#I just can't believe how bad this worldbuilding truly is

[teeth-cable]

So if you want a prime example of questionable/shitty worldbuilding in the early Hazbin days: the entire concept of the Charlie comic.

So basically it was going to be set in Charlie's high school years which creates several issues.

1. Charlie was over 200 in the Hazbin pilot so that brings up an issue how long Charlie was in school and the education system.

2. It had to have been recent because Vaggie was going to make an appearance which....

3. Since its obvious Sinners don't age physically from their death date and Vaggie's design concept was shown at the same time as Helsa and Charlie's high school looks that due to lack of information implies Vaggie is high school age, which yes you can say everyone is 18 but its confusing as hell because if Vaggie is a sinner why is she in what I would assume would be a prestigious school/why is she in school in the first place? or... Vaggie and Charlie's relationship has some SUPER fucked aspects.

4. And we don't even know how aging works for Hellborns in general because like Paimon I fucking doubt is 50 but Vivzie could surprise us like she did with Stolas. Like how old are the deadly princes? Where are the ancient ass grandpa elder demons? Do demons choose when to stop aging? Is Lilith counted as a demon or human either way her age is questionable in that regard.

I'm getting a headache from how bad this world building is. So first knowing Viv, she will make the school system just like the one in America and that is another worldbuilding nightmare. Assuming Hellborns aged differently from humans, have a different history and culture from them, and will learn different subjects, it doesn't make sense to write Hazbin's schools in a traditional school system.

Second, no way in Hell would a sinner get into a Hell school especially if it's a prestigious one for Hellborn royalty. Viv said kids can't go to Hell so you have to die as an adult to be in Hell. So either Vaggie is lying about her age to attend this school or she is a possible teacher working there??? This feels such an inorganic way for Vaggie and Charile to meet each other. Like what purpose does Vaggie have to be there and with the implication of an adult Vaggie meeting a teenager Charlie in high school, I rather have them meet somewhere else where Charlie is also an adult.

Viv made a tweet about this idea back in 2019 so she had this idea for a long time now and didn't see the problematic elements or how it causes more questions than answers for the world building.

I actually wouldn't be surprised if Paimon was actually 50 because Viv confirmed Stolas was 30 despite him being the ancient prince of Hell. Honestly I don't bother with the aging for Hellborns because that is a nightmare of it's own to figure out. Both Hazbin and Helluva are filled with so many creative lore and worldbuilding concepts that the writers keep ruining due to their laziness. Instead of writing Hell as it's own setting, they write it as a Red Earth 2.0. I know Hazbin’s thing with redemption is strongly tied in with Hell and Heaven but I rather take a boring show about redemption set on Earth than a terrible demon show about redemption set in Hell where the worldbuilding has potential but the writers fail to execute it properly.

[gffa]

What is trigun stampede even about

At its heart, Trigun Stampede about the conflict between love/pacifism and rage/retribution, set between two twin non-human brothers who love each other but diverge because of this conflict, even as they desperately want to pull the other back to them, with a mix of various other characters coming along for the ride. When future humanity creates a new type of lifeform called Plants, beings that are connected to a higher dimension's energy source which allows them to be used to create food/water/air/etc., humanity is not exactly great about this. Some people are kind and compassionate, some are horrifically abusive, uncaring of the hurt they're causing. The only two sentient Plants of the series are the twins--Millions Knives and Vash the Stampede--and when they discover what the humans are really doing, Knives crashes humanity's ships onto a desert planet with no resources, where they will truly die without the Plants to create food and water for them. Vash believes they can find a way to live together with the humans, he sees the best in them. Knives thinks they should all die for how they use Plants up until they die, for how they experiment on Plants, for how they attack anything that they're afraid of. (It's very much a "the villain really kind of has a point, but takes it way too far, but you can kind of understand how he got there, especially depending on how much pain Plants are capable of feeling, not that we know the answer to that" kind of set-up.) Their conflict (not that Vash wants a conflict, but Knives isn't going to stop stealing back all the Plants the humans have taken, killing anyone who gets in his way) plays out across the entirety of the desert world, with Vash basically unable to go anywhere without some kind of trouble coming down on his head (whether through his own Plant abilities being necessary, bad luck, or Knives stealing back a Plant) and this weighs on Vash's soul like a ton of bricks. Vash tries really hard to keep up the appearance of being the local sillyman, but babygirl has the biggest case of depression you've ever seen, because he can't stop people from being hurt, he can't stop his twin from hurting people, he can't stop all the conflict going on around him, he can't save everyone, no matter how hard he tries, no matter how many pieces of himself he loses along the way. But neither can he just sit things out, because he's a Plant, he's stronger and faster and more powerful than any human, he has to at least try. Try to save them, try to reach his twin. What makes it all worse is that, underneath everything else, Knives is doing this for Vash. Oh, he's definitely not doing what Vash would want and I don't mean to make Knives sound soft or kind or nice, he's manipulative and awful, but I do genuinely believe that his motivation under all of it is to build a better world for Vash, one that doesn't have humans, one that only has Plants. It has some really beautiful animation, some great humor, some really excellent side characters, some badass fight scenes, some fascinating worldbuilding, but primarily I am here for the conflict between "we can live together" versus "the humans have and will continue to kill us if I don't do something" overlaid with how they both desperately want the other to come around to their side. Also, it's basically a Space Western with scifi elements and it's great.

[silver-slates]

My thoughts on Disney's Wish (Spoilers)

Let me preface this by saying that I haven't heard all of the negative things that have been circling around the movie, but I've heard more than a few things that painted a pretty grim picture of the movie before I went to see it. I was going in expecting something akin to Strange World going in, which I really didn't like (and that's coming from someone who likes unique worldbuilding.)

After I left the theater yesterday, my thoughts were just, "This is the worst Disney movie of 2023?" I really didn't have any issues with it at all, and even if I usually tend to have a more positive outlook on movies I watch in comparison to others, I just have to say that this was NOT a terrible movie. Disney has had a LOT of blunders in 2023, but I can't say that this was one of them. I know that a lot of people out there might disagree with me or even hate me, but Wish made me feel something that I don't feel very often: magic.

It's hard for me to know what specifically to talk about since I don't know about all the criticisms the movie's gotten, though I do know about a few. The first one that sticks out to me is the movie's art style, and how some people have called it ugly and even unfinished looking. But... I honestly don't get it. Nothing strikes me as unfinished, and I never found the art style to be irritating. It was something new, and I thought it was fine. It uses shading and colors that are a bit flatter than some of their previous works, but I saw that as it being a sort of in-between of the 2D look of the classics and the 3D look of the newer movies. There was probably only one time where I noticed something was slightly off, and that was where Asha is waving around some flags at the beginning and having no motion blur or smear frames on it looked a little awkward. I can also understand how some of the shots can feel a bit flat, but once again that's something that makes it feel similar to the 2D classics.

Up next, I heard some things about some of the characters being trash. The main two I heard about were Asha and King Magnifico. Some of the main things I heard concerning Asha was that she's dorky and silly to a fault, and what I have to say to that is that although she's pretty silly at the beginning of the movie and sometimes it can be a bit embarrassing to watch, that's just Asha being Asha before the adventure kicks off. As the story progressed, I thought that she learned to be more serious over time as she learned the truth about the wishes and Magnifico and what she really wanted to do, and most of her antics after that point are mostly concerning the actions of other characters. I never felt like she was silly in places where it was inappropriate, and I actually ended up liking her a lot. As for Magnifico, I haven't heard anything specific about him other than the fact that he's supposedly the worst Disney villain of all time. But... I just don't see it. His motivations are believable (according to my standards), he's shown to be a narcissist who doesn't truly listen to other people's criticisms, and him turning from a king who wants to maintain order while very rarely giving people what they want into a power hungry madman who wants nothing more than for his subjects to bend to his will and lick his boots feels in character for him and it had the right setup. I thought that the supporting characters were all good as well, but my least favorite was probably Valentino. He was alright and he did his job, but he really felt like more of a gimmick than anything else.

The next thing I want to talk about is the music. I don't know if anybody's had a lot of bad things to say about it, but I thought the songs were great. After Encanto I was wondering what they'd have in store for this movie, because although Encanto had some banger songs there were one or two that I didn't really like. Not so for Wish though, because I liked every last song that was in the movie. I'm... not really sure what else to say here.

I heard about there being a few cameos in the movie as well, and I picked up on a lot of them as I watched it. But the references feel tasteful, not overblown and obvious, and something you'll really only notice if you're looking for it (except for the Peter Pan reference maybe, but that's just one.)

One last thing I want to talk about is how I've seen some people calling the film's main source of conflict something that makes Asha a bad person. Basically, they say that her mission goes against Magnifico's warnings of what could happen if everybody is allowed to keep their wishes and that there could be some serious consequences that she's too headstrong to consider. But... they address all these points in the movie. Even if someone's wish turns out to be a rotten one, you can always try to step in and make sure it doesn't get too out of hand.

And I think those are all the things I had to say concerning Wish. I personally feel like it paid some good tribute to the animated classics with its story and familiar themes, and it was a good way to celebrate 100 years of the Walt Disney company, though I'm well aware that there are plenty who disagree. If there are some things that I didn't cover or consider please let me know, and I'd like to hear what you all have to say about the movie as well.

[necronatural]

Here's my review of the ANN Ryoko Kui interview

No one asked but the visceral reaction people had was just so funny I'd like to have some clarity in how I view it from my personal perspective

-An opener to get to know Ryoko Kui personally that whiffed hard because the manga did not come from the mind of someone who likes to cook and experiment with food

-A question about Ryoko Kui's favourite dish. As she had such an empty answer for the previous question and many had heard of Ryoko Kui's picky eating this question is like a slow motion train wreck. It was popular to talk about but most people still wouldn't have heard about the picky eating thing so this is a good thing to have in an article

-The only truly, intrinsically unforgivable question: "OBVIOUSLY you like TTRPGs". Ryoko Kui will not stop fucking talking about CRPGs. The main party was conceived of as a Wizardry OC party. She constantly absolutely nonstop makes references to Wizardry. I'm going to get a headache that there was a possibility of asking her if she has ever played Fallout 1 and the interview is just so uneducated on her creative influences that this opportunity slipped through their fingers. This question makes me want to microwave my own eyeballs so I don't have to watch someone whiff this bad

-Baldur's Gate 3 isn't going to save that. I can't believe the followup question wasn't about CRPGs. Does the interviewer know what a CRPG is? I genuinely have to ask

-Pretty good softball question about worldbuilding.

