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mochinomnoms · 5 months

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Please share the lewd interspecies romance.

Okay so mostly I have thoughts over the Octavinelle trio, especially the twins 🫣 but i wrote a lil something for most of them! also this was not meant to be so long idk what happened

[tags] - nsfw, AFAB-implied reader, but written gender-neutral, mentions of ruts/heats, breeding, etc

nsfw under read-more, minors DNI!

If you really compare humans to the nonhuman population of Twisted Wonderland, there's are some small physiological differences between species. Fae, surprisingly, don't differ from humans all too much. Land dwellers in general don't have anything too significant, though all of nonhuman species retain aspects of their animal counterparts.

Most of Savanaclaw goes through some sort of rut/heat during various times in the year, primarily early spring and summer. There's no logical reason for them to retain that aspect of their mating cycle anymore, not for a sentient species that have skills of logic and reasoning. Unfortunately, they didn't get to choose how their evolution worked, and so they have to deal with it in anyway they can.

They get a lot more irritable, they have throbbing headaches, their abdomen hurts, and the scent of their mate is a lot more enticing than normal. Jack probably has it the worst of them, as a wolf beastmen. Not only does he have to deal with a fever-inducing rut that will put him out of commission for a week, afterwards he has to deal with the a/b/o jokes from his classmates too, oh the horror. It is really a horror though when he's able to bend you over his bed, bite marks aligned your neck and back as his dick pounds into you till his knot swells and locks you in for at least an hour. Jack's incredibly embarrassed afterwards, though he manages to be incredibly sweet even after rearranging your guts. Wolf beastmen are one of the most affectionate partners to have with a reputation providing some of the best aftercare for their species. It's most likely to make up for their week-long copulation, stretching and tiring out their sweet little mates. Ooooh, but they'll so very sweet: cleaning up the sticky mess of fluids between your legs with their tongue, careful to not overstimulate you (unless you ask), tending to the mating mark they placed on the back of your neck with soft kisses and licks, and making sure to prop your lower half up to that your chances of taking their seed increases.

Lacking the annual rut/heat that other variants of beastmen have, lion and hyena beastmen are more similar is this regard, as they don't have the same issue of long copulations as wolf beastmen. Neither will initiate sex, rather they'll rely on their mates to do so. Ruggie, in particular, is rather reluctant initiating sex, as male hyenas are typically more submissive, so if you're shy you'll have to get over it. But once you do, Ruggie is ever so happy to service you if you're happy to give him praise. Run your hands through his hair and ears as he eats you out, he'll let out the cutest whimpers and groans as you do. Just, expect to be jellyboned by the time he's done with you, as a hyena he needs to make sure his mate won't snip back at him and you can't exactly do that if your fucked out. While he may not have the same stamina as Jack for week-long fuck session, he has a particularly short refractory period and can have several short sessions in a single night.

Leona also won't typically initiate sex on his own, it happens very sporadically, and he his the image of the lazy lion. While he never wants to do anything particularly extraneous, who is he to deny you needs? You'll have to do some preparing though, as while the barbs on his dick aren't as bad as they are in his animal variant, they will hurt if you're not wet and pliable enough. Be sure to sit on his face, don't worry you won't suffocate him and it's better you cum a few times first before taking him. Unless you want it to hurt? Once you've cum enough times, you can ride him to your heart's content. He only asks that you don't mention how he rubs his head into the crook of your neck, marking you so that if everyone couldn't tell by the sounds coming from his room, they'd know you're his from his scent. Lions are quite protective with their territory and pride after all.

Merfolk have the most extreme physiological differences between them and...any land dweller really. It comes with the territory of being suited for a completely different environment. They also behave a lot more similarly to their animal counterparts, which can be both delicious and exhausting for their humans.

Moray eels don't have a set time of the year they mate, but rather the water must be warm and plenty of food must be ready to provide to their mate. When the spring time weather above the sea starts transitioning from crisp to blazing, don't be too surprised when the twins start handfeeding you meals and snacks throughout the week, they want to make sure you're happy and full for them, getting you in the mood with a sweet, dizzying underwater dance to initiate until they get the okay from you. What's that 'okay' though? You know that yawning I mentioned before? You'll get your answer from them now, as they take your open mouth yawn as an invitation rather than a sign of tiredness. Floyd, in particular, is ready to drag you into the deep part of the pool before remembering that you need to breathe somehow. Not a problem. He'll keep your pretty head above water. You'll still have trouble breathing as his long tapered tongue worms his way in your mouth. No matter, you'll be gasping for breath as he bullies this cock into your hole, large enough that you can physically feel the bump on your stomach. Morays are awfully fond of wrapping themselves around their mates, seeing as Floyd will do his best to tangle his tail around your body and squeezing you as you squeeze down his dick. He loves the physical contact between you two, and is amused how your nails try to dig into his shoulders seeing as the mucus on his skin makes it near impossible to have a steady grasp. You're completely dependent on Floyd as you drool and cry out for relief from the overstimulation, which is oh so ever exciting.

Jade is equally as cruel when it comes to mating. Unlike the others, merfolk tend to mate with the intention to, well, mate. He prefers you to be soft and pliant for him, as well as wholly depending as you two fuck. So, he'll happily brew you a water-breathing potion so he can actually drag you into the deep, where he found a secluded, warm grotto that will allow him to keep you to himself for hours, but close enough to the surface that he can continuously grab you food to eat between sessions. Not that those sessions will be short either. Like his brother, Jade is content to wrap himself around your body as he cooed honeyed words into your ears about how you'll make a wet, warm, soft hole for breeding. It's not like he'll have to do much either, his dick is prehensile and he can wrap himself around you, swiping kisses and nuzzling into the crook of your very sensitive neck while his thick cock continuously pounds into you with a bruising pace. He's so mean!! He likes seeing you cry from overstimulation too, and Jade will continuously scoot down to clean you up with his tongue, only to claim that too much of his seed was gone and he needed to fill you up again for another few hours. He's truly quite incorrigible, especially when he bites into your neck and shoulders to make his claim on you. Don't worry, most morays' bites aren't venomous, and even if they are, you have him to care for you. You're going to be depending on him in the water anyway, so there's no need to worry about it too much.

Something that neither probably won't mention, probably because they won't realize it's something you should know, is that they can change their sex under the right conditions. If you're ever so inclined in the future to test the waters out, the twins might be so generous to let you eat them out instead.

Of the trio, Azul's the only one with an established mating season, two actually: one in the late spring and the other in the early fall. Respectively, one during finals and the other during orientation. He's already so incredibly stressed, and he has the need to breed too? Downright atrocious. It's wonderful that you're so kind that he can take refuge in you and use you like a new octopot, so tell him how pretty he is and how much you love him and only him, so that you have the privilege fucking his merform. The moment you're entering the water, he'll unconsciously display mating signals by flashing soft lilacs and blues, a beautiful display of his need for you. He's rather large, even bigger than the twins, in his merform, so you'll need preparation as well; have no fear, his tentacles are wrapping and kneading the squishiest parts of you. I mentioned before that he can taste the salt on your skin and pulse through your wrist via his suckers. He can taste the slick from your walls, too, without even having to use his mouth as the suckers massage you from the inside. If you'd like, he technically could give you a full flavor profile afterward, though he'll probably be a bit mortified to do so. The biggest difference is his dick, or lack thereof. Instead of a dick, Azul has a hectocotylus, which is a modified, slightly shorter arm of his with a thicker spade-shaped tip that he can practically rearrange your guts with, with little effort on his part really. Most octo-mer variants will keep their mate at a distance, eons of instinct hard to forget. Azul's variant, though, will keep you close, almost dancing with you in a sweet, sensual twirl as he places sweet kissing and bites on your neck, arms, and chest. Octopi are, in fact, venomous, however, so you will be feeling a bit of a lustful high, paralyzed, and a bit helpless to the whims of a needy octopus. He's quite good at aftercare though, making sure you get an antidote and handfeeding you calorie-rich snacks to energize you back up (again, he's aware that you won't eat him, but instinct dictates that he keeps you full with both food and cum to make you a happy mate).

*collapses into heap on floor* thoughts....full.....ahahaha breeding kink go burrrrr. i was not meant to write this much and then it escaped me. also i hate tagging

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tocomplainfriend · 1 month

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WHERE ARE THE WOMEN!?

I came back to or HB and I got run over with the lack of Female character content. Specially in the queer area!

We got Millie, who gets the lowest attention. See doesn't have and actual episode about her as a person. Unhappy Campers it's not an actual episode about her- it's mainly Moxxie and her dealing with it. We don't get any flashbacks in comparison to Blitz, Moxxie, and Loona. Even when Chaz it's her ex, we only get the Moxxie's part of the story. We get an episode with full focus on Bllitz, Stolas and Moxxie perspective of things in an episode, but we never follow Millie alone her self.

What we got about Millie: Good at killing (Melee weapons), supportive, Country girl, anger? Moxxie's Wife

Unhappy campers tries to give her attention but not actually doing it. She gets everyone to love her and show she can do an endless amount of tricks. But the episode concentrates in Moxxie getting insecure again. The fact they barely want to write her shows in just giving her long fighting scenes instead.

What does she do? Like, does she have her group of friends outside of her job or no? How does that make her feel? Being in your mid 20's and not really having many friends, it's quite a thing to explore. Or does she have actual friends outside of Blitz, and her husband.

How does she feel about Blitz stalking them? Cause in the pilot she just laughs it off a lot! Why? She didn't say anything about Blitz coming to Ozzies to see them. Does she actually dislike Loona or the fact she is a hellhound? Does she feel like a normal Joe underlooked, cause maybe her family with multiple kids didn't give her top attention and recognition? Probably not because they didn't write that- I imagined that, just know. Apparently she just had a 'boring' good family and that's why we don't see anything of that.

I just fill in the spaces where the is nothing to say regarding Millie with Headcanons, basically...

Loona gets written kind of back and forward. She was so nice by the end of season 1- to then beat the shit off Blitz in season 2, episode 2. And She was given the reason of "blitz did something that hurt her" when she was in the wrong for being awful to the customers in the first place and try to guilt-trip her dad. In that same episode, we get Loona's backstory for getting adopted, but from Blitz Perspective. I loved how she was with Octavia. But she backtracks into being mean to everyone. Hopefully she gets to interact with her by the end of the season!

Verosika... Where is my girl? Haven't seen her! She gets to have genuine frustrations towards Blitz, I'm happy for that. I hope they don't write her into had being the bad one for blitz to look better.

Stella, she gets written as the worst to elevate Stolas as the least bad person to justify him and Stolitz. Her view of also getting forced to marry someone as a child is never given, she gets the least out of it to- she doesn't get any book or power- she sticks to her family. I think writing her as "stupid" and also the "I love tormenting you" is so shallow. Her power as an antagonist gets killed in order to put her brother as the main danger instead.

One thing in writting I don't think it's intentional is her treatment of Striker. It does call my attention that Stolas call Blitz an Imp, and imp based names- same with disregarding Millie and Moxxie- Meanwhile Stella treats her assistant like shit and says shit if "plebeian blabla" but when she gets in the Phone with Striker to cancel the killing. She is polite and calls him darling. Which is different!

I love that Octavia gets attention, but I know she is written to also elevate Stolas as a character. -And the writting fill force her into forgiving him. Also... her relationship with her Mom? Someone? Can we explore what she thinks of imps or hellhounds compared to her parents?

Sallie May? 2 Lines in 1 episode.

Barbie? Her story dealing with her mom dying got pushed in the BG due to her deleted content. uh... get drugs from being sexual as a +30 woman to a 19 yr human. Doesn't want to deal with Blitz cool! Fizz gets more backstory with Blitz than with her...

Glitz and Glam. They show up and act like assholes to Fizz (to make him seem more vunerable and dealing with a lot). For some reason, the concept of Mammon being abusive to Fizz only matter if it towards him. Because he just let Glitz and Glam take his place, even if they were being bitches to him- that doesn't make them have to endure Mammon's treatment too. They are also over villainized as if Blitz or wasn't an ass to everyone too.

Bee is there probably for one episode due to wall Kesha and shit. She is a contradiction on her self "gluttony - over indulgance" to then "Loona your dad is drinking to much and it worries me" ??? She is there to be a party girl and tell Loona what to do.

Overall she also only get Queer content out of the male characters. There is not a single WLW thing going on anywhere here. Meanwhile most the teasing of ships and jokes is MLM (blitzXmoxxie,blitzXstriker, blitzXstolas, blitzXchaz, blitzXfizz, moxxieXstriker, moxxieXchaz, fizzXasmodeous)

The only possible WLW joke is Bee and Loona. That's it!

For a show that gets to praised for representation of the trans woman character, It's less of a secondary character just yet. And no non-binary character anywhere.

