#like is is just one example from one character

[ao3commentoftheday]

I know "I'm bad at summaries" and "I'm bad at tags" are not sentiments to voice in the summary/tags of a fic. But, genuinely, I don't consider myself good at either. (This is background.)

The actual question is, how do I learn these? Especially tagging. My fandom background is sparse, at least far as participation in broader fandom culture is concerned, so I wasn't part of fandom when current tagging practices on AO3 evolved. It's difficult for me to grasp, and I suspect I end up treating the tags more like CWs than search terms as a result.

Great for people who want to filter out particular unpleasant elements. Not so great for people who can't find my fic because I didn't think to tag something someone else might see as obvious. I have severe social anxiety so joining e.g. a Discord to ask for help isn't really a viable option. Tagging fic isn't worth panic attacks.

Tagging fic isn't worth panic attacks.

100% agreed!

When it comes to being "good at tagging" that definition is going to vary from person to person. It will also vary depending on what your goal is.

I'm a fairly minimal tagger myself. I'll tag the fandom and the major characters, the general vibe (e.g. humour, smut etc) and then anything else I might think of. I don't personally like to tag smut fics with all of the various sex acts in them, but I've done it before because I thought I was supposed to. Since it doesn't really feel like "me" though I've since stopped doing that. If folks want to avoid my fic as a result, that's totally fair. If folks who would like it can't find it 🤷‍♀️ maybe it'll be a rec someday.

All that is to say that tagging is not a thing it's possible to be perfect at, so just aim for accomplishing whatever your goal is.

I get what you're saying, though. I wrote a fake dating fic once without tagging it as fake dating because I didn't realize that fake dating was a trope. It was only when a couple of friends started referring to it that I realized and added that tag to my fic.

One way to learn about those kinds of tropes is to pay attention when you see them tagged on other people's fics. You can browse through tags that are similar to ones you already use and see what else people add to their fics and whether those would work for yours or not.

You can also visit Fanlore! It's another project by the OTW (the people who run AO3) and it's a great resource for learning about fandom. You can look up a common tag like Alternate Universe, and it will give you examples of different types of AU and link out to pages that will link out to pages that will... you get the idea. It's wikipedia but for fandom stuff.

As for summaries, there are a lot of ways to go about that too. I'll let folks add ideas in the notes. The way I do it is that I include the name(s) of the major character(s), and outline the inciting incident for the fic. Since I post as I write, I might or might not tease something that happens later on (because I might or might not know yet).

The way to get good at doing it is just to keep practicing. When I was in university, I took a Russian Lit course where we had to write a summary of each novel in 200 words or less, 10 sentences or less - and semicolons were cheating. I did that 13 times in 8 months, and by the end of that I was really good at writing summaries. Add in the fact that I started posting fic back on FF.net where there was a character limit on summaries and you can see why I keep them pretty short.

That's another thing that you can analyze in others' fics, though. Find a summary that you think is well-written for whatever type of summary you like and then look at that author's other fics to see if you can spot a pattern to how they do it. Once you find the pattern, it's a lot easier to replicate it and then it's just a matter of repeating it until it feels natural.

[chornayadrakoshig]

I'm going to add another perspective as a person from a different side of fandom.

One of my navite languages is Russian so most of my time reading and posting fanfiction was spent on Ficbook. The thing is, unlike ao3, that site is monolingual (recently they tried expanding by creating separate sites for English, Spanish, and Portuguese I believe, but they aren't well known). And while there are a lot of native Russian speakers outside of Russia (like me), most of their user base is in Russia.

And the thing is... They are for profit site. They have ads (increasingly more and more over the years). They have "gift" system where you can pay real money to send someone a digital sticker (that back in the day was original illustration at least - now they are heavy on AI-generated shit), and the site gets all that money. They have paid features (e.g. free accounts can only download 10 fics per day and paid accounts can download 100). Some users suggested to move site to donation-based system (or another tier of paid accounts where you'll remove ads in exchange of donations without getting other paid features - ppl wanted to support the site but didn't want paid covers and promo and stats and shit). The site refused, saying that project won't survive on donations, it's not a realistic system (which might be true since they are for-profit and they have paid developers on stuff, but still). So, they kept relying on ad revenue and paid accounts.

And because of that they were trying to walk a thin line of "don't be banned by Russian government" for years. Technically, they moved their servers to EU long time ago (though as far as I know they still hire developers in Russia). But they rely on ads traffic and paid users and ban would mean they lose a big chunk of it simply because Russia is cracking down on vpns and there is some laws around putting ads on banned sites which cuts out actually relevant companies who could've advertise there and bring more clicks and more revenue.

After annexation of Crimea the site added a rule forbidding to write fanworks about "recent world tragedies and political conflicts" with a limit of "6 month after the situation stabilised". However many people noticed that the thing that actively gets blocked is anything pro-Ukrainian related to Russia-Ukraine war, for example a work where author supported Ukraine and urged russian ppl to protest in his author's notes, not in the body of work.

While they don't have it written in their rules, the site deleted multiple works with graphic depiction of suicide because Russian government bans anything beyond brief mention.

And in the recent years, when Russia introduced stricter laws about "gay propaganda", the site added rules about tagging: the category and all additional tags have to be correct, if you miss a warning or mods decide your off-hand mention of lesbian couple is too much for "mentions of f/f relationships" tag, your work can be forcefully edited or in most cases just deleted. No warning, no emailed copy. If you don't have a backup elsewhere, you're fucked.

At one point they considered creating "Slashbook" and basically moving all queer works off the main site into its own reservation, so in case they'll get a ban, it won't affect the main site. They even started accepting donations for that but soon quietly ditched the idea and started making an english fic site.

A year ago, when Russia decided to ban the site completely - for many repeated violations of "gay propaganda" laws they tried to resolve it... by soft-blocking queer works themselves, so a user located in Russia opening a fandom tag will see "this work is not available in your country" placeholder on anything with m/m, f/f ships, trans characters and some kinky tags. The placeholder was non-clickable, didn't have link to work or the author. The authors from the area would be able to post the work but most users won't see it. And some smaller russian fanfiction sites like fanfics.me of fanficus.com were able to get away with it - but Russia refused to unblock Ficbook and basically ignored them since. yay.

So. The site dependent on ads and profit will think about ads and profit first, their users second (if at all).

So, the other day, when I was discussing AO3's policy on solicitation, a tumblr user came at me saying that AO3's "no monetization/solicitation" rules were "bullshit" because nexus mods allows fan created mods to get paid.

Look at me.

Look at me right now.

AO3 protects you.

AO3 protects you and your works. 

It protects your works from copyright strikes and DCMA takedowns.

It protects your work from advertisers.

It protects your work from overzealous legal challenges.

It protects your right to post adult content.

AO3 is non-profit and AO3 will never try to use you or your work to make a profit for themselves and AO3 will go to bat for you if someone tries to legally challenge you or your works.

Please respect AO3 and its mission.

[cloudcountry]

how would they react to mc giving them a nickname fitting to the one they give you? like clover for towa, prince for haku, d̶e̶l̶i̶n̶q̶u̶e̶n̶t̶ f̶o̶r̶ l̶e̶o̶ for example? towa, haku, haru, lyca, jin, jiro (for jiro i imagine something in complete opposition to the monster/frankenstein names hes called)

SUMMARY: you give them an affectionate pet name ... how do they react?

