I can give from this long messy rant of a post that went too far on tangent about something I don’t even know is said by many fans-and if anyone finds this and is active in the SE circles please feel free to correct me-is NEVER advise someone a order of getting into a thing unless there IS canons that do connect with each other by being direct follow ups. Don't get mad at someone for getting into a series from the most confusing or hated iteration, because if they are actually interested they'll want to consume more of it even if they have a weak first impression.

Never force anything onto ANYONE and just welcome new fans with open arms, thats a way to make a safe space even in some of the worst fandoms.

#meg text #im not tagging the two series I mentioned here lol #I would’ve mentioned more like TF or Gundam but I haven’t experienced enough of them only been more of a outsider #I would’ve mentioned mega man but I try to distance myself from fandom talk (also that be more bias then me slightly mentioning getter lol)#I do stand by tho you don’t need to play every classic or x game to get zero/zx/legends though #or that you need to play all of battle network to get starforce bc the latter hardly references the former #but if anyone has any other fandom shit like this they can relate too feel free to share because I’m worried if I was too mean 💀#(if my assumption about soul eater was hella off I’m sorry but I got the vibes hard)

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blueiight · 1 year

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idk if louis decided he was gonna ditch lestat, grace might've accepted him back although the freaky non-aging yeah by that point would've been an issue but i guess psychologically for louis with her around, there was still some hope that he could get out? but once she's gone its like that door is fully closed in his mind too

do recall tho that grace and louis never rly contact eachother after a certain point. louis is too into in his own vampy family, and likewise grace with her own family, even moreso w/ levi symbolically replacing louis as the Man of the House in ep3. the lines r drawn in the sand. once again idk if ur the same anon or not, i think yall being entirely too generous to grace here + assuming she'd just take back her brother who she hardly had that much interest in contacting outside of sending jonah his way + sending a note that maman died. when they did meet in ep4, grace+ levi were both disgusted. ur fine w/ ur white daddy in the quarter aint u lou like how she says.

this falls into the fan issue of seeing black female characters as ever generous empty vessels of servitude for black males/female charas of nonblack varieties w/ no interiority or capacity for any complex human emotion when no. thats not how grace is with louis. grace is convinced by ep4 id say + seals the belief in ep5 when she leaves that her older brother [metaphorically or literally] died somewhere along the way+ was replaced by an evil gay demon. this may sound hyperbolic, but she literally says ur not my louis and buries him. how else can u interpret that lol. she has a complex relationship with her brother that degrades throughout season 1, and in no way can i see canon show! grace being some unconditionally loving confidante to her battered gay brother, vampire or not. she made no indication of disapproving of paul being in the asylum, or disapproving of louis's illicit dealings, its only once louis diverges from being a provider for the dulacs, and comes by in the night/if at all, that grace starts to resent her brother. let black women be complex characters. and like one of my other anons said as i attached below

louis himself, is prideful as he is tormented.. even in the modern day, he does not self identify as a victim at the very least, for the purposes of daniel's writing + for reasons ive described time + time again, so what makes u think a 1920s-30s lou after being beat would go to his baby sister if she stayed in town somehow? like i said, being part of the historical great migration/s makes a lot of sense for grace + levi's characters. whether louis isnt paying out, or grace is refusing louis's money [lol u aint had no problem when big bro was a trick but now that white daddy pay the bills u aint touchin dat money? who knows]. outside of that theres very few opportunities for the freniere-dulacs, used to their former conditional opulence in the treme, in this here jim crow south outside of going up north. do recall that years before, louis hid the fact that papa du lac was boutta drive their family into destitution for years, even from his own mother, and especially from his younger sister. if we take the pilot draft describing grace as 22 or the books, this means grace is decently younger than show!louis. when he ran away from lestat in ep3 before finding claudia, he didnt go to the treme where his sister + then alive mother was, but to the old poor black neighborhoods, seeking absolution in an abstract sense for his self perceived wrongs, and bringing that redemption to lestat. to be turned, to live forever, to love him in a way his born family could not. eps 2-3 show that louis cannot go back to his born family anymore. something something ziska fill me up post here

#yn.#yn answers #iwtv #louis de pointe du lac #grace de pointe du lac

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fizzingwizard · 11 months

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Because of those last two posts I randomly started thinking about Yugioh... and in particular the Doma arc... about which my opinions haven't changed since I was a teen, even though they were unpopular ones.

