#Need to make a post for this on its own actually

[starset21]

Tagged and Dragged

Pairing: Isack Hadjar x reader

Vibe: Meme chaos → playful banter → lowkey flirting

Standard disclaimer: I do not consent to the posting, translating, or publishing of my work to any 3rd party site, the only place it may found is on tumblr or A03 under the same name. This is all fake. It does not reflect real people, real events or their actual actions or relationships. May contain google translated languages.

You didn’t mean to tag Isack Hadjar in the meme.

You were just scrolling, sleep-deprived and dangerously confident, deep into a late-night motorsport meme spiral. It was supposed to be a throwaway post for your mutuals to laugh at:

“Bro’s hair looks like he argued with a leaf blower and lost 💀💀💀” (Attached: a wild screencap of Isack post-helmet, mid-interview, curls in disarray.)

It was meant to be private. Funny. Anonymous. What it was not meant to be was tagged directly to @ isackhadjar.

But it was. And the internet, cruel and fast, noticed.

Your heart sinks. Your eyes widen. You click the tweet in panic—yep, that blue tag is real. Verified. Active. Alive.

And worse?

He saw it.

Because within three minutes, you get a DM notification:

@ isackhadjar:

Brutal. At least follow me if you’re gonna roast me. 👀

You do what any reasonable person would do. You scream into your pillow.

Then you type back:

@ Y/Nofftrack:

OH MY GOD I THOUGHT YOU WERE A FAN ACCOUNT I’M SO SORRY

Unless… you are a fan of leaf blowers In which case the post was… support?? innovation?? themed content??? okay I’ll delete myself now

He replies faster than expected:

@ isackhadjar:

Nah don’t. That was kinda funny. I respect the commitment. Helmet hair is undefeated. Happens to the best of us. Especially me. But I will be starting a personal war with leaf blowers now. Just FYI.

You blink at your phone. Is he... actually cool about this?

@ Y/Nofftrack:

Honestly? Your curls bounced back by the next frame. Resilience like that deserves a sponsor Dyson better start calling

@ isackhadjar:

Dyson collab where I just stand in front of a wind tunnel with sad music playing Caption: “He trusted the airflow.” 😔

You laugh. This is ridiculous. And somehow... adorable.

@ Y/Nofftrack:

I could make a redemption meme But I feel like I deserve compensation Like a paddock pass. Or pad thai. Or both. You know. For emotional damages.

His reply comes in three parts:

@ isackhadjar:

Deal. Paddock pass, pad thai, and a dramatic hair flip next time I podium. But only if you retire the leaf blower slander And start tagging me in hot pics instead My PR team is starving

You pause. Blink again. That’s flirting. Right?

@ Y/Nofftrack:

“Hot pics” You’re acting like I didn’t just post a cursed screenshot of you mid-blink Be serious I don’t even have Photoshop. I have Canva and chaos…but if you’re volunteering your angles Say less.

@ isackhadjar:

Canva and chaos is honestly my brand We’d be unstoppable

Then:

Also— Are you the type to soft launch me before we’ve even met? Because you give off “cryptic Instagram caption” energy

You’re smiling. Like, actually smiling. It’s 1:37 a.m. and you’re blushing over DMs from a guy who drives 300 km/h for a living and just admitted his hair has its own agenda.

@ Y/Nofftrack:

Look. If you keep sending messages like this, I am going to call you “someone’s son” and post blurry photos with no context. This is your warning.

@ isackhadjar:

Do it. Soft launch me. Just use a good filter Or the worst one Make the curls look like they achieved sentience

The DMs don’t stop.

What begins as memes turns into reactions to each other’s stories. Inside jokes. Middle-of-the-night messages. He teases your sense of humor. You roast his outfits. He sends you a photo of his post-race hair captioned “Today they won.”

And when you casually post a story from the grandstands at Spa, not even tagging him, he messages you in all caps:

@isackhadjar:

YOU’RE HERE?? I DIDN’T EVEN GET MY REDEMPTION MEME HUG THIS IS A SCANDAL I need at least one hug For morale. For the curls. For justice Maybe two

You grin down at your phone like it’s harboring a secret. Your fingers hover over the keyboard before you type:

@ Y/Nofftrack:

One hug Two if your hair behaves Three if you make podium

You can’t believe you’re doing this. Not the going-to-the-race part—you’ve done that before. But this? Walking through the paddock with a digital pass in your email, a Red Bull guest lanyard around your neck, and the knowledge that Isack Hadjar is waiting to meet you? Yeah. That’s new. Your stomach’s a little too aware of it.

