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#shiro is flawed
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Other people — other people slouched when they weren’t watching their posture. But Lance? When Lance wasn’t paying attention, he stood straight. It was bizarre.
Shiro has been… watching Lance, lately. Observing. And he’s a little ashamed to say he’s been shocked at what he finds, again and again. When he first met Lance, he’d been worried. He hadn’t known Lance for long, but he’d seen obnoxious jokes and bad flirting and hyena laughter and he’d wondered what the hell the Blue Lion was thinking. He’d had a whole speech on maturity planned, expected a huge fight and dramatics and generally created an image of Lance in his head based on maybe three interactions that were stressful enough that no one would be on their best behaviour, let alone an 18-year-old kid who struggled with social norms at the best of times, ripped away from his family and told he would have to be a soldier in a 10 000 year old war.
Yeah. Shiro made a bad judgement, and the guilt eats at him, a little.
His wake-up call had been the Rover disaster, actually. Lance hadn’t hesitated a moment before bodily throwing himself in front of a man he barely knew, protecting him from a bomb. Shiro couldn’t reconcile that kid to the caricature of Lance he’d built in his head, so he’d started paying much closer attention. It was then that he learnt that Lance portrayed a very careful image of himself. It was almost intricate, really.
Aside from the bomb, the posture thing has been the first thing he really noticed. Whenever Lance was watching himself — hanging out with the team, bothering Keith, eating meals — he was hunched. All the way over, to the point it made Shiro wince, a little. That boy loved to slouch like no one Shiro had ever seen, it was ridiculous. But times when Lance was really focused? During training, a briefing, or his medic lessons with Coran (another thing that stacked onto Shiro’s guilt — those lessons were something Lance sought out of his own volition, his own desire to support the team in any way possible)? He stood as straight as a nail, as if a broom was taped to his spine. It always made Shiro blink, do a double take, remember that yeah, holy shit, Lance was 6’2”.
The next main thing he noticed was that for all Lance’s flirting, he had no actual interest in sleeping with or dating anyone. He flirted with pretty much any girl his age (well, presumably. Space is weird) they saw, and most of them rolled their eyes and walked away, but Lance genuinely did have some charm. Even statistically, some girls were bound to return his affections. But Shiro noticed that Lance would clam up immediately if anyone flirted back. Sometimes he wouldn’t even stammer out some form of farewell, he’d just straight-up leave. Shiro could not possibly understand why.
The next big thing was his whole rivalry with Keith. For as much as Lance claimed to hate him, he went out of his way to spend time with him — a good time, too, not just them arguing — to the point where the only person on the ship Lance spent more time with was Hunk, and maybe Coran. They sat next to each other at every meal, even often entering the kitchen together. Shiro knew for a fact that Lance often needled Keith into going swimming with him (although Keith had offhandedly mentioned once that since that first time, Lance has always worn a swim shirt. If Shiro was more confident in his and Lance’s relationship, he’d ask him about it, but he’s worried that at this point it would only drive Lance farther away).
All of this was only the tip of the iceberg. There were lots of strange behaviours and contradicting actions that completely baffled Shiro. Who was Lance, really? What were his goals? What did he want? Shiro knew that Lance had a big family, that he was from Cuba. He knew Lance had a nice smile and a really wonderful laugh when it was genuine. He knew Lance was talented, with all sorts of artsy things and especially talented with math (although this, too, took Shiro far too long to notice). But he really didn’t know Lance at all, not like he knew the rest of the paladins, and it bothered him. They were supposed to be mentally linked to fly a giant mecha, and Shiro was responsible for Lance, besides. They should have a relationship, and it was horrible that they didn’t. Shiro knew that the only way to develop this relationship in a healthy way was to be honest with Lance, communicate, and then spend time together after that. And as hard as the conversation was going to be, Shiro was determined to have it.
———
“Hey, Lance, can I talk to you?”
Shiro makes sure to ask as inconspicuously as he can, along with asking privately so none of the other nosy kids (namely Hunk and Allura) would have anything to say. Still, though, Lance tenses briefly, before forcing his face into calm neutrality and hunching his shoulders, hands in his pockets. Shiro’s heart sinks, even though he anticipated the reaction. It’s hard to watch someone be so visibly uncomfortable with you.
“Sure, Shiro, what’s up?”
“I just wanted to chat,” Shiro promises. “You want to head to the kitchen and make some hot chocolate?”
Lance brightens immediately, which makes Shiro smile. Lance’s rampant sweet tooth is another thing Shiro has noticed. It’s worse than Keith’s.
“Okay!” Lance chirps, skipping over. Shiro relaxes for a moment, as Lance babbles about his mother and sisters on their walk to the kitchen, until he realizes that Lance has told this story before and his hand is clenched tightly into the sleeve of his hoodie.
He’s nervous. Shiro swallows past the lump in his throat. How coldly has he acted towards Lance for the kid to be so scared to be alone with him? Shiro decides to take a risk.
“I remember you mentioning that! Your mom grounded your sister for two months, right?”
Please please please let this come off as me listening to him, Shiro prays, and not me finding him annoying.
Lance startles. “Y — yeah, that’s right. I don’t —” Lance winces. “Nevermind.”
Shiro grimaces as Lance looks away. This is… this is worse than he thought. He really and truly hopes he manages to fix this.
As soon as they enter the kitchen, Lance makes a beeline for the cupboards, pulling out a pot, some space cocoa, sugar, and some of Kaltenecker’s milk.
“You can just sit down, Shiro, don’t worry about it. I got it.”
This is another thing Shiro has noticed. Whenever Lance is overwhelmed — be it with anger, nerves, or even excitement —he defaults to acts of service. Washing the dishes, scrubbing the grout from the tile, collecting the laundry. Shiro has even seen him clean the pods, even though they make him uncomfortable and he doesn’t really enjoy being near them. (It actually wasn’t Shiro who noticed this. Pidge was the one who realised that whenever Lance and Keith argued at the dinner table, Lance would get up and start clearing the table, washing the dishes. Every single time. He did not seem to notice he did it. Pidge has since informed everyone but Lance and Keith themselves, and Shiro has caught her subtly inducing arguments between the two so she doesn’t have to do the chores. It’s something Shiro should put a stop to, but he’s not sure how to bring it up without making Lance defensive.)
This time, though, Shiro won’t let him do it himself.
“I’d actually like to help, Lance, if you don’t mind?”
Lance tenses, even more than he was previously. He seems to struggle with himself.
“If you help you’re going to stress me out,” Lance admits after a moment. “Sorry to be a control freak, but other people in the kitchen when I’m trying to do something irritates me. It’s — cluttered. Too much at once.” Lance bites his lip. “But, um, you’re the boss. Actually, nevermind, ignore that, you’re welcome to help if you want to —”
“Lance,” Shiro interrupts, “it’s absolutely fine. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. Is it okay if I sit on the counter, or would you rather I stay back at the table?”
Lance exhales deeply, shoulders slumping in relief, even as he tries to slap a smile on his face and pretend he’s feeling normal.
“That’d be fine.”
Shiro hoists himself up on the counter a couple feet away from Lance as he begins to measure our ingredients. He’s silent for a moment, waiting for the right time. He waits until Lance’s spine straightens, and his tongue sticks out. Until he’s relaxed.
“There’s no easy way to say this,” Shiro says, and Lance tenses again. “But I owe you an apology.”
This knocks the tenseness right from Lance’s shoulders, and stops what he’s doing to look at Shiro in confusion.
“Pardon?”
