Blorbo posting again

Here is a list of sims related content that is bringing me joy. They're in no particular order and I hope to do another one of these in the future.

Legacy and Gameplay Simblrs:

@fizzytoo - Heartthrobs and beautiful angles! I get excited when your babes show up on my dash and I want to be friends with your sims.

@whyeverr - Super well developed characters in a fascinating post-apocalyptic world.

@strawberry-nia - Lovely colors and engaging gameplay shots. I check my dash everyday for updates to your legacy.

@simadelics - Her historical legacy is full of social commentary, storytelling, and artistry. Love the issues she is tackling in her story.

@theplottdump by @surely-sims - I seriously made a twitter account just to admire and cheer on her blorbos. Her legacy is definitely my favorite love story, ever!

@tau1tvec - Your slice of life style gifs are ultimate goals! <3 <3 <3

@minamill - LOVE YOUR SIM STYLE.

@gerbits - Lovely colors, cute sims and an editing style I really enjoy. Your simblr, originally inspired me to start my own.

@estah - CUTE sims, bright colors - fun mix of gameplay and posing!

Builder / Interiors Simblrs:

@badwoohoo - THE COLORS!

@plasma-janes - Beautiful maxis match builds with the perfect balance of color and clutter.

@beetlemp3 - Original, playful and colorful builds that bring me joy.

Pose Creators:

MalaisePixels

@simmireen

@uiakodoesstuff

@adjusted-karma

@rebouks

1-the character everyone gets wrong for Gravity Falls and 16-you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc) for Star Wars ??

The character everyone gets wrong (Gravity Falls)

I want to preface this answer by saying that I think there are a plethora of fantastic Gravity Falls fics, comics, and metas out there that address and explore Stanley's possible mental health issues in light of everything we've learned about his backstory, which is pretty damn bleak. And yes, I do enjoy reading this angst.

The fandom tends to focus on this particular side of Stanley and with good reason - it is absolutely fertile ground for analysis and there is no doubt he is a tortured individual.

But there is a tendency to "blorbo-ize" Stan and his sympathetic history. While he was absolutely forced into some horrendous situations and had to make decisions based solely on survival probability, this is also a man who has a rap sheet a mile long, has outstanding warrants throughout the majority of the country, and is heavily, heavily implied to have been dealing in cartel business.

You don't get that far in these circles without having a backbone of steel and the capacity to do some seriously shady - and bloody - shit. Sure, Stan eventually bailed from the more hardcore aspects of his existence. And this isn't to say he's fundamentally a bad person or even liked everything he was doing - but he is a dangerous man, whether that danger comes at the end of a gun barrel or a marked ace of spades.

And I think this aspect of his character gets underplayed in a lot of fandom. (Interestingly enough, Ford is the one who is generally allocated this role, due to his dimensional hobo life on the run. And Ford is a badass, but Stan is equal to his brother in this, albeit in a different context). Stan maybe wants to forget that part of his life (understandable), but he didn't get as far as he did being a criminal (you don't get to rack up that kind of sheet and stay mostly clear of the law without some considerable feats) without developing certain skills and he'd be dead five times over if he weren't some kind of threat. Yes, by the time we meet him in the show, those instincts may have been dulled, likely intentionally, but this is the same man who admits to having 10 firearms in his household, even if his reasoning is (seemingly) ludicrous.

Runners-up: Mabel and the Flanderization of her zaniness. (Let's not forget she put the majority of the puzzle pieces together in Not What He Seems). Ford's seemingly god-like combat skills (the man gets his ass handed to him on multiple occasions in the show and is in constant need of rescue after he comes back from the Portal. Don't get me wrong - I love a badass Ford - but he wasn't exactly batting 1.000 after returning to Gravity Falls).

16. You can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc) (Star Wars)

I fully expect to get pilloried by certain factions of the fandom for this opinion, and to be honest, it's been a long-standing thorn in my side.

The Jedi were not 100% without fault and yes, some of decisions they made fed into their ultimate demise.

Was it deserved? No. Were they evil? No.

Were they a stagnant organization led by a creature who had lived long enough to distance himself from the day-to-day concerns of the majority of mortal beings under his care? Yes. Did they have an effective strategy to combat their massive, massive PR problem - a problem which ended up with them characterized as a baby-snatching cult of superbeings that could easily usurp the will of a (corrupt) Republic government? Nooooo, not at all.

They refused to play politics. Until they had to play politics. And they lost on all sides.

There was so much emphasis on tradition and purity of said tradition in the organization - even if the highest members of the Council didn't necessarily 100% agree with this - the mythology of it was present enough in the Jedi Temple, that constant, subtle pressure to do things in a certain way, to avoid wholly the Dark Side (even if the individual teachings of the Masters went against this). The Jedi wanted to change, but at the same time, couldn't budge the 1,000 ton boulder of their past until it was too late to avoid Palpatine's machinations.

The ultimate tragedy is that the Jedi meant well, but couldn't collectively nudge their organization towards change.

And they did make some baffling decisions - Anakin being allowed to train at all being peak among them. (And then letting Obi-wan - a grieving 25-year old being held hostage by a deathbed promise - to train Anakin, as per the "will of the Force..." This was not well-thought out by anyone involed.)

Dooku had legitimate criticisms of the Order, even if he ultimately expressed his grievances by betraying everyone and everything he loved and aligning himself with an ultimate evil that not even he could overcome. Qui-gon, for all of his many fault, had some great ideas for the Order and should have been on the Council - if for not other reason, than to upset the status quo (and yes, I know he turned it down, and that's another story altogether).

It feels, that in a certain way, the Jedi were crushed by their own mythology, and by the time that leviathan breached the surface, it was far too late for change.

Discussions of the Jedi have a tendency to polarize quickly, and I'd love for there to be more space for exploration of where they did fail without consigning the whole organization to the out-of-touch and evil-by-incompetence box.

(And caveat lector: post this fully admitting I haven't meditated on Star Wars lore in quite some time, so excuse some of the broader strokes of this analysis).

Ask me a spicy fandom question

Brightheart and Jayfeather having a conversation about his brief time as her apprentice after he gets his medicine cat name.

You were one of the first people to submit but also one of the ones I consciously decided to ignore for the longest time because even though Jay is an absolute blorbo and I'll always take every opportunity to write him, I wanted to deliver more variety and challenge myself a little. Plus I did get randomly into the mood for doing pfurr stuff. But now that I'm clearing the inbox I may as well indulge.

I briefly deliberated going an AU route with this one because I do like AUs in which Jayf either swaps later in life or otherwise has more agency in becoming a meddie. But I felt canon was more in spirit of the prompt and has a certain emotionality that can't be gotten anywhere else.

(Wanna submit a prompt of your own? Check out my guidelines and send it in! Inbox cleanse coming soon so I'm gonna definitely need a good number of these to last me the 2nd half of the month.)

Brightheart waved goodbye to Birchfall as Berrynose approached with a heavy step to relieve him on the first shift of sentry duty that day. His ruffled fur and glazed eyes clearly betrayed why he hadn’t been ready at sunrise sharp and had instead delayed until the sunlight began to filter down from the canopy in weak beams. When she greeted him with a motion of her head he responded in kind and began with his morning grooming routine.

For a senior warrior such as her to be doing two consecutive shifts of sentry duty, no less at the border between night and day... It had been an odd request, much less having first been presented over a half-moon ago. But her persistence had made Brambleclaw ultimately accept. Rumors had been exchanged, reaching even the ears of their brothers who had offered her to serve the shifts alongside her on the assumption it had to do with remembrance of their sister. She ended up declining. It had to do with oracle business but it wasn’t about their sister this time.

As the day brightened and the forest and camp wakened with activity, Brightheart kept her vision forward and focused. Her ears stood tall, her position was perfectly squared. At least from the outside she was the model of a sentry. But her focus was really only placed on a very particular thing.

