#i have to rewatch/reread to get a refresher

[lamnwar]

seriously speaking, do you guys believe that Kagami has mommy issues?

[meganegatari]

for the upcoming band au im tryna think up...

ellie is the guitarist, and abby is the drummer. those i am very set on. just thinking how we want the juiciest drama, please share aaaany more thoughts!! it'll be majorly ellie x reader of course, but i have ideas for enemies to lovers, fake dating, love triangles, jealousy and tension mhmm...that kinda thing too sprinkled in. haven't thunk up most of it juuuust yet though, only brainstorming‼️and need some of y'alls wisdom <3 sorry jesse, i love the girl's only team idea too much. and for y'all freaks, yes it'll be smutty...i wanna make this hot and edgy and filthy, omg or 80s/90s setting?!?!?!? and oooo mayhaps some influence of daisy jones and the six (definitely needa reread/rewatch to refresh my remembery...), if i can figure out how to work everything in. if reader is the singer ill make them daisy-coded, yknow? then we just won't have a bassist lol. or ill write in jesse anyway because he suits that role to me. 🤷 if reader is the bassist and dina is the singer, then i could lean more into the jealousy....hmmm. personally, drifting towards singer reader but i dunno. i mean there's also the chance i'll disregard this poll entirely, but we will cross that bridge when we get there. okay lawrd done yapping, lemme know anything else yall come up with!!

[voxofthevoid]

writing tips for Goyuu?

Ignore fanon

I'm being 100% serious. Ignore the common fanon versions of Yuuji and Gojou. Hell, ignore even the specific versions of specific authors (including myself in this).

There's nothing wrong per se about drawing on fanon instead of canon when writing fic—that's what a lot of people enjoy, and I've seen a lot of interesting communities form that way. But it's also how you get these self-cannibalizing versions of characters who are ten degrees and twenty personality types removed from who they actually are in canon. When interpretation and extrapolation segue into flanderization, we have a problem.

So, first, read or reread the manga (or rewatch the anime, if that's more your speed). Focus not only on Gojou and Yuuji's relationship but also on Gojou and Yuuji in general—their personalities, their interiority, their relationships with others, their relation to the themes of the story overall.

Form your own interpretations of the characters and apply those to your writing.

The goal isn't to reproduce their canon selves wholesale. We can't. We're not Gege Akutami. Plus, interpretation is inherently a subjective art—what works for one person may not work for another. Egregious cases of OOCness will generally stand out, but overall, what's considered IC and OOC will depend on individuals and their perceptions. Plus, the skill and passion involved in a work often determine its reception.

The goal isn't even to completely avoid being influenced by other authors or stories; that's also impossible if you're actively reading or even brainstorming with fellow fans.

But before drawing on external influences, form your own solid, well-reasoned opinions about Gojou, Yuuji, and their relationship(s). Then go from there.

If you fuck up—in the sense that you create something you're not happy with—that only means there's room for growth. Keep writing, keep developing the characters, keep refreshing yourself on canon.

I know these aren't specific points of advice, anon, but I hope it'll be helpful all the same 💗

[chaoortu]

How do you go about keeping characters well..in character?

Asking because I read through your fic anatomy of a terrarium thus far, and I´ve never read a story where Nick has bipolar. But I read through it and go wow yeah I I´m still reading about Nick. I´m still reading him going through all this, Charlie helping him (or at least trying to). This still feels like canon even with it delving into much darker topics (like Nick using drugs, and him dealing with getting raped, amongst others)

Idk if I worded this awkwardly but basically, you just handled all these guys so well and I wanna know more about your process!

you didn't ask this awkwardly at all! So for me at least, I'm always like "man i wonder if this is ooc or if it feels as ooc for readers as it does for me the writer" something that helps is that i frequently reread or rewatch the canon if i feel like something i'm doing is veering too ooc for me to get away with. specifically the darker chapters or the more serious t.v episodes (the cinema episode in season one, the gcse bonfire in season 2, and the third episode of season 3 especially.) this keeps my characterization more consistent and refreshes me on tone. i also try to make narrative choices that make sense given what we know in canon. nick obviously has no signs of being bipolar in canon, that's something i came up with on my own, but he does use alcohol to numb himself during the Halloween episode of season 3 (and it's the first time we see him presumably drunk, as he does not drink that much when Charlie is around.) so I took that canon nugget and let it snowball into nick using drugs in the anatomy of a terrarium series (I have a lot of thoughts about substance abuse and how it's portrayed in media. generally i could see a nick who doesn't get help struggle with substance abuse in the future but that's a topic for another time.) i have a post somewhere where i dug into nick's mentality following his sexual assault and how much i based that around how he acts in canon. i'll link it here in case you'd like to read it but it's a good example of what i mean above! here I also go into a lot of my angst fics with the intention of using the angst, whether it be substance abuse, mental illness, terminal illness, etc, to say something about the characters and how they would act if those things happened instead of just having those things happen to them for the sake of it. Because I go into the idea with that in mind, it makes it easier to write them behaving similarly to how they do in canon. I also tend to base the angst off of my own experiences either going through things or witnessing loved ones around me going through them and that helps to keep things more grounded. and a lot of it just comes from experience and writing a lot. even though i've only been posting hs fic for like... maybe a year? maybe less, i've been writing fic in other fandoms for a decade at this point and when i'm not writing fics, i'm working on my own novels so i am literally writing every single day (it's my hobby and i love it to bits!!!) sticking to core canon things to make a fic read as "in character" is a skill in of itself. i look back on my first hs fics and i cringe a little because i can see my own inexperience with the characters in them. i would also say that even in my darker fits, i try to make sure everything ends happily or ends with a happy for now, and i think that promise of a happy ending keeps the whole fic feeling closer to canon because heartstopper will have a happy ending and we know nick and charlie stay together forever.

