#Give her trauma!! Or realistic motivations!! Or SOMETHING

[pangolinsandnewts]

if we have headcanons of Morro having water related trauma then we should also have headcanons of Harumi having height/falling related trauma. Please and thank you.

[lastflowerofyourhouse]

i looove cytherea as a "nicest* person here was secretly the villain the whole time" reveal cause like. my problem with those is usually that they do a complete 180 in terms of personality and suddenly they're a totally different person. they absolutely do not give a shit about these people they just spent so much time cohabitating with. they developed absolutely no empathy or compassion or remorse for the people who worked with them, trusted them, confided in them, tried to help them. it just never seemed realistic to me. i always end up wishing for more nuance. it feels like the authors tend to go for shock value over the actual substance of the character, unless they're angling for a redemption arc.

cytherea, though.

cytherea is 10,000 years old and she's been inches from death the entire time. these people's lives mean something fundamentally different to her than they do to them. she kills jeannemary in a shocking and brutal and unnecessarily dramatic fashion, and then she offers gideon genuine compassion and comfort in the aftermath, and both of those things are true and authentic and both of them are motivated by the fact that lyctorhood is fucking terrible.

the way she was interacting with gideon was always a little weird and the fact that she does genuinely understand never goes away. she's fucking old and weird and bored and in pain and she will gore a 14 year old in front of you and then she will hold your hand and give you well-meaning advice while you process the trauma. she will tell you how terrible it is that people are taking advantage of you, she will cradle you and pet your hair and tell you that you're worth more than this, and then she will kill you like she killed all the rest of them. and it really is a shame that you don't understand how that's a mercy, too.

cytherea is scary because the kindness was never fake. and that's why i love her.

[queenvhagar]

Do you know where "the book is team green propaganda" came from? I often see this in the fandom in discussions

The showrunners themselves said this 🫠

Ryan Condal specifically called at least Blood and Cheese and the Aegon/Sunfyre bond propaganda, as in, he believes that women lie about their trauma and Alicent somehow got to the historians through all of this and lied about what she and her family went through (and apparently made up a grandson 🥴) with the specific purpose of slandering her ex bestie of three years/enemy of decades, despite the fact she apparently would kill her sons to reconcile with her... and he says the stuff about Sunfyre being beautiful and Aegon choosing his golden banner based on their strong bond was "Westerosi historical propaganda."

Basically it's their justification/shutdown of critics for what they view as their own superior writing changes to the story. These writers are high on their own fumes and their ego is so inflated that they think they can write ASOIAF better than GRRM himself (despite the fact that Sara Hess admitted she never even watched Game of Thrones and took no consideration of the universe when creating her own narratives in this show).

This also stems from this "maester conspiracy" where people believe a select group of people high up in society are secretly controlling things from the shadows and calling the shots... and like all similar conspiracy theories, this is actually deeply rooted in antisemitism.

It's very unlikely that a large number of people, even maesters, could collaborate in secret and all agree on set things in order to completely rewrite history... and there's the fact that the historical textbook Fire and Blood was written by GRRM as the in-universe definitive source on the real history, using a variety of sources including historians, eyewitnesses, survivors, and royal household staff, in which there are people sympathetic toward both sides of the Dance.

Despite all of this, writers and fans are convinced that somehow all the sources that paint TB in a bad light are fictitious propaganda while at the same time accounts that paint TG in a bad light are taken at face value, and vice versa: parts of the story that recount TG as doing something for realistic reasons, being Targaryen dragonriders with bonded dragons, or even being a loyal united front as a family are apparently lies and stolen from TB in order to make TG look better, so the show "corrects" this by giving it all to TB.

Really wild that anyone can think the author of a series known for his anti war, all characters and sides are morally gray, and each character is conflicted in their heart about love and duty stories apparently purposefully wrote a story where war is justified due to actual prophetic divine right... some characters are completely good and others are completely evil... and their motivation really changes whenever the plot or writers need it... and he did all of it by purposefully crafting a story based on lies for no reason.

And well, we already know that GRRM has some opinions about how stuff like this has failed the story.

[oceane4loveu]

The vlog of the perfect "her" océane ≽^•⩊•^≼

"𝑊𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑢𝑝"𝐼𝑡'𝑠 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒!!! .𖥔 ݁ 🪐˖

ˢᵃᵗᵘʳⁿ ᴿᵉᵗᵘʳⁿˢ ᴵⁿᵗᵉʳˡᵘᵈᵉ

Heyyyy starfish! I know it's been a long time like 3 months but I was in a bad state. I was literally depressed, my girlfriend had just left me and my whole life was literally boring, I kept comparing myself day after day and I wondered why I was living such a bad life in fact to be honest I didn't feel like myself anymore. So I deleted all my social networks, I deleted the number of several people and I started to focus on myself and I realized that all my traumas were really preventing me from moving forward, already I am obsessed with wanting to be in a relationship and fill this lack of love so I get into relationships with people who are bad for me and I do things that end up hurting me. I compare myself to girls all the time because my ex was always comparing me to his ex or other girls and at the end of our relationship it became a habit for me to do that so by deleting social media and doing a social media detox it helped me to really start loving myself again and to become aware of a lot of things and today I feel like everything is going better in my life I found a temporary job while waiting to start my dream job, I love myself more, I do what I like and I feel better but I haven't achieved all my goals yet. 2025 is in what month and I think I spent too much time creating thousands of plans to finally give up at the last minute and postpone everything until tomorrow so I decided to enter a new era!!!! An era where I work hard for my dreams, I'm 20 years old and I don't want to make the same mistakes year after year! So I asked myself how I can become a completely new woman? how to become her? This better version of me. I watched a lot of tam kaur videos, searched for the best self improvement books and I finally found the method that works best for me it's simple and detailed. For that I watched this tam kaur video which is definitely my favorite video!

𝟏. 𝐓𝐨𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐞 𝐚 𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞.

Ok this year I planned more than 15 glow up plans that I ended up abandoning because all these goals were literally dictated by others like I see this person doing something and I want to do it too so each time I did nothing and I stayed there doing several glow up plans without really taking action so this time I followed the SMARTER method

S: SPECIFIC

Be specific in defining your goal:

What exactly do you want to accomplish?

Who are the people involved? (individual or team) How are you going to achieve it?

M: MEASURABLE

How are you going to measure it? How will you know when you have achieved your goal?

A: ACHIEVABLE

Is your goal realistically achievable?

Can you achieve your goal within a defined time frame?

Is the goal ambitious enough to motivate you to take concrete action? Reminder: Don’t set goals that are too ambitious and might seem unrealistic to achieve

R: RELEVANT

Are the goals relevant to your vision?

Are the goals aligned with your role? (student/professional/leader)

Is the reason/motivation for achieving this goal relevant/meaningful in your context?

T: TIMELY

What is your timeline for achieving this goal? (30 days, 3 months, 6 months) Break down big goals into smaller goals

E: EVALUATION AND EMOTIONS

Continuously assess the needs of your goal

If it serves your goal of personal, academic and professional growth and development

Do you feel

empowered/motivated/energized/excited to achieve this goal?

R: REWARD AND REVIEW

Reward yourself for achieving your goals Review your goals to adapt them to your current contexts and needs

I finally created a list with all my goals

𝐆𝐨𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐁𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝

𝟐. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞?

