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shiroganeryo · 2 months

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DGM 252: New perspectives and confirmations it has given us

⚠️First of all, I'll be tagging this under DGM spoilers so if you have somehow stumbled upon this even if you're avoiding spoilers for Chapter 252 (or the most recent DGM talks as a whole), this is your warning to turn back now!

And secondly, I'm under the effect of allergy meds so please pardon me if I'm talking gibberish 😂 But the latest chapter has given us some food for thought and I've been mulling it over.

There are two points I want to cover in this post; the first one being much extensive while the other is rather short.

1. Bookman Jr.

The reveal that the guy we had thought to be Past!A all along was actually the former Bookman Jr. in one of the best twists Hoshino has given us in a while - she sounded very proud of how we were all misled by her narrative and honestly I tip my hat at her for such genius - has also fueled questions about his identity.

I'll start by saying I do not believe he and Cross are the same person. That's not what I'll be talking about so I'm playing this card right off the bat. This theory, although popular, has always had way too many gaps for my liking and after the latest chapter, the chances are practically null that it's true.

If you want a discussion as to why, this post has put it into words better than I could and I agree 100% with OP's point, hence why I don't see the need to say anything on the matter.

But there's one thing that I'm yet to see people discussing and it's about the talk Lucia had with Joe back in The 222nd Night: Searching for A.W. - Hypokrisis.

(I'm showing what I believe to be the official translated English version by Viz and there's a reason why)

For a long time, people have debated about this small exchange between Lucia and Joe. There's no doubt the one they're talking about is old man Bookman, so we can confidently affirm he's the one waiting at the Campbell Mansion.

And what about Lavi? This is where the next dialogue from Lucia comes into play:

Since this is probably the version a lot of people have read, I must make it clear that the like "Junior, his successor, isn't here" was a mistranslation. Here's the original:

Lucia: Koukeisha to naru Jr. wa mou imasen. (The one who'd become his successor, Jr, is no more.)

I've double-checked with the Brazilian Portuguese translation because it tends to be as close to the original as possible, and surely enough, it's translated correctly:

(image courtesy of the volume I own by my so-so phone camera 😋)

"Junior, who was his heir, is no more."

The literal translation for what Lucia is saying is "isn't among us anymore", but that's an expression in Portuguese that means that someone has died/doesn't walk on Earth anymore.

While the mistranslated English version and the original Japanese/Brazilian version have similar meanings, the way it's worded gives the sentence a completely different meaning: in one we're led to believe Jr. isn't physically there at the Mansion, while the other two make it clear that Jr. has died.

And that's exactly why that, after Chapter 252 dropped, this scene is given a new perspective - because Lucia was referring to the former Bookman Jr, and not the current one.

We don't know the whereabouts of current Lavi - cue in the chair jokes, I unfortunately love them all - and while I might be wrong, I have my reasons to believe he's alive.

It just doesn't feel like Hoshino to kill an important character off-screen, plus she has said we'll see him again eventually and that the mystery of what's behind his eyepatch is still to be revealed (and will only happen once Bookman passes away, something that will possibly happen before the story reaches its end).

I have the feeling Lavi still has much to contribute to the story and he's actually one of the characters that, to me, seem to have the highest odds of making it alive until the end. It also isn't mere coincidence that Bookman picked the same alias for both Juniors, since Lavi has mentioned in a discussion room that the aliases refer to their record logs and the Holy War is being recorded under 'Lavi'. There's unfinished business to be taken care of.

Using the mistranslated version to illustrate was important because I've seen people wondering where Lavi is if not in the Mansion, while others were afraid he has died. He's very likely in a predicament, but dead? I don't think so.

So that only leaves us with one viable subject for that dialogue, that being the former Bookman Jr. (now affectionately dubbed Lavi Sr. by the fandom).

"But how come they didn't know Bookman already had a new apprentice back in Chapter 222 if the Zoogles mentioned it in Chapter 251?"

Yes, it's a little odd. What I can infer from this is that they either 1. Didn't know Bookman already had a new Jr. because he had been unconscious and only after they stabilized his situation they could talk, or 2. Did know about the current Lavi but believe him not to be ready to take on the mantle yet while Lavi Sr. was (but unfortunately deserted the clan).

Since only the Bookman and his appointed apprentice, who was born with the seal, can exchange information and records via their blood, it might be not that off the chart that the Zoogles weren't up-to-date on his affairs since they're not Bookmen themselves but rather a bloodline of people scattered across the globe who are supporters of Bookman's mission like Lucia has explained. Yet, even if they aren't all-knowing, it seems odd for them not to know something as vital as that about the person they're supporting.

And of course, there's also the possibility of option 3, something else that I completely failed to consider right now. Time will tell which one.

Note: By the way, the Lucia in 222 and the Lucia in 251/252 are indeed the same person; Hoshino seemed to hint there's a reason behind her sudden aging that we don't know yet. It's important to make this clear since what I've said is related to dialogues delivered by her.

2. Past!A = current Allen

(image courtesy of Kougeki Scans' Chapter 251's translation)

There were theories around and people still considering the possibility of our current Allen being a clone and all sorts of theories because of the unexplainable age gap between him and Past!A, but it seems the deaging theory has been fully confirmed by Chapter 252, as we saw it taking place before our very eyes.

There are still some mysteries surrounding it, but seeing how Apocryphos mentioned the "Helix", we can't help but be taken back to the explanation we've previously seen about the Helix of Life (The 221st Night - The Clown's Joke).

Since that's a topic that feels like there's more to it as of now, I won't be discussing the how and why Allen deaged, especially with the unseen variable in the mix that is Innocence; who knows if that might make the Helix energy behave differently.

I was on the "deaging theory" train because Nea was able to recognize Past!A all right when he looks in the mirror (The 214th Night: Searching for A.W. - Awakening) and also questioned the presence of Innocence on his body as well as how he hadn't aged but instead had gotten younger (The 215th Night: Searching for A.W. - By Your Side).

There are many mistranslations in the official English version of these two chapters (214 and 215) that have fueled countless misconceptions within the fandom but I won't be pointing those out in this post since I'm not here this time specifically to talk about it.

Note: Mangadex seems to have nicely translated versions of these chapters if you want to check them out for a recalling - I can't confirm fully but what I read of them looked consistent and faithful to the original.

Anyways, back on track; now that we've seen what took place 35 years ago in Chapter 252, Nea's bewilderment at the current situation of Allen back in Chapter 214/215 makes a lot more sense.

And even more interesting is that as soon as he noticed the Innocence lodged into Allen's left hand, we see the image of Apocryphos, as if Nea could feel its presence. Turned out that meant more than just Apocryphos being able to resonate with all Innocence, but rather, that the very reason why that Innocence had found home in Allen's body was by its intervention.

Just what the hell, dude. That was, once again, extremely well-played on Hoshino's part. I'm really looking forward to the next chapter!

#DGM #DGM spoilers #analysis #d.gray man #d.gray-man #there was a third point I wanted to cover but the meds make me run on only two overworking braincells #so I actually forgot which that was #it's possible I covered it while talking about the other two points because I have the feeling I talked about everything I wanted #but if the post feels lacking somehow that's why

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liesmyth · 10 months

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@takiki16 tags on my post are too good not to be shared! The context is wild shit that legit happened in IRL football ⚽ that I need the Ted Lasso fandom to be aware of, because it'd make for excellent fic material:

the MANAGERS #the PERSONAL DRAMA#I KNOW that ted lasso is not designed to be an actual realistic show #I KNOW that this whole thing did in fact begin as a way to soft trap Americans into watching the Prem #to the point that JOSE FUCKING MOURINHO ACTUALLY HAD A PART IN THE ORIGINAL NBC AD #I do NOT want to change the vibe of the show at all #(but like…a dramedy about the EPL that REALLY wanted to roast some fuckers would perhaps…NOT look like ted lasso #if they wanted to start with the managers it would just be two middle aged idiots with BOILING beef #who had to be physically restrained from throwing hands every other game and have personally destroyed each others’ marriages

Okay WHO would Roy have managerial beef with. I vote Arteta. Actually as @elizabear suggests, it's funnier if it's one sided

He would also instinctively dislike Rob Edwards of Luton because Jamie once said he's the hottest manager in the EPL. Roy's annoyed and he doesn't know why. (Rob Edwards is very hot)

For an example of managers throwing hands... the Tuchel/Conte handshake

In fact here's a whole compilation of managers throwing hands.

Thank you for bringing up Mourinho! This is his ad, btw. "What do you WANT Ted?" lives in my mind rent-free

youtube

After much soul-searching I've decided Roy likes Mou a lot among all the managers he's played for. YES, he is a total cunt BUT

he's really fucking funny about it. Like, really.

he's never met a referee he didn't have beef with but most of all Anthony Taylor (as a Roma fan I have to agree with him on that)

the entire 2005 Chelsea team would've died for him. I've said this before, but there can't be a Frank Lampard in TL if Roy plays the box-to-box midfielder role, so this quote about Mourinho walking into Lampard naked in the shower to give him a pep talk? That's Roy. To me.

I can't even pick a quote among all the shit he's said about all the managers he's played against, but I especially enjoy when he used to be a bitch about Pep and Pep was like "I don't know her." It was like a one-sided crush dating back from their Barca days

#if they wanted it to be about the players the literal sky is the limit. WHATEVER the writers room can come up with#it cannot come CLOSE to the batshit drama that real Sockckckckcer Playahs have amongst each other#also intricate rituals. NOT ENOUGH INTRICATE RITUALS#when Jamie scored that free kick after getting permission to be a prick Dani should have kissed him with tongue

Here's some homoeroticism:

#but TO COME BACK TO OP’S POINT ABOUT ACTUAL GAMEPLAY#I want to see Coach Roy get red carded and have to sit in the stands for the next game cursing and swearing

He'd get, like, 3 red cards a season MINIMUM. Mourinho who. Here's Klopp losing it a bit. Here's Pep being passive aggressive as fuck. Pochettino from 2 days ago. Also from last weekend: De Zerbi's "I don't like 80% of referees in England" he's so right for this.

Manager Roy would get himself red carded the week before Richmond play Chelsea away. Totally accidental. So he doesn't have to have a lil cry about it.

#I want to see what it would take to get Zoreaux sent off#and then they have to stick Bumbercatch in goal and it turns out he has some Hyper Specific Phobia about the situation#he manages to save the team but his coping mechanisms for dealing with Forcible Keeper Phobia make up the comedy B-plot of the episode#

I want CLUB RIVALRY. dunno where Richmond actually physically is but imagine if they had derbies#Ted has to be made to understand that no coach - for THIS game we will not stop till we see BLOOD#Richmond wins but bc they are playing away the home fans actively are tossing crap at them as they celebrate on the pitch#also the sprinklers come on and it’s a bus full of soaked greyhounds on the ride home

They're in West London! Maybe they just fucking hate Fulham. Or Brentford.

Actually, I've thought long and hard about Richmond's derby rivalries. Semi-canon sources say they have a bit of a West London rivalry with Brentford BUT to me it doesn't make much sense because Richmond are supposed to have been mid-table in the Prem for years, top-flight but mediocre. Brentford only made it to the Prem in 2021.