Shiro takes a deep breath. “I assumed very poorly of you, our first couple weeks in space, for no reason. I decided off very minimal and skewed interactions that you were immature and shallow, and I was so wrong. I judged you unfairly, and for that I’m sorry. I’ve since gotten to know you and I realize you’re a genuinely good and kind person, and very smart, and I’m really sorry for assuming otherwise.”
Lance is completely frozen, staring at Shiro with a gaped mouth. Shiro holds his gaze, hoping his sincerity has come across. After a few moments, Lance’s brown eyes cloud with tears, although he blinks them away. He sighs, deep and long, and continues mixing the sugar into the heated milk.
“Yeah, I know.”
He sounds resigned. Disappointed, but not surprised. Shiro says as much.
“Well, you don’t look at me with fondness. Not like you look at everyone else,” Lance says matter-of-factly. Shiro winces. Lance is fair, and is completely right to say so, but it still hurts. It’s hard to be wrong.
“That was once true.”
“But it’s not true anymore?”
“I’ve been… paying better attention. Noticing some strange things, things that didn’t make sense with the person I assumed you were.”
Lance nods, carefully pouring the hot cocoa into two mugs. He hands one to Shiro, who accepts gratefully, then hoists himself up on the counter next to him with his own mug.
“I imagine I’m a little confusing,” he says.
Shiro inclines his head. “Yes.”
“It’s a long story.”
“I don’t mind, if you’re willing to tell me.”
Lance is silent for a moment, just sipping his cocoa. Eventually, he takes a deep breath, hands clenching forcibly before relaxing.
“My parents did not plan me. They completely believed they were done after Rachel, and that was the truth for years. But when my mom was fifty — well, I came along.”
Shiro inhales sharply. He doesn’t know a lot about pregnancy or childbirth, but that seems… late. Lance shoots him a joyless smile.
“Yeah, not great. But she chose to take the risk. She said she loved me the moment she knew about me.” Lance snorts. “She’s very sappy, my mother. Anyways. I was born four months early. Ma says I fit into her hand. It was… hard, for her and Papá. For everyone, really. It was a lot of time in the hospital and the constant fear that I’d just die. And I didn’t, obviously, but I had — and still have — a lot of health issues. My eyes were fused shut when I was born, I didn’t have a gram of fat on my body. I was even missing some organs. I have all my organs now, and my eyesight is actually really good, surprisingly, but I still have a lot of health issues.
“My lungs don’t expand all the way. My heart’s a little too small. I have a lot of deadly allergies, I’m anaemic, I can’t gain weight for shit. And even all my issues now aren’t bad, compared to when I was growing up. I grew out of a lot of my allergies, and my bones used to be really frail. I was a walking hazard, basically. My parents… they loved me so much. They only wanted to keep me safe. But eventually, after close call after close call, they got, like… really protective. Crazy. I wasn’t allowed to socialize with anyone as a toddler, they were too scared I’d get sick. I wasn’t even allowed to feed myself. Fuck, one of them slept on the floor beside my bed until I was ten goddamn years old. They were terrified I’d die in my sleep.
“And then —” Lance sighs deeply, swirling around the leftover liquid in his cup. Shiro sets his own cup down; he’s barely touched it since Lance started. He — he’s completely blindsided. He’d never have known this about Lance, by looking at him. Sure, Lance is scrawny, and he gets cold easily, but Lance as a walking health risk? Lance, who seems like the biggest presence in any room? Who consistently scores as one of the best in training? Who regularly chases Pidge around the castle? It just doesn’t seem real.
“Then came the ASD diagnosis. And like, I am not ashamed of it. In fact it was a relief to have a reason for all the different struggles I was having, for the shitty social skills and general other-ness. But Jesus fucking Christ, it did not help my relationship with my parents. They went from overbearing to suffocating. Before it was just —” Lance sits up straight, finger in the air mockingly, voice high and nagging — “‘Sit up straight, Lance, your lungs!’ ‘Careful, Lance, do you know what’s in that? Are there any nuts?’ ‘Lance, check your heartbeat, you just went up the stairs.’ ‘Lance, go grab another hoodie. There’s a bite in the air, it’s only 75°.’” Lance sighs. He sags forward, eyes closing. Shiro sees the exhaustion in him for the first time, in the very bones of him. Shiro — he knows how Lance feels, being so limited, but he can’t imagine his own parents holding onto him so tightly. How draining that must have been.
“My parents were never intentionally ableist. They never wanted to hurt me, they never intended to do anything but protect me. But I was diagnosed and then it was like they suddenly forgot that I knew how to think for myself. Like yeah, sure, I’m not great with social cues, but I can fucking talk to people! I’m not helpless, but they forgot that. They even tried to pull me out of school, but Veronica went ballistic on them. Fought them for three straight days. She’s always been the one who believed in me, did everything she could to give me as much freedom as possible. It strained her relationship with my parents. It was worse than mine, and at that point in my life I couldn’t even look at them without getting angry. Being in the same room as them was suffocating, I always wanted to just blow up, but I didn’t really. I had a lot of energy I needed to dispel.”
“Is that why you clean to often?”
Lance blinks. “Is that why I what?”
Shiro shifts, biting his lip. It seems that he was right, that Lance hasn’t noticed. “When you’re upset, or overwhelmed. You tend to clean. You clear the table whenever you argue with Keith. Pidge has been egging you on, by the way. So she doesn’t have to clean up.”
Lance snorts incredulously. “That little shit,” he says, shaking his head. “I guess I do clean when I’m overwhelmed, don’t I? I haven’t noticed. But that makes sense. There wasn’t much I was allowed to do, but I could clean, then I was doing something that wasn’t having a screaming match with my parents.”
Shiro hums, and sits with that, for a moment. All of Lance’s fronts — his obnoxiousness, blind hatred for authority, reluctance to follow vague orders — they make sense, now. If the main authority in Shiro’s life assumed he was dumb and helpless and kept him pretty locked up, Shiro thinks he would have some baggage, too.
“What made them let you go to the Garrison, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Lance grins, but it’s bittersweet. “Oh, they didn’t. I left in the middle of the night when I turned 18.”
Shiro blinks in shock. “You ran away?”
Lance shrugs. “Not technically. Legal adult, I was allowed to do what I want. I had Veronica’s help. She got me the applications, sent them in for me too. Had to get my passport in secret, same with the funds. It wasn’t easy, and it also kind of felt shitty. My parents were as distraught as they were furious. Marco said Ma cried for days. But… I had to get out. I honest to God would have died within a year if I stayed.”
Shiro believes him.
“You talk about your parents so fondly, though.”
Lance shrugs again. “Yeah, ‘cause I miss ‘em. I might never see them again, and like I said — they went about it the wrong way, but they loved me. Love me. Besides, our relationship actually really improved once I left. I called them after a month, was totally honest with them. It was a lot easier for them to treat me like a capable person when they saw me doing just fine in my own.”
“I see.”
There’s another silence as Shiro visibly processes all that information, before Lance takes a deep breath. He turns towards Shiro, looking him on the face.
“That’s why your judgement hurts so much,” Lance says, and Shiro feels his heart drop even though he knows he deserves the words. “I saw your medical bracelet.” He holds up his wrist, where Shiro notices the silver band for the first time. The same one he’s worn for years. “You — you were my hero, y’know? Another guy just like me, just as sick as me, who’s a pilot anyway. A great pilot. The best pilot. Having your hero look at you in disgust — it hurts. It was devastating. I know I definitely was acting like a bit of a fool, but —”
“No, no, Lance —” Shiro’s voice is desperate and he knows it, but he can’t help it. He reaches out to clasp Lance’s shoulder, but falters at the last moment, unsure if he’s allowed. His hand hangs there, in limbo. “You weren’t acting like a fool. You were acting like a regular teenager, and I was expecting you to act like a grown adult. It wasn’t fair of me, and I didn’t take the time to know you. I mean it, Lance, I’m going to do better by you. I swear it. I won’t disappoint you again.”