COMMENTS: i only write for five characters in a request so i kicked jin off. couldnt come up w a nickname for him anyway...he'll be fine. (✿◡‿◡) i wrote these with romantic undertones!!

The first time you call Haru sunshine he almost doesn’t process it fully. Runs out the door with a swift bahnti! and comes back no less than twenty seconds later after checking half the exhibits to frantically ask you if he was hallucinating.

This is one of the best things that has ever happened to him. He lights up when you confirm that you gave him such a sweet nickname—this means he’s special to you, right? Well you’re special to him too!

If you dare, the next time you call him that, you should pair it with a soft laugh and a gentle touch on his bicep. He’s gone. Haru is a lovesick puddle on the floor!

Towa’s dramatic ass is never letting you live this down. You called him clover? He’d better be your four leaf one. And yes, he does mean your four lead clover, who else’s? (Don’t say Haru, he'll pout at you.)

The thing is, Towa will take this as a sign that he can cling to you all he wants and get away with it. Who is going to stop him? Coriander can’t, Haru won’t, Wolfsbane just gags and leaves you to your cuddly fate.

Be ready to tell him how great he is and shower him the compliments he so obviously craves. Pair it with your soft touch and he’ll drop his whole body weight onto you like an oversized cat.

Haku is seconds away from pulling a just kidding out of his ass, but the words get caught in his throat when you call him your prince. You’re playing along with him for the very first time—what a rush.

Despite the fact that he was the first one to give you a nickname, he laughs it off and reminds me that most guys would take that the wrong way, so you should be careful. Right, because he isn’t taking it the wrong way. Of course. He’s so normal about this.

Haku, to his core, is another lovesick boy. You do strange things to his heart and even if he tries to play it off as a joke, he really does think you’re cute. Maybe it’s fate that he met you—now if only he could save you from your curse like a proper prince.

Something simple is most effective with Lyca! Call him hon or sweetpea and watch him perk up. He does find it a bit embarrassing (and he’ll bite Edward’s head off if he says anything) but don't stop.

He naturally takes care of you—making sure you’re eating enough, buying you little things he knows you like, paying for your food—so getting that extra pet name boost is like a genuine award to him.

Honestly, he might take it as platonic at first. Lyca is a bit dense in matters of the heart, but once he goes to Subaru and has to watch as his face dawns in understanding, maybe he will understand too.

The first time you called Jiro angel, it was offhanded. You’re not sure why it slipped out. Much to your relief he simply hands you what you were asking for and walks off. You’re left standing there in front of one of Mortkranken’s lab tables with the taste of angel still on your tongue.

Later, Yuri storms up to you and starts hollering about public displays of affection and indecency, lecturing you thoroughly. It’s so much that you can barely get a word in. It isn’t until Jiro and you cross paths again that you realize what happened.

Jiro, point blank, tells you he asked Yuri for clarification on why you had called him angel. It obviously isn’t a bad thing, and he is familiar with nicknames, but no one has called him something so kind before. (Psst, he likes it.)

[ackermanrage]

i would LOVE to request a levi x fem reader where zeke miserably fails at trying to flirt with reader in front of levi and reader just gives him the levi treatment aka kicking the shit out of him lmao. zeke’s just like nvm u guys are perfect for each other

ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴇᴀꜱᴛ ɢᴇᴛꜱ ʙᴇᴀᴛ

levi ackerman x fem!reader warnings: none :) an: hehe i feel like this is perfect, something levi would TOTALLY do. I tried fitting my ideas into a short drabble! Alsooo, I think i forgot to mention this in my intro, but i'll add it. Im not a huge fan of age gaps so if im writing about a older character, you can expect yourself to aged up. And if im writing about a younger character, for example: eren, then you can expect to aged down, to around 16-19.

The courtyard was quiet. The sun hovered overhead, warm and lazy. You leaned back on the bench, one leg crossed over the other, half-listening to Hange ramble about some titan muscle theory.

And then he showed up.

Zeke Jaeger.

All smug grin and soft-rolled sleeves, like he thought he was walking into a wine tasting instead of a military base.

“Captain,” he greeted smoothly, hands in his pockets as he stopped in front of you. “You know, I’ve been thinking. With all the tension around here, maybe we could do something… fun. Together. You and me.”

You blinked at him. Deadpan.

“I’m busy.”

“You weren’t busy five seconds ago,” he smiled.

“I was. Mentally.”

Levi, nearby, didn’t say a word. But his jaw twitched. And his eyes locked on Zeke with a stare sharp enough to flay flesh from bone.

Zeke, oblivious or just stupid, leaned in a bit. “C’mon. Even you can’t resist a man with brains and biceps.”

You gave him a look. Calm. Unbothered.

“You sure you’ve got either?”

Hange cackled behind you. Zeke’s grin faltered, but he shrugged and backed off.

Levi didn’t say a word the rest of the day. Didn’t comment. Didn’t snarl.

That was what made it worse.

---

Later that night, Zeke was walking down the dim corridor near the supply hall, whistling some off-key tune—still full of himself, still acting like he hadn’t nearly embarrassed himself in broad daylight.

He turned the corner—and slammed into something solid.

Someone.

Levi.

Hands in his pockets. Head tilted just enough to cast a shadow over his eyes.

Zeke’s smile faded.

“...Oh. Hey.”

Levi didn’t respond.

Just stared.

Zeke shifted awkwardly. “Listen, if this is about earlier—”

Levi moved. Fast. Silent.

A sharp punch to the gut drove the air from Zeke’s lungs. A second blow landed just beneath his ribs—surgical, precise, not enough to break bone, but enough to hurt.

Zeke staggered back against the wall, coughing.

“What the hell, Levi?!”

Levi stepped forward, eyes calm. Voice flat. Deadly.

“Don’t look at her like that again.”

“I was joking—”

“I wasn’t.”

Another hit—this time, a knee to the thigh that made Zeke drop like a sack of grain.

He didn’t even try to fight back. There was no room to.

Levi crouched in front of him, voice low.

“She didn’t need to handle you. Because I will.”

Zeke wheezed, hand on his ribs. “You’re insane.”

Levi stood. “No. I’m territorial.”

And with that, he turned and walked off—completely silent, as if he hadn’t just issued a one-man beatdown in the dark.

Zeke lay on the floor, groaning.

“...God, she would date him.”

©ackermanrage - please do not copy, translate, or plagiarize my work!

[baileypie-writes]

Hi! Little nervous to request but I read your rules so I’m hoping this all is good! May I request a Baby Saja x reader fluffy alphabet? Thank you for taking the time to read this request!

A/N ~ Hello there! Thanks for your lovely request! I’m happy to fulfill it! Also, there isn’t much info about Baby, so all of this is just my personal headcanons of his character. Hope you enjoy!

Baby Saja Fluff Alphabet

Fandom: KPop Demon Hunters Fanfic Type: Alphabet Reader: Gender neutral Relationship: Romantic Genre: Fluff Word Count: 2,151 Warnings: Possibly OOC Baby, Baby being a brat, mentions or arguments, mentions of giving up the relationship

A - Activities(What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?)

I see Baby as a pretty lazy guy. He doesn’t like putting much effort or energy into anything other than his performances. He likes his down time. So he prefers just lying around with you. Whether it be watching a movie or scrolling on your phones— as long as he can lounge around, he’s down.