Once her good eye registered the approach of two familiar tabby pelts, one brown one silver-gray, she gently touched Berrynose’s side to bring him to alert and stop his daydreaming.

“Mrruh?” he mewed, turning to face his senior.

“Keep on guarding camp,” she instructed. “I’m going to be back shortly. If you need me for anything I’ll be heading in that direction,” she signaled with her muzzle towards her right side.

“Fine, fine, fine,” he mumbled as he shook his head to free himself from the stupor he’d been in.

Brightheart strode up to Leafpool and Jaypaw --Jaysomething rather-- in long steps. From where she saw her approaching Leafpool beamed her a smile and gave her apprentice a nudge. He barely had time to get to taste the air before the senior warrior was right in front of him.

“Greetings star-touched,” she began with a bow as was protocolary when the oracles were returning from their official functions. “Leafpool, Jayp--”

“Jayfeather,” he promptly interrupted. “It’s Jayfeather now.” Leafpool gently bunted against his shoulder with her own. “...And greetings to you too, Brightheart.”

“I think she’s got something to say to you,” Leafpool told her apprentice. “I’ll go to the den and get ahead in catching up with cases we might have missed while out last night.”

“Better they be something worth the time and not a matter of vanity like with Berrynose last time,” the newly-made full medicine cat huffed as his mentor strutted off.

“Come walk with me,” Brightheart prompted, hanging her tail over his shoulders as she positioned herself for the direction they were going to go in.

As he turned he shouldered off her tail and made a quick inspection with his whiskers and nose before setting ahead.

“So, I guessed right,” Brightheart said, heaving herself towards the front. “How is the new name suiting you, you think?”

“Not what I thought I’d get,” he said rather non-chalant. But from what she could see out of her flank she knew his stride was bold and his tail fully upright. “But I never did think Leafpool would give me something good. So all in all I’m happy.”

“You ever thought Firestar would give you something good?” she asked.

She could see him startle and then his tail droop even though he kept up the tone and the stride. “Really doesn’t matter now does it?”

“You seem really proud to be Leafpool’s apprentice,” she said.

“It’s good work,” he replied. “Most of the time at least...”

“Does it make you happy as well?”

“My Clanmates are well taken care of,” he replied. “I get to know the forest in a way no ordinary warrior ever really can. I get to have more freedoms than them across the borders. I am privy to StarClan’s secrets. I--” The more he spoke the more unconvinced he himself sounded.

“And do you ever miss the brief time we spent together?” she asked.

He sighed. “Frankly, no. Leafpool may have fretted about me but she did let me be out of camp. At least with her I can be out of her sight.”

A silence hung between them for a moment, letting the awkwardness grow. “I... see...”

“I know why you did,” he replied. “And I’ve tended to the aftermath of enough battles to see what were your worst fears. But between being stuck in stuffy dens all day and only most of the day... I think it’s easy to see why I think like I do.”

“You’re right,” Brightheart admitted with a bow of her head. “And do you think that with what you know now you’d rather have had a youth like your other peers?”

“Hard to know for sure,” he said. “I’d probably get frustrated more. That battle with ShadowClan...”

“It would be my job to make sure it didn’t get to you,” Brightheart said. “It’s something every apprentice experiences on some measure. We hardly had time to work on it, but if you had let me...”

“The herbs clicked for me in a way nothing else had,” Jayfeather said. “So much so that when Leafpool tried to pull our lessons towards the other parts of our duties I was very strong resisting. She chastised me often, ‘we are supposed to heal not mend, StarClan’s light is a must.’ If I had find something about being a warrior like that I can only imagine it going down similar.”

“That would have been a challenge,” she conceded. “But if I could have found that talent in you, we could have worked a lot more on it than what I imagine Leafpool would allow you to work in the mending part of your duties.”

“That would’ve been nice,” Jayfeather mused.

“I’m sorry for how I failed you,” Brightheart said, coming to a halt. “You made your choice and I’m happy for you in it. But if you ever feel like you could use some more skills, I’ll see what I can do for you.”

“I feel like I’ll end up doing all the outdoors chores,” Jayfeather said, beginning to turn and retrace his steps. “So I’ve got a hunch I’m gonna end up needing them.”

Too often these days, I feel like I’m living in the dumbest of all worlds. 

The country I live in is happily sliding down the slippery slope into becoming a fundamentalist fascist dictatorship and the whole world is facing a tsunami of authoritarian populism, among other bullshit. It’s fucking terrifying.

Meanwhile in the online world, you see scold pieces about how problematic it is to like villains. 

Seriously? 

A story blew up about 6-year-old girl who dressed up as Homelander for Halloween -- haha whoops, who is gonna tell her she’s glorifying a rapist racist fascist? There was apparently a whole ensuing kerfuffle where rightwing Homelander fans started claiming he’s not actually a villain, which led to thinkpieces about how worrying it is that people are no longer able to tell a fictional villain from a good guy. 

Clearly this is the true epidemic of our age.

You keep seeing this mindset of: Aha, I recognized a fictional fascist/abuser/problematique~ character!! I’m a good person with good politics and I will now mock and harass their dumb fascists fans and get my progressive brownie points!

Ugh. Some of my exhausted rage over this is due to me being prone to liking problematique~ characters and ships; I’m specifically defensive of my terrible blorbo and feel absolutely no obligation to justify it or prove that I like him in the “right” way, i.e. by flattening him into a one-dimensional caricature only worthy of hate. He’s often cited to be a red flag character, but it’s actually fairly easy to recognize when people like him for fucked up reasons; they’ll happily bring their shitty politics into it and spout misogynistic garbage about female characters, etc. As for the rest of us... how about you give people the benefit of the doubt instead of automatically assuming they’re media illiterate morons? People might like or relate to a villain because they empathize with their trauma or maladaptive coping mechanism or a particular neurodivergence that’s rare to see in a “good guy” character, and for a myriad of other reasons. 

It’s none of your business, frankly, and at this point, I feel like this whole avenue of discourse is purely toxic. Reducing the world to a paranoid black & white and scorning nuance is a dangerous, deeply right-wing practice, and dressing it up in progressive concern trolling doesn’t change that fact; it only makes harder to swallow because you’re constantly looking over your shoulder, worrying when your progressive allies are going to exile you to the shame corner over liking the wrong thing.

There’s that line from the Last Jedi: That’s how we’re gonna win. Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love.

It struck me as pretty trite and corny at first, but these days I feel like it’s a very good guideline to engaging in politics, fandom, and probably life in general. Scorn, hate and judgment might be satisfying to engage in, but ultimately, the discourse just traps us in an insufferable hamster wheel cage match.

tl;dr ...I’m tired. But I’m grateful for the cozy Homie corner and for people willing to engage with compassion and nuance.

1, 2, and 21 for Beyond!

Hiii Isa!!! Thank you for the ask! 🥰

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

He has everything. Obsession. Vengeance. Trauma. He's doomed by the narrative. He's a freak. He's a fake. He's a funhouse mirror for the most beloved blorbo in this fandom. His very existence raises so many questions about L, the successors, Watari and Wammy's House and I'd go as far as to say his existence gives them all dimension. The destructive nature of Mello's rivalry with Near is the first implication we get that the existence of Wammy's House as an institution and by extension, Watari and L, may not be an unequivocally good thing after all. There are risks and consequences. Beyond Birthday takes that implication and makes it an observable fact and from there the possibilities are endless.

Death Note does not address Watari's motivations or ethics nor the ethics or efficacy of someone like L having the incredible unilateral power and influence that he does, which is a shame because it's such an interesting angle to approach the story from.

