#I Love simon with my whole being

[in-amor-veritas]

incredible art by nyia.kylab on instagram

Was very honored to have a chance to write an interpretation of this incredible work of Ny's. I was shown the piece with very little context and it truly moved me, especially since I feel a very strong connection to Simon as a character.

༺💜༻

There are those who study dreams who have said that dreaming of clay represents a relationship that makes you risk losing your identity, the fear of losing who you are through being moulded to fit the purposes of someone else and not your own.

Simon may be sculpted from clay, and perhaps at first glance you may see how he has fallen into this pattern,  how he has been used as a means to someone else’s end. How he has been stripped of his identity and painted over in the colours of something he’s not or he should never have had to be. He’s been painted as a caretaker to a father, a parent to a sister, a criminal to a classmate, an outsider to a society that will never accept him. 

A danger to an institution that leaves little room for mistakes.

Even from Wilhelm, who paints him in the most extraordinary colours of love, who stained his heart with purple. For that person too he has been asked to change forms into something that is not his true to who he is. 

Simon has given constantly of himself until there’s precious little more to give, until the signs of wear, the abrasions and stains begin to surface even in moments of fragile happiness and intense joy.

The process of moulding a masterpiece of entails getting your hands dirty, starting over when you make a mistake, to use an expert eye and hand and instinct in order to personify an idea or will. 

Clay can be reshaped and remade again and again until it becomes what it was meant to be. To be kindled in fire and emerge as more beautiful and radiant terracotta, glazed in colour or left red. To become an unapologetic piece of art that is breathed to life by mistake after mistake, trial by trial, measured in small successes and great setbacks.  

Because even when faced with impossible circumstances, when the world expects him to sacrifice his own morals, to be the bigger person, to hide his face and do what’s easy. When they try to silence him. Even when the exterior that protects his heart is beaten down, is stained by the judgments and needs and wants and scorn of everyone else. Even when they pull at him from every direction and suffocate him with hands that stain and leave imprints in the colours of what they tell him to be.

Gold

What they think he wants to be.

Purple

What he actually wants to be.

Simon is made of clay. And through fire, he will shape himself, rearrange the chemicals of his limitations to become an effigy no longer able to be remoulded to fit someone else’s vision. Although terracotta too is fragile, in the way that humans are, it is brave. 

It is brave to be yourself in a world where people want to break you.

Simon is simple perhaps at first glance, rough-hewn to those who don’t care to understand him.  But clay is tangible, and earthen, and real.

[future-crab]

It's been said before, it will be said again, but it's still worth saying: the fact that art centering on straight romance is allowed to just be bad, but art with queer romance in it always has to be indicative of A Serious Problem With the Way We Tell Queer Stories makes being a queer person making queer art deeply stressful

[onthemerits]

no one told me that the simone-karl plot from why women kill would rip my heart out and stomp it into little itty bitty pieces

[sysig]

They’re both so cute, what’s up with that (Patreon)

[devereaux]

Simone Kessell photographed by Lucy Edmonds for Woman+ Magazine

[the-words-we-sung]

Season 3 ending

So... It's been almost a week since the last episode, almost a week trying to wrap my head around the end of the show, trying to manage my feelings about it all.

It's hard to end up feeling the complete opposite of nearly everyone on my dash but I've come to terms with the fact that I didn't love the ending. I didn't love this last episode. (I shouldn't feel ashamed or weird for saying so but you guys loved it so much that I feel a bit like an outsider right now 😓)

I haven't been a fan of the show for as long as most of you, but it means so much to me. These characters carved a place in my heart and in my head, and they've made me happy for months now. They helped me get through some stuff, made me discover some amazing artists, meet even more amazing people through this fandom. And I loved the story. Even in its darkest, saddest parts, I loved it. I was invested.

I love Wilhelm and Simon, together and separately. They mean so much to me. And I loved season 1 and 2. It made me happy, and sad, and frustrated, and exalted. But overall, I trusted the show and I was not disappointed.

Season 3 was a lot. I liked the first 5 episodes. I can't say that I loved everything about them: I was not expecting things to get so hard for Simon, with no reprieve in sight. I was not worried about Wilmon being endgame (I know it was a big stress for the fandom but honestly I never doubted that they were endgame), but I was wondering how the show would go about tying all the knots it made (I should even say all the knots it added during this last season).