B - Beauty(What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?)

He doesn’t focus a lot on physical appearances. But he does like being held by you. He loves when you run your hands through his fluffy teal hair, or when you cup his face in your hands to give him a kiss. So if he had to choose, it’d be your hands.

C - Comfort(How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack etc.?)

Compared to the other Saja Boys members, Baby probably has the least amount of understanding— or even care— about others’ emotions. Though of course, being your boyfriend, you’re different.

While he still doesn’t understand your emotions, he’ll try to help you feel better. His attempts are… peculiar. For example, he’ll show you a funny meme to try and get you to laugh. Though when that obviously doesn’t work, he tries a different approach.

Cuddles and kisses are what finally does the trick. It’s hard not to smile when someone with such a sweet face is smothering you with affection.

D - Dreams(How do they picture their future with their s/o?)

He has everything he could possibly want in his life. Fame, money and a great partner. He’s 100% content. His idea for the future is just doing what you’re already doing.

E - Equal(Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?)

This is a difficult thing to come to a conclusion with. On one hand, he likes to make the decisions, since he doesn’t like being told what to do. But on the other hand, he likes having things done for him— being babied, if you will. I’m gonna label him as dominant though, because that’s how he thinks of himself. 

F - Fight(Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?)

Baby is very difficult to argue with. While he doesn’t shout a whole bunch, he’s extremely bratty and stubborn. No matter how much you attempt to get him to see your point of view, your words seem to go through one ear and out the other. His own words are sharp and hurtful. You end up having to give up after not getting anywhere.

After some time apart, he grows tired and anxious from the lack of attention. He tries to casually wiggle his way back to you without properly apologizing. But if you’re firm enough, you can get one out of him. Not without an attitude though.

G - Gratitude(How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o is doing for them?)

He’s an ungrateful brat. He expects things to be done for him without giving anything in return. Everything you do goes unnoticed, because it’s what he’s used to.

Although, when he goes without your support for even a day, he finally realizes just how much he’s been pampered. In fear of not losing your love again, he begins thanking you for all that you do. It’s not anything grand. Just a flat “Thanks babe.” without looking away from what he’s doing. But it’s enough for you to notice.

H - Honesty(Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?)

Other than the fact he’s a literal demon, as well as his past life, Baby doesn’t really have anything to hide.

He’s not even super secretive about the demon thing. The only thing keeping him from telling you is Gwi-Ma. If given his master’s permission, his secret would be revealed.

I - Inspiration(Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?)

Baby doesn’t like being bossed around by Gwi-Ma. So if you offered an alternative, he’d leave his demon ways behind in order to live a more comfortable life.

Also, if you’re up for a challenge, you just might be able to get him to be less of a brat. But it takes a lot of work.

J - Jealousy(Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?)

Baby doesn’t like sharing, and that includes your attention. So jealousy is something he feels very strongly.

Due to his fame, it’s easy to get someone away from you. He’ll swing an arm around you with his signature cheeky smile plastered on his face. A “They’re with me.” falls from his lips, confidence and attitude so thick, you could almost see it. If that doesn’t work, security is called.

K - Kiss(Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?)

He’s a pretty good kisser. He’s blessed with soft lips that feel nice against yours.

The first kiss with Baby was him being the menace that he is. He wanted to mess with you, just for the fun of it. So what better way to get a reaction out of you than to give you a kiss?

He was super nonchalant about it— acting like it was something he always did. This only fueled your reaction— just what he wanted.

L - Love Confession(How would they confess to their s/o?)

Baby does absolutely nothing when he realizes his feelings for you. He didn’t care enough to play around with possibly one-sided romantic feelings. However, once it dawned on him that you felt the same way, he figured that he might as well mess with you.

Playful flirting is something he’s good at, and he knows it. And the worst part about it is that it’s the kind of flirting where you can’t quite tell if it’s supposed to be flirting or not. It drives you crazy. But once you build up the courage to confront him about it, that’s when he admits his feelings— rather casually, like you’re having a normal conversation. But the pink blush on his fair, soft cheeks give him away— he’s definitely down bad for you.

M - Marriage(Do they want to get married? How do they propose?)

He honestly couldn’t care less about marriage. He finds weddings a waste of time, effort and money. If you really wanted to tie the knot, he’d rather elope. Running away with his lover is much better than a boring ceremony, in his opinion.

N - Nicknames(What do they call their s/o?)

Baby only really calls you nicknames to annoy you. He comes up with the most ridiculous, sappy ones— the ones that cause you to cringe the moment they roll off his tongue.

The nickname that he uses in a non-satirical way is “Babe”. It’s classic, and comes to him naturally.

O - On Cloud Nine(What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?)

For the most part, his feelings are pretty unnoticeable. One of his main talents is maintaining a cool demeanor no matter the situation, and it’s no different when he’s in love.

Although, his bandmates do end up noticing how much time he spends with you. Offstage, Baby doesn’t give anything or anyone his attention unless he’s really interested. And there he was, acting all “friendly” with you— well, as friendly as he could get. So they figured something was up with him.

P - PDA(Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?)

If you’re okay with your relationship being public, he does not shut up about you. He brags nonstop, knowing it’ll make his bandmates and fans jealous. And that’s exactly what he wants. It’s hilarious to him how much people care about his love life.

When it comes to PDA, he’s pretty open to it. He likes leaning on you, wrapping an arm around you and— if you’re strong enough— being carried on your back. He also likes giving you kisses just to see your reaction.

Q - Quirk(Some random ability they have that’s beneficial in a relationship)

His fame is an obvious one. So instead, I’ll focus on his sharp tongue. 

This isn’t just about his rapping skills. He can come up with the most insane comebacks in such a short amount of time. If you’re in any sort of altercation with someone, he can end it with one sentence, leaving the person you were arguing with completely dumbfounded.

R - Romance(How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?)

Baby wants to look cool 24/7, even to his significant other. So he’d rather die a second time than do anything sappy and cliché.

Instead, he focuses on the small things. Buying you something because it made him think of you, bringing your favorite snacks when he comes over and even sending you memes with the caption “us”. To anyone else, they might not seem all that romantic. But to the both of you, they’re pure acts of love.

S - Support(Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?)

As long as they’re realistic goals, sure, he believes you can do it. Though, he doesn’t exactly help a whole lot for you to achieve them. He’s far too lazy for that. So unless it’s something he can do from the comfort of his own home, you’re kinda on your own. 

T - Thrill(Do they need to try out new things to spice out your relationship? Or do they prefer a certain routine?)

Baby’s a mix of both.

He likes not having to plan for anything— only relying on things you’ve done in the past. But at the same time, he gets bored after a while. So something new every once in a while is good enough for him.

U - Understanding(How good do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?)

He has a pretty good understanding of your emotions. He knows how to tell what you’re feeling, even if you think you’re hiding it well. He’s memorized your habits, interests and hobbies as well. 

Empathy is not something he has a lot of. As mentioned before, he doesn’t really care about other people’s feelings. That being said, he still doesn’t like seeing you upset. He’d much rather see you happy. 

V - Value(How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life?)

Fame isn’t exactly something that Baby needs in his life. Sure, he likes the attention. But it’s also just a lot of effort. It causes a lot of inconveniences as well. So if given the choice of giving up you or his fame, I feel there’s a good chance he’d throw his fame away.

