#maybe because red is my favorite color and I have a bias
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Changes I'd make to Tim Drake (Warning: may be controversial)
As my favorite Robin, I've needed to make this post for a long time. I know my opinions may not be agreed upon, but I hope my dedication is still appreciated, nonetheless.
He isn't dragged for his superhero goals--Any poor mistake that DC makes, they decide to pin it on him having poor judgement, which is really unfair. As many things that get ignored/retconned (even if they arguably shouldn't be, depending on the subject), it feels bizarre to drag Tim for things like his ill-fated "Drake" costume and era, especially when it was walked back on so quickly. On top of this, people seem to look down on him for genuinely enjoying being Robin. Robin wasn't always a move on position, per se; Dick had been Robin for consecutive decades before deciding he wanted something different, while Jason was murdered and became someone else as a reflection of this. Tim became Robin because he saw that Batman NEEDED him, and deduced Batman and the previous Robin's identities on his own. If he wants to do stop being Batman's partner (or sidekick, depending on perspective), it should be his own choice, not everyone else saying "this was a temp job and you're out."
He has his own unique color, costume, and maybe even codename--Even if he remains by Batman's side, Tim deserves to be distinct; his codename and color scheme are shared with all his brothers, and it doesn't do much for him. I'd definitely prefer a cowless take on his Savior costume (unsure about the codename; it feels a bit too on-the-nose, but it also feels like it represents his need to help others) or bring back his N52 Red Robin suit WITH the wings as well as making him the brother in purple, which goes well with the Batfamily's aesthetic as well as signifying his romance with Stephanie and friendship with Bunker.
He's going for a psyche major--I feel like this fits so well with his motivations. It's weird that the Batfamily doesn't put more stock in studying psychology outside of Harley (who rarely uses this skill, much to my chagrin). Tim wants what's best for everyone, and became a hero in order to help people. He isn't simply trying to stop problems, but prevent them and make Gotham a better place for everyone. While he can still go for a cyber-related degree (I don't remember his exact major), I'd prefer he also go for a degree that furthers his desire to understand and improve others, plus it's good to help him better understand himself as well.
He isn't bi--Hate me if you must. I'm a gay guy, and I just didn't vibe with this reveal. During the mid-2000s, it was stated by one of his artists that he and the writers kind of already saw Tim as bi, though DC never made this canon until 2021. As far as I know (as a 2010s comic person), it never seemed like DC was keen to lean into LGBT sexuality for Tim, and given that they've been treating him poorly post-N52, it feels like this was a random "let's find a way to make Tim as popular as his brothers" by making him stand out in a way that they didn't. I know this is a bold claim, but this is a feeling I've had for a while now, especially since his personal life now mainly revolves around Bernard (personal bias, but I'm usually not a fan of heroes dating non-heroes; I'd prefer him with Bunker--or Connor, if he's romantically into guys). And they haven't done him many favors since; DC infamously described him as the "always-online bisexual" in a now deleted tweet embodies my concern that they're just defining him by his sexuality now, as well as a solo comic with horrendous art for most of the run. If Jason or Damian were depicted as bi (with the latter being the least controversial choice, imo, given his younger tenure in comics and romantic life not as fleshed out), I'm almost sure they'd be better handled, probably because they've been better handled as characters in recent years. Overall, I found Tim's retcon of sexuality unnecessary (yet when we have bi characters such as Ghostmaker who were LGBT from the get-go and don't get nearly as much attention) and overall used as a metaphor for his "indecisiveness" at making decisions that DC forced onto him.
He still has a (biological) family and life--A big problem with writers and artists is that they sometimes have a problem with trying to make the 4 Robins identical in appearence and lives. Unlike Jason and Dick, Tim wasn't an orphan adopted by Bruce, not originally anyway. He had his own life and chose to be part of Bruce's world, and the need to make him an orphan with pretty much nothing going on in his civilian life (is he still an Olympic-level gymnast? Kinda love the idea that he takes time off for "me time" here and there and that's when Damian or another Batfam member jumps in). Let him have friends and family as Tim Drake, not just as Robin. Let Bruce be his dad without killing off his biological one. Let Tim have autonomy and individuality!
More A-list connections--This is being petty, but most of his friends are next-gen people with no major stuff going on for themselves, just like him. Surrounding yourself with important people can help you become important, too. I'm not telling friends to drop his friend groups (him and Conner have one of the best male homosocial relationships in comics and it sucks how it got overshadowed by Damian and Jon), but giving him more relationships with well-known characters could help his status. I have similar feelings for Starfire (we need more of her friendship and Superman).
Never lose sight of who he is--The idea with Tim (at least from what I've absorbed) is that he's the most optimistic, maybe even naive, version of Dick, committed to wanting to help people and support them, and not one to brush them off of devalue them. He's got a heart, not just a brain, and I like to consider him one of the glue sticks that holds the family together. He doesn't need to be edgy or cool in the way that Damian and Jason are, nor should he be reduced to a sex object like Dick (which is another post entirely).
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The Aviraptor
The Aviraptor is another impossible remnant of the past that science has been fascinated with since its discovery. This theropod, true to its dromaeosaurid lineage, is as fast as it is intelligent. Despite the creature’s bright colorations, it is still an ambush hunter as expected for a raptor. The main departure from true raptors is the aviraptor’s large pair of wings. These wings are heavily feathered, but closer inspection reveals that these feathers attach to a leathery membrane, more akin to a bat wing than that of a bird.
Unlike many large, winged creatures, the aviraptor is capable of fully powered flight, though not for any extended period of time. Capable as it may be, the aviraptor still mainly chooses to use these wings as an aid in running. Still, the aviraptor has no trouble scurrying up a tree or cliff and flying to its next destination.
Though the feathers of the aviraptor’s wings help its flight, they are mainly for displays. When the creature loses these feathers, it is still perfectly able to glide and fly. In fact, the aviraptor’s feathers routinely fall off and regrow once a year during autumn. This mandatory molting keeps the feathers strong and healthy.
Even though the aviraptor is a large creature, it has a preference for smaller prey items. This allows the aviraptor to basically run down its prey, overwhelming the smaller animals with lethal efficiency and agility. Prey are as safe in the trees as they are on the ground as the aviraptor is comfortable tearing through foliage and branches. Because of the lift the aviraptor’s wings provide, the theropod spends less energy chasing prey. By choosing small prey, the creature can ensure that it gets food without having to grapple with prey that can potentially harm it. The lift from the wings even allows the aviraptor to run faster and further without tiring, making it a true pursuit hunter.
#Ayy#its another hexapodal prehistoric creature!#we've pretty much covered by favorite dinosaurs now#first spinosaurus and kaprosuchus with the Suchoptera#and now raptors with the aviraptor!#I was thinking about which bird to base it off of#and somehow I landed on macaws#maybe because red is my favorite color and I have a bias#maybe#my big raptor bb#SeasonalSundays#Fall#Autumn#Aviraptor#raptor#dinosaur#bird#digital art#concept art#creature concept#creature art#animal art#my art
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Ranking Cinderella Adaptations Based On How Much I Want The Dress
(In my own personal opinion, these are just the ones I like the best.)
10. Cinderella (2021) : Everyone's hated on this movie enough, so I'm just going to focus on the dress. In theory, I could see what they were going for. If it was just a fitted bustier, a hip-hugging skirt and a bustle, then I think it would have succeeded. But it's just underwhelming. That's all it is. Underwhelming. 3/10
9. Into The Woods (2014) : There's not much to talk about with this dress. I love the color choice, and I think the way it moves is pretty. But it just feels too simple. I know it's a dress that isn't crucial to the plot or anything, but it's still just a little too underwhelming. But I do think the sleeves are cute. 4/10
8. Once Upon A Time (2011-2018) : I think my issues with this dress are similar to my issues with Into The Woods. It just doesn't have the "wow" factor I'm searching for. It's a beautiful dress, and I would certainly wear it. But it just feels like the most generic Cinderella dress. Blue, sparkly, princess-y. Still cute though. 4/10
7. Another Cinderella Story (2008) : I'm a sucker for a red dress, and I truly adore this one. The neckline isn't my favorite, but I love the layering and the ruffles. It's such a daring take for a Cinderella dress, but it's something I would definitely wear. It looks like it would be fun to dance in. 6/10
6. Cinderella (1950) : Yes, it's a classic. It's simplistic, but so magical. The scene where her dress changes is one of my absolute favorites of all time. In this case, I love the simplicity. It really makes her stand out. I dreamed of this dress so much as a kid. 7/10
5. Ever After (1998) : Maybe I'm biased, because this is one of my favorite Cinderella adaptations, but I do adore this dress. While the time period is not my favorite in terms of silhouette, this dress still feels magical and dreamy. Empire waists and a slender fit aren't my type, but I would wear it simply to feel ethereal. I mean, the EMBROIDERY? The WINGS? All gorgeous and stunning. 8/10
4. A Cinderella Story (2004) : Yeah, it's a very simple dress. But it's absolutely breathtaking. I want to get married in this dress. Something about it is just so angelic. I feel like it should be paired with wings too. The femininity in this dress is something I truly adore. 8/10
3. Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (1997) : Is it costume-y? Yes. Is it made of two clashing materials? Yes. Would I sell my soul to the devil for the chance to wear this dress? Also yes. I don't care how cliché it is. The sweetheart neckline, the opera gloves, the little bustle in the back, it's all so cute and just feels like a little girl's princess dream. Plus, I love the shade of light blue. 9/10
2. The Slipper and the Rose (1976) : Shockingly, I haven't seen this film. But I truly should, because the costume design is absolutely gorgeous. It all takes inspiration from the rococo period. My bias takes hold again, it seems. Sure, it's a lot of frills and pink, but that's exactly what I look for in a dress. If I was going to a rococo ball, this is what I'd be wearing. 9/10
1. Cinderella (2015) : The almighty. The most beautiful dress to ever be created. The dress that lingers in my dreams. Nothing can surpass this dress. Words can't even describe how wonderful it is. I do believe this dress is the most magical of all. It is absolute perfection from head to toe. Scratch what I said earlier about getting married in Hillary Duff's dress. I'm getting married in Lily James' dress. 1000000/10
#i ponder cinderella dresses a lot#hopefully i'll be able to wear them#preferably while dancing with a handsome prince#that'd be nice#cinderella#cinderella 1950#cinderella 1997#cinderella 2015#cinderella 2021#into the woods#ever after#ouat#the slipper and the rose#a cinderella story#another cinderella story#princesscore#royalcore#girlblogging
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do you have a favorite outfit for any/each character?
Hello there, anon!