(Under a read more because it's a bit long and I don't want to bother those who don't wanna read more of my frustrated thoughts ^^')

And unfortunately the last episode was a huge let down for me. Yes, it's partly because nothing I was hoping for actually happened, but mostly, it's because the choices they made did not feel very satisfying to me: ⁕ Simon was barely there. We went from him being bullied online/offline non stop for 5 episodes to almost nothing. It makes 0 sense to me. ⁕ Kristina suddenly feeling better: she was having break down upon break down for an entire season, could barely look at her son or even just talk normally and all of a sudden she's back, smiling and agreeing to everything Wilhelm says? I'm sorry but I don't buy it? Where did this Kristina hid during the entire show? ⁕ Wilhelm deciding to not be king, talking for 3min to his parents about it, them agreeing and him running into the sunset with Simon. I'm sorry, what?? I love that they end up together of course, but it makes very little sense to me? It won't change any of the issues they had this season? They're still gonna be famous? And bullied online/offline? (Probably even more so now?). I'm not obviously saying that Wilhelm staying in line to become king was the only or the best solution, but I wanted more from this storyline. I wanted to believe it. And right now, what we got? It feels a bit cheap (and I feel bad for saying that because the ending was cute and romantic and all, but it felt too disconnected from the rest of the show for me ><)

And apart from these few points, the big issue I had with this episode was: The Angst. So that might be a me-problem, but it was too much for my poor little heart (I haven't rewatched the episode yet, and I'm not sure I'll be able to anytime soon ><). I spent like 40min of the episode with a huge knot in the stomach because the heartbreak between Simon and Wilhelm was too much to handle for me. I can see how it was beautifully made, that having lots of throwbacks to the previous seasons, the Wille song, all of that was great cinematography. But it was just too much for me. I got in the season spoiler-free but for this episode? During the lake scene I had to take a break and check online if they were actually endgame because it was starting to actually give me a stomachache. So yeah, this part might be me being too sensitive but I did not like that they made me see them fight for each other for 2 seasons and 5 episodes, but then just giving up for 40min before finally running back to each other during the last 10min. It was just too much sadness for me ><

So yeah, maybe my expectations were too high? But I feel sad, and kinda cheated. Too many things are left wide opened. Too many things make zero sense to me. And of course I'm happy we got our Wilmon endgame, but I'm less happy about how it happened.

It's a bit hard being on Tumblr right now and seeing everyone who thought it was the perfect episode >< And I don't want to "yuck anyone's yum" (as the saying goes), but I still wanna be able to share my thoughts! I probably won't write super angry/unhappy/complaining posts about the season/the finale, but I still wanna be able to chat about it. I did see some posts on my dash from people not being entirely satisfied with this ending so it's a bit comforting. And I hope we can share some nice headcanons, or just discussions about different plot points.

But yeah, I guess that's why I haven't really been active this week! Trying to get over the double heartbreak of the end of the show + being disappointed with the ending! I'm gonna come back though! I miss hanging out here, I just need to strengthen my heart a little bit more :p Gonna get back to writing about my thoughts episode by episode for this season (I can't promise I can rewatch the last one though 😖 It might take me a bit of time to get there). And I want to continue my song analysis of the show!! I'm not even done with season 2 yet, I have some work to do there ^^

So see you back here very soon 😘

[crownedwille]

.

[chibishortdeath]

Haven’t drawn him in his CV1 era design in a while. I think his neck is a little long lol, but otherwise I’m pretty happy with this doodle :3.

[roychewtoy]

impaled

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

No actually it would be funny and also thematically appropriate if fionna and simon started dating. This is so fucking funny to me

[valeffelees]

HI HELLOO 📓 !!!!

HELLO HELLO! 🖤🖤

okkk, lemme think... OH, ok. i've got one, and i think i'm just going to have to accept the reality that i have no true "unwritten" AUs 'cause i do have a couple thousand (yes, thousand) words of this fic in a docu somewhere, but i can't even remember what the working title for it is at this point.

i think it might be "There's a Werewolve in London" or something? but really, who knows. LOL and so, yeah, the plot is about werewolves.

i'm gonna hide the rest of this under a cut tho bc turns out i don't know how to be normal about my fic ideas??? and this is just, so fucking long. like, i-would-not-blame-you-if-you-didn't-read-it fucking long.

but hey, at least i had fun! 😂

i dunno if i've already talked about this fic before? i'm nervous i have just on account of how OLD this idea is, it's one of my early early early snowbaz fic ideas bc i went through a phase where i was just, desperate for werewolf!Simon content??? but n e way, the tune of the plot goes: at the beginning of seventh year, Simon goes out on a mission and disappears without a trace, so of course the WoM has to assume the worst bc there's just no way for a magician with that much magic to blink off the map unless he's... well, yeah.

but life goes on. the Insidious Humdrum stops attacking Watford, the holes in the magickal atmosphere stop spreading, so really, what else is there to do?