I used the everskies app to create an avatar of the new me but I will do a more in-depth post on that so Describe everything in detail:

A. About yourself. Your personality. Your brain.

B. Money

C. Career and opportunities

D. Friends and family

E. Relationship

F. Hobbies and happiness

G. Hobbies/how you spend your free time

H. Workouts, etc.

I. Home/habitat

𝟑. 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠.

move each goal into a weekly calendar every sunday, plan the week around that to come up with achievable goals to achieve all those goals and it becomes part of the weekly to do list

For example I want to read 15 books so I choose a book and I read 5 or 10 pages of that book per day and so on. I will use this planner and Canva to plan my week

𝟒. 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐞𝐭

I'm going to read several self improvement books that I bought recently and also here are some phrases that can help

A. You saw these dreams because you were supposed to see them. They are your dreams, seize them

B. Failure is part of your success

C. Don't despair of anything. Just do your job.

D. The fact that others live normal lives doesn't mean you have to live average. Work for your dreams.

E. Put down your damn phone

F. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Stop giving reasons why it's not for you.

G. Stop thinking about what others are doing. Everyone's life is different.

H. Take a look at your inner speech.

𝟓. 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞

For this no need to be tired I took some routine ideas from Pinterest

𝟔. 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬.

I understood one thing when I did my digital detox, no one comes and does all the work for me it's up to me to do it it's up to me to work to get what I really want it's not by running after people that it will happen by magic. It's time to work for my dreams and enjoy the process because the best version of me only depends on the actions I take to make it exist. So I focus on my goals.

[pretzel-box]

Good Morning Sunshine Prologue [Leon x Neighbour!reader series]

Summary: After your home got destroyed by a fire, you seek a sanctuary in Claire's apartment. The catch? Your neighbour is the opposite of a sunshine, but luckily, there's an unknown number brightening up your days!

Tags: Female Reader! | Stangers to Lovers | Slowburn | Neighbour AU x Wrong Number AU | Strong language, fluff, mention of trauma late on. Tags will get updated.

Bright flames roared, hungrily consuming the wooden elements and everything they could reach. The acrid scent of smoke filled the hallway, and crackling sounds echoed through the chaos.

Your eyes teared up as the smoke reached them and you forcefully pressed your dusty jacket to your face, covering your mouth and nose. All your senses were overloaded and adrenaline kicked in. You couldn't die here. With quick steps you hurried through the smoke-filled rooms, desperately looking for a free exit that wasn't blocked by the highly destructive flames.

The faint reflection of glass caught your attention from the side and you hurried towards the soot covered window. In a matter of seconds you dropped the jacket, long forgotten now, to cling onto the window to push it up, praying to whoever was watching over you for a miracle.

With enough strength, you managed to push it up, cracking the glass from the force. All you can focus on is the heat of the flames in your back and the darkness that stretches before you. You can either get eaten alive by the fire or jump from a high floor. All adrenaline pushes you forward and you finally take the step forward to jump…

…forward but the seatbelt quickly held your sweat-covered body back into the uncomfortable car seat. The stare that Claire gave you from the side didn't stay unnoticed and you quickly caught your breath, pretending you just didn't have a hyper-realistic nightmare from the events that happened a month ago.

“Same dream?” The woman chirps up and holds the steering wheel in a tight grip while muttering something about idiots being on the road without having the ability to drive a car right. Complaining about other drivers was a natural thing when you were a passenger in Claire's car. You wish you could just give a comment about her small rant instead of answering the question but you knew: Claire Redfield will ask till you answer her question. And the patience that the woman had is longer than any search history you own on your phone, and this was supposed to mean something.

“More like a nightmare.” You mumble and grab the seatbelt, trying to get some of the pressure of your chest so you can breathe properly. “Same as always, no worries.” Those words were far away from calming Claire's worries. She gave you another unhappy look and her eyebrows furrowed.

You knew Claire from highschool and you two became friends over a coincidence and you might call it the best one of your whole life because this woman is not only a true angel but also your very own independent girl friend. You had the best and the worst moments of your life with her and your bond was special.

“You know what, maybe you need a new perspective. A motivation in life, a very good one night st-” “Definitely not, Claire. I don't need to get laid.” You replied in a wheezy voice, pushing some strands of hair out of your flustered face. The car stopped in front of a red traffic light and Claire took the moment to stare at you in complete silence, taking in your features and reading your mood. Her eyes looked deeply into yours and you could swear that the woman tried to peek into your soul. You gasps playfully. Claire once told you, people who have eye contact with you for more than 6 seconds either wanna kill you or sleep with you. The memory makes you chuckle and you relax into your seat once more. “Claire Redfield, do you wanna hook up with me?”

The question caught the brunette off guard and she choked on her own salvia, coughing heavily before laughing loudly. “Always.” The way she laughs so carefree was infectious and in a matter of seconds you two were laughing and not even noticing the green light that the traffic light gave you. Another car behind you started to honk, which surprised Claire and made her speed up. “God people nowadays are always in a hurry.” You don't pay attention to her words anymore, since the apartment complex came into view. Claire lets you stay in her apartment for a while till you can afford your own place, you tried to decline but she insisted.

It took only a few more minutes till you stood in front of the building, taking in the not so charming view. It definitely needs a renovation or at least some better paint on those outside walls. You could swear this place looks like a historical pile of wobbly stones and people just label it as ‘home’. Claire told you the rent is cheap and seeing the building in person explains the reason for it pretty well. Claire was busy taking out the small suitcase of the car trunk, putting it next to you before following your gaze. “Home sweet home, dear friend.”

It took a while to get all your stuff up the stairs to the small flat that is owned by claire. Apparently, the elevator was broken for a while now, and there is no way that someone will actually repair the old trashy box. Not worth the money or the effort, at least that's what most of the other tenants mumbled in the hallways. And you slightly curse them for it, then obviously it was a painful struggle to get everything up, especially the heavy boxes. Your bones will definitely thank you in the night by giving you the pleasure of a sore back. Nothing is better than the delightful first back issue after freshly moving into a new home. Especially after your old one burned down, right?

You giggle about your own depressing thoughts, depression and Claire are the only friends that you need right now after all the catastrophes that entered your life, and maybe vodka. The four of you could throw the pitty party of the year with the cheapest confetti.

Claire was the one that ripped you out of your thoughts, her hand squeezing your shoulder softly to get your attention.

"Um so, there's something I have to confess..." She laughs nervously while rubbing the back of her head with a free hand. Typical Claire movement.

"You sold me to the mafia." It was a joke that came out of your mouth, laced with sarcasm and you act shocked by putting your hand on your chest and gasping loudly. "And I thought we had a special connection. I even lend you my lipstick in the car!" But the other woman quickly shook her head with another nervous chuckle.

"Actually.. It's a really messed up situation and I need you to help me, my adorable little guardian angel. I beg you on my knees." In an instant she was on the ground, seeming desperate and even clapping her hands together over her head. A sigh escaped your lips.

"Your prayers have been answered, tell me foolish woman, what crime have you commited in those noble times?" Hearing your words was enough for Claire to get back on her feet. Her hands clutching yours tightly.

"Okay so time to spill the tea. I gave your number to a guy who's been asking me for a date since ages to make him shut up...When he's texting you pretend its me and dump him for me!"

It took more than just a full minute to grasp the concept of the situation and the more you thought about it, the more question marks appeared over your head. But despite the weird context and the fact that she gave your number out to a stranger, you couldn't deny her. She's literally letting you live in her flat for free after all. You owe her one and it's time to pay back the kindness.

After you accepted to help her, she went out to buy some takeout for dinner as a thank you. This left you all alone on the couch, watching the world's worst cooking show. Basically a high-quality documentary about your awful kitchen adventures but with paid actors.

Suddenly your phone lights up, showing an unknown number.

???: Listen I apologize for earlier. It was wrong of me to pressure you like that but I really wanna close the case between us.

You: Sorry, I bet you're super sweet, a great guy. And you surely have a great humor but I don't wanna go out with you, sorry man.