Since I'm perpetually long-winded I'll put the tl;dr up here: fans were unreasonbly harsh on Other Yugi during Doma because they were too busy feeling upset about Yugi to appreciate Other Yugi's storyline. But some of that is Doma's fault because while it's way stronger than a lot of filler, it's over-involved and has a rushed ending that fails to express its hero's growth. Also YGO fan culture circa Doma-era majorly sucked lol.

I never hated Doma. It's is my favorite filler arc, and what's great about it because it's filler is that it's not dumb. So much of 90s/2000s filler arcs in anime were just painfully stupid. But YGO, buoyed, I guess, by it's over-reliance on card games, was able to construct a couple filler arcs that weren't mindless nonsense. Not all of them! The KC Grand PRix, for example, is so bad it's unwatchable. But the Noa arc gave us a lot of backstory for the Kaiba brothers and asked some interesting questions about family and love. It doesn't go super deep, and the ending is uh, pretty weird, but also very fitting for sci-fi. It's not my favorite, because despite the ways it's better than most filler it's still got a lot of "stupid filler" features. But I appreciate that it took on something which was going unaddressed by canon (the Kaiba bros and their history) and tried to develop it.

Doma was like that. It took on the fact that Other Yugi is the soul of a pharaoh from ancient Egypt who has no memories of being so, and asked, "What does he actually feel about that?" Because all he does is play card games. Now and then we see him joking around with Yugi, even more rarely the others. But mostly he shows up, plays a cool combo, makes a kingly speech, and then disappears back into the Puzzle. It made sense in the context of the story. He's still fighting the war from the past, and he doesn't want to interfere too much with Yugi's present life. But as a fan, you gotta wonder what Other Yugi felt, discovering he's not actually an aspect of Yugi's personality but an entirely separate person with a past he no longer remembers.

Doma decided to ask that question. Of course it couldn't give us Other Yugi's backstory, since that would happen in canon. But it could address how Other Yugi feels while still not knowing anything. It could look at all the horrible things which have happened which are connected to Other Yugi, and which people (even fans sometimes!!) blame Other Yugi for even when it's not his fault, and ask what impact so much pressure would have on him. It said, "He's stressed. He acts strong, but he's not okay. He's reliant on Yugi for humanity, which means compassion and faith in his own goodness. If Other Yugi is a good person, he must be unable to look at the horrors going on around him and think it's fine. He must be wondering if he himself is evil, for being part of the cause. And a good person who thinks he's evil is bound to reach a breaking point."

I'm not counting the battle with Kaiba at Pegasus's Castle as a canonical breaking point because it's really more about Yugi's strength, and Other Yugi didn't even have a concept of himself having a past outside of Yugi then. That's memorable for totally different reasons. Although he initially tries to sacrifice it for Yugi's sake, in the end Canon Other Yugi follows the course of "destiny" with unfaltering dedication. I suppose the idea is that Other Yugi's convictions about his destiny are just too strong to brook any misgivings like the ones posed in Doma. But I always thought Other Yugi needed real character development, and before Memory World, Doma is pretty much the only thing that gives it to us. So I have to admire it for that.

Here's the tricky part. Doma took on something huge for Other Yugi. It put him in a situation where he had to face his anxieties that he might not have been a good king, that he might be just as bad as Bakura's other self. Where he had to exist on his own and trust in his own goodness sans Yugi's influence. It's a huge undertaking for canon, let alone filler!

I think Doma is right in its take on Other Yugi: that he'd be lost and bereft not because of not having Yugi but because not having Yugi means those weaknesses have nowhere to hide. Other Yugi is struggling, but he always struggles where no one else can see, and presents only strength and confidence in public. But the thing is, fans had never seen that before. The most we saw (if you were watching the Japanese version, btw, the US dub just wrote right over the following lines) was Other Yugi apologizing to Yugi for what he had to go through and wondering briefly whether he was bad for causing it. That happened in Battle City and was quickly forgotten.

We always see Other Yugi the winner. Doma showed us Other Yugi the loser. And fans did not accept him. I know the reason why is because he bartered Yugi's soul for the sake of winning. He thought he was bartering his own soul - a relevant point I feel many fans overlook - but it's still clearly risky, and on top of that, he went as far as to block Yugi from interfering with his duel with Raphael. Other Yugi took a massive risk with a power they knew couldn't be trusted, and he barred Yugi from having a voice while dueling in Yugi's body. It's all round terrible choices on Other Yugi's part.

