#and that was some mighty fine portrayal | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

birdiewolf · 1 year

Text

Random opinions that I just felt like talking about:

- Calling out people’s sexist and racist biases is good; assuming that the reason they dislike a certain character or the character’s actions/overall writing because they’re sexist or racist is NOT good. Give people the benefit of the doubt and see what they actually mean cuz sometimes English isn’t a person’s first language so what they mean to say comes out as something completely hostile or offensive.

- Preferring the jp/CN dub does not make you superior. Having a voice over preference is fine; acting like you’re all high and mighty for having one isn’t

- Forcing your headcanons on someone isn’t good. I don’t think I need to add anything more regarding this

- Constantly bickering over which archon is the ‘strongest’ is lame. Mihoyo has yet to set a power scale and they have not revealed enough lore regarding the archon’s abilities or where their personal power comes from not have they shared enough details about the archon’s battles, so fighting about it is dumb.

- ‘Blackwashing’ isn’t real. No, it isn’t the same as Whitewashing. No, it’s not taking away representation from ‘Asians.’ It’s how people online have hijacked conversations about racism in media and art by taking a term such as ‘Whitewashing’ which is tied to analyzing the portrayal and depictions of poc alongside a socio-political context. ‘Blackwashing’ is how media illiterate people attempt to shut down fans of colour from making their own fanon content by adding representation since the canon lacks any necessary skin based diversity. (Side eyeing all those East Asians and Europeans who make tiktok accounts dedicated to erasing fanon edits of playable characters as black or with dark skin. Y’all fucking suck)

- Being an asshole about someone speaking a different language in co-op mode is a horrible thing to do (looking at all those tiktok posts bashing Russian players in co-op mode for speaking their language); it’s one thing to call someone out for being rude and mean and thinking they can get away by speaking in a different language but it’s a completely separate thing to just bash and complain about players going about their time in co-op mode speaking a language you can’t understand

- The EN dub VAs being problematic doesn’t erase the fact that the CN and JP dub VAs have also done and said similar things. So please stop saying idiotic sentences such as ‘thank god I use the jp/cn dub’ whenever an EN VA is exposed for acting deviant. I guarantee you that the same JP/CN VAs for those characters probably have done shitty things as well but you don’t know about it because you most likely do not speak their language nor are you likely to be involved in the JP/CN fandoms in the first place

- You can care about meta, and it is necessary to care about meta so that mihoyo gets relevant criticisms on the overall gameplay and structure. With that being said, bashing other player’s damage is extremely shitty. Not everyone has the same priorities while playing. Some only play for the aesthetic, some play for the lore, some play to hang out with their friends, etc etc. So if you see a random person online showing you a clip of their gameplay and your first thought is to type out some passive aggressive comments about their low mediocre damage then I suggest you learn to scroll whenever these kinds of thoughts arise. Most of the damage revolves around artifacts, which have a horrible system in genshin. So if you’re bothered by players not following the meta, then go off on mihoyo’s ass instead for not implementing a fair system that guarantees players proper artifacts.

- Not being a shipper doesn’t make you better than others. ‘Shipping ruins everything’, no it does not. Fans can ruin anything as seen with how meta obsessed players have contributed to creating a toxic online environment where people hesitate from showing their gameplay out of fear of being attacked for their builds and team comps. Toxicity is not limited to a single part of the fandom. Yes shippers can be toxic, but if you don’t like any of them or their content, then it becomes an individual responsibility to block the respective tags, shippers, and their overall content. Complaining about generally shipping makes you seem as a loveless, unimaginative person whose misery lies in being unable to control the stuff they interact with online

- The previous one also applies to shippers. If you are not a fan of a ship, then it is your responsibility to scroll past those posts, to block the shippers for that ship, and to carefully avoid engaging in that ship’s content to avoid getting its stuff on your recommended or fyp. Don’t go commenting utter nonsense on posts dedicated to the ship that you dislike. Fans work hard on making fanart, animatics, edits, etc., so let them have their moments to appreciate their fav ships without dealing with unnecessary negativity.

- Stop associating the VAs with their characters. (Not necessarily about Elliot’s situation but an overall pattern I’ve noticed in the fandom). Disliking Childe because Griffin plays him means you are an immature person who cannot understand that voice acting is just acting, and that no matter how much the VAs interact with the fanbase for the characters they voice, they will never be the actual characters themselves. So complaining about the characters because of the VAs who voice them is dumb. Same with the people who dislike Paimon because of Corina. You can like/dislike any character you want but if your reason exists because of issues with the VA then you need to gain some common sense and learn that these fictional characters are not represented by their VAs

- Going back to the topic of meta, if you see players complaining and criticizing a character’s kit, mihoyo’s tendency to release characters without their adequate supports, or if you see criticisms on character designs (I mean appearances), or criticisms about writing. If you see any of this, and your first response is to go completely defensive because the complaints and criticisms are about a character that you personally like, then you need to learn to do one of two things. 1) if you see any of such content as negative and you feel that it will affect your feelings towards the character, then scroll 2) grow up and accept nuance. You can admit that sometimes there are aspects of a character that are great and some aspects that are bad. If you complain about people pointing the flaws with a character’s kit/writing/lore/design, then I’m going to assume you are a child whose screen time should be restricted and monitored. If you see these things and immediately go defensive, then you need to log off because these sorts of attitudes heavily influence in preventing companies from ever improving on their performance. They know they can release a character with flaws in any aspect and it won’t matter cuz people will defend the character due to personal dedication. Don’t fucking do this. I don’t care how in love you are with a character, if you get upset or defend a character for their shitty writing, overused recycled design elements, etc etc., then remember that your defensive reaction over valid criticisms and concerns is only gonna harm the game in the long run because that one opinion is gonna join the collection of similar takes from other fans and it’ll be so grand that mihoyo will see it as a pass for being able to get away with being lazy and negligent (this has already started happening, but I fear it’s only going to get worse)

16 notes · View notes

clueless-fan-critic · 2 years

Text

Thor 4: What to Love and Finding its Thunder

SPOILERS. Like Seriously, don’t read unless you want to be spoiled.

Review

With the return of Taiki Waititi in the director seat, Thor is back with a fun bang of an epic soundtrack, silly action, and heartfelt moments. The movie itself was a fun adventure movie and little break from the MCU’s serious setup of the Multiverse. I personally like the movie as a popcorn film with a genuine amount of love in it. Its real strength comes from its fusion of intense action and absurd fun ranging from Thor doing a split to stop two space motorcycles to having an army of super children fight monsters. But the more heartfelt moments do tug at your heart from time to time including Jane’s death and Gorr’s wish for his daughter to come back to life.

Thor Odinson

Thor returns to his former glory from his Endgame breakdown into a strong bod god. Thor is the perfect blend of trying to find himself and who he is without being the superhero or Prince of Asgard. His interactions with Jane after their breakup was surprisingly sweet yet awkward like a lot of people who’ve broken up might act like. In the end, Thor takes up a father role adopting Gorr’s daughter and teaching her to become a hero.

The Mighty Thor

The return of Jane Foster begins with her dealing with cancer and finding a way to cure it, so she resorts to using Mjolnir and suddenly gaining the powers of Thor. The Mighty Thor comic is one of my favorite stories from Marvel that explores Jane’s willingness to become a hero in the face of death, thus an aspect of this story integrated into her movie portrayal. Her actions seems are incredibly fun with Mjolnir, fully assembled but still broken after Hela crushed it, breaking apart like a meteor shower and reassembling in her hand was one of the best parts to watch. I mean, it’s just satisfying to see the piece quickly reform back into the hammer.

Other Characters

Honestly, I don’t have too much to say about the characters outside of them being both fun and bizarre in a sense that they’re not as utilized as I thought they would be.

The Guardians of the Galaxy take up the same role as Doctor Strange in Thor Ragnarok, being a brief cameo rather than actually playing a direct role in the film.

Gorr the God Butcher is your typical movie bad guy with a sad backstory that makes us empathize with him. Christian Bale’s acting tends to swing from Joker-esque villain to quiet, subtle madman.

Valkyrie is surprisingly underutilized throughout the film with some standout moments and fun fighting.

The introduction of the gods in the MCU wasn’t as exciting as the rest of the film. I was kind of hoping for Gorr to find them in Omnipotence City and basically destroy most of them in an instance. Zeus was made more of a joke character rather than an intimidating threat, which is fine but would have been better to see a Thor vs Zeus battle.

OVERALL

Thor Love and Thunder is fun mixbag of action, romance, and awkward comedy with the typical MCU-isms you’d expect.

#thor love and thunder #Thor Odinson #jane foster #mighty thor #Guardians of the Galaxy #taiki waititi #avengers endgame #natalie portman #chris hemsworth #asgard #mjolnir #gorr #christian bale #marvel #marvel mcu #mcu #thor ragnarok

11 notes · View notes

mrsblackruby · 3 years

Text

Hey👋🏿 hope you’re having a nice day 😊

Sorry for cross tagging but the harassment is getting out of hand. Okay I’m a Billy Hargrove fan willing to make a cross tag post [which turned into a 5 part series ] discussing how to treat and respect fans in the strangers things community. I’m hoping to showcase behavior we shouldn’t engage in when we see someone who likes a character who we dislike. I’m also hoping to start a respectful discussion to help anyone on tumblr who doesn’t understand Billy fans but wants to understand them.Let’s hope this doesn’t become overwhelming 😳

I’m open to fair criticism. Let me know if you interpret a post differently than me if you want. Please let me know your opinions if you have them.

Don’t worry I also want to be respectful to those who don’t like Billy because you have ur reasons to not like his character and connect to fiction however you want to connect to fiction. I want to make things clear I’m not trying to make a moral condemnation of anyone who has engaged in the behavior I critic in this post. There are much bigger problems in the world but I’m so passionate about this one because I’m a person of color who connects to Billy’s story arc and the way some antis treat Billy fans is just cruel. Billy fans are real people who exist and their stories have real life consequences. Online harassment in fandom is not excusable because it is still harassment.

This post is long as FUCK and will have different parts but even tho it’s long I find the conversation to still be interesting so keep that in mind if you read I’ll try to reblog it and pinned it on my blog for ease. There’s a lot to discuss and this conversation should be dealt with care. I will also have the different parts linked at the end of each post. ( I’m also a stupid teenager pls be kind)

I worked so hard on this.

Please share this if you want because I believe our fandom can combat the environment of harassment online we see. Nobody deserve this type of treatment for hyper-fixating on a fictional character that gives them comfort!

Tw for all parts// harassment, racism, discussion of abuse, and abuse apologia, death threats, spoilers for strangers things season 1-3

Tw for this part// harassment, racism, fictional suicide mentioned

I have taken screenshots to reference and prove the behavior I critic but I have gotten rid of all identifying content as to avoid further harassment. Please don’t go out looking to harass anyone. Let me know if I need to add any warnings. this is a somewhat serious, heavy, and layered discussion. We are talking about how humans connect to fiction here so it’s bound to be complex.

[important Note for entire series] All these posts are recent by the way just to show case the harassment is still and ongoing issue even tho Billy has been “ dead” for quite a while now. He might have killed him self but Billy is still my rat man. let me love 😍him.

The Harassment of Billy Hargrove Fans #1

“Okay let’s get started”

Assumptions and cruel judgments of Billy fans

In this Twitter post someone makes the assertion that being a Billy Hargrove fan is a red flag. I’m aware that this is not a tumblr user but I have seen some of this sentiment on tumblr. I will begin by criticizing this post because someone being a fan of a fictional character doesn’t make them and inherent threat to anybody’s personhood. I get that the person who posted this may even agree with what I just argued, that Billy fans aren’t a real life threat, but that’s not what is being communicated at all when someone reads this especially when a fan of Billy reads this. And if someone out there does believe this for one reason or another I’m going to continue to dispute your claim. Some Billy fans might engage in problematic behavior but to hold a layer of apprehension towards all fans of a character because of this might be something you need to reevaluate. Making a moral judgment on real human beings because they like a character is not okay especially if you don’t even know the reasoning.

Just because someone likes a character that might be a mass murderer in fiction doesn’t mean that now they support massacres, correct? Same logic applies here if someone does interpret Billy as racist but still likes his character that does not mean they think racism in the real world is okay ( or bullying, harassment, or anti feminism either) and that does not mean they can’t organize against real world problems effectively.