Lance’s eyes close. His breath shudders, as he takes several deep ones. His hands shake briefly before he stills them, opening his eyes and staring at Shiro with strength and — and with a deep kindness that Shiro does not feel like he deserves.
“I forgive you,” he says firmly. “You’re not perfect, man. You made a mistake and you apologized for it. I appreciate it.”
Shiro exhales deeply, and he lets himself let go of the guilt. Lance forgives him. It’s time for them to move on, build trust.
“Thank you.”
Lance hums, turning back away. They sit in silence again, but this one is comfortable. It’s filled with the promise of a new beginning, a new start. Filled with the opportunity to get to know the Blue Paladin, who supports from the sidelines and cares with a heart that outshines the darkest of nights.
Shiro can’t wait.
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ljf613 · 1 year
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the way the backstory arc sets up the origins of rin and yukio's names very early on..... and then spends the entire arc showing how "the yuki-otoko" is so much like rin-- while "rinka" has more in common with yukio than anyone could have guessed
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yxstxrdrxxm · 18 days
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Hi hi!!! I hope you're doing well. Here is a hydration check if you need one ^^
I just saw the flawed event intro/launch post(?), and now that I'm here from the start, I aint gonna miss a single thing during this event >:0 So please add me to the taglist :D I'm already v hyped bc of the premise for the event + the banners/new theme is looking amazing as well!! (Loving the art!!)
I can't wait to see what amazing things you'll come up with this time!
(going to answer yours + Mochi's before I officially kick things off w/ a post + first poll so! o7 lets go boys)
AAAAAA IM SO GLAD, I'M HONESTLY VERY HYPED AS WELL HAIUHDRUFI
I'm going to be doing a new format this time with this event, so this one is going to be my first that I'll put effort with formatting and seeing which works or not (I already dread the fact that 3 weeks won't be enough... orz. I'll make do)
Also! I added you to the taglist, so you should be good (unless I forget then pls remind me orz orz)
I'm already v hyped bc of the premise for the event + the banners/new theme is looking amazing as well!! (Loving the art!!)
AAAAA TYTY, I spent so much time on those and it drove me nuts HAIUHDURFI I'm so glad you love it!
I hope that you'll enjoy the story of Flawed though :> I got a small baseline of how this will go, so! Let's hope the majority of y'all don't go to the bad ending orz. I will be very sad if you guys do.
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punkeropercyjackson · 1 month
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My 2000s/2010s kid medias wisdom:
Azula deserved a redemption arc and Ty Lee is the girl who got shafted by not being Zuko's love interest
The Soul Society is a military state and Ichigo was a good person for never joining it and Orihime was the best Bleach character
Sasuke was right and Kishimito made him an extremist as ableist victim blaming propaganda and Sakura and Hinata are equally good
Ben 10,including the sequels,is better than Danny Phantom
Flynn Ryder was a creep and a dickhead who didn't deserve Rapunzel
Hiccup was trans but so was Astrid,only transfem instead
Teen Titans is a beyond good show but the influence it's had on DC's comics is bad and Young Justice Animated should've never existed
The Hunger Games and Chronicles of Narnia derserve better than to be grouped in with Harry Potter because Thg is an anti-bigotry story rather than liberal bs and you can actually pull 'Death of the Author' with the problematic elements of Tcon because C.S Lewis is actually dead
Adventure Time is an almost perfect show and so're it's comics and sequel miniseries' and you can't pull 'It's bad because it got too serious in later seasons!!!' as a fact because that was the point,that it was trying to be different from most kids cartoons and it not being your thing dosen't mean it's not good writing
Winx Club,W.i.t.c.h,Totally Spies,The Powerpuff Girls,Kim Possible and MLP are feminist even if they have their flaws and they're brought in a girly packaging because they're meant to be heroes for little girls
Johnny Test is fine and y'all are weird fow visceral your reaction to it was
Percy Jackson and the Olympians dropped the ball by having Percy end up with Annabeth because they're 'destined to' since the point of Percy's story is that he never gets to choose what they actually want and they should've either ended up with Rachel or stayed single to work on character development and healing,Luke never actually cared about other demigods and was only using them as ammo against the gods because if he actually cared he wouldn't have abused them,Toa should've instead been a third Percy series of them destroying Olympus' corruption because they've had enough of the gods and replacing it with an actual good societal system and Percy is a super cool autistic Team Parent who'd be femme and kidcore if Rick bothered to develop their interests
Star Vs The Forces of Evil should've made trans Marco and autistic Star canon,endgamed them with Tom and Janna instead of eachother,made Jackie an mc and done none of that 'no magic' shit
Gravity Falls,We Bare Bears and Undertale/Deltarune's icon status are well-deserved
Craig of the Creek only gets ignored because it's a black show that's good
And She Ra and the Princesses of Power is called cringe nonstop because it's fanbase is largely wlw and trans women who're loud and proud with their queerness and the creator at the time of it's airing identified as a nonbinary lesbian and people hate female queerness while hyping up male kinds that play into stereotypes(Stiles and Derek from Teen Wolf,Magnus and Alec from The Mortal Instruments,the Shiro/Keith discourse,the Boyfriends Webtoon,Marauder's Era even being a thing,etc.Note that i am not calling Stevenson female but rather saying he knows what lesbophobic experiences are)
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mckinlily · 5 months
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One of my favorite things about writing Shiro is I can always, always make him kind.
He’s not perfect or flawless, but if I need him to be gentle, he will be. If he needs to be patient, compassionate, soft, anything, I can always write him that way.
What’s more is his kindness is not weak. If he needs to be brave enough to say “I love you”. To say “I’m sorry.” To put aside his own anger or hurt or pride to help someone else. To take a hard look at himself and decide he needs to change—He will do that.
If he has to brutally fight someone to protect the innocent, he’ll do that too.
Shiro’s kindness is not always the same what is nice. More often than not, it requires an incredible amount of determination and bravery to be possible. But he will always find that strength when he has to.
Don’t get me wrong, I love me some deeply flawed, messed up, mean characters. Variety is good in your diet.
But there’s also something so unique and refreshing about Shiro. He’s fierce enough to fight god and gentle enough to soothe a child. He has the confidence to lead the scared and the weak, but none of the ego to domineer over them. He cares and he tries and he tries, and even at his worst, he’s still kind.
I just—I just really love Takashi Shirogane, ok?
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lurkingshan · 4 months
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I’m back, baby! And catching up:
Last Twilight: against all odds, my favorite show airing atm. Me and Jimmy have come so far.
Cooking Crush: everything I wanted, and I don’t just like it because I’m an OffGun girlie at heart. It’s genuinely a perfect food romcom to balance all the other heavy shit airing right now.
The Sign: obsessed, it’s now appointment television.
Playboyy: intellectually interested in what it’s trying to say but not nearly as titillated by the pale imitations of porn as some of y’all.
WDYEY: steady as a rock, I missed Shiro and Kenji.
Middleman’s Love: fell way behind and I’m not enticed enough to go back. Might binge it when it finishes if y’all tell me it’s worth it.
The Whisperer: sad about how terrible it is, I would only endure this for The Dimple.
