The Preferable Alternative - part 6

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An Idea has been Had : )

i finally got the time to watch love is better the second time around and im not at all shocked that im obsessed with the adult second chance at love jbl - have you met me.

but it also needs to be known that shiraishi is my beloved, the actor plays this role so perfectly and i want my bitchy sad gay to find true love

You know, I feel like purgatory would have been a perfect setting for Hazbin Hotel because it's a place people go to before final judgement or death.

YES!! Every time I look into the lore and setting of H4zbin/H3lluva, I wonder why this wasn’t something that was utilized. It would’ve added not only a lot of nuance to Charlie and her motivations, whether or not it took place directly in purgatory or not. If they had remained in hell, purgatory could’ve been an interesting wrinkle in her plan, or something that would’ve explained why all of the angels, not just the exterminators, are so uncaring towards sinners (the idea of “if you deserved a chance you would’ve gotten it).

Or, if Charlie had started the hotel in purgatory, then there could’ve been questions about why a princess of hell wanted to help them. Maybe purgatory is as corrupt as Heaven or Hell, and Charlie’s work is meant to be a criticism of the way institutions meant to help may not actually provide any real support. But the show side steps even mentioning working with these ideas that could’ve given much needed depth to the first ring of Hell.

And To clarify my thought from my last post, I think H4zbin would’ve been better served with a setting akin to magical realism, while maybe borrowing some biblical elements to explain where characters got their powers or legacies from. This would’ve removed a lot of the baggage these biblically based characters come with, making so the characters could’ve just been the characters without us questioning why certain elements aren’t addressed (i.e. Adam, Lucifer, Lilith, etc.).

generally beginning to realize that most people who thirst for the jjk men are doing so incorrectly and for the wrong reasons like just making up a generic archetype of a really cool hot guy from those het smutty self published amazon novels and pretending theyre the jjk dudes. when you can say anything about gege akutami but he gave us such a diverse & fascinating cast of hot dudes who are losers in such specific and different ways but always so devastatingly that none of them get any hole whatsoever

btw this might be me swinging a bat at a hornets nest but like. absolutely none of my disappointment from the tl finale comes from ship baiting or any relationships that didn’t happen (though to be clear, i think the tedbecca fake outs were meanspirited and served no narrative purpose - in noted contrast to the season's earlier jamiekeeley fakeouts, for example, which were explicitly there to demonstrate jamie's growth + maturity)

tedpendant is a really fun concept for me, and i LOVE the characterisation + thematic potential there!

but as someone who personally resonated with a lot of ted’s struggles, the idea that ted could leave richmond so… seamlessly, for lack of a better word, really doesn’t sit right with me. the thesis of the shows entire first season - assuming it can be said to have only one - was about how everyone needs the love and support of a community, whether that comes in the flavour of someone who hypes u tf up or someone who will relentlessly call u on ur shit (or, as happened quite frequently, both!).

rebecca, roy, jamie are the clearest examples as the characters with the most screentime: they were all deeply isolated and disconnected from the people around them, and that was making them miserable. the connections they made with the team, the vulnerability they finally allowed themselves to express (the ghost banishing ceremony comes to mind!), and them going on to want *more* out of their life are what made their arcs about *progression* rather than *regression*. without that clear theme of compassion + community inspiring positive growth in everyone who encounters it, there is, frankly, no season one.

my personal favourite scene from season one comes right after michelle walks away from ted, when they’ve agreed to get divorced. ted sits down on the bench looking gutted, and a little shell shocked - and beard sits down with him. hands him the drink, and they sit there together. silent, but together. to me, that scene is an implicit promise from the episode, to the audience: ‘it’ll be okay. it’s going to be hard, but ted isn’t alone, and his friends won’t leave him behind.’

it also makes it clear to the audience that ted isn’t the saintly-giver-of-grace who needs nothing in return, as one might assume on first brush, but rather that he’s Also struggling with his own shit (as is everyone, always, in real life!) and he has something he needs from the people around him too.

and looking at the text of s3, and the conclusion to his arc in the finale, i just don’t believe that he got it. he wasn’t just sad that he was leaving (which would be understandable!), he was completely closed off. unresponsive to the people around him reaching out, borderline confused as to why they were trying so hard!