This is a crude assumption

First things first not every who likes Billy ships Harringrove

As a Harringrove shipper I can only speak for myself and say I could give less of a fuck if Billy is “good” or “bad”. That’s doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to smash king Steve. That’s also doesn’t mean he can’t be queer and it doesn’t mean I can’t like the ship. And it doesn’t mean that I can’t connect to Billy on a disastrously queer level ( got that phrasing from a grade A post on this hell site)

Believing Billy can see the errors in his ways and can heal and become a “good” person… doesn’t have to be a byproduct of being a shipper. it can just be a read someone has of a character so “anon” no disrespect to ya but your thinking is wrong.

Okay this is gonna be lengthy

Fine some Billy fans ignore the shit he did… but that’s not inherently bad. Fans can headcannon Billy into a completely different portrayal than what we see on screen and love him I don’t see a problem with that especially when they aren’t excusing any abuse.

The Duffers brothers failed at exploring racism in their show if that was their intention. Point blank period since this is a form of art it can be interpreted in many different perspectives. Especially if it is not tied to any explicit themes on racism in the text. I interpret Billy’s actions as racist but no one has to do so if they connect to the story in a different manner. I felt the weight of Billy’s “ certain type of people” comment. However it was only and implication not a confirmation. Stop being mad at people for not interpreting something left up to interpretation.The writers didn’t explicitly tackle the issue they wanted to tackle.

This might be helpful 2 know …I interpret Billy as racist, I’m also black, I also Stan Billy Hargrove.

Okay here we go… no-one has to interpret Billy’s actions as being racist so why assume that if someone likes Billy it’s because they’re racist just like him… if they don’t even think he’s racist. I hope that makes sense

I think Billy is racist 4 sure the story flows better for me that way and it makes a lot of sense to me. Now let’s talk about racism in the real world … racism is something that is taught. Racism is a big large system we are all conditioned into. Racism is something we must all unlearn in the real world. So in the fictional world I think there is an entertaining plot line that Billy can go down and unlearn his racism +stop beating up on children Billy 🤦🏿‍♀️. Because I see that potential growth that is why I like his character. Oh and no one ever talks about this but I head cannon Billy as fat phobic because of the “lard- ass” comment so my version of Billy is working through that as well.

I don’t wanna sound all high and mighty I can understand why someone might express this sentiment. I’m not gonna demonize someone who is black like me (black people have dealt with that enough). I also get why you would not even like Billy if you interpret him as racist. [Someone could have the same analysis of Billy as me and still not like him because how we connect to fiction is somewhat irrational.] I would just ask that we don’t jump to conclusions about anyone’s politics because of how they like a fictional character. That we treat other members in our fandom with respect.

I can never and will never excuse racism because if I do I would be turning a blind eye on a system that kills my loved ones. Your allowed to not like Billy Hargrove honestly I don’t see any Billy fans who care? Stop making crude assumptions about people who do Stan Billy Hargrove ur “ joke” is a hurtful misrepresentation.

Lol like #notallbillyfans am I right guys 👉🏿

*crickets sounds and booing*

okay sorry let’s move on…

The problem I hope i highlighted is that you can not make inherent claims to thy morals of a human being because they like a fictional character.😂

Stand alone post: Me reading to much into the politics of Billy Hargrove/ Harringrove

THE 5 PART SERIES ON HARASSMENT:

#2 #3 #4 #5

24 notes · View notes

whentheynameyoujoy · 3 years

Text

So the ATLA Movie Is... Good, Actually?

Just kidding, of course it’s not, it’s so bad it sucked the paint off my walls. But after ten years of people pointing out its glaring flaws, why would anyone bother talking about this garbage heap if not to go the other direction? So here’s a very brief and very superficial list of things the movie does get kinda... not atrociously wrong.

And they won’t be fake hipster pokes, like “It’s fun to laugh at”, “The Rifftrax for this is OK”, or “Kudos to the actress for managing to say we believe in our beliefs as much as they believe in theirs with a straight face”.

(though now that I mentioned it, it is fun to laugh at, the Rifftrax for this is OK, and massive props indeed.)

Rasta Iroh

Yes, I know it’s not exactly the aesthetic of the real Iroh or that it makes no cultural sense for him to sport this do when no one else in the racebended Indian “OMFG what were you thinking Shyamalan” Nation does but goddamn, long-haired dudes are my one mortal weakness and I will ogle the hell out of him.

Jesus is that a man bun I see that’s it mum I’ve been deaded

Yue’s hair

No.

Now we’re talking. Yue’s hair turned white when the Moon spirit gave her life, so it makes sense for it to go black again when she sacrifices herself to revive the koi fish. It’s a neat detail I find myself expecting whenever I rewatch the scene in the show. Yes, I realize it’d be a pointless hassle to animate since she, unlike in the movie, immediately goes on to become the Moon herself but still. I like.

The Blue Spirit’s mop

Zuko, hun, what’s with the dance-off?

First of all, I want to imagine that Zuko the Theatre Nerd was about to leave his ship with just the mask like in the show but then stuck his head into the cleaning cupboard and went, “Yeah, more coverage might be good, even though it do seem mighty fried to shit”.

Which makes me giggle. I like to giggle.

And secondly, the hair’s movement is what makes the static mess of the Blue Spirit’s solo fight scene appear at least bit more dynamic because God knows the cinematography isn’t doing it.

Any particular reason why it’s at the edge of the action, shot all boring-like?

Now, I get why circular shots would be reserved for Aang while he’s in the practice area and then used once the two join forces. What I don’t get is why Aang’s part of the action scene has a defined visual style while Zuko’s delegated to a few stationary wide shots from afar as though he’s a tertiary goon, meaning that when the time comes to combine the respective pieces of cinema language and visually convey collaboration, there’s not really much to combine.

But as long as Zuko is stuck in this static mess, it’s that awesome disaster on his head flopping about that draws the eye, helping me understand that something even is going on over there.

It also prevents me from paying much attention to how the extras are mostly just staying put and a lot of the hits don’t land, so that’s good.

The music slaps

James Newton Howard is too good for this.

youtube

Pls ignore that the word “gods” is used in the ATLA universe

I can’t be the only one who constantly uses this piece to daydream about writing specific fanfic scenes instead of, you know, actually sitting down and writing them. It’s just so good at communicating a sense of sorrow while speaking of rebirth that I find myself getting misty-eyed whenever I listen to it. Unfailingly, the soundtrack as a whole manages to break through the mile-thick crust of horrible acting, confusing writing, and uninspired cinematography and make me feel things. And considering how everything on screen is working against it, that’s no small feat.

Imagine what a powerful experience it would be if the score was used in service of an actual movie.

Dev Patel

No wonder since he’s the only one in the film occupying that crucial intersection between “is a good actor” and “was given something to work with”. It also doesn’t hurt that he breaks with the trend of actors starring in martial arts flicks despite never having done any martial art.

And all EIP-jokes about “stiff and humorless” aside, he’s a pretty decent Zuko considering how abridged this version of the character is. A while ago, I remember hearing a reviewer say that with his comedic chops, Patel should have been cast as Sokka. And on one hand, yes, god, absolutely, I need to see that asap. But on the other? He captures all layers of Book 1!Zuko, the desperate obsession, rage, and self-loathing, and at the same time gives you a peek at the soft momma’s boy dork that’s buried underneath. For Christ sakes, he exudes intensity and ambivalence even when acting against an emotionless hunk of wood that’s giving him nothing in return.

Oh, and I guess there’s a tree in the frame.

Ba dum tss

What can I say, the guy’s good.

Showing vs telling

OK, so this movie is all tell and no show, except for one single moment. And it’s the exact moment where the original goes in the other direction in terms of how information is conveyed.

See, I never liked this. The revelation is preceded by Iroh giving advice to Zuko who scolds him for nagging. Iroh then apologizes, moves in to say the line above, and is interrupted by Zuko who seems rather uncomfortable with Iroh laying his feelings out like this. And once they’re out, Zuko verbally confirms that he knew already and Iroh didn’t need to bother.

All this extraneous information and pussyfooting ends up weakening what should be a profound scene that reveals to us, the viewers, how deep the relationship between these two in fact runs.

Compare to the movie where Dadroh acts like a parent by fussing and worrying, with Sonion needing a single look to tell him and us that he understands what it’s all really about.

It’s genuinely efficient and just good.

No Cataang

Fine, a bit mean-girl bitchy from me since I only start minding the ship in Book 3. And probably unintentional on the part of the creators since there are moments where I think they’re trying to set the romance up? There’s a, well, an attempt to recreate the famous introductory shot of fateful meaningful destiny of meaningness, there’s some slight note of saving each other’s bacon going on, I’m pretty sure they’re the only ones in the film who smile, and oh, right, Katara’s shoved into her post-canon useless role where she doesn’t ever do anything, and is all about Aang right from the get go.

Yes, I will blame the “executive producers” because a) I’m incredibly petty, and b) it’s perfectly in line with their vision of the character so why the hell not.

Hilariously, none of it reads on screen because the actors are just... yeah. These poor kids are struggling so much with delivering their own lines and portraying their own characters they don’t seem to have any strength left to create something between them. To be fair, the bare-bones shot-reverse shot style of their scenes doesn’t exactly lend itself to the idea they occupy the same universe, let alone are friends or each other’s crushes.

And I enjoy this immensely because it allows me to forget the depressing horror show Katara’s life turns into post ATLA.

Yes Zutara

I need to delve into this because it’s fucking hilarious. So in a movie which fails to establish the original’s central romance so spectacularly that if Aang got lost in a crowd I don’t believe Katara would notice, SomEOnE thought it’d be a good idea to add an utterly unnecessary non-canon moment where Zuko for some reason feels the need to pause his character-defining hunt for the Avatar which otherwise has him ignore everything and snap at everyone, and explain his central conflict to an unconscious peasant he doesn’t know, complete with gently pushing the hair from the pretty girl’s the soulmate’s the Water Tribe Ambassador’s the Fire Lady’s the love of his life’s her face away, AFTER his uncle nagged him twice to find a girl and settle down.

I just wanted to make sure we’re all on the same page and this is what we really saw.

Celibate Avatars

I have no idea why the decision was made, if TPTB thought expecting viewers to understand the story through the lens of Buddhism would be too much, or if the “executive producers” already worked their retconny magic. What I do know, however, is that there’s a big shift in worldbuilding and Aang’s struggle with his role as the Avatar stops being a personal conflict defined by a) his grief for Air Nomads, b) his notion of being robbed of the loved ones in his life, and c) the selfish attachment to Katara he confuses with true love. Instead, what he has a difficulty to accept is apparently a general notion of who Avatars are supposed to be, i.e. a fantasy version of Catholic monks, no family and worldly relations, period.

I guess either someone understood the original’s portrayal of de/attachment as “hermit no freaky”, or thought the audience would so why not go there outright.

Now, do I like this on its own? No, God no, it makes the world infinitely poorer and changes the story from an exploration of ideas which aren’t all that ingrained in the West, to a cliché tropester about a Catholic priest going Protestant so that he could be with a girl.

At least I assume that’s where they were going to take this eventually.

I mean, I think the direction was “look conflicted, this isn’t the final stage of your journey”?

But consider this—the show went there, it built on the concepts of Eastern philosophy and touched upon the ideas of spiritual awakening, only to swerve in the end and strongly imply they’re bullshit and Aang should have never wasted his time with them.

So honestly, I much prefer scanty worldbuilding to an insulting retcon by a damn rock.

Multiracial Air Nomads

Probably the most substantial “no hint of irony” point on this list and a genuinely good addition to the universe’s worldbuilding.

See, the notion of the elemental nations being perfectly separate and never mingling before Sozin has always been sketchy but it’s especially ridiculous in the case of airbenders. It never made sense to me for all airbenders to be Air Nomads and for all Air Nomads to be monks and for all monks to be chilling at the temples all the time to facilitate a quick everyone-dies genocide should an imperialistic warlord ever decide to commit one.

Because committing everyone to a single way of life at a handful of places kinda goes against the central philosophy behind airbending. Like the freedom and nomadism part.