W - Wild Card(A random fluff headcanon)

He’d never admit this, but he enjoys matching outfits with you. He’ll ask to pick out your clothes for the day, then choose something suspiciously similar to his own. 

X - XOXO(Are they very affectionate? Do they love to kiss and cuddle?)

Baby loves to give cuddles. But not the sweet kind— the annoying kind.

His limbs will be entangled in your own, and he’ll rarely unravel himself for anything. You can’t get anything done without him practically breathing down your neck, since he refuses to let go of you.

Kisses from him are mostly to surprise you, to get in your way or to try to get out of trouble. They’re almost never actually innocent.

Y - Yearning(How will they cope when they’re missing their partner?)

Baby truly believes that he’d be completely fine without your presence. He’s tougher than he looks. But he certainly lives up to his name when he’s away from the person he’s bonded so closely with.

Everyone notices how irritable he becomes while you’re gone. It seems that nearly everything makes him snap. The cause of his attitude is clear— especially with seeing how his face lights up when you call or message him. Funny enough, he keeps up his cool demeanor while talking to you— as if your absence has no effect on him.

Z - Zeal(Are they willing to go to great lengths for the relationship? If so, what kind?)

Due to how lazy he is, there are definitely limits to how much he’d go through to save your relationship. But that’s not to say he wouldn’t regret it. If he had to say goodbye, he’d never be the same again. It’d plague him forever.  

Dividers by @sweetmelodygraphics

~~baileypie-writes

[autisticallosaurus]

Also I really want to add: there is a lot of shows that I hold very dear to my heart and recently I‘d been wondering why those shows are all either at least ten years old or 90% comedy. But reading this made me realise it‘s because of filler episodes.

Like, let‘s take BBC Merlin as an example. I love that show so much but it can be downright heartbreaking at parts. If I‘m having a god awful day and I just need something, anything, that gives me love and comfort to calm me down I can always pop on one of Merlin‘s „filler“ episodes – because they‘ve got all the fun character dynamics I love so much and provide a familiar environment I can lose myself in without worry.

Now let‘s apply that to a more modern show: I loved Arcane a LOT but I would and could never turn it on if I was having a bad day. There‘s ALWAYS something stressful happening to the characters and you‘re always on edge because the plot is moving at light speed and you‘re constantly reminded of your favourite characters eventual fate (if you‘ve already watched it). It wouldn‘t calm me down, it‘d rile me up way more and make me even more upset. That‘s not to say it‘s bad, because I still really like it, it just stayed with me way shorter than shows that do have some breather episodes and casual points in their story, because even though it‘s exciting and fun it doesn‘t provide the same comfort, the same opportunity of escaping to a safe space that AtlA, or tng or Merlin can give you if you just know which episodes to watch.

And I think that‘s a damn shame. There‘s many good and fun shows out there that I liked watching, but ironically the thing keeping them from being great and becoming part of my all-time favourites is the lack of light-heartedness, the lack of seeing the characters relaxed for once, the lack of getting to see the character‘s true personalities, the lack of what back then was used as critique – the lack of fillers.

genuinely one of the worst things that’s happened to television in the last few years (exacerbated by streaming services) is death of Filler. going from 20 episodes to 8 because “we didn’t really need that episode where the main characters went to the beach right? it had no long lasting effect” but we DID!!! we needed to see how they act without the Big Bad Plot and to establish the dynamics between the characters and lay in the sun (do they forget sunscreen? how do they react to a thieving seagull? do they get buried in the sand or do they do the burying?). the plot isn’t everything. the action doesn’t hit as hard without the quiet moments. give us character development and our little scenes back

[m00na333]

begging you guys to be normal about the fact that it is extremely likely that Dany can't have kids. I know, I know - a generic prophecy with aphorisms such as "when the sun sets in the east' is something that GRRM would intentionally write in so that he can decide to change it later if need be - but come on. I don't care about valyrian superiority or whatever - which is heavily implied only comes after bonding with a dragon, but I digress - Danaerys is a 14 year old girl, from a long line of freaks known for difficult pregnancies and the occasional dragon baby, who just miscarried. She's infertile.

Motherhood, and the responsibilities of rulership is what inflames her convictions to protect the innocent. Her loss of her child and freaky-deaky blood magic is what hatches dragons, the reason for her attachment to them.

It seems like the fandom either wants Mirri's words to be a vague prophecy so her and Jon can have magic ice and fire babies, or that she will be a childfree-redditor-girlboss.

The truth, I believe, is somewhere in between. Danaerys is upset about not being able to have kids. However, she is able to find peace and reconcile with her protective nature, and her dragons.

One of the best things about how GRRM writes female characters, I believe, is ow motherhood and fertility effect them all. Like as not, women in patriarchal feudalistic societies often were pressured and forced to have kids, it was a large part of their perceived value and duty. Imho, ignoring this factor would be dishonest, and would make all of the amazing female characters seem one note and flat - Like if none of the male characters ever thought about violence. More than that, lots of women irl have complex feelings about motherhood, which is perfectly encapsulated with the female povs:

Catelyn Stark's identity is so interwoven with motherhood, but she is not everyone's mother. She is a perfect example of how motherhood is not just an extension of the self and of legacy, but due to the personal connection and the responsibility towards your children.

On the other hand, Cersei sees her children primarily as a function of her legacy, and for the power that they add to the family. She seems aware that Joffrey is a cunt, is cruel to Tommen and her objections about Myrcella's treatment are borne from her (justified) anger towards how she was treated in the name of Lannister legacy.

Brienne wants children, thinks about having them, but has not had the opportunity due to her romantic failures and dedication. I don't think that she'll end up a mother, but it does seem as though Brienne, someone who's built their identity around the protection of the innocent, genuinely has hang ups about it. Some of her reasoning comes from her insecurity about not being a "proper lady", which is worth noting however.

Asha is almost exactly opposite to Brienne. She has no children, does not plan to have children, and takes pride in the fact that she has dedicated herself to combat and leadership. I think that she conversation she has with Alysane Mormont where the latter says "better to have [children] to early than too late" and she thinks "fair enough" is such a loaded exchange, and I'm glad that the author can recognise that a woman not wanting children does not exclude her from this kind of introspection, and that she is not removed from Westerosi's views on women.

Sansa dreams of being the perfect highborn lady/queen; Dashing, gallant knight, beautiful children, but then has that fantasy spoiled, so much so that getting her period is the worst thing that can happen to her.

Arya's whole thing is her discomfort with the path that Westeros dictates for women, the idea that any agency she has would be through a hypothetical son. That, and one of her tutors is a women who is now infertile in order to further her dedication to a death cult.

Infertility and motherhood are complex ideas, the way that everyone feels about them is different and unique. Eschewing this fundamental aspect of the work to service some fantasy about representation, or about magic starkgaryen kids is ignoring thematic motifs.

[lookingbetteringlasses]

I think one thing that K Pop Demon Hunters does well as a musical is demonstrate how a soundtrack can become popular: the songs have to be generic enough to work as a bop outside the context of the film's events, yet contain enough specificity in the lyrics to thematic content or characterization to where they don't feel like they're just slotted into the film without any work put into integration.