(side note, while i completely respect the read of ted and trents last interaction being rather rude + ooc on ted’s part, i personally read a different motive into it. for me, it was more like… he didn’t understand where trents enthusiasm was coming from? like, he read that as trent being too invested in what other people think of him, and responded in a way that he hoped would emphasise that ted doesn’t *need* to laugh at everything trent wrote, bc trent Already Knows that he’s done something really cool and kickass, and he shouldn’t value anyone else’s reactions above that. basically, based on his demeanour in the episode, i genuinely don’t think it would’ve even occurred to him that trent was more invested in HIS reaction than he would’ve been with anyone else.)

again, looking purely at the text, the show had already established that ted has really strong depressive + avoidant tendencies, as well as panic attacks (largely triggered by his fear of not being ‘good enough’ in various roles, ie: a father). we saw one area he was able to calm HIMSELF abt these fears (worry for henry, which is a Hell of a choice considering the ending…), but in literally every other heightened moment, he had to rely on his support system to help him make the choices that he WANTED to make, rather than ones inspired by avoidance and fear (ie: confronting michelle abt jake, talking to his mum abt why she was visiting + his dads death).

and to be clear, this is a GOOD THING! we’re not supposed to go through life alone, no matter how bad OR well we’re doing. rebecca and keeleys friendship isn’t worth less for all the scenes where they’re both in good places. if anything, the opposite is true - it’s lovely that they both have someone who want to celebrate the achievements in their life!

and fuck it, we’re sure as hell not supposed to go through life with exactly one (1) person whom we expect to fulfill ALL of our emotional needs at all times either! like, im sure i don’t need to labour my point here, but tying everything to one (1) person in ur life doesn’t make u any less isolated than if u were going it completely alone, whether it’s a family member, a friend, or a partner. i won’t pretend to know the first thing abt what it’s like to be a parent, but i don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that no parent would be at their best if they had absolutely no support/camaraderie/general love provided to them from Anyone other than their child.

so when ted is SPECIFICALLY shown to be in a bad place, over and over again (did he come to terms w his fear to be close to henry overnight???????), and then removed from his community? of COURSE the audience is left feeling unsettled, and like the rug has been pulled out from under them. there was no time in this finale dedicated to how ted would still be in contact with anyone from richmond. no promises of visits, or phone calls - fuck, nothing about emails!! according to the text, we might as well assume this is a clean break (and the maybe-dream-sequence does Fuck All to assure us otherwise. if ted doesn’t go to beards wedding, what WOULD he go to????). and since the show has ALSO completely failed to give us even an IMPLICATION of who/what ted’s support system would be in kansas, there’s… a reasonable argument to be made that this is It for ted. that, after two seasons doing NOTHING but attesting otherwise, the audience is supposed to suddenly believe that ted can (and SHOULD!) pull himself up by his bootstraps, and cope entirely on his own.

that, to me, is a betrayal of the show’s premise. we were promised a show about how, no matter how dark things may get, none of the characters would be left to struggle alone. and then they ended the show with ted alone.

i don’t know. i guess if i had to give this post a tldr; if anyone has any gen fic/meta/Literally Anything in the pipeline, i would absolutely love to be tagged/directed towards it. i’ll be endeavouring to write something myself, as well, but it might take a while before i can return to my WIP, lol.

Been seein some rather cold takes about Daisy lately…

I’ve seen some people say that she has no personality outside of fanon, but that’s just not true. There is a very very common misconception among the fandom (at least that I’ve noticed) that if a character doesn’t appear in a “mainline” game, then they have no personality. But I’d argue that the spinoffs actually offer waaaaay more in terms of looking into character personalities. And no, I’m not talking about the RPGs ala M&L and Paper Mario as those are obviously full of personality (and Daisy isn’t in those). I’m talking about the Party, Kart, Tennis, and other sports games.

Yes, Daisy hasn’t appeared in any mainline game since her debut, but she’s been in nearly every sports game and her traits, stats, abilities, victory/loss animations, and various other tiny details add up to her personality. The fact that she’s nearly always yelling or just speaking really loud in general (noticeably more than any other character), the fact that she constantly feels a need to say her name and make herself known, how she loves flowers and considers even a small patch of flowers worth protecting, how she’s easily bored by tasks that don’t excite her and isn’t so reliable for them. She tends to jump around a lot, and spin and dance around when she’s excited! She’s apparently a rather fast runner and that is considered her specialty! These are all traits that are displayed in the spinoffs, and there’s probably soooo many more that I just can’t remember right now.

Now, I do think her tomboyish nature is probably fanon, as I don’t really remember seeing anything to show that she acts that way in the games. I think people probably think she’s tomboyish due to how loud and energetic she is. But hey, there’s plenty of fanon for just about any character from any fandom out there. And what’s so wrong with that? Isn’t the whole point of making fanworks to expand on the framework already provided by canon? If we want to stick to what’s actually “canon” then nearly everything the fandom has created would have to be tossed, because there really isn’t much to work with. Fanworks and fandoms thrive on what fans can create based on the canon work, not just sticking to it perfectly.

