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#its a fantastic dynamic to read and it makes sense for them but do not do this irl it is not a good actual dynamic
The generational progression of team dynamics is truly so funny to me.
You have the Justice League and they're all coworkers. They're friendly and polite with each other but they don't really hang out together outside of work. Two of them might transcend the work friend dynamic and buddy up outside of work (i.e Barry and Hal or Ollie and Hal or Bruce and Clark) but you will never see all of them casually hanging out for fun.
Then there's the Titans. These guys are friends. They all have busy lives so they maybe don't see each other as much as they'd like to but they're all deeply bonded with each other. They make a point of planning big get togethers with each other unrelated to work. They know each other's deepest secrets. Their kids consider the other Titans aunts and uncles.
Last but not least there's Young Justice. Young Justice is the definition of unhealthy codependency. They're all best friends and they act like siblings but they might also all be in love with each other? Kon dated Cassie, hit on Cissie, flirted with Bart's clone and had a dream where Bart was in a cheerleading outfit and was with his other love interests and then just everything with Tim. Cassie dated both Tim and Kon, and then there's everything with Cissie. Bart admitted that Cassie made him 'like girls' (?), took Cissie to a dance, and is extremely close with Tim and Kon to the point where it could just be unhealthy codependency but it might be something more. Honestly this entire group is so intermixed and codependent it's insane. They go from 'i love you so much you are my best friend' to 'i wanna make out with you' so fast and with barely any breathing room. They are constantly with each other and hang out at least once a week. They cannot exist separately.
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novelconcepts · 3 months
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Another year, another absurd amount of books read (296, because if I wasn't reading or writing this year, my brain was on fire). I was asked again for my top books of the year, so here we go: 2023's top 10, in no particular order.
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This was the first book I read of the year--literally, vacated the hangout with my wife and sibling-in-laws to sit on their couch upstairs and eat through it. Do you love The Fall of the House of Usher, but wish for a nonbinary protagonist and a lot more mushrooms? This is the book for you! (T. Kingfisher is fucking rad, I made a concerted effort to only list ONE of her books on here, but honorable mention goes to The Twisted Ones for fucking me upppp.)
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A gay, post-apocolyptic Pinocchio retelling involving copious robots, found family elements, and a cool-ass treehouse. Klune always hits for me with his unrepentant queer family dynamics and sense of humor. Honorable mention to the first two in the Green Creek series (although that's got a lot more...adult elements in among the werewolves, you've been warned).
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I thiiiink I found this through The Homo Schedule podcast (PSA: if you missed out on Jasmin Savoy Brown and Liv Hewson doing a podcast together, now you know better), and it wrecked my shit. Tons of trigger warnings, as this is a memoir about abuse within a queer relationship, but it's so beautifully written. I personally suggest listening to the audiobook first, then standing anxiously behind someone at a book warehouse sale, hoping they'll set down the only paperback copy so you can swipe it.
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A fantastical-historical reimagining in which the KKK is filled with literal monsters, and Black women are resistance fighters armed to take them out. Visceral and intense, and truly an excellent horror story.
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Just. Such a soft time travel story about a daughter and her father and cherishing the time you get with loved ones. I was thoroughly unprepared for how lovely I found this one. It's very kind.
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Spooky house, take-no-shit redhead, protective sibling elements, bisexual recluse with a sword who really just needs a nap. I haven't found a Harrow book yet I haven't slapped five stars on. She's so good at character and atmosphere, and I'm always surprised at how fast her stories race by.
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The whole Daevabad trilogy (of which this is the first book) is just magical. A girl from the mortal world finds herself embroiled with the centuries-long prejudices and wars of djinn in a fantastical city. It's one of the rare stories of its kind that does have a love triangle, but doesn't feel like a love triangle; it's far less interested in the insufferable "who gets picked" than it is in the actual horrors these people are both perpetrating and coping with. It's an intoxicating ride.
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Fuck You, TERFS: the book. Given that fact, there's obviously quite a lot of transphobia to deal with, but it's very clear that those people are wrong, and it's a super-engaging (and super-oh-god-what-comes-next) witchy time populated with queer, protective, interesting characters I'm excited to see again in the follow-up.
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Have you ever wanted a haunted house story with visceral imagery and a rather lovely twist? Gailey has you covered. As much as I enjoyed The Echo Wife, I think I actually loved this one more, and it makes me so excited to see what else they've got up their sleeve.
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One of my final reads for the year, when I was just churning through hardcovers at the speed of sound. I love this book. I recognize it won't be for everyone, but it takes so much of what I love about IT (one of my all-time favorite books, despite its flaws) and twists it through the lens of an author who escaped the Mormon church. It's horrific, it's fantastically abstract in places, it explores childhood and memory, imagination and abuse, and almost every character is queer. It's a great "I simply cannot sleep until I've finished" read.
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thegoliathbeetle · 6 months
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you're about to spread your prucan ideology to me with all theses posts ahhh they look so cute and sweet and ARARARRARAR. 😭 its about to be a background ship in this thing im gonna write omg
Prucan is very cute <3 I think their personalities work together phenomenally well. It's kind of an old, classic Matthew pairing, which I don't think makes much historical sense, but I honestly am not much into Historical hetalia in the first place. I enjoy PruCan in human AUs,. I love Gilbert and Matthew individually and I think they are such wondefully layered characters and it's fun to layer them on top of each other. Pun intended :)
I think PruCan is one of the oldest "popular" Canada pairings. And when I say oldest, I mean, from the fanfiction dot net days. I think the whole "Prussia's dissolution" and "I'm Canada nobody notices me" thing is what made people pair them together. But I think their personalities are so much more than that, and so, I want to recommend some of my favourite PruCan fics to you, in case you ever want to explore it more:
Multichapters-
Elephant by BrewedAwakening
This is an old, old fic from the days of fandom of yore. I was in undergrad when I saw this floating around, and that was ten years ago. It took me until very recently to read it, and I can't believe I waited so long because it's very good. It also has excellent NA Bros and FACE interactions, quite a bit of RusAme, and some other classic pairings like Spamano and GerIta.
It's incomplete, which is a shame, but I still think it's a WONDERFUL read. It's about Matthew who is blind, and while I am no expert, from what I can tell, the disability is written very respectfully and is well-researched.
When I say it's old, I do also mean that the dynamic between Gil and Matthew is also kind of "classic". These days you see newer interpretations of the pairing where Matthew is more confident, but that's not the case here. Matthew is very reserved and under-confident, but it's written REALLY well, so it actually adds to his character instead of being tropey.
Snow White, Blood Red by Shadowcattxx
This is a fantasy retelling with elements of Beauty and the Beast, and it's got werewolves, and it is honestly one of the most incredible fairytale retellings I've read. I used to kind of cringe at werewolves until I read this fic and I am FOREVER changed. I kept telling myself "I'm going to stop after this chapter. I'm going to stop after this chapter." And I ended up reading it in 36 hours without eating or drinking much water. Exceptional writing, brilliant worldbuilding and plotting, fantastic character dynamics. Like with Elephant, this fic has a relatively conventional take on the PruCan relationship dynamic, wherein Gilbert is definitely more "in command" in the relationship, whereas Matthew has more soft power, but it makes total sense in the context of the story and it really, really works. I think this fic fundamentally changed me and my perception of certain tropes and storylines. If I ever write or publish any monster-related stories in the future, it will be because of this fic, because this fic completely rewired the way I thought about these tropes.
The Artist by Allavengedromance
Artist Matthew x Photographer Gilbert, with a very interesting characterisation of Matthew. Matthew is in an abusive relationship with Alfred (they're not brothers in this fic), when he meets Gilbert in college. The domestic abuse plotline is handled with incredible sensitivity and without any manner of voyeurism or glorification. The fic focuses more on the slow build PruCan relationship and it's just really really well done.
Oneshots -
If you want something shorter, easier to read since you're getting into the pairing, here are my recommendations:
Wait For You by Ludwiggle73
I would recommend their entire PruCan oneshot collection actually. This is one of my favourites, where Gilbert has a seizure. They're very good at writing a different PruCan dynamic with Gilbert as more vulnerable, and Matthew more caring towards him, and doting, which is just adorable and sweet <3
I also love Behind Your Back by the same writer. It's nsfw, with Matthew being a soft dom in a really wonderfully in-character way. I honestly love their treatment of both characters, it's very carefully and lovingly done.
I also have written a PruCan, if it catches your interest.
A Very Long Walk Through a Very Deep Wood - But I'd urge you to look at the tags since there's some mention of past suicide attempts. But it is overall kind of a funny adventure story.
PruCan is very fun :) I hope you enjoy it, and welcome to the club!
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lintpuzzle · 2 months
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In sharp contrast with olesia.love’s rejection of yugioh’s themes of friendship, clyde-side’s fic ‘keep the light shining’ embodies yugioh’s themes of friendship and human connection more powerfully than the original.
You’d think that’d be impossible to do considering, well, the everything about the original yugioh.