Actually, I've decided that Richmond kind of take the place of QPR for most of their history, except they didn't get relegated when QPR did. This is because 1) it'd be too many London-based clubs otherwise but, more importantly, 2) when Man City won their first title in 2012 with Agueeeeeero!!! that was against Richmond. It's funny, To Me.

Also you know Roy still fucking hates Newcastle from his Sunderland academy days. If his pundit career had lasted longer he'd be having top tier shithousery with Alan Shearer every week about it.

Anyway here's a whole youtube playlist about WILD derbies.

#ALSO BC SUAREZ IS COMING TO MIAMI - BITING INCIDENTS CAN THEY DO THAT

As an Italian I am legally obliged to SAY that if Suarez hadn't bitten Chiellini at the World Cup we would have gone past the group stage because Uruguay scored off a corner they won while Italy were all busy telling the ref that there was a fucking cannibal on the pitch. I don't forgive and I don't forget.

Anyway for context: cannibal Luis Suarez. He's a repeat offender. Someone at Richmond would think it was very funny

youtube

#once again sticking this footie post in the tag #ted lasso #FIC AUTHORS I HOPE THIS INSPIRES YOU #tumblr user taakiki16 you're SO valid for those tags I love them #sports #i'm sorry re roy & mourinho it's just true. roy in his prime playing days wouldn't have cared about the cuntery #as a manager he wouldn't be shit to his physio but as a player? sorry it wasn't a deal breaker. he likes mou more than ancelotti. to me #ted lasso meta #i mean. sort of lmao #long post #afc richmond #roy kent #various irl footie people #futbol

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is-the-owl-video-cute · 4 months

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When did you start the original owl vid blog and what was it like? Was it more focused on reviewing owl videos? I’m just curious as to how you ended up involved in a bunch of discourse* about not-owls.

*lets just call it that for simplicity’s sake ahah

I made the original in either January or February 2020 after being frustrated to a breaking point seeing another video of an owl in an obviously bad situation being shared uncritically because the OP had mislead their followers about what was going on. “Oh this owl LOVES his kitten and duck friends!” “Oh look at this owl having SO much fun in the bubble bath!” It was endless. At the time there was genuinely no one questioning anything going on in any of them. My only outlet was to vent it to some of my friends in group chats and such. We would pass around different videos that ended up on our dashes and discuss the issues amongst ourselves just to be in a space where people actually said something because outside of those chats we were going mad seeing it time and time again.

I made the blog while scrolling tumblr aimlessly during a particularly long winded seminar I was sitting in on, I had reblogged a photo of a wild owl and tumblr began recommending various owl abuse videos mislabeled as cute. I had enough. I made a blog name and used large bold letters and emphasizing colors so my posts would be seen by people scrolling the reblogs. I scoured the entire owl tag and rated every single video I came across, typing paragraph upon paragraph detailing everything wrong with those photos and videos and it didn’t take more than a day or two before I had amassed a few thousand followers, people were interested. People were listening, there were a few “okay Karen” types here and there, but the large majority were willing to listen in a way I had never seen before. I had made posts like this on Facebook (not under an alias) and my posts were always immediately met with “who cares if the owl dies it’s just a fun video it’s not that deep let people enjoy things” and threats of lawsuits for “defamation” from the online personalities and “sanctuaries” i critiqued. To say tumblr was a breath of fresh air was an understatement, I have been on this website since ~2013-2015 (not on a themed blog, just various personal blogs I deleted and remade a few times, and a discourse blog or two mixed alongside a few admin slots making pride icons with cartoon characters for people), and I can honestly say this initial experience was the last thing I expected from this hellsite.

For the first few months, I wanted to hang onto that. I didn’t want to bring politics into it, this was just about owls and wildlife, I didn’t want to detract from the goal of educating people on how to spot animal abuse. And for a time that worked well. I was happy. The followers were happy. Until I started paying attention to the people following me and interacting with my posts. Usernames like “radical-clit” or “jake1488” would start to pop up more often. More icons would have kekistan pride flags, or just iron crosses outright. Some icons proudly just said “TERF is a slur” while others were naked white women in wheat fields. I had what I asked for, a truly “apolitical” space where everyone, even Nazis and TERFs felt very welcome.

And I took exception to that.

I made the first real post using my voice and my stances. I said trans women are women. I said Black Lives Matter. I said ACAB and I said wear a mask when COVID started to hit. I started blocking the ones that didn’t scatter from my blog like roaches, I went through my follower list manually and blocked every TERF, Nazi, and any other type of sleazeball I could find. I manually vetted a few thousand people.

This resonated with people. I expected backlash, and there was a fair shake of it, but I received more asks than I had before. Hundreds of strangers thanking me for making my stance clear and letting them know they were welcome. And that stuck with me.

I had made this blog to educate, and that is what I was going to do. So when I started getting asks from those opposed to my open sharing of political subjects, I responded to their hate mail as though it was a debate. I wasn’t trying to change their minds, I’m not that naive, it was to further educate anyone else reading about it, to tell the full story and to arm them with tools to fight back against bad faith talking points the right weaponizes. From that point on, I would get off topic asks questioning my political stances, and I continued to answer them. I wanted it to be clear where I stood because I did not want marginalized people to ever question if I was secretly a bigot.

I never stopped actually reviewing owl videos, however I did stop using the flashy long format responses to avoid annoying people. I had a following by then, I didn’t need to shout to be heard over scores of people fawning over animal abuse. I still rate videos today, but if it’s one that I’ve rated at all within the past year or especially one I’ve rated multiple times, I tend to ignore the message. I don’t go looking for them anymore for the same reason I’d imagine you probably don’t go out of your way to find videos of dogs and cats being abused. It’s upsetting, it’s emotionally tolling. There’s also only so many ways I can say “owls cannot safely cohabit with other species or more than one other owl”, “owls cannot swim well and don’t like being fully submerged in water for a viral tiktok”, or “owl cafes and pet keeping of owls are inherently abusive”.

If I’ve already rated three videos of people letting their toddlers or other pets manhandle large owls, do I really need to be sent six more? My point is Education, not sending as many upsetting videos of animal abuse as I can find to place on your dash and say things you already know if you’ve seen my other posts.

Anyway, for a shorter answer to your question: I get non-owl discourse consistently because I don’t shy away from addressing it. I don’t want my stances to be vague, I don’t want good people wondering if I support trump or genocide. I am a firm believer that silence is violence. I’m not going to do what white culture favors and simply look away and avoid the topic of injustices simply to make white users more comfortable.

This blog was never meant to be comfortable.

This is the “animal abuse is bad stop that” blog.

It would be weird of me to oppose animal abuse and them remain silent on abuses and injustices faced by human beings.

I don’t wake up in the morning saying “okay today will be 80% international politics, 12% discourse about the causes and ethics of pedophilia as a mental disorder, and 8% birds with 1% of that being owls. If someone asks me if I support trans rights I will answer them. If someone attacks me for that then I will respond to their attack.

If some days I don’t feel like looking for upsetting animal abuse and formulating an entire essay on why abusing said animal for entertainment is wrong, I do something else.

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aflo · 1 month

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Not me being fandom hatecrimed and passive aggressively dog piled on THE fandumb website tumblr dot com by a dumb bitch with a cowboy url and an even dumber bitchass OP with Gigi Studio Ghibli Icon and even stupider tacky shitass tungle.hel pride badge that this self proclaimed "cunt" OP of a shitty tumblruniversitycore shit post willingly put on her blog to match and you two wanna act like you're the ones who better than me for daring to vague about Hazbin Hotel on tumblr dot com on a post that was already about some dumb fandumb discourse about a tungle.hell demon show and feeling safe enough to just tag what I was talking about because I thought that I could trust an even more basic bitch than anyone, not to try to be a fucked up little snobby bitch acting like they hold some kind of higher fandumb ground than anyone else on a post where that bitch OP with a fuckass anime icon is whining about apparently dragging her musty, crusty, ugly, greasy, McMemeShitPoster skinny Leah Michelle Gleeky (since you fave poor taste enough to actually like Supernatural That Much) Funny Tumblr Girly ass to a musty crusty Supernatural Convention that was probs just dashcon (because you know you be suckin' tumblrs whole blue veiny dick when you willingly put a tumblr badge on your blog cause you're that basic), to get willingly hatecrimed by your favorite Live Action Tumblr Blorbo TM, Mr. Jensen Fucking Under House Arrest Stubbed His Toe on Rusty Nail and Died Trying to Remove His Ankle Bracelets or Whatever...

Gurl I could never have taste that mediocre I'm sorry you ether don't eat, or don't eat anything but McDonald's cause you thought that meme was so funny.

And to think I wasn't gonna put this shit on my blog or try to add anything I just knew I was gonna get some nasty, hypocritical, passive aggressive tag typing, shitty memed up response to my addition because originally my only knee jerk response in my head when I saw this was "... Not the #Supernatural Discourse, though...Be kind to yourself.... Don't even lower yourself Sweetie ... Don't look, don't even look at them ... You know Hazbin already has a much sweeter, saner, queerer, kinder, safer fandom environment than the Death by Rusty Nail CW Show.... Just don't!"

But I did... And now I guess I can say for certain that Supernatural Fans TM are just as Mean Spirited and Crusty as their Infamous Shows ending! But It was probably like your entire personality for a while there so what more could I expect? :D

Like I'm sorry your own fandumb etiquette needs an oil can and you're obvi limegreen jelly because vivziepop fans have the power of Mara Wilson, Jinkxx Monsoon, Kesha Rose, John Waters, and probz soon Lady Gaga on our side and all you have is your anime cat icon from an overrated studio and that tacky ass tumblr badge while you forgot what it was like to have your fandom be everyone else's punching bag for a hot minute and you're feeling insecure and treating me like you must've been treated, just for adding to your post about an obnoxious experience with an actor in a tumblr fandom, sharing my own obnoxious experience with an actor in a tumblr fandom. which ultimately was a harmless thing for me to share on a post on the fandumb website that means nothing ...

But it turns out having a much happier fandom experience than yours is what I get when my shows have an actually queer show runner and a bunch of queer icons doing actual queer representation, and admittedly annoying and well meaning alleys that show actual passion about their projects like I'm sorry that your taste is so poor you actually wanted to fuck Dean Wince Emotionless or were queer baited by him or whatever but I'm different, and apparently, the only Actual Cunt on this post right now is me, being brave enough to have The Nerve.

So OP, the next time you feel so holier than thou to make fun of a person on tumblr dot com talking about their experience with a show about demons, while you're also talking about your experience with a show about demons, please consider closing out the Cringe Fandumb Website we're both using right now, touch your feet to the grass, and while you're on that grass, please touch your feet to the same exact rusty nail your Precious Ankle Fuckboy did and die. :D

And if you're too lazy to do that much, at least get your little cowgirl over yonder in the tags who mumbled at me for demon fandom discoursing on your post about demon fandom discourse, to have her little Striker Helluva Boss Moment and try and track me down and assassinate me for you by feeding me cookies with rusty nails in them. Since you'd apparently like me to disappear so badly. ;)

Because I think that's the only way to get me Shut The Fuck Up Hazbin Hotel Fan TM. Us Hazbin Hotel Fans aren't gonna be shutting fuck the up anytime soon. Not sorry. ;)

Also not sorry to break it to you OP, honey.... But you know being a Supernatural fan making fun of a Hazbin Hotel fan is like you're Toby McGuire Spider-Man and I'm Tom Hardy Venom over here, right?