[tinytonyy]

Yap And Gush: Deep Dives Into My Obsessions

When The Fandom High Fades—The Hunt For Something New

You know that feeling when you're totally immersed in a fandom? Every day is filled with fanfics, theories, and ships you can’t get enough of, but eventually, the buzz fades. After diving so deep into Hijack and Buddie, I’ve reached a point where it feels like I’ve explored everything, and nothing compares to that initial rush. The emptiness sets in, and I find myself searching for something new, but it feels impossible to recapture that excitement.

I’m constantly looking for the next fandom to get hooked on, but it’s not as easy as it seems. I set the bar so high, and everything else feels... underwhelming. Even though I know there’s a whole world of fandoms out there, after being so connected to one, it’s hard to jump into something new. The excitement of discovering a fandom for the first time is what’s missing right now.

This isn’t the first time I’ve felt this way, though. The fandom cycle is something I know all too well. You dive in, get obsessed, and then, eventually, you reach a point where you’ve explored all there is. The transition isn’t easy, but the key is embracing the void. Eventually, a new fandom will come along when I least expect it.

Exploring smaller, niche fandoms has been a bit of a saving grace. There's no pressure to keep up with every update, and it’s refreshing to just enjoy something on your own terms. These fandoms are less overwhelming, and you get to decide how deep you want to go. It’s all about discovering something new without the stress of feeling left behind.

Going back to old fandoms has also been comforting. Rewatching shows or rereading fanfics can reignite that spark, even if it’s not new. Sometimes, the magic is still in the familiar. It’s about finding joy in what you’ve already loved, and that’s enough.

The beauty of this cycle is that we’re always searching for the next big thing. That’s what keeps fandoms alive—the excitement of discovering something that makes us feel alive again. The burnout? It’s part of the process, and without it, we wouldn’t get to experience that next spark. The fandom cycle keeps us moving and growing, even when we don’t know where that next obsession will come from.

Have you ever experienced the burnout of fandom obsession, and how did you deal with the search for something new? Did you find a fresh fandom that sparked that same excitement, or did you return to an old favorite?

Until next time, happy reading and happy yapping!

[stilesinwonderland]

HEART KILLERS/TAMING OF THE SHREW COMPARISONS

Episode 1—Kant/Bison and the Play of Things

ANYWAYS I DID READ THE PLAY JUST TO COMPARE IT TO THE SHOW!!! I first read the entirety of The Taming of the Shrew 6 years ago and reread it now for a refresher while giving some particular attention to the first act of the play because I feel like this—and the emphasis given to roles in the show—are probably the most important to me as of right now.

To divide my analysis up, I rewatched episode 1, so I’ll be following along with an analysis of that episode with my notes from the play. And this is just a focus on the Kantbison scenes so far, I have so many thoughts, so there will be many more posts I think!

For reference:

Lucentio=Kant

Tranio=Lucentio’s “man” (servant)

Bianca=Bison

Petruchio=Style

Katherine/Kate=Fadel

To start, I want to talk about the beginning of Taming of the Shrew. At the start of the play, we begin with a character called Sly, a poor beggar. He’s drunk in a tavern, so a lord decides to dress him up in rich clothing and put on a play for him, making him think that he is a nobleman. To simplify, we have Sly in “real life,” and the story we know of the “taming” in Taming of the Shrew is a story within a story. Right from the start, Shakespeare starts his play with deception. And it’s not just a regular deception, either—at least not to me:

“What think you, if he were convey'd to bed, Wrapp'd in sweet clothes, rings put upon his fingers, A most delicious banquet by his bed, And brave attendants near him when he wakes, Would not the beggar then forget himself?”

They want to make Sly “forget himself,” and I think it’s the way it’s worded that is so poignant to me. For some reason, this very image reminds me of Kant. The imagery is the same, but slightly different—in the first episode, we see him thrust into this world he is not a part of. For his whole life he has been living as a different person, and now he must become someone completely new.

In this part, we can already see that Kant feels like he's going to be putting on some kind of "role," because he is going to be out of his league. Besides the fact that it is nuts for him to be put in this position in the first place, he truly will be acting for a majority of the show, which we do see. He will slip many times, but unfortunately, he will have to keep his act up as much as he can to survive, in his mind.