Since you ask, yes I have some favorites! Generally speaking, I like all of their demon forms and most of their human world outfits. Everything else is hit or miss, but I also have a lot of yokai outfits that I like. I'm going to link to their pages in the Obey Me wiki so you can see which ones I mean because if I put all the pictures in one post it'd probably get crazy long! Also, this is the main gallery page for the outfits in case anyone is interested!
Lucifer: My favorite is his yukata outfit. There is just something about that look on him... I think it really fits him and I love the colors. I also like his yokai and bunny boy outfits! Lucifer in heels oof.
Mammon: Okay well my favorite is probably his demon form I dunno what it is about that outfit but I love it. But aside from that, I'd say my favorite is his butler outfit. Pretty sure it's the choker I like hee hee. I'm also fond of his chess outfit and I liked his latest Halloween outfit! Likely due to the boob window and that collar situation. Sorry Mams, I don't mean to objectify you but... uh...
Levi: Favorite is definitely the yokai outfit! I just really like the colors and I think he looks so cute! I also like his yukata and also his recent Halloween one! It was absolutely the cat ears, he just looks so cute with them.
Satan: It was a close one with him, my first instinct was the yokai outfit, but I really think my favorite one of his is the animal look! He looks like a catboy rogue DnD character, I absolutely love it so much lol. But the yokai look is a close second! I also really love his TSL look.
Asmo: He has a few because he looks so good in a lot of his outfits, but I think my favorite is actually the yukata. I love the gloves and the anklet and the colors and the pattern... it's so good! But my second favorite is this Halloween outfit. Absolutely amazing. I also love his TSL outfit, it's giving evil queen and I am loving it lol. I also think Asmo looks good in darker colors and they tend to put him in light colors and whites. So I think that's why I like those two. I also have to mention his angel look because it's just really pretty and fits him so well.
Beel: Bunny boy. That is absolutely my favorite. I love how this big guy looks in that bunny boy outfit it's so cute. And the undone bowtie? Perfect. I love it lol. I also really like his angel outfit and surprisingly I was fond of his gakuran outfit? I'm not sure what it is about that one that I liked. Oh but I also liked his more recent Halloween outfit!
Belphie: I love his yokai outfit! And I'm also really fond of his yukata and his bunny boy look! I love that his bunny boy outfit has a grey shirt instead of white, it suits him really well. And the yukata has some of my favorite color combinations - purple, yellow, and black - and I love the pattern too.
Diavolo: I think his Arabian outfit is actually my favorite! I'm not sure what it is, the color scheme maybe? Though most of his outfits are red and black so who knows lol. I also really like his bunny boy outfit and his vampire outfit! What can I say, the man looks good in a suit. I'd like his white suit more if it didn't have those goofy boots.
Barbatos: Can I choose them all? Lol. Obviously I have a bias so I love this guy in all his outfits. I really really love his demon look and his human world look. I think the human world outfit is my favorite. But if I had to choose another one, it'd probably be his Arabian outfit because wow we've never seen that much of his skin ever. I also really like his vampire outfit. His white suit is definitely the best one of them all... they made them so gaudy, but his is actually really nice. I could do without the weird flares at the bottom of his pants, but otherwise I like it.
Simeon: This was nearly impossible. Simeon is so beautiful and they actually gave him some really good outfits. But I think his animal outfit is my favorite. But I also love his yokai outfit. And his Arabian clothes... and his bunny boy look... and this suit... and also his white suit is actually not bad... ugh he just looks so good in all of them?? I guess that's what happens when you're so pretty lol.
Solomon: His yokai outfit is my favorite. Aside from his usual sorcerer look, that is. It just fits him so well and I love the colors and the patterns. I also really like his animal look and of course his slutty Arabian clothes lol.
Luke: Definitely the yokai for this guy, too. He looks so adorable!! But I also really love his onesie and his animal look! I swear in that last one he looks like a little steampunk Chihuahua and it's so freakin cute!! And I just like the onesie patterns.
Well, as usual, I perhaps overdid it, but these are my favorites! I really wish they'd bring the yokai outfits into Nightbringer and give the side characters yukata outfits! That would make me very happy. But yeah we'll see what they do. I'm curious because I feel like it doesn't make sense not to have those outfits in Nightbringer. But we'll see!
#once again I must apologize for the length of my response lol#but I had thoughts#obey me#obey me nightbringer#obey me lucifer#obey me mammon#obey me leviathan#obey me satan#obey me asmodeus#obey me beelzebub#obey me belphegor#obey me diavolo#obey me barbatos#obey me simeon#obey me solomon#obey me luke#anon asks#misc answers
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Hii! Thoughts on purple pikmin? Silly lil guy 💜
PURPLE PIKMIN FROM PIKMIN
From @beeeeeeeella
Design; 9/10 - I'm a little biased because purple us my favorite color but we're going to ignore that, as well as my bias towards round things. The reason this one is higher than the red pikmin is because THEY FIXED THE WEIRD HANDS! His silly little webbed feet and hands are way better than whatever red had going on. His little antennae are so cute! The 1000 yard stare is still there though. Maybe he's working on his social skills
Effectiveness/Purpose; 10/10 - literally giga pikmin. They have the strength of 10 pikmin. When you're introduced to them (in pikmin 4 atleast) they save you from this weird roller guy that honestly scared me when I played it for the 1st time. Literally the sigma male of pikmin
OVERALL; 10/10 - ourple
#rating#rating animals#ask me stuff#ask box#pikmin#purple pikmin#thanks to beeeeeella for this :)#love u bro <3#purple pikmin are my favorite#i want to hold one. you can throw them n the game#so if theyre super heavy and have the weight of 10#how strong is the rescue corps officer you play as??#so many questions#so little answers#also so many tags jesus christ i need to calm down
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The red flag book purists
This post can be in regard to many recent book to film (or TV) adaptations including Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, Dead boy Detectives, and Good Omens. Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher. And Anne Rice's Interview with The vampire, and The Mayfair Witches.
I am going to address a pattern I've seen and you may associate it with a different book to TV or film adaptation.
I used to consider myself a book purist. Maybe I still am. I preferred book to TV or movie adaptations be as faithful as possible. In general I still do but there are occasions where I think the adaption improves the source material.
I think the 1994 film Interview with The Vampire has a better ending than the novel.
I think Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow is more interesting and has more relatable characters than the Washington Irving story.
Though updated to take place in the 1990s the version of The Canterville Ghost starring Patrick Stewart is my favorite adaptation of the novel.
The stop motion animated musical Nightmare before Christmas, which teeters on being a Danny Elfman Opertta, I like the Nightmare before Christmas film more than the original Tim Burton poem.
And though only very, very, very loosely based on the Edgar Allan Poe poem, The Raven (1963) is my favorite Vincent Price movie.
And as kind of a guilty pleasure I have a soft spot for versions of Dracula that are both predatory but romantic like Bram Stoker's Dracula and the 1979 Dracula film starring Frank Langella. And, yes, Castlevania.
Again, I considered myself a book purist but there are exceptions where I admit that the changes improve upon the original story.
Lately I've seen people call themselves book purists and it's become something of a dog whistle for something else. It feels almost like this new breed of book purist discredits the original meaning which wants integrity to the story. I.e. no rape scene just for shock value. (I'm talking about you, Game of Thrones and Interview with the Vampire TV series).
This new form of so-called book purist which I have to come up with a name for... Let's call it Book Puritan for now until I can come up with something better.
The book puritan seems like the typical book purist at first. They just really, really like the source material but the more you talk to them the more you realize they are actually upset about something other than respecting the original books.
Here are the top ten things complained about by Book Puritans.
1. They get upset if a character's skin color is changed or other race based complaints even though it has no impact on the story at all. "This character shouldn't be black!" They will complain about agenda and sometimes the character in question didn't even have a race to begin with, like Death in The Sandman. She's literally The Grim Reaper. She can be any race she feels like.
2. They get upset about gender swaps. "This character was originally a man!" I understand if you have a particular visual in your head of a character but if you think the interactions will drastically change meaning and feeling because the male character is now a woman perhaps you should consider your own bias on the subject. Or perhaps the original story was something of a sausage fest and even the author wanted to add more women to the mix.
Sometimes this is not actually a good thing. Changing Lestat's lover Antoine into Antoinette in the Interview with The vampire TV series bordered on straightwashing just to make his bisexuality more blatant. Also Lestat making her mutilate herself (cut off a finger) to fake her own death contradicted how Lestat acts with his lovers in the novels and was ultimately pointless since they kill pretty regularly and Lestat could have taken the finger from any woman's corpse.
In the most recent remake of Children of the Corn they had the child preacher be a little girl instead of a boy. This attempt at inclusion undermined the patriarchal symbolism of a fanatical Christian-like cult and felt like another crude dig against matriarchal religions like the remake of The Wicker Man.
So you see from my own examples sometimes there are understandable exceptions. But *In general* character gender swaps don't usually do any harm to the story.
3. They get upset because characters that were not confirmed as queer in the original stories are now openly queer. "But he was straight in the novels!" Not necessarily. Sometimes characters are queer coded or "overly straight" (compensating) to hide that the character is not straight to the casual observer. You have to consider that some novels written thirty or forty years ago had to contend with homophobic publishers.
Though Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles seem pretty obvious to a lot of people and there are scenes of Armand actually calling Daniel his lover and Lestat asking Louis why he loves him, etc, there are still people out there convinced that Anne Rice's vampires are straight. I can still recall back in the 90s being an Anne Rice yahoo group and someone responding to a post with "My Prince Charming is STRAIGHT!!!" (this was in regard to Louis).
Now, today the flamboyant bard Jaskier (translated as Dandelion in the English language novels and directly translates to Buttercup) was confirmed as bisexual in The Witcher Netflix series. And there are "Purists" genuinely angry about this.
Their biggest shield of "We just want book accuracy" is the fact that there are scenes of him "womanizing" and being a promiscuous flirt with women but never men. So what? So what if The Witcher's sidekick is bisexual? If it supposedly shouldn't matter why are you upset? How does it harm the main story?
One argument I was given is “It’s important that he look gay without being gay as to break the stereotype.” And yet others will claim there was never any hint that he wasn’t straight. Which is it? Is it he was a stereotypical queer man who was actually straight or there was supposedly no sign that he was ever queer. Make up your mind.
Sometimes the LGBTQ+ content was always there such as in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman and the person who supposedly read it went into such a deep denial that they genuinely didn't see it when originally reading the story.
4. They get upset if an old bit of sexism in the original story is corrected. i.e. the occasional Witcher fan who insists (despite the video games) that Ciri can NEVER be a "real Witcher" because "only men can be Witchers." I once got into an argument with a Witcher fan who insisted that despite what the video games say, because she wasn't mutated and never went through the Trial of the Grasses, Ciri can never be a true Witcher. And it's "Important" that no woman ever be a Witcher. Really? Why is that so important to maintain?
