#*✧･ﾟnix's random thoughts

[thehalfbloodedwitch]

okay guys its been AGES since i have written for draco and i really wanna get back to writing, soo i was wondering if you guys would like a draco december part 2?

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and if not, which character would you like me to write for on the month of december?

(please check my masterlist for the character list)

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imma tag some of my moots to spread the word

@blackthunder137 @miss-celestial-being @thespiritoflife @folklore-girl @dracoslittleangel @shespeaksinsongs @elysian-i @littlemissnoname13 @lazydreamer19 @ell0ra-br3kk3r @sunnylands-world @delqcate @lady-of-love-beauty-and-death @imabee-oralizard @angeliicheartt

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[spirkme915]

i just realized that 2009 star trek starts on jim's bday and star trek: beyond ends on jim's bday. so, if those are the only aos movies we get, it's full circle.

[theend1shere]

the perks of being a wallflower are that you get to bring 2 extra bottles of your favorite soda to a school gathering and no one notices it was you bringing it, so the ones who get looked at weirdly for the fact that there's 4 bottles of the same soda at the gathering while most other sodas only had 1 or 2 are the boys who suggested bringing it in the first place and you get out of it scot-free without anyone but your friends noticing :)

[godzexperiment]

thinking about how nix's gray eyes isn't because gray eyes=pretty or anything along those lines *maybe an smidge* that mostly it's just got no real strong reasoning

aside....

-it's like an birthmark/unique trait, alongside his wings it's to sort of distinguish him from the others

[kitkatt0430]

Been in a Batfamily (in all it's fucked up drama) mood lately and thinking...

Jason gets into town, starts establishing his Red Hood persona, screwing with the Bats and taking over Crime Alley. He intends to use the new Robin to screw with Batman and manipulating Black Mask into reporting the new Red Hood back to the original. And as planned, Joker does not respond well to 'some upstart' using his old moniker.

Except when Joker breaks out of Arkham he can't help but be distracted by Batman and his shiny new Robin. (Has Joker been out while Tim's been Robin at this point? Let's say no for the sake of fanfic purposes.) Now Harley made Joker promise no more killing kids after what happened with the last Robin, made it clear that was a hard boundary for her and she'd leave him for good if he want after any more kids.

Of course, his promise that of course he wouldn't kill anymore kids was a total lie but it got Hartley to go all soft and agreeable for him again and that was what mattered. Besides, he doesn't want to kill this Robin. He wants to see what Batman sees in having child sidekick and take one for himself.

So Tim gets kidnapped by the Joker before Bruce can send the poor kid somewhere not Gotham for his safety. And Joke unmasks Tim because of course he does. And Harley sees how young Tim is and watches Mr. J start electrocuting the kid because surely the brainwashing'll stick if they fry his noggin' a bit first...

And Harley decides this is a boundary for her too. She can't be a part of this and even if it kills her, she's going to save this kid. She knows she can't do it on her own and her first thought is to go find Batman.

Of course, she quickly nixes this idea. Batman isn't ruthless enough and sure maybe he'll make it all the way through Joker's henchmen - admittedly as per usual - and rescue the kid. But then Mr. J will go back to Arkham and even though Harley doesn't want Joker dead... she also kinda wants him dead for this one. For using his promise to her not to kill kids as an excuse to torture children instead.

Next choice is Nightwing but he's out for the same reasons as Batman. Nightwing is somewhat more likely to kill the Joker and could live with it in the way Batman couldn't, but it's not a guarantee and Harley wants this kid to know that the guy who did this to him will never be able to do it ever again.

And then Harley remembers. Red Hood. Who definitely picked that name not as an homage but as a taunt. Who clearly hates the Joker and all he stands for. Who will... probably kill Harley, let's be honest, but she's not sure she wants to live without her Mr. J even as she's mentally planning out the man's death. So.

Harley makes an excuse to leave. Joker says something about mom doing the grocery shopping to the kid he's electrocuting and hands off a list of random stuff to Harley. She takes it and skedaddles. Heads all the way to Crime Alley. Stands outside it for a long moment. Thinks about the kid Joker's gotten his hands on. The way he screamed and cried and begged for Batman to come save him after the bravado of Robin quickly wore off.