We can get a good sense of where the show picks up on the fact that, while Taming of the Shrew is ultimately a comedy, there are serious elements that can be used as well. This brings me to the next theme, which is the “play in a play.”  We see throughout Taming of the Shrew that characters use disguises often. Here is an example of a play direction:

Enter Gremio; Lucentio ⌜disguised as Cambio⌝ in the habit of a mean man; Petruchio with ⌜Hortensio disguised as Litio; and⌝ Tranio ⌜disguised as Lucentio,⌝ with his boy, ⌜Biondello⌝ bearing a lute and books.

As you can see, everyone is usually disguised as someone else. Deceit is present in Lucentio/Bianca’s story nearly throughout. So, I think the setting of the hitmen storyline is so great, because they have been disguised for essentially their whole lives.

So this is when the “play” begins. You can really feel that Heart Killers toys with the sense of the play elements various times in the show—I saw someone mention it before, but the sets genuinely appear play-like. For example (using episode 1):

These sets appear less 3-dimensional but on PURPOSE, and I do think that the guns were meant to appear like props, but that could be an interpretation that could be disagreed with. Anyhow, the sets seem like they are calling back to the show's source material by singling out the most crucial characters so we really pay attention to them, as we would in a play. The background characters, if there are any, are very few. In episode 10, when Keen is eating in the restaurant, he is completely alone, which is another example of this. It seems highly unlikely that these restaurants would be empty, so it seems like a directorial choice.

So let’s back up again, to the start of the episode. When we meet Kant and Style is probably the most similar introduction to the “fake” play’s format—and we meet the character “Lucentio’s” equivalent—Kant. Essentially, the same thing happens in the play and the show. We see that Kant has a plan, and so does Lucentio. Kant wants a one-night stand in the show, and only that. He has too many responsibilities to take care of, which we find out later, and a younger brother whom he has had to raise since he was way too young.  In the play, Lucentio has come to Padua with the intent to study philosophy (love the callout with his name being Kant btw!!!) and strictly logic, as men do. He says,

“Here let us breathe and haply institute / A course of learning and ingenious studies.”

Those plans are ruined with swiftness when they suddenly see Bianca (Bison). Obviously, they are both dumbstruck by their character’s beauty (understandable; Khao does that to you).

The play develops similarly, with Style’s equivalent having to woo Katherine (Fadel), but that will be a separate post!! (They also kept the element in of Kant “teaching” Bison how to bowl which was fun, because in the play, Lucentio disguises himself as a teacher in order to court Bianca, teehee, but anyways.)

The dynamic here is related to the play as well, because we see that these two characters rely on secrets the most. Lucentio and Bianca depend on secrets for their plans to work. Bianca has so many suitors, and Lucentio is disguised as another man. In this case, Kant doesn’t reveal his identity for a long while, while Bianca finds out right away and Bianca&Luciento do not reveal his true identity until right until they are walking up to the altar—the show has flipped the dynamic from a willing secret to an unknowing, betraying one.

This point reminds me of Bianca&Luciento's first real conversation in the play, where Bianca says:

BIANCA  Now let me see if I can conster it. Hic ibat  Simois, I know you not; hic est ⌜Sigeia⌝ tellus, I trust  you not; Hic ⌜steterat⌝ Priami, take heed he hear us  not; regia, presume not; celsa senis, despair not.

Bianca is speaking between words in Latin so she cannot be clearly heard. Here, Lucentio has come clean immediately and revealed his identity to her. They are also having a secret conversation to hide from another suitor! There are so many layers to this play, showing secrets upon secrets.

If you look at Heart Killers, we can see that Kant and Bison are hiding from Fadel, Kant is hiding the secret from Style, Kant is hiding his secret from Bison, mother has been deceiving them, and whatever detective Christ has going on is going on. Lies are integral to the story—and not just lies, but deception. Obviously, the show has gone darker and twisted the narrative until lies have become deeper lies, but they have all started with Kant’s initial deception, just as they did in the play.

What I find the most riveting is also how closely the show follows this concept of “shedding the mask,” or coming clean. In the play, Lucentio finally becomes himself again at the altar, revealing himself in front of her father Baptista. He says:

 Love wrought these miracles. Bianca’s love  Made me exchange my state with Tranio,  While he did bear my countenance in the town,  And happily, I have arrivèd at the last  Unto the wishèd haven of my bliss.

Of course, we can see this direct comparison with Kant and telling Bison the truth, but how about Bison and finally leaving his field? Bison wants to shed that part of his life away fully, and he can finally be with the person he loves after yearning for all of these years. In episode one, he already says “We’re off duty so I can be myself.” In those small moments, he takes the time to drive it home to Fadel that that is his true dream.

The thing that I love about shows vs plays is the amount of time they get to show with the characters—because while we see the lies, we also see the truths. We see that Kant is afraid of the ocean, we see that Kant can barely make ends meet. We see that Bison has been alone romantically and yearns to be free from his lifestyle. With plays, however, we can read between the lines ourselves, which we often do, have done for a very long time, and probably will even longer.

[syndrossi]

Bit of a non-resonant question for once:

What program do you use to write with? Any particular fonts or techniques that help get you in the writing zone? Do you edit as you write or write and then edit after you have a skeleton/base finished?

Ah, love me some writing questions!

Writing program

For my very early fandom life, I liked to use Wordpad (rather than proper Word) because it was very simple but still allowed basic formatting and didn't have Word's annoying "suggestions" that I always ignore.