Same Thing. Same Concept. Almost cut from the same cloth. Only my cloth is a little bit more high quality, a little more flashy, a little more fashionable, certainly more explicitly queer fashion, and again, just a little more comfortable to be in because it's made by people who actually have a heart, soul and passion to put into their work. Too bad the people cutting your cloth didn't have a heart and neither do you or your friends now . ;) ♥ X.O

😨

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chaotic-neutral-knitter · 1 year

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I saw this post going around and got really curious as to how OP came up with their numbers because I could not replicate them at all.

I was going to reply directly but it was getting very very long and I didn’t want to wade onto someone’s post with a bunch of my own stats bc it seemed rude, so I’m putting my response here.

I’m going to preface this by saying that I’m fully in the camp of “write because you like writing, not for an audience response” because if you don’t like the process of writing, there is no level of audience response that will make writing worth it. But. I’ve seen a lot of folks agonize over Ao3 stats and get stuck in the weeds on Ratios™. And I think there are a few really common misconceptions around what these numbers mean.

The rest of this is going to be under a readmore to spare y’all but basically it’s a breakdown of trying to calculate my own percentages like the OP in the original post and then dialing down into why hits != readers.

Here’s the stats from one of my fics as of today, May 1st 2023. I am by no means a prolific or widely known fic writer - I happen to be in a big fandom and writing for for the main pairing in that fandom.

completed multi chapter fic, rated Mature:

So this one has three chapters, 2736 hits, 436 kudos, and 146 comments. Kudos divided by hits is 16%.

“Oh no!” I might say, seeing this. “Only sixteen percent of people liked my fic enough to leave a kudos? Either my stuff is shit, or fic-readers are a bunch of lazy fucks who don’t appreciate the work I’ve put into this. Either way, I’m mad now!”

But (and I say this with a lot of love in my heart, I promise) that’s silly. Not just for the philosophical reasons of writing what makes you happy and not caring about the response. It’s silly because it’s wrong.

On a multi-chapter fic, each person who finishes it is responsible for at least 3 hits but can only leave 1 kudos. Dividing the total hits by 3 gives you 912 hits. So, once you’ve corrected for number of chapters, the percent of people who have hit kudos is 47%.

“Holy shit!” writer-me says, “I’ve published original fiction in my university newspaper, original fiction that I poured my heart and soul into btw, and if approximately half of the people who read it sent me a little heart emoji, I would have died and gone to heaven. Fic readers are the Nicest, Most Generous, and Most Beautiful readers on the planet and I am so grateful to be in this community with them.”

But! 47% is still wrong. Here’s why.

Hits != Readers

I don’t how other people do this, but my process of reading a fic is often like this (each step is one hit):

open link from someone else's rec, try to click "mark for later"

realize I'm logged out. sign in to Ao3, go back to fic and click "mark for later"

come back to read fic, generating at least one hit per chapter

open a second tab so that I can write a comment as I go (again, generating at least one hit per chapter)

finish fic, create bookmark, and then navigate back to fic to mark it as read so it's taken off my marked for later page

if I really liked the fic, I'll end up opening it back up in a tag many times so I can rec it to people by sending them the link

if I really really liked the fic, I'll come back and read it again (this is doubly true for explicit fic, btw.)

I think I’m on the high end of generating hits, but it only takes a few of me to really dial up that hit counter. And most people are going to do one or two of these things - I’d argue that it’s pretty rare for someone to leave just one hit on a fic unless they nope out of it in the middle.

Formula for calculating number of readers from number of hits:

There isn’t one. And it would take a much better mathematician than me to make one. Because this is way more complicated than dividing by chapters. Most readers leave more than one hit - especially if they like the fic a lot. Short fics and explicit fics are more likely to be read multiple times.

“But what if I crave validation?” writer-me complains, irritated with math-me for not downloading statistics software, shoving a million Ao3 fics into it, and producing some kind of bullshit linear regression. “What if I constantly see people with higher kudos/hits ratios than me? This is all very optimistic but it really doesn’t jive with my deep seated belief that everyone secretly hates me all the time and they’re too nice to tell me about it. Do they hate me? They probably hate me, right? Tell me if you hate me.”

To which I say, listen very closely, writer-me. You can either decide that AO3 stats mean something and lose your damn mind deciphering what they mean, or you can be like that kid who got an avocado for christmas and say “it’s a avocado comment!! Thanks!! :D”

And that kid seemed pretty happy.

#fanfiction #ao3 #my nonsense #I was going to vacuum and then I spent TWO HOURS writing this #whoops

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kiwisandpearls · 1 month

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expanding on the tags in my last post, i actually think that if you were to write kyubey as being a straight up liar and twisting the wishes so that the magical girl technically gets what she wants but it’s far from the original intent of the wish, then your writing him (kinda) wrong.

yes, kyubey is a manipulative bastard who hides the dark truth of magical girls, and makes being one much less bad than it actually is. But to write kyubey as a straight up liar, your incidentally missing something very vital about when kyubey asks a girl for a contract.

he does it when they’re in a very vulnerable situation.

he asks Kyoko for a contract when her and her family were struggling financially and often couldn’t afford food, he asks Mami for a contract right after her family dies from a car crash leaving her as the only survivor who would’ve died had kyubey not arrived, in the original timeline he asks madoka for a contract when Amy (the black cat in the OP) gets injured, in the original timeline, he asks Homura for contract after Madoka dies by fighting Walpurgisnacht. The only one he doesn’t go to is Sayaka, because there wasn’t exactly a singular super vulnerable moment in her life he could take advantage of. If anything, Sayaka came to him (which isn’t me blaming her btw).

which is why he shouldn’t be written to be a liar or twist any of the magical girl’s wishes. Because he doesn’t need to.

the girls he asks a contract from are already in vulnerable situations and aren’t going to and/or don’t have time to think through making a contract and ask kyubey any questions. All they know is, this little white cat found me, told me he could make a wish, and wish = my problems going away, I need to make a wish. (Again, not me blaming any of the magical girls)

which is why kyubey doesn’t go to girls who aren’t in vulnerable situations. He only constantly asked Madoka in the last timeline to make a contract because she had a lot of karmic energy and that just wouldn’t be an opportunity he could pass down, and even with madoka you could argue he went to her when she was vulnerable, such as when she was worrying over Sayaka.

like this feels more an analysis of him but still, this just explains why to me, there’s no purpose in writing kyubey as being a liar who twists these girls wishes, he does that on his own, by going to these vulnerable girls when their most likely to mess up their words and not ask questions.

#talk away ⌞🍵🍋 ⌝#kyubey #kyubey pmmm #kyubey madoka magica #madoka magica spoilers #madoka magica #pmmm #pmmm spoilers #kyubey analysis #madoka magica analysis #analysis #me writing a whole ass essay about how kyubey being written as a liar who twists wishes #misses a major point of his character (i try to tell myself I’m not a kyubey fan)

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johnconstantinesdick · 7 months

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Op your post and tags about Artemis doing damage control is absolutely delightful.

I mean, from Titan's curse we know Artemis was trying to get the council to prepare for the war, recognizing what was happening, even before the war gods actively acted.

Also Apollo getting a ping when a new possible child of the prophecy gets born actually makes sense. He knew how old Thalia was, he's also a god of truth besides just prophecy and during the years of the Hunt functioning I doubt the only big three kids to join are Bianca and Thalia. The chances are really small for that to happen.

It could also be Roman demigods, since literally anyone can join and it's better to be safe than sorry. And since it was 'child of the eldest gods' and not specifically the big three, she might have even counted in children of Demeter, since Hestia and Hera don't have (in Hera's case demigod) children.

About anon that Artemis acted predatory: bestie do you want the prophecy to happen? Do you want to risk Olympus falling?

And the average life expectancy of a Greek demigod is like 13 years old, were it not for them, the squad at Westover would have little chances of survival at the age they were at. Also statistically, the Hunt even helps to get demigods the chance to reach the camp by killing the monsters.

In conclusion: was it sketchy? Sure. Was she lying tho? Not at all.

From the few Hunters we got the chance to meet, sure, Bianca was really young when she died, but Phoebe and Zoë were thousands of years old. Let's do the math. If Zoë had been with the Hunt for let's say 3 000 years, and Phoebe for 2 500. Bianca died at 13 I think? Even these three on their own puts the average life expectancy of a Hunter to 1 838 years. And that's a bit higher than the chances of Greek demigods.

Artemis literally is doing the absolute most of a damage control.

(also personal headcanon that Artemis sends the Hunters to the camp instead of being on their own so they were safe from Orion since he usually targets them when they're alone, and being without Artemis who even got stolen and physically cannot help would be quite a chance to miss)

I love your username!

It always interests me how out of all of the gods Artemis is the most involved in the everyday lives of demigods. Mr. D helps run the camp, but she spends her time with her hunters, fighting with them and forging relationships. She’s notable in TTC because when the gang is fighting Atlas with her, she feels like a comrade more than a capricious god.

She’s not above criticism, but even taking my Great Prophecy Damage Control read out of the situation, she does more to directly help demigods than like. Any other god. So when I see wild criticism of her like “if Artemis hadn’t recruited the girl who admitted she might have destroyed Olympus if allowed to age then Hera wouldn’t have targeted Thalia so much. She was really just mad Thalia foreswore her only family in Jason. Isn’t Artemis so bad and evil???” It’s kind of like. Why are you bending over backwards to vilify one of the only gods consistently fighting and advocating for our heroes.

(Btw yes that is an actual take I saw in a fic.)

And you’re right on the Hunters ages!! Like we have several girls that have been around for thousands of years!!!! We have like five named Greek demigods that have lived to the age of eighteen in the original series, and over half of them proceeded to die anyway. Artemis is obviously doing something right to keep her girls alive this long.

With the fic idea… I may just have to write it when I get a chance. If I remember right, I don’t think the Romans were in line for the first Great Prophecy anyway, but it would be so funny if Artemis was like… fuck that. If I have to keep cleaning up my dad and uncle’s messes then I’m going to clean up all of them and get more hunters out of it.

Anyway thank you for the ask! I had fun making the post but then the anons I got kind of soured it :\ so I’m glad you like my thoughts!

#hades keeps his title of ‘only one to not break the oath’ and unknowingly lands himself in Artemis’s good graces.#eli rambles #Eli writes #pjo #riordanverse #ask

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horizon-verizon · 1 year

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what do you think of this post. i think people should ship what they want but this fandom cannot stand opinions that differ from theirs.

https://www.tumblr.com/livinginafantasysposts/726238416723935233

Going to the link you provided, the original author (lagosbratzdoll) is criticizing the JacexSara Snow ship for the shipper's racism:

They say it'll [including Sara Snow in the show] deepen Jace’s character and make him “interesting”, whatever that means. The problem with this assertion is that Jace is already plenty interesting, he led the war councils while his mother grieved, and he recruited the blacks' most important allies. Allies who remained steadfast even after his mother's and his own demise. Furthermore, Jace has existing relationships in his life that the show could explore to delve into his connection with bastardy. Three of whom are canonically Black, by the way. So, the question arises: what unique perspective or insight can Sara Snow provide to Jace's struggle with his bastard status that Nettles, Addam, and Alyn cannot?