I have seen people say they don't like the addition of Wammy's House or dislike what the LABB adds to the story if you don't just handwave it as a spinoff. I get that. Wammy's House is about as unrealistic a concept as the existence of L himself so it can feel superfluous. For me, the LABB makes the mythos surrounding L more believable. Are we meant to believe all was well in the creation of this superhero figure? I can't, so the LABB makes sense in that regard...it represents the collateral damage of such an unrealistic endeavor. It's too much power and too large of a burden to rest on any single person. However, if you're invested in a particular characterization of L, Watari, the successors and their relationships or upbringing before reading the LABB (especially if those characterizations are on the wholesome side), the LABB might fly in the face of all that. (Though, if they went through with making Mello and Near L's KIDS instead I would've fucking hated that. He would NOT DO THAT.) Anyway, it is ultimately a spinoff so people are welcome to dismiss it on those grounds. If I'm being completely honest though, the LABB is what gives the successor side of the story the depth and stakes that make it truly compelling for me. I LOVE the successors in the main material but we just don't get enough of them! The LABB gives them more context even if I refuse to accept Mello's goofy ass narrative voice in the novel (I just don't think he talks like that, but. Hey. Maybe he does. Mello understanders weigh in!) Anyway sorry this got so long and off topic, my point is that I love everything about him but what I love most of all is that he's an entire story in and of himself. If he exists every character he's even tangentially related to gets another dimension, a fucked up dimension and I'm into that shit.

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

Beyond Birthday represents extremes to me. Obsession, imitation, competition - he takes everything farther than anyone else, too far, in pursuit of his goals. He wipes down his crime scenes to the lightbulb sockets. When he decides to challenge L, he's not even interested in living to see the fruits of his labor. His selfhood, his body, his life are reduced to tools he uses to undermine L, and he views Naomi Misora the same way. You can see this in how he speaks about her as Beyond Birthday, rather than Rue Ryuzaki:

I don't think this is just him underestimating Naomi, I think this is him being so obsessed with L and their 'game' that he reduces everyone and everything to their role in that construct. His victims and himself included. Besides that, we see an incredible amount of self-awareness here. He understands the impression he makes as Rue (a freak), he actively curates his mannerisms (down to his laugh) and flat out tells us how detached he is from his own ego when he says: "There are things I must do before B can surpass L." With this context it's not hard to understand how he successfully convinced the families of his victims to hire him to solve their murders. Rue Ryuzaki is just another piece in this game and arguably, so is B...and they can and will be changed and discarded as the game requires. We see the man rifle through an underwear drawer, crawl around the floor, and listen in on someone in the bathroom...there is no shame, no limit, nothing that deters him from his goal, even his own self-destruction. B truly is an extreme freak, even pretending to be an extreme freak to that extent makes him an extreme freak in and of itself, and that's my favorite canon thing about him.

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

Oh man, I LOVE writing dialogue for B...my characterization of him is dramatic and provocative and often verbose. He is here to get a reaction out of you, full stop. I think that's why I enjoy roleplaying with him, there is so much joy in forcing other writers to put up with him always trying to fuck with everyone. I love coming up with elaborate schemes for him to try and pull off for the same reason - the feeling of coming up with something so harebrained that even I wish Beyond would use his cleverness for something productive is so satisfying. Additionally, getting into his head and trying to untangle and express his...fucked up, often self-contradictory reasoning, thoughts and feelings without him ever willingly opening up about any of that is a fun challenge. As far as what I don't like...well, it's mostly self-inflicted but as fun as writing B is, I also feel a lot of pressure to get it right. B will want to take charge of any given situation or dynamic; he is fearless, capricious and extreme. There is not much if anything I would past him... so I often wonder if I'm going far enough. I never want my own limitations to get in his way and I think so much and so deeply about this fucker it sometimes feels like I'll never actually be able to properly express those ideas. For example, despite all of my ranting and pondering about B's inner world, in my one published fic, On Killing, Curiosity & Cats, it's mostly L's feelings and internal monologue I am explicit about (even though I am not at all an L expert). It felt easier, or perhaps safer, to show and imply things about B rather than state them outright. Writing him feels like a delicate balancing act, especially if I'm going to publish it! Sometimes Beyond Bitchboy just feels bigger than me.

character ask game

who ARE your blorbos? give us a rundown. describe your babies.

oh! :3 since i'm in my scream hyperfixation i'll give you a rundown of my no. 1 scream blorbo, anon :))))

first of all this 👇

little guy right here is tara carpenter.

tara's dealt with loneliness from a very young age.

canon-wise, there's not much we know about her childhood, so boo canon the scream mutuals got me covered. my personal view of tara's backstory is a mix of canon and fanon so i'll just break it down the best i can.

tara was born a frail, tiny baby, and had to deal with different medical issues throughout her childhood. her dad left when she was little, following the discovery that her older sister, sam (tara's favourite person), wasn't his daughter. and her mom wasn't the best mom. she drinks and travels too much to care about her daughters. sam also left when tara was 13 — when her parents got divorced and christina became the shittiest person in the universe, sam drowned in guilt and sadness over the knowledge that her entire life was built on a lie, and thought she was the one responsible for everything (even though we all know it's not her fault, but her mom's :3), and resorted to unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as alcohol and drugs, before making the ultimate decision to move out at 18. it's easy to see why tara has abandonment issues only by taking a look at her family situation :3

after her sister left, tara had to lean on her friends a lot for support and had to mature faster than most kids in order to survive. a friend, in particular, was very special to her: amber freeman. amber wasn't particularly the nicest person; she could be very controlling, sometimes a bit explosive. she knew how to play with people and manipulate every situation in her favour, and, above all, knew how to play her cards in order to have tara in her hands. amber was also obsessed with the "stab" franchise, which, surprise, is based on the crimes committed by sam's father and other killers who took over the title of ghostface. amber also became a ghostface herself, attacking tara and killing a bunch of people she knew.

and it's tara's attack that leads her sister back into her life, sam coming back five years after she left to make sure her sister was okay. together, they kill amber and the other ghostface (richie, who was sam's boyfriend at the time). a year later, richie's family also target sam and tara wanting revenge on their fallen son/sibling, resulting in more trauma and more death and more injuries :3

anyway, you can see how hard her life has been to this point.

of course, all of these events leave tara with a bunch of trauma to deal with. not only she survived the homoerotic teenage friendship with a psychopath, but she also had to deal with multiple murder attempts, which left their mark both physically and mentally.

amber's initial attack left her with two injuries that logically do hurt a lot and affect her in the long run: her right leg got snapped in half and she got stabbed in her left hand. of course, it's horror and permanent injuries in horror are almost never a thing as far as i'm aware of, but in this tag i ramble a lot (and came to a conclusion) about how tara's hand injury, in particular, should affect her in the long run and i personally hc her with such disabilities.

tara also struggles a lot with the thought of being a survivor. while she did get treated for her physical injuries, tara has been neglecting her own mental health. in fact, she has been for most of her life. it makes sense that her mom being who she is would never put tara in therapy and tara had to repress a whole lot of emotions for most of her life, but after being through everything she's been through, girly should probably see someone lmao still. the tara we know hates talking about everything that happened and just wants to be normal at all costs — putting herself in dangerous situations, having to resort to unhealthy coping mechanisms and making somewhat impulsive decisions to seek said normalcy.

after the second attack, she promised she'd try to get better, though. we'll see how it goes :)

all in all, she's my whump blorbo and i love her so much. it makes me so sad to see how part of the fandom hates on her and doesn't get why she is the way she is in 6. people are too harsh. she's a literal teenager who didn't have anyone that truly cared about her before her sister got back into her life, and of course she's feeling overwhelmed. it's not sam's fault, sam isn't overwhelming, but tara simply doesn't know how to be taken care of and it's a process. she's learning and she's maturing.

i love how the scream tumblr fandom gives tara so, so much love though. we're the only ones that get her, guys, everyone else's opinions are wrong :3

i was going to make it about tara and about amber but i started to ramble and the post is getting too big. i have a lot of thoughts about the crazy bitch that is amber freeman, though :)

Rules: List Five Comfort Characters And Tag Five People. This is in no particular order.

Thanks to @dathen for the tag! We have two comfort characters in common, so I’m list them as the first two!

