Thank you my love ❤️

My perception of Percy has shifted a fair bit for sure, but along with the perception of myself. I read these books for the first time roughly ten years ago (... yes. I know.) and while i always heavily projected onto Percy, there are a lot of things I hadn't yet realized or recognized at the start. Like, i used to think of Percy as a light and carefree character rather than a character that bottles up until he threatens to explode. I used to think of him as someone who was naive and too loving rather than someone who carefully picks who he is loyal to, but once picked is loyal to a fault.

Another favourite pjo headcanon to add to the list: I've always seen Jason as gay, rather than bi / pan /... , and struggling for a long time to let go of internalized homophobia and compulsory heterosexuality. I also firmly believe that if at all, he was "dating" Reyna in that context - two gay people sticking together because their lack of actual attraction made them safe for the other. They do love each other, but absolutely not like that.

Absolutely!  Let’s go with The Mane Event, then.

Climbing off of Allura, Shiro’s cheeks stained pink. “We were just practicing,” he muttered.

Ryou squirmed out of Lance’s grip and pressed his shoulder to Shiro’s. “Were we being loud?” He asked.

“Not at all, young paladins,” Coran reassured them. His eyes were practically sparkling as he took in the pair of them. “You don’t have to worry. The Castle of Lions is a very big place, so you can be loud if you require.”

Taking in the pleased flush to his cheeks and soft warmth in his smile, Lance suddenly felt bad that they’d let Coran toil away in the pod room. He was the one who knew the most about to fix them, but he looked so pleased to see the kiddie versions of Shiro and Ryou. Likely, he’d have enjoyed getting to play, too.

Shiro’s eyes went wide, and he and Ryou shared a quick look. “I’m supposed to be quiet and let Mother rest,” he admitted. “Grandmother says she needs lots of sleep to get better.”

I get two questions about this fic, both of which were left ambigious on purpose.

The first is how the memory situation works between the twins: Have they been altered to remember themselves as brothers, or are they both reacting to the same set of memories.

The answer is…. semi in the middle?  Mostly the latter.  They have some sense of where they are and who the people around them are.  Therefore, they look at each other and think ‘that’s my brother’.  This is the same reason they aren’t freaking out about the weird strangers around, and they still have their favorites (like how Shiro clings to Keith).

Mostly, however, they are just each remembering themself as Shiro, and remembering the situation.

Which brings us into question two: What happened?

The background of this is pretty similar to Spectrum, expect there are grandparents who fill in the gaps, not an aunt and uncle.  Shiro’s mother was alone, trying to provide for her son with minor support from her family.  Eventually, though, she got sick, and Shiro was passed into the care of family (first while she was in the hospital, and then after her passing).

This happens early on in the process.  I have Shiro’s mother passing when he was 9-10ish, and right now they’re six.  So right now, she’s just been feeling ill often, and so Shiro is asked to amuse himself and not interrupt as much as he can, because she needs rest to get better fast.  He doesn’t really understand the situation yet, only that he gets in trouble when he’s too rowdy, and that the adults in his life are very tense and serious.  

When she isn’t sick, she’s often working long hours, and Shiro knows that it’s important for her to be on time and that she can’t stop and play with him when she’s leaving.

Thus, both of the twins show the same behavior: They’re supposed to be quiet, self-reliant, and not make a fuss when someone has to work.  It’s not a situation anyone wants for Shiro, but the product of necessity when his mother is sick and getting slowly worse.

Ruka!

- He has a secret weakness for anything sweet, especially chocolate or berries.

- He also is a very good dancer, having used to street dance (sometimes with fancy knife tricks) for money before he became a fully-practiced assassin.

- If he knew about them, his favourite dinosaur would be a velociraptor.

MY LEAST FAVOURITE SECTION OF ALA MHIGO BC SO MANY TANKS ARE FUCKIN COCKY AND THE MECHA GORILLAS

THE GORILLAS

This is a tough one for me since I enjoy the look of all the characters in the show, of course my bias would be Shiro who in the beginning wasn’t the type of character I tended to gravitate towards (usually Keith would have aesthetically my type) however, Shiro’s design won me over. I was pretty used to characters with a muscular build being overly macho and the cartoons I grew up with tended to fuel that trope so my initial view of him was tainted by that opinion at first. Don’t get me wrong, Shiro is a very strong character but they allowed him to show some vulnerability with his missing limb and PTSD without it being used to make him seem weak. So we were left with this very human strong leader character that many of us could on some level relate to in some of his reactions. 

On a personal level it was nice to see a character with a mental illness being shown as a very capable and brave individual as opposed to seeing someone with PTSD, anxiety etc as the weak link in the group as often does happen  in media. 

Though serious he also has these small moments where Shiro allows himself to be silly from time to time. 

From a design point of view, I like how he has this powerful build and this (for the most part) soft face. He’s angular but the way they draw his eyes which lessens the harshness of said angles. It’s a little hard to explain. Admittedly I do have a weakness for the trope where a character is built like they could wreck you but their face/expression is such a way that you know they wont.