When the OP asked what made Sara so enticing or "interesting", more than Nettles and the other dragonseeed as well as Baela, there was no salient answer in the comments. Or there were just denials. And OP has made points. Including this:

but now you cannot go five minutes in Jace or Baela’s tag without seeing someone wish they'd include Sara Snow in the show.

You: "i think people should ship what they want but this fandom cannot stand opinions that differ from theirs."

My questions to you, anon are:

What is with people trying to overwhelm and disrupt the hype shippers have for Baela and Jace in particular?

With these two supposed to be betrothed to each other in canon and continue to be so in the show, why is it that there is a change in how people see Sara Snow and Jace and Baela after we see the Velaryons and dragon twins' actors are Black?

Why is it that there is such an overwhelming intercession on the online JacexBaela shipping from JacexSara shippers as opposed to ships with white/white-adjacent couples?

Why is it that with such stronger evidence for Jace and Baela being romantic over Sara's very existence much less the ship, that the Sara Snow x Jace ship is as popular as it is?

Sara Snow is a character, in F&B, who Mushroom brings in to add intrigue, and he was never there to witness such a thing happening, so how could he know about this girl and witnessed Jace fall for her?! And the other thing is the implications of Sara Snow being Jace's "Jeyne Westerling". Unlike Robb Stark & Jeyne, Jace & Sara are presented by Mushroom and real shippers as true and closely-bonded lovers. Robb married Jeyne because he wanted to honor her and not have bastards. It was not lovey-dovey. Narratively, Baela was so dedicated to Jace (and just fierce all on her own) that she wanted to stay and fight with him at Dragonstone or follow him. For all the desire for a couple who desires and is devoted to each other, it's funny how Sara x Jace shippers aren't impressed enough with Baela. So shippers of Sara and Jace are going off of pure conjecture and desire more than other ships/shippers. This would be fine, if not for the change in actors coming with a higher support for a character that doesn't seem to exist.

Before HotD aired with its black Velaryons and dragon twins (and I've looked around at dates) there was very little hype for Sara Snow even as a person, bc there was literally no evidence--not even suggestive--for her existence besides Mushroom's unsupported say-so AND it was understood that Jace wouldn't even endanger his family and himself or hurt Baela by endangering their Velaryon alliance. Especially when his brother dies and there is no heir to Driftmark aside from Joff (a whittling-down of heirs). The blacks needed the Velaryons even after Rhaneyra dies (Alyn and Daenaera)!

It is totally antithetical to Jace's needs short-term and long-term needs to set aside his betrothal to Baela.

We have to remember that he and his two brothers have been suspected as bastards and likely treated accordingly if people could get away with it. For more than 10 years! Rhaenyra had to essentially flee to Dragonstone to get away and provide a quieter, freer life for herself and her family as well as actively "practice" and get in the groove for ruling. He would be anxious to prove how he is fit to follow his mother after she dies and rule Westeros. And like Jon/unlike Robb Stark, bc of that niggling bastardry claim, he would be more motivated to not have bastards of his own or do possibly introduce an innocent, less-able-to-take-care-of herself-girl into an incoming war. (Jenny of Oldstones doesn't count bc she was proven real through her interactions with courtiers, Prince Duncan's parent was not female and set against, his parent was not usurped, there was no war, nor was Duncannever suspected a bastard. He could afford it).

I mean, it's supported by what Jace says here ("The Blacks and the Greens"):

He has lived physically and emotionally close to Baela all his life, and considering this need to consolidate power as well as his contracting his trust towards mostly family, it's not likely that he just trusts any person he isn't likely to get aid from. Cregan Stark was the lord and liable to help Rhaneyra bc he just imprisoned and ousted his uncle to get his Winterfell seat. Supporting Rhaenyra helps him, and this lubed them both up for a closer bond.

It is way more likely that Jace, rather than show!Aemond, was the devoted son trying to actually help and protect his family by reading "philosophies" and presenting himself as a capable ruler. I think that it is dumb of the writers to then flip this show of loyalty to one's family into Aemond using it to show disloyalty to his own and not emphasize Jacaerys' own development. Aemond even left his mother, sister, and brother all to basically fend for themselves in two opportunities to join Daeron or fly to KL and fight Rhaenyra, Daemon, or any black who he would happen to see. Even though he was the one to order Criston Cole to march their army to KL so he could also confront the blacks. He specifically states that going south to Daeron and grouping up was "craven" and cowardly! In this one way, Aemond is Jace's foil and it emphasizes Jace's loyalty and devotion and Aemond's self-serving ambition, even though both have that desire to show their military worth. One works for unity, the other for individual glory and disunity. Jace ios the one to actively came up with effective plans and arrangements for the blacks, as OP stated. It shows his intelligence, care, and concern for protecting his family as well as his mindfulness towards bastardy. We're supposed to see the irony of this suspected bastard using the bastard phobia made against him for their own benefit. (Even though there were two traitors, Rhaenyra still depended on these dragon riders to intimidate/fight against any would-be greens and their armies. One of which is responsible [Addam Velaryon/of Hull] for at least pushing back Daeron and Lord Hightower's forces even with his own death. This event more showed how deep in paranoia & blood purist Rhaenyra was, not how dumb or incompetent Jace was.)

And Baela is not a bad person, merely self-confident and a Targ. Show!Baela is Black, and there has been no standoffishness towards her book character before the show besides the usual misogyny towards self-confident girls and Targ women. She has done nothing wrong to anyone, and has only displayed bravery until presumedly the day she died and set aside by history.

So from my standpoint, it looks like the motivation behind thinking Baela x Jace as less appealing or "interesting" than Jace x Sara is that Jace x Sara can undermine his relationship with Baela, his ties to the Velaryons and their alliance, and separate Jace's devotion to his family and reduce any tie to his Targ identity. This is definitely not what this character would likely be drawn in by if he ever did meet a Sara Snow who he might be at least sexually attracted to.

Just as making Rhaenyra not want to imprison Otto bc of a damned page from a woman who tried to get said sons killed, Jacaerys allowing himself to not only marry someone other than his betrothed siphons out his intelligence, unique sense of self-assertiveness and responsibility.

Other Ships I Wish Were Not as Shipped Exist, Why, and are Really the TV Shows' Faults

See, I talk about people saying one shouldn't ship ANYTHING in ASoIaF/GoT/HotD/Fire & Blood HERE, where I argue that shipping is people presenting political and social taboo/dynamics, i,e, a particular narrative they are fascinated with.

It's not just about what one thinks should be reality. However, for some people, it is and some ships gather more…bigoted people than other ships. Rhaenicent is one of those ships. There are some genuinely good or at least self-aware Rhaenicent shippers, but the most vocal ones tend to be misogynist and think themselves feminists when they are actually saying that Rhaenyra should grant Alicent all sorts of graces and expect nothing in return bc Alicent is a feminine goddess who looks out for "the realm". Some call her "mannish" or the "man" of the relationship. Most are tradcaths and transphobic (Emma D'Arcy). Most hate Targs and Valyrian customs, esp citing their hatred against incest…meanwhile, their own ship is incestuous, and even the Faith they admire and see their Catholism in at one time had a High Septon vocally denounce a Hightower lord marrying and having a relationship with his dead father's wife, his own stepmother--Samnatha Tarly. On the specific claim of incest. Later, when this Septon died, they were finally allowed to marry by the next one--their influence had grown enough or stayed its Hightower self, assumedly, as well over the years.

Jonsa is another ship that mostly has misogynists and praisers of "soft femininity". Sansa becomes a totally different creature in their eyes, and Arya also gets interpreted as "mannish", even having "internalized misogyny" for not being as "girly" as Sansa. Jon, like Rhaenyra, is also totally reduced and recharacterization to make Sansa this higher kind of feminine goddess through the chivalric narrative canon!Sansa is actually growing out of bc it has led to her many losses, including her own innocence! Jon doesn't even like (as in attracted to) "girly" girls who cannot even attempt to physically defend themselves! His favorite sister is Arya and Sansa has dismissed him for his bastardry several times! Because they think he will become some sort of great leader, even King Beyond the Wall, and Sansa will be Queen in the North or some jazz, they believe that this version of "Jon" as a "knight" is perfect for their "delicate princess" Sansa.

Daemon x Nettles

I'm a Daemyra shipper and I do not think Daemon x Nettles is either a canon or good ship in of itself, and the material in F&B that wants us to think they were sexual or romantic uses misogynist and classism to present Nettles as Daemon's lover AS WELL AS not his lover. But always it's logic that is against Nettles' true, brave heart, and Daemon's fidelity to Rhaenyra, despite him choosing to die for her instead of just leaving Rhaenyra behind and vocalizing hatred toward Mysaria's for deceiving her. And though it is not my passionate ship like the Daemyra one, I definitely think Jace x Baela makes way more sense than Jace x Sara Snow. And Nettles doesn't need to "steal" Rhaneyra's man to actually dominate Rhaneyra for her blood purity or to be an impressive girl, and this would not be a healthy relationship (she was 17, Daemon 49-50). If they seriously consider grooming wrong and believe Daemon groomed Nettles, then they shouldn't enthusiastically ship Nettles with Daemon.

Conclusion

Some ships just do not make sense or are totally antithetical to the arcs and personalities of the original characters. They are more making wish-fulfillment fanons struggling to be canon so they can generate antipathy against those shippers/characters/storylines that should really be appreciated for the nuance they provide. Instead of vacuuming out nuance to replace them with fairytale, bigoted, and flat narratives. And so they should be put into skeptical investigation instead of just flat-out "accepted", like how some artists have purposefully drawn the dragon twins out of their family portraiture of the blacks.

EDIT (8/22/23)

It's also funny how--with the examples of other ships--when it's something race-related or when some people in the fandom want to protest against such intrusions and the subsequent denials of intrusions it tends to be about certain PoC or interracial ships. AND that it defaults as "everyone has the right to ship/draw/etc however they want!" when someone brings up race more than ships with gender or sexuality or class switching. Hm...

#hotd ships #asoiaf asks to me #canon shipping #asoiaf shipping #jonsa #rhaenicent #fandom critical #asoiaf fandom #fandom racism #jacaerys x sara snow #sara snow #hotd critical

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20dollarlolita · 2 years

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Tumblr adding polls was the greatest thing they've done in the last 6 years and the fact that I'm not making polls is a sign of my restraint.

For those of you jumping in new to the game, here's a lolita meme from 2011 that I'm doing. Original here, mine are tagged "20dollarlolita 30daylorlolita challenge". I meant to save the last one as a draft but it posted incomplete and I"m just going to live with that forever, I guess.

Random Lolita' 2011 30 day challenge, day 5: 10 things from your wish list:

When I got Typewriting Squirrles and Tailor Bear, I completed my wishlist, so this was a little bit tougher. Here goes.

#1) More embroidered pieces! Ever since getting into machine embroidery last year, I've been super into things that are embroidered. I love edge-to-edge embroidery and I love looking at how things are digitized, so I want way more stuff with embroidery instead of printing.

