#Funny plot stuff ahead >:]

[cinderduck]

Tale Weaver Part 5

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This one's a little long so the rest is going under the read more

[evilkaeya]

finished reading kaleidoscope of death and watching spirealm... nanqiu my world

[softmeetscreatureplz]

Don't apologize! Not your fault. And also I am prone to panic (panic disorder and currently off my meds) do it's really not your fault at all. And I'm not really bothered by it, it just didn't occur to me you could know and I'm kind of an anxious idiot XDD anyway!! You're super awesome and now that I have a sign off I'm going to probably be here every day. (Plus, I wish I could actually guess who does what anons. I'm not good at that at ALL)

~ 🪼

Shejjwkwkw- kkkk,,, still- sorry I scared you with that!! Very much didnt mean to-,,. Makes sense tho- every time I think someone knows who i am on anon I do end up having like the same response fjdjdkskw. Thank you- you're super awesome too!!!! And yay!!- that's super fun,, your asks are always really nice and it's fun to see in my inbox!!! (Absolutely. Love asks.)

[13eyond13]

.

[fics-lovebot]

jujutsu kaisen fic recs pt. 1

main masterlist - jjk fic recs pt. 2 - jjk fic recs pt. 3

· · ♡ · · tysm to the amazing creative minds of the writers for giving me sevaral moments of joy reading your creations

these are my personal favs, so pls reblog if you like any of my recs❤️

gojo and geto are rich besties and they coax you into a poly relationship - ( @ramonathinks ) smut

you slap their ass - ( @gojoux ) reaction

slut him out - ( @satoruhour ) gojo, geto, nanami and toji version. y'know what,,,idek what to say about thi- IT´S NASTY FILTHY JUST PORN, reader is a whOre (not my words), read at your own risk bc i was SHOOk

bimbo bunny - ( @merakidoll ) smut, choso, toji and nanami version, the vISUALs I GOT FROM THE NANAMI ONE LAWDDDD

break up - ( @yanderenightmare ) angst, bullying, toxicity, I KNOWW this is sukuna

oops! - ( @gumiiiiezzzz ) text, crack, fluff, the 1st and 2nd year boys accidentally confess they like you (fellow student). THIS IS SO FUUNNAYSFJFSDF i love it, inumaki again on sum weird shi

dont scare me - ( @sweetsugarine ) text, crack, fluff, in which you text “we need to talk”. LMAOOO this is too good

fever fever fever - ( @tonycries ) smut, pwp, sex pollen curse. this is crraaazzzzyyyyyyyyyyyyYYY THE TOJI AND NANAMI ONES HAD ME SCREAMING OUT LOUD I CAN´T EVE- wow just wow

accidental nude - ( @satoruhour ) gojo smut, AAND HE SENDS A WHOLE VIDEO!!

gojo tried to give himself a haircut - ( @enkvyu ) this is fuNNY ksksks, I love the banter

trying to break up with yandere!gojo - ( @peachsayshi ) yan!gojo. yep, we´re talkin about lovesick toxic obsessed type of gojo, LDKJSDFJDJFHL

too much - ( @risuola ) ANGSTTTYYYY, fluff too, reader and gojo are in a situationship kinda thing where they live together and love each other but nothing has been said yet, they get into an argument bc gojo has a big mouth and says a lot of hurtful things, they´re both just so exhausted

dorm room escapades - ( @satoruhour ) smut, dad´s bestfriend!nanami, age gap, GAWWDD DAMNNNN, daddy kink, this is some good stuff

swear it´s just right for you - ( @slttygeto ) smut, fluff, hubby!nanami, I´m weaaaak, he´s so husband material

stressed after work - ( @arminsfavoritepookie ) boyfriend! kento, a cute lil drabble bc he loves your mere presence

labour of love - ( @s4lv4tions ) fluff, vanilla smut, lowkey angst if you´ve been keeping up with the manga/anime, loving hubby!kento, SO DOMESTIC, love making, :(

tie my tie, marry me - ( @kenananamin ) fluff, slice of life, "the moment nanami knew he never wanted to tie his tie by himself ever again and wanted to spend the rest of his life by your side" please just do yourself a favor and READ THIS

unprecedented reveal - ( @spideyyeet ) smut, fluff, mma!toji, journalist!reader, lowkey angst, "photo leaks of toji going down on you in public is suddenly exposed for everyone to know about the infamous fighters girlfriend" wELL dssdfh that´ll do it

due date - ( @sleepymarimo ) fluff, big scary dad!toji, UGHHH LOVE ME SOME FLUFFY TOJI

a day at the beach - ( @sttoru ) fluff, slice of life, dad!toji, baby!megumi, wife!reader. this is so cute :33

gimme, gimme more - ( @omgeto ) rich!geto x stripper!reader, lots of plot and build up, he is misteriousssss and fucking filthy and so cuTE??????? wtf, the wating game is real, he knows how to play his cards very well, LAWDD HAVE MERCY i would have folded too

gripping the headboard with one hand - ( @satoruhour ) geto smut, “what a slut.” hELP

picture perfect - ( @ramonathinks ) smut, photographer choso, he´s lowkey a perv, jacks off to oc´s pictures

type of husband - ( @tonycries ) fluff, hubby!sukuna, this is so cute omgggg

bad boy - good toy - ( @yuujispinkhair ) smut, sub!sukuna (YUPP), campus frat boy/fuckboy/bad boy! sukuna, dom!reader, college au. this,,is literally one of the BEST sukuna smut pieces out there, TRUST. I´ve never read anything similiar, it has it ALL I- please, if you want to be horny and entertained, go ahead and read this (may not be everyones cup of tea so pay attention to the warnings). Part 2 is where is at for sure, it deserves many more notes imo

[spinningwebsandtales]

Imagine Bucky Helping You Through A Panic Attack

James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes X FemReader

Rating: T+

Warnings: Descriptions of a panic attack, hyperventilating, crying, hurt/comfort, Bucky breaks into your home, reckless driving, fluffy

Word Count: 1.4k

(A/N:) Went to go see Thunderbolts yesterday and now I'm back on a Bucky kick! I have so many fic ideas for so many characters that it's not even funny! The plot bunnies have been eating my brain so I hope all my readers keep an eye out as I start churning out some new stuff! Enjoy my brain rot for hot dudes! Until next time happy reading! ~Countess

Bucky gunned the engine, the bike taking off with a roar down the street. His phone buzzing in his pocket as he pushed the bike harder. One text is all it took and he was flying trying to get to your side. You didn't ask for much and you didn't like involving him in your what you called meager problems. But that one worded text 'help' was all that it took. If you reached out it was bad and Bucky wasn't going to wait around until you decided that you wanted to push your problems back down and call him off.

Skidding into your driveway while the brakes screamed at the sudden stop. Bucky quickly kicked the stand down and ripped the key from the ignition before running to your front door. He wiggled the knob but whatever was happening with you, made you forget to unlock the door. He rattled it harder calling out your name and waited a few seconds. With no answer Bucky made the decision and with his metal arm ripped the knob and deadbolt off your door. He called for you again and this time he heard you say his name weakly. Throwing the motorcycle keys and the locks on the floor he raced into your bedroom. His heart shattered at your pale complexion as you rocked back and forth on your mattress.

"What's wrong," Bucky frantically looked you over before pulling out his phone about to call for an ambulance.