Instead, there should be more variety to the airbending culture, with some staying at the temples as monks, hermits, and teachers while others live as nomads, travelling the world and creating more airbenders, with the resulting children in turn being influenced by the non-airbending cultures they grew up in.

And thus, not only should airbenders not be modeled after a single culture to create a one-size-fits-all lifestyle, but they should have the most diverse and dynamic culture out of the four nations.

And it’d be precisely this diversity which would pave way for an eventual reveal that some of them survived, that their complete extermination is impossible.

Because they’re everywhere.

You know.

Like air.

#atla #atla movie #zutara #anti bryke #dev patel #the last airbender #anti-kataang

172 notes · View notes

sujiescraps · 2 years

Text

This will be a post about personal opinion and ranting. It will end on a positive note though UvU

Recently I’ve come back to Sonic stuff. Been thinking about it for awhile now which is focused on one character (and the famous ship involved with that character) : Amy Rose.

Like the ship SonAmy, I’ve had an up and down history with her. However, by now it’s safe and secure to say that I stan her.

The undeserving hatedom she gets, at least from the western side, is overwhelming compared to many other characters in the franchise(Sonic, Shadow, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Blaze, Silver, even Cream) to the point that it’s ridiculous.

As somebody who’s from the west and grew up during the 2000s, there were some of the worst portrayals of Amy, and the Archie comics(liked by many of my peers back then) with Sally(who didn’t just leech from Amy but also Tails; two major SEGA characters and as Sonic’s love interest), and just how they negatively twisted Amy and other canon characters were downplayed so that SaTAM/comic exclusive characters can look better, fed my frustration. Seriously, the majority of it felt like a fanfic full of OCs. It’s fine in the realm of fan made, but Archie comics are an official professional company where that stuff shouldn’t have happened. The reboot was better but it felt like it was too late and the damage was already done.

I’ll admit even the games could’ve done better handling Amy, but for sure, did way better than the comics. One game (I know there’s more) that I’ll rant about is Sonic Mania. I like the classic trio(they’re my favorite out of all the teams) but even I’ll admit there’s negativity that comes with it(one of them is alienating Amy), but that comes with everything I like. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Amy should’ve deserved to be a playable character because she is a core character of the franchise itself, and that it felt unfair especially since they added Mighty and Ray(two more distant characters) to the roster.

Two games I definitely feel should get credit for what to like about Amy is in SA1 and Sonic heroes. In both games it shown her leadership, support, kindness, optimism, determination, and even independence.

IMHO, SA2 could’ve done better when it came to Amy, but it did feature one of her top moments. I’d dare to say it’s legendary. She was genuinely able to convince Shadow to give humanity a chance even with their flaws, which made Shadow do the moral thing. Technically, it was her who made the tides turn.

One of my favorite things about Amy is that the little things, that every person can do, matter.

Then again, when having a favorite character in any series, of course you’d have strong opinions and want to see more of them, but we should keep in mind that a company (like SEGA) will go with what’s desired on the market. It sucks, especially when it’s something you didn’t want, but that’s how it works.

About the classic trio being “in the way” of Amy I don’t think she’s any threat of them as some think , aren’t all the teams (Dark, Babylon, even Rose) in trios? It’s not just the classic. I think another thing which has been done before, that while Amy isn’t on Team Sonic, she’s the leader of her own team. There’s times I think that’s better because 1) proves her independence 2) proves she’s capable of leadership 3) Amy has been on team sonic BUT just about every time, she’s been outshined by the other three guys(SA2, Riders, Zero gravity); this doesn’t just apply to Amy, throughout many most series, a lot of female characters even the main female lead don’t get the credit as their male companions. I know, Amy doesn’t need to be flashy, and her moments regardless who her companions are depending on the game are good. Given that it’s a video game series and the main focus should be the gameplay, I think that being her own playable character(SA1) or being on her own team(Heroes) has shown the best of her. Ofc having her teamed up with Team Sonic is great too; with that direction she’d take her rightful role as the main female lead. Like she should! (Note: I don’t know every Sonic game or all of its plots, so I’m just taking what I’ve seen weather it was playing the games or watching YT videos of the same thing)

IMO saying that SonAmy is toxic or Amy being an ill, crazy fan girl who’s a yandere and stalker is superficial. A lot of detractors of this ship generally blame Amy for how bad it is, when in reality, some of it is on Sonic’s part too; He has been proven to be reckless. I’ll definitely say that SonAmy is not the ideal ship in my POV, but there’s enough of this ship that’s unique and interesting between the two, which makes me like the dynamic or be invested.

The Japanese(the source and real canon) side already confirmed that Amy is Sonic’s romantic interest. In fact, her concept and creation from day one was to make a girlfriend for Sonic. Even how she’s portrayed in general is far better. Despite cultural reasons and values, the core idea for the series, especially the characters, should be solid to viewers everywhere. Or else a noticeable chunk of the fandom will get the wrong interpretation.

While the years of misinterpretations and poor portrays are irreversible, now for a couple years Amy has been put in a better light, the Archie comics out of the way, the promising hopes of her focus in Frontiers, the fans who already appreciate her and new Sonic fans for the years to come, perhaps they’ll be a new era that will give what Amy truly deserves.

#ramblings #amy rose #sonic #sonamy

2 notes · View notes

theshinsun · 4 years

Note

....Crushing, You Wanna Dance Mothafucka?, FTM Brazil OiHina, Golden bc you Know I'm a sucker for GWGE and modern ATLA HAVE FUN and thank you my dude!! <3

Crushing

or, “How to confess your feelings to your arrogant, melancholy, possibly-bisexual power forward with a terrifying but very attractive face, by Sakurai Ryo”

Excerpt:

He hadn’t meant to look. Not for any extended period of time, and certainly not with the intent of satisfying his own curiosity or observing in any way without Aomine-san’s knowledge and consent, it was just… in the locker rooms it was sometimes difficult to avoid confronting such realities... noticing things…

Things like the rich, burnished tan that extended all the way down the muscular expanse of Aomine-san’s long, bare back. The flex of his broad shoulders as he shrugged out of his school uniform, the accidental glimpse of two little dimples peeking out over the waistband of his shorts that made Ryo want to just die. Just lay face down on the linoleum floor and let the evening janitorial staff dispose of his remains.

You Wanna Dance Mothafucka?

I wanna write AoKise dancing together. I wanna write an AoKise dance battle, I have a mighty need for this concept and I’m not content to wait til I finish my college AU to put it out there. I’ve gained such a new respect for Kise as a character and I’d love to give him some time to shine, with my best boy in tow of course. I’d probably go the route of an AU where they haven’t met, run into each other at a club, get way too competitive and tear it up on the dance floor, and meet up after (possibly in the restroom) to make out/fool around all flushed and sweaty it’d be pure pwp.

FTM Brazil OiHina

there aren’t enough people losing their minds over Brazil Hinata you guys. there’s also not enough people writing OiHina. there are people creating some (fantastic) FTM Hinata content, but I wanna intersect all of these things in one fic. the manga destroyed my soul I still can’t believe the Brazil arc is canon... anyway I just got an idea to do a oneshot where Oikawa finds out Hinata is trans when he sees his top surgery scars during one of their games, they have a respectful albeit humorous discussion (about high school and making assumptions and how “omg I couldn’t tell at all!” isn’t actually a compliment). somewhere along the line talking about past teams/relationships Hinata confesses to having had a crush on Oikawa, and maaaaaybe goes with him back to his hotel room instead of going home and maybe they kiss or smth, I’m still fuzzy on the details but I’d very much like to make this happen.

Golden

I’ve been toying with the idea of rewriting Girl With Golden Eyes to be more accurate and concise for awhile now... a year or two at least. only recently have I considered rehauling the story entirely (I wouldn’t scrap the original, and the new version might not even follow the same plotline... the common thread would mainly be the concept of addict Aomine)

Major changes would include:

AoKise as the main pairing (“golden” referencing his hair and eyes as well as being a euphemism for heroin, opportunity for a longer-standing established relationship, Kise’s lightheartedness contrasting the severity of the situation and eventually leading to denial/downplaying on his part)

a more gradual descent into drug abuse for Aomine; starting with alcohol, prescription pain killers and other downers before jumping into heroin, if at all

more realistic portrayals of the effects of each drug, addiction, relapse and recovery in general (I did my research for the previous fic but it’s still extremely inaccurate in many areas)

a little less melodrama overall, but no less emotional struggle and suffering this is me we’re talking about

I’d probably cut it down to about 6-8 chapters max, possibly longer installments, but with less unnecessary filler and more plot and character-driven action

some kind of overlying message with more nuance than “drugs bad”?

modern ATLA

in the middle of the Avatar renaissance I got a surge of inspiration to try my hand at a modern AU (honestly, who didn’t?) and drafted out a whole-ass outline. I’ve never written for this fandom before but I was very quickly sucked into Zukka hell and I might still give it a go if I ever get my drive back.

it’d be a high school AU, and I’d have Zuko as the super closeted, internalized-homophobia-having senior with Mai as his beard, he doesn’t have many friends, is tormented by his extremely popular but vicious in a Heathers way sister, pretends the scar that takes up a little less than half his face is just an unfortunate birthmark and his relationship with his dad is fine, and in general is in denial about everything in his life.

enter certified jock/nerd combo Sokka, who has never worn sleeves in his life, runs track, captain of the mathletes, on the chess club and the slam poetry team, he does it all. the class clown, openly bi and generally just confident in himself. he’s got a super supportive dad, a scary younger sister and some amazing friends, but an underlying layer of tragic backstory involving his mom (something he shares in common with Zuko). the rest of the gaang features and there’s shenanigans abound.

...anyway there’s no way I have the skill or the patience to pull off the 60k+ novel this concept deserves, but maybe I’ll try writing it in little segments if the fancy strikes me again.

#shin speaks #thanks again friend!!#<33 #answered #taigainside #knb #atla #haikyuu!!#aosaku #aokise #oihina #zukka #writer woes

33 notes · View notes

jevilspamton · 2 years

Note

if you don't want to answer this, feel free to ignore it!! that's perfectly fine - i don't want to make you feel uncomfortable. but i saw your tags regarding s*nic w*ldf*re and i wanted to know what they did/if i should avoid them, particularly because you mentioned a large age gap & them introducing you to inappropriate content? obv. feel free to ignore/answer on private, i hope things get better for you soon

the inappropriate content part mostly had to do with a separate group i was in when i was 12 i shouldve worded that better in my post sorry!!!

i was initially gonna answer privately but i typed out so much so im like...fuck it. might as well not let my time go to waste

i don't want this to be a ""callout"" post because i dont think this really...classifies as one. i'm just sharing my experiences and my opinion on what happened to me and my friends. this is not an attack. this is venting, if anything.

im going to make this statement and im going to move on! because that's the healthiest choice for me to make! sonic-wildfire can go be mad, he can vague about me, he can call me insults, i do not care. this is for my mental health and my wellbeing.

i'm going to let this out and then get on with my life because i'm finally starting to be happy and i'm not going to allow this to drag me down <3

now onto the actual ramble (i tagged it as #long post (as well as general content warnings like s///icide mentions and all that if you dont want to see this go ahead and filter it):

he didnt have anything to do with explicit images and i didnt say it was a large age gap, just an uncomfortable one, but!!!!!