Shadow: part 2 dropping this week hell yeah.
Still haven’t started:
VIP Only: I have solemnly vowed to watch everything Taiwan puts out so I’ll be catching up soon.
Mr. Sahara & Toki-kun: Drama Shower has been so good this year, I’ll be picking this one up too.
Pit Babe: I suspect the ABO thing is just window dressing and this is a standard mid bl, will wait to hear what people think.
My Dear Gangster Oppa: will binge this when it ends, it doesn’t look good enough to hold up to weekly viewing and I’ve been warned it contains my beloathed noble idiocy trope.
Bake Me Please: seems inessential, holding for now unless someone tells me otherwise.
Twins: ditto.
For Him: ditto.
7 Days Before Valentine: I still haven’t seen 180 Degrees Longitude Passes Through Us from the same team and @bengiyo thinks I should watch that first, so on hold.
Starting soon:
Cherry Magic Thailand: my beloveds TayNew!!! I am actually looking forward to seeing what they do with this story because the original has some flaws I think Thai bl and TayNew specifically are well suited to address (I am talking about sex).
In conclusion: I’m trying to watch way too much, my head is probably gonna explode before end of year.
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ctl-yuejie · 3 months
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Ship game: Shiro and Kenji!
hello <3 this is an easy but delightful one!
with both men being well in their 40s when we first meet them they are a rarity in bl. and i cannot put in words (sorry, this is kind of the purpose of the ask game that i am failing here) how well they make use of that.
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there is so much to admire and love about them, but probably the biggest thing I am taking away from watching them is how to build a relationship and work for it but don't have it feel like work. an intentional but natural process of trying to not only make someone else's life brighter, but also to consider what you want your life with another person to look like. they hurt each other many times, they both have their flaws. but watching them you never get the feeling that any of it could end their relationship. because both of them are willing and determined to build a life together. and over the span of two season we really see the astounding changes they both go through while also feeling true to themselves.
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I like this visualization of what queer love and community can look like. how to consider someone else's needs but not lose yourself in the process. how to build a home when there is less of a societal template of what that should look like.
probably the other thing i like is the defying of gender roles? kenji being flamboyant and shiro earning more money and being straight-passing as a premise could've run the risk of them emulating traditional gender roles but instead we see an effort on both their ends to use their strongpoints to make their daily life work and enjoy their own tasks. especially how this dynamic gets juxtaposed with shiro's ex in season 2 really made me appreciate the candid writing of their dynamic.
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last but not least, since they're not just in their late 40s but also have been together for quite some time (at least longer then most bl couples) the levity of their comedy when they just vibe in the same space, communicate silently and how they can just anticipate what the other is going to do never fails to crack me up. they just make each other happy ;A;
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thank you so much for the ask
send me a ship and i'll share my thoughts about it
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Saw your post about how the singles from vanilla and expanded flirt, and here comes the obligatory ask about the guys and gals from rsv! 😜
Here you go, Lotus ☺️ thank you for the ask!
How well Ridgeside Village bachelors/ettes flirt with the Farmer:
Ridgeside Village bachelors (+unlovable):
Oh, poor Ian doesn't know what to do with his feelings. He tries to compliment them, to start a conversation, he even asks Sean for advice, but as soon as he opens his mouth in front of the Farmer, the words stick in his throat and his cheeks turn red. Sure, Ian occasionally gives Farmer wooden figurines he's made himself and always smiles genuinely at their appearance, but it's a bit difficult for him to flirt. 5/10, he's really trying, give this kind and shy fella a chance.
June's situation is quite interesting. The talented pianist will easily start a dialogue with the object of his adoration, but sometimes conversations can go so far that June forgot that he invited Farmer for a cup of coffee to ask if they were single, and ended up giving a whole lecture about the proper roasting of coffee beans. If Farmer didn't find these stories boring, but rather the opposite, June will be able to seduce Farmer with good flirt, and they'll both wait half a season for the two of them to go on a date again. 7/10.
Like a noble prince from famous fairy tales about beauties (well, technically, he is a prince), Zayne will demonstrate a real art in sophisticated flirting. The young man is very well-mannered, kind, a bit modest and always polite, so it won't be difficult for him to seduce the object of his affection. 9/10, almost perfect!
All right kids, stand back. For now Jeric is about to show that he is the master of the successful compliment! The young farmer and fancy dress enthusiast has a natural charm that few can resist. At times he may blush a little in front of Farmer and forget what he wanted to say, but for the most part he's a very good flirt. 7/10, very good.
I'm sorry Jio, but you won't win Farmer's favour with constant snapping and all sorts of rude words. And it would be justified (not really) if he and Farmer were strangers, but Farmer is almost going to give him a bouquet, and the grumpy elf sends them away. Sure, he'll shower the Farmer with compliments in Elvish and show his soft side. But before that... 0/10, no offence, Jio. Sharp-eared tsundere bitch.
Even with his injury, Shiro doesn't miss the opportunity to invite Farmer for a walk on the beach, where he shows them his heartfelt flirtation. Shiro really enjoys Farmer's company, finding them to be a very attractive and nice person, and if Farmer is okay with his advances, he will continue. 8/10, a very good flirtation on an emotional connection.
To be honest, Anton is still having a hard time pulling himself together after failed wedding, career collapse and other hardships to believe in himself again. Even though he has a lot of interest for Farmer, Anton still can't bring himself to start flirting. And should he, because he thinks no-one wants him. It's not true, but... *sigh* 2/10, there were some attempts. Anton is a romantic man, he just needs to believe in himself.
Kenneth's flirting is perhaps the most unusual. Due to his slight shyness and desire to surprise Farmer, he will send his robot to say compliments and give letters. It's quite nice... until the robot malfunctions. Then the electrician will quickly apologise and try to make conversation. Kenneth and his unusual flirting was to their liking. 6/10, quite good, the important thing is that the robot doesn't malfunction again and start a fire.
For a rather emotionally reserved person who has a difficult and responsible job, Bryle behaves quite romantically. Classic flirting and courtship are assured for the Farmer. He is quite confident in his winning ways, and if Farmer responds to his endeavours, the bodyguard will slowly reveal himself to them. 7/10, there are a couple of flaws but overall very good!
How can you not love a golden retriever? And how about a man who is as kind and good as a retriever? Who is so good that you want to cuddle him and listen to him babble endlessly about comic books? That's what I'm saying. 6/10 for Phillip, this man hasn't started flirting yet but has already achieved the flirt points and hearts of many, including Farmer (I'm judging everyone fairly, of course).
When Sean begins his mission to gain the Farmer's interest in his person, he will appear in their sight more often, each time offering to take a break, play video games, or prank with the kids. When hanging out frequently, he is more interested in getting to know the Farmer better, remembering to compliment their appearance or how cleverly they pranked someone. A playful flirtation that not only works, but earns 7.5/10 points. Great job, Sean!
RSV bachelorettes (+unlovable):
Daia flirted with Farmer even when they both barely knew each other. How does Farmer even need to figure out now if her intentions to start a relationship are serious or just another joke? Regardless of the teases with double meanings though, Daia has started acting like a humble and fragile girl around Farmer. So after all, her intentions have gotten serious. 10/10, she is good at flirting, even too good...
Flor can't flirt. Period. She's too insecure and very shy, constantly hiding her face behind a book and stuttering at the sight of someone she's partial to. I'd like to say Flor will try to compliment her, but... nope. 0/10, It's up to the Farmer themselves to make the first move.