-Tapping into the most interesting aspect of the main character by asking about personal influences in crafting such a person

-The follow-up about the idea of a 'perfect monster' really feeds into her "I made it up" perspective of her worldbuilding and more of her personal influences. It paints a picture of her process that I find really similar to my own and that's neat :)

-This is like, the most artisanal fucking question about disability and identification you could POSSIBLY do and I'm not kidding. Lead with the scene that caused the most discussion. Refer to the readers who relate to this deeply autistic experience in their fight. Ask if this resonance was on purpose. Circle back to the Laois-Toshiro conflict, the real root of the interaction. I think it's like...the west, specifically the US, has this really bizarre individuality and fascination with tidy little boxes to fit into, so it's incredibly disarming for a lot of people that she like...answered the main question. Laios is written as a relatable, accessible character. Those autistic experiences you mentioned hindered his ability to interact with Shuro, but Shuro was hindered from engaging with Laios by his own burdens. She talks about this inability to weigh each other's circumstances causing strife. Which is pretty straightforward! But people wanted the validation of the little box. Doomed question but not a whiff

-The Laios question was so well-crafted and meticulously designed to communicate to Kui why the question about the fight left such an impact, but the Senshi one is like the TTRPG one; just assuming shit of her that is obviously not the case. If I wrote this I would comment on the dichotomy between Senshi's very obviously silly and non-erotic panty shots and the incredible care she puts into illustrating him as handsome and cool (i.e. that chapter cover) in serious moments. It is a miracle of fucking god this whiff ended with us obtaining such a funny and direct answer and Kui found the influence interesting to bring it into the interview but it's still awful form to ask this

-WHY WOULD YOU FOLLOW UP ON THAT. LET IT GO

-The question about Marcille's outfit is really neat! I think it's cool to get confirmation on its roots, and the mother/baby influences really make you think

-Mediocre question about farcille. Again, there wasn't a lot of care put into this and the shipping seems more important than curiosity about how she views the intensity of her own writing. This question did not whiff & gave us something interesting but you really can't help but be annoyed when you're more interested in why she wrote them that way and not if Kui blesses your OTP

-Ending it on the Izutsumi question ties into the interview also ending I like the pacing of it and leaves me thoughtful and reminiscing on the series. Good one

FINAL SCORE

It was simply mid. 💔

[not-poignant]

!!!

palmarosa and 5, 6, 11 & 12 for the fic ask thingy pls! (If that’s too many questions for one ask then just. Any of those. Ty!)

Re: Palmarosa - okay let's gooooo

5: What part was hardest to write?

So far, the sex scenes (although see below for some of my issues re: behind the scenes researching). They honestly are often the hardest parts to write. But also, Astarion is rather more sex averse than I initially imagined him being, but as I've been writing the more 'concrete' fic, I'm finding he is very sex averse and has a lot of reasons to be, and as a result it's slowed Raphael down. It's not bad, but I already struggle with sex scenes in general just because I want to craft something decent.

6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

Mmm. Astarion's a vampire and I actually (can't believe I'm admitting this) don't really love writing vampires! Writing creatures who drink blood to live I think is a tentative first for me, lol. Otherwise there's more similarities than differences. Like, the fandom and characters/pairing are different, but a lot of the themes are the same.

I'd say this is the first world I've written in re: fandom that has this much lore to go through, and almost all of it contradictory in some fashion. So I'm having to do more research kind of like through three separate fandoms to find what I want, or to realise I have to invent something new. That side of things is challenging.

11: What do you like best about this fic?

The crunchy dynamic between a not particularly pure-of-heart vampire spawn and a definitely not pure-of-heart devil. I really enjoy their banter. They're both very theatrical and performative. They both like a good show. They both think elements of violence are fun. They're both not particularly concerned with being good people every second of every day.

I get to have Astarion say some really fun lines, and that gets to be relatively in character. I get to have Raphael say some truly unhinged purple prose bullshit, and that's also pretty in character for him! I think I also really enjoy matching the voices as much as possible. I sometimes feel like I can 'hear' them saying their lines, and that feels really good.

12: What do you like least about this fic?

Probably the lack of easy ways to research the dialogue and world etc. I was very spoiled by like... the Dragon Age: Inquisition wiki, and even the Stardew Valley wiki. They have most of the dialogue and written parts there. The BG3 Wiki is kind of terrible for almost everything I need to know and I'm surprised when it can actually help me. It's also not immediately easy to add to, which I've thought of doing in the past (I have a Wiki account, and I have edited/added to them before - but Fextralife is different). And then also, a lot of it is contradictory.

The game writes pretty significant character growth in many different directions which means you can canonically write Astarion as two completely different characters in terms of morality and it still be...canon compliant. And then on top of that, there's just typos and issues - Korilla is 'Korrilla' in almost all the correspondence and texts, and 'Korilla' in the dialogue. So which is it? Do I just get to choose for fun? (I do).

As a result I've read hundreds of raw datamined dialogue files, and that's just laborious, because 90% of that is irrelevant to what I'm doing. In general, there's not a ton to hook into for Raphael, and some of his best lines are actually written down or transcribed.

I don't think anyone will ever truly know how much behind the scenes research I've done for what is ultimately a very Id/ridiculous fic, but I've done a metric fuckton of it. And when people then go 'oh but actually Gale is an X and you got that wrong' I want to claw my own eyes out, because I've spent at least 50 solid hours researching and compiling a fairly information dense Obsidian Vault for worldbuilding, and when I get basic things wrong it makes me want to cry and then immediately quit, lmao.

(In case anyone wants to see what that looks like so far:

--

From this fanfic meme!

[roxtron]

Y'know now that I think about it, the kh fandom seems to have a huge problem with ignoring or disliking games they find "irrelevant" to the plot. I came into the fandom post-kh3 so I can't say I know how the fandom's changed over time but.. it's kinda ridiculous to me tbh. Because from what I read it sounds like most people hated/ignored BBS and 358/2 days because they were "spin-offs." (Which is dumb anyway, like, even if hypothetically KH3 didn't exist and they were just spin-off characters- Why is that a bad thing? Why should you treat them like they don't matter? Why do some people think the characters from those games don't matter because they only care about the fate of the Destiny Trio?) And even still people consider Chain of Memories irrelevant because "Oh Sora forgets everything anyway, all you need to know is that." And then they consider Coded/Re:Coded irrelevant because "It's all data anyway." And THEN they consider DDD irrelevant because "All you need to know is the Xehanort time travel stuff in the finale." It's so weird to me how some people can claim to be invested in these games yet only care about the numbered titles. It can't be because they care about Destiny Trio that much if they consider titles including them to still be irrelevant.. So what is it then?? Is the concept of a spin-off inherently bad to these people? Like, sure, if you're thinking of the BARE MINIMUM KNOWLEDGE then yes I would agree you don't need to know much about those games beyond what I listed.. HOWEVER, that does not mean it's good to only go into the games with that knowledge. If you truly care about this series and its characters, you would value the ways those games expand on their characters. And even if you don't.. If you're only going into these games with the idea of "vaguely understanding the plot" but the plot alone. Not the characters. If all you care about is "How did Xehanort revive other versions of himself?" And not the buildup for the characters and how these arcs affect them, y'know, as characters..

I just don't understand how you can go into these games like that and still have fun with it. Like sure if I'm into a series where I appreciate the worldbuilding but there isn't much to the characters I can get behind that. (And I mean that in the sense of games with blank-slate protagonists, not to say the characters don't matter to me, but that the characters don't have much personality to get attatched to.) But in a story like Kingdom Hearts where it is about the characters, and the story is just how the characters choices affect each other- I dunno man. I'm not sure of the right words to explain what I'm trying to say but it just feels so dull and boring to only care about that in a series, and especially a series like this. I could go on and on about the ways those games affect the characters and the story more than those little one-sentence quotes.. And sure, maybe I will in addition to this, but that's not the point I'm trying to make here. Even if they didn't affect the story, even if they were solely character-building, or even if they barely served a purpose at all beyond a couple of scenes.. It shouldn't devalue the entire experience as irrelevant. (Chain of Memories I kinda get disliking due to the combat LMAO but aside from that + some people do like the combat-) The games are more than story alone. They're more than gameplay alone. And they're more than characters alone. All aspects of the game come together to create an experience, and if you want to devalue the entire experience as a bad game, because you find it irrelevant due to it not fulfilling your specific preferences of what you want out of these games- Then I have a hard time believing you appreciated this series at all to begin with. Also a hard time believing you have good media literacy or even care about having any but hey that's a topic for another day am i right

[i-can-even-burn-salad]

Writer Q&A

I was tagged by @clairelsonao3 and I think I'll leave it an open tag, because it's a whole lot of questions and I am tired and can't think.

What is your absolute all-time favorite idea you’ve ever had?

What if I started writing in English?

More under the cut, template at the end.

Is there a question you’ve been asked in the past that really stands out to you, and you still think about sometimes?

Ok so. Kinda two. One was basically "but does he have to be gay?" about a side character (Cedric) who just arrived with packed bags and a husband. It annoyed me so much, I made sure there wasn't a single confirmed straight char in the next book.

The other was also about Glass Shards, the first version of which was very similar to the current one, including the two scenes of SA. Which got basically a concerned "do you want to say anything with that?"

Which yes. I had a lot of frustrations back then, but not like that. And I get the question for the SA. No one asks me about the childhood trauma or any of the other shit. The possibility of people jumping to conclusions is always at the back of my mind when I think about sharing what I write.

What is your favorite part of being a writer? What parts could you take or leave?

Creating something. Just. I made something. I can hold it. I can share it. It exists, and it will not un-exist.

Fuck editing, though, I don't like it, and fuck worrying about putting it out there.