I like to call this the "No Names Rule." It’s the feeling you get when you listen to a good song from a musical, and then they refer to a character in the work by name, often in a way that's given emphasis. It takes away the universality of how the song makes an audience feel and drags their engagement back to the specific context of the work it originates from. It's part of why "First Time in Forever" is more popular than its reprise: the characters actually refer to each other by name in the second, and this drags down the song to acting within a particular scene, while the original lacks that restriction, freeing it to the kind of far-reaching popularity alongside "Hakuna Matata" or "Let it Go."

Take Soda Pop as a good example. On the surface, it's an earwormingly-catchy romantic pop song, and it works well enough outside of the film as simply that: a song for the girlies about a guy wanting romance. But in the context of the film, the lyrics show how demons observe humans, reflected in the dynamic between singer and audience. The demons view people as nothing more than easy meals, soda for the soul that they never want to stop in their endless hunger, like how the singer wants love that will never stop. Yet it's presented in such an appealing context that it's both a perfect siren song in-film, making people feel wanted in order to take advantage of them, as well as a typical Kpop song outside of that context.

The other songs in the film have more explicit ties to the context of the film, playing a role for specific scenes and reflecting ongoing events within them, but in general, this is a foundational rule that the movie does extremely well. Take "How It's Done": it is a song that is much more specific in its context than "Soda Pop", but there's just enough universality in the lyrics to where it can simply be a fun and badass bop outside of the context. Obviously, it helps to have actually seen the film beforehand to understand what's going on, but on repeat listens, it matters less as the motion of the song itself becomes the engaging part, overshadowing the context to just being a song that's fun and awesome to sing along to. It's essentially the mentality behind singing any classic Disney song, why people suddenly find themselves humming to "Poor Unfortunate Souls" or "Just Can't Wait to Be King" or "I Have a Dream" or "Friend Like Me."

Put simply, this movie is a shockingly good musical, and I'm really surprised about that. Like, there are seven big musical numbers in the film. That's the same number that Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin have, and one less than how many Frozen and The Hunchback of Notre Dame have. For a studio that previously made its name on mostly mediocre and sometimes quite shitty comedies during its first 12 years (aside from a few exceptions), it's incredible that they've now managed to outdo Disney in this department.

[electriccleric]

The framing of this shot isn’t by accident

I was part of the GA when season 4 released and this shot right here made me realize that they were gonna go through with a love triangle. Not only that, but that Will & Mike were likely going to end up together. Why? Because it’s been hardwired into my brain what this type of shot means. The person in the middle tends to end up getting the guy/girl. Here’s just a few examples from shows I’ve watched throughout my life.

Exhibit A: Ross & Rachel from Friends

Ross literally got married to someone else and STILL ended up with Rachel in the end. Because they’re each other’s lobsters. (That’s a Friends reference lol) This is my mom’s absolute favorite show in the world so I’ve seen episodes of this show a million times. She plays it every single day. Well, I know where I got my obsessive behavior from lol 😆

Exhibit B: Lizzie and Gordo from Lizzie McGuire

I was too young to actually ship them and appreciate them while it aired but recently did a rewatch and omg the best friends to lovers trope really does have me in a chokehold. So adorable! The final scene of the entire show is literally a cute ass montage of Lizzie and Gordo moments before a freeze frame of her kissing him on the cheek. Oh and they end up kissing in the Lizzie McGuire movie as well. I’d say that’s endgame lol

Exhibit C: Eli and Clare from Degrassi

I’d say this is the first ship that I actually obsessively shipped while it aired. Their popularity within the Degrassi fandom was insane and the writers knew that. So because they knew that, boy did they make us suffer and put us on one hell of a rollercoaster. So. Much. Drama. So much playing with our emotions. After everything they actually were endgame though. Miraculously. That’s not typical for a Degrassi couple. Oh, and Eli Goldsworthy was the original emo boy we all went crazy for lol boy drove a freaking hearse! His Degrassi entrance is legendary haha

So yeah anyways, Byler endgame! The Duffers absolutely know what they’re doing with a shot like that. They chose to make Will in love with Mike. It’s not like Mileven is a good ship either. They could’ve made them good together, but they didn’t. Why do all of that for Byler not to happen? Why make the main gay character suffer so damn much right up until the end? Especially for a show that’s meant for the marginalized and outcasts. Makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Byler better be endgame istg…

[xielalexarte]

HEck yeah it's my field baby (nerd talk coming thru) just adding my 2cents as well

GenerativeAI is generation of a pattern that is found from the tons of images that were used to train it. It's not inherently bad, I think we need to specify that GenAI is NOT a bad tech, it's how some people use it for and source their datasets that's ruining the human art space.

For one, the image databases were likely taken from scraping publicly available art posts with certain criteria, let's say for example, anything tagged with "sketch" in its metadata. These images were likely taken to create a Train set WITHOUT asking for permission from each artist whose artworks were scraped. That's one ethical issue.

Another ethical issue with GenAI is its usage. People (non-artists usually) use these GenAI models to deliberately sell the generated images for profit for very low prices which in turn ruins the art market for everyone. This also makes the non-artist people to undervalue art, turning more to generated images for cheaper and faster pictures to use for whatever projects they have. However a good side coming out from this is that nowadays, anything that has obvious genAI image plastered on it looks just as cheap and unreliable. Really, it's the real time voice changer and face-swaps that we have to worry about more. They are being used to fool the elderly, and need laws to mitigate these problems FAST.

In the end I'm just frustrated over some people not knowing the smaller details aside from "AI Bad", in fact it's just these GenAI models that were specifically made to harm the art community that is bad.

Also analytics AI is just data modelling in a nutshell, you can do it, very easy! The hard part is to create the datasets and clean them to remove biases... and also not everything is ethically sourced as well, it has its own problems. Just like falsification of records, and some data are very old, that the numbers don't apply anymore due to the difference in statuses of things right now that might not have existed back them.

I'd like to add as well Weird AI is like those character AIs you can "date" while in character lmaoooo it gets so unhinged sometimes but genuinely, might create parasocial relationship issues for users who can't separate reality from not (I'm talking those children who use it regularly like they're real friends in my feed, it's a little worrying)

when talking about AI remember the different versions:

Analytical AI, is the one that can detect cancer and save lives

Generative AI is the one that steals art to make it worse, and gives you a wrong answer every time you google something

Weird Al is the one who got his ponysona to canonically have children with a pony from my little pony

[zeroiridium]

Underlying misogyny in the Mega Man X fandom

Maybe I'm coming across as "too woke" here or reading into things too much, but I'd like to talk about the misogyny surrounding the mmx fandom as I feel it's an overlooked issue .

My first example is the treatment Iris gets in the fandom.

Ignoring the blatant sexualistaion she's gotten over the years, Iris is either forgotten (which I don't fully blame people for actually), treated decently or hated and bashed for.......kinda nothing honestly

You see, Iris suffers from this thing called "treating writing flaws like character flaws." A.K.A. hating characters for what is clearly an out-of-universe problem.

The most common example is that characters (usually female) are poorly written, and fans of the media hate the characters for it. It's made even worse when male characters suffer from the same writing mistakes and get little to no negativity.

You can probably see how this relates to mmx. Iris is very much not a well written character. She barely has a role other than "extra trauma for Zero boo hoo," but then again, X and Zero ALSO aren't well written. They just seem better because you see more of them, but truthfully, you only need a maximum of three words to describe any of these characters.