???: What?? How are you coming up with such nonsense suddenly?

You: Don't pretent and just accept it, we won't get together.

???: Listen Ada, I'm trying to apologize and not to ask you out for dinner.

You: Ada?? Gosh you can't even remember the name of the girl you wanna take our for a date?!

You: It's C l a i r e. Not Ada. You're such a red flag, dude.

This text conversation surely hit your nerve, how can someone be such low scum? Not only asking for a date but hooking up with multiple woman? Is this some kind of playboy who likes to see people like her as objects?! Your fingers angrily pressed the keys on the keyboard of your phone.

???: You're not Ada??

???: Oh god! I'm terribly sorry I got the wrong number!...

You: Hooking up with so many woman that you get the names mixed up, hm? Your mother must be very proud of you.

???: What? I'm hooking up with no one, especially not with a random phone number.

???: Listen, I'm sorry ok? No need to get hostile now.

???: The names Leon by the way and you are claire right? I'm really sorry for the misunderstanding.

You angrily slap the phone onto the poor couch cushion and put your hands on your face, groaning in annoyance. You just dumped someone named Leon, without even knowing him.

[blackbird5154]

Fanfiction masterlist

Hey! I'm Blackbird, She/Her, and I'm a Ghost fic-writer and artist! I write texts in Russian and then translate them into English. If you are ready to use an automatic translator, here is my main account with all my works. For everyone else, I made this masterlist with my translations.

The Third Advent [ru] [en]

Summary: After Papa Emeritus III was deposed and killed by his fellow believers, he laid in a coffin for five years. But nothing in the world lasts forever, not even death. After returning from the dead, Papa intends to take revenge on everyone who betrayed him. It's time to check the common statement that revenge is sweet.

Tags: Gen, Action/Adventure, Revenge, Resurrection, Violence, Hurt/Comfort, Character Death, Mysticism, Friendship, Romance, Character Study, Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Majesty [ru] [en]

Summary: Just two words: a glove kink. If you don’t have it yet, now you will. Yes, THOSE gloves.

Tags: Papa Emeritus III x fem!Reader, Smut, 18+, priest kink, hand kink, glove kink, petting, foreplay, soft dom

Pleasures of Hell [ru] [en]

Summary: Papa Emeritus has decided to give you a little lesson in arithmetic. It promises to be a long night.

Tags: Papa Emeritus III x fem!Reader, Smut, 18+, Heartbeat Kink, Cunnilingus, Petting, Oral Sex, Dirty Talk, Manual stimulation, Mention of sexual trauma

Hide and Seek [ru] [en]

Summary: Something about Terzo's irresponsible attitude to work meetings. The fic is dedicated to the kink "silent sex".

Tags: Papa Emeritus III x fem!Reader, PWP, smut, oral sex, silent sex, church sex, toe flirting, Papa is a little bit a dominant bitch but it won't be for long))

The stars go out at dawn [ru] [en]

Summary: This fic is written under the impression of the song by Spiritual Front 'Choose Death'. Please listen to it, it's just amazing.

Tags: Papa Emeritus III x Cirice, 18+, Angst, Loss, Farwell, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Love, Foreplay, Petting, Manual stimulation, Mention of Religion

Black Mass (In Freestyle) [ru] [en]

Summary: While researching materials on sexual magic, I came across what is known as “energy pumping”. Never has a ficwriter gotten better carte blanche on the justifiable use of the “orgasm control” kink. So… satanic sex instructor Terzo Emeritus at your service!

Tags: Papa Emeritus III x fem!Reader, PWP, smut, Vaginal Sex, Penis In Vagina Sex, Nipple Play, Begging, Orgasm Control, Cunnilingus, Oral Sex, Soft Dom, Manual stimulation, Foreplay, Overstimulation, Mention of Religion

Herodias [ru] [en]

Summary: These are musings inspired by looking at one particular music magazine cover. Warning: a realistic description of a severed head.

Analytics

I also write analytical notes. It's important to me to not only fantasize, but to research the character!

Papa Emeritus III: The analysis of mythological references [ru] [en]

This analysis is based on the Prologue to Meliora written by Peter Bebergal. At first glance, this text may seem like a set of nonconnected paragraphs, as well as the music video "From the Pinnacle to the Pit" can be considered as a simple cutting of scenes from old movies. But together these two materials can shed light on the mythology of the Meliora Era and the story of Papa Emeritus III - his origin, background and motives. Let's try to understand how it happened that in the image of Papa combined three mythological characters: Prometheus, Icarus and Lucifer.

Some possible sources of inspiration for Meliora design [ru] [en]

It is known that when creating Meliora, Tobias Forge was inspired by the movie "Metropolis" and the art deco style of the 1920-30s. Here I want to share my findings of some borrowed elements in the third era.

Terzo: Observations and analysis

I noticed that there is a request in the community for a more serious look at Terzo. I decided to start posting my observations and some conclusions based on them.

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4] [part 5] [part 6]

I am always interested to hear your feedback and love to debate. If you have something you'd like to say, please leave comments. It helps to keep writing!

[xiaoshengnu]

𝕸𝖞 𝕵𝖔𝖚𝖗𝖓𝖊𝖞 𝖙𝖔 𝖄𝖔𝖚 (2023)

overview : episode no - 24 | genre - wuxia

yun weishan has only ever known darkness. brought up and honed from a young age to become a spy under the mysterious sect wufeng, she longs for freedom. the drama begins as she is sent on a mission into the gong family, the enemy sect of wufeng. if she succeeds, freedom she gets. surrounded by schemes and treachery with possible death looming on both sides, yun weishan must navigate the dangerous waters of the gong family and her own turbulent emotions towards her target, gong ziyu.

l⃣e⃣ t⃣’ s⃣    b⃣e⃣g⃣i⃣n⃣

YALL THIS DRAMA. THIS DRAMA. this drama was simultaneously the worst and best thing I have experienced in a long time. however, if I could only use one word to describe this drama, it would 100% be stunning. the drama is absolutely stunning. from the music to the costuming to the makeup to the actors- this drama's visuals is quite frankly something never seen before in chinese dramaland- its so dark and brooding and so cool. the plot on the other hand...? let's get into it.

o⃣u⃣t⃣     o⃣ f⃣     t⃣ e⃣ n⃣

𝖕𝖑𝖔𝖙 - 3/10

𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌 - 7/10

𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖘 - 7/10

𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖉𝖚𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 - 10/10

𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝕒𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕒𝕘𝕖 - 6.7

o⃣u⃣t⃣    o⃣ f⃣    f⃣ i⃣v⃣ e⃣

𝖍𝖎𝖉𝖉𝖊𝖓 𝖌𝖊𝖒 𝖛𝖆𝖑𝖚𝖊 - 💎💎💎💎💎

[ honestly, this drama is pretty unique I have to give it that much. in every way. the characters? the premise? and the style? I think the visuals alone grants it it's five gem value. ] 

𝖗𝖊𝖜𝖆𝖙𝖈𝖍 𝖛𝖆𝖑𝖚𝖊 - ✨✨✨

[ despite the plot that is quite literally held up by like two stitches, I would probably rewatch it for the characters, but probably not think too deeply about the drama's construction as a whole because honestly- it would frustrate me to no end. ]

‘keep reading’ for detailed review

 𝖕𝖑𝖔𝖙 - 3

okay- hear me out y'all. I know people absolutely LOVE this drama and I am one of them, but I have to admit the logic in this plot sucks ass. like it really sucks ass. recently i heard a youtuber describe the characters as people who thought they were zhen huan but in reality were just a bunch of xia dongchuns and it really made me laugh- and guys... unfortunately, its true. some of the methods that the characters use to scheme and idk "verbally spar" honestly were just so- sigh. so ridiculous.

generally speaking, I felt that the drama didn't really have a "thread" or a central purpose, which I think is mainly a result of the build up to the ending. it failed to answer so many questions and instead made it worse by creating even more. overall, the plot kind of just felt like wading through a gigantic mud marsh with pointless confrontations and plot points popping up everywhere. the scriptwriters gave the drama a super complex framing that they just weren't able to do justice. two powerful sects and two people from completely opposing sides. one is an assassin-spy that initially (?) yearns for freedom and one is the leader of the sect that she is trying to destroy. add to that all the scheming that goes on the gong family. and a lot of childhood trauma. that's a shit-tonne of emotion and plotting to deal with which you can't realistically develop to a good quality within just 24 episodes.

