#the majority of these characters are in hell for a reason: they’re not good people

[yellowsubiesdance]

i think i’ve learned a lot when it comes to not applying my own values to the media i consume

for my script analysis class yesterday, we discussed two gentleman from verona, and nearly every classmate of mine was up in arms about how sexist the story is.

and i'm not saying it's not, or that it's not infuriating to read. but i'm also not putting my energy into getting upset about something written 500 or so years ago. and i'm not about to put my own beliefs onto these characters that are not me. i'm going to let their choices speak for themselves, and interpret it in the context of the story.

all that said, this now brings me to the point of alastor in episode 5, and how viscerally people are responding to it. those of you up in arms about the choices he’s making, and the violent threat he gave husk, you’re missing the entire point of his character, of this place they’re in, of the story being told. he’s an overlord, and he became an overlord by killing much bigger overlords and broadcasting their deaths over the radio.

HE IS NOT A GOOD PERSON.

if you started this show with the belief that every character working the hotel is a good person, you’re in the wrong place. watch the good place if you’re looking for a good wholesome story about getting dead sinners into heaven, because that’s not what this show is about.

you’re more than welcome to hate him after seeing the way he exerted power over a being whose soul he owns, but you’re doing the media you’re watching a disservice by writing it off so quickly. if you don’t like to be uncomfortable watching media, watch something else. this is an uncomfortable show, it handles uncomfortable topics, and it’s going to be an uncomfortable ride, and if you’re not up for something like that, then you should take a break from it and pick up something else. you don’t have to get online and defend your own ideals while you watch a show that goes against your ideals.

[astrolook]

Is Your Dominant Planet Helping or Sabotaging You?

Ever feel like one planet in your chart is completely running your life? Like, no matter what, you always default to a certain way of thinking, reacting, or making the same questionable decisions? That’s your dominant planet at work. But is it making your life easier… or way harder than it needs to be? Let’s break it down.

How to Tell Which Planet is Dominant in Your Chart

Your dominant planet isn’t necessarily your Sun, Moon, or Rising—it’s the one with the most influence over your personality, choices, and bad habits. Some signs it’s the boss of your chart:

It’s in its home sign (like Venus in Libra or Mars in Aries) or exalted (like Moon in Taurus).

It has the most aspects (connections) to other planets.

It sits in a major house, like the 1st (identity), 10th (career), or 7th (relationships).

It rules your Sun, Moon, AND Rising (triple threat).

It’s the only planet of a certain element (Fire, Earth, Air, Water) in your chart.

If you have two or more dominant planets, congrats—you’re a complicated mess with conflicting instincts (but at least you’re interesting). You're like a cosmic onion.

Your Dominant Planet: The Good, The Bad, & The Ridiculous

☀️ Sun Dominant – The Main Character

Natural confidence—people notice you whether you want them to or not.

Charismatic and great at leading (or at least pretending to know what you’re doing).

Magnetic presence—people either admire you or feel deeply threatened.

Cannot handle being ignored for even five minutes.

Takes everything way too personally (the group chat going silent is not about you).

Life is one big performance, even when no one’s watching.

🌙 Moon Dominant – The Walking Emotional Rollercoaster

Emotionally intuitive—you just know when someone’s lying.

People trust you instantly (whether you wanted that responsibility or not).

Deeply caring—probably the “mom friend” of the group.

Gets attached too fast—if someone is nice to you once, they’re basically family.

Mood swings for absolutely no reason (and good luck explaining them).

Overthinks texts, social interactions, and why the barista looked at you weird.

🪐 Saturn Dominant – The Workaholic Who Can’t Relax

Disciplined and reliable—if you say you’ll do something, it gets done.

People respect you because you actually have your life together (or seem like you do).

Ages like fine wine—born a stressed-out child, but gets way cooler with time.

Takes responsibility for everything, even things that are not your problem.

Permanent resting serious face—people assume you’re judging them.

🔥 Mars Dominant – The Human Energy Drink

High-energy.

Assertive—you go after what you want and get it.

Quick reflexes—probably great at sports, fighting, or avoiding responsibilities.

Zero patience—slow walkers and buffering videos are your worst nightmare.

Occasional anger issues (“I’M NOT MAD, YOU’RE JUST WRONG”).

Thinks first, acts later… if at all.

🌿 Venus Dominant – The Flirt Who Gets Away with Everything

Naturally charming—people are drawn to you without knowing why.

Always looks effortlessly put together (even when you’re a mess inside).

Romantic AF—you love love.

Indecisive as hell—picking a restaurant is a 3-hour ordeal.

Can’t say no—people-pleasing is your toxic trait.

Might have a tiny shopping addiction (but hey, self-care).

☁️ Mercury Dominant – The Fast-Talker & Overthinker

Sharp, witty, and always has a comeback (even when you should probably keep quiet).

Absorbs information like a sponge—trivia night MVP.

Can talk to literally anyone about anything.

Mind never shuts up—sleep is a myth.

Either replies to texts instantly… or in three months, no in-between.

Talks way too fast—people need subtitles.

🌎 Jupiter Dominant – The Chaotic Optimist

Lucky AF—things somehow work out for you.

Big personality, big dreams, big everything.

Loves adventure—you’re always down for something wild.

Overestimates how much time, money, and luck you actually have.

Can’t resist saying yes to everything—major FOMO energy.

No impulse control—“Let’s book a trip right now.”

🔮 Neptune Dominant – The Daydreamer Who Might Be on Another Planet

Insanely creative—your imagination is unreal.

People find you mystical and intriguing (even when you’re just zoning out).

Deeply intuitive—you just know things before they happen.

Time management is a joke—was that 5 minutes or 5 hours? Who knows.

Has full-on fantasies about things that will never happen (but what if they did?).

Trusts people too easily (no, they will not "change" for you).

🖤 Pluto Dominant – The Intensity Overlord

Unshakable—life could crumble around you and you’d be fine.

Magnetic energy—people either worship or fear you.

Always transforming—rises from the ashes like a badass phoenix.

Suspicious of everyone (and usually right).

Constantly going through some kind of crisis.

Low-key enjoys dark, broody thoughts for fun.

So… Is Your Dominant Planet Helping or Sabotaging You?

Either way, you’re stuck with it. But the more you understand it, the more you can work with it instead of letting it run your life.

Want a full breakdown of your dominant planet & how it’s shaping your life? DM me with your birth details & email for a complete astrology reading! Look at my pinned post for pricing. 🔮✨

[sleeplessdreamer14]

𝓦𝓮𝓻𝓮𝓷’𝓽 𝓦𝓮 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓢𝓽𝓪𝓻𝓼 𝓘𝓷 𝓗𝓮𝓪𝓿𝓮𝓷 𝓐𝓤: 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓻𝓵𝓲𝓮 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓗𝓸𝓽𝓮𝓵 𝓻𝓮𝓲𝓶𝓪𝓰𝓲𝓷𝓮𝓭

special mention to @cosmiiwrites for inspiring this AU in the first place :}

I’m going to preface this by saying this version of Charlie is quite different from her canon counterpart; much more mature and emotionally intelligent and not as naive. (I gave her critical thinking skills and empathy) Still very bubbly and friendly, but not so childish.

Despite knowing that sinners are in Hell for a reason, the exterminations are still kind of a rough time for her, what with all the bloodshed. But she understands why it has to happen and that it ultimately puts these souls out of their misery.

Much more proactive concerning the lives of hellborn demons, doing her best to make existence easy for them. It is their native home after all.

The hotel isn’t for redemption, it’s just something she likes doing, especially after Lilith left.

Charlie was close with her dad, but definitely a mama’s girl growing up. Once the idealistic lense she viewed her mother through was cracked, she needed something to fill her days. Besides, she’s always had an affinity for taking care of people.

She also has made jobs for hellborn demons who need them, and pays wonderfully. Housekeeping, cooking, bartending, etc. and they all get their own quarters.

Charlie and Ronnie (I renamed her Veronica, and I still have yet to flesh out her role in this AU) aren’t dating yet, as much as she would like to. She just has a lot on her plate and knows she’s just not yet ready to get back on the dating scene, especially after her last relationship.

As busy as the hotel keeps her, she makes sure to call Lucifer at least a few times a week.

Looooves 20th century stuff, just something about it sparks joy in her. She’s about 200 years old, so the fashion, films, and music of that era hold a special place in her heart. She has all the Don Bluth and Steven Spielberg movies, and Thumbelina is her favorite.

She has a genuinely good heart, of course, but can be impatient sometimes, which leads to her slipping up and making a wrong turn every so often. But despite all that, she’s mature enough to admit when something is her fault and owns up to her mistakes.

Her passion bubble isn’t as near the surface as it was several decades ago, but she still gets riled up sometimes. (I’ll do her Big Scary™️ design if this gets enough notes)

also yes she has a Customer Service Voice, and it gave the others some major whiplash the first time they heard the difference.