Just because something always was a certain way doesn't necessarily mean it should remain that way.
5. They question if a character was changed when the character was actually always that way. This could be in regard to a character being gay or it could be in regard to a character being Jewish. I remember when the still from Coraline circulated with her celebrating Hannukah and people thought it was fan made because everyone was just so used to the default that all characters are presumed Christian until told otherwise.
This sort of thing is common, taking for granted that a character is just like you or fits a “normalcy” unless explicitly told otherwise. This also accounts for a lot of characters being presumed straight until shown otherwise.
When I was watching Penny Dreadful there were people upset that Ethan was “made” gay (revealed as bisexual) in episode 4 of the first season “because there was no sign of it before. It’s set in 1891. How was he supposed to “act” bisexual? There were people in such denial that they convinced themselves that the man he slept with, Dorian Gray, had put him under some sort of spell.
The irony is Ethan wasn’t even revealed as being a werewolf until the end of the season and his real name wasn’t given until season 2 but somehow him being bisexual and it being revealed in the fourth episode of the fifth season was “out of left field” and “made no sense.”
Imagine if Buffy The Vampire Slayer fans reacted to the reveal (that I predicted at age fifteen) that Angel is a vampire. They didn’t confirm that until the fifth episode of Buffy.
6. They seem okay with added domestic violence or sexual abuse (i.e. rape scenes) which would also contradict previous depictions of some characters' personalities but will complain if and implied gay character gets to kiss on camera or a woman character gets to do something assertive that she didn't do in the source material and does not contradict any character personality trait.
7. They will argue that something "Is not canon" unless the author put in the original story even if the author confirms it after the fact and can prove where they hinted at (though didn't confirm) the thing in the original content. i.e. J. K. Rowling confirming that Dumbledore is gay.
I understand LGBTQ+ people being angry at this (and far worse things J. K. Rowling has done...) because she should have been brave enough to address it in the story itself but I'm speaking of those that refuse to accept that Dumbledore is gay and will even argue that if they accept he's gay it means Voldemort is gay too and they're all suddenly ped0s. I kid you not, I had to remove someone who went on this very rant from my Sandman Facebook group.
This is also true with the elderly lesbian couple in Coraline. There are people angry that Neil Gaiman didn't out-right call them a couple in the story even though there were several pretty blatant hints. But at least with that one there are less people insisting it's not really canon. Probably because they DO behave like an old Hollywood / Vaudeville gay couple.
8. They seem okay with added content that wasn't in the novel until or if a woman or minority gets to shine in the extra portion of story. This can be in regard to a passing-of-the-torch or just a scene that was not in the original books but added to enhance the original story. Somehow this might upset them greatly even if the added content dos not contradict any of the original books. It's just an added bit of story.
The only reason I could think of to be upset at an added scene is if that scene suddenly and drastically contradicts the character's established personality. i.e. a scene of Morpheus in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman opening a dance club and favoring Gangsta rap.
Thankfully this particular scenario does not exist.
9. They kind of accidentally out themselves as having not read the books that they claim they want to keep pure by whining about "woke" content that was IN the original story. i.e. Sandman fans surprised at all the LGBTQ+ characters.
10. They out themselves as having not watched the thing that they are complaining about. "I refuse to watch The Sandman because I heard that the only character Death is a black woman." Buddy, you misunderstood. The Grim Reaper is played by a black woman. There are lots of white people who die. Or "I don't understand The Witcher: Blood Origin. It doesn't make sense. Geralt wasn't born a Witcher. They're sterile!"
Yes... They are. Do I need to explain the plot of the show you decided not to watch even though there are Wikias? It does tell a story that doesn't exist in the books but you seem to have leapt to conclusions by the name alone.
These sort of Book Purists (Book Puritans) make me embarrassed for appreciating and wanting the integrity of characterization and story from the original books (in adaptations) kept in tact.
It's reached a point where if I complain that Lestat shouldn't be physically abusive to Louis in Interview with The vampire (TV series) and they should never have added a random scene of Claudia being raped by a teenage vampire - someone else will give the kneejerk reaction "You just don't like it because Louis is black now!"
Actually I think the Louis and Lestat actors are excellent. It's the writers and showrunner I don't like.
I want to be able to explain the parts of the story and character I care about and want preserved without people assuming I'm doing a bigoted dog whistle because of this newer version of book purist.
These book puritans are giving us actual book lovers a bad name.
End of rant.
#Anne Rice#Andrzej Sapkowski#Neil Gaiman#The Vampire Chronicles#Vampire Chronicles#The Witcher#The Sandman#Mayfair Witches
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on light signs & fandom etiquette 🚥
one cpn and a whole lot of personal opinion. i want to write my thoughts about this topic. this is my least favorite thing to talk about as it touches on how people act which can’t be controlled both online and offline. to those who have no idea, it’s about some fandom drama during sdc finale live. this will be more on what i learned and observed. this whole post can be preachy and rant-y so beware. i just needed a place to reflect.
I’ll start with this exchange. It looks like Nathan Lee was asking Bobo if the light sign was his. What it means. Fans are saying it’s because the color is yellow that Nathan was not sure. He must know in a way that “Bo” could be equal to Yibo. Or maybe not. Then you see Yibo explaining yes it’s his. Bo. Yibo.
then hangeng comes in to explain as well and back yibo up then stops him. as if to make the conversation end, less he says more — this part is cpn. to me this is an interesting exchange because yibo clearly owns up to the light sign. it’s his. i have never doubted that bobo knows there are cpfs out there and he appreciates us, tho he cannot say it in the open. we understand. we always did.
There are videos out there of 🏍 vs. turtles. confiscated bjyx green and red light signs. in general, just the two fandoms shading each other. which are of course shared to the international audience. and well, you can take a guess which garbage dump app it’s popular in. I won’t go into the details because that’s not the point. This is not something new. there’s always been friction between cpf and solos. We know how toxic c-fandom is. Hell, even their government knows and they can’t do much about it. It’s the kind of thing i never understood and would never dream to emulate so i can fit in. sadly, lots of international fans adopt the “authentic” fandom behavior and are proud of it. wear it like a badge. there is only a handful who sees the whole c-fandom toxicity for the chaotic circus that it is and avoid copying it.
So, why are cpfs so hated? It’s because we shouldn’t exist. for a time it’s fine — but not this long. not this loud and prominent. brands love catering to solo fans/groups and even their companies do. it’s always been this way and not only in China. CPFs are considered a novelty, something that happens because of a project and are expected to fade when it ends. Also viewed as second-rate fans because their attention and support is split instead of giving their 100% to one artist. They ( artist and company ) can’t endorse and have an open bias to a CP because the artist must maintain the status of being single. An individual who can be paired up with anyone as needed. We are hated and considered a nuisance because we’re still here and thriving. Example, there were far more BJYX fan sites from last night’s event than solos. We still continue to show up. Support. We continue to stay relevant. I can understand the irritation from a toxic solo’s perspective and it gets worse if that person hates xiao zhan or yibo. To them, how dare we have the audacity to enjoy something. The nerve to spend our time and resources on a fandom that makes us happy. lol.
I personally don’t care who is better. Do you want the title of best yibo fan / best xiao zhan fan? sure. It’s yours. It’s theirs. I don’t need it. I’m here for the fun. The ( mostly ) stress free space I’ve created. zz/wyb is my happy place. That’s all I want.
CPFs are far from perfect. We’ve had our fair share of blunders and I personally have certain fandom personalities that I wish would just close their accounts. It is what it is. We can’t control each other’s behaviors. Some so/o pick a certain bad incident and that’s gonna be the way they look at us forever. Or they just go with the flow because it’s a sick pre requisite to hate on cpfs to get your so/o fandom loyalty card apparently. I will never understand wanting people to shut up just because you don’t like what they do. This is not some social justice issue. I like zz/wyb, you only like one of them. So? What’s the big deal. If you don’t like CP stuff then don’t seek us out. AND I CANNOT EMPHASIZE THIS ENOUGH TO CPFs, don’t bait them. Tag stuff properly. Please stop commenting CP things in obvious solo posts. This is why I stopped thinking about their opinion. Candies are for us and not them. We don’t need to convert them — that’s not the goal. At least to me ( the goal ) it’s to support the boys. Enjoy this fandom and try to keep away from drama.
Now the big question that’s related to SDC — Should CPFs bring their dolls and BJYX lights in solo events? My answer is Yes and No.
Yes because it’s their life and they can bring what they want. Bring 10 dolls, sure. For example the dolls lined up and taking photos @ GG’s ADLAD was seen by passer by as cute. Because it is. To those who don’t understand dolls and how it relates to fandom — just shut up please. Let people enjoy things. Some people enjoy drugs and being an asshole — then you have women who loves to bring their fandom dolls to events. to each their own. Even if it’s a “xiao zhan” character doll in an event that is for Yibo ( well it’s not just yibo, it’s SDC. people who watch the show are welcome ) , honestly. who the fuck cares. it’s a harmless non living thing. As for the light signs— sure, but I draw the line on trying to catch too much attention. They know unrelated light signs are not allowed so the rules should be followed. I’m sure the security and staff were only briefed about so/o light signs. No one is persecuting them. They know the rules. I know they have good intentions but we gotta be careful to not trouble Yibo.
No when it’s blatant baiting of so/os. some people really just love drama and will incite stuff. Also i’m not a fan of attention-seeking. Don’t shout BJYX at zz or wyb please. Don’t private message their friends or ask their co-stars about them. We are supposed to be low key about this. They know we exist — no need to beg for their attention.
I may be wrong about certain things that I just said but it’s all my personal opinion. At the end of the day, we will participate and act in this fandom with our own limits. I wish offline “fights” will be avoided in the future. We can all peacefully co exist by ignoring each other. 🙏🏼
-END.
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I just re-re-re-read Living with Vampires again and for some reason I thought there were more parts I was missing because I thought there were like 8. I don’t know why
But regardless I just wanted to say I’m still very much in love with your Vampire! Seonghwa and I want one. Yeosang is cute too. 10/10 would romance both of them, but if I had to choose it would be the older one tbh because a bias is a bias and I am ✨obsessed✨
Ot8 is good too though!
I feel like the mental imagery for Vampire Seonghwa is like the new ‘Not Okay’ album red and black outfit because his whole look is on 👏 point 👏 (the long hair does it for me)
I’m curious how you actually picture the visuals of your vampire boys as you write about them, would you show us picture references for a better view? Maybe that might get some ideas flowing! If not, it’s still a fun idea to delve into
I was surprised you haven’t written a werewolf skz fic though, since in the Ateez vampire universe you had them as the wolfgang. Is that something you’re also interested in writing, or do you prefer to stick to writing vampires? No pressure! Just curious and love coming back to read your stuff
-💫
It’s nice to hear from you again 💫 anon!! Thank you so much for all the support!! 😭 I’ve worked a little on part 4 but since the last time you checked in I haven’t gotten much done. I do have a Fang Gang group chat chapter from a couple years ago that’s kind of a “bonus” but I haven’t quite figured out how I’m going to post it here, as I can’t find any good fake text apps to make a groupchat. I may just type it out.