He’d messaged you the night before:

If I don’t see you tomorrow, I’ll assume you ran away from your own meme legacy. Or got lost in merch. I respect both tbh.

Now, you're here. And you're nervous. You scroll your messages, cheeks warm. He sent one 10 minutes ago:

I’m done with media. You around?

You reply:

Yep. Hanging near the sim tent. Not hiding. Definitely not hiding. (okay maybe like 40% hiding)

Your phone buzzes almost instantly.

On my way. Don’t move. Or flinch. I’m hugging you. This has been pending for weeks.

You barely have time to process it before you hear your name.

"Hey!"

You turn—and there he is.

Isack, in his Red Bull team tee and race suit halfway down his waist, arms loose at his sides, curls doing their usual defiant thing. He’s smiling, and it’s so warm, so casual, like this is normal. Like you’re not about to explode from sheer nervous tension.

“Hi,” you say, which is… fine. Not your best work.

He laughs. “Hi? After all that? You meme-bullied me for weeks and you showed up with hi?”

You open your mouth to reply—something witty, something cool—but instead you say, “You look taller in person.”

His smile turns into a smirk. “That’s what the boots are for.”

He steps forward, hesitating for a beat before opening his arms. “C’mon. I’m collecting my race-weekend hug. Don’t make me fight you.” 

Your heart leaps. But you step into it.

The hug is fast at first—quick, friendly—but then he doesn’t let go. Not right away. His arms tighten just slightly. It’s warm. And kind of perfect. You try not to overthink it, but you can feel your heart going wild. When you pull back, you’re smiling like an idiot.

“So,” you say, “Was the hug everything you dreamed?”

Isack grins. “I don’t want to be dramatic but… it might’ve powered the car this weekend.”

You roll your eyes. “You’re impossible.”

He shrugs. “You knew what this was.”

There’s a pause.

He looks at you for a second longer than necessary, then lifts a hand toward your face. “Wait—can I?”

You freeze. “Can you…?”

He leans in, gently ruffling your hair like he’s mimicking your cursed meme. “Balance has been restored,” he says, voice soft. “Now we’re even.”

You laugh, a little breathless. “So dramatic.”

He drops his hand but doesn’t step away. His fingers linger at your arm for a beat, just brushing.

Then he says, more seriously, “I’m really glad you came.”

You meet his gaze. “Yeah. Me too.”

And just as you think the moment’s about to end—he dips forward quickly, presses a soft kiss to your cheek, and pulls back like it’s no big deal.

Like it didn’t just short-circuit your brain.

He smirks, already stepping away. “That was for good luck,” he says. “And maybe because I wanted to.”

Before you can answer, he glances over his shoulder with a wink. “Stay close. I might need another hug after quali.”

You stand there, flustered and grinning like a complete fool.

And yeah… you’re absolutely soft launching him now.

[npdkondraki]

hi. kondraki scpverse is a trans woman. cope and seethe and read my essay about her below the cut. (it's really fucking long) (please god i put so much fucking work into this read it im begging you)

ok for starters for people who dont know what or who the hell im talking about right now (doubtful) (only adding this for the unitiated & newbies): this essay is about my awesome wife DR [REDACTED] HENRICH KONDRAKI(1) from pseudo-niche internet horror-fiction site THE SCP FOUNDATION(2/3). if you can't tell by our url i am Bonkers Crazy Insane about her and have been sporadically obsessed with her for several years. she sucks bad. anyways this post is about why i think she's a trans woman instead of being a "cishetallo man" like canon claims she is. you may be wondering; "but sawyer how is canon wrong about this if its canon" and to that i say. I know better than canon does dont worry about it. ok with that out of the way lets get into the schmeat of this thang

FIRST OFF. kondraki's entire view on masculinity is inherently tied to violence. she believes that if she isnt violent, cruel, and hiding her emotions constantly, then she isn't a 'real man'. her entire worldview, including her view of her own gender, is perceived through the lens of men, including herself, needing to be 'masculine', but she defines this masculinity through her own warped idea of what masculinity 'really is'. because she perceives men, and by extension masculinity itself, as violence, then she herself is violent. everything down to the way she speaks is designed to make her appear cruel, vindictive, and, most importantly, violent. she goes as far as claiming her favourite memory of working for the foundation is when she chased a man down and, quote, "[shot] his fucking face off"(4). however, despite all her tough-talk about being "badass"(5/6), she actually appears to be incredibly regretful about her actions(7), unlike her words imply.

