#10 my beloathed </3

[grimbeak]

if donna had met jack b4 the world was ending and they had time to talk for more than three seconds it would've been like the martha reunion earlier that season except donna would've actually killed 10 that time

[darewolfcreates]

audio:

[deathshallbenomore]

signora mia per me questo è arabo, lol

[zombiesama]

"Wow yeah that looks bad" Yeah I know can I have the pain meds now?

[angeltism]

ughhhh about 2 have a very boring class . . . .

[utilitycaster]

Fighter Breakdown Tracker, episode 3x78

Welcome to what was originally an opportunity to talk about the myriad wizards (not Myriad wizards, a separate concept) of Campaign 2 that occasionally gets co-opted into other things when the thought arises. Anyway, obviously the main event was the Barbarian Breakdown and, relatedly, the Party Breakdown, due to their Communication Breakdown, giving Allura Vysoren specifically her 19th Nervous Breakdown, but I've already talked a lot about Ashton. How are the fighters doing?

As a reminder: characters are included on the basis of 1. are they a fighter, 2. are they remotely relevant to this campaign, and 3. do I have something funny to say about them. I cannot stress enough how important item 3 is in the decision process; do not make requests, my muse speaks to me and that is how the characters (and, to be honest, classes) are chosen.

Cassandra de Rolo: Yes! According to the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting (not reborn) she's multiclassed into fighter! Anyway that plan to go to the ziggurat went well, huh? totally normal and great. I like to think that due to her rogue levels she saw Fearne march down the ziggurat steps and just peaced out and has been chilling in Pike's little cabin ever since. 4/10: normal "is the world ending" concerns but otherwise she's having maybe the best day anyone on the Whitestone War Council can.

Jarett Howarth: he's specifically avoiding Bells Hells because motherfuckers keep teleporting from Marquet and not bringing any fusaka. This, plus normal "putting the Pale Guard on a war footing and also there's a really mad goat lady in the garden" bumps him up to a 6/10.

Orym: my serious thoughts about the space made for Chetney, FCG, and Imogen to step up aside I honestly think the semi-joking narrative of Orym going off in a huff and working out his feelings quite literally via the power of elaborate bodyweight calisthenics of the sort that grant you 20 Dex and 10 Str would be good for him. Allow yourself a little pettiness, Orym; it's good for the soul. 5/10 because I don't fucking know; we'll see next game.

Ariks Eshteross: I hope he's at peace and buried next to his love as requested; I still haven't gotten around to making those cookies actually and frankly I've had much more of an eye on the gunpowder tea shortbread. 0/10; I like to think he has found true rest.

Bertrand Bell: These motherfuckers have not visited the grave of their namesake at ALL. Traipsing around the Raven Queen's temple - literally everyone but Laudna and FCG has wandered over to that corner of the city - and NO ONE has taken a moment to pause and reflect. He died as he lived: everyone kind of setting him aside for more important matters except for followers of the Raven Queen. 8/10 because hopefully he was entertained by the raven show that got put on but also, come on man you couldn't stop by at all?

FRIDA: I have to imagine things in Vasselheim are wild and it's going to be missing FCG hours, but at least they're in great company! 5/10; they're a pretty even-keeled robot all things considered but the situation is pretty tense.

Otohan Thull: My sole regret about how great this episode is and the fact that we're dropping into the Fey Realm for a bit to have some much-needed time to regroup is that we are likely delaying their richly deserved demise. Anyway everyone's beloathed Palpatine knockoff is unfortunately super unflappable; another reason why they are boring as shit and why I very much want Bells Hells to make the bridge a little bit bloodier on the way up. 3/10.

Percival Friedrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III: Here's the thing. All things considered, his personal position is stressful, but not terrible. The ziggurat did not blow up; Gwen appears to either have not told him about her Delilah incident or did so in such a way that he didn't realize what was going on; he doesn't seem to have noticed the break-in into his parents' bedroom yet; Allura was reassuring re: Whitestone likely being safe (although...it's on a ley nexus so watch out!); and he got to deliver the line "ever since I met you, I knew you were destined for stupidity" which is actually how he specifically blows off steam. On the other hand, every single window in the castle has been destroyed, Allura had to leave, and I just checked and confirmed that Pike does not have the mending cantrip. Maybe one of the local clerics does? Maybe one of his kids does? Maybe Vilya or Ebenold does? Maybe Grog's in town and can be convinced that the role of the Grand Poobah etc etc is fixing windows? 6/10.

[justabigoldnerd]

10 Questions For Writers

Thank you so much for the tag, @cha-melodius !!!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

57

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

446,540, and all but roughly 40k of those are from TMFU fics 😅

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.", but I have published for "Stranger Things" and "Our Flag Means Death", and have, in the past, written for "MARVEL", "Supernatural", and "Hetalia"

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to!!! Comments are the lifeblood of Fandom (in my humble opinion) and I go and reread comments I've gotten all the time 🥰 I'm collecting my favorites and I'm gonna make a wall of comments to fight the demons in my brain trying to tell me I'm awful lmao

5. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

6. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, a long time ago. It never got finished 😅

7. What's your all-time favourite ship?

*wraps tail around my hoard of ships and hisses* YOU CAN'T MAKE ME CHOOSE

8. What are your writing strengths?

I pride myself in my characterization, and I feel like I've gotten really skilled at vivid descriptions. I'm also proud of my body horror 😀

9. What are your writing weaknesses?

PLOT, MY BELOATHED AJFAKFZTSKTZ Plotting, planning, ending things, my dialogue could be better in places

10. First fandom you wrote for?

Either "Hetalia" or "Supernatural", its been so long that I don't remember which it was 😅

No pressure tagging @huggiebird @happybean17 @falling-into-peril @heytheredeann @pippinoftheshire

@bighandsforabigheart @kcscribbler @yallwildinrn @nicijones

@the-golden-comet @thattripleabattery @too-young-to-fall-in-love @times-up-alone-tonight

And anyone else who wants to join!!!

