I am seeing some of the WORST takes about tdp season 4. Sweet, sweet tumblr users. This season was a lot of set up, not everything was supposed to be explained or resolved, or even "should" have been. Season 4 had to do the heavy leg work of re-establishing characters and arcs and the plot moving foreword. It just needs a little time to be able to act on everything it's now established. It did a good job building off of arc 1, and now we are fully indoctrinated into arc 2!

The fact that Rayla started off as this snarky, easily annoyed "I don’t show my feelings or fears" girl-boss and has evolved into a dorky, super romantic girl-loser is something... I absolutely adore, thank you.

in both the rgu anime + manga, there is a clear triumph over akio that necessitates anthy’s (and utena’s) liberation. at the same time some part of me does think the ending of rgu is more terrifying than the ep38 cliffhanger of the anime end cuz its so open ended… anthy liberating herself from akio is just the end of the beginning. who knows what anthy will see out there? u faced the end of the world and survived. to start anew requires ur creation of a new world. its the beginning of a completely different framework than the one anthy’s been a part of & internalized for an untold number of years. thats why the movie is such a great sequel cuz its just 1 of the many divergent paths these characters couldve gone on.

just looking at appearances for one. utena’s hair is short and her boy’s uniform, while being still distinct from the rest and a cue to the audience, is more archetypically “masculine”and less androgynous. yet she rejects the powerplay of dueling, the trophy bride for performing the “Man’s” role much quicker. anthy has much lighter skin and free falling long hair. unlike her show counterpart’s very dated, carefully pinned hair. ive heard ppl be rightfully upset that anthy was made lighter in the movie, but i find it shows how she further occupies even more of the engendered physical stereotypes culturally associated with the “feminine” in japan (&to a westernized viewer). she plays the role of a modern bride, less of the demure old school archetype & openly teases her husband with herself as the prize, yet she exposes her hollow soul and desire for the end, for death, much earlier. nanami, the broken prissy ojou sama archetype who once wanted to surpass everything bc she couldnt stand what becoming a “Woman” meant has turned into a cow. shes a complete non entity , since touga who she formed so much of who she was, who hurt her so, is dead in the movie. saionji is a complete caricature of himself literally frothing at the mouth. cuz touga saved juri instead of utena, and this time, he died for it. akio commits suicide bc being confronted w drugging and trying to rape his sister tormented him, but he was never alive. dios, who he was, was a hollow body: the prince of flies. touga’s backstory is all but said here: he was a child raped & tricked out by his own adoptive family, which explains his hypersexuality in the show. in the movie, he is a tragic secondary antagonist , a ghost haunting the main narrative of the movie in tandem with shiori, a character now more removed from juri in opposition to her more optimistic ending with juri in the show.

shiori with juri no longer as her beloved is a cruel thing. she ends up baiting utena in the notorious car chase, anthy the driver of the utena car up against the palace of eternity & the ghost of akio ohtori. everything is destroyed beside the framework of the car and utenanthy.

the outside world is in complete ruins. their uniforms lay tattered, gravestones marking the people that once lived here.

utena and anthy stripped bare, long hair tangled into eachother as theyre the only two ppl in these ruins. another beast has been overcome, another world has been destroyed. it is up to u what u make out of these ruins.

reading prince harry’s memoir spare is such a surreal experience because on one hand i absolutely hate the royal institution and think it should be destroyed but on the other hand reading about a centuries old family empire with the most unhealthy family dynamics ever along with the unrealistic expectations on its senior family members to grow up and become these impassive human robots for the rest of their lives is both fascinating and horrifying to read about

So (Disney’s) Snow White left an abusive household after finding out her only relative wanted to murder her, suffered a full mental breakdown ALONE in THE WILDERNESS, cleaned up a stranger’s home because she believed it belonged to orphaned children & knew how hard it was to be without a mother, talked her way into a new family & made a new life for herself AND YET PEOPLE ARE STILL OUT THERE CRAPPING ON MY SWEET GIRL BECAUSE HER VOICE IS A LITTLE SQUEAKY & SHE DAYDREAMED ABOUT HER CRUSH (who was possibly the only person to show her genuine kindness in YEARS before she met the dwarves)?? Some of y’all need to take a moment to dwell on the beauty & truth of the fact that some of our oldest stories were once so beloved because they were about survivors who broke free of their past with kindness & grace & the fact Snow specifically did so while fitting into a traditional homemaker role (she carved out for herself!) & longing for romance does not mean she is not strong or that her story is too dated to share with the next generation for fear it will corrupt their young minds. If we as storytellers only portray one kind of borderline-cynical strength in children’s stories for fear of sentimentality being seen as old fashioned it eventually it will lead to the next generation mistaking their own quiet strengths for weaknesses the same way the ones before them have.