Then I bought Scrivener, which appealed to me because it let you organize your writing into "folders" almost, while allowing you to still easily switch between separate bits of writing and view the work as a whole. I loved it because I'm always playing with concept work or alternate POVs, and it let me organize all the related bits around the main work. I still use Scrivener to organize my D&D games that I DM!

These days, I tend to use Google Docs for easy syncing. I like being able to write and read my work everywhere. I mostly write at my desk, but will reread and edit occasionally on my phone (at home or elsewhere) or on my laptop when I'm lounging in bed. One thing I used to do, in summer of all things, was take a nice long soak in the bath and reread Resonant before starting work on a new chapter. It's too long these days to do that, alas!

I don't love Google Docs itself, because I really do miss the organization Scrivener gave me. (Scrivener would be amazing for the Halloween prompts, honestly!) And the single doc that holds all of Resonant is starting to choke a bit on its size. But the convenience keeps it as my writing tool of choice for now.

There was one other piece of Scrivener-esque paid writing software I looked at a while back that sync'd its content in the cloud, but I remember not being super blown away by it and I've forgotten the name.

Getting into the zone

This is usually a matter of rereading the current chapter or the previous chapter to get my head in the right place, both in terms of tone and flow. Sometimes, if I'm feeling very fancy, I'll light a scented candle. But I'm a pretty basic person. It's usually just me deciding "okay, enough screwing around, let's do some writing" and then I write. (In the past, when I was strict about reaching 1K/day and was struggling with a particular section, I would give myself the "treat" every 100 words of a short break.)

I had a period where I only felt "in the zone" when the sun was still out, which makes things hard when you work a 9-5 job and have to take care of dinner/the dog after. Fortunately, that phase is over and I'm back to writing whenever. That phase was odd because I am more typically a "can't really get in the proper zone until midnight" person. I would say that most of Resonant was written between the hours of 10PM and 4AM.

The hardest things for me to write are new characters and new POVs, as those usually involve me refreshing myself on the body of work for that particular character (rewatching them in the show, and rereading their bits in F&B). Not applicable to OCs, usually, unless they're Essos-related characters, because those involve a lot of interpolating of the few scraps GRRM has shared of the Free Cities.

Editing process

I'm pretty much the opposite of a skeleton writer. 😅 I'll constantly edit myself as I write. There's a certain minimum level of "acceptable" I have to maintain to move onto the next paragraph, with the sole exception being the heavy writing months with my word count minimum where I just wanted to be done for the night. That said, I do on occasion make use of [finish this scene] or [name this later] or [figure out how this works] injections.

And since I reread the current chapter when getting into the writing zone, that usually means doing light editing as I go if an easy fix to something I wasn't happy with occurs to me.

Sometimes, a particular stretch of scenes or chapters doesn't "feel" right, and I have to rewrite, remove, or add entire scenes. That's usually done at the start of a writing session and sometimes takes up the entire time.

The day before posting is the "final edits" day. It's where I fill in any brackets I left behind, and edit the most stubborn bits I wasn't happy with, until everything is close to 100% satisfaction. I definitely do the most editing of a chapter in this span, and often this adds 500ish words to a given chapter. I've had chapters where I was already pretty much completely happy (ch13 comes to mind) and I just had to do a basic grammar/flow check. Those are nice, they take no more than an hour. Others, I'm burning the midnight oil to fill in the blanks and figure out how the heck to fix a particular sentence or phrase of dialogue that's been vexing me.

[starsinshadows]

Heyo! Some of you may have noticed rumblings over here, and I'm excited to announce that I'm in the process of revamping this blog to spread my attention around more effectively. I'm still going to be a bit on the slow side with everything because I'm dealing with post-concussion syndrome with its tests, occupational medicine, physical therapy, occupational therapy and follow-ups while working and doing school full-time. My health isn't the best and I'm struggling a bit, but the muse is strong, so I'm doing my best!

I'll be starting up here with my Marvel/DC muses first as I hit up rewatching/rereading, with the horror muses all moved over to my horror multi - @darkstarsrise or their solo blogs, respectively. Any others will be integrated back in as I get to refreshing on their media and voices. My carrd is in progress on a massive update, so feel free to check it out often as I keep adding to it! As always, hit me with asks and let's try to brush the rust off!

[songofsaraneth]

"Get to know me" meme

Rules: answer and tag six people you want to get to know better.

tagged by @bettydice thank you!! :)

1. Favourite colour: cerulean, chartreuse, and sunset oranges!! and also, all 3 together.

2. Last song: Frozen Pines by Lord Huron

3. Currently reading:

What Feasts At Night by T. Kingfisher: working my way through hugo noms & this is up for Novella, a reread technically because i wanted to refresh before picking my fave

The Maid And The Crocodile by Jordan Ifueko: similarly, reading bc it's up for the Lodestar this year

The Calling by David Gaider: I don't read all the DA books but i didn't realize that this one heavily features The Architect My Beloved so i am rectifying this. what i listen to while doing my current DA themed embroidery lol

4. Currently watching: sort of keeping up with Murderbot while trying not to think too hard about it and how it can never be as good as the Murderbot movie i play in my head when i read each novella lol. Also in a big rewatch of revival Doctor Who/Torchwood with my friend @ephemeral-gremlin since we're reliving 2008 i guess

5. Currently craving: i cannot BELIEVE i went to the grocery store today in the midst of my Dark Hunger and DIDN"T buy potato chips. i might as well die. i am so so sad about this but i have to wait til tomorrow to go get any.