You were panting, trying to fill your lungs as you hyperventilated. A crushing weight settling in your chest as your heart raced. Anxiety had been bothering you all day but for some reason when you had finally gotten home it had blown into a full panic attack. Normally you could breathe through them and walk yourself through. But you had been pushing feelings aside, tamping them down and it had caught up with you. They finally erupted and you couldn't calm yourself down. So you reached out to Bucky, your rock in this world. He understood what it felt like more than anyone. You had met him so long ago and you both had became friends so quickly. But when your relationship grew, he opened up and it made you realize just how much that he carried upon his shoulders. A bloody past and regrets as deep as the sea. You had been there for him and now he wanted to be here for you.

"Panic," you huffed. Fingernails biting into your arms as you continued to rock. "Attack. Can't. Calm. Myself."

"It's okay," Bucky knelt down grabbing your hands. He didn't pull them from your arms but he worked your fingers to loosen so you couldn't scratch yourself. "I know it's hard and it seems irrational but don't stomp them down. Scream. Cry. But you have to start breathing normal. Can you do that for me?"

You shook your head, tears welling in your eyes.

"I've," you huffed again. "Tried. Can't. Stop."

Bucky nodded before going ahead and loosening one of your hands. He placed it over his chest and his dark eyes stared right into you.

"Breathe with me. Deeply. Slowly."

He started taking in a deep breath and you tried your best to copy in. It was a stuttering breath and it left you in a whoosh as Bucky breathed out slowly. But he wouldn't waver, keeping a firm grip on your wrist. Once again he breathed in deeply and you followed. This time a little bit easier. You could hold the breath a little bit longer but you breathed out faster than Bucky again.

"In and out," he ordered. Never wavering and keeping calm. "You can do this. Slowly with me."

Bucky breathed again and leaned in his nose touching yours. This time you were able to sync with him. You breathed deeply along with him and holding a few seconds before you both breathed back out. Your breath mingling with Bucky's as his puff of air brushed against your lips. You shivered but your rocking had begun to calm and even the weight that was crushing your lungs was beginning to ease. You shivered a little but still Bucky held on. He refused to let go until he knew for certain that you were ready or you told him in all honesty that you were okay.

"One more time," he coached and you listened.

Finally you were breathing better on your own and all the tremors in your body had stopped. Bucky rubbed your arms, trying to will comfort into you before he felt comfortable to leave you just for a moment. He gave you a gentle squeeze before leaving your bedroom and going into the kitchen. Filling a glass with a bit of ice and water he made his way back to you. Taking a seat on the bed beside you, he offered the water and you took it gratefully. You downed it quickly before sitting the glass on your bedside table. You sucked in a breath through your nose and started to cry.

"I'm sorry," you sobbed.

Bucky stiffened but it took him only moments before he was embracing you. Shushing you as more emotions began to slam into your mind. Battering your walls as you clung tightly to his leather jacket.

"You didn't do anything wrong," Bucky argued. "We all have days like this. There's nothing wrong with you and you don't have to apologize to me."

"But I made you come all the way here just because I couldn't control my emotions."

Bucky sighed rolling his eyes but he only held you tighter. "It takes five minutes to get here and like two if you break all sorts of vehicular laws and make yourself a public menace."

You snorted before sniffing to keep your nose from running onto Bucky.

"I don't think you could ever be a public menace," you squeezed him back as the storm within you started to calm.

"You would be surprised. Don't break into any government records on me, you'll lose faith in me."

You finally were able to pull away and look straight at Bucky for the first time since he arrived, "Never."

Bucky awkwardly patted your back and rubbing soothing circles as you drank a little bit more water and grabbed some tissues.

"I'm terrible at this thing called life," you groaned.

"I'm over one hundred years old and I'm still terrible at life," Bucky sighed making you giggle.

"I don't know," you wiped at your tear stained cheeks and eyes before blowing your nose with a tissue, "I think you're doing a pretty good job."

"Thanks and I think you're doing just fine yourself," Bucky tugged you back into his arms. Holding you close and giving you a tight squeeze. "Also I think I owe you a new lock for your door. Cause I kind of broke the one to get in."

"Who knew James Buchanan Barnes was a Dr. Phil and a handyman," you teased while drawing patterns in the dark worn leather of Bucky's jacket.

"Don't tell anyone I have a Winter Solider image to uphold," Bucky stood back up and offered up his hand. You took it as he gave your hand a squeeze.

You had hated texting Bucky, you knew he was a busy man but you were so thankful that you did. He had come racing to your rescue and you knew you could rely on him. Bucky stopped walking when he noticed that you weren't following him and the sight of the adoration in your eyes towards him had him sucking in a breath. He never thought he could earn any normal moments like these. Where he could be loved and wanted. Life had been hard and he wanted to make yours a little bit easier. If it meant he had to speed across town to get to you because of a panic attack so be it. From aliens to rampant emotions he wanted to be there for you no matter what. And now that one thing was fixed at the moment he wanted to focus on a certain doorknob that he needed to replace. But he wanted to do normal life things with you by his side forever.

[ladyloveandjustice]

My Top 12 Favorite Anime of 2024 (and more)!

We had a lot of good anime in 2024, so here's the list of my top 12 favorites and some bonus great anime as well. If you get tired of clicking the review links, check out my anime overview collection for all of them here.  

You can also check out my post about my favorite manga from 2024 here and my favorite books of 2024 here.

These are in no particular order!

Delicious in Dungeon (a.k.a Dungeon Meshi)

Dungeon Meshi  is one of my favorite stories period, and easily my top anime of the year. The basic premise is that Laios and his party of adventurers need to travel through a monster-infested dungeon rescue his sister. Rather waste precious time earning money for food, Laios decides they should just eat the monsters they encounter as they travel. But then that simple plot spins off into so much more...

The story combines cooking and adventure animanga expertly. It has some of the most impressive and fascinating worldbuilding I've ever seen, top-tier varied character design and a great plot. It's also funny as hell, and I love its main cast of nuanced eccentric weirdos with all my heart. Even the characters who have five minutes of screen time feel like you could watch a spin-off series about them.

It's not just about food, but the cycle of life and death, about hunger of all kinds, about ecosystems and societies and finding solace in the monstrous...there's a lot simmering under this story!

So, go ahead and eat up! And read my review here for more!

Mayonaka Punch

Canceled YouTuber, Masaki, meets a pathetic lesbian vampire, Live. Live agrees to help Masaki launch a new YouTube channel, but in exchange, Masaki has to let Live suck up all her blood when they reach 100 million subscribers.

 This is the kind of stuff I watch anime for. This is what dreams are made of.

Do you support women's wrongs? Are you craving some women who are loveable shitheads? Do you want a great ensemble comedy about five disaster vampires wreaking havoc and a cynical human along for the ride? This show has all that, plus some down bad lesbian vampire shenanigans! But there's also a lot of growth for the main character, and the show has a lot of pathos in how it explores how the internet and its outrage train can do a number on one's mental health.

It's a ton of fun! See my full review here!

Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc.

Being a magical girl is no longer the domain of teenagers, and has evolved into an actual career dominated by adult women. Kana becomes a magical girl for a scrappy start up company, and tries her best to navigate working life.

It's the magical girl story about adult women I've been craving for years! Magical girl media often explores the struggles of adolescence and growing up, and this show takes us to the next step by using magical girls to explore what it’s like to be a young woman entering the working world. The focus is one Kana struggling to grow her confidence and accept support from her workplace, but it also has a lot to say about companies exploiting their workers, prizing efficiency and growth over actually taking care of their customers, and it shows how the world could be better than what it is right now. Check out my review here for more detail!