Now regarding her design

I wanted to give her some actual body mass so she doesn’t look like she might break if you hug her too hard. I know Viv designed her after a porcelain doll, but her skin being just straight up white never really sat right with me, so I give her some pink undertones and red accents in her ears.

For her horns, I really just changed the position and shape, and they’re out 24/7.

The inconsistency of her face spots in the show bothered me a tiny bit so I replaced them with the little hearts on the apples of her cheeks. (hehe lol)

I took away the red in her bangs because I wanted her hair to actually make sense. Both her bubble braid in the series and her hair in the pilot bugged me in some way, so I found a middle ground. Seriously, I feel like they were really just trying to rip off series Rapunzel with her, so I did her a proper justice.

As stated in this post here, her tux in the series really grins my gears, so I fixed that :>

I imagine that after a long day of running the hotel, Charlie would change into something a little more loose fitting than her work uniform, and I wanted to see her wearing something other than red so I tried out some cooler tones for her leisure outfit.

If I had a quarter for every time a character in this show wore a bow tie, I could probably get myself a diet soda, so I replaced hers with a garnet heart bolo tie, which doubles as the pendant of the choker necklace she wears off the clock.

[crowleysgirl56]

Ok, so I wanted to do a deeper dive into this particular passage of Good Omens:

For context, this is at the climax of the book, they’re at Tadfield airbase, the horsemen have been dispensed with, Aziraphale has his body back, and Satan is about to claw his way out of the pit.

In most of the proceeding chapters involving Crowley it talks a lot about how scared Crowley is. He is very scared of Hell.

One could perhaps say maybe he is scared of them due to The Arrangement, but that is never explicitly stated. I think it has more to do with Hell is bad, and Crowley has spent the majority of the book being yelled at by some entity through the radio or TV telling him how he’s going to be in super amounts of trouble when they get their hands on him. He is just scared of what will happen. When he comes across the book shop burning he doesn’t cry for his lost friend. He curses Aziraphale, and I think it’s because the one person who may have been able to keep him safe and protected from Hell is now gone.

So when he thinks to himself (as shown in the above screen shot) that there is now nothing left for him to lose, this is why I never thought (upon reading the book the first time that is) there were any romantic feelings between him and Aziraphale. I know that technically he had already lost Aziraphale. But by this point he was back again, and back in his body. If there truly were romantic thoughts between them surely the idea of losing him again would come up.

I have read so much fanfiction, some old, some new, and what they all have in common is the detailed inner monologue of Crowley’s turmoil over his feelings for Aziraphale and how he doesn’t feel like he can act on them. In the book we get nothing of the sort, from either character. Even when they’re separated there is hardly ever any description of them thinking of the other except occasionally to frame a short reference to something. Reading the book I never got the impression that there was anything more than two ethereal beings spending time and proximity to each other and doing work for each other for no other reason than they’re essentially a bit lazy.

I think they’re only queer coded for the fact that there’s the line about Aziraphale appearing “gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitric oxide”, and Crowley is, well, very Freddie Mercury coded. Them being seen as gay together and all the gay slurs in the awful racist scenes of Aziraphale body hopping about in culturally indigenous people after the bookshop fire has more to do with the very typical 80’s/90’s trope of “being gay = comedy gold”, than them actually being together romantically.

I think the reason why they were shipped so much after the publication however is for the same reason we ship so many male couples (or female couple) in modern media, why we’ve always shipped them: because of the complete and horrid lack there of, of proper queer representation.

If you’ve ever seen the magnificent Russel T Davies TV series It’s a Sin, there is a wonderful scene where the character Ash starts a job in a school library and the headmaster asks him to go through all the books and find any book that has queer love scenes so they can be removed. Ash then gives a most beautiful and impassioned speech (albeit it turns out the speech is just in his head) of how there is nothing. Absolutely nothing. There is nothing to the point where they are nonexistent. They are invisible. They are not seen. (Or like, something to that effect. I tell you though, it’s bloody brilliant).

So I think that’s rather the point really. You have two iconic characters, albeit supporting bit characters practically, and I think a lot of our minds automatically get drawn to wanting to put them together because of the sheer lack of queer couples. People have been doing it for years from Frodo and Sam, to Harry Potter and Draco (or Ron I guess), to Sherlock and Watson (even before the Benedict Cumberbatch show. Also as an aside let’s not get into how obsessed people got about Sherlock Holmes back in the day when those books were first published. The obsession was the reason Doyle killed the character off the in first place, then after getting letters from people telling him they were literally going to kill themselves, the reasons why he resurrected him again. Don’t tell us that modern day nerds are weird and obsessive. We’ve ALWAYS been like this).

It’s for this reason why queer representation is so god damn important. Why I still support the idea of Good Omens season 3. Because regardless of how the characters were originally intending to be represented in the book, it’s very clear now that they are so much more than “Just friends”. And we NEED that! Whether you subscribe to the idea that they will be physically intimate with each other, the fact remains is they love each other. They love each other immensely. And that comes from years of Terry Pratchett (and the other guy) accepting that canon and telling fans that it’s true. Because Michael Sheen made a choice and held a belief about how he saw his character and then David Tennant followed suit. That literally tens of thousands of fanfiction writers have decided the same.

So that’s my take. I don’t think loving each other was ever intended that way in the book, but in the last 35 years their story has morphed into the ineffable husbands that we now know.

What are your thoughts? Have I rambled on long enough to make any sense? Do you agree? Have I missed something completely obvious and gotten it all wrong? Keen to hear thoughts.

[hellincarnation]

A Possible Theory on Why Some Fandoms Are More Popular And Long Lasting Than Others

So i was thinking the other day, why the hell are some book/movie/game/etc fandoms lasting for 50+ years and others die in a year?

I was comparing some of my favourite fandoms, the Percy Jackson fandom and the Harry Potter fandom and what I noticed and discovered is to make a good fan base, you HAVE to create a good organisation in your story/game/movie/book etc.

What do I mean?

In Percy Jackson for example, we have our main character’s home base. Camp Half Blood. It’s developed in the background throughout the whole series, there is a companion book on the Camp itself, and the whole area is relatively fleshed out and utilised throughout the whole series. It’s described in detail, there are official maps released, people love the camp.

In Harry Potter, we have, of course, Hogwarts. It’s by far more developed than Camp Half Blood, with detailed classes, architecture, art, story, lore, founders. And our main characters spend majority of their time in the building itself. Hell, even the villains of the story used to attend Hogwarts

Why does this matter? Why does world building matter?

Aha. Here’s my hook. Fandoms stay alive as long as fans stay connected to the community. And how else to develop the strongest connection possible than fans being able to build their own original characters or ocs and imagine they’re in the story?

Human imagination is a powerful thing, as soon as they have a world (Hogwarts and Camp Half blood) to build off of, they can create their own characters and imagine more stories building off the Canon to keep their love for the universe alive.

This is why role play communities are so popular, in addition to having your original character and developing a story for them, having a community to showcase and use your character greatly increases your attachment to this community.

Once you make your fans feel like they are part of your world, it’s the strongest connection. Because by default, humans are selfish, they feel more close to something if it’s like they have involvement in it.

Characters VS World Building.

It’s the age old question, what’s more important?

Neither.

No one is more important than the other, it’s just a matter of what you’re trying to accomplish.

With focusing on world building, you almost confirmed yourself a space for your fans to imagine themselves in. And you can have a lot of fun with world building! Creating your own original words, terms and concepts. Your own take on real world events and items and applying it to your story.

However you can’t focus on both so your characters might need to be limit to 2-3 main ones, to balance out your complex and intricate world.

With focusing on characters, you build yourself loyalty based on attachment to characters. This may not yield as much original characters/fan led creation as focusing on world building, but the perks are your characters explode into main stream. Art will be drawn of them, fanfictions will be written about them, headcanons, adaptations etc. By pouring effort into your characters, you create deep and meaningful bonds with specific characters that people will remember.

Maybe 10 years down the line, your fans may not remember everything about the story, or the environment or the world you created, but they will look back one day and go “Good lord, that was an AMAZING character that I still love to this day.” And that’s amazing for you.

This is exactly the case with Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. In my opinion, Hogwarts is wildly more developed than Camp Half Blood for obvious reasons. Hogwarts is a school and CHB is a homebase. Most of the time PJO characters are on quests away form their home base but HP characters are almost always in Hogwarts.

So how do you world build?

1. Of course create your organisation, base it off maybe a real life historical organisation with your own twist.

2. Build a rich and complex backstory, with specific historical figures that contributed to the creation of your organisation.

3. Build ROLES. Build divisions and department in your organisation. Think houses in Hogwarts and cabins in Camp Half Blood. Build specific roles your fans can imagine themselves as. Prefect, Head Girl/Boy, Head Counsellor.

4. Describe describe describe. You have all this amazing lore in your arsenal, now weave and intertwine your characters with them. Make your characters attached to the organisation and want to protect it. Mix your plot and story with it, make it so your organisation MATTERS to the story.

TL;DR

World building is hella important.