[pokeberry5]

i have a lot of opinions about dick’s mullets so i’m sticking those—accompanied by bad comic screenshots—below (and bonus tim):

1.

my favorite. i like the combination of slightly floofy on top and ponytail. 10/10

2.

my beloathed. i hate how it looks in the comics but idk the way i drew dick looks kinda hot so. 3/10

3.

i’m ambivalent about how the free flowing fluffy mullet looks in the comics but i really like how fanartists draw it (i can't). 8/10

4.

i really like how this looks in the show! i think it’s cute! not sure about the front poof in the version i drew though so i’m deducting points. 7/10

5.

i know this is essentially 1 but with his hair down instead of in a ponytail but idk i don’t really like it. 5/10

6.

it’s fine? but it’s kind of boring. 6/10

7.

i like the long sleek ponytail. 7/10

for tim:

i actually really like both his 90s hairstyles but 2 is really hard for me to draw so i default to 1 (anime girl hair vents).

[inquisitor-apologist]

Force, I am SO frustrated with the Filonification of popular Star Wars. People keep on trying to make arguments about Star Wars, yet they refuse to actually watch Star Wars and make sensible criticisms about it because they’re literally just parroting whatever weird non-canonical shit Felony spit out in an article last week.

I was looking at this article:

And I was legitimately trying to look at the criticisms and see if I can agree with any of them, but they don’t make any sense and I can just feel Filoni oozing off them.

So imma rant, got it?

Mistake Number 1 that led to the fall of the order: They were too much into politics.

More specifically, the article claims that “they very much had a hand in the flipping the Senate” with reference to the Vote of No Confidence for Valorum in tpm, but it’s been a minute and a half since I saw the prequels, so I read the Wookie summary, and I might’ve missed something but I don’t think there’s any mention of them, like, voting or doing anything significant in the Senate in ep1? I feel like it would’ve been mentioned if it was even vaguely implied that the Jedi mind tricked the senate or lobbied for the vote to go one way or another, but it isn’t mentioned anywhere and it don’t square with what I remember, so I’m guessing they just made this up and convinced themselves it was canon? Tell me if you can figure out what they’re talking about or if there is a canon basis I missed.

Other than that, I do not remember a single scene where we saw the Jedi do anything more political than take orders from politicians or exist in the senate building in the prequels.

Mistake Number 2 that led to the fall of the order: Suppressing Baby Murderer’s emotions.

…A Take, certainly. So this one’s talking about Anakin’s grief over his mother’s death, which I agree would be a fucked-up thing to suppress. That’d suck. If it actually happened because… the Jedi do not know that Anakin’s mom is dead. They do not know that Anakin and Padmé went to Tatooine, since they were ordered to stay on Naboo. They are utterly unaware of everything that happens on Tatooine aside from Yoda feeling the Tusken Massacre in the Force. Yeah, Anakin told Obi-Wan that he’d had dreams about his mom dying, and he didn’t do anything about it, but that wasn’t Obi Wan suppressing Anakin’s emotions—that was just him saying that it sucked that he had a bad dream, since I don’t think Anakin said it could’ve been a vision or anything, so this one doesn’t land at all. Where did they get this idea???

Mistake Number 3 that led to the fall of the order: ‘Allowing’ Maul to take over Mandalore (somehow?)

I can feel my brain cells dying. Maul joined up with a terrorist group and some crime gangs to forcefully take over a neutral system. None of that was ‘allowed’ by the Jedi. They also say that the Jedi ‘sent’ Obi Wan to get rid of Maul when I remember Yoda telling Obi Wan some shit like “Send anyone to Mandalore the Jedi cannot” and then Obi Wan went to Mandalore anyway and it didn’t do shit. Anyway I feel like the author of this article might own a ridiculously annoying cowboy hat. Just a hunch.

Mistake Number 4 that led to the fall of the order: Baselessly Exiling Ahsoka (Baselessly?? There very much was base)

So. Wrong Jedi Arc my beloathed. Here we are again. The article claims that the Jedi “exiled Ahsoka Tano on mere suspicion alone and didn't even confirm whether she was involved in the bombing of the Jedi Temple or not”. Which. Hmm. So, there was a big investigation into the bombing that pretty definitely said that Ahsoka was almost certainly the bomber. It wasn’t ‘mere suspicion’, it was all the fucking evidence very clearly pointing to her. She ran away, she worked with a damn separatist assassin, she was found in a warehouse filled with the bombs. The audience know she was framed, but the characters don’t because the whole point of framing someone is to convince the other people they did it. If the Jedi had exiled her for this, they would’ve been being very reasonable and justified. Will also point out that the Jedi were forced by the Senate to exile her and did not want to. They apologized and let her back in as soon as they possibly could.

