#Maybe a little foreshadowing sprinkled in here

[hallucinateonpaperspines]

If Ashley found a shrunk con, like fit in your Palm small what would she do with them ? What would the experience be for the con ?( I blame bittyformers/tinyformers tags for this question)

It would depend...

Ashlyn would most certainly not be picky. After all, she is a fan, a little trauma does little to erode the foundational love (one-sided as it is) she carries for these characters. A little mini-con? How can she not pick it up and give 'em a little SQUEEZE?

She would be collecting them like Pokemon.

Knockout would be a little... upset. How dare the grimy human touch him?!?! He can feel his finish eroding every nanosecond those oily digits make contact with his paint!

He'll cool down once the buffer comes out. It's a full-body massage now. The Doctor might even find himself enjoying his new state, the routine compliments, the ease of getting prime varieties of paint and polish, and, better yet, no one to scratch or dent his frame. It could almost be idyllic if it wasn't so pet-like. Yet, lounging in his microfiber blanket, suggesting new modifications to the toy mini race track, KO can't find it within himself to be too upset. Ashlyn for her part is rather diligent with his upkeep, relatively entertaining banter, and doesn't seem too hostile.

He could get used to this. Just until the process is reversed and he's free once more.

Breakdown is more confused than agitated. Ashlyn took one look at him, made a strange strangled noise, and plucked him up. Now he's here, wrapped like a burrito in a mattress nest as the human coos over him and plays monster truck rallies on the TV. It would almost be relaxing if not for the concerning focus in her eyes, the impressive assortment of bug spray and lighters, and the odd sentence she mutters every so often.

What does she mean he won't get torn apart for the third time? What does she mean the second happened when he was dead?!?! KO, please come pick up BD- he's scared.

Makeshift is the most proactive out of them all, fighting valiantly till he can't anymore or risk going into a forced stasis. He transforms in her hands, stabs, and slices as exposed flesh, his vocal processor glitching as his curses in Neocybex. It's not till Ashlyn starts bleeding that the Mech's joints lock up, mind flashing to a particularly sore memory as the warm fluid gets between his gears.

He's still frozen as he's gently washed in a basin, warm water soothing and his ruined arm treated with more consideration than even he's bothered to give the useless limb. Makeshift is still thinking as the human mutters, questions about how he's alive, apologizes for the injury, and promises if he hurts someone again. It's very confusing; an odd mixture of guilt and justification that seems dwarfed by his existence.

Ashlyn Moore promises to take responsibility for this discrepancy she's created in the timeline, and Makeshift feels both threatened and assured by it.

Starscream will be a shrieking mess. He will claw up everything he can get his servos on and insult everything he can think of. Which is a lot. He's entirely unprepared for how the organic snarks back at him, pointing out the height difference in a coldly factual way while she's also ensuring everything is Starscream-proof and comfortable. Including an assortment of cat posts arranged in a way that could almost mimic Vos's skylines.

It's not until he witnesses Ashlyn being, well Ashlyn, that Starscream finally shuts up. A human did that? THAT? That crater, those screaming wails, the sheer fear radiating off masked soldiers as they back away from the same organic that put a cat seat by the window for him?

The seeker can't help but smile, clawed digits and stoking the hand that protectively holds him like a supervillain with a favorite pet. If this is what she can do to MECH, how else can he use this nugget of chaos?

Megatron is shocked to be in this situation, but, similar to Starscream, he believes he can use our darling chaos goblin to his advantage.

That plan is quickly sidelined.

Ashlyn treats him relatively well, maybe a tiny part of her is hoping to change that rusted bucket's mind about the war, or at the very least, about humanity's perceived status as inconsequential. It would be nice not to have to worry about the giant alien in the sky raining down super weapons every other week, okay?

It quickly devolves into a rather obvious game of mental chess, one side with manipulation tactics, and the other with dubious philosophy and ethical questioning. Both sides prove adept at picking up the other's traps. Ashlyn knows what Megatron is, she knows how he works and is quick to call him out when he presents a logical fallacy or deviates into emotionally based evidence. Megatron is quick to pick apart her questions, dealing with even the Trolley problem with simplistic but probing ideas.

It turns into a game, and, eventually, a respectful friendship. There never going to agree, never going to be allies. Ashlyn is not going to let the Warlord go, and he is not going to stop a millennia-long war for a short-lived organic. But they can respect each other.

It's easy to respect a mind that works so similarly to your own.

Soundwave and Ashlyn just stare at each other. Eventually, the Survalince Officer is also added to the hoard. Ashlyn isn't quite sure what to do with him, the mech is a legitimate threat just by existing, but she can't leave him or mini Lazerbeak where they could get stepped on.

Totally not because it's freaking Soundwave and it plucking all the right cords of her fanatic heart to see him in a mini version.

In the end, Ashlyn starts walking around in a tin foil hat and makes a miniature Faraday cage. Hopefully, that keeps the con from hacking her phone.

Soundwaved takes this as a challenge and a vacation :)

Airachnid is found first by Jack. Solid willpower morphed whatever reality this drabble peers into, and Jackson Darby found the spider first. Lacking bug spray and a lighter to attach to it, the teen does the most sensible thing he can think of. He kicks her.

The sadist, six bonus legs and all, goes sailing through the air, her attempted threat cut short by her own teeny tiny squeal.

It's a mercy. Ashlyn would have just stepped on her.

*bonus*

JA332 dropped the final sugar cube onto the ground. Chuffing in a pleased manner as he wiped the few remaining granules from his armor, the little vehicon turned to gather the rest of his brethren to complete the ritual.

He'd prove the existence of Unicron's spawn today. The offering, and now a name ready to be chanted as his kin witnessed him summon the giant. Yes, JA332 would offer proof of what he witnessed so long ago today, and they'd command the giantess to grant them what they desired. Energon, territory, the death of the ants that kept trying to steal the offering sugar. Perhaps even a miracle would be done and ST3V3's true love would finally reciprocate so they didn't need to hear how amazing the Commander was every single vorn.

Yes, this could only end well.

(if you know, you know.)

[speremint]

Good Omens S2 Thoughts

OBVIOUSLY spoilers for GO S2 below, so if you've not seen, and don't wanna be spoiled, don't read!

The tl;dr of this long post is that I loved S2, it was a lot of fun, and I love that it focused more on Az and Crowley, but I also think it was a little out of pocket and a little messy in writing.

Anyway I fuckin.. am still processing all of what I watched, and am currently rewatching with a friend, too, but here's my jumbled thoughts on S2 and especially the final episode because I'm having many emotions and I need to get my thoughts out somewhere.

Listen. I would like to clarify that I loved S2 and I loved S1, and I think S2 was VERY smart to parse down on supporting characters and keep it stuck to Crowley and Aziraphale for the most part.

I'm assuming that S2 was made with S3 in mind though, esp after this post from Neil Gaiman, bc lord I will cry if there's no S3.

The focus on the story of Job I am being super optimistic in hoping that maybe it's Gaiman punching us in the throat with S2 before offering us a nicer S3... regardless though, I loved the season despite my minor criticisms.

I... do not have anything against Beelzebub/Gabriel, but holy shit was that out of left field for the ending... I just feel that, despite Gabriel having memory loss (it doesn't seem to be COMPLETE since it was kinda touch and go during scenes), they should've sprinkled in some sort of foreshadowing the his relationship or fondness of Beelzebub.

Have him at least not try to decimate that fuckin fly with books, or take an interest in books on forbidden romance, or rebellion against authority, or maybe just flat out have him be interested in Crowley and Aziraphale's relationship, or Nina and Maggie's. Just SOMETHING to set it up a little bit...

EDIT:: while rewatching, I suppose they hinged most of their foreshadowing in Beelzebub's passiveness and interest in Gabriel, but it's a little hard to have a comparison given how little they were in S1

It was only after I skimmed the GO tag that I saw people were pissed about Aziraphale's choice in E6 and I'm kinda just like ??? It's not OOC though... He's always been loyal to Heaven, and the times when he's been questioning, the biggest issue, is that Crowley was an enabler. He kept Aziraphale from REALLY facing the consequences of these decisions because he's acted as a safety net in some of the situations they're put in.

I love the added scenes of the past with Crowley and Aziraphale, they're fuckin great and I like that it continues to expand upon their relationship and "temptations", but I do think it was kinda reiterating stuff we knew from S1... even if it was good fan service, for lack of a better word. I just kinda wish they had sprinkled in more reinforcements of Aziraphale's fealty to heaven. Or, perhaps during the scene when Azira is worried he's going to become a demon, he could take that time to ask Crowley on his feelings on being a demon, and perhaps if he regrets it, just to also set up for the finale desire of Aziraphale in turning Crowley back into an angel.

Regardless though, S3, assuming there is one, will be a big wake up call to Aziraphale when he's left on his own and also under a tighter leash by heaven, especially since Crowley is gone. Also, expanding on Crowley being a high rank when he was an angel made my fuckin night, I still stick to the headcanon that he was the Archangel Raphael, don't @ me

I do think that... some of the stuff that happened in S3 did feel a little like a response to fans as well, since I know Gaiman is on tumblr and Ik the fandom has been really vitriolic over the fact that Az and Crowley didn't kiss or anything in S1... tbh I didn't think it was that big of a deal cause love is shown in many different ways, and I admit I do like that they kissed in S2, but it did also feel uhhh kinda spontaneous.

Not a bad thing, just wasn't expecting it. I did replay the scene bc I'm an angsty bitch. But yeah, I'm like ehhh.

Also Nina and Maggie randomly coming at the end to like.. sit Crowley down and be like "erm youre stupid and in love" felt very weird in a way I can't quite describe, but also felt kinda undeserved. Esp cause Crowley was like "eh I guess". I think the more subtle off handed chat he had with Nina about Aziraphale being his partner was a more elegant way of setting that up, and having him reflect on that instead would've been better. But also tbf he and Azira were being bitches and indeed messing with Maggie and Nina.

I don't like the term of describing content as "fanfic"y because a lot of fanfiction is super well written, but I think S2 was very... fan service-y... rather.

Which tbh I don't mind that much, esp given Gaiman really didn't want an S2 to respect Pratchett's passing as his cowriter. So... meh. I did genuinely dislike the ball scene at the end though. Just... it was really weird, and I'm not sure what they were trying to say with it, other than Aziraphale is fucking demented... and tbh he should've known better since the fucker's been on earth for ages, idk. After talkin with a friend, it just was a really weird scene, and if anything was OOC for him, I think it was that bc his removal of free will, speech, and even actions, was fucking insane.

Also I don't think John Hamm is attractive, so I tbh was just confused for a lot of his scenes that had interactions or alluded to him...

I liked S2, I really did. It was campy, it was a lil sloppy, but it was fun, and it gave a lot more Crowley and Aziraphale being a bitchy little married couple before their fuckin messy ass divorce at the end.

ANYWAY... I really can't wait to see what happens, and I am PRAYING that there'll be an S3. Until then, I will happily sit in my puddle of tears

[avtrbee]

please more gojo and fushiguro kids or gojo and his first years + yn moments!!

Notes: a little angsty and implied past!SatoSugu/Reader, Sugu still loves them, but they aren’t his goals anymore. reader is a female here w/ she/her pronouns. this is more getou centric than it is yn x gojo but there are a sprinkle of fushiguro kids here!! hope you enjoy (more notes at the end of the fic :>)

Three's a Crowd

summary: Suguru leaves and massacres his village, leaving you and Satoru with the consequences. 

tw: jjk0 spoilers, mentions of murdering children

Satoru marries you as soon as it settles within him that Suguru was never coming back. 

It came to no surprise to no one, you two were betrothed in childhood, after all, only you weren’t supposed to marry a year earlier. Satoru tried to play it off, waving his hands dismissively,  with an easy smile on his face. “Why bother waiting? We’re only delaying the inevitable.”

In truth, he sees you fading. You were quiet most of the time, a far cry from the firecracker of a sorcerer you once were. He would spot you in the most random places staring into space, trying your best to recall every conversation you had with Suguru. Maybe you were trying to recall the past to see hints you overlooked, any clue that might have foreshadowed Suguru’s sudden change. Either way, Satoru sadly watches you walk around the campus aimlessly, with no real destination in mind, staring at the sky, the grass, and the trees, but never really in your head.

There is a certain look in your eyes, the kind that tries its best to look normal but it’s only a mask to hide utter numbness. It grips Satoru’s heart like a vice when he recognizes it and sends him into a blind panic. He’s seen that look before. You were a ship without an anchor, mindlessly floating away to the sea, oblivious to where you were heading. 

So he’ll be your rock if it meant he could keep you here with him. He had not noticed Suguru fading away, spiraling deep inside his own head, the world collapsing on his shoulders until he finally snapped, leaving him to run away from high school and back to his hometown. If only Satoru noticed, if only Satoru saw, then maybe he would still be here. 

He knows of your dutiful nature. Satoru knows every detail about your upbringing and how your clan has instilled into you how to be his perfect bride and wife, and he knows how you hated being reduced to such a thing. But he married you anyway knowing that this marriage will override anything else going inside your brain. He knows that your childhood lessons will take over. It is manipulative, but if this is the only way he could keep you from leaving, leaving like Suguru did, then he’ll take it. He can’t lose any more people. That is a lie. He can. He can’t lose you. 

“Hey, welcome back.” 

Your voice greets him as soon as he closes the door and Satoru can’t help but to sag his shoulders in relief. It was always good to be home. Home is where he could relax, let his guard down in peace knowing that no assassin or curse would even dare to enter it. Home is where he could shed the skin of the Strongest Sorcerer and simply be Satoru. Home is where his wife is. 

You give him a bright smile as he trudged down to the hallway with his heavy steps echoing on the floor before he threw himself on you, his arms encircling you to a hug. 

“Hey-” The scent of apples fill his sense of smell as his nose nuzzles on your neck like a cat, promptly ignoring your protest. It was when he felt your hands run through his hair and settle on his neck did he finally relax, almost melting onto you on the spot. Home is safe. Home is you.

“Someone’s needy today.” You tease, but never for a second loosening your grip. You need this as much as he does. He is home. 

“I just missed you, ‘is all.” His response is muffled on your neck. He sniffs you loudly, like some dog sniffing for bombs- prompting a short laugh from you- before letting you go with a grin on his face. 

The past few years have been bliss. Satoru is happy and you’ve been so happy recently which makes him even happier. There is a certain bounce on your step, one that he hasn’t seen since the Star Plasma Vessel, and you’ve been smiling and laughing more- a far cry from the void and empty look you gave everyone months ago. And your eyes, god, Satoru is willing to kneel and praise whichever god exists if it meant your eyes were back to their usual sparkle. 

Getting you back was hard, but you were worth it. Satoru would have to drag you to cafe’s, encouraging you to try out their menus, desperately trying to ignore the way you seem to function in autopilot, like you’re doing things but you’re not really there. You would raise your spoon to your lips, tasting sweets that Satoru knows is tasteless in your mouth, and whisper quietly how you like it just to assure him.

But now you’d casually hint on new stores or cakes you’d like to try, you even insisted on watching movies every first Sunday of the week- barely any watching and more kissing and fucking, if he’s honest- but god, he’d do whatever you’d ask him to. Sometimes he’d come home and you’d surprise him with a date with a reservation to some steak restaurant in some skyscraper with the view of all of Tokyo below you. 

If this was what marriage was like with you, he would have married you sooner. 

But he had news. Bad news. The kind that punches a hole in his heart, leaving him numb and hollow. The kind that would make you spiral again. Satoru finds his hand on your cheek, and he relishes how you nuzzle it.

He wants to stomp his feet on the floor like a child, throw a tantrum, break a vase or two. It wasn’t fair. He just got you back, and now you might drift away again- floating through each room looking like you’d rather be anywhere else.

“What is it?” You ask, and your voice brings him out of his thoughts. Satoru has realized too late that he has let his guard down way too quickly around you. Again. You do that to him. 