essentially he is 18 (turning 19 in april), i'm 16. we broke up this year i cant remember if it was before or after he turned 18 in april but regardless it shouldnt have been my responsibility to be the one to prompt the breakup (we were in a polyam relationship with someone else who was about 16 or 17 iirc. we dont talk anymore but thats another story :P)

he projected attraction to a fan artist's version of a sonic character a very clearly meant to have sexualized undertones/creepy OVERtones. the character in question (mighty) is 16. i talked to him about it but he denied it and said he would never display attraction like that to even fictional minors even though i pulled up screenshots of himself going "im gay" @ the images and other portrayals of attraction in tags of his rbs from it, then proceeding to spam delete them after people started dogpiling and agreeing that the topic and the op of the art was very creepy. he got very defensive and said some questionable shit to defend op ("it's not outwardly predatory" etc)

he made suggestive jokes about me and him around the time we were dating, he continued to make them about me and during those recent times i didnt really...realize that wasnt ok so i enabled him by making those jokes back, this was even after i broke up with him which made it a lot worse imo

he was extremely attention grabbing and kind of lowkey passive aggressive/guilt trippy all the time. he also had very bad anger issues and had a VERY heavy history of making a lot of people in the server uncomfortable or even panic

he liveblogged his contemplations and attempt of su*c*de, making my close friend have a panic attack because for the next few hours he didnt say anything. keep in mind 90% of the server has minors in it. he liveblogged this to all these kids including myself who all have triggers related to that sort of topic. we had to set a fucking rule in the server to prevent him from feeling like he could do this again in the vent channel. we understood and were very concerned for his wellbeing and mental health but as one of the older members its supposed to be your responsibility to know where its appropriate to share things like that. in a server with kids, some of them you havent even spoken to once, is not one of those places

i also recall a happening last year with him sharing a gore image of human brains piled in a bathtub while me and a few other people were in a vc with him. had to delete it immediately and tell him to stop. he thought it was appropriate and funny which is so fucking gross, this was during the time he barely knew most of us and we were far from being close friends, and even then that still wouldnt have been appropriate

i could go on and on but tldr hes a very unstable individual who has made a lot of people, both adults and minors, uncomfortable and he threw a fucking fit when we removed him from our server and i blocked him not long after and he called me a "scheming liar" or whatever because i wished to leave off on at least good terms which is why i talked to him before kicking him in the first place. good terms doesnt mean friends. just no hard feelings for cutting connection. he clearly still felt too clingy to me and then got upset when i removed him for good for my mental health

but yknow then he's allowed to vague and ask mutuals for any sonic servers so if he finds us so replaceable idk why hes throwing so much of a tantrum over it??? but yea theres my rant. i was gonna post this privately but, honestly, i feel like people need to hear about this because he is kind of a popular person in the sonic tumblr fandom

to anyone thinking of sending hate or waiting for him to turn on anons again, dont. thats so petty. just let him vague it out of his system because really thats the only way he ever manages his severe anger issues. block him (or block me if you disagree with this ramble or whatever) or dont, i dont care, this is just my story and my experience with him for the past year and a half and im trying to relieve the tension and weight on my shoulders from having to deal with this for the past day or two

TLDR #2 basically just be wary of sonic-wildfire because he has a long history of being very uncomfortable and otherwise harming other ppls mental health and general comfort. you are not obligated to block him. thats your own choice. just please remember these are my experiences and my opinions and i don't expect everyone to adopt these points of view as their own if they do not wish to

#ok to rb #long post #negative #age gap tw #gore mention tw #?#long #.txt #my post #suicide mention #suicide ment #suicide tw #suicide mention tw

1 note · View note

legolaslovely · 4 years

Note

Hi! OMG! Happy Birthday Friend! 🍕🎂 !!! I didn't know - hope you had a good one - it sounds AWESOME! And on Kili KTuesday too! Yay! AND THE HOBBIT WAS ON!!! WHAT!? HOW DID I MISS THIS?! *poutyface* I LOVE THE HOBBIT!!! And now I must spam you - sorry in advance - I just have FEELS, y'know? Alright. *deep breath* DAAAAIN! OMG,DAIN IRONFOOT! Lord of The Iron Hills! Thorin's more reasonable Cousin! Cousin Dain! I LOVE HIM! ALL THE DAIN LOVE! Oh, when him and Thorin and Dwalin get together -

Hello friend! I am going to put your messages here under the cut! I wish asks didn’t have a word limit! But I’m happy to hear from you!

#2 - look out! And you thought Fili and Kili were bad!!! I know in alot of fics Dain is portrayed as the Baddie, and i get it - you gotta use SOMEBODY, and he's there and convenient and available, but it just hurts. I mean, c'mon, it's Cousin DAIN! All he wants is for Thorin to have a good life! And that's my rant about Dain. Now then. On to ANOTHER favourite slighted person. And you know who I mean. FILLLLLIIIIII !!! OH MY BOY, MY GOLDEN SINCERE EARNEST UNOBTRUSIVE STEADY CAPABLE BOY!!! WHY?!?!

#3 - WHYWHYWHY?!?! Yes the films did him dirty, buuuuut, they DID end up giving us such a gorgeous portrayer of him ( and no I'm not talking about the first Fake Fili - sorry, no offense, Rob, but just, no ). So there's that. But you are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. WHY NOT MORE OF FILI ? I mean, he is so important! He's the M*F*ing Heir to Thorin Oakenshield, for Mahal's sake! I really think HE should've been the one to give that 'it's not in my blood' speech, I'll got to say the piece about the Laketown

#4 ( i think? ) - People having nothing. And I ADORE Kili, Small Sweet BB that he is, and I LOVE every minute of him that I saw and I am so grateful for all his screening, and yet ... i am sad for the lack of Fili. The unfairness of it. It doesn't sit well with me. Why couldn't they have divided the storylines between them? I mean, Kili got to confront Trolls, and have a scene in the Mirkwood cells, and then get shot with an arrow helping their escape, and then almost DYING from the wound,

#5 - and don't even TELL me about the alternate version where he has a big fight / death scene ( Orc propaganda - we all know Thorin, Fili, and Kili survive and live HEA ) Like, WHY couldn't they have shared some of that with Fili??? And to top it off, the one time Fili is Front and Center, in that same alternate version where they show Fili dying ( blatantly false, he is alive and well and kickin' butt and takin' names in Erebor ) it is the CRAPPIEST scene. But I do have to say, when they

#6 - show him alone, after he sent Kili off to search the lower levels, and he hears the drums and KNOWS he's trapped, with no escape, no way out, with no one to help him, oh God - THE LOOK ON HIS FACE - I could cry ( okay, I do ). I would rather they had used the scene you talk about, where he vows to get revenge on the Moria Scum, for killing his Little Brother. THAT is some mighty fine acting right there, is all I'm sayin'. Whew! *wipes perspiration off forehead* I THINK that's all for now!

#7 - is it 7? We'll call it 7 - I'm sorry for spamming you with all this, but I just couldn't help myself. I had to agree Very Strongly with you. And yes, give me more of the Boys!!! And hope your Birthday was Happy! And I love it when you're drunk! And I am not and I STILL ramble like a fool and can't type right! Anyhow, thank you for coming to my Ted talk and goodnight!

***

Thank you for the birthday wishes! I don’t even know what channel The Hobbit was on but I just turned on the TV and there it was! Fate! The channels apparently celebrate Kili Ktuesday as well! And who wouldn’t celebrate him? He’s a good babe.

I LOVE your idea that Dwalin, Thorin and Dain are troublemakers together! They’d give Fili and Kili a run for their money! Hilarious! Hmm... where would Dis fall... I think she’d join in and help terrorize her sons! Get them back for all their tricks and fall back into old times with her brother, cousin, and friend. Very sweet!

Even I have written Dain as the Baddie before! He’s an easy go to, but really, when you think about the books, he deserves so much praise. It’s an interesting change that they completely altered Thorin’s storyline with the orcs... I don’t know how I feel about it, honestly.

Yes. Fili is so ignored. I get mad about it all the time- we all do! But that’s what fanfiction is for! I think the “not in my blood” speech suits Kili. It’s SO clear that he’s very passionate and I think even that his temper is a little wild. I’m glad he got all the screen time he did. BUT. We could have had much more of Thorin and his heir. Thorin teaching Fili and discussing their travel routes and any problems- things that would have REALLY happened because you can’t convince me that Thorin would have been THAT despotic in the beginning of the journey. God forbid we get those little snippets of domestic gold! In my opinion, we should have had more Fili rather than the time with Radaghast and Galadriel and the orcs. I understand that it’s meant to tie into LOTR, but we know that. Yes, it’s a geek out moment, but good writers shouldn’t sacrifice characters for plots the fans already know. This is just my opinion. I will forever be salty for Fili, but at least we got the wonderful, soft, warm-hearted Deano to give our Fili the effort and love he did.

Thank god you guys deal with my drunken ramblings haha! Thanks for the support and your well wishes, and for dropping in and sharing your wonderful thoughts! Agreed!

#ask #answered #anon #anonymous

10 notes · View notes

amandajeanwrites · 4 years

Text

Sex Education and the Importance of Women’s Voices

I binged Netflix’s Sex Education: Season Two last night. I stayed up until 3AM, much to the inconvenience of my dog and husband, just like I did for the first season last year and just like I will do for season three next year. It’s an incredible, groundbreaking show about the importance of healthy communication in relationships, whether that be sexual or platonic. I live for the dynamics between characters, how each character is their own person, how each character reacts to a situation in their own justified, and sometimes unexpected, ways.

It’s an amazing show and I highly recommend. And although I could spend years on my need for Gillian Anderson’s entire wardrobe in the show, I’m here today to discuss the subplot of season two that struck me the hardest and made me most emotional. Here’s a trigger warning for anyone sensitive to the themes of sexual assault or abuse, specifically between a man and a woman. You’ve been warned, now let’s discuss. Oh I guess, spoiler warning too.

The character of Aimee, a doe-eyed, large breasted blonde girl with a heart of gold, was portrayed throughout both seasons as the ditsy best friend who was fairly sexually open out the gate. I think one of her first appearances was her having sex, and she talks pretty openly and freely about it throughout the series. I mean, everyone is, but this is specifically important for me to point out because it’s so crucial to Aimee’s growth this season.

So, here’s adorable, beautiful, sweet Aimee, forced to take the bus to school every day because she ditched her high and mighty friends from season one. So one day, Aimee gets on this same bus she takes every day, and a nice looking young man smiles at her. So she approaches him and stands near him for the trek into town. Then, upon feeling too much of a jostle for an average bus ride, Aimee turns to find this man masturbating on her. She panics, understandably so, announces it to the bus, and scrambles to exit the bus and walk to school.

This is where we encounter our first set of problems because why did no one say anything on the bus? But that’s a can of words I can’t afford to open right now. So, Aimee goes to school, meets up with her best friend, Maeve, and casually lets her know about the encounter.

The way that Aimee brings it up is initially what struck me. She was so nonchalant, almost apologetic for having disturbed his alone time. On a public bus. She then proceeds to complain about him um... making a mess... on her pants because they’re her favorites, but it’s fine she’ll wash them. Luckily, Maeve is there to spring into action and forcibly take Aimee to the police station to report the incident.

The entire time, though, Aimee still felt so casual about the matter. She continuously apologized to the police officers for taking their time, or to Maeve for ruining her birthday. At first, it felt like it came from a place of sexually openness, like I mentioned before. She was used to men coming onto her (no pun intended) so what was one more? But then, it started developing into a certain internalized shame. Like she didn’t want to put other people out.

And then eventually, throughout the season, you come to see how much Aimee internalized this incident. She refused to take the bus, instead walking miles into town for school every day. She would see this man’s face in public spaces. She lost the trust of sexual intimacy with her boyfriend. We, as audience members, come to realize how traumatic of an experience this truly was, even for someone as open as Aimee.

Finally, she snaps in a detention scene with her fellow female classmates where they’re asked to write an essay about women kind and the things all women have in common. The girls are fighting back and forth about boys and cosplay and culture and how vastly different all women are, when Aimee just screams that she can’t get on the bus. And all of the girls realized the one thing they have in common is sexual assault in some way shape or form. Every. Single. Girl.

That statistic should be shocking. A group of seven girls, surely not all of them has a sexual assault story. But it isn’t shocking because it’s accurate. Sitting here now, I cannot think of a single adult woman I know who hasn’t been in a situation where they were made uncomfortable by a male counterpart, whether they realized it as assault at the time or not.

I’m not bringing this up to be like “Oh, whoa is all of womankind”, but more than I want to applaud media for giving a voice to these women and encouragement for myself to continue it. I realized that since the Me Too movement, we’ve seen a huge increase in films, television shows, and books involving women talking about sexual assault.

Thinking about it, my two main characters in each of the novels I’m working on, have a history of sexual assault. That’s merely coincidental, but two years ago, when I started my first novel, I worried that her sexual assault subplot would be too “on trend” for the times, even though it takes place in the late 1980s.

But seeing things like Aimee’s experience in Sex Education reminded me that no, it’s not “on trend”. Women are being assaulted every single day. And a vast majority of those women aren’t talking about it. They aren’t fighting for themselves. Because they are embarrassed and ashamed and don’t want to put out their friends, or family, or significant others, or police officers or WHOEVER. And it’s garbage and we, as writers and content creators, need to be telling these stories to give these women voices.

