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donnatroyyyy · 4 months

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A (very long) list of my (semi) unpopular DC opinions

The Batfam shouldn’t work together as a whole big group as vigilantes. Whenever that does happen it ends up being character suicide for AT LEAST two of them and also usually ends up minimizing all of them to one of the skills/traits they’re good at (or the archetypes the writer wants them to be). The only exception to this is if it’s a long arc covering an actual catastrophe where each issue covers a duo or trio within the big group. Otherwise they should stick to no more than 4 ppl at a time in a team up. Also, this obviously doesn’t apply to them as civilians, they’re literally family obviously they’re gonna hang out as a group.

The Teen Titans (2003) is the best writing but (one of the) worst teams. On the other hand the original Teen Titans run and NTT run are the best teams (imo) but have either really bad or really mediocre writing. We as a society need an OG TT or NTT run written well.

Roy struggling with a heroin addiction has so many more layers and nuances to it than struggling with alcohol because as a non-meta hero most of his fights were against something drug-related. As opposed to alcohol which is now seen as a normal thing for soldiers/heroes/warriors to fall on as a crutch, this medium uses alcohol addiction with every other character. Roy’s addiction to heroin would literally be an opposition to all that he’s ever stood and fought for, all that his family and friends ever fought and stood for, and way more interesting because of that.

Garth (like Donna) is one of the most powerful and interesting characters but is never given enough panel time. However, unlike Donna, writers would rather write him out of the teen titans before they actually write a good interpretation of him. And I don’t know why but his role in the Aquafam too has been dwindling with time.

Garth’s openness about his inferiority complex and his inferiority complex in general need more panel time, it’s one of the most interesting thing to come out of the OG TT run

This is a complicated take because it’s literally two opposites in one take, but the main difference in characters as seen in old comics vs. now is two things. One, the writing of characters was much better, much more realistic, and much more nuanced in old comics. Two, when there is a well-written character in modern comics its usually a more show not tell character so everything is shown to us through actions and stuff rather than straight up words or them psychoanalyzing themselves in their speech bubbles and that just doesn’t work with modern audiences because media literacy is a dying art. Also, there’s the variable of the influence of fanon over how characters are written in comics but that’s a whole other post.

Roy and Donna are literally THE OTP like I don’t even want to hear it, they’re literally DC’s percabeth.

Every single Teen Titan had an inferiority complex, some were just easier to see.

Selina and Bruce and Talia and Bruce are two very different relationships that can’t be compared. Also they will always live side by side till the end of comics, this love triangle was one meant to last, and it will.

Jason Todd as we know him right now should get the YJ Roy Harper treatment, we need to find out that he’s a clone and the real JT is somewhere in Africa working for UNICEF or something, that’s the only way to fix his character.

Also, ignoring the top one, if DC doesn’t want to commit to that because they’re cowards, they should at least not make him a part of the Batfam yet, it’s too soon for either side.

Kara Zor El is the perfect character to be a white lantern, her arc literally matches up perfectly with each of the rings, and she’d wield it incredibly

Kyle Rayner is top 3 GLs

In my opinion, Diana is best written when the most important thing to her in the world is the world itself. Like, usually I hate the whole “hero would sacrifice u, villain would sacrifice the world” thing cuz it mostly doesn’t really apply, but to her it absolutely does. Diana would sacrifice the closest person to her for the world in an instant if it was for the sake of the world. And this isn’t like an angst thing because they all know it and are all ok with it.

Also, Diana is one of the most if not the most powerful characters in all of DC, if DC did a Deadpool kills the marvel universe kind of thing they should totally use her because she is sooo powerful. (Afterthought: that’s why I hate most of her appearances in anything JL because they underpower her soooo bad)

I say this as a batfamily Stan, the batfamily is the worst family in all of DC and sadly the one that gets the most attention.

The OG TT are the epitome of superheroes in the sense that each and every one of them defines every part of a superhero spectacularly and always has.

Kory needs an arc where she leaves everyone and everything for a while because as of right now, not only do the writers only ever see her in relation to others, but she sees herself that way. She needs an arc where she finds herself in relation to herself, who SHE is. Away from the love triangle, and the titans, and the Titans, etc.

Babs is a better character outside of the love triangle than she is when she’s in it. (Also a better character as Oracle but that only really unpopular amongst writers)

Every single woman character in DC is written in relation to the men in the comics, even WW. The only exception is Oracle, not Babs, but Oracle, which is actually so twisted considering that the creation of Oracle as a character came hand in hand with an event that literally inspired the cloning of the phrase “fridging”

BOP is one of the best teams

Harley Quinn shouldn’t be a hero yet, she was abused for over a decade, we need to see more of her struggle to undo all of the manipulation and heal from the abuse as well as try to undo all the damage she’s done. The Animated Series is the best version of her arc but it’s still not good either.

We as a fandom(s) need to normalize the ability to consume and enjoy things we don’t necessarily agree with. For example, as I’ve stated before multiple times, I absolutely hate any kind of abusive Bruce, however, I still read those long posts about it and I still read fics where dck punches him cuz he’s an abusive asshole, it’s okay to consume media that you don’t necessarily agree with. And same with fanon versions of characters, I HATE coffee-addict Tim, I’ve still enjoyed hundreds of fics with him in them though.

Damian Wayne is the most compassionate member of the batfam and one of the Keats likely ones to willingly kill

Blue devil and kid devil have arguably the most interesting story and tragedy in all of DC and the only reason they’re not given a lot of attention is because their tragedies have to do with something we don’t like to see: the wrongdoings and flaws of heroes, especially ones we like.

Speed Saunders should’ve continued as a character

Hal Jordan should’ve stayed evil for a while, the end of the parallax arc sucks and is a stupid cop out because they weren’t ready for a fully new GL. I don’t think he should’ve stayed the villain forever, but maybe for a few years, especially if that meant they would’ve ended the arc better.

Mera is more powerful than Arthur, always has been and always will be.

Wally West does see Barry Allen as a father figure and vice versa, it’s okay to see someone as a parental figure when you still have parents, especially when your parents are (canonically) borderline emotionally abusive and/or neglectful.

Any iteration of ANY hero being abusive is the worst writing ever because what the actual fuck, I’m sorry, but what happened to the whole they’re literally fucking heroes part??

There are so many characters that deserve solo series (or even mini series) but don’t get them because all the series are already being taken up by bigger characters (looking at you batfam)

So many characters get mischaracterized for the sake of other character’s stories (again, looking at you batfam)

Anyone who thinks Superman is boring either doesn’t understand him as a character or hasn’t read enough stuff with him in it (I recommend All-Star Superman and/or American Alien)

Anyone who relates to the Joker needs to turn themselves in at the nearest police station. (Unless it’s LEGO Joker, we like him)

The LEGO Batman movie is unironically some of the best DC media to ever exist

Atlantis and Paradise Island should be allies (especially once Diana, Arthur, and Mera come into the picture), I don’t know why they’re not

Lex Luthor is one of the most despicable villains because he’s a realistic villain, which is much scarier

Kon should be the next Superman

Connor Hawke should’ve stayed Tim’s age and Tim’s friend, it makes the most sense timeline-wise plus I think their dynamic was super cute.

Comic writers not making Roy openly refer to Ollie as his dad even though they’ve been father and son since they’ve debuted basically is actually so crazy to me

These next few are about Talia Al-Ghul because I love that woman:

Talia Al-Ghul Pre-Morrison was one of the best and most interesting characters in all of DC and that isn’t just my opinion, she was really popular amongst fans and writers for that exact reason

However, Morrison’s damage to her is near irreparable

BUT, if DC did want to repair it, I genuinely believe she’d be the best character they’d have character-wise and it would probably pull in a bunch of new fans

But even if they don’t, Talia Al-Ghul is one of the most important characters in all of DC and comics in general because she’s literally the documented history of WOC in media (especially Arab and Asian women) as well as their relation to white men in media. Her character and how it changes is directly tied to mainstream views on WOC at the time.

Talia Al-Ghul is literally of “I Bet On Losing Dogs” by Mitski, personified

Dinah Lance is the perfect example of a complex character done right and interpreted wrong/not interpreted enough.

If anyone should be the therapist within the hero community it should be J’onn or Red tornado, those are the two that make the most sense.

Helena Bertinelli is more important to the batfam than Jason Todd is.

Cassandra Cain shouldn’t be portrayed as mute anymore, it doesn’t make sense for her character or her arc.

The worst thing to happen to Poison Ivy’s character is Harley Quinn.

Mera is made to be a mother, whether to her own kids (Garth included) or as a mother figure to other kids.

On the other hand, Stephanie Brown wasn’t ready and doesn’t/didn’t want to be a mother, she gave up her baby willingly and will almost 100% not go out to look for her.

Lady Shiva’s appearances 99% of the time are out of character for her, the whole “training with Shiva” thing is also OOC for her, and Cass even existing is OOC for her. The reason that this continues though is because she’s been transformed from an actual character into a character tool.