she creates a cycle of retraumatizing herself over and over by hating everything being a man stands for, but refusing to acknowledge it. she leans into the idea that she is violent and cruel, creating a self-made cycle of self-hatred. this retraumatization makes her more violent; it causes her to lash out more, to be more vindictive, to be more outwardly cruel to people, to be more "man-like" in her eyes. she places herself into a self-made twister of hating herself enough that it rubs off on everyone else, and then positively claims its "[her] design"(8) rather than accepting how depressing it makes her life. she uses her own cruel perception of masculinity as a way to shield herself from the idea that she could ever, willingly, be a woman, because she's too violent and cruel and she'll never be a real woman, not in the same way people like rights & iris are. she fully, completely, and genuinely, believes that if she is able to "out-man" every man surrounding her then nobody is able to question what she thinks of herself.

theres an additional layer to how she views masculinity, in the sense that it makes her also view femininity as inherently docile, something that she lives by even when she is acting as a woman. in doing so she continues to perpetuate her idea that she must be violent to be masculine, because she views women (or, more specifically, the concept of being a woman) as fragile, weak, perceptible to being hurt, and she refuses to be any of these things. in refusing to view herself as a woman she, in her mind, refuses to view herself as emotional, hysterical, and, perhaps worst of all in her mind, just a woman. it's an incredibly unfortunate mix of how she was raised and the culture at her work; she is punished for being feminine (emotional, caring, nurturing, etc) and rewarded for being masculine (violent, cruel, selfish, etc) because that's just how people are in her line of work(9).

she views the entire experience and idea of being a woman as a joke. she's allowed to think about it, as a joke. she's allowed to be feminine, as a joke. she's allowed to be a girl, as a joke. she's allowed to be a pretty princess(10), as a joke. the very few brief moments where she allows herself to act on her impulses and suggest, even a bit, that she would like to be a woman is played for a joke(11/12/13/14/15). she speaks of being a woman as though it is a mystical thing, something she can only hope to achieve, less of a real option and more of a fantasy. she is acceptive of trans people(16), going so far as to say it seems that "it’s quite remarkable how productivity and morale improves once they come out and settle into living as their correct gender. [she imagines] it’s a huge relief, and it shows in everything they do." it's just that she truly doesn't view herself as being worthy of that. her entire life has been spent convincing herself that she isn't worth anything, let alone joy or comfort. she doesn't think she deserves to be allowed to transition. she believes that dr. kondraki needs to die, needs to be shot, needs to get it over with and kill herself already, and doesn't realize that the distance she puts between "[redacted] henrich kondraki" and "dr. kondraki" is a mask, a shell she can hide behind; it's a way for her to excuse any mention of her being a woman. if dr. kondraki can't be a woman, then [redacted] henrich kondraki can't be a woman either. it's nothing but a fantasy to her, something she can joke about and then discard along with the rest of her fantasies of being a good person, of being someone who deserves to be happy.

you can even bring her entire theming of butterflies into her own repression; the butterflies act as a camoflauge in the same way her mask of masculinity does. the only time she ever is truly gentle or nurturing or caring, all tasks she has deemed feminine, is with her butterflies. butterflies are specifically used in metaphors for transition, quite often appearing in trans artwork as a way to represent the death of who you once were and who you are now. the fact the butterflies also possess camoflauging abilities, which they tend to specifically use to make themselves (and kondraki) invisible, is in and of itself a metaphor for being in the closet, or, in kondraki's case, being repressed and refusing to acknowledge her transness. her transness is treated as though it's invisible, something she only looks at when it's disturbed, not unlike the way you can only see the butterflies by disturbing them. she refuses to acknowledge it, hides behind her camoflauge as a defense mechanism. coming to terms with her transness would make her have to disolve and be reborn, and she doesn't believe she deserves that. she doesn't believe she deserves to live free of the guilt, of everything she's done, so instead she stays camoflauged, stays in her bubble of masculinity where she feels her self-imposed shame and guilt.

all in all; kondraki is extremely repressed and refuses to accept that she's a woman, despite her progressive views, because she believes it would mean she is weak and fragile. she's terrified of her femininity, and uses violence and humor to deny every feminine part of herself.