It’s a subject I didn’t realize I felt so passionately about until I watched Sex Education, I guess. Mainly because Aimee’s portrayal was so accurate to me. Not to that extreme, but I did have a stranger once convince me to buy him a slice of pizza just to whisper in my ear “I only talked to you because you have a great ass”. And I ran back to my place of work feeling disgusting and numb and like I wanted to put on a long trench coat so no one could look at my body. Immediately, I cried to my superior and one of my managers actually ran down the street to try to yell at the guy, but he had already left.

I just remember feeling so ashamed about myself, which is ridiculous. I do have a great ass, and I deserve to be able to wear tight pants and a crop top because it makes me feel good, and I don’t need a total greaseball stranger to make me feel gross about it.

I remember feeling like I was a nuisance for pulling my managers away from their work to cry because I was taking time from their busy schedules just because a guy complimented me. That’s stupid. Those girls are some of the best people I’ve ever met, and without them, I don’t know how I would have reacted about the situation. I’ve never felt so strong and protected in my life then having them by my side.

I remember avoiding that pizza parlor for a while. It was my favorite one on the block! The guys in there all knew me, but I couldn’t go in because I felt so panicked that I would run into that guy again. Luckily, when I did go in, the pizza guys all asked me if I was okay. They said they banned that guy from ever coming in again and told me they had my back if I needed them.

But my experience was by far a best case scenario. (And this was just one instance.) There are horrible, horrible things happening to women all over every single day, and we need to be giving them a voice. I am all about this “trend” of women talking about it. I’m all about this “fad” of women solidarity. And I, for one, hope it never goes away. And I’ll ensure it never goes away by continuing to write about it, and continuing to tell my stories, and continuing to encourage those around me to tell their stories too.

What are you going to do empower the women around you? How will you help them have a voice?

Thanks, as always, for reading xo

#sex education #emma mackey #asa butterfield #ncuti gatwa #gillian anderson #connor swindells #aimee lou wood #kedar williams-stirling #tanya reynolds

9 notes · View notes

foxymuses · 4 years

Note

do it! share the spn opinions!

aight, but i aint gonna go super into detail here, okay, and i’m putting it under a cut just so people who don’t want to SEE THE SALT can avoid it, so this is your LAST WARNING don’t read further if you’re easily offended/have strong feelings about spn. also, i say it several times, but it should be enforced here that just because i dislike a character on the show does not mean i dislike someone’s portrayal. oftentimes, the tumblr rp world writes characters better than shows do and it redeems these characters in my eyes, so. keep that in mind

i can’t stand sam at all. i think he’s a whiny bitch baby and he gets far too much love in the show. i prefer the later seasons when dean becomes the plot focus. this isn’t because i like dean better (but i do), it’s honestly just so... like sam’s writing is so off putting and it grinds me. i usually skip episodes that are sam focused, and i very much can’t stand most of s3 and s4. i also don’t like soulless sam at all *** i usually adore sam rpers. this isn’t to say i hate the character. i hate the way he’s written in the show, but how tumblr people write him is the Right way and i love them for it

i Strongly Disliked s6 and s12. i can’t even tell you what happened in these seasons aside from a vague recollection. s8 is also a bit of a fog, but that’s mostly because s9 is when i started watching the show on tv so i sort of skipped through s8 to be ready for the premiere.

i will forever be salty that they did dean dirty at the end of s5. having him go to say yes then essentially being all ‘jk sam asked me not to so i wont’ will forever irritate me. like. they were all ‘no dean, you can’t say yes to michael’ and ready to lock him up for it, but then literally like an episode later were like ‘nah it’s cool if sam says yes though, whatever’

sort of following that, i really hate that sam is oftentimes implied to be the ‘stronger’ or ‘nicer’ brother. i think he’s a huge hypocrite and like. he causes so many problems, and he’s so mean to dean a lot of the time? but dean would do anything for him? that’s annoying

i did not like mary being brought back at all. that was random and made super little sense to the overall plot, and i did not like how she was written

i also don’t like jack. he seemed a kind of... mmm there’s a word for it. but like the writers seemed to just throw him in for the sake of a plot line, and he’s annoying and i don’t like how OP he is. again, most jack writers are better, but within the show realm, he annoys me to no end, as does the immediate like... love for him that everyone but dean has, and the pushy insistence that everyone shoves at dean to like jack as if he’s not the spawn of the devil

i dont even think this is controversial, but how they handled demon dean was Disappointing, and great part of the reason i stopped watching in s10 and didn’t catch up until i learned dean got possessed by michael FINALLY. but that disappointed me too, so. here we are, living on my blog with my own rules about the possessions and shit

can we talk about how dean’s ptsd is never addressed at all.

uh, john was an abusive asshole. no forgiveness here. there’s no excuses ‘he was a drunk, he missed his wife, he wanted dean to survive’ no, he was an abusive asshole that royally fucked dean up for good, and i will have none of the john apologist bullshit here, thanks. bobby was more a father to dean than john ever would’ve been

don’t really care for the claire arc all that much. i like her with jody, and i like jody’s little family with alex too, but the arc for claire is just.. really odd

donna is incredibly annoying. i’ll keep saying it, but tumblr writers do her so much better. show donna just. ugh.

i wrote a post about it once, but the episode i Hate the most is on the head of a pin, and i won’t super go into detail, but that whole episode is s shit show and i Do Not acknowledge it happened, thanks

I THINK THERE’S MORE BUT I’M BLANKING

the samulet and handprint both still exist, thanks. there’s a post about it somewhere on one of my blogs that i should bring out again

can we stop treating dean as either an angry fisticuffs player or an overall childish goofball? he has more to him than that

i’m still bitter over the ruby arc, honestly. it annoyed me in all the wrong ways. we can just assume that i’m fine with ruby writers at this point, nothing i say in this list pertains to writers on tumblr, just the show

the god is chuck thing is fine, but the whole direction the show took with it after amara is just fucking bananas. i mean sure, what else could they end on other than a fight against god, but still. fucking bananas. lets go back to the days of ‘maybe chuck is god’ in like s5, yknow?

um can dean and cas just kiss now? or how about like several seasons ago, but starting in like s11, even though i adore cas a lot, he started to get a little irritating. again, show writing, not tumblr writing. but he kinda started to become like... high and mighty and it does not mesh well with things, i think

ben is dean’s son, i dont care what you say.

um im trying to go through the seasons in my head to remember things that annoy me and are controversial, and aren’t just things that spn needs to fix, like andy’s death (still bitter)

what was that crowley and blood addiction shit that happened in like s10 or something? what was that supposed to be? was that supposed to mean something i am so confused

um are the ghostfacers even still alive, like this isn’t salt, i’m just genuinely concerned because if they are, why aren’t they in more episodes please

yo, maybe because i write pride and chronos and whatever, but the treatment of non-chrisitan deities is absolute Shit, thanks. like i get that the show is going for the christian religion is the Main thing, because most people get it, but like. as someone genuinely interested in religion, the utter disdain for other religious entities or even the idea that all demons are bad demons simply because demons is ridiculous. show some love to other entities. like for fuck’s sake, you can’t just kill the god of time? what the fuck? some of these gods were around long before any recorded history of the christian god, so i guarantee you at least half of them could kick god’s butt and call it a day.

s9 mark of cain dean was the best, that’s the end of that argument

wtf with the gabe storyline what even, gabe deserved better

imma go so far as to say lucifer did too, that was a bunch of nonsense. all of it that happened after s5, it’s all bullshit

actually the only angel that deserved what they god was metatron, thanks, the asshole.

also can we talk about death, like. dont get me wrong billie is cool, but i want my original pizza-loving death back please, he and dean had a cool thing going on. also tessa, can we bring back tessa

honestly rowena annoyed me in the beginning. she grew on me, but i feel like a lot of her character was forced.

the dean and pie thing has gone a little too far at this point

*claps* i *claps* don’t *claps* like *claps* sam! literally half the things in this post are me dancing around this idea, but most of my salt for the show stems from my dislike of him.

idek the general opinion on this, but i did Not like the crazy cas & meg situation. like all of that. it was weird. i mean i didn’t even really like meg, to be honest. but that whole arc was fucking weird, and that relationship (one kiss?) felt super forced.

actually can we stop having cas just. fucking switch personalities all the time? s4 cas was the best.

dean does Not put sam above everyone else. he will try to save sam, yes, but sam is not the most important person to dean, and dean will not choose sam above cas or bobby or charlie or jody or literally anyone.

IM RUNNING OUT OF THOUGHTS BUT I KNOW I HAVE MORE so. we’ll come back to this.

#;;fox answers #oops spilled the salt #i don't apologize for anything #Anonymous #delivered

2 notes · View notes

sternerstufftoys · 4 years

Text

They tried to sell me vulcanised nails, but I said galvanised, galvanised, galvanised

Let's talk about Decepticons for a moment. While the Autobots have really only ever had two leaders, and Rodimus Prime was quickly shuffled away and replaced with Optimus Prime again because of the tears of children, the Decepticon leadership has always been more fluid, and many different characters have taken on the mantle from time to time. The Watsonian explanation is that the Decepticon ranks are full of ambitious, power-hungry warlords all climbing on top of each other to claim power, but a more sober Doylist view is that the original leader Megatron was never quite the smash hit that his Autobot counterpart was. An awkward toy that very quickly became difficult to sell thanks to its realistic gun mode, and none of the Robo-Dad charms that Prime held, meant that Megatron's time in the limelight was limited.

All of which means that the Decepticons ended up with a far more interesting roster of lead characters than the Autobots ever managed. Let's start with the first major replacement for Megatron... Galvatron, aka Megatron-but-with-a-crown.

I think that the G1 cartoon failed Galvatron. Introduced in the 1986 movie with Leonard Nimoy's growliest of growl-voices and a mean streak half a parsec wide, he was a definite step up from Megatron in terms of ability and raw power. But when season 3 rolled around at the end of the year it was felt he needed to be taken down a peg or two, so his power was tempered with utter batshit insanity. Suddenly Galvatron wasn't quite as compelling a villain, as he constantly carried the potential to derail his own plans with a moment of manic screeching and shooting his own lackeys in a fit of rage. He fared better in the Marvel comic, where the insanity-ball was passed back and forth between him and Megatron, ultimately being a far more intimidating villain over its run. I get the feeling that Simon Furman hadn't really watched season 3 in any great detail, as his 2006-characters all seemed more in line with their movie portrayals than the series itself.

I never owned the Universe Galvatron mould, and confess I'm somewhat bemused by the bad reputation it's garnered over the years. It doesn't look bad at all in pictures, but even so, the Titans Return version was clearly going to be the definitive Galvatron for the ages... right?

Titans Return Galvatron is a great toy, the best Galvatron we've ever had from Hasbro, and a failure. That's a fascinating brew of good and bad all thrown into one, and somehow just adds to the underlying charm. The greatest sin is undoubtably the terrible attempt at Galvatron's three-spiked helmet design, relegated into an utterly hopeless pop-up mask. It looks awful from any angle other than straight on, and barely turns at all. It's all made worse by the poorly-hidden revelation that the original design featured a separate helmet that fit much more snugly. There's a bunch of options to rectify this, including 3D printed helmets from Shapeways and a more solid job from Toyhax. I've got my Galvatron modelling a G1-based Shapeways helmet, and it makes for a far, far greater look. As in, Galvatron can now look around.

The second problem is the perennial misunderstanding over where the arm-cannon should be placed. Takara, Hasbro, once and for all can you please make it a rule that arm guns should be in line with the back of the hand, not the thumb? The latter, which is TR Galvatron's default look, never looks anything other than utterly dorky. It's all because the G1 toy had the cannon in the same place (as with Megatron), but as soon as the animation teams got on it they quickly decided it had to go on the outside of the arm for the characters' dignity. Anyway, another Shapeways add-on fixes this, giving a new port for the cannon in the right place.

And it certainly is a mighty cannon. You can well argue that the original G1 toy's gun was a little bit on the skinny side, so TR goes all out making it a huge, day-glow murder-cigar. Any bigger and it would look absurd, but it just about stays on the right side of bonkers to work. Just. Either way, the cannon becomes the unavoidable key feature of the entire figure, dominating the look in every single mode. Along with the triple-horned crown, it's how you can tell that this is Galvatron.

