just some nonsense about aria i rambled about to get it out of my brain, i guess?

idk what this is but once again i went off on a tangent abt aria thanks to some influence from arthur ;) [honestly why can't i deep dive on all my characters like this rn]

Thinking about Aria pre conquering and her previous attachments-- I'd contemplated if she had some sort of tragic backstory, like there was a knight she'd sort of formed a bit of an attachment to leading up the invasion and he was killed in battle or smth along those lines, but I think her whole sense of being was SO wrapped up in being-- i'm not going to say Eilia's right hand necessarily bc i don't think she was doing tons of like... talking about policy or military issues or anything, but an important part of her life as the queen of Astaira. it sort of lead me to realize I don't think she's really had much in terms of romantic notions/courting/etc in her past? Part of that I think was just who she was-- pretty quiet and reserved and probably hiding somewhere w/ Aoife at social gatherings whenever possible! I remember Kate and I joked asp about the two of them having sort of useless husbands who just did their own thing while the women ran the country-- I don't think having a USELESS husband was her plan but she def sort of imagined a union/partnership (weirdly I don't think romance was playing into this vision of the future for her, despite the fact I think she's very much a closeted romantic!) husband who was intelligent, scholarly, and had his part in the running of Astaira-- so while she never imagined her sister would try to set up a political marriage for her, she def always assumed if/when that happened it would be something that made sense for Astaira. It was all very practical and sort of in line with that idea that Staffords are servants of Astaira. So she'd probably end up with the one who wasn't the worse and, if not at some point feeling SOME sort of romantic affection for him, at least they could be friends of sorts and share common interests have have children who, of course, would then be tasked with helping the crown and continuing the cycle on and on.

which i'm now realizing, sort of like his fear that no one will care for/love/be loyal/etc to him for just forHIM, Aria just never allowed herself to think that would be possible but, again, in a practical way?! like obviously everything goes back to what is best for astaira & helping her sister & carrying on the work of the stafford family, etc. (also i don't know if eilia realized that was sort of her worldview? i think its not anything she'd openly discuss with her sister honestly...)

BUT NOW there's this GUY who is almost in every way the antithesis of who she imagined herself ever being drawn towards-- like, if this were a bad early 2000's teen movie, she'd be the head of the debate team and he'd be the captain of (insert sport here) and WHY would they EVER even talk to each other?! haha! but then obvi she's seeing this different side of him that she expected to be there-- plus clearly SHE'S having some sort of affect on him and his thought process thanks to all their walks and talk/arguments ;) I think that's not something she's ever HAD before outside of her friendships (and while there is some sort of version of friendship there clearly its something else, what with the whole conquering/captor/flirt thing that's happening) and she just... likes how this is progressing? i think at first it was a "oh great-- more fuel for my fire of trying to worm my way into the good graces of the new regime and sow discontent from within!" but now she's making this real human connection and its scary and its annoying and its making her have all of these thoughts and see things as not black & white and she HATES that but also she is invested entirely now? and she may not have even realized it atp?!

all that being said there are still these little doubts that flair up-- which i think is sometimes part of the reason she reacts so angrily/aggressively at times (bc as we've discussed emotions are hard! don't think abou them in a healthy way!) I DO think every time she allows herself to think about "what is this connection, where is it going, what does it mean?" part of her is like "you're over complicating this-- there's probably some version of you in every castle/town/whatever this guy stops at w/ his deranged dad and you are NOT special and this is NOT different!" and i think some of that may be reinforced post Amira's Terrifying Tea Party when she figures out smth was happening w/ Eithne and she's like "oh okay, so that's his country lady he probably walks around w/ having some version of the same conversation!" (honestly the pair of them both having versions of 'oh, i thought this was something, guess its not..' is...so perfect) and she's like 'im obviously the lady entertainment when he's stuck in the castle!'

But then there are those moments where is DOES seem different and its enough to keep her coming back and trying to figure it out! i think hes right sometimes abt how she feels-- there were def moments where she's like "i want to hurt him, he deserves this, he could have stood up to his father and stopped this if he cared!" but i do think those have subded bc she realizes, again, this is not black and white and he actually has things he has to consider that SHE would consider, too! --namely his family!