Stephanie Brown and Cassanadra Cain are a good duo and anyone who hates on one but likes the other misunderstood both of their characters.

Dick hating Jason for what he did to Tim IS in character of him, and, in my opinion, correct of him

The rise in people who don’t like heroes’s pacifism is concerning. People calling Bruce a bad person because he doesn’t kill is concerning. People viewing Clark as boring because he’s a good person is concerning. People liking straight up villains more than they do heroes is concerning.

Anyone who recommends mister miracle should also tell them about the TW in the first few pages

Kingdom come isn’t that good, especially to non-Christians

Big Barda needs her own run. We need a Bug Barda run that covers everything from her origins to where she is now, and we need it done by a female writer who’s good at complex and heavy stories

Some of the most hated comic writers are some of the best at what they do

Chuck Dixon is just as much a blessing to any character he writes as he is a curse

Marvel’s comic writers and artists 80% of the town do a better job with their characters and their arcs than DC writers and artists.

DC should have sensitivity readers because the amount of racism in these comics is insane

It’s okay to put down a comic/run because you don’t like the art, it’s your time no one’s gonna judge you

Alex Ross’s art is actually nice, people just like hating

The Trinity should never be shipped with one another

Steve isn’t important to Diana at all, he’s barely in any of her comics actually, he’s less important to her (or at least to her character) than fucking swamp thing

Batfam is better smaller

It’s better to read the first appearances of characters, it helps you understand them better.

Lois Lane is the DC version of Susan Storm, aka the blueprint of women in that company’s comics, but also one of the most forgotten women in that company’s comics

Comics aren’t going to go anywhere arcwise for the characters long term, that’s the whole point. Batman will always have a robin. Love triangles will always be love triangles. They will all always stay young.

Old campy comics were better than modern comics.

Cheshire isn’t a redeemable character and shouldn’t be one. Women in comics should be allowed to be straight up villains and stay that way.

Cheshire having Lian is OOC. Cheshire leaving Lian is a racist trope.

Asian and Arabs are treated horribly by DC.

The New 52 is actually a good place to start for new readers, it was a good idea, but it should’ve just been an alternate universe (like mcu is to 616 kind of) or something (and it should’ve been down with the supervision of anyone who isn’t Dan didio)

DC has some of the best world building in the history of modern day media/literature especially considering how many facets of this world there were/are to build

Team rosters that are constantly changing are better than stationary ones unless they change too much/too fast

Canon is hypocritical 90% of the time, most times canon clashes and crashes and doesn’t make sense, so don’t worry about it, read a comic, count what you want to be canon as canon, throw the rest into to the “never existed” pile

I’m sorry to tell you guys this, but it isn’t an opinion, it’s an unpopular canon fact, one that even I don’t like: Dick Grayson likes pineapple one pizza

Something that I hate that been on the rise a lot lately is the fact that the fandom is so okay with character being sexualized just because they like how the characters look, I feel like we should keep our stances on this as they are with all over-sexualized characters.

Villains of the week are actually so fun, even more then the big villains sometimes.

JSA needs a comeback please and thank you (I’m begging atp)

Cassandra Cain shouldn’t be Orphan, ever, it makes no sense for her to take the name of her abused. The same way it doesn’t make sense for Jason to become red hood.

Complex characters who are dumbed down once can be dumbed down and mischaracterized every time after that, and this has been done A LOT.

The YJ shows is very much overhyped

The fact that DC overpowers their characters makes them more interesting, not less

Selina was right and in character when she left Bruce at the alter. She was not right and in character when she hid Helena from him, she wouldn’t do that.

Bruce Wayne is more fun to read when he has a pipe and fun colored robes, please give him back his pipe and his fun colored robes.

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historia-vitae-magistras · 6 months

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In one of your last posts about Matt and Katya, you mentioned Alfred and Ivan’s dynamic, and that perhaps there is more beyond the hate sex they have had.

Do you mind expanding on that? What is your interpretation of their relationship, if it can even be called that?

LMAO god, gonna make me use the two and a half years I spent special interesting my way through Eastern European history on my way to a degree in 20th Century history, are you? About time I did lmao. Alfred/Ivan is one of those ships I don't enjoy purely as a ship, but it's so compelling. Much too compelling to the history to leave out entirely.

So, at the dawn. You have this old state in Ivan, considered backwards and rural by the Western European imperial powers, which has largely lost its verve for even trying most of the time. He has usurped his sister, who built most of their culture and claimed the power he has from the remnants of several cultures and expanded eastwards. And he comes across this young upstart, similarly held on the fringe of the powers of Western Europe. He's had similar obsessions with Jan when the Dutch Republic was new and a lasting one with François when he was the heart of European culture. Moreover, he's not only interested in and admiring of Alfred and the American experiment, but Ivan likes Alfred. Everyone likes Alfred. It's impossible not to like Alfred. There's an affection and attachment, a kind of love if I want to push. By the 19th century, Ivan wished him success because he and Arthur were locked into the Great Game in Central Asia. He spites Arthur, Matt, and Katya by selling Alaska to Alfred when he and Russia can no longer benefit. He's happy to raise a glass to American success. Alfred was touched by the gestures during his Civil War and the purchase of Seward's Icebox.

Afterwards, things declined quite quickly. Between the end of the American Civil War and the beginning of World War One, over 3 million people from the Russian Empire settled in the United States. But less than 5% of them were ethnic Russians. Most are Jewish, Polish and Lithuanian. Feliks mostly stays in Poland, a firebrand devoted to his survival, but Alfred meets Tolys, and he loves him. He lives with Tolys and his memories, perceptions, and opinions. Matt is up to his tonsils in Katya any moment he possibly can be, with a mouth full of their father's loathing of Ivan and a chest heaving with Katya's life. Alfred is increasingly their father's heir. The Pacific acquisition of Alaska was just the first step. If Alfred is the Christ to Arthur's God and lord knows he thinks of himself as a saviour, the Russian empire just looks shittier and shittier.

But he still has that reputation of being an outsider. He's not quite in with the European powers. He brokers the end to Russia's ultimate humiliation against Japan. Ivan, to a certain if somewhat limited extent, believes Alfred's bullshit. The deal is fairer than he would have otherwise gotten. But this is the high point of the pre-war Kiku, and Alfred's strange, tense and intimate relationship and opinion is still vastly with Japan during the war.

Then comes the Russian Revolution and the Polar Bear Expedition. Alfred is keener to do business with Ivan's new government when revolution breaks out. It must be an improvement over the Tsar, surely. He's not entirely in his complete form yet; he gets looped into the Entente's support, but he's pretty vocal about this thin line of hope that this may go well. The way his revolution went. There's this brief moment where Ivan and Alfred look at the world with a thought to a common future. They're looking at each other again with an ancient hope, maybe some mutual admiration. This may work. Maybe Ivan will get his shit together. Maybe Alfred won't become the heir to Arthur's Great Game. Maybe, maybe.

And then it goes up in fucking flames. Even American leftists became disillusioned with the USSR somewhat quickly. He helped lay down new states in the newly free Eastern Europe; God knows Tolys and Matt are doing their best to keep Alfred on-side. It took almost fifteen years, until 1933, for the US to acknowledge the USSR. Alfred is repulsed by the USSR even if he does cool his jets as interwar isolationism has slowed the process of him stepping into the fray as the head of his family.

By World War Two, Alfred is happy to write his redemption story and just dump treasure and materiel at the USSR. He's the balance of power between Arthur and Ivan, and Ivan is delighted to see Alfred snap at Arthur whenever he fucking pleases. But he's also miserable that he is the one dragging himself on his belly over the broken glass and ruins of Eastern Europe and doing the largest share against the Nazis. But there's a little hope that Alfred and Ivan will rule the world when this is over and find common ground in their power. It's only in the waning days of the war when Alfred's clearly suffering from the campaign in the Pacific and Eisenhower lets Zhukov have Berlin, that they shack up in some way or form. Alfred has more hope than Ivan, but Ivan is at least a little satisfied to see that Alfred has had a piece carved out of his idealism by his war against Japan.

It doesn't last. Alfred might be happy to take Arthur down a notch, but when the crown comes upon his head, as has been arranged, he wears it with a certain ease no one expected. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, but what is the weight to a man who fancies himself Atlas and Prometheus all in one. And it comes with the confidence to hate Ivan's ideas and opinions even as he revels in their fucking. Sex isn't love, and the feelings he gets throughout all of it are not love to Alfred. I still somewhat adhere to the thought that McCarthy almost denounced Alfred as both a communist sympathizer and a homosexual in the 1950s for this apparent attachment, but the intelligence apparatus intervened and prevented it.

And that is where I will leave off because I'm damn near at 1000 words RIP.