Fandom misogyny also applies to other female characters, especially in the oversexualisation or complete ignorance department. Another great example of this would be Layer.

In-game Layer is a reserved, calm, collected woman who only really breaks out of that when Zero is around, in which she seems to get awkward, no doubt due to her hinted crush at the man. Even then she doesn't act all that different.

In a lot of fanon interpretations, though Layer seems to be sexualised and even demonised despite her barely contributing to the games. Granted colourisim also plays a part in that not only in fanon content but in canon media as well. Layer is the only black character in the X series, and she is by far the most sexualised, no doubt also contributing to her fanon depictions.

Another chatacter I'll mention in relation to underlying misogyny in the fandom is one you might not expect.

It's X.

Yeah

X suffers from this thing in male characters especially, where a desire for peace, benevolence and a dislike of violence, or any indication of emotions really, are seen as weak, soft, or you guessed it, feminine traits.

These type of characters are then often infantilised, fetishised, and generally misrepresentation in fan made media.

(It's at this point I would like to state there is nothing wrong with soft or weak or feminine male characters on their own)

X very much suffers from this, as despite fighting several wars people still portray him as a wimp. Even in the Zero games which is honestly kinda absurd to me?

Speaking of the Zero games, this post ia about mmz, so I'll keep this brief, bit there's also a lot of weird stuff when it comes to female characters in that fandom aswell, mostly sexualisation. For Fairy Leviathan, even though I don't like it and think it sucks, I can at least understand it. She does seem to have the maturity of a young adult and is almost flirtatious in her appearances. However, I can not say the same about certain depictions of Ciel, who is a confirmed CHILD. She's 14 in mmz 1, and she's 16 in mmz 4. No excuses.

Well we've come to the end of this rant where I'd like to say that there is nothing inherently wrong with ooc depictions of characters. People are allowed to have fun and play around with characters they enjoy. That's not at all my problem.

My problem is when fanon is treated like canon, to the point where fan made contet is treated as official information which ofc leads to a lot of confusion, misunderstandings and it'd honestly just plain annoying.

There's also problematic aspects like misogyny, racism and others, which I mentioned previously. To anyone with half a brain it should be obvious why those are bad things.

Anyway I saulte for making it the end of this thank you for listening to my ultimately not that clear way of presenting things

[a-little-ray-of-fantasy]

I personally feel that Stolas, Fizz, and Angel Dust within the hellaverse (helluverse? Sorry I’m unsure) aren’t very good examples of mlm relationships. I understand your thoughts on Stolas and how much hate you’ve heard about his character so I won’t dive into him as much.  I apologize if I come off as rude I personally would just like to share my feelings on the subject matter. 

I am an mlm person and a historian. I understand that other mlm people enjoy the mlm relationships in vivziepops shows and I’m merely showing my personal experience. 

Many other mlm people I know also have problems with the representation so I am not the only person but I do not speak for us all. 

My main issue is that it feels like the mlm ships cater to fujoshis due to the stereotypes written in as well as how overly sexualized the relationships are compared to wlw relationships and „straight“ relationships (ex: Moxie and Millie, Charlie and Vaggie) 

I feel like the ask is getting long so I’ll respond to you again with more of my thoughts but I feel like the helluverse is fetishizing main mlm relationships (and characters) and it makes me uncomfortable. I would genuinely like to see your thoughts on this and understand why you have your own opinions! :) 

And others instead feel there's nothing wrong with these ships, and feel seen in these characters BECAUSE they're imperfect and controversial.

When it comes to representation, especially the LGBT+ or disabilities kind, I feel like there's this need that the characters involved have to be so perfect and flawless that it won't be demonized by the public and EVERYONE will be able to see themselves in said characters.

The truth is, that's impossible. You can't write a single queer or disabled character that can speak to all queer or disabled people, because they all have different experiences.

And why shouldn't an LGBT+ couple be unproblematic? Just like any straight couple it deserves to have its contradictions and nuance.

Talking about said couples: what makes them "fetishes", exactly? Especially considering other LGBT+ people wrote them? Because, as biromantic asexual myself, I'll tell you what I see.

Huskerdusk? It's about the relationship between Angel Dust and Husker. One is a porno star in an abusive contract with a perverted pimp and feels the need to drunk himself to death hoping to finally numb himself to the pain, the other was once a powerful soul owner that ended up with the wrong deal and is now a slave to another Overlord, and grew significantly bitter and cynical as a result.

Both of them are broken souls that were able to see each other and bond over their scars. Husk is the only one that truly sees Angel's need to mask himself, calls him out on it, and tells him "We all suck, but together we can make the best of it." Therefore they'll slowly be able to heal together.

Two scarred people that start opening up thanks to each other. That seems like a positive message, huh?

And what about FizzarOzzie? We've got Fizzarolli that went through a horrific incident inadvertently caused by Blitzø that ruined his career as an entertainer, one that meant the world for a perfectionist with an imposter syndrome like him.

Now disabled, he constantly feels the need to work himself to death to show to himself that he deserves Mammon's attention and Ozzie's love. And then Ozzie comes and says "Why are you so hard on yourself? You don't need to win my love: I love you for you, with all your flaws and virtues".

This is about Fizzarolli that was able to rise from the ashes of the incident and insecurities thanks to people that still believe and love him. Ozzie utterly adores him, and Blitzø could finally go past the trauma and make amends, and is absolutely supportive of him, wishing he'd let go of Mammon's influence that's feeding his insecurities.

It's a story about accepting yourself thanks to the love that comes from people that truly care about you. Again, a positive message that comes from flawed people.

And finally, the piece de resistance! Stolitz, Stolitz, Stolitz.

What can we say about these two walking disaster areas that hasn't been said yet?

Blitzø, the scarred assassin, who got abused by his father, lost his mother in a fire he caused without meaning to, ruined so many relationships out of self sabotage because he's so sure that he's too broken to be loved, despite the fact he craves affection like a moth to a flame.

Stolas, the caged prince, neglected in childhood and abused in a loveless marriage, imprisoned in a system that would always look down on him, his daughter his only light in the dark tunnel that's his life made of depression and numbing medications and wine.

They found each other through dubious means that would benefit one another: sex work, a form of transaction that's very demonized, but Blitzø was fine with it, as he sees his body as his biggest offer, and it's detached enough that he can have Stolas' grimoire without much of a trouble. And Stolas can see his first ever friend again, and finally find some joy again.

And Stolas gets to show his classist views on him, which IS aggravating, don't get me wrong, but it's not born out of malice, as the bird grew up sheltered in a blue blood environment AND, considering he's never formed any kind of relationship, his social skills are abysmal. Still, both let this slide: after all, it's all a transaction, nothing serious.

But then the worst happened: they caught feelings. The transaction went deeper than Blitzø intended, as Stolas truly wanted to know him better, and so... Blitzø does what he knows best: he creates distance, insisting Stolas only wants him for his body. It hurts less to pretend Stolas' love is fake than to admit his feelings are genuine and break him too.

Yet, Stolas was broken already, and his sense of self was starting to heal thanks to Blitzø, so when he sees his beloved create distance, he tries to give it to him, as he figures, why would he want someone who constantly demeaned him? No wonder he doesn't want to see me anymore.