I’m actually so excited you asked me this question because I actually DO visualize in my head when I write my vampy boys!! When pt 1 was being written, I was loosely basing them off Black Cat Nero, though I kinda decided to leave it up to the readers which is why there’s not too much detail to how they look besides some of their hair colors. It’s mentioned in part 1 that Hongjoong has dark hair and wears a white Victorian style blouse top with puffy sleeves and a gray and silver vest. These are some of the styles of clothes I imagine (below) the one in the middle specifically makes me think of San because I have a vampire San imagine that I haven’t shared here yet and I clearly pictured him wearing that outfit so that kinda carried over to LW8V lol
This is going be a long response lol so there’s more below about how I visualize each member
Hongjoong has black hair and, like I mentioned earlier, wears Victorian style clothes—they all do, but I can imagine each of them wearing something more “toned down” every so often, (not Seonghwa lol) but I can picture Joong wearing something like he did for Paradigm!
Seonghwa obviously wears ruffly blouses and sometimes embellished jackets and tailcoats. At first I imagined his hair like Wonderland era, but now I more so imagine him with his current long black hair (it’s my favorite 🥴)
Yunho is blonde and I specifically imagine him with his hair styled like it is in the pic below. It fits him well and that’s also what my brain decided to picture so I’ve stuck with it! For clothing, Yunho kinda just wears stuff similar to what’s pictured below
Yeosang is blonde in the series with his hair from Black Cat Nero and/or Inception era. Though while writing part 3 I started to imagine him with his long black hair instead 😩 some other outfits I think Yeo would wear are like the one I added on the left from Halazia era
San has black hair and I picture him in a tight fitting gothic style vest and a white dress shirt underneath, though I can also see him wearing more “modern” things like a black silk top and of course I mentioned he was wearing a lace up shirt in part 3 of LW8V during the Medieval Times segment
Mingi has brown hair. In my mind, it’s usually unstyled and fluffy and I can see him wearing something like from Paradigm; a loose-fitting white shirt (untucked) with a few buttons undone and a loose gothic vest over the top
Wooyoung has long black hair because I’m attached to it and I have a thing for long hair. I imagine him wearing fitting gothic vests and a white dress shirt with small ruffles along the collar or something. When he goes out I can imagine him wearing black trench coats or something like that
Jongho has brown hair and, like the others, wears Victorian style clothing and coats, but he also has some more casual(?) tops like this one from Halazia era which I’m still in love with to this day. I wish the stylists would put him in things like this more often because he looks STUNNING and so pretty
As for your last question, it’s actually crazy you mention that because over the last 3 days or so I’ve been on character.ai messing around with some werewolf AU ideas I had for Chan just seeing if I could flesh out some ideas and I have two REALLY GOOD ones that I’d like to write!! I also have one that’s been sitting in my drafts for a couple years that I haven’t touched because I don’t really know where I’m going with it just yet lol. As for Chan in LW8V you can expect him to make a return with some extra buddies. I have so much planned for them for part 4 😈
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Peter Didn’t Actually Stab Edward (Divergent)
I know what you're thinking. Either "The books say he stabbed Edward, you dumbass," or "Nobody cares about this," or even "Who the fuck are Peter and Edward?" These are all valid responses, but they are also all wrong. If you want to hear me excuse one of Peter's worst actions because I love him, keep on reading! I've put too much thought into this.
Prefacing all of this by saying I do not excuse Peter’s actions as a whole. He is my favorite fictional character of all time, but he has done some unforgivable things that aren’t debatable either in morality or whether they happened. This is mostly for fun. I know what the narrative intent was, but the book leaves it open to interpretation, whether intentional or not.
I suppose the title is a bit clickbaity. It’s more “It isn’t proven that Peter stabbed Edward and when you think about it, it doesn’t make a ton of sense in some regards,” but that’s not as fun.
BIAS IN THE TEXT:
The first thing that we need to address in any discussion of the Divergent series is that, whether intentional or not, Tris seems to be a mildly unreliable narrator. Not to the extreme extent where we can't trust what events happen and how they happen, but we can't always trust her people reading skills. For example, let's look at something obvious. Her perception of people's appearances.
Here is Tris' description of Christina, her best friend.
“She is tall, with dark from skin and short hair. Pretty.”
Here is Tris' description of Will, another friend.
“He is blond, with shaggy hair and a crease between his eyebrows.”
Here is how she describes Four, her love interest.
“He has a spare upper lip and a full lower lip. His eyes are so deep-set that his eyelashes touch the skin under his eyebrows, and they are dark blue, a dreaming, sleeping, waiting color.”
And Caleb, her older brother.
“He has my father’s dark hair and hooked nose and my mother’s green eyes and dimpled cheeks. When he was younger, that collection of features looked strange, but now it suits him. If he wasn’t Abnegation, I’m sure the girls at school would stare at him.”
In contrast, here is how she describes Molly, a rival.
“Molly is tall like Christina, but that’s where the similarities end. She has broad shoulders, bronze skin, and a bulbous nose.”
And in a separate instance:
“She has a large nose and crooked teeth.”
And Drew, another rival.
“Drew is shorter than both Peter and Molly, but he’s built like a boulder, and his shoulders are always hunched. His hair is orange-red, the color of an old carrot.”
And how she describes Eric, the "evil" initiation instructor.
“His face is pierced in so many places I lose count, and his hair is long, dark, and greasy. But that isn’t what makes him look menacing. It is the coldness of his eyes as they sweep across the room.”
Even Peter, who is generally regarded as objectively attractive by Tris gets descriptors like this incredibly often:
“…he hisses, his face so close to mine I can smell his stale breath.”
While in terms of real life, I believe the explanation here is simple (Veronica Roth, the author, has subconscious biases) in the book's universe, these biases become Tris'. Those she dislikes are immediately deemed unattractive and described with generally negative phrases like "stale," "the color of an old carrot," "greasy," and "bulbous," while those that she's fond of are described positively with words like "A dreaming, sleeping, waiting color," (whatever that means) "pretty," and "dimpled." This attitude is even lightly referenced in Allegiant:
“Peter leans against the wall and laces his fingers over his stomach. ‘I’m just saying, if she decides someone is worthless, everyone else follows suit. That’s a strange talent, for someone who used to be just another boring Stiff, isn’t it? And maybe too much power for one person to have, right?”
This is not to say that Tris is wrong to have these biases, of course. People's actions and personalities do affect attraction. However, when discussing anything that takes place from Tris' perspective, her biases affect how events are read. These biases need to be kept in mind in cases like this.
And you could argue that maybe Molly, Drew, and Eric are ugly and Four, Christina, and Will are not. You're certainly entitled to that belief, of course, but it seems a bit coincidental that everybody Tris likes is described with positive physical attributes while those that she dislikes are not. For example, "the color of a old carrot." Well, let's look at some stale carrots, shall we?
There's no way the books mean to imply that Drew has spotted hair. Could it be the browning part? No, because his hair is described as orange-red, and that's dark brown. So it'd just be the color of the body of the carrot, right? But... wait.
That part's the exact same color as a normal carrot. So, essentially what Tris has done here is add the word "old" to her description of Drew's hair color despite that not actually changing anything. It makes it sound more negative than his hair just being the color of a carrot, so an old carrot it is. It doesn't have to make sense as long as it demonizes those she dislikes.
If you think I'm reading too much into this, you may be right. I've certainly never thought this much about carrots in my life. Obviously, the author just didn't know what an old carrot looks like. But mistakes on the author's part do affect Tris and how she's perceived as a character, and whether intentional or not, these biased descriptions occur quite often.
LACK OF CONFIRMATION:
With all of that said, let me drop what may be a shock. The books never confirm that Peter stabbed Edward. Tris and her friends assume that this is what happened, but Edward didn't see who stabbed him. Peter never confesses to being the one to stab him. There is never actually any evidence that it was Peter that hurt Edward besides "Tris doesn't like Peter, therefore it was Peter." In addition to this, if we actually look at textual evidence, it suggests that Peter is not the most likely candidate for the attack on Edward.
Let me start by just putting the entirety of the scene where Edward gets stabbed right here. I'll be going back to it a lot (obviously) so I need it as a point of reference.
“And then a wail that curdles my blood and makes my hair stand on end. I throw the blankets back and stand on the stone floor with bare feet. I still can’t see well enough to find the source of the scream, but I see a dark lump on the floor a few bunks down. Another scream pierces my ears.
‘Turn on the lights!’ Someone shouts.
I walk towards the sound, slowly so I don’t trip over anything. I feel like I’m in a trace. I don’t want to see where the screaming is coming from. A scream like that can only mean blood and pain; that scream that comes from the pit of the stomach and extends to every inch of the body.
The lights come on.
Edward lies on the floor next to his bed, clutching at his face. Surrounding his head is a halo of blood, and jutting between his clawing fingers is a silver knife handle. My heart thumping in my ears, I recognize it as a butter knife from the dining hall. Myra, who stands at Edward’s feet, screams. Someone else screams too, and someone yells for help, and Edward is still on the floor, writhing and wailing. I crouch my his head, my knees pressing to the pool of blood and put my hands on his shoulders.
‘Lie still,’ I say. I feel calm, though I can’t hear anything, like my head is submerged in water. Edward thrashes again, and I say it louder, sterner. ‘I said lie still. Breathe.’
‘My eye!’ he screams.
I smell something foul. Someone vomited.
‘Take it out!’ he yells. ‘Get it out, get it out of me, get it out!’
I shake my head, then realize that he can’t see me. A laugh bubbles in my stomach. Hysterical. I have to suppress hysteria if I’m going to help him. I have to forget myself.
‘No,’ I say. ‘You have to let the doctor take it out. Hear me? Let the doctor take it out. And breathe.’
‘It hurts,’ he sobs.
‘I know it does.’ Instead of my voice I hear my mother’s voice. I see her crouching before me on the sidewalk in front of our house, brushing tears from my face after I scraped my knee. I was five at the time.
‘It will be all right.’ I try to sound from, like I’m not idly reassuring him, but I am. I don’t know if it will be alright. I suspect that it won’t.’
When the nurse arrives, she tells me to step back, and I do. My hands and knees are soaked with blood. When I look around, I see only two faces are missing.
Drew.
And Peter.”
Here we get to see Tris' biases in action. Peter's absence is immediately given more credit than Drew's. Don't believe me? Here.