#2) More musical things! As y'all may know, I collect keytars, so I want much more musical print lolita. I have Bodyline's piano cats JSK and it's awakened a need for me. I want Meow Meow symphony and I want all the other cat pianos.

#3) More diverse fabrics. I got AP's Gloria skirt for cheap since it's missing the overskirt, and it's velveteen with glitter on it. I want more different textures and fabric types.

#4) More fully shirred things! When I bought that mystery bundle on Etsy, that had Bodyline's Love Nadia in it. That's a fully shirred cap sleeve OP/JSK and again, turns out that I like being comfy. When I started lolita I had two fully shirred pieces and I got rid of both of them (one I regret. One I am glad I returned to the original owner because it was a gift to them from a family member who died, but also I wish I still had it in my wardrobe).

#5) More handmade things! Really, I need to make more OPs and blouses. I need to just do the fiddly things. I have 12 yards of white shirting and a ton of patterns and I just need to do the things.

#6) I have three pairs of printed tights and I wear them all the time so why don't I just get more printed tights? Plus size 45-kitten-holder tights are on ebay for like $25 a pair, and that's where I got the ones that I have, so what's stopping me from getting more?

#7) Okay so i don't know if this counts but I want to get lolita dresses for my creepy doll Helena so that I can carry her around and have her match me. I've seen people do this and it looks super cool. Also, I was at Walmart and saw some dolls that were specifically to have fidget toys in them. And I think that's just capitalizing on a trend but one of them had some giant pigtails that were made to be stretchy and messed with (I think her name was Unicorn Sprinkle), and I know there's so many people in my (new) lolita comm who keep fidget toys on hand for anxiety at meets, so I think it'd be really cool to have a doll in a lolita dress that's specifically for you to carry at meets and fidget with but that goes with your outift. However, I hate making doll clothes. I have many ideas about doll clothes but I don't do any of them.

#8) More tea party shoes. After making my last pair into roller skates, I bought some very used ones for $5, but they broke on my first wear and I can't find a couch by the side of the road to fix them with like I did on my last ones. I have like 4 pairs of RHS and 4 pairs of chunky mary jane platforms, so I need some tea parties. This is especially true because of my bad ankle. My podiatrist probably really wants me to stay closer to the ground than 4".

#9) I kind of just want to own every single meta frill skirt that I can find. They're cheap and comfy and maybe I do want to get back into wearing lolita every day if that wearing lolita is meta frill skirts.

#10) This is going to sound weird, but I want more blouses that need to be ironed. I've been getting so many gathered polyester blouses that don't need to be pressed, and I want the look of that crisp pressed blouse. Also I really love when you take it out of the wash and it's yucky and sad but then you press it and it's all crispy and happy. I don't like that sometimes I want it to be something that's already pressed and I have to press it, but I love when you renew something's life with your iron.

Okay, that's it for today. This one was fun, because it made me think. Maybe that's the point of these, to make you think about the situation you've taken for granted differently. BTW now everyone is asking me about pretzel lolita. I remember a long time ago there was a Threadbanger post about something called the Dookie Necklace (seen in part of this video about 1:30 in) and I feel like pretzel lolita needs to somehow incorporate Dookie Necklace technology. I'll think on this one and get back to you.

#20dollarlolita #20dollarlolita 30daylorlolita challenge

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ben-wisehart · 2 years

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I posted 1,400 times in 2022

35 posts created (3%)

1,365 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@thedoggoesed-ward

@cactus-juice-for-sale

@aquietquixotic

@seaflying-fliptuna

@peachdoxie

I tagged 392 of my posts in 2022

#svsss - 65 posts

#bingqiu - 46 posts

#svsss meta - 14 posts

#shen qingqiu - 13 posts

#luo binghe - 9 posts

#tiktok - 9 posts

#mdzs - 9 posts

#meta - 5 posts

#wangxian - 5 posts

#shen yuan - 4 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#just in case anyone starts to think i have interesting and thought provoking opinions…my inner monologue is 90% ‘haha bingqiu soulmates🥰’

My Top Posts in 2022:

1/2) Regarding the bingqiu-bingjiu thing on twitter today, I don't know how to put this but such discussions seem to prompt a downplaying of sy's worth re the svsss world. I'm not saying that was the op's intention and indeed you and many other commenters had brought up such interesting points, but I saw takes from certain character stans as well that rubbed me the wrong way- bingqiu (or any ship with sy) won't happen without sj, sy has no separate identity of his own from sj. ..

2/2) ...he is just seen as an extension of sj by other characters, he is just a privileged young man who got handed sj's hard earned life and is kind only cuz he didn't go through shit like sj... Maybe it's just my sy|sqq bias speaking but such discourse bothers me fsr..

the twitter threads in question:

https://twitter.com/ShanBlackRX_alt/status/1506618891556077570

https://twitter.com/bobby_speeds/status/1506984146794528773

https://twitter.com/bobby_speeds/status/1507009062135005185

sorry I put off answering this! It's been a busy week, etc. etc. anyway

Yeah, I know what you mean. Like.

Listen. I'm obviously a very outspoken SY fan, and I will readily admit that I can't be unbiased when forming opinions about him. He's my favourite character and I utterly adore him, so seeing people ignore him or outright drag him down to elevate SJ annoys me a lot. but. I'll try to break down exactly what bothers me about people saying SY "got handed SJ's hard-earned life and is kind only because he didn't go through the same hardships"

Firstly, Shen Yuan was literally ripped away from his family and the only life he'd ever known!! Just because he plays it cool and tries to make the most of his situation doesn't mean he's happy about dying! Most transmigration or isekai stories (the ones that I've read, at least) explicitly have the MC either come from a life where they didn't have much in the way of family or close attachments, so the loss of their original life isn't as big of a deal, OR their feelings about losing their old life is a source of tension in the story that gets brought up and focused on.

In Shen Yuan's case, he explicitly comes from a nice family who was very close. SY himself might have been unambitious and felt like he was wasting his life, and sure, we'll never know the exact nuances of his relationships with each of his family members, but there's nothing to suggest he didn't love them. His sister in particular he's described as having doted on.

And yet, they're almost never mentioned again. SQQ finds out he's died and just goes "Well, I've been granted a second chance here, I might as well make the most of it" and just...goes on. This straight up never gets explicitly addressed in canon, and it's not because he doesn't care. It's because he can't. He doesn't have anyone with whom he can talk about this loss. He died and was thrown straight into a world that was constantly reminding him that if he didn't satisfy the System, it would KILL him, and if he DID satisfy the System, there was a very good chance he would get horrifically mutilated by the person he was rapidly growing to care for more and more each day. I've talked about this a bit more on twitter here if anyone is interested.

I probably sound like a broken record at this point but I have to keep saying it: SHEN YUAN SPENT SIX YEARS (excluding the 5 he wasn't conscious for) WITH THE CONSTANT THREAT OF EITHER DEATH OR MUTILATION HANGING OVER HIS HEAD. And that IS a traumatising event. So was losing his old life and not getting a chance to process or mourn it. So was being forced to push Binghe into the Abyss (yes, it was traumatising for SQQ specifically, as well as Binghe!!). So was being forced to send Binghe to fight Elder Sky Hammer and all the million other tiny things that he would never have had to do if he'd had complete control over the new life he'd been given.

Like, look at his treatment of Binghe when he comes out of the Abyss. He's terrified. He's spent so much time afraid of Bingge, afraid of what his return will mean for him, that he can't even bring himself to look at the real man who is before him and see the very real differences he has made. He can't afford to, because he's been living with his fear for so long and he knows that one wrong move could be the end of him.

That time Meng Mo puts him into a deep dream where he experiences Shen Jiu's fate, SQQ is so shaken that he can't even look at Binghe afterwards! Compare that with later, after the punishment program, when he literally HAS experienced the fate that he's been threatened with for years, but instead when he gets out all he wants is to see his own Binghe again to make himself feel better, because he desperately wants to forget the image of the man he loves taking pleasure in torturing him. God. FUCK. I CANNOT be normal about this.

Shen Yuan was a VICTIM. That's what it comes down to. Saying he was privileged and was only kind because he never had to suffer like Shen Jiu did is SUCH a bad faith take. Did Shen Jiu have it worse? I mean...sure, yeah. Certainly, he was traumatised during his formative years when the trauma it would have a bigger impact in shaping his personality. But do we really have to do the "oppression olympics" speech in a novel aimed at adults?

And like. Okay. "He got handed SJ's hard earned life". Let's unpack that, because it's not like "Shen Yuan didn't ask for Shen Jiu's life" and "Shen Yuan benefitted from Shen Jiu's death" are statements that can't coexist. Shen Yuan didn't just get pulled into PIDW because he badmouthed the author, he got pulled in because he died and if he hadn't transmigrated he would have simply stayed dead. Even if you ignore all the trauma he faced in his new life, and all the legwork he himself had to do to get the happy ending he eventually gets with Binghe, I can hardly deny that he was better off in the long run than if he hadn't been given SJ's life.

But here's the thing. Shen Yuan wasn't really "given" SJ's hard-earned life. He wasn't given that life at all. If Shen Yuan had woken up in Shen Jiu's body with no System and complete free-reign over his new life, I would agree with this sentiment, but he wasn't. He was being used by the System with no regard to his own wellbeing.

Seriously, ALL the bad things that SY does as SQQ are the result of the System, either by having his hand directly forced on fear of death, or because he's under extreme pressure and in a position he would never have been in if he'd been in control from the beginning. If Shen Yuan had simply transmigrated into SQQ with total free will, he would have lived a happy, peaceful life of spoiling his disciples rotten and that would have been that. Maybe something would have come up later with regards to Binghe's heritage, maybe there would have been some other conflict from TLJ or the OPM, but the main thing is that SQQ would would have never betrayed Binghe and therefore wouldn't do any of the things he did in canon to push him away out of fear. However their lives would have ended up, I think most of us can agree that they would have only faced a fraction of the trauma they did in canon, if any.

That's why it's impossible to compare SY and SJ on equal footing. It's true that some of the things SJ did (killing LQG and making a move on NYY) were misunderstandings, but ultimately, SJ abused Binghe because he chose to. All of his actions were done of his own volition. Nobody forced him to pour tea on an innocent boy who'd just lost his mother and was desperate to please him. Nobody forced him to make a 15 year old fight a demon. Nobody forced him to give Binghe a fake cultivation manual that would have led a normal person to a dangerous qi deviation. Nobody forced him to push Binghe into the Endless Abyss.

The reason it's unfair to say SY "stole" SJ's life is because we've seen the life that SY stole. We already know* how it would have ended. It's not open to interpretation. PIDW explicitly ends with Bingge taking everything from SJ; his home, the life he'd built, his freedom, his childhood friend, and finally his limbs. The world was broken, with countless people dead or otherwise hurt who weren't so in the SV timeline. If SY's presence was what prevented all of that, then...I'm sorry, but I do think SY deserved that life more.