(DO NOT SAY oh but in the BG, NO I'm TALKING ACTUAL CHARACTERS IN THE SHOW-not the bg succubus or the art team putting random stuff around!)

#vivziepop critical #vivziepop critique #helluva boss critical #helluva boss critique #helluva boss criticism #vivziepop criticism

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mhsdatgo · 4 months

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Hotd writers choosing to adapt Mushroom's records out of everything they had in hand is the worst decision they could've ever come up with btw.

It's been stated time and time again that while F&B is purely built on records and gossip and morphed retelling of events out of bias and propaganda, Mushroom is the LEAST reliable of all the sources. He's a fool at Rhaenyra's court, his job is make people gasp and laugh, not retell historical events.

We're talking about the same guy who said that he had a penis large enough to match the size of his head, mind you. Also, he's obsessed with little girls giving BJs to Targaryen men somewhere in Flea Bottom. It's happened twice according to him.

The writers' reasoning for this choice is basically that F&B was written by Maesters and Septons, who were all greedy men, apart from being Green supporters. So anything they say is false, anything they say is written with sexist intent. Writer's intention was to do the exact opposite.

Then tell me, for the love of God, tell me, why is every woman apart from Rhaenyra, who is clearly whitewashed and I can go into heavy detail about that, basically shunned?

The Maesters claim Alicent left Viserys' body to rot and swell for days preparing and LEADING Rhaenyra's usurpation. She's the leader of the Greens, she and she alone. Not Otto. The Green Council answers only to her orders, they are loyal to HER.

I've seen people argue that since Alicent is what Maesters view as an "ideal" woman, then they would try anything to paint her in the best light possible. While I agree that this may be true, I don't think this is the case. In history books, even in real life, women are rarely painted as leaders or important figures.

For Queen Alicent to be written as THE face of the Greens, you know this mama wasn't playing around.

Now, how is this:

In ANY WAY, even comparable to THIS?:

At the end of ep.8 and quite literally the entirety of ep.9, Alicent is shown as a lost woman who doesn't even seem to know what she's doing, pushed by Viserys' last words about prophecy rather than SHEER DESIRE to get her hands dirty for her children's safety (which by the way will always be superior imo). The Green Council conspires behind her back, and on top of it all, she's yelled at by one of her own men and is made to take it like a beaten dog.

Moreover, we had Helaena's ROAST (yes it was a roast, my Queen inherited cunty lines from her cunty mother) against Aegon and her coronation, the latter being addressed as something quite wholesome, if you ask me. Alicent places her own crown upon her daughter's head and calls her "my Queen" after kissing her cheeks and kneeling. Afterwards, her and Alicent are literally written to be the only ones who could get through Aegon II's thick skull when he wanted to start the war right then and there as a result of Rhaenyra crowning herself on Dragonstone.

You hear me??? Aegon sat down and fucking listened to the two women in his life. Not the Council, them. These two were dogwalking him, the KING, on the daily, how is that sexist writing on the Maesters' part????

Yet these things are nowhere to be seen in Ryan Condal and Sara Hess' "progressive" show. We got beaten dog Alicent and Helaena being nothing but a walking spoiler machine other than yet another instrument to paint Aegon as the big bad wolf and usurper. Not a single scene of them counseling Aegon.

Baela and Rhaena have nearly no lines or scenes that don't show them in the presence of the Strongs. They are seemingly okay with anything Rhae throws their way because it's Rhae. The one and only scene about Baela openly speaking to her grandma about her wish to fight for Rhaenyra was deleted.

Meanwhile, Rhaenyra is stripped of her rage and thirst for vengeance, and instead made to negotiate for peace while in the books she was the one pushing to go to war first.

Can you tell me, again, how the fanfiction that is Hotd supposed to prove that they want to be "progressive" in contrast to the Maesters' "sexist" work, when literally all they do is whitewash Rhaenyra and sideline any woman who isn't her?

#anti hotd #team green #alicent hightower #helaena targaryen #queen helaena #hotd discourse #asoiaf discourse #queen alicent

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fun-k-board · 7 months

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What type of Cards Against Humanity players would the Mortal Kombat X Kast be?

Note(s) : I have not played this game fully and I also haven't written for these characters before, this is almost definitely inaccurate and cringe, but I'm free.

Kung Jin -

Goes the dark humor route, but plays it with a complete straight face, he does laugh, but purposefully never at his own cards because he thinks it'll be 'suspicious'. It becomes a tell to see what his card is. He never picks what the person choosing would find funny, which means he usually never gets any black cards.

He will absolutely rage quit, or just try and get others to rage quit by being snarky and incredibly salty about his losing odds.

Takeda Takahashi -

He's not extremely dark humored (?) in his cards, but one of his cards made Liu Kang faint once. He typically goes to dad humor, the ones where you laugh at them but don't actually pick them.

He's never actually angry when he loses, sure, he's a bit salty especially if he finds his cards funny, but, at the end of the day, it's just a game.

Cassie Cage -

It depends on a, the black card, and b, the person choosing. She can win easily if it's her parents or Jacqui, she knows their humor, but if it's someone like Kitana she's screwed. Very 50/50 with her win chances.

She'll only get angry if Kung Jin wins, they're wlw and mlm hostility.

Jacqui Briggs -

Her cards are always hit or miss, she either puts her best card down on a prompt but someone else has a better card, or she saves her good cards until it's too late. She tends to get little to no black cards.

Never gets angry at a loss, she's pretty competitive during it, but afterwards even if she loses, she's just happy to spend time with everybody.

Kitana -

Gets confused on the point of the game, she's trying to keep her dignity and plays the less Inappropriate cards, whenever a particularly dark humor one comes along, she sneaks it back into the pile and picks a different card. She never gets black cards.

Doesn't get angry, she finds the game a bit pointless anyway.

Mileena -

The amount of horror this lady thinks of on the daily can't compare to any cards in any deck, she somehow always brings the worst one out, hardly ever wins because people are too horrified to pick her cards.

Will attempt murder if she doesn't win every round.

Johnny Cage -

Always goes the outwardly dad humor route, he rarely ever picks dark humor cards to put down unless that's all he has. Usually people can tell it's him, so he only wins if the person choosing likes him.

He says that he's only pretending to be salty as a joke, but in reality? It definitely makes him lose pride for at least one evening. Everyone can tell. And they all make fun of him.

Sonya Blade -

She plays with dry yet witty humor, ones you'd expect to see in a teen drama series or something, she's always relying on what she thinks her friends will find funny, and gets black cards regularly.

Will only rage if someone gets a black card and she finds the card genuinely unfunny, she can get over losing if she has a laugh over the card they chose, but if not, she's holding that over that person's head for years.

Kenshi Takahashi -

He's more of a judge, makes sure nobody commits murder, and makes sure nobody cheats. He can't play for obvious reasons, but he does secretly root for certain players, and may or may not excuse cheating if it means someone he doesn't like will lose.

Hanzo Hasashi -

He's silent the entire time, doesn't pick dark humor cards, and doesn't pick any funny ones, either, it's always a deadpan and scorchingly dry card, he's never won a single black card, everyone can tell it's his card, and nobody will pick his.

He's treating it more like a game of chess, and so when he loses he sort of just goes 'welp, could've been smarter.' And moves on.

Liu Kang -

He doesn't find any cards funny to be honest, and he mostly relies on how other people react to see what they find funny, as such, he has no black cards until the end, where he makes a comeback so insane everybody fully believes he cheats.

Won't rage if the comeback fails and he loses, however, he will get annoyed if Kung Jin wins. ( No but why was this man so outraged in every intro like calm tf down )

Kung Lao -

He won't be too sour if he loses, he's past the point of being insecure at every loss, but he definitely does try too hard to be funny. It makes everybody cringe. He gets at least one or two black cards on a bad day, but he plays too much into his humor rather than the person choosing.

Jackson Briggs -

Plays a lot of dry and witty type humor cards down, or ones where it's an actual answer to the card that would make sense, he's a sort of mix of Hanzo and Johnny, so he typically gets a few black cards, and wins maybe.

Doesn't get angry at all, he's just happy to be here.

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littlemisstfc · 3 months

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So...No LAYERS For The Decepticons: How RID 2015 Fails At Critiquing The Prison Complex

Welcome back to this side of the Hundred Acre Woods. It’s been 84 years since I have written a blog post here, so forgive my absence. 😭 By the way, I will be at TFCon LA 2024 on both March 9th and March 10th. Feel free to say hi to me, I cannot wait to meet more of you there as well as meeting more voice actors and artists. Anyways, let’s get onto today’s topic. So…RID 2015, my dear friend.

After making that compilation of the purple icon and the moment Fracture, I began to have thoughts about RID 2015. I will be coming out with a video retrospective that will hopefully come out later this year. My collaborator is dealing with a personal matter at the moment, so I’m respecting their space. Think of this as a preview to what we have here. I thought about doing a video, but I feel like my strongest strength has always been writing.

RID 2015 is an interesting show in the sense that it has so much to say, yet never got the chance to fully explore what it wants to say. If you know me by now, you know that I am one of the most hardcore RID defenders in existence akskskskdjdkd. Let me make it clear: it’s a show that exists. However…it is MY show that exists. Like, compared to the very worst of the worst that Transformers has to offer, this show doesn’t even scratch at the surface. It’s a mid show that manages to keep me entertained and engaged at least. However, at the same time, its flaws are genuinely that egregious, and as much as the writers tried, I feel like they’re held back from fully exploring its potential. Like I said, I will go into the gritty nitty detail at a later day, so at the moment, let’s go discuss what’s perhaps the main issue I have with RID 2015…it fails at critiquing the prison complex.

The Prison Complex...BUT WITH FURRIES.

In case you don’t know what RID 2015 is about, let me summarize it really quickly. RID 2015 takes place three years later after Transformers Prime ended, and it focuses on Bumblebee now. After getting a sign from Optimus’s spirit to return to Earth, he does so, along with a cadet named Strongarm and a delinquent named Sideswipe accidentally joining him. Eventually, they all ended up at Crown City and they found out a Decepticon prison ship, the Alchemor, crash landed near here, courtesy of the caretaker Fixit. Then, after taking care of one escaped Decepticon, they were then joined by Grimlock and two humans named Russell and Denny. So, the entire series is focused on Bee and his team capturing the escaped Decepticon prisoners, while also having to deal with the shady behind the scenes of the Cybertronian government.

Now that we got the main premise out of the way, on the surface, it seems like it’s a harmless monster of the week type show. For most of the time, it’s just Bee and his team capturing Decepticons, who are also animals in this version. Okay, Beast Wars aksksksks. It seems like there’s not much issue. However…when you really think about the circumstances of these Decepticons, not to mention how oddly it portrays the police force in a mostly positive light (and I say that loosely), the show did not age in retrospect. It does not do a great job at critiquing what’s wrong with the prison industry.

Now that I brought it up, you may be asking why I did so. It’s important to bring it up, because it ties into how this show tackles the Decepticons and the Cybertronian police state. In a nutshell, the prison complex refers to the relationship between the prison system and various businesses, specifically how they benefit from incarceration being the end-all solution in tackling society’s problems. It relies heavily on the surveillance and policing of the population in order to make the quickest profit that really only serves as a bandaid to the elephant in the room. In case you want to learn more about the prison complex, I highly recommend doing your research by looking up sources, especially from those who work in prison reform.

Back to RID 2015, the show makes it seem like the Decepticons should be treated as menaces to society because the government says so. Now, let me make it clear: I am in no way justifying what these characters did. I mean, there are legit serial killers and legitimate dangers to society in there akksksksksa. It’s called nuance, folks. However, at the same time…these people should be getting help for their issues and/or get rehabilitation instead of being treated as animals (no pun intended). You look at characters like Springload and Filch, who are individuals that show severe signs of mental illness that heavily impact how they navigate the world. Then, you have Decepticons who only really committed minor offenses like Bisk. Now, I’m not saying that they’re justified in doing those crimes. I’m saying that the consequences should fit the crime, yet for some reason, the show likes to say that brutal incarceration is the answer. In the world of the Aligned Continuity post Prime, you get labeled a Decepticon for your crimes and you;re packed off to jail until you die or something.

Then, we have the head bitch in charge himself, Steeljaw. Now, I’m saving my thoughts on his character and how he wouldn’t go away at a later date, so for now…Steeljaw may be a character that the show stubbornly refuses to let go, but I’m sorry, he brought up good points about the way things are runned. He is basically TFA Megatron if he was a furry aksksksks. While his intentions are ultimately a power grab and the way he treats his pack isn’t justified, at the same time, you do see where he’s coming from. The show portrays the premise in a very strict black and white sense, in which the Decepticons are all evil and the Autobots are justified in throwing all them into prison. Now, we do learn about the actual truth behind the Council and Strongarm is a genuinely good person, but still, the show is so committed to the anti Decepticon status quo that it makes the premise much worse. It lacks the nuance that Animated and Cyberverse to an extent had in portraying the two sides, so it’s insensitive at best and actually quite harmful at worst.