1. Sherlock Holmes - My dad and I started watching the old black and white films together when I was kid, and he gave me my first Sherlock Holmes collection when I was young. Holmes has always been a safe place for me, really, and now as an adult, I’m like...”yeah, no wonder I identified with this character a lot” lol. I regularly reread the ACD stories and semi-recently got an audiobook with the complete collected works, and someday my dad says he’ll let me have his collection of Holmes films lol

2. Murderbot - I would kill and die for Murderbot. It is one of my favorite characters of all time, and I am relistening to the whole series for the 10th time right now (and I regularly relisten to All Systems Red without returning to the whole series). if you haven’t read the books, please please please do and then come shout in my inbox about it, we will be best friends forever 💜

3. Hercule Poirot - my Belgian detective blorbo, I would kill for Poirot but he would be so disappointed in me. I also regularly relisten to the books, and I love that recent audiobooks have Hugh Fraser and David Suchet (Hasting and Poirot from BBC’s Poirot) narrating the books. I have a collected edition of the Poirot show, and I’m hoping to collect all the books in both audio and paperback so I can always have my blorbo nearby 💜

4. Jane Marple - are you seeing a theme here? I’m being called out by my own choices here lol. but she’s like nosy grandma core without actually being a grandma, and she’s whip smart and loves knitting and her people. I love her to pieces, and if anything happened to me, I’d want her to investigate (I’m also collecting her books and audiobooks. I have all of the BBC Marple show seasons, and next I’m going for the ones with Joan Hickson)

5. Jonathan Sims - my darling, my love, my ultimate blorbo. like dath, I considered not including him, but ultimately, I return to him over and over again, and when pressed, couldn’t think of someone else to put on this list instead of him. I keep putting him in situations so he can get a hug and a blankie 💜💜

Tagging @probsnothawkeye @exactly-myself @shinyopals @artificialdaydreamer @bluejayblueskies but no pressure darlings 💜💜

WIP Character Introduction: One

The Blorbo Train continues ever onwards, and I have been debating what level of detail to cover with the antagonists and the clockmen in particular. I've settled on covering the two most prominent in The Clockwork Boy, One and 10. Today, we're dealing with the original specimen herself, the one who sees and hears without being seen or heard.

To start off with her allegiances, One works with the Clockmen and ostensibly answers to their tyrannical ruler, Creator. It is, however, not on Creator's orders she assists her brutish compatriot 10 in attempting to reacquire 13. While she does assist in the hunt, One clearly has bigger plans in mind. Exactly who benefits from these plans in the long term remains to be seen, but suffice it to say, their impact will be considerable.

One's clockwork body is somewhat shorter in stature than 13's, but her long limbs give her similar reach. Even without seeing the more complex internal clockwork unfold and transform with unnerving speed, it is obvious that she is more than capable in a fight. Even so, the many scars left on her face and buzzcut brown-haired head tell tales of violent encounters that got closer to ending in death than One would have preferred. Her green eyes, similarly, appear keen and alert, but with a slight tremble to them that makes her seem perpetually nervous.

The general idea behind One at the outset was as a sort of mirror of 13. She is the first-ever Clockman, 13 is the last, she's a hardened cynic with a soft spot somewhere deep inside, he's an emotional idealist whose pacifism might one day shatter into blind violence, and so on. While this isn't quite where she ended up as her story is more tangential to 13's than parallel. Her role in the narrative, apart from the help and hindrance she provides is more like being the protagonist of a different, considerably grittier story. It is my hope that I'll be able to show sufficient parts of this story to communicate this bit, and One's ultimate goals and motivations, without writing a whole spinoff from her perspective, but we'll see what the future might bring in that regard.

The inspirations for One are a bit harder to track for me, but I do think of her as a bit more of a post-post 9/11 spy movie-type character, still marked by the intense brutality of the previous era, but not gleefully, or grimly, indulging in it. It's been a while since I saw it, but my mind does harken back to Atomic Blonde from 2017 as a possible source of inspiration. If nothing else, Charlize Theron in her Mad Max look has also been a reference point my mind has gone to several times. There is also, I'm starting to realize, more than a little bit of Akemi Homura from Madoka Magica in her, albeit in reverse. While Homura twists the story around her in a more cynical direction to suit her goals, One's investment in 13 could be construed to try to force the cynical post-collapse world to tend toward optimism. Whether this optimism is warranted, of course, remains to be seen.

One is probably the character in this series that feels the least like she'd ever listen to music, but if she did, she'd probably like classical music pretty well. Danse Macabre and Valse Sentimentale are both songs I can imagine her finding some scant bitter, enjoyment out of, and perhaps she could even be found cracking a slight smile of enjoyment over Vivaldi's Four Seasons provided her day was good and she didn't see any observers coming.

Taglist:

@ettawritesnstudies @mrbexwrites @teacupsandstarlight

If you want to be put on the Tag List for this project, please interact with my Tag List Post

Which’s monsters from monster hunter are your favourite?

heavy breathing. im normal about monster hunter i swear

okay so like, my first game was mh4u thanks to my friend so i have a very special attachment to the majority of monsters there since it was my first time experiencing these things!!! but!!!!

MY ULTRA FAVE has to be Astalos and if it werent that he is like one of the least popular monsters merch wise i would have my entire room with him ;_; I crave a statue of him,,, but my friend was kind enough and found an old plushie that i now have sat on my bed so its something!! :D

The second MUST be Nergigante. He is a special little blorbo in my heart <3 And I have his giant statue perched beside my desk with his spiky ass staring me down menecingly. I had it above my bed once but i had to move it cuz it was creeping me out with its eyes LOL

Now the rest hold equal love status in my heart.

Yian Garuga is an ANGEL and everyone being rude to my screaming chicken is wrong and a pussy. He was my special blorbo to fight against in world when i needed cheering up or bored teehee. And also my main companion for 80% of monster hunter stories 2 until i got astalos and nergigante lol

Gore Magala is still VERY terrifying to me. It was my first elder in mh4u so it has special feelings attached to it. Im getting a statue of him and a plushie later this year <3

Valstrax! He was the first big elder i fought on my own in monster hunter ultimate and it was a TRIP. I always considered his armor weird and never used it including weapons until he was added to monster hunter rise and i fell in love all over again. I would love to have his fight completely conquered one day. And i wore his armour for majority of high rank as my 'walmart astalos' LOL

Bazelgeuse of course!! Seething in particular. The colours of purple pinecones growing in side and the intensity of the fight is just what gets me each time. The theme fucks and i want to bench press her into the floor <3

Seregios!!! The original pinecone!! He and bazel are in love and you cannot tell me otherwise. An absolute MACHINE of a monster. Love his attacks and the way his scales flare so so much. Its one of the few i would become a conservation researcher for to protect their natural environment ;_;

And of course, Namielle. A BEAST. I feel like she just hyptnotised me to love her so so much. I usually despise the water element. But theres just something about her grace and elegance, and the flashing colours of rainbow and when she lights up if you fight at night. Theres just something surreal about this terror typhoon

NOW OF COURSE I HAVE MORE FAVOURITES LMAO

I really really love Najarala. Its one of the few monster that deserves a remake for just being so unique. A snake?? Hell yes.

Nerscyllia is another one. The OG spider lady. I would have thought theyd bring her back, but alas. I really like almudron and magnamalo as well from the new game, but i dont know the new monsters in rise havent really captured my heart entirely? Like maybe if i fight the final boss a few more times itll click something because hes cool as shit but who knows.

Velkhana, Val Hazaak, Glavenus, Ahtal-Ka, Seltas Queen and Chameleos are another few. I cant pick just a few im so sorry

from the choose violence one 13. worst blorboficiation (whatever fandom you feel the strongest about)

Tumblr show me my GODDAMN inbox questions challenge (impossible).

Okay so I'm going to go down a Hitlist Of Blorbos in no particular order:

Lobby Boy - I think we get so wrapped up in his "pathetic wet kitten born in a cardboard box all alone" swagger that we forget he took on the Owner and won. LOVE that for lobbert. I wish people gave him more bite! More spine! Make him a bit of a bitch y'know?

