The "Top" fics in fandom are not the "Best"

I've seen a couple of posts here in there implying that the ways to find the best fics in fandoms are just to go to ao3, and sort by 'Most Kudoses', 'Most Bookmarks', 'Most Comments', etc. I've also seen some folks say they feel like their fics are failures if they don't make it to the front page(s), or at least near there.

But the simple fact: this is not true.

Now, I'm not saying that the top-rated fics in a fandom are bad.

Far from it! They're often very popular for a reason. Well written, fun dynamics, cool plots, etc. A lot of my own favourite fics have made it to the first page when you sort by "Most Kudos"-- but then, a lot of mine also haven't.

Why?

Because those selections are inherently biased.

What do I mean by that? Just that there are other factors influencing what stories accumulate the most comments/kudoses/etc in a fandom, meaning none of these serve as a neutral metric of quality.

I'm going to explain some of these biases briefly, just so folks get a sense of what I mean:

Age Bias This, I think, is the easiest to grasp. A fic that is three years old just has had more time to gain views than a fic that's three days old. Also, consider that pretty much any fandom needs time to grow. If you're in the first days/weeks/months of a fandom, there probably just isn't that much content being made. If there's only 10 fics on the archive, then 11th one stands out. It'll get a lot of attention. But if that same fic were to come out a couple years later, when there were 11 fics published in a single day, well, people are more likely to miss it. If you doubt me, take a look at the front page of 'Most Kudos' for a fandom of your choice. You'll probably see a lot of the stories there are on the older side- and this is exactly why.

Multi-Chapter Bias There are a lot of ways people find new fics to read, and one of the most basic is just: look at the front page of the most recent updates. Now, this way of sorting fics is exactly what it sounds like. A list of fics in order of when they were most recently posted/updated. But, obviously, if a fic has multiple chapters, it's going to appear on that front page way more often. A 50 chapter epic has 49 more chances to get seen this way than a one-shot. This issue becomes even more intense when you consider the Most Comments sort option. For a one shot, a person is probably likely to only comment once. Maybe if they really love the story and revisit, they'll leave a second or third. But multi-factor fics? By design, people come back every update. And that means a lot of people leave comments every single time. (Or at the very least, after big plot developments and twists!) This is what leads to long-running multi-chapter epics dominating the 'Most Comments' rankings in most fandoms.

Popular Pairing Bias Again, this is just obvious. Some pairings are more popular than others. A rare-pair fic can be just as soulful, hot, and well-written as a story featuring the fandom's powerhouse fic, but if only 30 people are interested, well... [shrug] Less people will click on it, kudos it, and leave a comment. To a lesser extent, you can expand this to any trope. 'Coffee Shop AUs' just seem to be more popular than, say, '1930s Mobster AUs'. That effects what tags people search, and what fics they find. But shipping is such an important element of many fandom cultures I thought it would be the most illustrative.

Positive Feedback Loop Bias And honestly, this is maybe the real clincher. Because I've established some of the things that can cause a story to start gathering lots of kudos, comments, and bookmarks in a first place. But once that starts, you get a positive feedback loop going. Because what's one of the first things a person does when they're looking for good stories in a fandom? They sort by 'Most Kudos'. And then they select the first story on the list, and they like it. So they leave a comment and kudos and... Yeaaaah.

So... What do we do about it?

Well. Nothing really. This isn't really a problem. It's just something to be aware of.

Any attempt to put metrics on something as subjective as art is going to fall short. So don't go rating the quality of your own stories about how well it performs, and don't go chasing those coveted top spots. You'll have a lot more fun if you just write stuff that you enjoy, make some friends, and recognise a lot of factors influence fanfic statistics beyond just quality.

Searching via most comments/kudoses/bookmarks remains one of the easiest and quickest ways to start diving into a new fandom. It's often the first things I do, and found stories I love that way.

That said: I highly encourage you to search for fics beyond just that method. Here are some of my suggestions if you want to figure out ways to get started:

Search up Fanfic Rec Lists. Lots of people put them on their blogs, and websites like TVTropes even have that as a whole feature

Ask for fic recs! Seriously! Post about it in the fandom's tumblr tag, join Discord communities, etc, and just say, "Hey, I'd love to read a story where... [insert the general themes, characters, or plot points you like". People will be EXCITED to share.

Search by specific tags Like, do you really, really love time loops? Search the 'Time Loop' tag in your favourite fandoms. A lot of specific tropes, AUs, etc. are canonized, so you can find a lot of stuff up your alley that way

Browse the most recently updated fics Yeah, I know, it's old school. But seriously, you can find some awesome stuff there-- including stories from new authors just starting out, who could really use a boost!

And hey... if you find some stories you like... Consider writing some fic recommendation lists of your own. Spread the love!

OnK Chapter 149

I know it doesn’t mean much coming from me because I’m always complaining about Aka’s writing, but…

And I mean it when I say that I expect nothing 😭 This was literally my first ever OnK-related reblog and its tags are more relevant than ever lmao

These, too:

#honestly I didn’t think too hard about any of this during my first read #because the romantic endgame seems so obvious that it kind of discourages guessing lmao #but re-reading these chapters has made me appreciate Aqua’s side of his bond with Akane a lot more

Back when I first got into OnK, I mentioned that Akane was the entire reason I kept reading the manga. I didn’t care about the romantic subplot, found Aqua/Kana extremely obvious and predictable, and Aqua plain boring.

It’s only during my second read that I paid close attention to Akane’s interactions with Aqua and I ended up playing myself into both, caring about Aqua and shipping him with Akane lol

This chapter has made me realize that despite everything, I'm not emotionally invested in whether they end up together or not. I’d prefer it, obviously, because Aqua truly is at his most interesting whenever he’s around Akane, and their dynamic has the best development in the manga (so far).

But it’s just like I said before: If they don’t end up together, that’s just Aka’s loss, not mine. I’m just here for Akane 😂

And as an Akane fan, I feel like the best thing for me to do right now is to just take a step back and watch things unfold, because Aka will do whatever he wants regardless of how any of us interpret his manga lol

So instead of posting the long post I originally wrote about this chapter when the leaks came out, I'll just share a a clown gif because in hindsight it was silly of me to expect Kana out of all people to have any sort of meaningful insight into Aqua 🤡

And a couple of things that caught my eye because I can't help myself:

Kana didn't even see Aqua and Akane have any sort of meaningful moment, just those two standing in each other's vicinity was enough to make her throw herself a pity party. How many more times is she going to pity herself and give up? How has Aka not tired of writing her this way? Where did her development from the Scandal arc go? 🤡

So Chapter 147 featured Kamiki thinking Ai doesn't love him and Kana thinking Aqua likes her. It even had a helpful "Cut 139: Misunderstanding" panel and everything. Will this mean something? Who knows!

Kana used guilt-trip! It was super effective!

Oh the irony! Poor Akane looks like she's been hard at work convincing herself that she's over Aqua. And you know what? I cheer for her and respect her energy 100%. I'd rather see her doing her mightiest to help him without any ulterior motives than to have her crying for him and hoping to get back with him every other chapter lol

Akane calling Kana out for her pity-party and for being cowardly was so cathartic that if I didn't already stan her, I'd have become a fan right now 😭 It also means that Aka is 100% aware of the way he writes Kana, so when will she finally be allowed to grow?

Kana's praise to Akane made me so sad though because yes, Akane is pretty and she's talented and she's kind. That's sweet of her to say. But that's not what made Akane someone special to Aqua: it was the way she understood him. The worst part is that Kana ends her praise by saying that Akane is a "goody-two-shoes" but... that's the opposite of how Akane views herself. She sees herself as someone who's not decent and not normal. So it's no wonder that while she gets flustered (it's her dear kana-chan praising her), she seems to get a bit sad/frustrated afterward. After all, for Akane it's probably the opposite. Men would prefer a decent, normal, bright girl like Kana - Aqua included.

I wish someone would tell Akane that she is too ignorant of her own charms and that she doesn't have to act like an adult all the time. Truly the pot calling the kettle black! Sadly, unlike Kana, Akane seems to have no one in her corner in this manga. Aqua was the only one there and the poor guy is barely even a character anymore lol

Overprotective mother or controlling ex-girlfriend? Take your pick!

The English translation left something pretty important out in these panels. Akane doesn't just say "if you have a girlfriend", she says "if you have a precious/important girlfriend". This distinction is very important because it goes to show that... as expected, Akane doesn't think she was an important girlfriend to Aqua. It's like she didn't count and Kana would be the real deal. Oh, Akane...

Which takes me to her very silly, very convoluted yet very predictable plan (in true Aka fashion).