He feels your palm grip his hand that was on your cheek like you were bracing yourself for a storm. On your hand he sees your marriage ring glint under the light. Satoru takes a deep breath. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard,” he admits. Yaga would have definitely contacted you, but maybe his sensei had wanted him to break the news. “All sorcerers above Grade level 2 are ordered to prepare for war.”

Satoru braces himself for your response. He’d protect you from all of this if he could, but even he knows what the enemy is capable of. They need every sorcerer they could get, especially one as valuable as a semi-special grade Gojo Y/N. You are not an anomaly like him, but Satoru has seen you in battle. He would win the fight against you, but you would make him work for it. 

“I see,” you whisper, bringing his hand down back to his waist before letting go. “What are my commands?”

“We will gather in Shibuya as soon as we can. The Night Parade of 100 Demons will start at sundown.” A glance at the clock shows that it’s already 5PM, and he didn't need to look at the window to see the sunlight slowly fading. Satoru has tried to delay this news as long as he could. 

“But what about Megumi and-” You begin but he cuts you off. 

“They will be safe. I’ve put up extra enchantments and you know that no one can beat your talismans,” he teases. “No curse will be able to enter this house once we leave. And if they do, Megumi will know what to do.”

“Does Tsumiki have her glasses?” 

Satoru nods. Tsumiki had begged and begged for a pair, and despite your protests, you found yourself embedding your cursed energy in a pair of glasses when she shed a few tears admitting she felt left out. 

A pregnant pause holds the room and finally, you ask, “Did he do this?”

Satoru freezes and braces himself. There was no use on lying to you. You know him inside and out just like he knows you. “Yes.”

To his surprise, you flip your hair and scoff. “Figures. Only he would name an attack that dramatic.”

It made Satoru’s mouth twitch in amusement. “Let's go say good night.”

-

“Something is wrong,” you murmur, looking at the Tokyo skyline. You stand before your colleagues, squinting at your environment. Civilians have been long evacuated, with veils covering the entire city. Tokyo’s skyscrapers look so unimpressive with all the curses curling and floating around them in different shapes and sizes.

From your position, you could already spot several curse users taking their positions. You spot a foreigner and a woman on top of a building looking down at you. At your peripheral, you see a huge curse open its mouth widely, revealing two girls inside. Those must be his daughters, you think. 

You see the blonde one stand and scream enthusiastically, “Here we go!”

And as if by cue, the battle has begun. You feel your cursed energy surge through your body as you reach out feeling a cursed sword materialize out of a pocket in space in your hand. You run to the nearest curse with one thought in mind- where was Suguru?

-

You were either rusty or you just miscalculated how many curses Suguru had at his disposal, so it must be the latter. You defeated the first curse you had pretty quickly, but another has popped up in its place as soon as you exorcised it. But that was a few hours ago.

You don't know what time it is, and somehow you've been pushed back to the outskirts of Tokyo as this snake-like curse had you following him like a car chase. You hear an ear-deafening boom! and the ground beneath your shakes violently. You suspect it was another one of those giant curses that you saw back in Shibuya, so you quickly materialized throwing knives out of the air to throw at the snake to end the battle quickly. Your knife hits its head, and almost immediately the curse sizzles away in smoke.

Your head lifts and searches the sky for the source of the boom or any sign of a giant curse, but instead, you found yourself frozen in your place. You didn't even realize you were near Jujutsu High, which sends you into a short panic after remembering that Yuuta and Maki were left on campus.

It was almost painful to see him this way- struggling to walk, relying on the wall to hold his weight. His right face was scarred and his right arm is so bloody you were surprised he hasn’t passed out from blood loss.

You have never seen Suguru so weak…yet so strong. His eyes that used to look at you with such warmth are replaced with cold determination. His mouth that spoke comforting words to your ears now mutters about a ‘next time’, whispering reverent mumbles about Rika. Suguru is far too gone. 

But why does your heart still yearn for him all the same?

It takes him 5 exact seconds to notice you.

“I was wondering when I’d see you,” he greets as Suguru slumps on the wall before sitting down. He has an easy smirk on his face- an expression you’ve seen a hundred times before- like his left hand wasn’t squeezing his right shoulder to soothe his missing arm.

“Suguru,” you managed to greet him without stuttering. 

Suguru’s eyes rake your body up and down before finally settling on your hand where a ring shines on your finger. “Finally tied the knot, huh? I suppose I’m years late to offer my congratulations…” He sniggers, before looking you in the eye. “I visited your house before I dropped by-” Suguru said as you felt your blood run cold and your stomach drop. “I understand why you took the Zenin kid under your wing, but the monkey? I-”

“If you lay a hand on Tsumiki,” You warn, your hand buzzing with cursed energy as an axe appears on your palm.  I’ll-”

“You’ll what?” Suguru taunts daringly, with a smile on his face. He stares up at you from the floor like he was a king staring down at a peasant. “What will you do to me, if I did? What would you do if I said you’d go home to two rotting corpses in your house, Y/N-chan?”

“Then I will kill your daughters,” You reply with a cold tone as a newfound anger you’ve never felt before surges through your body. You walk towards him slowly, before crouching down to his height. “You think I didn’t hear of a Buddhist monk supposedly creating miracles in the countryside with two girls following him around?” You whisper in his ear. “My children for yours, Suguru.”

It was a lie if you ever knew one. In truth, you wouldn’t know what you’d do, but Suguru didn’t need to know that. But as you met his unflinching gaze, you somehow knew Suguru had caught you bluff like you caught his. 

Suguru let out a huff of laughter while you suddenly realized how close you were as you felt his breath warm your face. He looks at you again, this time with the eyes you were so familiar with- cold eyes now looking back at yours with a warmth like he always did. And with a whisper so soft and gentle that you’d think Suguru wasn’t dying or insane, that you weren’t in an alleyway, but instead in your bed at jujutsu highschool, sandwiched between two men who loved you the most, with each hand clutching the other, he whispers, “You’ve changed.”

You fight back a scoff. It's been a while since you've seen each other, but you suppose he's right. High school Y/N have just hit him in the shoulder for such a statement. You were a sorcerer, and being indifferent to death is a common thing. You've experienced missions where your partner loses his life while you got to go home- high school Y/N was alright with that. But you were still so naive. You thought you knew loss and death well enough to be numb until you lost Suguru. Maybe it's why you cling to the people you have left so tightly because you aren't sure you'd survive another loss again.

He raises his remaining hand to cup your cheek with his thumb caressing your face. You close your eyes trying to relish in his warmth. When was the last time he spoke to you like this?

“You changed me,” you admit as you gave him a sad smile. There were so many things you wanted to say, so many apologies threatening to burst from your lips, countless unsaid confessions that want to spill out but your lips only quivered when you opened your mouth. But then Suguru gave your cheek a soft squeeze like he was telling you that all of the things you wanted to say but couldn’t- he knew. He always had. 

“I’ve done many things that I don’t regret,” he confesses, “but the last thing I ever wanted to do was to hurt you.”

A breath hitched at your throat. You opened your mouth to say something- anything, but Suguru has dropped his hand from your face and turned his head away from you and towards the street. “You finally made it, Satoru.”

The mention of Satoru made your head twist to the street to find him standing in all his glory. Without a word, you stood back up and walked towards your husband. You feel your axe disappear as Satoru reaches for your hand, pulling you close to him as soon as you were near. His two large hands cup your face, twisting gently while eyeing little cuts and specs of blood littered across your face. His eyes stare at you asking a silent question, are you okay? 

You give him a smile. What have you ever done to deserve such a husband? Always so attentive and kind to almost anyone but himself. Instead, you kiss his cheek in response before walking away from the two men. You stopped after a few steps, closed your eyes, and blocked their conversation out of your ears.

You had your closure. It was time for his. 

-

“You should atleast curse me as I go.”

-

here's my masterlist

a/n: (skip to the break ("-") if you don't wanna read this extra bits of info about this fic :3

Gojo mentioned Maki and her glasses once in passing and ever since then she has been begging for a pair. I think Gojo also enrolled her in some sort of self-defense classes just in case.

Y/N"s cursed technique here is something a combination of Steven Universe's Pearl and Fairy Tail's Erza's abilities. Like Erza, she can summon weapons and armor to enhance herself, and like Pearl she stores said weapons in some kind of "arsenal" (like how Pearl stores her staff inside her gem). I imagine her arsenal will be her Domain Expansion tho hehe

Y/N can also make cursed weapons with her cursed energy!!

-

i love gojo,,,but lately ive been deep inside my satosugu feels :(( theyre like my dream tag team honestly, THE dream tag team tbh. this fic was supposed to be longer with the ending supposed to be of satoru's initial breakdown after he blasts suguru but i felt like i was stretching the fic wayy too much. (i'd probably still post it if you guys wanna read it but pls dont expect much lmao) please dont be scared to comment or express how you think, or if you have any tips/suggestions on how i could improve my writing <3

[altraviolet]

reader polls for Echo Garden

Every once in a while I make a poll and take the winning answer into consideration for writing Echo Garden :) Important to note that I like all the choices- I don't think setting yourself up for something you don't want to do is a good idea in a poll.

This is a long post so after the first one I'll put a cut :)

1) puns

This is the only poll I've ever made, I think, where the answer was 100% yes xD I wasn't sure if puns were Rodimus-y or not (he hates hats, for example. his tastes can be esoteric) so I asked. This is why he makes cold puns in Ch 23, Enceladia. Poll date: Mar 28, 2021 Ch 23 upload date: Aug 20, 2021

more 👇

2) spark jewels

I was trying to think of a scientific name for the spark equivalent of kidney stones and liked a few options, so I asked for opinions. The colloquial term used in Ambulon's dimension is "spark jewels," a phrase that Velocity does not know. He switches to the medical term, "lapides stellae," to which she replies "asterliths." I recall not being able to satisfactorily combine Latin and Greek words for "star" with scintill or spitha so I went with both options in the first choice. This scene is found in Ch 26, Fuel Furnace. Poll date: Nov 29, 2021 Ch 26 upload date: Dec 9, 2021

3) other rarepairs

I had a secret goal (it's not a secret anymore cuz I've told you) to put as many of my rarepairs into the fic as possible. I wanted to include more of either of the above, so let readers decide. I had a feeling Nautica/Blaster would win. I'm legit surprised Bluestreak/Hot Spot got as many votes as it did. Hmm. Looking back on this, maybe I'll try to give them another little nod before the fic ends. Anyhoo, yup, sprinkled throughout the fic are little bits of Nautica/Blaster. I like what they have. It's really loving and supportive :) Poll posted Dec 10, 2021. At that time the fic had 24 chapters.

4) liminal Cybertron

Ok ok ok, so originally, Mirage's Cybertron was a destroyed, insecticon-infested world. I actually have most of a full chapter written in this original setting- Rodimus, SW, and Mirage going back to retrieve Skywarp. I might put that scene (and other discarded scenes) up after TEG is done, if people are interested. I don't have the exact date for when I wrote the original insecticon chapter, but I was still considering it in March of 2022 because I put foreshadowing for it in Ch 29 Progress, uploaded March 3, 2022. I don't remember now what made me think of doing a sterilized world instead, and then after I thought of it, I couldn't decide which to do. I was surprised by these poll results. The poll predates when I wrote the foreshadowing chapter, so I was still thinking of doing insecticons months later... I don't remember what ultimately changed my mind, but I remember why: insecticons have been done. The chapter I originally wrote was exciting and there were parts I was sorry to put aside, but a desolate, haunting, sterilized Apple store world was appealing because it hasn't been done before (as far as I know). I think people really liked the aesthetic and horror feel of it, so I'm glad I made the change =) Poll posted Jan 6, 2022 We first see 2938 Cybertron close up in Ch 39: Firelove Part 2: The After Burner, posted March 19, 2023.

5) Most Recents Club storytime

I honestly couldn't decide who to have tell a story at the club, Ambulon or Trailbreaker, so I had readers choose. Ambulon was chosen, so we got some of his background story in Ch 30, Distress Call. I thought his story was hilarious. I laughed a lot while writing it. I suspect readers didn't find it as funny, though, as iirc only one person wrote about it in comments xD Poll posted March 6, 2022 Ch 30 posted April 25, 2022

6) ruining a big moment

I've posted about this one before, but I'll put it here for posterity. This refers to the use of the ᕕ(⌐■_■)ᕗ ♪♬ in Ch 43 Firelove Part 6 The Shattering. The original scene was supposed to be very heavy and dramatic. The After Burner fleeing a bursting and breaking Cybertron, everyone beat up and kinda shocked after the encounter with Megatron. But ahhhhhhh the idea of including the emoji got the better of me. I wanted to do it! So badly! But I didn't know if it would be good for the chapter! So I had readers choose, lol. People seem to like it a lot so I'm glad it went in xD Poll posted March 29, 2023 Ch 43 posted Sept 10, 2023

~

That's it for now! Thanks for reading =)

[besidesitstoowarm]

"The Fires of Pompeii" thoughts

this episode was fucking agonizing to me

it was actually really good but i can't take the "they didn't have a word for volcano" throughline of COURSE THEY DID!!! THEY EXPLODED ALL THE TIME MY FRIEND PLINY WENT THERE!!! absolutely intolerable. but it was the only part of the episode i didn't like

love the cheeky little shoutout when the doctor said he was in rome before "but that fire had nothing to do with me" i remember you slut. you flirted with nero and almost beat a man to death with a lyre. real hartnellheads know!! "cavorting with etruscans and christians and all sorts" god i wish i was cavorting with etruscans rn

have we heard about fixed points in time before? maybe pete's death, nothing as big as pompeii though. we get some excellent prophetic foreshadowing with "she is returning" and "you have something on your back" i really love the way the davies era sprinkles in these little bits to bring us to the finale, like bad wolf or harold saxon. you don't necessarily notice when they happen but it's so rewarding on a rewatch. and i much prefer it to the game of thrones style of either "no foreshadowing at all to make it surprising" or "mention something new 5 times in 2 episodes right before it happens". second episode in a row we here about a planet just disappearing, too. peter capaldi and karen gillan, again feeling like the doctor is facing his end and doesn't know it yet

the poor soothsayers all have greyscale. the doctor's "just us girls" in the temple is so gender. he tells donna about the time lord's burden and i am absolutely positive the scene where lucius and his guards are carrying the circuits to vesuvius is supposed to be a monty python reference cause it's shot like, identically to the killer rabbit scene in "holy grail"

and then of course the doctor has to get on his trolley problem bullshit "oh they're all gonna die anyway but i didn't want to be the one to do it" normally that attitude annoys me but to be fair this IS basically a repeat of gallifrey so he's allowed a lil ptsd about it. i think that's fair. and i like that donna was able to talk him into saving caecilius and his family. quintus was hardcore giving aegon ii btw SORRY to keep making this about hotd. catherine tate's acting in the final few scenes was soooo fucking good

next ep my friends THE OOD!!!!!

[squeamishnerd]

Not New to Tumblr, but Kinda New to Simblr 🤔

Lately, I've seen a lot of people who are new to Simblr presenting themselves. I'm not new to Tumblr, I joined in 2019, I think, but I didn't start to post my Sims stories until September 2023. At the time it was only to archive the stories that I posted on Twitter.

Now I've been here for a while, and I know that there's a Sims community here, but I don't feel like I'm a part of it and I don't know how to get into it.

Wall of text (not kidding 😅) below the "keep reading" cut.

TL;WR: I'm Kats, I play The Sims and I post two Sims stories, which can be found in this master post. I also build and renovate.

So, the thing is that I don't have time to read more Sims stories than the ones I read (several on Twitter, one here), and most simmers here seem to post stories, so I don't interact with people that much, and with the way the comment section works here (for example that comments aren't nested and there isn't even a function to click 'like' on comments) it makes it more difficult to interact with people, at least for me.

The thing I feel like my feed lacks the most is pictures of Sims pets. Doesn't matter if it's CAS or live mode, I just want to see more pixel pets 😊 Recommendations are welcome.

So, anyway, I thought I could present myself and my Sims stories 🙂

Hi, I'm Kats! I started to play The Sims in 2000, and while I mostly play The Sims 4 nowadays I still play The Sims 1 from time to time. I haven't shared any of my The Sims 1 gameplay here (Maybe I should do that?), but I've done so on other social media. I also used to play The Sims 2.