What is your greatest motivation to write/create?

The story I want to tell does not exist, so I need to write it.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever read or been given as a writer?

Not a piece, but a very dear friend once went through the trouble of leaving so. many. line. edits. on two of my chapters when I had just started out writing in English. I truly believe that has done more for my style than all the "don't use adverbs! :)" — "don't listen to them! >:(" posts ever could.

Half of those edits could probably be summarized as "please remove this and" 🤣 I like to think I've since gotten better at uh, balancing sentence structure and length 😬

What do you wish you knew when you were first starting out writing?

I think I answered something similar to this before, and it boils down to... I don't know. I think my progression was fine. There's no glaring problem that could have been fixed by a glorious piece of knowledge. Yes, I "wasted" years of my life trying to worldbuild, but I don't think I would have been ready to write a story I was happy with anyway, so whatever.

Without the hundreds of books I've read, without the roleplays I did, without the friends I found, without the games I played, I would not be where I am today, and I like where I am today. The time I spent experimenting, and the time I spent away from writing, doing other things I enjoyed, was not wasted.

What is your favorite story you’ve written to completion? Link it if you’d like and can!

Should I cheat and count the Glass Shard saga as one? I mean technically it starts at Nuisance and ends at Fancy Boots :)

I only wish I were done editing already, I know the first chapters especially can be better. But alas, it asked for story, not prose :p

Which of your characters would you say has the most controversial mindset? Why do you say so, and how do you personally feel about their ideals?

I mean, if we leave the bad guys out of this (I am sure hoping no one here agrees with Ed! 😂), Cedric is fun in fiction, but I actually do not think a murdery criminal is a good role model, no matter how kind he is to people he likes.

If you, when you first started writing, met you now, what would younger you think?

"Whoa, cool. Can I read that?"

Is there a question you’ve been asked in the past that really stands out to you, and you still think about sometimes?

What is your favorite part of being a writer? What parts could you take or leave?

What is your greatest motivation to write/create?

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever read or been given as a writer?

What do you wish you knew when you were first starting out writing?

What is your favorite story you’ve written to completion? Link it if you’d like and can!

Which of your characters would you say has the most controversial mindset? Why do you say so, and how do you personally feel about their ideals?

If you, when you first started writing, met you now, what would younger you think?

[baladric]

Oh! Oh! The DVD commentary style ask thing, if you want!

~~~~~

A slow-spreading smile, and it was one that Csevet had seen before: intent, heated, typified by a fixed, assessing quality to his gaze. Beneath that gaze, that smile, Csevet became the center of the world. Beneath it, he danced too close to a flame, and he would have balked from it like every other time had Bas not reached out to flick at one of the tashin sticks in Csevet’s hair.

“These,” Bas said, while Csevet was busy suppressing a shiver at the odd ghost sensation of the touch-that-wasn’t-a-touch.

“Oh,” he said. “Yes.” He felt dumb. “I stole them.”

Basreiët barked a laugh that would have better suited a crow than a man. Csevet was impossibly charmed by him.

“One day, thou shalt rule the world from some dach’osmer’s bejeweled shadow, and no one will believe me that thou once hailed with pilfered sticks.”

This was… some sort of nonsense.

“Makest me sound like a scheming little…” Csevet squinted. “ Hailed? What on earth does that mean? Are they—” Warily, he touched the base of one stick. “Are they bad?”

He did not know what to label Basreiët’s expression then. Glee? Astonishment? A peculiarly mirthful sort of wonderment? It only served to deepen Csevet’s frown. He just wanted to go to the damn opera, not field Basreiët’s catlike focus.

~~~~

the thing that motivated me most in this section, and this fic as a whole, is this underpinning feeling in my head that until this particular evening of his life, csevet has never felt truly, genuinely wanted before. i think his existence has been very lonely, in a way that he most definitely blames himself for (salvoing a great many admonitions about coldness and hauteur unbefitting thy station at himself)—and here comes basreiët lunethara, whose first cogent thought in my head after he became an actual character for me in 2021 was that he wants to eat csevet aisava alive. even when csevet is refusing to recognize it or think about it, basreiët so clearly wants him—is intent upon him—is categorically and unambiguously interested in him—and this is so so scary to him, and so so wonderful.

and bas more than just wants him, right? bas sees him, and has been seeing him in a way csevet hasn't recognized at all (which is good, bc if he knew he'd been for real clocked as queer, he'd have pelted so far in the opposite direction). "fleet-footed csevet" he calls him, before and after this snippet, and that's more than just me trying to make greek epithets a thing again—it's basreiët's vocalization of that indelible poise we see in csevet all through the goblin emperor proper, in a way that reaches deeper than his physical grace and taps into this crystalline clarity of thought that basreiët has noticed in him. “One day, thou shalt rule the world from some dach’osmer’s bejeweled shadow," he says, and it's a joke, but it's also very much not, bc he sees csevet's ambition, his skill, his intelligence as the presentiment they are.

and the cherry on top of no, actually, i am very much just some weirdo that comes with oh lol no i totally stole these, like, basreiët is having a HELL of a time here!! and THEN it turns out csevet actually has NO idea that he's arranged his pilfered tashin sticks to say Certified Babygirl ;) like, truly, this is easily one of the situations to have ever occurred.

this whole story is such a run at that moment when you realize that the thing separating you from real human connection is just a flimsy little curtain. like, yeah it is an excuse for me to worldbuild some queer stuff, and to write porn, but also just blahblah mary oliver blah "Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, / the world offers itself to your imagination, / calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting— / over and over announcing your place / in the family of things."

and i honestly can't tell if any of this was or is coherent, but a fair number of dvd commentaries i've listened to weren't super coherent either and it was mostly the enthusiasm that always stuck with me, so!!! idk, basreiët tripped over csevet's previously undiscovered Bimbo Mode button and neither of them rly know what to do with that at first, but they sure do figure it out!!!!!

dvd commentary writer ask meme!

[hopeaterart]

More from the next chapter of Xenia because it's basically one long infodump about the worldbuilding and I. Want to share it.

“-unlike what everyone on the Surface believes, prisoners of Tartarus are allowed to make appeals for their sentences.” Hades explained, Persephone nodding. He’d figured that, since Persephone was going to be staying, he might as well explain to her how he ran things. The two were sitting behind his desk, currently covered in maps and schemes of the underworld. “I don't preside over everyone's trials, and both the judges and Furies can get overzealous. If the accused can make a good case as to how they don't belong down in Tartarus, then I move them somewhere else. Most often Asphodel.” As of now, he'd just explained Tartarus’ place in the scheme of things, at least as a place.

“Do many succeed in their appeal?” Persephone asked, curious.

Hades thought for a moment. “Not really, most get a reduced sentence. Most often, the ones I allow to pass through are thieves. In the grand scheme of things, it's such a nothing offense…”

“Are they the ones who appeal the most?” She asked, tilting her head.

“No, that would be men who were cruel to those lesser than them. They don't realize that they're nothing special.” Hades told her, before rolling his eyes. “Honestly, they all bleed blood at the end of the day. And entering legend takes much more than a few fearing your name.”

Persephone nodded, thoughtful. “Are there appeals that you… can't take?”

“Blasphemy and hubris. They've angered other gods, and I can do nothing for them.” He explained. “And most murders. It isn't very often that one is able to properly justify ending another life.”

Persephone thought for a moment, rubbing her chin. “You said only bad people end up in Tartarus. Where does everyone else go?”

Hades snorted. “Not the bad people, Persephone. Just the truly awful, those who actively harm in both actions and intentions. One can be completely and utterly mediocre to the core without ever crossing that threshold. But to answer your question, most go to Asphodel.”

“Asphodel…” Persephone muttered under her breath, trying to figure out where she'd heard that word before. She then gasped, plucking one of the white flowers out of her hair. “It's those flowers! I was wondering what they were…”

Hades chuckled. “Not a lot of things can grow down here, unfortunately. Tartarus is hostile to life itself, and both Asphodel and the rock upon which my house is built aren't much better. The only thing from the surface I've been able to maintain is a pomegranate tree.”

“Oh… what other plants are able to grow, besides these flowers and your tree?” Persephone asked.

Hades hummed, tilting his head. “Unless it's gifted by one of my siblings, all wooden furniture in my house was made from either cypress or white poplar.” He started. “Mint also grows very well.”

Persephone blew air out of her mouth, exasperated. “Even in the land of the dead, Minthe holds on stronger than most…”

“Due to being a staple back on the surface, barley has also found its way down there. Somehow. A lot of souls down in Asphodel cultivate it, while waiting for what comes next.” Hades continued explaining. “As a result, most of our plant-based food comes from the Fields of Mourning and Elysium. We get meat and other things from a mix of imports from Olympus and animal sacrifices.”

Persephone frowned. “The Fields of Mourning? I thought the Underworld was made up of three sections.”

“I- it's how I first organized things when I took over Iapetus’ position, yes.” Hades started. “Tartarus for the wicked, Elysium for the favored, and Asphodel for everyone else. However, it turns out that humans are more complicated than that. When they die, they're forced to leave behind things, and they mourn for those things.” He sighed. “Some mourn much more strongly than others.”

“So, you put them in the Field while waiting for them to calm down!” Persephone finished, beaming when Hades nodded in confirmation.

“Ultimately, my goal is to ease the process of reincarnation. Souls, once dead, break down into shades, and then these shades melt down and back into the fabric of reality.” He explained. “The favored are allowed to live in eternal bliss in Elysium, the waters from the rivers diluting each other so much it goes back around to being a regular river for those barely-shades.”

“Very dangerous to mortals though, I should guess.” Persephone pipped up, the smile on her face turning amused.

“And you'd be right. Just the Styx mixing with the Lethe would result in certain death. If you add in the Archeron, Phlegethon, and Cocytus, it would instantly kill them. Wouldn't even leave a body behind, being struck down by Zeus would be less violent.” Hades answered, smiling at her amused giggle. “But my point was: souls that mourn strongly are temporarily placed in the Fields, their energy pours out of them and into the plant “life” around, and once they've properly calmed down, they're moved to Asphodel. Once there, they often pick up what they did in life, and simply go through their motions until their end arrives.”