When Akane thinks “I know exactly what you hate”, I imagine she means that Aqua hates hurting and endangering those he cares for. So I'm guessing Akane thinks that if she plays matchmaker and quite literally throws Kana at him, someone he has a soft spot, then Aqua won't be able to go through with his revenge because that would mean breaking Kana's very fragile heart.

In other words, it looks like Akane is going to try and use Aqua's guilt-complex against him and her weapon of choice is love. But not her love, obviously, because as far as she's concerned, her romantic love already failed to save him.

Granted, using Kana's romantic feelings to her advantage is kind of... well, wrong. To quote Akane herself, [Kana] is neither her pet nor her property, but a person. But I'm guessing that Akane may be falling victim to the same loophole she got caught in in Chapters 96 - 98. She thinks she knows what's best, so she's putting her own beliefs aside for the time being.

Kind of like Aqua, actually.

And, ironically, it's Aqua himself who first realized how easy Kana is to use.

So! All in all, I'm here for Mastermind!Akane but I hope that Aka will actually make it worth our while. Will Kana realize that she's about to be used as a chess piece in this Proxy War? Who knows, characters in this manga seem to walk in circles, only being allowed to grow when it fits the plot 😂

Last week we wondered whether Aka would subvert expectations or go the predictable route, and down the predictable route he went. His way of making it less predictable is by including a twist in the form of Akane's ulterior motives, but will this be enough to allow this ol' used trope to lead us someplace new? I guess we'll have to keep reading to find out, but given the quality of the writing lately, I'm not expecting much lol

alright, i’m having a lot of feelings™ about giyushino & i have to talk about it because otherwise i will implode. i’ve liked the idea of them together from s1, like most people who ship them seem to; but then i stopped thinking about them much due to obsession with other ships, and also because after their initial altercation on Mount Natagumo they don’t really get much screentime together, so i just lost interest.

but in my modern day obamitsu AU (you can find my ao3 link on my page!), i’m featuring giyushino as a background ship, & i am starting to catch fucking feelings myself from writing them. (if you head off to read the fic, there’s only two chapters posted so far & Giyuu + Shinobu are not in it yet, but will be very soon.)

so, here we go. gimme a moment to ramble about what inspired these HCs / character analyses before i get to the meat & potatoes.

street lights by killedmyself is one of my favourite songs despite the fact it being really more of a piece of audio art than a song - it’s mainly a movie dialogue sample mixed with sad boi lo-fi beats, but i play it all the time because it somehow hurts so good. so i was listening to it when thinking of the aforementioned modern AU, & i had an epiphany like “holy fuck, this is exactly how a giyushino relationship would go down, whether in a canon AU or any other story.”

the sample in the song is from No Strings Attached, a typical romantic comedy/drama about two close friends who have a deep understanding of each other and casually have sex, but the guy catches feelings and the girl wants nothing to do with a relationship.

(honestly, most people would probably find this movie boring - it’s a basic white het ship storyline; i only watched it because of the song, & the conversation in the song is literally the best part - otherwise the movie is hella bland & i wouldn't care if i never saw it again LOL so i’m def. not saying “go watch this” here.)

anyway, i’m listening to this song, and i’m like “omg, i can hear Giyuu & Shinobu saying every fucking line.”

basically, in my mind, Giyuu & Shinobu would start hooking up just for the sake of it - probably as a result of a quiet development of closeness born essentially out of convenience (they are always at the Ubuyashiki Estate together or working together), and then one night boning goes down. they’re attracted to each other; they like each other as people; and then the sex is good, so it keeps happening.

& very quickly, sad boi Giyuu, who is typically self-isolated and depressed, starts crushing hard. he’s alone and he’s desperate for human interaction and affection, even though he doesn’t realize it - and Shinobu is beautiful, and he admires her. plus they’re starting to have a lot of sex; & it’s pretty common for that to bloom some sense of love, ranging from base level attachment to infatuation to real feels - and it gets to the point where Giyuu wants to be with her.

but Shinobu doesn’t want the same thing. she cares about him (more than she can admit), but she’s fiercely independent and immensely dedicated to her work (with all her research and crafting of medicines & poisons). she puts this work above absolutely everything else with self-denying devotion - her happiness doesn’t matter; like she tells Tanjirou, she’s angry, and all that matters is success. a relationship for her would be a distraction, & she doesn’t need it - doesn’t want to deal with it; too many emotional ups & downs; too much drama; too much risk; too much intimacy with someone else, which actually terrifies her. so when Giyuu tells her he wants a relationship, she rejects him.

now let’s take the samples that slap me in the face with giyushino feels from street lights, which i can literally hear coming out of their fucking mouths.

Shinobu: You know me, this stuff freaks me out. It's fake. What’s wrong with what we’re doing? It’s working, we don’t have to fight -

Giyuu: Maybe I wanna fight.

Shinobu: Yeah, well I don’t.

Giyuu: What are you gonna do - you’re just never gonna feel anything? How are you gonna do that?

Shinobu: I don’t know. I’ll figure it out.

^ this exchange already starts murdering me because i feel like once Giyuu realizes he has legitimate feelings for Shinobu, and is wrestling with his own self-denial and inability to accept love from others because of how much he hates himself - he sees that Shinobu does the same thing - she doesn’t want to feel anything too deeply because she’s traumatized from Kanae’s death. she doesn’t want to love anyone else in a way that makes them more important than anything else (though, yes, we have to also acknowledge her love for Kanao here, but i imagine that's it for her - no more), so that she can’t experience loss again. she’s scared; she protects herself by being self-sufficient and dedicating herself to her work.

she's also stubborn asf, and sincerely believes in herself and what she's capable of, and so "I don't know. I'll figure it out." is literally what she would respond to this challenge.

Shinobu: I don’t need you to take care of me. I take care of myself. That’s what I do.

^ destroying me because this is exactly what Shinobu does. this is her MO; her armor.

Shinobu: Why don’t you go find some other girl who’s not gonna hurt you?

Giyuu: Because I love you.

^ help. why are they like this. it’s because Giyuu’s so alone, but when he feels, he feels deeply (seen even in his initially inexplicable sentimentality for Tanjirou & Nezuko from the beginning, all the way to when we finally hear his backstory with Sabito). he’s smart and intuitive, he can see right through Shinobu - right through everything she does to protect herself. he also doesn’t give up on people he cares about, and his sad boi meter is off the charts - he probably thinks he deserves rejection. plus we have Shinobu pushing everyone away so hard because she can’t handle it.

also going off the HC here that they’re casually hooking up throughout this: oh boy is this a mess of confusing emotions for both of them, both struggling to keep it bottled up, and Giyuu is clearly the weaker link. he just would be. he’s too sensitive.

Giyuu: It’s obvious, I completely love you - there. You’re such a wimp.

Shinobu: I am not!

Giyuu: Well then be with me.

^ why is this dialogue like, canon. it’s their personalities to a T - the way they push at each other in a way of making fun of each other; the way Giyuu is honest despite his problems with feelings; the way strong, independent Shinobu would be so offended at him calling her a wimp (which he totally would fucking say) - calling her out on how she blocks out feelings for others to stay focused on her mission so she can protect them, but so she also can’t get heartbroken, because she can’t go through that again.

*cough*

anyway. there’s my roughly 1k word count essay on how i envision a romantic giyushino dynamic. i’ll be trying to work this into my modern AU - but considering Giyuu and Shinobu are secondary characters, i don’t know how much i can explore this; still, i don’t have the full fic planned out, so nothing’s off the table.

but seriously, this shit hits me in my gut so hard i could probably write an entire fic about them just on this premise lol.

anyway, yeah. woke up at 7:30, made a cup of coffee, sat down on the computer and just wrote this essay out of nowhere in an hour because suddenly giyushino is also ruining my life.

I will be honest, I only have one hope for Hazbin Hotel, one thing I am begging them for and if they do, I will be the happiest person alive even if the whole thing ends up being shit, and that is to make Vaggie a genuinely complex and interesting character.