She steps into Crime Alley. And then she does random acrobatics down the street, waiting for the Red Hood or his men to show up.

And they do. The Red Hood's henchmen are quick and efficient in grabbing her and presenting her to their boss. There's a gun in her face and she should be terrified and she is but...

She tells Red Hood about the kid. She drops the fake accent she put on for Joker and let's herself be, for just one last time, Harleen instead of Harley. The doctor who cares and not the killer Joker molded her into. "So kill me or whatever, I know I deserve it for believing Mr. J's lies again. But you have a code. You don't hurt kids. You don't kill kids. And maybe I'm asking too much, but I wasn't there and didn't save the last one. So I'm begging you to save this one."

Jason sees green. He has Harley take him to the Joker's hide out. He tears his way through the Joker's goons and doesn't hesitate to kill the Joker because he's too deep in the pit rage at the man who murdered him to care about his convoluted plans to try and force Bruce's hand, to make Batman finally kill Joker.

On the bright side, killing the Joker himself clears up some of Jason's lazarous pit related anger management issues. On the spot. The down side however is that Jason now has a traumatized Tim to deliver back to Batman - which he'd rather not, Batman cannot be trusted not to weaponize children - without being blamed for the state Tim's in.

He makes this Harley's problem - explain this to the Bats yourself, it's your punishment, Harley - and decides he needs a new plan to say 'screw you' to Batman with. He's gonna win over Robin 3.0 and get the kid to willingly abandon Batman to join the Red Hood Crew. How hard can it be, anyway?

Meanwhile Tim has absolutely figured out Jason is the Red Hood because he's absolutely connecting dots he should not be capable of connecting and formulating his own plan to try and lure Jason back home. Because why would Tim focus on healing from his own trauma when he could prioritize someone else's and compartmentalize the hell out of his own problems. Which is definitely the healthy thing to do and not at all going to bite him in the ass with depression and miscommunications down the line. (They all need so much therapy.)

So now the Joker's dead, Harley has delivered Tim safely back to Batman, (Ivy is about to get an unexpected visitor,) and the Bats are about to start playing four-d chess with each other to try and achieve various goals. Jason is trying to steal Tim from Bruce. Bruce thinks maybe saving Robin means the new Red Hood could be saved from himself after all. Tim is trying to lure Jason back to the manor for Alfred's cookies and oh is that a long overdue conversation with Bruce that is also sprung on him like a trap??? And Dick would just like to thank Red Hood but somehow winds up drunk confessing to the definitely-a-hallucination-of-Jason the whole didn't find out his little brother was dead until after the funeral when Dick got back from space thing and how he's so grateful to the Red Hood for saving this new kid who's just the neighbor's kid but also rapidly looking brother-shaped and why is he so bad at protecting the people he cares about???

(Jason rapidly going from 'drunk Dick is funny' to 'drunk Dick is clingy and cries and oh god he's getting emotions all over me make it stop')

[cosmerelists]

Cosmere Secret Santa

I did this last Christmas as well, but this one will be different, as I'm once again using a randomizer to choose characters. For the record, I didn't fix the results except to omit anyone who appeared in last year's list and to nix any repeats in this one. Let's see what gifts they choose!

Thanks to @imtheseventh for requesting that I do this again! :)

1. Marsh gives Spook...a book

Spook: Oh, thank you, but I think Kelsier already got me this book? Marsh: Look more closely. Spook: [holds up two books side by side] Spook: See? Kelsier got me Hemalurgy for Dummies and you got me...oh. Hemalurgy Not For Dummies. Marsh: [taps eye spike knowingly]

2. Spook gives Fort...a coupon

Fort: "Fifty percent off women's slippers"? Spook: I heard you like deals--that was the best one I found! Fort: [pats him on the shoulder] Every bargain hunter has to start somewhere...

3. Fort gives Allrianne...a bracelet

Allrianne: Wow! It's actually pretty nice--thank you! Fort: You're so welcome! Fort: After a lot of hard work, I got it basically for free! Allrianne: You...didn't spend any money on it? Fort: Practically none! You're welcome! Allrianne: ... Fort: What?