I also got the vibe that the scriptwriters were scared to pin point any of their characters down for the sake of mystery, which honestly instead of making the drama better, really just made it worse. so many characters' motives were constantly doing 180s and big revelations were thrown in without any evidence of it being interlaced with the rest of the drama (I'm looking at you Big Plot Twist At End of Drama). like, the general concept was amazing, show-stopping, fantastic, never seen before, but then came the execution and it all just sort of fell apart.though I did enjoy the plot and watched the show until the end, ultimately I felt that there was honestly just too many frustrating flaws to justify it getting anything higher than 3. I loved the drama all the same though, the concept, the music and cinematography was just insane.

𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖘 - 7

ugh all the characters in this show where literally sO COOOLLL. they all had such distinctive characters, styles and personalities, it was amazing. honestly, literally never seen before. their tragic backstories were so so heartbreaking. while plot wasn't fantastic, the drama was pretty good at establishing and handling the characters and their emotional attachments to each other. its kinda funny to me that for a drama which marketed romance as it's main thing, the non-romantic relationships were so much better written. I loved yun weishan and yun que's relationship to their master han yasi and the relationship between xue chongzi and xue gongzi. and omg, gong ziyu's relationship to lady wuji? brought me to tears.

speaking of the romance department; I found it really hard to invest in the ships. while I approved of all the pairings and thought a romantic dynamic between them would be very interesting, it did feel like the storytelling was yet again lacking. I couldn't be sure wether I could really invest and ship the romance between shangguang qian and gong shangjue bcs both their motives were so unclear, and neither of their feelings towards one another were never really explored properly? and while I definitely understood yun weishan's attraction to gong ziyu, I didn't really get why gong ziyu loved her and risked so much for her which made some of his actions seem really silly and hard to stand by. overall, for the romance, i think I liked what it had the potential to be than what we actually got.

𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖉𝖚𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 - 10

Y'ALLL. time to talk about my absolute FAVOURITE part of this drama. THE PRODUCTION. the colouring, the lighting, the sets, the cinematography?? the makeup? the music? the costume design?? THE COSTUME DESIGN?? its quite obvious that a huge amount of the budget for this drama has simply been poured into the design, like I've seriously never seen a drama shot like this ever before and it was absolutely insane (though they definitely had to cut down on the cast and extras, the whole drama has this weird kind of empty feeling for a manor that is so rich and famous and so tightly guarded, like yun weishan didn't even get a personal handmaiden) I remember seeing the trailers for this show and literally screaming- the drama itself did not disappoint. I would even go as far to say that I would watch this drama completely just for the aesthetics.

𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌 - 7

in my personal opinion, no complaints about the acting, it was pretty great. although it's pretty dramatic at times and everyone speaks at the volume of a whisper, at no point in the drama did I get taken out of the show by the acting. esther yu really slayed in her new assassin role which was so fun to watch especially since most of her roles thus far have been rather cutesy and light- and her marital arts scenes ate- in fact all the martial arts scenes ate in my opinion. I think even the side characters did fairly well, it was all very nice. no complaints.

.

.

𝖇𝖔𝖓𝖚𝖘!!

favourite character(s) : 

yue gongzi ( who doesn't love an angsty angsty man? he's literally the definition of that teary wet cat meme and I love that for him ) 

xue chongzi (yet another angsty man- you can see a pattern forming lmao- his arc at the end was literally so heartbreaking. one of my favourite characters from this show fr. )

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𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖈𝖗𝖊𝖜 (source mydramalist)

lead actors : esther yu, zhang linghe, lu yuxiao, cheng lei

director : guo jingming, luo luo

screenwriter : guo jingming

[wherewolfwasteland]

Apollo justice + some dual destinies (ace attorney spoilers and rant !!!)

I've cleared the game a little while ago and while there was some aspects i liked,overall I was very mixed . First of all I love phoenix and his character change , it makes things interesting and I don't mind that he just goes back to himself later in the game . I also really like ema skye and how despite her talent she didn't make it into the job she wanted , it's realistic and gives her even more character growth . The soundtrack and animations were beautiful as well and the first case was one of my favourite first cases (tied with the first case of trials and tribulations)

Now for the things i didn't like (there's a lot unfortunately)

- apollo justice: first of all I won't be the first or last person to say he was a side character in his OWN GAME but that's not all that I don't like about him . First of all it really annoys me when he points out people's nervous traits every single time. I understood the first time since it was new to the player but everytime after that? Its cringe . I'm sorry but if I were a witness and the defence attorney told me that I was playing with my hands when I was nervous or something , I'd make a conscious effort to stop doing it . Uggghhh so cringe . It makes all of the witnesses look stupid af . Another thing i don't like about him is how little we actually learn about him . I like how he deals with his own trauma (pushing it away) and even in dual destinies going his own path was very interesting. But his inner monologue was very lacking in personality or anything really. Honestly it sucks because I do like him as a base character but the fandom definitely made me like him, and gave him more characterisation then those two games ever did .

Trucy : don't get me wrong , she has her great moments and she's super cute (I do love her overall) but I have some issues as well . First of all I hate the fact they made her super pale , there are no black characters in ace attorney , and even though I understand her not being black , she could have been tanned like her father. I don't wanna hear no "ace attorney is made in Japan so no black people" bullshit. This game isn't very realistic in the slightest so when people use that as an excuse for lack of diversity it annoys me so much ! And one more thing I don't like about trucy is that she is used as a panties joke wayyyyyy tooooo muccchhhhh , I'm sick of the panties !!!! Give it a resttttttttttttt . Ah I do love her lots and lots though . Okay okay moving on .

Klavier : and this is going to piss people offfff i know!! Bur he is just really really boring!! Which is so unfortunate because he had all of the makings to be great . He's in a band (that's awesome!) And he has great charisma and presence. But over the game when though so much happens to him he just brushes it all off, and not in a pushing away his trauma like apollo way either. It's always going to be harder to portray a character the player doesn't get to play since we can't hear his inner monologue (which would have been so cool) but still - I mean his best friend / band mate and his own brother both turn out to be murderers and he literally does not care in the slightest . Don't even get me started on how weird he is in aa5 . Also the fact that he was supposed to be your rival throughout the game and he really wasn't at all made going against him boring too . Don't get me wrong, going into a case I already know I'm winning , but in this game I knew I was winning if you get me . Other then the huge lost potential with him, I do think he is interesting, unfortunately mostly in fanon .

Kristoph: I mean I really really liked him as a villain I did ! But it was all too soon. This man had no real motive at the end of the day and he was gone before I even cared enough about him. He was apollos mentor and klaviers brother and he could have been given so much hype before the twist but no , first case and I'm over him . I don't even care he forged the evidence at that point . I knew he was evil. Also they should have made him go all out ! Like kidnap trucy at the end ! Go completely nuts !!! Especially since he has those 5 black locks , he could have been one of the greats .