plus, adding to that, there's everything I said about her realizing the manipulation is working-- i think she's confused if its working bc of ACTUAL feelings/emotions or if its working because he's kinda dumb and is just easily lead-- deep down she KNOWS its option one, hence why she feels the guilt about potentially doing something that would hurt him! and then adding in a rather, i think, fundamental shift in their views towards themselves/each other with his SHOCKINGLY DEEP AND INTROSPECTIVE confession about his views on his possible fate! i think beyond the whole "holy crap!" of the moment, it resonated w/ her in an unexpected way bc she's grappling with who she going to be in the world now that her whole purpose (helping Eilia as she rules Astaira!) has been taken away and while I think she's desperately trying to fill that void w/ her mission to save the guardians (also can we talk about the amount of pressure she is putting on HERSELF with this? oof), in the event there isn't a catastrophic event caused by the fall of the guardians, she doesn't know what her future is? is she stuck in this castle the rest of her life? does roderick finally off her when he's fed up with astaira being a problem? its not necessarily the same as arthur w/ his sole purpose in life to be emperor for his fate/his family's fate, but i think she sees some sort of connection there as well.

but now here we are and i realized that she's processing these emotions (poorly) on top of the 'you're a bastard, surprise!' announcement + amira's tea party so she's probably just... mad at arthur for reasons that aren't his fault + maybe has been ignoring him for awhile now? bc emotions & she doesn't want to hurt him & his father hurt her & did i mention... the emotions?

also if anyone made it this far WHY and I"M SORRY.

Do YOU have any headcanons for Rio? >:3

YES !!

Rio Ranger headcanons

he doesn't know about Sei

he doesn't really know he's related to Kai since Gashu doesn't refer to him as his son and can't show any kind of affection towards him, but knows about him as "one of Asu-Naro's greatest traitors"

while he is almost fluent in every language in the world (thanks to the internet), he can hardly read and cannot write in any of them. The most he can accomplish is writing "父さん", ”トトノエル", and maybe "ハンナキ" in a 5 year old hand writing. He could learn, but he doesn't care since he sees no use for it, especially with Safalin there to help him if he really needs to

While the visible parts of his body are super detailed and realistic, those that are usually covered by clothes are just a block of plastic with poorly drawn details

he likes to draw on himself with washable markers since the drawings look like he has tattoos (...like his dad, you know... to show loyalty to the organization on your own skin, something that will never go away, no matter if you try to leave... the yakuza can work like that sometimes)

he's utterly terrified of Salvador Dalí for some reason

he tried to learn how to smile and laugh realistically, practicing in front of a mirror for hours and asking AIs for advice, but he eventually gave up since it was too hard for him

like Sei, he has a lazy eye (the left one)

he has freckles

he tries to bite everything and everyone

he tried to bite a Hello Kitty plushie's head off once (failed)

Safalin puts him to bed at night and covers him completely with a blanket for him to go into "sleep mode". She forgot to cover him once and he just laid there the whole night like "👁️_👁️".

got partially stuck in a vending machine once (or twice)

he asked Mishima's AI for help with the expression masks

:D

glasses - johnathan coulton // in this corner of the world - dir. sunao katabuchi // no choir - florence + the machine // up - dir. pete docter // romeo x juliet - dir. fumitoshi oizaki // wolf children ame and yuki - dir mamoru hosoda // le lit - henri de toulouse-lautrec // garden - noah gundersen // everything everywhere all at once - dir. daniel kwan and daniel scheinert

There are like twenty videos about how "x show/movie fixes the strong female character problem" about multiple different media and I'm just waiting for someone to realise that there's nothing that needs to be fixed, just writing that should be improved.

Gender has nothing to do with it.

There are hundreds of movies where the male main character is overpowered and better than all other characters while the women are made to look stupid. That's just bad writing. But when the roles switch and it's the female lead it's "wokeness ruining the story" or whatever.

Your favourite movie or show isn't fixing some grand problem, it's just written very well.

yes, trying to kill each other is excelent ship trope but what about dying in each other’s arms huh. what then.

gimme ur transmasc mike headcanons

ABSOLUTE favorite is mike starts transition when he's rather young and overtime everyone just...forgets he's trans (if they knew). like they just....completely forget they knew a girl at first. like maybe even his family. i don't think his mom would completely forget but she may have to be reminded

adding onto that: will is soooo scared to tell mike he's gay (or trans if you also wanna do that) but....y'know mike is trans (although you can be homophobic and trans....imagine...)

he comes out and explains what being trans is and everyone's like "so ur a girl now?" because they didn't know he was already trans. he gets huffy that he JUST explained that he wasn't until he realizes ohhh they thought i'm starting my transition...