4. Allrianne gives Raboniel...a pink dressing gown

Allrianne: What I see when I look at you is a woman who needs to relax and feel beautiful. Raboniel: [carefully examining the robe] Raboniel: No safehand sleeve, I see. Raboniel: Are you trying to seduce me? Allriane: EXCUSE me?! Raboniel: Listen, I get that from human woman more than you'd think..

5. Raboniel gives Elegy...a book of Sudoku puzzles

Elegy: ...I don't understand. Raboniel: I can see that you're trying to fight off the insanity that threatens to consume you. Raboniel: I know...something about that. Raboniel: It is helpful to keep the mind focused, occupied. Elegy: ...with number puzzles? Raboniel: Well, it's either that or going into weapon manufacturing, but Navani gave me a dirty look when I tried to buy you a bomb kit.

6. Elegy gives Marasi...a book

Elegy: My people do not have much, but I collected a book of our native stories for you. Elegy: Since your people seem to want to know about us so badly. Marasi: ...I don't know what that last part means, but thank you! Marasi: Aww, it's a book of stores for kids? How cute! Marasi: ... Marasi: Do they ALL end with children being consumed by ghosts? Elegy: Shades. And yes. Marasi: Thanks anyway? Elegy: What do you mean "anyway"?

7. Marasi gives Vin...a nice pen

Marasi: I-I mean, what do you give the woman who has everything?? Marasi: You did EVERYTHING in your life and set the bar so amazingly high with all of your powerful exploits! Marasi: S-Seriously I couldn't even FATHOM what do get the Ascendent Warrior for Christmas! Marasi: A-Anyway, since you have that nice pen anyway, I-I thought maybe you could sign something for me... Vin: ... Vin: What exactly happens in the future?

8. Vin gives Syl...the design for a mistcloak

Vin: You're sort of wind, right? Vin: Back home, the mists loved to play with the tassels on my mistcloak. I thought wind might be similar. Syl: [has already changed her form so that she appears to be wearing a mistcloak] Syl: Why do I feel so unbelievably cool?? Vin: It has that effect.

9. Syl gives Nale...coal

Nale: ...Are you telling me that I should build a nice fire and relax? Syl (arms crossed, glaring at Nale): I'm telling you that trying to KILL children means you get COAL Nale: The child in question gave me a hug when she confronted me. Syl: Yeah, well, I'm an Honorspren, not an Edgedancer.

10. Nale gives Denth...jail

Denth: ... Denth: It is literally Christmas. Nale: The law cares not for holidays.

11. Denth gives Charlie...a cat plushie

Charlie: [eying the cat plushie nervously] Charlie: Y-You're a bit of a bastard, huh? Denth: I don't know what you're talking about.

12. Charlie gives Marsh...a really nice bottle of rum

Marsh: This looks...expensive. Charlie: W-Well, you know. Charlie: When you draw the literal personification of death out of a hat for Secret Santa, you, uh...don't blow it off. Marsh: ... Marsh: I'm actually quite pleased.

[baphometsss]

We need to talk about spirit hand!Inquisitor

I've been trying to put this into words for a while but it's really tricky to explain. I'm gonna try anyway bc I feel like it's an important discussion to have

First though, a disclaimer: I'm not physically disabled. Everything I'm about to say is based on me trying to relate through my own experiences of mental illness, the experiences of a disabled family member who uses a prosthetic leg, and research into how to write disabled characters properly in my own personal projects (thanks to cripplecharacters blog for helping me understand it better!) So, you know, you can take it or leave it--and please feel free to add your own experiences! This isn't a call out post or anything, I'm just trying to put my thoughts into words and start a conversation in good faith

The problem with fanworks where the inquisitor's wooden prosthetic is replaced by a magic/spirit hand is that it falls into a really tiresome trope where the character has the limb replaced with a magical prosthetic that essentially nixes the disability entirely. It's called the Cool Robot Arm or Perfect Prosthetic trope and it plays into disability erasure in a big way. This is pretty frustrating when you know having a limb amputated is a big deal that comes with a lot of pain and long-term effects, even if the amputation procedure itself was free of complications. Prosthetics are also basically a whole thing of their own, but suffice to say they also come with their risks and problems as well.