With her beautiful voice, with which you can serenade people, Alissa could conquer anyone who came to her heart... if she wasn't so insecure and shamed by her own voice. Such potential - and not to use it, how can you do that! So she's pretty humble, so 4/10, a bit stilted, but the attempts are there.
"My name is Blair, I'm your future wife!" And the young fisherwoman knows how to properly meet people.... Ok, ok, it was a joke from her, but Blair shows herself confident enough to flirt with Farmer when she have romantic feelings for them. During the courtship, she can tease Farmer, easily making them blush. 6/10, quite good actually
Shared pastimes and fun are Paula's main trump card in winning the heart of the much-loved Farmer. The head doctor of Ridgeside Village has decided to be herself and spend more time with the object of her affection, creating truly beautiful moments for the two of them, not forgetting to hint at them her romantic feelings. She does it very professionally, by the way, as if she was trained somewhere. 7/10, you can do it, doctor!
To tell the truth, Corine's romantic interest is sometimes hard to recognize. Most likely, it is in this way, with emphasized delicacy, without pressure, she will woo the chaotic Farmer. Not to say that the girl is a master at it, but not a novice either. She is not usually the initiator of the conversation, so she may stutter a little at the sight of the reason for her crush. If Farmer starts the conversation first, the girl will be more confident. 5/10, basically okay.
Oh, Ysabelle will giggle and flirt with Farmer behind the counter at the hotel the whole time. You can tell right away that when she's flirting with them, her speech is softer, deeper and not very loud. She is quite skillful in using her entire arsenal in terms of flirting. 7.5/10 (7/10 if her Grandpa starts teasing her lightly and the girl immediately blushes and her attitude gets thrown off because Grandpa, don't make her blush in front of the Farmer!).
Does anyone remember how Irene's cheeks were the color of tomatoes at the sight of Zayne, and her own voice betrayed her and she constantly squeaked at the mention of the same future head of the Amethyne family? Well, she has an even harder time with Farmer. Irene used to be able to have friendly conversations with them, but when her amorous gaze is now fixed on Farmer, it's... yeah. 5/10, flirting is hard for her now, but trying to get their love through delicious desserts worked.
Faye very skillfully demonstrates a model of extroverted behavior. She jokes with Farmer, does not skimp on compliments and tries to establish physical contact: to touch his shoulder, take their hand. At times she can get distracted by talking a lot, but her flirting is very good. 7/10, give her a little time and she will charm them quickly.
Flirting is not Kiarra's thing. She would probably just tell that she likes Farmer very much, not only as a friend. She's used to telling people the truth to their faces, and thinks there's no point in flirting and creating an illusion for herself. You could ask them straight out, because what if they already have a partner? 0/10, she's an honest girl, but don't even count on a show of flirting before Farmer says their feelings are mutual.
I'd like to say that Maddie could compete with Jio for the title of "tsundere of the year", but after getting to know Farmer better and trusting them, she doesn't behave the same way anymore. Yes, occasionally, she can be rude again, pushing Farmer away, but this has become less and less frequent, and all her grumbling about Farmer being "clingy" has died down. Still, flirting is pretty hard for her. 4/10, she's still trying her best.
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hood-ex · 3 months
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Finally finished all of Voltron. Some thoughts:
The last seasons actually weren't as bad as I thought they'd be based on what I heard. I mean, yeah the Lance/Allura ship was unnecessary, and yeah the final episode wasn't super satisfying or good lmao, but all in all, the plot still kept me invested. Only time I felt truly bored was during those god awful filler episodes. Genuinely only liked one filler episode which was the carnival one where Shiro was arm wrestling people.
Wish Shiro had a heavier presence in the show after he got his conscience shifted into the clone body, but at the same time, it was cool to see him captain Atlas. I was so glad they at least included him in the final battle with Honerva.
Lance and Hunk definitely felt like they took more of a backseat in the character focus department. Like yeah, they had arcs of sorts though not super obvious ones imo. Lance was a big flirt who could be cocky, and he matured and became a reliable second hand. Hunk ended up showing more courage and willingness to bring people together, and he did have a passion for food, so I like that he had least had a hobby/passion of sorts. I just feel like I didn't really know them quite as well as the other paladins, Lance especially. I'm honestly very surprised Lance didn't get more focus as say Shiro or Keith. He seems like the type of character to have a bigger focus.
My main beef with Shiro is that he didn't really have any flaws over the course of the show. He was always the loyal and caring leader. Of course, we got to see him lose his patience with Slav which was really fun. Other than that... he was almost just like... too nice. Too perfect. The change for his character mostly happened through life events. I think if they had fleshed out that side of Shiro more, Shiro would've been my favorite character.
It wasn't until maybe Season 3 or so that I finally got over the fact that the paladins were flying lions around. I'm sorry but I thought flying lions were so lame when I first started watching it. These are supposed to be made by King Alfor, an Altean, so why did he choose an Earth animal as the design for Voltron? Like huh? Allura and Coran didn't even know what a cow was, how did they know what a lion was alkdjsa. Whatever, I got over it eventually. (Edit: I just remembered that the white lion is a thing that exists and that Alfor knew about it sooo I suppose he got inspo from that).
"Form Voltron!" and then the long ass sequence of all the lions forming together. I got so sick of seeing that every single episode. Voltron actually would've been cooler had the paladins only transformed into it like once or twice every season rather than every episode. Like only bring Voltron out for the biggest baddies. I found it so much more fun when the paladins all fought separately. And a lot of the time, the paladins had to end up dissolving Voltron to win a fight so like??
Black lion my beloathed, red lion my beloved. Nah idc, I have beef with the black lion. The red lion was by far my favorite lion, but I liked it more when Keith was with the red lion. Feels like they could've done more with the red lion as well with it being the fastest and all.
The Blade of Marmora was cooler than Voltron to me. All their fight sequences were sick. Also, Keith looked so good in that uniform, hello. I definitely enjoyed the hand-to-hand combat in this show possibly more than I enjoyed the lion fights.
Lotor/Allura was the only ship I enjoyed until Lotor went off the rails. Idc, Lotor was a fun character with an interesting backstory. It's too bad his character arc had to go the way that it did. Also not totally opposed to how it ended up though.
Matt gave me the ick as soon as he started fawning over Allura in an obnoxious way. Felt kinda ooc for him as well. But after that was over with, I enjoyed him well enough. That one episode where Pidge went to the memorial planet with all the graves... that was heavy as hell. Kinda wish Matt actually had died for the full weight of that episode to hit bc that was such an intense moment.
Loved how Pidge was shown to do basically anything to get cool video games in some episodes lmao. I also thought it was interesting how she was the most tech savvy of the team, but she formed a connection with the natural world, as did her lion.
The first 2 seasons were definitely funnier than the rest. The first season had me laughing at least once every episode. The jokes tapered off later on, which I suppose makes sense bc the plots got heavier.
Loved the Hunk and Shay relationship. Balmerans were pretty cool in general.
Tbh, I didn't really care that Shiro's boyfriend died because we only saw him in a short flashback. I do think they should've given Shiro a longer or better reaction to finding out that his boyfriend died though. Also, speaking of Shiro and men, it was so fruity how the last scene of the entire show was Shiro kissing his husband. Voltron said gay rights for space dads.
Kosmo was cool, and I especially liked how he was Nightwing color coded. Plus teleportation powers?? Nice.
Keith and Shiro's bond was really touching. I just wish they would've divulged their shared backstory together earlier on in the series to help me understand why Keith had so much respect and loyalty to Shiro from the jump. That goes for a lot of the paladins, actually. A lot of their backstory info should've been released earlier on in the series instead of shoved into the last few seasons. The only ones who didn't suffer from this were Pidge and Allura.