Blind box mini haul from Saturday

also apparently rakiel does know lloyd frontera is his ancestor?? which?? uh?? how did that work??? how did they explain the sudden change of face??? is it a family secret or public knowledge?? did the frontera family just got absorbed into the imperial family??? what about julian's kids?? you cannot drop that bit of lore 400+ chapters into the novel sir!!

aurora and chrysi should’ve been rlly close friends before the timeskip too. yesss, aurora tried to kill her, but what friend doesn’t go through phases like that? (says this to chrysi & chrysi agrees. says this to azure & he studies both of them. then agrees. says this to LUC & he’s like, “i think that’s atypical, but maybe a therapist can help you work that out.”) anyway, mostly thinking abt a charlie bone au where aurora sides w chrysi and azure and.. jacks, i guess 😬 AND all the other “good” aligned ppl in the red king’s room, and her siblings reject her for it. but it’s bc her friends are nice to her… what has her family done? shove her off to the side where she has to pretend like she’s a fairy princess to feel like she’s lovable? she’s sticking w her friends, thank you very much!!

What if Kaguya's moon exile had been a bit different...

Springtime means that instead of writing, my brain is just cycling through my springtime retellings:

Four different ideas to retell "The Goose Girl"

Two ideas to retell "The Princess and the Pea"

My traditional retelling of "The Twelve Huntsmen"

A couple of the most springtime-y "Cinderella" ideas (thankfully my "Tattercoats" retelling counts as one of these)

Interspersed with the occasional:

I need to develop one of my original fiction ideas to prove I'm not just a hack who can only write retellings

btw when i recided to revamp my old fantroll the other day due to that dream i had it was really fun even if the drawing sucked but also the night after i had ANOTHER dream in which i had an epiphany about her classpect. which was funny how i did like classpect analysis in my fucking.dreams

Rayla remembering Callum saving her and holding her, she recalling his words in the desert, their moment together in such a romantic and nostalgic way, knowing who she is thanks to his words, kind words she didn't hear before, knowing in that moment where her home is, not in the place that didn't accept her but with the person she truly loves.

Her heart isn't for Xadia anymore, is for Callum: the best thing she ever had.

i've seen comments about airi not being the "true" savior because of makia reincarnated from earth which counts her as "from another world" which is kind of true, but ultimately false.

-sits straight up in bed- VTM AU Kira’s sure is Marcelle which makes Marcelle a Lasombra and I feel like that’s pretty fitting

I swear I think one of my favourite things in fiction is characters just nonchalantly proposing to e/o. Extra points if the person proposed to is deadpan when they say yes

More of the yandere monster???? Like their married life, him being such a cutie cutie and the reader is a willing person to his yandere tendencies. Like him physically fighting someone for flirting with her for .01 second and her just being 😍🥰

Alright anon, seeing as this has once again resurfaced, I'll cover a little bit of marital life as per your suggestion. (I'm hoping you're referring to the older sibling monster)

Yandere! Monster Husband x Reader

A little change of plans and the wedding you've been kidnapped for continued without a hitch, except you married the monstrous sibling instead. Made for an awkward celebratory dinner, but no one dared to oppose the Beast.

Content: female reader, monster romance, mildly NSFW, saga of the monster hoe reader continues

[First part]

The next family dinner was quiet. You couldn't help but wonder if your horniness had gone too far, slowly chewing your food and occasionally peeking at the ex-groom with remorseful eyes. Poor guy, you thought. "Well, it's quite convenient, isn't it?" he finally said, breaking the silence. The cutlery sounds paused, and you lifted your gaze again. The man flashed you a radiant smile, which emphasized his handsome features even more. "I mean, we weren't sure we'd ever find a wife for my brother. He has a bit of an attitude, and even monsters are afraid of him. The only marriage attempt-" his speech was interrupted by a grunt, and you turned towards your monstrous boyfriend. The older sibling was frowning, visibly embarrassed. "Oh, I remember!" the mother of the siblings, a halfling herself, suddenly chuckled into her glass, taking a generous sip before continuing: "We'd arranged for a fellow monster to meet him, and the poor soul got so frightened she blended in with the background! Took us two days to find her! She came from a chameleon family, I recall."