So…you may be wondering, “wait, but what about Grimlock and Drift?” That’s where they both come into the discussion. To me, those two represent the nuance that the show desperately wanted to convey, but isn’t allowed to explore. They’re both reformed Decepticons who showed that they are not defined by their past, and they put in the work to change. Hell, there was even an entire ass episode dedicated to the team realizing that Grimlock did change for the better. In Drift’s case, when he was confronted by a figure from his past, he made it clear that he also changed for the better. So, if the show was willing to offer both Grimlock and Drift second chances, then why can’t it offer the same grace to the Alchemor prisoners?

This then leads to the character of Scowl, whom I honestly believe that he is capable of having a genuine heel face turn if the show GAVE HIM A FUCKING CHANCE. The instant chemistry he had with Grimlock reveals that he seems to be a cool guy. I think that once he’s taught to learn right from wrong and is given a support system, he can be redeemed. Yet frustratingly, the show goes, “nah bro, he’s 100% evil underneath his bro bro act.” It’s kind of hypocritical that it allows Grimlock to reform, but it puts Scowl and a majority of the Decepticons into a black and white box. They’re not allowed to be their own characters in the first place, so they received the short end of the stick even more. Just…UGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Show, why do you test my patience sometimes? When I tweeted about this thought I had after I made the Fracture compilation, someone summarized it best right here:

"Legitimately, if RID15 wasn't aimed at kids, it would be a really nuanced show and likely would get recognized as better than Prime."

Kids are fucking smarter than we give them credit for. I was six years old when I watched Animated, and I noticed the deeper aspects of the show. I just didn’t have the words to articulate it until I became an adult. If RID 2015 was given the time and care it needs to explore this concept to its fullest potential, it would perhaps be the best well thought out show in the Aligned Continuity. I may get canceled for this, but it’s the LAYERS that Prime wants. However, because the higher ups wanted a toyetic approach and thought the kids are too dumb to pick up on LAYERS and nuance, we got this, and it honestly saddens me it turned out this way.

Conclusion: Even the most mid Transformers show deserves LAYERS.

Being a RID 2015 stan is the toughest battle God gives to his silliest little guys akskskskks. I criticize this show because I truly believe it deserves BETTER than what it was given to work with. You may look at me like I’m crazy for thinking about this way more than what a normal person would do…but I ain’t normal, lads.

I'm saving my full thoughts for the retrospective like I said, but right now, the show has a lot to say, but it was sadly silenced. I honestly think it would've been one of those Transformers shows people will fondly look back on had it been given more time in the oven. This is why I appreciate fanfiction and fanon existing because they explore the LAYERS the show has underneath the silly vibes. I would do anything for this show to receive a comic book continuiation or a spinoff that explores its full potential.

Anyways, Pingu.

#transformers #tf rid 2015 #tf rid15 #val talks #tf discourse

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gureumcity · 1 year

Text

10 months

💌 pairing: sim jaeyun x reader, park sunghoon x reader 💌 genre: oneshot, dating bet!au, ice skater!sunghoon 💌 warning: profanity, long term heartbreak (it's kinda toxic so i put it here just in case) 💌 word count: 7.7k words 💌 author's note: note that this story is going to take place where enhypen are all adults and are the same age. there's no details but it just makes more sense. especially with sunghoon's ice skating competitions and their college lives. but of course, there will not be any sexual and/or inappropriate content. just wanted to let everyone know that because some things may not be something they would do but as i always like to remind. this is fiction. and just written to give a good story. anyway, enough with the serious talk. enjoy this one!

[ when what you believe is a beautiful relationship, turns out to be a total lie, you lose trust in yourself more than in the boy. you shut yourself out and stop living. even when another someone helps you out and brings you back into the world again. you may be thankful but you're never quite over the first. the one who hurt continuously hurt you. over and over again. ]

"i swear to god. you're just like how everyone said!," your thundering voice was heard across the hall of your apartment complex. surely, the neighbors were annoyed. but nothing compared to the humiliation and anger you were feeling as tears ran down your cheeks and your hands in fists. "but you know? you know what's so funny? ... that i truly believed you loved me!" with a slam of the door to your home, there stood a boy baffled. because at the very least, he'd thought you would at least let him explain. but no. and now.. all he could do was wait for you to be okay. no matter how long that took.

10 months. 10 months was all it took for you to fall so deeply in love and for your heart to get as easily as broken.

sim jaeyun (jake is his english name) was a boy you met at the beginning of high school. you were born in south korea but had moved to brisbane, australia as soon as you graduated middle school. there, you met jake. he was one of the most sweetest guys you'd ever met with one of the worst reputations. pretty much what one can imagine. the high school's it boy, aka fuck boy. not very convenient when all he did was share class notes and give you winks across the hallways every time you'd walk past by each other. things progressed fast before you noticed yourself falling more in love with the boy. and one day, like a dream come true, he asks you out. you still remember the words.

"so wanna share more physics notes at my house later? and maybe also be my girlfriend?"

cringy, i know.. maybe that should have been the first red flag. but it gets worse. sure, he cared a lot about his reputation and did a good job with upholding that. but with you.. he was a natural, caring guy who seemed more interested in a lot of things than what he leads. falling in love with someone like jake was easy. too easy.

so here you were. running away from your problems and flying to america with a scholarship for photography. you were covered for a good two, three years to study what you like to do and to get a fresh start. having yourself embarrassed in front of the school was already too much on your end. and the fact that your life was stolen while jake lived daily life as he did before, definitely did not make any of it feel any better. flirting with girls, playing on the soccer team, and hanging out with the same boys. it was so sickening. not the fact that he was able to go back to his everyday routine so easily. but that he still had you wrapped around his finger. that's what made going to america a better, and easier, decision than anything. it was like hitting two birds with one stone.

after a while, you got used to everything. you grew numb to feeling love and also expressing love. that may be why photography was your way of finding passion and emotion. you adapted fairly quickly actually. and with the winter olympics coming up, lots of ice skating competitions were taking place which also meant cha-ching. taking photos of representatives and of the event will be a big assignment for you; not to mention lots of hot ice skaters. you had always admired ice skaters. the way they gracefully play with their chosen songs while using absolutely every muscle possible to present such a beautiful piece. this was your seventh show you've been to now. two years really did pass by quickly.

but don't forget. you weren't the complete loser you claim yourself as. you've made friends along the way. park sunghoon, who you had met at these said competitions. he had placed first place in many, resulting in multiple individual photoshoots of him. opening up about your life wasn't something you'd like to do. especially with the way your recent high school life back in brisbane ended. but with many breaks and awkward silences during those shoots, one of you was bound to speak. and you, the photographer, sadly had to be the bigger person. one thing led to another. and you two became close friends. for the first time in forever, you felt at peace and that you belonged somewhere. park jongseong, jay, you had met in washington. he was forced by his dad to come to one of the ice skating competitions. regardless of his intention to come for fun or not, he had bumped into you and dropped your coffee all over, resulting in his many apologies and a talk in the cafe after. you know how the rest goes. sunghoon and jay meet and the three of you were now closer than ever.

feeling your phone buzz in your pocket, you reach for it to be faced with the familiar caller id, "bro", quickly putting him on speaker.

"hello?"

"hello? is that all you gotta say to me after days of not talking? i have called you like five times today and you have answered once!" you chuckle at the upset voice across the device. "well then, sunoo, maybe you should get a life instead of calling me so much." all you hear on the other end was a scoff as you finish packing your bag. sunoo was your twin brother. well, separated twin brother. after the divorce, you went with your mother to australia while he stayed with your father back in korea. you two still kept in good contact and met up occasionally but it wasn't the usual family situation. "anywayyy! when's your flight?"

you hear a knock at the door and keys jangling before seeing sunghoon walk in. "on monday. why?" watching as he took his shoes off and sat down on the couch, you gesture to him that you'll be with him a second. "nothing. it's just our birthday soon! so i'm holding a party for us. so since your flight is gonna be on monday, you'll definitely be able to make it to our party. right? you need to! listen to your big brother! you have to be there, okay?"

"you're literally two minutes older. stop acting as if you're more superior. i'm gonna go," sunghoon's chuckle could be heard as he listened to you fight with your twin brother. you quickly end the phone call and walk over to your couch. "sorry about that. sunoo keeps bothering me about our birthday.."

"speaking of birthday.. am i invited?"

"sunghoon. are you kidding me? of course you're invited. i just didn't ask cause i know you're busy with training and i didn't want to be the reason you skip out on practice during such an important time.." he places your keys in your hands and smiles. "your birthday is much more important than anything. i'll go. besides i have something else to say..," as you drop your keys on the table, he clears his throat. "i'm moving back to korea. my training in america is over and i have to practice back home. plus winter olympics is in beijing anyway. so i gotta get back soon."

"you're kidding!"

"nope. just bought my plane ticket. it's the same time and close to your seat too. maybe we can ask to switch seats with the person sitting next to you." with a quick jump, you wrap your arms around him. "ahh! i'm so excited. yes. we'll definitely do that. and since jay's back in korea too, i can invite him too."

the flight back was as normal as it can be. you both fell asleep midway but got to enjoy the sunset below. when you landed, it was around 3pm and sunoo was already there, waiting. "ooh. guess who brought their boyfriend!" he teased, and as much as you didn't want to, your smile disappears. nothing wrong with sunghoon. but it's just you haven't heard you and boyfriend in the same phrase for a while and it made you cringe. "yea yea.. anyway let's go." with yours and sunghoon's luggage in the trunk, you decided to sit in the back with sunghoon up in the passenger seat.

"so.. have you decided where you wanna live?" sunoo asks as sunghoon looks at you through the rear mirror with a smile. "actually.. yea, i have. jay's let us use his house. the benefits to having a rich friend." with chuckles, sunoo thanks sunghoon for changing the address on the navi. "you're still paying rent though, right?"

"of course i am. who do you think i am? a freeloader?," the silence was so loud, it hurt. "wow.. thanks guys."

unpacking was harder than packing. at least when you're putting things back in, all you have to worry about things crinkling up or folding in a weird way but once there out, you gotta think about how to place them somewhere. but you did what you could and managed to figure it out. "you finished unpacking?" you hear jay's voice outside your room. "yea! i'll be out in just a sec." and once you were downstairs in the living room, you see jay and sunghoon sitting on the black, leather, very jay-like, couch.

"okay. we're gonna need to make some rules," sunghoon and you catch each other rolling your eyes at jay's words before laughing. "look. i don't care how messy your rooms get. i won't step one foot in them. but! you can't mess my room or the downstairs rooms. especially the kitchen. understand?," after seeing the two of you physically nod, did jay let the two of you go. "good. so what do you guys wanna do on your first day back? after a good night's sleep, i'm sure you guys can have some fun.."

"i'm down to go clubbing.." sunghoon starts. "just like old times?" you add on, as if you were finishing his sentence. silence meant agreement. so off the three of you ran, up to your rooms to get dressed.

let's just say the day went by quick and the next day was hangover day for the three of you. four days passed and today was the party. sunoo had basically forced you to come to your own party that you didn't even plan. just added a few people on the guestlist but that's all you got to do. not that you were complaining. you didn't really care much anyway. it just gave you a reason to dress up.

"so.. how's the birthday girl?," you smiled at the voice before turning around to see sunghoon, showing off your outfit. "apparently all ready for the party.. happy birthday, y/n." with him opening up his arms, you walk into his embrace. "you know. it feels weird to be back here. i don't know if i should go see my dad.."

"you do what you wanna do. but for now..," you chuckle as he pushes you out the room and guides you downstairs to the car outside. "hop in. i'm driving us to sunoo's house." you watch as jay gets in the back and immediately puts his airpods in. it takes a few minutes to drive over and when you see the neighborhood, it wasn't hard to guess which house the party was being held. the music was loud and the big banner said everything. you just hoped he had warned his neighbors first. but that wasn't your concern.

"hey guys! the birthday girl is here!! late! but here." sunoo says as he opens the door, loud enough the attention goes to you. and to your embarrassment, sunghoon grabs your hand and takes you into the kitchen. "a drink?" taking in the amount of people in here, you were scared people would think you guys were a frat. with a simple nod, sunghoon pours in two cups of punch and hands one to you. "thanks.."

"hey sunoo. where do we put all the gifts?" jay speaks up, carrying all the gifts you guys had brought over. yes, it may be your birthday but it was sunoo's too. you couldn't not buy him something. "oh. just put them all into this room." you help jay with the gifts and place them where sunoo had told you to. after a while, there were almost a hundred people in the house.