Girls Band Cry

After being bullied, Nina drops out school and ends up starting a band with four other girls, including the woman whose music saved her at her darkest moment. Nina's determined for the band to stick it to the people who once looked down on them. GBC features some wonderfully messy and entertaining teenage girls, actually incredible CGI animation and great music. Nina, the lead, is allowed to be angry and obnoxious and powered by spite, but the narrative sympathizes with her and loves her spirit, even if she sometimes messes things up. All the girls have rough edges and raw emotion and a great dynamic with each other. They also flip people off a lot.

It was kind of screwed over by streaming, but don't sleep on it! See my review here!

Natsume's Book of Friends (Season 7) 

Anime's sweetest boy and his horrible cat (affectionate) are back, and it's time for more yokai adventures! I’ve already talked at length about how this series is special–check out my series review/ Rec post for the series here. I also did an article titled The Courage to Speak: Mental Illness and Recovery in Natsume’s Book of Friends that goes into more in-depth analysis. The story is sweet and charming and sometimes heartwrenching and very important to me.

It's yet another season of lovely, bittersweet yokai tales that tug on your heartstrings, the characters continue to heal and grow in slow but satisfying ways. It just feels so nice watching this series again and letting the love, comfort, and catharsis wash over me. See my review here.

Dead Dead Demon's DeDeDeDe Destruction

A giant mothership is hovering over Tokyo. The aliens have done nothing, not even leaving their ship, but Japan and America are already trying to blow that UFO up, and show off who has the best weapons, causing many civilian casualties along the way. Meanwhile, two girls are just trying to living their lives.

This anime goes hard on criticizing the military industrial complex, Japanese nationalism and imperialism, American imperialism, xenophobia, mistreatment of immigrants, rich people, and conspiracy theorists. That means it's often devastating and visceral, but it also follows some fantastic weird girls and their ride-or-die soul bond, as well as other charming, funny teenagers who are just trying to live in a world falling apart around them. You can also look forward to some plot twists that recontextualize everything you know!

You should also see my review for some content warnings and a really important message about episode order if you want more detail, you can read it here.

Senpai is an Otokonoko

 Makoto is an "otokonoko" ( a term that means crossdressing boy) and he's figuring out his relationship to gender, and hiding his interests from his mother. A girl named Aoi confesses to him, thinking he's a girl. But he reveals the truth, she's ecstatic about it, much to his shock. Meanwhile, Makoto's best friend Ryuji is also crushing on him...

It's tough to be a queer kid in a world full of rigid gender roles and insidious homophobia, and this anime shows the unfairness of that struggle. But it also shows the joy of finding those who accept and understand you, and of slowly becoming comfortable with who you are. The show knows how to make you really roots for these great kids, and it's really good at tugging the ol' heartstrings. See my review here for more!

A Sign of Affection

The anime follows Yuki, a shy girl who's been deaf since birth, and Itsuomi, a world-traveler and polyglot, fall in love. They both live in very different worlds, but as their romance blooms, they're eager to learn more about each other.

A Sign of Affection is shoujo romance at its sweetest, with soft colors, gentle blushes, tender moments, and plenty of warm fuzzies. The animation is beautiful and the show treats Yuki's perspective with care and delicacy as the story goes on. It also have a great focus on communication and consent in a relationship. Read my review here! 

YATAGARASU: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master

In this world, people have the ability to shapeshift into yatagarasu, the giant three legged ravens from Japanese mythology. Prince Wakamiya, who's next in line for the emperor, is thought to be an incarnation of the powerful "Golden Raven", so the four women chosen as his bride candidates (each who carry the hopes of their respective provinces) compete fiercely for his hand. Yukiya, a canny young boy, has been pulled into being the prince's attendant, and both Yukiya and the women soon find themselves pulled into a deadly web of mysteries and political machinations.

Yatagarasu is a tightly woven tale of political intrigue, featuring lots of palace folk plotting against each other, multiple assassination attempts, spies, fascinating worldbuilding and use of mythology, well executed plot twists, and complex characters. Yukiya is a very likeable little trickster with a heart of gold, and he works well as an audience surrogate who has to keep up with all this weird court drama. In the first half, the story focuses a lot on on women contending with rigid roles and how that leads to both enmity and empathy between them. But disappointingly, most of those characters are dropped or have their roles reduced in the second half of the anime, which is a shame.

Overall, this anime is a story that hooks you with it's story and it's dark, majestic atmosphere and never lets go. It's just plain good, and pretty underrated, so I'd suggest checking it out!

The Apothecary Diaries (Episodes 13-24)

The second half of The Apothecary Diaries was somehow even better than the first half, crafting a compelling ongoing mystery and delving into MaoMao’s backstory. There were quite a few big thrills that made me gasp aloud. MaoMao, the world's best poison-obsessed detective, pulled off some show-stopping feats and she remains an incredible, endearing character. Especially now that we’ve learned she has a killer evil laugh. Check out my review of the first part of The Apothecary Diaries here and slightly more detail on this run of episodes here.

Dandadan

 Another one you've probably heard of, it's the story of two kids- Momo, who was abducted by aliens and Okarun, who was cursed by a yokai. Now they have to break Okarun's curese while aliens and yokai are hunting them!

Dandadan is an anime bursting with absurd action and humor, and it has a boppin’ soundtrack and amazing animation from Science Saru. It’s wildly weird in the best way, and the characters are hilarious lovable losers. It's also the rare example of a battle shonen that actually treats its female lead as an equal to her male partner, in screen time and in battle. I adore Momo with all my heart- she's fun, she's bombastic, she's badass, she's everything.

However, the main problem I have with the show is its pattern of putting Momo in sexual peril. I go into more detail about this and the show in general in my review here.

Train to the End of the World

 A story about four girls and a dog traveling across a weird, warped version of Japan to find their missing friend, Train to the End of the World is wild. I absolutely adore bizarre anime about equally bizarre girls, and this delivers. We see the girls encounter a cult with mushrooms growing out of their heads, screaming goatmen and even zombies on their journey. The dynamic between the different characters is great, and the dialogue is snappy. If you appreciate wild and weird zaniness that also has a lot of heart and great friendships, give this show a try. My full review is here.

Bonus Anime- some other stuff you might want to check out!

Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!

Despite an extremely goofy title Cherry Magic quickly became a surprisingly grounded, thoughtful and heartfelt BL romance worth watching. See my full review here.

7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!

Rishe has lived seven lives, had lots of adventures, and in every single one of them, she has been killed as result of the world war started by the emperor of a neighboring kingdom. Each time Rishe dies, she's sent back to the moment the crown prince of her own country broke off their engagement (she's actually pretty happy about it). But in her seventh life, the future Emperor sees her, is instantly smitten by how cool she is and proposes to her. Rishe decides she might as well enjoy life chilling in the palace before things inevitably go to hell.

7th Time Loop has a fun conceit, and it features a vivacious, badass heroine who's a joy to watch. Having lived as a commoner in most of her past lives, she's ready to use her smarts to help people--whether it's going undercover to help a maid who's being bullied or addressing illiteracy among the servant girls. Whether she's beating up kidnappers or politically maneuvering, she's learning and growing and kicking ass. While her love interest is a bit too broody for me, I do deeply relate to how Rishe's badassery clearly turns him on. The antagonists and plot are sometimes a bit silly, but it's always a good time. A josei anime about an awesome gal is just what the doctor ordered.

Acro Trip

A silly show about a magical girl fangirl who's recruited to an evil organization by an incompetent villain,  Acro Trip is a lot of fun, and I recommend it to any magical girl enjoyer. I also recommend it to anyone who loves pathetic failguys and girls. Our "villain" Chrome is the most hilariously pathetic of them all. You like bad boys? Well this man is literally bad at everything. See my full review here.