“As I reach for the door handle, Christina says, ‘You know who did that, right?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Should we tell someone?’
‘You really think the Dauntless will do anything?’ I say. ‘After they hung you over the chasm? After they made us beat each other unconscious?’
She doesn’t say anything.”
They don't directly state Peter's name here, but the assumption is, for the rest of the series, that Peter stabbed Edward. Here are some quotes that make it clear that this is what every character we see believes:
“‘I’m the one who’s threatening you,’ Shauna says, almost in a growl. ‘One more violent outburst and I’m going to teach you a lesson about justice.’ She holds the knife point over his eye, and brings it down slowly, pressing the point to his eyelid. Peter freezes, barely moving even to breathe. ‘An eye for an eye. A bruise for a bruise.’”
(The notable quote here is "An eye for an eye" paired with the mention of justice. It is clearly not being used as an expression here.)
Before you dare tell me that Peter didn't deny it here, he had a knife to his face. And I quote, "Barely moving even to breathe." You really think he's going to say "Well actually, I never stabbed anybody's eye out." No. Absolutely not. He might if that's what he was being confronted for, but he was in trouble for trying to kill Tris, not stabbing Edward.
“I don’t want to cry for Edward—at least not in the deep, personal way that you cry for a friend or a loved one. I want to cry because something terrible happened, and I saw it, and I could not see a way to mend it. No one who would want to punish Peter has the authority to, and no one who has the authority to punish him would want to.”
Here is another quote where punishing Peter is directly tied to the attack on Edward, clearly implying that Peter would be punished for the attack. Note that Drew, the other initiate missing that night, was not brought up at all.
“I should be pleased that I’m ranked first, but I know what that means. If Peter and his friends hated me before, they will despise me now. I I am Edward. It could be my eye next. Or worse.”
Here is yet another where Tris assumes Peter will stab her eye out like he did Edward's, despite being completely unable to prove it was Peter who did that.
“‘Yeah, and Peter is all about what’s fair. That’s why he grabbed Edward in his sleep and stabbed him in the eye.’ Christina snorts and shakes her head.”
Here is a quote from Christina (a very biased person considering Christina has directly stated her hatred for Peter and Co here:
“‘Those three’—Christina points and Peter, Drew, and Molly in turn—‘have been inseparable since they crawled out the womb, practically. I hate them.’”
Why would we trust Christina's opinion to be any less biased against Peter than anybody else?
“Peter sinks to his knees. His face glistens with sweat. For a second I almost feel bad for him, but then I remember Edward, and the itch of fabric over my eyes as my attackers blindfolded me, and my sympathy is lost to hatred. Caleb eventually nods.”
This quote is especially upsetting to me because it's the deciding factor in whether or not Tris feels any sympathy toward Peter. She's convinced herself that he's done something he hasn't. This teenager who is shown later to be incredibly mentally troubled, could have been shown some degree of mercy. He may have gotten that one chance to change that he's wanted for the entire series. But because of an action that nobody has anything but speculation on, he is not given that chance. He is seen as "undeserving."
THE LOGISTICS:
So far I've done a lot of complaining about Tris as the narrator, but I haven't presented anything that actually challenges her assumption. Well, strap in, because there is a lot.
Starting with the most basic and unconvincing piece of evidence, here is a quote from Will the morning after the eye-stabbing incident. Tris and co actually went out that night because they didn't have anything to do the following day.
“‘This is going to sound weird,’ Will says, ‘but I wish we didn’t have the day off today.’”
How unreasonable is it, then, to suggest Peter was also out doing something? Tris never notes him to be in the room after she gets back from hanging out with her friends, and the stabbing seemingly occurs not long after she returns. Why is it so ridiculous, then, to think that the reason Peter may have been off somewhere was because he stayed out just a little bit later than Tris? Why is he given this uncharitable assumption for doing the exact same thing as our protagonist? What if Tris had come back to the dorms a little bit later instead? Then would she be the one assumed to stab him? Of course not, because this isn't actually about who's in the room. Tris hates Peter and wants him to be evil, therefore he is evil. Evidence doesn't matter to her, because she is only seeking information that furthers her own hatred.
More importantly, the narrative has repeatedly made one very important thing clear. Peter is not stupid. He’s able to manipulate Al into betraying his friend. He comes up with a rather complex plan to save Tris in book 2 and carries it out successfully. Peter is established to have quite a few negative traits, but being stupid just isn’t one of them. So why then, would an intelligent person carry out this crime the way that he did?
The initiates have access to real, sharpened knives. Ones good enough that only Al failed to hit the target and have the knife stick.
“A half hour later, Al is the only initiate who hasn’t hit the target yet.”
So why then would Peter choose to use a butter knife? If you've ever used a butter knife, you know that they don't stab very well. Peter, as somebody with knife experience, would know this. he would be able to get an actual knife. a butter knife may take multiple tries to actually stick. This would leave more opportunity for Edward to wake up and see who stabbed him before they could make their escape. While whoever did stab him got lucky in this regard, somebody experienced with knives and described repeatedly as intelligent wouldn't make this mistake.
Even more damning, the knife is still in Edward's eye when he's found. Pulling the knife back out wouldn't add any time at all to the process and would increase how much it injured him greatly. that leaves us with two options. Peter, somebody who is known to be incredibly clever, just forgot what he would have to do to make a stab wound bleed the most, or Peter showed mercy and specifically didnt want Edward to die from this. the first answer is unreasonable and doesnt line up with characterization shown previously and the second answer actively makes Peter into a better person, which is clearly not the intention of this event.
The book is also definitely aware of the fact that pulling it out would worsen the injury, as evidenced by Tris telling Al the doctor had to be the one to remove it.
“‘No,’ I say. ‘You have to let the doctor take it out. Hear me? Let the doctor take it out. And breathe.’”
I also find it very odd that Peter and Drew are both noted as missing and it’s implied they did it together. What, did they hold hands and stab on the count of three? This is not a two person job. Having another person honestly just makes it much more likely you’ll get caught, because that’s another person you have to get out of the room before the lights turn on. I can’t think of a single benefit to having Drew help, but I can think of plenty of downsides to it. It seems more likely that neither were involved than both of them were.
Lastly in the “Peter is not stupid” argument, why would he leave the room after stabbing him? This is instantly seen as a sign of guilt from the others, and Peter would know that running off after doing this was a bad idea. What if somebody turned the lights off and saw him running? Instantly caught. And him just being the only one missing from the crime scene is seen as very suspicious. (I do think that’s rather stupid. Since when is not being at the scene of the crime something that makes you guilty? But I digress, because it does within the narrative so that’s what we’re going with.)
To contribute to the bias argument and counter more evidence the book presents, Peter being pleased with second place is also treated as proof of guilt. Why? Tris and her friends were excited about her sixth place ranking. Peter has every reason to be pleased with how high he ranked, especially considering that Eric, who ranked second two years ago, is now the youngest faction leader. its a good ranking and one he has reason to be proud of. This "Peter could never be satisfied with second place" sentiment is something that Tris has invented about him. she uses this to justify everything he does, but in addition to him showing no signs of being upset with second place:
“Peter didn’t say anything when the rankings went up, which, given his tendency to complain about anything that doesn’t go his way, is surprising. He just walks to his bunk and sits down, untying his shoelaces. That makes me feel even more uneasy. He can’t possibly be satisfied with second place. Not Peter.”
He also confesses to hurting people because he enjoys it.
“‘I’m sick of doing bad things then liking it and wondering what’s wrong with me.’”
He enjoys doing bad things. he likes hurting people. The only other instance of him doing something that could be percieved as for his rankings was his attempt on Tris's life. You mean to tell me that this man who we know hated Tris from the moment they met couldnt have done this for any other reason? We dont know why he despised Tris so much (and I’m trying to stay away from my personal headcanons here) but that targeted bullying started long before she beat him in the rankings. This is his first interaction with Tris:
“‘Ooh. Scandalous! A Stiff’s flashing some skin!’
I lift my head. ‘Stiff’ is slang for Abnegation, and I’m the only one here. Peter points at me, smirking. I hear laughter.”
Peter hated Tris when she was last place and hated her when she was first place. We cant pin his attempt to kill her on only her beating him in the rankings when he physically harmed her prior (no pun intended) to that.
Anyways, "what about the quote where he's mad tris outranked him," asks nobody because nobody else scans every line of this book to prove Peter’s innocence.
“‘I will not be outranked by a stiff,’ he hisses, his face so close to mine I can smell his stale breath. ‘How did you do it, huh? How the hell did you do it?’”
“I will not be outranked by a stiff." he's not upset about being outranked, but seemingly upset at being outranked by somebody from Abnegation. Erudites, on the other hand, he seems to have some level of respect for. he joins them in book two and seems to at least midly agree with their ideals. his hostility towards Tris is due to her faction, but Edward, being an Erudite, gives Peter no reason to be hostile in that regard.
ALTERNATIVES:
“So,” I hear the strawman asking because nobody has read this far. “If Peter didn’t stab Edward, who did?” Well, I’ll be the first to say I don’t really know. I feel that Peter being the one to do this goes against his character, isn’t proven, and doesn’t really make logical sense, but I’ll be the first to admit that the author almost certainly intended for him to be the one to do it. But since we’ve already come this far, why not explore some alternatives? For the purpose of this question, I’ll only be including the Dauntless transfer initiates and their two intructors at the time. Them, Eric, and Four are the only people with any investment in Edward that we’re aware of as readers. Some of these are obviously more ridiculous than others. I’ll rank them in order of least to most likely.
10. Tris
I don’t think I even need to explain why this is downright impossible. We read from her perspective. What Tris knows, the reader knows. If she stabbed him, the reader would know. That’s not even bringing up how distressed she is when he gets stabbed and how wildly out of character this would be.
9. Four
Four is also pretty much impossible, because we hear from his perspective in the third book. During one of his conversations with Peter in that book, I think it’s impossible he wouldn’t have thought of what he did at least once throughout that book if he was the one to do it. Not to mention that, like Tris, this is laughably out of character for him.
8. Christina
This, like the other two, is just out of character in every way. She seems genuinely angry at Peter for doing this, and I just can’t get behind the idea she would be the one to stab Edward instead. The only possible theory I could come up with here is that she wanted to frame Peter because of her hatred for him, but that doesn’t even come close to being convincing.
7. Eric
I’m not sure if anybody will be surprised that I put Eric so low on the list compared to some other much less evil characters. While Eric is definitely awful, he’s the neglectful kind of awful. He refuses to take action against the initiates. He says this to Four after Tris was nearly killed.
“‘Competitive environments create tension, Four. It’s natural for that tension to be released somehow.’ He smiles a little, stretching the skin between his piercings. ‘An attack would certainly show us, in a real-world situation, who the strong and weak ones are, don’t you think? We wouldn’t have to rely on the test results at all, that way. We could make a more informed decision about who doesn’t belong here. That is… if an attack were to happen.’”