It’s fine if you think the “fanon” Daisy outshines the “canon” Daisy and you dislike that. But to say that she has no personality aside from fanon interpretations just tells me that you have a very narrow idea of what counts as “canon” in an already rather simplistic world. The Mario games are very simple and straightforward without much consistent lore that actually makes sense cohesively, but the characters are what keep everything tied together despite that. The characters are nearly always consistent, and that includes Daisy. Even when the setting is completely different and some random new villain shows up with some random new power source to steal or species to torment, our same well-known lovable characters will be the center of the story and that’s what makes it fun!

do rice krispies alenoah get together? or do they have a battle to beat all battles? uhm thats probably not the best way to describe what im tryna say, but you probably get it?? uh yeah

bold of you to assume that "a battle to beat all battles" isn't them getting together 🙄

anyway noah bites alejandro again and gives him rabies and alejandro fucking dies. that's how the fic ends.

silly oc doodle..... ballroom yuri

*looking at the art folders on my computer (which are separated by year)* Man i just noticed i draw the same character at least once every year but i haven't drawn him yet this year for some reason * Remembers it's only been this year for 5 days* Oh yeah that would make sense actually

One of my fave fanfics of all time is a YGO + CSI crossover called "Evidence of Shadows" and like I normally do not fucking care for crossover fic whatsoever, but I just love this one? If only because the CSI crew get to treat Duel Monsters like it's one of their "quirky subculture of the week" episodes. I know we've never spoken or anything but I get the impression from this blog that you might enjoy this fic, have a good afternoon.

"Yugioh cards for less than 6 dollars? When was this- "

"Ah"

Hey, I saw you changed your username! I just wanted to say I thought it was a lovely sounding name! /gen

Sorry for the late reply, but thank you! Very much so!!

Honestly, I expected to change my username and drop that post for anyone to see and it to be just another drop in an ocean, completely and entirely ignored. Especially since I so very rarely have posted anything myself on here, on my blog, and have gotten no attention before.

But it's pretty nice to see a few people like the post, even reply back about it. So thank you for sending a message! It's very much appreciated.

As for the username, I've just never fully felt alright with Vexchief. I liked the concept I was going for then (a mixture of Vixen and Mischief smashed together, but because I didn't like the look of Vixchief, I changed the first i to an e) but I never liked how it seemed that anger defined me via Vex. Mischief and Anger. I didn't like that.

And in real life, I've just- *A very long sigh...* A long terrible story, but my life has not been great. A hell not of mine own making that I've been stuck in my whole life, and have been trying to get myself out of no matter what. But when I try, it's never seemed enough. Not anything close to enough. And especially these last few years since Covid happened (didn't get it, just life stuff that happened around the same time), I've just been like a boat lost at sea, adrift. And if I tried to move, to leave my situation, it's only felt like I've gone in a circle, like I'm just chasing my own tail, going nowhere.

("All things that lose their way can find it again. There is no inertia in the ocean.")

Sailsunfurled is I suppose my own declaration to myself. I feel like things are truly different this time around. (Maybe? Or maybe not and I'm just delusional. But I have to think that everything before, every attempt has helped me get to this point.) So it's me saying I am letting down the sails, and I am going to journey forth, once and for all. This is it, this the attempt. I will make it work. I will get out. And I will live. And I will be okay. (Okay, it's certainly a bit delusional. But I feel like at this point I'm just a bit desperate for it to work.)

Anyway, long story short, Adrift has been stuck in my head, haunting me ever since I first heard it. And lately I've had some little obsession of a thought of a boat, a sail. (I might have delved a little into some sea shanties the other day lmao.)

oh no this reality dating show is really sweet actually. this was not supposed to happen. crap. crap. i didn't sign up for this!

kinda wild that people are like But consider how sad the guy at the top is about the mistreatment of his employees. why are you doomposting. do you just want to Hurt the project. when like .. a whole culture stopped playing the multicultural server because their one (1) same-language admin got cut out of the server bc of what appears to be the crimes of speaking the same language as a whistleblower. um

hi hi hinderr

if it isn’t too much trouble (and no pressure) it would be cool if you made like a clanoftwober prompt list

I don’t really need it I just think it’d be cool with the fun and silly thing you’ve got going with it :D

-🌘🕷 Anon

waaaaghhh i should, i really should. but the whole clanoftwober thing started just because I wanted something to do this month though, and I'll be honest every day i am just winging it (head in my hands).

I'll see what i can do if i can come up with a prompt list but!!! in the event that i never get around to doing it, if anyone else wants to do clanoftwober, then the prompt is simply clan of two, every day

Just now heard someone on the radio say “The Boy and the Heron” and it sounded weird and that’s how I realized I’ve apparently been reading the title correctly but pronouncing it “herring” in my head for no reason