"this should be everyone, right?" you ask sunoo as he was checking the guestlist. "no," your smile drops. what? how could he possibly know this many people that want to come and celebrate his birthday with him? "you know riki and jungwon. they're coming but i told them to bring the cake. i knew something would happen to it if i had prepared it beforehand. so i had them pick it up. they're heading over soon after they pick up their friends too." you down your drink and walk over to the couch where sunghoon relaxes. "i swear sunoo plays around too much or something. i knew this was gonna be a party but with this many people? goddamn." sunghoon chuckles at your frustration. "why don't you go grab another drink? get me one too while you're at it." you nod, heading over to the kitchen before someone else enters through the door. you catch a glance at the newcomers and immediately gasp when you see the last person entering. you wanted to hide. you wanted to literally disappear. it's been almost three years? and you thought you had gotten better. but what is this reaction? now you were back to square one. you felt pathetic. and to think, you didn't think it could get worse. until it did. his eyes catch yours and he smiles. smiles! you poured the two drinks and walk your way over. and just when he thinks he has a chance to talk to you, you pass by him and sit down next to sunghoon. and as your best friend, it felt only right he ask what was wrong.

"hey.. you good?" your eyes said everything. sunghoon sat up straight. "it's him.. jake. why is here? how does he even know sunoo?" all that anger and humiliation from that night was building back up. and if it wasn't for sunghoon holding you back, you would have left this place before the actual party even started. all while you were panicking, jake couldn't take his eyes off you. you were as beautiful as he remembered. maybe even more. "hey guys! you're finally here." you and sunghoon watch as jungwon and his other friend, you assume, place the very large cake on the kitchen island. "y/n?" your attention shifts over to the voice before seeing niki.

"oh my god! riki? it's been so long. what the hell? how are you so tall?" you said, hugging his now tall and lean figure. "well. the last time we saw each other was like five years ago.." you nodded, acknowledging his words but still shocked by his growth. "do i get a hug too?" you see jungwon peeking his head through so you immediately open your arms. "of course. my little kitty! you guys have grown so much. that's crazy." once sunoo comes your way, he starts introducing you to his friends.

"so this is my twin sister, y/n. you know jungwon and riki. this is heeseung. and this is jaeyun. well, jake. he's also from australia so i guess jake might be easier for you." sunoo explains and you couldn't help but let out a little sigh at his name. just like a hero, sunghoon's up from the couch and wraps his arm around your shoulder. "nice to meet you guys. i'm sunghoon." he says placing out his hand in which heeseung accepts first. and the rest followed. "wait wait.. i wanna hear the aussies speak. say something in english." riki says, interested. "you guys probably won't even understand anyway." you say as everyone gasps sarcastically. "oh come on, y/n. don't be a party pooper." with sunoo's words, you roll your eyes and clear your throat.

"how's life been for you?" you started first, deadpan. "it's been good, i guess. what have you been up to?"

"that's none of your business." you hear the others cheering at the accents, having no idea what you two had even said. well, besides jay who chuckled and maybe a bit of sunghoon. even though he may have a translator, you're sure he caught on to most of it.

you know how the rest of the party went. people got way too drunk, passed out, some left, and you're pretty sure you heard a few couples upstairs doing god knows what. and the whole night, all you could do was talk to sunghoon as jay was getting friendly with jungwon and riki. and despite all that, you couldn't get drunk. you don't know what kind of mistake you could make with jake and you couldn't risk anything. when there was about half of the people left, you stood up to use the restroom. after drinking almost three bottles of water, you needed to pee. after finishing your business, you wanted to get back to sunghoon. but jake had other plans. he grabs your hand and takes you outside without saying anything. when you realize you were already far out as two houses down, you shake your hand off and glare at him. "what? you're mad? when all you've been doing is hanging out with that sunghoon dude? what? are you guys dating? is he your boyfriend?"

"what? jake. you're drunk."

"no. i'm perfectly fine." his slurring voice wasn't hard to miss, proving that he indeed was drunk. too drunk, in fact. he grabs both your wrists this time so hard that you winced. "jake."

"jake."

"why is everything so easy for you? i know you don't even like him. i can see it. you don't look at him the way you used to look at me. come on. don't you feel anything for me? even when i do this?" when you feel him stepping closer, you step back. "jake! i'm warning you. let. go," you tried to wriggle out his grasp. you can feel your wrists bruising. "jake.. it hurts. please..." when jake sees your eyes tearing up, he loosens his grip. "i'm sorry. i didn't mean to." you step away, a tear slipping away.

"i hate you." you quickly retrace your steps back into the house and grab your bag, immediately running out. sunghoon follows you out with his car keys, unlocking the vehicle. (you drove, no worries. no drinking and driving!)

the next day, your head hurt. but none of it from any alcohol. from the way you kept tossing and turning last night, thinking of jake. out of all the simulations you have made in your mind of what would happen when you by chance, ever bump into him again, that was not it. once you got downstairs, you had noticed porridge on the table with a note on top.

i know you couldn't sleep at night so i made you this. make sure to heat it up before you eat it. - jay

jay keeps quiet about other people's business but always knew what was going on. he was a nice guy who took advantage of his skill and helps. you wish there were more people like him in the world.

"so.. that was jake, huh?" sunghoon's groggy voice is heard. "yea.."

"remind me what happened?," you release a soft sigh as you take out the porridge from the microwave. "just humor me. i want to know how this dude fucked himself up."

"okay.. i guess," you sat down. "yesterday, he dragged me out, absolutely off his limit and starts yelling at me about you. almost like he's... jealous? i didn't understand his words but i know what his intentions were. he's still the same asshole he was years back." sunghoon watches your reaction. he's never met jake in his life. all he knows is the jake from your stories. and that was enough to know that he was a dick. but he never noticed that you still have remaining feelings for him, whether you'd admit or not. did he have competition? probably not, after last night. or at least, that's what sunghoon was hoping.

--------------------

jake, on the other hand, had woken up around an hour ago, completely regretting everything he said last night. he didn't mean any of it. sure. deep down, he was jealous at the way you laughed at everything sunghoon said or the way you leaned into his shoulders like he's the one you love. he hated it. all of it. and when he thinks of that day of your guys' fight, he grimaces. instead of waiting for you to reach out to him like a coward, he wishes he had the courage to just tell you. even if that hadn't changed a thing. at least, he would have been able to confess his true feelings to you.

"dude.. do you and sunghoon know each other or something?" heeseung asks from his bed, watching some anime on the tv screen. "what do you mean?"

"i mean.. i don't know if it was just me but it seemed like he was glaring at you the whole night yesterday. did you flirt with y/n? she seems to have a thing with sunghoon." jake's eyebrows twitch at those words but at some point, he had to admit. he was years late. and he didn't have to know the whole story to know that sunghoon was probably there for you when he wasn't. "uhh no.. i don't know man," heeseung shrugs and continues to slurp his ramen noodles. "speaking of.. do you have y/n's number? i wasn't able to get it last night and i saw that you were exchanging numbers." jake casually says, hoping heeseung doesn't find anything suspicious. "oh yea. i'll send it to you right now. but i'm warning you, dude. i'm pretty sure they're a thing." and when his own phone buzzes, he couldn't help but smile. "okay whatever.. thanks,"

"anyway.. i gotta go. let's finish the series next time." he murmurs before rushing out the door. heeseung's attention wasn't even anywhere near what he said so he escaped through heeseung's house and immediately got into his car and dialed the number he had just received.

when he hears the phone call picked up and all you say was a simple "hello?" yet his heart was already fluttering. "hey. it's jake. don't! end the call.. i just.. i know i don't exactly deserve it but i wanted to explain myself. about everything. no matter how late my apology is.. could we meet up somewhere?," the silence scared him. he wouldn't have known if you had the ended the call unless he hadn't checked. "y/n?"

"um. yea.. sure. meet me at the park near sunoo's house," and with that, you ended the call. "hey guys.. i'm gonna head out. i'll be back in a few." you can see the two boys nod their head but you're sure they're too distracted with their gaming so you slip out the door with your bag and phone in your hand. when you parked your car, you could see a fancy car on the other side of the block. you watch as jake walks out of the said vehicle. while you knew jake had come from a wealthy family, it didn't occur to you that he was this wealthy.

"hey.. thanks for meeting me." jake says, taking in your beauty. you hum a response, waiting for whatever he needed to say and seated yourself next to him on the bench. "so.."

"so. i came to apologize. and to explain. back when the guys had made this bet, it all started off because i thought you were pretty. but you know.. you hated the whole reputation thing we held so i knew i didn't have a chance with you. and when i said that you're totally out of my league, that you would never date me, they told me that they'd pay me if i got you to be my girlfriend. it was only for six months though. but i held out onto it. cause being with you felt so much better than i had first expected." you couldn't help but scoff and i know that none of this is an excuse to treat you this way. but i just want you to know that i never wanted you to get hurt. and i was just blinded by the fact that i could get a little bit of money while also getting the girl i liked. i was stupid. i'm sorry."

"how much?"

"huh?"

"how much?"

"$500."

"so playing with my heart was worth $500 for you?"

"i didn't take the money. i didn't take any of it. i told them that this was wrong and that none of it-"

"what do you want me to say? congrats?," jake felt shivers down his spine when you stand up. he knew that in some sort of way, he had messed up again. "congrats for liking me despite the mere $500 i was worth? and for believing that this shitty apology cuts out for all those nights i cried myself to sleep. i hope you get some of that guilt off your chest because you sure seemed like you needed to tell me that. and i'm also sorry if you came today thinking i would accept your apology because i don't. i really wished i could." gathering your things, you make yourself back to your car before hearing, "i still love you!" you freeze in your place. what? when you feel his presence again, you slowly turn around. eyes in contact with one another and your hands stop moving.

"what?"

"y/n.. i never stopped loving you." your tears had started to build up to your eyes in which you failed to hide. with a swift move, you were in jake's arms. this time, you could smell his cologne. his intoxicating cologne. and feel his heartbeat. the warm vibration as he mutters sorry over and over again. and as hard as it was, you place your hand on his chest and slowly push yourself away. "but you know what, jake?," looking into his eyes once more, you smile. "it doesn't matter whether or not you took the money. it's the fact that you took a deal with my heart on the end of it because you were blinded by greed. goodbye."

for the second time, jake watches you walk away. and it hurt the same as it did the first time. but just like the first, he can do nothing but watch.

--------------------

"so why the hell did you not tell me about jake?" it's been almost two weeks since the talk and sunoo is freaking out over jake. technically, he's not even supposed to know about him but he walked in on sunghoon and you talking about what to do with jake. now sunoo has seated the both of you at your shared dining table and demands to know what happened. all you could do was sigh because you knew his stubbornness wouldn't help.

"him and i dated senior year. we met each other in high school. and just like a wattpad story, he was your regular fuck boy that flirted with every girl he had the chance to. but he was sweet to me. spoke to me about his true interests. if that's even what those were.. anyway. basically i thought that he was able to open himself up to me that he couldn't to others because of his image. we dated 10 months and into the summer, he tells me that he didn't mean it to end this way but that everything just started off as a bet among his friends. we fought back and forth. cause he just kept giving me this bullshit excuse that he meant everything despite the bet. so i ended up yelling at him and left australia," sunoo's jaw dropping was enough for you to know jake was no longer invited to your birthday parties. "but i know that you guys are good friends. and i'm sure he's changed now. so don't mind me. i just happen to have a history with him."

"okay so wait.. i only care about one thing right now."

"what?" sunoo clears his throat, staring at sunghoon. "do you still like him?" you stare at your hands on your lap, not knowing how to answer. sunghoon had seen this coming. matter of fact, he's been hurt by your answer to this question every time. even when you replied yes or the silence. it both meant you still had feelings for jake anyway. but this time. "i don't know." sunghoon's eyes shift over to you. he wondered what made you change your answer this time. you honestly didn't know either. "okay then? and i think you're right. jake has changed. so i hope you don't mind that we'll still occasionally hang out." you shook your head, reassuring that you were okay with this.

a month passes since you got back from america and you were settled for good now. taking up little projects and finding customers here and there. your online shop helped a lot in setting up this mini business for you. sunghoon and jay really helped out in advertising.

just as you push your shopping cart in the supermarket, you find yourself in front of someone. "jake.."

"hey. how's everything going?" you smile at the casual conversation starter. "good.. yea. you?"

"the same old. same old..," as you pull your cart out of the way, jake takes a hold of your hand. "y/n.. can i suggest something?" you stare at him, confused.

"i know this is a stretch. but i'd rather know i took all the chances i had with you before fully letting go. and.. i was wondering if you would go on three dates. just three. no strings attached and nothing serious. i'll treat you to all three. and if you truly feel absolutely nothing, i'll let you go. hmm?"