But I remember coming from the show as a little kid wondering why Tristan even exists as a character. He starts out as Joey’s bully lackey character and then when Joey turns good, he stays at about the same level of relevance, to the point that Duel Monsters didn’t know what to do with him, and we got a whole arc of him turned into a robot monkey.
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This picture kills me. “Tristan as a robot monkey.” Jumping the shark if I’ve ever seen it.
Why should I care about Yugi’s friendships with Honda if the show can’t even bothered to care about Honda? (ーー;)for god’s sake, even when they manage to turn his robot monkey voice into a human one they STILL don’t believe he’s the real Tristan, like how’s that for the power of friendship?
Thus, even though the Fanfiction for the show I read as a 5th grader didn’t make any sense (there’s no canonical explanation for the amount of hikari yami group fics I read as a kid), they were in spirit of what the show was missing: the natural chemistry, banter, and dynamics of the actual close friendships the show was championing. My first taste at a queer friend group, before I even understood what that meant. (Notice that Tristan is NOT included in the Yamis Hikaris.)
Thus, it was a genuine shock when I came out of Keep the Light Shining with a genuine respect for Honda as a friend Yugi’s outside of Joey. He’s just such a cool respectable guy!
And the best part is that the fic leverages the elements already present in original Yugioh to do so: the horror of prolonged isolation.
Yugioh’s season 0 is this perfect corollary to the phrase, “Don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.” Friendship for both Yugi and Yami Yugi in season 0 embodies “Don’t know what you’re missing till until you’ve got it.” Neither of them have had a single friend before, and the show manifests this as Yugi attracting preternatural amounts of cruelty from complete randos and a supernatural bloodthirstiness in Yami Yugi.
This prolonged isolation thus is what drenches season 0 in its terrifying atmosphere, and the companionship and connection the two reach in Death T makes for a surprisingly natural explanation for the more family friendly nature of Duel Monsters’ Yami. Friendship in season 0 means more than just inspiring speeches, it literally changed the tone of the entire show! From terrifying murderous Aesops to a 4Kids Dubbable merchandising machine, from cruel bullies to heartwarming companionship.
Similarly, IM OBSESSED with the isolation and fear throughout Keep the Light Shining. It’s oppressive, anxiety inducing, and depressing. An anxious people pleaser’s worst nightmare come to life. A haunted lighthouse with fatal rocks ashore, and SPOILERS nobody who could help because you were too scared to put your foot down when your boss backtracked on giving you a partner, and now you’re all alone on an island that means you harm.
All by yourself in dangerous waters.
And yet, there are still life rafts. Moments of light peaking behind the clouds, if you will.
It’s frankly fantastic how the fic captures the all encompassing paranoia of being all alone at a scary place, and then contrasts that with the simple comfort of just being around other people. The island feels almost normal when Joey’s taking lunch with Yugi, the fear of a poltergeist is nothing to the warmth of sitting with Marik and Ryou by a roaring hearth, blanketed by their soft reassurances and bickering, and even the poltergeist becomes a source of comfort—he’s proof that you’re not alone.
And Tristan somehow FITS RIGHT IN!! He’s not Joey’s knock off lackey, he’s the coast guard to your unknown waters! A quiet in the storm, his gentle professionalism is a balm to Yugi’s nerves as Yugi struggles with the protocols of terrifying storms and shipwrecks. Somehow, nothing is more comforting than opening that intimidating radio in the middle of nowhere and hearing Honda’s calm voice on the other end. HONDA! The most useless character in Yugioh!
It captures exactly WHY a friendship calmed down the wrath of a 3000 year old spirit, what made Yugioh so endearing in the first place! And while the original is great, this fic’s portrayal is so visceral. The power of friendship is not a speech that saves the day; just your friend’s presence is enough to keep us sane!
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jaskiersbard · 2 years
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Thoughts on Secrets of Dumbledore - SPOILERS
So basically I have a cold/sore throat from screaming at kids for four days straight so I’m not actually well and I was so close to not going on opening day in the UK today (well, technically it’s Saturday now so it’s yesterday but still) because I feel rotten. But I had to - as someone known for their Fantastic Beasts obsession, and having waited for nearly four years, I wasn’t about to miss out on this film on opening day.
There was a lot going on and I’m not well so I may have missed some things out or even missed bits in the film, so please bear with me, I’ve tried my best to remember as much as possible and I’m also happy to answer any DMs or asks if people have questions! Also, I’ve tried to keep it as in order as it happened as possible, but again, I’m ill and have probably gotten mixed up in places!
So, here’s my post about the film. There are SPOILERS below the cut so please don’t open the post and then send hate to me because I spoiled the film because not only is it marked and tagged, it’s also under a read more! You’ve been warned!
⚠️ SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT! SPOILERS FOR THE NEW FANTASTIC BEASTS ⚠️
Firstly, let me take a moment to say FUCK JK ROWLING 🖕🏻 ANYWAY, moving on:
First of all, I liked SoD a LOT more than CoG. Like a LOT more. It felt more like the first film mixed with a bit of Harry Potter, and even used a LOT of the same soundtrack from the first film
This film was funny in place but also REALLY dark in others??? Like holy shit???
I’m not sure how long after CoG the film is set quite frankly but I’m pretty sure at one point they said that it was a month ago??? Or Lally said that a year ago was when Jacob met Newt??? But then Bunty says she’s been working for Newt for 8 years and however many days… I don’t know, I thought it was the 30s???
Also it’s Autism Acceptance Month and the fact we’re getting Newt Scamander being his beautiful autistic self this month just makes sense ♾
So the film starts with Dumbledore and Grindelwald having tea which is kind of nice
Sorry to the Depp fans out there but Mads Mikkelsen should have been cast as Grindelwald from the start… I agree what WB did was appalling, but I loved Mads as Grindelwald, which I honestly wasn’t expecting
“Because I was in love with you” - HE FUCKING SAID IT. The gasp that went out in the audience was so fucking funny, like how do y’all NOT know by now???
NEWT IS MY AUTISTIC HERO 😭 I adore him, I almost wish the films were solely about him searching for magical beasts frankly
Newt helping the mummy Qilin give birth was so Newt, I love him, he was putting his head on its side and comforting her, I adore him
Grindelwald’s followers got the first baby Qilin but then the mother had twins 😭❤️
YES I CRIED AT MUMMY QILIN DYING WITH NEWT NEXT TO HER 😭
Newt cradling a baby Qilin is not the content I was expecting but I’m grateful for it
The Newt scenes remain my favourite in this film, and maybe I’m biased because he’s autistic and I’m autistic, but yeah
Pickett with his mini glasses 😭❤️
Teddy being in charge in the case was adorable like omg
Wooo Wyvern!!! I love seeing more beasts!
So apparently Qilins bow to those who are pure of heart and can also see the future or something?
Grindelwald kept touching Credence/his face in a way that made me VERY uncomfortable
NOT GRINDELWALD SLITTING THE BABY QILIN’S THROAT
Queenie is now a platinum blonde????
Theseus remains my hot husband 🤧😮‍💨💛 fucking adore that man and would jump him without second thought
PRAISE THE MAKE UP AND HAIR PEOPLE, THEY LET THESEUS HAVE A BIT OF CURL IN HIS HAIR ❤️👏🏻👀👌🏻
Theseus was hardcore judging Dumbledore for making that blood pact and I find that really funny??? He’s like “… why would you do that???”
I love love LOVE the Scamander brothers so much, I love their dynamic and them as individuals! The banter, the moments… love them!
I can relate to Theseus being the exasperated older sibling but also relate to Newt being the autistic one whose sibling is like “…????? The fuck???”
Queenie checking on Credence was nice, they have a couple of nice moments together, and I love that she told him that she doesn’t always tell Grindelwald what she hears Credence thinking
I don’t think I was supposed to be thinking “LESBIAN QUEENS” when Vinda and Queenie were in a shot together and yet that’s exactly where my brain went 😭
Jacob was still getting the biggest laughs out of the audience, I love him. He remains such a wonderful character even in the depth of a depression/funk
To be fair, there were quite a few laughs in the film and it wasn’t just me laughing, there were a lot of people of there and most of them were laughing
Noooo not Jacob’s bakery struggling because of the Great Depression (presumably)
LALLY IS A FUCKING QUEEN I LOVE HER
I love love LOVE the Jacob and Lally dynamic so much, it was one of my favourite things in the film
Bunty is the fucking thirstiest most desperate bitch. I don’t like the actress and I don’t like the character and every time she appeared and made a joke I had to roll my eyes. Her character is STILL very much “I’m in love with my boss who doesn’t love me back” and not a lot else
Shout out to the reviewer who said she was “one note” and another who said she was a “JK R*wling lookalike” lmfao 🤣
I love that Newt and Lally are already friends who have corresponded, it’s so sweet
Newt introducing Lally to everyone and forgetting his own brother 😂
I’m not sure but… are the films gonna make Theseus and Lally a thing??? There was a little moment where they met each other/were introducing themselves directly to each other, then they got paired up in Bhutan… idk, maybe just me?
BABY NIFFLERS GETTING BIG 😭
Also I think two of their names in the film are said to be “Alfie” and “Timothy”???