The thing with representation is that it needs to reflect real life experiences if its going to approach anything good or meaningful. Video games like Dragon Age often attempt to do this, but they also often miss the mark. I know a lot of disabled (and able-bodied) people want to see better representation of disability in media, but when that fails, we have the opportunity to do better in our fanworks. It feels like a lot DAI/DATV fanworks jump into the magical prosthetic trope far too easily and without very much thought for how it negatively impacts that representation. The Inquisitor becomes disabled through losing their left hand, and that would be a complicated journey for them. This is not a part of their character that can be written away without losing a huge part of their story--regardless of how we role-play them.

For me personally, I try to balance it out by being realistic about both the prosthetic, the spirit hand, and the remaining limb. For example, prosthetics rub and cause blisters and other skin conditions. They can be bulky and heavy and cause musculoskeletal problems. Residual limb pain is thing and can be chronic and debilitating. Learning to use a prosthetic usually requires physical therapy, and some people just prefer not to use prosthetics at all, or only some of the time or for specific tasks. Much of the discourse around prosthetics is focused on making them indistinguishable from a natural limb, when practicality and comfort should really be the focus and not this ableist idea that differently limbed people should want a prosthetic that looks identical to the one that was lost. There are so many potential stories that can be written about this experience, yet we almost never see any of them. My mage Inquisitor has a spirit hand, but she doesn't use it much because it's difficult to maintain both that and use offensive magic in battle, and she doesn't have the mental energy to use it 100% of the time. It's also not that easy to use, even when she does have the energy. She only really uses it occasionally anyway (usually to make random shapes with it to amuse other people) and prefers her prosthetic.

To put it another way--consider how deaf/HoH people who get cochlear implants often continue to use sign language afterwards anyway, even if the procedure was successful. This is because a. it's their first language, which means verbal language is a new language to them and b. gaining hearing after a long period without it can be extremely difficult to adjust to. It can be overwhelming and even painful. The point is that just because aids and treatments exist, it doesn't mean that they're a one size fits all and each individual person will have their own journey in figuring it out. That's one of the things we should be writing about, rather than just nixing it away with a magic limb because it's the easier route and it doesn't require us to consider writing outside of our own experiences. And don't get me wrong, I get that it's scary. You don't wanna upset people with your writing or make them feel even more alienated. But you have to start somewhere and be willing to listen to criticism if you're going to get better.

Furthermore: ableism for sure exists in Thedas. Can you imagine how that would affect the Inquisitor? How they'd adjust from being revered as the Herald of Andraste with a divine mark on their hand to being almost killed by it? How their political enemies would use their disability against them? How they would be affected emotionally by having to deal with that ableism potentially for the first time? Would they find community among other veterans who have become disabled through conflict? Or would they isolate themselves and carry the burden alone? Would they experience mental health issues because of it? These are all examples of how ableism affects real people. Of course, none of this is negated by the spirit hand, but it's something I've seen very little attention given in fanworks.

For me personally, I also try to think of this through my own experiences of mental illness. I have chronic depression/Dysthymia, which is not exactly the same as clinical depression. It follows similar patterns to other mood disorders like Bipolar Disorder in that it's cyclical; my baseline is being moderately depressed, and then every 2 or 3 months I will go into 'double depression' which is where I experience an intensification of symptoms that mimic going into an initial depressed state, while aggravating the symptoms I already have. It's hard to explain it, but suffice to say, it requires me to take medication to control it. I don't like it, but it's the way my brain is wired up and I've been told by multiple professionals that I will always have to take medication for it (antidepressants and antipsychotics, although I don't take the antipsychotics atm). This medication causes a variety of annoying side effects that I have to accept as a trade off so I don't regress too far.

This is just one of the mental health conditions I have to contend with, but it's one that probably effects my life the most. I know it's not comparable to amputation or other physical disabilities and I'm not trying to say it is. But I use it to understand writing for disabled characters by, in conjunction with my research, empathising, by thinking of how much it would bother me if someone wrote about my life and did everything they could to ignore this very prominent part of who I am. I would have to ask why they were so keen to ignore it. Dysthymia doesn't define me, it's not something I'm 'proud' of per se, but it does affect a big part of my life; I've struggled with it every day since I was 10 or 11--so of course it's shaped who I am. I use it to imagine how frustrating it would be if someone tried to cover up or negate this part of me and then dressed it up with something like... idk. Magical anti-depression goggles or something, or worse still decided to make my story all about the goggles. It would make me feel like I wasn't a person with experiences worth writing about, that I would be fine if it weren't for this illness I undeniably have and can't help having. That my illness is akin to a personality flaw--an ableist assumption that Dysthymia sufferers in particular have to deal with, because it's a depression that does not go away and people think it's just our personality rather than an illness.