6. Coffee or tea: tea. caffiene triggers migraines for me. which is why i have to keep giving away the bags of delicious chai with lots of cardamom i keep rebuying bc im in a toxic relationship with this beverage. its so good but its like a 40% chance it will Hurt Me why cant i quit it 😭

tagging: @ephemeral-gremlin @serbarris @brit-kaaz-sil @genjyoandgojyoandhakkai @sageadvice @jhscdood!

[shadows-shells]

tag game!

was tagged by @calliopechild!

1) are you named after someone? 

--nopez

2) when is the last time you cried? 

--i tear up a lot at media 😂 reading The Neon Void Saga (i do recc the RotTMNT movie and this fic!!) https://archiveofourown.org/series/4662100

3) do you like your handwriting? 

--yes but nobody else does 🤣 they can't read it, it's a self-evolved semi-cursive /no regrets

4) what is your favorite lunch meat? 

--i like most things in the deli. chicken, turkey, bratwurst, pork, beef, lamb etc

5) do you have kids? 

--nope, childfree by choice

6) if you were another person, would you be friends with you? 

--i want to (be able to) say yes so i shall

7) do you use sarcasm? 

--not me im innocent, trust

8) do you still have your tonsils? 

--yep

9) would you bungee jump? 

--nope. not scared of heights but not an adrenaline junkie. And the reliability engineering class in uni (required for my major) was scarringly enlightening 😂 

10) what is your favorite kind of cereal? 

--don't eat cereal much these days anymore, but plain cornflakes, Honey Stars and Frosties 💯

11) do you untie your shoes when you take them off? 

--nah life is too short for that 😂 

12) do you think you're a strong person? 

--yes

13) what is your favorite ice cream flavor? 

--matcha

14) what is the first thing you notice about people? 

--introversion/extroversion is usully quite obvious at first meeting 

15 ) red or pink? 

--red 

16) what do you least like about yourself physically? 

--nah fam we're not doing that today (or ever) ✌️ 

17) what color pants and shoes are you wearing now? 

--blue, no shoes 

18) what was the last thing you ate? 

--pasta

19) what are you listening to right now? 

--Takami Hiroyuki's 'Justice' has been on loop all day

20) if you were a crayon, what color would you be? 

--blue?

21) favorite smell? 

--grass after rain (petrichor)

22) who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? 

--my colleagues

23) favorite sport to watch? 

--probably an unpopular choice but mid-distance track (ran competitively in school for awhile)

24) hair color? 

--black-brown. It was pure jet black in the sun when i was a kid, sobs, maybe i should dye it pure black again one day (but i know i won't 😂 im a cheapskate)

25) eye color

--black-brown

26) do you wear contacts? 

--these days, only when dressing up for friends' weddings

27) favorite food to eat? 

--almost any kind of soup, rice, pasta

28) scary movies or comedy? 

--comedy

29) last movie you watched? 

--at the cinema? Sonic 3 (definite recc!!)

30) what color shirt are you wearing? 

--blue

31) summer or winter? 

--summer, anything below 20 deg C is yucks

32) hugs or kisses? 

--hugs

33) what book are you currently reading? 

--im mostly on ao3 these days, but right now i'm rereading 'Palgrave Key Concepts - Literary Terms and Criticism' by John Peck and Martin Coyle. 

On its own i wouldn't say it's the perfect textbook but it's a great refresher (with clear examples, and covers many topics) if you alr have somewhat studied literature before

34) who do you miss right now? 

--some of my friends who'd moved overseas

35) what is on your mouse pad? 

--🙈 using one of those rubber mats with gridlines that artists use to pad their desks while slicing watercolour paper

36) what is the last tv program you watched? 

--...rewatching some TMNT 2k3. yall caught me :3

37) what is the best sound? 

--music, birdsong

38) rolling stones or the beatles?

--beatles

39) what is the farthest you have ever travelled?

--Boston was a 22+ hrs flight and then it somehow took another 2 hrs to get out of the airport 💀 tbh, probably never again

40) do you have a special talent? 

--uhh im pretty good at combing social media for fandom info?

41) where were you born? 

--not doxxing myself today sry guys 😅 

42) people you hope will participate in this but don't have to?

--uhh tagging the first five ppl on my dash @dawntreaderflynne @plothooksinc @emeraldtortoiseshell @yellowhollyhock @ninjaturtlefun

And anyone else seeing this on their dash and wants to do it, consider yourselves tagged 😁 

[flagversion]

get to know your mutuals :] tagged by @brettsgoldstein!

favorite color: green 💚 nearly any shade depending on my mood

currently reading: hummingbird salamander by jeff vandermeer & the art of prophecy by wesley chu (rereading so i can read the sequel finally)

last song: dangerous by ten

most recent movie: i think i watched mulan last month??

most recent tv series: i’ve been rewatching reba again lol

sweet, salty, or savory? savory…

tea or coffee? coffee but it pains me having to choose

working on: language learning (korean, refreshing my spanish) and deciding what to do for grad school ☹️

tagging: all my mootie patooties <3

[sideblog-usernametaken]

I've been rewatching/rereading That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime recently, and it's occured to me why I'm still enjoying it despite the criticism the later seasons have been getting. Spoilers below the cut:

So for anyone who isn't aware, the anime has been getting some flack recently for having more and more scenes of meetings while having less action. Which is honestly a fair critique.