By the way, someone on Twitter that I was once friends with said a few weeks ago in the audio chat/space thing that Newt’s autism “disappeared” when he hugged Jacob (because that had been seen in trailers) and I would like to say NOPE. Not how it works, don’t care if it was a joke or if that person was autistic too, it made me super uncomfortable! And when I said that, she blocked me so… yep.
^Sorry but I don’t like jokes like that. Maybe I’m just sensitive but it made me, an autistic person who loves Newt and is so grateful for him being autistic, very upset and uncomfortable. Maybe some autistic people are fine with those jokes, and that’s fine! I’m just personally not, it makes me upset and makes me feel like they’re mocking Newt being autistic or saying he’s not really autistic so… sorry.
Knowing he’s autistic made me so happy and helped me accept the fact I was going for an autism diagnosis (and have since received the diagnosis that yes I’m autistic). Knowing this non-stereotypical character I loved and who’s played by one of my favourite actors is autistic helped me feel better during the process and made me feel like it would be okay, so yeah!
Tina being the head of the MACUSA AUROR OFFICE LIKE SHE FUCKING DESERVES, WE LOVE A GIRLBOSS
I love that Lally was praising the shit out of Tina and saying she was an incredible woman, we love to see it
Okay, on the topic of Tina… I wish there was more of her. I do. Writing that she’s too busy just seemed kind of lazy. She has like 2 minutes of screentime near the end of the film, first at MACUSA and then at the Jacob and Queenie wedding???
You can’t honestly and seriously tell me that Tina fuckin’ Goldstein would rather be head of the Aurors than try to help her sister or Credence???? Like yeah yeah yeah, she’s a career girl and all that, but also she was willing to lose her job and break the rules to save Credence before??? What the fuck???
Newt seemed super sad about Tina being busy and Lally jumping in to say how amazing she is… ??? I don’t know why but it felt like there was more to it than just her being busy??? Because I’m pretty sure there was a weird silence, and it sounded like they were trying to cover it up???
JACOB GOT A WAND 👏🏻🤧 it didn’t have a core but still?!? He deserves it
I love Teddy refusing to let go of Theseus’ red and golden tie 😂
NO BUT DID JACOB MAKE A WAND INNUENDO JOKE OR???? I couldn’t hear properly because my ears are blocked by my sister’s friend was sitting next to me and she started laughing??? Something about Theseus’ wand actually working???
I do appreciate Theseus just being the bemused and dry older brother, I know some of it is probably down to still being sad about his fiancée dying but still
There were quite a few mentions of Leta, by the way, which was interesting
I had some trouble hearing the dialogue at times, and I thought this might be just because I’ve got blocked ears from my cold - but then my sister and her friend (both of whom are not sick) also said that they struggled to hear it so… ???
NOT THEM CLEARING GRINDELWALD OF HIS CRIMES 😭😭😭 BE MORE FUCKED I DARE YOU-
Not Theseus getting himself fucking arrested 😭😭😭 my dumbass husband I love him
It’s the fact he got arrested going after the people he recognised from the rally where Leta was killed 😭
Newt was trying to go after Theseus as they dragged him away but was stopped because “not here, there’s nothing we can do”
Also Jacob starting to protest about Grindelwald’s name being cleared like “I WAS THERE, HE LITERALLY MURDERED PEOPLE” and the others having to shush him
NEWT KEEPING A PHOTO OF TINA IN HIS CASE AND HIS POCKET THOUGH 😭😭😭😭
I don’t think Newtina are together by this point but there’s no inclination they are or aren’t??? It’s like “where’s Tina” “she’s busy, she’s head of the Aurors” and then her conversation with newt is basically “did you do something with you hair?” “Just for the wedding” etc. There’s no kiss, no “she’s my girlfriend/fiancée/we’re together”, it’s very confusing for me
An instruction for Bunty’s eyes only… the fact she was given important jobs AND was the one to have the Qilin at the end… so cheesey. Sorry but I can’t stand her 😭 she’s the only character I dislike to this extent. JKR wanted her to be the main girl instead of Tina so bad and it failed
(I’m still at least somewhat convinced that Bunty got such a big role because Katherine called JKR out explicitly - more so than anyone else - for her bullshit, and it’s of course just a very interesting coincidence that Bunty - whose actress sucked up to JKR during one of the transphobic tirades - is suddenly given such a big part… 👀 … anyway)
Interesting to know that Wizarding world politics is just as corrupt and fucked as muggle politics
Dumbledore talking about what Ariana used to like and Aberforth like “I WAS there, you know”, such sibling behaviour
Aberforth calling the person at the door a sod and then apologizing because “sorry for calling you a sod, Minerva” 😂
The Albus and Credence fight was actually pretty cool, not gonna lie
I noticed in the scene with Grindelwald and Yusuf Kama, Leta’s theme could be heard in the soundtrack 🤧
Yusuf Kama being a triple agent was… interesting
Bunty continuing to be cringe by making jokes that it’s her husband’s case and he’s “so forgetful that sometimes he forgets he’s married to me”, followed by the most awkward 10-15 seconds of laughter I’ve ever had to sit and witness 🤦
I’m not saying she’s a pick me girl but she kind of is???
Nahhh but why were they suddenly swarming Grindelwald like he was a rockstar 😭😂
I do love Grindelwald just rocking up to this fancy ass dinner with his top buttons undone, bow tie undone, his followers flanking him
Vinda looked fine as fUCK in her suit, by the way 👌🏻 👀
Why the house elf conducting music??? 😭😭😭 stop putting house elf slavery in, I’m-
Jacob saying the Norwegian Minister of Magic looks like his uncle 😂
Not everyone thinking Jacob was attempting to assassinate Grindelwald 😭 he’s literally a muggle, how the fuck you think he gonna use a wand??? Use your brains???
Lally looked like a QUEEN in her dress by the way
I love Queenie low-key doing a little bit of magic to stop Jacob getting hurt even as she walked away with the rest of the acolytes
Newt snatching the photo of Tina away before the jail keeper at the Erkstag could take it 😭❤️
Not me crying at the jail keeper taking Pickett and Teddy away 😭 I was laughing at them both being in Newt’s coat and him being like “he’s a pet… he’s a pet too” but then crying two seconds later at them being taken and locked away
No but the laugh I let out at Newt doing the dance was literally inhuman, I canNOT-
Newt and Theseus doing the manticore dance was one of my favourite moments. In fact all of that sequence was amazing and I wish there were more sequences like that
“I am swivelling” “I don’t think you are” - GOLDEN
The big manticore was TERRIFYING by the way, it ate people and then spit them back out
Teddy and Pickett are not the duo I expected but they’re the duo we deserve and they stole the movie 😭❤️
I’m still crying with laughter thinking about Pickett falling with Newt’s wand and the Niffler jumping up, looking like he’s about to help Pickett… and then he soars past him to grab a shit ton of gold 😂👏🏻 beautiful scene right there, 11/10
NOT THESEUS STEPPING ON A BABY MANTICORE 😭🤧
The Erkstag place is actually terrifying as a whole because the prisoners are tied upside down and they have lanterns with these little firefly things next to them, and when the lanterns go out then the big manticore at the bottom eats them before spitting the remains back up for the baby ones to eat???
Newt and Theseus realising they’re still holding hands when they had Portkey-ed to safety and immediately letting each other’s hands go LMFAO JUST SIBLING THINGS
Jacob saying he got his wand for Christmas 😂
Not the Slytherins giving Jacob a bag of Cockroach Clusters 😭😂
Jacob calling Hogwarts students “pint sized wizards” LMFAO
Dumbledore giving points to a house that’s NOT Gryffindor?!? Unheard of! 🤣
I nearly died laughing at Aberforth giving them the worst looking food to eat and Theseus immediately tucking in like “after being in that dungeon, even this tastes good to me”
So Credence is in fact Aberforth’s son?!?! Jesus Christ??? I’m not sure how I feel about that like what the fuck (his mother was just “some girl from Godric’s Hollow”)
Also confirmation that Ariana was an Obscurial! I went “oh???” When that was revealed
This is probably just because I’m sick because I felt like this film was so long… not necessarily a bad thing but I’m not well so 😭
Grindelwald straight up nearly choking Credence for failing to realize there were TWO baby Qilins though
Theseus holding the baby Qilin 😭👌🏻❤️🤧 GOODBYE MY OVARIES I CANT-
EYYYY IT’S THE ROOM OF REQUIREMENT
There were 5 cases and they all chose a random one so no one knew which one was the real case and therefore none of Grindelwald’s side could know it either
So Grindelwald killed the first Qilin baby then resurrected it so that it would bow to him at the ceremony and put him in charge??? And Newt + the gang’s main plan is to get the alive Qilin to Bhutan so the election isn’t rigged???
I do love that they kept on reiterating how pure of heart and brave Jacob is 😭
Interesting that the decoy cases, from what I could tell, were filled with stuff seemingly related to the person who randomly picked it: Jacob’s had pastries, Lally’s had books, and Theseus’ had Quidditch stuff (perhaps hinting at him being a Quidditch player at school?)