Heyyy, this isn’t proofread. Reblog or like if you enjoyed it. Or don’t.

Tags: ask to be added or removed

@lovely-rants-alot @shinchansbitch @jeahreading @totally-not-castor @unhinged-as-hell @sunshinerainbowsandlollipops @zeherili-ankhein @cafffeineconnoisseur @schrodinger-ka-billa @mireyaaaaaaaaa @your-dazzling-sun @daonedaonlyskh @iamgayforyourmom1510 @the-lying-heavens @abyssmita @mentallyunstablequeen101 @debacleofdaemons

[despairots]

NULLSHOT

tfatws — a snippet of one of the chapters in my bucky barnes fanfic | bucky barnes x gn! reader

this takes in the series “the falcon and the winter soldier” no exact episode but rather a snippet of one of the chapters. reflects on natasha’s death and its impact on mc’s character. steve does not die.

❝ your best friend is still alive. mine is dead. ❞ story contains: canon character deaths, steve rogers does not die because his ending did not make any sense, bucky and reader’s relationship is complicated, they’re not together but they know the feelings are there, swearing, angst that gets left on a cliffhangers.

NATASHA’S DEATH STILL LEFT a major hole in you. Something that even Bucky or Sam can’t fill with their little bickers and adventures. Clint is with his family and you didn’t wanna bother him with your problems, Steve is retired and building a life for himself, and Natasha’s dead.

If you had been there, she would still be alive, both her and Clint. You would’ve sacrificed yourself for both of them. Clint had a family, Natasha was the voice of reason in everything, they had people who expected them to come home. Not you.

Even though you had Bucky, Sam, Steve, and Clint to go home to if you had sacrificed yourself, they had others that mattered more. And you can’t compete with that, you’ll never compete with that because you knew where you stood in your friendship with all of them, and you wouldn’t do anything about it.

When Thanos snapped, you lost everyone— you lost Bucky, someone you were never able to tell you loved them until you got all the infinity stones before Thanos, snapped and everyone was back, Bucky was back. But at the cost of what? One of your best friends dying for the Soul Stone. You thought you’d be content with it but instead, you felt rage and anguish that kept burning inside you, and you had no one to tell you.

Everyone’s already moved on, why can’t you?

You picked at your lips dead skin, staring outside the window and letting your mind drift to the final fight with Thanos. You lost many good people, one of them being Tony Stark, although he was annoying and snappy, his death hit you hard. Now, you miss his snappy remarks and his sass, he gave you a new and improved tactical suit with nanotech.

You miss so many people, and you wanna move on from them, you really do. But you can’t. There’s something stopping you from moving forward, and you constantly preached about moving forward to the future. Why say all that shit if you can’t do it?

Even with the people who are still alive, hell—majority of the people you care about is still alive. Breathing, thriving, Clint got a whole ass family to take care of. Steve is out in the woods, living a life of normality, something you always wanted but here you are. Survived multiple wars, multiple attacks, and you’re not retired. You should be, living in the woods sounds nice.

Bucky and Sam noticed how you’ve been extremely quiet ever since the war with Thanos, your responses to people who pissed you off were more aggressive than normal, they had to stop you before anything physical would happen. They tried to provide you comfort, but you’d just stay silent, if they were lucky, they’d get a mumble of some sort before you stomped away.

They let you grieve alone because you’d just push them away. Even Bucky, someone who got you like no other. But did he really?

When Steve went back to return the stones, you got scared that he might live the life he never got to back then. You’d know, he told you when Tony came to him with the time travel watchy things. So, when he came back normal and still his handsome young face, you were able to breathe properly. He had told the three of you he was retiring and gave the shield to Sam.

Steve was alive, Bucky’s best friend since the 40s. Yours, is not.

You swallowed your saliva, fighting back the tears and digging your nails into your forearms. It’s been 6 months. 6 months and you’re seeing people move on faster than you are. You didn’t retire your crime fighting job because you wanted to push the pain away, the pain of Natasha’s death, Tony’s death, everything. It wasn’t healthy, you know that. But it was the only thing distracting you.

So, when you’re alone like this, not fighting anyone finally, the pain hits you like a brick and you’re back 6 months ago, receiving the news that Natasha died to get the soul stone. Her death was hard on everyone; Banner, Steve, Tony, Thor—Clint felt the worst, said how he was the one to die instead of her.

And when he said that, you left. Ignoring all the calls of your name and locked yourself into your sleep quarters, throwing stuff around and collapsing onto the ground as tears rolled down your eyes. It should’ve been me, repeated in your head constantly. You were offered to go with them but you refused, going with Tony, Steve and Scott, said that they were more capable of retrieving the soul stone when it’s just the two of them.

Fuck, you should’ve went but there’s no way to change that now. All you can do is move forward—But you can’t, you’re stuck. You can’t even turn around to see that Bucky’s approaching you.

“Hey,” He slowly placed his hand on your shoulder, making sure that you wouldn’t pin him to the ground. You looked over at him with a jump, turning around to wipe away your tears as you mumbled a ‘hi.’ He just smiled at you, grabbing ahold of your cheek and making you look at him, “You alright?” It was a dumb thing for him to ask but he got a response anyway, you nodding at his question.

He frowned, pulling you into a hug and letting you bury yourself into his chest, your body shaking lightly as you tried controlling your emotions, “It’s alright, don’t cry.” He kissed the top of your head, feeling how you stopped shaking and pulled yourself away from him slowly.

“I’m sorry you have to see me like this.” You chuckled, wiping away any stray tears and sending him a small smile. Bucky just scoffed lightly, shaking his head to tell you not for worry, “I’ve seen you in much worse states.” His words made you giggle a little, punching his stomach softly.

It was silent, you standing there with Bucky leaning against the drawer in your room, staring at you with concern laced in his eyes. He knew why you were crying, why you were so quiet—He knew you the best, Clint flying in second place but that’s not the point.

He knew that Natasha’s death hit you hard, and even though he was never that close with her, he knew that she meant a lot to you. You filled him in on everything after they got blipped away, even telling him you saw a portrait of 40s him, said that you knew why Steve called him a charmer back then. All he did was smile was those words.

But then, you got to the point when Natasha died, and all he was able to see in your eyes was hatred, anguish, sadness, anger—and you hid that all by pushing everyone away.

“Doll, I know it’s not okay—trust me, I had my fair share of losing friends.” Bucky saw the way you looked at him before looking back at the window, picking at your dead skin again. He sighed, walking up to you and pulling your hand away from your lips, “You don’t have to carry the guilt on your own.” He whispered, lips just inches away until you looked away from him, again.

He never understood that. When you two were close like this, you turned your head away before anything can escalate, and he never knew why. You stayed silent when he asked. The tension was there every time it happened, the feelings were there but it never happened.

He looked down at your lap, exhaling harshly, “What’s that thing you always say? Keep moving forward and bury whatever?” He quoted, seeing the way you licked your lips with a scoff, “How can I? One of my best friends is dead, Buck. I don’t know what to do anymore.” He furrowed his eyebrows at your harsh tone, you noticing how he looked a little hurt.

You took in a big inhale, cradling his face between your hands, “I’m sorry. I—I didn’t mean to snap at you, Bucky. You just caught me in a bad time.” Bucky placed his hand over one of yours, bringing the palm of your hand and kissing it, your breath hitching in surprise, “I know, it’s okay, Doll. Don’t worry, you didn’t hurt this old man’s feelings.” He joked, bring out a smile out of you.

“You have other best friends like me, Steve, and Sam. You don’t have to carry it by yourself.”

All you did was blink at him, placing your hands on his shoulders now as you stared at the ground, “That’s the thing, they’re your best friends. You spend more time with Sam now and you were friends with Steve since the 40s.” You pointed out, feeling your throat close up, “But before I came to my senses, you stood by their sides.” You shook your head, not believing his words.

“Okay, let’s ignore Sam and talk about you and Steve.” Bucky’s eyebrows knitted, why talk about their friendship instead of yours with him? “Steve has missed you for over 70 years, he thought you were dead until you came back under the control of HYDRA. You even have a whole shrine in Steve’s museum, prior to his request.. I can’t top that.” You explained, sitting down on your bed and staring up at Bucky.

He crossed his arms—and curse that stupid black compression shirt—and stared you down with a frown, “Why are we comparing friendships now?” You clicked your tongue, pinching the bridge of your nose in stress, “Doll, he’s still your best friend.” He added on, not noticing how your jaw clenched, “No, Bucky. That’s what you think, and that’s what I used to think. He’s your best friend, and I won’t change that just because of your words.” You tried keeping your cool, tried to make sure your words weren’t laced with aggression.

This conversation was going nowhere.

“Okay, regardless. Your—“ He paused before correcting himself when he saw your eyebrow raise, “My best friend is still alive. He’s just a number away.” He used air quotations around the ‘my,’ your eyes rolling to the back of your head as you got up to leave your room.

“You don’t get it, sweetheart.”