Also there’s this weird (actually!) baseless claim that Ahsoka was one of the most powerful Jedi in the Clone Wars. Which has no proof because it’s untrue—she’s a padawan with max 2 years of training. There’s no way she’s more powerful than a fully trained knight, of which there were still quite a few. But of course she is, because she’s Felony’s beloved OC who can do no wrong.

Mistake Number 5 that led to the fall of the order: Not giving Baby Murderer power

I am convinced that no one involved in writing or editing this article has actually watched RotS, and has only ever listened to Felony talk about RotS. They claim that ‘they invited Anakin over to the Council as a pseudo-member and his only task was to spy on the Chancellor. Not only was this political meddling once again, but it was also an insult to Anakin’ oh no, they insulted Anakin, clearly this means he’s justified in murdering them! Also, the Jedi Council apparently wanted to appoint Anakin, they weren’t literally forced into it by Palpatine. You know, that scene where Palpatine is like “yeah, I’ve forced the council to put you on the council even though they don’t want you there. You’re my spy on the council now” that didn’t happen actually. The Jedi were completely evil in not allowing the unstable baby murderer a full seat on their governing body when they were forced to put him there through nepotism. Them asking the only guy who’s close enough with the chancellor to investigate him because he’s overstayed his term and is overreaching with his powers is also completely evil and awful and unjustified. Uh huh.

Mistake Number 6 that led to the fall of the order: Mace Windu Wants To Kill Palpatine Right Away (direct quote from the article)

Yeah, you read that right. I can’t make this shit up, but filoni sure as fuck can. So, Mace Windu learns that the shady Chancellor that’s been overreaching with his authority and has overstated his term is also an evil Sith that has manipulated both sides of the war to gain power, causing the deaths of millions, including a shit ton of Mace’s people and friends, because said chancellor drafted them to fight in the war that he created. This would make Mace pretty damn justified in killing Palpy imo, but Mace specifically goes to arrest him for his crimes. Palpatine then kills three other Jedi Masters in cold blood and attempts to kill Mace, and when Mace beats him he still tries to arrest him—y’know that whole “You are under arrest, my lord” bit?—until the guy tries to fucking electrocute him with his fucking hands and it becomes clear that there is no way to take him in peacefully. Only after palpatine murders 3 people in front of him, attempts to murder Mace in combat, and makes it clear that he cannot be taken in alive does Mace attempt to kill him. No matter how you slice it, that’s not him wanting to kill the bitch right away.

Also the article tries to say that Anakin wanted to bring Palpatine in because he recognized that he should stand trial, which is technically what he says, but he also screams “I need him!” in that same scene so I think we know why he really doesn’t want Palpy to die.

Mistake Number 7 that led to the fall of the order: They didn’t train Luke and Leia

Now this might seem baffling because the article is supposedly talking about things that caused the fall of the order and Luke and Leia weren’t even born until after the fall of the order, but I can assure you that the article does not explain this in any way.

Still, let’s pretend this makes sense with the subject of the article and press on. The article asks what was stopping Obi Wan from training Luke as a Jedi on Tatooine. I feel like the answer might have something to do with the fact that the twins were so powerful that the Jedi were afraid that the emperor could sense them if they were next to each other. Formal training would make them stronger and more likely to be sensed, so they didn’t do it until they had to. This probably would be the most reasonable thing in here if the article wasn’t about what caused the fall of the order.

Mistake Number 8 that led to the fall of the order: Not telling Luke about Vader

Yet another Thing That Lead to the Fall of the Jedi Order that somehow happened after the fall of the order, but if I focus on that I might start screaming, so we move on.

This article leads you to believe that all the problems in ESB could’ve been solved if only Obi Wan had told Luke about Vader. Hmm. Yoda says in RoJ that Luke wasn’t ready for the information when he was told at the end of ESB, which seems very true based on the fact that Luke was unable to accept the information when told, was described by George Lucas as suicidal afterwards, and is suddenly unable to consider killing Mr. Evil Baby Murderer Space Fascist afterwards because of their family connection, and you want Obi-Wan to tell him earlier?

You know that OT Luke would, upon hearing that information before Cloud City, have immediately jumped in his X-Wing and raced to confront Vader. If he found Vader in that state, Luke would’ve been even more unbalanced and unfocused, which would’ve lead to him losing the duel worse and being either killed or captured by Vader, since Leia wouldn’t have been close enough to save him.

Mistake Number 9 that led to the fall of the order: Not believing people who had been dead for 1,000 years were back without proof

I want you to imagine a hypothetical with me: a guy that is somehow vaguely influential in politics walks up to the UN and tells them that Leif Eriksson and the Vikings are back and coming to kill everybody. This man has no proof beyond what he and a couple of people with him say , and there has been no indication of this at all before he shows up. I know in that scenario I’d want the UN to throw him out until he had proof.

That’s the modern day equivalent of Qui Gon telling the Jedi the Sith are back. He’s making a huge claim with no evidence. You can’t expect the Jedi to immediately believe him no questions asked. The instant there’s actual proof of this, we see the two most influential and powerful Jedi, Mace and Yoda, talking about how they need to look out for other Sith. They are taking the threat seriously, they just aren’t omniscient like the audience.