Others : now there was other small things I liked and didn't like , overall I am happy that I played the game , I like the added characters despite their flaws and I like how they expanded their powers and stuff . I know some people don't like the fantasy elements but I like them a lot . I think it can add fun gameplay and stuff so yeah!!

Lastly here is somethings I would have done to change and improve the story (this is my opinion . I'm a meer fan with no writing experience so take this with a grain of salt)

Firstly I would have had kristoph be apollos mentor throughout the game until the last case . This way we grow attached to him as apollo but also it would give klavier someone to bounce off of . If he was going to be nice to apollo maybe he could have disliked his brother and been mean to him in the court (kristoph being mean back of course ) or they could have had that strange love hate siblings rivalry going on . It would give us a chance to really get more out of klavier. Kristoph (him manipulating apollo making us even madder at the end when we figured it out) and apollo , finding it hard to trust phoenix at first and growing to trust him later in dual destinies (until the last case where he departs the agency and yeah we all know what happens) . It could have been such great insightful character development.

Like imagine , this mentor has been by your side the whole game , helping you win ! Boosting you up (to make his brother look bad but you don't know that. Oh and also to be a better attorney than wright in a way , I like the idea of him hating phoenix and wanting to best him (so giving him the forged evidence) just not in the way it was done. I want him to really hate phoenix for phoenix and not because some guy chose phoenix over him once) anyways. This guy, you grow to trust him , even defend him against his brother even though the brother is being sweet to you, no way would your mentor be awful ! He's definitely lying . (He's not lying) and yeah the final case, he kills trucys father or he could even kill trucys father at the first case and produces forged evidence so that he gets off free !! Could be interesting and would have no effect on apollo since kristoph would be the one to forge it . Anyways either way . He kills trucys dad, forges wrights evidence , maybe even forges his own . He kills another person and also gets desperate as he realises that phoenix is onto him (he's kinda desperate but also thinks phoenix can't really get him since he's barred) , he kidnaps trucy because she has been too close to his crimes and then as apollo you are trying to solve the murder, find trucys kidnapper and discover the culprit behind the forgery all along . You slowly piece together that it was your mentor who had lied and manipulated you (apollo) this whole time and you can't believe it . (Heck klavier can't even believe it ! He knew his brother was awful but he never would suspect that ) kristoph is sent to prison , trucy is saved , phoenix is dropped of his forgery allegations , the person who got a guilty from the first case is set free ( if they decided to have kristoph produces forged evidence then) and apollo and klavier sit down. Get a drink maybe some food . And they bond over their shared trauma and hurt . Leading them to be best friends in aa5

Other thoughts :

The gameplay was great in apollo justice (not so much in dual destinies tbh) so I definitely would have kept that the same with less flashbacks , telling me what to do too much and the whole apollo telling people their nervous traits .

Next the story of trucy and apollos parents (mother especially ) was very very very very messy . Idk how to fix that jdjskskskx also it's just gone after this ?? Phoenix doesn't tell them and their mother also doesn't care about them ?? Also also another thing I want to mention ! I wish trucy didn't have the same power as apollo . I know his is stronger because of the bracelet but still . It cheapens his abilities because they aren't special at all . Like I feel that pearl and maya , even though had similar abilities were both useful in their own way but in apollos case sometimes it really seems as if trucy is better than him at his own ability idk . I would have definitely made it so she didn't have that ability.

Okay okay I'm rambling at this point ,I really am but ugh so many thoughts in my adhd brain that won't shut up (so I'm sorry if this is messy) but yeah I do want to say again I do love these characters and stuff so no hate :3 (thank you )

So yes this rant was all over the place but I hope for the most part it was legible ! Please comment below because I'd love to talk more about this but for now, rant over :D

[bthump]

Idk I too want better for Casca but I really dislike the hype for Casca potentially becoming an apostle, these users put it far better than i would:

https://www.tumblr.com/deripmaver/723418827650727936/why-i-am-a-hater-of-the-apostle-casca

https://www.tumblr.com/deripmaver/723493450382802944/im-so-happy-to-find-another-casca-apostle-hater https://

I skimmed these posts to see whether there were any points made that I felt like "responding" to, and there's a few.

First, Casca being a good person has nothing to do with anything except people not wanting her to become a monster, which I obviously don't vibe with because I think the concept of a good person becoming a monster fucks hard, which is one reason I like Berserk a whole lot. And I think a potential Moonbaby sacrifice would fit perfectly with one of the "good person" sacrifice examples they give: the 'person you loved the most and hated the most' sacrifice motivation, since it's intertwined with Griffith in some metaphysical way and it could be a two for the price of one deal. It's almost too on the nose.

Second, I don't think it necessitates Casca joining Griffith. Griffith seems to be out of the Godhand now, incarnated on the physical realm, presumably no longer presiding over sacrifices, and my favourite worldbuilding pet theory is actually that the godhand and Griffith will be at odds. Something's gotta threaten the godhand's existence since something wiped out the last cycle that we saw in Skull Knight's memory, and an incarnate fifth that appears right on schedule seems like just the thing.

Third, Casca's apostle trauma is, if anything, a sign in favour of her becoming an apostle since like, everyone in Berserk is at least tempted to symbolically become their abuser/rapist/nemesis as part of gaining power, eg:

Why can't Casca get in on the interesting and complicated moral and emotional greys here? This is good shit, I want it for Casca. I want her to be tempted to become what she fears, to escape her own sense of powerlessness through abandoning her morals. It's just a more direct version of Guts wanting to become a monster since that's rooted in rape trauma and both the narrative and Guts himself equates monsters to both his rapist and abuser.

I didn't see them mention the fact that apostles are compelled to love Griffith which to me seems like one of the best arguments against it (though again, I skimmed so maybe I missed it), but Ganishka resisted that, and Casca has a long history of repressing her love for Griffith so I think it could actually be a neat, and overcomeable extension of her human feelings.

Another big and better argument against it, particularly after the last couple chapters, is that Miura clearly just did not give a shit about Casca lol. And I mean I already knew that, one reason I thought the apostle Casca theory held water is that it would be a way for Miura to avoid writing Casca's trauma realistically and instead veer into one big dramatic moment followed by fantastical metaphor while keeping her a less nuanced plot point, albeit a more active and fun one than she had been so far. Instead his way of avoiding writing Casca's trauma realistically was to have her faint any time she thinks about it and then take away her personality AGAIN. So yeah, unfortunately I just don't think Miura wanted Casca to be badass and actively affect the plot. Idk if he ever knew what to do with her after deciding not to kill her off just to motivate Guts post-Eclipse.

Finally I just don't know if there's really time for that anymore. My vision was an Empire Strikes Back style end of second act downturn. Casca becomes a monster and sets a new arc in motion, Guts falls into despair and succumbs to the armour, shit gets real and interesting again for a while. Instead Guts' second act downturn is being mad that Griffith is still a god lol. She could definitely still go apostle at the climax of the story, and you better believe I'm still rooting for that, but idk if it'd be as satisfying lol. But I guess we'll see.

Anyway yeah you're free to disagree with any of my hot takes, but you're not gonna convince me Casca shouldn't become an apostle, because my reasoning ultimately boils down to "I would enjoy it." I would certainly enjoy it a hell of a lot more than fainting damsel in distress Casca which is what we're dealing with right now lol. If your reasoning boils down to "I would not enjoy it" then I probably won't convince you either, and that's fine. We'll find out what's going to happen eventually.

And finally I want to err on the side of caution and make it clear that I have no interest in arguing with the user you linked, and I hope you're not planning to be like, some kind of anonymous go-between linking posts back and forth. I used the linked posts as a bouncing off point to explain some of my reasoning, and that's the end of it as far as I'm concerned.