I'm in my 30s and I live in Northern Europe. I have a partner and a cat. I'm a biotechnician and a certified sex educator, but I currently don't work in either of those fields. In my free time I like to play The Sims (obviously 😆), watch TV series, hang out with friends, play board games, take walks in the forest, go on hikes, and travel.

I post two Sims stories on social media. Neither of them are legacies, they're just stories, you get to follow the characters at a very slow pace throughout their lives (I'll probably end the stories when the characters are in their 40s, they're currently in their 20s). The two stories take place in parallel universes, but if you're interested in reading you don't need to read both to follow along, even though there are sometimes references to the other universe.

The master post for the stories can be found here. It's also pinned to my profile. My other social media can be found in my Linktree.

The story that I started to post first is called The Brights

This story currently focuses on university students, it has some sci-fi themes with sentient bots, such as servos (called "simoid bots" or just "bots" in the story), utilibots, and robots. The main character is Beren Bright, who grew up in a small, isolated village. He was homeschooled until he was 16, and then went to a regular high school. When he turned 20 he cut all ties with his biological family and all of his friends, changed his surname (to Bright), moved away, and started to study physics at university.

The other story is called The Original Ahriman

I myself think it's a bit of a silly name for a story, but it was the best I could come up with, and it makes sense from the 4th chapter. This story is about a chaotic, evil, mischievous, and very powerful spellcaster, who is trying hard to abide by the rules of society, in a society that doesn't even have very strict laws and rules to begin with. They mysteriously spawned in The Magic Realm as a toddler and was raised by the three Sages.

In both stories I include a lot of pre-made sims, and original characters are introduced little by little.

The things I've seen others say, and also are things I strive for, when it comes to what my stories include over all, are characters with diverse personalities, lots of foreshadowing, jokes sprinkled everywhere, both wholesomeness and drama, funny intentional tropes, and, especially, detailed worldbuilding. I LOVE worldbuilding!

I've noticed that readers on twitter think that I plan everything for my stories, but I both plan things or go with the flow, I let my sims decide more than it seems, and I often let them change my plans because they have a tendency to do very fitting things that I didn't even think of myself. Either way, I always make sure that whatever I include works with the worldbuilding.

I didn't use mods for the first 28 chapters of The Brights and the first 14 chapters of The Original Ahriman. I do use mods today, but very few. Even though I use mods I'll always have the back of those who don't, no matter the reason, because it's really silly how some people (especially on Twitter) act towards simmers who don't use mods. Let people play their game however they want. I'm also WCIF friendly.

I've also created two machinimas, they're part of the stories, so they contain spoilers for chapter 14 and 29, respectively, of The Brights. But if you're interested and don't mind spoilers, or just don't plan to read my stories at all, you can find them here and here 😊 Watch them with sound turned on.

Btw, this thing with being a certified sex educator kinda led to including quite a bit of woohoo education in my stories. At the beginning I was planning to not do this, but it just kinda happened 🤷🏼

I also build and renovate, but I only post builds on Twitter and Bluesky, but here's one of them, a winter themed cottage in the woods, you can find it on the gallery.

And here's a renovation of Elixirs and Brews, which can also be found on the gallery.

I think that's all I wanted to say. Ended up being a lot though 😅

Questions are welcome 😊

[smolandweirdwriter]

Serafina and the Black Cloak Reread Thoughts

I forgot that the book takes place in 1899 for some reason, but regardless I'm very eager to see how that's handled (since I read it when I was much younger, I doubt I would have picked up on that). but I mean that's just fascinating given the history of the civil war (Cornelius Vanderbilt was a union man--not in it himself, but donated a giant steamship worth about 1 million USD). Also fun fact: George Vanderbilt paid his staff New York wages, which were higher than Asheville wages-- up to the equivalent of $73-ish dollars for the highest working members.

sera and her pa are adorable! little serafina not wanting to eat her veggies is my favorite thing & in a modern au he would definitely be the kinda guy to mix spinach into her brownies to try and trick her into eating vegetables

also serafina first line: "Did." do with that what you will

can serafina get rabies? she says she's been bitten by rats before...

love the sprinkling of 1890s southern dialect lmao

SHE'S THE CRC!

I forgot how good the imagery in this book is!! the descriptions of sounds and nature are incredible!!

mr Vanderbilt has over 22 THOUSAND BOOKS that's the kinda life goal I aspire to

serafina made up stories after reading she's just like me for

au where serafina is a PI & part-time novelist perchance?? (Braeden is a vet ofc)

Sera's pa: if anybody ever asks you who you are or where you're from, you don't answer, got it?

Sera: got it

Sera, the second she meets Braeden: hi I'm serafina here's my social security number

OH BRAEDEN FIRST DESCRIPTION WHAT "... or she'd see their twelve-year-old nephew riding his horse across the grounds, with his sleek black dog running alongside." (p. 12)

"Sometimes she dreamed of wearing fancy dresses and ribbons in her hair and shiny shoes on her feet" props to Robert Beatty for not making her have internalized misogyny and hating "girlie" things. the main fight scene is done in a dress if I recall and I'm so ready to read it

she mentions Braeden a lot (calls him "the young master" or "the nephew" but still, good foreshadowing)

awww poor sera wants a real family but also loves her pa *sigh* EMOTIONAL CONFLICT

sera describing the basement as "hers"!!!

the butler's 11 year old assistant gobbling cookies in the middle of the night is so real im sorry. but also sera standing in the shadow watching him & pretending they're friends chatting is gonna make me cry

oooh the rats and bugs all fleeing from cracks in the walls when the man in the black cloak arrives!!!

mr Thorne first line: "Don't worry. We're going right in here..." creepy lil shit

"her legs felt like explosions of speed" idk why but that line made me laugh. the book is so well-written but for some reason that line just feels very, idk, childish? it kinda took me out of the experience but maybe that's just me

"friends had to help friends. she didn't know much about life, but she knew that." she doesn't even know the girl but considers them friends and wants to help her. serafina seems to think Braeden is kinder than she is, but honestly I don't think that's true. I think Braeden is more willing to trust people, but serafina is more willing to sympathize with them, & I think she has preconceptions of people in power being bad (mr v, mr Thorne-- though the latter turned out to be true--rowena, etc) which turns out false

"A tall man in a black cloak and hood, his hands stained with blood" we have our first Mr Thorne description folks!!

"Just stay still, and this will all be over," he said, pulling her toward him. Serafina suddenly realized she'd made a dreadful mistake. This was far more than she could handle." oh god the places my mind instantly went to? dark, awful places. this book is disturbing and I'm inly 19 pages in-- how did I read this so gleefully as a kid?

"...as if the man wasn't of his own mind but possessed by a demented, ravenous demon" I don't quite remember but isn't it true that the cloak can speak to the wearer? so did it take over mr Thorne at some point? did hearing that voice all the time affect him and further corrupt him? did he ever get confused when he took the cloak off, maybe in the beginning, and think perhaps he didn't want to put it back on again, but in the end the urge for power and youth was too great? oooh angsty fanfic ideas.....

"Death was so near that she could see its blackness and hear the screams of the children who had gone before." this book is so dark how is it for children???? it's incredible I love it

ik she's looking for a place to hide from a guy trying to pull our her soul but her thought process when searching for a hiding spot reminds me of playing hide n seek

"She was the CRC. No trap or weapon or evil man was going to catch her." hELL YEAH

ahhhh description of serafina. collar bones that don't connect to other bones --> cats have a detached collar bone. four toes not five--> cats again. (also as a kid who was tiny and short and having been thought practically dead at birth, serafina was always inspiring to me)

"Mice are timid and prone to panic-induced mistakes at key moments. Just stay still little mouse, [she thought]." oooh nice callback to this exact thought about mice when she's hunting rats earlier

Also did I mention how much I love the chapter titles being encircled in brambles that form the shape of her face or a panther?? that's just cool. if I can actually write something good enough to be published, I'd love to have something like that

Babe wake up new slang just dropped: “gnawin’ on leather” 

Her pa doesn’t like mr poe gives “my dad won’t let us watch horror movies so you have to sneak them over in a different dvd cover if we’re gonna watch a horror movie when you sleep over later tonight” omg rowena & serafina girltime au?? (Lol sorry)

Oooooh the dynamo’s busted I wonder what thaaat meeeaannnssss (hehehe)

Biltmore being one of the few homes to have electricity is a nice reminder of the time period

“she’d been trying to follow [her pa’s] rules at least some of the time” lol

“Spotting an upholstered chair she felt an overwhelming desire to run her fingernails over the plush fabric” REAL

Her being shocked at flower vases & the idea of flowers INSIDE the house is so funny

Awwww poor sera, looking for her momma and siblings everywhere…

Serafina is super smart. just putting that out there. She’s brilliant and I love her

Oop the first description of Edith Vanderbilt kinda gives chatgpt-generated ngl (obviously it wasn’t bc it predates chatgpt & shitty ai writing generators, & this book is SO MUCH BETTER than anything an AI could generate regardless) 

“A refined and attractive woman, Mrs. Vanderbilt had a pale complexion and a full head of dark hair, and she seemed at ease in her role of hostess as she moved through the room.” Idk what about this makes me think “AI generated” but it just DOES

“Serafina loved to climb the tapestries at night and run her fingernails down through the soft fabric” AGAIN SHES SO REAL FOR THIS

OHOHOHO MR THORNE NAMEDROP:

“I’m sure that most of you already know Mr. Montgomery Thorne,”… Mrs. Vanderbilt said with a gentle sweep of her arm toward a gentleman. “He has graciously offered to play [the violin] for us today.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Vanderbilt,” Mr. Thorne said with a smile as he stepped forward. ... To Serafina, who’d been listening to Biltmore’s visitors her entire life, he didn’t sound like he came from the mountains of North Carolina, or from New York like the Vanderbilts. He spoke with the accent of a southern gentleman, maybe from Georgia or South Carolina.”

Serafina having an eye for fashion was NOT what I was expecting from this reread lol (she describes mr t’s outfit then says “all of which she thought went nicely with his silvery-black hair and perfectly trimmed sideburns”)

Hmmm interesting she actually sympathizes with/likes mr Thorne at first?? I did nOT recall that

Lol serafina liking to watch mr Thorne’s fingers move as he plays and wanting to pounce on them is so Cat of her

OMG BRAEDEN BRAEDEN BRAEDEN BRAEDEN

Apparently he looks “sickly, a little frail even” which I do not recall, but hes also got “watchful, sensitive brown eyes” and “a rather fetching tussle of wavy brown hair”

“Are you lost?” WE GOT IT WE GOT THE LINE but more importantly we got the NEXT LINE which is “May I help you find your way?” And hes described as not timid or shy but also not overly confident which I LOVE (fun fact this line is very similar to one of the characters of my other favorite kid’s book series, Keefe Sencen’s “you must be lost” line)

Lol Braeden always sharing his food with Gideon annoys the chefs i LOVE him

OMG HE BOWS TO HER WHEN SHE GIVES HIM HIS NAME LIKE SHE’S A PROPER LADY!!!!! MEN!!!! TAKE NOTES!!!!!! THIS IS HOW IT’S DONE!!!

Name drop at last, missing girl’s name is Clara Brahms. Honestly I’m a little sad Clara isnt a recurring character later on. Braeden, Serafina, and Clara could’ve been a good trio 

OOOOHH “She had heard the servants in the kitchen joke that their master must have secretly found the Fountain of Youth” what a NICE SET UP for how the black cloak keeps people young & serafina’s suspicion of mr Vanderbilt

Mr Vanderbilt: *wears dress shoes to go riding*

serafina: criminal activity right there. Lock him up

Least accurate part of this book is the implication that serafina uses a hairbrush lmao

New slang: spit nails (means be really mad)

“I’m twelve years old. I’m grown up.” Mmmm not quite, but I agree with the spirit!

“Just tell me what’s wrong with me. I want to know. Why are you ashamed of me?” scuse me, I’ll just be over here… crying… in the corner

Ohhhh serafina back story… she could’ve had 3 siblings (AU where all of her siblings survive, but they’re humans too & her pa raises them all???)

The midwives wouldn’t even help a baby??? And the nuns were so mean for what? Like at least consolidate the man, he’s trying to keep a child alive, don’t just tell him “it’s going to die. You should kill it now” who DOES THAT??

It’s so funny to me that serafina didn’t realize she was the baby in the story until after it was over. i get that it’s a kids book but still!

Oooooh nature v nurture very nice very nice

Oh wow I forgot serafina was almost kidnapped when she was probably around 2-3ish (her pa says she was walking/wandering around, so I assume it’s around that time?)

“It’s plain to see that you’re not like other girls” WOW sera’s pa just went there lmao

Ok so when I was first reading this, I remember shipping Leandra and serafina’s pa SO HARD and wanting her to have a proper mother-daughter-father type family, yknow? 

The implication that bright/stereotypically “good” things can ensnare your soul too is so fascinating. That good things can be bad for you too… fascinating

“Her pa had told her to leave them to it, that it wasn’t any of her business, that they weren’t her kin, but who was he to say who was kin and who wasn’t? He stole babies out of the woods!” Help why is this so funny 😭 

Ooohhh she wants to find Braeden! And she keeps thinking of Clara as her friend. I’m so annoyed Clara wasn’t brought back now ugh

Awwww she’s wondering if she can think of Braeden as a friend

Awww poor serafina 

Serafina: *sees dress shoes* THE DEVIL’S APPAREL!!!

Huh apparently there’s a concealed door to the right of the fireplace in the billiard room? Wonder if that’s true

Oooh and it leads to the smoking room, with a similar one leading to the gun room. VERY curious if this was made up for the sake of the story or not

Haha serafina spitting on the back of her hand and using it to wipe her face and hair is so Cat

Serafina loves closets lol 

HES ARRIVED!!!!!!!! BRAEDEN!!!!!

Help why is this whole page so funny 😭

Serafina canonically climbing up a tree to get away from a dog and staying there until her pa got a ladder to get her down is so Cat I can’t

“[Shadows…] [which] reminded her of griffins, chimeras, and other twisted creatures of the night which were half one thing and half another.” OOOOH good foreshadowing!!!

I like this part

when he asks why he’s never seen her and she says “maybe you’ve seen me before and you’ve just forgotten” and he says “I WOULD HAVE REMEMBERED YOU”!!!!

hearinf him say her name has tremendous power over her!!!! I’m going to be sick 😍

smolandweirdwriter reblogged trialserrors Pinned Postsilversickles-deactivated202101 This blog is a safe space.Nazis, TERFs, pedophiles, bigots, Tr*mp supporters, Islamophobes, exclusionists, queerphobes, and anyone who can’t reblog this post, etc, do not interact. I will block you.emo-bunny-1317 FollowHell yeah!#safe space

smolandweirdwriter reblogged smolandweirdwriter Serafina and the Black Cloak Reread Thoughts: chapter Nine and TenMr Vanderbilt: you’ve got to be a man, BraedenSerafina, in the corner, under her breath: yOU’vE gOT tO bE A MaN, bRAeDeNMr Vanderbilt: *gives Braeden some well intentioned, albeit slightly sexist, advice* Serafina: MURDERERNice allusion to Mr thorne’s skill at everything being suspicious Chapter 10 was creepy af (I mean it does take place in a graveyard soo)Cloven Smith has a creepy gravestone, & google told me nothing about him, so I doubt he was realSerafina: *sees a grave to two women* oh these must be sisters me: WIVESAnyway now I wanna write an au about Mary and Margaret being witches or catamounts or something WE FOUND THE GLADEscarred-serafina-fan Djffjjfjvjgnng I'm gonna assume sisters since they were nine but that's freaking funny lolsmolandweirdwriter oh my god I didn’t even read the dates 😭 I’m so stupid

smolandweirdwriter Serafina and the Black Cloak Reread Thoughts: chapter Nine and TenMr Vanderbilt: you’ve got to be a man, BraedenSerafina, in the corner, under her breath: yOU’vE gOT tO bE A MaN, bRAeDeNMr Vanderbilt: *gives Braeden some well intentioned, albeit slightly sexist, advice* Serafina: MURDERERNice allusion to Mr thorne’s skill at everything being suspicious Chapter 10 was creepy af (I mean it does take place in a graveyard soo)Cloven Smith has a creepy gravestone, & google told me nothing about him, so I doubt he was realSerafina: *sees a grave to two women* oh these must be sisters me: WIVESAnyway now I wanna write an au about Mary and Margaret being witches or catamounts or something WE FOUND THE GLADE#serafina and the black cloak#serafina and the black cloak reread

smolandweirdwriter

Serafina and The Black Cloak Reread Thoughts: Chapter Seven and Eight

I got bored so my thoughts will be on two chapters at once now (so this goes faster)

Braeden is canonically a horse girl

lol serafina is scared of horses

mr crankshod is a lil sus (I say like I’ve never read the book before)

still. I don’t like him

me personally I would not walk into the forest at night but 🤷

no bc lowkey I hate bugs. I’d be thinking about them walking all over me the whole time (UNFORTUNATELY, I do love camping and nature. Just not the bugs. Which yes yes I know biodiversity they’re good for the environment et cetera et cetera. I wish I loved them— I never kill them in the house or anything, I take them outside, but I just don’t like them

Sera and Gidean trusting each other!!

oooh when Braeden freezes when he gets scared, nice allusion to how the rats/scared creatures freeze

They’re allies!!!

something I find very interesting is that to serafina EVERYONE can be separated into Friend or Foe. Clara and Nolan, whom she barely knows? Friends.