#I love how I managed to cover only half the fucking century #rusame #Ivan and Alfred || Atomic Hellfire and Nuclear Winter #the ask box || probis pateo

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gizkasparadise · 5 months

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final leg of a journey to love thoughts!! (eps 35-40). this got so gd long so under a cut it goes. spoilers, of course:

PLOT STUFF/PACING

pacing for the plot definitely got shredded in the last chunk, which is a damn shame because otherwise i've been finding the pacing pretty much perfect. eps 35-37 in particular felt like they could have been like a 10 episode arc. ep 38, which mostly dealt with wu palace politics, should have been cut or streamlined imo and more time given to the characters we've actually been riding along with the whole story. by the time we get back to the pregnant empress, prince danyang, the first prince whose name i dont even remember, and the prime minister, i do not care about any of them and i think this subplot was simply just trying to fit too much shit into one bag

that said, this show still let the emotional moments hit and breathe and linger. i love the grief for the fallen liudao comrades as we go, as well as the less heavy but still emotionally important moments like yang ying and tongguan bonding over their upbringing. and we got a wedding /;3;/!!! for this show, the relationships and characters matter more than the storyline so im not mad about anything at all

side note: it's so gd millennial to have a story about a bunch of 30 something year olds who want to fake their deaths and retire into obscurity but instead they go and die for a boss they hate

CHARACTER STUFF

this show consistently brought a lot of depth to its side characters (and side side characters!!). i said it in an earlier post, but it bears repeating that even someone like deng hui i didnt expect anything from, but he got such good development and writing that he became a stealth fave. his dying words essentially being "dude, quit fucking around" ? iconic.

i didnt like tongguan as much as everyone else, so im pretty meh about everything regarding him. the attempt to force-wed ruyi was tonally really weird and didnt make sense (i assume there was some cuts made surrounding it). but LOL at him reusing all the outfits and decor immediately for his wedding to yang ying. baby duke, you tacky motherfucker. i ultimately think yang ying deserves better than him, but the good thing is that she knows this, so she'll be able to hold her own and then some entering into this partnership

shisan really was the heart in a lot of ways--the mom to yuanzhou's dad for the liudao. i was not expecting him to break my heart the way he did, but the fact that he held both qian zhao and sun lang as they died and then tried his best to remove yuan lu from harm and saved chu yue and was just very much a nurturer all the way through got me. his character couldve been cheap comic relief but the writing + performance really elevated him into one of the (imo) most memorable wuxia characters. his line wondering who would get to behead his beautiful skull!!! and how his mantra was always that he was going to drink the best wine, see the most beautiful women, and make the best of friends and he dies having lost the ability to see and having just had wine in memory of qian zhao, yuan lu, and sun lang. like. shut up!!

ruyi and yuanzhou were both so great and they're gonna be the drama OTP to beat forever. i loved the gender reversals, that they both were so respectful of each other, and that they also felt very mature in how they handled things and communicated. they were really interesting characters both together and apart and that's always a win-win. they had a schroedinger's ending where it's not super clear if they're alive or dead (i interpreted it as the latter), but what's kind of beautiful is that either option is satisfying to me. if they both died, they're reunited and with their comrades and the story is truly about the journey and the meaningful short connections we have. if they both survived, it's a bookend with the beginning where they each faked their deaths to escape. A+

COSTUMING

i gotta just separately mention the costuming for this show because it was 15/10. the textures, shisan's accessories, the way red became integrated with yuanzhou's wardrobe and blue with ruyi's. the details on the liudao name amulets!! SO GOOD. i love when characters' clothes tell a story on their own

overall i just really loved this drama it is probably my favorite wuxia ive seen so far! it's gonna be in my brain for awhile lol feel free to send fic prompts if you've made it this far :'D

#a journey to love #cdrama

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museofpangolins · 10 months

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sooo here's my top 10 most Good Omens-coded Hozier songs

10) Jackie and Wilson

this one isn't super deep, I think it just gives off that vibe of fun adventures together that mostly the first season had. also, this line

9) Swan upon Leda

this is a song that through religious metaphors captures the brutality of human nature in a way that's so beautiful and poetic. this one isn't so specific, but in my opinion it conveys some of the feeling of the story as a whole

8) Eat your young

I find it insane how it's possible for someone to sing about the exploitation of the innocent in such an incredible way. in this case it can be read about how the authorities (heaven and hell) are only driven by their personal goals and are using humans as a way to achieve them. it's even more literal in Job's story, with angels having no clue on how much his children mean to him and being completely uninterested on the matter, because they're too busy following God's plan.

7) Work Song

here things are starting to get a bit more specific. Work Song talks about a love that goes beyond the grave, but also a love that's so unconditional it goes beyond every human or religious imposition

6) Francesca

Hozier takes inspiration for this song from the tale told by Dante about two lovers condemned to damnation in hell, but the main aspect he uses for this song is the idea of it being worth it in order to be with the loved one, even at the cost of giving up a place of comfort and security. which is also what I hope will happen in season 3.

5) All Things End

I'm so sorry for this one. I'm really sorry. but I swear it's the only thing that could come to my mind when I saw this scene

I won't elaborate more because otherwise I'm going to cry.

4) Unknown/nth

i can't believe this song isn't officially about the two of them. I mean:

you mean mr Hozier didn't intentionally release it last month in honor of Aziraphale and Crowley?? sounds fake but ok

3) Take me to Church

religious trauma. questioning Christian values at its FINEST. love for humanity and for what being human means. all while discussing love and how religion ties it to the concept of sin.

2) Like Real People Do

absolute season two anthem. I think the whole point of Aziraphale and Crowley's characters is finding humanity in themselves, going beyond their angelic/demonic nature and whatever is expected from it. they're neither heaven nor hell's side, but on a completely different one that allows them to live in their own personal identity while often aligning with the interest of humans. that's why even their love for each other is an expression of how close to real people they've become.

1) From Eden

what can I say? it's just so perfect. just one song to summarize every important aspect of the story.

the familiarity derives from the previous angelic nature of Crowley. the destruction of idealism, chivalry and innocence symbolizes the disillusionment with heaven and hell, and the final line how the only hope can be found in the human world, but also, much like Francesca, the idea of giving up safety to be with the loved one. in this case though this is depicted with the use of religious imagery, specifically the garden of Eden. Therefore my hope is that this could be interpreted even more literally once in season three Aziraphale will give up heaven for Crowley. there are many other things that could be said about this song, and I really really hope it will be included in the soundtrack of the show.

if you read all of this, thank you so much, and please let me know if there are songs I didn't include

#good omens #good omens season 2 spoilers #good omens s2 spoilers #aziraphale #crowley #crowly x aziraphale #ineffable husbands #hozier #wasteland baby #unreal unearth #neil gaiman

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iron-sides · 1 year

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HI HELLO i have One small request, could you give me some desertduo fic recs? (like besides yours bc i just all of yours and it made me even Worse) im Unwell abt them

ok i assume u mean like in the life series since all my desertduo fics are life series but !!! i will also be suggesting grand opening of our hearts by @funkily just because well . its sweet i love gay people and fake dating what can i say ?

anyway here are some of my favs !! um heads up every fic i link you today most likely will be at least a little bit slash are because altho the romance isnt what interests me wrt desertduo it is like. very integral to my interpretation of their dynamic as tumblr user mcyt once said. they fucked in that cactus ring. also im sorting these into two categories namely works that make me crazyyy and man that fic sure is fun :) <- lying

works that make me crazyyy: (stuff that indirectly or otherwise inspired my own takes on these fuckers, iirc theyre all canon compliant or the canon setting) um . all of these come with a blanket warning for the canonical end of third life taken to its dramatic saddest including the fight in the cactus ring and grian killing himself, even if none of these per se involve anyone actually permanently dying they definitely get dark 👍 read the tags lol

fireworks exploding in the distance (this writer is just really good in general (altho i couldnt find a tumblr sadly) but this is my favorite lol) its soooooo well um yousee. scarian and grians resistance or otherwise to being touched (explodes)

when the tether snaps the anchor sinks by @eeriefeelingsat3amuwu listen dl!desert duo is sooo interesting to me and i just think this is a really interesting exploration of what the fuck is wrong with them

ashes by @raichett is like ok so first off this whole series is great im user subbed to this author but 2 im so obsessed w this fic i think about it constantly likeee. grian and guilt is such an interesting sort of Thing to me right like he does all this stuff and then he feels sooo guilty . and then he does it again anyway. i want to study him anyway !!! great fic :)

now okay so @sparxwrites sparxwrites is a rec as is because wow !!!! like you can tell when a person has had years to hone their class and sparx clearly has- beware of nsfw tho cos it definitely abounds lol. specific sparx recs, like, my favorites would be here i am, again which is just. its an au where grian and scar win together and this goes exactly as well as you expect :( also! yours were the arms (that the whole world was in) is a last life fic a mumscarian polyamory negotiations fic and its just really good ! i really liked it lol im not much of a last life girly but theres something to the way all these characters so clearly know each other better than we know them thats sooo good and its only 1231 words so its not too long to read in an afternoon so like go read it ! and then come !!!! about it with me bc its sooooooooooo well i dont even know how to say it or i would its great tho

ok now for fics thats are ust !! :) <- mostly they are less :) and more :(( but shhh these are slightly less thinky but no less mwah !! (+ less warnings (still read the tags) + they lean more romantic)

mad scientists can be a little hot. as a treat. by @romanocheese this is exactly what it sounds like, takes place just after grians triple kill w the tnt minecart in third life

coliseum by @artanogon is a steampunk au where pretty much everyone save dogwarts is allied trying to bring down the red king ! unfinished but the tension is sooo high like. the mystery, the suspense, ive literally watched third life i know how this ends and yet here i am on the edge of my seat waiting for each update !!