Whisper Me a Love Song

 I have to give a shoutout to the only textual yuri anime that came out this year--it's production basically completely collapsed, but it's still watchable and the story is a sweet and solid girl band romance. At least consider giving the manga a shot if nothing else! See my review here!

[anxious-witch]

I apologize for irritable tone of this post, but a portion of this fandom is starting to irritate me, so let's analyze catwin through the lens of how age works for ghosts and how situational irony is used in a scene where Edwin and Niko talk about kissing.

Let's start with age. Right at the beginning, when Emma asks Charles and Edwin to take her case, she tries to play it off as her being just a little girl. This is what Edwin replies:

And before anyone jumps the gun and says: "He said SUPERNATURALLY speaking! He is still physically 16!"

Okay. Let's unpack that. Considering how for people who are immortal, which ghosts essentially are, and as such unchanging, that isn't quite a proper argument, is it? Because the way I see it, there are two ways someone could argue this. Either your gripe is about the Cat King finding Edwin attractive despite him physically being a 16 year old or your gripe is that Edwin is mentally 16 and as such, cannot consent.

If it's the first, I think that argument is quite lacking here, because we know the Cat King is aware Edwin is older than 16. And as someone who is an adult and often gets mistaken for a minor, I think the idea that you can just always tell someone's age by looking at them quite funny. Also, by that logic, I shouldn't be able to consent either, because people generally gauge my age to be between 16-18, when I am in my mid 20s.

If it's the second, your point doesn't work because being frozen at 16 would mean being unable to learn and develop firther than what you did by that age. Which we know is false for ghosts, especially Edwin. He changes and develops constantly throughout the s1, and we have a front row seat to that! Human brains aren't clear cut, and before you jump under the post to say your brain isn't fully develop until age 25, I will kindly tell you that human brains, in fact, never stop changing and developing. And that experiences, traumas, etc hugely impact developments of individuals.

One argument I can sort of is perhaps Edwin and Charles having somewhat stunted emotional growth, but as we also see throughout the season, that has more to do with them stagnanting rather than them being unable to emotionally develop. And frankly, I know bunch of adults with the same issues, so.

Now for the "But Edwin said he doesn't want to kiss the Cat King!" argument. How about we look at what Edwin says before that, huh?

He says he has never been kissed and didnt understand the appeal, until recently. And you cannot tell me it wasn't the Cat King who made him realize it. Yes, he wanted to kiss Charles and I am not saying he didn't like Monty too, but if it wasn't for the Cat King getting physically close to him and playing into his desires, he wouldn't have realized that he too, feel physical attraction!

As for him saying "Absolutely not!" When Niko asks him if he wants to kiss the Cat King, I think that's laughable argument to saying "Well, see, he didn't want him!" Because first of all, characters can lie. Edwin most certain, lies about things he wants, both to himself and others, up until pressed.

Besides, if I am not mistaken, given English isn't my first language and I learned this stuff in a different language, this is also called situational irony, aka, someone say something won't/can't happen and then it happens. This is very often seen in romance plots too. A characters says they hate someone and then they end up dating them.

Think of Lizzy Benett and Darcy

And then she goes ahead and married him later, once her opinion of him changes. It's a classic romance trope!

Similarly, Edwin says he doesn't want to kiss the Cat King and what happens at the end? Oh yeah!

He kisses the Cat King. Shocker.

But yeah just like. Y'all are free to not like the ship for whatever reason, but for the love of god, stop making up stuff that's just blantantly untrue. There is an "anti catwin" tag for a reason, if you truly cannot stop yourself from commenting, but in all honestly, you could just enjoy your own ship without putting other ppl's ships down. Cat King is not perfect by any means, but this isn't a predator type of situation. I and many others have addressed the whole "coercion" bit quite a few times so I won't get into it again, but these two arguments I have seen pop up and I just had to address it. Thank you for coming to my ted talk

[moosh2727]

CHARMY AND CLUTCH LITERALLY CARRIED ISSUE 77 OF IDW COMICS

Spoilers ahead, also IM POSTING SO MUCH TODAY WHAT THE HECK

its that area from that one chao racing plot part!

i love charmy in this, gives me the same vibes like the cutscene that plays before digital circut in shadow 05

ooooo i wonder who it is!! if it rlly is clutch!

snack time!!

of course its rough and tumble- when is it not LMAO

WHATS WITH THESE FACES LMAOOOO

hes such a brat /pos i love him, ALSO IS THAT WHISPER, TANGLE AND LANOLIN AS PLAYERS OMGGG!

VECTORS NOW BUILT LIKE A STAGE 2 INFECTED MLP AU /J

Vector does not give a single care and i love it

HOLY CRAP IT WAS CLUTCH BEFORE- HES SO SCARY AND MENICING

i rlly don't like him LMAO he gives the creeps when hes so oddly polite, also charmy is LITERALLY CARRYING THIS ENTIRE STORY

i like the change of atmosphere, it adds to the vibe also when you rlly put all of this into perspective so much stuff has gone down in the idw comics now wth

THERES SO MUCH DRAMA ON THE PAGE IM LITERALLY JUST SENDING THE PAGE WHAT THE HECK- the vibes are immaculate 🫶

jesus christ, this is actually insane perspective-wise omg

the faces are so memeable plus charmy wanting the sonic version of snakes and ladders is so silly to me

charmy is actually killing me /pos hes so funny hes like actually the funniest character in the new idw issue

charmy's getting a gold star for being the funniest person in this issue istg

i understand vectors point but at the same time, it makes sense for clutch to sorta be a sad old man considering hes lost everything, his chateu and job is even owned by rough & tumble of all people

FNAF REFERENCE? /j

seems vector was right also oh my gosh eggman is getting creepier as well

oh gosh he looks so forced and uncomfortable, eggman rlly took at hit on him

dang ig its over, tho whos ready for kit and surge to be back! cause I am!!!

[brookstolemybrand]

Another post because I have more thoughts on the ASL brothers

(btw is there a better word for them bc I kinda feel bad about possibly clogging the search results for the language?)

Anyway, I was thinking about how Ace and Sabo represent different big brother archetypes for Luffy:

Ace is the big brother who has the closest relationship with Luffy. They very much grew up together, Ace trained him, protected him, lightly bullied him, all the classic big brother things. And both of them gave each other companionship, they both kept each other from getting lonely, especially after losing Sabo

Ace is also the big brother that Luffy looks up to, who Luffy strives to follow, who's like the older, stronger, cooler version of Luffy. He has similar (though very crucially still slightly different) ambitions: he also wants to become a notorious pirate. He's also the pioner, trailblazing ahead of Luffy. Luffy is always in some sense following in his footsteps, even as far along as Wano!

(And of course this is why he's the brother who had to die for the narrative....)

His role in the story is also to introduce Luffy to the wider world of pirates, the big league pirates. He is the connecting link between Luffy and Whitebeard and arguably also Luffy and Blackbeard

I also feel like as a big brother he's primarily Luffy's protector; whether he means to or not, he ends up saving Luffy over and over again, from the marines, from Blackbeard, from Akainu...

Meanwhile Sabo is the brother who kind of ends up taking the role that Luffy might have played in another timeline where Dragon raised Luffy as his own. I'm never going to bother arguing over whether Sabo or Ace was actually older, but here Sabo kinda plays the role of the oldest son, destined to follow in the father's footsteps.... except of course for the fact that Dragon isn't originally Sabo's father! He's a father figure Sabo chose for himself!