But he doesn’t show any bias and doesn’t seem to care about who wins at all. He does dislike Tris, seemingly due to this world’s version of xenophobia, but he doesn’t have anything against Edward that we’ve seen. I can’t find motivation here whatsoever.
6. Will
Yeah, it’s taking us a bit to get into the actually viable theories, huh? Will is shown to be a caring person, if a bit logic driven at times. He tries to avoid conflict, even with people he doesn’t like, such as Molly.
“She lunges at me, her hands outstretched, but she doesn’t get far. Will grabs her collar and pulls her back. He looks from me to her and says, ‘Quit it. Both of you.’”
He isn’t shown to have any relationship, negative or positive, with Edward, and seems sickened the next day, saying he almost wishes they didn’t have the day off. We could maybe twist this into a sign of a guilty conscience if we try hard enough, but it isn’t convincing.
5. Edward
I may have to explain this one being on the list at all, especially since it isn’t even at the bottom. Do I think this is a ridiculous theory? Yes. But we’re going through them all, so. We aren’t necessarily given a reason why Edward would stab himself, but it’s the simple idea that there could be reasons. With most of the previous characters, we would know if they secretly hated Edward. Edward himself, however, is far from a narrative focus. He could have any number of things going on away from the reader’s knowledge.
I will say, I doubt this was a case of secret self hatred. This would be one of the worst attempts at suicide I have ever seen. He didn’t stab himself in a vital area, he used a butter knife despite being from Erudite, and by extension, not stupid, and he chose a ridiculously painful way to go about it. It’s a little more likely that he just wanted a way to leave Dauntless without judgment, but still very implausible.
Not even bringing up the fact that he beats Drew nearly to death for supposedly being involved
“‘That Drew guy, who helped Peter preform that butter-knife maneuver,” Tobias says. “Apparently when he got kicked out of Dauntless, he tried to join the same group of factionless Edward was part of. Notice that you haven’t seen Drew anywhere.’
‘Did Edward kill him?’ I say.
‘Nearly,’ Tobias says.”
Which is the only time Drew is brought up as a part of this incident apart from initially being noted as missing, which is appreciated.
In general, this is a very stupid theory, but it’s still a bit less stupid than the ones below it.
4. Myra
It’s always the partner. I mean, I don’t really think it was in this case, but her being Edward’s partner already gives her some suspicion. We don’t know much at all about her. Shes shown to be bad at most Dauntless things, and implied to have only joined to follow Edward. However, during the knife throwing scene, it is stated that only Al failed, so she isn’t completely helpless.
Edward and Myra could have any number of things going on that we would never know about because the narrative doesn’t focus on their relationship to any extent.
She seems more likely for the theory of “wanted to leave Dauntless without judgement” too. She didn’t have to get hurt this way, and would be seen as a good person for following her boyfriend.
This is compounded by the fact that she breaks up with him pretty soon after. Edward says that it’s because he got violent because of his anger about being stabbed, but who knows?
Pretty silly theory, considering Myra is shown to be kind in the few glimpses of her we see, but this is the first one on the list that has any merit to it in my eyes.
3. Al
This is not one I planned on putting this high at first, but after thinking about it, I can kind of buy into this one. Al is shown to get more and more desperate about rankings the longer the book goes on. During section two of initiation, he goes as far as to attempt to murder (or if he’s to be believed) scare Tris. (More like traumatize, but I digress.) If he’s willing to so horribly betray Tris, one of his closest friends, what’s to say he wouldn’t harm somebody who wasn’t close to him at all?
The rankings were just posted. Al is dead last and Edward is first. No matter who he attacks, Al gets bumped up a spot. The lower on the list he attacks, the smaller the range of suspects gets. If he goes for whoever was directly above him, he’s automatically the prime suspect. Two places above him, then him and the other person are the only suspects, so on and so forth. Aiming for the top makes it so that anybody could be a suspect.
Plus, getting rid of Edward specifically also got rid of Myra. Al couldn’t have known for sure this would happen (unless he asked Myra about it off screen) but it’s a pretty safe assumption to make considering how much she didn’t want to be there. If the attackers goal was rankings, which Al’s would be, this would be the best place to strike.
Additionally, this actually helps his character arc to some extent. Rather than him snapping all of a sudden, it’s a gradual decline. Starting with a non-fatal attack on somebody he isn’t close to, then a fatal attack on a close friend.
And in a piece of evidence I forgot about until I reread, Al actually stays in his room the night before, seeming very upset.
“‘We should go celebrate.’
‘Well, let’s go then, then,’ says Christina, grabbing my arm with one hand and Al’s arm with the other. ‘Come on, Al. You don’t know how the Dauntless-borns did. You don’t know anything for sure.’
‘I’m just going to bed,’ he mumbles, pulling his arm free.”
I’m sure this was intended to be him worrying about rankings, but since we can’t see his thoughts, it could be anything. Considering how he reacted to what he did to Tris, it seems guilt shuts him down. This would be a very in character reaction to feeling guilty for what he’s about to do.
Al also seems much more likely to make all the mistakes that Peter wouldn’t. He would use a butter knife considering his shown inexperience with real ones. He would stab the eye rather than a vital part in an attempt not to kill. He wouldn’t pull out the knife (whether because he doesn’t want to hurt Edward more or because he doesn’t know that it would.)
And to top it all off, this does work. Edward and Myra leaving bumps Al up just enough to stay. Considering Al’s reaction when he almost got kicked out of Dauntless the second time, I find it hard to believe he would sit still and rely on luck.
This is the first one that really got me to think. Is it meant to be true? No, definitely not. But could it be? Yes, and there’s actually an odd amount of evidence for it.
2. Drew
This one and number one were really a toss up for me. They’re tied at first place in my mind, and I went back and forth a lot. Seriously. While I was writing this intro paragraph you’re reading right now, I switched the name up there three times.
I ultimately decided to put Drew a bit lower than Molly because of this one quote:
“‘Drew is just his sidekick. I doubt he has an independent thought in his brain.’”
He doesn’t make decisions on his own, at least according to Christina. And since we’re working under the assumption that Peter was not involved in this, that’s automatically a point against him doing it. However, it’s kind of the only point against Drew. He’s a prime suspect.
For one, the obvious. He was also missing from the dorm when Al got stabbed. But unlike Peter, this actually seems very in character for Drew. He’s shown to be very flighty, running when Four approaches them at the chasm (well… starting to run.) He’s also shown to be not very smart, so he may not have put together that this only made him look more suspicious.
Actually, all of the intelligence points I put against it being Peter contribute towards it being Drew. He’s dumb enough to use a butter knife, to not pull it out, to leave the room.
He has motivation too. He gets kicked out of Dauntless later, so he could have been trying to save his own ranking. Due to his intense loyalty to Peter, he also could have been trying to impress/help him.
Drew also antagonized Tris right before this incident.
“Drew shoves me into the wall to get past me.”
Normally an antagonist doing something so small and… antagonistic wouldn’t be anything to write home about, but Drew is an incredibly minor character. He only gets a few lines and actions throughout the series. Most of what we know about him is through the one line Christina says and his choice of friendships. Everything else he does is sort of just saying “yeah, that!” to everything Peter does. However, this is his first time being a solo antagonist. It’s small, yes, but its proximity to the stabbing in the text and the fact it never happened before or since makes it worth including for me.
Theres also the fact that Drew nearly got killed by Edward over this incident. While I don’t believe Edward quite saw what happened (his eye was otherwise occupied) I did think it was worth throwing out there that Edward believed he was responsible to some extent.
1. Molly
Molly is a weird one in this situation. On one hand, she’s shown to be an accomplice to Peter pretty often, but on the other she’s absent from Peter’s two largest crimes (those being the butter knife incident and the chasm incident) At first I assumed Molly wasn’t brought along to the chasm because she’s a girl, and as such wouldn’t be strong enough to carry Tris. Until I remembered that being incredibly buff is one of Molly’s only features. It’s presented negatively/unattractively in the text, but she’s given the nickname “The Tank.” This girl is ripped.
She also was not noted to be missing from the room after Edward’s stabbing. In a way, this makes her more suspicious to me. The book presents three antagonists in this group who work together in every situation up to this point (considering the chasm hasn’t happened yet) and are described by Christina to be inseparable. When one of those three does something different from the other two, especially considering Molly isn’t the leader or focus of the group, it makes me ask some questions.
Her being set apart by the narrative like this has always been really odd to me. Not just in the sense of it being suspicious, but it just not making sense. Shes a much bigger antagonist than Drew. It’s one of Tris’s defining character moments when she beats Molly in a fight. Molly has more lines than Drew does, and does more to directly hurt Tris (more on that later.) She seems to be more than “one of Peter’s lackeys” to some extent, and acts separately from him more often than Drew. That’s what ultimately pushed her to first for me.
And the most clear indication of her acting separately from Peter is the event with the Erudite reporter.
“Peter continues. ‘Molly Atwood, a fellow Dauntless transfer, suggests a disturbing and abusive upbringing might be to blame. ‘I heard her talking in her sleep once,’ Molly says. ‘She was telling her father not to do something. I don’t know what it was, but it gave her nightmares.’’”
So this is Molly’s revenge. She must have talked to the Erudite reporter that Christina yelled at. She smiles.”
(Note that nothing said about Tris’s father here is true. That is why this act upsets Tris so much.)
This is a pretty large moment of bullying done by only Molly. Peter was not shown to be involved in feeding the reporter any information, only reading it out loud to tease Tris. This was all Molly. Drew doesn’t have any moment like this. The book’s repeated effort to set Molly apart from her two friends really feels as if it’s building up to something.
I will cover the only thing hurting this theory quickly before I go into its strengths. Molly is not stupid. The event with the Erudite reporter confirms this. She may not be especially intelligent - we aren’t shown that - but is she stupid enough to use a butter knife? Well, she is rather sadistic. Maybe she wanted to have to stab multiple times for it to stick? Or maybe obtaining a butter knife was less suspicious or easier? Those both seem a little unlikely to me, but that’s kind of the only downside of the Molly theory. Other than that, it makes more sense than Peter in my opinion.
She is shown to be very upset about rankings. Much more than Peter.
“‘What?’ demands Molly. She points at Christina. ‘I beat her! I beat her in minutes, and she’s ranked above me?’”
While Peter gets upset specifically when beaten by Tris, Molly is outraged to be low at all. She only turns her fury to Tris when Eric recommends she “stop losing to low ranking opponents.”
“The words sting a little, reminding me that I am the low-ranked opponent he’s referring to.
Apparently they remind Molly, too.