Braeden is such a horse girl

ooooh he’s helping her into the carriage like a GENTLEMAN

“I’m sorry there aren’t any blankets,” Braeden said. “Not even a good cloak to sleep under.”

”I’ll pass on the cloak, thank you,” Serafina said with a smile, and Braeden laughed.

they’re so 12 year old coded lol

Braeden backstory!! & emotions

Mr Vanderbilt: you’ve got to be a man, Braeden

Serafina, in the corner, under her breath: yOU’vE gOT tO bE A MaN, bRAeDeN

Mr Vanderbilt: *gives Braeden some well intentioned, albeit slightly sexist, advice* Serafina: MURDERER

Nice allusion to Mr thorne’s skill at everything being suspicious

Chapter 10 was creepy af (I mean it does take place in a graveyard soo)

Cloven Smith has a creepy gravestone, & google told me nothing about him, so I doubt he was real

Serafina: *sees a grave to two women* oh these must be sisters

me: WIVES

me, realizing they’re nine: … Childhood lovers who could never fall in love properly because they never grew up?

me, sighing: sisters

Anyway now I wanna write an au about Mary and Margaret being witches or catamounts or something

WE FOUND THE GLADE

WE MET SERAFINAS SIBLINGS!!!!

AND LEANDRA!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!!!!

oooh is a creature of the night good or bad? Or is right/wrong/good/bad something we need to decide for ourselves?? Fascinating implications & queries for a kids book

”why do I deserve a present?” “Because we’re friends, right?” SO CUTE!!!!!!

braeden being loud af in the tunnels lol

braeden hanging 30 feet in the air lol

serafina wanting to knock the pieces of the chess set over to watch them fall is so Cat (yes that is what I dub the term)

lmaoooo Mr Thorne calling Mr Rostanov “daddy” aged SO WELL

serafina: let’s go through peoples stuff

braeden: let’s not

Braeden as they go through every room: I like this guy! He can’t be evil! I like this guy too! And this guy!

Serafina: you like too many people

Raphael Room, Van Dyck Room, Sheraton Room, Old English Room, Morland Room

Love knowing this is actually true!!

“The pumpkin pie, like all pumpkin pie, looked like something a dog would eat” UH! I beg your pardon?? Pumpkin pie is DELICIOUS

Serafina softening to Mr Vanderbilt and seeing how much he cares for his staff and guests!!

Ooooh Mr Thorne is getting sick!!!

Haha Braeden saving serafina from getting her eardrums ruptured

ohhhhh he’s playing the piano because clara is good with the piano

Braeden somehow knowing what kind of food serafina likes and bringing it to her is friend goals

GUYS Braeden says that Mr Thorne owned an estate “before the war between the states.” That’s the civil war, in 1861. It’s been almost 38 years since then. But Mr Thorne isn’t described as an old man at all. But he couldn’t be a fully grown adult and own property 38 years ago but still appear as if he’s in his 40s. Right??

but also Mr Thorne’s death is sooooo overdue. Child murdering evil plantation-owning racist piece of shit got what he deserved

UGH all the descriptions of the night and the stars and nature make me SO MAD I live in a giant polluted city

A good couple pages:

“The time for sneaking and hiding was over. She was going to make sure one man in particular saw her. And tonight was the night. The Chief Rat Catcher had a job to do.” (Ch 19, p225) YES SERAFINA!!!!!

“She… kept lacing her dress up her back with shaky fingers, but she was having a terrible go of it. Normal girls must have extremely long and bendy arms to do this every night, she thought. Help she’s so funny 😭

“She hated walking straight. And she hated walking slow.” REAL

“She was a China doll, and she was a wraith, in and out of shadows, a girl in between.” Very nice

oooohhhhhh she’s hoping the mountain Lion will show up to kill him. I didn’t realize that the first time i read this

“Come out, my dear child, before I become angry with you.” Thanks to @secretly-a-catamount for telling me Thorne was meant to be a warning to children about child predators because now I SEE IT even more clearly than I did earlier

”At that moment, all the power and ferocity of closed motherhood came ripping out of the woods.” YESSIR

GIDEAN TO THE RESCUE!!!

”she was mightily perturbed he hadn’t stayed dead” 💀 😭

yesyesyesyes die rat bastard!!!!! Mr Thorne is dead!!!!! Let’s go!!!!!

LEANDRA!!!!!

Braeden putting together a search party for serafina and sending gidean out ahead is so perfect and wonderful

Am I the only one somewhat perplexed that all Mrs&Mr Vanderbilt did was send down some beds? Like why not give them a proper room even in the servant’s floor or something? Idk

“There are few skills more important than picking good friends.” — Mr Vanderbilt, the man who befriended Mr Thorne 😂

ahhhh I loved this book. I can’t WAIT to reread the rest!

[sarcasticsciencefictionwriter]

@electricrogue tagged me, thanks so much! :D

(About half way through doing this, I realized I was tagged before, but I'm not wasting the time this took. 😂)

1. How many fics do you have on AO3?

106 :)

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

533,416 :0

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Sanctuary and Stargate SG-1.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Those are all SG-1 fics, Sanctuary just doesn't have the numbers.

Commute (Sam/Jack, SG-1) - 85

In-Between (Sam/Jack, SG-1) - 70

One Snow Day (Sam/Jack, SG-1) - 65

Two Kinds of Sparks (Sam/Jack, SG-1) - 65

One Rainy Day (Sam/Jack, SG-1) - 58

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yep! Sometimes it might take me a day or two because I want to be able to respond to them properly!

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

Oof. Um.... look, a lot of them have angsty-ish endings.

The Last of the Tau'ri (Stargate SG-1) probably has the angstiest ending because it is an apocalpyse and child-death story.

Five Times James Watson Was a Father and One Time He Wasn't may count as well. (It ended with the time he wasn't)

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Uh..... I have no clue.

Yeah, sorry, can't answer this one with any confidence. :(

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No, other than being told how I didn't stick canon in the manner that I should and I deserve the criticism.

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

I don't. I'm not comfortable enough to do that (yet) and I can assure you that no one would want me to either.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Stargate SG-1/Sanctuary/The Aviary.

'Bird Cage' is a crossover using the characters from SG-1 and Sanctuary in a world taken from the book The Aviary. Earth is the pleasure planet of the Goa'uld and human women are the main commodity.

Sam ends up in a 'museum' of girls, run by John Druitt and Jack follows her to try and save her. Along the way, they pick of the help of various characters (including Nikola Tesla).

It's not done because of computer problems and will be a five-part series.

It's kind of wild and pretty dark.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

No, but I would like to! Technically writing a Supernatural/Hannibal crossover over with tina-mairin-goldstein, but....I'm not really into it? And I was only recruited to right the Supernatural bits.

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

Helen/John. 😅 (Helen/Nikola is close, I promise)

16. What are your writing strengths?

Foreshadowing and tension, along with dialogue.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Emotion, descriptions. Particularly emotional description.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

I'm all for it, but I only speak English, so I'm a little hesitant on doing it for fear of it being messed up. I do put some words in Serbian for Nikola, but so far that's just sprinkles here and there.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Warrior cats when I was maybe twelve, but that was never published and shall never curse the internet with its presence.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Enigmatic Confections (Helen/Nikola). I've fallen in love with it far more than I thought I would.

(Also The Abnormal X-File)

Since I was tagged before and I think never everyone else was... No pressure tagging @theleotorrio , @crazymcwritesalot , @misscrazyfangirl321, and @tina-mairin-goldstein

[fountainpenguin]

"See, I am a legend and I always win! The stars in the cosmos, they bow to my whim!" (x)

---

New Dog's Life chapter today! ~ 3rd Life series fan-season

Chapter 24 - “Jolt (Cleo, Scott)”

❤️ Read on AO3

💛 Start from Chapter 1

💚 More Pixels Imperfect fics

---

Martyn buries Cleo alive while talking about pacing structure and roleplay plot points. Also, Mayor Scott gets a reality check about running a utopian server hub that no one ever leaves.

(First 1,000 words under the cut)

---

ZombieCleo - Zombie

Status: Mentally stimulated

Historian, museum curator, and stadium gamemaster

💙  🧡  💚

They're up in the tunnels, lying on their back on exposed tweenstone while the opals glitter in the walls above them. It's dead dark in here. She's got decent night vision and Martyn probably does too. Glowing eyes do help with that. She's got dirt coating most of her body. Martyn's patting more into place and really going off on a long-winded spiel. Yeah, he does that. Cleo rests with one hand on her stomach and lets him talk. Martyn just wants someone to talk to and she just wants to touch the loamy black soil outside the perimeter. They have to do this together or not at all.

"-enough foreshadowing, d'you think?" Martyn makes a vague swirl with his hand. "I mean, when I look at the storyboards, it seems a little bathtub-y, but I wanted to have fun with it. I think I can swing it- It's better to have fun."

"Mmhm," she says. "I mean, if you want to avoid info-dumping, tension's always going to be the best fix. The first thing I think of is just… Adding weapons. Or maybe slide the scene somewhere else, like a cliff. Or maybe you have a build or private room the viewers have never seen inside before, so it feels exciting even if it's full of talking."

"There's a thought!"

"Or- or, here's an idea- Give them a solid reason they can't actually leave. It doesn't even have to be physical restraints, right? Maybe one character has an item the other wants. Maybe it's just information. Or someone's hurt? You have that whole treasure-hunting schtick going on, right? Adding a collectible to the mix could amp the stakes."

"Oh, that's good. I like that… Withholding information is killer, dude."

"Not too much, though."

"No, no! It'll be clear well before the end. Hmm. Maybe it just needs a pacing restructure. A little more to draw things out, yeah? I might slip in an extra scene upfront that doesn't look important at the time, but should really tie things together down the road." He sprinkles dirt around her neck, making some stupid drawn-out show of it just because it gets his wings up, apparently. Cleo sticks out their tongue. He laughs, giving the wings a flap. "Ooh, actually- You know that respawn idea I had last Friday? What are your Week 2 thoughts on that?"

"Kill your darlings. Not the character- I mean the scene. Just opt for a near-death experience instead. I think the punch will hit harder."

"What hits harder than a respawn?"

Cleo shrugs, which waterfalls black dirt down their shoulders and across Martyn's skinned knees. "I mean, delays don't do you any good. You'll have dead space anyway because of all that travel time to get back to the main scene. Remember your Limited Life ending with the lava buckets? Just work around it. Set it up so you can stay around, even if you're injured. Respawns feel like cheating anyway- I mean, they refresh you back to full energy. It's a little cheap."

Martyn exhales. It leaves him like a swirl. "Hmm… Yeah, I can see that."

"Just think about it, at least. You don't have to throw the scene out."

"Yeah, I know. I do see your point. Spawn is so far away." He takes the spilled dirt and pats it into place again, pressing on the wrinkles until the stuff is sealed against her like a freshly frosted chocolate cake. "The thing is, I feel like I'm getting nowhere with the storyboards. I think I need to get into the dialogue. Maybe do some test drafts. A few bullet points, at least. I'll run them by you again next week and we can do a pros and cons list."

"Mmhm!"

That seems to satisfy him. See, Martyn likes to talk through plot points without spilling spoilers to the people he actually roleplays with. And he's always hungry. These are the two most important facts you need to know about Martyn, at least as far as Cleo and the gemstone cave are concerned. See, so long as they only allofeed him snippets at a time, he'll patiently wait until she's run out of souls to share before he finally takes her out. Even when she's well down in the depths of phantom hour, he'll let her push the boundary. Maybe farther than he should. Throw a soul in front of a phantom and you'll really wreck their aggro.

It's a balance of carrots and sticks. It's yin and yang. It's push and pull. Teamwork is essential. She never would've managed to carve out this secret cave without Martyn's wings lifting her past the bullet path moat or into the ceiling tunnel. Scott can poke around all he wants, but unless he thinks to look up, he's never going to find her hideaway.

The thing is, Martyn can whisk his help away any time he likes. At any time. He didn't withdraw when Double Life split them apart, though Cleo firmly told him chatting about Double Life was off the table the first time he opened his mouth. The third time, maybe. Sure, he whined and groveled about roleplay decompression for a bit (for "the" bit?), but she gave him a cornflower from her hair that he can keep in Between to match the one she gave him on the server. That's all the "We're okay; it's just a game" aftercare he really wanted. He eased up.

He never wore it, though, even though it was the start of the 100-day block back then, which is… confusing. She dropped by his and Jimmy's place once for a game night though, and there it was… in a vase. And honestly, it doesn't get any more clear than that: Thanks for the gift! Your friendship's important to me, but I reject your courtship. I'll keep it as a memento to show there's nothing weird between us, but I'm not wearing this. I don't want you to get the wrong idea.

Martyn's full of wrong ideas. He does what he thinks is "funny." That's the polite way to put it. And since hanging out with Martyn in the caves is really just a business transaction, she should probably make an effort to be polite.

"What's so funny?" he asks, looking up from her dirt-covered arm.

"Bad joke."

"Share or it didn't happen."

Cleo blinks up, his form in shadow apart from the lapis-like glow of his eyes. "I gave you a flower a while back. During Double Life."

"Yeah?"

"You never wore it, but I saw it in your room. Just thought it was funny to interpret that as you saying 'I don't want Cleo to get the wrong idea' when you're full of wrong-"

"Whoa, whoa," he says, throwing his hands in the air. Cleo snorts and Martyn tsk-tsks, thwacking his tail against the dirt. "And this when I'm putting dirt on you."

"I do appreciate that, yeah."

He slaps the next clump down hard. Cleo jolts, but the glitter in his eyes tells them straight away that he's not really mad. "I can't believe that's what you think of me even in your private thoughts. And after all this time!"

"I'm petty, rude, and I commit to the bit. I'm not sure why you're surprised."

"I'm not."

[Full chapter on AO3 - Link at top]

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: The 50 Greatest Comic Book Superhero Movie Villains

I think it’s pretty obvious I love villains, considering I have this whole series dedicated to talking about them. And anyone who has followed me for long enough should know that I love superhero movies. So, naturally, I love comic book superhero movie villains. They’re fun, they’re over the top, they’re colorful… They’re the best kinds of villains, especially when a great actor gets pulled in to play them. So why not bring Psycho Analysis back in time for the holidays with a big villain list special?