“I see… you mentioned rivers?” Persephone then asked, tilting her head. Hades nodded in answer. “I was only aware of the Styx. What are the other four? Do they have a function?”

“Oh! Well… you already know that Charon ferries souls across the Styx. It's also through that river that souls flow back out to be reborn.” He explained. “The Lethe is essential to the reincarnation process, as it erases memories and feelings.”

Persephone gasped in realization. “It allows the souls to break down faster!”

Hades nodded in confirmation, smiling. “You get it. Animals and monsters come through here by following the banks of the Acheron, but they break down much faster than human souls. Most often before they even make it here. The Plegethon is made of liquid fire, and flows out of Tartarus. Not all souls in Tartarus are actively punished and imprisoned, I already told you that.”

Persrphone nodded. “Not all crimes are equal. What does that have to do with the… Phlegethon river?”

“Those who can't take existing in Tartarus are allowed to throw themselves in it, and disappear.” Hades explained. “To them, it's indistiguishable from lava. It also allow their souls to reenter reincarnation.”

“Oooh… What about the Cocytus?”

“That's where souls who die at sea end up.” Hades informed her. “As well as those who weren't buried properly. Funeral rites are, in fact, very important for the dead's safe arrival here. Unfortunately, we have no safety net for souls in case they're not respected.”

“Oh, that sucks…” Persephone muttered, thinking it over. “Can't Charon offer them the ride?”

“Despite how Zeus might insist, us gods do, in fact, have flaws.” Hades deadpanned. “They tend to come with our domains. You've probably noticed that water deities tend to be choleric?”

Persephone thought for moment. “... I just thought lord Poseidon had a problem.” She then blurted out.

“Oh, he does. It's ridiculous, how easy it is to set him off.” Hades confirmed. “But have you truly not noticed it? Haven't you found that water nymphs tend to be far more badly-tempered than plant nymphs?”

“Oh! Now that you mention it…” Persephone thought about it. “Wait. Queen Hera is badly-tempered, but she's not a water deity.”

“Having a bad temper isn't exclusive to water deities, it's just the most widespread flaw amongst them.” Hades explained with a laugh. "Also, Hera and Poseidon are twins. They share far more in common than one would think."

"Uh!" Persephone exclaimed in surprise, making him laugh harder.

His expression then turned more serious. “For us Chtonic deities, our most widespread flaw is greed. Charon is included in that. Unless someone pays him, he won't ferry them across the river. And unless that someone is, let's say, a small child giving him a shiny rock, he demands a coin as payment.” He explained. “And I can’t just make him ferry everyone. He's still a son of Nyx, and she adores her children. I need my relationship with her to be positive.” Him and his siblings paying her proper respect where their predecessors failed had quite literally been the deciding factor in them solidifying their power.

Persephone groaned. “I can't think of anything to solve that…”

“It's alright.” Hades reassured her. “I don't want you to fix all of our problems. The thing with Cocytus isn't urgent. Let me worry about running things, alright?”

Persephone took a deep breath. “Alright… you still haven't told me about Elysium.”

“Ah. Elysium.” Hades gasped, before rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “It's where the god's favored go. Heroes and legends, people who have made. If they request for their families to come with them, I allow it, as long as this family isn't in Tartarus. They've earned their paradise.”

Persephone hummed, thinking. “I have a request…”

“Ask it, then.”

“Could you… maybe… allow the truly virtuous into Elysium as well?” She requested, smiling. “Consider it as them earning my favor.”

Hades chuckled, before reaching out and tucking a curl behind her ear. “Truly, you are too good for this place. Your request will be taken into consideration. I do believe that's all.” He then declared, straightening in his seat and stretching his arms above his head. “Is there anything else you're wondering about?”

“Well,” Persephone started, frowning. “I was wondering about some of the people living in your house. I do believe the three judges aren't gods, and neither is the head maid or your other head of security…”

“Oh! That's because they aren't.” Hades started explaining. “With the exception of Medusa, most of the servants in my house are shades that circle in and out of Asphodel. Minos the First, Rhadamanthus and Aecus were kings who made a good name for themselves and usually reside in Elysium, so I have them judge most souls in my stead. As for Medusa and Asterion…” He sighed. “They're monsters. They can't be judged on the same standard as humans, and I found it easier to simply… not. Especially poor Asterion. So, I have them serve my house until they're ready to rejoin the cycle.” He then got out of his seat, and offered her his hand. “Now, I do believe we should go get something to eat. Are you coming?”

Persephone smiled, taking his hand. “Lead the way, O Hades.”

[wispmotherr]

1, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 17, 18

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting? - I'm a default font bitch. but i'm old and my eyes suck so i write with a dark colored bg and off-white text. 6. What is your darkest fear about writing? - That's the work I produce is bad. Bad grammar, bad spelling, bad plot, bad characterization... not even that it's not someone's cup of tea, but it's Just Bad and that no one is being honest with me about it, that one of the few things I'm incredibly passionate about, that i really truly enjoy doing is something I'm actual dogshit at. keeps me up at night. 7. What is your deepest joy about writing? - Knowing a story I wrote made someone feel something, or is a comfort to them or even that they enjoyed it just a little makes powering through my crippling self-doubt worth it. 10. Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you? -Some personal, unshared AU's (monsterverse lmao iykyk) have haunted me in the best way possible. They just stick around in my mind and keep finding new life and are such a comfort in their own bizarre way. 11. Do you believe in the old advice to “kill your darlings?” Are you a ruthless darling assassin? What happens to the darlings you murder? Do you have a darling graveyard? Do you grieve? - I wish I were braver when it comes to killing characters, especially ones I give a shit about. I want happy endings, I want soft futures with love and ease and safety for my characters. I might put em through the ringer but 9 times out of 10, everyone lives. (except for that one time I killed Damien)

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you write about? What is easy? - I can't think of any topic that's presented itself as being incredibly difficult to write about yet. Most scenarios can be researched or asked about and I'm pretty good at finding sources for things I'm not personally familiar with. Easy subject matter though... I'll get back to you, haha. I don't know!

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text. - We don't have fucking time for that. I invest way too much time and effort into lore and worldbuilding for fics two people will read, lmao.

18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end. Spicy addition: Questioner provides the passage. - idek where to go with this one lmao

[transmasc-wizard]

I absolutely want to hear your opinions on the generic YA fantasy writing style

thank you for giving me a reason to Scream, friend

So. A lot of the YA fantasy writing These Days is so incredibly formulaic that I actually made a formula.

I wish I was kidding.

It goes like this: chip bag worldbuilding + incredibly vague descriptions + ALWAYS using verbs + melodramatic emotions + super close camera + characters blank enough to project on but characterized enough to feel vaguely attractive = YA fantasy novel.

To further show this, I've written a little snippet of generic YA fantasy writing, following all the rules here that apply:

He was gorgeous, all curved muscle and tall frame, leaning casually against the wall. His dark eyes searched me with cool and impersonal purpose, but there was something else behind them--intrigue, maybe. At a girl like me? I was small and blond, nothing special about my face or body, and yet I could have sworn he thought me to be pretty.

Desire bloomed in my mind, a golden firework show of want. Then guilt slithered in my gut, gripping me tight and reminding me that the Divine Girls were not supposed to want the love of anyone but our gods. And yet my wishing could not stay quiet, shouting in the back of my mind even when I shut it into the corner.

I smoothed my blue velvet skirts; they were the finest money could buy, adorned with shining jewels and clearly well-made. Then I smiled at him and asked, "What's your name?"

Ew. Ow. I'm done. But that gets the point across, yeah?

The descriptions are so vague I want to cry. Believe me, I wanted to tell you more about Fantasy Love Interest Guy's actual looks. I want to tell you more about Miss Protagonist than that she's small and blond. I want to talk more about why the dress seems so well-made. (Obviously not all at once, but like. In the damn scene at some point.) But I couldn't, because that's not how YA Fantasy does it. Descriptions don't actually have a solid feel to them; they're not thought through or ever given little things that might make them feel more real. (And people are attractive, but it doesn't, like... tell you specifics. The guy is Muscled and Dark-Eyed and Gorgeous.) I based them on Throne of Glass especially, but it's far from the only inspiration.

And the emotions. Guilt gripping her tight. Desire as a firework show the first time she meets him. Like... wtf will it be when they actually get to know each other and fall in love? By immediately making the emotions huge, it means they either can't get bigger later or will be big to the point of melodrama. Pretty much every YA novel I read is like this (same with the verb thing).

Speaking of the damn verbs. Everything, even concepts, is doing something. Desire blooms, guilt slithers, wishing shouts. I don't think you can never do that, but again. It feels so dramatic. Sometimes, you've got to save the dramatic things for later. (See: that quote I reblogged about how if you say "infinitely" when you mean "very", you won't have anything to say when something is truly infinite.) Sometimes lighting flashes instead of striking the sky with a boldness, or the character is just tired instead of so exhausted they want to sleep and never wake up again. It's ok. It's like "try not to use adverbs or passive voice" turned into "no adverbs or passive voice ever and if you use them it's terrible".

The camera's super close, too. This isn't inherently bad, again, but a lot of YA does it regardless of whether or not it benefits the story. Like... this might be a story that's good for third person & farther away narrative distance. But who knows, bc YA authors don't Do That!

I don't really have an opportunity to show the chip bag worldbuilding (worldbuilding that seems good at a first glance but, like chip bags, is actually like 70% nothingness), since it's just an excerpt. But most of the YA fantasies I've read would take the Devine Girls (whatever those are, use yr imagination) and give... like... very basic facts about them. They're a convent, they worship the gods to become closer to them, they wear all grey and live simple lives, they're mostly respected, and they are not supposed to put anyone before their gods. (Miss Protagonist will obviously do this. It's probably the point of the plot.) That's not enough. It's a jumping off point, something to say in... you know... a tumblr post. Not a novel. It should talk about why the Devine Girls exist in the first place, why they're so much more religious than most people, why they want to be closer to the gods, etc. But it probably wouldn't, because that's just... not something that's thought of.