Mistake Number 10 that led to the fall of the order: When they were enemies of the state who would be killed if they didn’t hide, they hid

Truly, a horrible mistake. Now they’re mad at Obi Wan and Yoda for going into hiding, unlike other survivors of Order 66. Other survivors such as Kanan, Ahsoka, Cal, and Quinlan, perhaps. All of these characters went into hiding. Cal and Kanan were forced out of hiding, and Ahsoka helped with the early rebellion while remaining in hiding, but pretty much every order 66 survivor tried to go into hiding.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go cry.

[number1traumalover]

This is random af, but I just finished watching season 4 of TUA(the umbrella academy) and I am extremely agitated

So, multiple paragraph long(super long) rant under the cut

First things first, let me clarify that this series isn't the worst I've seen, and that s1 and s2 were both goldmines. I do think season 3 and 4 definitely could of done better, though.

To sum up s4 in a few words, RUSHED, UNNECESSARY, and PLOT HOLES. For example, the entire love triangle thing Diego, Five, and Lila was unwanted and pointless. Not only did it degraded Five and Lila's characters so much(c'mon five, you're smarter than that), it was also just a waste of screen time. Lila and Five getting lost on the subway contributed almost NOTHING to the story. It was mainly just a setup for the pathetic relationship they had. The only beneficial thing that came out of it was Lila and Five being able to navigate the subways, which led to Lila's family and Allison's daughter escaping(this was also a terrible writing choice, but we'll get to that later). By pitting Diego, Five, and Lila together they unraveled 3 WHOLE FUCKING YEARS of hard work and dedication to getting Five to slowly grow on them. Overall, 0/10. Hated the love triangle.

For another example, let's talk about the variety in quality, shall we? I will admit that the first 2-3 episodes of season 4 were pretty decent, and I actually liked them, but you could see the quality of the episodes just go down as you progressed through out the season. The ending was clearly rushed, and to me it seems like they were running out of a budget and they knew it. Not a great look, 0/10.

Anyways, its time for my dearly beloathed plot holes. Since I have too many and it would take too long for me to explain them all, I'll just list them all quickly.

Wouldn't Grace, Claire, and Lila's other kid existing in another universe cause a kugelblitz to exist, since their mothers are dead, and thats exactly the reason for why the Sparrow kugelblitz existed?

What happened to the other children with Marigold in them? There were 43 in the umbrella timeline and 19(give or take) in the Sparrow timeline. Why would they also get obliterated when the umbrella siblings got consumed by the cleanse?

Why did Luther get his monkey body back when he drank the Marigold? The monkey body had nothing to do with the Marigold, henceforth shouldn't be associated with his powers.

If it was made so that Five never existed in the first place, then the Commission never would've existed, meaning that Five never would've been hired to assassinate Kennedy, meaning that the whole fucking timeline would be messed up(there's probably more examples of this)

Speaking of the Commission, why did Five found it in the first place? The old Five in the freezer at the commission had half of his arm chopped off, meaning that he founded the commission after the scene with the Guardian. He would've had to reset the timeline in order to gain access to what he needs to start he Commission, but if he reset the timeline, then he wouldn't have his arm chopped off, meaning that in another universe, Five and the others found a way to escape the Oblivion without resetting the timeline. If so, how the fuck did they do that??

Killing the tua shouldn't have erased all the Marigold, since Reginald's wife would've still created the durango and marigold on the other planet BEFORE it had reached earth. And if Five and co didn't exist, the Marigold just would've found another host. THIS DOESNT MAKE SENSE??

The new powers that some of the tua members got make no sense??? Why can Lila shoot laser eyes AND copy powers? How come Klaus can fly? That has nothing to do with his spectral themed powers, and everyone knows that he just makes himself levitate by having ghosts lift him instead. In the scene where Diego is delivering packages (the night after Ben spiked their drinks) how come he's able to make them land directly where he wants them? There's no metal in letters or envelopes??

(There's more plot holes, but I don't have the time and patience to list them all.)

LONG story short, the ending to the grand series finale was kind of disappointing. I genuinely think they could of done a better job on it.

[therodpod]

it is time for my ranking of Optimus Prime’s parenting skills… which are only semi-serious (at best) and mostly consists of inside jokes. Enjoy.

1. Starting off strong, G1!Optimus: 7.9/10.

Okay listen, technically speaking he was everyone’s dad BUT he looked like he was about to strangle anyone that wasn’t Bumblebee on more than one occasion, and plus he died :/ which totally wasn’t cool, bc it made my bbg hate himself♥️. and there’s also just like. his treatment of the Dinobots… so. Yikes, king. Points were doxxed xoxo.

2. My personal favorite—Cyberverse!Optimus: 8/10.

I’d give him ten out of ten for being an absolute MILF but he also let’s all three sons be absolute demons and never seems to know where they are, AND gives the impression that he’s locking himself in the pantry and eating a snack just to escape them for a few minutes (https://youtu.be/CHWMIAaUj1M), so sorry babe. being a divorced single mother is never easy, but you look fantastic doing it ((btw he’s PTA parents with Grimlock, but unlike him, he never knows what’s going on)).

3. Honorable mention bc I technically haven’t finished it. Armada!Optimus: 7.9/1

He gives me army dad awkwardly trying to raise a military brat and that’s why it’s so low, bc while he isn’t a terrible parent TECHNICALLY SPEAKING, he’s still in the army and is raising his son in it. like maybe the kid wanted to make art, man. SMH.