The problem lies in the fact that adapting fight scenes takes less time than adapting conversations. What I mean by this is that a single page of fighting might turn into 30 seconds of an episode (Depending on the pacing of course, some might make it shorter or longer) while a page full of speech bubbles is going to take a few minutes. And there's no way to get around that for plot important conversations. So a manga that's well paced with both action and long conversations might not have that pacing translate to anime episode very well.

So, yeah I can completely understand people being upset that a single conversation about trade is taking up a full episode every now and again.

But I think the thing that gets me is that these political conversations and planning and meetings are Rimiru's goal throughout the series. He doesn't usually want things to get violent, and in his ideal world everyone just coexists. It is preferable to have a long trade discussion than to invade a neighborhoring country or worry about them invading instead. Making alliances and figuring out a way for both parties to benefit is better than making enemies. The story is just very earnest in its priorities, so narratively it makes sense that as time goes on there are fewer fights and more meetings. I enjoy watching Rimiru get what he wants after working so hard for it.

Not to mention a lot of the meetings are actually pretty fun to watch. King Gazel coaching Rimiru is usually pretty good, basically any time Rimiru has to broker something with a Demon Lord it's fun to see how they interact, and watching the cast get excited to build an RPG dungeon in real life is pretty fun.

Sure, there are some episodes I skip because I already know what they talked about and I want to move on. But it is kind of refreshing to see a show put its money where its mouth is by having the goal be peaceful coexistence and then actually having it put into practice in the series. There's a reason why this series has a few slice of life spin offs, it's just satisfying to see everyone being able to relax a little.

[divine0]

Favorite JoJo's character from each part you've seen/read so far (you can only pick one character from each part)?

YOU ARE EVIL TO MEEEEEEEEEEEE

1. jonathan. like. you can’t not like this guy he’s the epitome of sweetheart. of course i do like dio but he’s a fucking shithead in part one and jonathan is like the biggest sweetheart ever that bitch was crying after he killed dio cause despite everything that was his step brother!!!!! love him fr fr

2. joseph. you’re gonna see basically almost all the jojos on this list because I Like Them. ummm no he’s such a goofball but again he’s the goofball with a heart of gold. i’m actually rewatching part two right now cause i reread part one cause my friend has the manga and i wanted to refresh on pre crusaders. BUT. i think his growth through the season from douchey and kinda gross to someone who knows how to care for others beyond a surface level is so nice to see and i think having a long running jojo is refreshing given that a lot are only really in their own season

3. kakyoin. my baby. my poor sweet baby. my baby who’s life got cut way too short. my poor sweet baby. his background is so fucking sad to me and him FINALLY meeting other people who UNDERSTAND him and don’t think he’s a freak for seeing hierophant and just. the Complete Joy that emanates off him post flesh-bud is so fucking bittersweet cause it’s like seeing a dog playing in the street where there’s an oncoming car. i love him so fucking much

4. okuyasu………..MAN I LOVE THIS GUYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!! I LIKE THIS ONE I LIKE HIM A LOT (you are evil for making me only pick one okuyasu and jouske should not be separated they come as a pair) BUT I DIGRESS. again i Love me a tragic backstory and the story of his dad is so…. UGH I LOVE HIM SO BADLY MY SWEET BOY. his stand is so fucking cool too completely underutilized he could’ve killed kira in ten seconds we would not have had to deal with bites the dust if okuyasu studied his stand a little bit more

5. AGAIN LET ME ITERATE. YOU ARE EVIL FOR MAKING ME PICK ONE. I WILL PICK ONLY ONE BUT JUST KNOW I HAVE THREE FAVORITES FROM GOLDEN WIND giornio of course. i like that autistic man. he’s so sweet i love how he loves nature but like the kind of character that’s the most interesting to me is someone who’s sweet but has unmatched determination for a mildly not so ethical goal. and i think giornio is exactly that. i love that this cunty ass 15 year old is so dedicated to being a mob boss that he actually manages to become one in ONE FUCKING WEEK. and again i love the way he cares i love the way he fights i love how he thinks i love golden experience requiem i love it all

6. wes weather report…again my poor sweet baby. my sweet baby. i could cradle him for ages. his story is so fucking tragic i don’t need to repeat it to you but GOOODDDDDDAMNNNNN and the fact that you think he’s going to be an antagonist after he gets his memories back but he’s just suicidal it turns out is so heartbreaking i love him so much my poor sweet baby. pucci is an interesting villain but man FUCK THAT GUY FOR WHAT HE DID TO WES