Both completely misread the situation, and ended up hurting each other as a result. These two are able to destroy each other from communication issues, and yet... through a show of total love, AKA willingness to give their life on the line to save the other, are shown they can also build each other up.

Now Blitzø is on a roll, as he's able to be open to show affection and be more confident about people caring about him. While Stolas lost everything from his grand proof of his love for Blitzø, and his depressed state won't allow him to truly believe he's worthy of any kind of love, at this point.

But, they're a work in progress, both of them. As communication starts to improve, so their bond will. One bright and indomitable as light, the other gentle and sentimental like a heart. In all the disasters around and in them, they couldn't be more perfect for each other.

So, again, I only see troubled individuals that are healing thanks to love. I don't see that much "fetishes", here.

Maybe you think M&Ms or Chaggie are less "problematic"? Maybe it's because they're better at communicating, and even then, these couples also go through their hardships.

Moxxie and Millie are a power couple, of course, but one could say they're overly tied to one another, and it's been shown they're not always eye to eye. Which is perfectly fine, not all couples have to be on the same page always. And now that Millie is going through a pregnancy she didn't plan, we'll see how this plays a part in their bond.

And Charlie and Vaggie are also a power couple, but again, they too have their blind spots. Vaggie feels the need to be "of use and support" to Charlie, as she tries her darnest to show the gratitude for saving her after Heaven banished her (something she couldn't reveal to Charlie). And Charlie needed to acknowledge Vaggie's position and opinions. But, again, they're so secure about the love they have for each other that these problems get resolved more quickly.

Really, man, a ship being "problematic" or "consisting of flawed people" isn't a "fetish". We're talking about couples, here: every ship has its perks and flaws. Yes, EVEN LGBT+ ones, and I think these ships showing a rawer side of queer romance is actually a perk of these shows.

We LGBT+ people don't need "sanitized" relationships to be represented, we want realistic, nuanced and even problematic. Because we ARE realistic, nuanced and problematic, because we're people.

And representation only works when there are more examples than one kind of experience.

[trainsinanime]

Trains in Anime - KPop Demon Hunters

As always, for the purposes of this blog, something is anime if it's animated and I want to talk about it. I'm not changing this URL no matter what.

KPop Anime Hunters is the current Big Thing on Netflix, an animated movie about… well, exactly what it says on the tin. Catchy songs, fun visuals and characters, highly recommended. But most importantly, there are trains in there. Two… sort of.

1. Rumi's Comfy Pants

As worn in the first Tiger scene.

10/10, adorable, no notes. As long as they survive the movie, of course, otherwise…

Oh.

Okay, but that isn't the main one, the big point is…

The Subway Fight

In this fight scene we get a lot of shots of the top of the train, some of the interior, but very few good ones of the front… until the very end, when they leave and it pulls away.

Yep, that's a Seoul Metro train alright. Specifically, according to Wikipedia, a third-generation 7000 series train, also known as "SR000" series.

Image by "smart lance", published under CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0 KR, via namuwiki - there seems to be no way to link to the image page directly

They changed a number of details, probably to avoid copyright issues; for example the green stripes aren't quite in the same pattern, the logo is a bit bigger and simplified (you can also find the real train with a different earlier logo), the numbers are changed, but ultimately, yeah, clearly the same.

The real train was introduced to Seoul's metro line 7 between 2010 and 2012, and that's where it's stayed since. Apparently only seven trains were built due to various political issues, based on an article in a Korean Wiki. Apparently the trains actually belong to Incheon and Bucheon in different amounts; Seoul's metro is large and runs right into neighbouring cities, including line 7, so these trains are (part of) these cities's share of the line.

The interior in the show appears to be taken from a different train.

Almost all subway cars on Seoul's metro look similar on the inside, but here the detail of the triangular seat ends is notable. The best match I've been able to find is the 9000 series cars of line 9, some of which have similar triangles. (There don't appear to be any freely licensed pictures of the insides of Seoul's metro trains, even that Wiki appears to have used theirs under questionable circumstances, so you only get a link, sorry.)

Finally, let's go to the station:

The station is actually very well identified: Station 510 is written there clearly. All of Seoul's metro stations have a three or four digit code, where the first one or two digits indicate the line, and the last two the specific stop (counting from one end of the line). This is common in asian countries to help foreign visitors who may not know the local writing system. This station also has English letters identifying it as "Inland Resort". In real life, station 510 is on line 5, is called Bangwha, and is underground. That aside, though: I have not been able to identify the original station this is based on, but I would say it looks realistic.

These minor mismatches aside, the biggest unrealistic thing about the whole thing is… well, the demon fight, and isn't that such a boring answer? Sorry.

But just for completeness's sake: You should never get on top of a real-life Seoul subway train for any reason, not even to fight demons. Like a lot of newer subway systems, Seoul's subways are powered by overhead wires, energised at 1500 Volts, which means standing on top of one gives you a very good chance of getting a life-threatening electric shock. And even if the demons and the girls of Huntrix are magically immune from electric shocks (which would totally fit, that's my headcanon now), there's still just a mass of wires and in particular equipment holding the wires up that's annoyingly in the way at all times.

But overall: Very good trains, very good attention to detail, the biggest problem is that Rumi threw away her comfortable adorable Choo-choo pants.

(Yes, I did post the same thing without pictures before. Turns out the trick for Netflix screenshots is still using Chrome and disabling graphics acceleration. Firefox without graphics acceleration didn't work for me, that's why I got confused.)

[philosophicalparadox]

Agreed. Though actually confident characters are quite rare in my neck of the woods lollll

Storytelling at large doesn’t tend to include them (anymore) as primary characters because of the view above. That they lack depth or more so because it removes an element of conflict in their character.

But they do exist. And sometimes you do gotta hit it from a different angle because yeah, reducing them to the same old same old does get a little bit boring at times.

That said. There’s different kinds of confidence.

My Fiancé is actually a perfect example of that. He’s very secure in many respects; certainly he’s secure in his masculinity and personhood, and knows exactly what he’s worth without hubris. To most people, he comes off like a confident and put-together guy. Which never fails to impress because he’s only 25.

But he still has struggles. He’s got an IQ of 165, and it makes communication difficult with most normal people sometimes. He can do it, but it’s exhausting. He’s a supervisor and therefore in charge of other people, which is a position he never wanted but is well suited for. It tires him out, having everyone rely on him, which extends into home because he’s the main breadwinner to a household of disabled adults.

He cries if you yell at him. He’s exceptionally emotionally intelligent (EQ) as well as being problem-solving smart (IQ) and that scares him. He’s a confident person, yes, knows who he is and what he wants, etc. But he’s still terrible at boundaries because he’s always been the guy to respect other people’s, without ever being taught he was allowed to have his own. It’s not a source of insecurity for him, nor caused by it, it was simply an oversight in his social education, which was well rounded, but kinda forgot to include him in the discussion.