‘You,’ she says, focusing her narrowed eyes on me. ‘You are going to pay for this.’”
She then promises revenge. This is only a few pages before the stabbing. While her “revenge” is implied to be feeding information to the Erudite reporter, that does nothing to help her rankings. Considering how upset she was about her ranking even before Tris was brought into the picture, it seems likely that she would choose to also seek a way to bump that up, such as taking out the highest ranking initiate.
Molly is shown specifically to be terrified of getting cut towards the very beginning of the book:
“‘What do we do if we’re cut?’ Peter says.
‘You leave the Dauntless compound,’ says Eric indifferently. ‘And live factionless.’”
[Irrelevant reactions omitted]
“‘But that’s… not fair!’ The broad-shouldered Candor girl, Molly, says. Even though she sounds angry, she looks terrified. ‘If we had known—’”
Molly is also specifically singled out by Christina to be sadistic during the scene she describes the trio, saying she’s the type to hold a magnifying glass to ants just to watch them flail.
I see no reason to suspect Peter over Molly aside from Tris’s own biases. She’s just as, if not more, suspicious than Peter once you separate Tris’s monologue from the actual events.
JUSTIFICATION:
Now, switching gears a bit, I hear your cries, strawman. Well, I don’t actually know what you’re arguing specifically, but I’m sure there’s something stupid I said. Let’s say none of that convinced you. You still fully believe that Peter stabbed Edward. But now the question is, would he even be wrong to do that?
This probably sounds like a stupid question to you. Stabbing somebody’s eye out over rankings is a very wrong thing to do. But you’re forgetting one tiny detail, because I’m the only one who reads these books with a wordsearch on Peter’s name. It wasn’t over rankings.
This isn’t me shoving my theories in either! Edward directly states himself that it was not because of rankings:
“‘I seem to recall hearing rumors that you provoked that attack,’ says Tobias.
‘What are you talking about?’ I say. ‘He was winning, that’s all, and Peter was jealous so he just…’
I see the smirk on Edward’s face and stop talking. Maybe I don’t know everything about what happened during initiation.
‘There was an inciting incident,’ says Edward. ‘In which Peter did not come out the victor. But it certainly didn’t warrant a butter knife to the eye.’”
And Four was aware of this before Edward said anything. At first when I read this quote, I assumed it implied something stupid. Like they got into a fight or the like. But then I thought about it a little harder.
In Dauntless, it is not only socially acceptable, but socially encouraged to beat the shit out of each other. If it were just a fight, Four wouldn’t have been informed of this. Whats more, there isn’t a single place in the book that mentions Peter having a suspicious injury. For it to be worth stabbing an eye out for Peter, I’d imagine it’d have to be pretty serious. Something that either doesn’t leave a visible injury/limp/etc or an injury that is so minor Tris doesn’t see it as worth mentioning? Even if that would upset Peter enough, I doubt Edward would attribute something so small to why he got stabbed. If it was a small altercation like this, Edward would believe it was due to the rankings like everybody else.
And again, Four was informed of this. We don’t know who told him, so let’s go through a few options. Only the most likely ones for times sake.
PETER:
This seems most likely at first, but Peter is a proud person. He’s willing to manipulate to get his way, sure, but he would never go to Four just to admit to losing a fight. For him to tell Four, it would have to be serious.
EDWARD:
For Edward to feel the need to inform his training instructor, it would again have to be very serious. He doesn’t like Peter. If it was survivable (which I’m assuming it would be based on Peter’s lack of visible injuries or limp) he wouldn’t tell.
FOUR WALKED IN:
The last option that feels reasonable enough to explore is that Four walked in on something. Four attributes the stabbing to this event, not the rankings. Therefore, it’d have to be something so obviously bad at first glance that Four immediately knew that’s why Peter stabbed Edward.
I’m not going to waste time trying to establish what this thing Edward did was. There are far too many missing variables for me to even begin to guess. Anything I say beyond this point would leave the realm of theory and be pure headcanon with no basis in the books. I just want to make it known that something that seems pretty severe did go down, so even if Peter did stab Edward, he may have a better reason for it than we thought.
CONCLUSION:
I am not the author of these books, and will never know the narrative intent. I can make educated guesses (the intent was almost definitely for Peter to have stabbed Edward), but I can’t know for sure. These events are never touched back upon or explained further, so what I know here is really all there is to go off of.
That being said, I hope I made you think about this event a little bit differently, and consider the possibility that Peter maybe didn’t do this one thing. He still did all the other stuff though so it’s pretty irrelevant. But I had fun!
#tw knife#tw sui#divergent#peter hayes#divergent peter#peter divergent#drew divergent#Molly Atwood#tris prior#tobias eaton#four divergent#Edward divergent
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Ya, I think I left enough characters out that my "ranking every 'mostly white + usually a cool color + maybe gold'" post warrants a part 2 (if enough valks of this design genre get released to warrant a part 3 though, I'm just gonna cry). Usual disclaimer that while I'm trying to be objective as possible about this, art is a very subjective medium and I am not immune to bias. Anyways-
S tier (wouldn’t change a thing)-
still not entirely sure if she belongs on this list because the black and white elements are pretty well balanced, but eh- we're here now
Forget just this genre for a sec though- Aponia has one of my favorite designs in the game
It's the skirt, it's entirely the skirt
I'm glad they kept the outfit mostly black and white (other than the bits of jewelry used to keep the outfit cohesive) because I think too much color would've just distracted from the skirt
I also appreciate they made the white fabric different textures. It really helps to separate the veil from everything else
The usage of vines and flowers to break the symmetry of the design is a fun nod to Aponia's failed attempts to control the world around her
A rank (minor changes needed)
I just want that front white shirt piece thing have a "light blue to white" gradient on it to better separate it from her legs
Otherwise, this design is a friend
Nice use of texture, I really like how the sleeves look like fabric dipped in ink where the ink is just gradually creeping up
I also just think it's funny that she's the jade knight, but her color palette is mostly blue, where as Azure Empyrea's color palette is mostly green
The red accents are also nice
I think from a more objective standpoint, this design would be in B or C tier, but it's my list and I like the design, so it's going in A tier
I'm also not sure if there's really enough white to warrant her being here
The bikini top and mini tutu are goofy (I think I'd personally just make the top a turtleneck crop top with a book window cut out, and the tutu into shorts and a fanny pack), but I kinda like them
There's just a lot of nice color variation in this one
D tier (for disappointments)
Getting this disclaimer out of the way: I am aware of the racist elements of this design. I am not SWANA though, so I don't really feel it's my place to go in depth on it (I'd be happy to link or reblog other people's arguments though)
Congratulations to mihoyo for making me sick of the color purple. I literally didn't know that was possible
I know she had a purple Hoody that one Manga, but I really with they went with a blue/green, orange, and gold pallet instead
The dance motife feels kinda out of nowhere? Idk if she has a love of dance in one of the Mangas, but it was never really mentioned in game before now
Also having Rita (the British lady) be the one to teach her a Persian inspired dance was... a choice
I could see a redesign going a couple different ways
One being really committing to the whole "it looks like a regular outfit" think, focusing on the changing roles of valkyries and moving more towards the aesthetics of APHO
Maybe have her story take place in her home country, thus why she could be wearing more traditional clothes (and have a grandma or someone like that teach her the dance)
My other idea would be keep the story the same, but change her design to be more of a throw back to early valks, leaning more into the mech suit idea
I wish we got the bear hood
F rank (I have very few productive things to say because these invoke my inner Ragina George)
F, for "that was the ugliest f'ing skirt I've ever seen"
Ya, I know I'm breaking my "only out valks" rule, but fuck this design
There's so little tonal variation
Between the hair and shoulder puffs, this design just ends up looking incredibly top heavy
Mihoyo, keep her pants on
Just like Hares writing, this design is uninspired and directionless
I keep seeing people compare her to Shenhe and Eula and I'm gonna need yall to stop slandering my queens like that
Comments from the homies:
"Shorty look like an ice cube gum box"
"Why does she have nipple ribbons"
Froot loops abyss herald looking ass
Every day, I wonder if the trend towards monster design similarities in both games is an intentional way of hinting at further down the line multiverse plotlines (not explaining why it could be this here), or just a marketing decision
TLDR: these types of designs can work so long as they go bold on the colors
#honkai impact#honkai aponia#li sushang#honkai susannah#honkai pardofelis#honkai hare#I just needed to wind down after doing homework all day#And this seemed like a fun way to do it#Never thought I'd get sick of purple but mihoyo surprised me
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Mythoscember Day 22 - The Hellhounds
My boys! I feel like I say that alot, but these are my dogs, dawg
I originally did this in colored pencil and it have me hand cramps for the rest of the month, but it was worth it. This version caused a lot less pain. Still very worth it.
We love a little chaos bringer freeing its fellow hellish hounds from their bindings...
Yeah ok maybe Sha is my favorite. Maybe because it's red, maybe because I have an Egyptian creature bias. Who knows?
All i know is that these are good dogs
And you should pet them
They deserve it
#puppies#we love#MythosCember#Fenrir#Fenris#?#Sha#Set animal#Cerberus#I feel like it deserves a second name too#Uh#Hellhound#mythology#mythological creature#digital art#concept art#creature concept#creature art#animal art#my art
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You have a lot of shinies now, so what's your top 5 fave shinies, top 5 better coloring than original, and top 5 worst looking ones ?
Sorry I took so long to answer this, I actually had to think about this for a couple days to really have a good answer. I hope y'all don't mind a long post because I want to explain my picks a little. I'll include links to the shiny in the list under the cut
5 favorite shinies:
Growlithe/Arcanine: This has been my favorite shiny since Gen 3 made their shiny not awful, and I finally got one in 19 eggs in SV! It's also one of my favorite pokemon.
Mimikyu: This might be unpopular and maybe (second) favorite pokemon bias, but adore the grey-scale of this shiny. I feel like it emulates the feel of the Gen 1 sprites, and it would make sense that Mimikyu, which wanted to be loved like Pikachu, would model itself after the original way it looked.
Umbreon: This might shock some people, because Sylveon is my favorite pokemon, but this is my favorite shiny Eeveelution. It just looks so cool! The blue stripes replacing the yellow is just so good. It just communicates cool Moon-inspired pokemon to me.
Rockruff: Another of my favorite pokemon that has an amazing shiny. It's a blue puppy! What's not to love? The shade of blue is also fantastic, just super cute. (can you tell I like blue shinies)
Gourgeist: We love a goth queen, tbh.
Honorable mentions: Mareep, Kantonian Ninetails, Galarian Zigzagoon-line (trans rights), Toucannon (bi rights), Sylveon (I only slightly prefer the original, still amazing), Sandygeist, Unovan Zorua, the Tapus
5 better than the original:
Wooloo: the reversed black and white just looks so good, I can't do it justice. Just a home run of a shiny.