So yeah, two key features of the character, and they managed to bork them both up. That's a failure right there, a failure on its own terms of engagement. It's like making a Hot Rod and forgetting to put any flame decals on there. Still, it's good to know that they can be fixed, and when you do... you get one hell of a toy. Galvatron is just so much more alive than his predecessor. Megatron looks like some tired, down-on-his luck colonel by comparison, but Galvatron gets a friggin' great crown. Much respect for the first real Emperor of Destruction.

The alt modes are about as good as you'd expect, i.e. they're fine. The space-artillery cannon mode is the traditional one, and does a good job of beefing up his firepower by making his entire body part of the weapon. It was always a more dependable alt mode than a tiny little handgun, but perhaps doesn't have the same pizzazz for the kids as artillery guns aren't exactly as in-vogue like they were in 1917, and Galvatron didn't look that much like one in the first place. But it's still fun. Along with this the handgun has been swapped out for a sort of space fighter thingy. It's not the best, essentially being Galvatron's legs being arranged funny and a cockpit swinging up over his shoulders, but thank god it exists. It's no good that your Deceptileader needs to constantly rely on his underlings to ferry him around, and means that Cyclonus doesn't have to grow to 10x the size every time his boss wants to climb inside to nip down to the shops. Get your own groceries, Galvatron! Anything that manages to do away with mass-shifting is a win in my book.

Like with Rodimus Prime, I do wish that the G1 cartoon had built up the confidence to really go for Galvatron and give him the arc he deserved. Imagine what would happen if in the first episode of a full season 4 Galvatron rocks up with his sanity fully restored, and the Autobots utterly bricking it. Instead he just faded away again, and never quite fulfilled his true potential as a character. We lost so much with the collapse of the cartoon at the end of season 3. At least we'll always have Marvel, Galvy.

#transformers #maccadam #toy review #galvatron #titans return #decepticon leaders

7 notes · View notes

starrystarrybabe · 5 years

Text

Oh, How the Mighty Fall [In Love] CHAPTER THREE (Ben Hardy x OC)

CHAPTER ONE, CHAPTER TWO

Lily Anne Mercury is brought in to help with Bohemian Rhapsody at the request of her Uncle Bri and Uncle Rog, and along the way, she might meet someone to share her life with. The only problem with this is that while their friends and the world can see that they’re perfect for each other, they’re going to be fully blind to this for a while.

DISCLAIMER: I’m fully aware that it would’ve been physically impossible for Jim and Freddie to have a child even with this method during the time they were alive, but the idea of Freddie as a dad and the idea of how his child would turn out to be was just too sweet for me to not write. I’m also aware that I have 2 more fics in progress and I must make a masterlist, but as I’ve previously stated in other fic disclaimers, I am technologically challenged and quite overwhelmed at the moment. I apologize for this, because you all deserve the best from me, and it may take me a while to get to a place where I feel comfortable enough with the quality of everything to produce it. I do have a problem with being a perfectionist when it comes to my work, but I’m working on making that better.

TW: discussion of body issues? this chapter is pretty tame to me so idk if i should even mention it but oh well.

The next day, it’s time to shoot Live Aid. Lily Anne drives back to set in her more practical G Wagon, smiling as she pulls into the parking lot and spots Roger exiting his blue T-Bird. She shakes her head as she exits the car, walking over to the man.

“Remember what you said to me when I drove here in my Rolls Royce, Uncle Rog?” she asks, crossing her arms.

He nods, shrugging. “It was completely impractical. I said that I should take that car for myself if you didn’t treat it better.”

She nods, and points at his Thunderbird. “I could say the same for your T-Bird, Roger. You probably shouldn’t be on the road anyways, you’re so blind and deaf!”

Roger scoffs and shakes his head. “I’m fine, Lily. Don’t be a wanker.”

She shakes her head, becoming more animated. “No! No, you’re not! That T-Bird isn’t safe in your hands, and not to mention it would compliment my orange one quite nicely.”

He raises a brow and crosses his arms. “You’re serious about this, aren’t you, Lily?”

She nods, raising her chin. “Fully.”

Roger thinks for a moment before nodding. “Alright, I’ll make you a deal. If you can perfectly recreate my drum solo from Rock Montreal 1981, you’re allowed to take the car. If not, I get your precious Rolls Royce.”

Lily Anne nods, thinking over his terms. “Deal. How long do I have to learn the drum solo?”

Roger grins. “You have to do it at your concert tonight.”

She bites her lip and shakes her head, holding out her hand for a shake. “You’re a bloody wanker, Rog.”

Roger shakes her hand, grinning. “Say goodbye to your favorite car, Lily Anne.”

“Don’t be so confident, Roger!” Lily shoots back as he walks away, sighing and running a hand through her hair.

Joe comes up next to her, raising a brow. “What just happened?”

She looks at him and sighs, “I’ve just bet my favorite car on my ability to play the drums well enough.”

Ben walks up with Gwil and his interest peaks. “What drum solo do you need to do?”

She looks at Ben with fear in her eyes. “Rock Montreal. 1981.”

Ben’s eyes widen and his jaw drops. “Dear god, Lil. You’re going to lose that fucking car.”

As Lily Anne begins to freak out, Gwil rests a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t listen to him, Lily. You can do this.” He crouches slightly to be more level with the short woman. “Look at me, alright?”

Lily Anne looks up, visibly freaking out now.

“Take a few deep breaths, and just… there. That’s good. Breathe.” Gwil coaches Lily Anne until she’s calmed down. “Who taught you how to play the drums?”

“...Roger,” she says, looking down. “He was a shit teacher. Kept all the best secrets to himself before I pried them out of him…” Her eyes widen. “I know his best kept drumming secrets. I can identify them when he plays.”

Ben looks at her and smiles. “Then you have a chance!”

She grins back at the blonde and nods. “Yes. I have a chance! I’m going to study the fuck out of that footage if you don’t mind. Have fun getting into hair and makeup!”

Lily Anne begins running to the trailers, but stops when Lucy comes running after her.

“Lily, wait! I don’t need to film today. Let’s work on it together, alright? Then, we can take a ride in your new car once you get it,” she says, catching her breath.

Lily Anne grins. “Of course! We can do that tonight, if all goes well.”

Lucy’s eyes go wide. “What’s going on tonight?”

Lily Anne shrugs. “A small concert with my band. It’s going to happen in a small pub that we first started at on campus.”

Lucy is speechless for a moment. “Can… can I come?”

Lily Anne bites her lip, looking down. “I mean… I see no reason why you can’t, I just… I feel like by taking you all to a concert right after inviting you to my house is sort of narcissistic, and I don’t want to give the wrong first impression.”

Lucy shakes her head, holding Lily’s hand. “No, not at all! Are you kidding me? We had so much fun at your house, Lily! We’d love to see your show as well.”

Lily looks up at Lucy with a light in her eyes. “Really?”

Lucy nods, grinning. “Of course!”

Lily grins, nodding. “Then everyone is invited! I’ll make sure there are enough seats booked for everyone.”

Lucy nods, squeezing Lily’s hand. “Never feel self-conscious about what you have, alright? We care so much about you, and as your friends, we want to see what you’re proud of and celebrate your achievements with you, alright?”

Lily nods, giving Lucy a hug. “Alright. Thank you, Lucy.”

A few hours later, Lucy and Lily Anne have figured out the way to play the drum solo, and they’re called in to watch the Live Aid filming. The girls smile and wave as their boys get into character, and Lily Anne puts a hand over her heart when Rami blows her a kiss as Freddie. It’s truly touching to see such a good portrayal of her father.

When they film Live Aid… wow. It’s so good, and the boys are so in character that it feels like Lily Anne is actually in Wembley Stadium watching her father and his band perform. They do the whole 20 minute set, and when the director calls for them to cut, Roger and Brian shower the boys in praise, grinning at them.

“Great job, boys! That was fabulous. Very accurate. Great energy, everything was just perfect!” Brian exclaims, looking at the men as if they were his own sons.

“The music sounded great, the choreography was spot on… I think that’s as good as it can get, boys,” Roger adds, on, high fiving Ben.

Brian turns to Lily Anne, and frowns. “Lily, why are you crying? Is something wrong?”

Lucy wraps an arm around Lily Anne’s shoulders and the whole cast immediately turns their attention to the silently crying woman, who shakes her head.

“N-No, nothing’s wrong. It’s just…” She wipes her eyes with the sleeves of her leather jacket. “Ignore me, please. I’ll get it together.”

Roger helps Lily onto the stage, where Ben immediately shakes his head and walks towards her.

“It’s alright that you’re emotional. Could you just tell us why?” he asks gently.

Lily Anne smiles tearily. “I know it sounds stupid, but I just realized--” She sniffles again. “That’s the closest I’ll ever get to experiencing Live Aid, and out of all the concerts I wish I could’ve seen my dad in, that’s got to be number one on my list. It was lovely, guys. Really, truly, it was absolutely perfect. I loved every minute of it, and I know Freddie and Jim did too.”

Brian and Roger smile as Joe hugs Lily Anne, and the whole cast goes in for a group hug. The Bohemian Rhapsody family is truly coming together, and everyone is crying now, because this is such a unique and moving experience.

“You’re all so good,” Lily Anne croaks out. “This is going to be an amazing movie.”

When the group breaks apart, Lily Anne sniffles and wipes her eyes.

Lucy smiles at her, finishing wiping away the tears from her own eyes. “When is your concert tonight?”

Lily looks up at her. “Ten. It’s a really late concert, but I’ve secured tickets for all of us, and I plan on doing the drum solo for Roger’s Thunderbird, so if you’d all like to see that go down, I’d like if you could all come.”

The cast smiles and nods at Lily Anne’s offer.

“Of course!” Gwil says. “That sounds like a very fun concert.”

“You’ve got to have moral support for when you attempt that drum solo, don’t you?” Joe adds, grinning.

Roger scoffs and laughs, and the cast turns to him. “You’ll never get the drum solo right, Lily. Never. You might be good--”

“Of course I’m good, you taught me!”

“--but that was a struggle even for me. Good luck, Lily!” Roger says before leaving, revving his engine so they can hear the car.

Brian smiles and shakes his head. “I’m going to get some rest before the concert. Keep practicing, Lily. You can do it,” he says, winking at Lily Anne.

She grins. “Take a video of his reaction when I bang the gong.”

Brian nods and leaves, waving goodbye to the cast.

Lily Anne looks back at the cast. “I’m winning this goddamn car. That smug wanker won’t know what hit him.

“B, what should I wear? The leather skirt or the acid-wash denim skirt?” Madigan asks, holding up the options to her wife, who’s taking pictures of their cat. “Bronwyn! This is more important than updating Lillian Weiss’s Instagram story!”

The androgynous looking woman turns to see her wife and grins. “Well, if I had my way you’d be in that lovely latex skirt that really shows off your ass--”

Bronwyn dodges a Doc Marten tossed at her face and raises her hands in surrender. “Alright! I’ll stop. I like the denim with that top.”

Madigan smiles innocently and blows a kiss to her loving wife. “Thanks, babe! I’ll wear the lace underwear you like so much underneath it.”

Bronwyn grins and runs a hand through her short blonde hair, sitting on their bed. She loves her wife more than anything.

“Babe, what did I do to deserve you?” she asks, closing her eyes.

“You ate me out really well!” Madi calls back from the closet.

“I know that, but why did you stay, even after we were kicked out of our parents’ houses?” she continues, turning the conversation more serious. “I mean… I’ve put you through hell and back, babe.”

Madigan exits the closet (hehe) and sighs, sitting beside her wife and holding her hand. “B, look at me.”

The Welsh girl looks up at her lovely wife, raising one hand to play with her long, ginger locks.

“I got you kicked out of your house as well, baby. We both put each other through hell. But we had to walk through the fire to get to where we are today.” She waggles her ring finger, which has a sparkling diamond on it. “Happily married, and about to be together for… Jesus, for 12 years.”

Bronwyn smiles and kisses her wife’s hand. “It’s been a good long time, hasn’t it?”

