#omnipah

[bronanlynch]

K, L and Z (if you've got a rant locked and loaded) 😊

K - What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc? truly no one is doing it like captain kalvin brnine (or ali friendsatthetable tbh. hella was one of my other answers for this but thinking abt any part of brnine's journey makes me feel absolutely unhinged. character of all time). also hathaway from gundam my best friend hathaway from gundam

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. not sure I've mentioned mercedes von fireemblem to you (if I did it was probably in the context of any of her several extremely good f/f relationships bc she does have some excellent paired endings with women), I do like her but I don't think abt her very often, partially bc I didn't use her very much as a unit (I typically found one of the other healers to be more effective) but she does have some very interesting thoughts abt the role that individual local churches fulfill within a community despite the problems with The Church as an institution. also she likes baking and one of her girlbestfriends wrote a book of spells that can be used in baking which is very cute

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go! (Prompts optional but encouraged.) ok so. this is something that is true of fandoms in general but something I see a lot of in the gundam fandom. you know when people will claim that they're being Not Misogynistic bc they're "saying positive things" abt the female characters but actually what they're doing is flattening them down into two-dimensional fanon archetypes and not actually engaging with them as characters with flaws or motivations or anything that makes them unique? gundam fandom Loves to point at antagonistic women and be like "I support women's wrongs, actually the protagonists should have done whatever she wanted them to do/let her do whatever she wanted" (and also interrupt actual conversations abt the characters to do this) and it's like. I get not wanting to hold women to unfair double standards but we are still allowed to actually talk abt the things they did and the roles they serve in the narrative. like wow do you think kycilia zabi had girl power when she oversaw espionage & weapons development for a fascist state? did prospera mercury effectively utilize her girl power by raising a clone of her dead daughter to be her weapon? I love a good evil woman too but can we talk abt female antagonists in a way that isn't just "ugh what an evil bitch" or "wow step on me mommy" please. just begging for a smidgen of nuance and critical analysis. and there's also this super frustrating tendency of people who are fans of (horny for) female antagonists to get really violently angry at characters who oppose/kill them? even when it's like. ok but she attacked someone in a giant robot and they killed her in self-defense, or like, she just killed a child and another child lashed out at her in grief & rage. we don't need to wish death upon children/teenagers for killing adult soldiers who tried to kill them/someone they care abt in the "children/teenagers kill people in giant robots" franchise, even if the person who died is a woman you personally find attractive and therefore I guess it was ok for her to kill whoever she wants (this happened in the currently airing show and people were very annoying abt it and it's also the source of at least half of the rancid takes I see abt my aforementioned best friend hathaway noa)

[bronanlynch]

❤💔💕 fire emblem canon of your choosing 👀

❤: Which character do you think is the most egregiously mischaracterized by the fandom?

all of them but especially the main three lords like. you have the people who think edelgard is an evil ~crazy tyrant, the people who have some wild fucking opinions abt dimitri's mental illness, and the people who either think that claude is just a silly meme guy (or that he's 100% pro-church)

💔: If you had to remove one major character from the series, who would you choose?

those who slither in the dark. like edelgard can have a shitty ambitious uncle who wants to use her to gain power and whom she is using in return. but please. he can just be an ordinary guy who sucks there should not be a group of ontologically evil non-human guys who secretly manipulate all world events for their own gain. genuinely wild that I have only very rarely seen anyone point out that uhhhhhh that's classic antisemitic conspiracy theory shit that the game would be better without on so many levels

💕: What is an unpopular ship that you like?

it's time to tell you abt yet another girl that I think should kiss edelgard. it's understandable that this is a rarepair bc hapi & edelgard don't interact much and also hapi is from the dlc (she's from the secret fourth house in the sewers) and there's another girl from the same dlc that she's ~gal pals with, so people tend to pair them together (they're cute too, and tbh these ships are not mutually exclusive, the other girl is one of the ones who has a paired ending with edelgard (the magic scientist who wants to restore her family's status) so like. polycule. anyway). hapi/edelgard. the thing abt hapi is that she's cursed (every time she sighs she summons monsters, because she was experimented on by the same people who experimented on edelgard) which is why the church threw her into abyss and she's. understandably angry abt them locking her up instead of helping her. see: this entire conversation between her and byleth, that caused me to immediately be like "you and edelgard Need to have a conversation abt this" especially this part

like. the thing abt hapi is that she's very jaded and disillusioned and acts like she doesn't care abt anything or anyone as a defense mechanism and I think that's a fun sort of character to set up with someone like edelgard who believes So strongly. girl who doesn't think the world can change so why bother hoping x girl who believes that the world Must change and she has to be the one to do it. this too is yuri

anyway that's why I wrote a fic abt them

[bronanlynch]

hello good evening if ur still doing the headcanon meme pretty please tell me about edelgard fireemblem?