It is nothing new that A23 tends to have a certain reputation when it comes to female characters, that being that they are either shallow, vilified or get shafted for the sake of other characters, and while I see where people are coming from, I also think that it makes sense that Helluva Boss doesn't focus on its female characters. Helluva Boss is a show about Blitzø first and foremost and Moxie and Millie are mostly just there to act as Blitzø's want. He wants to have a relationship like what they have, even if the rest of Hell finds it to be appalling, but he isn't willing to work for it in the same way that Moxie is, for example. Moxie is a flawed character, there is no denying that, but he always comes around, realizes his mistakes and apologizes for it, while Millie is probably the only stable person in all of hell. She needs to be that pillar that holds not just Moxie and their relationship together. With that in mind, while I do wish Millie would have more development and we at least got to hear from her what she feels like being the one responsible for holding this ship together, I understand why she has not been the main focus. Loona and Octavia are both on the same ship where they are the 'child' characters. They represent the respective best part of their fathers, and while they have their little character arcs, they are mostly there to humamize Stolas and Blitzø. Then there is Stella who is just a bitch, and honestly, good for her. Sometimes it is fun to have characters who are just petty villains, and if there is one place where that works, that is hell.

My main point is, Helluva Boss is, at its core, a show about a relationship between two male characters, so it makes sense why they would get the most screen time, which unfortunately means other characters get shafted.

And then we have Hazbin Hotel, a show where the main character is supposed to be a female lead, Charlie and so far we are four episodes in and the show has been about literally everyone in the hotel other than her. In fact, I would argue that Charlie has been the main antagonist of the show so far since in almost every episode it is her going cartoonishly 'nice' to try and help other characters that leads to the main conflicts/problems, which it sucks since this feels like such a departure from the original pilot where Charlie was an awkward, but well meaning person trying to make the best out of a terrible situation. Now, she just feels like new sponge bob essentially, where she is just annoying everyone with her kindness. When all that the audience is getting from your main character is annoyance, you have a bit of a problem.

And then we have Vaggie and out of all of the characters, Vaggie is a very interesting one. In the original pilot, Vaggie is treated as a punching bag for the majority of it or as a minor source of conflict for Charlie, however, in the show, she has been treated with a lot more nuance so far. Sure, she is still bickering with Angel Dust and she despise Alastor, but you can feel that there is a sense of respect between them, particularly between Alastor and Vaggie. Not only that, but the fact that she seems to be coming from a militaristic background and seems to be the actual voice of reason, albeit a skeptical one makes her the most interesting character to me. I know that Vivzy and A23 can write good, compelling male queer characters, I have seen them do it in Helluva Boss and I will be frank, I still think all the characters and concept in that show are so much better than anything Hazbin has produced, so I don't need another show focusing on male struggles. All that I want to see is one well written queer female character. That is the one thing Helluva Boss has not done that Hazbin Hotel can do better. Make Vaggie an exterminator angel who decided to stay in hell, or a fallen angel or literally anything as long as you make it interesting. Please, make her more than just Charlie's girlfriend, make her an actual character. That is all that I am asking.

Hi sex witch, i realise that this is not an actual sex ed related question and I hope this isn't overstepping any bounds.

I'm sort of in a weird spot right now a la my sexuality and am trying to figure out if I actually want a relationship and if what I feel is romantic attraction or Friendship levelled up. I've known for a long time that I'm Demisexual or Ace, and I thought I knew that I still felt romantic attraction but now I'm less sure.

How did you come to realise that you were aromantic? In that discovery did you ever wonder if it was a sort of 'mental block' or something similar that would be better off working through? (I ask because I'm sort of stuck in that state of mind right now, and I'm just curious to see if it's a common experience or not)

I realise that this is a fairly sensitive topic, and I really don't mean offense by asking.

I also realise that no two people's experiences will be the same but I was interested in hearing about it from another person's perspective.

I hope you have a great day whether or not you give this ask the time of day.

I've asked you other things in the past and it's always been brilliantly helpful. Thanks a lot for everything you do.

hi anon,

no worries about overstepping boundaries :) this is a pretty reasonable thing to ask of someone, and I'm happy to talk about it!

there's a funny story that I tell about the moment I probably should have known, but didn't yet have the language. in sixth grade my class had an assignment that involved making a collage timeline of the rest of our lives (a proto-vision board of sorts) and I think I was the only kid in the class who didn't put getting married on my timeline. everyone else did, as far as I can remember, and most of them also included having kids. being a pedantic little fuck I pointed out to several of my friends that it was really unreasonable to assume they would find someone they liked enough to marry who liked them back, to which everyone told me (paraphrasing) to shut the fuck up and stop being a little bastard.

but it still seemed very strange to me, because even when I was very young - back when I barely had the language to conceptualize being gay, let alone aromantic - I never imagined my life with a romantic partner. romantic pairings were interesting in stories, sure, I ate that shit up from a very young age! the star-crossed lovers shit going on in American Dragon: Jake Long did a number on my developing brain, and my Barbies and Littlest Pet Shops got up to INSANE relationship drama, but for myself it never really felt, like, relevant? not unpleasant, just uninteresting.

but I still had crushes on people as I grew up, and more importantly I had crushes on people of various genders, so during my teen years I was WAY more preoccupied with repressing my burgeoning bisexuality than drawing any conclusions about my romantic orientation

spoilers: the bisexuality won.

in college I had a friend who identified as asexual at the time, who spent maybe a year trying to convince me that I was aromantic. and I didn't want to hear it! I don't know why, honestly; maybe some part of me, despite loving the community I had found coming into my queerness, was still subconsciously afraid of being too different and grappling with the consequences.

so instead I did this uuuuh real dirtbag thing where instead of just acknowledging to myself that I was pretty fundamentally uninterested in romantic relationships and that that's fine, I spent the first half of college leaning hard on self-deprecation to explain my single status. oh, me? why aren't I dating? well, I'd probably be a really bad partner. yeah, I suck. I mean, I'm so busy all the time! and I'm weird.

(at the time I know I definitely had friends who assumed I was Like That because my parents were divorced, which is hilarious old-fashioned and also categorically untrue. I was Like This way before my parents got divorced!)

it actually took a relationship ending pretty badly to make peace with the idea that maybe I didn't want a relationship at all. I won't get into the details on that, because it involves another person and we were both very young and accidentally hurt each other a lot in ways we didn't mean and I don't think anyone was the villain, but I don't want it to come across like I had one bad breakup and then swore off romance, a thing I'd previously been interested in, forever. it was more like I found myself in a really heightened situation - they really desperately needed a good and attentive romantic partner after getting out of a bad relationship, I wanted our friendship to stay exactly the same but with a sexual component - that made very, very obvious what I was actually looking for in non-platonic relationships. which was, I guess, actually pretty platonic relationships, but with genitals involved.

haha just kidding, I actually didn't get that part through my skull until I spent an entire summer crying constantly, dissociating frequently, and spending way too much time on BAD dates having even worse sex that made me feel gross! but we got there eventually.

that part probably isn't super relatable to you if you're somewhere in the ace realm, sorry about that.

anyway, once the dust settled and I felt halfway human again I was feeling vulnerable and open to change - finally willing to see myself in a new way and reckon with parts of myself that I hadn't been before. I remembered what my buddy had always said about me seeming Really Aromantic, and I let it settle on me. how would I feel, if I actually was aromantic? how would it change my life, how I thought about myself?

and if I can use a cliche with you? it felt like a weight rolling off my shoulders. I suddenly had a whole sturdy base to build a better understanding of myself on, an easy way to justify the way I lived that didn't require throwing myself under a bus.

thinking of myself through the lens of aromanticism felt like a huge, HUGE relief, and frankly I think that, more than anything, is the best way for anyone to decide if they should be applying any identity label to themselves. which brings us back to you! I actually don't believe in the model of sexuality and gender that posits a secret innate Right Answer buried in each person that they'll discover if the just find the right terminology. all of the words we use are the result of our time and place, right? people like us existed all through history with different words for themselves, and they'll exist way after us calling themselves things we can't imagine.

so basically: I came to realize I was aromantic because calling myself aromantic felt like loving myself, and if that's the case for you than I strongly recommend you do it, too.

happy pride xoxo

Heyy~,

Are you still keeping up with the ONS manga?