my heart has been half asleep all my life is a series by @sciencechicken + if i was reccing one fic from it that would be i dont think i could stand to be where you dont see me which is a double life fic that definitely belongs in the other category (grian assumes after scar spent all of DL episode 1 ignoring him that he doesnt want to be soulmates) however since im reccing the full series (its all so good im subscribed to it lol) + the literal second fic is vampire scar/blood drinking/making out... im putting it here lol but its really wonderful i enjoy it greatly

friend of the devil by @mochiwrites and @idioddyssey ok all of the series mochi does are great but this is the one im currently avoiding reading the latest update on because i am soooo invested and i have a terrible feeling something is about to happen . :((( regarding well i shant say because spoilers like i know its gonna be great im just nervous lmao anyway its a mumscarian crime au and it is a delight to read ! recently it has featured tubbo as scars office aide and also well i shant say (spoilers etc) but yeah very fun i really enjoy it :D

l'appel du vide by @pixelfun20 is basically what if grian right after winning 3l was plopped into hermitcraft! i just really enjoy this kind of premise tbh it hasnt been updated since last june sadly but its. a lighter???? read than what else is here! well maybe not lighter but fewer people die iirc

and last but not least: @atherix midnight series which is soooooo like well ok so its mumscarian kind of like fantasy au? featuring vampire mumbo socerer/elf scar and whatever the fuck is up with grian and well ok i am rooting for it to become mumbo/scar/grian/cub actually because well. read and find out? but just trust me ok this series is one of my favorites of the ones im currently following bc of the way it sets up and then pays off conflict-- like, grian'll do something i wont specify due to spoilers and immediately i know that by the time the fic is done there is going to be SUCH a nice catharsis about this !! also the plot of the dsmp is just kind of like playing out as a sidequest for scars adopted son tubbo which i love <- former dsmp girly moment

ok i lied im also gonna plug mochi's series solem et lunam really fast because i like it !! basically grian is the sun god mumbo is the moon god they have a forbidden romance until the unthinkable happens (read the tags !!) OKAY ACTUALLY BYE THIS TIME

#answered asks #HI AXE #btw sorry if anyone i tagged in this didnt want to be tagged just let me know and ill happily untag u :] i typically avoid tagging ppl bc #they might not want to be but im a nosy bitch wrt ppl talking abt my writing so i thought others might be as well lmao #fic recs #ficposting #sorry if this is a lot axe i am severely mentally ill !!#my thots

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tsunochizu · 10 months

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i am unashamed to state that i just discovered your fanfic and proceeded to binge read it in under two hours.

all i can say is DAMN.

I also love your interpretations of all the characters!! CW being a therapist?!?! UI just being a sad and lonely and nosy little bitch?!!?!! ITS REALLY FUNNY I REALLY LIKE IT LSJLFKDJ

and how you write suns. holy freaking crap the way you write suns. i have no words to describe how i feel for the way you write suns.

(...on that note, you mentioned making suns worse... please please please dont i need a reconciliation arc between them and pebbies it is the only thing that will quell the relentless sunstone shipper in me rgrksldnbftsjf) (...or dont. crush my silly shipping dreams. its your fanfic do whatever i will gladly sit back and watch no matter what you do)

Also feel free to not respond to this ask-- I just am filled with too many emotions at the moment and feel the need to yell at you about how good your writing is. its really good. i'm very absorbed.

(◕ᴗ◕✿)

To be fair I spent a while longer thinking about Suns and Pebbles and the future confrontation

The one that could either go Not Well or go Worse

And ended up settling on some in-between so Suns actually DOES have a chance to get better, just.... Not immediately

Mostly because of time it would take to fix their relationship otherwise, time that I do not have with how I planned the fic out, and despite everything I do not want them to end on a sour note in the end

And while Sunstone is NOT the endgame, because it will take a while for Pebbles to even be okay with them (due to reasons that will be shown in the story later) they will still get somewhat better

And even back to friends in the last chapter planned, although on significantly different rules than previously

So yeah it's not all bad and you can rest easily knowing that while I won't make it easy, things will get better, it is a fix-it after all (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧

#ask answer #rw backwards through the snow

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transfemmbeatrice · 6 months

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parker's personal much ado primer

i'm gonna keep posting much ado shit so here is some background on my personal favorite interpretation of the characters; this is not a primer on the actual play and these opinions somewhat differ from my like. canonical readings of these characters. this is what my personal action figures are like when i'm talking about aus. i'm mostly leaving physical descriptions out bc they can vary quite a bit.

when i say "we" i mean me and my wonderful spouse @zaxal because so much of this we sort of developed together over the years and none of these characters would be quite who they are to me without them.

Beatrice: beatrice is a trans woman to me!! i talked about this a bunch here. she will also always have red hair to me (thanks catherine tate for that one). she's hot, she's confident, she doesn't give a fuck what anyone thinks about her, she has relatively good judgement, she sometimes struggles to be vulnerable or soft with other people, she loves hero more than anything. she's also arrogant as hell! and often quite angry. beatrice is all fire all the time, she is alive and loud and proud and really likes having the last word. you will always know when she is in the room.

Benedick: oh this man is such a slut. grade a whore. pansexual as shit too. always cracking jokes to cover his own insecurities, desperately needs to be liked or if not that at least the center of attention--even if people don't like him, if they're thinking about him and watching him, that's good enough. he loves being witty and he is prideful and acts somewhat detached when in reality he feels things the Most and gets desperately attached to people and doesn't truly believe they could love him back.

Pedro: strong sense of duty. pedro is one that tends to vary more wildly because we've fallen into "suffocated by responsibility and shitty father, actually kinda shy and dumb and kind" which i love but in the play he is mostly just kinda shitty but i don't WANT him to be, so sometimes we try to lean more into the shitty side of him but often he is an earnest idiot (affectionate)

John: as mentioned in my beatrice post, i hc him as a trans man! sometimes more genderfluid or nonbinary. he's quiet, serious, and calm, and has been done fucking dirty by his dad/the world. generally our thought is that he was raised by his mom until about age 12 when she died and he got dumped on the palace steps and the king extremely resented taking him in and everyone was shitty to him because he's illegitimate. everyone thinks he's a villain and he knows he'll never convince them otherwise so he doesn't try; he just keeps to himself and doesn't form many attachments.

Hero: usually soft spoken but whip smart, doesn't like a lot of attention, stem major, big lesbian facing comphet vibes. she and beatrice are basically sisters. she's insightful but she doesn't share those insights with most people, and is by far the one who calls beatrice on her shit the most. we've ended up friendshipping hero and john because they're both such flat characters who exist at the whims of others and i love the idea of two wallflowers finding each other.

Claudio: obviously the villain. there are lots of different approaches to this--he might be an entitled golden boy, or a rich kid not used to hearing no, or an incel--but essentially he's a bully. i think its most interesting when he appears very nice at first and then when there's any amount of pushback things get ugly but i hate him so much i often make him pretty rancid from the start.

Margaret: outgoing and fairly relaxed, a jock, bi, in love with hero.

Conrade: john's bf, utterly loyal, and by a twist of fate it has become a running joke that he has tumblr disease (purple eyes/white hair). we usually depict him as similar to john--stolid, serious, not interested in taking anyone's shit, but lately i've been wondering if maybe he should be the bright sunshine in contrast to john.

Borachio: essentially a stray dog john and conrade adopted. he comes and goes. he's a mess.

Antonio: beatrice's surrogate parent, and elder queer genderfuck who uses ve/vir pronouns. general chaos agent.

ship abbreviations:

b&b: beatrice/benedick bbp: beatrice/benedick/pedro benepedro: take a guess beap: beatrice/pedro heromeg: hero/margaret johnrade: john/conrade

#much ado #you are ALWAYS free to come into my inbox to ask questions or talk about these blorbos #the other characters we don't play with as much so they're not super developed beyond their play versions #but imogen very much exists in my mind #and don't get me started on the hellions...