Madigan kisses her wife’s forehead. “It sure has, love. Now c’mon, we need to get to rehearsal.”

Bronwyn adjusts her button-down before leaving with her wife, heading over to the pub.

Lily Anne is pounding away at the drums, already sweating as her bandmates enter.

“Oi! Hands off my drum kit, Mercury,” Madigan demands, heading towards the stage. She frowns in confusion when she sees a gong. “We don’t use a gong in any of the songs we’re doing tonight. Why is it here?”

Lily Anne looks up and puts down the drum sticks. “Sorry, Madi. I just… I made a bet with Roger.”

Madi nods, still confused. “Alright. What’s the bet, and how is this relevant to you destroying my drumkit?”

Lily Anne stands up and adjusts the gong. “If I can do his drum solo from Rock Montreal in ‘81, I get his blue Thunderbird. If I can’t… I give Christine to the blind old bat.”

Bronwyn goes on stage and raises a brow. “That’s a ballsy bet, Lily. I certainly hope you can follow through. You love Christine!”

Madi sighs. “You’re going to lose her, Lily. That’s one of the hardest drum solos in rock history! Just because he taught you doesn’t mean that you can do it.”

Lily Anne raises a sheet of paper her and Lucy have written on, smiling. “Here’s all the combinations Roger uses in it. He never said I couldn’t have a reference.”

Bronwyn and Madigan smile at their friend’s antics, and shake their heads.

Ezichi walks in wearing a very revealing outfit, and Bronwyn lets out a cat call to the lady as she begins tuning her bass.

“Damn, Zich! Whose pants are you trying to get into tonight?” the bassist calls out, grinning.

Madi and Lily Anne’s jaws are practically on the floor, because this is a thirst trap of an outfit.

“Well, the BoRhap cast is coming, and there was this one man who I found to be fine as hell, so hopefully his,” Ezichi explains, uncasing her guitar.

Lily Anne sighs heavily and shakes her head. “Ezichi, Gwil has a girlfriend. Also, don’t take advantage of me getting some new friends just so you can shag one of them.”

Ezichi raises a brow. “Is he in a stable relationship with her, or can that be changed by long distance and busy schedules?”

The couple of the band cackles and Lily Anne lets out an annoyed screech of Ezichi’s name.

“Ezichi, no! Don’t be a homewrecker! Especially not with Gwil! He’s so sweet, he doesn’t deserve that!” she exclaims, wringing her hands in frustration.

Ezichi shakes her head. “I don’t want him just because he’s pretty! I spent some time with him, and I can’t remember the last time I met someone so genuinely kind. He’s amazing, Lily.”

Ezichi has never talked about anyone this way before, and Lily considers the situation. They’re both gorgeous, kind, and talented. Their children would be supermodels. Ezichi is loyal to the end, and Gwil deserves someone like that in his life. They would be a good match.

Lily nods, smiling. “You know what? I think you two could make a great couple.”

Ezichi grins brighter than the sun. “Really?”

Lily nods again and turns to Bronwyn and Madigan. “Once you meet him, you’ll see what I mean.”

Bronwyn and Madigan shrug, taking Lily’s word. They’ll make up their minds on their own, but they trust her judgment. Despite Lily’s many mishaps and personal errors, she’s always been fairly correct when it comes to other peoples’ relationships and her readings on potential love interests.

Lily Anne takes the microphone in her hands and begins moving across stage, examining how much space she has. She sits on a speaker and leans against the wall.

“Ladies, what Queen song are we feeling for tonight?” Madi asks, twirling her drumsticks.

“Something from Queen or Queen II, definitely,” Ezichi comments, gleaning nods of approval from Lily Anne and Bronwyn.

“Doing Alright is a good option. That or Liar would be fantastic, I think,” Bronwyn adds, smiling.

The band turns to Lily Anne for the final say. She smiles at her friends and sits up.

“Doing Alright. This is a good night, we should play a happy song to accompany that,” she explains.

Everyone gets ready to practice, and music rings out throughout the pub.

The BoRhap cast files into the front of the bar, where there’s a table reserved for them. Brian, Roger, Anita, and Sarina get their own table in a less crowded area of the bar. The cast orders pints of lager and Joe hastily adjusts his Yankees cap to hide his hair.

Ben smiles at the sight of Joe adjusting his hat. “What’s wrong, Joe? You weren’t uncomfortable with us seeing your perm.”

Joe frowns and presses his lips together in a thin line. “It wouldn’t be bad if it could just wash out.”

Lucy snorts and shakes her head. “I can’t believe you didn’t know that perm stands for--”

“--permanent. Yes, I know now, Lucy. Thank you for the reminder,” Joe snaps, huffing.

Gwil bites back laughter, shaking at the effort. Rami is doing the same, shaking his head.

“You’re all awful,” Joe says as he gets his lager and takes a swig.

The lights dim and the stage lights turn on, and the curtain on the stage rises to reveal Lily Anne and the rest of Room 301. The cast begins cheering as the band waves and receives the love from the audience.

“Hello, lovies!” Lily Anne shouts, gleaning a rowdy applause from the audience. “How is everyone? Ready to bring back rock and roll, my darlings?”

The applause is even louder, and she grins, spotting the cast and waving.

The girl raises her arms and hushes the audience, smiling. “Thank you all for your ears. I just want to say that it means so much to Room 301 that everyone is here tonight where this band had its first performance, because we really did start from nothing, and everyone should pay homage to their roots. That’s what our latest album is about, and it was well-received, so we figured we’d do well with this concert. Actually, I forgot how much I missed the smaller crowds.”

“I love you, Lily Anne!” a fan shouts, and Lily Anne blows them a kiss before laughing.

“Enough talking. Let’s start the show, yeah?” The crowds are screaming. “Madi, take it away!”

The show begins with a very aggressive drum solo, accompanied by a guitar duet before Lily Anne begins singing, draping herself over equipment, the floor, and her bandmates. The whole stage is utilized in different ways, and it all accommodates the woman’s writhing body.

The next song begins with a beautiful piano melody, which Lily knocks out of the park before the lights flash and she’s leaning against the instrument and watching Ezichi pour her heart and soul into her guitar solo.

Gwilym is watching this with an amazed smile, and Ezichi notices this, which seems to help her performance. Lily raises a brow at her guitarist and continues singing, twirling around stage and grinning at the audience below her.

Ben is entranced by Lily’s performance. It’s so interesting to see the character she plays on stage. If he hadn’t heard her story, or saw a moment of vulnerability from her, he could see how people believe that Lily Anne Mercury is simply a diva who consistently puts on a show and doesn’t have problems. This version of her is enchanting, but he personally prefers the one who lets people in, and lets herself be vulnerable.

She’s pouring every ounce of her energy into keeping up this facade of playfulness and flirting, but he knows that she must be exhausted. It takes a lot to keep up such a high level of energy. He understands why she turned to drugs in order to keep it up outside of the stage. If this is her usual energy level on stage, it’s no wonder she began to burn the candle from both ends to sustain it.

Before they know it, Lily Anne is pausing the performance, smiling into a microphone.

“Okay, okay… this wasn’t planned, but this morning, on my way into work, I made a bet with my uncle. If you didn’t already know, he’s a right wanker, and his name is Roger Taylor.”

The crowd goes crazy, cheering along as the spotlight moves to Roger, who waves at everyone.

“He was riding in this lovely blue Thunderbird, and when I did the same in my Rolls-Royce, he said he should take it away from me for mistreating it. However, when I called him out, he decided to give me a bet. I had about eight hours to learn his drum solo from Rock Montreal, which is one of the hardest in rock n’ roll history, and I lose my baby Christine if I don’t do it perfectly tonight. However, if I do it correctly, I acquire his Thunderbird. So now, I will attempt this drum solo, and I would appreciate everyone’s positive energy.”

With a cheer, Lily Anne goes back to the drumkit and takes a moment to compose herself before beginning the drum solo as Roger listens back to it and compares the two. The room stays silent as she continues, sweating buckets. Rami grips Lucy’s hand because he’s just so stressed watching this all go down. She grips it right back, and Joe holds onto Ben. Everyone is just incredibly stressed out.

Then, it happens. Lily Anne bangs that fucking gong, and the room erupts into applause. The whole cast fucking yells at the top of their lungs, Roger’s face deflates, Brian gives Lily a standing ovation, and the woman flings her arms into the air, embraced by her band.

“I can barely feel my fucking arms, but I don’t give a shit!” Lily Anne cries out, laughing. “I get that beautiful blue Thunderbird!”

Ben grins, watching as Lily Anne continues the show with a smile that isn’t holding anything back. She’s just fully engulfed in her music, and expresses her joy in a way so pure and raw, and she’s letting herself be vulnerable in the music, which, as far as Ben can tell, is where she finds hardship once she’s off the stage. She doesn’t just open up to anyone.

If that’s true, and Ben has a feeling that it is, why did she open up to him? What makes him so special that she felt comfortable telling him about her overdoses and time in rehab? That’s so deeply personal, and even though they haven’t known each other for long, she feels comfortable telling him all these things.

He’s pulled out of his gaze by Joe nudging him as Lily Anne smiles at the audience, waving at her friends.

She sits at a piano and clears her throat, smiling. “Now, I think it’s only appropriate that we end tonight with a Queen song. We started this tradition during our first concert when my father requested that we do it in memory of Freddie. We performed Love of My Life, which is the only song I will not do nowadays because I don’t like to end Room 301 concerts in tears.” She smiles at her now hushed audience. “You’ve all been a great audience, darlings. I love you all, and appreciate your support so very much, sticking with us despite all the time we’ve made you wait for new music. Now, we’d like to end the night with All Dead, All Dead.”

Lily Anne begins playing the piano, and Ben can’t tear his eyes away from her. Even while sitting down at an instrument, she commands the attention of the entire room. Her emotions are amplified, and everyone can feel her pain and hope as she crones out the lyrics to the song, which are about longing, but also knowing that despite their physical presence being gone, the ones we’ve lost never really leave us.

He feels a tear beginning to form, and sees that the entire table is blinking and wiping their eyes. Lily Anne’s dedication to her craft shows, and it makes itself clear in the tears of the people all around the bar.

Someone raises their phone light and begins to sway, as a homage to Freddie, and the rest of the crowd joins in. Lily Anne looks out and blinks, a black tear streaming down her face as she smiles. She is truly touched by the energy of the audience. Once the song is over, she sniffles and wipes her eyes.

“What did I say about crying?”

The audience laughs, applauding.

Lily Anne shakes her head. “No. We need something to pick us up before we go. How about…” She turns to her band. “Don’t Stop Me Now?”

The audience cheers and the band gets ready to play, and Lily Anne grins, performing the hell out of the upbeat number. She bows with her band as it ends, and leans into the microphone one last time.

“Take the correct Uber home, and assist any drunk people back to their cars! Nobody in this audience is becoming a damn statistic, do you hear me?” She smiles as she hears applause. “Goodnight, London! Room 301 loves you!”

The curtains close, and Lily Anne goes back to change with the rest of the band in their changing room.

Bronwyn is already reaching for her sweatpants and hoodie, and Madigan takes out a makeup wipe, scrubbing the dark smoky eye and maroon lip color off of her face.

Lily Anne immediately takes off her platform boots, tossing them to the side and rubbing her eyes. “Great show, ladies! I love you all, and the audience seemed to as well.”

Ezichi is wrapping her hair in a bonnet and leaning back in the chair. “You did great, Lily. It was an amazing show.”

Lily smiles, wiping away her eye makeup. “You know what, guys?”

Everyone in the room turns to face her, and she smiles tearily.

“I feel like Jim was watching us from his table.”

November, 2008

Lily Anne, Ezichi, Bronwyn and Madigan take the stage for their first concert. They’re nervous as hell, and don’t know how the crowd will react to their set. They’ve performed for their friends, and for Jim, and for Brian and Roger, but those are all people who like them. They’re biased and don’t want to hurt them. What will an audience of drunken college students with no filters think? They’ve heard they can be brutal.

The girls crowd together behind the curtain, holding each others’ hands.

“Alright. We’re about to perform for the first time,” Lily Anne begins, taking a deep breath. “We can kill it. We just need to let the music do the talking for us, okay?”