The Hotel - Look I GET IT. She's a fuckoff huge horror abomination of unfathomable power. Yeah. Great. But if I hear someone bitch one more time about how she "can't love" I'm going to mail a highlighted copy of the Alex Potenski script TO THEIR HOUSE. I'm going to write a phD thesis on why they're Wrong and why [slaps the top of The Hotel] this girliepop can fit so much love in her it HURTS.

John Gaius - He's my silly little rabbit and my webkinz milk plushie. BUT I think a lot of people overlook that in His Whole Shit to become God he used the trappings of colonialism imposed on him as an Indigenous man to justify his empire and its power. He's a bit of a big kid playing soldier doing the same cycle that was done to him but, like, one Indigenous person to another I totally understand where bestie was coming from.

Palamedes Sextus - This one isn't mean and this is just me fucking around but we should consider that the reason Palamedes Sextus survived the Lesbian Necromancers In Space Novels long enough for Paul when Local Hot Boy Naberius Tern died so bad forever was because Palamedes was a Secret Third Thing (he/him lesbian, trans girl, etc.)

Murderbot - If I see you making Murderbot make the "ultimate sacrifice" of being hugged one more time, I'm gonna jam a governor module down your fucking throat and make you choke on it. Murderbot is allowed boundaries and it's also my best fucking friend.

GLaDOS - This bitch would have made a whole romantic candlelit dinner for Chell and been like "oh well it's RUINED now" because she is a Failgirl. She fumbled that weird little human so badly. Love that for her.

Genie - The gun really went "Population control is better than gun control" in the middle of a quest to increase the number of Talking Revolvers out there. I think we need to talk about that. Like at all. The fucking IRONY of this bitch (affectionate).

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks..

This ask could not have come at a more perfect time, I am so deep in fictional character brainrot and this gives me such a great outlet for it :,) hope you're ready lmao

In no particular order:

Klaupacius and Trurl — The Cyberiad, Stanislaw Lem

These two are the main characters in this set of short stories. They are the greatest constructors in the universe — they can make anything and everything, to a fault. They're always at odds, but they are fundamentally inseparable; there isn't ever even a question in-universe of whether they'll come back together, because they always do. They have seen each other's greatest triumphs, and they have fixed each other's most egregious mistakes.

I have to put these two together; it just doesn't feel right to separate them into two entries. Even though there are some stories in the anthology where only one of them is acting, the other always makes a cameo by the end. I joke a lot about media altering my brain chemistry when I get obsessed with it, but this book truly did do something powerful to me. They exemplify the quintessential asexual queerplatonic relationship in my mind, and they have become everything I wanted for my own future long term relationship.

This book contains the most beautiful love poem I have ever read.

2. Selina Meyer — Veep

I'm obsessed with this show, and I quite literally rewatch it on a loop, only sometimes buffered by watching something else. I have a giant spreadsheet with every episode and every character listed where I am working on outlining exactly what I think every character's "rule" is, and where in the show they finally break that rule. Everyone breaks their rule — except for Selina Meyer.

Without spoilers: Selina Meyer is a masterclass in writing an in-universe anti-villain. Her (public) goals are, at face value, incredibly noble: she wants to dedicate her life to serving the public in political office. However, due to her deep personality flaws, she ends up being one of the most morally reprehensible characters ever written.

3. Howl Pendragon/Jenkins (movie) — Howl's Moving Castle

What can I say? He's gender. He has the life I want. I watch this movie to live vicariously through him. His growth is beautiful; it inspires me when I feel like I'm running from my responsibilities and loved ones.

I do also have a lot of love for book Howl, though he didn't make the cut for this list. He is a picture perfect blorbo. I'm glad they changed him deeply and fundamentally in the interest of making the movie that I know and love, so that I could be deeply and brutally shocked by how low book Howl will stoop to continue to be worse.

4. Kikyo — Inuyasha, Rumiko Takahashi

She was my first character love. Kikyo is uniquely tragic, and I haven't found another character who makes me feel the same way she does.

She's undead, doomed to wander a place where she doesn't belong until she is finally put down again. However, instead of laying down again willingly after being resurrected, she chooses to continue walking amongst the living, and by doing so endures unimaginable emotional and spiritual suffering, and she chooses this for two reasons. One, because she is still dedicated to defeating the evil that stole her life from her. Two, because she is still hopelessly in love with Inuyasha, and takes every available opportunity to have him again.

Kikyo is sympathetic, but deeply flawed. Despite knowing she is doomed never to live, she can't help but grasp at anything close to the life she desired for herself and Inuyasha, as equals and lovers. And despite knowing her turn at life is over, that she is no longer a factor in the ultimate fate of their world, she still believes that she is the only one with the power to defeat the evil that they are facing.

She dies after a life/undeath full of suffering, without reaping any of the rewards she wanted for herself — the only thing she gets in the end is a peaceful death in her lover's arms.

5. Nux — Mad Max: Fury Road

I'm such a sucker for someone who was raised in a cult, who comes out of it and comes to love the beauty they found in the world outside of their lifelong beliefs. I have so much I could say, but Nux is just so much better experienced than explained in my mind. I wish he could have lived forever.

6. Todd Chavez — Bojack Horseman

Every time I try to write paragraphs about him, it just doesn't come out right. He's the unsung hero of the show. He's a beautifully portrayed asexual character who finds fulfillment after setting hard boundaries. He has compassion for Bojack to a fault, but in the end is still able to set and keep meaningful boundaries. I just love him so much.

7. Jobu Tupaki — Everything, Everywhere, All At Once

I could write so many paragraphs. When I watched this movie for the first time, a hole in my heart was filled. There is not a single other piece of media I can think of that treats a godlike character like EEAAO treats Jobu. Being all-knowing and essentially omnipresent has rendered all material goals pointless, and relationships with people who aren't like her have no benefit in the end.

The movie has a great ending, showing that she and her mother must choose things that matter to them, to give them purpose. To me, though, there's still this big question mark in the background — it's entirely possible that they will end together in the same place that Jobu was in when the movie started, simply because that might be the ultimate final state of omniscient beings.

8. Frankenstein's Demon — Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

I didn't say "monster," because Shelley refers to him almost exclusively as a "demon/daemon" after Frankenstein learns how educated he is. He is first a monster, bumbling around committing murders and doing things without knowing the suffering he's enduring. But after he reads the books and encounters the family in the cottage, he's able to act with intention, and put words to his suffering, and all of a sudden in Shelley's words, he becomes a demon.

Essays have been written about what makes the Demon such a great character. I love him because in the end, seeing his creator's dead body, he tries to tell Frankenstein that he forgives him for his hubris. He is the first true android character in my heart of hearts.

9. Kusuriuri / The Medicine Seller — Mononoke

God, this show is a masterpiece. Kusuriuri represents a type of character that's pretty rare: he has no agenda, and in the end I don't think he even necessarily has fundamental beliefs. His mission is to resolve the turmoil of the dead which create the monsters he fights, on their terms, using "lessons" they can understand. He is entirely neutral but for that one goal. It's awesome to watch, and I absolutely CANNOT wait for the movie!!!

10. Dave Strider —  Homestuck

Listen. I hid it at the bottom of the post like a respectable, shameful Homestuck of old. He’s the best. He’s the worst. He’s transcoded. I love him. What do you want from me. I’ve clearly got some complex feelings about transmasculinity seeing as Howl is also on this list. Leave me alone. But also, I have paragraphs ready to defend this man against all wrongdoing; the only issue is that he has so many timelines, and I don’t want to subject any of the readers of this post to such things.