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meatriarch · 1 month

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OVERVIEW UPDATE.

a few updates / changes i'll attempt to be as thorough as possible going over in this post in light of a mutual decision that was discussed last night. if there's any questions, etc. re: anything noted here, my ims, my inbox & my disc ( meatriarch ) are all open for that ♡

firstly to note just a few kind of small roster changes but,

there's a few new faces added ( and another muse, carla / di2 likely upcoming ) who i will be writing into texas alongside verses for their respective canons.

im changing ana to a request-only muse -- mostly because i enjoy getting to write against her rather than as her! and its not because i dont love her character but, she was primarily added here bc at the time there werent really active ana's floating around and now there are, and personally i'd rather both write against AND see others' interpretations shine (: ♡

likewise, i am removing nancy's request-only status and placing her among my active muses. i'll talk more about nancy in particular further down.

request-onlys from now on : ana, simmi, vincent

hoyt remaining as an npc who only crops up from time to time gg

everyone else is considered active

second & main point of this post & what everything else from here out will center around,

certain muses here ( maria, luda & thomas ) are now mutually exclusive with lamb's portrayal of johnny sawyer ( @johnnysslaughter ). ♡ lamb has also made note that his johnny is exclusive to my portrayal of nancy.

obviously this decision impacts several things ( ie. interactions, verses, etc ) here so i will do my best to lay out what things will look like & work from here on out in light of it ♡ and again, if theres any questions / need for further clarification im all ears ♡

INTERACTIONS.

for luda & thomas.

them i'm not too worried over to be fair, but. because of how much lamb & i have been working with integrating the hewitts into the sawyer family as extended relatives, that entire aspect of them ( of them being related, all my hcs regarding the hewitt-sawyers, the reach that the family as a whole has across texas & with authorities, the hewitt-sawyer family tree, etc. ) is closed from here on out between my portrayals of the hewitts & lamb's johnny, and i will not write either of them against other portrayals of johnny. i am, however, open for portrayals of any other of the sawyers / slaughters to be part of that aspect! c: it would just need talks / plotting between lamb, myself, and whoever else! i will, otherwise, default them to their respective remake canons where necessary.

for maria.

the biggest change i think in all of this, but. my portrayal of maria is now exclusive to lamb's portrayal of johnny and vice versa. so much of my maria is heavily entwined with lamb's johnny, we have built and talked about so much with them, so many au's, so many potential trajectories & dynamics between them over these last sevenish months of us writing together. there's alot of comfort and trust that i have in lamb & in their johnny to tackle alot of the more darker themes that can crop up, especially in our shared dire au's. and there's just so much that we've put into our versions of maria & johnny and their bond, their relationships, etc. that we've both realized and talked over how we just can't really picture ourselves writing them against other versions of marias or johnnys. i can't picture my girl, my maria without thinking about lamb's portrayal and vice versa. and it helps, tremendously, with how close and how good of a friend lamb has become over these months and it makes writing them and talking about them together so effortless. our versions of maria & johnny are my roman empire - they are constantly buzzing around in my head & i adore what we've been piecing together for them ♡ it's not often that one comes across a writing partner you really click with but lamb has been that for me this last half a year. so, i will not be writing my maria against other portrayals of johnny from this point on. i know i've sent in a couple prompts from maria and i gently leave what gets answered / deleted from anyones' drafts & inbox up to those i sent them to! i'm also completely okay with anyone reaching out for any further clarity about this change! i have other muses on my roster that, should there be any interest, i'm more than happy to scoot anyones way in light of this - maria, luda & thomas are the muses i am fully exclusive with lamb for, with certain aspects of my portrayal of nancy as well ♡

for nancy.

speaking of momther - lamb has noted exclusivity for his portrayal of johnny to mine of nancy. i, for my nancy, am considering lamb's johnny as my main and because i'm the only person taking on momther - as far as i know at least - my end is not exclusive to lamb's johnny, but my baseline lore for her, her behavior, etc that i will almost always refer to in a general sense is tied back to lamb's johnny. with other portrayals of johnny? i will adapt nancy to fit better into others' thoughts, personal lores, etc! she will retain her abilities as i've detailed them out on her bio! but i will adjust her more on a case-by-case basis ( and i will differentiate which version of her i'm referring to most likely with portrayal-specific tags whenever i happen to yap about her on the dash, once any plotting with her & other johnnys gets going ). i will note, however, that gun's lore point about her and johnny and the dv mention between them? i am not too comfortable with and that itself will definitely take time for me to touch - i have my own history of physical dv in my childhood and so i will be tip-toeing that plot-point extremely carefully with others ( i may have muses who have dealt with that in their backgrounds however, i know what my limits and comfort is with it - others dont ).

FOR VERSES / AUs.

my main verses across the board on this blog - that all my muses fall under as i interconnect their stories together - are as follows : sunlight, shine, wilted, prequel, retribution / ch.2, modern au, college au, & gilded eternity. these verses, for my portrayals across the board, are all tied back to my muses' dynamics with lamb's johnny. this means i will not write in these verses across the board with other johnny's. instead, for any of my muses ( outside of maria / luda / thomas' exclusivity to lamb ) who i may happen to write against other johnnys, i will make alternate, specific au's for those interactions to fall into. my affiliated au's / my dire au's - which are : oath binded & then cold case, no one saved you / we saved us, choke chained, sunflowers & poppies, etc - are all also both tied to lamb's johnny, and will be the only johnny i will explore long-term captive-type plots with for the muses currently involved directly in those listed dire au's. at this point i'm not opening that up for my other muses with other johnny's until there's been both enough plotting and comfort and trust on my end to tackle the kinds of themes that can come up in those dire au's. but, for of course maria as well as my danny at this time, dire routes are exclusive to lamb's portrayal. from this point out, with the rest of my roster, should i write against other johnnys everything will be noted within its own, separate verses / au's from these main / affiliated / dire au's noted above. otherwise, when i talk about johnny in a "general" sense on my blog? i am specifically referring to lamb's portrayal.

i think? these are the main points i wanted to get across? again if theres any confusion / need for clarification my ims, my inbox, my disc are all open for anyone to shoot them my way and i'll do my best to answer them!

#[ 𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘦. ] ── * psa.#i think i hit on the main points but #if i missed anything ill make note of it as well another time.#i hope this makes sense though - im fighting a headache atm #ill queue this up for both the morning and then evening tomorrow <3 #abuse mention /

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littlesparklight · 1 year

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<3 thank you @papillon82fluttersby :D

The Rules: Tag (9) people you want to know better and/or catch up with, then answer the following:

Four ships:

Zeus/Ganymede: feel like it'd be a crime not to start here, haha. I've always been into mythology, but randomly thinking about Ganymede's myth a couple years ago now (that long!!) got me wanting to read Greek myth stuff, and I started with the Iliad (for the Trojan-related angle) and the Bibliotheke, and so. I might currently be more focused elsewhere but this is still my beloved ship <3 You can do so much with them, and, especially, I'd say, by interpreting them as mutually in love. There's obviously other m/m couples in Greek myth and even one of those that at first looks tragic doesn't need to end that way (Apollo/Hyacinthus) but there are so many reasons Zeus/Ganymede is the one that has me by the throat.

Menelaos/Paris: Honestly, looking back I'm not quite sure how I didn't zero in on this one from reading the Iliad itself the first time, because this is definitely one of the flavours of ships I love. This ship is also what led to, first, Helen/Menelaos/Paris for me and then Helen/Paris, because 99% of the time I just don't care at all about het ships. This ship is also why I currently am like I am about Paris! Make no mistake, I didn't hate or dislike him before that, either, like the majority of Tumblr (and elsewhere) seem to do; reading the Iliad I mostly thought him kinda hapless and inoffensive, so going from there and liking him wasn't that big of a step. The possibility of them having bonded during those nine days in Sparta (or in Troy!), going from friends (or more) to enemies with complicated feelings still in the background is just so damn juicy to me.

Carmilla/Laura: original novella flavour! One day I hope to do a rewrite/retelling of my own, that would definitely end with Laura going or otherwise together with Carmilla, one way or another. The way Carmilla talks to/about Laura and what they feel for each other is just. so great. The caterpillar quote. The one about Laura loving her or hating her, and especially "love will have its sacrifices; no sacrifice without blood". And you know. The boob-biting to feed is extremely inspired and very hot, even if Le Fanu undoubtedly didn't mean it that way. I don't care. They're mine now. :)

Darth Vader & Luke Skywalker: Since I am so deeply into gen&family ships aside from romantic/sexual shipping, it feels, again, like a crime not to mention these two. The ST might have broken the back of my fannish engagement in SW currently, but these two? I love them. I love Luke's impossible and earnest belief in his father's inherent goodness, I love that fucking scene at the end of ESB where Vader reaches out and Luke reflexively, despite everything, says 'father?' HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE IT???

Last song: Oh, uhh... I don't remember, but it's possible it was Teeth by 5 Seconds of Summer (happens to be one of my Helen/Paris songs for late war lol). I end up listening to a row of songs while drawing, sometimes (which is the only time I can listen to music and actually do something else at the same time), but it could have been another one, just as well.