*One person in the comments of the above twitter threads did make an interesting point that SQQ wasn't the only variable that changed in SVSSS compared to PIDW, and that SQH's warning to be careful when saving LQG might have led to a different outcome for SQQ even if SY hadn't transmigrated. I think this is worth bringing up, and I'd honestly love to know exactly how PIDW would have played out if LQG had still been alive, but ultimately, even if SJ had succeeded in saving LQG, I'm just not convinced his ending would have been that different. I think SJ would have been too proud to admit he was the one who saved him and LQG would never have known. They wouldn't have become friends like LQG and SY did, and LBH's personal resolve for vengeance (the main driver in SJ's eventual fate) would not have been affected by this change.

Anyway yeah TL;DR SY's presence improved almost every aspect of the PIDW world for the better (RIP Qin Wanrong, Gongyi Xiao and Zhuzhi-Lang) despite the fact that he never asked to be there and had a force far more powerful than himself trying its damnedest to make him hurt someone he cared about. Sometimes he failed to find the best possible solution to the problems he was faced with, but he still tried his best to work around the limitations placed on him and in the end, I would say he did a pretty good job of it! Maybe even a Better job than the man who was in the exact same position as him but WITHOUT an omnipotent being monitoring his every move and threatening to kill him if he didn't Try To Kill A Child?? who can say for sure ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And to be fair, I think a lot of Shen Jiu fans would agree with this? Like I don't think it's really a debate that Shen Yuan is an objectively better person than Shen Jiu, it's just that some fans find Shen Jiu a more interesting character to read and write about, which is not my own experience but to each their own! I might prefer SY but I still agree that SJ is a compelling character and I can for sure see why he's a popular character to blorbofy. It only annoys me when people try to drag SY down to his level, or downplay the fact that Shen Jiu is still very much a child abuser who showed absolutely no remorse when asked if he thought his abuse might have been the reason Binghe grew up to be a tyrant.

Thanks for the questions and sorry about the length!! I just hear a question about SQQ and my brain goes brrrr

156 notes - Posted April 3, 2022

Hi! I LOVE your SVSSS meta, it's always so well thought out<3 At the very bottom of your BingQiu meta post you mention that LBH is gay. I had interpreted his sexuality in SV as like, he could be attracted to anyone (evidenced by his huge harem in PIDW) but after falling for SQQ, he wasn't interested in anyone else. What leads you to believe that LBH is gay and not bi or pan? (I don't have a strong opinion either way, I'm just interested in hearing your take if you feel like talking about it!)

the post anon is referring to

Oh man I've had this one stewing in my brain for days. I DEFINITELY feel like talking about it.

So here's my obligatory disclaimer that media should be enjoyable first and foremost, and if someone reading this enjoys seeing Binghe as bi or pan, I think you should continue to do so regardless of whether or not it's supported by canon.

To be honest, while I don't read either Luo Binghe or Shen Qingqiu as mspec, I'd probably have an easier time believing it of Binghe than SQQ. SQQ's feelings and attitudes toward women come across very much like your pretty stock-standard compulsory heterosexuality; he talks a lot about how he's straight and wants a girlfriend, but try to name one single woman he's actually attracted to and you come up short. In practice, he's constantly making excuses why any given woman who crosses his mind isn't suitable for him: usually it's "they belong to the protagonist" or maybe "she's too intimidating", and he never seems to realise that these things...don't actually preclude him from finding them attractive.

To Shen Qingqiu, simply not being attracted to a woman is very easy and he genuinely doesn't realise that that isn't normal for straight guys. It's why he finds it so confusing why so many people like PIDW despite all the terrible sex scenes. Even when Madam Meiyin (a woman whose predictions he's just described as infallible) is describing his literal destined partner, he tries to picture a woman who fits that description and immediately dismisses the prediction out of hand because she's unrealistic and would obviously go to Binghe anyway.

I think it's really telling that his favourite female lead in PIDW was Liu Mingyan—the only one who never got sex scenes with the character he was actually attracted to. Like. Seriously. His favourite wife was the one he never had to read having straight sex with Binghe. The lack of sex scenes gave her room to breathe and grow as her own character; Shen Yuan talks about how he thinks she should get "pushed down" but I'm willing to bet that if that had actually happened and she'd ended up in the same ridiculous sex scenarios as the other wives, his fondness for her as a character would have mysteriously dried up.

I don't think I have a specific moment I can refer to for this, but you also just...get the impression that even though Binghe is obviously the person SQQ finds most attractive, he's still capable of finding other guys hot. With Liu Qingge in particular Shen Qingqiu spends a hilarious amount of time fixating on what a Pretty Boy(TM) he is compared to how the PIDW fandom liked to portray him. Tianlang-Jun, Gongyi Xiao...even Shang Qinghua he describes as "handsome with an air of sleaziness" in his first appearance. I'm not saying SQQ wants to bone each of these guys, but it does make you kind of feel like a man's general attractiveness is something he takes note of. He does also describe female characters as pretty, so there's an element of it that's just...the POV character relaying the other characters' appearances to the audience, but with the female characters he's usually describing them as they appeared in PIDW, and I sincerely doubt PIDW ever took much time to establish that any given male character was nice to look at.

Anyway. I'm digressing.

As for Binghe...

God, even when I'm trying to talk about Binghe I'm talking about Shen Qingqiu, aren't I??😔

The problem with Binghe, I think, is that he fixates so heavily on Shen Qingqiu to the point of obsession. Like, sure, it's hard to imagine Binghe (as we know him in SVSSS) being attracted to a woman, but it's equally hard to imagine him being attracted to a man that isn't Shen Qingqiu. He just has such singular focus on the person he's fallen for that you might just as well label him "shizunsexual" as anything else.

So if you heard that he married a man in one timeline and a bunch of women in another, and took this information in isolation, you probably could conclude that Binghe is a bi/pan dude who just got really invested in one specific person to an extent that it permanently blinded him to anyone else he might have otherwise shown an interest in, and that this one specific person just happened to be a man.

However, I do think it was MXTX's intention for Binghe to be specifically read as gay, and not just because she's a BL author with a fondness for making her romantic leads only ever have feelings for one single person (and by extension, one gender) in their lives. The Bing-ge extra just doesn't make sense to me if Bing-ge was genuinely attracted to women. And the story overall, I think, makes more sense when that's not the case as well.

Firstly, I want to emphasise that Airplane didn't originally plan for Binghe to be gay. This is a common misconception that I think stems from his teasing remarks to SQQ in the last chapter. In truth, his original plan was for Binghe to not have a love interest. Binghe was supposed to be a tragic protagonist destined to die alone and unloved. Airplane might have added all the wives in for fanservice, and it's obvious that he thinks he's been writing a straight character since he seems genuinely shocked and even upset(??) when he finds out Binghe is gay in real life, but...at the story's core, Binghe having a loving, positive relationship with someone who meets his emotional needs was not part of the plan at any point.

I want to pull up a quote that I think is incredibly telling. This is how Shen Qingqiu describes the scene in PIDW in which Binghe loses his virginity:

The girl thought, "Since I'm about to die, I must leave behind some memories to ensure that my life won't have been in vain. I don't have many days left, after all, so I won't suppress my feelings anymore."

Then, using her weak and fragile body, she pushed Luo Binghe down.

Luo Binghe put up a brief show of resistance before telling himself "She did it all for my sake. I don't have the heart to reject her final wish." He yielded, still half-reluctant, and went along with it...

(Vol 1 Page 143 of the official translation)

Which is just...utterly tragic. I do want to be clear that it's perfectly normal for men to not actually want sex all the time, even with the gender that they're attracted to. Even if Binghe were totally straight it wouldn't be weird that he didn't want to have sex with Qin Wanyue in a life-or-death scenario like the one above. This scene on its own isn't proof that Binghe doesn't like women, but I think it does show that Bing-ge didn't start out chasing women indiscriminately; his very first time was being pressured into it.

Here's the thing. Bing-ge had no positive male figures in his life, especially when he was young. All the men he encountered were indifferent to him at best or outright cruel at worst. He spent his formative years alone with no permanent caregiver. The Meng Mo arc suggests he was on his own until the age of four or five, and that he was regularly beaten on the streets, usually by men. Once his mother took him in, she became his safety and his shelter; it was the two of them against the world. When he loses her, he resolves to join a cultivation clan to get stronger, and is immediately chosen by a graceful and talented immortal—his dream! For the first time, little Luo Binghe allows himself to believe there's going to be somebody else in his life who will protect and mentor him—but then the harsh reality is dumped on his head and he's alone again. His new Shizun punishes him harshly and encourages others to bully him. His shixiongs are only too happy to oblige. His sect leader turns a blind eye to his abuse.

But Ning Yingying...Ning Yingying is naive and a bit tactless and sometimes her interference causes him more problems than it solves, but she's well meaning, she seems to like having him around, and she's the only person who will stand up for him despite everyone telling her not to. In PIDW, she was the person he trusted the most during his time at Qing Jing Peak. Admittedly not a very high bar, but he has a friend. And then the others. Liu Mingyan, Sha Hualing, Qin Wanyue, the Little Palace Mistress...these are people who make him feel wanted. Needed.

It's a really interesting and frankly tragic mirror to Shen Jiu, who was also abused by men and for whom women became his safety. It's also interesting in the ways that they differ. He goes to brothels to sleep so he won't be around men, but there's nothing to suggest Shen Jiu actually turned to having sex with women for comfort in the way that Binghe did. Shen Jiu closes himself off completely from forming relationships with other people, even superficial ones, while Binghe can't seem to stop forming new connections, even if they never manage to satisfy him in the way he really wants.

I think the members of the harem have varying levels of genuine care and love for Binghe. Unfortunately we don’t have the benefit of their POV and we only have brief allusions to what their individual relationships with Binghe were like in PIDW. Breaking down my exact thoughts on each wife would make this essay even more bloated than it already is and wouldn’t add much overall, but in general, I do think most of them were at least physically attracted to him. Some may have married him for political or social advantages, especially once he started to amass power and…eliminate their other options. Some might have wanted the safety and protection that came with being the Saintly Ruler’s wife. I think a good chunk of them were, consciously or not, using him in some way—but Bing-ge is so desperate for human connection (or at least a parody of it) that he doesn’t really care, especially as he spends more and more time using Xin Mo. If he's being taken advantage of, it’s not like he doesn’t have the resources to support it.

But there must have been women in the harem who genuinely loved him, who wished they could be more to him than just an interchangeable face in the crowd. There must have been women whose personalities meshed well with his. Women who earned his trust and his loyalty. Women whom, if Binghe were somebody with the capacity to have romantic feelings towards women, he would have fallen in love with.

And yet, all it took was a few days with Shen Qingqiu to change everything.

Now, I don’t think Bing-ge in the extra was gearing up to give up his harem unprompted. He wanted SQQ to come back with him. I do think that if Bingmei had simply never returned and provided a way back, Bing-ge wouldn’t have regretted the loss, and I also think that if SQQ had gone back with him to join the harem, Bing-ge would have never looked at another woman in his life, but these things aren’t outright stated in canon so I can’t in good conscience present them as indisputable fact. The fandom is pretty consistent on the belief that Bing-ge goes home with his worldview shaken and develops an obsession with SY, and I think that too, but the fact remains that we will never really know for sure how he moves on from that experience. I'm pointing all this out because I really do want to give mspec Binghe as much benefit of the doubt as I possibly can.