DISCLAIMER. my choice to use specifically she/her for kondraki in this essay was a purposeful and deliberate choice and if you choose to use he/him after i have literally solely referred to her with she/her in this entire post i hate you personally. in other words

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I genuinely felt that Book 7 had a strong start. I didn’t know it could go down hill so quickly once the dreams started dragging out. Its pacing issues really destroyed any hype it established during the earlier parts. I think Book 7 was the strongest up until Silver confronted his inner turmoil. Idia’s dreams were also reasonable as well. Hopefully Malleus and Lilia get more screen time to compensate for their absence during the middle bulk of book 7.

[Referencing this post!]

IT’S SUCH A SHAME 😭 The first third of book 7 (parts 1/the start to 100ish/the end of Lilia’s dream) was SO good… and then as soon as hit the dreamventure portion, we crashed and burned OTL

Sometimes I’m generous enough to extend the part of book 7 I thought was good from parts 1-100 to parts 1-115 (the end of Idia’s flashback explaining how he had been woken up). I basically only think Idia’s dream was “meh, acceptable enough” because when experiencing it for the first time, I thought Idia’s dream was the ONLY one we were seeing in this capacity. I believed that Idia’s dream was getting this “special” treatment since we had also witnessed Ortho “waking” in a unique way. Both of them are the main ���villains” from the previous book, so I thought this was book 7’s way of bringing them back to take down Malleus. It… technically was that, but I wasn’t expecting Idia to announce his “recruit everyone!!!1!” plan 2 parts later 💀 I expected, now that we had reunited with both Shroud brothers, there would only be like maybe 2-3 updates left for book 7 to account for strategizing, finding a way to truly wake up in the real world, and then kicking Malleus’s tail. BOY, WAS I WRONG ON THAT FRONT 🫩 (<- deeply traumatized, this is my OB origin story/j)

The pacing problems were but one of the many factors bogging book 7 down; I also dislike the inconsistent tone between dreams, lack of stakes/urgency, lack of learning anything new and meaningful, over-explanations, focus on fanservice and contrivances, lack of focus on relevant characters, frequent in-your-face declarations of character development, and the very obvious patterns set for every dream (meaning they were mostly predictable). It sucks specially for the OB boys because their segments are the longest, involve the “I have/will become a better person”/“my past self was pathetic” speeches, and have the most contrived scenes I have ever witnessed (such as everyone in their dorm having to use their UM at least once, even if it makes little sense to). And because everything drags on for SO long, they try to make the build-up super emotional to compensate. But it gets to the point where it feels insincere or unearned by the time we finally get to the “shouting as they wake up” part because the dreams are held together with painter’s tape… 🙂‍↕️

I’m only left feeling like I’m a rag doll that was tossed onto a roller coaster and jerked everywhere. It’s fun and makes my emotions run high in the moment, sure. But once I’m off that ride (I’ve consumed the content) and sat with the experience for a while, I reflect on it and realize I did not actually enjoy it and the roller coaster was shaky (from meh writing + plot holes) and about to collapse the entire time I was on it.

Malleus really got shafted hard in his own book too??? Like this man hardly shows up 😭 and Lilia is gone for 2/3 of a book where he should be relevant?? They honestly NEED a book 8 so they both have a Mouse Mandated excuse to come back and actually do something more. Malleus especially needs that because book 7 also did us the disservice of TWO time skips after his OB (one X days, another X weeks) and completely glosses over any complicated feelings or struggles he may face in the aftermath. We immediately jump to him when Malleus is at a point where he claims he understands what he did was wrong???? When that feels inconsistent with how he has previously struggled to understand these things? Some OB boys recognized the error of their ways automatically, but I find it a little hard to believe that Malleus (who failed to learn anything about humans in the 2-3 years he has spent at NRC in his Dorm Uniform vignettes) suddenly “gets it”. It feels like an easy cop-out for Twst to write themselves out of the hole they dug with Malleus’s character and now it’s on book 8 to follow up on that and patch up all the new holes 7’s writing creates.

[allpiesforourown]

Okay, I have some comments (agreement) on three of your posts, so I'll just put them in one ask, lol.