Baz plays football. he studies in the library. he turns nineteen. he finishes at the top of his graduating class, wins a half-dozen academic awards, and skips the Leaver's Ball. he moves to London by himself and adopts a cat. what he doesn't do is think about Simon Snow, because he's twenty-three, and in university, and life goes on.

and then one day Baz is on his way to class and he sees a familiar mop of bronze curls and okay, fuck, sure life goes on, yadda-yadda, whatever, he knows those curls. he knows those shoulders, those freckles. he knows—

Simon Snow. older and healthier and standing there in the middle of the library, browsing fucking books. after a moment, Simon's nose flares and his head snaps up. "... Baz?"

and Baz thinks that, really, it's a bit cruel of the universe for him to still be in love with Simon Snow, even after all these years. (he thought, at least for a while, that he wasn't anymore, bc it didn't ache so deep when he thought about him) (but that was when Baz thought he was dead and Simon wasn't in front of him with his eyes and his mouth and that little pinch between his eyebrows, alive alive alive.)

Simon asks how Baz found him, and Baz says, "found implies i've been looking for you," and Simon replies, "right," and is clearly just, so fucking uncomfortable, like this boy wants to get the fuck out of there, but Baz knows that if Simon leaves now he'll never see him again, he's so fucking sure of it, so as Simon is bumbling his way through something to the tune of, "haha well funny catching up, see you around, mate—" Baz blurts out, "do you want to get coffee?"

and Simon stops, and stares at him for a minute, and looks down at the takeaway coffee cup Baz is clearly already holding, and then shoves his hands in the pouch of his hoodie and is like, "yeah, okay."

so they go for coffee, right, and Simon of course eats his body weight in pastries (but he's funny about it) (Baz doesn't comment, but he won't touch things with chocolate, with raisins, with nuts or seeds, and he doesn't actually order a coffee, or even a tea) while Baz sits across from him trying to figure out what to say, but Simon has always been the brave one and starts up with some small talk, polite things, like they're old friends or something, asking what Baz is studying, if he still plays the violin, and then strangely, "do you have a cat?" and Baz is like, "... i do. Olivia. she's orange." and Simon just nods, and keeps eating, and Baz realises Simon isn't going to be the one to bring it up so he finally asks, "Snow, where the fuck have you been?"

but Simon like, dodges the fuck out of that question, he doesn't even acknowledge it, he replies with something like, "i like these," about whatever baked good he's shoving in his face.

Baz: "Snow."

Simon: "i love pumpkin, i make a thing sometimes, like a butter. pumpkin, brown sugar, maple syrup. s' good."

Baz: "Snow."

Simon: "this has been nice," and then he's pushing back his chair and brushing the crumps off his lap and shrugging into his coat and he drops two ten-pound notes on the table and then he's turning to leave, he's leaving, so Baz lurches forward and grabs his sleeve and says, "Simon," and Simon stops, and takes a breath, and mumbles, "please don't ask me again. i can't say no to you, Baz. so please, don't. because i'll tell you. and i can't."

and Baz doesn't ask again. but he tells him, "the whole World of Mages thinks you're dead," and Simon replies, "i know," and looks back at him over his shoulder, "do me a favour and keep it that way."

Baz: "then let me see you again. i don't want this to be the last time."

so Simon agrees and they start meeting there, at that coffee shop, every day, the hour between Baz's morning and afternoon classes, and he doesn't ask about it again bc Simon is here, showing up, and that's fine, that's enough, he doesn't need to know, and if Simon is a little different, well, that's fine, too. and they carry on like that for a whole month, or just about, and one day they're wrapping things up and like usual Baz says, "tomorrow?" and Simon's face falls a bit as he replies, "i—can't, tomorrow. or the day after, i'm, well, i have a thing but, Tuesday?" and Baz wants to ask, but he doesn't.