I personally found these posts x x x really helpful in figuring out how to write my inquisitor. Tbh cripplecharacters is invaluable anyway, especially their 'magic aids' tag for writing Inky. I really strongly recommend that you read them before writing about your inquisitor's prosthetic and their perspective on losing their arm. Listening to actual disabled people when writing disabled characters is the most important part of the process and it'll only make your work better. You really have nothing to lose by doing it.

Like I said, I'm not trying to call anyone out. I have most likely missed the mark just in writing this post, because it's not my personal experience. I do think the spirit hand is a cool concept. It's just not a quick fix and writing about it needs to be done more consciously than I think most people do.

[firephoenix2305]

So, I was writing the next chapter of my fic ETERNITY (link below). In this one they arrive in the Sistine chapel (long story) and chat about the paintings and such, so I naturally had to bring up Michelangelo.

I did - in a ridiculous Good Omens-y way, you'll know what I mean in a couple days - and I thought of a hilarious headcanon I wanted to share.

I now think that throughout history Crowley has influenced great geniuses in the randomest of ways, shaping culture without really meaning to.

Like, imagine:

He and Beethoven got drunk together once and Crowley bet him five quid (or the equivalent of the time) he couldn't compose something absolutely nobody could dance to. A couple of months later, he'd come out with "The Late String Quartets"

Or

The apple which fell onto Newton's head didn't fall by accident. Crowley was sitting on the tree as a snake and thought it'd be funny.

Or

He was hangover one morning at an inn and muttered "I think too much". René Descartes was sitting nearby, and that inspired his iconic phrase "I think, therefore I am". Crowley still thinks Descartes should've given him credit for that, but no hard feelings.

Or, or

One time he got very very drunk at a bar in Romania and started ranting to a random man about a Count he'd visited that day. (for undisclosed hellish purposes). He let slip that the bloke had tried to bite him. The random man had turned out to be Braham Stoker, and he'd been taking notes.

I dunno, it seemed funny to me 🤣 (I have a weird sense of humor, don't I? Lol)

-Nix🧡

(this is the fic btw)

[vampirevatican]

Got any headcanons for the councilors

oooo, i did rapid fire... nd i wanna focus on just individual but my brain can't mold* so here are mini thoughts (⁠ﾉ⁠◕⁠ヮ⁠◕⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠*⁠.⁠✧

(at the time of writing this nixe thought they meant sharkbait... they still could've, but they also could've meant slashfic)

tiggy and a partner that also likes biting. a match made in heaven really, and someone finally gets him. being a bit of a himbo i don't think he'd think twice about giving them something random to gnaw on. loves to hear his human actually crunch or break into something with their teeth.

rhin with a partner that has a low self-esteem so everytime they're like "no, i'm not worth-" he stops the god/goddess or royalty praise and reminds them that their worth as a human, as a mortal is just as vast and important. he constantly makes sure they eat right and get proper sleep and care. probably will scold but it's out of love and a fierce dedication to the temple that is his partners body.

lee is a yapper, obvi, but imagine he meets another yapper instead of a listener. they will not stop interrupting each other, after said yapper reminds him it's okay because this is what an ongoing convo looks like. they are both philosophers in their own ways.

gw having a partner that easily submits to him but is so strong-willed?? like it definitely boosts his ego, and he loves when he pierces through that wall when they're not in an automatic submissive headspace. like his partner can give orders and somewhat stand off against his soldiers but one well timed whisper in the ear from him and they're a puddle on the floor.