It's a very funny twist of fate

Sabo is the brother who takes the role that was arguably destined for Luffy, but that Luffy didn't want

So that Luffy can be free to do what he actually wants to do

Because that's what SABO's role is as a big brother, and the role he plays in the story; he takes Luffy's place in order to free Luffy. He does this in Dressrosa obviously, but he also does this in a more general plot level by fighting the World Government and the Celestial Dragons directly while Luffy is busy elsewhere. This is all very protagonisty stuff that would better fit the main character, but Luffy simply does not have the time to be doing it and can't divert from his path

This is kinda meta in fact, he's taking a necessary role in the story in order to free Oda from needing to make Luffy do awkward detours and mess up the pacing (particularly with the Reverie; imagine if Luffy had to go all the way back to Mariejois... and hell, he almost does when he hears about Vivi! But even here it's actually partially thanks to Sabo that Vivi managed to escape on her own and didn't need Luffy to come and save her, although this was very indirect and unintentional of course)

He also plays the role of the Hero of the People that Luffy explicitly doesn't want

So where Ace is Luffy's protector, Sabo is Luffy's liberator

Ace protects Luffy while he's still too weak to always take care of himself and teaches him important lessons early on, but he has to die so that Luffy can stand on his own feet and become his own man, not the little brother protected by an older brother

Sabo frees Luffy to follow his own path, mainly on the meta level but occasionally also very literally (such as Dressrosa), and that's why (for narrative reasons) he's brought back when Luffy starts to become more adult and more independent and is starting to get threatened by (gasp) responsibilities (and as the plot becomes too big for one protagonist to handle all alone)

Both of them act as conduits for Luffy to be able to continue this adventure, and they show up exactly when they're needed and exit when they're not

[ninibeingdelulu]

Mimicking his mannerisms ✧

Plot: You mimic your boyfriend’s mannerisms.

The first few times you copied the way his brows furrowed into a scowling vee or how he pursed those sculpted lips in a tight, thin line after getting flustered, Cloud didn't seem to take much notice.

Figured you were just being your typical bubbly, mischievous self poking fun.

But when he unleashed a bristling torrent of gravelly curses after mashing his thumb with the Buster Sword's pommel, only for you to parrot the same salty tirade with startling accuracy right down to his gruff intonation? He stopped dead in his tracks, penetrating mako eyes widening a fraction.

Wheeling around, Cloud didn't bother smothering his bemused chuckle at catching you standing there doing your best imitation - brows knit fiercely, plush lips twisted into a scowl even as you tried stifling your own giggles behind your palm.

You simply flashed those doe eyes up at him, the picture of faux innocence.

"Think that's funny, do you?"

Despite the stern words, you could hear the begrudging warmth rumbling in his baritone as Cloud closed the distance between you two. Before you could squirm away, one of those sinewy arms looped low around your waist, reeling your squirming form flush against his chiseled torso.

"Go ahead and laugh it up while you can," he husked against the crown of your hair, sounding almost...proud?

"Reckon you've got me down pat. Just don't go picking up any other bad habits from your dumb boyfriend."

After that, it became your favorite game - randomly spouting off one of Cloud's trademark gruff remarks or emulating his rigid posture and flinty-eyed glower out of nowhere.

Each time, you'd be rewarded with a lopsided smirk and a shake of that spiky blond head accompanied by a fond eyeroll.

That unbreakable composure he ordinarily maintains only seems to genuinely fracture whenever you mimic the few exceedingly rare glimpses of vulnerability Cloud permits to slip past his sky-high defenses.

So the first time you caught him in the shower fresh from another night terror, haunted mako-infused gaze glassy and dull...and decided to parrot the hollowed-out, deadened murmurs of broken fragments like "don't...wake...not real..." barely above a whimper?

You swear you saw his heroic facade shatter for an instant.

In a blink, Cloud closed the distance between you two, stout fingers cupping your jaw with surprising tenderness. Peering down at you with those luminous eyes swimming in sorrow and self-recrimination, he rasped your name with tangible pain lacing every syllable.

"Fuck, don't...don't ever do that again." Just like that, any lingering threads of mirth dissipated entirely.

"Please?"

He exhaled shakily, thumb caressing your cheekbone.

After snagging a searing yet chaste kiss, Cloud tugged you into the circle of his embrace, chin nestled atop your crown.

"You wanna mimic your dumb jackass mercenary? Fine, copy the stupid stuff. But not..." Another tremor wracked his powerful frame. "Not that. Not the darkest parts of this mess inside me. Those can stay buried."

Burrowing closer into his soothing warmth, you simply nodded wordlessly against the broad expanse of his chest.

Because as adept as you've become at perfectly emulating every facet of Cloud Strife, you know better than to pry deeper into the darkest recesses of his haunted psyche.

Some wounds are better off left unexhumed and undisturbed - cauterized with unspoken tenderness.

So you vowed to keep the mimicry lighthearted and silly, restoring those flashes of pure contentment and boyish grins his mercenary persona suppresses as penance for more sins than any one man should bear.

Those rare, fleeting slivers of joy were more than worth playfully shouldering his brooding stoicism, after all - if only to remind both of you that indomitable heroes can find refuge in simple delights, too.

[cursedcatchild]

Ok, so I watched TOTTMNT and I am here to rant. Also, SPOILERS ahead!

So First of all, if I had to sum up my thoughts into a single sentence it would be: For the love of God, put those turtles back together, where they belong!!

I didn’t hate the show, but I didn’t come to like it either. And no, I did not have any prejudgment just because it was a new iteration. Honestly I was super hyped for this version, because the movie was a blast. Yea, I ended up being disappointed. But let me just elaborate on that:

First let’s take a look at our turtles from worst to best in my opinion.

Mikey:

Yepp, ladies and gentlemen so far I have never seen a single iteration where I didn’t come to like a Mikey. He’s always among my favs. But this version felt super shallow. He had just as much screen time in the series as his brothers and yet I still have no idea who this guy really is. His jokes were lame not really landing, I couldn’t really point out any particular goal or insecurity that anyone could relate to. Also, the guy is super oblivious. Like he took ten minutes to realize he walked into a robbery when he went for groceries. Heck he was having a casual conversation with the robbers. 

Leo: 

Another kinda shallow guy. Sure we seen a bit of insecurity, he literally quoted Rise Leo saying “ I’m nothing without them!” but it felt irreal. Because Rise Leo had a reason to think that, he wasn’t as much of a functional member of the team and he was always taken for jokes. But right from the beginning of TOTTMNT we see Tales Leo commanding his brothers, they listen to him  and even say it multiple times how planning is Leo’s thing. So at this point this Leo is just fucking blind. ( Also April slaps instant self confidence into the boy.) 

Raph:

Ok, this is also the first time, but I never really took a liking to a Raph before Tales Raph. Boy is filled with anger and sass, yet he’s not coming off as a total jerk like 2012 Raph. And of course he's not a super softie like Rise Raph ( I don’t hate Rise Raph for being a softie, he's my second favorite Raph) either. He had some fun pipe up and overall a personality I got. I think he’s the most perfect Raph I have ever seen. 

Donnie:

The best character of the iteration in my humble opinion. He was relatable, funny, honestly he was stealing Mikey’s job as the comic relief, but at the same time he’s the smart guy. The boy is ranting about not being the IT guy and then goes reprogramming an evil robot. Oh and he saved so many lifes, because he stopped a fucking train crash. He’s epic, I swear.