His mom is physically and mentally disabled, and they can’t communicate effectively hardly at all. They get along fine, and on the surface have a good relationship. But their IQ are too far apart to have meaningful conversations where everyone understands each other, and that lead to a lot of misinterpretation on his part about…a lot, of things. Left to its own devices his brain came up with some fascinating explanations for how things worked lol 🤣 it’s a good thing he wasn’t raised religious

The point I’m making is that yes, he is by all accounts a secure and confident person, in his personhood, but he definitely has things that can create conflict and story beats. Like the fact he was quite literally never made to do chores, ever. Which you would never guess meeting him because he’s a very respectable and responsible person. He just doesn’t know how to do chores. He’s very much the opposite of your run of the mill manchild, mind, he just literally was never made to do domestic stuff. And I had to fight with his mother to let him do them. I’ve taught him how to: vaccuum, sweep properly, how to use a towel to clean up spills, how to mix batter, how to do his own laundry, and how to walk a dog without getting his shoulder dislocated lol. Among other small things, like how germs work and why there’s a difference between washing and sanitising, etc.

So yes. There’s many more ways to make a confident person multidimensional. Most writers don’t really go there, though. I’m not one to insert insecurities where there aren’t any (unless I’m doing it for a specific reason, obv, sometimes the Barbies need to get chewed on by a dog 🤷‍♀️) in the canon character, but frequently there is in fact profound insecurity there, or a type of insecurity anyway. You can be insecure as a person in your personhood or insecure about a specific thing, or particular character traits, etc. The fundamental nature of insecurity is itself multifaceted, so there’s a lot of grey area, and everyone has something.

hello tumblr user. in front of you stands a confident and outspoken character. your challenge today & forever is to consider the possibility they may simply have self-confidence and are not just faking to secretly cover up massive insecurities. good luck

[giotanner]

I just finished watching The Old Guard — and I don’t give a damn about Discord, so let’s talk about how HAPPY I am that Joe and Nicky finally got more screentime, so we could really explore their dynamic and how they think.

The film clearly wanted to revisit the foundations laid by The Old Guard, the first movie, and build on them in a meaningful way. Example: a lot of people had wondered how Joe and Nicky had voted when it came to Booker and his exile. Many fanfics had guessed it right. Here we see that Joe is the instinctive one, burning with rage at the betrayal /but he cools down fast. That’s why he’s the first to reach out to Booker. Nicky, on the other hand, seems like he was angry too, but in a quieter, more repressed way. He probably didn’t explode like Joe, but instead just… cut Booker off entirely. Didn’t speak to him again until now. He had really closed the door and was ready to wait out the hundred years they’d agreed on. Seeing this directly addressed was fascinating. Both for Booker, but especially to watch Joe and Nicky’s fractured dynamic and how each of them thinks. THANK YOU.

We also got to see more domestic scenes. Joe knows how Nicky snores. Nicky knows how much Joe talks in his sleep when he’s drunk. These little details tell you just how much time they actually spend together, even sleeping side by side.

The “tradition” of Nicky automatically handing Joe his weapon, and the way they move in sync /one hits first, the other follows up with the finishing blow. Perfect.

I honestly don’t want to know more about the immortality. And I’m glad that Netflix’s teasing -“we’ll learn more about why/what it is”- turned out to be vague and underplayed. I need it to stay that way. I don’t need more answers than what Nicky already believes: “It’s destiny.” He said it in the first movie, and he truly believes it. And then in that key scene between Joe and Nicky in this one, he says it again: “I know your heart, and that is immortal.” Because the fact that they died together and came back to life together means something to Nicky. The callback to the first film was beautiful, and I loved how they built on that concept.

So yes, I appreciated this film. And I don’t give a damn if Discord “stole screentime from the movie.” I could enjoy her scenes just fine- they were neither amazing nor awful, but they didn’t ruin or make JoeNicky act out of character. And for that, I’m HAPPY

[fairestbeard]

Carmy has always been jealous of Syd and Richie's relationship

The terrific trio: A great deal of this show really is centered around the relationship between these three people

We all saw how heartbroken Carmy looked at Syd saying she needed Richie. That was one of his biggest fears coming to pass. He's always been jealous of Syd and Richie's relationship and it started right from the moment the three of them met in that walk in freezer.

Syd and Richie's meeting is my favorite meeting between two characters of all time. It was so dramatic and funny and interesting and I can't get enough of that scene. It was Richie being his charismatic but obnoxious self and Syd just matching fire for fire with the quickness, which is the first thing that made me fall instantly in love with her. Carmy all the while is in the middle of that whole run-in acting very protective of Syd in the moment.

We all assume with good reason that he cut between them because Richie said something inappropriate, calling Syd sweetheart. But his reaction started the moment Richie reached out to Sydney, introducing himself.

Maybe he was anticipating the inappropriateness? Or maybe it was something else?

Exhibit 2: His reaction in Ceres after Richie and Syd had a traumatic experience together and had to check in with each other, as they should.

He turns away and looks very sulky after he sees that exchange between them.

Exhibit 3: The way he leaves the kitchen just to find out what they are talking about? Come on, Carmen, it's like 10 minutes to service lol.

Also here's another example of him just being done with whatever was going on with them in "The Beef" in S2. He's given up at this point 😂. He can't stop them from being them. It is what it is.

Season 2 explored the swing and miss attempt at a potential closer relationship between Sydney and Carmy which ultimately culminates in the fridge incident. By the time Carmy comes out of that fridge, the relationship between Richie and Syd is completely transformed

This scene marks the turning point of the Syd/Richie relationship, mirroring the climax of their fallout in S1

They are friends now.

Carmy crashing out in the margins about Syd and Richie's friendship (1. F_ck Richie, 2. Richie's friend?)

Their friendship has been a beautiful thing to watch blossom and Carmy secretly hates it. You can see it in the way he passive aggressively tells Sydney to handle Richie when they're fighting and Syd steps in, even in S1.

But why?

He could tell they were going to something from the moment they met, I think. But seeing them get closer reminds him yet again of his inadequacies. Richie and Syd have been able to do the one thing he and Syd have been unable to do:

Run into each other!

Whatever turn their relationship has taken, it's been honest everytime. They weren't afraid to explore whatever it is that was happening between them. It didn't matter if it was ugly, if it was messy, if it was painful. It didn't matter if it ended with someone getting stabbed in the ass. They were ready to face each other as they were, with all their messiness. And somewhere in there, they were able to really see each other.

Syd was able to recognize his pain through all his bitchiness in Hands and it's significant that he was the first person to let her in about what happened with Mikey and she was able to see that he was suffering from the loss. He also didn't hesitate to act out when he felt insecure about her abilities and she was not afraid to call him out for the loser that he was being.

They were willing and able to throw that mess at each other and get it out of the way so that they could actually bond. And it's mostly because of how much of an open book Richie is and Syd's ability to match his intensity.

That's something that Carmy is unable to do.

Like he admitted in Goodbye, he resented Richie for having the relationship he couldn't have with Mikey. Not because he wanted Mikey all to himself but because he recognized he didn't know Mikey the way Richie did and that's, at least partially, because of how closed off he is. We even see Mike complain of having to "drag things out of" Carmy. That's the same reason he "hates" Pete. He wants to be more intimate with the people that he loves but never manages to do so and has to watch other people do the things he's bad at and get to know his own people more than he can.

He hated that Richie was inside his family in a way that he couldn't be and now Richie is inside his would be best friend/wife/lover/muse the way he hasn't been able to manage.

So when he looks at Sydney with so much hurt at the season finale, it's him realizing that it is history repeating itself. She's grown to not need him. But she's grown to need Richie. They've become self actualized in that relationship and he has not, so they're out of the loop and he's not. Or maybe he's the one out of the loop idk. But he's not where they are.