But god…I really just don’t see how it’s possible to read the Bingge vs Bingmei extras without coming to the conclusion that Bing-ge is a gay man who is experiencing a genuine positive connection with another man for the first time in his life. He’s hostile and standoffish when he doesn’t know what’s going on, but as soon as he understands the situation, he melts. He looks at Shen Qingqiu like he’s seeing him for the first time. He starts calling his name just because he can, because he likes hearing SQQ respond to him. He becomes drunk on it, unable to stop. He offers to cuddle him to sleep. For somebody who has never had intimate relations with a man before, he doesn’t even hesitate to start seducing him once he understands the situation. Everything is just perfect—right up until SQQ sees through his deception and the facade crumbles.

I don’t think Bing-ge knew he was gay before this point. How would he? Who could possibly have been a focal point for these feelings? The only male friendship we know he had was with Mobei-Jun, and even though Mobei-Jun is also a MLM, he’s not exactly Binghe’s type and they just don’t have the kind of dynamic Binghe needs in a relationship. He’s spent his entire life being the strong one, the one who saves the maiden, the one who carries the weight of the world on his back. So the relationship he truly craves, even if he doesn’t realise it, is one where he gets to be doted on and cared for. Where he gets his hair braided.

See the full post

226 notes - Posted April 6, 2022

im finally reading tgcf

381 notes - Posted January 29, 2022

518 notes - Posted January 10, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Lowkey amused when fic writers make lwj complain about or otherwise express discomfort over eating wwx’s spicy food as if wwx didn’t fully believe right up until the fucking yi city arc that lwj loved spice. that motherfucker would have gone to his grave without ever letting wwx know that their palates were completely incompatible. In an AU where the juniors never got corpse poisoning Wwx surprises his husband one night when he gets home from training like “Lan Zhan, I made you some spicy pork and noodles 🥰🥰🥰 you’re always doing the cooking so tonight I wanted to treat you🥰🥰🥰have as much as you like!🥰🥰🥰are you excited?!” and lan wangji just gives him the sweetest smile ever to grace the face of a mortal man and goes “mn” and sits down and proceeds to eat what is essentially just a bowl of straight chilli oil without losing his composure once

842 notes - Posted April 8, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #long post tw

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astraldoesart · 2 years

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Pinned Post!

Hello! I'm Astral. I go by it/its pronouns. I am very deep within the Markiplier and Jacksepticeye fandoms. Alongside others. I sometimes talk about important world issues but this is mostly a blog for my art and aus. I will also write on here.

Read this post for a laugh :)

[AO3] - [WATTPAD] - [DISCORD SERVER] - [VENMO] - [PATREON] - [COMMS] - [CARRD]

All the Blogs

@sinful-reblog - A blog for me to reblog things of all varities. Contains nsfw.

@dabis-loverboy - MHA writing blog, contains nsfw.

@nixie-writes-aot - Attack on Titan writing blog. Contains nsfw.

@nixies-op-imagines - One Piece writing blog. Contains nsfw.

@fivenightsatsins - Fnaf writing blog. Will contain nsfw (god dont look at me jdmdkdk).

@sinful-decaf - Smaller fandoms/generalized writing blog. Contains nsfw.

@ask-ego-manor - Ask blog for Markiplier egos, mostly Dark and Actor.

@ask-the-septics - Ask blog for Jacksepticeye egos, mostly Anti.

@ask-caretaker-mael - Ask blog for my irissona, Caretaker Mael.

@ask-hurricane-twist - MLP next gen AU blog following the story of Hurricane Twist.

@ask-the-warriors - Attack on Titan Warriors ask blog, including an oc.

@wc-endless-dreams - Warrior cats original comic blog.

@the-sinful-collective - System and vent blog. TWs will be both tagged and under general read mores (I sometimes forget tho).

All the AUs

Ego AUs

Megamind - Antihero au, Anti is Megamind and Jackie is Roxanne.

Werewolf - Antiaverage au, Chase is a human and Anti is the alpha of his pack. Anti protects Chase and his kids from dying after targeted by an enemy pack. Stacy died to a wolf from that pack when Anti first discovered Chase and his kids. Mostly Anti's perspective.

Mer - Schneeplebro and danti au. Dark is trying to wake up a god and Henrik is trying to stop him, Chase gets caught in the middle when Stacy makes and breaks a deal with Dark. Several perspectives.

Skyrim - Dark x Anti x Henrik x Chase au. Chase runs an inn, dealing with the hijinx of what eventually is his three boyfriends (mostly Dark and Anti). Chase's perspective.

Dragon - Marvin x Anti. Dragons have been hunted by humans for decades since the accidental murder of most of the royal family. Now it follows Anti, looking for his dad Chase who had been dragges off by humans. Too trusting, humans target him and almost hurt him until Marvin saves him. Marvin agrees to help. Anti's perspective.

Avian - Several ships. Several avians deal with the world they live with and the evil humans are capable of. Several perspectives.

Crossover - Still in concept. The mers and avians having a crossover where they could meet and what not. Probably won't have a real story or plot. Sub au of the mer and avian aus.

Bird Boys - Chase x Marvin x Henrik. Follows the story of the avian au except Chase doesn't end up dating Anti and Jackie. Chase's perspective.

Gods - The Iplier and Septic egos as gods. So far, no real story except gods go brr.

Undead - Anti x Henrik and Jackie x Chase. Set in the universe of the walking dead, main four boys handle a zombie apocalypse. Starts as Chase's perspective but follows Jackie, Henrik, and Anti.

Sparklecats - I have no explanations. Just the egos as sparklecats. There are two clans even. Septicclan and Iplierclan.

Five Nights at Sam's(FNaS) - Very early conception. Basically fnaf and ego crossover with Anti as William Afton.

IRIS Pokemon - Early concept. The JSE egos(+ Caretaker Nix) in the Pokemon universe.

Attack on Titan AUs

Bertholdt Survives - OC x canon au. Inspired by the song "I Know Those Eyes/This Man Is Dead" from The Count of Monte Cristo. Bertholdt survives the Battle of Shiganshina, switching sides. Chaos ensues when he sees the Warriors again in season 4.

Band - OC x canon. Inspired by the song "Guys Don't Like Me" by It Boys. The Warriors, minus Annie, make up a band. Eren, Mikasa, Armin, and Zakai make up another band. Zakai is dating Armin but meets Bertholdt in a club. She ends up cheating on Armin with Bertholdt's help.

Traitor - OC x canon. Zakai makes a different choice, siding with Paradis instead of Marley when she is reunited with Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie. Her loyalty is grey until its revealed that Reiner and Bertholdt are the Armored and Colossal titans. She ends up running into Armin's arms specifically. Angst heavy.

Warring Pokemon - Early concept. AoT characters(+ ocs) in the Pokemon universe. I just want more pokemon brainrot to be shared.

My Hero Academia AUs

Hero - Where the LoV + ocs have different upbringings, resulting in many to be heroes instead. A "fix it" au of a sort. LoV and the Big Three aged down to fit into UA (with the Big Three being in 2A instead of 3A).

One Piece AUs

If You Died - An au where Lenna dies instead of Lila. Early concept.

19 Total AUs

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instantdinosaurtidalwave · 1 year

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THIS IS NOT WHOLLY MINE!!!!! I was inspired by a couple posts and a set of tags I found but I can’t find the OP anymore. Credit to them for the original idea(s). My apologies, if someone recognizes it, please tell me so I can give proper credit to them!!!!!! [My additions look like this]

Magical Leverage AU, but in the vein of ‘magic was real long ago and has mostly faded into oblivion… except now it’s waking up here and there.

Eliot would have died years ago but some unkind spirit liked his anger and blessed him and now he’s this sort of proto-god of soldiers whose countries used them up and betrayed their ideals. He just doesn’t know it yet. [Doesn’t know he could wipe away the bad eyesight, the aches, the stiffness, if only he chose. But he doesn’t choose. He thinks he deserves the pain, the scars, the reminder of his darkest days. For now, at least. The Team’s young yet, the foundations stabilizing, but even now, their light calls to his. He’ll be more one day. God of the forgotten, of the abandoned, of the lost. Sanctuary for those used and abused by the world, who get tossed into ditches and alleys and left to die.]

Hardison is something new. There is no word for him. He’s making a new world in which he will rule, and he has no need at this time for a name or title. [He knows. He’s more than a little scared of it, except when it gets him the information he needs or helps him save his teammates just in time. And even sometimes then. He knows he’s something new. Something powerful. ‘Age of the geek,’ he says, but he knows. He’s no geek. He’s more. So, so much more than that.]

Sophie is some sort of Unseelie. She follows her rules, appreciates manners, and dispenses her kindnesses as she sees fit. Do not test yourself against her. You will not win. [She does not know this. The Unseelie blood that is her heritage was kept a secret and carefully continued over the generations, until Sophie’s parents met, and made a daughter. What they don’t know is the Moon saw Sophie and gave her a blessing. Sophie may change faces, change names over and over again, but she’ll always come back to who she is.]

Parker is a changeling, maybe. Or Seelie. Or maybe she’s just Parker, the only one of her kind. She hasn’t decided yet. [Parker is Parker. Something new. Wholly unique, irreplaceable, and nothing like anything that’s ever been. Anything that ever will be. Magic likes Parker, and Parker likes Magic.]

Nate is Human. An almost priest who hates himself and all his flaws and weaknesses while at the same time completely convinced of his own superiority. In the beginning anyway. The others are all used to pain and fear and disappointment. They know how bad the world is and they’re trying to survive in it the best way they can. Nate didn’t grow up knowing that, he had his entire world and reason for existing torn away by greed and selfishness and it broke something in him. The others are cracked and chipped and faded. Nathan Ford was broken into jagged pieces, and he picked them up and fashioned them into weapons, forged from the howling chasm in his heart, and as much as Leverage has helped and is helping to put some of those pieces together again… Some of them were too lost or too sharp to ever go back to who he was. The others you can see are competent and scary at times. Nate is fearsome at his worst. He may not have the skills the others do but he is absolutely the one you should fear.

He’s not a good man really, though by some terrifying metrics he is indeed a Good Man, but he has aligned himself with good and he will get there come hell or high water. The thing is, he is the hell, and he is the high water. He is the monster that hunts monsters. The abyss consumed him long ago and that’s just. How it is. He just lives here now because that’s the thing: the abyss consumes you and everything… doesn’t end. You keep living. You keep living even though you are nothing but howling rage in the shell of a man. But then you turn that rage and that abyss upon the monsters that made you and you bring the abyss to them. There are moments when Nate goes completely cold and he is way scarier than any of the others, or all the rest of them combined, like a reminder of what is sitting there under the surface - an incomparably brilliant mind with no heart to anchor it and nothing to believe in. Nate may be Human… but he’s becoming an Archetype.

[Valletta is a seer. Magic, power, potential, she sees it all. She knows Magic is waking because she’s seeing more, stronger, and longer, now. Magic decides Team Leverage needs a little assistance, so it sends Valletta to them. Parker knows the moment she meets Valletta that she’s going to stay. She must stay. They need her to stay.

They do need her. Because the ones who don’t know are starting to figure it out, and the ones that do are getting glimpses of the bigger picture.

