Hi tiff!!! Here to bother you again…so I was wondering…why did Zeke in TBAW really approach Eren and took him under his wing? Seeing as they never knew each other before, did he did it out of spite or revenge against Grisha? To make Eren spiral down this dark path? Or did he sought him out to find some sort of family in him…though I find that hard to believe since he is way more messed up and darker here unlike canon Zeke who despite being messed up really wanted to bond with Eren.
Also will you ever be publishing that one fic of yours…the one which we got a drabble of where Eren and reader were project partners and reader was really annoyed with him 😄 I really loved that!
Much love 💕
hello! sorry it took literal months to respond to this 💀
thank you for reminding me about the project partners fic, i totally forgot about it actually!! i should revisit that and see what i can come up with 🤔
as for zeke...
zeke is unfortunately just a really shitty person in the tbaw universe. he's one of those red pill, alpha male, andr*w t*te-type guys that you would generally wanna stay far, far away from irl.
part of the reason why zeke seeks out eren is a "fuck you" to grisha because he feels like grisha is weak. based on zeke's weird ideology, he thinks that all men should fuck around and juggle women and he feels like grisha failed to do that by settling down with carla/eren.
but he also has resentment towards eren because zeke feels like grisha chose eren rather than zeke/dina. if grisha had done what a "true alpha male" should do and keep fucking around, zeke could maintain the illusion that his dad's an alpha, but instead, he cheated on dina with carla and then stopped there.
zeke's alpha male lifestyle is not a happy one. he has no meaningful friendships or romantic relationships because the only people who can tolerate his presence are kids that ten years his junior.
seeing eren thrive with his friends and found-family makes zeke feel even worse about how sad his life turned out. it's no coincidence that he chose right after carla's death, when eren is most vulnerable, to reach out to him.
because marley and paradis are rival schools, zeke definitely heard about the star player of the paradis hockey team, eren jaeger, so he's been aware of eren for a long time.
just like the students that zeke preys on in his class, he goes after eren when he's in a vulnerable state so he can manipulate eren into idolizing him and joining his weird cult of shitty men.
i think a small part of zeke does want to bond with eren and be the father that he wished grisha was to him, but he's doesn't realize that dragging eren down to his level only ends up pushing him further away in the end. and he wants to be able to relate to eren about how horrible grisha was, but that's not the experience eren had with grisha, so he can't.
tldr: zeke has a concerning amount of unresolved trauma for a psychology professor.
hello!! long time no see tiff!! i am back from the dead - how have you been??? sending you so much love!!
omg hello!! welcome back!! 🥰💗
i've been good! suuuuper busy, but i've figured out a good routine for myself, and i'm really enjoying the work i'm doing right now, so i've been really happy every day lol
how have you been!! tell me everything!! how's school going, writing, life, etc. last i remember, you had a raccoon problem?? have you managed to chase them away, or are you co-existing peacefully with them lmao
Haven’t seen you post in a while but I hope you’re doing well and loving life!! miss u tiff 💗
😭❤️ omg you are too sweet. it will never stop amazing me that people re-read tbaw, let alone read and like it once!!!
i'm getting back into my regular routine again and enjoying the sunshine after so many months of cold and wet 💀 i hope wherever you are, you're able to enjoy some nice weather too!!
wait since u didnt like haymitch's prequel..... what r ur thoughts on it..... need ur #review
i wanted to like it 😭 right before it came out, i read Red Rising, and i was like "wow this is like a shit version of Hunger Games. good thing i have Sunrise on the Reaping as a palate cleanser!!" and i was disappointed.
my review might be impacted by the fact that haymitch was a nothing-burger character to me in the og trilogy, so i already went into the novel feeling meh about it.
sry in advance, this is long.
major Sunrise on the Reaping spoilers
it felt like fanfiction, and not in a good way. there were so many character cameos that felt shoehorned in so we'd be like, omg it's x!! instead of actually adding to the plot. haymitch is katniss's dad's bff??? ok cool. anyway.
we KNOW snow is bad. this is clear from the og trilogy and the snow prequel. there's no need for his cartoon villainy to continually smash us over the head in another book. beetee's son. haymitch's gf. haymitch's family lol. enough, i get it.
i felt like this story didn't add anything to the hg universe. it's basically the same plot as catching fire, but they fail instead of succeed. prequels are tricky because we already know what happens, but i felt like the snow prequel added depth and a new perspective. this... not so much.
like i get the point is to show the rebellion has been in the works for years and years, but i feel like we already knew that. we knew haymitch had connections w the other victors. we know everything there is to know about district 12 at this point.
i loved maysilee tho!!! and i loved seeing how much of a disaster the capitol and the games were back in those times.
if sc is gonna keep writing in the hg universe, i'd love to see her write a book from someone who dies in the area. someone we've never met before so we can be lulled into a false sense of security before they're killed.
or maybe a book with multiple povs so we don't know who to root for? idk that'd be cool. but she generally tries to make a statement with all her books, so idk what statement she could make from that that hasn't already been said.
a finnick story would be cool too, and he's a very popular character. maybe during and post-games, so we can see how the capitol treated him after winning.
there's so many cool ways to explore the hg universe that doesn't involve district 12 😭
Hey girl! Hope you’re doing well! I’m currently on my second re-read of TBAW and I had a question that I wanted to ask.
So seeing as when the reader is struggling at her work and relationships, she is seen to mostly rely on her friends or coworkers for support. So that makes me wonder…does she not frequently contact her family back home? Or does she have a rocky relationship with them because she never reached out to any of her parents and such and even decided to stay where she was currently living rather than thinking about going to her hometown for a while. Or is her family not around anymore?