First of all, you are SO RIGHT about toxic yuri. Oh my God. I'm a bi woman and I'm usually more attracted to mlm works like danmei, and a lot of yuri just doesn't do it for me, so I'm just constantly wondering if I've got, like, internalized misogyny? What's the deal here? But then there's the occasional yuri like Madoka and I go absolutely fucking feral and make it my whole personality for months. Like, yes, give me all of the toxic yuri, all of the doomed yuri, all of the girls and women being obsessive and flawed. That's what I like about danmei, really, the obsession and the character flaws and the angsty yearning. But women are never allowed to go crazy or even be a little flawed like that, not even in fiction. Often, it's because creators and audiences alike judge female characters harsher (a reflection of real life, obviously) and so they have to make the female characters "perfect" or they won't be liked. But their being perfect is exactly what I dislike, because it's not realistic, and it's not interesting! So, yeah, absolutely, that's why toxic yuri is so much more appealing, especially compared to a lot of others.

Second of all, you're also so right about Yue Qingyuan. When I first started SVSSS, I thought, "Oh, so he kinda sucks," 'cause he clearly knew about Binghe's abuse but only gave mild advice to SQQ to maybe treat him a little less harshly. But then, he kinda does seem like a really good guy later, and especially with the realization of his tragic background, it's easy to forgive him. But so often the fandom reduces him to lovable idiot who's never done anything wrong and like. He was totally fine with Shen Jiu abusing a child. It's not like he was unaware of it, and while he's not malicious, he was willing to turn a blind eye to it. We obviously know the reason why later, but even so. I do love him, though, but I feel like sometimes the fandom whitewashes some of the characters too much. Like, Shen Jiu had a tragic backstory, but that only explains his actions, it doesn't excuse them. Of course you can love him anyway, but I think if you're whitewashing his character into something he's not, then you don't really love the character, or else you'd love him the way he actually is. And Shen Jiu's abuse of Binghe is very important to, like, everything, because the cycle of abuse is such a central theme. Shen Jiu and his own victim, Bingge, demonstrate how abuse can turn victims into abusers and continue the cycle. Shizun and Binghe (Bingmei) demonstrate how the cycle can be stopped.

Finally, that post you reblogged about social media, and your tags about how you open TikTok, block 50 people, and then leave is sooo true. The danmei fandom, especially artists, are, at least to my knowledge, a lot more active on Twitter than Tumblr, so I go on Twitter to check when I'm bored, and. I open it, I block 50 people while getting mad just the way they want me to, and then I close it. Then I open it again later! I guess I'm a glutton for punishment because seriously. I need to stop.

Anyway, thanks! Keep on fighting the good fight (shizunfucking)!

1. YEAH. Like so many yuri stories are just "they're cutely blushing before mustering up the courage to hold hands" and its just boring. Are they allowed to show any emotion other than uwu puppy love I'm a grown ass woman

2. Yue Qingyuan's cycle of abuse being ignored is so sad like yes he started out as a slave. But he is now the leader of one of the most powerful sects in the cultivation world, and he uses his authority to enable and protect abusers. Why erase such a big part of his story

3. TWITTER IS DEADDD its all blue checkmark engagement baiting with racism and even within the danmei community the people on Twitter will jump anyone who has an opinion they don't like it's so evil there

[ganondoodle]

okay now, im a little pissed off- i wont be reblogging the post bc its and old shitpost and i dont want to attract more notes on it but

i am so fucking, and i mean FUCKING, tired of all the shit ass excuses some people try to make to defend ganondorf being a nothing burger character

this dumb ass comment really goes all in too, and here i painfully see how much damage skyward sword has done to him bc people cant fuking think i guess "as of skysw he doesnt have an true motivation of his own- hes evil just bc he is there nothing else to it" shut the fuck up man oh my god, you dont think thats a problem? you just accept that? no no OOT also already showed hes nothing but evil tm uwu he doesnt have a reason - AND THATS A PROBLEM YOU ABSOLUTE BUFFOON

if you think that giving ganondorf a miniscule amount of ANY sort of sensical reason to do what he does, a backstory, fucking anything 'changes him into a different character'- HOW in the FUCK do you not see the problem here