7. do i even need to say it. do i even need to. it’s johnny. of course it’s johnny. i love him so much. his dads a cunt and a fake ass bitch for showing up at the end of the race for everything he did to him. AND IF YOU WANT TO TALK CHARACTER GROWTH LETS TALK JOHNNY!!!!!!!!!!! SELF CENTERED ASSHOLE ATTHE BEGINNING MATURE BUT DEEPLY WCARED YET READY TO GROW MAN AT THE END!!! I LOVR HIM SO MUCH MY POOR BOYYYY. also his ass btw. UGH and honestly one of my favorite outfits behind giornio and jolyne maybe. i should make an outfit list as well. Ugh. i love him. and him and gyro are a matched set i can’t believe you’re making me split them up

[a-quiet-autumn]

non-sims interests ✧.*

thank you for the tag @vampwan !!

anime - i looooove anime so much, i started watching it in 7th grade and never looked back!

my favs are haikyu!! (forever my #1), jjk, mitchiko and hatchin, death note and madoka magica just to name a few!

other games

some other games i enjoy outside of the sims are valorant, hades, omori, oxenfree 2 and stardew valley!

watching stuff with my friends / watching them play stuff - my friends and i enjoy watching a lot of movies and shows together and often times they'll stream games to me as well!

some medias i've indulged in with friends include the nonary games (currently on vlr!), sailor moon, waitress: the musical (and yes i DID cry 5 times while we watched), oxenfree (my bff is how i got into oxenfree to begin with :3) and the quarry!

watching youtube - yes i know it's kinda lame to include this in here but i wanna take this as an excuse to talk about some of my favorite content creators :p

i usually only have youtube on in the background while i game but some youtubers i've been enjoying actually sitting down and watching are deykxn / dey (PLEASEEEE go watch him he is the funniest person on earth), kubz scouts (been watching him for YEARSSSS), literally any dropout content (i need me a subscription BADDDD), mythical kitchen (currently only watching last meals but i DO wanna branch out into their other content as well!) and last but not least my favorite for literal years and years, neecxle! (another one i cannot recommend enough)

lastly i'll just do a quickfire of some random medias i've been obsessed with for years but i didn't wanna clog up the above categories with a ton of shit so here we go!!!

percy jackson, the outsiders (i need to do a reread/rewatch bc i haven't interacted with it since 8th grade and i wanna get a refresher), maze runner, eeaao, httyd (i've only seen the first 2 movies LOL i need to interact with it more), given (just saw the 3rd movie the other day!! it was peak as to be expected), clue (please go watch this dumbass movie i love it so bad) and coraline (my favorite movie since childhood, i adore it so much)

ANYWAY so sorry i rambled on for twenty million years :p

thank you again for the tag!! | divider by @ enchanthings-a

tagging ✧.* @birdietrait @alxandergoth @butteredfrogs @fieldoffae @plumbluck @plumdale @evilgoof

and ofc don't feel pressured to participate if you don't wanna!! <3

[angel-with-paper-wings]

for the truth & dare ask game: 🎱, 🛼, 🥑, 🍬, 🦴 :)

Thank you for these!! Sorry it took me so long to reply, these past few days have been busy for me. Thanks for your patience 🙏

🎱 post your AO3 total stats 

I still can’t believe these stats are all from my fics… thank you to everyone who has read my fics and contributed to these numbers, I’m endlessly grateful to every last one of you 🥹

User Subscriptions: 13

Kudos: 455

Comment Threads: 195

Bookmarks: 144

Subscriptions: 94

Word Count: 181,154

Hits: 14,330

🛼 describe your latest wip with five emojis

I’ll do the latest chapter of my fic since that’s the last thing I finished: 😰🎶👗🧺📔

🥑 you accidentally killed somebody, which mutual(s) do you text for help?

Hmm… first of all, you can’t prove anything 🤐 Second of all, I would probably contact @thelastsliceofcheese since I actually know her irl and she can help me hide the body and maybe even act as an alibi. And I believe @jennyfair7 once said that she was a lawyer(?) so I will need her help too.

🍬 post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

This is kind of about both Christine and Erik, but I think Christine could have become a great singer even without “the Angel of Music” as her teacher. In the Leroux novel, her voice was said to have sounded like “a rusty hinge” before she started receiving lessons from the mysterious voice. Does this mean Erik has some divine power over her voice and he gave her the talent to sing well, and that if she leaves him then all her musical talent will leave as well??

In my opinion, OF COURSE NOT. At the end of the day, Erik does NOT have superpowers and he’s just a normal guy being a normal music teacher giving her lessons in normal opera technique. The only way Erik improved Christine’s voice beyond a technical level was the *idea* that the Angel of Music was teaching her. Ideas and belief are so powerful: we need to believe we can do something in order to actually do it. Since Christine *believed* that she was being trained by a supernatural force, she made “supernatural” progress. If it is true that Christine was not able to sing as well after she leaves with Raoul in the end (I don’t think we know that for sure), then the only reason for that was because the events she lived through in the story were harrowing and emotionally traumatizing for her (which we DO know for sure). She still has the ability and technique to sing well, but her mental and emotional fortitude has been so damaged that she can no longer sing with the same passion behind it.

🦴 Is there a piece of media that inspires your writing?