Here’s the thing: For a long time, comic book movie villains were pretty shitty. You had fun, campy ones every now and then, but most of them were really boring or just plain sucked. You had generic doomsday villains all over the place, or villains who were disrespectful of their comic origins (looking at you, Galactus). Or that’s what I thought going into this, anyway. Turns out there are a lot more villains I would say are genuinely great than ones who I’d call shitty. It’s just the shitty ones are so shitty you think they’re the rule rather than the exception. But that’s another list; right now, we’re celebrating the villains we love to hate.

The rules of this list are simple: So long as the villain has appeared in either a standalone comic book superhero movie, a superhero movie series, or is part of a superhero cinematic universe, they are fair game for this list. I bent the rules a tiny bit in a couple of places, but this is the one consistent rule. This means no Teen Titans Go! To the Movies Slade or Shredder, because despite being based on properties that started as comics, they’re based more on the cartoon version of the characters.

Here are the honorable mentions, the villains who didn’t make the cut for one reason or another (but who I think deserve a shout out regardless): Scarlet Witch (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), Gorr (Thor: Love & Thunder), Jigsaw (Punisher: War Zone), Hela (Thor: Ragnarok), Carnage (Venom: Let There Be Carnage), Ebony Maw (Avengers: Infinity War), Steppenwolf (Zack Snyder’s Justice League), The Motherfucker (Kick-Ass 2), and Black Mask (Birds of Prey). Special shout outs to Mr. Mind (Shazam!) and Darkseid (Zack Snyder’s Justice League), who would definitely be on this list if they actually had a chance to do more than look cool and foreshadow future movies (ones that will never happen in the latter’s case). And an apology to Cottonmouth of Luke Cage, a show I have sadly not had a chance to watch; if fan reaction to the character is anything to go by, he’d have ended up on this list. Oh, and if I included comic book movies outside superhero ones, I’d probably have thrown Gideon Gordon Graves (Scott Pilgrim) and maybe, possibly Xerxes (300) on the list as well.

Now, on to the list! Oh, and be aware: There are SPOILERS liberally sprinkled throughout the little blurbs I wrote for each villain. 

50. Poison Ivy

Batman & Robin

Even in a film as campy as Batman & Robin, Poison Ivy is outstandingly campy. Uma Thurman knew exactly what she was doing, making everyone’s favorite sapphic, slutty supervillain the icon she deserves to be, even with some truly stupid haircuts. If only Harley was in the movie.. it boggles the mind.

49. Taserface

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Taserface is one of the funniest minor villains ever. I mean, look at him. This man is absurd, and calls himself “Taserface!” But he’s also scarily effective, pulling off a brutal mutiny and killing most of Yondu’s crew. The man gets no respect up until his death, but he never stops being entertaining.

48. Riddler

Batman Forever

Jim Carrey in his prime as one of the most over-the-top and cartoonish villains in Batman’s rogues gallery? Yes please! This is one of the single campiest performances in either of Schumacher’s Batman films—and that’s saying a lot. He can grate on the nerves a little bit, but Carrey is just having way too much fun. Really didn’t need to see his bulge, though.

47. Sandman

Spider-Man 3

Thomas Haden Church gets big points for being the spitting image of Flint Marko, but he also deserves some credit for delivering a genuinely nuanced and emotional performance in the hot mess of a film he’s in. The scene where he is created is still to this day one of the most powerful moments in any comic book movie ever, a fantastic display of visual storytelling and impressive effects work congealing into a shining moment in a film that doesn’t have many.

46. Obadiah Stane

Iron Man

Stane is a weird one. On the one hand, he’s a precursor to every bad villain in superhero movies to come, as he ends up as a Big Gray CGI Monstrosity with the same powers as the hero. On the other hand, Jeff Bridges is just so delightfully hammy and he is the first of his kind in the modern age, so I think it’s fair to cut him a bit of slack.

45. Red Skull

Captain America: The First Avenger

Hugo Weaving may have initially had little respect for the role, but there’s no denying he put good work into it. Red Skull is sinister, hammy, and deliciously evil, perfect for the pulpy adventure tale of Cap’s debut. I mean, the man backstabs the Third Reich because he considers himself eviler than them, what more could you ask for?

44. Milo

Morbius

Look, you knew at least one “so bad it’s good” villain was gonna be here, and I’ve gotta hand it to Milo; he really makes the most of Morbius’s meticulous mediocrity. Matt Smith I’d clearly having the time of his life, giving a dramatic performance better than this movie deserved and a hammy supervillain performance that this movie desperately needed. And let’s not forget the man has the sickest dance moves this dude of Bully Maguire.

43. Bane

The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises may not be the greatest finale ever, but it did what so many Batman adaptations fail to do: It acknowledged Bane is a cunning mastermind behind the muscles. Throw in an awesome performance from Tom Hardy and a mind-boggling amount of meme-worthy lines and you have yourself a fantastic villain. His truly embarrassing final fate and the fact he was pretty blatantly whitewashed are the only thinga keeping him so low on the list.

42. Violator

Spawn

Spawn may not be the best superhero movie ever, but if there’s one shining spot in it (besides how cool the titular character is), it’s John Leguizamo’s madcap performance as the demonic Clown. Despite being steeped in grimy gross out comedy, he still manages to be fun to watch, mainly because literally everyone around him finds him as disgusting as the audience does. And even if his demon form is hit with janky PS2 CGI, he still manages to get in some badass lines and moments. Bottom line: Leguizamo did not eat actual maggot pizza to miss out on this list.

41. Bullseye

Daredevil

Colin Farrell did not miss the mark with his portrayal of Daredevil’s assassin archenemy. It’s such a fun, hammy, laughably evil performance that helps add a bit of fun to the edgy proceedings by being basically a literal cartoon character come to life. Now if he only got that fucking costume…

40. Arthur Harrow

Moon Knight

Transforming a minor, unimpressive villain from the comics into a credible threat onscreen is par for the course for superhero media, but few end up quite this impressive. Most of the credit has to go to Ethan Hawke, who really gives it his all as the sorcerous cult leader, but I think the imagined version inside Marc’s mind that’s the head doctor of the psychiatric facility is where he really shines, as it plays with our perception a bit.

39. Ultron

Avengers: Age of Ultron and What If…?

Here is a villain desperately seeking a film worthy of him. James Spader is giving such a fun, engaging performance with only a couple of hiccups, but everything around him is just so quippy and stupid that the film struggles to take him seriously. Still, he deserves a spot here at the very least for his incredibly realistic villain origin: He took one look at the internet and decided humanity needed to be destroyed. And hey, if nothing else What If…? gave him a chance to shine and be the threat he deserves to be!

38. Ulysses Klaue

Black Panther

Andy Serkis sadly gets offed halfway through Black Panther, but even with his limited screentime he has become a beloved minor antagonist. It helps he managed to have a fantastic cameo in Age of Ultron (one of the sole bright spots in that film), and that for his role as the first act’s villain in Black Panther Serkis approaches the role with such humor and grimy charm that you’ll probably feel bad when this scumbag ends up in a body bag.

37. The Thinker

The Suicide Squad

The roulette wheel of villains in The Suicide Squad eventually lands on Peter Capaldi’s maniacal mad scientist, and while he doesn’t have any major fights he manages to steal the show with just how slimy and egotistical he is. He’s just a nasty, awful bastard, and being responsible for the final villain going full kaiju rampage is worth making it on this list.

36. Lex Luthor

Superman Returns

It’s so fucking sad that despite being used in almost every Superman film ever made, the onily time his most iconic foe was ever good when he was played by real-life creep Kevin Spacey. But hey, being a villain in real life gives just the right touch of unhinged ego and cockiness Luthor needs.

35. Top Dollar

The Crow

When I made the list of the 30 best comic book superhero movies, I left off The Crow, mainly because I didn’t think of it as a superhero movie (it’s more like a friend to me if I’m being honest). Kind of a harsh snub there, so as an apology Michael Wincott’s effortlessly cool and needlessly cruel gangster overlord gets to take a place on this list. Not many people can bang their half-sibling and still come away being awesome, but somehow owning the Six-Fingered Sword from The Princess Bride and using it in a duel probably goes a long way towards making Top Dollar one of the most memorable crime bosses you’ll ever see.

34. Dr. Sivana

Shazam!

When you have a villain as silly as “Doctor who harnesses the powers of the seven deadly sins because of darkness in his heart to get revenge” you need a damn good actor to pull that off. Mark Strong is a damn good actor, and this is a taste of what we could have had if they let him play Sinestro more than once. I for one can’t wait to see him take orders from an evil caterpillar!

33. Sabretooth

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Liev Schreiber makes his first mark on this list as Wolverine’s ultraviolent archenemy, and easily the best part of Origins. He’s fun and menacing, and a lot more memorable than whatever the hell that poser in the original X-Men was. The greatest crime of the franchise (besides piss-poor continuity and bad writing and over reliance on Wolverine) was never bringing back Sabretooth to plague good old Logan one more time.

32. Penguin

The Batman

In a movie as dark as this, we need a little bit of levity. Enter Penguin, here imagined as a cartoonish mobster that would almost be out of place if this movie didn’t clearly have a bit of West influence in it. Colin Farrell is no stranger to playing hilariously cartoonish supervillains so in his role here he excels, and it’s easy to see why he’s getting his own spin-off series.

31. Sebastian Shaw

X-Men: First Class

Long before he spent Christmas with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Kevin Bacon terrorized the X-Men in one of their best outings. While he’s not winning any points for comic accuracy, he definitely wins points for being responsible for Magneto’s start of darkness, being the one who killed his mother (and thus a Nazi). He’s a slimy supremacist bastard, and it’s oh so satisfying to watch Magneto make sure there’s zero degrees of separation between his skull and a magnetized coin.

30. Ozymandias

Watchmen

As is often the case with Snyder’s Watchmen, the movie misses the point a bit here. They turned the charming, charismatic, muscular Chad that was the comic Adrian into a cold, brooding, emotionally distant soyboy. It kinda ruins the surprise that this dude is the evil mastermind. Still, with how slavishly loyal the film is, it still manages to make Veidt one of the finest and most morally complex supervillains to hit the big screen… he’s just not quite as impressive as his comic version (though really, who is?).

29. Zemo

Captain America: Civil War and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Zemo is the obvious evolution of the supervillain archetype Loki codified, but he is far more refined. His motives are solid and understandable, his methods are heinous enough to root against, and he makes some valid points. Then he proceeds to do what not even Thanos could: He tears the Avengers apart. He’s the rare villain who actually wins, the rarer villain who actually gets to live, and the rarest villain of all who gets to return, steal the show with awkward dance moves and praising Marvin Gaye, and—most crucially—look cool wearing a purple sock on his head.

28. Ocean Master

Aquaman

Good old Orm doesn’t make the list by being the deepest or most complex character (though he’s not lacking in depth and is pretty understandable in some of his motives), but by being just so delightfully comic booky. He’s hammy, he poses, he wears a silly helmet, and he acts as a great narrative foil for our hero. Bonus points for not only being a villain who is at least a little justified to the point he’s redeemed—by the power of love, no less!—but one who survives the movie to get more development later on.

27. Doctor Doom

The Fantastic Four

The unreleased Fantastic Four film of the 90s may have been hobbled by a budget consisting of change they found in the couch cushions, but the love and respect for the source material always managed to shine through. Nowhere is that more evident than with Doom; he’s hammy, he’s grandiose, he has a giant castle and throne room, he acts like everyone except him is a total idiot, and he won’t stop calling Reed a douchebag even when he’s about to fall to his ambiguous death. He may not put up much of a fight, but this Doom is head and shoulders above Dooms with a thousand times the budget.

26. Justin Hammer

Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 is a sloppy film that was a grim omen of problems that would plague the MCU later down the line, but it did one thing right in giving the world the inimitable Justin Hammer. Where Tony Stark is an idealized fantasy billionaire who is actually a good person who wants to help people, Hammer is a more realistic take to serve as a contrast. He’s smug, he’s smarmy, he engages in all manner of illegal activity to undermine his betters, and most crucially he is an incredible idiot. This man is basically the MCU version of Elon Musk, but where Musk’s attempts at trying to be cool are pathetic and cringeworthy, Hammer’s attempts to ape Tony’s style just serve to make him endearing. And do you think Musk could ever have dance moves half as sick as Hammer’s? Get real.

25. The Grandmaster

Thor: Ragnarok

It’s Jeff Goldblum as space Caligula. ‘Nuff said.

24. Mr. Freeze

Batman & Robin

People have ragged on Arnold’s campy Freeze for years due to his non-stop barrage of ice puns, but much like his home movie he’s honestly not as bad as the haters would make you think. Schwarzenegger is adept at both comedy and drama, and is able to deftly balance the tragic melodrama of Freeze’s backstory and his campy cartoonishness, all while wearing one of the coolest costumes ever seen. And you know what? The ice puns aren’t that bad. Chill out.

23. Prowler

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Uncle Aaron is an inspired take on Uncle Ben, a character who has been done to death (literally). The positive dynamic he has with his nephew is familiar, but the fact he has a criminal alter ego who is relentlessly and unknowingly hunting his beloved nephew down for Kingpin is a fresh take on a tired tale. He still dies, and his death is the catalyst for Miles to fully embrace being Spider-Man, while alive he is equal parts menacing force and tragic figure. With apologies to Miss Octavius, he’s definitely the best secondary antagonist in the film.

22. Penguin

Batman Returns

Danny DeVito’s portrayal of Penguin as a tragic, deformed monster as opposed to a classy gangster has gone on to inform basically every portrayal of the character since, to the point where sticking closer to the character’s roots is seen as weird. It’s not a surprise, though; DeVito manages to make Penguin a menacing, creepy villain as well as a pitiable figure all at once.

21. Vulture

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Michael Keaton is no stranger to comic book movies, and here he demonstrated he is just as adept at playing badass villains as he is at playing heroes. Taking one of Spider-Man’s corniest villains and giving him a high tech upgrade and sympathetic motivation was a smart move, as was keeping him noble even in the end. Of course, his best scene doesn’t even have him in his bird suit; it has him in his regular clothes, slowly piecing together the truth about Peter while the boy sits in the backseat of his car. Keaton’s acting in the car ride scene is something else entirely.

20. Loki

Marvel Cinematic Universe

I was personally not a huge fan of Loki’s turn as an out and out doomsday villain in the first Avengers movie, but it’s hard to deny his impact on the medium and how he was the first villain in the MCU to actually have nuance, which was much better showcased in the Thor films. And you’ll never hear a bad word from me about Tom Hiddleston’s performance, which is fantastic no matter what he’s in, up to being the best part of every episode of What If...? he’s in. It’s no wonder Loki got his own spin-off show with all that in mind.

19. White Dragon

Peacemaker

Peacemaker’s dad is probably the biggest piece of shit on this list, being an openly racist neo-Nazi supervillain and one of the most abusive fathers you’ll ever see. By all accounts he shouldn’t be as cool as he is, but between Robert Patrick’s fantastic performance and James Gunn being a master of writing conflicts between parents and children like this, he becomes an enjoyable hate sink you oh so badly want to see get what’s coming to him. And even better, despite being built up as a genius inventor and badass villain, he makes crucial errors in his suit’s construction that leads to his demise, showing once and for all that for all their posturing, white supremacists are just fucking morons who fold like wet paper at the slightest opposition.

18. General Zod

Superman II

Terrence Stamp took a villain who wasn’t quite iconic and managed to make him on the level of Luthor when it comes to Superman villains almost anyone could name, to the point where Stamp’s portrayal influenced the comic version going forwards. He has an air of class and menace that makes it pretty easy to want to kneel before him. Zod has become a little overexposed, being the go-to Superman bad guy when they don’t feel like using Luthor, but when the original take was this good it’s seriously hard to fault them too much.

17. Mysterio

Spider-Man: Far From Home

Mysterio isn’t just brilliant because he’s a fun, meta take on a great goofy comic villain, with him and his team essentially being Marvel movie creators gone bad, fabricating CGI spectacle to gain accolades. And he’s not just brilliant because of that fantastic illusion sequence where he puts Spidey through a dizzying nightmare trip. No, he’s brilliant because not only did he convince the world at large that he’s an incredible hero, he managed to convince some audience members that he’s just a poor, innocent worker who was taken advantage of by his former billionaire boss (which ignores so much, but especially that he’s working with someone who was complicit in dealing arms to terrorists). He’s certainly not a hero, but he’s most definitely a master of illusions.