In all seriousness, his character helped me reckon with some very major changes in my life. For those who need it: sometimes it’s okay for your authority figures to become peers. It’s part of becoming an adult. There are just some things that are not properly articulated in short form fiction; the change from “parent/authority” to “peer/parent” is one of those things. Idk what else to say here.

uhh top 5 fave blaseball players :]

i'm gonna do this and then i'm gonna check my ao3 page to see if what i end up saying lines up with how many times i've written about them

i don't think i could actually rank them past my top spot so in no particular order:

-my ultimate blorbos, max and ivy. they are my kids who i rotate in my brain all the time like rotisserie chicken. i cannot separate them, they are like pair bonded kittens. i am holding them up to the screen. i will never stop thinking about how their stories played out in the long run. there's just something about being marked for death but managing to avoid it. instead, they lived long enough to kill the god who tried to kill them, and i am so proud of them forever. also they did funny things with the sim >:)

-jaylen hotdogfingers. the first blaseball player who took up so much space in my brain. i love her so much. i remember staying up until like 2am because we had a feedback game against the mechs and jaylen was pitching for the mechs. it was a really emotional moment when she came back to seattle. i took so much emotional damage when she got alternated, but i love jaybot too. i miss both of them so much ;A;

-chorby soul, for many of the same reasons i love jaylen but also because there's a different kind of tragedy in their story. jaylen was resurrected because she was loved. chorby was resurrected because they were identified as someone who could break the game. and then they got bitten over 200 times by sharks and got trapped in a cycle of death and resurrection until getting forcibly pulled from the league. they deserved so much more and i would give them so many hugs if i could.

-parker macmillan, the poor little meow meow of all time. part of it is his tragic backstory and part of it is me patting tgb on the back for creating The Blorbo Of All Time™. he killed so many people and it literally wasn't even his fault. he's divorced and upset about it. he got hyped up as this guy who was going to bring about the end of the world in season 24......and then he didn't. he only killed one team and it was so funny. also he kept switching between the pies and the garages. that was also funny. i'm glad he gets to be just a regular guy who kind of sucks on the crabs. good for him!

-there are so many players who could take this fifth spot because there are so many players i just really like who also happen to not be plot characters, but i'm gonna give this spot to alaynabella hollywood because i just think she's neat. i like werewolves and werewolf-adjacent characters. also she started out as a pitcher who absolutely sucked ass, which was the reason i got attached to her in the first place. she pitched s15d37 (the cursed game where max and nan almost exploded) and won, but at what cost (one of her friends almost exploded and another one got bitten by sharks and observed.) we moved her to batting, where she was pretty decent. i think this might have been what ultimately inspired us to move mike townsend to batting, where he hit Two Grand Slams before getting redacted for being too good at grand slams. and the funniest part of layna's entire career was ending the expansion era as a pretty good pitcher! you love to see it, but also i miss the season 14 pitching dumpster fire 💜

oops almost all of those players were on the garages at some point (with the exception of ivy.) my biases are kind of obvious lmao

okay let's see those ao3 numbers....

...which mostly track! of the characters i named, alaynabella hollywood is the only one who doesn't show up enough times to be listed in the sidebar. in case you want the actual numbers, max shows up in five works, ivy shows up in four, chorby and parker both show up in three, and jaylen shows up in only two, but that number goes up to three if you include jaybot (who now has her own tag on ao3!)

Comfort Character Tag Game

Thank you to @belovedblabber for the tag!!

In no particular order:

Maedhros (the Silmarillion): Mr. Doomed by the Narrative himself. The way he tries to do good (ceding the kingship to Fingolfin, the union of Maedhros) but ultimately will not give up the oath. He’s an eldest daughter, he’s a diplomat, he’s a war criminal, he’s a survivor until he’s not.

Celebrimbor (the Silmarillion): BABY BOI. Like his grandfather, he is a genius smith. Unlike him, he is trying to share his gifts. He befriends dwarves, he founds a guild, he creates the rings of power out of desire (in my opinion) to help rebuild Beleriand (and also probs for the Creative Challenge and Conceptual Implications of it all. Which. Same). Shame his boyfriend smithing partner turned out to be evil.

Mercymorn (the locked tomb): Eugh! Yuck! She’s iconic. Love to put her in Situations. Especially the “moments of unexpected tenderness between fucked up characters” type situation.

Harrowhark (the locked tomb): Sometimes a favorite character is just a little freak (affectionate). She exploded a man with soup made from her own marrow and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. I cherish her.

Jonathan Sims (the Magnus archives): Another little freak. Sopping fucking wet disaster of a man, but trying to do right by others even as he goes further down the road of becoming an avatar. One of my favorite character moments: burning Jerry’s page even though it causes him physical pain, because it was the merciful thing to do. Canonically likes cats.

Katara (avatar: the last airbender): Baby’s First Blorbo. I latched onto her like a limpet at age 10-12. I loved how passionate she was about fighting injustice. I also loved waterbending; how fluid it was and how creative Katara got with it.

Thanks again for tagging me, it was fun 😊

Ten Fave Characters from Ten Fandoms

I started this post years ago and gave up halfway through, but I thought it would be interesting to revisit it. To see if my thoughts had changed since then, and to add in some new fandoms I've been into. The thing is, I've always struggled to pick my Single Favorite Character in any given media, because I am a total sucker for a good ensemble cast, and most of the time I'm more interested in the dynamics of the different relationships between characters than I am in the individual characters themselves. But you know, I do still have my blorbos, same as everyone else. So here are ten of them, from ten different fandoms, in no particular order (with a general warning that there will be spoilers):

1. Steven (Steven universe)

My son, my muffin, light of my life, best boy!! Honestly, how could I not put him first? Steven Universe is and always will be It™ for me, My Thing, and I could probably write essays for days (and in fact, I have) about the themes, characters, story arcs, design, music, everything to do with this fucking show. And while I love literally everyone in Beach City to bits, you know I gotta give a special shout out to our boy Steven. Watching him grow up over the years was a genuine delight, and the conclusion of his arc being a pretty obvious transgender acceptance allegory at the exact same time I was coming to accept my own trans identity was an extra special treat on top. It will never stop blowing my socks clean off just how revolutionary a character like Steven was at the time (and shamefully, continues to be), especially in media aimed at young kids. A boy hero whose strength and power comes from his empathy, from his kindness, from the women in his life. He is literally surrounded by a team of powerful alien warrior women, descended from the Princess of Alien Space Rock Royalty, and never once does the narrative even slightly question the fact that he idolizes the women in his life. Steven fights with a rose-colored shield and loves singing and laughing and his big sisters and love, and his whole arc was about learning how to take these feminine influences and come into his own power with them, to be the kind of hero he wanted to be. At the end of the day, no matter what else Steven was, he was above all himself. And he was loved for it, completely, unreservedly, without question. How fucking magical is that? (And thank god we finally got him some therapy, this poor lil muffin).

2. Donna Noble (Doctor Who)

Best companion 5ever, fite me. I love Donna for so many reasons, but most of all I love her relationship with Ten, which is easily one of my top five brotps of all time. She challenged him and snarked at him and dared him to be better, and he tried his hardest to do it, because he wanted to be worthy of her companionship. And they were just so good together!!! Ahhh!!!!! Donna Noble was introduced as a rather abrasive figure, loud and sarcastic without apology in a way female characters frequently aren’t allowed to be, especially in the dark times of the late 2000s. But she was also shown to be really deeply kind, overflowing with empathy for all of the people and creatures around her. And not only that, but she was quite literally the Most Important Woman in the Universe because of it. Your faves could simply never, I’m sorry. Ten + Donna will forever be my ultimate fav season, my fav companion, my favorite everything of Doctor Who forever and always. (Also David Tennant & Catherine Tate’s irl chemistry is the best, they are just so good whenever they’re together on screen.)

