My Pride Month post is the slight disappointment I feel when a Bloodymary fic has a section about Grace needing human company right before Simon is introduced.
I really want more writers to take to heart the movie commentary about Rocky adding waves and trees in Grace's biodome to make it feel more like Earth, but Grace doesn't need any of it, because all he needs is Rocky.
It's the difference between "oh, a human who loses the ability to have even brief contact with another human would be Different" versus "you cannot thrive without people who are Like You", and I feel like the whole premise of Project Hail Mary is specifically that that is untrue. Species membership =/= belonging, and Grace belongs with Rocky (and possibly Eridians) more than he did on Earth.
I feel like there would actually be More spice to Bloodymary as a ship if you have a Ryland Grace who is actually like, yeaaaahh I don't actually need another human around, but bonds with Simon-as-Simon and not Simon-the-human.
(SPECIFICALLY in the case of Simon who is not So human anymore, maybe, and who maybe wouldn't want a relationship that's about his shady humanity.)
This is inevitably about aroace-ness because a lot of Bloodymary romance fics are tagged with aroace Ryland Grace, which is Fine because that shit's a spectrum, but it hits bitter when there's a section that Does read as belittling Grace's relationship with Rocky because even though it is framed to be about human touch, it does ping as "platonic love is not enough" especially when you know that human touch is gonna be romantic.
Inevitably YMMV, but those are the thoughts I've thunk about it.
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@sockdooe, I apologize in advance if you're as clueless as I am, but I genuinely want to know.
What is the L/K "queerbait" I keep seeing people complain about? Did something major happen between Lance and Keith in seasons Five and Six-- like, they leaned in toward each other as if they were going to kiss only for it to be a gag/fake out?
I watched five seasons of this cartoon and saw absolutely no hint of anything baity with those characters.
Though I do see the validity in claims that fans were baited by Adam's significance in the show being hyped up
only for his actual role to not amount to much more than another means of hurting Shiro, this, in my opinion, is the closest the show got to genuinely baiting its audience:
There's no reason to animate Keith moving in for a hug this way, other than to give the impression that he was about to kiss Shiro like he's the fairytale prince to Shiro's Sleeping Beauty.
Continuing to interpret two teenaged boys butting heads and competing with each other as "sexual tension", even after, from what I read, the voice actor for one of those boys confirmed that his character is exclusively attracted to women, does not count as legitimate queerbaiting.
╰┈➤ˎˊ˗ the long and short of it: 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐜𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐧, and this blog's main verse.
tw: mentions of character death, brief suicidal ideation.
he does not die at ostagar. he is scooped up by dragon flemeth just like alistair and the warden are and they’re taken to safety. cailan is intentionally kept separate on the edge of life and death as a bargaining chip once flemeth realizes that morrigan’s departure and her want of the grimoire & her death will be inevitable .
his status is revealed by flemeth during morrigan’s companion quest once the warden and companions arrive at her home in the wilds. if alistair is not present, he will die despite efforts to save him. if alistair is present in the party, alistair has the option to perform the joining on his older brother as the only warden alive in ferelden who knows the ritual as a last ditch effort to save the king’s life. whether or not the warden still kills flemeth is up to the warden.
if yes to conditions in #2, cailan survives the joining. jazz hands. cailan is now a grey warden.
if no to conditions in #2, cailan informs the warden of the location of his belongings at the ruins of ostagar, emphasizes that is imperative that they find the chest, and asks them to apologize to alistair and anora both. he does not elaborate before his passing.
after the joining, cailan’s physical appearance has changed somewhat. see the changes in this post. & this piece of commissioned fanart, though this does depict him some considerable time after the fifth blight.
additionally, cailan does cut his hair to aid in disguising himself at first glance (somewhat). most outside of the battle of ostagar, denerim, and the circle of fereldan nobility would not know cailan at first glance, as most did not attend his coronation and have only seen his countenance either at a distance or through the velvet cailan paintings (lmao), but the hair (if kept long) would be a giveaway.
upon the grand reveal of his presence at the landsmeet, he does openly acknowledge that he was a poor king and a poorer husband, and that anora always held the country together. it is there that he will abdicate and move to annul his marriage to support anora's bid as the sole sovereign. it is a deeply personal decision that he discusses with anora in advance.
after his abdication, cailan can accompany the warden-commander to amaranthine as a fully recognized warden recruit, or report to weisshaupt with alistair.
eventually, as years pass, cailan grows into himself, becomes a warden-commander (still toying with this), and eventually, first warden of the order of the grey.
important note: keep in mind that cailan’s motivations + demeanor are in flux and rapidly cycling during the events of origins; he has experienced several ego deaths in the span of months, almost died, is now a grey fucking warden, and is watching the aftermath of his poor calculations as king not only in battle but personally and politically unfold around him. he is fine one moment, and practically non-verbal the next. suicidal ideation is rampant in the beginning, especially around the assassination attempt by zevran. his feelings are complicated and contradictory. there is going to be some whiplash, and this will likely influence interactions.
if there is anything i am missing or that you have questions over, feel free to dm me! i promise i do not bite. 💛
prev - clearly i am also a guy who is a theronmancer at my core and i have also talked at length about how much i love romancing him and his relationships to potential love interests because guy who likes exploring characters through the lens of their romantic relationships.
and, it will never not drive me up the fucking wall that theron is as popular as he is because he's a love interest, and for the content of his romance route. and it will never not drive me up the wall the fanon characterization of him being stupid or unthinkingly reckless it makes me want to grab people by the shoulders and scream that theron shan is a man who makes a lot of insane decisions that look, on the surface, like carelessness, but are actually so intentional.
theron's got a fierce independent streak. he makes his choices based on what he thinks the right thing to do is, not necessarily the practical or safe thing. he's not the sort of person who will forsake or sacrifice others for the Greater Good. he doesn't compromise when it comes to other people.
theron has had to depend on himself for most of his life. he was raised by a guy who refused to ever see the person standing in front of him, only some legacy that theron was meant to live up to, or an obligation to a former pupil. no fucking wonder he's got attachment issues and is not a team player usually. but he can be, and he has been, even before we meet him.
and even though his background would completely understandably make him the kind of person that doesn't bond to others and prefers to go it alone, he does connect with people. very much so. he goes out of his way to help teff'ith - even when she really wishes he wouldn't - because he cares. he cares so deeply.
theron charges headlong into danger, not because he doesn't know the risks or thinks himself invincible, but because he believes someone's gotta, so he's going to.
i just. collapses to the floor. theron shan. theron shan if you can hear me, i love you.