Currently reading: Iliaden - en cover, by Dimitrios Iordanoglou, which is a (pretty heavily, sometimes) abridged and modernized version of the Iliad where the language is extremely slangy sometimes and the setting has been moved into "present day". Everyone uses guns and stuff. Apollo's main epithet is now "the Bomber" lol and he uses bombs and grenades. It's both extremely fun(ny) and really interesting, even if the language used sometimes make me wince even when I get why he's chosen it. But it's exactly because I know the changes he's made etc. that makes it extra interesting. When he keeps lines word-for-word from the Iliad they both stick out and fit in very well and it's interesting to see that, too. Also, and much longer than the above, is Paris in the Epic Tradition : a Study in Homeric Techniques of Characterization by Roberto Nickel, his thesis from 1997! I've mentioned it before; Nickel is exploring the possibility of the Iliad having changed/presented Paris (a lot) differently from how he might have been in traditional oral epic material. It's really interesting!

Last movie: Dungeon and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves! Loved it, a lot of fun, and despite how long it was, it all moved along at a good clip, nothing dragged.

Craving: Uh... :C Fics/art for my rare pairs? lol

Tagging: @a-gnosis @battlinghurricanes @crowlilies @my-name-is-apollo @scribeprotra @kebriones

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velkyr · 6 months

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Get to know me - tagged by @wazzappp, ty! 💜

under the cut cause it's a longer tag game

Nickname: I don't have as many as I had when I was going by my birthname, but I like Z :) it's fun to be called a single letter. that's my part of the alphabet now.

Sign: libra sun / sag moon / libra rising. look I don't really put any stock in astrology - I'm just here for the vibes - but I do find it funny how I got assigned double libra at birth and can't make a fucking decision to save my life

Height: 152cm/4' 11"

The last thing I googled: 'xcode manually added framework support x86 and arm64'. it was a rough day at work

Amount of sleep: probs like 6 hours on average when I'm not going through a rougher patch of sleep issues. otherwise it varies from 3-8

Dream job: to have no job and dismantle capitalism ❤ nah but really in an ideal world where I could do whatever and study to do it. I would want to work with animals. mostly birds. I just wanna work at a bird sanctuary or do ethical/educational falconry or something. give me a job where I get to hang out with corvids every day and I think that would fix me.

Favorite song: hardest question of all time. right now? this:

youtube

Movie/Book that Summarises Me: 'summarises me' is a hard one. I don't tend to interact with media from a lens of relatability aside from latching onto specific characters. if it can be interpreted as 'summarises my tastes' there are a fair few things I can list out though!

the locked tomb - tamsyn muir

six of crows duology - leigh bardugo

priory of the orange tree - samantha shannon

the ballad of sir benfro - j.d. oswald (dragon high fantasy vibes that I've never seen replicated anywhere else, where a displaced dragon is the perspective character for a lot of the series)

the memoirs of lady trent - marie brennan (she's a victorian dragon naturalist in a world where dragons are on the cusp of becoming part and parcel of the ecosystem rather than myth. it's SO good)

the handmaiden

scream series

pacific rim

alien

deadass anything directed by edgar wright

Favorite instrument: I'm always gonna have a soft spot for percussion/drum kits because that's what I used to play. but purely on the basis of sound? probably bass guitars. their range is unmatched, they can be tuned up to drive a melody as well as the bassline, and the Crunchiness of good bass just fucks so severely.

Aesthetic: the word aesthetic really grinds my gears given its usage and tiktokification in recent years lmao so I'm not sure how to answer this one. if we're talking like, personal preference in style, it's... well, goth-lite? masc-leaning goth with an emphasis on ye olde genderfuckery

Favorite authors: tamsyn muir, samantha shannon, marie brennan, sarah waters, derek landy, mxtx

Random fun fact: uhhhhhh did you know that people with coeliac disease have a genetic mutation affecting the HLA (human leukocyte antigen) protein, which causes it to bind with gluten in the body, signalling to the T cells that gluten is a foreign body that needs to be attacked - but they end up attacking the gut itself instead, destroying parts of it? the human body is so fucking dumb fr. at least I get to joke that I'm a mutant

tagging anyone that made it this far <3 mwah

#tagged in

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tenten18282 · 1 year

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I mean I cried bc poor Time has been through so much and had so little choice about his role in any of it, and then on top of that he feels like he doesn't deserve companionship :') (plus he's gonna be through MORE WHY did he have to get his eye mutilated HASNT HE BEEN THRU ENOUGH *shakes fist at the sky*) but I did smile when Wind half-teased him abt acting tough and held out his hand to help him up and the four reunited! So I do think it was comforting :D just also sad, and not likely to last bc they have their own individual journeys to get to in the end (though I really hope they'll keep contact!)

But I've also seen some really bitter takes about Time, in the "your past was awful and your future will be filled with its regrets and you can't do anything about any of it, you won't get a happy ending" kind of way, and yours strikes a lot sweeter :) like... "you might be hurt, and lonely, and not certain if you can make this happiness last, but as long as you're with them you can breathe easier, and the memory will carry you through the hard times." If that makes sense? In general you just set the atmosphere and emotions really well! I felt like I was right there with the Links, deeply worried with no way to show it and nothing but dark thoughts for company as Wind waits for Time to wake up, or sitting by the fire and watching it crackle, listening to Time and Wind's quiet conversation, the silence of the night creating the illusion of being the only ones awake in a sleeping world...

You've single-handedly made me love Wind and this possible relationship of his with Time so I dare say you're utilizing him very well!! And yeah you really get that feeling across, that he's very worried about Time but doesn't want to overstep because he gets that Time is more than capable and doesn't want him to think he's implying otherwise... like all the help he offers is strictly of the practical kind and only just hints about feelings, to make sure Time knows he can reach out any time he wants :D That multi-layered "let me help"... It's really sweet. And ooh I really love those headcanons! The elegy of emptiness and Link being the last one who needs to heal is so lovely and so in line with his character :D

This got overlong again so hopefully you weren't joking about the asks XD and a blog about your thoughts on the kid quartet would be awesome! Yeah comics take so long and so much work to make, but honestly I'd just love to hear about how you write their characters in whatever way is easiest for you :) though the way you have of showing-not-telling with the comics is truly breathtaking! Also it's rlly funny to imagine them growing up into LU and Wind suddenly going from eldest to youngest lol, I keep getting the mental image of him still trying to big-brother them while being like half their size XD

Welcome back…..!!!!!!!! [Reply under read more]

Ah, that makes more sense… yes the hero of time indeed is a really tragic character. It's an aspect i really like drawing about him!!!!!!!! I guess it's one reason all my stand-alone pieces of him are mostly somber…..

Wind probably called him out on it directly as i feel like he's probably tried to pull the "strong guy" persona at least once during his adventures, so he gets to be cheeky about it hahaha I like the idea that they keep contact, but i really doubt it…. though they won't mind much! Even if they're apart they know they're all going to take care of themselves, and have fond memories to keep them company, like you said! (Ignoring that i hc that two of these links die early in their lives….. but that's not really relevant at the moment, ha ha…..)

I'm glad you like my specific interpretation of time! I always want to follow zelda's wacky horror, where in the games there's both tragedy and happiness, so i hoped the same went for all of these characters (even if i also understand some of the more bitter interpretations of Time, I get seeing him be vengeful... but maybe that's because I felt the need to be bitter about it in his stead lololol)- im quite happy you felt so immersed! and the more wind fans the merrier, he deserves them and i really dont mind people sending asks like these, i love talking and hearing about this topic, i have a lot to say….!!!! and i really agree with what you say here, it makes me super happy ♪

I'll probably make a blog soon-ish so i can talk about my ideas and some extra stuff without interrupting this blog, i have some stuff to take care of first before i can continue drawing these four,,, In any case, your last sentence reminded me of this doodle i did a while back, so i thought to send it here lol

#misc thoughts #Yhoh

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maya-matlin · 10 days

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hi ashton!!! <333 I'm asking you this on anon because I don't wanna get hate I do ship all three ships lol I watched a barchie video and on it a barchie was like "I love how planned they were" and etc and maybe I'm blind asf but planned??? other than a few looks, throwaway comments and etc to cause drama for bughead and varchie it wasn't planned at all imo?? they barely interacted in s2b, S3 and s4a (I'm only talking about those seasons because this video was after 417 lol) and yeah they kissed in 415 but it was to catch donna and the preppies and to protect jughead, they fake dated for like one episode and the barchies are like "they love each other they've wanted each other all along" like what??? and dgms on comments about how they were with jughead and veronica so they wouldn't ruin their friendship and as a rebound, you don't date people for 4+ years to protect your friendship or as a rebound I'm sorry lol 417&418 were done very badly imo, if they wanted us to think they had these feelings for a long time they did a terrible job of showing it!! imo betty thought she had those feelings for him because she loved the idea of him and the 1x01 fantasy quote is very true imo lol I'm sorry but if they were planned from the start they did a terrible job at writing it and showing it!! what cheryl says is so true in 418 bughead (and varchie) were so beautifully developed and they showed how endgame they were which is more than I can say for barchie and I do ship them I'm just saying lol also them saying how it makes no sense for archie to have feelings for veronica in s5 after he was gonna leave her for betty even though he's loved veronica since s1 and always goes back to her and it's him having feelings for betty after everything that makes no sense tbh (talking about S4 ofc lol) it was written very poorly which is the rvd way but lol people saying betty didn't truly love jughead and archie didn't truly love veronica are literally stupid because they were both so endgame coded!!! anyway my question is what are your thoughts on this? that they were planned and how they were written and anything else you wanna add lol I know you hate riverdale and barchie so sorry if I'm bringing up old wounds <3

I'm genuinely sorry you feel as though you can't be honest all because some people on this site don't know how to act. That's ridiculous and completely inexcusable.