See: Little Thieves by Margaret Owen did not actually do a lot of worldbuilding in regards to magic or gods, despite a literal curse from a goddess being the centre of the plot. (It did do moderately well with Creatures and society, though; i'll give it that.) It's all super vague and just enough to make you feel like you got some nice nutritious worldbuilding, but like... it'd be nice if that worldbuilding bag was not mostly air.

I don't know how to conclude things but. yeah!! formula!! i don't care if other people like this, but personally i'd like to see some variety for once!! (also i challenge writers to attempt the Formulaic YA Style for a few paragraphs on their own, just for funsies. it's interesting to write imo.) Peace and love on planet earth <3

[beautifulterriblequeen]

B2:S - Chapter 3

Much of this series will be about the differences and additions in the novel version, and how they contribute to my understanding of story canon. But there will be character appreciation, the odd theory and headcanon, and suchlike as well.

Here be Lujanne, Callum, Rayla, Ezran, Bait, and Soren goodness!

Spoilers for Book Two: Sky below.

Lujanne having excellent fitness for all her walking around the Moon Nexus, and she's so energetic that Callum has trouble keeping up with her! She seems like those active grandmas who almost never stop moving, who have a lifelong supply of endless stamina. It makes me wonder if Lujanne will need that level of fitness for some upcoming conflict.

Callum feeling really hungry over not eating grubs and then still deciding he'd rather be hungry. It makes me wonder all over again how Lujanne got to the point where she eats grubs, considering that other Moonshadow elves we know of back in the Silvergrove don't. I still love my hc that the giant leech ate all of Lujanne's moonberry bushes and she's taking her revenge. Whatever's going on there, Callum is definitely not at that point yet.

When Lujanne asks Callum how he knows she's real, he thinks to himself that he'd put up with just about anything from someone who was going to teach him magic. That's a great parallel and foreshadowing for Viren's student/master relationship with Aaravos! And it's telling that neither student gets exactly what they hoped to get. Lujanne doesn't actively teach Callum any spells, because she believes he can't learn Moon magic at all. Aaravos does offer Viren power, but it takes him to some very dark places - literally and figuratively - and the cost is terribly high.

Callum sees a moon shape among the ruins, and Lujanne explains that the Moonhenge layout is an intricate rune that uses the structures themselves as part of its symbols and power. That's apparently a thing even with ordinary Moonshadow villages like Hollow Wood in the east, which is the coolest idea I've seen in a while: city planning as magic runes!

Yes, that's the same shape as the pendants Ethari made for himself and Runaan. Protection? Home? Feelsiness? A sense of safety and belongnig for all cycles and seasons?

Wonder what this Moonhenge rune stands for, then, and how much of this landscape is included in that rune. I bet it's more than we think!

But it makes sense now, how toppling the stone pillars would disable the spell the druids would cast to connect with the Moon Nexus lake. Breaking the infrastructure of the Moonhenge breaks the rune.

There's a physical sensation involved with the visuals that Historia Viventem brings up! When that one ghostly druid walked through Callum, he felt icy cold. Like in ghost stories. I really wonder about what exactly Historia Viventem is doing when it activates. It shows truth, "what really happened here?", so it must have some kind of time-related element, maybe tied to how the moon always repeats the same cycles or something. But it also seems to draw on the spirits of any living people involved in the flashback, because Callum could physically feel that wispy shape passing through him. So very interesting!

Orrr... is that all wrong, and there's something else at work with this spell than time? Maybe the world beyond life and death can act as an imprint of the things that have happened in the living world, and the spell that Lujanne (and later Callum) casts taps into that place, with perfect recall. I'm looking really hard at the sentence that says "dozens of translucent elf ghosts" and "phantom Moonhenge" and "lost in their own world" here.

Lujanne says more here than in the show about the world beyond life and death, being her mysterious Moonshadow-mage self. She says that "beyond" and "between" might both apply to where this other plane of existence is, and she doesn't much care which. With all the relativity swirling around this place, and not much in the way of empiricism, it's sounding like perhaps multiple conflicting ideas might actually coexist in such a place, allowing more ideas to fit there than we might normally believe is possible. Which is a fascinating bit of worldbuilding. Basically, every headcanon anyone has ever had about the Moon Nexus could all be true at the same time, for all we know.

Oh oh oh, Callum coming in soft with a secret wish! He takes one look at the Moonhenge and immediately thinks of finding a way to see his mom again! Poor boy, my heart! I'd say that could be another interesting parallel with Viren, but then, who wouldn't hold that sentiment?

Oh my, is this another breath of life into Ye Olde Ley Lines headcanon? Lujanne mentioning the Nexuses again, so soon after talking about the runic design of the entire Moonhenge, makes me wonder if the six nexuses are in fact giant runes. On Earth, the places where ley lines cross are called nexuses, and there are those who believe those points got marked with ancient structures, like Stonehenge and many many others. If Xadia were crossed with magical lines which naturally formed nexus points where they met, and if powerful magical runes were built across those entire areas, well. That would be cool beans, fams. Can I smack a map of Xadia and release a spell like Luz Noceda does? Because ngl that is my first instinct here.

Lujanne has got to be missing some grandkids to spoil, right? The way she's always whipping out cake and ice cream for Callum, and she's so grandma-ish about it. Headcanon about her being Runaan's mom aside, she is canonically lonely and she's very sweet to Allen and Ellis and I think she's missing whatever family she once had in the past. She may never get to have that family back, so she's finding a new one among the humans who live nearby, and I think that's sweet. Found family isn't just for the young.

But Ellis is straight up gonna be her fave, I bet, because she didn't turn up her nose at Lujanne's illusion food!

Ezran and Bait have a lot more to their relationship than was visible in the show, and I'm so excited by it! Ez can tell by looking at Bait's colors that he's not truly jealous of Zym, even if he's really grumpy about the dragonling taking up his favorite human's time.

And Ez thinking a lot about his dad and the things he's taught him. They're soft leadership material, and I love that so much! "Pick your battles" and the importance of encouragement. Ahh, my heart. Ezran, you're going to be such a good king.

But wait a second: both times that Bait gets extra grumpy in Zym's first training session, Ezran has just mentioned something about flying. Guys, I think Bait wishes he could fly, really badly. And that's his biggest problem with Zym, and with Ezran teaching Zym to fly, instead of Bait who doesn't have wings so. Bait is so old that his secrets have secrets, and I'm really curious how flying fits into them now!

Rayla, Dramatic Assassin: "I need to patrol for dark forces." That's what Lujanne called the source of the purple wisps that found them. I wonder if that's an official term all Moonshadows know, or if Rayla is just taking her cue from a veteran Moon mage. And I wonder how far Rayla is falling into the apparent pattern of "one mage, one assassin", since she does spend a lot of her time patrolling without being asked.

When Callum tells Lujanne that he was bad at prince stuff, and she asks if he didn't give up and got good at those things anyway, it's an opportunity for Callum to embrace subverting his parents' expectations in favor of seeking his own path, which is a primary theme of the show. But Lujanne is a couple generations older than Callum, at the very least, and I have to wonder what her upbringing was like. Is her version of success the one she took? Was she bad at magic once too, but she persisted? She is very soft and doesn't want to kill anyone.

Maybe Lujanne had dreams of doing something else with her life, but she felt she had to pursue the destiny that others handed to her, so she studied magic as hard as she could, and she did get good at it, but using it to defend Xadia from humans is not what she wanted to do with her life. Whether there's a parallel between her and Ethari on that point, there's one between Callum and Ethari, I think. How much of your life are you willing to let others direct for you?

LISTEN I WAS DYING AT THE EAR BREAD SCENE OKAY

This is my new favorite Soren and Claudia moment ever. Soren loves him his bread, okay. Even as earplugs for Claudia's sleep ocarina tune. The fact that it's "super effective" makes me think of a Pokemon defense. The fact that he learned it at camp, where he also learned about Moonshadow Madness, is hilarious. Later on, Corvus doesn't know Soren by name, but I still love the idea of Corvus being a kind of Strider-esque camp instructor, filling the ears of his young charges with all kinds of useful tactics like ear bread for magic spell songs (which actually seemed to work as intended), and warnings about the enemy elves' blood-themed tactics (which may or may not come back around in BH)

I thought they were gonna go in a kind of deep direction when Soren still wanted his ear bread back, but then he just. Eats them. Just noms them. I love this kid. Give Soren all the bread!

[the-nysh]

P1:I find it both fascinating and frustrating when it comes to Katsuki's wrong doings because I can't fully agree with the sentiment "bullying is bullying" and I feel Bakugou is a good character to explore that in examining the different severities of bullying which doesn't have to equate to invalidating victims experience (which are also variable) by doing so - discussion tends to describe it as so awful and he must apologise (which I don't disagree with) but awful can describe well more awful-

P2:-kinds of bullying, like actually going out of your way daily to harm someone and relentlessly take away their sense of safety and dignity. Maybe I care because the extent of the bullying itself (and his behaviour at UA, which I think is still bad but distinct from bullying) sets the tone to Deku introductory relationship to him and Bakugou's apology (which was wonderfully taking responsibility for his behaviour but works with his actions in part because it was not worse behaviour in his - P3: -past). Bakugou's behaviour in response to his insecurity, jealousy, fear and intolerance makes sense, his bullying was to push Deku away and coloured all his interactions with Deku, but he aimed to have those interactions be infrequent which feels like it plays a role in how Deku's (besides his own inners strengths) early feeling is that Bakugou is a conceited jerk in response to Bakugou's attitude towards him. In the story it all feels in proportion (well except Bakugou almost having to - P4: - to die, but that is more about him having a moment in Deku's shoes which in turn informs his understanding, his apology and how he goes about making things right from that apology, while also experiencing that panic of potentially not getting a chance to apologise to Deku), meanwhile it often feels like things are never aligned and in proportion on fandom and even nice takes veer towards implying bullying veered towards severe because discussion lacks the language to talk about nuisances.