If so, are you disappointed with the plot development of ONS?

ohh, interesting question!!

it's hard to answer, because my interests are so far off from what is actually happening in the manga right now. so i'm a lot more biased towards "ugh, this sucks" right now, but i'll try to work around it and really think of what bothers me beside the lack of my beloved scrunklies.

generally i think my biggest issue right now is how different the story today is to the events before. if you tried explaining to an anime only how the true villain of the story is actually a six-winged nonbinary hoe with depression that keeps their child's corpse in the hiiragi's basement, they probably wouldn't believe it's the same series. and i know that this was planned from the start, and kagami didn't just come up with shikama three weeks ago, but it still feels bad to have everything that was set up in the beginning of the manga not really matter anymore. they centered the whole start around the world ending, and it makes sense that there was never much worldbuilding because now it's just another thing that happened.

what were the interesting points back then? the apocalyptic setting! the ever looming threat in form of the vampires trying to enslave the remnants of humanity! the unshakeable rule of the hiiragi family suppressing those below them! there were tons of charming characters introduced that probably won't ever show up again (one of which even has backstory with an um, ex main character, i'd call yoichi. goodbye plot relevance). now none of that really matters anymore. it's a kind of "hey there's this bigger threat and bigger secret that renders everything that happened in the past meaningless!" that i don't really like. so what does it matter that krul dies and ashera loses her? they were angels in the past! their souls are bound together! they'll see each other again soon!

i'm not a fan of soulmate plots. i need at least 7 books of explanation for why these two characters like each other before i can see the relationship as true and meaningful. this is also why i can't bring myself to be interested in mika/yuu anymore, but i don't want to put a target on my back right now. they're good, alright. just not for me.

another thing that bothers me is how we're supposed to relate to, and perhaps even root for shikama. they were set up in both vampire reign and catastrophe as this incomprehensible force that planned the fate of the entire human race, leaving them as nothing more than figures on a chess board. and that's cool! that's terrifying! but shikama and the other angels turned out to be... not really incomprehensible at all. they're just humans with wings and special powers. to me, that's pretty underwhelming. maybe a different, more stylised approach to telling the story of angel mika would have made it easier to enjoy for me. something that wasn't just another version of "someone i love died and i didn't want them to so i did this thing". maybe that's the point, a cycle doomed to repeat, but... i don't know, i guess i expected something else.

so no, i don't like the recent developments. i can't think of anything i like about it, honestly. but that's a me problem. most people seem to like it, especially the mika enjoyers that have gotten their wildest dreams fulfilled these past few years! it's a little sad that my brain lost interest in him, i'd be a lot happier with the content we're getting.

this sounds extremely negative but oh well! i still look forward to the chapters and am excited to see what happens next, but without the thought of "hey, X scene has to happen at some point, it'll just take a while", i probably wouldn't be here anymore. i'll just wait for that and let the rest pass me by. yuu the floating eye, sure....

sure.....................................

sure...........................

Ashton, aka the Master of Meta!!! I would love to hear you compare and contrast Brucas and Dair---what you see as their similarities, what you see as their differences, why you personally prefer one over the other etc. And do you think Blair was genuinely in love with Dan? Obviously there's no rush answering!

😭 Okay, you're way too nice to me. I'm really not. I can barely get my point across. But thank you LOL

So first things first, I'm not nearly as familiar with Gossip Girl as I am One Tree Hill. I liked the first two seasons, but my interest waned after that aside from the Dair arc. Most likely, this won't be a satisfying answer, but I'll do my best.

In terms of similarities, the obvious is that aesthetically Lucas/Dan and Brooke/Blair are similar. Both Lucas and Dan are introverted, bookish, aspiring authors. They have notable judgmental streaks and a strong moral compass, initially looking down on the popular crowd/upper east side. Brooke and Blair are very much the unquestioned queen bees of their high schools. Both girls are interested in fashion and end up running a company in that field. Like Brooke with Peyton, Blair has insecurities re: Serena and their past struggle over a boy who cheated on her with her best friend.

However, Lucas and Dan are different because frankly, for all of Dan's complaints about being "lesser", he's still far more privileged than Lucas. The Humphreys never had a bottomless pit of money, but Dan was still able to go to a prestigious private school. Lucas is much more impulsive and hot blooded than Dan. Dan tends to handle conflict by using his words rather than his fists aside from in specific circumstances. Honestly, Brooke and Blair are probably more different than they are similar. Blair started the series romanticizing the idea of sex, wanting to share her first time with Nate at the perfect moment until she impulsively slept with Chuck. By the time we meet Brooke, who was the same age as season 1 Blair, she'd been sexually active for quite some time and wasn't necessarily looking to commit. While adult Brooke seems to have some regrets about being "easy", at the time it didn't seem to be something she was ashamed of. Brooke is naturally a very warm person. She's pretty much always the life of the party. In spite of Blair's extroversion, she comes across as cold, lacking Serena's natural charisma. Maybe it's because the Gossip Girl characters are generally pretty trashy people with an absurd amount of privilege, but Blair is far crueler than Brooke on her worst day.

I feel like Brucas and Dair are again, aesthetically similar. They seem like they'd have more in common than they do. But ultimately, I feel like Brooke and Lucas had an undeniable physical chemistry. The emotional connection came later and needed to be developed whereas it was easy for them to fall into bed shortly after beginning a relationship. Their first relationship mostly consisted of having fun and having sex. While Brooke fell hard for Lucas, he was still preoccupied with the idea of Peyton and didn't appreciate what he had. Dan and Blair were the opposite. They spent multiple seasons tolerating each other for the sake of Serena all the while interestingly having multiple bonding moments prior to becoming best friends. It was only after developing a friendship and discovering an emotional and intellectual connection that a physical connection became possible. I feel like I'm describing this badly, but it's not that I think Dan and Blair were naturally repelled by each other. Dan and Blair rarely took the time to truly see each other outside of their personal relationships with Serena. Blair was everything Dan thought he hated. Dan was supposed to be beneath Blair, the exact opposite of what she was looking for in a partner.

Both couples took a long time to enter a serious relationship. Brooke and Lucas had much more baggage considering Lucas's past with Peyton the first time around, but eventually Lucas convinced Brooke she was the only girl he wanted and that his feelings were genuine. Blair had to basically make multiple mistakes with both Louis and Chuck before realizing she'd fallen for Dan and that he was the one who actually loved her exactly for who she was. Both Dan and Lucas spent time pining for Blair and Brooke, keeping their feelings a secret for a long time for the sake of putting the girls first. But in time, both Lucas and Dan initiated kisses with Brooke and Blair, making their feelings known. Brooke and Blair needed time to process how they were feeling and wanted to move forward. Brooke needed half a season to allow herself to be vulnerable with Lucas again. It took Blair only (I think) two episodes to confess to Dan that he had her heart, not Chuck. And unfortunately, toxicity and horrible former relationships got between both relationships. One major difference is that unlike Lucas with Peyton (though I still maintain Lucas's alleged feelings for Peyton during seasons 2 and 3 weren't demonstrated well at all and mostly seem to be there with hindsight and Skills being used as a mouthpiece for the writers to try to shoehorn in an LP reunion in season 4), I get the impression Dan let go of Serena long before dating Blair. His feelings lingered during season 3 and part of season 4, but once Dan and Blair began to bond it was obvious his heart was with Blair. Apparently, season 5 ended with Dan cheating on Blair with Serena after she lied, saying she picked Chuck over him. Full disclosure, I haven't seen this episode. I have yet to watch season 6. I will eventually, but for now I feel validated for not giving those episodes any ratings. I guess that's sort of comparable to the school shooting kiss, only much more sketchy on Serena's end considering she both manipulated Dan and TAPED IT. There's no version of Chuck for Brooke, thank god. The worst Brooke had to deal with on OTH was irrelevant Felix and the teacher she dated for a couple of episodes. One major difference is that until Julian, Lucas was Brooke's greatest love. Dan was Blair's third or possibly even fourth love. I don't think Blair ever allowed herself to think in terms of Dan being the right guy for her. The toxicity of Chuck and Blair made it so that the relationship she'd shared with him seemed to be the more significant one. It was larger than life with constant ups and downs, with Chuck always whispering in her ear that the alternative, aka a real, healthy, truly loving relationship, would be boring. And because Blair is obviously just as terrible and dark as Chuck is, she couldn't possibly be satisfied with anything else. 🙄 But I digress. So in the end, Blair defaulted back to the familiar rather than the unknown while Dan straight up settled for Serena. Well.. at least out of the four endgames (Lucas/Peyton, Brooke/Julian, Dan/Serena, Blair/Chuck), Brooke's relationship with Julian was healthy.

I think the reason I prefer Brucas over Dair is that I'm much more familiar with their love story and the show as a whole than Gossip Girl or the relationship between Dan and Blair. While I think Penn and Leighton had good chemistry, the Chad/Sophia chemistry was something else. I loved Brucas first. I'm also somewhat a sucker for second chance romances where the guy realizes how badly he'd screwed up in the past and puts in actual effort to win back the girl he loves. LOL I guess it's my toxic trait. There was something so iconic about the Brooke/Lucas relationship. Even when things got messy, I still enjoyed watching it. Dan and Blair were also great, but I have such negative feelings about the show itself and ultimately felt shortchanged by their romantic relationship. What we did get was great, but it didn't last very long. It was truly the Rachel and Joey equivalent of Gossip Girl, and I hate that.