4. IDW!Optimus, my beloathed♥️. 5/10.

Bumblebee is the golden child who has never done anything wrong in his entire life in Optimus’ optics, while Rodimus is the estranged son who he only sees on the holidays MAYBE and whom he hates. In fact, I’m doubtful he even likes seeing him that much.

5. #Boymom Prime!Optimus: 9/10

another one who gets points redacted bc did you see him with Smokescreen? that man is a boymom. He believes boys will be boys and posts on cyberbook “I didn’t know love until I looked into my sons’ eyes; ‘til are one; my little rascals are starting cube-ball soon and it’s so tiring driving them everywhere but I wouldn’t have it any other way!! #BoyMom.”

6. Netflix!Optimus: 0/10.

not a parent, boo.

7. Twenty-Three-Old-College-Dropout Animated!Optimus. 2/10.

I give him two points bc he’s more like their older brother, but he also hasn’t straight up killed them so that gives him /some/ bonuses. Bee’s like fourteen, and Bulkhead’s like fifteen, and he’s barely twenty-three living with Prowl who is a HIGH-SCHOOL dropout at twenty-five and is a hippie who smokes a blunt in their garage—and Ratchet is in his mid-seventies and never leaves his room, so you can see why he deserves the two points for not snapping.

8. Earthspark Optimus, ‘the cool dad’: 8.9/10.

He’s delightful and awkward and tries his best, but he’s also obviously overworked and doesn’t always have time to be there emotionally for Bumblebee; he also hates his son’s ex and I’m sure threw a party when him and Breakdown broke up, despite being divorced himself (Elita-1) and having an /interesting/ past himself (Megatron). hope that helps. Still better than IDW.

9. Half-joking, Japanese!Optimus. 10/10.

Idk what’s going on there, but he looks delightful.

10. Optimus Micheal Prime, Bayverse: 1/10.

just the worst parenting my man, somehow even worse than IDW!OP bc atleast he /liked/ Bumblebee. he started really good during the first movie, and then it must q u ick ly derailed. somebody send CPS on his ass.

11. Beeverse!Optimus: 10/10.

watching him go John Wick on the decepticons so Bee could escape? delightful. the fact that he sent him on the “‘safest’” planet in the galaxy? hilarious. the ‘very well’? my favorite op line in all the continuities. also one of his best designs ONG.

12. The man, the myth, the legend - Optimus Primal. 7.9/10.

mostly going off that one gag where they were too scared to tell him they did something wrong, I have built my personal headcanon. I feel like Primal has made Cheetor cry when he helped him with his math homework, and will even beat Rattrap’s grown ass if you catch him in the wrong mood. (he’s literally just this tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRKX4t93/) ((and it’s definitely cheetor and rattrap)).

13. Finally, the end––RID2002 Optimus Prime: 6/10.

he never knew what was going on, SMHHHH. Wedge fraternizing with Sky-Byte? who knows! he certainly doesn’t. Side-Burn potentially becoming his future-in-law and Just Being Like ThatTM in general? well he never talks to Ultra Magnus anyway, and boys will be boys, amiright? but don’t be fooled, though, I love Car Robots and I would die for all of them. thanks for coming to my Ted Talk

[ultraviolet-ink]

1, 8, 10, 13, 21, 22 and 25 >:)

ohohohohohhOHOHOHOHOHOH you came right out the gate, I love it XD 1- the character everyone gets wrong

NGL Kazuma, he's too cool, everyone forgets that this loser is cringe and fail (can't even do a tongue twister, smh). Like not to say he's a total buffoon, but he might think he's cool, he really isn't, and I think that's the charm I enjoy about him! He's a cringefail babygirl loser first and a human being second <3 8- common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about Maya and Phoenix are siblings..... ahhh nuclear family-ification of the found family trope my BELOATHED. ATP, whenever someone says "teh SIBLINGSSSS" they're just trying to say "this isn't a ship!!1", and like, at least say the former with your full chest. If I saw my sister in a maid dress, I would NOT think what Phoenix thought when he saw Maya. (Obligatory, I don't even ship them, I just think it's kinda sexist to say that a man and a woman can't JUST be friends, they have to either be dating or siblings)

13- worst blorboficiation

As much as I love "eheheh BORGOR" like any other dorkass, but Maya really is a lot more than just hehehehe Borgor, omg nick just confess to Edgeworth!! Like, she is in touch with her inner child, which is really impressive considering her whole.... EVERYTHING... and she's very protective of Pearl, in the hopes of giving her the childhood that she, or MIA, didn't really have. I think a lot of the times, Maya gets shafted (and I'm guilty of this too) in favor of NRMT and is nothing more than "haha borger" and a footnote, which sucks because she IS Nick's best friend after all 21- part of canon you think is overhyped

sorry, not sorry, but Kazuma's return at the end of 2-3. I wasn't really all that attached to him by the time he died, and then the way he acted in 2-4/5 made me icy at best towards him. I'm slowly getting to like him because I have friends who really like him, so this is out of diplomacy lol!! But ye, I was just kind of like "huh... nice..... wait WHERE TF DID BAROK GO???"