Which is another part of Doma I love. It didn't give Other Yugi some stupid choice no one could really hate him for. It said we're going to test this guy for everything he's worth and it fucking went for it. That makes it very different from the Noa arc, where the Kaiba bros are unquestionably the stars and heroes.

In themes, Doma and Noa are similar. Both call into question one person's loyalty to another and ask whether their love is real or simply useful. Kaiba, as a sometimes villain, sometimes anti-hero, gets pretty lovely treatment: the fact that he's not a nice guy and puts his brother in dangerous situations all the time barely matters. And also when he loses it's fighting for his brother, and then there's someone (Other Yugi) to step in and win on his behalf. Meanwhile, with Doma, Other Yugi starts out as a hero, so he has much farther to fall. His duel with Raphael isn't for a righteous reason, but a self-serving one. And when he fails, there's no one to help. And he really loses what least deserved to be lost.

The stakes were high and Doma let the hero fail catastrophically. Because Doma understood that the only way characters grow is through failing tests against themselves. Not against business executives. Not against millionaires.

And Doma gave us plenty of explanation for Other Yugi's failure too! It didn't make him a temporary villain who would just go back to being the hero at the end of the filler arc so we'd all say "oh, Doma, yeah that was stupid and doesn't fit anywhere in the story as a whole." Doma told us that Other Yugi is breaking down without anyone knowing, and Raphael and Orichalcos are the final straw. Doma says this was going to happen, and if it hadn't happened, Other Yugi would have been weaker going into his final battle for his destiny. Doma said Other Yugi is traumatized too. And why shouldn't he be, having so much pressure on him all the time, with so little knowledge of himself and so little to distract him in that dank, dark mental labyrinth where he's trapped day in, day out?

This is what I think fans as a whole missed because they were too busy freaking out about "angelic Yugi, poor baby!" Don't get me wrong. Yugi is everything good and Other Yugi did make a horrible choice with Orichalcos. But Other Yugi is suffering from trauma every bit as much as the Kaiba bros. It's an existential trauma as well as a magical one which means it much less relatable, much less visceral. And Yugi is so sweet and kind! It's so easy to forgive the Kaiba bros because they love each other, be upset on poor Yugi's behalf, and completely ignore the intense mental upheaval Other Yugi was going through. It's not that Other Yugi should get blanket forgiveness. But his motives should be understood and his pain should be respected.

He didn't set out to risk Yugi's soul, or the Duel Monsters either for that matter. He meant to risk his own and to prove his mettle as a king by overcoming the Orichalcos's influence. It was stupid because he didn't have any proof that that was a good idea except that Raphael provoked him to try or accept that he was a failure. As a very strategic player, Other Yugi is used to taking calculated risks. But this wasn't that: if he'd been calm, he'd have realized that he couldn't be sure Yugi's soul would be fine and only his own would be lost. And he'd have realized that he had only Raphael's word that a pure soul could overcome Orichalcos to go on. Granted, Raphael seeming in perfect control while using Orichalcos himself probably seemed like pretty good evidence. But it certainly wasn't the only possible explanation and normally Other Yugi would know that. He chooses to play the Orichalcos card clearly under a lot of strain, even pushing Yugi away, which is unprecedented.

What this means is that, afterwards, the reason Other Yugi is suffering isn't just because of losing Yugi. It's also because he's now lost what sense of self he had. He had so little of it going into the Raphael duel, and he wanted to gain more by overcoming Orichalcos. Instead he lost Yugi and he lost his idea of himself as someone who cares about others and can trust his own heart. That's why he wanders. That's why he's so mixed up and and sad and broken for the next several episodes. And it's why, once again, Doma put off fans.