[dialovers-translations]

On yui hate, even if she has dumb moments, i feel like it’s not enough reason to hate her? Like, a person being dumb is not a reason to hate her right? A person being bad may be a reason to hate her. But dumb? We are all dumb sometimes… and if we hated people for being bad not for being dumb, we would hate on the boys instead

I think otome heroines are just kind of doomed in that regard. ^^;; I have always played DL with the mindset of 'I am playing as Yui' rather than 'I am playing as myself', but those who actually want to place themselves in the heroine role, might get somewhat irked by Yui because her behavior/reactions might not always match with what they themselves would do.

Still, DL is just that type of game which wouldn't work with a very generic/bland MC who has 0 backstory. The boys have so many mental traumas, I find it difficult to imagine that they could grow attracted to just about any personality. Not to hate on people who prefer female characters who are headstrong or rebellious, but the Diaboys simply don't have the patience for that sort of stuff lol.

Imagine Kanato tells you to get him something sweet from the kitchen in HDB and you reply with 'Are those legs just for show? Get it yourself.' You can bet you would be joining the rest of his 'dolls' in the wax doll room.

That being said, if people want to write their own stories with more badass MCs and still have the boys fall in love with them, that's totally fair! That's the beauty of fanfiction, RP, etc. We can create alternate universes and aren't always tied to the canon.

But 'realistically' (and take this with a grain of salt because it's still DL) speaking, it is much more believable for a kind-hearted, compassionate individual to motivate the boys to better themselves and learn to feel love/affection, than it is for someone who gives them sass and attitude.

Then again, I'm just one person on the internet and this is my opinion. You're free to disagree, but let's stay respectful, okay?

[icedteaandoldlace]

i often wonder how badly her being kidnapped by zoom relates to killer frost successfully overtaking her. like caity has been kidnapped the most out of any character in the flash, but the time zoom took her was a multi-episode spanning thing and she actually gets to realistically suffer for it for an episode after getting away from him. the ptsd gives her panic attacks and hallucinations. and when kf comes out definitively after after julian tears that necklace off, after another fucking man decides he can choose her life for her, that he's entitled to make her decisions, that he has the right to make her into what he wants her to be. she must have been so tired. it started with her father and it never ended. but if she was a killer, if she was someone else... she would be too cold to ever be touched again. caitlin can just go to sleep while the new girl piloting her body gets to be a god. and the going to sleep forever thing, that's suicide ideation.

tl;dr was caitlin choosing not to fight frost that hard anymore a motherfucking suicide attempt???

Okay, I gotta tell you, it is honestly fascinating getting your take on this because you're such a big Killersnow fan, so there's a lot of emphasis there on them being separate individuals, and I (before the big Frost retcon in later seasons) always saw Killer Frost as literally a part of Caitlin. Like, not just in the sense of sharing the same body, but like, they're two sections of the same mind, just kept separate because Caitlin couldn't reconcile her darkest thoughts and emotions with the rest of her identity, so she buried them deep down where she wouldn't have to deal with them, and then the perfect storm of trauma and stress finally caused them to surface and take over. There is so much in the first three seasons that seems to point to this, most notably Hartley's comment about how she doesn't like emotions because they're messy, and also, YES, the Zoom trauma, which absolutely played a major roll in her frost powers coming out. Like, they stopped Zoom, and then Paradox takes place THE NEXT DAY (it just doesn't seem like it because of time travel and the between-seasons hiatus and a series of scatterbrained writing choices). Dude totally jump-started her powers/Frost surfacing by being a dick and inflicting all that psychological damage on her. This is something I have thought forever.

BUT, all that being said, from season 4 and onward, the idea of Killer Frost being Caitlin's dark side gets chipped away bit by bit, until finally it's chucked out completely, and Frost is now a full-fledged person with her own mind and agency that doesn't involve Caitlin, and as a result, you have this weird continuity issue where season 3 Killer Frost is Caitlin, and Caitlin is the one responsible for stabbing Barry and kidnapping Cecile and all that other stuff, but season 7 Frost is Caitlin's "sister", and Caitlin had no hand in the crimes Frost committed, she was just stuck riding shotgun in her own body while Frost was at the wheel.

So that's where my head has been, basically, that there are some points in the show where they're two sides of one person, and there are some points where they're two people sharing one body, and however you interpret who Frost is in what season just depends on how you wanna view it, I guess.

But the angle you're coming at it from here provides a way for Caitlin and Frost to have been two different individuals the entire time. It's not foolproof, because the show's writing is still inconsistent in places, but it works a whole lot better than just saying "Frost went rogue in season 3 because she finally got to call the shots, and she just wanted to make up for lost time." Like, what was that all about?? Frost's motives being entirely separate from Caitlin just doesn't make sense. Even when it's played like Frost just enjoys violence and hurts people for the heck of it, it doesn't fit with the massive chip on her shoulder in season 3. What does fit is Frost acting on Caitlin's anger. Whether it just gets transferred to her as a result of sharing a body, or she is actually angry herself on Caitlin's behalf and acting out of a protective impulse, it just makes more sense for what Caitlin is going through to be Frost's driving force when she's out committing crimes, than for her to just be randomly violent out of nowhere.

I feel like this has strayed so far from the original subject, and also I'm very sleepy and not sure if it makes much sense. You just got my wheels turning so fast because now I have material for headcanons involving Caitlin and Frost being different people from the beginning, and there is so much to think about. It's like you just handed me a bag of asphalt patch and now I can go fill plot holes I kept bumping over before.

In response to your main point here, Caitlin basically giving Frost control as a means of letting herself escape is a very interesting takeaway of the situation. I don't know if I see s3 Caitlin as dealing with suicidal ideation (s1 Caitlin is another matter), but I get where you're coming from on that, and it is a thought provoking point. Also, never thought about the fact that Julian taking off the necklace is another case of a man choosing something for her, so major props for pointing that out (and this adds more layers to the end of the season when she turns on Savitar after being given a choice on who she wants to be...)

[the-pet-project]

S.2

The start of our relationship was complicated, or at least felt like it had to be.

Polyamory was new to me; I was in another relationship at the time, one that even unsuccessfully attempted to graft a layer of BDSM dynamic over top in order to find some excitement. At the tail end of that fizzling out, I think what I had was a little bit of trauma (what haphazard attempt at power exchange doesn't traumatize at least a smidge?), some very D/s-minded friends, and some goals to find something that really worked for me.

So when The Feelings started happening, I shrunk them down to something manageable in my head. "I must have a really motherly side to me." "I just feel responsible for her, for how much of a role I played in her self-discovery." "I'm just being a really (really) good friend."

She admitted one night that she had trouble motivating herself to brush her teeth -- that it was a problem, one that embarrassed her. Her opening up to me like that, it only felt right to say, "is that something that you'd like me to remind you to do?"

Two days later, we had some rules and commitments in place. She was to brush her teeth at least once a day. She was to eat a nutritious meal at least once every 12 hours. We shared fitness goals. I would keep her accountable to cleaning her room. And she was to call me Miss when acknowledging me, as Mistress felt outsized for how I felt at the time. I modeled these early first steps after another relationship in our polycule, a D/s couple that I would become very close with in later years, but felt larger than life at that time. I just wanted to give S the best I could.

The most delusional I was about this: it took me more than a month later to tell her I love her. To say it with my chest. Sure, we each had a crush, and we had twisted and knotted it into a complex tie made up of commitments, choice words of affection, power, and pride. And that somehow seemed safer than simply admitting how badly I wanted to have romance with her.