Eliot heard a whisper the other day, a voice begging for help, and instinctively reached back, leaping miles and states and half a country to help the kid who fought a war and came home to a different kind of war, before he realized what he was doing and ran himself. Eliot doesn’t think he’s good. Eliot knows he’s done terrible things and is ashamed of them, thinks he doesn’t deserve forgiveness. This… this is not anything he expected. Certainly nothing he deserves.

Sophie, getting into the role for a grift, caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and almost looked past it, because she didn’t have auburn hair. The Moon changes its phase, and so Sophie changes her face, her hair, her body, but will always return to herself.

Nate… well. Nate’s been aware of something wrong for a while now, but he’s also been in denial and just refusing to see it. Until he’s put in a situation where he can’t deny the fact that he, realistically speaking, should not have been able to walk away from that. Where he gives what’s meant to be a metaphorical threat that ends up coming literally true. Nate broke a long time ago, the day Sam died. His metamorphosis started on that day, much longer than the others, giving him more time to see the signs. Granted, he’s ignored the signs so far, but the signs are getting harder and harder to ignore.

Eliot clings to his humanity, clings to the reminders and the good memories Valletta helps him remember; to Valletta herself, as someone who makes him strive to be better than before. The others do, too, but it’s Eliot who clings the hardest.

It leaves marks. They’re all Archetypes, in addition to what they are. Hitter. Hacker. Grifter. Thief. Mastermind. But Nate was supposed to be the honest man who kept them in line and on target, only, Nate can get just as caught up and obsessed as any of the Team. Nate’s their brain. Valletta becomes their center, their Heart of Mercy.

In more ways than one.

Valletta doesn’t tell the Team. It would kill them, to know how deeply, how intrinsically, they’re affecting her. Changing her. Transforming her into one of them.

She’s becoming so much more Other than she was. She had that potential. It’s unlocked to its fullest extent under the affection and friendship of four Archetypes, one Human, one Unseelie, one Parker, and one Hardison, as well as the love of an Archetype and god who adores her.

They know what they’re doing. They must, on some subconscious level, because everyone starts apologizing to her in little ways. Nate dials back on the alcohol and the orders, Parker starts trying to remember to ask before showing up, Sophie asks her about her interests and hobbies and listens to her ramble, Hardison gets her favorite music and movies on hard drives for her, Eliot makes her favorite dishes more often.

It comes to a head, of all times, when Damien Moreau shows up to try and break Eliot, one final revenge for walking away. He kidnaps Valletta, threatens to torture her. The team shows up spitting fire. Eliot shows up, eyes dead, completely willing to become the weapon he once was to end this once and for all.

Valletta breaks through the rage, the darkness, with whispers of Mercy. And transforms. Breaks out of her cocoon like a butterfly. Fitting. The butterfly is a symbol of rebirth and new life. She even has the wings. Agathina Emperor wings. As purple as her eyes are now.

Valletta. Seer, The Heart Archetype. Goddess of Mercy, and Forgiveness. Valletta is merciful. Damien Moreau will wish she hadn’t been, when her family’s done with him, but it isn’t his choice. His life is no longer his own. It belongs to Mercy.]

Again, NOT ORIGINALLY MINE!!! I only added what’s in the italics.

#NOT ALL MINE ONLY PARTS!#iif anyone knows the op please tag and lmk!!!!#Leverage #team leverage #magic au #long post is long sorry

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kaoarika · 12 days

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So, there was a post about "white whales" of unexisting/unrealized media that basically became a reblog prompt post, but OP turned off the reblogs some time recently? I don't know, but I had a draft based on it, but I dunno how Tumblr may bypass that since the draft has been there since August 2022, so... rather than posting it, I will post my thoughts about the twt/tumblr prompt here instead (OP link was this one, with some interesting responses) and I will also turn my reblogs off just in case bc I don't want this post to surface in the tags or search and all that :P

Pop culture "white whales" of mine, or at least, some of them:

Continuation of Kia Asamiya's Corrector Yui. Imagine mystifying this version of the manga for over 2 decades and just now, a few months ago, you find that it was "incomplete" because I don't remember AT ALL anyone mentioning it in the few English fansites that existed back in the day. not even vaguely? :/c I mean, YEAH. I can SEE it only had 2 volumes, but come on.

Edgar Wright's version of the Ant-man movie. That's all.

Obviously the Dance with Devils AYAIBD 2016 event recorded footage that is PRETTY obvious Avex Media did record, but for one reason or another it was never released on DVD and/or BD. And, like, even if Avex DID recognize the existence of the event while including part of the script in the 2020 BD box-set of the series and fan recounts still exist online, the full footage never saw the light of the day. No one knows why, only speculations about it. I find it a little weird, but I have a slight idea on why they did this, as I wrote in another post, years ago.

These are much more local cases, I think? And perhaps not "famous", per se. Some stuff related to original manga-like published series in my country, Mexico. There was a time, before the internet and social media and sites like DA existed, where a couple of local publishers had their hands on publishing manga-inspired comics as anthology series-like in comic book format and in magazine form. The projects seemed to have died because they didn't sell as they wanted, and wanted to focus in better stuff, I guess. And perhaps stuff that I'm probably just scratching the surface of, because it's probably also stuff about authors' disagreements with their editors/publisher and/or more serious stuff that I may not know of behind the scenes. Many of these series were "officially" cut short. The thing is, what I'm partly? sure of is that, at least some of these creators got their works' rights back and perhaps, there's a possibility they DID publish them in some way or form thanks to more indie endeavors and/or the internet and also sold them through the anime/comics conventions circuit (especially in the Valley of Mexico, ie CDMX and its metropolitan area), a circuit I didn't frequent as I live in the north of the country :// (and I only went to the ones in my city during the summer from 2007 through 2016). But, I do remember a more scummy example :/. In a similar fashion as the infamous Tokyopop manga contests in the US, there was this animanga magazine that organized their own manga contest in the mid 2000s. The contest had a winner and I remember they even announced the winner was going to have their own series published on the same publisher and the like... Thing is, the date came and went and I don't remember the series was ever published (and, look, I know some of the magazines I used to buy back in the day had a weird distribution in the rest of the country, but I still had access to newspapers' stands as I lived in the afforementioned Valley of Mexico area until mid 2010). EVEN SO, the artist did some stuff for the magazine, yes. But, eventually the magazine changed their focus to more cartoon/Di*sney stuff and had a more tweeny/teen demography, and this isn't the only scummy thing they did that I remember, btw. I don't even know what the winner even did afterwards, but I hope they, at LEAST, has an artistic hobby or is doing some great stuff in any of the webcomic/webtoon platforms or hosting it in DA or on their own. I don't know. (To add salt to the injury I cannot look properly to what happened to the series per se because there's barely any mention online about the magazine that organized the contest, either. Be it because, again, we -lots of times- fail to archive stuff like this and, even if there was a mention about this online, many message boards from that time and era ceased to exist in the past 10 years and so)

These are all at the tip of my tongue at the moment.

#kao's ramblings

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legend-of-laurel · 2 years

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don't know if the link will work but just two minutes before coming across the plastic surgery post you reblogged i read this. tumblr(.)com/ovaruling/707161429796618240/i-know-we-are-all-critical-of-buccal-fat-removal. people (primarily women/girls) have almost died or even literally died due to unnecessary cosmetic surgery. now feminists shouldn't even criticize but have to accept any and every cosmetic surgery? what ethical doctor would do this to a patient? this is the right side of history?

I will preface this answer with a warning that the post the ask references is originally posted by someone who is an alleged TERF. For anyone who doesn’t want to click on the post for that reason, the OP suffered extremely negative physical outcomes from multiple cosmetic surgeries. The post that anon is referencing that I reblogged is this post by @chelonates: https://chelonates.tumblr.com/post/707168735685935105/chelonates-full-unambiguous-uncaveated-bodily

What happened to OP is deeply tragic. As I said in the tags of the post that I reblogged that presumably sparked this ask, I am also appalled that predatory industries have developed to capitalize off of cis people’s gender dysphoria/body dysmorphia. “Universal access” to body alterations imagines a world where access to these surgeries is not commodified, which I take to mean as not-for-profit. This would remove incentives that surgeons like those that OP encountered have to lie about potential surgical outcomes, rush procedures, and charge exorbitant fees. It would also remove incentives for deceptive advertising of surgical procedures. It is entirely in line with the post I reblogged, and I personally believe morally correct, to object to the continued practice of surgeons who display those behaviors.

What the post is trying to get at is that it’s not for us -- or anyone -- to decide who is getting cosmetic surgery “for the right reasons”. It is not feasible at a policy level to distinguish between people who are seeking surgical alteration in the pursuit of self-liberation and those are seeking surgical alteration because of social pressure to look a certain way. If, for you, there is any morally acceptable reason for people to seek surgical alteration, then there is no morally acceptable way to limit what kinds of alteration people can seek for themselves. I can’t speak on whether you believe that there are acceptable reasons for people to seek surgical alteration.

The post touches on the fact that there are people out there who believe that trans people have a right to surgical procedures that they feel would be harmful or morally degenerate for cis people (and trans people who do not meet their standards) to seek, or which they believe cis people (and trans people who do not meet their standards) should have to pay for. A corollary to this belief is the medicalization of trans identity, which posits that because “real” trans people are “sick” (”dysphoric”), they can be allowed free (well, or less-cost, if you don’t have universal healthcare) access to surgical procedures that are otherwise commodified and therefore cost prohibitive. I think that this is related to the belief that the “legitimate” trans desire to transition is always extra-social, in that it would exist regardless of whether the trans person in question lived in a society that held certain expectations of gendered presentation, and the cis (and the “not-sufficiently-trans”) desire for surgical alteration is always caused by social pressure and/or mental illness. I would argue, and I feel that the post is subtextually arguing, that there is no feasible way to prove or disprove that transness is extra-social while cis body modification is socially determined, and furthermore that there is no basis for holding up presumed extra-social desires as more good, virtuous, or healthy than socially-determined desires; maybe that there is no basis for differentiating between the two at all.

OP’s decision to pursue cosmetic surgery was not healthy for her and it hurt her. But there is no ethical way to litigate that her decision for cosmetic surgery was less legitimate than any given trans person’s decision to transition in such a way that would have resulted in OP being barred from seeking surgical alteration. Essentially what this boils down to is determining which people are mentally fit to seek certain body modifications and which aren’t, which is unethical no matter how you shake it and will always end up harming both trans people and cis people. It is, however, correct in my opinion to object to and act against both the social pressure to conform to gendered standards of beauty that motivated OP to pursue cosmetic surgery, and to object to and act against the predatory industry that lied to her about the surgeries’ potential effects and which profits off of reinforcing gendered beauty standards. The post I reblogged imagines a changed world with regards to access to surgical modification that can’t be summed up by saying “all current instances of cosmetic surgery are good and beneficial”.

All of this is moot, of course, if you don’t believe that trans people should have access to surgical transition and that all pursuit of external surgical alteration is unhealthy/degenerate (or perhaps, that all performance of external surgical alteration is predatory) and should therefore be banned. This may be where OP is at -- I didn’t look at the rest of her blog. I have a feeling this is not where you are at, anon, because of the way you phrased this ask. If you’re interested in where my thoughts came from, my impetus to form a conscious opinion about this at all came from this PhilosophyTube video.

#long post #this took me a long time to answer because I wanted to do it justice

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