(My fave screenshot ever 🤣🤣)

Now story wise:

🔥What the fuck was this dumpster fire?! 🔥Who thought splitting up the turtles would be fine?! 😑Especially in a 12 episode season? Look, I don't mind solo or duo time. There were plenty of good ones, for example Rise. I adored the Mikey vs Leo cook off episode or the Gumbus one, but for the sake of my sanity Rise had twice as many episodes and the turtles were not split up for the majority of the story.

Like I'm not joking when I say they were together in 4 episodes intotal.😨😨

Now I heard rumors left and right that the fact that they need to make a show was thrown at the team at the last minute ( IDK how true is that) , but goodness gracious even if I was presented with the task with a “ Due tomorrow label” I could still write a better story. Especially with the goldmine what the writers decided to ignore.

Yes, something that would've made TOTTMNT be really unique….. School people! We were promised that we will explore the turtles from the teenage side. Ummm….Hate to break it to ya all but I think there is no better way to do that than putting them into school.

It would’ve been fire to see them trying to fit in, balancing all the cool hero stuff with school life, maybe wrecking the school, seeing how other teenangers adjust to the fact that now giant talking turtles are their classmates. It wouldn’t be some crazy mind blowing plot, but I swear it would've been amazing.

Now don’t misunderstand me. Despite the story feeling like being all over the place it wasn’t that super bad, but I’m pissed that it could've been better with ease.

Also another thing that bugged me, is the feeling of something missing. IDK if anyone else who watched it felt like this, but I legit felt like if we just grabbed the for example farm arc from 2012 TMNT and aired it as season 1. The fact that the turtles were split and they kept mentioning that they have always been fighting together made me feel like I should’ve seen them do that.

Anyways, If I did not take your will to watch it away, go and check it out. It's not horrible but not great either. I’m disappointed and I'm gonna need Rise back, thank you very much!

[zizbombs]

jack slash is so much better written than joker its not even funny, only reason why joker is ahead is cause of decades of comics. like cmon folks, let's put down the kiddie stuff and pick up something that has actual stakes and a reasonable plot and setting instead of stuff used to push kids toys

[sabreclaws]

Okay, here's what I'm reading tonight. I love miniseries. 4 issues is the perfect, approachable number of issues.

Specifically, this is the Sabretooth (1993) mini.

Victor looking fabulous, as always.

I am bemused by Victor's choice of home. Ngl, the idea of him somehow meeting the neighbors in this area and they just call him "Mister Creed" is kind of funny to me.

At least it's pretty. If a tad on the dramatic side.

Plus, this is the series that has Birdy in it. Who Victor apparently pays to do ... something that will be explained in due time?

(She should meet Cable.)

Again, I'm reading this for previous writer takes on the behind-the-scenes life of Victor Creed. In this iteration, apparently he's definitely a well-paid assassin.

Damn, Victor. Been practicing your high kicks? (Did I already mention that the art is a tad dramatic?)

Unapologetic spoilers lie ahead

Apparently Victor is paying Birdy for all sorts of things, including the already-seen bodyguard services, therapeutic massages...

... and digging around inside his head ...

... but he does not seem to be particularly respectful. Shall we say.

Including a muzzled and manacled child version of Victor dug up from his memories.

Again, Victor is not being nice to Birdy here. Punches her, etc.

Victor, I have some series questions about your decor.

But the way he treats Birdy might have something to do with the fact she immediately double-crosses him. While dressed in a towel and nothing else.

I'm not sure if this was the first time the comics went into Victor's childhood trauma, but this sure is a doozy of a take on it, regardless. Pretty sure that's a naked child in a pool of his own filth.

Then there's a little torture, some medical horror, a dramatic asshole who calls himself Tribune...

Oh, the drama.

So they turn Victor loose, and he immediately heads back to his house, where for some reason Birdy didn't hightail it the instant Victor was abducted. I am seriously questioning the writing in this mini.

So he catches her ... and then doesn't kill her. Because that would be bad for whatever the writer has planned and not for any reason I can discern from the plot. I am seriously unimpressed with this writer so far.

We do get a bit more of the worst of Victor's backstory though.

And he tracks down Mystique, which isn't even that interesting, and she says...

oh, the intrigue

oh they wouldn't....

Damn it. They would.

Yes, yes, yes, enjoy your banter boys, because Mystique is about to ruin Victor's day

Aaaaand then they go on a double-date

And apparently this is a tie-required establishment and they whipped out one for Victor to put on over the catsuit? I hate this.

Anyway, there's a bunch of past stuff.

And then Mystique drops the big bombshell.

You know what? Having seen this horror show of a comic, I am now completely unsurprised that this is what created Graydon Creed.

Anyway, Victor goes to track him down.

If I haven't already shown you enough for you to get the idea, trust me that the dialogue in this is atrocious and laughable. I'm at my image limit, or I would should you the panel, but "Sabretooth will never get past a combined battle team of your hungry bankers!" is just ... so bad.

lol, okay, except for this line

And then Birdy pulls up some of Graydon's memories too.

Do you ... just keep making up words? That are stupid? Mr. Writer, have you ever met a bond trader? I mean, sure, this was before the Internet really took off, but that is not a profession I would ever call "feral." And Mystique? Really?? That was the best occupation you could come up with?? Seriously??

And then Birdie conveniently steps too close and Graydon kills her, at which point ... Victor just lets him go? Because this is a man (as written in this book) that would give a shit about blood kin?

So in conclusion:

I am so confused by this entire comic.

Fairly important creation or reinforcement of Victor's terrible childhood.

The writing is bad.

From everything I had heard about Birdy and Victor's relationship in fandom, I had expected something a little ... sweeter? Instead I got bad writing and boss-on-employee violence. (But it definitely explains that one page in Sabretooth (2022).

Actually, reading this comic somehow makes Sabretooth (2022) and Sabretooth & the Exiles have more context.

Did I mention the writing is bad?

I don't just mean the dialogue, although that is atrocious. I mean that cause-and-effect were unbelievable, people knew details they shouldn't be able to know, people make decisions that made no sense for them because the writer needed them to be in a particular place to hold up his house of cards of a plot.

Also, lots of girls lounge around suggestively with very little clothing on. I'm not impressed.

Graydon Creed gets to live (boo).

Victor is a bastard from start to finish (but a very pretty one).

Logan was used as a convenient plot device and then instantly ignored.

Same for Mystique.

I preferred Sabretooth: Mary Shelley Overdrive (2002) about 10 times more than this.

Now, if you like this? Power to you, you do you, enjoy it. But I do not.

[welcometothejianghu]

Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: 少年歌行/The Blood of Youth

The Blood of Youth is a 2022 live-action adaptation of the tale of a deposed, disabled, and incredibly cunty prince who's on his way back to settle the score with his asshole father, and the rag-tag band of weirdos he accumulates along the way, including Spear Girl, Bad Monk, and Fire Puppy (pictured above).

I hope you like shounen anime, because this is the most shounen anime something is allowed to be without actually being based on something running weekly in Shounen Jump. What if Nirvana in Fire were also Naruto? It would be the Blood of Youth.

This show is an underrated gem of action-packed fun that not nearly enough people in English-speaking fandom have seen. In an attempt to correct that -- and ahead of an announced second season and prequel in progress -- I'm here with five reasons you should try it out.

1. Zero thoughts head empty

You do not have to pay an enormous amount of attention to this show to understand what's going on. The show itself does not always know what's going on. It got distracted by a shiny object over there, and now we're all gearing up to go punch the shiny object. We'll get back to the main plot when we're done with the punching.