YES. I do think Blair was in love with Dan. I think the love Blair had for Dan was the kind that developed slowly, catching her completely off guard. It was a mature and healthy love based firmly in friendship and mutual support. Dan saw the real, vulnerable Blair rather than just her manipulative, cold, outer shell. Unfortunately, Blair had been conditioned to both think this type of love was all wrong for her, and had been fucked up by years of Chuck's emotional abuse and manipulations. In a version of the show where Gossip Girl had an actual happy ending and allowed its characters to evolve into the best versions of themselves rather than sending the message that they're destined to become their parents, Blair would have stayed with Dan. The story would have followed what it had been setting up since late season 3 (or possibly even before that if you consider their conversation in the fourth episode) through late season 5.

Breadth and depth.

You know, I was going to talk about the villains, but I realized it was going to bleed into this if I didn't get this off my chest, so... await that another time, I guess.

As time has passed more and more people are starting to call Hori a bad writer, and... I'm not sure they're wrong, but I don't think that's right, either. My Hero, for all of its flaws, is huge. If Hori was a bad writer, it never would have gotten this far.

What I've come to realize is that Hori is... for lack of a better word, an incomplete writer.

Let me explain.

First off, yes, I realize the manga isn't over yet. That's not point. When something in the story reaches a certain point in it's arc, a climax, big dramatic moment, whatever, there has to be build up. Let's look at AFO's big Kaminio intro, for example.

Hori didn't just throw AFO at us, he built up to that moment. First, he introduced him, with All Might and the face in the TV directing Tomura. But after that All For One kept showing up, and that's the crucial bit. It wasn't all big things, most of it was some plotting or sinister laughing here, or some teasing shapes in the TV screen there, but it reminded us, the audience that, A, AFO existed, B, that He Was Important, and C, we should really be afraid of him.

Then he showed up in Kamino and that build up? All the time Hori spent subtle reinforcing AFO's brand in our mind? It payed off in spades. All For One was epic. He was menacing. He dominated the scene.

All For One's intro was a great example of build up, A++, Hori hit that out of the park. The problem is that that is one of the few examples of build up done well. Honestly, Hori, for whatever reason, seems to have a lot of problem with that. I don't know why; maybe he can't focus, maybe it's lack of interest, maybe it's that unholy Japanese work schedule you hear so much about, but the fact of the matter is he flubs it more than he pulls it off.

In fact, I'd go so far to say that most of the things people criticise about his writing, ballpark of a good... 70% of everything before the War Arc (because that's where everything went to shit), is because of that.

Here's where I go back to my title though, breadth and depth. In general, breadth is about how broad your understanding of something is, how many topics you know about, while depth is about how deep your understanding is, how much you know about a topic.

For the purposes of this rant, these both apply to world building and character development, AKA how much of it there is, and how deep does it go.

The thing is? Breadth wise, Hori is golden. He, in the span of one chapter, introduced the audience to a wide, fascinating world that instantly grabbed the audience's attention, with vast room to build up off it in all sorts of directions. Depth, though, depth is what is holding him back.

Let's analyze a bad example of build up with that in mind: the mutant discrimination mob Spinner... thing. Yeesh. I'm going to burn two bridges with one torch and go over this, and rant about how shit it was, while also proving my point.

Interestingly enough, Hori had the start of this from as early as the first day of class: Shoji and his mask, who was afraid of scaring people with his face. It was a small mention, not big enough to disrupt the narrative but enough to be a good start of it.

Think of it as a seed. Hori sowed a lot of seeds in MHA early on; almost everything, even in the later arcs, probably has something somewhere that implies it was possible in the first... what, twenty chapters or so?

Hori sowed a lot of seeds, but he never watered them, though. We had Shoji, and we had Gang Orca (and oh, he had some potential, he did, but let's wait a bit before we go back to him), but after that? Mutant racism never came up again. The closest we've seen about that, really, until that mantle was shoved onto Spinner as Hori frantically backtracked, was if anything Shoto insulting that police chief. He called him a dog, I think? I've seen people bringing that and Dabi being a dick to Spinner as proof that the Todorokis, probably via Endeavor, are racists, but...

...Did the police chief care? Because if that was Shoto being racist, you'd think he be upset about that. He wasn't though, because back then, that wasn't actually a thing. Shoto was just being rude because he was upset. Dabi.... let's be honest, Dabi's kind of a dick in general. Him insulting Spinner really wasn't anything speical.

See, that's the thing: if you want to harvest your seeds, if you don't want them to die, you need to water them. More than that, you need to water them regularly. Hori didn't do that for the mutants, just as he didn't for so many other things; there was no depth to them.

So, when Spinner lead an angry army of mutants, we, the audience, weren't swept up in the narrative. We didn't feel for the poor oppressed people, or feel conflicted as the heroes faced them.

We wondered where the fuck that came from, because that wasn't a thing before.

Character wise, look at Shoji. We had that mask thing, but again, his big, overarching trauma wasn't a thing. He retroactively opened to his classmates about his horrible childhood, there were tears, apologies... all in a fucking flashback.

If that, if any of this, was something Hori had planned out, then he would of, or should of, anyways, have been hinting about for years now. We should have seen build up for this, and it wouldn't have been that hard. Shoji is afraid of showing his face; good, show that. Tell us, the audience, that it's there, and why.

Mutants are oppressed? Where? Where do you tell us about this? Where do we see it? Is it in the internships, when they patrol on the streets? Because that would have been a great time to start demonstrating that.

Remember Gang Orca? He's a high ranking hero, and he scares children because he's a scary mutant. He hates that, because he loves children. He's a mutant in a high level of power, when that should be hard for him. Here's something that I came up with a while ago, as a sort of primer introduction about the mutant thing: in the same way Hawks takes Tokoyami as his intern for being bird like, Gang Orca should have interned Shoji, and Koji, if he's part of all this, because they're mutants.

It would have been great for world building and character development; Orca could have explained how mutants have a hard time in the media oriented hero industry, that a lot of them end up as underground heroes due to lack of sponsors, how he struggled to get where he is now, and he that makes a habit of trying to help fellow mutants get off the ground in heroics. Then Shoji and Koji could have opened up about their experiences, which would have built up their characters, and given Hori an easy way to introduce both the characterization and world building to 1-A as a whole.

I came up with this idea after about ten minutes of trying to word how frustrated the Spinner hospital bullshit made me last month. How long has Hori had to prepare for this moment again?

So yeah, this mutant thing is incomplete. Hori's trying to collect the payoff for something that isn't there yet, because he never built up to it, the same way he did with the traitor, with Nighteye's death, with Mirio getting his powers back, with almost every character he's ever made.

Hori is an incomplete writer, who just doesn't finish one step in the process before he moves on to the next, and that's why everything he's trying to build keeps falling down around him.

And it's why My Hero Academy is a field filled with seeds left to die.

get to know the author!

name : ferre

pronouns :  they/them

preference of communication : discord, but i can do tumblr ims. honestly, i’m slow on both but i’m a tad quicker to get back to ppl on discord….although again, these days i prefer to keep my discord to solely those whom i feel ooc wise comfortable around!

most active muse :  this guy ( patrick ) clawed his way into single muse blog status with the number of times he gave me brainrot on my multimuse so i’d say it’s probably patrick :’D

experience / how many years :  like about on-and-off for about 8 years? i did do a little bit back in 2013 in quizilla ims which was my introduction to rp before i started formally on tumblr in 2015….that being said i was on-and-off for about the first three years until in 2018 when i made calum- he was the first muse of mine that actually like, stuck :’D that being said, i did also take like a year hiatus in 2020 before coming back in 2021 so uh….eight years might not be the most accurate number jfksdljfkl

best experience : this attempt so far?? Has been so wonderful and i wouldn’t change any of what has happened for the world- my mutuals and writing partners are so skilled and friendly and patient and LITERALLY some of their muses have managed to elicit responses and character development from my muses that i would have NEVER imagined :’D but if we have to go specific….maybe it’s the hunger games au verse i dragged some ppl into?? the plotting and characters they have come up with is PHENOMENAL and wow, i’m gonna stuck to them all like super glue for 5ever <3

rp pet peeves : so many! my biggest ones, however, are self-centered and inconsiderate partners: those who disregard my rules, those who talk only about their own muses in every thread and plotting interaction, those who only seem to take interest in my blog(s) when it involves receiving writing from me. That and blogs that follow first but never make a move/any indication of interest, not even a like on my posts….no offense, but i’m not chasing after you. Other pet peeves include facechasing, trauma dumping ( ooc and ic ), and drama. oh, and partners who just don’t?? Respond to my attempts at some kind of ooc interaction- it can even be in tags, but if you’re not saying anything then that kills my enthusiasm very quickly.