“I don’t quite follow.” That was it. You couldn’t keep it down. You turned around, jabbing a finger into his chest, “Your best friend is still alive. Mine is dead.” Your eyes watered, opening your mouth to add something on but only a sob came out, “I don’t know what to do. Clint is MIA, Steve is finally feeling normal after years of serving SHIELD, and I don’t know what Sam is doing!” Bucky let you vent out your anger, holding onto your forearms gently.

Another sob left you, your hands going up to cover your face, “And I don’t wanna burden you any longer.” His face turned into one of worry, peeling your hands away and wiping the tears, “Doll—“

You cut him off, pulling his hands away from your face, “Steve is alive, your best friend is alive. Mine isn’t. And I’m going to have to live that.” And with that, you left. Just sourness in your words and him stranded in your room.

okay, DONT KILL ME. ik it didnt make sense that much but nat’s death is a really big blow to the mc. ALSO, im sorry for not getting to my requests and not writing that often here, but as an apology, you can take this snippet before anyone else on wattpad can see it.

[scrupulosity-comics]

hey is racism one of your obsessions? also white and ocd. if it is, how u cope with it? i'm really afraid all the time to hurt my loved ones who are black people, and they're the majority of my loved ones. and how do u identify whats racism from whats an intrusive thought?

Most of my race-related OCD is abstract stuff like “if I move out of my parents’ house and try to live my own life outside of their control, I will have to find somewhere I can afford to pay rent, which will probably mean moving into a low-income neighborhood, which would mean inadvertently helping to gentrify the community, which would gradually push the original residents out of their homes and disrupt community ties and support systems and creating housing insecurity, so therefore I can’t move out or move on”.

I think that’s just part of a larger existential terror that I can only ever make the world worse by living in it—a net harm to the universe, molecule by misspent molecule.

I have been letting this ask sit in my inbox for weeks now because I’m convinced that anything I say will be destructive. What if my answer enables or excuses racism? What if my answer fuels the anguish of the mentally ill?

The rational and compassionate part of my mind insists that your loved ones (and mine!) understand that you (and I) are white, and have likely dealt with white peoples all their lives, and are capable of judging for themselves whether you are good to them and deserving of their intimacy. It is impossible to go through life without hurting and being hurt by people you care about—always you will have blindspots and miscommunications and competing needs. That’s just part of the curse of consciousness and being a social species. We all get a little blood on our hands eventually, one way or another… friendship involves knowing this, accepting this, and committing to avoid it and then, that failed, to make things right.

Again: your friends know you’re white. They have reason to expect the best of you or they wouldn’t be your friends. They choose to have you in their lives; trust them to trust you, and to recognize the difference between a beloved friend struggling with a treacherous and unkind brain and doing their best in an inescapably racist society, and a racist who whose bigotry makes them unworthy of their time and affection.

I do think racism obsessions are a particularly difficult manifestation of OCD to cope with because they’re hard to discuss at all without feeling like you’re implicitly asking for absolution. With other types of OCD, it’s common to seek reassurance that what you’re obsessively afraid of isn’t true—but what feels more racist than asking someone to reassure you that you’re not racist…? LMAO.

They say the “cure” to OCD, such as it is, is just to learn how to embrace the existential horror of uncertainty. Tall fucking order. Hell on Earth! But in a bizarre way I have found the rhetoric that “everyone is unconsciously and incurably racist” to be unexpectedly helpful… there is no total psychological purging and mental purification we can undergo, no amount of ritual self-flagellation that will drive the demons out, no pristine state we can aspire to and hate ourselves for soiling. Only mundane everyday commitments to compassion and empathy and solidarity and cleaning up our messes. But even then, a thought isn’t a mess. A thought I’d not a thing that happened or a choice you made. It doesn’t represent an alternate timeline branching off into a parallel universe where you have acted on it and hurt people.

Earlier this year I was playing a video game—during my lunch break I got to wondering what happened if you failed a skill check that I had passed in my own playthough, so I looked up a clip on YouTube and was so triggered by the answer (the player character calls his companion a racial slur in the heat of the moment, without meaning to, even if you’ve played him as a committed anti-racist) that I immediately spiraled and was close to throwing up in the broom closet, and when I got home I opened my own save and tried to make the player character kill himself as catharsis. It was an incredibly unreasonable guilt response to a completely fictional scenario that I hadn’t even gotten in my own playthrough, but in retrospect it was a safe way to explore fear of my own internalized racism hurting somebody and what might happen if my intrusive thoughts came true. It sucked and it was terrible and I was angry at myself for being crazy about it, but it ended up being a small dose of exposure therapy and practice at not repenting for nonexistent through self-abuse.

I dunno. This has been a long uncomfortably personal ramble but I hope it’s helpful. I don’t know if your friends know you have OCD (or how it manifests) and I don’t know whether telling them would help. But allowing yourself to trust others to trust you is far more useful than beating yourself up for thoughts you don’t want. I have on occasion warned people that I am cautious about doing certain things with them—particularly drinking—because there is a risk that I may spiral and show symptoms humiliating and uncomfortable to both of us, and I don’t want to put them in a position where they witness or feel like they have to help me manage the white guilt elements of my disorder. These conversations have usually gone well, and the mutual understanding to boundaries takes some of the tension out, which seems to reduce the triggers. It’s messy and awkward and maybe it limits who is willing to be friends with me, but IMHO it’s better than surprising someone.

As for determining whether something is an intrusive thought or actual racism, I guess my answer is: does it matter? Would you manage them differently? Intrusive thoughts may be an evil voice in your brain, but racism is an evil voice in society’s brain.

[aj-lenoire]

i’m rewatching avengers assemble for the first time in years and y’know what it holds up much much better than i thought it would!! it’s given me a wistful nostalgia for the early MCU.

this is probably natasha’s second-best film (after winter soldier, obviously; maybe third after the solo film, but definitely up there) because she is minimally ‘exasperated mom to her all-male teammates’ and has several really cool scenes.

i’d also say this is the best thor we ever got, nicely expanding and reinforcing the characterisation of his solo film. plus it’s the best thor ever looked. i really like the slightly longer and messier hair, and the physicality of his costume—before it was all CGI and hemsworth was ludicrously, dehydratedly muscular. and sue me, i love the style of his and loki’s dialogue! i love how they sound so grand and fantastical, you can always tell they’re from a very different world to the rest of the cast.

and banner. the later MCU films just didn’t seem to bother with the inner conflict of the hulk, but this one you can feel the weight and desperation of it, ruffalo does a great job.

that being said, this film is not perfect. and my main gripe is how tony and especially steve are (mis)characterised.

almost all of tony’s actions/dialogue, and almost every line of steve’s after he and tony first meet, feel really wonky and out of character. especially towards each other. you can really see joss whedon didn’t care for steve, thought tony was the Coolest Guy Ever and didn’t really care to actually understand either character

case in point, i refuse to believe tony stark could plant a bug in front of dozens of spies, including natasha and hill, and no one noticed. if he wanted to plant the bug maybe put it in his lab once he’s away from everyone? or even manually access stuff once in the lab so banner or steve can ask what he’s doing, rather than him just telling them, ready-player-one-style, because oh he’s already done it because he’s just that clever!

tony’s interactions with banner are great until he just ruins them with a stupid joke about how banner goes green. the whole bit where tony pokes banner with a needle and steve chews him out about it is particularly weird—especially since it gets off to a really good start with tony inviting banner to the tower to do science-y stuff! it comes off as so mean spirited? especially given how they later have a heart to heart about the hulk being like tony’s chest arc reactor.

still, the tony stuff i can kinda forgive because A) he’s meeting the guy his dad was obsessed with, and that’s a sore issue for various reasons, and B) while the smug genius persona is not the real tony, these are all people he doesn’t know very well, so it makes sense for him to be playing that role in front of them—but what’s steve’s excuse??

steve says several astute, accurate things, like loki’s spear being like a HYDRA weapon and his plan to fracture the team. but then he pointlessly butts heads with tony. he just met the guy?? it’s like he completely forgot his own dynamic with howard stark. he learned howard would put himself in danger to help others, and further “the footage” steve has allegedly seen of tony as iron man would surely only prove that tony is even more selfless.

that “take off the suit, what are you?” line is just. so out of character. like even pepper wasn’t done that dirty (she was pretty normal when speaking with coulson, booty shorts aside 🙄) and she spends her only major scene making sexual jokes/promises(?) to tony!!

i was literally going “good line!”/“bad line.” because it was they obvious which were whedon’s version of the character and which were the guy we saw in first avenger. case in point, steve follows banner and tony’s suspicions up with “we have orders, we should follow them” which is the #1 Steve Rogers Would Not Say This line.

but then we have the narrative redundancy of him searching anyway. why not just have steve agree with tony that fury is being cagey?? i think it would’ve been more interesting and a more economical use of time to just have them agree. they can still disagree on methods; steve is always more tactile and brute force than tony, and that itself serves to contrast them without a weird OOC rivalry.

like you can pinpoint the exact line where they’re all arguing with fury about SHIELD building weapons, and it turns from steve, tony and thor being more or less themselves into three flanderised, bickering caricatures.

fury remarks “remind me how you made your fortune, stark?” (as if that fortune was entirely tony’s doing, and as if tony didn’t shut down stark industries’ weapons’ program two whole films ago) and steve gets halfway through a line that might be a defence of tony, might be a dig, but we don’t find out because tony interrupts “how is this about me?” and steve decides to snipe back “i’m sorry, isn’t everything?”

and sure okay i know loki’s using the spear to raise tensions but that scene would’ve been way more effective if tony and steve hadn’t been weirdly sniping at one another already for twenty minutes!! (not least because they were the only ones behaving out of character, suggesting it wasn’t loki yet!)

i will say this though—i do really like how “put on the suit” turns from steve and tony butting heads to teaming up for the first time. i like that they are still shown to put petty stuff aside when it really matters. i wish it was more consistent!