--------------------

"what did she say? she obviously said no, right?" jay watches as sunghoon stresses out. you had to go to an appointment and since sunghoon wasn't home, you had told jay to let sunghoon know what's going on. "she said yes."

"what?"

"she wants to give him a chance."

"you're kidding, right-"

"not because she wants this to work. she just wants to feel better. she agrees that this relationship needs a better wrap-up. that's why she agreed," with sunghoon's sigh, jay chuckles. "don't worry. she doesn't like him." at his words, sunghoon lets out an awkward chuckle. "you knew?"

"knew what? that you like y/n? yea dude. it's pretty obvious. i'm sure almost everyone at the birthday party caught on," his panicking breaths was enough for jay to pat sunghoon's back. "except y/n.. knowing her, she would've probably said something about it by now. so lighten up, dude. and let her end this relationship the way she wants before fully going for it." sunghoon nods slowly.

--------------------

the first date took place on september 18. jake took you out to an amusement park with little mazes in between. he bought you all your favorite snacks that you were shocked he even remembered. dropping cute comments out of nowhere. "you look so pretty." while playing with his fingers. "let me.." while tying your shoelaces. he didn't try anything too much and kept his distance with you. enough to show respect and you admired him for that. although it wouldn't be the thing that would bring you back to him. because no matter how much he looked out for you, this just wasn't it.

the second date took place on october 31. it was supposedly the birthday of his dog back in australia, layla. you remember the border collie who welcomed you when you went over to his house. maybe that was why but this time, he took you to a dog cafe. you were able to enjoy your favorite coffee while playing with cute samoyeds and poodles. really attentive to you, he made sure you were able to feed the puppies, play with him, and stay after hours too. you were sure that one cost a bit. but you pretended not to know as he tried to hide his payment as much as possible. you hated to admit. but he was a gentleman. well, in a way, you guess he always was. but no matter how much he paid attention to you, this just wasn't it.

the third and final date took place on november 15. his very own birthday. he ended up holding his party a few days before instead to spend it with you. he took you to a festival. one that usually sells out fast and only comes twice a year. he made sure to keep refilling tickets to allow you more games, which meant more stuffed animals. when it hit ten o'clock, the fireworks went off. you let him hug you. you understand. fireworks makes one emotional. you slowly wrap your arms around him. "i love you.." you stare at the show in the sky. "i know.. happy birthday." jake tried not to notice you didn't say it back. but he wasn't expecting much. because no matter how much he made you feel loved, this just wasn't it.

he knew. he knew all of it. he knew that even if you still liked him.. your heart belonged to another. you just didn't know it.

--------------------

about a few weeks after the final date, jake reaches out to you. saying he wanted to meet up on november 30. you don't know why he had to push it back two weeks to hear your answer. but you knew the feeling. the feeling of wanting to stop time and just love a little longer.

sunghoon had barely asked you about any of the dates with you and jake. and to say you were worried was an understatement. whether you noticed or not, sunghoon's opinion mattered a lot to you. you thought about it. why your heart ached when he wasn't home much anymore to ask you things and why it bothered you so much to not see him in his room before going to sleep. he'd been the guy you go to. the therapist that helps you solve any situation. the ice skater who helped you open up when you doubted your skill in photography. the guy that reminded you your self worth and brought you back to this world. the best friend you fell in love with.

you blinked at your realization. all this time you had thought falling in love with jake was easy. maybe love wasn't supposed to be easy. maybe it was supposed to be a roller coaster. driving over to jake's was now a lighter feeling than how the day started off. when jake saw you parking in the driveway, he prepared himself. he took in a breath and opened the door.

"want some tea?" jake offers, knowing you're not here to stay long anyway. but it was still worth a try. he told himself that he'd give it his all and he was trying. even if he knew, nothing would ever work. you shake your head and sit down on one of the chairs by his kitchen counter. "jake.. i came here to say that-"

"wait," he stops you, scared. "lemme go first," when he sees you nod softly, he gulps. "look. the past three dates has been everything to me. i don't regret any of it. i'm so happy i saw you smile. i'm so happy i got to hug you. and i'm so happy i got to tell you that i love you. one last time..," he bites his quivering lip as tears rise up in his eyes. "i know what you're here to say. so i just wanted to say thank you. thanks for giving me a chance to love you again. thanks for giving me a chance to treat you the way i couldn't back then." hearing his voice crack made your heart break. you wanted to wipe his tears away but you know you shouldn't. you don't get to since you're the cause of those tears anyway.

"jake..," you watch his hands shaking in his lap, slowly placing your hand in his. you feel his tears falling on your fingers, tears threatening to fall yourself. "i'm sorry i can't tell you what you want me to say. thank you for showing me the person you have become and that you will find someone better. i know that's such a bitchy thing to say. but i mean it. jake.. you've grown. and i really would've liked it if this would've worked. but i'm.. i just-"

"you love sunghoon," as you look up, a tear falls down your right cheek. he slowly stands up, sniffling through his tears. "you should go to him. i know he's probably wrecking his brain right now, waiting."

you let out a chuckle before wiping your own tears. "can i hug you?" you nod as you allow yourself to be engulfed in his warm embrace. jake's uneven breathing didn't make any of this easier. after about a minute, you slowly pull away. "thanks jake.. for everything." with a nod of agreement, you both let go and he walks you out.

"y/n...," you turn around. "at least tell me one thing.. will he treat you better?"

"mhmm.. he's the best."

"then.. that's all that matters."

as soon as you get in your car and you're on the road, your phone starts dialing. and to no surprise, you're hit with voicemail. "hoon? i have something to say to you. i'm on my way home. please.. please be there.." you knew sunghoon felt something for you. it'd be crazy if he hadn't. almost every friend of yours has asked you if you were dating him. just by the way he looks at you, treats you, and finds some way to stop you from going on blind dates; that your friends set up. you just didn't say anything because it wasn't like you could reject him and risk loosing him forever or accept him while you were still in love with another. your parked car in the driveway was nothing near straight but you honestly just wanted to get back into the house. running to the door, frustrated that you couldn't find your house keys. but when the door unlocks and you're met with just the man you wanted to see, your body just wants one thing. you immediately hug him. "i'm so sorry.. i'm so sorry for not doing something before."

"you idiot. i've been waiting for like three months. if the past two years doesn't count." you were so relieved from his words that your heart skipped two beats.

"look hoonie.. i don't know what to say."

"then don't say anything.. just kiss me." not even a second passes before your lips are on his. despite the ticklish feeling of his eyelashes batting against your cheek and the fact you two were still at the door, this couldn't have felt more right. you and sunghoon. you should've noticed sooner. but for now, him having his hand on your back and the other on your neck was just perfect. it felt like nothing in the world could go wrong. after a while, you slowly let go. only because you were running out of breath.

"so. do i get to meet your parents now?" you chuckle at the way his mind works. "yes.. i'll arrange something," you slowly watch him close the door and walk you to the sofa. the two of you lay together, your head on his chest as he softly combs through your hair. you hum at the feeling. "at least i won't have to see my dad alone.."

"what happened? with your parents, i mean. you never told me why you're so scared to see your dad." with a sigh, you stare at your hands intertwined with his. "well.. the thing with my dad is that.. i've watched my dad fight with my mom one too many times and after siding with my mom in the divorce, i'm scared that he hates me. he's not abusive or mean or anything, actually. in fact, i love my dad. but i'm so scared that he doesn't want to see me anymore. especially after i literally ran when he saw me at the grocery store five years ago. he hates me. i just know it.."

you watch as sunghoon gives you a very judging look. "really?"

"what?"

"y/n.. what's not to like about you being his daughter? i'm sure this is all just a misunderstanding. you know what? you're gonna go see him. now." sunghoon instantly starts packing some stuff in a bag and running to get the car keys that you had just threw on the ground a while ago. "wait! wait.. can you come with me then?" sunghoon's grin slowly changes into a terrified facial expression.

"me? meet your father?" a few seconds later, and jay comes walking down the stairs. "so yall done now?" the blushing looks of both your faces was enough to make jay chuckle.

"how long were you there?"

"long enough to say finally. come on. pack up. i'll drive us over to your dad's house. in fact, sunoo texted me that he has a cold but sunoo has to stay at work. so we're gonna go there and take care of him."

--------------------

the loud sound of your heartbeat echoed in your chest, all the way up to your ears that you could barely hear anything around you. as you waited at the doorstep of what you've been told was where your dad lived, sunghoon holds your hand tightly. jay chuckles behind the two of you when he sees the two of your shoulders tighten at the sound of footsteps getting closer.

"who is it?," as the door opens, your eyes widen. you curse at yourself just imagining how stupid you must look. "y/n."

"dad?"

"uhh... come on in." your dad clears his throat and moves out the way. hesitant, but you enter, taking in the view of the house. when you're suddenly pulled back into a hug, who you assume was sunghoon, or jay, was the very father you believe hated you. "dad.."

"y/n. i am so happy to see you here. i really am."

tears rose up as you wrapped your arms around him.

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10 months later and today was the day of the beijing winter olympics. you're in the crowd, cheering for park sunghoon, your boyfriend, right next to all the boys and your father sitting next to you. hearing the crowd chanting your boyfriend's name made you feel proud. you glance over at jake who was it obvious he was staring. and for once, you had the power to stop looking. not like all those years. and for once, you're looking at someone who loves you as much as you love them. you join in with your fans.

"park sunghoon! park sunghoon! park sunghoon!"

you watched as the scores to his short and free add up. his ranking going from 4th to 2nd and a point away from 1st to "park sunghoon! 1st place for the beijing winter olympics! congratulations!!" the last thing you remember is screaming and the place going wild.

--------------------

the after party was as good as it gets. a little bit fancier than what you and your boys are used to. but they offered coffee ice cream, sunghoon's favorite. but now that you were back home, you were able to grill steak outside and hold a little after party amongst yourselves.

once everybody left, you and sunghoon find your way outside again with a bottle of wine and glasses. "sunghoon.. congratulations."

"i won it for you."

"what do you mean?"

"do you remember when we first met? and you told how amazing it'd be if i won 1st place at the olympics.. that you'd grant me a wish," you blink, reminiscing the moment, slowly nodding. "well, i was going to wish for you to give me a chance. but since that's already happened.." you watched as he cleared his throat and started to bend down on one knee. you gasped, seeing the box in his hands.

"oh my god. sunghoon." your hands covering your mouth in shock. "y/n.. for as long as i've known you, i have spent every second liking you and loving you. i overthought every single detail. but now that it comes to this, i thought as long as i'm the one down on one knee and you're the one in front of me, where i do it, how i do it, when i do it.. it shouldn't matter. i love you, y/n. will you be the one watching me from the stands at competitions as long as i shall skate? and will you let me be the one to love you from now and forever? marry me?"

"yes.. yes! oh my.. hoon yes!" the next thing you know, people surrounding you in hollers. "you guys didn't go home yet?" sunghoon's confused look makes everyone laugh. "after making it that obvious you were proposing? hell no." sunoo says.

"well.. can we have our moment before you ruin it even more?" you say as the boys crowd your romantic moment. they all start mumbling apologies, giving you two space. "anyway... where were we?" you smile as he wraps his arms around your waist.

"i believe we were about to kiss."

"i believe you said yes..

"i sure did.. i love you."

"and i love you, my love.."

#gureumcity #enhypen #engene #sunghoon #jake #park sunghoon #sim jaeyun #enhypen oneshots #sunghoon oneshots #enhypen imagines #sunghoon imagines

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merrilark · 4 months

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I don't want to sound like I'm hating on something before it's even had a chance to be released, but if the news is true, there's something a little amusing about the LA!A:TLA show supposedly watering down Sokka's arc because his sexism in the OG show "was iffy". A:TLA, the show with one of the most widely loved redemption arcs... The show most people think of when they think "well-written redemption arc"...

Like... are we going to water down Zuko, then, too? Or does he get a pass at being crappy because he's a "villain", while Sokka, a "hero", isn't allowed to be a little dislikable?

I'm too zonked today to put my thoughts together eloquently, sorry, but something about only allowing "bad" characters the room to do bad things and expecting them to grow, while assuming "good" characters must always be good and never make mistakes because duh, they're the GOOD guys seems... really ironic for a show that constantly pushed the thought that there is good and evil in everything, and what might look like acts of heroism to one person may look like acts of villainy to another. Villains will often see themselves as the heroes of their own story because they're doing what they believe is right according to their environment or circumstance. No one is perfect and everyone has the capability to evolve and change for the better (or the worst). Etc. etc.