Because fans don't like to feel sad, unless it's in an "aw, poor puppy" way. They don't like to see someone who is strong wrestle with not being so. And words like "arrogant" or "impure" are trigger words in fandoms: apply them to any character even one time and that's all fans will remember about them forever and ever. Other Yugi made an arrogant decision; he acted arrogantly. But arrogance isn't who he is. How can we tell? Because he comes back, he wins and gets back what he lost, and he apologizes. And he doesn't do it again. He does better. The same goes for "impure." What even is purity? Why did fans accept it just because Raphael said it was real and mattered? Raphael provoked Other Yugi's anxieties and then laid a trap for him: he gave him what he most wanted, a duel that would "prove he's a true king," and set him up for an entire mountain of despair to crush him one he fell for it. Even with Yugi, Other Yugi was already in such a state of confusion and fear that it was something others could manipulate. Losing Yugi was heart-breaking, but it wasn't the cause of Other Yugi's troubles: they already existed. I prefer Doma's odyssey of test and riddles to the manga version of Atemu, who blindly does what he's told to do because "destiny," but who is also revealed to be just as much the player as a pawn during Memory Game without any transition.

Now that I've praised Doma up and down, let me wind back and say I also hate it. Because for all it gives us that's great, its execution leaves a lot to be desired. Other Yugi is rather hard to watch when he's so sad and weak for so long. It's especially hard when he's got Jounouchi and Kaiba for comparison, both of whom were put in much more heroic storylines. I find Kaiba's dull, since there's not really much Kaiba is really guilty of there - Amelda's grief was Gozaburo's doing. Jounouchi's is great for him as a masculine hero, but fucking sucks for Mai who is a helpless female caught between two men and sapped of any personal motivation. I love Jounouchi/Mai so I really wanted to like their subplot, but Doma really ruined Mai for the sake of Jounouchi's heroism.

Which makes me wonder if Doma hates Other Yugi. It gave classic hero stories to the others, but beat Other Yugi so hard he was wounded forever in the eyes of some fans. Especially in the aftermath of Doma's first airing, every fic had to make sure to describe Other Yugi's "arrogance" to prove they didn't like him an unreasonable degree. It's one reason I stopped reading YGO fic back then: I couldn't open one that didn't mistreat Other Yugi, often while glorifying Yugi's perfection or going to lengths to sympathize with and justify Kaiba's wrongs.

So are there things Doma should have done to lift Other Yugi up the same way? My overall opinion is not really. I think Other Yugi's Doma arc is clear and fitting right until the final battle. BUT! It fumbled the ending. It fumbled it really bad. The battle with Dartz gets stupid by not doing anything with Yugi and Other Yugi's long-awaited reunion. Not only was the art in that episode unfortuantely awful, but the scene itself is like... seconds. Barely memorable. Yugi hugging his friends is way more satisfying. And the weird bit at the end-end where Other Yugi gets hit by the vortex of anger and grief, I guess, was meant as the final proof that he had overcome all the tests Doma threw at hm. But once again bad art and a "running out of budget" vibe hurt that as well.

Endings are important. You can't rush them. Because Doma fumbled the ending, Other Yugi's victory has much less of an impact. Because it doesn't step back and reflect, but just kind of spouts some cliche phrases, we forget what Other Yugi has really accomplished. Kaiba sacrificing himself to let Other Yugi keep battling is memorable. In fact, Kaiba was much more useful than Other Yugi in most of the final Dartz duel, because Other Yugi had not quite recovered his confidence. After Kaiba's loss, Other Yugi faced real despair again, which should have been awesome but was, by then, kind of like "oh, he's sad again. Will he ever stop being sad?" Yeah, he won. We got cool golden lights and shit and then a miracle. But it's not the same as that victory being felt by fans.

So that's why in the end, I'm always half-and-half on Doma. Because it did what no filler ever dared to do before, I admire it so much. But because it was filler, it also couldn't keep all the subplots in balance, it couldn't do its main characters justice, and most importantly, it didn't stick the landing. For all those reasons, I understand why fans have mixed opinions on Doma. My general sense is that it's disliked but in a weird way where everyone still references it and uses it in their fics - proving how superior Doma is to other filler.

I will always have beef with fans who are unreasonably hard on Other Yugi over Doma, especially when those fans don't bat an eye at things other characters do. I hate that the purpose of Other Yugi's Doma arc flew over so many heads or just went unappreciated. I really felt it was much needed character development. And most of all I hate the impact it had on fandom, which made it so impossible to find Other Yugi-related fan works that didn't either overdo Doma or make sure Other Yugi was everlastingly apologetic about it.

Really, I can't express how nuts the fandom nonsense was - I didn't even want to talk about Doma, because fans were so extremely sure about Other Yugi's arrogance and Yugi's saintliness. Call any of that into question and you'd get attacked. It's been like two decades now though so I should be safe... right? X'D

#yugioh #other yugi #orichalcos

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