(also—and this is 100% me just being petty—what the hell was steve on about, asking natasha “can you fly one of those jets?” like he hadn’t been in a jet flown by natasha twice in the past twenty-four hours??)

(other than that though i think i’d say their dynamic is one of my favourites in the film. maybe it comes from johansson and evans being irl friends for years already, but they have a really fun rapport basically from the get-go)

rewatching has also given me new appreciation for the natasha/banner “romance” attempted in age of ultron. like setting aside how atrociously it was actually executed, i see the appeal of exploring a dynamic between “genius manipulator who you can never be sure of her thoughts/feelings” and “guy who you can literally always be sure of his thoughts feelings” especially given how scarlett johansson is playing natasha as being quite obviously terrified of the hulk—a creature of pure rage, self-defence made manifest, that no amount of manipulation can calm down. hulk requires, at minimum, sincerity, and that’s an interesting dynamic to completely goddamn waste.

this film is definitely still a product of its time (and cough cough of joss whedon). there’s like, three whole women (five if you count the shadowy council member and ashley johnson?) and i don’t think they ever directly speak to one another?? natasha seems to be having romantic teases with banner, clint and steve, and pepper is reduced down to a hot girlfriend.

and if you ever needed more proof that whedon lowkey hates captain america, you needn’t look any further than the godawful halloween-pyjamas suit steve wore in this film. easily the most atrocious cap suit, aside from the one he wore on the uso tour. i honestly don’t know why the costume dept didn’t just keep/remake the one he was wearing in the ice—it had a great tactical vibe and actually looked like body armour.

but still, i’d give this film a solid 7/10. It’s still a hell of a fun time.

closing out with a list of things that actually do hold up as genuinely funny and/or awesome:

when the scientist tells fury it’s gamma radiation and he’s like “ಠ_ಠ that can be harmful”

natasha easily breaking out of her restraints while coulson just sits in the phone listening to her beat the shit out of those guys

thor: now listen, brother! [gets slammed out of frame by tony] loki: …i’m listening?

the bit where thor strikes his hammer into steve’s shield and it levels the trees

thor: take care how you speak, loki is still my brother. natasha: he killed eighty people in two days. thor: he’s adopted.

tony pointing out one of the SHIELD techs is playing galaga

natasha tricking the literal god of trickery into revealing his plan

tony and steve working together to fix the helicarrier engine (minus the “speak english!” line 🙄)

coulson blasting loki with the prototype gun

loki trying to mind-control tony but it doesn’t work because of his arc reactor

clint’s delivery of you and i remember budapest very differently 😐

steve stepping up as leader after the cool panning roto-shot of them as a team for the first time

hulk body-slamming loki on the middle of his “i’m a god” monologue, followed by loki’s high-pitched groan

the schwarma post-credit scene. no petty rivalries. no stupid jokes. just the six of them hanging out.

[chevelleneech]

Tweets like this are exactly why 7x04 hit like a meteor, yet also led to confusion, lol.

Buck kissing a man was a big deal for him as a character, but because of 9-1-1 being known as “the gay firefighters show” due to the shipping of Buck and Eddie, so many people who don’t watch just assumed Buck being made bisexual in canon came by way of him and Eddie finally kissing. The level of confusion I recall once the dust settled and people realized he kissed someone else, too funny!

So to be back here again, with tweet after tweet of people saying they don’t watch 9-1-1 (they’re honestly missing out) but will tune in after Buddie goes canon, is equally as hilarious.

Fandom/standom are itching to watch a series where the “gay ship” goes canon, and 9-1-1 is on the precipice of doing that. Which no one genuinely believed was going to happen prior to 7x04.

Yes, Buddie fans have held out hope for a long time, and yes, there was always the “anything could happen” possibility, but realistically, no one who wasn’t already a fan of the show was keeping up with it to this degree. Then, s7 comes along and hooks those very same people by making Buck bi, only to lose them by having his awakening be with not-Eddie.

Of course some new viewers stuck around, because they aren’t invested in Buddie and like that he’s at least dating a man. My personal belief though, is that majority of B/T shippers are Buddie shippers who got tired of waiting, or are Buck fans who don’t like Eddie/RG, so they are satisfied getting to ship Buck with a man who isn’t Eddie.

Point is, for us to now be in s8 and seeing Buck be asked if he’s in love with Eddie, and see Buck crashing out because Eddie moved away… the show has yet again brought back people who aren’t invested in anything to do with it beyond getting an answer to “Will the gay firefighters go canon?”

And it might not seem like a big deal that non-fans are interested, but it really does go beyond that. 9-1-1 will be the first prime time network television show as far as I know of, to take two male characters in a masculine field, who in their initial inception were never written nor really hinted at in early canon as being queer, and make them queer. With the likely result of becoming a couple. That’s crazy to think about, but it puts into perspective why people are both anticipating the outcome and are hesitant to tune in.

I didn’t watch Supernatural nor Hannibal for real, but I know of the ships. I didn’t watch Sherlock at all, but I know of the ship. I stopped watching the Star Wars sequel trilogy after number one, but I know people shipped Finn and Poe.

Gay male ships are so extremely prevalent in pop culture, yet almost none of them become canon if the characters were not established as queer from the start. Hell, there is an entire ocean of queer ships within the MCU, yet still no one is willing to make even one male superhero explicitly and unapologetically queer on screen.

Which isn’t to say lesbian/queer female characters have it any better. 9-1-1 is a good example of that as well. Hen and Karen are the pillar relationship within the series, having been together since the pilot, but a huge portion of the fandom does not acknowledge them as queer representation at all. The majority of viewers who tuned in for B/T do not acknowledge them in any capacity, instead choosing to act as if Tommy is the first queer character to be established in the show, and therefore deserves better treatment. It’s honestly ridiculous.

However, there seems to have been this unanimous decision by show runners and executive producers to poke fun at fans who want to see male characters get together, which is the reason I believe gay male ships are often viewed as deserving of having one finally happen.

Now, I’m not naive nor stupid, so I am also well aware that male characters in general tend to get more attention and praise and depth offered to them than female characters, and that point applies here as well, but I don’t think it answers all the questions raised in this context.

So my overall point is, 9-1-1, ABC, and Tim Minear have the opportunity to make canon a queer ship that started out as nothing but a fandom want. They have the opportunity to look back at decades of queer ships being poked fun at, queerbaited, and denigrated, and do the opposite. Will they? Who knows. Even with the writing currently being what it is, we won’t know until it literally happens on screen. But this is the chance to reel in likely thousands of more viewers and catapult the show in a way I don’t think anyone can predict.

Is it unfair that people won’t tune in for the established queer characters we already have? Yes. Does it suck that people don’t value you the great characters and storylines the show has been offering for years now? Again, yes, but at the end of the day, networks want high viewership and loyal fan bases. They want writing that pushes the envelop just enough to keep people entertained, and Buddie going canon would do that.

Will they lose the diehard B/T shippers? Yes, but they’ll gain so many more fans who have been anticipating Buck and Eddie. They’ll gain viewers who aren’t anticipating Buddie, but will hear about a fanon ship going canon, and tune in. That’s just where pop culture and entertainment is at these days, and I for one think it’s both interesting and mildly annoying, but I still get it.

So watching how this all unfolds is going to be very interesting, because 9-1-1 has the chance to either take the crown by being the series that finally Does the Thing or they’ll bottom out by following in Supernatural’s footsteps. I can’t wait to see what they do, honestly, because they are currently sitting in a much worse position.

They spent years having Buck be presumed straight, with little jokes here and there, yet never hinted at changing anything. Then they made the decision to have Buck realize he’s bisexual, gave him a coming out, gave him a boyfriend, and are now questioning his feelings for Eddie. Whom they had another character scoff at, when he was called straight. So choosing to shut Buddie down after all of this will be a ratings and reputation killer, I truly think so. Do I think the network is willing to risk it though? I don’t know.