fluff, angst, or smut : see, i want character development and exploration in my threads so i don’t think it’s fair to split up threads into these categories bc if done with intention, you can learn something new about your muse and your partner’s muse in any thread ( and yes, that includes the crack threads- DON’T UNDERESTIMATE ME :D ) i will say though, smut is highly unlikely here just bc patrick is demisexual + it’s gonna take like 2839402384098 years for him and hyuk to look at and act on each other in that manner :’D

plots or memes : plotting <3 but memes are good for starting off plotted dynamics tho!! most times, however, i’m not a fan of first meetings either. I like to have some kind of dynamic/backstory to go off of and would rather not overstep any boundaries so you’re not really a plotter… we might not be a good match. 

long or short replies : see, patrick is a literature professor. for someone softspoken and reserved, he has a TON of thoughts and opinions so whenever i do try to keep things short and sweet, he bucks against it and will give me at least three paragraphs….over 1000 words too. we’re very ( not ) sorry :’D

time to write : depends on what’s happening at work and what my mood is. I do try to do my writing in the afternoon/morning though as most days i feel like i haven’t done anything productive/meaningful until i’ve written at least something.

are you like your muses : hahahaha, nah. I mean, we do have similar interests ( ie. literature and working in higher ed ), but personality-wise he’s much more stiff and erudite than me :’D i will say i think all characters we write do have pieces of ourselves in them, otherwise they’d never be able to grow, but for the most part, no i don’t think i’m really like patrick <3 at the very least, i'm not nearly as repressed as him fjskdlfjsl

tagged by: @wynterlanding ( thank you so much ♡ )

tagging: take it if you would like!! i'm would be curious to see how you describe your own rp style :3

After reading IWTV and TVL as a teenager, I decided before the show came out to start again and slowly make my way through the whole series. I’m about halfway through the fourth book at the moment.

So without further ado, my thoughts on The Tale of the Body Thief so far:

(Spoilers ahead)

( also me special interest dumping oops)

- first off, HUGE trigger warning for a horrible sex scene. I guess (??) it shouldn’t be so shocking that Lestat is a monster and an actual canonical r*pist and seems to brush the whole thing off. But then also I’m sort of putting it down to Anne Rice very being weird in general and ideas about sex maybe (??) being different in the 90s. I don’t know I am reaching here

- Okay so that grimness aside, this is possibly my favourite book so far (I’m about halfway through). Tied with The Vampire Lestat maybe. After the drudgery that was Queen of the damned (oh the drudgery), I am loving the action and silliness of this story, the actual Lestat character development. There is less vampires sitting round a table telling their life stories and more actual stuff happening. There’s also some really beautiful writing and it feels quick and fun and romp-y to read. Pure vampire escapism.

- however I am PISSED that I waited 3 books to read a sex scene and what I got was a horrifying assault scene and…..a straight sex scene. An overly detailed yet somehow blandly vanilla straight sex scene. How dare you, Anne?? I wonder if this is the homophobia of time- Anne may have been all for mlm but felt too uncomfortable to actually write two men having sex. Or most likely it just wouldn’t have gotten published. I know vampires are supposed to be ace but it seems sort of….suspicious that Anne Rice the erotica writer has chosen this rule for only her male/male character relationships. Anyway basically we have been robbed

- There is some really great Louis content in this book. There is an absolutely beautiful scene where we learn more about his living situation and him as a vampire. I think he goes a bit wooden doll-ish character-wise in TVL and QotD and here he is actually his own personality again.

- However where is Armand, my evil rat baby

- I think what a lot of people hate about the books after Qotd ( though I speak as someone early on- I’m sure they will get really terrible soon) is that Lestat doesn’t stay dedicated to Louis. In fact he falls in love with anyone he gets close to. I think it’s easier reading it now, knowing that Lestat and Louis are going to end up together. But also I see them as a poly relationship (ish) and that they are working on their own stuff before being fully together again. As a poly independent person, I think this is great, and would honestly find the relationship a bit boring if it was just happy and monogamous forever. I am all about the drama lol

-on a lighter note god I love Lestat becoming human and remembering the horror of being a disgusting meat sack. Like him accidentally weeing on himself and gorging himself on chocolate. And almost dying of the flu because he’s not realised he needs a coat in the snow. I love that murder himbo

So yes halfway through and probably about to eat my words on supporting this (currently wonderful) vampire trashfire of a novel. David does seem to suck so far, but not more than say, Marius. And I find Marius’s POV fun to read even if he is an arrogant creep.

What do you all think of this novel? Thank you for coming to my tedtalk on old vampire books nobody reads anymore

I suppose it's a difference between cultural views, and personal experiences. In my country(or at least within the parts and communities of it i grew up in) it's basically accepted as fact that there will always be a favorite in a family with more kids. Like... its ubiquitous, and everything i've seen over the course of 30 years on the earth has told me that regardless of what parents say, it simply is human nature that one kid will be the favorite, to a lesser or greater extent. The only thing that's different is to what degree one kid is favored over the others.

Of course, who said favorite is, is always a matter of debate within families. Within my direct family, of my mother's 3 children, i would say it was my brother, my brother said it was my sister, and my sister said it was my brother, but has probably changed opinion over to saying it was me due to some developments and personal fallouts.

I get though, how other cultures and countries have very different opinion on the matter, and how it makes them judge the idea that aang(probably unconciously) had a kid he gave more attention than the others, way more harshly than i do.

...then again, related to how you pointed out, this was made with very deliberate intention, by americans, who's values probably alligns more along the lines of your views than mine, so who the hell knows.

Regardless, i think we can both agree that the way it was actually handled made Aang seem WAY more directly and blatantly favoring Tenzin, is simply far, far too unbelievable when compared to everything else we know about him and his personality.

Also, something else that struck me, is that there is also the age factor to take into consideration.

Tenzin is far and away the youngest of his siblings, with both the other two being considerably older than he is, meaning that even if Aang was the most perfect parent in the world, Tenzin would still get a lot more attention than his big siblings as the baby of the family... But with how the subplot was written, i honestly think the writers didnt consider that fact when having his other siblings pick on him for being daddy's golden boy.

Honestly, it would have been absolutely hilarious if they talked about all of this with Katara, and she revealed that what actually happened was that the reason Aang took tenzin on more trips than the others, is because when they became moody teens, they stopped wanting to go on field trips with dad anymore(while Tenzin did), and they had conveniently rewritten that part out of their own recollection of events... But i really doubt thats what they were going for.

Yeah, there's just no way to work this story so that someone doesn't come across as a complete jerk. XD

Interesting point about favored children in different contexts, but at least in my experience, while parents are certainly human and could like one child more than the others, it's considered the worst kind of parenting to let the children perceive it. It also certainly doesn't help that Aang is favoring the child who matches his own ethnic identity, making him look kinda racist and a Bender-supremacist. If I had to pick a child for Aang to favor, it would be Bumi, who actually seems to sometimes know how to have fun in a way that doesn't involve bullying people, so that it's at least about compatible personalities.

I was tagged by @terryfphanatics​ (thanks! sorry I took forever - I started answering these & didn’t finish and just remembered it was in my drafts)

What book are you currently reading?

The Two Towers! which upsets me bc I’ve been at it since August (technically - I wasn’t ‘at it’ in, uh, October, November, December, January, or February, for lack of time - but I’m back at it now, and I even convinced myself to start over from the beginning so I didn’t forget anything)

What's your favourite movie you saw in a cinema this year?

sorry but the last time I went to a movie theater was probably in 2017, 2018 at the latest, so... yeah I’ve got nothing

What do you usually wear?

jeans, boots, at this point in the winter usually some combination of flannels, sweaters and/or sweatshirts. (I’ve been really cold lately)

How tall are you?

5′6″ ish

What's your star sign?

capricorn

Do you share your birthday with a celebrity or historical event?

I do, yeah

Do you go by your name or a nickname?

mostly nicknames, I have quite a few at this point. I’ve yet to pick one to use on here, I should probably do that soon, I’ve been meaning to for years now

Did you grow up to be what you wanted to be as a child?

I don’t recall ever wanting to be anything in particular as a child, honestly, but I can say that so far I’ve pretty much stuck to the career path that first caught my interest in high school, if that counts

Are you in a relationship? Who is your crush if not?

nope! and it’s been a very long time since I’ve had a serious crush either, which I’m honestly grateful for. I wouldn’t want to be in a relationship at this exact point in my life anyway, so I’m just gonna keep vaguely admiring every funny girl who’s kind to me for the time being without actually developing feelings for her. I hope It seems to be going well so far mostly

What's something you're good at versus something you're bad at?