Sorry just a bit of rambling and curiosity 😅
ah, hello! what a lovely ask!! my personal life has been a lil hectic recently, so this is perfect rn for me to decompress a bit.
i'm so happy to hear you're doing a re-read!! it's crazy to me that people like tbaw enough to read it once, let alone multiple times, so that means a lot, tytytytyty
as for your question, this isn't something that i really got into much in the ao3 tbaw, but i've got a lot more fleshed out in my head & the rewrite, so bare w me for this wall of text
like jean, reader also has parents that have high expectations for her, but her family/financial situation is vastly different from his, so she has a bit of added pressure on her shoulders.
her parents want to her succeed and do well so she can provide for herself and have a better life than they did, so they pushed her to go to Paradis University because it was a bigger, better school which meant leaving her smaller hometown for a big city where she didn't know anyone.
she had to learn to be independent really quickly and that's part of the reason why she latched on to her friendship w the core four and why she was so afraid to confess her feelings to jean and potentially lose the only people she was able to connect w in her new city/new school.
and when she starts struggling with work at titan, she feels a lot of shame and embarrassment about admitting it to her friends, but it's intensified even more when it comes to her parents. she doesn't want to be the girl that "can't hack it in the big city" and has to return to her parents with her tail between her legs.
kind of the opposite of reiner in that sense, where he's totally ok with going back to marley if it means escaping the terrible conditions at titan. but for reader, she couldn't even IMAGINE doing something like that and disappointing her parents.
one of the things i wish i had emphasized more in tbaw is how being part of the core four isolates her from other friendships. reader has to deal with the time commitments of work and school PLUS hang out with the core four pretty much constantly. between living with them and their regular movie nights, it doesn't leave a lot of room for her to have any other friends.
(plus the golden trio lowkey keeping her at arms length and making reader feel like she's not as close to them as they are to each other...)
anyway, sorry for rambling!! i hope this answers your question!!
Hi! It’s been nearly a year since I started watching JJK and immersing myself into the fandom/writing. Your fics are one I look back to and I’m so glad it exists!
😭 that is so kind, thank you very much!! jjk was such a scary fandom for me to start writing for because i was really scared to do the characters a disservice. it means a lot to me for you to say that, thank you!
I am writing here because it seems that Tumblr and X are the main points of contact (I legit had to pull up on my old Tumblr for this haha).
I discovered your work recently on my AOT brain rot BS and am a HUGE fan! Like, I am dying... I got flashbacks when I read a lot of the scenes which make me think you're either a God that has somehow peered into my mind (Ok, Ymir, pop off) or a fucking Saint for the girls - I believe it is both!!!
I also see what you're doing when you keep Jean from us in any love triangle sitch... You keeping him to yourself?!! That's the only explanation I have that gives me solace and prevents me from banging my head against the wall. I just want to let you know that my experience reading TBAW was akin to a riled up football fan watching a game - I was hollering and had to step away several times to ensure I wasn't going to go too ape. You are good, sis. You are too good!!
I am an independent musician/artist, MUNGMUNG. Here is a link to my socials and other fun stuff for your reference: https://linktr.ee/MUNGMUNG
I have a new music project on the way and was wondering if you would be keen to collaborate for it in any way, shape or form? If you're interested, would love to discuss further details, share some ideas with you, bounce ideas around or would just love to chat.
Would just love to champion your work and be in your orbit because I just. Can. Not.
If there is another form of contact that is better suited such as email, etc, please let me know!
aw, this is such a lovely message, thank you so much!! i'm glad you enjoyed tbaw (and yes, i am 100% keeping jean for myself haha)
i don't know how i'd be able to help you with your new music, but i'm happy to connect with you 🥰 feel free to DM me and we can exchange contact info
Heyyyy! I've been re reading TBAW since I had my first job experience after college and... Felt just like the main character. I was still in college when the fic was ongoing so now that I left my job I felt so much support with Levi's dialogue where he asks what makes her happy and that she won't be able to do all that in a such demanding job. Thank you so much for writting this story 🫶🏻
Sad stuff besides haha I kinda got a small question while reading. If the MC would've have agreed to give a serious chance with Eren and leave Jean while she was on her stress leave, Eren's development would've been the same or he would've become dependent on his relationship with her?
P.D: I hope that life is treating you kindly, and if not, I hope it does soon 😊
ahh, i'm so sorry to hear you had a similar experience!! i'm glad you're out of it and that the story resonated with you!!
tbaw spoilers lol
if MC and Eren had gotten together before the time skip, they would've crashed and burned. neither of them were ready to be in a legit relationship together, and it would've just fucked them up even worse.
eren would've grown to be very insecure in his relationship. he would feel like she wanted to be with jean but settled for him. he'd constantly feel like he had to be The Perfect Boyfriend to keep her, and it would cause him a lot of stress and anxiety. he'd end up becoming really jealous and controlling because he'd be so afraid of losing her, it would turn him into a monster.
eren needed to be free of MC to grow, but if she had insisted she wanted to be with him, he wouldn't have been able to say no.
MC would've had one foot out the door with eren. without her growth, she still wouldn't understand the difference between loving a Person and loving the Idea of a Person. she would wonder if her feelings for eren were genuine, and she'd lash out at any mistake Eren made and claim that "he never really changed, he's still the same asshole he was before". she'd constantly be hurting him and taking advantage of his forgiveness, and all that pain would turn him into a very angry person.
they would have a really toxic on-again-off-again relationship with one another. MC would eventually run back to jean at some point, and things would be even messier than before lol
although MC's impact on eren's life ended up being good for him, things could've turned out really badly. she was too villainous throughout tbaw and took advantage of all the people around her. she needed to learn how to not be like that in order to cherish eren's feelings for her and return them in earnest.