[beautiful-songbird]

I’m sorry if there’s any ACOTAR fans who follow me but I need to rant about this

The blatant characterization of Rhysand as being a “misunderstood good guy” is soooo dangerous because of all of the things he does in the books

Firstly, and most glaringly: he sacrifices the care of the majority of his people in favor of taking secret care of a select few people in his secret city. It’s been a bit since I read the books, so I can’t remember his exact reasoning for this, but I firmly believe that no one deserves to live the way the people live in the court of nightmares. It doesn’t matter if they’re evil. Hell, I’d be evil too if I lived the way they do. At best, we can chalk this action up to Rhysand just being an outright terrible leader. He doesn’t care enough for that fraction of his people that he’d rather sit by and pretend to be a crazy evil ruler than actually take steps to govern those people better.

Secondly, his treatment of Feyre under the mountain. Now, I actually did not read this particular part of the book, but I feel I’ve read enough summaries and heard enough reviews about it to piece together what happens. I’m aware that the excuse is he’s “acting under pressure of Amarantha”, but honestly I think she wouldn’t want him to be sexually exploiting Feyre either purely out of jealousy.

I really just don’t think there’s a justification for the vast majority of his actions outside of outright refusal to act. He doesn’t want to look for another solution, so he doesn’t. This is not a good quality in a leader, but the narrative praises him as though he’s doing the best he can for everyone under his power. A better leader would look harder for solutions that don’t exploit other people, especially not those who are under his power.

I probably would have more to say if I weren’t writing this after being awake for about twenty minutes, but I truly feel that Rhysand’s characterization as “the secret good guy” is veryyyy misleading. I don’t think his character is complex enough to accomplish this even without all his misdeeds, and with his misdeeds I feel he is more of a villain who the writer wants you to see as a good guy. I don’t really have an issue with this trope in and of itself, but I do have a problem with it when the narrative does nothing to eventually show his true character, and I especially have an issue with this character being the main love interest of the entire series. Yikes!

Anyways, end of rant. Maybe I’ll add on more to this later. I’m sure there are in fact more bullet points I could add to this, but I won’t waste my time searching them out. I think that in general, SJM is not a good writer across the table, so I’m sure I could lodge manyyy more complaints, but I won’t.

[sylvieserene]

Sadly… White Lily Cookie has always been demonized in the CRK Fandom since the very beginning of the game’s releases.

There’s a lot of misogyny in every fandom, (It's not only something that happens in shipping communities) and It’s extremely common for the female characters to be demonized by the majority for just existing. A female character can do one little thing and she’ll be deemed as the most evil person alive. Look at Mabel from Gravity Falls, or Rose Quartz or any female cast!

As for shipping? It's a common thing for ships, mainly Yaoi ships, that a female character is written to be either horrible & cruel, or just existing as a tool to help the male cast get together and nothing else because they're getting in the way of the Yaoi pairing.

Ever since CRK had a Resurgence in popularity due to Shadow Milk, it resulted in a lot of newer and very, very young fans (mainly Tiktok) who don’t understand how fandom etiquette works or haven't been in a fandom long enough to understand how they’re supposed to behave. Which often leads to much drama annd ship wears happening now.

I perfed when the community was still calm, small, and relaxed because drama and ship wars back then didn't happen as much as now. Sorry for any grammar and spelling mistakes, English isn't my first language as I’m still learning.



Exactly this. Female characters aren't seen as actual characters but rather vessels/objects.

Just when WL was released, a good portion of the CRK fandom called her as a "pick me" (which again repeated during ES's release) for basically no reason.

Even in WL fandom, while her hate is ongoing, there's also a portion of the fandom who won't listen to any criticism of WL's actions and would actively justify them instead of acknowledging that yeah there she screwed up. They are hell bent on proving she's perfect to the point they'd gladly call you a misogynistic hater if you question her actions. Personally, I was blocked by several people on discord just because I criticized some of WL's actions (some of which she also admits are wrong btw) and I was asked to seek help (with massive support from these fans to the guy who said it) and ofc, the classic "you are just misogynistic and a hater" and then there's the victim card when you try to refute it which is smth like "omg stop no one will like you if you report this".

They are seriously of the belief that WL is a Mary Sue and is flawless when her entire thing is about having countless flaws.

So in general, people just hate complex characters and just want a black and white picture instead of acknowledging the grey in between. It's insanely stupid and disappointing. Half of the fandom doesn't UNDERSTAND her character. Even her so called "super fans".

I have been in SU fandom and while it's hell, Idt things are as bad as things are in the CRK fandom which while can be pointed to the younger audience but it's still disappointing as heck.

I really want ppl to stop treating female characters as objects and acknowledge the fact that YES THEY CAN DO MISTAKES AND THEIR LIVES DONT HAVE TO REVOLVE AROUND A MAN!!

Stop saying "Omg ___ should stay the hell away from WL!" And "the only person WL should be with ___!!"

If you are a fan of WL, have the guts to admit what she did wrong and if you are a fan of her, accept her as is and stop making her life revolve around a Ship + male in her life. If you can't see her beyond your shipping preferences, y'all have a problem and I'm gonna say it. Stop cherry picking the good aspects of her and denying the flaws. If you are her fan, like her as a whole while accepting the flaws.

[ashyjingles]

GUESS FUCKING WHAT BITCHES

i just posted chapter 8 of violent and volatile, otherwise known as my hunger games au!! :)

chapter 8/12, 15k for this chapter and 90k for the whole fic so far. THIAM LIVES!!! they just go through hell first. the MCD tag is for other major characters

and then some snipppetts <33333 (they may contain minor spoilers so im hiding them under the cut!!!!)

snippet 1/4:

Violet’s face fades from the sky and the section of the hellish world they’ve claimed as theirs goes dark again. Theo sighs softly and starts pushing the sleeping bag around like he’s a bird getting its nest just right, and Liam is so entranced by the sight he can’t do anything but sit and stare like a statue watching signs of a life foreign to its stoic facade. Theo notices, turns his head and meets his gaze with that owl eye stare. For a moment they’re two stars staring at each other from across a dark and empty abyss and the next they’re two animals circling each other, sniffing at the other in curiosity but never getting quite close enough to know the other. Liam thinks that if they had to be any animals in the world, he’d be a wolf and Theo would be a coyote. He can’t explain the reasoning behind it, just that it fits so painfully well that Liam feels the sudden urge, the sudden need to either bare his teeth or bare his throat to this strange creature in front of him that’s both the closest thing to himself he’s seen in a lifetime and yet the farthest. So strange, yet so familiar.

snippet 2/4:

“Now hug,” Tara demands. Liam tenses up and takes a half conscious step back. He feels nauseous just at the thought of it. The fire abated, but it still thrums under his skin, wild and dangerous. Theo sits across from him, wild and dangerous but cold. Tara stands between them, a cotton figure standing too close to the flame. “Fuck no,” Theo spits, venom landing at Liam’s feet and burning through the grass. It smells acrid and tastes of bile, and Liam jerks to the side. Theo lunges for the machete, and that’s all Liam sees before he’s emptying the contents of his stomach in a violent mess. Kill me now, Liam begs in his head, Kill me now so I don’t have to watch you do it. Theo doesn’t. He only watches as Liam’s stomach wrings itself out until he’s dry heaving for the fourth time that week.  Liam feels pathetic, reduced like a pot full of water boiled so far down the only thing left for the remnants to do is burn. Theo only stands off to the side, holding the machete with a white knuckle grip and white hot stare. But Tara, sweet Tara who hates people getting hurt even in an arena of death, who’s still afraid of the dark, who likes picking flowers because they’re pretty, pads over with a water bottle and crouches down next to him. “Are you okay?” She asks quietly.

snippet 3/4:

“No. I was scared, not angry.” “Well that's a first.” Liam scoffs. “I’m more than just my anger–” “You are, until your anger gets to be more than you. When you get sad or scared or confused you turn that discomfort into anger. Maybe it’s easier for you that way, I don’t know. But you're a very one-line person, like an algorithm. Your unpredictability is rather predictable.” Liam’s eyes bore into the ground. “No one’s ever… No one’s ever put it like that,” he whispers. “Most people don’t get it.” “Most people aren’t paying the right kind of attention to you. Let me guess, the assholes back home only focus on the bad parts of you, and your friends and family only focus on the good parts of you?” Liam nods. “But you’re not one or the other. You’re both. One side of you can’t coexist without the other and when you’re forced to choose just one, you blow up. You can’t expect someone to be half of themselves and still be okay.”

snippet 4/4:

The forest has been his entire life as long as he can remember. When his father had pretended he still loved him, he’d bring a young Liam out on his shoulders when he went to work. When his mom decided they would do some good by taking the long route, it had always been under the towering redwoods, or the slender birches, or the gnarled oaks, or the tall mahoganies, or the flowering magnolias.  But always, no matter what type of trees they walked under, it felt like home. The buzz of bugs, or the chirp of birds, or the whistle of the wind, or the skittering of squirrels, or hum of the swaying trees themselves; the forest was always home to Liam and every other wild creature that didn’t always abide by society’s rules. The trees didn’t judge him, didn’t quiet when he walked into a room to point and stare and whisper behind their hands. They only sang for themselves, and to Liam when he chose to sit and listen to their sweet lullabies.The sound of the forest called to Liam in a way the silence of his father’s apathy did not. It was a melody Liam craved, because the crowing of the sheer life in the forest gave something his father’s howls never did.

thanks for hanging out! :D here's the first chapter if you would rather have that!