and my favorite (refernceing a different character) "If hes evil, like ganondorf, which means an absolute evil, then his backstory wouldn't matter a lick" HELLO??? HELL FUCKING O???? "absolute evil" do you know how you sound like??? also EVERYTHING MATTERS oh my god, but no no of course it wouldnt matter and make no difference if you knew more about a character, no, actually, knowing less of a character is better even! why even write anything tbh? you just give them a label of good or evil and then you dont need anythign else heehoo i cannot believe this shit is now hanging on one of my posts, im struggeling to even dismantle it bc its just so goddamn stupid what do you mean it woudnt matter???????? if i knew ganondorf had a personality (especially totk bc its the worst case), if i knew he had loved ones once upon a time, he laughed and was allowed to feel like a person, whatever made him go down a bad path to end up making you defeat him would mAKE IT ALL HAVE MORE OF AN IMPACT (this is assuming that whatever path it is leads him to oppose you but also .. it doesnt have to mean hes evil or done all bad deeds, guess what, you the player could also be playing the real "villain", wouldnt that be a change of pace .. or it wouldnt, depending on how you look at it (oh NO shift of perspective???) it already is, even if i personally prefer it ALL being a spectrum and not just a label of good and bad and just rolling with this badly definable bunch of words)

do you know why i didnt give a flying fuck about the final battle in totk?? bc its all fucking NOTHING, ganondorf is a goal post with a face that got "BAD GUY" written on it in big red letters stapled on it and nothign more, you cant care about nothing and the point of any story at all is to fucking CARE

honestly a reason why i hate both "redeemable" and the good and evil descriptor is that its so ... limiting, redeemable, what does that even mean really?? it just sounds like you are applying some weirdo christian sins to make up for with good deeds shit onto characters that are, or should be, meant to make you feel something and be a pinnacle of jesus instead, like a checkbox, a scoreboard, and now its being mainly used as a negative word to dismiss legitimate criticism of boring or shitty writing bc giving any character any depth at all now automatically means you want to redeem them and thus absolve them of their sins or some shit, make them uwu perfect little good guys which is not the point (even if there are people like that, sicne guess what, theres lots of different ideas of things all around, inlcuding this hellhole- and yes there are shitty ways to give a character depth! the problem then isnt the motivation to give them depth, its the WRITING of it)

the whole good and evil thing also is just so darn limiting, what does evil even mean, who defines it matters alot, what does good mean, the definition is also really really bendable- link kills more living things than ganondorf ever has yet he isnt evil (bc hes on the side of hyrule, the designated good gouys uwu which means anythign they do is okay), the royal family having a torture dungeon and persecuting the shiekah into submission doesnt make them evil uwu but the gerudo have to suffer for the "crime" of having birthed ganondorf at some point for all eternity i guess

(as well as the very very obviously stupid turns and things ganondorf does and doesnt do literally just bc they needed him to do soemthign you could call bad even if it makes no sense at all, why would he attack his own fucking people out of nowhere, why destroy everything, literally what for, why give himself up if he wants to rule its jsut as stupidly nonsensical as the dumb magic pebbles that just gives random powers out just to force the outcome they wanted to happen)

redeemable, saveable, whatever, giving a character depth doesnt have to mean you want them to join the good tm guys either and im so fucking tired of this way of thinking, EVEN considering that hey ... it would be cool actually to have a ganondorf as the main guy, but we all should know that would only happen if he is a servant of hyrule, which i would consider to be more out of character than ... GIVIING HIM ANY SORT OF DEPTH??? to sympthaize, be conflicted or see the guy you need to defeat has a point is like, not a bad thing?? you can make someone be the most sympathetic guy of all time and still make you fight him ??? and i will repeat again, ganondorf being a nothing burger (espeically in totk) hurts EVERYTHING, everything suffers from shitty writing and lack of writing, the thing that link and zelda are almost just as flat istn .. isnt good either?? its also bad but hes got it way worse (and the racism oh bOI)!!! (there is a reason why ww ganondorf is widely seen as the best one and itse literally bc he says ONE or two lines that may make you think omg .. he is person.... he might FEEL OoO- man the bar really is below the ground isnt it)

and they dont even care to try to make him actually be dislikable, he doesnt tease zelda with killing her father or soemthing, he doesnt have any sort of connection to any of them, every line he says (in totk) is like a prepackaged microwave villain line, you could apply it to anyone, even rauru and it wouldnt seem out of place tbh (which is BAD), more depth would have connected him to the story, the world the literal everything which means people care which means a better story i dont know how to explain to you that you should be able to care about characters??????? he gets the stamp of "evil guy" on his head and they expect you to be happy with that, accept any stupid thing they make him do and others say about him without question? do you NOT feel at least a little insulted???