16. Starro

The Suicide Squad

Starro serves as the final boss of The Suicide Squad, unleashing kaiju destruction on Corto Maltese. And like all great kaiju, there is an air of tragedy to the big starfish; he never wanted any of this, in its final moments choosing to lament how content it was to simply drift through space before it was kidnapped and forced to undergo perverse experiments at the hands of the American government (and particularly Thinker). Starro doesn’t even want to fight the Squad at first, implying it’s grateful to them for freeing it from torture. The Squad may not put much thought into how tragic Starro’s lot is, but the audience sure will.

15. Agatha Harkness

WandaVision

In a technical sense, Agatha didn’t do too much wrong besides gaslight Wanda in an attempt to steal her powers. Sure, she kidnaps Wanda’s kids and kills their dog, but none of those things are real; and sure, she hypnotized Ralph Bohner (heh) into thinking he was Quicksilver, but it’s no worse than Wanda’s mass brainwashing of Westview. But she just relishes so much in being a wicked witch, from her torment of Wanda to her insanely catchy villain song, that I’m inclined to take her word for it and say she’s a bad guy. She’s definitely getting some kind of redemption in her own show, but for now Kathryn Hahn camping it up like she just walked off the set of Hocus Pocus can take high marks on this list.

14. Amanda Waller

DC Cinematic Universe

I don’t think there has ever been such an impressive turnaround for a comic book villain ever. It was never a matter of Viola Davis, who gave her all from day one, but a matter of how abysmal the writing in Suicide Squad was, portraying her as an incompetent idiot who was still allowed to get away with everything in the end. Once Gunn took the reigns of the franchise, though, Waller finally got her due, sending an entire squad to their death as a distraction and basically playing 4D chess for the whole movie. She gets her comeuppance too, so it’s a lot more satisfying watching her win a few schemes when you know she can lose a few too. Being a greater-scope villain for Peacemaker just further cemented her as being the magnificent bitch the character should be; we can only hope she keeps it up in her next major appearance.

13. Kingpin

Daredevil (The movie and the Netflix series), Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

It’s honestly amazing that a villain as seemingly simple as Wilson Fisk has not only been done differently three times in ways that make him cool and engaging, but he’s also maintained a high level of quality in every appearance. Michael Clarke Duncan brought size and intimidation to his version, doing so well despite Daredevil’s weak theatrical cut he got to reprise the role in the underrated Spider-Man: The New Animated Series; Liev Schreiber voiced the memeiest version of the character to date, one who even holds the distinction of killing one Spider-Man and inadvertently creating another; and Vincent D’onofrio is so good he managed to pull the entire Netflix Daredevil show into the MCU canon with his appearance in Hawkeye. Fisk would be the easiest villain in the world to half-ass and make generic, but we’ve been blessed with fantastic actors in the role. Kingpin gets the distinction of being the one of only two villains with multiple entries in one spot.

12. Kilgrave

Jessica Jones

David Tennant is the third and final former Doctor to make the list, and he’s so good at being a bad I bent the rules ever so slightly to get him in on the list. The canonicity of Jessica Jones to the MCU is a bit unclear right now, but do we really want to live in a world where his fantastically chilling performance is Thanos’d from the timeline? A walking avatar of rape culture and a laundry list of microagressions, Kilgrave is one of the slimiest, most sadistic, most reprehensible characters ever conceived… and yet you can’t help but love to hate him.

11. Catwoman

Batman Returns

There have been plenty of Catwomans in film, with her being portrayed as a hero, an anti-hero, and even a silly Silver Age villainess. But I think Miss Kyle was done best as an antagonist in the hands of Michelle Pfeiffer, who absolutely nails the dynamic between Selina and Bruce (and their alter egos) as well as portraying the inherent tragedy of this take on the character. Throw in Pfeiffer looking damn fine in that costume and her handling the whip like a pro, and you have what might just be the purr-fect Catwoman.

10. Namor

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Phase 4 of the MCU was largely uneven, with villains who could have been great under better circumstances being held back by sloppy narrative choices. Big names like Gorr and Scarlet Witch were let down by weak stories, so there was a sense of dread I had going into Wakanda Forever that they’d let down one of Marvel’s oldest and most iconic anti-heroes. I had nothing to worry about in the end; Tenoch Huerta brought the character to life with all the charm, charisma, and command of the screen the Sub-Mariner deserves, and boy does he look good. The story treats him with the respect he deserves (no jokes about his ankle wings!) and while he’s certainly no Killmonger, he easily cements himself as a fantastic anti-hero who you can’t wait to see more of. And really, I can’t stress this enough: He is really fucking hot.

9. Riddler

The Batman

I’m sure I’m in the same boat as a lot of people, where I saw the Zodiac-inspired getup of the new Riddler and thought this was going to be a Nolanesque gritty reimagining of the character. But lo and behold, we got something infinitely better: A Riddler that utilizes all manner of gruesome Saw traps while also maintaining the hilarious campy quality that’s inherent to the character. He sends personalized greeting cards with clues, he hosts evil livestreams for his fans, he sings “Ave Maria” to Batman, and most importantly he has a sick sense of humor. I love Jim Carrey, but he ain’t got shit on Paul Dano when it comes to riddlin’.

8. Joker

Batman: The Movie, Batman, The Dark Knight, and Joker

Joker is a character who always manages to get a fresh take despite being absolutely done to death, and each interpretation highlights a different aspect that makes the character great. Romero’s Joker is very much the playful, criminal prankster; Nicholson is the swaggering, comically violent gangster; Ledger is the chilling, maniacal anarchist; and Phoenix is the disturbed, broken man who had one really bad day. And the one thing common across all of them is that each of them has made the Joker a consistently compelling and engaging villain. And while he hasn’t done enough yet to get in on this spot of the list entirely, Barry Keoghan deserves a shout out for portraying Joker as he truly is: A giggling, hideous, conniving freak.

7. Thanos

Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame

Thanos was a villain nearly a decade in the making, getting teased in The Avengers before making sporadic appearances here and there. His lack of direct action in the franchise had some worried… and then he stole the show in Infinity War, kicked everyone’s ass, and emerged victorious. They managed to take a villain whose main goal in the comics is to fuck a skeleton and somehow make him work, namely by keeping his headstrong self-righteousness intact even if he isn’t trying to bone the grim reaper, with Josh Brolin delivering one of the finest performances of his career. There are other villains that are better than him, but there aren’t any villains who truly feel as grand of epic as he did, and with DC dropping Darkseid from their cinematic universe it’s doubtful there ever will be one again, at least not for a very long time.

6. Doctor Octopus

Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man: No Way Home

Alfred Molina’s Otto Octavius is an excellent contrast to Dafoe’s Goblin. Where Gobby is hammy, hilarious, and gleefully sadistic, Octavius is grandiose in a more understated way and a lot more tragic, while still managing to be as fun as a mad scientist with robot tentacles should be. You can definitely tell Molina is bringing his stage acting skills to the table here with how he carries himself and delivers his lines, making Octavius stand out among the more traditionally campy villains in Raimi’s other films. He got to return for an encore in No Way Home and gets the awesome fight scene and redemption arc he deserved, fully rounding him out and giving the diabolical doctor a happy ending all while proving that he makes movies better just by being in them.

5. Xu Wenwu

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Shang-Chi would be a nearly perfect movie if not for one thing: It kills off one of the single greatest and most complex villains in the MCU for a CGI dragon battle. They managed to take two of the most infamous “Yellow Peril” characters in pop culture (Fu Manchu and the Mandarin) and gave him depth and complexity, his complicated relationship with his children driving the plot more than anything else. It’s a testament to how good the writing and how good Tony Leung’s performance is that he’s this high, because despite his death the impact on his children doesn’t disappear just because it’s time for CGI monsters. This more than makes up for how lame Guy Pearce Mandarin was, that’s for sure.

4. Ego

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Familial conflict is the cornerstone of many great villains, and Ego has that in spades. At first it seems like Marvel’s living planet has undergone adaptational kindness, with him genuinely coming across as a fun father figure to Peter, but that just makes the big twist hit even harder. Ego becomes even nastier retroactively, as on top of what he did to Peter’s mother and scores of his own children, the holiday special reveals Mantis is his child and he only kept her alive as a slave for her powers. He’s genuinely one of the nastiest, most twisted villains the MCU ever showed us, and he more than lives up to his name with his narcissistic plan to reshape the universe in his image. Kurt Russell absolutely knocked it out of the park with his performance. 

3. Magneto

X-Men film series

Be it Sir Ian McKellan or Michael Fassbender, you could always count on one thing with Magneto: He’d be one of the most compelling parts of the film. Watch McKellan and Fassbender carry The Last Stand and Apocalypse, respectively, and see how this iconic anti-villain can make even the biggest turds watchable. And when the movie is genuinely good, such as X2, First Class, or Days of Future Past… That’s where the real fun comes in. Magneto is one of the single greatest characters ever created, and thankfully even with the spotty track record of the X-Men films it never felt like he wasn’t given his due.

2. Green Goblin

Spider-Man and Spider-Man: No Way Home

We can argue all day about whether or not his costume is stupid, but one thing that is utterly inarguable is that Willem Dafoe delivered the gold standard for hammy supervillains. Playing up the Goblin as something of a split personality, Dafoe can instantly switch from the sympathetic Norman to the cackling Gobby with ease, something really demonstrated by his return in No Way Home. Across two cinematic universes, Gobby proved himself to be Spidey’s greatest and most personal foe, and more importantly than that he proved to be an endless fountain of memes thanks to his insanely quotable lines. If you’re making a cackling, campy comic book movie villain, they are gonna have to try really hard to make it out of Gobby’s shadow.

1. Erik Killmonger

Black Panther

When I began making this list, there was never any question who number one was going to be. Of fucking course it was always gonna be Killmonger, a villain who is so cool, stylish, badass, and complex that he completely redeems the film’s awkward PS3 cutscene of a final battle thanks to his genuinely impactful death scene immediately after. He’s so good that when he shows up for a surprise appearance in Wakanda Forever he absolutely and completely eclipses how great Namor is and reminds us all why he was such a great villain with only a single scene. What’s most impressive, however, is that technically he did win in the end, being directly responsible for T’Challa dying as well as inspiring him during life to open up to the world and try and help black people around the world. Michael B. Jordan proves once and for all that whatever problems his role as Johnny Storm had, it wasn’t on him; the man is one of the best actors of our time.

[ellesliterarycorner]

How to Title your Story

Ah, titles. Unfortunately, every book has to have a title. Some people spend years obsessing over the perfect title for their book. I wouldn’t say it’s that important, but titles do carry a lot of weight. Titles are just like our own names. Certain names conjure certain images, and certain titles conjure certain images as well. Do you want your audience to think of a spooky, mystery thriller when they hear the title of your book, or do you want them to think of a comforting rom-com novel? Even though we shouldn’t just a book by it’s title or it’s cover, I would be a liar if I said that I had never picked up a book simply because the title sounded super cool. Now that doesn’t always work out, but that’s just how people are. We’re more likely to pick up something that looks interesting or sounds interesting. Your title is the reader’s first impression of your writing, so to pull those readers in, here are some tips for titling your story!

Brainstorm, Brainstorm, Brainstorm!!

Brainstorming is good advice for pretty much anything! Sometimes you instantly think of something that is the most amazing title, and other times you have a list of 20 or 30 that you need to wittle down to that one perfect title. Ask yourself questions about the book. Is there a certain theme or motif that you really want to be a part of the title? Or does the story revolve around a singular character that will eventually give the series its name? It honestly depends on what you want your story to project, and what you want readers to feel when they the title. I would say that coming up with titles is a great place to use your trusty beta readers! If you’re really torn between two prospective titles, you could ask beta readers which title they feel fits the book better having read it. If you’re still in the early title brainstorming phase, you could ask your beta readers to come up with a word or a phrase that they think really represents the book and go from there!

Don’t Be Basic About It

We’ve all been there before: you just finished reading the most incredible book in the whole world. Well-rounded characters, an amazing plot, and absolutely perfect wordbuilding. You know that it is your duty to share this amazing book with your friends. Yet, as you go to tell your best friend about the perfectness that is this book, you forget the title. Never fear, you promise to text them the title. Alas! You forget to text them when you get home. The book has lost a potential reader, and your friend has lost the chance to make his life better. A missed opportunity for all. Real talk though, sometimes you geuinnely cannot remember the title of a book because the title just wasn’t that memorable even if the book was. Especially in today’s publishing climate (which I talk more about later), a lot of book titles sound really similar. It’s getting harder to come up with an orginal title because publishers seem to want all the book titles to be relatively uniform. Choose a title that your readers will instantly remember forever. I didn’t necessarily love the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, but that is one book title I will never forget. Also, when you’re thinking of titles, maybe do a quick Google search to see if a super popular book already has that title. Book titles aren’t copyrighted, I don’t think, so you could use a name already used by a popular book, but you probably should steer clear of them!

Maybe A Sprinkle of Foreshadowing??

Not only do titles draw readers into your story, some titles also give the reader a little bit of a glimpse of what they should expect from your book. Say what you will about Agatha Christie, but for the most part all of her books have very straightforward titles. Now, part of that is reflective of the time she wrote it, but also being forthright can be a good thing. If a book is titled Murder on the Orient Express, it would most definitely be reasonable to expect someone to get murdered on the Orient Express. The reader knows exactly what to expect, and they can’t get bamboozled when inevitably, someone does get murdered on said Orient Express. Of course, your titles can also still have the same meaning, but be a little bit more philosophical in nature. I love when I read a book completely not understanding the title, but then I finally finish the book, and now I have a completely new understanding and appreciating for the writer. There’s also that lovely little aha moment when a character finally says the title of the book in the book, or if the title references an object, when that object finally appears!

Elle’s Bonus Tip: Don’t Worry About It

Honestly, the best advice is to not worry about it! Especially if you do end up going the traditional publishing route, there is a very high chance that your publisher/agent/editor will change the title that you may have worked incredibly hard to come up with it. It’s jut the way things are, and it’s actually one my biggest gripes with YA publishing (especially fantasy) at the moment. It seems like the title of every book that comes out is some variation of ‘Of (something) and (something).’ It’s a publishing trend that I’m honestly not all that fond of. But, the point of that mini-rant is that placeholder titles are perfectly acceptable for the long-run if traditional publishing is your goal. My newest WIP that I’ll be writing for NaNoWriMo in November is placeholdered (not a real word, ik) as Project Starlight. It’s my newest project, and it takes place in space which makes me think of starlight. Boom! Project Starlight. Don’t overthink it or stress about it!

[jjm-blogspot]

Writing Tips: Advice on writing romance

Here are a few tips I think are important when you’re incorporating romance into your stories. This might be more helpful if romance isn’t really your cup of tea, but you still feel obligated to introduce it into the plot. Whether it be to include a happy ending for your story, or a way to add drama.

Hope this helps.

1. Take your time

Okay...maybe don’t take that much time, but you get the idea. When it comes to romance, most people want to be wined and dined. Readers don’t like rushed relationships. But at the same time, they like to feel like they’ve worked for it. Your readers want to go through your novel, experience the events leading up to the romantic relationship, all so they can get to the payoff. In other words, they want to see them kiss! Or, they want to see the main character (MC) stopping their love interest before they can board the plane. They want to see your MC overcome whatever was holding them back from chasing what they always wanted.

For romance, it appears that the classic slow burn is superior. Even I can attest to being partial to it. For me, the best part of a story is the build up to the relationships (romantic or platonic). I love seeing the characters fumble over their feelings, and their conflicting ideologies, as they find a way to let certain people enter their lives. It’s a natural and beautiful thing to be able to watch relationships blossom into a lovely flower. Especially when they started off as a tiny seed.

2. Include subtle clues

My favorite part about watching a show, or reading a book, is backtracking. I love analyzing all the little hints the author sprinkled in the story to foreshadow the approaching relationship. When these clues are delicately woven into a story, it always shocks me when people complain about it being “rushed”. When accusations like this arise, it’s important to notice the position writers put their characters in.