[thehalfbloodedwitch]

i wanna write so bad

[spirkme915]

aos kirk without pike showing up is noah kahan

[theend1shere]

I'm getting to stay home for the worst reason ever, yay... (—_—|||)

[ranticore]

I've often seen people ask you for drawing advice(which yes absolutely!) but what kind of writing advice could you give someone who wants to start? (or just narratives as a whole)

Ok my biggest advice and the thing I always spend most time on when editing is that u should tell the audience way less than you think you should tell them. Provide information sure but don't draw connections and don't hold a reader's hand. Like for example one minute ago I was reading over a paragraph with the final two sentences (paraphrased): "The word 'faery' didn't quite make it out of his mouth [in reference to himself]. He'd never thought of himself in those terms" and my editing comment was to nix that last sentence entirely because it's just saying out loud what the previous sentence is telling us, like holding ur hand and pointing at it saying "hey this is what that last sentence meant btw". it's easy to end up with a lot of that but you need to go back and cut all of those out. think about a reader drawing their own judgements, how much more engaging it is

Other random stuff I've picked up over the years

Kerb your worldbuilders disease ur writing a story not an encyclopaedia

Read your paragraph aloud to identify repetitive or weirdly structured sentences

There should be a clear causal chain running the length of the narrative - x happened because of y, which happened because of z, and so on. No matter how many links in the chain you should know it start to finish

Written media gives you an unlimited time budget, a reader can take as long as they like with it. You don't have to make it quick and snappy. You get to show & explore things that visual media can't, so take advantage of it. Also ditch every piece of writing advice which is like "trim all the fat and also imagine camera angles and scene cuts like it's a movie" because it's not a movie and you aren't constrained into a short runtime.

First draft is rough it's supposed to be rough just write it

It's impossible to write dialogue that nobody would ever say.. easy to scoff and think "nobody talks like this" but they do

I can't in good conscience advise everybody do this but the slush draft (draft 0 as it were) of stbh was narrated entirely in first person by the pov character in each chapter, with the framing device that they were explaining their actions to a judgemental third party. This was just done for fun before any other world building or even plot it was just to get the characters right first & to sort out how they would attempt to justify their actions, when they'd try to make themselves sound better (or worse), and just their voice in general. It ended up being absolutely invaluable

[godzexperiment]

it's an silly theory- but like what if an lot of nix's issues with temperature is because his wings are where most his body heat ends up? especially incorporeal+tucked up for so often/so long generally

which- somebody using an thermometer and his wings lighting up, major hot spots but the rest of him very much not so much

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

When it comes to the powers of the miraculous. How come there's so many copies or relatives of them. Cat miraculous gives you the power to destroy everything, tiger gives you power of a massive punch that's apparently less destructive than the cat. Ladybug and goat can make things, but the goat's objects aren't magical. Bee can paralyse you and the pig can make you watch your dream, freezing you in place. Turtle and ox both protect from attacks but the ox only works on the holder. Snake and rabbit, do I even need to explain? Heck throw in the horse as the rabbit is a mix between snake and horse. The peacock and butterfly.

Many miraculous have watered down versions of themselves or are just the same with a different skin. It just shows that it was a mistake to have so many miraculous in the first place. The main seven (ladybug, cat, fox, turtle, bee, butterfly and peacock) was enough. The others feels like they were just made to sell more cute mascots and toys. And some of them didn't have much thought put into them. Which is shown with the watered down versions of the more powerful. But there's also some who's powers are too OP. The dragon let's you use three powers before your timer starts. The rabbit with time travel. And the fucking rooster who has the most complicated rules and concept.

The power to get any power you want. Yet you can't make a wish, can disrupt other miraculous powers, can't use the same power as another miraculous and so on. Like why? Then there's the dog who's power is to fetch an object the ball touched, no matter where it is or how far away it is. Feels like they gave it that power only for Felix to get ladybug's yoyo and all the miraculous.

If I would have written miraculous I would have done like this. Only have the main seven miraculous and have them be the only miraculous. Don't introduce new heroes in the same season. Instead have season one begin with like the original. Just the cat, ladybug and butterfly. And get a hint of the fox in volpina. Then season two we get the fox and turtle. Introduce the peacock in mayura. And season three have the bee be get introduced with Chloe's redemption or have her being an antihero. And season four they receive both the butterfly and peacock, ending the show at four seasons. Then the powers. Chang the peacock's power to instead making emotions stronger. Like making sad people's negative emotions stronger, giving Gabriel the opportunity to make stronger akumas as their emotions are stronger and so is their powers.