and like, this is still written, this is a piece of fiction, they had to sit down and write all that, or .. well, NOT write it, they decided to do it like this, despite the ocean of potential in front of them, you could do so many itneresting thigns with this world and they jsut dont and then theres people like this that are so entrechned into this boring ass writing they think that its the point, liek the point is its bad hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

"but hes not meant to be a person he jsut ev-" SHUT the hell up, nevermind the whole curse thing is an englsih trnaslation thing and also perhaps not meant to be taken literally, you think that makes it ok? that well there was a demon once (who also doesnt get any sort of depth btw!!! problem shoved one place over but still the same problem!) so that means hes not actually a person but idk a demon puppet or soemthing- doesnt change anything imo, are you not bored? are you not tired? are you happy with not thinking? not being engaged with at all? to see chaarcters to utterly flavorless you fall asleep and choke on them? i am not, i love thinking, im addicted to it even, i think every day even, right now too, they got a convenient excuse to put not even the barest fucking minimum of writing care into a character and you are jsut going with it!! where are your tastebuds buddy??

[polaritydisturbed]

I’ve seen some posts floating around saying things like, “Belinda was always a mom, the Doctor just corrected the timeline,” and I genuinely cannot stress enough how little that addresses the core issues people have with how her story was handled.

First of all, if that was the intention—if the idea was that Belinda was always meant to be a mother and the timeline just needed to be “set right”—they did a poor job of executing it. A twist that major, one that fundamentally alters a character’s identity or arc, requires setup. Foreshadowing. Emotional groundwork. You can’t just spring something that massive on the audience in the last five minutes and expect it to feel meaningful instead of disorienting.

And here’s the thing: Doctor Who has done that kind of plot before—successfully. A great comparison is Amy and Rory. The show literally did the “someone you love was erased from time and the universe needs to be corrected to bring them back” storyline already. And while I’ve got my own qualms with how Amy’s arc was handled overall, that particular beat actually worked.

Why? Because there were signs. The cracks in time. The missing memories. A sense of loss Amy couldn’t place. Little inconsistencies that made the audience lean forward and feel that something was wrong. Not to mention: Rory was introduced before he disappeared. We knew him. We saw his dynamic with Amy. We cared about him. We barely see Poppy in these two episodes, other than "child missing bad" we really have no attachment to her.

Now imagine if we never met Rory. If Amy had been introduced as a fierce, independent woman with no attachments, someone whose refusal to be tied down was a defining trait—and then the show suddenly revealed, in the finale, that actually she was about to get married the whole time to a man we’d never seen, and now she’s a devoted wife. No buildup. No context. Just surprise! emotional transformation. That would feel bizarre, right?

That’s exactly what happened with Belinda.

The final minutes of the finale reframe her not just as someone who once had a child, but as someone whose true self is supposedly defined by that role—and we’re meant to believe that this identity has now been “restored” to her, and we’re told it’s been restored to her as a reward. But it doesn’t feel like a revelation. It feels like a contradiction.

It’s like they wanted to write her as fierce and independent, but didn’t also want to imply that she wanted kids or thought about kids—because society still tends to associate maternal longing or caretaking instincts with weakness, or with not being a “strong” woman. So instead of exploring that complexity, they just didn’t. They wrote her as a fully autonomous character, with no visible yearning or absence, and then stapled a child onto her arc at the end.

And just to be absolutely clear: the problem is not that Belinda is a mother. You can write a fierce, independent, female-presenting character who’s also a parent. Those things are not mutually exclusive. The problem is that the story didn’t earn it.

Writers often avoid giving powerful women maternal traits because they assume femininity and strength can’t coexist—but that’s a separate conversation. The real issue here is that the show never showed us that this part of Belinda was missing. It never laid the groundwork for that emotional restoration to resonate. It didn’t feel like they revealed who she truly was—it felt like they replaced her with someone else.

It’s not that you can’t tell a story where a forgotten child or a missing family is recovered from a broken timeline. That kind of emotional twist can be powerful. But if that’s the story you want to tell, you have to earn it. You have to make the absence felt before you try to fill it. You have to let us sense the missing piece and ache for its return. Without that, it doesn’t feel like a twist—it feels like a contradiction.

And no, Poppy showing up once in The Story & the Engine is not proper setup. If this was truly the intended arc from the beginning, then it needed clues. Give us subtle signs. Let Belinda hesitate when asked simple questions. Let her glance at a photo and seem unsettled. Let her correct someone’s memory and then immediately second-guess herself. Plant a sense of wrongness in her own life that even she can’t quite name.