A great example would be Dani and Jamie from The Haunting of Bly Manor. During one episode something triggers Dani into recalling a past trauma, so she rushes out the house to get some privacy. It looks like she might be having a panic attack; she’s breathing heavy, like she can’t quite catch her breath. Then, of all people, Jamie’s the one who comes across her while she’s doing chores. Jamie puts aside whatever she was doing, and comforts Dani until she catches her breath and calms down.

After I saw that scene the first thing I said was, “I ship it.” Successful romance comes down to placing certain characters in specific scenes. Having your MC be there for their love interest during their most vulnerable moments.

It’s all about placement.

3. Let them grow together

Everyone loves a good power couple. If you plan on keeping them together throughout your series then show how their futures might be aligned with each other. And if they’re not aligned, show how they go about making their relationship work in spite of it. If character Y was a selfish person at the start of the story, imagine how impactful it will be when they risk everything for character Z.

Show the readers how they helped each other become better individuals. Or maybe you want to do the opposite. Maybe their relationship is toxic, and you want to showcase how they aren’t right for each other; show the negative changes that have arisen because of their relationship.

4. Make them treat their love interest different than anyone else

This ties into what I mentioned before about letting your MC and their love interest be vulnerable with one another. This is an aspect many people can relate to. When you get in a relationship, you’re allowing yourself to be vulnerable. You’re also different with them than you are when you’re with friends or family.

For example, if your MC loves food and absolutely, under no circumstances, would ever share their food, use that to your advantage. Imagine your MC enjoying a nice meal with their love interest, and a group of other close friends. Then, all of a sudden, the love interest reaches over and takes a bite of the MC’s limited edition spicy burger. The entire table goes silent. Everyone expects the love interest to lose a leg or for the MC to dump them on the spot, but instead the MC is perfectly calm and accepting of it. Well, unless we’re talking about Joey from Friends.

Joey doesn’t share food...

5. Give them a love language

When words aren’t enough, how do they communicate with each other? And most importantly, how does this language help move the plot forward in desperate times? For example, let’s say there’s a classic enemies to lovers trope going on. The MC (the good “guy”) and their crew are captured by the enemy and are tied up somewhere on the outskirts of the enemy base. It’s late at night so there’s a nice campfire to keep them warm, and the person guarding them is getting tired so a shift change happens. The new guard is, you guessed it, said enemy turned lover. The lover takes their post and whistles a certain tune - a song the MC and them bonded over for the first time. The song tips the MC off that help is coming, and they rest much easier throughout the night.

6. Predictable isn’t always bad

Sure, having surprising twists and turns make a story great, but there’s a satisfying aspect a reader feels when a certain couple FINALLY kisses and they’re allowed to say, “I knew it!” An extreme example could be those Hallmark movies they play on repeat during the Holidays. One of my friends, who is a hopeless romantic, adores Hallmark movies even though she knows exactly how it’s going to end. The plot is predictable, but people love it anyway. While it’s not my favorite genre to watch, I can admire it because sometimes you just want them to kiss without having to wonder whether or not one of them will survive the approaching zombie apocalypse.

[mimiri22-6]

Since I have concluded that one of my favorite og posts still hold up after watching the netflix ver of Bee and Puppycat, I will be repeating it for more people to see my 3 day long essay that was my pinned post for 2 years

Without further adieu, my spoiler heavy essay of every season 2 episode of Bee and Puppycat with updated notes

Gentle Touch

In the first episode we already get a big game changer for Bee and her development[not as much now because with the new first episode they Did sprinkle in a bit more responsibility onto her. See; Bee taking the fire for Deckard]. Bee becoming more responsible as a favor for Deckard. He asks her to take care of his family while he’s at cooking school and we already see her doing this. Going out to the ocean with Wesley, going out of her comfort zone for people she’s practically family to, which is why we got the beginning flashback, once again going out of her comfort zone to stop Puppycat from punching kittens, And Finally, coming out from her nap cupboard to face Howl and help pay for bills by eating ugly food.

Little Fingers

Ooh, this one has foreshadowing dream sequence. I would say more about it if it had more significance, but it’s really just what happens to Bee in the last ep. This episode brings more of Bee being responsible, trying to take her phone away from Puppycat so he stops making bad purchases. This episode made me realize what Puppycat’s role is this season, the child[not really, I even knew this then, it doesn't fit. It's weird and I still don't know how to put it. Sometimes he's responsible sometimes not. Maybe that's just how people work]. Or something among those lines. He’s the same as he was last season, but it seems/is a bit more exaggerated because Bee isn’t doing the same things anymore[Again, it's been a bit retconned]. She’s started to care about consequences. And speaking about consequences, Toast announces she’s pregnant while confirming that she’s been staying…in Cass’s room?…weird, but ok, and by Tim pointing and Merlin’s reaction, it’s Merlin’s…but also everyone else seemed like they thought they were the culprit and I don’t want to think about the implications of that[I Still don't wanna think about the implications of this -_-]….MOVING ON-OH WAIT, And Cardamon’s mom is spouting magic tears that messes with the plants, so there’s that[I. Still. Have no idea. What the deal with the tears. Where. All I can think of is...bring life?? Her implied being a magical entity because of the music box? Makes?...Something????].

Snow and Violets

I’m going to be honest, I’m not 100% sure what to put here and I’m loosing steam. (I’ve been awake since 3 am…) But I think I can put something. The situation with Mr. Cup is the definition of being haunted by your past[Man, I was on the money w/ this. Well, mostly. As I was watching it again earlier, I was thinking more along the lines of 'redeemed villain' but not that extreme. Just overall, someone that did things they aren't proud of anymore and they can't seem to leave it. See; the entire world is a looping racetrack in the shape of an infinity symbol]. The guilt and regret of cheating in the past has made him lose his motivation to give it his all in racing because, what’s the point? Motivation and not caring was his norm, so he just stuck with it. Until Bee, and now he can be a rainbow and sleep with less guilt and regret on his conscience. The thing with the island rapidly changing could be one of three things. Something to do with the ship that is the island, a metaphor for change, or something really cool the creators just wanted.

Day off Work

Not Too much to note for this ep overall. Puppycat totally did do the ‘wrecking the house in search for the owner’ thing dogs do. Finally, a dog trait! Every time I see Cardamon now I just get sad cause he’s 7, and should Not be doing landlord stuff. Bee showing worry about how Cardamon’s mom is still asleep and being worried about Cardamon himself, I’m just glad someone’s noticing. I keep forgetting that some people haven’t watched the pilot so they don’t know about Puppycat being a Space Outlaw[Now the pilot is in the showw, hell yeah], so when he found all his stuff under the apartment I was less surprised and more excited. The two last things I want to say is I think it’s interesting/cool/intriguing how the Wizard family just takes every weird thing either in stride, unquestioningly, or ignorance. Just trying to pretend it didn’t happen so they don’t have to deal with it(other than Crispin, but he’s coming up). And the last thing I just want to bring to light is CARDAMON BEING SO CUTE IN THE LAST SCENE! JUST BEING A CHILD! AND LAUGHING WITH HIS DOG! ON A FUNNY CHAIR! I LOVE HIM YOUR HONOR AND I WILL PROTECT THAT SMILE WITH MY WHOLE BEING!!![I WILL STILL PROTECT THAT SMILE!!!]

My Favorite

Note, Pretty Patrick is also The Mayor. Alright. It’s definitely been a few months and you can see the relationship between Howl and Bee has gotten better, not that it was too bad to begin with, just a bit less peeved on Howl’s end. The theme of Bee being responsible is brought into play again with the train station scene. Telling Puppycat to not hit and the way Puppycat was acting around Patrick. All little kid stuff. Which also kind of clashes with what I thought was Puppycat being older than Bee by a lot, I’m honestly slowly getting more and more confused exactly how I should perceive Puppycat[still a bit confused, but not as much anymore, thx show]. THE FIRST REAL LOOK AT THE HAND GUYS! I’m still not sure what their deals are, but they have a corpse on their hands and that is already the biggest red flag. I have a guess as to what/who they are in relation to Puppycat and, by acquaintance, Bee, but I could be wrong, but I also can’t think of any other people they may be. I’ll bring it back up either the next time we see them or at the end.

Did You Remember

Grampa Puppycat cares about his granddaughter a whole lot[gosh that scene where he's babysitting her? T-T man, guys, I love them and this show]. Don’t @ me, their dynamic is more confusing than a moving maze…Now this episode, ooh boy, it feels like a lot, but in a minimal way? First off, Cardamon finally breaks down about the stress of being a 7 year old landlord and Bee takes care of him for the day. Big Sis Bee For The Win! DON’T @ ME I MAKE UP MY OWN FAMILY DYNAMICS!!![YOU TELL 'M PAST ME!] Kind of continuing from the first sentence, Puppycat and Bee love each other(I Stand By Platonically For Them)[Still severely do. I Do Not Shipp It. I never have and I never will] so much already, for them it’s been a little over a year[reading this, I just realized this isn't true, puppycat knew bee when she was little(I still think she was a real girl at some point but she got sick and her dad put her in a robot-OH MY GOD I AM REMEMBERING THE SCENE ON THE BEACH AND HER DAD SAYS SHE WAS ASLEEP FOR 3 DAYS ALREADY! SHE WAS YOUNG! OH NO)] considering Puppycat fell into Bee’s life before her last birthday and now they’re celebrating another one. And I must admit, I can not for the life of me figure out wtf the deal is with the tears. They have little shapes of recent events in them[If the tears are never fully explained, especially the little precognition shapes, I think I would actually loose it] and they make plants weird/straight up just make life! Like, What Even Is That?! Also, Cardamon finally gets a good sleep.

Bird Friend

Ok, so we got more ship pieces, a most likely reason as to why Puppycat was Like That in the last few episodes of season 1 and has been goopy every now and again in this season. Apparently eating things he shouldn’t eat make him Extremely off model and goopy[mmmm, I'm not sure about this one anymore. the onnly other time he's goopy now, that I can remember, is in little fingers, like his molecules were being messed with so his form was having trouble staying]. More hands! But not the rest of them this time around. I wonder if Sticky’s hunt for all the birds has any significance other than showing us another piece[the birds are like glowing and following the ship in the last ep now?? Bourgeoisie??]. Puppycat breaking down and spilling a few secrets after stress eating off the floor and Bee immediately saying no to someone else telling her what’s wrong with Puppycat and letting him come to her first instead of forcing him is always such a good lesson to have. Also, Cass is into weirdly shaped shiny things[CONFETTIIII CANNONNNN! 🎉].

Two Clown Noses

Ah, it’s this one. The one that Really throws a wrench into the Bee/Deckard ship[I no longer shipp]. THEY’RE BOTH SO CUTE! I CAN’T CHOOSE!!! This entire episode is just Crispin and Bee hanging out with the added angst of the beginning ‘story’. This world is full of such amazingly crazy characters and Crispin’s backstory is one of those crazier ones. Bee and him Lived Together and Know Each Other, he knows she’s a robot! My only question is, what happened that they broke up? WAIT- DID THEY EVEN BREAK UP?![reading this, I am embarrassed. No one look at me.] It would be weird if they weren’t because they were living together and then they decide to live separate again would make no sense. I think I just jumped to the weirdest conclusion…Anyway! How would Puppycat get sick? I feel like that was just another thing they added to create different dynamics. The beginning birthday thing and the conclusion felt so real even though the cause was something so out there that I feel like only animated shows like this could pass, but also I feel like someone out there has done something similar, so what do I know. Yeah, not much else about this episode, it was mostly just Bee/Crispin stuff and character stuff. Gosh they’re so cute…but so is Bee/Deckard. Being a multishipper is hard…[I no longer shipp either, even though both Crispin and Decard still show atraction and admiration for Bee, and Bee is a bit hard to read depending on the situation. But I do know one thing on Bee's end, she has not blushed or shown a certain interest in Deckard. I can not tell what her feelings for Crispin are atm tho]

Funny Lying

RIGHT! THEY’RE CALLED THE WARLOCKS! THAT’S THE TITLE I WAS FORGETTING![Ok, so the Warlords. They only recently started working at...wherever tf they're working at, the jobs are from their dads, presumidly the previous warlords, and their position is to find Puppycat, they most likely work for the kingdom that Turned Puppycat. Conclusion; Their dads were there for the turning, or they're part of a long line of Warlords chasing Puppycat through the years] Tim knows everyone’s secrets, comes with the perk of having a lot of time and not talking much, you observe everyone else while they think you’re doing something else. I know from experience. Eavesdropping is a specialty of mine. SHIT THIS IS THE ONE WHERE CASS GETS THE MESSAGE DISSING HER FOR FALLING FOR TOAST FROM A COWORKER! I caught those vibes during the first season, but then the first half of this season came along and I was forced to drop those vibes in favor of cannon because TOAST WAS PREGOS WITH ONE OF CASS’S BROTHER’S KIDS![Which is now Toast going through any means neccesary to stay in Cass' life. Other than asking her out. Hate to break it to ya, Toast, but this is, somehow, not heterosexual behavior] I’m good at catching gay vibes in fictional worlds, but I’m shit in the real world, just like everything else. And the thing is, we don’t get Any kind of explanation/closure for the entire rest of the season![WE STILL DON'T] We see Toast totally shocked reaction, probably moments before she was going to sneak attack Cass, but froze upon seeing that text. AND WE GET NOTHING ABOUT THAT FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON! Anyway, that was only like 2 minutes into the ep, this is taking forever. We got more Bee being responsible for Cardamon and getting rid of the tears, but the biggest part of this episode is undoubtedly Puppycat’s scenes. We got him sinking to the bottom of the ocean and getting cradled by flowers created by the tears next to the ship. We find out he was bullied and ridiculed in school as a kid and his best friend(idk what else they would be counted as), Violet, convinced him to leave their planet after they accidently summon their ship, leaving Puppycat’s mother behind. seeing how he cried about leaving her she seems to have been a great caretaker and he loved her immensely[Was she...Already dead?? His declaration of how he's going to miss his mom feels more subdued]. We get the scene of Bee’s dad as a baby/Very young child on a mission[WHICH REMINDS ME! WTF WAS GOING ON IN THAT REPAIR SCENE IN EP 3????], giving a presentation, and finding the candy to be a source of energy by cracking it open. Making me think, ‘Is that Bee’s fuel source? If it is, how would not taking full doses for two years effect her?’ because in the first season she splits the candy in half to share with Puppycat[She no longer does this, but she has shared it w Cardamon in the past, making this question still relevant(also do they really share a bday because if they do then Awwwww!!)] and in this season she didn’t eat the candy at all[This is still cannon, and I'm still worried about her because of how the season ends]. Makes me even more worried for the future knowing what state she’s in when this season ends. With the last flower fever dream/memory it seems that the princess that he fell in love with was the one to make the final move to turning him into a ‘monster.’

Golden Eyes

(I’m getting more and more tired as this goes one. I started doing this at around 12 this morning and now it’s nearing 6 pm. I’m loosing it!) We got another birthday and it’s Howl’s this time, though it’s not really his episode. The fish are attracted to the wish crystals for some reason and one eats a bit of it to be ‘human’ for a day. I love how the fish hated being a human and Wesley didn’t even notice it was a date. I wasn't even sure if it was or not throughout, but ending on that was funny. We got the return of the major douche from the season 1 finally and a mention of Moully[MOULLY!!! :D]. 

Why Don’t You Help Me?