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Idk if anyone else has brought this up but am I the only one who thought Pomni was going to shoot herself at the beginning of her confrontation with Jax? Like when she turned away from him with the gun still in her hands?
Let me start by saying that she heavily considered it.
Now let's dive into this with the moments just before this scene occurred. Not only did he hit her below the belt regarding something she was already insecure about: the "you're a cartoon clown, how can I take you seriously?" was just the tip of the iceberg before everything started snowballing. Then not once, but TWICE, did Jax hit an insecurity of hers. And what's that second insecurity, you might be asking? Falling to abstraction and being forgotten.
It was showcased to us in Episode 2 during her nightmare sequence; how scared she was at being replaceable, being forgotten about with no one to help her as she's abstracting; that nobody cared about her and the only people she thought that might had abandoned her, mocking her. Jax going as far as to say, with a smile on his face, "I don't even remember her name, honestly". These were her perceptions on how they viewed her.
So when Pomni finally asked him, directly, if she were to abstract tomorrow, what would he do? That really set the nail in the coffin for her to mentally start teetering. "I'd move on. And probably forget all about you." He confirmed that silent insecurity, all while smiling at her. So, in her head, as if it became all too real and hard to even LOOK at him anymore after he stabbed her verbally where it hurt, probably unknowingly. She defeatedly said "okay, okay, I .. understand".
So why didn't she shoot Jax in anger? Why didn't she shoot herself to make a point?
Let's touch on these points together. Why didn't Pomni shoot herself? Because everyone thought she was going to - even Jax. He watched her every movement. From her reaction to what he had to say down to her turning around and looking at the gun, mildly lifting it. His eyes looked at her, and then the gun. That's why he doubled down and rectified that she "couldn't just take a joke" because he didn't want her to shoot herself; especially over a guy like him.
But it wasn't a joke to Pomni. That was fucked up and it hurt. It's subtle; you can see the moment that hurt turned into anger instead.
So why didn't she shoot Jax or herself? She had every justification under her belt to do it, to react in anger and show him his just comeuppance. So, why didn't she?
I'll tell you why. Because the guns weren't meant for that. They were meant to be used to have fun and let loose. Even Jax preached that to her, himself; because she didn't want to shoot and hurt her friends. But none of this is real, right? She was under the impression that him helping her grow more confidence was for them to have fun together, essentially LARP and play characters together. He can be the "funny" archetype and she can be the "evil" archetype. All for the sake of having fun.
But she didn't realize that Jax BELIEVED that that's all he was. That he wasn't a human like them, just some cartoon character. She initially thought he was playing a role for the sake of having fun together; that's why him saying he's "the funny one" stuck so heavily with her throughout the episode. Because she got to see for herself that he WASN'T - he wasn't just some hollow shell with no substance underneath. She saw him, for him; firsthand, she got to see through his charade and she wasn't going to believe it or allow him to believe it either. She learned a lot about him that adventure and he never once denied it, just brushed it off.
If she was going to shoot him, it was supposed to be on mutual terms to have fun as friends. NOT based on his own agenda to confirm his own insecurities to himself that he was some irredeemable monster inside that everyone hated. Just some throwaway character that nobody cared about. And this is also when she realizes that shooting herself wouldn't have had any lasting impression on him, to get him to realize. It would only prove his own point. So, she needed to drive home a point that would stick with him.
Anger was a good enough motivator; because she cared about him, she saw him as her friend and even though he hurt her, she KNEW he didn't mean it. He was deflecting, pushing her away, saying anything to make her see him in a negative light. And it frustrated the hell out of her. Because he's NOT THE FUNNY ONE. He's not just some archetype to slap on himself and wear it proud like a badge. He was a human, he was a person before whatever got him to this point. And what better than to get him to come to terms with that other than beating his ass about it?
She never once said she was doing this for anything. She wanted to prove a point. That point was: that he still, through everything, had humanity under the mask he had so held up tight to his face. And that point at the end of the day was for him to come to terms with that and realize that he's real. That's he's human just like she is. It takes a human with emotions to care. Pomni half expected him to fight back - come on, you're the funny one, after all! Wouldn't it be funny to fight her back? But he didn't. He didn't and he realized that. And her point was proven without her having to say a word. His whole ruse was shattered. This "cartoon villain" he wanted to be so badly.
And that's why he had to double down verbally and mention "you think I didn't fight you back was because I secretly CARE about you?" Exactly that. She didn't say that. You did. Because you do. She just needed to knock some sense into you for you to get it through your head.
He has feelings, he has emotions, he cares. And she saw that. Whether he wanted her to or not. And that's why shooting herself or shooting Jax in the end wouldn't have made any lasting impression or sense for their development to get this point and realization driven into his head.
sometimes i think about the fact that kishimoto genuinely had no idea what to do w sakura in the beginning/that he accidentally gave her a bunch of kickass affinities he just never expanded upon bcs he randomly 1 day decided she was gonna be a mednin in the end (after tsunades intro)