It has a million billion plot threads going on at any given moment. Bad guys roll in from sects you've never heard of before, using superpowers with stupid names, only to get kicked into next week. There's approximately eleventy thousand characters -- so many, in fact, that I ran into problems several times while making this rec post, because there aren't readily available photos of everyone I want to talk about. Just look at the DramaWiki cast list. See how it goes on for like fifty screens? That's a little what the show feels like.

Except I'm not saying that like it's a bad thing, because the show knows it's doing this, and it acts accordingly. It telegraphs pretty well who's important and who isn't (and then it goes out of its way to color-code the latter, which is handy). What you're left with is absolutely a manga-style plot, complete with training arcs and semi-relevant sidequests, all working up to the final boss match.

It is an extremely self-aware show. On multiple occasions, something would happen, I would crack a joke about it, and then a beat later the show itself would make the exact same joke. I wouldn't call it an outright comedy, but it's still very funny, and on purpose. It has no illusions about being some kind of profound, meaningful epic. Mostly it's just here for a good time.

Yet this lightheartedness is what makes the powerful emotional parts really powerful by contrast. The show is not stupid; it's just goofing around most of the time. When it knuckles down, it can be devastating. And you know what? It does wind up being profound and meaningful about some stuff. How about that.

So yeah, if you're up for something that bops merrily right along and only occasionally rips your heart out, here you go!

2. Putting the poly in polycule

Bisexuals, rejoice! It's representin' time!

Here you go, I made a relationship chart of about 40% of the show's potential and canonical ships. I could have included so many more, but I only had so much space on the image, so I had to leave out some amazing ones, like the sword hedgehog who's real into this one cougar who could easily wipe the floor with him, or the rich nerd who thinks he has a chance with the aforementioned hot butch, or the fancy MILF who cheated on the emperor with a dreamy jianghu man and is trying not to cheat on him again with a different, slightly less dreamy jianghu man. See? There's just so much.

I would also say these are not exclusive ships. They are extremely inclusive ships. I am a fan of most (though admittedly not all) of the pairings listed here, and in fact of many of the three-and-more-somes indicated by these lines. They're such a cuddle puddle of shared intense feelings that it's hard to imagine anyone getting more than mildly jealous. Moreover, the potential for romance does not get in the way of hetero friendships; a boy and a girl who are each dating other people can go do adventures together, and (mostly) nobody gets weird about it, which is nice. If anything, what makes the overall dynamic so polycule-like is how equally friends and love interests get treated, meaning that it's not difficult to see a lot of crossover potential between those two categories.

If you're like me, you're hesitant about canonical romance, especially when it's straight, mostly because so many straight love stories wind up being tiresome, gross, and/or skull-poundingly boring. You will then be pleasantly surprised by how the canon pairings with members of the main cast are not like this at all!

Xiao Se and Sikong Qianluo are the main textual romance, and golly gee, they're just cute as heck. As the chart above indicates, I like interpreting them as two Kinsey 6's who have found their single exceptions, Mulder-and-Scully-style. Maybe one of the best things about their relationship is that it gets sidelined all the time for the plot. They're not so busy being in love that they forget to get shit done. Then they get a bit of downtime and get to go on a date, and you're like, aww, those sweet gay disaster babies are gonna do a little bit of heterosexuality. Just precious.

Tang Lian and Fairy Rui are right up there with the cuteness. She's a sex-positive dancing beauty who wants to ride that pretty boy like she stole him, and he's a shy sword boy so tightly bottled up that he'll explode if he sees a bare ankle. Avoiding spoilers, I will simply say that this is a pairing of two relatively soft people, until a bad thing happens to one of them and the other hardens up about it. If that's your jam, they're here for you.

Lei Wujie and Ye Ruoye are probably the most magical and the most practical of the bunch. They have a beautiful, super-dreamy, really horny sword-dance meet-cute, complete with its own pop song ... and then that's it, they're basically just together. She likes him, he likes her, good for them. In-laws aside, it's a refreshingly low-drama situation. Besides, I always love it when the hypercompetent woman gets the sweet, devoted himbo who'd do anything for her. Ruoye's had a hard life, and she deserves someone who can dick her down good at night and make her a nourishing breakfast the next morning.

And then there is, of course, The Ship:

Xiao Se and Wuxin are canonical, textual soulmates. The show treats their dynamic as more important than any other. It's so important, in fact, that the show has to sideline Wuxin for huge parts of the drama, lest everything get too damn gay. They each get a boyfriend catch on the other. They both do fairly reckless things when the other is in trouble. They are the secret hidden happy ending to the series. They share the kind of ride-or-die relationship built on mutually being the hugest bitches in any given room. Whether or not you think this is romance, it is extremely romantic, and the series agrees as much as it can, all things considered.

And if none of those flavors of love float your boat? Well, have you considered ... eunuchs?

3. She likes e4e

So I'm on record as being real into eunuch characters, right? Well, if you're with me on that, you are in for a treat here, because these are some absolutely buck-wild eunuchs.

There's five main ones, and I can't even begin to scratch the surface of what's going there. Like, really, I don't even think I understood all of what was happening with them. They're kind of the bad guys, but then they're kind of the good guys, but then some of them are the bad guys, but then they're just working for the bad guys, but then they screw over the bad guys, and ... it's just a lot, okay? It's a lot, and it's all happening with this bunch of catty bitches.

Also, you would not believe the difficult time I had finding any images for this section. I guess for some reason, fandom isn't way into a bunch of canonically dickless color-coordinated middle-aged men in weird hats? Whatever, man, they are missing out. If, however, you have the good sense to be into the intense and complicated (semi-romantic??) relationships among colleagues who also professionally just happen to be missing their external genitalia, buddy, strap in (and maybe strap on, depending).

Don't let me oversell how much these guys are in the show. They're not. They're vaguely important at points throughout, and they become incredibly important near the end, but they're hardly main characters. They're mostly back at the palace, doing their various schemes and looking absolutely fantastic.

So if they're such a minor part of the story, why do they get their own selling point? Well, I think their presence is a good example of two specific things about the show:

Specific thing the first: It's so queer -- not gay, but queer. Thinking back to my last selling point, you will notice how many of those straight pairings may look normie on the outside, but once you get down to it are not playing by cishet rules. (For instance, I've seen a lot of people read Tang Lian's resistance to sexual advances as asexuality, which, sure!) Likewise, there are lots of incredibly important, intimate relationships that don't conform to standard romantic pair dynamics. Add to that a lot of bodies with unusual characteristics and conditions, and you've got the makings of plenty of delightful non-normative love stories.

Specific thing the second: There are so many things going on with so many side characters that there's a kink here for everyone. Don't care for eunuchs? How about slinky villains with mind-control powers? Devoted servants who would do anything for their masters? Former bad guys who owe life-debts to the good guys who saved them? Bonded pairs traipsing around the jianghu together? Sons nursing legitimate grudges against the men who killed their fathers? Alcoholic widowers with incredibly slutty necklines? Mysterious cross-dressers with unconvincing moustaches? Vengeful brides? Martial siblings? Murderous royals? Guilt-ridden half-siblings? Boring star-crossed lovers? All these and more! It's a smorgasbord of rarepair fuel!

Also, I just love these toxic drama queens. It's like if RuPaul's Drag Race had the authority to have you executed.

4. The most intriguing outfits I've ever seen in anything (and yes, I'm including Winter Begonia)

Time for a fashion show!

The asymmetrical fits, the detailed embroidery on everything, the brilliant colors -- everybody just looks so good. And yet everything still looks ... eh, I don't know if "practical" is the word I want, but at least wearable. Nobody's dragging ten-foot trains of fabric behind them or wrapped in eighty floofy layers of gauze (except Rui, but she's special). Their outfits are strange and elaborate, but they don't defy physics.