(I’m trying to think of two that relate to each other)

I am very good at drawing objects and not at all good at drawing people! technical plans are something I’ve dealt with extensively both academically & professionally, but in the more general sense I’ve always been an ‘I can’t draw’ person. tbh I should find some of those artists who complain about backgrounds and just do all their architecture etc for them

Dogs or cats?

nothing against dogs but cats for sure, always cats

What's something you'd like to create content for?

not to sound like a jerk, but I work in the arts industry & really hate the place ‘content creation’ has come to occupy in everyone’s vocabulary, even though I totally realize that in a context like this it’s probably just trying to be a vague enough term to be inclusive of the many different things people can create. I like writing the fanfic that I do, so without switching subjects, I would like to get better at drawing people because sometimes I have ideas that would be better expressed as images or even short comics

What's something you're currently obsessed with?

Obsessing over 60s who is my baseline so I don’t think that counts - but it’s been almost a month since I watched Holding Achilles & there have only been hours when I didn’t think of it, not entire days

What's something you were excited about that turned out to be disappointing this year?

Ngl, (& not to be a total downer, but) the last 12 months-ish have been an extremely busy/hectic/unpredictable year for me, with both the good & the bad stuff coming out of left field most of the time. So while there were certainly more than enough disappointments, for the most part, they weren’t the kinds of things you could be excited about beforehand (relatives dying, people fighting, strained relationships, illnesses, work stuff in a perpetual state of flux - or as I’ve taken to calling it: death disease & dubious employment). I suppose there were a lot of events I wanted to make it to that I didn’t, due to the aforementioned junk, and I certainly imagined myself getting to read more books & write more fics than I did, but that doesn’t feel like a good specific answer.

What's a hidden talent of yours?

I suppose that depends who you ask? There are lots of work or work-adjacent skills I could name that would be news to people on here, but those are such prominent parts of my life otherwise that they definitely don’t feel ‘hidden.’ But I guess even among people who expect me to be handy/crafty, more overtly artistic things tend to surprise them - like I’ve had people forget that I was the one who painted something, for instance, because that’s not the kind of skill most associate with me. (and I am very good with color & pigment tbh)

Are you religious?

nah. I’m not like, a committed atheist or anything either, I just grew up catholic & don’t go in for that anymore, nor do I have any desire to go seek out another faith

What's something you wish to have at this moment?

time uh, let’s say a haircut

tagging people kinda seems rude after taking multiple months to come up with so many kind of non-answers oops, but if anyone would like to copy the questions, either as an opportunity to do a little q&a or an excuse to tag/ask your friends, be my guest

This is the other part of the anon ask for character breakdowns.  This time, we’re featuring Archeologist Carter!

How I feel about this character:

As I mentioned in the Grant ask, I haven’t gotten past the first year of AWL yet, so I have yet to interact with Carter in-game.  I’ve seen screencaps, but most of my experience with Carter is from HMDS and HMDS Cute.  This is actually the first Harvest Moon Carter I was acquainted with, and I always thought it was odd you could phone the church in HMDS to remove curses and a different Carter would answer the line.  Technically you had two Carters in one game, hehe.

Carter has always struck me as incredibly focused on his work at the dig, to the point of obsession.  He’s a very hard worker, but despite that, he does enjoy the fresh air outside of the dig.  I never really think of him having many other interests outside of his studies and looking into finding out more about his ancestors.  Because of this, I feel like he falls a little flat.  He doesn’t spend much time outside of the dig, and when he is anywhere else, he seems to be focused either on work or how much he hates Flora’s cooking.  Oh, yeah, and getting his energy from the sun…  

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I honestly don’t really ship Carter with anyone because I feel like he’s basically married to his work.  There are other characters who have this, like Doctor Trent, but I can see Trent as more receptive to others’ emotions.  I feel that with a little more development for Carter, he could be someone you could count on.

Farmer x Carter: Because the main character is basically a blank slate, he could work as a good partner for the player.  The only problem is that he needs to find some more hobbies.  I mean, I appreciate that he’s a hard worker - and I think that meshes well if you play as a hardworking farmer.  The problem is that he tends to treat the MC like an assistant.  I think if he was written with some more development, he could be a good partner.  I guess this is an instance where fanfic comes into play, haha.

Flora x Carter: Again, if he was able to see her as more than an assistant, I think things would work better.  Their communication isn’t the greatest.  I get the impression he has a sensitive stomach and her serving spicy foods makes him feel sick.  If he just spelled that out for her and she was more willing to listen, or if he could, you know, cook for once, things would go better.  They do have an odd love scene in AWL that I saw online where it’s clear they have some sort of feelings for each other.  I just feel like it was portrayed in a really awkward way.  Then again, I feel like both Carter and Flora are kinda awkward in their own ways, hehe.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

I could see Carter becoming friends with the locals at the bar when stops by for a drink.  Honestly, I see Muffy and Griffin being friends with the whole town.  I feel like Carter values his alone time, and he’s okay with having a smaller network of friends.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I don’t think he’s a very popular character, so probably most of these opinions aren’t too wild.  Firstly, Carter’s age doesn’t bother me at all, and I think his design looks fine.  I thought of him as “sooo old” when I was a kid, but now that I’m older, I appreciate that there were older characters available to marry.  However, I think he could use some more development to become a better marriage candidate.  I don’t feel like they added enough to him in HMDS to make him a valid marriage choice.  With Cody and Daryl, I felt like there were far more interesting characters to marry.

I don’t dislike Carter, but I feel like he doesn’t have a good sense of other people’s feelings.  It doesn’t help that Flora is also stubborn in her own ways.  Them as a couple is a little concerning because I feel like they don’t communicate that well as they’re currently written.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I really wish that Carter was given more of a chance to grow more in personality.  His heart events with Flora fall a little flat for me, as do the ones with the MC.  I’d like to see him with a passion for more than just one thing.  I guess he likes taking in the sunlight, but have him practice Tai-Chi or something for variety.  I’d love some more scenes with Carter at the bar that are more than just him getting drunk.  I want to see him interacting with Griffin and Muffy in a friendly manner.

Thank you so much for the ask!  Have a good one! ^-^

Frenchie army here. about that anon asking about racism/kpop in France, honestly I don’t have much to add I share your thoughts BMT.does racism play a part in kpop not being more popular here?Probably. is that the main reason? No, don’t think so. I think it’s much more complex than that and i am personal.there’s an important asian community in France (mostly chinese), the Korean community is tiny and concentrated in the capital city. The average French person doesn’t know much about Asia and Asian cultures in general and even less about SK. Sometimes it just boils down to a very simple reason imo:it’s far away, we don’t have much connections/a shared history, our cultures are extremely different, the language is also very different etc also I guess most people aren’t really interested in getting to know more nor have the time/the ressources to dive into a whole new culture, as sad as it is. I’ve got many friends who aren’t interested in kpop because of its reputation, they don’t know much but are influenced by stereotypes, think it’s too heavily manufactured, and that’s it. Or some just don’t vibe with it, same way I have no interest in latin music for ex because it’s just not my thing in general. Also, to me it doesn’t seem like the kpop industry makes much efforts to develop in Europe. It’s still very much a niche thing here as BMT explained. Outside of East Asia, the big kpop labels seem to focus primarily on the US market- understandably, it’s the biggest and most influential one. As BMT said it’s also closely correlated to your age range and the platforms you’re engaging with.so if racism might play a part in why it’s not popular over there, it’s probably not the main reason imo. (Sorry for my crappy English btw! typical frenchie lmao)

Hey anon, thanks for coming back and bringing some more background info on the general audience and the communities. I think your point about not having a connection to it is important. Not the main reason, but it's one relevant aspect. And it's not like France doesn't welcome K-Pop. As PPTM said in her reblog, a lot of events and concerts were held in France, but it's also true that Europe at large is not a big market for this genre. And you're also right, because K-Pop does focus more on the US-market. In the case of France or other countries, this is a topic that would be better understood from a historical point of view and it would take a lot of time and work for me to bring that background, especially since my history knowledge of France hasn't been polished in a while. Yes, racism is a part of how white French people look at other cultures. And not just France. I'm not telling this for you anon because I'm sure you know this better than me, but the history of colonialism and subsequently post-colonialism, plays a big part here. And France colonized some parts of Africa and Asia as well - what was called Indochina. And in the postcolonialist era and due to migration, other cultures were beginning a quite difficult process of integration that ended up being reflected in art as well and what became mainstream and what not. In film studies, I read about Beur Cinema, especially the movement that started in the 80s - film about shared colonial experiences and cultures.