Let's just say that I wish they thought better if the other miraculous powers and how many they actually needed for the show.

When it comes to the powers of the miraculous. How come there's so many copies or relatives of them.

Best guess: because the writers are bad at lore and matched the powers to the holders instead of the other way around.

Generally speaking, you should come up with the lore for your ancient magical artifacts, then design characters who fit that lore. At the very least, develop the two concepts in tandem so both feel balanced!

For example, I knew I wanted to keep Kagami around, but I also needed to rework Longg as his power set is too random. I also liked the idea of other miraculous being in sets like Creation and Destruction, so I shifted Longg from "Perfection" to "Offense" and made him Wayzz' other half with Wayzz going from "Protection" to "Defense" making "Protection" the combination of Longg and Wayzz. I also changed Longg's power from the elements to just a general speed boost since that's the way it's usually used in canon. If I couldn't have done a fix like that, then I would have had to nix Longg and/or Kagami because solid lore is very important to me.

Let's just say that I wish they thought better if the other miraculous powers and how many they actually needed for the show.

I full agree that they have too many miraculous, too. I would massively cut down the box. The initial seven is a solid way to approach it as is just redesigning the box to a smaller set with just the ones that make sense to you. That's the approach I took as I wanted a few of the zodiac powers around. Note that I only felt comfortable doing that because canon has done nothing to tie the box to it's supposed culture of origin, so I felt more comfortable removing that association than trying to find a way to make the box honor Chinese culture given how little I know about said culture. Plus I'm not sure if that kind of fix is even possible given issues like Plagg and Tikki being based on semi-recent European superstitions instead of anything to do with China.

I like your proposed overall story beats, too. I usually say canon should have been three seasons at the max, but I think four could work if you included something major with Chloe as that's a solid distraction from the main plot. Keeping her to her own season while Alya and Nino get their own season too also feels like a nice fix as I want Alya and Nino to get more screentime where they actually get to do stuff and feel useful.

[mai-komagata]

fyi poll at the end! for people who like clicking buttons.

im gonna do a thought exercise here, this is not me getting my hopes up. im very much on team amazon is a bunch of cowards

ok if i were take the showrunners at their word that there is a queer character and i further assume it wont be a posthumous confirmation AND it wont be a love triangle situation (characters can be bisexual, but im assuming if they are in a current het relationship or have a current or future on screen love interest im nixing them. subtext doesnt count either as a het or queer relationship).

im not assuming that them being queer means they will have a queer romance but im assuming they will have some setting appropriate reveal. (even if it is like "oh they are not the marrying kind")

cool who is left here:

halfling storyline:

nori -- she can be a lesbian even if poppy is not. if she is made into a frodo or bilbo character that never marries suspiciously and just hangs out with gandalf. they'd just need to give her some hera hammerhand style lines of never wanting to marry a man or something. or introduce new lady hobbits.

gandalf - technically possible although my skeptical meter is at 100% i dont want to nix it entirely but just fyi i dont believe this.

everyone else either actively seems to be pursuing someone or has a partner or is too minor a character for me to believe their sexuality would be mentioned.

dwarf storyline

narvi -- good candidate to be honest if he stays in the show.

humans (numenoreans ++)

theo -- sure good possibility, good cover to wait til he is older for a reveal.

isildur + estrid, earien + kemen, miriel + elendil all being excluded. dead people (rip bronwyn, valandil) also not counted.

ar pharazon -- previous wife seems dead and i dont see them trying to do a book accurate marriage to tar miriel. honestly would be an L for bisexual representation.

orcs, adar, evil southlanders

not counted on account of being dead. adar insufficiently explicit in s2 and i dont see a gay reveal flashback (but def would make many people very happy. it would just be random)

elves

gil galad -- sure.

cirdan -- has the right vibes

everyone else dead or married or will be married or too in love with someone dead.

and of course

sauron -- hope springs eternal for you to do something overtly sexual and queer. :) i am in the "neither gandalf or sauron will show overt interest in someone in the show on account of their angelic nature" but a girl can dream.

what do you think? assuming they arent lying, who is queer that we have met AND they would say explicitly?

fyi pls make your own post for negativity. i want to live in delulu land for a bit. the world is harsh out there and i want this discourse to seem possible rather than an impossible ask.