[darkcomets]

God I was not ready for that 😭

MAJOR SPOILERS LOL

BAKUGO’S DEATH HAD NO RIGHT BEING THAT GOOD, GOD DAMMIT-

Boy don’t I love seeing my favourite character die

I love his character and development, and while I know that he’s coming back, I’m still crying over this. Well done MHA, you’ve officially broken me for life

Bakugo started off as an absolute asshole of a kid, a product of society. Because of his quirk, he was always complimented and encouraged by his classmates, which helped inflate his ego. He was bratty and aggressive, mainly thinking of himself, constantly trying to beat down Midoriya because of his own insecurities.

But because of the newer environment at UA and all of the villain attacks and events that forces high schoolers into situations they shouldn’t have to handle yet, Bakugo has been forced to see that he isn’t the strongest person around, and that he isn’t the centre of the world. A fact that he eventually has to accept. And we can see that it works. Bakugo and Midoriya’s relationship throughout the series is one of the most important ones (in my opinion) for both of their characters and perhaps the storyline too. It starts off with a bully and victim, two people who have been stuck with each other for basically their entire lives. Bakugo bullied and abused Midoriya for his quirkless mess to make himself feel superior, and once they got into UA, the bullying died down because of the new environment they’re in that won’t enable Bakugo’s behaviour, but their relationship was still strained. After being forced to work together time after time again, they eventually start to learn to work together. Then Camino happened and Bakugo basically broke down in front of Midoriya, expressing his frustrations and anger at his weakness and Midoriya’s newfound strength, and the two of them fought. The fight ended pretty quickly (I think), but by the end of it, the two seemed to have gained a better understanding of each other.

In the movie, Heroes Rising, we can see the two now being able to work together. Izuku is at a point where he is able to trust Bakugo with giving him One For All, and Bakugo asks him ‘What about your dream?’ He is literally thinking about Izuku in this moment, and his future, and sounds like he is almost worried. While he doesn’t remember anything afterwards, it was a hell of a fight, and their relationship has continued to evolve.

In Season 6, during the first war, Bakugo literally sacrifices himself for Midoriya. His body ‘moved without thinking’ so it was an instinct to protect Midoriya, someone he used to despise and constantly shit on. And during Deku’s vigilante arc, he not only stood in front of Class 1A and somewhat led them in the search for him, he apologises to Midoriya for everything he had done. Of course, an apology can’t undo everything that he had done to Deku in middle school and before that, but it is a huge development in his character. Because the Bakugo that we started off with would never have ever apologised once. Bakugo is calm throughout the entire apology, and not an inch of anger or aggression is shown in his expression, this is pure and genuine emotion. He admits his weaknesses and his reasons for his actions towards Midoriya, acknowledging them as something he should not have done. He knows that an apology doesn’t change what he has done, but Bakugo is willing to change. He is starting this change by calling Midoriya ‘Izuku’ instead of Deku. Bakugo using his first name shows how their relationship has grown immensely and that they really have gotten closer. It’s a huge moment for the two of them, and what ultimately causes Izuku to finally relent and falls into Bakugo’s arms. And now in Season 7, during the battle against Shigaraki, Bakugo reflects on things with Shigaraki’s words. And most of those thoughts is Izuku. And right as he’s walking up to Shigaraki, ready to fight again, he is thinking of Izuku. He thinks about All Might, and admits himself that he was ‘kind of a brat’ when they first met (slight understatement, but still). And right as his body falls onto the ground, the All Might card he opened with Izuku falls next to him. He kept it, after all those years. Something he opened with Midoriya. Personally, I see it as some kind of significance that it’s Izuku losing a key part of him. They started this journey together, and now one of them has fallen, and two has become one. I am not ready to see his reaction oh my god-

That’s just how I see things. I might be a bit biased as a bkdk shipper, and I probably got some things wrong since I haven’t watched the anime in a short while, but that’s my view on this. Bakugo isn’t a saint for apologising and calling Izuku by his actual name, but I think that’s the whole point of his character development. Going from an absolute asshole who looks down on everybody around him and thinks himself better than those around him, to someone who knows that he was wrong for his previous actions and has started to learn to work with the people around him. Someone who still has his flaws but is learning to get over them, acknowledging his own weaknesses. Bakugo isn’t an amazingly kind person like Izuku, but he has still made amazing development in character. And that’s what makes him one of my favourite

Damn this is long 😭

Tell me if I got anything wrong or missed anything out

[arthuringmymorgan]

rdr has been consuming a lot of my thoughts lately, and i need to write it down somewhere or i’m gonna go insane. i’ve been thinking a lot about arthur’s celibacy, specifically the layers and complexity to it beyond him just not wanting to have sex. gta 5 came out way before rdr2 and you’re able to take home prostitutes in it. rockstar is capable of adding this feature but just chose not to do it for rdr2. looking at it simply they probably just decided it wasn’t necessary for the game, but i love character analysis and i love arthur morgan so obviously i have to look at it at a deeper level.

to me there’s two major reasons as to why arthur refuses to have sex, the first being that he uses celibacy as a form of self punishment. arthur has very low self esteem, both from how he looks (when you interact with a hotel mirror for the first time he starts calling himself ugly and says “no wonder everyone leaves you”. this man hates himself and it makes me SO sad), and also from just how he is. throughout the game arthur makes it very clear that he does not see himself as a good man, and when you pay more attention to his character it’s clear that he is good at heart, his lifestyle just forces him not to be. he goes out of his way to help strangers and is never mean or rude to them (at most he makes some sarcastic jokes but that’s it). i believe that if arthur were given a choice he wouldn’t choose to live a life that revolves around hurting people, but he wasn’t given a choice. he was orphaned at a young age, dutch and hosea found him, and he was raised into an outlaw so he could keep a place in the gang and survive. he’s done really bad things and the point of this isn’t to act like he’s done nothing wrong, i just feel like it’s worth noting that he most likely wouldn’t do those things if life hadn’t worked out for him this way, and it wasn’t necessary for his survival.

so arthur sees himself as a bad man, to the point where if anyone so much as implies that he’s good he’ll deny the hell out of it. and because he doesn’t see himself as a good person, he believes he doesn’t deserve good things. this is mostly obvious in the way he talks about eliza and isaac, making a point to mention that because of his life he was never really there for them and couldn’t see them often. of course he blames himself for it, but it seems like part of him is telling himself that he deserved this. not that they deserved to get killed, but that he deserved to lose them, because they made him happy and why should a bad man have anything that makes him happy. so, arthur denies himself of any good thing, including sex, part of why he chooses to be celibate.

the other, most obvious reason, has to do with eliza and isaac. again, because of his life, he could never really be there for them. he could only show up a few times a year, rather than stick around and be a constant in isaac’s life. and one day, he shows up and they’re both dead. this would’ve be so painful, and of course arthur never wants to go through that again, so he just refuses sex in general. if he doesn’t have sex, then he can’t get anyone pregnant, he can’t have a kid, he can’t have one really good thing in his life that makes him really happy, and he can’t have it ripped away from him again. of course, the odds of what happened to eliza and isaac happening again, the exact same way, to somebody else is low, but it’s still a possibility so arthur just doesn’t risk it.

anyway i’m insane about this game and i have so much to say about it so i’m sorry that this was long i just needed to get it out somewhere 😭😭

[crazylittlejester]

I think it's funny that your modern Wars and your interpretation of canon Wars are sooooo different bc they're both the same person who went in completely different ways bc of what role society wanted them to fulfill.

So what common denominator is there between them? Who is Warriors at his core?

An absolute drama queen.