Obviously Sokka's sexism is nothing compared to the harm Zuko does, but that makes the possible watering down of Sokka's arc worse, in my opinion. It creates this idea that badness is exclusive to identifiably "bad" people and that "good" people will always be right and just, and are above being influenced into bad ideas or beliefs. But that's just not true! Zuko and Sokka are both products of the places they came from, the culture they grew up in, and the trauma they endured. Sokka grew up in a tribe that had at least some heavy focus on traditional gender roles, enough that all the men were expected to go to war and the boys, like Sokka, left to defend the tribe. Being the oldest boy and carrying around the horror of losing his mother and potentially his father to the threat of the conquesting Fire Nation, it's no wonder Sokka carries some sexist notions. He's a young teen who feels he has to shoulder the weight of protecting the entire Southern Water Tribe alone. I'm shocked he's not more sexist, actually, because it's also a matter of pride, duty, and promise for him to protect the women and children around him. It makes just as much sense that he would believe in the rigidity of gender roles as much as Zuko, also a teen, also burdened by the weight his father placed on him, believes that his quest for finding the Avatar is important. Honor is important to both of them, because it's really all either of them has or have known.

But even if Sokka's sexism wasn't rooted in something as dramatic as his mother dying in a Fire Nation attack or all the other men going off to war, getting to see him grow through his experiences with Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors is so satisfying despite how quick it is. It's fun to see characters like Sokka get a little humbled, it's fun to see them change and grow and become more likable, because that's real.

Anyway. That's a lot of words for really just trying to say that I think "good" characters should be allowed flaws just like "bad" characters, because in the end, everyone is a person and what is A:TLA about if not the power of nuture vs. nature, and the ability to choose your own path?

#again too early to say. might be judging too quickly but that made me grimace.#sokka isn't even that bad in the og! i feel like if you watered him down more he'd just not be sexist at all lol #why must heroes be perfect? let them be jerks. let me dislike them.#media criticism #media criticism for ts #media crit for ts #merri grumbles

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explosionshark · 6 months

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I am sorry for venting here but I watched the Buffy episode Into the Woods like an hour ago and I am still sat here in dismay I think it's the worst episode of the show so far, there may be episodes technically worse but none have triggered such a visceral reaction as the slowly dawning realisation that the show does actually think Riley is the one in the right (or at least that Buffy is the one who is more in the wrong) and Buffy should have just immediately forgiven him for cheating on her with vampires I think it was that incredibly awkwardly written Xander scene (I honestly thought he'd been replaced by some kind of doppelganger) towards the end that broke me. I thought the decision to have Riley cheat on her while Joyce was suffering from Brain Cancer was wild and audacious but I had no idea it would get this bad.

Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely a low point.

i'm not particularly a riley fan (I have yet to personally really meet any) but him effectively cheating on her while Joyce is ill and dying is basically a scenario crafted in a lab to turn the audience against him, right? like how much more wrong can you be in a situation? so the pivot to scolding buffy for dumping him and shaming her into trying to get him back is insane. ESPECIALLY having all this come from XANDER of all people.

it's kind of a shame bc i think there's some really interesting stuff going on in the buffy/riley s5 storyline. i love putting buffy's flaws under a microscope - the way she closes herself off, the way she chooses not to share her burdens, the fact that she's so overwhelmed that she does legitimately and painfully withdraw from riley is interesting to me. buffy struggling to balance her many responsibilities in that season (her mom, dawn, school, her calling, her relationship) and FAILING at some of them is very compelling! and i think it's also really interesting commentary on sexism - riley feeling emasculated by their power differential and how that's suddenly a bigger issue now that he's not a juiced on evil army demon drugs is interesting. riley's resentment and sense of entitlement over buffy keeping him at arm's length while she's overwhelmed is interesting. the cheating/blood den angle is dark and fucked up and makes an interesting counterpoint to spike's increasingly intense pursuit of buffy. but ultimately i think the story of the 'good guy' who swore he'd be patient and be what buffy needed hurting her badly because she wasn't able to do things on his timetable is surprisingly mature, especially compared to buffy's usual romantic dramas.

too bad into the woods happens and the character who represents her metaphorical heart gets to bash her over the head with how much she should feel bad over making a guy cheat on her. a lot. while she was distracted by her mom dying. this is probably all because she had a crummy boyfriend in high school, right?

UGH it sucks, for sure.

#replies #badwolfwho1 #sorry sorry sorry ive been getting your asks and loving them just. doing very poorly at ask answering recently #as always love to sublet my blog to your buffy watchthrough

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thecoramaria · 1 month

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I would like to ask your opinion on what might constitute a mature rating in ao3 that isn’t necessarily more extreme instances of violence/sexual references (compared to teen).

My example is I would like to write a “descent into madness” arc but I’m unsure where it falls on the scale. I sense that the worst of the depiction will be extremely harmful words to others and mild injury from disorientation.

I would first ask myself "If a 13-year-old asked me if it would be okay to read this, what would I say?" If the answer is no, its going under Mature rather than Teen and Up Audiences. You might be fine with a 16-year-old reading it, but there are teens younger than them, after all. Now, however you answer that question isn't the end of it. You might not even know what to answer. The thing is that ratings aren't just about mature subject matter or how "graphically" they're depicted, but the level of maturity/life experience you as the author would expect from the reader for them to understand the story.

A story can have not even the mention of violence, swearing, sex, and the like, and still warrant an M rating, because it's written in such a way that only someone with a certain level of reading comprehension or understanding of the world/subject matter would get. For example, if you were writing a story about office politics and drama with all these underhanded comments and such, that would still be rated as mature, because a teenager would be unlikely to have the life experience to fully understand the sheer anxiety of reading a sentence like "As per my last several emails," and even if they do, it's less likely to engage them because it doesn't resemble what their own life looks like at that point. Does that make sense? If you rate that kind of story as 'Teen and Up Audiences' because it as no age-inappropriate content, the teens who see or read it are still going to be unhappy because it doesn't relate to them, and adults may skip over it because they think it's an "immature" interpretation of their experiences.

For a "downward spiral" arc (I'm using this instead of "descent into madness" because I think it's a less ableist term), those have been done in kid's media before, with Azula from ATLA as a pretty famous one, but it also wasn't the centre of the story. ATLA's target audience is also younger than teens as well. The thing is though, the watcher can still enjoy ATLA whether they sympathise with Azula or not, since they have other characters to be invested in and root for, and they can always come to understand her nuances better as they grow older.

If Azula's downward spiral was the main storyline though, it would have to be marked as being for older audiences, because seeing the protagonist -the character you as the reader are likely to be the most attached to- go through these difficult emotions and reach a point of no return is going to be an emotionally and morally challenging read. You'd expect your audience to have a certain level of maturity where they're able to understand where the character is coming from but also how their downfall is also, at least partially, their own doing. If you're using this story to raise questions, you'd expect the readers to be able to sit with and think about them rather than demanding answers. However much of that maturity you expect from your readers will ultimately decide if your story should be rated 'Mature' or lower. Well, this answer got away from me. I hope it all makes sense! Def typed this up through a raging headache lol

#also i hope it doesn't sound like i think teens are 'stupid' or anything #teens deserve stories and media that appeal to them but also treat them with respect and challenge them to read further #it's just that no one is born with reading comprehension you know?#and hell sometimes teens CAN read stories that were designed for adult reading comprehension and understand it very well #cora's ask box

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veliseraptor · 1 year

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December Reading Recap

I thought about trying to do some kind of 2022 reading summation/best of/worst of/whatever and I might still do that but right now I'm just going "too many booksahhh" so I'm just going to keep on going with month two of my "here's what I read this month" short reviews.

I read a lot this month, but unfortunately it involved several books that missed for me (but a few that I really enjoyed).

The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: vol. 1 by Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat (Seven Seas Translation). I mean, as usual, even without knowing the actual quality of the translation as a translation I am still pining for a professional translator. And yet I'm still reading, because this is the way I have to read the thing as translated by an actual human, and I am enjoying it. This time around I am falling much more in love with Chu Wanning than I did the first time around when I was laser focused on Mo Ran as more nakedly ~my type~ but boy!! *pats Chu Wanning* this man can fit soooo many issues in him.

Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang. I feel like my relationship status with R.F. Kuang's writing should just be listed as "it's complicated" because I don't even know how I feel about this book, really. It's conceptually fascinating, it's doing so many cool things, the way she chose to end it is very bold and I respect the hell out of it, and something still just didn't quite...click for me in the way that I wanted it to.

I think it was that it felt a little heavy-handed with its metaphors. Which is fine, to be sure, and making your imperialism metaphors specifically about language and translation isn't something I've seen somebody do a lot with in fiction, but...yeah. I'm calling this one less a fault of the book and more a fault of the me, though; it definitely feels like a your mileage may vary situation.

Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke. I picked this up on a whim and it wasn't worth it. The book was very taken with its own cleverness; I was not.

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides. This was another one where the summary/description was more interesting than the actual book turned out being, which was, while readable and I was intrigued enough by the mystery to power through it pretty fast, underwhelming overall.

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots. Some people (me) keep picking up retellings despite at this point knowing better; other people (me) keep picking up superhero-comics-inspired books despite at this point knowing better, only this time I was actually surprised by how much I liked it. It was legitimately a good story! And you know I'm always going to be a sucker for a story that takes the villain's side.

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield. I have the creeping feeling that this book was too sophisticated for me and I would have liked it more if I was more sophisticated, which is an unpleasant feeling to have.

I wanted more deep sea horror from it than I got - not in the sense of ~creatures and tentacles~ or anything, but this was far more a book about grief and loss than it was horror, and it was billed to me as the latter, so I came in from the wrong direction and was a little disappointed. It was a good book, though, and beautifully written.

Everything I Need I Get From You by Kaitlyn Tiffany. Had I known that the title of this book was from a One Direction song (I didn't) I might have anticipated more how much it was about bandom and therefore less relevant to my interests. It was also lighter on the analysis than I expected/wanted, so ultimately this one was a disappointment too.

Beowulf trans. by Maria Dahvana Headley. This is the first translation of Beowulf I have ever actually read (!) and after reading it I kind of wished that I'd read at least one other translation to compare it to. But a lot of the things she was doing with alliteration and assonance and rhythm in the language were just spectacular. And it gave me the chance to read this one (by this translator) coupled with:

The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley. Adding this to my "books to read in pairs" list alongside the Song of Achilles / Silence of the Girls dyad. It's been sitting on my shelf for a while now, and I finally got around to it as spurred by reading the original Beowulf text, and...whoa. I'm going to be thinking about this one for a while and I want other people I know to read it so I can bounce off their thoughts about it. If you haven't heard of it: this was billed as a retelling (I know) of the Beowulf story set in a gated community but I feel like the fact that it's based on Beowulf is almost beside the point in some ways, and in other ways it's very much in conversation with that text and lives alongside it and maybe a little in argument with it.

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: vol. 4 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (Seven Seas Translation). I feel a little bad about how my reaction to this volume was a little bit "this was mostly a lot of Wangxian stuff so I was less excited about it" but there you go.

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo. I have to say, I read The Chosen and the Beautiful when it came out and was a little underwhelmed, but the synopsis for this one sounded interesting, and people kept raving about it, so I decided to give it a go, and I liked this one both (a) much better than The Chosen and the Beautiful and (b) just as a book without comparison needed. It also made me want to dig more into early film history. The way that this book is in love with (in a way) early film is also a delight to read, and while I can't call it subtle, it's eerie and beautiful in a way that really worked for me.

The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp. I read a lot of horror despite the fact that I end up underwhelmed by the vast majority of it. I was slightly less underwhelmed by this one than I expected to be, but that is, as you might note, not exactly an endorsement. Part of the problem was that I found the main narrator just too fucking hateable in a very specific way to feel anything about his suffering but vague, detached interest in where it was going to go.

Heaven Official's Blessing: vol. 5 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (Seven Seas Translation). I just love this book so much and everything about the reading experience is difficult to judge in an objective way because my brain just kind of goes "look at them go! look at these little dudes go! they're so funny :)" in a very empty-headed sort of way.

This volume does sort of fall between my favorite bits, though (after end of Black Water Arc, before the Hua Cheng's Sculpture Gallery), so while it started digging into some of the Crown Prince of Wuyong lore it didn't quite hit the parts that are juiciest for me.

The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett. This book made me so mad about public health policy. Like, so mad. I'm mad about it periodically anyway but this just made it worse. It's really good, very comprehensive overview of some of the emerging diseases since 1950, including Lassa, Ebola, antibiotic resistance, HIV/AIDS, and others. It's long, and definitely a rough read if you've got any kind of disease phobia (she isn't...gruesome about the clinical descriptions but she also isn't mincing words), but worth a read if you feel like you can do it and are interested in epidemiology.