The girls nod, and Ezichi speaks up. “We have amazing stuff. We know that. If we perform well, people will know that we’re a serious group, and not just some teenagers with instruments. We know what we’re doing.”

Madi smiles. “We managed to please rock legends with our music. There’s no reason why we can’t please drunk uni students.”

Bronwyn grins. “Let’s kick ass.”

The girls huddle together, squeezing each other before heading out on stage.

Lily Anne looks out at the bar, half empty since it’s too early to warrant people coming in yet. She sighs and frowns slightly, her hands shaking. This all stops when she spots her father sticking out like a sore thumb in his wool sweater, sitting at a table with a pint of lager and a warm smile. She waves to him, grinning.

Jim gives her a thumbs up and mouths ‘you can do it.’ The girls sigh in relief, and Lily maneuvers the microphone, which squeaks.

“S-sorry about that, everyone. My name is Lily Anne, this is Ezichi, this is Madigan, and this is Bronwyn. We’re a band called Room 301, and this is our first performance, so please be kind,” she says with a nervous laugh.

The bar-goers look unimpressed, and she carries on.

“Alright, we’re going to start with something we wrote, and we’re very proud of it.”

The band begins playing a song that starts like a ballad, but grows to be something so much more. Lily Anne’s voice cracks, but she quickly regains her composure and begins to sink into the song, letting herself go.

Slowly but surely, the bar-goers have gravitated to the stage, and Lily Anne is controlling the crowd, moving in ways that feel natural and prompted by the music, and swaying to the beat. When she hits a high note, the people cheer, and the adrenaline that runs through her body is the best feeling she’s ever experienced.

She looks into the audience, and Jim is sitting there, looking up at his girls with so much pride and love, and it invigorates them.

“This next one is a faster number, and from the way you’re all behaving now, I’m guessing that you’ll like it!” Lily Anne exclaims, prompting the audience to scream.

The show goes by quickly, and at the end, she smiles and sits at the piano.

“Now, we have one more song left, but we didn’t write this one,” she says, and the audience quiets down. “Don’t be discouraged, people! It’s a good song by a band called Queen.”

The audience cheers again, raising their arms up. Lily Anne grins, and begins to play Love of My Life. It’s dedicated to Freddie, and as she begins to cry singing it, she looks out to see Jim wiping away tears from his eyes. She sniffles and continues, letting the tears flow down her face and neck.

At the end, she smiles and closes the piano, wiping her eyes.

“That seems like a good way to end the night, yeah?” she asks, looking around at the crying audience members. “This was Room 301, I’m Lily Anne, and I hope you all have a great rest of your nights!”

The crowd screams as the band goes backstage, and they collapse into one another, hugging each other tightly and sobbing. That was an amazing first performance, and they’re so overwhelmed by the positive response they got.

“I love you all so much,” Lily Anne sobs, hugging her friends.

That night, they go back to Garden Lodge and curl up on the couch watching shitty movies, and Jim gives them tea and biscuits to reward them for their stellar performance.

Lily Anne is almost asleep on the couch when she stirs due to Jim turning off the TV. She lets out a little noise of confusion and her father shushes her, tucking her back into her blankets.

“Dad?” she whispers, looking up at Jim.

He looks down at her and smiles. “Yes, love?”

“Did you like the performance?” she asks, smiling.

He nods, grinning down at her. “It was lovely, Lily. I loved it. Your Papa would be so proud to see you work the stage like that.”

Lily Anne smiles and closes her eyes. “Good.”

Jim kisses her forehead lightly. “Goodnight, love.”

Lily Anne falls asleep smiling, curled up with her friends on her couch.

Lily Anne smiles as the blue Thunderbird pulls into her driveway, watching as her uncle exits the car and looks sadly at it. She walks forward and grins, looking up at her uncle.

“You’re the one who offered this bet, Roger,” Lily says, shrugging. “This is all your own doing.”

The man sighs and looks down at the young woman. “I know, Lily. I’m sad to give it up, but I’ve got to admit, you did very well. I’m proud.”

She smiles at her uncle, squeezing his hand. “Thank you, Uncle Rog. I learned from the best, after all.”

Roger ruffles her hair before beginning to walk away, dejected. Lily feels a pit of guilt in her chest and sighs, running a hand through her hair.

“Roger, stop!” she exclaims, catching the man’s arm.

He turns to face her and raises a brow.

Her head slumps forward and she shakes it. “I… listen. I feel bad. You look so sad… you know what? We can share. It stays in my garage but if you want to take it for a ride…” she shrugs. “Go ahead.”

Roger grins, hugging the girl. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to follow through, Lily.”

She huffs, hugging him back. “Wanker.”

Inside the house, the band is lounging around, talking with their new friends, and clicking well. The band likes the cast. Bron and Madi have a close eye on Ezichi and Gwil, watching how they interact. They like the dynamic, and like most times, Lily appears to be correct about the match.

All they have to do now is sit back and wait for it to happen.

Lily walks inside, checks on her guests, and then pops back outside, lighting a cigarette. Ben soon follows, sitting next to her on the bench next to the koi pond like before.

Lily smiles at him, leaning back against a pillow on the bench. “Just so you know, I don’t intend to spend another four hours out here. I got bitten up by a bunch of bugs last time.”

Ben laughs, lighting his cigarette and shaking his head. “Nah. Maybe just thirty minutes this time around.”

Lily looks back at the pond, taking a puff of her cigarette. “Any grievances you want to air out? This is apparently a very good place to do it.”

Ben shrugs, breathing out smoke. “Nothing comes to mind at the moment. Give it some time, I’m sure something will come up.”

Just in that moment, Lily Anne’s phone buzzes and she picks it up, seeing a notification from twitter about Room 301’s concert.

SINGER LILY ANNE MERCURY SPOTTED WITH EASTENDERS HEARTTHROB BEN HARDY

Lily lets out a groan and shakes her head. “Ugh. Disgusting.”

Ben turns to look at her. “What is it?”

She hands him her phone, and he rolls his eyes at the headline. “That’s bollocks. I hate twitter.”

She takes her phone when he hands it back to her, looking up at him. “Why do you hate twitter in particular? It’s not the only site that thrives off of bullshit rumors.”

Ben sighs, looking down and rubbing his temples. At this, Lily Anne lets out a breath and begins to freak out.

“If that’s the grievance and you don’t want to air it out, I won’t force you, Ben.”

Ben shakes his head and looks over at her, taking a drag of his cigarette. “No, no. Don’t worry. I should talk about it. Talking made you feel better, didn’t it?”

She nods, looking at the pond. “It was very therapeutic. But don’t feel forced to let it out.”

Ben waves a hand dismissively. “I want to let it out, just give me a moment to collect my thoughts.”

Lily Anne nods, waiting patiently for Ben to collect his thoughts.

When he sits up and takes a deep breath, putting aside the butt of his cigarette, she hands him another one from her pack, which he takes and lights.

“Well, earlier on in my career, I was instructed to make social media accounts to stay relevant, gain fans, get more high profile roles, you know how it works,” Ben begins, looking forward.

“I was told the same thing. I’m assuming you made a twitter?” Lily Anne adds, looking over at him.

He nods, taking a deep breath. “I made a twitter, and I made a horrible mistake by checking the hashtag with my name.”

Lily Anne lets out a groan. She has a feeling she knows where this is going.

“The tweets I saw… the majority of them were just talking about my outer appearance, praising my body, but not acknowledging that I’m a damn good actor as well. My body isn’t all that I have to support my career.” Ben is becoming agitated, and Lily Anne rests a hand on his arm. “It became overwhelming, and the tweets got to my head. I began to think that maybe I was just a piece of meat for people to stare at, like they had said online. I began to absolutely loathe myself, and I could barely look in a mirror without feeling horrid.”

Lily moves closer to Ben, frowning. “Did you delete the app soon after?”

He nods, looking over at her. “Yes. My manager was incredibly mad at me, and didn’t listen when I tried to tell him why I was so uncomfortable. Then, he booked me a photoshoot that he said would really put me on the radar: a nude photoshoot.” Ben blinks back tears. “I’d never felt so objectified and worthless in my entire life.”

Lily Anne moves closer, holding one of his shaking hands. “Is this movie bringing back those fears, Ben?”

He nods, wiping his eyes. “Sometimes I think-- and I know it’s horseshit, but it still bothers me-- that I was only casted because I’m pretty. People won’t look at this movie and think about my acting, but my appearance. Apocalypse didn’t help with that either. My character ended up being an underdeveloped rebel with wings,” he continues, his voice cracking. “What if my career just ends up being me looking pretty on a screen for people to objectify?”

Lily Anne wraps an arm around his shoulder, trying to calm him down. “Hey, hey… it’s alright, Ben. I can assure you that for this role, you were chosen for your acting abilities. I helped Roger make the final choice.”

Ben sniffles and looks at Lily, green eyes damp. “You did?”

She smiles kindly at him. “I did, and in my opinion, this movie will help you get closer to being the kind of actor you want to be.”

He smiles, wiping his eyes. “I-I’m sorry about the tears, I just… I worry about this stuff. A lot.”

Lily Anne shakes her head, handing him a tissue. “It’s alright. Your worries show that you’re not willing to settle for anything, and that kind of determination will bring you where you want to go in your career. People who settle are temporary. The ones with ambition are the ones who stand the test of time.”

He nods, leaning back and taking a drag of his cigarette. “It doesn’t always seem like that.”

Lily Anne nods. “I know. I thought my competitors in the early 2000’s would be around forever, and Room 301 is one of the last rock bands standing. All you have to do is wait. Father Time will do the job for you.”

Ben looks over at her, brows raised. “How can you be so calm about this kind of thing? Aren’t you scared of fading into the background?”

She scoffs and looks over at him. “Of course I am! I can’t support this lifestyle with inheritance alone. I need to make money to keep this level of luxury going. But if I could go to rehab twice and take a hiatus and despite all that my band is still a household name, I’m fairly certain that I’m going to be fine. We’ll all be fine in the end.”

Ben nods, taking in what she said. “Sometimes I forget that you’ve been through so much,” he says, shaking his head. “Tonight, on stage… I’ve never seen anyone sustain that much energy for so long. It was like watching a different person.”

Lily frowns. “Is that a bad thing?”

Ben shakes his head vigorously. “Dear God, no! Not at all. It’s great. Your stage presence is amazing. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. But if I didn’t know you, I would never guess that anything bad has ever happened to that girl in her life.”

Lily shrugs and smiles down at the koi. “I guess I’m a good actress, then.”

Ben smiles down at her. “You could make some good money on the screen if this whole rock star thing doesn’t work out.”

She grins up at him. “Coming from a talented actor like you, that means a lot to me.”

Ben smiles, and the pair sit in silence, finishing their cigarettes.

Joe looks out the window at the pair, frowning. “They baffle me, they really do.”

Ezichi looks up from the card game she’s playing with Gwil and Rami and raises a brow. “What baffles you about them?”

Joe turns back to his friends, wringing his hands. “They’re so clearly into one another, and so good for one another, and they’re so clueless about it all!”

Gwil rolls his eyes, putting down a card. “They just met, Joe. Give them time before calling them clueless.”

“But they’re soulmates, Gwil! Soulmates! How do you not see it?” The man bounces onto the couch next to Gwil, insistently nudging his way into the man’s personal space.

Ezichi shakes her head. “I’ll know if she likes him before she knows it herself.”

Rami frowns, slapping down a card. “How would you know that?”

Ezichi smiles, putting down her last card and winning the game. “She gets this look in her eyes, this really sappy, disgustingly vulnerable look. You’ll know it when you see it.”

They smile and look outside the window before going back to their usual business before Ben and Lily notice.

It’s only a matter of time before they see that look.

TAGLIST: @andtheytoldustotellyouhello @plethora-of-things @borhap-socials @everybodyplaythegame @i-the-fangirl @deakydeakydeaky @shisterfackisback @samanthadegaro @lv7867 @fatbottomedcurls @hystericallyqueen @haisimsim @peterparkeroos @teenwolflover28 @ixchel-9275 @alessandra-elle @onexlittlespark @queenficarchive

#starry writes #ben hardy x reader #ben hardy #joe mazzello #gwilym lee #rami malek #lucy boynton #allen leech #aaron mccusker #bohemian rhapsody movie

88 notes · View notes