"Tuesday, then."

and so—holy shit, am i still talking? i'm gonna have to add a cut to this at the top, i'm sorry. but n e way, it is by the pure chance power known as 'this is a fanfiction' that that night Baz goes out hunting later than usual. had a friend-date with a girl in one of his classes and had to stay up later than he thought to catch up on studying, so he goes out and instead of going poking through catwalks for rats and shit, he decides to take a drive so he can get his hands on something more substantial and maybe go on a bit of a walk, so now Baz is in an ambiguous Forest location and it is the middle of the night, and the weather fine, and the moon is full, and... it's very quiet.

nature is never this quiet, even around him. and that's when Baz hears it. a low, thick growl that makes every hair on his body stand, and before he can think better of it, fight or flight has him sprinting, and something is giving chase, something fast enough to keep up with a vampire, snapping at his heels, and Baz isn't stupid, but Crowley, that's just his luck, isn't it? the one time he decides to hunt in the forest at night on a full moon, there's a fucking werewolf in London. teeth catch the ankle of his jeans and Baz goes down, and instantly rolls himself onto his back and hikes his legs up to catch the wolf on the chest and hold it back from his throat, his back drags and drags and drags into the ground until he slams into a tree, and there are teeth snapping for his face, and through the dark, its eyes are sharp and bright as moonlight and narrowed to a point and blue blue blue—

and he knows that blue, like he knows the toffee-brown of its fur, the dappled pattern of spots in its coat—

"Simon?"

and it, he, stops. Simon is panting, and staring at him, and still baring those huge (fucking huge) teeth at him, and so Baz says his name again, and he blinks. and blinks again, his eyes blowing in the dark, softening, recognising him, just for a moment. and then he's gone, disappearing into the trees, the sound of his paws pounding the ground echoing in Baz's head long after he's stopped hearing them. or maybe that's his heartbeat.

Baz gets the fuck out of there as fast as he can, but he doesn't sleep that night. he stays awake until dawn, and then he's back in his car, back out at the forest, waiting. the sun comes up, and Baz almost thinks he has it wrong, but then the trees shift and Simon Snow comes stumbling out looking like he's been run over by a fucking train, he's in joggers and a zip-up hoodie, his chest is bare and so are his feet, and he doesn't notice Baz at first but when he does, he stops walking and glances behind him like he's thinking about running back into the trees (LOL), so Baz is like, "come on, Snow, i don't have all morning," and Simon does the world's most awkward monster-walk-of-shame in history, toddles the fuck up to Baz's car and gets into the passenger's seat without a word.

in the car Baz asks Simon if he remembers what happened. Simon says, "a little. m' sorry for, um—" and Baz tells him it's okay, and they don't speak again until they're pulling up outside Simon's flat where Simon opens the door, and gets out, and then stands there for a second before ducking his head back in and asking if Baz wants to come up for breakfast. "i won't be awake very long," Simon says, "but we can eat. and you can stay, if you want."

Baz, of course, does, so he follows Simon up, and this is kind of where the idea starts to fall apart and the details turn to mush, but i know Simon makes breakfast and Baz sits on the kitchen counter and lets him talk about things at his own pace, and that Simon has a roommate, an older werewolf from his pack named Drew who comes in while Simon is in the shower and tries to tear Baz in half, and prolly would've succeeded if Baz wasn't a magician, and the gist of the story from there is mostly about Simon and his pack, who've come to England from Wales to help a local pack whose youngest wolves have been going missing during the full moon, and Simon and Baz running into each other and doing their whole... thing, has really just been a chance encounter in the middle of something much bigger, and of course, now that Baz knows about it, he's hell-bent on helping.

there's also a neat scene (and actually, this is the scene that inspired the entire idea of this fic) where Simon and Baz go to the Bunces at some point and Penny is going on and on about how, "this doesn't make sense, there haven't been werewolf packs in England since the 1750s," and Simon laughs and opens her kitchen window and leans way out and cups his mouth and howls... and a minute later, a dozen voices howl back, and then he rests his elbows on the windowsill and grins over his shoulder at her and Baz and says, "turns out magicians don't know everything."

and yeah, i think i should stop talking now, but that is my werewolf!Simon fic. 😄

[lesbiten]

i cant believe in 2024 there are still people who unironically dislike dovewing because she was like. annoying or whatever as a kid. she wasnt even really annoying as a kid you were just reading part of the book from ivypools perspective. and guess who really didnt like dovewing

[the-crow-binary]

If anyone's interested, i'm going to talk about Dracula and the Belmonts' duality because i think a lot about them lol

So it all started with Mathias and Leon, of course. the dark boy and the sunshine boy Though we didn't have the chance to actually see how deep their relationship was, we know it was something really special (quote: "They trusted each other completely, and they were bound by an old friendship"), and not knowing much about their past actually allows us to imagine whatever we want. I like that, tbh.

Mathias and Leon were already opposites. One favoured intelligence and knowledge, while the other favoured combat abilities and courage. And they were the best at their respective fields. It was a perfect combination. Coupling to their strong relationship, and you had an unbeatable pair.