oh I would love to

Sexuality Headcanon: bi but primarily into women (like I am the first person to be annoyed when people On Line act like the one universal experience of bisexuality is abt being into all women and like three men bc that's blatantly untrue for lots of people but I do think it's true for edelgard) Gender Headcanon: she's not one of the fe3h characters whom I'm just fully incapable of not reading as trans like her story still works for me if she's a cis woman but I am very very compelled by the idea of her as a trans woman. something abt her determination to take back her autonomy & ownership over her own body hits as a trans narrative Imo A ship I have with said character: many of them, since she has many women who are very sapphicly obsessed with her and also her goth bestie hubert who in some ways is also a woman who is sapphicly obsessed with her since hubert is 1) obsessed with her and 2) a trans woman to me. special shout outs also to dorothea, the opera singer who fantasizes abt playing the role of edelgard in an opera based on edelgard's life, and monica, who has perfect photographic memory which she uses for remembering everything edelgard has ever said to her and everything edelgard has ever done and also who is meant to be doing what chore A BROTP I have with said character: hubert tbh. like I know I included him as a ship option and I do enjoy them kissing but also the thing is that they are each other's best (and for a while only) friend, and for a long time the only person they each trust, and he has shaped his entire life around being someone who can kill & die for her and this is all endlessly compelling to me A NOTP I have with said character: swings bat at hornet's nest. byleth tbh. so. okay. a thing I don't love abt fe3h more generally is how unearned some characters' trust/fixation/reliance/etc on byleth feels to me personally. there are some characters who care a lot abt byleth in ways that make sense (leonie, who has a connection with byleth's father, or linhardt, who likes studying people's weird magic situations and oh boy does byleth have a weird magic situation, for example). but there are other characters who get introduced as untrusting/independent/etc who then begin to make major life choices because of byleth in a way that I find unconvincing and unsatisfying. and for me, edelgard is one of these characters A random headcanon: I think she used to play a musical instrument like violin or piano with her siblings, and she wasn't ever especially good but it was a fun thing to do together. and she doesn't remember that anymore (have I told u abt this part of her whole deal? anyway she used to have a bunch of siblings and they died and she doesn't have many memories of her childhood anymore due to. the horrors) but sometimes she still like. gets a song they used to play stuck in her head and doesn't know why it makes her so sad General Opinion over said character: I just think she's neat! interesting character, lots of potential for tasty tragedy, so many fun relationships with other characters, cool design

[bronanlynch]

2, 17, 19 for the writer ask!!

aughhh I had my whole response to this typed out and then the page reloaded and I lost it..... you really do hate to see it..........

2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project. so because I’m who I am as a person, Zan and I are co-writing a Word of Honor vampire AU and I’m very excited for all the homoerotic blood drinking scenes that we’re gonna write. there are also a couple of scenes that the concepts just fuckin wrecked me when I thought of them so. can’t wait to take emotional harm from my own writing

17. Do you think readers perceive your work - or you - differently to you? What do you think would surprise your readers about your writing or your motivations? I think I’m probably pretty transparent because I sure do write lots of stuff that’s very self-indulgent so like, I’m writing the things that are interesting to me, which means people who read it can probably tell what I like to think about, y’know?

also, a lot of the more in-depth feedback I get is from people who already know me, so they can see the places where I’m like, writing things about characters that are actually about myself. and I guess you could argue that that’s a weakness in my writing but 1) Idk if it’s that obvious if you don’t know me and 2) my characterization tends to be the thing that gets complimented so it’s probably fine, y’know? like yes I get into a new character’s head by finding an aspect that resonates most strongly with me which is kind of projection but kind of also just like. empathy, and it’s not like I always pick the same aspect of either myself or a character to focus on so it works out (but like. for example. I wrote a Persona 5 chatfic last summer with lots of big group conversation scenes and lots of the feedback I got what abt how well I wrote distinctive voices for each of the characters. Zan’s comment was that they all sounded different and like themselves but they also all sounded like me. mortifying ordeal of being known)

19. Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?) well. there’s vampire AUs, which I’ve done for almost every fandom that I’ve written multiple fics for.

I used to always end ship fics with characters leaning in for their first kiss, because I didn’t want to have to actually write the kiss, but I’ve gotten better at both varying the structure of even just fics about a ship getting together (though I’ve done less of that recently? most of what I’ve written in the past few years is established relationship or exes. we’re not gonna think about that one too closely) and also at writing kisses.

I do love long chunks of introspection, especially for characters who don’t say what they think and also overthink and/or lie to themselves because that lets me not struggle against my tendency toward repetition and like. circular or contradictory lines of thinking. I also like writing big group banter scenes of friends being lovingly rude to each other, and people who care about each other having serious arguments

[bronanlynch]

@omnipah tagged me to share the most recent line I have written for a fic but here’s a couple for the price of one so that there’s context (these are the last few lines of my newest persona 5 fic so like. maybe not technically the last thing I wrote but. anyway there are girls being soft and in love)

“I guess,” Sumire said, rubbing her eyes. She didn’t feel particularly tired, not anymore, even though she’d almost fallen asleep in class that afternoon. But talking to Futaba had woken her up as much as Akira’s strongest coffee did, and set her heart racing the same way “I like talking to you though. And I’m going to be tired tomorrow anyway, so I might as well be tired because I was doing something that makes me happy.”