There's definitely outdated terminology and some bits that made me squint about the book's politics, but overall the author's clear message of the need for holistic health policies for everybody mitigated a lot of those concerns (particularly the way the author repeatedly underlined the links between poverty and deprivation and vulnerability to illness, and the vitality of giving people a way out of that situation as part of public health policy.

The Bone Orchard by Sara Mueller. The last book I read in 2022! I'm so fascinated by everything this book was doing. There was some very interesting world-building under the skin of what was really mostly a mystery with a side of politics. And I say that favorably. Ultimately I'm not sure that it'd make my favorite books of the year list, but I'd give it a casual recommendation; that is, if someone was eyeing it to read I'd say it was worth picking up.

I'm currently reading Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism by Michelle Goldberg, which was published in 2007 (during the Bush years) and I can already tell reading it now is going to be an experience.

#sometimes i read things #reading recaps #man i read a lot in december #i guess that's what i was doing instead of writing

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bastigod · 10 months

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Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love ❤

My brain is a sieve so I forgot I got tagged in this 🤫 ty @pancake-surprise for tagging me. (Please check out their fics!!)

1. my love, take your time - sakuatsu - au, angst w/ happy ending, literally anything else i can say about this is SPOILERS and no spoilers are allowed for this fic

There was something sublime about wandering around an empty museum. Nothing could compare to the sound of his shoes clacking against the marble floor, the morning sunlight gently streaming through the lofty windows and the peaceful solitude of ancient stone kings overseeing their silent kingdoms. A day in the life of Doctor Kiyoomi Sakusa, Archaeologist.

2. cheesecake - sunaosa - canonverse, slice of life, friends to lovers, the original trans suna 😎

“Cheesecake. Why cheesecake of all things?”"It just reminds me of ya.” A treasured family recipe featuring Miya Osamu and the too-scrawny, too-tall boy he fell in love with.

2.5. cheesecake (illustrated) - art done by @newttxt - a birthday gift from my twin 🤍

3. look at the sky (i'm still here) - miya twins & sunaosa - osamu character study, one of my favorite bookmarks on it is "Do you love Miya Osamu???! I won’t believe you until you read this fic!!!!"

"We gotta expect the worst.""You've got my back?""Always." Miya Osamu and the promise, the love, and the hope that built him.

4. phantom - sunaosa - college au, friends to lovers, life + college + trans angst but with a happy comforting ending

"Just wanted to see ya relax a lil.” “Relax? Why?” “You’ve seemed a bit… ah… stressed out lately.” Somewhere amidst the ever-growing pile of assignments and the bitter taste of dissatisfaction, Rintarou loses sight of who he is. This is how he pieces it back together.

5. night shift - sunaosa - spiderman au, the ol' homoerotic patching wounds trope, terrible puns (as any spiderman au should have)

Osamu’s favorite customer of the graveyard shift stopped by around 5:00 AM, right as the indigo black of the night began shifting into violet dawn. He’d stumble in, not out of drunkenness but exhaustion, slump into one of the red vinyl bar stools, and pillow his head on the counter.

i've published 49 fics thus far, so this is always a hard choice. I'm gonna go with these~

You can check out the rest of my ao3 here. If you love miya osamu, aspec characters, trans people who are just livin their lives, and idiots who may also be in love, maybe you'll like the rest of my fics :D

#sunaosa #hq #haikyuu #miya osamu #suna rintarou

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titleknown · 7 months

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HELLOWEEN #6: ANATAXIA

-Anattaxia is a Grand Wrecker of Hell with 4000 ruins and 50 blunt instruments to her name. She may be summoned for acts of demolition; consentual and otherwise, to bring injury and ill co-ordination to one's foes, and induce acts of defenestration within 500 acres of the summoning area.

She appears as a horrid imp with the wings of a dragon-fly and the horns of a goat. It is not advised that the summoner complete the conjuration in their own home, for the structure in which she is summoned will be destroyed upon the instant of her manifestation.-

In the realms of hell, while there are few hard and fast rules of hiearchy until the moment one desires to use the law-as-written as a weapon against one's rivals, one of the most consistent hiearchies is those deemed as "imps" being at the bottom of the social order.

Consigned to the roles of servants, couriers, maintainers, disposable spies, gunsels in both senses, and otherwise maltreated professions, an imp's life in Hell is to be used as a treasured footrest at best and a disposable stepping-stool at worst.

But, Annataxia occupies an unusual position in her hierarchy in that she represents a physical threat. A quite formidable one too, manic in her disposition and requiring some... negotiation to avoid having my pages ripped out.

She is a legbreaker for those debts unpaid and for those peers one wants to disappear in "unfortunate accidents" along with the adjacent three floors of the spires they currently occupy.

It has gotten her far, a position at the top of the bottom rungs, and her desire for violence is almost admirable in its simple purity so I suppose she enjoys her labors.

But, I suspect there may be a ring of tragedy to her origins, as inspecting the records of hell (At no small expense of bribery and... aggressive persuasion may I add) shows her origin comes from a lineage of crafter-imps, sent to do delicate repair and creation of fineries for hell, and the wild imprecision that characterizes her violence may be due less to desire than to a bodily condition that prevents her from doing so.

I have said she enjoys her labors, and this indeed appears to be so, and her position in hell here is higher than that of those crafters, but I hypothesize she had to get there from being ejected to the very bottom, clawing her way back up through violence I cannot even concieve.

Certainly, she appears sorrowful of what she could never have. In the rubble she calls her abode, I saw several attempted fineries, imperfect from what I saw of their construction, but beautiful in their own ways. They were the only things unbroken in that entire place.

I, of course, did not speak to her of this. As I feared my own breaking within our conversation...

-Xavier X. Xolomon , Monsterologist and Understudy to The Librarian Of Babel

———————————-

So, I wanted to make a design inspired by the "wretched imp" archetype, and also to focus more on expressive faces since at least one friend has said my photomanips tend to lack them. I probably spent the most time on her face out of all the parts of her design.

Though the tragic angle actually came from the name, originally she was just going to be straight-up manic and destructive for fun. It flitted to mind from a Will Wood song's brief mention, I looked up the meaning, and the story came from there.

I think it fits with the theme. When I compared Hell to the USA in which I live, I of course include the horrible ableism, given how many people I know impacted by such...

As per usual the whole descriptions, designs, ectcetera from this project are free to use as you see fit under a CC-BY 4.0 license so long as I; Thomas F. Johnson, am credited as their creator!

#my art #my writing #demon #demon girl #imp #creature design #photomanipulation #helloween

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aro-culture-is · 1 year

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Hi! So I think I might be aro? It's...honestly very confusing as I've also recently found out I'm ace

I've been in a romantic relationship before but it was a very bad one and as such I cannot tell if my general dislike, so to speak, of romance is simply a phase caused by my ex. However this was two years ago now.

I'm someone who heavily craves attention and love in general due to my bad childhood, making it even more difficult to tell if it's romance or it's my constant need to be *with* someone.

When it comes to media, I will mainly refuse to watch/read/listen to anything that focuses on romance. If it's a side-plot that's well written (I write myself so as such I'm biased) I will accept it. The Magnus Archives is, as such an example of this.

For songs I do the same except in specific situations where I can either relate to them (the anger and hatred for someone you once loved in some way hurting you), if it's meant to be read as romance but you can clearly see something else or the instrumental absolutely slaps.

I feel like it's important to mention that I'm currently in a qpr, but am seemingly crushing on a girl I know that isn't my partner. Seemingly because I don't think it's romantic crush, perhaps a squish or even alterous attraction. All I know is that I want to get close to her.

Back to media and the fact I write: I like writing romance myself, presumably because it's people being close, I'm not sure.

All these factors cause me to go back and forth, and the worst part is that saying I'm on the aro spectrum does feel right, in some way. Perhaps a micro label, maybe greyromantic, demiaro, idk

For the record I've always struggled to understand my romantic and sexual attraction, I've gone through a massive amount of labels in a few years time and every time I'm scared it's just for attention.

honestly, a lot of this relates to attitudes towards romance. while aromantic people are more likely than alloromantic people to have negative attitudes towards romance, it's like how a square is a type of rectangle, but a rectangle isn't a type of square.

i know it isn't super helpful but - if you think you've never, or infrequently compared to your peers, had romantic attraction to others... you're probably aro (or at least aro-spec). how you define romantic attraction is unfortunately a personal experience - your cultural background and personal ideas of an 'ideal' romantic partner aren't something i'm comfortable guessing and comparing to mine.

i will note, however - people who really struggle to identify attraction seem, from personal experience, to be more likely than average to later identify as a-spec. it's easy to feel confused about what a turtle is if you have no personal experience with it, and have to guess based on what others describe them as (replace turtles with attraction for the metaphor, for those who may struggle with metaphorical language).

I hope this helps at least somewhat.

#Anonymous #not aro culture #aro #aromantic #actually aro #actually aromantic #ask #mod phoenix #am i aro

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adultswim2021 · 2 months

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Space Ghost Weekend (part 1)

Or should it be “weakened”?

Hey gang, welcome to Space Ghost Weekend. In this special installment, I’m covering several episodes of the Space Ghost Coast to Coast “GameTap” episodes. I unfortunately am bound by the same limitations as most everyone else on the planet, so I will not be watching the lost episodes. I will touch on them by quickly googling the guest and saying something about them that’s a little too abrasive to be funny.

I’ve watched the first two, and the original plan was for me to cover two episodes per post. After watching these two episodes I was inspired to, instead, cover the first “season” of Gametap episodes in one post and the second in another.

Also: I meant to post this last night, so we'll just have two posts in a row.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast #89: "Billy" | May 30, 2006 | S08E01

Space Ghost interviews noted wad Billy Mitchell, the jerkoff who pretends to be good at video games. He comes off like an arrogant prick and the whole thing feels like it’s being written by a Space Ghost fan-fiction writer. Who did write these, anyway? I’m vaguely aware that these were probably handled by a different team, but I can’t find credits for these anywhere. For some reason the line “Take it from me, Billy. It’s lonely at the top.” just sounds like placeholder dialogue for George Lowe to riff something funnier over, but doesn't. Space Ghost did have one line where he says “his parents must be brimming with pride” that comes within spitting distance of a George Lowe riff, but he was probably in a room with some interloper directing him, so nothing came out right. At least, that’s how it all feels.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast #90: "Rand" | June 13, 2006 | S08E02

Space Ghost talks to Rand Miller, the creator of Myst, I assume. Could be I missed it, but at no point did I register Space Ghost saying “Rand Miller, the creator of Myst” or something like that. He just starts carrying on about visiting Myst island in a comical way that would suggest he’s speaking to the creator of it. I’m guessing the now defunct synopses of each episode did that particular heavy lifting for this one, making this feel less like an episode of a TV show and more like a video clip produced for Rand Miller, the creator of Myst’s birthday party.

Did the Myst guy work on the video effects for this show? That might explain why these guys look like they are inside one of the Myst books.

Line of the episode: “I gotta talk to this hump”. I’m glad these aren’t overly reverent of the guests. That’s one thing these got right.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast #91: "Kenny" | July 4, 2006 | S08E03

This could be the worst one. Kenny Wayne Shepherd, a person with whom I am completely unfamiliar with, is interviewed by Space Ghost. Space Ghost uses embarrassing slang the entire time. It’s very written-sounding and the one joke doesn’t land at any point during the short running time. I feel like when you didn’t know the guest on Space Ghost they’d at least clue you in a little bit by saying who they are so you could look into it.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast #92: "Al" | October 10, 2006 | S08E04

Okay, so something I never realized until now, which might be instructive to those looking to watch these: The first three episodes are HORRIBLE, but starting with this one they get significantly better. Nowhere near the old magic of the old show, but ALMOST PASSABLE. The video quality is better on these, for one. The guests actually look like they’re supposed to on the monitor. It still feels shoddy compared to even season one. The production values that are lacking are things like being able to use library music, and the audio doesn’t sound like it’s recorded on anything professional. The writing gets a little better, too. Again, still not as good as the real show.