Everyone at the table began to laugh and you joined, although with a mild annoyance tinged into your voice. So what, there was no reason for you to be plagued by guilt? You even refused a night escapade with your boyfriend until things "settled", as a way to be respectful towards the cucked party. All for naught. At least now you could be ravaged without further consequences. When the mother in law had pulled you aside hours earlier to make sure you weren't coerced into this arrangement, you had to hold back from crassly confessing you'd slurp her son empty of fluids at any hour of the day. Some things are better left untold.

Unfortunately, one detail couldn't be changed in time: the guest list. As this had been an event meant to strengthen the ties between humans, no one outside of the immediate family graced the venue with their monstrous presence. Many guests were intrigued by the outcome of the affair, terribly curious to see the famed wife-to-be of the gruesome, feared Head of the royal army. Even more so once they discovered it was a regular human by all means. "Fascinating!", the old ladies would occasionally cry out, clutching the plump, expensive pearls adorning their necks. You had to frequently excuse yourself in order to dodge the rather indecent questions regarding your relationship. Except when you did manage to sneak away, one of the younger men of names and titles you never registered would approach you for a dance. "Truly a pitiful matter", they'd whisper much too close to your ear. "You would've made a lovely bride for a fellow human."

"You're unexpectedly calm about this", the prince mentioned to his older brother at some point during the wedding night. "Are you not bothered by all the acquaintances flocking to your bride?" The monster shook his head with a sigh. He hadn't known you for that long yet, but one thing he was certain of: it's not humans he needed to fear.

Indeed, having a wife with a monster kink is particularly challenging when most of the husband's work involves similar creatures. The first months after the marriage were stalked by the insidious doubt that his luck was just that: mere coincidence. Would you have displayed the same interest had he not been the only beast at the table? Would you still pick him in a room full of monsters? Such questions followed him each day, feeding into an ever-growing jealousy.

"What are you doing here!", he exclaimed in despair once he noticed your arrival at his training camp. "You forgot your lunch", you explained, eyebrows raised in confusion. Oh, for fuck's sake. He quickly pulled you away, glaring at the subordinates startled by the commotion. They must've been eyeing (Y/N) like rabid dogs, he thought. Next thing you know, you'll be scooped away by some horned scoundrel. He can't have that.

Initially, the rage-filled, obsession-driven fuck you'd receive almost daily was welcomed with shameless begging. The way your monster husband would pin you down under his claws and thrust into you so hard, you could see its movement in waves across your stomach. The way he'd forcefully spread your legs, hungrily sinking his nails into the soft flesh of your thighs and gnawing your shoulders in delirious need. The tears that sheepishly formed in the corners of your hooded eyes would only incite him more. "Bite onto my hand if you can't take it anymore", he'd coo without stopping. As much as you liked to be left a limp, drooling mess, the soreness grew unbearable. Enough was enough when you found yourself carrying a cushion to sit down on any surface.

"Listen, we need to have a talk." You greeted him solemnly once he returned from his military duties. Oh, no. Absolutely not. The monstrous husband bit his lips in panic, immediately going through a mental list of all his subordinates. Or was it someone in the family that slithered their way into your heart? Is that what it was about, that you'd found a different creature? No matter, you weren't going anywhere. "I don't want to hear about it", he declared dramatically. "I have a bruised cervix!" you shouted in disbelief. "Huh?" He stared at you. "It hurts even when I lay down, man. You have to tone it down. At least for a little while."

Ah. Awkward. You noticed his flinch, and patted the empty seat next to you. "What did you think I was going to say?" The bench groaned under the weight of his gargantuan body. Hands folded in his lap like a punished schoolboy, your husband began to narrate the tale of his seething envy and frenzied passion for you. You must understand, he's never cared for anyone as much. To hell with duty and honor, he would kill his own father if his touch on you lingered one second longer than permitted. "Alright, but you must control yourself a little", you reminded him gently. "Never, my urge to obliterate any threat in my path is insatiable", he concluded with vehemence. "Yes, yes, that I understand. The sex, I mean", you gesticulated. "Of course. My apologies, I got sidetracked."

Somehow, he didn't expect to leave this conversation with a cathartic approval of his possessiveness. "Surely you must be upset by my fanatical behavior", he suggested meekly. "Oh no, it's part of your charm", you reassured him with a smile. "It's just not that sustainable in bed without the occasional break." You pat your stomach to express your misfortune.

Sadly, your monster fucking dreams must adhere to the laws of biology.