ALSKDKKD

*breaks knuckles* i know this was probably meant to be a silly haha “at his core hes a drama queen” ask, but you have (perhaps) unintentionally given me an opportunity to be very autistic about my blorbo and im gonna take that and run with it :3 i feel like i havent gotten to yap in a good long while

- One HUGE reason my regular ‘canon’ War and modern au War are so different is because regular War is almost 28 years old and modern au War JUST turned 21. They both experienced their trauma with Cia at 18, and one of them has had a lot more time to process that than the other, as well as just emotionally mature

- Modern au War at 21 is a HELL of a lot more goofy and silly than my regular War at that same age, yes because one of them went through actual war and watched people die, but also they had VERY different support systems and that helped them heal in very different ways. Modern au War was raised by a single mother who was never around, who he cannot understand because his anger at his childhood won’t allow him to view how his situation really was, and so he found family outside of that environment. Having Malon and Time and also Twi, Sky, and Wild love him and care for him made such a huge difference (there’s also something to be said with how he’s the youngest of the trio, Twi is older than him by Just enough that he does feel like an older friend and someone to go to for advice). My regular War came from a loving and supportive family with six sisters he was in the middle of, and he had a WONDERFUL relationship with his mother. He hasn’t seen them since the start of the war for a few reasons (fear of no longer being accepted because of who he was forced to become to survive, fear of putting their lives in danger for their association with him), and he feels that loss HEAVILY. He had to keep pushing himself through his trauma because with a war going on he couldn’t step away from it, and he had to take care of Mask and Tune while he was at it. His support system was Linkle, who he could barely tell what happened, and Proxi, who was always with him and was the only one who could try to comfort him when he broke down because he’d only regularly break down in front of her

So at 21 (post war for regular War, present day for modern War), they’re in Very different mental states. One of them regularly has support and is slowly relearning to lean on people, the other one is locking everything up and internalizing it because he just lost Mask and Tune and it’s like losing his family all over again and he has absolutely no idea what to do with himself. Theres still some self destructive behavior out of BOTH of them (MM War pushing his body too hard and regularly ending up injured, my regular War turning to incredibly unhealthy coping mechanisms)

- Another thing is the culture and stigma around mental health in both their ‘eras’. Modern au War has had a therapist since middle school and he has support from friends and can go back on antidepressants if he wants. My regular War I write had to work through all his trauma mostly on his own (in the beginning) with occasional help from others. He internalized EVERYTHING because he had to keep his image perfect, and he fell into the character people created for him and has been dealing with major identity issues because of that. There is also a lot of pressure on Modern au War (because he is a celebrity, a world champion, a model, someone who is decently well known) but he was outed as gay as a teenager and the whole Cia thing was also released as public news against his wishes, and while he was so so upset about that, in a way it lifted a weight off his shoulders because he doesn’t feel like he has anything to hide. People have messaged him and told him he makes them feel like recovery is possible because of how he keeps going and filming his silly tiktoks and laughing with his friends and that makes him cry. My regular War spent years thinking HE was the problem for being upset and traumatized by what happened to him

- another difference is again with the eras: Modern au War can make an OUTRAGEOUS joke in some tiktok with the audio “i was cookin’ and a burnt the bacon” and feel better after a lore drop, and the mere concept of that could probably send my regular War into an early grave. My modern au War passes out at the sight of his own blood, my regular War is a trained field medic and has had to stitch himself up with nothing to help him but a bottle of whiskey, a prayer, and Proxi begging him to just ask someone else for help

I wrote them to be the same person with the same core values, the same kindness, the same love and care for others, but they ended up so different because they are truly shaped by their circumstances. Modern au War feels more comfortable being ridiculous and dramatic for funsies because he knows he won’t be reduced to just some stupid twink (even if he doesn’t feel like he’s more than that, but thats his own self worth issues), and my regular War is certainly getting there. He’s just a little behind on the healing journey, he didn’t really start breaking down what he went through, processing, and trying to heal until he was like 22 and even then a good portion of the foundation of what he’s built his mental stability on are pieces of his trauma he refuses to revisit

anyways im forcing myself to stop now because i have another class soon. thanks for letting me yap about blorbo. i love blorbo. i have spent so much time constructing blorbo from headcanons and shit that at this point he is BARELY the same character but thats okay because i wuv him

[sleepingdeath-light]

relationship hcs ; alastor

requested by ; anonymous (08/03/24)

fandom(s) ; hazbin hotel

fandom masterlist(s) ; here

character(s) ; alastor

outline ; “Excuse me, I don't know if requests are still closed but would it be okay to ask relationship headcannos about Alastor??”

warning(s) ; some references to canon-typical levels of violence from alastor, but mostly fluff!

there are an innumerable amount of reasons as to why it’s damn near impossible to get close enough to alastor to form a romantic relationship with him, but even after you have somehow managed to gain his trust and admiration to the point that he wants to court you things don’t get any more straightforward — arguably they only get more complicated the longer you’re an item

he’s nothing short of a gentleman with you and insists on taking things slow and going about things the ‘traditional’ way (or as close to traditional as one can get in hell) — and that can mean anything from holding doors open for you (either himself or through his shadows) or lending you his coat when you seem cold, to aggressively shutting down/intimidating the afterlife out of anyone who approaches you with intentions he deems inappropriate or delivering you your enemy’s severed head in amongst a gift basket of flowers and baked goods (courtesy of rosie as he’s not much of a baker himself)

he uses a mixture of french and english pet names for you depending on his mood — think along the lines of such terms of endearment as ‘my dear’ or ‘ma chèrie / mon chèri’ — and for his own part he’d rather you just address him by name unless you’re in private and he’s in a very good mood (well… a good enough mood to actually respond to being called something like ‘dearest’ or ‘honey’ instead of outright ignoring you until you actually say his name)

he frequently remarks about how much his mother would love you, how happy she’d be to see him settle down after all of this time, and how he wishes you could meet her — those moments are when you get to see a more human side of alastor, his smile softening to something more nostalgic and genuine as he speaks about one of the few people he truly cared for during his life

he’s not the biggest fan of physical affection in general and will only really partake in it on his terms, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t show his love for you through other means — in fact, as far as he’s concerned, his affection for you is shown as clear as day despite his own dislike for being touched

gift giving — though his gifts aren’t always the most traditional, alastor does tend to go out of his way and get you things whenever he’s out and about. sometimes that means picking something up from the tailor that he knows you’ll just love, or bringing you a box of baked goods from rosie’s emporium whenever he goes to visit her, and other times that means fetching you ‘trophies’ from the people he’s dealt with on your behalf (sometimes they’re extremely fresh and bloody, other times he actually makes an effort to clean and dry them — it’s 50/50 regarding how much cleanup you’re gonna need to do), but no matter what he’s always happy (proud, even) when he presents you with your gift — and even prouder if he comes back to your place of residence later on and sees that you’ve put anything on display (well, the stuff that can be displayed anyway…)

quality time — you’re the person whose company he actively seeks out the most, even if that just means sharing a space as you each go about whatever task you’re doing at the time. of course there are the dates he takes you on (he is a gentleman, after all, and he makes an effort to woo and wow you whenever he has the chance), but the majority of your quality time is spent in the hotel or his recording studio: going about your chores together, hanging out in the common area and overseeing the group activities charlie has planned, sitting side by side and reading or eating in silence, having your meals together, talking about whatever comes to mind when the mood allows it, or just sitting with him in his studio in silence as he broadcasts his show for all of hell to hear

words of affirmation — he’s not the most talkative person, especially not when compared to someone like angel dust or charlie, and is generally more of a listener/observer in most of his daily interactions, but with you he does make an effort to keep up conversation and ensure that you know just how much he appreciates your company. of course he always makes sure to compliment your newest hairstyle or outfit change, especially if you’re dressing up to accompany him to a meeting or another such formal event, but his affirmations go beyond just shallow praise and you get to see much more of that when you’re alone or in the brief moments where nobody is looking your way when you’re with others. for example, he’s always quick to reassure you of how deeply he admires and cares for you (as much as he’s capable of doing either, anyway) by insisting that it takes a great deal to catch his eye and that by merit of being the radio demon’s lover you must be spectacular, no matter what your insecurities may say.

acts of service — again, regardless of his more disturbing proclivaties, alastor is a gentleman and will go out of his way to ensure you’re well taken care of and that any and all unnecessary stressors and discomforts are swiftly and painlessly (for you) removed from your life. sometimes this can mean him fetching you (shockingly well made given his usual diet) breakfast in bed when it’s clear you didn’t sleep well the night before or having his shadow servants do your bidding for the day so you don’t have to worry about overworking yourself in his absence, but it can also translate to actions that are much more aligned with his terrifying reputation — for example, torturing anyone that opposes you (like an overbearing boss or annoying neighbour) into silence and compliance with his whims

alastor is also a generally very protective and territorial partner who isn’t above getting petty and passive aggressive towards anyone who tries to interfere in your relationship — and then if they don’t get the hint and back off immediately (or they attempted to cause you harm) he’ll start getting outright aggressive and make sure that they understand just how much they fucked up by trying to take what belongs to him

related to the above point, but alastor also has a nasty possessive streak to him and will heavily monitor all of your external relationships (both just by sticking by your side whenever he’s able, and also by ensuring you always have one of his shadows by your side when you’re apart) — he’s more lenient with your friendships if you happen to be with someone he explicitly trusts (like rosie or nifty) or someone that he knows wouldn’t dream of interfering in your relationship (like charlie who is too nice for her own good sometimes) but otherwise you can expect him to be extremely judgemental and passive aggressive with the people in your life that you’re close to (especially if they happen to be someone who distrusted him immediately… like vaggie)

this side of him can be managed with a lot of patience and compromise from you, but it’s never going to go away completely so you’re going to have to get used to that side of him early on