So basically....what Hori’s created and written thru Kacchan’s character arc is proportional, consistent, and hyperspecific to his own fictional settings (world building) and his characters’ circumstances. But when fandom tries to discuss it objectively, Hori’s intent & nuances often get colored by people failing to separate the text from their own personal experiences & projections with bullying (ie Deku is not them, and Kacchan is not their childhood bully). Or things just get flat out misinterpreted by poor translations (ahem, including the lasting damage from Fallen Angels’ harsh mischaracterizations), including cultural differences and the like. Leading to a frustrating time trying to discuss what’s actually canon. :O Oh yeah, I can understand that.

Because the truth is that Kacchan’s past shitty actions (cause he was a shitty kid, who understands what he did was hurtful) were not nearly as severe or constant as many people were misled to believe in fanon assumed they were. He never sought Deku out in that daily, oppressive & controlling way (it was the opposite; he tried to keep away from him to avoid how Deku made him feel, except when Deku voluntarily got in his way and Kacchan lashed out to get him to stop) and what transpired between them was not the familiar case of ‘american’ bullying in media either (none of that stealing lunch money or undignified shoving into lockers kinda stuff - cause Kacchan was also trying to uphold a clean record before entering UA), because it was again, all hyperspecific to Hori’s worldbuilding with quirks & heroes.

Consisting of their hero society’s view on quirklessness & people’s worth/usefulness, Kacchan recognizing quirkless Deku still held a heroic ‘strength’ (in his heart/spirit), which threw all his understandings off balance and made him feel like shit in comparison (lesser, inadequate). And Deku recklessly never taking himself into account (without a rational reality check or adequate power/training/preparation) would only lead to Deku stupidly getting himself killed by following his ‘dream’ this way. Leading to a mix of confusion from what young Kacchan couldn’t understand, pain from his wounded pride/self-worth on what best makes a hero, including the fear of Deku’s potential surpassing his and the concern for Deku’s life exacerbating all his frustrated anger towards him. That and their miscommunication from all their avoidance - cause once Deku suddenly shows up at UA wielding OfA, now Kacchan thinks Deku’s lied to him their entire lives. D: Having felt like shit before, and now thinking Deku’s betrayed him with the perfect reason to believe Deku had truly been mocking & looking down on him the entire time...?! (Which we know was untrue.) Oh what a mess of misunderstandings! Which makes their plot riveting to see how it all unfolds though.

So basically, here we have all these complicated, different factors at work to explain (not excuse) the mix of hurtful behaviors that happened. (Kacchan kept trying to push him away, which failed both because Deku kept coming back and cause Kacchan couldn’t reject the lingering feelings of concern for him as a friend either - by keeping an eye on him at arm’s length anyway.) But it gets so easily misconstrued in bad faith, or Kacchan gets unfairly flat-out demonized (one-sidedly) to the extremes, that people simply want him to suffer in proportion to their own personal revenge fantasies, incongruent with the actual text presented. Thankfully, Hori shows healing and improvement (even from rock bottom) in a much more constructive way.   

Personally, I feel Hori making it a public apology was a little disproportionate, because this was a longtime private thing between him and Deku to finally come clean & sort out their feelings, and not really anyone else’s business to spectate or judge. (Which I also didn’t expect to happen right now either - with me prepared to wait another 50chs or so til the end for it.) However, for Kacchan to reach Deku’s heart - speaking from a place of experience he knew best, to get Deku to realize where he was currently failing and being hurtful/dismissive of others - it does the job. :’) Their classmates now have the full context behind his behaviors (now understanding where they misjudged Kacchan too), and...they double as witnesses, such that no one can claim they ‘forgot’ or missed this important moment in its entirety either. Hori lays it all down very clear (consistent with everything that attentive manga readers have already known & followed), while handholding the message so there’s no misunderstanding his intent with this. While also setting things up for Deku to return a private response from his side later. To finally complete & bring everything together full circle. :’) I’ll be waiting~ 

[serpentsapple]

Hey!I just wanted to say that your asnwer to the whole''Alina's endign was realistic''was great and it made me think if Alina's powers was such a burden and all she ever wanted was to have a ''normal''life(too bad her fellow Grisha people can't have that privilege!)why were we following her story?Why was she a main character?Nothing she does really changes anything for Ravka or the Grisha at the end of the day she convenitely looses her powers and doesn't have to worry about the other Grisha

Thank you!

And indeed! Recently, we were also discussing this point with each other - why, in a fantastical and quite fictional setting should we settle for a mundane, normal heroine? Why does “realism”* matter here? Is this series absolutely “realistic” when it comes to worldbuilding, politics or the characters’ psychology? If not, as I personally believe, then why Alina alone should be subjected to it? If the intent always was to depict a realistic heroine then, again, why did Bardugo not drive the point home in every aspect and every scene of the books? As you mention, the fate of the other Grisha leaves a lot to be desired.

I checked the end of Ruin & Rising as I could not remember what happened to the Fold... and see, even on this topic, Alina took no active part in unraveling it. The new sun summoners dispel it, not her, making her little more than a vessel for the plot to reach this conclusion. What did Alina, the individual, change? What did Alina, the heroine, bring us? In what way did she prove worthy of our attention as a character, no, more than that, as a protagonist?

Likeable or not, relatable or not, only one consideration is significant for a main character: whether he or she is compelling. And not in isolation. Alina, as the heroine, should have been the most compelling character among them all. Well... was she? Is this the one character we must follow in this world, the one who is the most interesting, the most well-written, the most thought out by the author?

(Just like you, I’m not that convinced.)

We won’t linger over the show adaptation as it wasn’t led by women like the books were, however I did find the time to watch the first few episodes and notice how much of a backseat Alina took. No longer is it her story, nor do they even bother to pretend it ever was; the framing is deliberately omniscient and devoid of the specificities and intimacy of her narration. In fact, the show seems much more concerned in revealing the thoughts of anyone who is not Alina, as if her character alone was too lacking, too limited to engage the audience. Bardugo herself qualified this wider scope as a “gift”! A gift!

This depresses me and angers me so much. Yes! Yes, I do think Alina’s character is too narrow, too simplistic to attract viewers! Which means it should have been expanded, not shrunken! It should have been explored and fleshed out until it can carry an entire series and win over the audience because of how specific, of how unique Alina is! To be clear, I’m not asking for Alina to change, only for her character to shine, regardless of how much I may personally like her. Instead her first-person narrative was stolen from her and this move keeps being praised, even by her self-proclaimed fans.

If even the people who love her doubt the quality, impact and relevance of her point of view, if even her author isn’t willing to defend her... then who will? and why should we? all it proves is that Alina was a pretty poor protagonist to begin with.

A sidenote. Nothing changing is, in my opinion, a flaw of the writer. What changes in this setting, truly? Alina starts and ends at the same point, yes, but so do the societies. A few names switch, a few rulers get replaced by other rulers; a cosmetic alteration at best. The roots of these problems are never addressed. Better for her, perhaps, or one might have to question why the mafia (!!), monarchy and various types of persecution and ethnic profiling go unchallenged...!

*If it even matters in contemporary settings. What is realistic behaviour, exactly? What of realistic consequences? Do real people and real life obey a nice set of rules that would have girls and greed be as simplistic and always punished? Isn’t this statement confusing what might be satisfying to a reader - witnessing the consequences of a character’s actions or a plot offering a meaningful conclusion - with what might truly happen in our world?

[tempoaryblogformightyjensblog]

After a Longass time, I'm gonna make a response post to a post from @itsclydebitches. Not sure if I'll acknowledge All

Of it, but still..

1.Thats, the opposite of what the First episode shows, the first episode shows that the Military presence in Mantle dosent really do anything to actually help them with the Grimm. With it even being joked about as usual for the Military by Nora. The next episode also states that wasn't even the reason James had for it. It was to handle the 'eventual' Panick.

2.This and the recurring point of this later on is something I kinda want to address, because it's sort of what I was trying to say in My ask but I should go into more detail.

The point is basically that If James was shady for what he did, then So is Ruby for being willing to work with him for that long...I kinda want to mix this with a different Criticism I heard. That Ruby not trusting Ironwood was horrible and ungrateful because of all the good stuff James had done and how sympathetic and well meaning he was. The issue is that they are both 2 halves of the picture that ignore the other half, wich was what the heroes actual response was.

Him being sympathetic, clearly just trying to help and all the Good stuff he was doing is why they are willing to work with him and help with things. But Ruby didn't like his shadier actions either, wich is why she didn't trust him completely. And also? ""Nora dosent agree...But Ruby, the leader, does. She pushed Ironwood to finish Amity somwhow", that....isnt What happens, we see After Nora yells at James, ruby walks up to him and tells him more calmly that his actions, his management of Mantle and such were only helping Salem and it's what was making it easy for Salem to frame him. And earlier on we saw her with the other protags suggest working with Robyn. That's not 'Reaping the benefits of his actions even if they don't like them', that's not liking some of his actions but still trying to Understand him, and hope to reason or talk him down. Basically...Well it's a display that the other charachterization for Ruby, that she was a judgmental child who considered anyone who went beyond her standard of perfection to be Evil, isn't true. She tries to help and Understand James because she knows despite his flaws he is trying to do good, she tries to reach out to him and get him to see his actions were flawed.

Hell, the Jobs they were actually given were jobs where they could actually help soften the consequences of James actions, like Ren and Nora guarding the wall. the Robyn thing was a direct display that they weren't just doing anything James asked or were perfectly fine with his morally ambiguous actions. When ordered to attack a Huntress who was just trying to help, they instead went against his orders and even tried to actually fix things in a better way.

3.This is a few different issues, I'll start by saying that, that wasn't Ozpins problem in the Previous Volume, Some fans and some of the Heroes in there Angrier times think that, But the big thing was basically that Ozpin wasn't trusting anyone With that Info, that's what separates it from Rubies situation with James, Ruby wasn't trusting James because he actually did have many traits that made him look untrustworthy. And...well Finishing Amity and the plan is not pointless even with Salems immorality. Ruby dosent 'Know' That her being immortal means that the whole plan is pointless for 2 reasons, 1 is that she never had the mindset that it made it all pointless, she was actually distinctly against that when the others thought that under the Apathies influence, and makes her stance clear later, that Salem being Unkillable doesn't mean she's unstoppable. And 2, she dosent 'Know' that because....Its not true. Even if they can't directly kill her like James is planning...Were explicitly, directly told in Salems first actual appearance in the show that Humanity United was a threat and that was why she was going to ensure she divided them. Not to mention that...It isn't even all about the plan? It's made clear that global communications being down was a really bad thing and fixing that alone would help.