22- your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

This is something at the end of AJ, so you know it's juicy when even CAPCOM ignores it, but there's this sort of ending scene with Phoenix where he's talking about how Trucy hides how she really feels and he's the only one who can see her vulnerabilities. It really made me think about Maya (and Trucy is in second place for the blorbofication question), and I thought it was a really neat parallel to the OT..... and then Trucy basically became a lamp in the next two cases ToT

25- common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

"pEoPLe sEriOuSLy sHiP--" yes, shut up, it's the internet, even if you don't like it someone ships it. grow up. this goes for any fandom btw

[aromantic-enjolras]

20 questions for 20 writers!

Thank you @pumpkinspice-prouvaire for the tag! Let me see what I can do with this...

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Holy fu- Fourty-four??? When did that happen????

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

122,025. One third of yours, pumpkin!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently Les Mis and Jesus Christ Superstar. I used to write for Cats a few years ago, and I wrote Sherlock and Harry Potter once upon a time. I also wrote Stranger Things once, but that was a gift for @p-trichor and I don't think I will again (writing about characters from a show you've never watched is stressful!)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Rumour Has It (Les Mis, ExR Prof AU). Good Enough To Eat (Stranger Things, vampire Steddie). Merlin (TV) according to Ao3 (Merlin, not technically a fic). Ne m'aime pas (Les Mis, aro!Enjolras). Sleepy Love (Harry Potter, Wolfstar). my beloathed, so happy it's almost out of the top 5

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try to!! I love getting comments, so I do like getting back to people. Though sometimes someone leaves a comment so elaborate and so kind I freeze at how to make a good enough response and I never do. So... @buffintruder I promise I cherish every single one of your comments please don't be hurt if I don't answer!!!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Uuuuuh.... I guess depends on your definition. If we're going for implications, it would be "A Kiss With a Betrayal (Is Better Than None)". Nothing that bad happens, but it's the setup of Judas' betrayal of Jesus, and shit gets daaark after that. If you go with actual sad ending, "I Wanna Ruin Our Friendship" would have to take it. Enjolras cries so much in that one.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

"Curiosity Trapped the Cat", probably. It's just so cute!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not anymore, thankfully! When I was a fandom youngster I got a very angry comment on a Jily (Harry Potter) fic from someone who was enraged Lily didn't end up with Snape, and someone who ripped me a new one for using a word that turned out to be perfectly neutral in my native language and a slur in English.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do! Not often, but I have a PWP on Ao3, actually. For some reason I only do it as a collaborative effort, though: the Courfjolras PWP on Ao3 is a joint fic with @pumpkinspice-prouvaire and I have two Courfjoltaire WIPs with @shamedumpster (called "In the Middle (While you two get along)" and "Skip the awkward (come undone)" ^^).

10. Do you write crossovers?

Same as pumpkin here. I don't do crossovers, but I do love myself a good AU!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Does it count if I was the one doing it? My first fic, the Jily one I was saying, I wrote in my native language and then translated to English. The two versions are on ff.net!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yep! Apart from the aforementioned Courfjolras PWP, I wrote a cute fluffy ExR with @pumpkinspice-prouvaire for the Ace!Enjolras series. Also depending on how you see it the Jesus Christ Superstar is a joint effort with @shamedumpster, even if we are writing separately each bit.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Why don't you ask me to choose a favourite child? Might be easier!

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

A rockstar AU where Courf is an aromantic Bowie stand-in and Marius is his main guitarist and fuckbuddy who gets too invested. I love it, but it's a longfic and I'm not good at sticking to those. (And also it's a Sad Ending rarepair fic. Who is going to read it?)

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm good at keeping people in their POVs and not slipping into omniscient narrators. Descriptions, too.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I get stuck on logistics. Sometimes you just have to handwave shit, you know? People don't need to know when they put the cup down or the position of every guard.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

As someone who is always reading in a language that isn't mine, if I can read an entire fic in English, you can read two sentences in another language and their translation if it works for the character. My caveat to that is in Les Mis fics: do not suddenly have characters say five words in French if they're already all French. It just breaks the illusion that they were speaking French the whole time.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

And posted? Harry Potter. In general? Percival Christopher Wren's "Beau Geste". I hated the ending so much I wrote an entire Fix-It ending.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

"Still Crazy After All These Years", a Courferre second chance romance fic I wrote last year. It's a little more involved than I usually do, with a non-linear narrative and a non-linear writing process, and I think it turned out really well. I feel like the nuance of the situation was pretty well done, too.

Tagging @buffintruder, @quillsand, @shamedumpster and @enjolraspermettendo!

[pumpkinspice-prouvaire]

20 questions for 20 writers!

thank you sm for the tag @television-bodies beloved <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 27

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 359,903

3. What fandoms do you write for? les mis my beloved <3

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Let's Fall in Love (For the Week) Something Good Can Work Never a Flame, We Just Wanted a Spark my beloathed Following the Neon Signs (Waiting for a Word) With My Feelings on Fire (Guess I'm a Bad Liar)

5. Do you respond to comments? I do!!! Sometimes it takes me forever, but I really hate leaving comments unanswered. If you see me replying to a comment you left over a year ago no you don't

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I Don't Know What To Do (With Your Kiss On My Neck)- it's canon era so it's morally obligated to have boatloads of angst

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Following the Neon Signs ends with a second chance romance wedding, but I also love the found family ending in Let's Fall in Love (for a Week). It's CUTE

8. Do you get hate on fics? no, long may that continue

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? tehe yes of course, and I will again and again and again. And idk, the good kind????? What does that mean?