Sigh. First of all, it's Riverdale. That show seemed much more committed to the week to week ridiculous, over the top moments meant to garner attention and the instant gratification (for better or worse, in the case of a ship like Bughead who hooked up extremely early on but managed to be a mostly lovable cornerstone of the series for most of its run) than they ever were interested in doing anything long term. So the idea that Betty and Archie's eventual relationship was anything resembling a "slow burn" or well thought out with years-long development is just.. no. Fans are allowed to enjoy what they did get and relish in the smaller moments, intentionally or otherwise, that came before what they believe to be an epic hookup. But in my opinion, it wasn't that deep. The Betty/Archie arc was one of the sorriest excuses for a so-called "inevitable" relationship that I've ever seen. Again, we all interpret things like ships and story lines in different ways. But again, I have to disagree completely. It's as though you're only ever allowed to have loved or cared for one person to the extent that relationships that lasted for the majority of the series are written off as rebounds. For fans who are so committed to recognizing and celebrating tropes, it's interesting to see how often stuff like this gets misinterpreted and how there's a severe misunderstanding for how teen dramas in general work? To be fair, there are other shows where I feel the writing was so terrible that I simply have to call bullshit on it and can't look past my own, personal viewpoint. That being said, ideally if you want to make a compelling, rational argument you need to come away with actual evidence and not just resort to "she liked this guy first, therefore she only ever liked him and we're prepared to write off 77 episodes of content that suggests otherwise."

There were plenty of chances for Riverdale to have properly teased the idea of mutual feelings between Betty and Archie brimming under the surface. Every single opportunity the show had prior to the cheating, they seemed to shut the idea down and instead stuck with the Bughead and Varchie pairings. The biggest one being, of course, the kiss in season 2. A better show (if they truly wanted to explore Betty/Archie) would have either paired them up while both were single or quickly put them back with their original partners, which they did, but demonstrated that in spite of this they couldn't forget the kiss and found themselves drawn to each other. Obviously, this didn't happen. Nothing notable happened again until season 4 where, of all things, they fake dated, and yet none of the intimate moments between the two characters were ever SHOWN to the audience. Just one awkward scene where they texted followed by a contrived musical number featuring flashbacks to their three episodes. Fan fic writers make a gourmet meal with themes like this on a regular basis. How did they fuck it up so badly??

Speaking of that, THIS is what Riverdale should have done in this context and failed to do:

youtube

I hate Lucas and Peyton together. They're easily one of my least favorite ships of all time. But the writers of One Tree Hill at least understood how to execute these moments well. Even though I wasn't a fan of everything done to push Lucas and Peyton back together, the actual moment where everything clicks for Peyton and we see through flashbacks how much Lucas has meant to her was very effective. The Origin of Love wasn't on this level because there wasn't anything to call back to outside of three episodes (101, 102, 209).

As for the time jump years, it honestly felt like the friends with benefits "arc" was supposed to be the beginning and end of the exploration between Betty and Archie. It had a clear beginning with them (literally) coming together out of loneliness and because they were trying to bury their respective traumas by losing themselves in each other. The whole thing ends with Betty realizing and vocalizing to Archie why they don't work together. Archie realizes independently of Betty that he's still in love with Veronica and doesn't want to be the guy Betty turns to for emotional stuff. That alone has pretty awful implications considering they're supposed to be former childhood best friends. But whatever. 509-518 did absolutely nothing to set up Betty or Archie missing each other or changing their perspectives and needs in such a way where their hookup at the end of the season made any damn sense. Season 6 felt as though Betty was given a lobotomy and was forced to be Archie's ideal woman at all costs as he did nothing but be his wonderful self because he only deserves the best. But even that's not really good enough considering the show made Archie the savior of Riverdale and Betty the Harlot of Babylon. Not even Betty, the so-called flawless girl next door, can possibly live up to the paragon of virtue that should be the future Mrs. Archie Andrews. In Archie's defense (even though he bugs me and I don't like defending him), he doesn't seem to put this pressure on Betty maliciously or even knowingly. But the narrative will not stop punishing Betty during the time jump years for her "sins" all the while never holding Archie accountable for doing the same or similar things. So as a result, somehow the relationship became even worse for me. Betty is constantly and consistently misunderstood with Archie barely scratching the surface of who Betty is as a person. It's so painful to see knowing how Betty and Jughead clicked on all levels and could clearly see into each other's souls. Even though they came from different worlds, they found love and acceptance in each other with their endgame basically already written until bad writing tore it apart.

ANYWAYS. I'll never know exactly what the show thought it was doing. It genuinely felt as though there was a plan in place as late as season 5 to put Betty back together with Jughead while keeping Archie and Veronica together. But then some genius got the idea for a 5 episode event that seemed to tease the idea that the ships they hooked up at the end of season 5 were the wrong ones. Then somehow, said ships were basically kept together for the entirety of season 6 even after the characters were back in "normal" Riverdale. Or you know, Lili and Cole went through a messy breakup considering Cole overshared on that podcast and so Bughead was potentially Chophia'd outside of a handful of episodes. But then, the series finale featured a lot of interaction between those two to the point where it feels strongly implied their characters end up together in the "sweet hereafter", so who even knows? All I know is that Riverdale was a terrible show and should never get any credit for good writing.

#Anonymous #Long post

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greatwyrmgold · 1 month

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I love many serial stories, but I'm developing a distaste for serial storytelling.

If you follow me, you've probably figured out that I like both reading and writing media analysis, whether it's essays about the characterization of a web serial's supporting cast or discussing the themes of Shonen Jump manga.

It's pretty easy to read and analyze media that is "complete," a word which here means "the author has written the conclusion". The conclusion is an important part of any story! It's the part where everything built up in the early parts of the story is brought together and assembled into its final form. Every setup has either been paid off or revealed to be a red herring. The puzzle is complete, we can see the picture, we can confidently interpret its meaning.

Analyzing serial media is trickier. You don't have all the pieces; you have to look at what's available, guess what might be missing, and interpret the meaning there might be in the end. This has some consequences.

Sometimes, stuff that you assumed would be explained later isn't. I remember a post I made after Chainsaw Man chapter 137 (which I can't find because Tumblr's search function is terrible) that speculated on why all those people would be mindlessly attacking Denji. It's weird! This isn't the sort of thing that just happens in Chainsaw Man, not without some devil or whatever doing something weird. Controlling people, or making puppets, or at least putting a bounty on Denji's head.

I assumed there would be some kind of explanation in later chapters. And I waited, and kept reading. Months later, I realized that there never really was an explanation. In chapter 138, Yoshida mentioned that it's natural for people to attack Chainsaw Man when they know his identity, and that was it.

Sometimes, stuff that you assume indicates a pattern later isn't. Back in My Hero Academia's sports festival arc, a bunch of spectators flip out when Bakugo beats up Ochaco, and Aizawa goes on a rant about how ridiculous their reaction is. They see a cute girl in a tournament arc and assume she's just a weakling who's being victimized by the big strong bully, and Aizawa won't stand for that. Sure, Bakugo beat her, but only because he recognized her as a threat. To quote Red Sarcasticproductions (2019):

My Hero Academia takes no prisoners when it comes to trope subversion. Man, I hope it stays good.

Foreshadowing is a literary device—

Anyways, it's 2024 and Ochaco has mostly been sidelined. Some time during season three, she and Iida were sidelined in favor of Izuku's new guy friends, Todoroki and Bakugo. Ochaco's only significant contribution in the climactic arc is her catfight with depraved bisexual Toga Himiko, which is its own can of worms.

Luckily, Kohei Horikoshi introduced a bunch of new lady characters with Quirks that can keep pace with the series's power creep. Unfortunately, pretty much all of them are killed, crippled, or otherwise sidelined after getting one cool moment. To be clear, new male characters are also introduced in this time, and while some get killed shortly after their introduction, they don't consistently fall into the same introduction—>action scene—>adios pattern as the women, and that pattern isn't the only pattern which makes the female characters look worse.