What's truly stunning is how often they get new outfits. Xiao Se alone changes clothes about once every other episode, and more if he's getting a flashback. He is the fashion plate of the whole series, and every look he serves is pitch-perfect.

They're not outright color-coded, but the main characters do have certain colors associated with them -- which is extra-fun when you watch those colors bleeding into their friends' clothes as their relationships get stronger. I also think -- and I'm willing to be proven wrong on this point, but I think I'm right -- that they recycle some characters' outfits into parts of other characters' outfits. On more than one occasion, I'd swear that Lei Wujie shows up wearing the left half of something Xiao Se was wearing a few episodes back (tailored to fit him, of course, because that dumb ponytail boy is tall).

Where I think the costume design gets massive points, though, is that the costumes are themselves adaptations.

Before the live-action series, there was a 2018 3D animated donghua. I have never watched the latter, but apparently the drama is intensely faithful to the animated visuals, to the point where some fights are shot-for-shot remakes.

Of course, you can do a lot more with unreal clothing and bodies in animation -- and you can show a lot more skin, at least according to Chinese content laws. The live-action costumers chose to preserve about as many of the appearance beats from the donghua as they could manage, while still accepting the limitations of real-life bodies and materials. You can see some side-by-side comparisons here. The live-action outfits manage to be instantly recognizable without being slavishly devoted recreating to their inspirations.

So if you're sick and tired of dreary, ill-lit shows with bland palettes, this vibrant, colorful drama may be just the thing for you. It's a rainbow from start to finish.

5. Actually a good central plot?

Despite all the wacky delightful shounen nonsense that this show has -- and it has a lot -- the core of the whole narrative, which is Xiao Se's story, is surprisingly great and cohesive.

The short version is this: Xiao Se used to be Xiao Chuhe, sixth prince and somewhat heir apparent. Then he and his jerk-ass dad had a falling-out that resulted in the prince's having his martial arts abilities all but taken from him. He's been living the life of a very well-dressed innkeeper for several years, trying to avoid all of that palace garbage. But now his jerk-ass dad is dying, which means that a lot of horrible decisions are finally having unfortunate consequences for everyone, and Xiao Se's got to get back in there to make sure everything does not go to shit and land someone terrible on the throne -- even if it has to mean taking it himself.

His central conflict is between what he used to be and what he's become. Does he miss being Xiao Chuhe, high-ranked martial artist and future emperor? Or is he happier being Xiao Se, long-suffering nobody who can barely run a business, much less hold his own in a fight? What would he be willing to do to get back what he's lost? What are his obligations to himself versus his obligations to everyone else? How much is he responsible for his father's bullshit? And why has he wound up having to babysit this stupid Fire Puppy?

It's okay, they're best friends now. Lei Wujie decided.

No spoilers, but I liked Xiao Se's ending a lot. I feel it's very true to the character and shows a real understanding of who he is and what he values. And really, at the end of the day, sometimes all you need for a happy ending is your girlfriend, your girlfriend's girlfriend, your girlfriend's girlfriend's boyfriend who's also your boyfriend, your other boyfriend, his girlfriend, and your long-distance for-real soulmate.

Feel like giving the youths a try?

You can find them on YouTube or on Viki. But be absolutely sure that no matter where you watch it, you make sure to go watch the epilogue as well. (And if you get real into the story, well, here's a link to information about all the other adaptations.)

You are also welcome for how I did not spend this post going off for five hundred years on how much I love Wuxin and his funky relationship to Buddhism. I figured that's way too niche of a selling point for most people, and might indeed have even been counterproductive. But know that I could have.

Also, I'm very happy about the announcement of a second season, because that's going to mean Liu Xueyi has to shave his head again, and he looks unbearably good with a shaved head.

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention the whole motorcycle photoshoot?

In case you hadn't noticed, the whole cast is stupidly hot. Hachi machi.

[copper-16]

Chapter 8 has been posted - but before everyone goes to read, a little bit of an announcement on my end:

This is going to be my last longer Mapi/Ingrid story, and probably the end of me being super active/posting on ao3 and tumblr. I might write the occasional story here and there, but writing is not bringing me the same joy it once was and I want to dedicate my time to other things. I’ll still be around reading on ao3 and somewhat on Tumblr, but I just won’t be posting a whole ton on either. I’ve been so incredibly lucky to get to know all of you guys on here, and to receive so much love for my work. It means the absolute world to me - and thank you all so much for welcoming me into this little community so wonderfully! I hope the stories I wrote were able to bring just a little bit of happiness when you guys needed it (even if I constantly left everyone on cliffhangers - I truly am sorry about that).

The rest of this is long, and you don't have to read it if you don't want to, you can just go ahead to the story now if you would like. I'm not known for my ability to keep concise, that is for certain. If brevity is the soul of wit - perhaps we know why my stories aren't very funny!

I’ve especially enjoyed joining tumblr and really finding a little community here. Getting to interact with so many people, both those who read my works and those who don’t, has been such a joy for me. I love getting to hear when people like the things I've written, even if it touches them in a small way. I love getting to interact with so many brilliant minds and am forever in awe of how much amazing talent there is in this little corner of the internet! I've made some incredible friends from getting to be on here, and it makes me so happy to have a little community of people I love. Thank you guys for letting me have space here even if I don’t write reader works or know how this app works most of the time.

I started writing seriously in September 2022 and I can't tell you how much joy it has brought me in the last two years. As someone who doesn't enjoy the college degree they are currently getting, this was such a fun creative outlet for me. It was so cool to have this blank canvas to work with, to weave things together, especially as I began to write longer stories. Writing was a place to destress for me and interact with other people who loved football as I was coming to love it. Every single kudos, comment, and bookmark meant so much to me. Even when it was something silly like someone dubbing the 'Copper Monologue,' it made me feel so seen. Someone cared enough to read enough of my works to pick out the fact that I do that? Absolutely mind blowing to me. It's crazy to hear that people cared about the silly little stories I wrote. When someone told me that I was one of the things to help inspire them to write their own stuff - I think I properly sobbed. It meant more to me than anything has in this entire world, and it still does! Writing has helped me to process, it's helped me to grow, it's helped me learn to identify my emotions and struggles and think through my own thought processes. I hope that maybe for someone out there, it could help them do that as well. It's a little strange for me not to want to do that anymore. Writing this last story solidified to me that for the most part it was time to be done, and HDITA was more of a goodbye than anything else. But even with that, it feels strange not to be thinking of my next idea, thinking of how I am going to create characters and relationships and plot lines.

I think for me right now, I'm just excited to be myself. Maybe this vessel of writing was what I needed to get myself through the last two years. I wrote la princesa when I was at my absolute worst in life, and as I've grown and matured as a person, I like to think that my writing has. I no longer find myself in a place where it fills a huge void in my own life that I once needed.

I've grown a lot as a writer these few years (those who read my earlier works will understand), and I'm excited to one day come back to it, maybe in a different sphere. I love the idea now of writing a real book. It always terrified me before - I didn't know where I would start or if I would be horrible at it. But you all have given me the confidence that maybe at least one person would like it, and maybe that's enough of a reason to try. So thank you all for holding my hand and encouraging me. I hope that if nothing else, everyone remembers that a little bit of kindness on here or ao3 or anywhere on the internet costs nothing, and yet can go a long way.

It did for me.

But enough of my sappy rambling, please enjoy this last chapter of mine. I hope it brings you as much joy as it brought me when I was writing it. Love you all so so much!

Chapter 8 of How Do I Trust Again?