3. Iron Bull (Dragon Age Inquisition)

It is almost impossible for me to pick my favorite character from Dragon Age more than any other series because I really do love them all too much. I mean, Hawke, my disaster bisexual? Fenris, my moody little porcupine? Dorian? Sera? Leliana? VARRIC?!?! To me one of the defining features of Dragon Age are its excellent ensemble casts. The fascinating dynamics between all these messed up weirdos trying their best to save the world. But if I had to pick one guy, the one who definitely surprised me with how absolutely head-over-heels in love I fell with him, well then I have to give it up to the Big Man himself, our beloved Iron Bull. I remember when it was first announced we were getting a Qunari love interest, and not only was he a Big McLarge Huge Warrior Guy, he was pansexual. I was braced for a walking punchline, leering and making jokes and flirting with everyone in a really crass way (not that there’s anything wrong with that, just you know, it’s been done before). But what I got instead was a burnt-out professional liar with a determined love for softness, for pleasure. Bull is an incisively intelligent and brutally calculating man who is willing to turn his back on his country and everything he's ever known, to become an outcast, just to stick up for the people he loves the most. Dude's got layers. He loves dawnstone because it's pretty and pink, he totally gets off on fighting dragons, he calls Vivienne ma'am and plays mindchess with Solas in his spare time. And obviously, of course, him being a loving dom who gives you a place to be something other than the literal Herald of Andraste was just the icing and sprinkles on top of this already delicious slice of beefcake.

4. Izzy Hands (Our Flag Means Death)

Oh boy. Hoo boy. Okay. We're getting into it now. Sometimes you just see an absolute miserable little rat bastard of a man and go "yes, that one, that one's mine thank you." While I love Stede for Gender Reasons and I love Ed because he's literally perfect, and the tender sweetness of Jim + Olu melt my heart into a pool of butter, and everyone else in the cast is absolutely spectacular, down to the guest roles, there's just something about Izzy. It’s undeniable. We love a complicated character round these parts, naturally, but also, how could you not be obsessed with one so singularly pathetic and yearning and just absolutely begging to be stepped on as Izzy motherfucking Hands. Just. His whole deal?? Imagine being so fucking married to the fictionalized persona you helped create of the man you've decided to devote your entire life to. Imagine knowing that the crumbs of affection you accept from him are the most that you could ever hope to get, because you and he just aren't made for anything else, you are Hard Men and this is a Violent, Terrible world. Until, suddenly, in walks this fucking prissy little nonce with no skills and all of the privilege, who by all rights should have been shot dead the second he set foot in Nassau, and somehow this fucking idiot manages to utterly bewitch your husband god Captain?? Who, it turns out, actually did want all of that lovely sweet softness you told yourself was Forbidden, For Reasons, and he is actually perfectly capable of showing warmth and devotion and care for someone, just not You. No, instead you are fated to watch your Captain and This Fucking Idiot fall in love, right in front of your face, and the rest of his floating insane asylum treat you like you're the bad guy here. Like, bitch, I would probably want to stab someone about that too!! (And that's not even getting into the Toe Thing, which. Jesus Christ. The Toe Thing). Also, he has the privilege of being portrayed by Con O'Neil, who I have the most atrocious of crushes on, so really, how could I not pick him?

5. Flint (Black Sails)

Speaking of Messed Up Gay Pirates. I know we can all relate to someone being so fundamentally angry about homophobia that he decides to declare war on all of Britain about it, right? No, but for real, James Flint McGraw’s entire arc, from earnest do-good Homosexual with politically radical beliefs to vengeful ginger murder-pirate to tired old man who gets to retire to a lifetime of gentle lovemaking with his recently-unburied Husband was something I never expected, but was utterly delighted by nonetheless. There is just so much seething rage burning under the surface of this man, that constant war between his tenderness, his capacity for love and care that was so cruelly ripped from him by such a corrupt system, and then his yearning for violence and vengeance. And, on top of that, the ways he relates to the women of the show; his entire co-dependant Thing with Miranda, which is so queer it’s almost beyond definition in the best way, and his Tired Gay Dad routine with Eleanor, and to a lesser extent, Madi. Plus, he’s damaged and hot and so so sad about it, and he looks so criminally good covered in blood it should actually be a crime. To this day the entirety of the “in the dark there is discovery” monologue fully lives rent free in my head, not to mention “my truest love, know no shame.” Ultimate blorbo status for sure.

6. Joan Watson (Elementary)

Confession time: I was definitely one of those people who was initially dubious and upset that they were doing yet another modern Sherlock Holmes adaptation, and not only that, but they were making Watson a woman! “Oh this is obviously an egregious No Homo attempt, fuck this show,” I thought, and I was fully prepared to write off the whole enterprise. But then I found out they had cast Lucy Liu as Watson and I was conflicted because, seriously, Lucy Liu, how could you not totally love her? I decided to give the first episode a shot and was delighted to discover that Miss Joan totally captured my heart from the literal moment she appeared on screen. I’ve never been the biggest fan of the original Holmes stories so take all my opinions with a grain of salt here, but I love that Joan is played as Watson who is an actual equal to Sherlock. Their dynamic is an honest-to-god partnership, instead of the tired trope of the Brilliant Amazing Perfect Special Genius Boy and the long-suffering idiot who puts up with him. You can really see what Sherlock sees in Joan, all the things he values in her: her strength and quiet brilliance, her inquisitiveness and determination, and how she utterly refuses to put up with his bullshit from like, day one. This is a Watson with healthy boundaries, y’all. She’s just such a wonderful character in her own right. She’s more than Sherlock’s blogger, she has a life and dreams and goals of her own, and the show respects that. And not only that, but there is not even a hint of any tired romance tropes between the two of them. Their quiet queerplatonic domestic partnership evolves in such a really lovely way across the series, it is one of the core dynamics of the show, and it’s so good. And each episode is an excuse to look at Lucy Liu in gorgeous outfits for an hour at a time, which I will happily take where I can find it. Good show. Criminally underrated.

7. Aziraphale (Good Omens)

Alright, I’ve got another shameful confession for you. I’ve never actually managed to finish reading Good Omens. I know I know, nail me to the cross. There was just something about the writing style that I could never fully get into, but I got far enough to know that Crowley and Aziraphale were totes in love 5ever, and even though I wouldn’t have understood why at the time, I really Related to Aziraphale for Some Mysterious Reason. Smash cut to 2019 and the first season of the TV version premiers and I’m watching Michael Sheen do all That as Aziraphale and a lightbulb pops on over my head and I just go oh. Gender!! There’s a tumblr post I love that talks about how Aziraphale is soft and effeminate and good, and that is such an important part of his character. He on-purpose cultivates a deliberately gay image because he relates to gay culture, because he identifies with being a maligned outcast to society the same way homosexuals were for most of the time he’s been on Earth. Our Angel loves food and pleasure and soft warm things, and that never stops him from being a hero. In fact, it is because of his hedonism and softness that he defies Heaven and Hell to literally save the day. To quote from that post directly, “He’s soft and queer and vain and he loves food and these are good qualities! These things are his and he wears them openly and defiantly and they make him strong in a way heaven doesn’t comprehend!” God, just, *slaps Aziraphale’s belly* this bad boy can hold so much gender. I love him endlessly.

8. GLaDOS (Portal 2)

So rarely in media are women allowed to be unhinged murderous lunatics, but GLaDOS carries that heavy burden on her beautiful robot shoulders admirably. I think sometimes the fanon characterization of her focuses a little too heavily on either the tragedy of her, of Caroline being forced into this body against her will, or on the whole Evil Dommy Mommy Step on Me Cold Calculating Badass thing, which is unfortunate, because GlaDOS is also completely fucking bonkers in the best way. Not a goddamn hinge anywhere to be found on this bitch, and that’s what makes her so special. She’s silly! And weird! Her toxic yuri mother-daughter Thing with Chell is endlessly compelling, and every line out of her mouth is an ice-cold banger. Also, she gets the special honor of being one of the few characters I’ve cosplayed as, and she is certainly one of the funnest to portray. To this day I still have the entirety of her wake-up speech from Portal 2 memorized. “Okay look. We both said a lot of things you’re going to regret. But I believe we can put our differences behind us. For science. You monster.” She’s incredible.