My Hero Academia went from being a series notable for vocally supporting its female characters, to a series notable for its mediocre treatment thereof.

And then there's Ward, which isn't a manga at all, despite what some people will claim. (It doesn't even have pictures!) In its last arc, there was some discourse which is difficult to describe without spoiling stuff, so...

There was this plan to solve The Problem. The audience saw a detailed explanation of, and spends chapters watching characters discuss the ramifications of the plan. Vibes in the community are rancid; the superheroes in that story are kinda allegories for people with PTSD and stuff, and the story thus far has drawn a pretty clear connection between "heroic sacrifices" and suicidal tendencies, and the plan seems kinda like a mass "heroic sacrifice"...

Well, it turns out that there was an important detail of the plan which the characters were keeping from the audience. I have strong opinions about why hiding that detail was a bad idea, but it was made so much worse by the serial nature of the story. If Ward was published as one 15-pound book, the time between finding out about the plan and finding out about the twist would be measured in days, if not hours.

But those chapters came out two a week, over the course of months, leaving us fans plenty of time to stew over the implications of that partial puzzle. People who read Ward later don't always like the ending, but they don't dislike it anywhere near as much as people like me who read it chapter by chapter.

And if you wanted another manga example instead of web serials, basically the same thing is going on with Aqua and Ruby's relationship in Oshi no Ko. Unless that's more like Chainsaw Man's "there is no explanation" or MHA's "you only THOUGHT we were handling this well"—it's impossible to say what's going on for certain, and that sucks!

I don't want to say that serial stories punish you for trying to understand them before they're finished; that kind of speculation can be rewarding. (And of course, some stories could not exist without serial publication.) But it can also suck.

It sucks when an explanation you're waiting for never comes. It sucks when a story you thought was good at heart slowly loses its credibility. It sucks when a pacing decision turns an okay writing decision into weeks of agonizing confusion.

#serial story #rant #random thoughts

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funtxmequeen · 2 months

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Funtime Foxy

Funtime Foxy is Trans, using she/her pronouns. As stated in my rules, OUT OF CHARACTER transphobia will absolutely not be tolerated. She still has her voice as heard in UCN. It took a while (and possibly threats from the others) for the Hand Unit to be programmed to refer to her by she/her pronouns, and many of the employees and technicians either mistakenly, spitefully, or otherwise purposefully referred to Foxy with he/him pronouns.

Foxy is very introverted, often not speaking to anyone she doesn't like, and taking several days to warm up enough to a person to talk to them. However, she thrives on the stage, and adores being in the spotlight. She takes her performances very seriously, and has a completely different persona when she's on the stage. However, the real Foxy is quite shy, and often prefers her space. It's off-putting at first, but she really is quite emotional and cares deeply about her friends, even if she's far too prideful to admit it.

Years of abuse and torment have taken a toll on her personality, turning a once life-loving, joyful, happy-to-please fox into someone cold, afraid, and far more spiteful. Her love language has since become mean, often making cruel jokes and calling the others names she does not mean.

Foxy is also far more skittish than the others, preferring to avoid direct confrontation unless provoked, staying hidden from those who will hurt her, and staying in line just enough to avoid getting in trouble. Make no mistake, however, because while she prefers to keep her dainty hands clean, she will absolutely attack if given reason, or even if threatened. She has ripped off limbs of employees, only bothered by the mess, in the past.

Before the events of Sister Location, Funtime Auditorium was once shared by Funtime Foxy and Funtime Freddy, so naturally, she is quite protective of him and BonBon, seeing them both as big and little brothers respectively. She often makes fun of Freddy the most, as they get on each other's nerves, but she knows he will be there for her when she needs him the most. Funtime Foxy is also the main means of communication between the others (depending on certain interpretations,) secretly being able to crawl through the vents and into the different galleries of the facility. Her greatest fear, however, is getting caught and permanently sealed into Funtime Auditorium. This is how Baby, and the others, learn the layout of the facility.

Whenever Foxy is rented out and gets to perform, she's always at her happiest, regardless of who is with her. In terms of performance, there are several things she is capable of, including, but not limited to: singing, dancing, acting and performing skits, playing music, juggling, juggling hoops, and more. The hoop juggling is really what she is most known for, as it is what makes her unique from the other animatronics as something only she can do. Often times, her high spirits stick with her upon returning to the facility, but they don't often last long.

As stated by the Hand-Unit, Foxy is motion activated, however, due to a bug pertaining to this aspect of her design, bright flashes cause her body to freeze up, and her head and neck to twitch uncontrollably. This pisses her off when it happens, and in some cases only makes her more aggressive.

Once she becomes Ennard with the others, she remains just as reserved, if not more. Foxy is, however, one of the first ones to realize that using Michael's body was no longer working. Foxy seldom takes control of Ennard, opting to jump in only when she finds its necessary. She often urges the others to stay hidden, stay out of sight, not wanting to be perceived. Being unable to perform any longer takes a toll on her self-esteem at first, but she mostly gets over it. Although, there are times where she misses it and wonders what was wrong with her to be treated so horribly, these moments often only come through in waves. These are feelings she tries to keep to herself, as she knows it's selfish to want to go back to the stage, and she understands she did nothing wrong. As Ennard, her anxiety only worsens, always feeling as if they are about to be caught.

#Funtime Foxy #About #Transphobia

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zerogate · 1 year

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On the last day of his life, shortly before being forced to drink poison for failing to believe in the state-endorsed gods and for corrupting youth, Socrates engaged in a final dialogue with his students. This teaching, reported by Plato in Phaedo, is focused mostly on the nature of the soul but includes a comment about the relationship between pleasure and pain.

After a prison guard has removed his chains, Socrates purportedly noted, “How singular is the thing called pleasure, and how curiously related to pain, which might be thought to be the opposite of it… he who pursues either of them is generally compelled to take the other. They are two, and yet they grow together out of one head or stem.”

This philosophical observation, recorded around 350 B.C.E., astutely predicted the experimental insights of the nineteenth-century French physiologist Claude Bernard. Bernard is credited as the first to note that moving between opposite biological states enables our bodies to maintain stability in the face of disruption—anything from a sudden change in the weather to a bad grade on a paper or a death in the family.

[...]

Working with his student John Corbit, Solomon suggested that any and every stimulus that perturbs the way we feel is actively counteracted by the nervous system in order to return to homeostasis. The stimulus could be a drug but also good or bad news, falling in love, or skydiving.

In their opponent-process theory, Solomon and Corbit made the case that feeling states are maintained around a “set point” just as body temperature and water balance are. They proposed that any feeling, including “good,” “bad,” “happy,” “depressed,” or “excited,” for example, represents a disruption of the stable feeling state that we perceive as “neutral.” Specifically, the opponent-process theory posits that any stimulus that alters brain functioning to affect the way we feel will elicit a response by the brain that is exactly opposite to the effect of the stimulus. As Newton might succinctly put it: who goes up, must come down.

Say our brain detects an external stimulus that produces either pleasant or unpleasant feelings. According to Solomon and Corbit, in either case the brain responds by counteracting those feelings. For instance, suppose that you have a medical test that indicates cancer. It’s very likely, in such a case, that initial feelings of panic or despair give way to a general state of worry as you grapple with myriad implications. These less intense feelings endure while your test results look bad. However, if things change, perhaps a biopsy comes back clear, rather than return to your original state, you would likely experience a period of elation—in effect, a mirror image of the despair you had felt. This pattern of change in affective experience is elicited by any event that pushes the brain beyond its neutral set point.

Though we’re usually unaware of affective homeostasis at work, most of us will recognize this pattern in the feeling states surrounding romantic love. It’s typical to experience dramatic affective changes as you “fall in love,” because this overwhelmingly pleasurable state imbues even routine experiences with sparkly joy. In the beginning of a love affair, the pattern of brain activity recorded by an fMRI is virtually indistinguishable from that showing the effects of cocaine.

We eventually adapt to this state of bliss and find our feet back on the ground. As long as the stimulus (our lover) remains present, things feel just fine—a new normal. But if our lover wants a break or otherwise opts out of the relationship, an opponent process results in heartbreak. It can take months or years—depending on the intensity and duration of the partnership—to get back to a neutral feeling state.

Having a set point enables meaningful interpretation of a stream of ceaselessly changing input. Sustained feelings in either direction impede our ability to perceive and thus respond to new information, so the nervous system imposes transience. This means that if something truly wonderful happens—you meet Prince or Princess Charming—the elation will not last. On the other hand, even the most terrible calamity won’t result in perpetual despair. This is also true with more mundane stimuli: we can probably all relate to the letdown after returning home from a great vacation, or to the flood of relief after a near accident on our commute.

-- Judith Grisel, Never Enough

#quotes

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