“We can talk tomorrow? Or some other time, IDK, you might be busy tomorrow-”

“Tomorrow sounds amazing,” said Sumire, smiling so widely her cheeks hurt. “I’m looking forward to it.”

tagging @girlfriendsofthegalaxy and anyone else who wants to do it, just pretend I tagged you lol

[bronanlynch]

fandom asks: 2, 15, 16 <3

time to hear more abt fire emblem and also gundam, shocking things for me to be talking abt I'm sure,

2. a headcanon you weren’t sure about at first but have come to like!

ok so when I first saw ignatz fire emblem I was like. well I doubt you're cis but I don't have any particular opinions abt your gender beyond that. and then we got to a support chain in 3 hopes in which ignatz expresses a desire to ride pegasi (which only women can do) and is really sad abt not being able to do it but is too scared to try, and we went. ah. transfem ignatz real. and then we got to one of ignatz's support chains in 3 houses that's all abt ignatz feeling embarrassed and ashamed of being an artist instead of getting good at fighting and there's a lot of "if I'm true to myself I'll be letting my family down" and we went. oh wow. transfem ignatz extremely real

15. the character that always makes you smile

this is allenby beardsley from g gundam, she's adorable, she's a gamer, she's really really good at punching people, her mech looks like sailor moon, she's a genuinely fun and friendly person despite having unethical science done on her to make her go into a murderous rage so that she gets even better at robot fighting, and I love to see her on my television screen (this is extremely a recency bias answer, zan & I are currently watching g gundam, but every time allenby shows up I'm like. omg!! it's allenby!!!)

16. a tiny detail in canon that you want more people to appreciate

so I mentioned this when I was answering your other ask abt how dimitri & dedue are in love but there's that bit in the one support conversation from 3 hopes where dimitri's like "if only I'd been born into different circumstances so that the two of us could be farmers together... but alas....." anyway that in conjunction with how canonically two of dedue's main interests/hobbies are gardening and cooking really makes me wish more fic abt them had dimitri abdicating so that they can go have a quiet domestic life on a farm together

[bronanlynch]

for the ship meme: any dimitri fireemblem ship of your choice 👀

I'm so sorry this is like a million years later anyway. it's time for you to hear abt dimitri/dedue

What made you ship it? so in the spin-off game (three hopes, the one that I played first) you can go around and talk to each of the three house leaders and ask them abt each of the students in their class and dimitri says, when asked abt dedue, "He tends to keep to himself, but he possesses one of the kindest hearts of anyone I know. I'm proud to call him my…vassal." so of course I want instantly intrigued. and then every time they talk to or abt each other from then on they sound like gay people in a period drama so. y'know (exhibit A) (exhibit B)

What are your favorite things about the ship? well the devotion and yearning is incredibly tasty, and I am compelled by how they are capable of both encouraging & supporting each other in doomed ways (dedue helping dimitri with his self-destructive revenge quest even though he knows that it's hurting dimitri and will likely lead to both of their deaths for a complicated mix of reasons including that he believes that dimitri is doing the right thing and also that he doesn't care if dimitri is doing the right thing or not bc dimitri saved his life and was one of the few people who wasn't super shitty towards him and is one of the only people who expresses any sort of interest in helping dedue's people) (however even at his lowest point when he doesn't care abt anything or anyone except avenging his family he still cares abt dedue and wants him to survive, in routes where you fight them he has lines about wanting dedue to live) and also in ways that are not doomed and will help them both heal from all of the various horrors. like, sorry for sikenposting but they are extremely "the gentleness that comes not from the absence of violence but despite the abundance of it." also, the bit from exhibit B above (the highest level of their support with each other in three hopes) where dimitri talks longingly abt them being able to run away together to live a simpler life with each other

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? to be clear the game is Not Great abt how it handles racism wrt dedue and duscur (the country he's from) but also plenty of people do some (unfortunately predictable) shitty racist things when they write fic abt him. also, significantly less serious but I do genuinely think that the happiest ending for both of them involves dimitri not having to be king and them just. living their lives together as ordinary people. my other other unpopular opinion is that even if you don't ship them they are still canonically incredibly important to each other and I think it's kinda weird if a post-canon fic abt dimitri does not establish what dedue is up to

[bronanlynch]

1, 4, 20 for the end of year questions 👀

Song of the year?

Animal I Have Become by Three Days Grace, bc I have exactly two cds in my car and one of them is the album with that song on it so it's been playing on repeat since uh. may or so

4. Movie of the year?

RRR (2022) is the most movie of all time. it's got everything: powerful homoeroticism, fighting against colonialism, dramatic betrayals, increasingly implausible and also incredibly cool fight choreography, musical numbers that fucking slap, a bromance that can destroy the british empire,

20. What’s something you learned this year?

joke answer: that therapy might not help my mental health but hitting people with swords sure does

less joke answer: that the type of therapy I'm doing probably isn't what I actually need and I can't seem to get my therapist to understand that no amount of decatastrophizing has prevented me from feeling the physical symptoms of anxiety every day of my life but starting to take a fencing class that gets me out of the house and moving around and interacting with people has actually at least improved my mood