Jacob and Queenie truly couldn’t have chosen a worse time or place to have their little romantic reunion 😭 like I’m happy for them but Jesus Christ it was so poorly timed???
They’re very sweet though, and him saying that his heart isn’t full because it’s always got room for her (or something to that effect) was so beautiful
Not that bitch (whose name I can’t remember, something Fisher?) taking the case Newt had and destroying it, and he thought it was his actual case I think??? 😭
I’m sorry, I can’t believe this is a whole ass film about a Wizarding Election?!? I don’t even like thinking about real politics, let alone fantasy politics
Also they went from talking about a democratic vote to deciding “hey, let’s let the magical creature bow and choose our leader” like, excuse me??? 😭
Not Grindelwald using Crucio on Jacob 😭
No but it’s the very first thing Grindelwald does upon getting elected, torturing Jacob, and people were STILL rooting for him, what the fuck-
Credence turning to the side of good seemed kind of out of left field, I won’t lie. Like I know Dumbledore said stuff to him after their fight and Grindelwald straight up choked him but also it just seemed a little… out of nowhere?
… of course Bunty was the one with the real case. Because of course she was 🙄
I wanted to cry at the alive-Qilin seeing her zombiefied-twin and trying to talk to her, and Newt telling her “she can’t hear you” and “maybe somewhere she can hear you” 😭
I do like that they showed the British MoM, the French one from the second film, MACUSA… it was a nice little callback if nothing else
NAHHH NOT ME CRYING WHEN IT SHOWED TINA AT MACUSA WATCHING NEWT WITH THE QILIN 😭😭😭 I KNOW THE BACK OF HER ANYWHERE, EVEN BEFORE THEY SHOWED HER FACE
Not the Qilin bowing to Dumbledore, meaning he’s pure of heart 🤨 but I did laugh when he was like “… oh no no no no no-” LMFAO
THE BLOOD PACT BROKE AND GRINDELDORE HAD A FIGHT BUT DIDNT KILL EACH OTHER
Grindelwald really fell backwards off the mountain and disappeared
Look I’ll admit it’s been a while since I watched the first two films but… sometimes during the film I was like “… what is happening”, and that’s how I felt about the blood pact breaking. Like sure “he shot to harm and I shot to protect” but…? What??? Maybe I’m just stupid 😭
I’m 90% sure Credence died off screen after Aberforth took him home. It’s made very clear he’s dying but they don’t show an actual death so who knows anymore???
NEWT WAS STIMMING NEAR THE END BY RUBBING HIS COAT POCKET I CANT 😭❤️ THANK YOU EDDIE FOR THE AUTISTIC NEWT CONTENT
No but I had to try very hard not to do some hand flapping at the sight of Newt stimming, it just makes me so happy 😭❤️
Bunty: *sees a photo of Tina in Newt’s case* // Me: LMFAO sucks to be you bitch
I hope she cries at the future newtina wedding 🙃
At least she seems to accept that Newt loves Tina I guess??? If I had to say one positive about her???
Jacob and Queenie have spent however long apart and suddenly they’re getting married??? Even though in the last one he made a big deal about it being against the law??? And it’s not like they’re in England by the way, they’re still in America and the law is still very much in place against No-Maj and magical mixing????
I love Queenie teasing Newt like “you’re nervous for another reason, aren’t you?” (Because he’s going to see Tina at the wedding)
Queenie’s dress and head piece was… a thing. She looked beautiful but it’s not something I’d personally wear myself
Newt being Jacob’s best man at the wedding and worrying over his best man speech was content I didn’t know I needed 😭 I kind of wish we could have heard the speech!
THE NEWTINA SCENE WAS THE FUCKING MOST AMAZING SCENE BY THE WAY
Tina is maid of honour 😭❤️
THE USE OF “Newt says goodbye to Tina” (aka THE Newtina theme), I was SOBBING
I’m still so bloody mad that Tina’s only scenes were 1) her just looking at the election broadcast at MACUSA (no lines) and 2) the wedding at the bakery. I mean yeah there’s the photo but still???
She looked fab as fuck, and I love her and Lally hugging but… yeah.
Small thing, my sister said Katherine looked extremely skinny in the film and I don’t know if that’s due to COVID or not, but… anyway.
Newt, Theseus and Jacob in their suits 👌🏻
I’m pretty sure Theseus made a comment to Newt before entering the bakery that just screamed: “… you’ve complimented how everyone looks BUT me” 😂 I can’t remember the exact comment but I’m pretty sure it happened
Cannot believe the approximately 15 people getting up and walking out before the credits even rolled 😤 like there were 30 seconds left and NOW you get up and leave?!?
Okay but who the fuck invited Bunty to the wedding when she barely fucking knows Jacob and Queenie??? And she turned up late???
The soundtrack had mostly pieces from the first film, a couple from the second, and then some Harry Potter soundtrack in there
My sister isn’t really a fan of the films but she has seen them and she didn’t like it 😭 she said it felt like it dragged and was super slow (and sometimes I admit that I felt that way a little bit too but whatever)
If nothing else, the film has made me want to jump back into writing newtina fics in a way that the first film did and the second film didn’t, so yay!!!
There’s a song (like a song with lyrics) that plays when Jacob is in the bakery thinking of Queenie and again at the wedding and then again over the end credits, and it’s called “Heaven” by Gregory Porter - it’s the official Jacob/Queenie song, let’s be honest!
So… to be honest, this felt very much like a final film. The blood pact thing is resolved, Credence knows who he is and is most likely dead (at the very least, he’s dying), Jacob and Queenie are married… I don’t know. It feels like it’s a final film but also enough there that there could be more films, if that makes sense. I feel like WB are planning to see what the box office/reception is before continuing forwards, to be honest, and I don’t know how to feel about it.
I really hope it’s not a final film because I would admittedly like to see more Tina, more Newt, more Newtina, and also that final duel between Grindelwald and Dumbledore. Despite how much I whine and complain, I’ll be very upset if this is where it comes to an end because this series does still mean a lot to me. It was definitely a HUGE improvement on the second film - in fact, this would probably be my favourite of the three if not for the severe lack of Tina.
I do want to watch it again, when I’m NOT sick and when I’m mentally ready again because mentally I’m all over the place at the moment, especially if this ends up being the last one. I wholeheartedly recommend the film though, I truly do, and I look forward to hearing what other fans say!
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sneverussape · 1 year
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Rarepair Tag Game
@snapesnailtape tagged me for this and imma give it a go. thank you, snail! :)
no pressure tags go out to @wellpresseddaisy, @greens-your-color, @momo-t-daye, @mmad-lover and @owlzerness, but anyone who wants to do this, pls feel free.
answers and fic recs under the cut!
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i don't have a lot of time or bandwidth to read to read fics outside of my main fandom at the moment (my evergreen trash man, sev) so i'll focus on that. if i think up any other rarepairs from other fandoms, i'll include them, but the fact of the matter is a lot of the other fandoms i'm in don't have quite as diverse a set of characters as this universe, so it's not as easy.
also general disclaimer that i read any and all pairings as long as the plot interests me, so i've probably seen this man shipped with everything at this point :)))
without further ado and in no particular order --
snilch. trust me, i wasn't sure about this pair either but, as with many others, the fic Father to the Man by Delphi absolutely floored me and convinced me of its potential. i think i read The Lad is Gone shortly after and it was just...i was sold. sold, i tell you. adjacent readings that i can recommend is one where filch is the main character but sev shows up a lot in it too: ozma's Squib series on ff net is fantastic. (also features filch accidentally almost killing sev with his newfound powers and rolling in guilt for it)
snetunia. this is just a delightful and guilty little pairing that i absolutely love. they're more alike than they are different, given their personalities and their view of the world. petunia is cynical, hateful and spiteful, and is an excellent mirror to snape and his own flaws. A Part of Yesterday is one of my fave fics for them and so is Abide in Me (Love is Not Enough). A Fish Without a Bicycle satisfied a sense of fluff and Always is a poignant little fic wherein they're all miraculously friends, which was a refreshing change.
snagrid. just rediscovered this quite recently actually because i remember there used to be a site dedicated to this pairing. Thief in the Night rekindled my love for it. there's just something about a gentle giant and an acerbic potions master with their massive size differences and the fact that hagrid really doesn't care for sev's frilled-lizard act that makes for fun reading. they also make for good friendship fics, like in It Was the Tea!
stonks. it was @chiwi-la-capybara's story, The Itch, that really hooked me into this pairing. i loooove the dynamic and potential they have, with tonks being a clumsy and fun-loving cop while sev is just...the way he is. :)) Escape is a good action-filled fic too and has them both playing the roles they're assigned to play.
toby/eileen!!! you know i had to put this in. i count them a rarepair because i'm of the what-if-toby-and-eileen-actually-did-get-along line of thinking. one of the most recent ones i've read is Over the Edge which i think captures their relationship(s) perfectly.