The fanfic I’m writing now is heavily based on the interpretations of Erik and Christine from the 25th anniversary performance of the ALW musical. Whenever I’m having a hard time writing, I always rewatch it in order to get a refresher on their dynamic. Rereading parts of the original Leroux novel as well as other recordings of the musical help out a lot too!

[bloodgulchblog]

Have you seen that YouTube video where some guy reads every Halo novel back to back and then reviews them? If so what did you think

The Brian David Gilbert one? Oh yeah, all my friends showed me it when it came out. (It was honestly kind of cute seeing how many people thought of me immediately.)

Rewatching it to refresh myself because it's been a couple years and a full-novel reread for me since the last time...

High fiving BDG because the Master Chief parts of The Flood were definitely the most boring parts.

He didn't have anything to say about First Strike which I think is a shame because I think it's better than The Fall of Reach and actually has A Theme I Find Interesting.

Rightful recognition of Contact Harvest as pretty damn good.

Rightful recognition of the Forerunner Trilogy as dense oldschool-style SF with deep worldbuilding. (Also the San'Shyuum thing.)

I disagree with him about, and have significant problems with, Kilo Five. He is correct that Kilo Five actually delves into some of the dark places in Halo in a way it really needed, and I would even say that its writing is extremely engaging by Halo novel standards. However, while he does notice the obvious parallels between what ONI is doing post-war and the kind of shit the CIA has pulled again and again irl, I think he misses some of the subtext I see where it feels like it justifies some shit a liiiiittle too much if you know the author's irl politics re: the military. He also doesn't seem to notice the character assassinations (particularly of Catherine Halsey) that I and a lot of other fans see/object to in those books. I kind of gaze into the middle distance with a haunted expression at the suggestion that these are the ones to read if you don't touch any of the others just because they are, ironically, so heavy-handed and feel like they treat certain kinds of evil as inevitable in a way that actually feels way worse to me than the excuse plot offered by the earlier/lighter Halo novels. (But idk, that's me? Nobody is committing a crime if they disagree with my frenzied insane person red string diagrams about Kilo Five.)

I'd swap Pariah for Dirt in the Evolutions anthology if it were me, but I think these are solid standouts.

Broken Circle is neat but really nonessential he's not wrong.

A one-sentence review of New Blood is probably not enough space to get into how fucked up the Spartan-IV program is, but yeah. New Blood is fun if you don't find Buck's first person narration annoying. (It comes and goes for me in that one.)

BDG you're an absolute sweetheart, I think Hunters in the Dark is kind of goofy in a way I cannot in good conscience ignore if I'm gonna review it. But it really really is so much fun and I love that one a lot anyway. The "it's like Halo 3... 2" observation is solid.

High fiving him again because I also found Last Light disappointing. And it is also a me problem.

Fractures!

Hell yeah these are all good pulls from Fractures, I would say Shadow of Intent is the pick of the litter in that anthology for me. Interesting that as a Kilo Five enjoyer he didn't single out Rossbach's World, which is the last we've heard about Osman and Black Box. (Also, that one is good.) I think Oasis is worth an honorable mention because I'm an Envoy stan, and the Forerunner stories are interesting but I wouldn't go for them if you don't already have a healthy interest in the trilogy.

This tangent is so fucking funny now that we know more things:

Oh BDG, oh buddy, it's really not for the people like you and me huh. (Disclaimer: I have no idea if BDG likes the Halo tv show or not and I have no desire to dig up evidence about it.)

Also, while you're here, this is the bloodgulchblog origin story:

Smoke and Shadow is fun so it's a little sad that when he ends that sentence with "whatever," I can't actually say he's wrong to. (Sorry Rion your part of the lore just.... hasn't... touched anything that touches anything else anymore.)

ENVOY IS GOOD AND EVERYONE SHOULD CARE ABOUT IT okay okay I'm cool I'm normal, anyway. Envoy is the Halo novel that restored my faith in reading Halo novels and reminded me that authors can care and know how to do nuanced, interesting themes in this space. It's great. Everyone in this book has war refugee trauma (except the Spartans which have Spartan trauma) and that's incredible to me. Please care about Envoy if you have spare room in your heart for Halo side characters.

I am cheered to see someone indifferent to the Veta Lopis stories, but I still feel petty for feeling it.

I don't have a lot to say about Legacy of Onyx here but it's always so fun seeing someone else suffer and care.

Bad Blood, the Blood is Bad now is a fun joke but lol yeah. It does have this very vital moment where Chief and Arbiter talk, though. For the first and only time in years.

PROPS FOR NOTICING THE YA NOVELS they're actually pretty nice.

"The Master Chief is the protagonist and boy does he shoot some people" is most of how I feel about Silent Storm and Oblivion too, I know they have their fans but Troy Denning's Chief books don't do much for me personally.

Renegades hadn't had its followup Point of Light yet but yeah, Spark stuff is interesting.

I had to remember that oh yeah, there are multiple books now that didn't exist when this was made. I wonder if he read them?

OKAY I THINK THAT'S ALL I HAD TO SAY as always if y'all want specific book opinions, I might have a tag for them. Or just yell in my ask box, I'm sure I can scrounge up some thoughts.