(I took a break between episodes, aka I went tf to sleep, because I was falling asleep at the table and not really processing everything enough for what I’m trying to do) Ok, so this is a day in the life of Cardamon episode with supposed parelles to the Warlocks. We start with the red one stuck and the others unwilling to help…and then they start drawing Puppycat’s face on the 5th one’s corpse-and these guys just do not care that it’s a dead body that they supposedly killed themselves. In short, they have all my fear because they are uncaring about body counts. Cardamon still goes to school on top of being a self proclaimed landlord and gets made fun of for being responsible and tattling at every chance he gets. Something I just noticed too is, at first I just assumed he was finally getting tired after being an adult in a child’s body for who knows how long, but now I’m thinking if he’s supposed to be asleep with Violet, his mom, then the reason for him being so tired is being awake too long. It could most likely be both, too. Just like Cardamon, I have no idea what all the tears mean. In the most recent one was see Moully as the charm in the center. What’s the pattern with these? Again we see Bee being responsible and taking care of Cardamon, making sure he gets home safe, tucking him in, and pulling an all night favor so he can sleep and get to school in the morning. Speaking of that, I can’t say I like Cardamon’s teachers all that much. I could rant about them, but this is already long and they’re not worth it[No, no I WILL rant about it! Why the FUCK do they Look Like That?! Supposedly, their first hookup was in the bubble, but they're clothes are torn, stained, asymetrical, and just overall a mess durring the whole ep. And I will not take getting down and dirty as an answer because even though they obviously want eachother like that, they do not have the vibes of being together before. I don't wanna think about this anymore, I just don't like them]. My only real question is, why the hell are their clothes so ragged and dirty? Do they not know how to bathe? Just, WTF? (either that or they’re Really not trying to hide their *ahem* activities from the kids, which just makes me want to punch sense into them or something)

Now I’m Really Alone

MOULLY!!!! Sorry, I just love him a lot. From what I can put together, he’s some kind of gift giving being. Giving wishes, exchanging good deeds and quick favors for other good deeds and favors. Just being Really nice and wanting to help everyone he comes across[He's only known a handfull of people for as long as he can remember T-T; his boss, Bee, Deckard, and the Warlords T0T]. This episode makes me see so much in common between Bee and Moully[They are instant brainwave friends your honor]. They both want to help even when they don’t know how. Making messes and finding ways clean up those messes out of guilt and the feeling of obligation. They both have lost things they need to pick up and the knowledge that they have all the time in the world because they’ve both been alive for so long. It keeps getting hinted, but now kind of confirmed, that the Wizard’s know Bee is Weird because they haven’t seen her age[young old lady]. Hell, seeing how she interacts with Cardamon she could have even baby sat them[yep]. So all the Wizard’s know she’s Weird and, supposedly, only Crispin knew she was a robot. That was until Deckard found out in the season 1 finale. Once again bringing up the point of people in the Wizard family finding something out and ignoring it and hiding it. In the season 1 finaly, Tim asked Cass if Deckard wasn’t depressed anymore, practically saying that Deckard has some form of depression. Depression being a mental illness that runs in families, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that some other members of the family have similar problems. One of the things I remember depression doing is the person will see a problem and ignore it. Something that many people in this show do with the weirdness around them and the emotional states/situations of the other people in the show. This season is about finally seeing the thing you’ve been ignoring and doing something about it. And that’s what Bee’s been doing this season, taking charge and finally getting her junk out of the ocean and getting REALLY far out of her comfort zone. She HATES water and the ocean[thinking about the beach scene again, she only hates the water in her older years...], but she’s diving in to take back what’s hers and cleaning up a mess. There’s A Lot to analyze with this episode, the similarities of Moully’s and Bee’s situations and personalities, Puppycat being the responsible one again for the long run of things, the tears and how the wish crystals work, and the state of multiple character’s minds. Ignorance is bliss until it isn’t.

I Won’t Leave You Alone

Ok, SO MANY NOTES! Which makes sense seeing how it’s the last episode. First off, THOSE WARLOCK BASTDARDS VIOLATED MOULLY AND IF THEY WERE REAL I WOULD THROTLE THEM TILL THEIR HEADS POPPED OFF!!! I am a very protective person when it comes to things I care about. And I’m going to say it here and now incase something comes up of it, Cooking Prince gives be Colorful Vibes[he still does, you do not follow someone without knowing their name unless you Like like them. Mans only saw him from a distance and talked to him once. Looking a bit sus there, chap], if you know what I mean. You don’t follow someone home and bother them when they don’t want to be bothered unless you’re Into into them. That’s all I’m saying and if nothing comes of it, I will drop it. I’m barely hanging onto it to begin with[It's been years, I'm holding onto them like a lifeline. I wanna see Deckard and CP kiss onscreen]. So, last episode we watched one of three hands punching the other hands to let Moully go, and in this episode it’s confirmed that the day Moully was pulled through the void, the 5th warlock died. My theory with that is, the 5th one was against getting Puppycat in some way and retaliated by fighting them off of Moully and then the others retaliated by killing them in some way. And the tears in this episode didn’t give life to the corpse, but grew new life over top of it, the tears can’t bring the dead back. The ship gets put back together and we see Puppycat being pretty selfish again[I wish I could say he was bringing it online to take care of the threat, but-it just doesn't seem like it at first. Sure the modivation might have changed durring reconstuction, but that's about as far i think it goes], bringing the ship online while Bee gets scooped trying to help Moully. He indirectly helped, but only after he got what he wanted. Cooking Prince, an outsider, brings up how everything going on on the island is Weird and Cass celebrates someone acknowledging it. Once again, bringing back the ‘ignorance is bliss until it’s not’ thing going on around here. Cardamon does more childish things this episode, making a wish and crying in his mother’s arms. He got to finally let go of his responsibilities and let it out until he passed out, and now he gets to sleep again. Moully and Bee are out of commission and the Wizard’s+Cooking Prince stay one the island/ship to be with Bee even though they are mostly confused about EVERYTHING going on rn. Bee has multiple Bees now while she’s out, and so, they go looking for Bee’s dad. I have a feeling he has at least some white hairs by now.

••••

I remember watching this season for the first time. I remember I definitely cried at multiple points, but I can’t exactly remember what points now. I didn’t cry this time, I was too busy taking everything in and trying to put what little pieces I could find together. The first season was to get us used to this world and get comfortable for a chill ride, but then it smacks you in the face with something much bigger at the very end. This season was to make you pay more attention and to question your surroundings. It was also about the first steps to taking charge of your life. If Bee didn’t do all the responsible things she did this season, the warlocks would have probably gotten Puppycat while the island went to shambles. Actions have consequences and that’s what this was about. I believe next season is why ‘Lazy in Space’ was the title. The characters are going to be in space, looking for Bee’s dad, and will acknowledge all the weird things going on while developing, excuse the pun, in out of this world ways. 

I can’t wait for season 3.

[yourubersawcrit]

For the Borderlands ask thing 1, 11, 30, 38, 58

How did you get into Borderlands?

Well, it all started because of me being bored! I was searching for different games to play and Borderlands got my interest. Also my partner, who previously played the series recommended it to me —while telling me it was a pretty hard game—.

So I got the strength to play B2 in the middle of June. I have a screenshot with the exact date too, it's been almost 7 months. Woah!

Favorite gun brand?

To put in clear, Borderlands is my first FPS game, so I was kind of a dum dum —I still am—. I also play with a controller to avoid more pain in my hands or fingers if I used the keyboard.

Overall, all the brands are amazing at their niches! Even if I won't be able to use them all based on the bonuses my mains can obtain I always appreciate the variety-

It's Hyperion. When I started my accuracy sucked ass so hard my only salvation were some Hyperion pistols I found. But a more crazy reason is...

Wait, you thought I was going to say “Jack”?! Of course not! It's actually their appearance. In specific, those triangle accuracy increasing shapes that open up when you zoom in! They look like ears, or wings! I love them so much you have no idea.

Favorite quote from your favorite character?

I can't believe you're making me choose a favorite character here, I love them all! Although, my memory is not the best so I can't remember a lot of the dialogue, that's unfortunate.

I'll sprinkle a little bit of Neo's lore here. A quote that ended up as some sort of inside joke between a friend of mine and, well me, was one Jack's.

“Funny thing. You want to destroy a man, you don't need to kill him. Just kill what he loves.”

I was trying to make my friend join the club and get interested in the game so I made him a summary of the story, as far I know of course. So when I started telling her about Angel's death we ended up —me first— laughing and kinda crying —that was me— about the irony and foreshadowing of that quote.

Since that day we started using it ironically, we're both writers/artists so...

A character you wish you could play as?

Oh a tricky one! I never thought about this before in a great scale. I'd love to play as Fiona or Sasha, also Ava, poor girl needs some appreciation. Maybe as Angel too, I miss my (baby)girl so so much.

Do you usually play on your own or with friends?

I play solo. I can’t handle playing with others ‘cause I hate being a burden and a trouble for the team, I realized this in other online games I played — except Genshin, I use to help newbies there!—.

Also my shitty internet connection wouldn't allow me to, heheh.

Maybe that's why I main characters that have companions of some sorts. OOOH.

[mhaynoot]

ch182

oh cheongryeo my little psychopath you really are a psycho

he's so red flag red flag im so in love alslkd i didnt expect a whole ass kidnapping scene but like damn thats good pay off considering the sprinkling of foreshadowing, building tension and bait with the fake de-escalating "im sorry" part

listen i like my ships as messy as possible. the more they bring out the worst in each other to the point it loops back into actually making them better is so Peak Ship Dynamic

warning: my opinions and some personal critiques on dod here

i think im gonna take a break on reading this though and just wait for manhwa updates instead because the novel is very ... slow? or maybe i should say its a bit too light hearted for me i dunno

i think it would have been a little more interesting if the other members of testar were also part of some other system or if there was just a lot more drama in genera. i dont know but considering what i know of irl kpop and the really messy fights that happened, the internal and interpersonal character conflicts here are just the slightest bit too tame for me personally and, while that isn't necessarily bad thing, its just not to my drama loving taste. also the external conflicts aren't all that spicy either to act as a counterbalance.

well tbh, i was already very worried when i saw the survival show format and the first debut or die mission because thats a very short term conflict. and the back to back missions, format and tension of the survival show is incredibly good for creating escalating high stakes and, combined with the death penalty, it has a natural development for consistently high tension and lots of potential drama and conflicts. and the novel hit those points very well. and while i think they definitely could have potentially made this arc a little longer and explore different aspects, it does end as a satisfactory first arc. but now there's the rest of the 600 chapter story which will have to match that level of tension. and so far i dont think it really has? at least until cheongryeo LMAO which is why i love him so much!! he makes things interesting and the novel isnt afriad to make him villainous and start shit up and do actual things that really fucks up moondae and has like some future consequences like oh no whats gonna happen to their relationship, whatll they do in the future when they meet, whats happening to the other members and their relo with this sunbae who they admired

i just feel the novel is really fluffy and light hearted for a death scenario concept. and even if it didn't want external conflicts to be too heavy, a way to keep the stakes might have been to shift focus onto interpersonal conflicts instead. like i really thought they'd continue to do that when the keun seijin and bae seijin arc happened. and then the chungwon arc too! but it feels like its been twenty small online conflicts in a row between them. i just want stuff with like actual group breaking, and potentially friendship destroying conflicts that they have to work through.

yes the testar members are wholesome and nice and they love moondae and...? that's about it right now for the last some chapters now. they dont have arguments, they dont even really properly talk to each other. i know moondae treats it like coworkers and professionalism but maybe bring up more of the other members perspectives. like i know we're in moondae's pov but like considering the consistent pov shifts, it wouldn't be too bad to at least make it so that we can flesh out the other members and their relationships with each other too?

but like what do i know?

maybe i should've seen moondae's easy rise to platnium and quick skill up as an indicator that this novel isn't really focused on drama and breaking the kneecaps of its mc like what i prefer. i dunno i just thought that was a bait or smth and things escalate hard later or smth HAHAH yeah i guess when i saw the death failure, i jumped to conclusions and thought this novel would be a really gritty one that might touch on and explore the messed up behind the scenes of kpop

[solar-pxwered]

If you know me at all, you know I'm cynical of real life romance but I'm a SUCKER for fictional romances...especially slow burns and friends to lovers or enemies to lovers.

That being said, it was only a matter of time before I started having shippy feels while watching the great adventure that is One Piece.

That brings me to my current top ship (which I doubt will ever NOT be top ship): Sanji and Nami.

I know, I know, Oda has stated many times that this isn't a story about romance and that this is about friendship and adventure and family. But, hear me out...why do those two things need to be separated? The answer is...they don't. The perfect example of this is the TV show, Friends. Romances bloom and die and finalize over the entirety of this show, and the friendships, although tested, do not fail and the family dynamic remains all the way through.

Many people tell me that the superior ship for Nami is with Luffy but I can't help but get the Joey and Rachel vibes when I think of it. They WORK, sure, and it's even really cute and funny...but they just don't...have the momentum to push past that friendship vibe into something else (I'm only in the Skypiea Arc so maybe my thoughts will adapt on this). Sanji and Nami give me Chandler snd Monica vibes (she's strict, he's a known womanizer, she doubts his genuine affection, but he IS capable of faithfulness, it's a slow and satisfying burn). Long thought short: Romance and friendship can and should go hand in hand without interrupting the plot of a story or drastically changing the dynamics of a group.

One Piece EXCELLS at this, in my opinion, with Sanji and Nami.

My observations supporting them are as follows:

1. Started out as comedy, but is slowly and steadily progressing to just plain endearing. I find myself less and less amused and much more happy about their interactions.

2. Sanji IS a gentleman in spite of his tendency towards being an irrepressible horn dog. More often than not, that chivalry is directed towards Nami (and every woman) but extends to his entire circle of people. He DOES have that Chandler Bing type potential to be domestic and loyal, he just needs someone to take him seriously. He's not simply trying to impress the ladies, he TRULY means to protect them and treat them well and it shows because he can and does back up his protectiveness.

3. Nami, for all her money lust, does genuinely care for her crewmates, complaining over and over about how much of a failure everything was since they got no treasure or money for their deeds. However, she ALWAYS chooses her crew in the end. Nami isn't just bossy or gold digging!

4. The. Honorifics. Used. In. The. Original. Japanese.

I'm gonna expand on this point specifically because when I noticed this, it actually changed me from a casual "aw, cute" shipper to a "Okay, this HAS to be endgame" shipper.

Honorifics in Japanese are very deliberate and each one means something very specific. The way these honorifics are used could be (and I hope, are) little sprinkles of foreshadowing because Sensei Oda loves to do that.

Chan - an honorific used in a cutesy, casual, playful way more often than not. It's often attached to a name of someone younger, someone you consider cute or endearing.

Kun - an honorific similar to chan but more commonly used for males. But when used by a female to a male, it can and often does signify a strong emotional attachment and familiarity.

San- an honorific that is still casual, but denotes respect and equality.

Here is how I noticed these being used by Sanji and Nami.

Chan: This is the most commonly used by Sanji. EVERY girl he meets is "Name-chan" squealed and gushed in all manner of wackiness. He genuinely does mean it when he says every girl is cute and endearing.

San: Nami-san. It's ALWAYS Nami-san. As of right now in my watch through, I have not heard Sanji call any other woman by this term (if he did, then please correct me). But even so, this basically means "Nami, who I respect and hold in higher regard than anyone around us including myself". He does mix this up and make it cutesy by using Nami-SWAN sometimes when he's less serious, but he RARELY ever says her name without adding the honorific of respect.

Kun- As far as I remember again, Nami exclusively uses this honorific with Sanji. At first it started as her way of using him for whatever she needed, her over dramatic way of dragging it out or saying it sweetly always got him running to do what she asked (he always does anyway, but whatever). But now, the addition is constant. "Sanji-kun" is her go to, almost always now, and it no longer holds that fake sweetness, it's just...natural to her.

I have heard told that very recently in the newest episodes Sanji has called Nami "MY Nami-San" which apparently he has never said before so that's cool but I haven't got there so I can't read into it too much yet.

Theese are details dub only watchers might miss!

There's a LOT more to unpack about them and why them getting together WOULD work and not disrupt the dynamic one bit. However...my hope is that thing continue like they are, small details that grow and change with them so you hardly even notice until you do, and then at the VERY end either they're confirmed or a very solid promise of confirmation is given. Slow burns are always the best.

Anyway....they're cute, I ship it hard, let my Strawhat babies be a family no matter that looks like ❤️

(This "little" observation got way longer than I intended...)