i've lost so many good fics over the years due to forums shutting down and links being thrown to the wind but if y'all have other recommendations for these pairings pls share! :)
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alienfuckeronmain · 2 years
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i know you’ve moved on from stargate atlantis but i remember your fabulous powerpoint and i’ve just watched the shrine for the first time and i have to ask what your take is on the mckay/keller ‘i love you’ thrown in at the end there. it just feels so forced to me!!!!! why would they do that, honestly. I get the sense that you’re a ship-and-let-ship kind of person - do you see any value in the rodney/jennifer canon relationship?i read fanfic before i started watching the show so i am pretty dyed in the wool john/rodney, and maybe that made the ‘i love you’ in this episode particularly grating to me
I will never move on from stargate atlantis, even if I'm not writing fic for it that show is so very very dear to my heart and I will always love it. I still talk about it like once a day at least!!Those are my best friends!!! John Sheppard is and forever will be one of my very very very favorite characters. Just two days ago I left a long sappy comment on one of Joe Flanigan's IG posts and he liked it and I cried. SGA is PRECIOUS to me, make no mistake <3
Anyway, yeah, The Shrine. Jennifer. I actually LOVE Jennifer and Rodney's relationship, solely for all it adds TO my McShep headcanons. It just strikes me as being a deeply realistic arrangement for both Jennifer and Rodney to fall into--how many times have I seen smart, lovely, self possessed women latch onto a mediocre looking man who is sort of an asshole because she has at least seen him at his worse and identified he's not dangerous or violent? How many times have I seen a repressed gay man date a beautiful, successful woman and pat himself on the back for Unlocking the Achievement of heterosexuality, without failing to realize she's a replacement for his mother and he only likes her for what she represents to him societally, and the cultural capital she can give him? It's a tale as old as old as time and its beautifully illustrated with these characters. I like it because its realistic, it makes sense to me and falls in line with how I characterize them.
Lastly, it's a fantastic impetus for Rodney to realize how he feels about John, and also for John to make a fucking move. I tend to see John as waiting out some long game--content to be by Rodney's side eternally as his favorite person and best friend with room for Rodney figuring out its maybe more eventually. But there's no real threat to this dynamic until Jennifer. Rodney dates Katie brown for a year and they have like four dates tops. She's his girlfriend in name and nothing else and we only see John panic about it when Rodney is like "I'm gonna pop the question" and John is like WHAT THE FUCK because he didn't see them as serious. But he sees Jennifer as serious right away--she's Rodney's proclaimed comp het type exactly (scientist, blonde), and she is less socially awkward than Katie and likely more capable of articulating what she wants. John realizes he needs to actually do something or say something if he wants to keep Rodney, and Jennifer is the change that brings that about. I also think she would help Rodney realize he was gay too, because she IS his perfect woman on paper, but he is still unhappy with her. I think he views their relationship as acquiring an asset, and once the asset is acquired he is Doing Life Right. But of course, he cannot love her, he's already in love with John and has been for years but is too repressed to realize it. Sometimes it takes getting the thing you think you Want to realize it's not the thing you actually want or need. I wrote a whole fic about this, it's called Holy Rivers.
From a writing perspective, it's a shit romance. It reduced a good, interesting, complex character (Jennifer my beloved) as a prize to be won, and transforms Rodney into the shitty nerd writers shitty nerd self insert. In the script, I hate the romance. But the way I view media is always through the lens of "if these were real people free of the constraints of being on a shoddily written TV show, what would their motivations be?" And then I write about those real people. And i like the subtext it brings through that lens!
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Right.
So... apparently there’s fans who believe that Athrun loved Lacus and that is why the memes about Kira stealing girlfriends exist. But I must admit I never got the impression that Athrun ever saw his engagement to Lacus as anything more than a political alliance that was in everybody’s best interest.
And watching GS again I have to say I am doubling down on my headcanon because... well...
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Their dynamic is so...
Basically Athrun is so not emotionally available to Lacus... like at all. 
It’s so Scorpio of him to put up emotional barriers any time she tries to get close. Like in the screencap above where he actually refuses her touch and walks away from her.
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And I get the sense that in the early episodes of GS Athrun didn’t understand what it meant for him to want to open up to someone and to actually want to be  present in a dynamic with someone. 
His dynamic with Lacus was something that was an expectation set by others after all. So there’s an element of forced interaction between the two of them.
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Yes, there’s all the haros he’s given her, so there is definitely a sense of Athrun expressing something about his inner self through the creation of objects that he then gives her. 
It’s just that given the current state of their interactions early on in GS + the fact that their engagement is very likely the result of a desirable political alliance because of their respective fathers, there’s an element of “doing what a good fiancé would do.”
I’ll not deny that he very likely cares for Lacus. I think it’s completely undeniable actually--the haros being evidence of it.
It’s just that in a situation such as theirs where they are initially forced to interact with one another because they are to be married someday, I imagine both Athrun and Lacus came into this engagement thinking “ok this is who I am supposed to marry” instead of “ok this is who I want to marry.”
And so the basis for their dynamic is this forced interaction that they both have to make work because other people have told them it needs to work. Both Athrun and Lacus then brought their own personalities into the dynamic in an attempt to meet this external expectation.
I also have to say that as a fellow water sign, I can’t imagine that Athrun found it satisfying to not feel an emotional resonance to Lacus. I say that because if he felt that emotional resonance, his attitude towards her would be different.
Instead, he appears to be annoyed by her...
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Hell, he didn't even seem to want to go on a rescue mission to find her when she disappeared and was picked up by the Archangel.
And even if the marriage wasn’t arranged by their parents (I don’t remember honestly) and Athrun and Lacus are childhood friends and he proposed to her...
He’s kind of a cranky and mean fiancé to her if I’m honest...
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I love Athrun but that was a dick thing to say, Lacus was worried about him and he turns his back on her and gives her a nasty answer. 
It doesn’t surprise me that Lacus ended with Kira because, unlike Athrun, Kira was able to meet her emotionally where she was at.
So I think that’s why later on in the story Athrun says that Lacus is his ex-fiancé because he was an idiot. He simply had not realized what he wanted because he was doing what was expected of him.
Living to fulfill other’s expectations without looking into one’s heart is always a recipe for disaster and unhappiness.
I think this is my third time watching GS (I swear just how I only read Soul Eater for Soul and Maka, I only watch GS for Athrun and for asucaga) and it’s really cool to be able to discern Athrun’s character arc at its early stages because part of his growth revolves around overcoming his daddy issues so that he can open up emotionally.
Ah, of course, I have to say that this ramble is inspired and influenced by this fantastic analysis that I found on the topic by someone else who agrees that Athrun cared for Lacus but didn’t love her in the romantic sense.
I have to admit that seeing how Athrun behaves with Lacus and comparing that to how he behaves with Cagalli is a dead giveaway of the state of his relationship with Lacus.
Anyways. 
Is there anyone out there in this fandom that still nerds out about this stuff?!!!!!!!!!
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444lpblue · 1 year
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Heavenly Delusion #1 - Heaven and Hell
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Heavenly Delusion #01 Screenplay: Makoto Fukami Storyboard: Hirotaka Mori Batte Scene Storyboard: Tetsuya Takeuchi- Episode Director: Hirotaka Mori Animation Director: Yuuko Yoshida, Ryouta Furukawa, Ai Watanabe Assistant Animation Director: Mayu Gushiken
I… I mean, what can I say? Welcome to Heavenly Delusion, folks. If you haven't watched the episode, go do it right now! What are you doing here? And if you have, let's talk about it.
Heavenly Delusion has been one of my most anticipated anime of the entirety of 2023. The manga is gripping, thrilling, and fun in its characters, making it one of my favorite manga of all time (definitely in my top 5). And how was the anime? I don't want to sound like a fanboy gushing over everything, as that would be biased and totally not good for someone who tries to write about anime objectively. But, I really don't have much else to say except gush over it. My review will not contain any spoilers from the manga, nor will I try to sneak in bits and ruin the experience for you, so anyone can feel free to read this.
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You start off the episode by being greeted with luscious green and bright red tomatoes and are introduced to this beautiful facility with seemingly children to teenage students running around looking happy. But in every shot, there's a constant sign of this almost chilling vibe to the whole place. The music, unlike the bright atmosphere the initial moments try to portray, is soft and almost solemn in its delivery.
Eventually, the camera pans to Mimihime (in a fantastic shot), who's overlooking the other kids as her friend, Tokio comes to talk to her. There's still nothing wrong with this whole situation but the use of voyeuristic style shots by Director Mori Hirotaka creates an unnerving feeling as if someone were secretly recording them. It's disconcerting, and the shots felt as if they could have been done in real life. This sense of creepiness makes the situation feel odd, despite no clear indication of anything wrong happening. Then we're introduced to another set of characters, Maru and Kiruko
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While the placement of the shots is similar and just as great, the environment is largely different. You get a huge feeling of "density" as soon as they switch to these two. The bright greens and heavenly location are now gone, replaced with abandoned buildings and overgrown grass. I can't find another word to describe its visuals except "dense". It's all so dense. The beautiful background work by Kaneko Yuuji is so detailed in its presentation that it's almost hard for my eyes to perceive all the details at a first glance. The colors of a dead, desolated city would likely be drawn as dull and lifeless by many other people, but the use of bold colors and heavy shading creates a beautiful presentation that complements the character design greatly and serves as a great contrast to the environment of the facility. I can go on and on about the specifics of the scenes as there is an endless list of shots I've loved from this episode, but I can't make this just a summary of the episode word by word.