Today, I am her Mistress, her owner. She is my angel, my pet. We have been in a 24/7 dominant-submissive power exchange relationship for the past 3 years, one that has changed and grown with us in myriad ways since, to suit us more deeply:

Her first collar (I collared her several months after our unconventional start) was a beautiful, very overt black leather collar with rose gold hardware. When that collar became too well-worn, we got her another. Today, she wears a "day" collar -- a thin necklace that locks closed, with a halo and angel wing pendant.

She has always called me Mistress since the first time. When she acknowledges an order, she will often say "yes Mistress." When I bring her to orgasm, she says "thank you Mistress." But as time went on, we have found referring to me as "Owner" brings her a special joy, and one that I share.

We remind each other to drink water. Since moving in with me, this has evolved into her fetching me water whenever I ask. A small ritualized task that is no small favor.

She still must brush her teeth every day. And though this does not mean her teeth get brushed every day, as with any realistic expectations in a relationship, she does things to the best of her ability, and that is enough for me. Punishment and reprimand do not go far in our household, it seems, at least not as far as reassurance and comfort.

I love my little angel dearly, and beyond this origin story, you will certainly be reading a lot about her.

[zucchinibread777books]

More Than a Best Friend Book Review

More Than a Best Friend (Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend) by Emma Alban Book Review

Summary:

When Beth enters her first season, she finds that the only friend she can make is the slightly infamous Gwen, who is already a few seasons in with no sign of a match. After learning that their (recently single) parents have history with each other, they become determined to set up their own match. Little did they know that they would find their own love in the process.

The good:

I thought that this was a super cute lesbian romance! It was just the right length for this kind of story and I’ll definitely be reading the sequel when it comes out.

I really appreciate that this wasn’t some sort of enemies to lovers arc. I’ve had to avoid a lot of lesbian romances recently because they all seem to start with one character who is just absolutely horrible but is excused because of some trauma they’ll reveal later. Those romances always make it seem like the two characters would be the most toxic relationship and I just can’t stand them. There’s also usually emphasis on one of them being closeted. Despite this being a period piece, there wasn’t a lot of focus on them coming to terms with liking someone of the same gender. Gwen and Beth were a cute match from the start and I found myself rooting for them immediately. Rather than drama between the two of them, it was mostly outside issues that prevented them from being together.

Even with those outside influences, there wasn’t really any homophobia against the main characters. In fact, there was no direct homophobia against them, just mentions of how society would view them. It’s a nice break for people who are tired of homophobia being such a main theme in queer stories.

I also really loved that there was an older lesbian couple in this story too. It’s so nice to see different generations of queer characters and have them give advice and talk to one another. Gwen especially had such a great support system and I was so glad they weren’t entirely alone as they went through their issues.

The Bad:

If you are looking for something historically accurate, this definitely isn’t for you. There were a lot of times I noticed certain phrasing and lingo that was so modern it took me out of it a bit. Not necessarily modern slang, but definitely not language that would be used in the time period it is set in. And as much as I loved the lack of homophobia, the amount of characters who knew and accepted their relationship was definitely not realistic.

Adding on to that, the sex scenes. They were very unrealistic for the time period, especially because of how entirely public they were. Even in the comfort of their own homes, they should have worried a lot more about being caught. I also just personally wish they weren’t so integral to the story. I understand smut is really big in the publishing world right now thanks to things like booktok, but once the characters had sex it felt like that was their only motivation for anything. The constant mention of each others fingers having been inside them really took me out of the story.

I’m always iffy on relationships like the one in this book too. Where parents get together and their respective kids also get together. Step siblings being a couple just feels odd to me. It felt right for the situation they were placed in but still.

This is also a personal pet peeve but I’m really not a fan of main characters having similar names. Beth and Gwen were very easy to confuse, being the same length and the only vowel being e. They were interchangeable in my brain for a while. Mason and Montson were even worse. If it weren’t for context clues, I would’ve assumed I misread and they were the same person.

Overall:

I thought this was really good, especially for a debut novel. It definitely took influence from a lot of popular stories, including Parent Trap and Bridgerton, but put its own spin on them. (It also reminded me a little of the comic High Class Homos) I enjoyed reading it a lot and it was a good break from the heavier-topic books that I was in the process of reading at the same time. I’m not sure it’s at the top of my reread list because it did hit a few of my pet peeves, but I definitely want to read the sequel. I’d also recommend it for anyone looking to read more cute lesbian romances!

3.5 Stars

[kuniicou]

I've seen a couple text posts talking about Danganronpa and their dirty writing of Korekiyo Shinguji. Those people are right, but I don't think the damage is *too* bad and has a pretty easy fix. 

Before I get into specifics, know I'm not talking about the mess that is his trail. I'll bring it up briefly tho. 

Danganronpa has an intriguing way of writing its characters. Each one is written to be the protagonist of their story. As every character has "anime protagonist syndrome", generally they have some type of heavy trauma, but with the exception of Ultra Despair Girls(Warriors of Hope) every character doesn't seem to realize their own struggles. 

With small exceptions like Chihiro's getting stronger arc or Sonia being like "ruling a kingdom is a little stressful" most Dr characters don't realize the harm that's been done to them or are very casual about it. 

With the character not seeing their struggle as trauma or that bad, the narrative treats them in the same way. 

Example: Mondo Owada, in his trial it's revealed he killed his brother. Looking at the situation most fans say he *didn't* kill his brother, but because Mondo's perception is that he did the story follows his narrative. 

Danganronpa does this for every character. 

This approach to writing is really good, but if not done correctly drastically hurts characters. Most Dr characters have unique trauma so it's not as noticeable, ie, Kiyotaka, Hiyoko, Celeste. But the ones with heavy (more realistic/more relatable) trauma shows more, like sexual assault. - to my memory three characters have sexual assault as apart of their backstory, Mikan, Akane, and Korekiyo. 

Mikan has the whole fanservice deal where she needs attention at any cost, but I think she knows what she went through wasn't her fault. To a degree at least(?) - Akane, to my memory, is closer to Korekiyo's case where she doesn't know the abuse she suffered was abuse.(I'll get back to the front tails thing). 

Writing Korekiyo as he doesn't know it was abuse in *any* capacity is fitting for who his abuser is. He's open minded to the fault of his safety and he trusted her so why would they ever hurt him? But because he doesn't think it was abuse, the narrative follows his perception. 

To offset this and any characters that fall into this trap would be to have the protagonist recognize something isn't right. - In Kiyo's FTE he barely talks about his sister(probably to not tip people off to the twist) but to fix his issue Dr would have had to talk about her. They could leave out their relationship dynamic but they could talk about her personality. How controlling she was, how Kiyo would give into any demand because she was sick, how she was older than him, so then Shuichi/Keade could go "His sister seems very controlling but he seems happy with that arrangement." Or "I could never hang out with someone like that, I don't know how he does." 

The protagonist recognizing the behavior as weird is what saved Akane(besides her trauma not being the case) when she was going off about front tails Hajime was put off. Showing that someone sees that something isn't right. .

Okay. It can't be ignored. His trail. - It was dumb. The writers wanted to show off the twist of incestuous siblings but to do that his motivation would have had to be his sister, but wait, why would he suddenly be killing for her now after years of not? I KNOW! He was always a serial killer; he was just waiting for the right moment to strike! - I'm convinced the team couldn't think of a reason to tie her into the narrative so this was the best they could come up with. (Also in their picture together Kiyo needed to look younger than he does in the game. His timeline is one of the most convoluted, I swear.) 

Tldr: Korekiyo just suffers from being too subtle. The writers needed to focus a bit more onto his sister and most issues would have been fixed. Also he's not a serial killer, which makes no sense to his character. 