Some seasons were only 6-7 episodes which was wack.
Keith definitely had some good moments giving advice to Lance or Hunk. He had a pretty satisfying arc overall. Well, out of all the other characters anyway. He's gotta be my favorite character in the show. He had flaws that he worked through, and he came out as a strong leader. I also can't forget how he and the Blade of Marmora planted bombs to destroy the Galras in line to rule the Galra empire, but when Keith realized Shiro was with the Galras, he immediately raced back to deactivate the bombs. We love a loyal man who will do anything for his brother.
Shiro took on a lot of damage and trauma that just wasn't addressed in any satisfying way, especially in regard to his arm. He did make one sarcastic remark to Lance about how he wasn't in tip top shape because he got his arm cut off/his conscience moved into a clone body. Wish they would've touched on the loss of his arm more. And not just his human arm, but his other arms as well.
Allura's death was just like... I don't remember what she said to Keith before she decided to give up her life, but all I could think about was when she was cold to him because he was half Galra.
I thought it was so funny in the last episode when they showed all the realities in every universe and there were just like... 50 of them or something lmao. Like Honerva really didn't have to do much to end them all. They really did rush the ending, huh?
Even though I haven't watched the original series this was based off of, I enjoyed the small references I did catch like with Sven and such.
All in all, I had a fun time. Will I rewatch it any time soon? No... but I will definitely be reading fanfics of it going forward.
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noahhawthorneauthor · 9 months
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hey it's me an elder millennial who missed out on all the essentials. I've started watching Voltron Legendary Defenders and it's now my entire life, specifically this man.
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Yes, I know the pain coming for me. I live on Tumblr and search for fanart before finishing a piece of media, it's my biggest flaw.
My question is this.
Do the old shows have more of Shiro's backstory? I'm only on S1:EP 10 and while there are flashbacks to his capture, I'd really like to see more of that.
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autisticlancemcclain · 2 months
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okay so you just put this in your most recent post so now i’m really curious, what are your thoughts on kuron? what specifically makes you say he’s a good iteration of shiro? /gen
oooou okay thank you for asking. i covered this a little bit in this essay here, but i'll sum up the most important bit from that essay (in relation to this topic):
"Lastly — and this turned out to be less relevant to the essay than I expected, but I do want to go over it a tad — is Shiro’s tie to humanity. I mentioned two important points: Shiro’s connection to mortality makes him the most intimate with his humanity out of all the characters, and he is undoubtedly the flattest character of them all. That is, if you don’t consider his clone to be part of his character.
But I’m begging you to reconsider. Reconsider, perhaps, who the clone is — Haggar had pure access to Shiro for a year, you remember. His thoughts, his dreams, his mannerisms, his priorities, his body. Even him at his most human, his most deranged, his most scared. She had Shiro then. She had Shiro when he had nothing to look forward to. She had Shiro when he hurt his crew to make sure they would live, at direct cost to himself.
She stripped him of his humanity — his connection to his own mortality. She took his illness from him. And who, then, did she return to the team? Who was clone? Shiro, mostly. The clone was happy to play with the team. The clone was clever. The clone believed, fully, that he was Shiro, only he was angrier and meaner, a little, and less capable of shoving down his own pain. Shiro, stripped of his tie to humanity and mortality, stripped of his compulsive need to be strained and stressed and the one everyone else can rely on, the Role rather than the Person, is emotional. He has flaws and outbursts. He can’t manage his own pain. He is is cruelest to the one person on the team — Lance — who canonically reminds him closest of himself.
Shiro, in the purest form that Haggar can make him, is flawed and self-hating. That is where our love for him comes. Not the man who pushes himself down at the same time as he sacrifices his personality to be someone for others, but the man who is struggling and can’t keep it locked down. That’s where it comes from."
so! what does this mean.
shiro, as a character, does not get to choose and form his own identity. first he is the Garrison Poster Boy -- and while he is a pilot, an explorer, and happy to do both of those things, he is uncomfortable with (largely lance's) hero worship. he both a) doesn't believe he deserves it, and b) is not happy in that role. we see it in the "blam blam blam" scene -- he is trapped in the 'hero' role because he is trapped in a role of Perfection, and he is not perfect, and it grates on him. second he is the Champion -- and while he did force himself to be the Champion by injuring the Holts, it is a sacrifice. being a sacrifice is not the same as choosing a role. third, he is the Paladin of the Black Lion (not the Black Paladin, for deeper analysis on my thoughts there please read this essay and maybe this one too honestly) -- he tries to escape that role from the very beginning. i know i keep pushing yall towards the essay but i genuinely do discuss shiro's role in it, but i'll reiterate:
"...from the very beginning, he set up a replacement for himself.
Doesn’t that strike anyone else as odd? I haven’t seen the show in five years, and I don’t plan on rewatching, but I do remember that every moment with Shiro almost had this underlying tension. The closest thing I have to canon off the top of my head is the Handbook (which I had to stop reading because they did everyone SO dirty there, even though some of it was honestly pretty funny), which was released in S2, and even that incredibly early canon talked about Keith replacing Shiro!
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From the very beginning, Shiro was planning an out to his role. He knew it was not meant for him. He did the role well, but it was not his to do."
shiro does not want that fucking role. every single second we see him on screen, as Shiro Original, he is shouldering a burden. he is being someone he does not want to be. not to give voltron any credit, but don't you think it's interesting that he, as a character, comes out to the audience as queer when he is...free from those roles? when he is no longer the Garrison Poster Boy (i.e. lance stops the hero worship), no longer the Champion (haggar is defeated), no longer the Paladin of the Black Lion (keith is now the Black Paladin)...we see him come out. we see him, as it is often called, "be true to himself". to me, this signals that he is finally free from playing someone he is not, and interestingly, this came after kuron -- after he maybe got to be something he truly was.
aside from the more abstract analysis, shiro is deeply, deeply traumatized! it is inane to expect him to be the same person he was. why on earth would he have the same patience during/post war as pre-war? he knows now that hesitance gets people killed. if he had hesitated to hurt matt, matt would have died. if he hesitates out on the field, people die. patience yields focus, sure, but he hasn't had time for patience in god knows how long. any patience he has is, if it has not already torn, wearing thin. lance's lightheardness, although important, is bound to make him snap, especially because shiro used to be the lighthearted one -- if he was still the lighthearted one, people would die. on his conscious. his snappiness at lance, while inappropriate and damaging, makes total sense. it comes from a place of a) deep self-hatred/mistrust and b) trauma.
to quote myself again -- "shiro, in the purest form haggar can make him, is flawed and self-hating". take away shiro's roles, take away his masks, take away any of his responsibilities that have shaped his life for him -- who is he? would he be angry (like kuron)? would he be hurting (like kuron)? would he be vulnerable (like kuron)? would he, for the first time, reach out and ask for help (like kuron)?
i think he would.
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colleensmangarecs · 7 months
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Finished '&' by Mari Okazaki
Just wanted to do a little post of manga I've been reading lately. I make these on Twitter sometimes but I figured I don't post much on here and may as well make one for Tumblr peeps too.
& by Mari Okazaki was a very beautiful romance drama that asks what is love
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I was really intrigued by this series despite going in blind. I only picked it up mostly knowing of Okazaki's notoriety as well as the fact this was licensed by Tokyopop way back when.
Firstly the art was absolutely gorgeous. Just top tier. It was very dreamy and ethereal while having a bit of edge to it at the same time. There were several pages of wordless interactions between characters that I lingered on for longer than if I was reading text.