For all you animation fans out there, the action scenes in the episode were delivered with much more flair than I even expected. The dynamic camera work during all of it (hell, the whole episode, not just the action) was simply incredible.
My thoughts on the episode are already too long so I need to start wrapping it up. The backgrounds continue to be a highlight throughout the episode.
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I'd also like to point out how the direction manages to enhance the tension and creepiness of the scene beyond what was depicted in the manga. It's almost like the scene is right in your face, yet the portrayal is still indirect and subtle. We barely got to see the hotel lady's face as she's reacting to Kiruko and Maru's words, but the small actions and smartly placed shots are what make all the difference in changing the mood of the scene. You don't see it directly, but boy, does it raise chills.
There was also a change to the order of some things, which I thought gave the anime a much stronger point to end on. It ends with the old lady from the facility confirming to Tokio, who became curious about the outside world from Mimihime, that there is an outside world, but that "it is a filthy world, a hell where abhorrent monsters lurk." I think this sends the message of the show clearly and augments the effect of the title Heavenly Delusion. Is the outside truly hell? Is heaven just a delusion?
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leporellian · 10 months
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As a Figarohead and met hater I'd love to know your opinion on 'The Ghosts of Versailles'
realized i never got around to this, sorry!! the TLDR is that i think ghosts of versailles has some interesting ideas but i wish it hadn't applied those ideas to the 'third figaro opera' that it wants to be.
to start this at the root, i am Aware of the third figaro play beaumarchais wrote. i have Read the third figaro play. it isn't good. i can't really fault beaumarchais for it, because... well it was written in 1791 in france and it isn't hard to imagine why there might have been a noted downturn in quality during that particular time, but the thing is it lacks any sort of dramatic through-line with the other figaro plays. i GUESS it continues the shitshow that is the almavivas' marriage, but otherwise half the characters are straight up gone and figaro and susanna themselves are afterthoughts. the villain is like, a weirdly one dimensional hatesink. this isn't even getting into the absolutely bizarre and uncomfortable idea of the countess and cherubino becoming a relationship, because.... well, you know, Everything about that. so in short the 'official' third figaro play kind of blows chunks and, for the most part, people ignore it for good reason.
(also, while beaumarchais authorized performances of it he did not authorize its publication- do with that information what you will.)
however, because people like things that come in threes, people still try to make third figaro operas. but instead of taking only very loose elements from the third figaro play and then setting out to write something better- which feels like the logical solution here- people instead try to make the third figaro play work. which i don't really think it can, because you're essentially trying to stage what is a 1am ventpost with characters, but you know.
the ghosts of versailles does have some really interesting ideas. i like the idea of commentating on how we treat opera characters, and i like the 4th wall bending opera-in-an-opera idea because i love metatheatre. and i think this would have worked if this were another opera, or even if this opera didn't try to set itself up as the third figaro opera and instead was an opera that happened to have figaro in it... but it designates itself as the third figaro opera, and this is where this idea sort of backfires. the first two figaro operas are silly and fantastically slapstick, but they are also grounded in realism- we as an audience comprehend them as occurring in a 'real' world. to make the third figaro opera a more surreal metatheatre thing doesn't make sense considering the rules already established.
there's many other problems with it too. the very uncomfortable countess almaviva/cherubino thing still persists, and while beaumarchais's third figaro play had the semi-justification of 'is set in the 17th century and was written in the 18th century so ideas about minor consent weren't really there the way they are now', this opera was finished in 1991 and also takes place outside of reality so there isn't really an excuse to keep that in. why is marie antoinette there- she feels lazily tacked on as the figure of 18th century france that we are most likely to recognize, and her being there does not add any dramaturgical value to the work. (and also it becomes really weird given the Themes of the first two works- like, why are we trying to sympathize with the rich people suddenly, helloooo!). i think it leans too much on its predecessors at times instead of trying to do its own thing. the problem of the villain in the play making little dramaturgical sense is not addressed. it doesn't even really do anything interesting with the dynamic between beaumarchais and figaro, given figaro was a loose caricature of beaumarchais himself. but more than anything, the opera does not really justify its own existence, and it doesn't answer why there needs to be a third figaro opera.
why should there be a third figaro opera, actually? it's so, so hard to do. figaro himself is very hard to tackle given how he needs to be distanced from the audience yet already has opened himself up to them in marriage (see my earlier figaro audience proximity analysis). the count, who feels as though he should be the 'last' villain, has already been the villain. the third play beaumarchais wrote is an absolute mess. i think there's directions you could take a new take on it in, but you'd have to spend so much time figuring it out- and then there's the pressure of the other two parts being written by mozart and rossini. and then... well, it would be so final, wouldn't it. figaro is a trickster. tricksters aren't final. imagine trying to write a sendoff for bugs bunny- how do you do it? the trickster always lives on. i'd rather pull something along the lines of what massenet did with the cherubino opera and keep making spin offs- figaro on all sorts of adventures, because figaro by design cannot 'stop'. (that being said, if you want a third figaro play for whatever reason and you need somebody to write it- hire me!)
but the ghosts of versailles is still the best attempt at a 'third figaro opera', given that the other 'third figaro operas' range from completely forgettable to 'genuinely one of the worst operas i've ever heard of', so i'll give it that.
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icannotreadcursive · 6 months
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So, since totally cheating on today's OC-tober prompt, I am having some thinky thoughts about my relationship to fanfic AUs and what "AU" even means.
I do not think of myself as someone who writes AUs, and yet I very rarely write things that are canon-compliant. As I just said to a couple friends "I canon diverge HARD and I love me a “what if” but I do not “AU” in the coffee shop etc sense".
And that's the thing, when I say "AU" pretty much exclusively mean a story where the characters exist in a setting different from canon and have done so all along. Not "the world of canon but with some details changed" and not "the world of canon up to a point."
I think I've written one (1) actual AU ever, and I'm more likely to read AUs for Marvel and DC comics stuff which, by their nature, already have about a million canonical AUs anyway, or for media I'm not super familiar with or don't actually like so my interest in the canon setting is low to begin with.
From certain authors I trust, or on friends' recommendations I will read almost any kind of AU, but it's a reasonable generalization to say I just don't like them.
For me, a huge part of a character is the context they exist in, so when you take them out of their canon setting my interest drops a lot. And yes, I do know that some AU fics do a lot of really interesting things with translating a character's circumstances and dynamics from canon to an AU setting, which--for me--exploring that dialogue between the canon circumstances and how they've been rendered in the AU is the entire point of having an AU at all and just about the only thing that makes them worth reading, but too often they feel like dolls with familiar names and faces just grabbed and stuck in a different story entirely where they can't be the same characters I know, and I therefore absolutely do not care about them.
Especially for source media that's sci fi or fantasy where those fantastical elements are so deeply ingrained in the characters' experience and sense of self, I utterly fail to see the appeal of AUs that strip the characters of that context. To me, a lot of the fun of sci fi and fantasy is exploring the impact that the fantastical elements have on characters, so the impulse to do the opposite of that reflects a view of and relation to that media and those characters that is so alien to me I cannot fathom it. I have a similar, if somewhat inverse, issue with a lot of the kinds of AUs that introduce fantastical elements (they tend to feel shoehorned in to me) or switch out one set of fantastical elements for another (there was already magic there to be explored??? was the canon magic not good enough for you???). Overall, most AUs end up making me feel like, why did you bother writing this as fanfic for this media, since you clearly don't actually want to write about this media or its characters as they exist.
I'm not saying y'all who love to write and read those kinds of of stories are wrong, I'm saying I will never understand you.
All this culminates in my moderate frustration with the handling of the Ao3 [Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence] tag. Because it stacks under the general [Alternate Universe] tag, I can't just exclude that tag and free myself of all the coffee shop, modern setting, no powers, vampire, mafia, high school AUs I'm just not interested in without also removing all the "what if things when differently after episode 3?" type stuff I am into.
Cuz, to me, canon divergence isn't AU, it's canon divergence. Those + canon compliance are three different modes of engaging with canon that I think most fanfic people have an innate understanding are different from each other. It bugs me that one gets stacked under another just on the grounds that it's not the third one.
Most of the time when I'm writing fic it's either an exercise in "how would I have handled this story/filled in these gaps" or its me experimenting with how things could have gone, treating canon as a control group. Either way, there's a grounding in the canon setting the absence of which is what, to me, makes an AU an AU.
The way I see it, because my fics have that grounding point, they're simply not AUs no matter how far they end up diverging, since they're still set in the same basic world.