he always adored his long hair but he cut it because he thought all boys should...until he met eddie and it clicked that oh no that DOESN'T matter

similar shit with el. he thinks that boys should have a girlfriend (which i mean ig he does in canon but this has added dysphoria) and such

i don't rlly think mike would need a binder or top surgery because he doesn't have those vibes and also he has the WORST posture so his chest is hidden

i...imagine he doesn't know what being trans IS (while being trans) until maybe robin accidentally find a pic of him before he was trans and asks him if he's trans (which i don't rec ppl do but robin, i love her, seems like the kind of person to do that. something about trying to find community and etc)

again: the WORST periods and he gets SO bitchy when they happen and nobody knows why he gets like that sometimes

maybe after he knows what trans means he makes all his characters trans for fun but doesn't tell anyone

as a kid he REFUSED to wear dresses (mood)

Ronance + Mike trio headcanons?

oooo!!!

definitely gossip together, for sure. i think they'd also paint mike's nails for him because of he tries to do it himself it looks like a nail polish war zone

they give relationship advice to him and will, obviously

robin and mike pester nancy, nancy and robin pester mike

mike frequently makes fun of how lovey dovey nancy and robin are together and says it's gross, but his teasing quickly backfires when they turn it around on how him and will act with each other

RONANCE + THE PARTY D&D SESSION 🗣️🗣️ they convince nancy to dress up as an elf again and robin can't stop laughing at her (fondly, of course)

I think it's interesting when a story can make me mourn for a character I never even knew.

Like. I'm referencing a very specific fic in this moment (*Cough*GITM*Cough*) but like... all you know is remnants of other characters memories of them, and the open space left in their absence that you never knew was meant to hold something in the first place.

why can i get high 80s to 90s on almost every test after doing a once over on the material if i study at all, in everything but math. i worked my ass off studying for a week and didn't even get a 70 on my algebra midterm

Does anyone else have the "smart" ads (the ones that get dropped at designated points when available rather than those recorded as part of the full audio file) on TMA that are completely out of control? I wanted to start a relisten for fic reasons, and on 2 separate podcast apps (stitcher is dying like. tomorrow. so i'm trying to switch) and "Seed", which is the very first trailer and should come in at about a minute COUNTING all the non-content administrative stuff about what the show is called/when/etc got so many ads loaded onto it is was over 6 minutes. I literally could not find the actual content on the first app, because they were loaded on the front AND BACK end with the actual trailer somewhere in the middle.

Like I respect the need to put ads on stuff to stay in business, but 5 minutes is a bit above average for shows that I listen to that are an hour long. 5 times as long as the audio I came for, though??? 5 minutes attached to a regular episode isn't that much better, that's like a quarter as long as the entire episode! And they aren't filling the slot with a really long ad, there are like 10 in there! They're normal, short ads, there are just a billion of them

I hated the Switch so fucking much, I gave mine away so I didn't have to have it around, anymore.

That said, very excited for the people who intend to play that new pokemon, when it comes out.

for a moment I thought they REALLY were going to do the ridiculous “run through an airport to declare your love” trope in Grey’s Anatomy. I should’ve had more faith LMAO. the fact that Nick called Meredith as a last-ditch attempt and she hung up on him?? fucking glorious.

I think the disconnect between canon Belos and (a certain genre of) fanon Belos is that in canon he is pathetic (in the dramatic sense) not sympathetic.

jerma compilation video set to psycho killer by talking heads you will go down in history

I genuinely tear up whenever I think about how English fans are learning Spanish for Quackity and how Spanish fans are learning English for him. He's really loved.

i can't explain it well bc my brain is fried after exams but i feel like there is Something there in the fact that whenever the byIer community talks abt how shipping byIer isn't inappropriate and that them kissing is completely normal and fine, people always, always, ALWAYS have to pipe up with "well yeah kissing is fine but [goes on to preach to the choir abt how nsfw byIer is bad]". like. why is that where your mind jumps. why is it that when one person says "mike and will kissing on screen like every other couple has been allowed to would be good and normal and expected, and writing fics where they kiss isn't inappropriate at all, and we should discuss why people think them kissing is any different and inherently dirty and Bad because therein lies the actual issue" some people gotta pipe up and prove that point exactly. like. do u get wht i mean? no one brings up "pr0shipping" or sex or any of that irrelevant shit whenever someone talks abt j4ncy or lvmax sharing a peck. so why do u bring that up here and now? why do you act like we're talking about anything else here and put words in our mouths? why do you feel Some Type Of Way as an lgbt person urself whenever someone else says that they'd like to see a couple tht looks like them express innocent physical affection the same way that everyone else in the show does? why do you suddenly start talking about cp when literally no one is fucking talking about that at all? like. hello. i can't be the only bitch that sees this i can't be the only person that goes 🤨❓❓❓whenever ppl start to needlessly steer the convo in tht direction like .......