Also: MOLTAR is in this! And Zorak has lines! Zorak was previously shown to get blown-up but doesn’t speak or even scream. This one has a cold open. The episode has the guy who invented Pong. Episodes so far have simply ended with “Interrupt Feed”, and this one’s no different.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast #93: "Steve" | Januay 23, 2007 | S08E05

This one has Steve Wozniak. There’s actually a little bit of a plot in these episodes; Zorak is looking to buy a weapon and Moltar peruses a fake eBay site. They actually drew new assets for this. Zorak winds up with a brain canon which launches his brain out of his own head, pathetically. The last image of the episode is of Zorak, looking r-worded. This was the first legitimate laugh these episodes got from me. Most of it was fairly unmemorable, though.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast #94: "Rob" | February 28, 2007 | S08E06

A cold open? In the commissary!? Space Ghost has a dead cat in a carrier, and is distraught. I Forget who the guy is in this. I think he’s the one I looked up and went “oh, this is the Night Trap guy”. I hope it was accurate of me to call him the “Night Trap guy”.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast #95: "Howard" | March 17, 2007 | S08E07

Space Ghost thinks the guest is Willard Scott. There’s an unfunny bit with a big fly. He looks bad! He’s voiced by someone whose vaguely recognizable. Sorta sounds like Dr. Grumbles from the Brak Show episode Hippo. Note how weird it sounds when George says “the buuug zapper ray”. Not only is the delivery strange, but the sound recording just sounds poor, like they spent $50 at best buy for the sound equipment. I did like the “no whammies” bit, but I’m wondering if they already did that joke somewhere on the show.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast #96: "Wayne" | April 21, 2007 | S08E08

The idiot from the Flaming Lips is interviewed. The little sitcom plot of this one is that Space Ghost has the commissary chef replaced with Moltar, and Moltar taunts Zorak with recipes for cooking up Mantis. The Space Ghost crew sing a version of that “do you realize” song at Wayne, which is almost funny. There were some fun drawings in this, and there was a part where Zorak looked really off-model. I think it was taken from a 60s episode. He looks just nuts. The only laugh of the episode.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast #97: "Larry" (lost) | May 24, 2007 | S08E09

I am simply sorry to disappoint you, but this is the first missing episode of the GameTap era. Sorta weird that this should be a thing. Even though I’ve been less-than-kind to this era, I would love to see this recovered, obviously. They interview Larry Hunter. There’s almost zero chance I’ll figure out who this even is. I even tried to look at the GameTap website through archive.org and clicked around and maybe it’s because of missing flash assets or something, but how the fuck did people even watch these things? I couldn’t even begin to figure out where these were on the website.

Later we'll cover the rest of the episodes! How about that! And then after that we’ll continue with 2010, and I will strongly consider adopting a pithy one-paragraph format for the rest of the blog.

#space ghost coast to coast #adult swim #adultswim2021

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nekropsii · 1 year

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on a scale of 1-10 how much better/worse would you say the patrons are compared to the og dancestors? Like, would you say sov!cronus is a better or worse person than hs cronus? Etc. 10 being better 1 being worse and 5 being exactly the same

Ehh... That's hard to quantify on a numerical scale. I'd generally argue that they're substantially better/more tolerable, due to the fact that they don't have a billion years worth of postmortem brain rot, and aren't written by Hussie at a mental nadir. Some of their actions are worse, though, comparatively speaking, though they may be easier to stomach considering it won't be an incessant bullet hell-esque barrage as it is in canon. I say this with (somewhat unrecommended) love- we see the Alpha Trolls in such extremes because they had little to no screentime, and Hussie tends to introduce characters in exaggerated forms.

I can work with the Cronus example here. One could argue that Cronus is easier to stomach in Sovereignstuck than he is in canon, due to the facts that:

He's given significantly more screentime, which means more buffers between distasteful actions and more characterization, and...

He's smarter about how he goes about being, as Hussie puts it, The Worst, and is a lot more underhanded about it because he knows he won't get away with doing things full force and in public. His behavior in canon is brazen, unapologetic, and unhinged, and while he still has sprinklings of that in his character, it's nowhere near to the same extent- there's no reason why he would be as immediately severe as he is in canon.

We go all in on the mythological parallels. I find that oftentimes, when people have symbolism or parallels to chew on, things get a little easier to stomach. The ability to analyze why and how a character is the way they are, and why they're written the way they are really works wonders for the ability to withstand the things on screen. It stops being abuse porn, and starts being genuine story with some real drive behind it. Needless suffering is always hard to digest... But suffering with intention? That becomes intrigue. That is called conflict.

You could also argue that he's harder to stomach, because...

He's given significantly more screentime, which means more time to let the genuine gravity of his presence and actions sink in, and...

He's smarter about how he goes about being The Worst. For a lot of people, the ability to be conniving- or even just plain old stealthy- makes things scarier and more indefensible. It speaks to intention, and to knowing that the actions committed are wrong- or at least worthy of hiding. This is notably a canon feature- Cronus of Homestuck proper knows what he is doing, he knows it is wrong, and he does it anyways. We decided to keep this trait, because it is a remarkably unusual one for a person to have. And...

We go all in on the mythological parallels. If you're aware of the concept of Mituna's Myth of Cassandra and the role Cronus plays in it, you know what that means. We happen to handle it significantly more directly and with significantly more tact. Handling that kind of topic with care means stripping it of any levity. We also delve into how he ties into his namesake, because absolutely nobody else is doing that, and it makes me so angry. The missed potential... That's a rant for another day, though.

Yes, these are copy pasted on purpose. It really depends on your own personal perspective. It's a double edged sword in that way.

We try not to make him totally miserable to read, and especially not miserable to write- that would be self defeating. He serves more as a case study in the effects of extreme entitlement and toxic masculinity commingling, than Hussie's approach of... Creating a psyop, essentially. He's still going to provide ample discomfort no matter what. That's just the kind of conflict he brings to the story, mechanically speaking- there's no way to avoid that. Avoiding it would be cowardice.

If you're particularly interested in how we handle certain Patrons in comparison to their Beforan counterparts, I'm more than willing to throw some words your direction regarding that. The Alpha Trolls are fascinating in their level of mishandling, and most seem to fumble when reinterpreting them... More often than not, a lot of their edge is removed, and they become unrecognizable. Their roles and personalities are often made nebulous- more aesthetic archetypes than they are characters. Skins to place new personalities into, rather than their own defined person. At the very least, we get the mercy of the Reincarnation mechanic. Fundamentally different people, fundamentally different setting, backstory, et cetera... But we're unconditionally opposed to the idea of stripping their most intriguing traits from them for the sake of digestibility, so... Be prepared for that at least, lol.

#pretentious ramblings Over #tldr it depends on your perspective #sovereignstuck #homestuck #homestuck fanventure #mspfa #alpha trolls #beforan trolls #dancestors #cronus ampora #sov!cronus ampora #sovereignstuck.pdf #sov!cronus.pdf #nekro.pdf #nekro.sms

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linkspooky · 1 year

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“Shoko is once again an interesting character who could add to the dynamic by being incredibly frank and up front about her feelings, and also the fact she thinks two boys who think very highly of themselves ain't shit, but she's just kind of unterutilized.”

Man, if that’s isn’t a common pattern with all the female characters in jjk…

Like I know shonen isn’t that well known for their great female characters’ writing, in fact the only one I can think where all the female characters are well written and have importance is Fullmetal Alchemists, and the author is a woman.

I do heard that Bleach have great female characters, but I haven’t watched/read it so I can’t judge.

Anyway, I’m so disappointed with how Gege is treating the female cast as of late. Like jjk has such good promise during the Kyoto vs Tokyo arc. With the set up of how Nobara’s is being unsympathetic with her black and white thinking. The set up between the nuanced conflict between Mai and Maki! The set up with Miwa on how a normal person would basically be like in the jujutsu world. And they aren’t sexualized! A rarity in shonen!

However, so far only Miwa seems to have a fully fleshed out arc. Like despite her limited screen time, Miwa have went through so much lost and we get to see her thoughts and regrets as a result. We even she her resolve near the end of Shibuya on how she will give it her all!

Compare that to the others… Well Mai’s death personally left a bad taste in my mouth, since not only I found the twins explanation to be terrible but it ruins the whole conflict by having it be simplified in like the worst way possible. “Oh yeah, the reason why you’re not as strong, Maki, is because my coping of the trauma was apparently a bad thing. And my whole existence was the whole reason why you‘lol be forever half-assed, so I’m gonna die now.”

Like… I’m sorry… What?! Talk about victim blaming. Like Mai is actually really interesting, and can be utilized waaaay better than what the manga did. Is the nuanced conflict of the twins reacting/coping with their abuse differently, as two separate people not compelling??? Is the notion of no such thing as a bad victim nor good victim, not the whole point of Maki and Mai??? The twin taboo explanation just spit on the face of all of that!

And also… plot hole much? “In the Jujitsu world, cruse energy treat twins as one”, umm… what about Nanako and Mimiko? Both have vastly different curse techniques! What, are you gonna say that they don’t count since they are a different type of twins? Or like they were never twins?

Not only that, but Nobara is currently MIA, and like… even if she does come back… what’s her personal character arc gonna be about? Since Mai is dead, no one is really going to really challenge her limited world view now. I mean… I suppose there’s Momo, but like… I can’t really see that.

For Maki… I dunno, man. I’m currently on the fence with her current arc. Like, okay… it is very tragic that she wasn’t able to reconcile with Mai on time, and her snapping is a very dark turn for her. But like… the last time we say her, see seems… to be mostly fine? Well, maybe “fine” isn’t the right word… Maki is just… going through the motions? Like… we haven’t seen any negative consequences of her trauma at all yet. And the framing of the manga make it seems like she’s in a positive arc, which I’m not really a fan of.

And now Yuji is gonna be under utilized too, with the current chapter and all…

Ugh. Hopefully they would at least do Maki and Miwa more justice in the future, but I’m keeping my expectations low now.

This is a long post so rather than replying to every single thing you said, I'm going to try to build off what you say for a discussion.

So I've said before in previous asks that while the female characters in Jujutsu Kaisen are kind of all the same type of female character they're all very brash, tough as nails women they are at least three dimensional characters, they have personality and personality flaws.

I think people tend to view characters as entities separate from the work they are a part of. People talk about reading series for their characters, or wanting to think about their faves, or find new blorbos. I sometimes joke that people treat anime and manga more like gacha to find new favorite characters like rolling for an SSR, taking characters outside of their narrative. I think people tend to value like, personality, backstory, things you can still enjoy about a character even as you take them outside of their story.

The female characters in Jujutsu Kaisen are fine characters in their own right. If you take them outside of their stories they have emotional depth. Shoko is someone extremely emotoinally unavailable to the people around her, and only seems to care about her job as a doctor. Utahime is like the one good and responsible teacher in this manga who's adored by her students. Nobara has a clear ego problem, and is extremely self-righteous and feels little to no guilt for killing Choso's brothers in a pretty ruthless way.

Outside of the story they're fine. Inside of their story however, they're not really that important. Which is why I say characters are more than just their personalities or backstories. Characters themselves are stories, the author has to tell us about them in order to make us interested in the stories of their lives. Because anything can be a good idea for a character. It's kind of like how making an original character is one thing, but making a story, setting, and a character arc for that character is an entirely different and usually much hrader thing.

The greatest problem with women in Jujutsu Kaisen is not really that they are bad characters, but that they are badly written. They are not important narrative wise to the story they are a part of. Besides Mai and Miwa none of these characters really have screen time, or anything so basic as a character arc. They especially do not have character progression on the same level as their male counterparts. Like, just for example, all of the new characters introduced in the Culling Games only three of them are female, Kirara, Remi, and Angel. Kirara isn't even brought to fight in the games despite being the girlfriend to Hakari and having her cursed technique shown she has sidelines. Remi is pretty much just a damsel stereotype who's belittled by Megumi a man for being weak. Angel has gotten no screentime so far.

There are female characters who are also like, slaughtered gratuitiously for no other real reason than to just raise the stakes in a pretty shallow way. Sukuna slaughters Nanako and Mimiko in the most hideously brutal fashion, we got really nothing from that character death other than it was visceral and upsetting. Then there is the way Tsukumo Yuki dies, literally being cut in half. What is objectification if not women's bodies being treated as objects on the receiving end of particularly brutal and dehumanizing violence. Like, was there a single male character sans like, the victims of Mahito who was brutalized the way Nanamimiko and Tsukumo Yuki were?

So it's not really a problem with the characters themselves outside of their narrative, but how they are treated by their narratives as less important and more expednable than their male counterparts. Its not even really the fact Nobara isn't like, the chosen one the same way Megumi is, or even obsessed with saving the people the way Yuji is. Nobara could have had as much character depth as Yuji and Megumi if the narrative gave her the same kind of focus and attention they got. There's nobody more stupidly overcomplicated than a normal teenage girl, but Gege is either uninterested or unwilling in exploring her point of view.

We get to a point where women are literally half the population and there's literally like no reason why people should have trouble writing female characters because you know... you write them the same way you would write male characters, they are just people with thoughts and feelings. Yet not only is the point of view of a woman in the world underrepresented it's also treated by the narrative as something like special or different or hard to understand. Which results in a narrative where half of the characters are just... either underdeveloped or unnecessary and that's never a good thing.

#askspookies #jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen female characters #tsukumo yuki #jujutsu kaisen spoilers #mai zenin #miwa kasumi

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