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reachexceedinggrasp · 4 months
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Yeah I enjoyed boarding school-genre (St. Mallory's etc.) books when I was little--- my grandma used to get them for me. I wasn't big on HP because it was boarding school genre minus a female protagonist, and not nearly as fun or as silly. Overall my issue with HP's reception is that it's very intentionally a riff on that genre, not fantasy (and you can see this with the historic aversion to categorising it as fantasy at all, like rejecting the Hugo award). Even right down to what you describe with Snape in that linked post is that his archetype is very common in the boarding school genre (mean teacher who is secretly nice) that I knew immediately he was going to be a Good Guy the Whole Time, though the way it's done is with more emotional gravitas and probably more moral condemnation than those teachers ever warrant, since the nature of HP evolved. Imo the silliness/whimsy never sat right with its serious war narrative and that's not for the better, because the former is what the setting is really all about. But regarding Snape, I think the reason his reception wasn't anticipated is because he's probably one of the archetypes most directly translated; when figuring him into the more serious narrative, much more resonance slipped through.
Anyway! I really wanted to know whether it was DHr or SHr that you were into because I find which of those people ship to be interesting lol. It makes much more sense that SHr fits into your BatB paradigm, though I have definitely read plenty of renderings of DHr which play into that idea--- those tend to lean into inventing more complexity for Draco than there are in the books, though, and yeah I would say on average DHr leans much more rivalshipping. I know what you mean about being picky with fic and slipping into something more casual since that's basically the majority of my fandom experience. If I'm genuinely serious about something (e.g. most of my OTP's) I have to write the fic myself lmao. Reylo is probably the one exception to that where I never ended up writing very much just because canon was So Good screams and there were a rare few handful of fics which leant more into that characterisation we both seem to prefer--- I generally just enjoyed daydreaming with Reylo and theorising than anything else lol.
Anyway, good tidings on your fandom adventures and thank you for indulging my nosiness ✨
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Yeah, pretty much. People seem to want to group HP with high fantasy and it has no business there, but you can see where the impulse comes from. It's structurally unsound because of the war plot and heavier themes clearly not fitting into the whacky boarding school setting. The genre conventions do not get along with what she's trying to do with the war and it leads to bigger and bigger problems as the plot progresses.
I think them being classmates who have known each other as peers since childhood fundamentally changes the stakes and makes your job pretty difficult as far as trying to set up a B&tB dynamic. They're much more suited to doing a play on Romeo and Juliet. Where with SSHG, half the work is already done for you, the set up is built in, all you need is a reason to force them to spend time together.
I did end up needing to write my own reylo fic for exactly this reason lol. That, and the fandom refusing to provide Ben resolution with Luke. But the reylo AU machine is fantastic, a nigh-endless font of stories to read.
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deepgrounded · 4 months
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20 and 25 with Nero :]
Excluding Weiss with 20
20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?
This is a hard one.
If we are looking exclusively at FFVII I almost want to say Aerith. I say almost, because I struggle to actually refer to what I believe their dynamic to be as friendship. It could become that, but it would be a long road.
Aerith would understand Nero. Despite his belief otherwise, I think Aerith would be capable of seeing just how truly miserable he is. However, it’s not even like she would like him- just as she doesn’t like Sephiroth. What sort of things would she see with Nero, who was made to be corruption incarnate? Everything about Sephiroth is wrong, everything about Nero is a mockery.
It would be…strained. Consisting of long gaps of silence, with Nero tucking himself away in a corner and Aerith sitting a few feet away from him. He refuses to look at her and Aerith respects that by looking at the wall. He doesn’t understand her, he doesn’t want to be hurt, he doesn’t know what to think of her— how much of her is human?
I think Nero would have an easier time speaking to Aerith compared to everybody else but Weiss not just because she’s not fully human, but because she asks him questions. Not the cold, detached ones Deepground’s psychologists would ask in order to determine if he was a threat to himself, no. Aerith would center her questions around a genuine want to allow him to truly speak. To ask him what he really wants. He threatens to strangle her with his Darkness, and she asks him why he wants to do that, if he really wants to do that, if it’ll make him feel better and what he wants for himself. If he wants more than what role he’s been forced into.
Maybe this can evolve into a genuine friendship, but that would take a long time.
And Aerith would not put up with him being absolutely terrible. This would cause rifts between them, with Nero insisting he can’t change, he is a weapon, made to kill. Must you deny a weapon of its sole purpose?
On a different note, I can easily think of another character from a completely different franchise who not only would be a more likely candidate for immediate BFF tier, but would understand him on some level and use that to make him far worse. However, this character being the way they are would be a massive spoiler for the game they’re in, so I’m not going to say that here. Maybe in a different post.
25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?
In 2021, I only got into FFVII recently, having beaten the original in 2020. I had no idea what went on in DoC at that point, so my introduction to him was DLC announcements.
Having no idea who he was, I stared at him trying to figure out his design. I didn’t even read the description for him, because I wanted to remain as spoiler free as possible haha. My reaction essentially was, “who is this guy?”
Now…well, I can gush about him for hours on end if allowed. He’s fantastically written, a rather unique villain and a character that felt catered to me specifically. He has all the traits I love the most in my favorites and then some. He is a character I had been craving to see in the setting of FFVII.
I love that he is extremely sympathetic, and paired with Weiss is the ultimate “embodiment” of the abuse Deepground inflicts- such as Sephiroth being that but with Shinra as a whole. I love that Nero is also…very much not a good person. I love how cruel he is, how he’s manipulative and awful and how I when I look at him, it makes too much sense for him to be the way he is. I wouldn’t expect someone raised in a place with no morality to be any different. Yet, with the way he’s written and portrayed that even with how awful he is and how he almost doomed the Planet, you want him to find happiness and safety. You want him and Weiss to be happy. I love how perfectly he and Weiss fit together, and how their contrasts balance each other out.
It’s a shame that DoC wasn’t good, many discount him based on that alone. But seeing Remake breath new life into him and Weiss is unbelievably exciting, and I can’t wait for more of them.
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coldgoldlazarus · 1 year
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Tales Of The Masks is such a funny book to me.
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Because if you look at it from the perspective of its framing device? I'm not a fan. The mask hunt conceit worked well in 2001, when the Toa were just starting out, needed to learn to work together, etc. Then repeating that the next year with the Krana felt a bit more forced, but was still sorta acceptable. But doing it a third time with the Nuva masks felt deeply stale, even as a kid, and on top of that felt like it ran counter to the premise of the Nuva Masks being one-of-a-kind upgrades brought about by their transformation. That's not even if you also consider the whole thematic angle of the mask's power extending to those in their vicinity, something something Unity something.
Looking for masks that really shouldn't make sense to exist in the first place, somehow got overlooked when they were searching every nook and cranny in 01, and just felt on some level sisyphean after gaining and then losing the Golden Masks that had all that stuff in one nice package anyway, just never really sat right with me. And now I have an extra layer of frustration from it given how some people point to that as proof of the early years being shallow and kiddie, unlike the later years with their edginess and violence.
But at the same time, when you actually read it, Tales Of The Masks also kind of embodies a lot of what made the early years so great; the fun dynamics among the Toa, the island's many mysteries and more and more signs that the Turaga knew so much more than they were letting on, and just some genuinely sweet moments of development of these initially-simple characters, taking advantage of the breathing room afforded to them by the lower stakes, that the Ignition years just couldn't or didn't make time for.
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Idunno. It's frustrating to me, because I've seen people lately dismissing 01-03 as nothing but shallow collectathons, and honestly it feels like G2 made that same mistake to some extent. And on some level I can understand where they're coming from, because yeah, it did lean on the collection aspect a little too hard at times, to its own detriment at times. (See again, all my complaints about the Nuva masks.)
At the same time, I feel like painting it as just "good guys find masks, fight bad guys, end of story" is just, a painfully reductive and bad-faith reading of those years, when they had so much else going for them.
The worldbuilding wasn't as broad and expansive, but it felt more intimate, with the MNOG games in particular really fleshing out the Matoran culture and day-to-day; while also leaving enough open to the imagination, paired with the pervading sense of mystery and unknowns waiting around every corner, to use that as a launching-off point.
The characters were pretty simple, yeah, but they worked great as part of a dynamic, with distinctive and enjoyable personalities thst could be played off each other to fantastic effect - and still are, given a lot of the posts that circulate the Bonkle corner of tumblr.
And heck, even the supposedly simple "good versus evil" conflict wasn't what it seemed at first glance, with the Rahi being innocent animals under Makuta's control. The Bohrok ultimately turned out to have a good and important purpose, that whole conflict only happening because of the series of catastrophic events that led to the Matoran being displaced to where they weren't supposed to be in the first place. And even Makuta himself was supposed to be more sorely misguided than genuinely evil, until his rework in 2004. (Whereas the later years, if anything, felt a lot more straightforward and shallow about that a lot of the time, even if the presentation was more visceral. Why do the bad guys do the bad things? Because they want power. Why do they want power? Because they're the bad guys.)
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Point is, I feel like Tales Of The Masks is kind of an interesting case study of both some of the best and worst aspects of the early years' writing both evident in full force. For many years I considered it my least favorite of the Chronicles books just because of its framing device, and it was only on revisiting it more recently that I was able to re-evaluate my opinion, and appreciate the genuinely good stories contained within. I just wish certain others would give it that same reconsideration.