10. Do you write crossovers? I don't write crossovers, but I do love a good AU. They're kind of the same vibe to me

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not to my knowledge

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Not to my knowledge

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes! I co-wrote Mess Me Up (No One Does It Better) with @aromantic-enjolras. When you're in rarepair hell you simply must write the fics you wanna see in the world

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship? Take one (1) look at me and guess

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? My Enjolras goes too far and gets himself in trouble with the fucking mob au. It was fun I was having a great time writing it but also it's complicated trying to work out the logistics I feel. Saying that I've recently revived my Hunger Games AU from like 2+ years ago so never say never!

16. What are your writing strengths? I don't think I know the answer to this uhh like dialogue and general character dynamics? Bestie idk!

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Description holy fuck I suck so bad at descripton. As far as I'm concerned all conversations are taking place in a completely white room with no doors or windows

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I think with les mis fanfic in particular it's kind of funny because, unless otherwise stated in the setting, it's always just presumed that everyone is speaking French, so in that case I don't really see the point? Does that make sense idfk

19. First fandom you wrote for? You wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me (James Patterson's Maximum Ride series circa 2008-2010)

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? Currently, it's Seek and Destroy. But this tag has me thinking of Following the Neon Signs again, I think I'll always have a soft spot for that fic :')

no pressure tags for @shamedumpster @darkgreenandbloodred @aromantic-enjolras @cx-shhhh

[jessequinnfirstofhername]

Controversial Star Wars opinion: the Star Wars universe is one of the most hopeless universes ever. It poses itself as hopeful, but when you look closer, it's really quite dire.

1) Anakin's life is tragic, whatever redemption he may be argued to have was only found in death, but his entire life sucked... so much

2) Padme tried so hard, and still failed, and found no redemption in death

3) Obi-Wan also tried so hard, and still lost everyone he cared about

4) The clones. All of it, everything about them. Sentient, but not free, thrown away like trash when their usefulness has been served, just like:

5) Droids, all of them, everything about them. Sentient, but not free, etc. Even C3PO, one of the most famous droids, is rarely shown respect by *the heroes* of the series.

6) Luke, what he became - a sad, milk chugging hobo who abandoned his responsibilities after trying to murder his nephew, which - seems wildly out of character for the man who held hope for *Darth Vader*, but I digress.

7) The OT trio were apparently so bad at their jobs that the First Order came back as strong as the Empire in only *thirty years*; this makes Leia look wildly incompetent at governing... Which I hate.

8) Love is destined to fail or end in tragedy - Obi- Wan and Satine, Padme and Anakin Han and Leia, the beloathed Reylo.

9) Evil can only be beaten by good temporarily at best, before it somehow returns.

10) Most of the galaxy exists in widespread poverty and slavery and war are common and neverending.

In conclusion, for a universe that presents itself as hopeful and full of hope for the future... There isn't a lot of it.

I do see where you're coming from, Anon. But I have to mostly disagree with you. I'll go through this point-by-point:

Yes, Anakin's life was difficult, and tragic. But was it all bad? He certainly seemed to have happy moments with Padme, Ahsoka, and/or Obi-Wan during The Clone Wars, and after all the tragedy and horror he suffered (and he did suffer, no matter how self-inflicted some of it was), he died redeemed and cradled in his son's arms, becoming one with The Force.

I do agree with this one. Poor Padme's life is a tragedy.

In the end, he didn't lose Qui-Gon, Yoda, Anakin, or any of his Jedi friends. He'll be with them forever in The Living Force. It is a tragedy that he lost Satine, but he didn't lose everyone.

I don't really have a rebuttal here, as yes, you are actually right. It is wrong how they are treated, and canon itself acknowledges that.

...are droids sentient? They have personalities, but... aren't those personalities just programming? I'm genuinely asking, if anyone has a definitive, canonical answer.

I disagree that Luke's character was ruined by TLJ. I kinda liked that a hero as optimistic as Luke eventually reached his breaking point. It makes him more human, which makes him pulling himself out of that rut and becoming a hero once more all the more meaningful.

I think that canon has established thoroughly enough that The Empire/Palpatine still had tendrils all over The Galaxy, making their return as The First Order inevitable. Also, my understanding is that Leia isn't incompetent, but she was politically ruined when it got out who her father was.

...okay, maybe falling in love in Star Wars is a bit of a health hazard. I'll agree with you there.

Yes, there will always be evil out there, but there will always be good to rise up and vanquish it.

There is no defense or rebuttal to this one, as it's completely true. But most fantasy worlds do have their dark, depressing, or seedy sides. Also, we are constantly seeing wars being ended, slaves freed, and hope being restored to the hopeless in Star Wars. We see the misery turn to joy, over and over again.

My own conclusion; yes, this hopeful universe does have a lot of hopelessness in it. But there is also a bright spark of hope that runs through it all.

However, I'm open to disagreement. This is merely my own response to your points.