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The story was also really good although just not as engaging at all times. I really loved the main character of Kaoru. She was always trying so hard to do her best and everyone else just constantly put her down. She unfortunately never really got a big 'Fuck you' moment though. I don't know if she really *needed* one perse but it just would've been more cathartic with how much everyone around her just never let her live. Constantly giving unwarranted advice that she always took to heart.
The two male characters were absolutely atrocious though. At times I would be like "okay they're doing better" but then they'd just say or do the stupidest thing that would make me wish Kaoru would drop both of them. The doctor character clearly had trauma and it made sense why he couldn't fully commit to a relationship... but man.... would he still annoy me so much. You can be non-committal and not be an asshole at least. Also he wore crocs so like I did not see what Kaoru saw. The other male lead Shiro was an embarrassment. I was rooting for him more in the beginning but by the end the man was so inept at communicating that I wanted him gone as well.
A few of the female side characters were compelling and I wish we had more time with them. We did get the extra chapters that focused on them more but I would've liked even more. They were both flawed but still likable people.
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In the end, it was a really engaging series. Sometimes being mad at characters is a good thing because it keeps you reading and interested. I thought the ending was perfect too although a bit rushed. Overall a really good series that was a great introduction for Okazaki's work. I'm going to be checking out Suppli hopefully soon.
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Ended up giving the series a 7.8/10
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yxstxrdrxxm · 5 days
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[A letter has been dropped off at the floral shop. It has the shop's address written on the front of the envelope, while a return address is written on the back in smaller letters.]
Dear florist,  News of a newly opened flower shop has travelled across the streets and reached my ears. I realise we might not have met, and I apologise for the lack of personal introductions, but my schedule has been tight and I haven’t had time to visit your shop in person. Henceforth I have sent this letter, in the hopes that (for now) this is an appropriate way to congratulate you on your opening day. You see, I hope to buy some flowers from you in the future. I’d say that these blooming buds give us colour during the dullest moments in life, and I find that they cheer me up by simpling existing. Perhaps this resonates with you. I wonder if this is why you chose to become a florist, or, perhaps, you chose this job for more than a simple love for flowers.
I hope you receive this letter in good health and prosperity. I am sending you my best wishes for the future of both you and your shop.  Sincerely (and hoping to visit in the future), Shiro R.
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YESTERDAY was in the midst of sweeping up the shop as they had the place closed for lunch when they received a letter, seemingly addressed to them. Thinking that it was an order, they opened it to see what the contents were.
...
Oh, my. I thought it was a customer, they mused, reading through it with a smile behind their mask. It's such a shame they're busy... And the letter arrived so late, too.
Pondering over what to say to the lovely sender, they went back to the shop, this time to prepare a bouquet.
"Hm... I wonder what flowers they'd like," they muttered, "Do they like carnations...? They said they're busy, but they seem sweet..."
...
Ah! I know what to give them. I hope they'll like it!
With an affirmative nod, they began to prepare the bouquet just for the lovely sender.
They're sure that they'll like it. They handpicked it themselves, after all.
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kosmo-mckogane · 2 years
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listen, we're all aware that shiro suffered in pretty much every way possible with his treatment in the show, but i wanted to talk about some of the stuff that i rarely see touched upon within the fandom, and that is the inherent and blatant ableism that pushed so many major decisions when it came to his character.
we all remember the shit that went down with adam - but i want to focus on how shiro is treated in terms of autonomy here.
take a look at the garrison's immediate reaction to shiro wanting to go on the kerberos mission.
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"[Sanda] Absolutely not!"
"[Holt] What? Why not? He's cleared all his physicals."
"[Sanda] I don't care what the doctor says. This man is sick and he shouldn't be sent on another mission"
and see, that right there - shiro has literally been given the all clear by a doctor stating that he's fit for this mission. at this point, there's absolutely no valid or logical reason these random people to decide what he is or isn't capable of doing.
and to me, the biggest insult was that they had this as his literal only interaction with adam.
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"[Adam] Well, maybe he's right. Maybe you shouldn't go on the mission. You'll only be putting yourself at risk." [...]
"[Shiro] Don't start that again, Adam. You don't need to protect me."
and this is the fucking problem. the idea that disabled people need to be coddled and have decisions for their own health made for them, that they are inherently less capable. and yes, in some ways, it's true that shiro will have certain limitations that other people wouldn't, but he is very much aware of those limitations. here, he is portrayed as unnecessarily angry and irrational simply for wanting to make his own decisions.
the fact that they killed off adam while shiro was away on this mission just sets that idea in stone. here, the message they are conveying is that shiro should have obeyed adam and the garrison when they told him not to go on the kerberos mission, because having and practicing autonomy as a person with muscular dystrophy cost him the person he loved.
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"Adam... I'm sorry."
that, to me, makes everything to do with adam a hundred times more insulting.
and the thing is, this wasn't something that just cropped up in the later seasons - the decision to push shiro aside, discard him for his flaws and strip him of everything that made him who he was, had been made long before they even decided he was gay.
shiro feared he'd been turned into a monster by his time as a prisoner, and that he couldn't be trusted to lead voltron due to his trauma and ptsd.
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"Do you really think a monster like you could be a Voltron Paladin?"
by removing him as black paladin and leaving him without a real place on the team, these fears of his seem to be confirmed.
we know this was set up early on, with all the brief hints at keith's leadership in season 2 leading up to shiro's disappearance.
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"If you're going to be a leader, you've got to get your head on straight."
ultimately, the journey shiro goes on as a character is one of loss and regression, being seen as "broken" and incapable and pushed out of a role that he seems to be made for in favour of someone who is in all regards completely unsuited for it. by the end, he's lost everything that made him him, and he's been stripped of any autonomy, importance and relevance. and to see him going from one of the most promising and intriguing characters to that? yeah, it really pisses me off.
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themattress · 3 months
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And now, I just feel compelled to sing the praises of one of Kingdom Hearts' greatest heroes:
SHIRO. MOTHERFUCKING. AMANO!
The more time passes, the more amazed I am by this man. He's had a hero's journey IRL when it comes to his place in the franchise: jumping at the call but being inexperienced and screwing up, reaching his lowest point before rising, dealing with great adversity only to come out of it stronger than ever, and becoming a beloved hero to many who continues to do good.
KH1 was his first manga adaptation, and for the most part it's your by-the-numbers comic book adaptation of a story from a non-comic book medium, not especially good or especially bad. But Amano showed three weaknesses: he mischaracterized the KH-original characters (Sora, Kairi, Riku and Ansem all start out on point, but once Destiny Islands is destroyed this changes drastically: Sora turns into a spastic moron, Kairi into a bland bystander, Riku into an emotionless tool, and Ansem into an over-the-top eeeevil lunatic who actually gets himself killed without any contribution from Sora, Donald and Goofy!), he sucked at action scenes leading to many iconic battles from the game being straight-up left out altogether, and his gag manga inclinations caused him to turn scenes that should be serious / emotional into jokes.
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CoM was his aforementioned lowest point. All those flaws were not only still there, but worse, turning what was once a dark, mysterious and psychological story into an unfunny farce.
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Disgraceful. For a good while, I actually disliked Shiro Amano due to this.