Crobat: Bias because Zubat was my first shiny ever in Gen 2 (including the red Gyarados, I think). Also I just think it looks cool as hell. I got one in Sun and named her Babs because she looks like Batgirl with the pink and green scheme.
Camerupt: Talk about a major improvement! It's original design is... fine, like volcano camel, got it. The shiny just out shines (no pun intended) it in every way. The black and yellow work so well together, and while it doesn't scream "fire camel" it just looks so good.
Beautifly: Huge upgrade, imo. Looks super artistic, like a stained glass mosaic. Absolutely gorgeous, and it really pops compared to the original. Also, trans rights
Charizard: Wee-woo Genwunner alert! I might be biased, because Charmander was my original starter almost 25 years ago and remains one of my favorite Pokemon to this day. I still remember my original Charizard (MZ, no idea why I named it that I was 7), and when I saw it's shiny (in gen 3 when they fixed it) I knew I had to have one because it is just so dang cool.
5 Worse than the original: (excluding the obvious ones that are barely different than the originals)
Absol: I don't hate this shiny or anything, I just think the original Absol is a near perfect design. It does a great job of looking foreboding and kinda ominous, but the shiny doesn't quite do that.
Volcarona: It just feels like the colors on this shiny were picked randomly and both don't go together and look bad on this design. Serious downgrade all around, more negative points because I really like Volcarona
Primarina: This is one of my 5 favorite pokemon of all time, but this shiny makes me almost want to cry. I understand changing the "hair" from blue to blonde to try to like imitate the look of a traditional mermaid, but the change to the rest of the accents to that like pale yellow(?) is just bad. Primarina was a near perfect design, but the shiny is bad.
Snubbull: You would think I would like this because of the blue dominance on a dog pokemon, but it's just ugly to me. The Pink and blue-spot combo works for me on the original, but the reverse hurts my eyes. ALSO WHY ARE THE FEET ORANGE?!
Bruxish: One of my least favorite pokemon and just a terrible shiny. Colors feel totally random.
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2022 Writing Year in Review
thank you @flameohotwife and @chocomd for the tag! great way to start a new year of writing is to look back
1. Number of stories posted to Ao3: 15! most oneshots and drabbles, 1 that is a multichap still in the works
2. Word count this year: 75,791
3. Fandoms I wrote for: Avatar: The Last Airbender
4. Pairings: Aang/Katara
5. Stories with the most:
Kudos: i lost it all again (can you help me find it once more?), the second fic in my Katara-centric series
Bookmarks: dreamless dreams
Comment threads: see the sky and sea (and remember me)
Word count: see the sky and sea (and remember me)
6. Work I’m most proud of (and why): there’s a lot, but i guess i will have to say dreamless dreams, my platonic zukaang fic, since i really don’t like Zuko that much lol. he’s definitely not my fav, esp because of fandom, so it was a surprise to write this, and i’ll admit i was a tad worried i would write him ooc because of my own bias. but surprisingly enough, i’ve been told the way i portrayed Zuko in this fic is very very in-character for him and serves as exploration that most fandom would avoid, and the platonic zukaang was also something i never thought i would write but seemed to execute well haha. overall, i guess i’m proud of this fic because it’s a concept that’s out of my comfort zone that i think i’ve executed pretty well, haha
7. Work I’m least proud of (and why): protecting you, which is a prequel to where we're meant to be. i had a kind of hard time writing this, and if i look back on it now, it just seems... cheesy, almost? idk it’s just Aang whump so maybe i just feel it’s a little senseless lol.
8. Share or describe a favorite review you received: i think my favorite review this year was actually from @chocomd and pertained to dreamless dreams! choco managed to understand all the underlying parallels i wrote into the fic and gushed how much she loved the way i wrote the platonic zukaang 🥺 before her review, almost no one was kudos’ing the fic, so i was wracked with so much doubt that i wrote it well, and with her review, it really helped ease my worries of oocness for Zuko & Aang.
9. A time when writing was really, really hard: while i was in school as a STEM major lol. that should be self-explanatory.
10. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you: i already mentioned Zuko, but there’s actually two more characters i was surprised to write. one of them was Iroh from my Iroh & Lu Ten fic leaves let go (to fall from the vine). i never ever ever thought i would ever write Iroh, and he kind of intimidated me because he’s such a wise, complex character--there was no fathomable way i could write him well, or so i thought. i seemed to manage okay for this fic tho haha
the other character is Hakoda from my Hakoda Adopts Aang fic these sleepless nights we spend (waiting to come home). also a surprise because in canon, we don’t really see much of him on-screen, not to mention there’s a lack of interaction between him and Aang. again, never really thought i would ever write him, but here we are.
11. A favorite excerpt of your writing:
i have quite a few (and i’ve used them for other asks), so i’ll choose something a little different this time!
this excerpt is the ending section of going back, moving forward:
When Gyatso releases him and Aang finds himself at the doorstep of shadows, he only glances back one final time to see Gyatso nodding with approval, pride shining in his gray eyes.
(i will always wait for you)
When he finds himself walking down the dark hallway, he hears his friends, his family, all calling his name, all pleading with him to come back, come back, and he picks up the pace, rushing towards them.
(i'm coming, i'm coming)
When he sees the differently colored threads (green red navy cerulean) weaving their way towards him as the world falls away into darkness and shadows, he reaches for them, knowing that they're reaching out for him.
(i'm coming back for you)
When he wakes up in his friends' embrace, he lets himself melt into their love and worry and berating because they care, they care, and he almost can't believe he ever doubted it was the right thing to do.
(i'm here)
And when he grows and makes mistakes and matures and builds his own family and learns to live and laugh and love again, Aang finally understands what Gyatso meant all those years ago.
And it feels like coming home.
12. How did you grow as a writer this year: i definitely stepped out of my comfort zone a bit and wrote for characters i never thought i would write for haha. i’m also improving on describing scenery, especially as needed for my multichap lol
13. How do you hope to grow next year: to keep improving on describing scenery. i’m improving right now, but i still have ways to go. also to keep writing characters i never thought i’d write, step out of my comfort zone even more.
14. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc): @chocomd. we found out we have very similar tastes in the kind of stories we want to read & write, and so she’s been a huge encouragement, especially in a fandom where our specfic tastes aren’t exactly common. her comments especially on see the sky and sea (and remember me) and her eagerness to see its conclusion is really the only reason why i’m still writing this fic.
15. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year: not really? i mean i lost it all again (can you help me find it once more?) stems from my own feelings of assimilation and not knowing my own culture. other than that, there aren’t any i can think that are truly from my core self; every other fic is just my exploration of canon content or mirroring of things i never have personally experienced. all of my fics have some form of myself in them anyways tho, so
16. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers: don’t be afraid to experiment and break rules of syntax, so long as it makes sense for the themes of the fic. i find the fics i love reading/writing the most are the ones that experiment to reflect the themes of the fic, the state of the character’s mind, etc. (also you can use that as an excuse in case someone gets mad at you 😉)
17. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year: definitely hoping to finish see the sky and sea (and remember me) this new year, but with the way the climax is playing out and the limited time i have, it could take a while lol. depending on if i get that done, i’m also looking into my 5+1 Aang fic about loneliness, a Katara MCD fic, a Sokka-centric fic that deals with masculinity, and a 5+1 Zuko-centric fic that deals with Zuko beginning to understand the effects of imperialism on the little people.
18. Tag some writers whose answers you’d like to read: @itsmoonpeaches @thinkingisadangerouspastime @justoceanmyth @shameaboutthedilettantism @kataangisforlovers and anyone else!
#northern's fanfiction#northern gets tagged#tag game#tag game answer#writing year in review#2022 writing year in review
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unfortunately it's like. Very Christian indie. But I think you'd love the album cover for "Poet Priest" by Andy Squyres. I discovered it because I love the designs one guy did for him but was a little surprised by the content gsghh.
I love a black and white cover but titles on them are often a miss for me. If you want typography on the cover, you need to plan the shot out with the color of the text in mind. I don't think the black necessarily works here and white wouldn't be any better I think. But I do love all the other elements!!
The single cover for Dead Horse is especially up my alley!! I also love a theme and the splash of red I'm seeing all over the Spotify page is great.
Sidenote: looking at my favorite covers they either don't have any typography or it's very subtle, so maybe it's just a bias I have and the title does look objectively good here and I'm being annoying for no reason. Always important to remember that I am not very well versed in graphic design and am simply a complainer.
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Sorta of a Book Review
Sorta because I'm not really great at leaving reviews because it's hard for the explain what I liked or didn't like in depth and give reasons why. I just liked it didn't like it or was meh about it.
So, I read Jurassic Park for the first time. I started it on the first and finished it early this morning (4th). I really enjoyed it like a lot. I would set it down to work on something else and found myself picking it up instead to keep going.
Some parts I found wishing were in the movie. I mean I love the movie. I don't think I saw the movie for the first time until 1999 but have watched it multiple times since. I don't know if my familiarity of the movie helped with my enjoyment of the book because there was some dryish parts, but also liked going oh that's sort of in the movie but a little different.
I will probably reread this book at some point. I may make it an annual re-read for October every year. Tim is my favorite in both (but maybe I'm bias there).
My method of rating isn't by star numbers like most people do, but give them star colors. RED = didn't like it, GREEN = Meh, BLUE = liked it (but kind of just barely), SILVER = good, & GOLD = loved it
Jurassic Park was a Gold Star book for me. I think it's my favorite so far this year, which isn't saying much since I feel off my reading wagon end of April/Early May and don't think I picked up any books again until July or August.
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1, 5, 20 & 41!
Hello Rin!! Thanks for the ask!! ^^ <3
1. What's your top 3 vocalists?
This is so hard! But Hyolyn, Eunji come up for my first and second spots off the top of my head immediately, and third maybe Seulgi/Yuqi are tied?
5. How many albums do you have?
Last time I counted close to 100 💀 but I’m trying to not buy unless it’s from an ult group and I like a majority of the songs and photobook concepts from now on lol we’ll see how that goes
20. What's your all time favorite concept by a group/idol?
A few come to mind! I love the pink and pastel aesthetic of Russian Roulette from red velvet and all their hair colors! Alcohol free from twice of course is another one for the nice summer bossa nova vibes! And I really love the Chinese influence of Hwaa by (g)I-dle!
41. What's your top 3 boygroups/idols?
I don’t follow boy groups as much anymore since sometimes their music goes too hard for me 😅 but if I had to choose, maybe Exo, SHINee, and B2ST because I really liked their second gen songs! I guess I bias Kai in Exo and Key in SHINee haha
Thanks for the ask again and have a lovely day! ~~ ^^
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