9. Yuna (FFX, FFX-2)

My first blorbo! Yuna Finalfantasy will always have a special place in my heart, for reasons I’m not sure I can properly articulate. FFX is one of The Games of All Time for me, I literally used to listen to the soundtrack as a lullaby, and to this day my dad and I can quote the dialogue along with the cutscenes. And Yuna’s arc just absolutely destroys me if I think too hard about it. She is just so good, she is quiet and gentle and sweet and absolutely drowning under the crushing enormity of her legacy, her mission, the fate of the goddamn literal world. And then she meets her match in the Manic Pixie Dream (Heh) Boy who gets her to open up and live a little, who makes her laugh and smile, and she really values him for it, for the discovery and possibility he represents for her. And then, the ultimate tragedy of him being the one to sacrifice for her, that she may live? Ugh!! It’s raining. On my face. To this day the scene of her Sending after Kilika just guts me, and the way she grows and changes and comes into her own over the course of FFX-2 breaks me down to my atoms. Best girl, no question.

10. Astarion (Baldur’s Gate 3)

Alright. Okay. Yes. I know. I’m going to try and make this entry not just a rehash of my last post about Astarion or unhinged gay screaming for 500 words but like. Come on. Look at him. I never played Baldur’s Gate during early access,  but when I found out that one of your potential love interests was a queer pretty-boy vampire with a Tragic Backstory involving a twisted Master/slave dynamic I was...intrigued, to say the least. What I did not expect was all of the depth and complexity that went into writing him and portraying him. It helps that Neil Newbon has an absolutely delicious voice, yes, but there is so much more there besides the surface level of him. In fact, that is the entire point of his arc! Seeing beyond the very pretty seductive mask he presents to the world, to the gaping wounds and barely-concealed traumas and fear and insecurities behind it, and choosing to love him for it anyway. And by loving him, the real him, you make space for him to find himself, to rescue himself. A man who has spent 200 years buried under ground surviving horrific abuse and becoming cruel and petty to cope, finding the strength within himself to heal, to choose to live and to love, honestly. That is so fucking powerful, I will literally never get over it.

6, 11, 27!

(pertinent to this ask meme)

#6 - Who's your favorite lord/protagonist?

I may or may not have recently declared a crusade in his name.

(Claude is up there as well also!)

  #11 - A character that deserved better?

speaking of which, Claude would have been a prime candidate here, but at least, Three Hopes finally gave him a route that feels like it's his own and not the church's sloppy... firsts. although that route did bring with it a new candidate for this question (they did so little with shahid,)

anyway, god, how does one even begin to choose? I could nominate like half of every female cast from the Kaga era games for one thing. get to the modern games, and you get countless characters who would've benefitted greatly from not being under pressure from being a viable target for the resident customizable protagonist's gaping S-supporting maw. the ones in the middle of the maelstrom are safe from that sort of sweeping problem, but that's not to say they don't have any characters they inidividually did dirty... (Lyn deserved more story relevance, Elincia deserved more time in the limelight in Radiant Dawn, Eirika deserves more respect from the fandom if that counts, and that's just going through protagonists)

anyway, a solid chunk of Awakening's second generation deserved to be in a better game -- perhaps even their own game -- so I guess that's also a big one

  #27 - Any fanfics/fan content you’d recommend? (You can plug your own stuff it’s fine)

sneaky creature you are to ask that, considering how much of your stuff I'll rec in a half heartbeat,

anyway, I'm not nearly as avid of a reader as I should be, for being a writer, but here's some of the finest Fire Emblem fanfic that my terrible brain managed not to wander astray from:

Princess of Dawn and its sequels by @wyvern-dork are the ultimate gesture of dedication to a blorbo that I've ever had the privilege of witnessing, let's see, around 80 chapters of so far. y'know, out of the 193 total that are presently up. to describe it only as a novelization of the Akaneia Saga, starring Minerva and featuring Minerva/Palla, would be selling it short. I think the more accurate thing to call it, rather, is the Minerva bible.

not looking for a work that will beautifully gobble up your entire life like that, though? first off all, why aren't you? but second of all, you can still get your Minerva/Palla from the same tap in shorter form: in Blades of Champions, where the two of them are some of the tryhardingest fencers in the whole modern alternate universe

and to complete the hat-trick on recs for this particular friend's works, there's Fingers Through the Sand. in this fic, Luthier dies at war and Delthea's journey to completely mishandle her grief eventually takes her across the sea and to befriend another magical powerhouse with a heart full of grief -- Linde. it will hurt you perfectly while dazzling you with stuff about magic

but lest you think I'm letting you off without another Akaneia rec with lots of magic in it -- as if; here's simplicity by name, the delightful gift I was given for nagamas 2021. it's Merric/Arlen, albeit with some flexibility as to how romantic you read their interactions here exactly, also they're both magnificently trans of gender in there

and I'm not done with the magic yet, or with the ones I've managed to prompt out onto existance. after all, @dornishsphinx‘s May You Arrive at Fertile Phthia dotted that year's FE Rarepair Exchange for me with some of the most evocative (and, at least once, haunting) descriptions of magic I've ever seen. besides that, it also has an intriguing Erk/Nino story largely set after Binding Blade, ie, well after they've both disappeared. it is deliciously detailed, and even has a bunch of Homeric references if that happens to be something you're interested in

while we're at Elibe, @royaltyjunk's the pain in my heart cannot be shared (i really miss you) deserves a mention at the very least because Lyn opening a text convo with Hector with "order bitch" remains one of the most beautifully in-character things I've ever seen for her and it's the first line of the piece- besides that, it's also a modern AU story taking place in our here world, but one might say that it's still about how much Lyn misses the plains.

anyway, let's cap this off with a hat-trick of @queenlua recs, notwithstanding that this tag there is entirely redundant with the other notifications she's about to be getting for this post- anyway, the first one of them is Silent World, a three-chapterer in which Naesala attempts to ruin Micaiah and Sothe's relationship for shits and giggles. it's not quite SFW and it does in fact feature Micaiah/Sothe, but if you're fine with both of those things, then you may join in me suddenly finding Sothe a much more interesting character than you may have originally figured (plus, that Micaiah and Naesala are great characters should require no convincing, but they're still in peak form here, so, that's just Oops! All Interesting)

and here's another three-chapterer while I'm at it -- Where the River Meets the Sea. it's a Claude/Hilda story that doesn't skirt around the dodgy history between Hilda and Almyra -- the opposite, in fact, as that's one of the central themes. the other being that these two are both extremely nonconfrontational people and, sometimes, that's not a good thing. anyway, Lorenz writes a strongly worded letter in this, so, that's the real #1 reason why you should go read it right now

and I'm not done asking you to enjoy Lorenz content either; for that matter, neither am I done with the modern AUs. because summer is miles and miles away is the white whale that I will always be kindly, playfully, yet persistently prodding the author about picking back up someday. it's a Claude/Lorenz story where all the Garreg Mach people are Harvard graduates, Claude is the tech startup bro he was always meant to be, Lorenz hasn't matured quite as fast as he did in canon without a war to light a fire in his ass, and Hilda is great

plus, there's always my own work to recommend, but I take in pride in all the stuff I got to make these days, so, it's hard to pick and choose just a handful. you could always check out my ao3 page and read every last one of them. but to select a few regardless: The Winter Bird is my love letter to all of the Dawn Brigade's obscure underappreciated blorbos; Forests and People features Jamke, Edain, Dew, and probably some of the funniest lines I've ever managed to get into a piece; Building Trust, slightly longer-form than my usual fare, is an ongoing effort to make Catria/Clair happen -- you know, on my part, on their parts, and on Minerva and Palla's parts, with the time they have to spare while they're not flirting with each other -- and if you're in luck I might actually finish the fourth and final chapter this year; and then there's my most recent piece, MozghuzCon, where I drastically exceed my own expectations vis-a-vis story length for a spot of modern AU Bernadetta/Marianne where they're both very transgender, very neurodivergent, and very nerdy.