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aurora-313 · 1 year
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Here's a question I've had on my mind- is there evidence in one of the tie-in novels or something (cuz heaven knows we didn't get anything in the manga proper) that isshin was the twin brother of kaien's father, or did you come up with that on your own? If the latter, what made you decide to take that route?
Not to say anything's wrong with that! It's just the personally I always got the vibe that isshin was a younger brother if anything. Not to mention he looked pretty young in the flashback of how he met masaki. I know, I know, aging is weird in soul society, physical appearances are meaningless but still- physically speaking, I'd put isshin during the flashback at early to mid 20s. (Which I assume was by design, so isshin wouldn't look too much older than a then-17/18 year old masaki.)
If he was a twin, I'm guessing isshin was the "younger" twin which is why kaien's dad was clan head and isshin was a branch head (kind of like hinata and neji's dads in naruto).
Follow up question- how old chronologically do you headcanon isshin and kaien to be as of black and blue, and how old physically does kaien look currently? Isshin looks middle-aged thanks to losing his spirit powers and aging like a normal human up until now, so how old physically do you think he was during the flashback?
I'd started this story before I even knew the novels existed, a lot of the things I've discovered as I've written BB were through osmosis. I've since read the novels and while I like elements of them, the world-building and such, I hold them in generally dubious regard. I'm kind of going with my own timeline here, so please excuse my liberties that don't marry up to canon.
As for Isshin himself.
Isshin having an elder twin brother is something I came up with to add more layers to the Shiba clan dynamics in BB verse. I wanted to instill a sense of history and weight behind the family's relationships with one another. This doesn't contain spoilers so I'll explain the relationship with Isshin and Inei here (and present a brief summary of Inei's character+history):
Inei is Isshin's older twin. Consequently he was intended to be the next family head when he came of age. But Inei was born extremely frail. I haven't pinpointed exactly when he died from his failing health yet, but its somewhere between a little after Ganju was born to after Kaien received his first Seated post in the G13 (I'll decide by the time its referenced in the story).
To cope with his physical frailty, Inei bore an ultra stoic demeanour that'd make Byakuya look like the poster boy of emotional displays. Professionally, he knew he couldn't swing a sword so he'd dedicated his life to studying all forms of kido, eventually earning his place as Commander of the Kido Corp (trivia: Tessai was his second in Command and protégé) and becoming one of the most revered Kido masters in Soul Society's recent memory. (Kaien might be a genius, even he can’t hold a candle to his dad... yet.)
While his children loved him dearly, Inei obviously wasn't the most emotionally available person in the world and lacked the social skills to really help them with more personal dramas (even his marriage was a rare instance of the Shiba clan agreeing to a political match).
Which is where Isshin comes in; the opposite side of the coin.
Inei's extreme stoicism was fantastic for professional discussion, but poor for delicate matters. Which is why Kaien mentioned the Shiba trio would often speak to Isshin with matters of the heart or seek emotional advice. Consequence of which, all of them (especially Kaien in recent decades) saw Isshin as their second father.
As a loyal younger brother and second son, Inei's ailing health is a key reason why Isshin was studiously attentive in medical lessons at the Shin'ou Academy (I've headcanoned he spent a couple decades in Squad 4 before joining the 10th).
Outside his own legitimate personal interests in the field, Isshin would apply what he learned to support Inei in any way he could. I think that perhaps a sense of guilt motivated his actions as well; that Isshin felt guilty for being born healthy while his older brother - the next clan head - was not, so he 'owes' it to Inei to help him in every which way he can.
Naturally when the Shiba trio came along, Isshin would take an active role in helping raise them too (along side the rest of the clan) to ease Inei's burdens. And when Inei passed on, Isshin saw it as his responsibility to look out for the Shiba Trio in his brother's place.
I apologise for this bit of rambling, but like I said, I'm trying to infuse a history behind these characters that give a certain nuance to their interactions, beyond 'Oh you're my crazy uncle I get to see at family celebrations every now and again'.
So I hope this answers why I chose that route.
As for their chronological ages:
Kaien is in the realm of 380-400 years old and physically late twenties to very early thirties. Kukaku's roughly 20 years younger and Ganju's about 100 years younger than her.
Isshin, I have as about chronologically 580-600 and physically in his mid-forties. I think living and ageing as a human did a lot to make him more physically mature.
Side note: I have this theory/pseudo-headcanon that a soul's aging in Soul Society is entirely/ largely dependent on how nourished that soul is. More nourishment = longer lasting youthful appearance. Which is why the vast majority of Shinigami have such youthful appearances, they have access to all the best resources to maintain themselves.
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butmakeitgayblog · 7 months
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Hey babe, first, wanted to let you know that it hasn’t stopped raining in my town you know since when? since you posted that midwestern Clexa fight, coincidence? Don’t think so 🤨
Second, been bombarded with that ops show too and I agree 100% with you, both in the copaganda aspect (they lost me at the mention of marine’s and middle east terrorism)and the thing about this new ships. I want to stop a moment in the answer you gave me a time ago about this wn comeback, so, even if they write them well (at first), never forget who’s behind these shows and suddenly this thing we haven’t heard about gets popular cos it has a wlw couple with amazing chemistry, they get increase in viewers so they explote it to promote their next season and then what? Sound familiar? We just can’t trust them anymore.
Third, I super totally agree with you on the Clexa lightning in a bottle. As one of the newer Clexa fans (next week will make one year since I saw the second season and told my sister “I’m sensing a little bit of the gay vibe in here, wonder who of the two will die”) I’ve seen already most of the shows one sees named in the conversation about wlw couples and let me tell you, only this one got me hooked both from the beggining and way long after its ending (hell it got me into tumblr and twitter, things I’ve never done before and I even bought a book about it “El legado de Lexa” to know more about this shitstorm her death caused). Whatever IT is, they have IT. I honestly prefer reading fics about them than get invested in a new show.
Fourth, do you really wouldn’t recommend Clexa to new fans? I mean, yeah we got hurt but they’re more than their sad story, they’re this whole community and I think that’s a beautiful thing. Personally? I wouldn’t recommend the loo but I’d tell them about Clexa warning them beforehand so they can decide for themselves? There’s this dialogue on a media fic comparing someone with a really good book that you can’t put down or let go, that even if it made you suffer and you know the ending, the feeling you got reading its unique and you just wanna keep back to it, and that’s this thing to me.
Finally, I love how you apologize beforehand if your opinion that you posted in your personal blog offends the people who asked for it and came to said blog willingly and with the intention to read it. You humble polite kiddo *pats you in the head affectionately*
Sorry about the long rant 😬, en resumen, this new show? not sure I’ll watch it, Clexa is the “el que no conoce a dios a cualquier santo le reza” of ships, I’m leaning more into the recommed Clexa side of things, we love you and your opinions.
And we need the reconciliation so the sun can come up in my town again.
There's a lot here 😅 not complaining tho!
Ok so the first real thing I gotta answer is about would I rec theloo and Clexa to people who haven't heard of it. My honest answer is would I rec Clexa fic? Yes. The show? Maybe, but it'd come with A Lot of caveats 🥴. Because the thing is, and I may be alone in this thinking idk, but I'm not really sure if someone can appreciate the entirely of Clexa and Lexa, and Clarke in particular, as characters or why their dynamics and eventual love story were so amazing if they didn't watch the show. While the Clexa movie is fantastic at showing their chemistry, there's things that happen within the show that effect them and speak on who they are as individual characters that aren't ever really included in the supercuts because they aren't together in them. Which I agree with! The thing is already 3+hrs long lol. But it does matter for context and it does hold weight in their story, both together and individually, so I would have to say to really get them you have to watch the show at least up until 307. I know there's people who write fic who haven't watched the show at all and I just... no shade! But I can usually tell. Cuz it shows.
But in that same breath the show got so fucking stupid and nonsensical I, in good conscience, have a very difficult time telling people that they should watch that hunk'a shit 😒 Season 2 was its best, let's just be honest, and season 3 was JRot's bullshit Frankenstein creation that he used as a way to shoehorn in this fucking AI plot from a movie or show (I can't remember which) that didn't get picked up but he was just convinced it was brilliant. He wanted to be GoT meets Star Trek or some shit so badly I just know he was pissing himself watching dailies. So overall it's such a double edged sword because yes I want more people to love Clexa, but at the same time the show overall is so gd bad I don't wanna put them through it.
About the Ops show, someone said it is copaganda which I expected, and not even actually enemies to lovers?? Which baffled me but apparently one of them is undercover and using the other one to get to their father or something? That's not enemies to lovers 🤨 that's manipulation. Which ok fine I'm down with that in fiction but if one party is unaware of your nefarious ways and is just interested in you then that's not... that's not EtL. That's just I was trying to trick you and caught feelings/I had feelings and then found out you were a liar. False. Advertising. 😤
Lastly, I'm a midwesterner we apologize for everything 🥺👉👈 knocked into a chair with my knee today ans accidentally apologized to it before realizing myself 😔. But really it's mainly because I know how easy it is online for people to think everything is a personal attack on them or their tastes when it's not, so I find it's just safer and more pleasant to remind people that I am just a person stating their own personal opinion, and it's really not ever anything to get upset about 😅
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