[yesimwriting]

Hi! This isn’t really an ask as much as it’s a rant about how much I love the new chapter of “Final Girl” . YOU’RE AMAZING! seeing the mental affects this has all had her was so realistic, it felt like I could personally feel that distance in herself she feels it’s amazing and heartbreaking, I feel so bad for my baby :(. And like you said the boys having the AUDACITY to be shocked that she’s traumatized like THEY DIDNT TRAUMATIZE HER LIKE “Yeah I pushed you off the bridge, but I didn’t expect you to 𝘈𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭, 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘰𝘬𝘢𝘺? :(” LIKEE???NO FUCK SHES NOT OKAY, YOU GUTTED HER FRIEND AND TORMENTED HER, REMEMBER?.

And gale putting her in the book just reminded me of all the conflicting feelings I have about her character in general like I love her she’s an icon, but at the same time after six movies of her disregarding the victims of ghosts face it’s really getting annoying how her character is always knocking down victims of ghosts face for money like she doesn’t have enough of it, she does it with total disregard to them.she doesn’t pay them,she doesn’t n ask them,she doesn’t even apologize like ever and with knowing all that I don’t know why I didn’t think she would exploit the mc but either way it goes I’m FUMING I adore gale and all but she’s doing my girl dirty and I’m really starting to hope she doesn’t make it to end.

Anyways all that aside THEY WERE SO TENDER THIS CHAPTER IT WAS SO SWEET THEIR DYNAMIC TOGETHER IS SO AHHHHHHHHHHHH, I’ve missed them all so much I’m gonna be sick😭, though I don’t like how gales playing my girl the up side is that ensures more protective billy and Stu (and probably a fight, maybe not a fight this time but I’ve noticed that when things get bad for her they get real pushy and she get real distant (rightfully so) and causes problems cause they’re all so insecure but that’s beside the point, fall outs mean make ups and I love those)

Any ways I realize that this is really long and I don’t expect you to read all of this but basically all I’m say is I LOVE YOU, I LOVE FINAL GIRL, AND I LOVE THEM BYE💛

omg i love you 😭 i wanted to take my time to let this absorb before responding bc of how incredibly sweet this is!

first off always feel free to rant in my asks! i love when people send me messages (especially when it's about something i wrote bc it means so much that someone read it and cared enough to say something), no matter the length and most definitely read everything! also i have never been brief about anything in my life so it would be illegal for me to judge

also i'm so happy you picked up on the psychological elements! i feel like there's so much hinted at in each ghostface, but especially billy and stu, especially their dynamic with billy having a bit of a motive and stu being presented as just having gone along with it a little more, so i try to stay true to that if nothing else, also psychology is like my second passion (i was a psych major for two days before deciding that i loved writing more) so i like to explore that side of things and i'm glad it comes across!

and yes i just had to make a joke about the way they were shocked 😭 like i'm sure the two of them could have been smart enough to think since we like y/n, maybe we just shouldn't involve her in anything ghostface related, it also has nothing to do with her bc she just moved here and has literally no context on anything! but they're a little delusional and had to give into the impulsive, and they basically made her the main character of their horror movie 😌 so it wasn't too mean, right

also you perfectly captured how i feel about gale! like she is my icon, i love her, but if i was in the scream universe i'd be so over her, ESPECIALLY if i was one of the victims, like you're going to profit off of my trauma and not even cut me a check? but she's also multi-faceted and does have her moments where she shows that she cares about people, and no spoilers, but y/n's going to have a connection/relationship with gale and it will be one of the most complicated and trying ones of y/n's life and that's saying something considering the billy and stu situation 😭

gale is also about to bring some drama! a bit of an emotional peak that i won't get into on here bc spoilers

anyways thank you sm for reading final girl and now i've rambled a bit so feel free to not read all of this lol 💗

[ohraicodoll]

Thank you so much for Red. It’s crazy how much I relate to her. We don’t live in a post apocalyptic world but we all live in our own worlds and sometimes it can feel like us vs them which Red helps me to navigate. She has helped me to feel less ashamed about the way my brain has turned out.

She’s so cathartic and has shown me that even when someone is as rough and ready, or completely rejecting of anything good that comes their way because they ‘don’t deserve it’ or that they will wreck it that some people could them her regardless. If that makes sense.

I especially love the new Tommy x Red friend post that just made me feel so fucking validated again! The way that Red has unusual ways of showing her love/gratitude and the people in her life just try to understand it until they do with no questioning!? To be loved in a way that is so accommodating and significant blows my mind. I know you’re writing fiction but sometimes discovering that this very specific thing is addressed and taken care of by another human being in the world is insane and has given me a bit of hope for my future.

It’s so soothing and Cathartic to read your work . I spent some of my childhood in survival mode and it never truly leaves you. You’ve written it so realistically I am in amazement with every piece of the puzzle you post.

I wish I had an ounce of your talent so that I could explain my love and gratitude for you in a way that was comprehensible. I’m sorry, I just had to say something now though, I’ve been having a weird couple of days and your writing is one of my only forms of escapism.

I am so interested in what inspired you to create such a specifically complex female character like her. I consume a lot of media, have read and literally studied the new era of woman (still hard to give them a specific name) and no character has ever come close to Red. Your talent blows my mind.

Thank you Sam.

Oh goodness, did you make me cry ❤❤

I'm so glad you feel seen and feel a bit of representation and catharsis with her. That's just all I can hope is that you all love the characters I create and the stories as much as I do. You've all kept me motivated and inspired to write her (especially as fast as I have haha).

The idea about Red came because I kinda got tired of only finding pure smut or timid characters in the TLOU fic tag. I love both but Tess was not timid and was more the dominant in the relationship. And I fully get that Joel radiates "I'll take care of you" dom energy but at this point in the apocalypse I doubt there would be many people left that didn't have some aggression in them or that need taking care of. I love character analysis too much to do the same type of character.

I've always been drawn to rage characters. I wrote a whole book series when I was a teen centered around one. And I think I wanted to go back to that since my character in my Sandman series is the opposite. Dahlia is an exploration of trauma responses, especially around acts of anger because that's what I experience. But I started writing with action and violence and someone who is angry all the time and motivated by rage and I wanted to go back to it because writing a character that lacks the moral responses to killing is fascinating. So often we get characters that regret or are remorseful around killing and I don't think that's Joel.

So it was a combo of just writing someone who doesn't regret her violence, doesn't regret killing, and has been alone in the wild for a long time focused only on surviving that they never thought they'd get more. Someone who is accepted for their violence and rage. And that's Red. She is a bunch of fractured pieces held together with string with no coping skills and Joel and Ellie love her either way.

There's the her before the Outbreak, the her that was broken by her sister (who she sees in Ellie), there's the her that was with her group, the her after being alone for years and years, and then the her with Joel and Ellie. Joel never shies away from her and may actually be drawn to her more because of it since there's a piece of that in him. This story is about being seen and accepting your ugliness.

I think being able to jump all over her timeline and continuously build her has been so wonderful and fun. Requests and prompts have been great in building her (though I do change some to make sure they fit the world and who she is). I fully acknowledge she's not a reader but an OC but I cannot write a character who is a blank slate because your past and history dictate your personality and actions (and tbh, most Readers are actually OC's without names or descriptions. I'm old, the x Reader/You thing is new but also just a relabeling of OC's)

I don't know how other writers write, but these characters fully inhabit me when I focus on them. It's why it's hard to switch between stories and characters at time because I can only see through their eyes. I feel their natural body movements, their conversations flow in my head and usually I have to race to write them down somewhere for later. Red is very much a part of me and it's been a joy to explore her and bring her to you all.

So much love and thankfulness to you all ❤❤