4.Im just gonna address one point here...It was not 'The Majority of Mantle' Being taken, were told that they were not even close to being done evacuating.

5.Basically what I said at 2, But to also state, James wasn't an Unambiguous Bad guy in Volume 7, He was in the Wrong In Volume 7, but he wasn't meant to be a Villain yet. The point of James charachter is basically he's someone who meant well but was highly flawed and made bad decisions, and instead of growing from his mistakes, he doubled down on them and let his flaws consume him. I'll get to it more later, but, that doesn't mean he was always evil or meant to be, Also...Jaunes license was given to him by James but, he was not part of the Military being fused with Huntsman, especially by this point. And with Winters words in her and James fight, I have my own issues with that fight or Winters Arc, but I don't think that point holds up either because we weren't meant to see Winter as unambiguously a good guy in Volume 7. Her words in there fight was after she had changed, that dosent mean we're supposed to believe she was a hero while working under James. It just means her POV changed after leaving him, now she wasn't following her programming of being blindly obedient anymore. Penny called out Winter for her being willing to follow through with euthanizing the Winter Maiden, Marrow calls her out in Volume 8 asking the Weiss question.

6.Well, to answer the questions there, were told in episode 5 what the recources were. Clover says how they were taking 'Construction resources', were told this again by Penny in the Car ride, wich makes total sense. They are changing Amity so that it could serve as a shuttle, so needing Construction stuff makes sense. While we may not be told how much power James had explicitly, they do give us a decent idea, that he had way more then he should. It's said in the Council meeting that they set in Checks and balances to keep him from overstepping with his seats, and that he basically just Ignored them to pull the actions he did in Volume 7. And Watts gives us both one Major decision that shows James flaws and gives a Clue as to part of the reasons Mantle was crappy as it was, saying how James updated most of the code in Atlas after the fall of Beacon, but 'As Usual' None was updated in Mantle. Aside from showing a...Truly Spectacularly callous move on James part, it also gives a big clue as to part of the reason Mantle is as crappy as it is, That Atlas and James basically treat Mantle like an afterthought and neglects changing things there to make things better, resulting in the City's state that we see. And, I imagine that being surveillanced and patrolled almost constantly wouldn't be ideal, and it's established by Winters line in that first episode that not cooperating with Personal was a punishable offense. I think you also....Picked a really bad example with Rhodes, if anything, Rhodes is probably a perfect demonstration of why being complacent or loyal to a system is bad for Huntsmen. I think if he would have loved to help Cinder more, it's just that he was loyal to the System and wasn't doing anything to upset the status quo despite knowing it was wrong. If issues like that existed, then it makes James specialist program, wich is specifically supposed to be Huntsmen trained to be loyal to the system, an even worse idea. Also I sort of feel like the bits at the end are sort of a false equivalency. I explained Ozpin amd Rhodes but also...Well for one, while we don't see portals line up in those specific areas, the plan was to have Jaune explain what was going on with everyone. And Qrow, Marrow and Robyn were still taking in the other Ace ops,they knew the plan so they would likely just head over to the nearest portal after, and...Maria and Pietro weren't there. And in James case, it wasn't just him 'saving who he could', it's that he could have tried to do more but didn't because he didn't want to risk it, and as Volume 8 showed, they really did have lots of time to evacuate people and could have found a way to Launch Amity. And...Well in his case there's the little fact that, as his Convo with Oscar makes explicit, James plan involved leaving the rest of Mankind To the dust and at Salems mercy.

There are problems with RWBY, but I don't think it's shoddily written, partially because I don't really find it 'particularly' flawed and think the good far outweighs the bad. And you know what? To some degree, I agree. I do think there's a weird bias towards authority in the FNDM, but maybe alot of fans are too dismissive of criticism, I do think to some degree we should acknowledge the RWDE and such aren't all right wingers and there's now a Vocal part of it that are on the left or members of minority groups. I don't agree with a ton of the things they say, and think most of it dosent hold up, but instead of just dismissing, perhaps it's better to look at things in detail and give proper arguments agaisnt them. So I won't treat you like an idiot, I'm going to give a full rundown on why I don't feel like it holds up under analytical scrutiny.

For one, while it doesn't have those specific issues like in the real world, I don't agree with this Criticism because I feel it is the one that sort of ignores the worldbuilding and what's been shown or said about the Military and the world itself and not the show, It sort of feels like people just bring up the basic concepts that would seem reasonable and ignore how the show executes certain things. For one, the military was a leftover from a time when they were meant to fight against other humans, It was something an Authoritarian state held over after its defeat and reformation, James and the Military helped Jac as he turned the SDC into the horrific corporate empire it is, Covordin shows that Nationalism is indeed a bit thing and that there were high ranking officers who were fully comfortable with the possiblity of just waging war on the other Kingdoms again. And then there's the specialist program, I've seen people sort of distill it to its very basics to make it seem more reasonable, describing it as just stuff like Huntsmen having rules and such, when the show displays it being way more screwed up then that. It literally involves indoctrinating people as students, were shown Elm reprimand the protagonists saying how they don't need to think about Orders just follow them. As both Volumes show, the culture of the program is deeply screwed up and unhealthy for them, were shown how they taught stuff like repressing your emotions and how deeply unhealthy it is for them.

And...Furthermore? If we're judging by how things are In Universe with the show the world built...James way of doing things is, completely absurd. I already dislike Cynical 'This is the REAL world 'Types IRL. But....In the world James is in, his strategy is just....

He lives in a world where negativity causes monster attacks and the villains whole Shtick is manipulating narratives to cause disarray and ensuring people stay divided. James strategy involved closing off Atlas from the rest of Remnant after they were framed for causing the Fall of Beacon, never bothering to clear there name when sleet and Camilla say he could easily do so, he dismisses both his image across the Globe and in Atlas, and dismisses what the people of Mantle want and the stuff his actions currently cause, all as Neccesary sacrifices when that's all completely insane and Relies on basically ignoring absolutely everything about the situation they are in and how there enemy works, wich again, Ruby points out, that he was actively playing into Salems hands and making it easier for her.

I think it's a decent display of the Tunnel Vision James has, he's prepared for the negativity of the END result of his plan and made preparations for it, but he...Basically ignores the consequences his actions are having right now and how that will affect his ends.

Overall...I think the issue is that James is not meant to be the Bad guy through Volume 7, and I feel like its not that the show 'contradicts' it's pure black and white take on things, it's just that it wasn't there to begin with. Whenever a Major flaw Ironwood had from the start is brought up, it's claimed that it means he was supposed to be 'Always evil'(admitedly some fans as well), when it dosent, it just means his flaws and darker aspects were always there and he didn't jump off the slippery slope instantly like some claim.

Were meant to sympathize with James, understand him, ECT. We're meant to want to see him get better, to be escatic when he does almost get better.

Overall, I don't agree with the idea that James was a reasonable charachter who was bastardized, the show set him up as flawed pretty well already, he's sympathetic because he's designed to be sympathetic. He's not potrayed as a Villain through 7 because he wasn't meant to be til the end.

Also...Well, even if you still felt that him 'Just' abandoning Mantle was still just morally gray...That isn't dropped in V8, it's bascially dropped not 2 episodes later. Where not only does he shoot Oscar but Oscar pointed out not only was he abandoning Mantle, but abandoning the rest of Mankind. Wich James just responds calling it an 'excellant philosophical point'.

[sourestlemon]

So. I made a bet with my friend that I could get through Omegaverse Haikyuu fanfiction because he says I can’t so if I read https://archiveofourown.org/works/13330632/chapters/30514041 that I’m going to get free icecream and twenty bucks.

But still, Bokuaka! Bokuaka is beautiful, I should rant about it more actually

This is me talking about this fic as I read, so it’ll be updated until I finish

Note, I’ve finished and it’s very very long. You’ve been warned

There’s my review and meta at the end of this as well as some critiques

Spoilers ahead.

“The Jewel of Seijou”

THE WHAT NOW

IWAOIIII

Bokuaka is so fucking cute dear god.

Oh. It’s sinful now

Ushijima better stop throwing shade at my boi’s

“"I can't believe you all think that you can go against the crown and live!" Ushishima says silencing them all. The alpha was slowly emitting his pheromones wanting to show them all his superiority. No one said a word against him. "Toru! I didn't know you'll be as lowly to use your family name to gather us here!" The alpha seethed to the omega that could have been his wife. Iwazumi hackles raised and bared his lips at the beginning of a growl. "And you!" Ushijima turned to Bokuto full on emitting his pheromones making the rest of the alpha's shoulder hackle cautiously and Oikawa to cling at Iwazumi. But Bokuto meet Ushijima calmly, unfazed by the bloodlust while Akaashi was frozen to his spot but didn't show any emotion.”

So what we get out of this paragraph is

1) Bitchy Ushi. I love Ushijima don’t get me wrong he’s precious but like. This fic Ushijima? Son of a bitch walking up in here like “Toru! How dare you be so lowly—“ and fucking trying to dominate everyone.

2) Protective Iwaizumi. Protect the precious Seijou Jewel. Do it, fight for him, protect him he’s scared.

3) Is Ushijima salty because Oikawa didn’t choose him? Oh god, he is isn’t he.

4) Akaashi’s go to emotion isn’t emotion.

5) Shits about to go down, Bokuto is gonna flip eventually, if Ushi threatens anyone—it’d probably be Oikawa or Akaashi seeing as they’re omega’s—I can see Bokuto and Iwaizumi just flipping their shit.

God I’m way to invested. Why did I read this

USHIJIMA IS A COWARDLY LITTLE BITCH IN THIS FIC, STAB HIM HINATA

D O I T

Awww Kageyama cares, Tsukki cares

OH MY GOD TENDOU!