What I'm trying to say in very simplistic terms (if anyone wants to know more, you can do a little research about it), is that France is not a white homogenous country in which the citizens are mostly racist towards an East Asian country and that's why K-Pop didn't reach there as well. The issue is way more complicated and nuanced and I bet there are some studies and research articles on the K-Pop scene in France for those who are interested in this topic.

*For the original asker who wanted my opinion and that of anon, I hope this helps. And for you, Frenchie anon, please forgive me for my bad, under researched attempt at talking about French culture and colonialism. I mostly used some left over information in my brain from some other areas of research.

Ranking all the scream movies but it's probably highly controversial (expect my number one)

1. Scream (OG)

Nothing beats the OG and no Ghostface will ever come close to Stu/Billy. The combination of these two was literally it. A crazy guy + a dude that wants revenge and goes crazy in the process? Nothing beats them. They are the duo and they're combination that was not only the most iconic but they are also just so great killers. They planned it but their charisma added to the psychotic aura of it all. Not to mention the iconic characters that were in this movie and the relationship that were actually really explored in this.

2. Scream 3

People love to hate this movie but Roman was literally such a great Ghost face. That whole plan? This could easily be even higher but they kind of underdeveloped him a bit and he still is better than almost 90% of the others. I wish we had gotten a meeting or a backstory between him and Syd more and he deserves to be in another movie (besides Stu) because holy shit be was so interesting. Not to mention the solo ghost face? He is quiet literally technically the best ghost face but God was he also such an interesting character. Yeah maybe the movie set wasn't that great but it was so interesting to show how the public would actually realistically treat an event like this. Not to mention it truly also showed how everyone struggled and was not really fully coming to terms with it. This movie was a banger eventhough it had some of the most interesting side characters.

3. Scream 2

Honestly a great movie eventhough there were some cringe scenes. The motive of Miss Loomis? Genuinely solid and reasonable in a fucked up way. Mickey? Icon. Motive didn't really make sense but he popped off so hard.

Only thing that makes this movie bad really are some cringe scenes but then again they fit really well honestly when you consider this is Syd basically catching up on teenage nonsense. Oh and Randy should have survived but I am kind of still a bit weirded out by his character so I am not to saddened by it. Although I would love the plottwist of him being alive and being hidden somewhere to come back with Stu. (I am delulu.)

Would be higher because the story actually slaps but I love Roman way too much to put this higher.

4. Scream 6

I don't like this movie necessarily but there were some really cool sequences and actually interesting storylines plus they developed an actual plotline. Don't like the Ghostfaces in this (probably the least out of all the actual ones in the movies main story line) but actually interesting change up from the usual two ghost faces. Plus some of the shoots were so amazing and no one can deny that. The sequences they did with this really popped off. Are there many flaws? Undoubtedly (the plot armor for Chad is literally unreal and compares to no one in the franchise.) But sometimes I am blinded by the incredible chases they had for this so there's that.

5. Scream 4

Jill and Charlie's are just flat compared to other killers. Charlie sure is a brutal killer but his entire personality is bland to me. I feel like where as in the others at least had something going for them, he just made me feel literally nothing. He invoked no emotion in me and that is literally the worst thing he could do especially when we know how much he actually did as ghost face.

That love thing is also just such a boring excuse for a killer and Jill is just uninteresting to me personally. She was crazy but just in an unejoyable way that I couldn't bother to understand because her motive was bad/boring. Jealousy? Crayzness and fame? It just felt like people have shown different reasons for her but also want to claim she is as crazy as Stu but then she wouldn't need a motive yet people seem to justify her actions by something? It just seems like people like to praise her as the smartest when the reality is that was Roman. Yes she would have been far closer where the others not protected by plot armour but I just had no fun seeing her succeed as the killer where at least the others made me root for them sometimes in a "I want to see what it would be like if they won" kind of way.

I only rate it higher because the fifth movie was for me even more predictable than this one and frankly ass for me.

6. Scream 5

Amber and Richie are just so boring. Genuinely don't get the hype for them. Richie was just weird and had no charisma to him. Dude literally is just a walking red flag. Amber was just some wannabe Stu and people don't want to accept that. Dewey should have survived that movie. His death was literally so unsatisfying and you are telling me that the dude who survived everyone else was overpowered by some wannabe shits. You are giving him that plot armor to take it of not by someone who genuinely could overpower him like Roman, Nancy (a mother with rage has unbelievable strength) or Mickey but Amber or Richie? Please that is the most unrealistic thing.

And I hate the entire Billy's daughter plotline. Not to mention the fact that it is setting up to explore some dark side yet she keeps getting excused for her brutal kills? The way she slaughtered Richie is literally not normal. The OG 3 survivors killed to safe their lives but she is literally doing the same shit her father did. If she just slashed his throat sure but the way she attacked him multiple times? That's not a survivor that's a killer.

And Richie/Amber once again were obvious. Richie literally was weird from the beginning and no one would actually trust him.

There's also the fact that they basically just gave the plot armour to Chad and Sidney surviving this was almost as unrealistic as Scream 4.

This also started this weird family of victims/killer thing (technically it was 4 but this was the true start) something that was just such a bad storyline to me I could not enjoy.

Youzitsu 4.5

Author: Syougo Kinugasa

Illustrator: Tomoseshunsaku

Label: MF Bunko J

Release Date: 23 September 2016

My Score: 3/5

English Release: Seven Seas Entertainment is currently releasing this series in English under the title of Classroom of the Elite.

This is a side volume that takes place within the last weeks of summer vacation as the school enjoys themselves now that the special training is finished. In the first story, Sudou invites Ayanokouji to a fortune telling event, hoping to get Horikita to come. She doesn’t and Sudou’s not interested without her but Ayanokouji is intrigued enough to go his own and he runs into Ibuki. The second story takes place about a week before the first as Ayanokouji, Ike and Yamauchi go to buy a birthday present for a girl in Class D where they see Katsuragi selecting a birthday present for someone else. I liked this story because it gave me a lot more insight into Katsuragi and made me like him far more than I did before. The third chapter is more silly and it involves Horikita getting her hand stuck in a water bottle during a time in which the water is off at the school and she and Ayanokouji run around trying to get some water to get it off her hand. In the next chapter, Yamauchi has Ayanokouji pass his love letter on to Sakura. I enjoyed this chapter both because I like Sakura and because it made me like Yamauchi a lot more. He showed some maturity at the end of this chapter that I wasn’t expecting and it changed my opinion about him. Also, I was in doubt before about whether Ayanokouji was really that dense about Sakura’s crush on him but after reading this I’m convinced that he is. And I kind of really like that aspect of his character. Given what we know about his upbringing, it makes sense that he would have this surprising blindspot regarding people’s emotions and I think it’s that blindspot that will ultimately foil his plans. In the fifth chapter, it’s the last day of summer vacation and Ayanokouji, Ike, Yamauchi, Sudou, Kushida, Horikita, and Sakura are going to the pool. Ayanokouji asks Kei to come along and do something for him. The sixth story is like the b-side to this story that reveals what Ayanokouji asked Kei to do. The main thing that I enjoyed about this story was Ayanokouji and Kei’s interactions. Unlike Horikita and Sakura, Kei is fully aware of how two-faced Ayanokouji is which makes their relationship interesting.

Overall, while there’s probably nothing absolutely vital in this volume, there is a lot to enjoy and you get to know the characters more. It also foreshadows the next few volumes so it’s definitely worth the read and it’s a bit of a shame that the anime likely won’t adapt it.

Adaptation Notes:

The anime adapted the fifth and sixth chapters in episode 7 but it’s so different that it honestly doesn’t seem worth it to compare the two very deeply. The set-up with the group going to the pool and the boys being shady is the same, as well as a couple of lines of dialogue that are kept but it’s otherwise completely different. The most obvious change is that it takes place before the special training instead of after it like in the light novels and Kei is barely in the episode and instead Horikita takes on her role in the story and it’s a lot less interesting. Given that the point of the story in the light novel seemed to be the developing relationship between Kei and Ayanokouji, I have to question why the anime even decided to adapt this story. That being said, I do find the gags a lot funnier in the anime. I barely laughed in the light novel but the boys’ antics were hilarious in the anime.

This is the last volume that I own for now but I reckon I’ll be buying volume 5 soon enough because I’m becoming a bit addicted to this series and I kind of want to keep ahead of where the anime’s at. Plus, I’m excited to finally meet Arisu.