But then came the redemption: KH2. The Prologue section of this manga is masterfully done, possibly even better than the game's version. The pace is less sluggish, the events less irritatingly obtuse, and the humor actually works to the benefit of the story's seriousness - because so much of the goofy humor is between Roxas, Hayner, Pence and Olette, you build even more of an emotional connection to them and the tragedy of Roxas learning the truth about his life hits that much harder when it transpires. When Sora returns, Amano is briefly tempted by his old inclinations and kind of backslides, with the resulting trips to Hollow Bastion, Beast's Castle, Land of Dragons and Olympus Coliseum suffering as a result. They aren't quite as insulting as the CoM manga, but still bad. However, true to hero's journey form this period of temptation and backsliding passes and only reinforces Amano's commitment to improving and actually balancing his humor and adaptational changes with drama, emotional sincerity and faithfulness to the game. From Disney Castle on, he returns to quality output. There are still mistakes here and there, but on the whole the manga is an enjoyable one. From the characterization to the action scenes to the tonal balance, Amano had improved.
And then came the hiatus between its first half and second half, during which he worked on the 358/2 Days manga. Take what I said about KH2's Prologue, then apply it x10, and you get this manga, where the writing and pacing is improved from its game counterpart and the humor is rich, well-timed and actively feeds into the drama and tragedy of the story rather than detract from it. To make the contrast to how far he's come most apparent, remember how in the CoM manga where there's an omake short that makes a complete joke out of the Riku Replica, originally one of the story's most tragic characters? Well in this manga, we get an omake short about a Dusk, which starts out hilarious but then ends up being absolutely heart-breaking. It makes me legit sad over a goddman DUSK. Now that takes real talent!
What's also apparent with the Days and KH2 mangas is that Amano had come to shine in a way that Tetsuya Nomura absolutely does not: respect for his female leads. Kairi, Namine and Xion in these mangas aren't primarily sources of support for male characters or there to make male characters feel things above all else; they are their own distinct individuals with vivid personalities and clear character arcs. Even Olette shines brighter than in the games!
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Once Amano made it back to the KH2 manga for its second half, he was firing on all cylinders. Again, not everything was perfect, but much like the game itself the narrative flaws were not enough to overshadow the many more narrative strengths. And when the manga finally concluded after so many years, Amano confirmed that it truly was the end. He would not be adapting other KH games. And given that the rest of the KH series never got better than where KH2 ended, this was absolutely for the best. I could very easily imagine the Olympian gods making a constellation in Amano's image, as he had become a true hero.
However, oh no! He got persuaded into adapting KH3 when it came out in 2019! This is going to ruin everything, right? WRONG! The KH3 manga has not only been a shining example of how far Shiro Amano has come, but also a masterclass in demonstrating how acutely aware of the game's problems he is and the lengths he is willing to go to fix them. For example...
- He opens the manga with a direct adaptation of the game's opening scene with the Boy in Black and Boy in White in front of the chess board followed by the FMV intro. By doing things in this strange way, Amano invites the possibility of this being an alternate, diverging timeline from the prior manga continuity so that its ending remains untouched should you desire it to be. Almost as if the Boy in Black and Boy in White reside in some higher plane of existence and the KH3 manga is the "game" that they're playing, so it's not to be taken too seriously.
- The whole opening that semi-recaps stuff leading into KH3 is played off as a joke, and given that the stuff in question was stupid (such as the Mark of Mastery exam through sleeping worlds and Sora failing his Mark of Mastery exam on bullshit grounds), this is appreciated.
- He actually makes Maleficent and Pete more competent; rather than have Maleficent dismiss Pete's idea to take Sora out while he's still weak, he has both of them agree that they needn't bother with Sora because his weakness will lead him to being destroyed by the Xehanorganization anyway. They can find the black box while their foes fight each other.
- 0.2 BBS is adapted after the Olympus visit in a way that also recaps the most important points of BBS and includes stronger characterization for Aqua, Terra and Ventus. Stupid things like Mickey losing his shirt are avoided, and there is actually clarification on how Mickey could not have gone into the Realm of Darkness to save Aqua earlier and all the time between KH1 and KH2 he was building up his strength to obtain the Power of Waking so that he could as he promised to, making him come off so much better than he did in the games.
-Coded is not referenced, ever.
- The "Roxas and Namine ceased to exist when they merged with Sora and Kairi" retcon is completely avoided, with the manga instead saying they do exist within them as was originally the case in KH2. Giving Roxas his own body is less correcting some injustice or "hurt" and more part because he's needed for the battle against Xehanort and part because Sora's just a nice guy like that, wanting to provide his friends with all the basic comforts.
- Xehanort's master plan retcon is also discarded! Here it's said that Ansem and Xemnas' plans remained their own, as they should be, and that since Master Xehanort's return he's embarked on "a new plan" once joined by his time-traveling younger self, who never mentions needing Ansem for his time-traveling which keeps things consistent with how KH2 depicted time travel as simply a magical phenomenon that didn't need complicated rules.
- Not only are Riku and Kairi way more in-character than they were in the game, but most shockingly Axel is too! He actually feels like Axel, character flaws and all, not dumbass Lea!
- Toy Box, Corona and Arendelle, while still filler, are all adapted faithfully, which is nice.
- Various alterations are made for the better: the Riku Replica stuff is kept to an incredibly bare minimum, Ansem the Wise first appears in the scene where he returns to Radiant Garden meaning him still being alive is more of a legit twist plus he never meets Aqua only for there to be no pay-off and the dumbass plotline with him and Xehanort's Heartless is left out, the "secret Keyblade legacy" stuff with Demyx, Luxord, Marluxia and Larxene is cut, the second Kairi and Axel scene is no more, and the big reconvening at Yen Sid's Tower scene and the fallout montage is massively reworked into something far better written and paced.
All this plus maintaining his balance of humor and sincerity, including using the former to support the latter, and even correcting previous flaws (holy shit, Marluxia, Larxene, Vexen...they're all completely in-character now!) If Amano keeps this momentum going and actually manages to make something good out of the notoriously disappointing finale in the Keyblade Graveyard, then he will officially have given us the best version of KH3's story in existence.
Tl;dr: nothing but respect for Shiro Amano, who is a better writer than Nomura will ever be.
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petrichorade · 2 years
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Domestic adult (+ long haired) Hitsuhina offering hehe
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I keep thinking about that one panel from Toshiro's past when Momo pay a visit once she got a holiday from the academy, when he noticed Momo's hair already gotten longer than the last time he remembered. Also several headcanons I've read made by HH community about the ribboned cloth that kept her bun hair in place was given by Toshiro ;w;
Those ideas somehow got widen inside my head, and even if this is personal opinion, I truly adore the idea of 'hair' being one of those things that connects them;
An upgrade from several headcanons made by others, I have a theory that not only the bun cloth, but literally all the hair accessories that Momo wear from her very first appearance in Soul Society Arc until No Breathes from Hell one-shot are all from Toshiro.
Connected to point 1, things happen that way because Toshiro keep noticing the slightest change Momo has on her appearance, he tried his best to find something she could wear for a long time.
Momo's "Shiro-chan" nickname that I bet 100% coming from his hair, somehow grew on him that he starts to accept his appearance, and taking care of it as well.
In my post-Quincy War timeskip headcanon, sometimes after their confession toward each other, they're actually aware of this 'hair' thing being something that connects them beside watermelon. So they grew their hair to the length they're comfortable with.
I can imagine Momo having fun washing and brushing Toshiro's locks, or Toshiro finally found his first flaw in his prodigy history, which is hair-styling (he ruined Momo's bun once LMAO). Momo would still keep her bun trademark, but make some of her hair loose. Meanwhile Toshiro notice how the long loose hair makes him uncomfy, he decided to tie it so it wouldn't bother him when doing paperworks.
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