More people came surrounding them. "What the hell," Akaashi recognized Iwazumi's voice.

Iwaizumi’s reaction is the only respectable reaction.

Wait this has major character death in the tags

Fuck

Everyone has decided that Oikawa and Akaashi must be defended but just once I want them to flip their shit and kill someone. Just once.

Bokuto, Lev and Iwaizumi all want to protect Oikawa but Iwaizumi doesn’t even fucking trust em.

Why does everyone act like Nishinoya not wanting to move on so quickly is a bad thing? It’s perfectly reasonable and I hate how everyone is like ��What’s wrong with you, do you not like us?” And getting super standoffish or snappish simply because Nishinoya loves Asahi so much and doesn’t want to feel like they didn’t need him.

I really don’t like how Nishinoya/Tanaka/Ennoshita became a thing in this fic. It would be cute if it didn’t just happen because Nishinoya was desperate and if he wasn’t he wouldn’t have fucked Tanaka.

Oh dear god I don’t want Kenma to die.

Oh thank god it’s okay.

Fuck I forgot they had boobs

Did Bokuto almost name the Kuroken baby Oya but changed last minute?

BO ISN’T COMING BACK IS HE?????????

I’m feelin a little sniffly. I might fucking cry over an Omegaverse fic. Oh how the mighty have fallen

Oh my god the stars. I don’t think Bo is coming back y’all. I’m so nervous

The fuckin royals aren’t getting Keiji. No. Nuh-uh FUCK THAT SHIT

THAT’S BOKUTO’S MATE STAY AWAY FROM HIM

-cue mac worrying about oikawa because seijou is allied with fukurodani and an easy way to tear seijou away from the alliance is to kidnap oikawa and iwaizumi might split to keep him safe and ushi fucking knows this and possibly tendou also oiks is pretty as fuck-

BOKUTO IS OKAY!

Iwaizumi making Bokuto promise to save Oikawa if things went to shit makes me so worried but the same time his lil speech made my IwaOi heart so happy.

Suga bby...

BOKUTO JUST KILLED A FUCKING CHILD

Tendou, Ushijima I never thought I’d say this but I fucking hate them right now. They better not hurt the other best Boi’s.

Ushijima is salty as fuck confirmed.

"You truly are a piece of art," Ushijima said gently ...."But not as beautiful as him," the alpha muttered as he threw the omega to the floor.

So, this little snippet sent disgusting shivers down my spine for two reasons.

1) Ushijima just yeeted Akaashi, my son and

2) Any reader knows who the ‘he’ Ushi is talking about is, the only person in this book who is said to be as beautiful as Akaashi. You guessed it, the boi who rejected Ushi-fucking-jima, Jewel of Seijou himself Oikawa Tooru.

The thing that grosses me out the most about this paragraph just on its own is that Ushijima is either guessing about what Oikawa looks like, or he actually knows which overall just gives me the heebie jeebies because Oikawa definitely didn’t want that. What makes my skin crawl in this little snippet is what Ushijima would do when if he got his angry little hands on Oikawa—or Iwaizumi, but Iwa would probably be killed or used as a bargaining chip.

Hmmmmm, I’m pretty sure Ushi is in love with Tendou but the beauty statement still stands possibly???? Unless specified otherwise, because Akaashi and Oikawa are canonically considered the most beautiful people in the fic.

Also this entire chapter just makes me feel so gross, fuck Ushijima man. Fuck him.

My Ushijima loving heart hurts reading this fic.

I just want Akaashi and Oikawa to straight up kill someone. Please, anyone who I don’t care about

I FUCKING SEE THE MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH WARNING AND I DON’T LIKE IT

FUCK

FUCK

FUCK

NOT BOKUTO

WAIT IS HE ALIVE

I WANNA SEE MY LITTLE BOY

HERE HE COMES

I WANT TO SEE MY LITTLE BOY

"I came right on time," Bokuto forced out his voice cracking with emotion. "Now I can engulf you in my arms and brighten your days despite the absence of the sun. You will no longer have to endure the cold winters alone. I'll be with you, I be there for you and our child," The alpha vowed his hands itching in need.

"Are you going to leave us again?" Akaashi needed to know. The omega already knew that he wouldn't be able to survive being apart from the alpha. He knew that he wouldn't win the battle with the overwhelming loneliness.

"The seas could dry up, the mountains could turn to pebbles, the trees could die and the whole world could be on fire and I still won't leave your side."

That was all Akashi needed to hear as he leaped into his alphas arm and let go of all the pain he has held in

I’m not crying I swear

They walked together side by side and Akaashi finally faced them. They were both beaten, bloody, and torn butinstead of feeling satisfaction he felt remorse. They both looked at him with soft, wide eyes, and he realized that this was the moment they were waiting for. They wanted to see the child that they both desperately wanted and Akaashi decided to give them a parting gift.

Akaashi had won, he had won from the very beginning and he held his trophy who was a small babe with golden orbs, with mutant white and black hair. He hadn't lied to Tendou when he had said that the baby looked exactly like his father.

OH MY FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOD I’M SOBBING DON’T TOUCH ME

Meta and Review

So I just read A/B/O for the first time and I knew absolutely nothing about the entire trope that Mpreg existed and to stay the hell away from it. Please remember this in the meta and tell me if there way of dividing characters is ever specified or if it’s just decided by top-bottom dynamics.

Wow.

The story was pretty good outside of what I’m about to talk about. I liked the ships and most of the buildup, the worldbuilding seems solid, the war and UshiTens situation was really interesting to me and it made Ushi and Tendou a bit morally gray and could’ve talked about how people could do bad things for what they thought were the right reason and everything was clean cut.

Overall? Eh. Could’ve been done better

Not onto the rest

This doesn’t seem as toxic or inherently bad as most fics I’ve seen, I didn’t really like how Omega’s are always inherently feminine—the dresses, jewels, how they’re seen as inherently weaker and sometimes helpless, how they’re always referred to as “my lady”—and aren’t really given another choice because they might have the ability to reproduce in A/B/O but they aren’t women. It’s okay if a man is really feminine but for all of them to be? It rubbed my the wrong way.

I wish that the power structure was handled different in A/B/O in general. Omega’s seem to be treated like they’re helpless and I just...don’t like it? Omega’s might be submissive but that doesn’t make them physically weaker and if it did, I would’ve thought they would have picked up some other useful skills like diplomacy or strategy.

As usually, my example of how a character could’ve been handled better is Oikawa.

He’s my favorite character and I adored him but he just didn’t really deliver. It felt like he was being treated like a kid throughout this entire fic, it didn’t seem like he was doing anything during the war. Even if Omega’s don’t have a lot of physically prowess and abilities, what happened to Oikawa’s strategic and analytical nature? Why was it never mentioned in any of Bokuto’s POV sections because out all the leaders of the Allied Kingdoms, Oikawa is the best strategist—Kuroo is the exception, not the rule and I thought they should’ve been working together because smort boys—but he was simply hidden away.

Now I have no problems with all the protective IwaOi scenes when they’re in immediate danger—it makes perfect sense if Omega’s are physically weaker but have other usable talents that are taken seriously—and Oikawa simply can’t talk his way out of said problem.

I do however, have a problem with cowering Oikawa. That feels so OOC at the beginning of the first scene I cited, where is all of the quick wit and worthless pride from the show? Now, it makes sense for Oikawa to start getting scared and simply slip behind Iwaizumi once Ushijima tries to dominate everyone and all the Alphas start freaking out if Oikawa is at an actual, physical disadvantage—I feel like the alpha’s their have similar frames, or at least most of them do. Bokuto, Ushijima, Kuroo and Iwaizumi are jacked and beefy, everyone but Iwa is relatively tall too. Now, Oikawa’s tall too but he’s much thinner and leaner. I’d be scared too if everyone could break me like a twig if it came down to it—but no ??? Apparently at the first sign of any conflict he just gets scared??? He doesn’t know what’s going on in his own fucking kingdom ???

This is not Oikawa.

I didn’t like how they treated most of the Omega’s actually, it felt like they were just reverted to helpless damsels in distress. What happened to Kenma’s observation skills? Nishinoya’s everything?

More importantly, what decides Alpha’s and Omega’s? Is it up in the air like gender is? What are Beta’s then? It can’t just be who’s top and who’s bottom, that would mean the alpha-beta-omega- status wouldn’t be decided until you had a mate

From what I’ve seen in the fic, it goes by ship dynamics but what if the characters who had more strategic, cunning, observant traits and weren’t as buff and muscly would be Omega’s and had the brain power while characters who relied more on physical prowess would be Alpha’s and dominant in a purely physical way sometimes while characters who were an odd combination of the two would be Beta’s.

Going by my logic, instead of the top being the alpha and the bottom just being an omega without any personality it would be...

Bokuto- Alpha, like he was in the story. He’s definitely more physically inclined then Akaashi.

Akaashi: Omega, same as in the fic. Not to say he isn’t athletic but he relies more on his mind.

Iwaizumi- Alpha, like in the fic but from a purely physical standpoint and because he can rein Oikawa in when his friend starts going nuts.

Oikawa - Beta, he’s quite powerful but he’s also manipulative, strategic and his mind is scary as fuck.

Kuroo- Beta, he relies on his physical prowess and dorkily perfect brain a lot so he’s also a mixture of both.

Kenma- Omega, physically he’s a twig but his mind is what makes him the brain of Nekoma

Hinata- Alpha, he doesn’t use his brain a lot and has a lot of physical power

Kageyama - Beta, he’s pretty smart when it comes to volleyball and he’s also physically strong

Suga - Omega, he’s quite clever and his brain power out ways his physical prowess by a landslide

Daichi- Beta, he firms strategies and relies on his brain, plus his killer thighs

Tsukishima - Beta, he has his hue fur and athleticism but his brain power is also strong as fuck

Yamaguchi - Beta, he seems to be really people smart and eventually his serves are pretty good.

Can Betas get into a relationship with other Betas? I don’t know or care, we stan Alpha-Alpha, Beta-Beta and Omega-Omega ships here

I DON’T KNOW IF THIS IS HOW IT WORKS THO

do I have to read more