[asleepinawell]

Fallen London: Ambitions

I've finished 3/4 ambitions now and am almost done with the fourth so I wanted to jot down my thoughts on each. I split it into opinions on story and mechanics for each. The tl;dr version is I enjoyed all the stories but had a range of opinions on the mechanics

some spoilers below

Note that I tried not to use the wiki guides too much while doing these (i wouldn't check what I'd need for upcoming steps, but i would look up how to find resources for the current step if i don't know). If I had I might have had less issues with some, but I don't think they should be judged on the assumption that someone is reading ahead on a guide

Listed in the order I completed them.

Light Fingers

Story: this ambition was Weird. really Weird. I mean that in a good way. I knew from glancing at the spoiler-free picking an ambition guide on the wiki that it was not actually about a heist and had an early twist that got really dark really fast. It contained two of the biggest NOPES for me (getting buried alive and pregnancy body horror) and despite that I had a great time with it. Loved the ending. Loved the Frank and Jasper comedy duo bit. Doing psychological damage to mr fires is my favorite hobby. Also loved the story tie-in at station viii which made me yell

Mechanics: This was my first ambition and I was kind of all over the place in fallen london doing all the things at once, so my memory of this is kinda vague. I don't remember having an awful grind or running into a wall outside of needing to level my stats a little more. It might be rose tinted nostalgia glasses but this felt like the easiest ambition to me and in a good way where it was paced out well.

Bag A Legend

Story: The story was really straight-forward, a complete 180 from LF. I know people consider Heart's Desire to be the more light hearted one, but to me this was the pure fun one. Kind of in a bloodborne way. Big fan of Sinning Jenny and April. Enjoyed the masters lore. Loved feral Veils and getting to make it a mlp. Just a good time all around.

Mechanics: This one went really fast. I'm not sure if it's actually shorter than the others or if I just sped along, but I didn't run into any major roadblocks that annoyed me. There's a big grind x3 near the end, but because it was split into three parts with an important story event between each I didn't mind so much. Also I could tell it was the conclusion so I was ready to work for my ending.

Nemesis

Story: I just finished this one so I may still be riding the high of that, but I think this was my favorite story of the bunch. Especially the whole ending sequence with Beggar's Wake. 10/10, loved it. I appreciated that it tied into the lore of the bazaar and the masters and gave some juicy tidbits on that.

Mechanics: oh, knifegate my beloathed. so I actually started nemesis on my seeking alt, got to knifegate and was like what the actual fuck this is worse than seeking and gave up. I made a new alt who I was committed to basically not playing at all for months to do the echo grind on and then halfway through that they nerfed knifegate. since I then suddenly had enough echoes it's hard for me to say if the nerf really made it more palatable. I know it's a grindy game but I don't think locking people into hitting one button over and over for actual real months for what isn't even the last hurdle in the ambition is a good choice. if it had been my first ambition I might have quit the game. if the grind had been split up the way it was in bag a legend and hadn't been just for echoes (which is so boring) it might not have been as infuriating.

the other thing that got me early on was the iron republic safe pass. if you don't look it up, there's no great way to know how to do it, and even if you find out you need counting the days unless you know to choose the bohemians as your closest to and look up all the places to get counting the days it'll take forever. if you choose the bohemians it goes extremely fast. i don't think that tying in that much of a huge time difference to what faction you choose for an ambition makes a lot of sense, especially when the whole counting the days thing is pretty confusing for a new player

so overall yeah, could use a few tweaks still in my opinion

Heart's Desire

Story: I haven't quite finished this yet, but I'm very close. As such I won't pass final judgment on it, but I'll say I enjoyed getting to meet a wide cast of notable npcs and learning more about them and how wacky it was at the start with the monkey. the boat trip through parabola also stands out as a great part. Could use more Virginia

Mechanics: At the start of this one I thought it was going pretty well, but then. There are a lot of pain points and they hit one after another. Several steps rely on drawing specific cards and like yes, I get it, it's about card games, but that didn't translate well to churning through the deck for weeks for one stupid card. multiple times. next was the 5 card lodgings requirement that dropped out of nowhere. since i got there in February i couldn't do it at sackmas unless i wanted to wait an actual year and the grind to get it starting from nothing was just painful. this is also not near the end of the ambition so it's not a final hurdle or something

shortly after the lodgings grind you find out you need 15 levels of a dream. on my main I didn't get 15 levels of a dream until I'd finished the railway. this alt had some-ish but not nearly enough. so that was another horrible lengthy opportunity deck rng grind. while you can theoretically do some other things while waiting for a card, it does limit you to london (unless you want to let your deck cap and miss chances to get it) and ducking in and out of stories or the lab constantly gets old really fast. so i mostly stopped playing other than for clicking through the deck. at this point I'd lost a lot of interest in the story because it kept being interrupted by huge delays

I am now up to the train with other players part and there's one item i need that there's no good way to work for other than hoping i can get rare successes on some rolls 5x (have not gotten one after two days straight) or wait for the rat market to have what i need if it even still has it after the overhaul. (i did find out there is one other way which requires a ton of prep work but at least there's no rng element). mostly I'm just ready for it to be over at this point which is sad because the story, when i can get to it, is fun

so yeah, 0/10 on mechanics for this one, especially when compared to the others

to put it another way: i started bag a legend and hearts desire at the same time, both on brand new characters. i finished bag a legend months ago. nemesis i started months after those two and it's now done and hearts desire is still grinding on. i started seeking shortly before this and finished that already as well

So yeah, final assessment is great stories all around, nemesis mechanics could have been better, and not a fan at all of hearts desire mechanics