And then the betrayal happened. The friendship got broken into million pieces by Mathias. They lost the kind of bound they had, only to be replaced by another when Leon promised that he and his family would hunt the night and kill him one day. At that moment, Leon basically cursed himself and his family. He condamned them to lives of hunting, choosing their fate before they were even born. And the worst part is... it was the best decision to make, for no one else would've been able to stop Dracula in the future. (If it wasn't for Trevor's involvement, Dracula would have won back in 1476)

And it become even more interesting when you realize that Dracula created the Belmonts as we know them. Hadn't he betrayed Leon in such a way, he would have never become a hunter. He would have had children with Sara, leading to a whole different lineage, or maybe died in battle, we don't know. Everything Mathias did led to the birth of his biggest ennemies. This is the bound beetween Leon and him that lasted for almost a thousand years, this is the legacy they created together. Dracula and the Belmont family became two faces of the same coin, unable to exist without the other. Even worst, existing because of each other.

Look at Richter, he understood that. He knew, deep down, that all his family existed for, was killing Dracula. As a direct Belmont, it was the only way for him to live. What else was he good for ? And what else was he going to do after he defeated him, too ? And Juste. Juste also must have realised that, especially with what happened with Maxim. Both of them knew this legacy was a curse... but it was a necessary one, unfortunately.

Though the Belmonts hunted more than just Dracula, he's still the reason why they did so. He's the reason why they exist, their main prey, their other half. Without Dracula, there is no Belmont. And without Belmont, there is no Dracula. Mathias couldn't have become a vampire if he hadn't met Leon... And as far as we know, Julius, the last known direct descendant of the Belmont family, the one who "killed Dracula for good", doesn't have children. Why would he need to ? Dracula is no more, he destroyed the curse that bound him and his family together for centuries, there's no more need for their bloodline. Finally, after hunting for so long, they can rest.

When you think about it, the phrase "you complete me" totally fits them (though not in a romantic way unless...). Both sides are the consequences of the other and need each other to thrive. You know what they say, "there is no light without darkness". "There is no good without evil". It's cliché, but true.

We know a bit of Mathias' humanity still resides in Dracula, we saw it in his interactions with Alucard, and because of his love for Lisa. But I like to think that the Belmont family also greatly helped in keeping this little bit of humanity alive (the philosophical conversation he had with Richter might be an example of that). They are Leon's family after all. And though Leon have shown anger and hatred for him after what he did (Quote: "You have become a cursed being, and I will NEVER forgive you."), Mathias, on the other hand, have shown nothing more than melancholy and sadness before he depart ("Death, he's all yours." is an interesting choice of words actually, since he could've directly ask for Leon to be executed. But didn't. Hinting that Leon's death wasn't his true wish, while he probably realised he was the last thing tying him to humanity. And he had to get rid of that humanity... unsuccessfully, at the end). He did display hate and anger before that, but towards God only, and had even proposed eternity by his side to Leon. So it's likely that he still holds some sort of affection for him... enough that even his descendants would have some kind of effect on him. Ain't no way he's fighting his oldest friend's own blood and don't feel anything about it, nor have a single thought for said friend.

Anyway.

Dracula's story started with a Belmont, and though he had some other unrelated (or only partially related) ennemies along the way, it still ended with a Belmont. The other way around is also true, as the Belmont family's story started with Dracula, and ended with him. One shared curse, two complete opposites, always and forever the two faces of the same coin. No matter what happens, Dracula and the Belmont bloodline will always meet again... until the day one of them disappear for good, making the other fade away as well. After all...

What needs for the shepherd when the wolves have all gone ?

[fefairys]

MAN. just finished the elements arc of our AT rewatch and watching ice king say like "listen lady im sure this simon guy is cool and all but im ice king, im a special person and i deserve respect!" and stuff hurts real bad man. he kinda was happier as the ice king.

[biblicalhorror]

NO LITERALLY EVERY EXPRESSION HE MAKES IS THE EXACT SAME THERES NOTHING BEHIND THAT EYEBROW NOT ONE SINGLE THOUGHT

LITERALLYYYYYY dude

Like the vibes of the character and the backstory and the motivations are ALL THERE and could be so compelling and interesting!!!!! if this man knew how to make even one other facial expression. But alas.

[relicsongmel]

Kieran's personality shift in the Indigo Disk is really hammering home to me that his voice is just an edgier version of Simon Keyes and I don't know how to feel about that