There’s even a interview with RTD about reshooting the beginning of The Robot Revolution to give Belinda roommates, because he thought no one would buy her owning an entire house by herself.

But if this twist with Poppy was truly planned from the start? Then leave her in that big, echoing house. Let it be part of the unease. Let there be a child’s toy tucked into the back of a drawer she doesn’t remember buying. A room she avoids, too pristine and untouched. A lullaby she hums under her breath without knowing where she learned it. Give us texture. Give us silence that feels too quiet.

Let us feel the shape of what’s missing before you tell us what it was.

That’s how you write a twist that resonates—by trusting your audience to notice the gaps, to feel the ache, and to recognize the truth when it finally appears. Not by pulling a rabbit out of a hat and calling it destiny.

[luxfuxxvii]

things that help me write in case anybody else hasnt found their process and wants a little inspiration:

clean room = clean mind = brain empty = BAD = writers block. have the perfect amount of messy in your room, but an organized writing space. for me, i associate a clean room with a clear mind. empty room, empty mind. if i have a clear mind, im probably thinking thoughts my therapist would be proud of, im also probably thinking about wellness and cleanliness and happy things and spiritual wellness and hmmm maybe i should do yoga. well guess what? writing is messy. writing is having bad thoughts, bad ideas. writing is thinking "how can i hurt my character the most?" or "how can i comfort my character after being hurt?". in order to figure that out you have to let it be chaotic. but EVERYTHING has a spot, okay? for me, i have a pile dedicated to clothes, all tossed into a reusable bag, with a few shirts artfully spilling out onto the floor. but other than that, my floor is relatively clean. you want chaotic, not crowded.

have a spot dedicated to writing. im not talking "this is the only place im allowed to write", im talking a writing shrine. all of my writing stuff is on my nightstand, this way i can write in bed or on the floor, whichever i deem my designated writing space for the day. my notebooks in the same spot. my bluetooth keyboard is also there. i have a cup for pens and highlighters. i have pages ripped out of notebooks filled with tips for revising. passive vs active voice. varying sentence structure. i have an old notebook i used for my creative writing class that i can go to for finding poetic devices. i have a blank sketchpad that ive been using to make little charts or timelines. the books i need for reference are all in my little spot. also thats where my snacks go (offerings to the gods, aka the evil tarantula in my brain making webs of LIES ((bad, bad headcanons)))

have a special writing thing. basically the equivalent of lucky socks or lucky charms or literally whatever, except its for writing. i have a shirt i specifically wear when i plan on writing. its literally just a cream white button up. i dont NEED to wear it in order to write, but on days where i know i can write but am still struggling, putting it on really helps. i struggle to write in special outfits because most of the time, if im wearing a cute outfit, i am performing. well writing isnt a performance. i am a scatterbrained rat. so its usually pajama bottoms and my writing shirt. booya.

water. idfc. idfc. water. water. drink it. chug an entire 20 oz in one go unless you think youll get sick. if youre not gonna get sick, get to chugging. "i always forget" cool me too. adhd sucks man. but i have POTS, so i have to drink 120 oz of water a day. the thing is, i NEVER remember its there. everyones always taking sips at a time and then forgetting they even own a water bottle. solution? drink the entire thing in one go. do it coward. its the only way. if drinking water gives you a stomach ache, i promise you, thats because youre dehydrated. you will get used to it. im sorry it hurts. but the more water you drink, the more it starts to go away. the headaches stop. suddenly you actually start to crave food, and it doesnt even hurt to eat it?????? what???? yeah man. water helps pretty much everything. i might make a separate post to talk about this actually.

find your medium. paper? keyboard? you do both, but for different things? for me, i like to write in notebooks. idk, it just works. i discovered this in my creative writing class. she had us use notebooks and i discovered that writing by hand really gets me in the flow. writing with a keyboard makes me want it to be perfect, and overall, i really struggle to read things on a computer. however, i do like using keyboards because the words get typed faster. problem is, when im using a keyboard on a hard day, my brain cannot keep up with my fingers, and so i stop typing to think of a word, and then im out of the flow. writing it by hand takes longer and gives me ample time to come up with sentences. also the cursor isnt blinking at me menacingly. but also, if ur a paper person, ONLY EVER WRITE IN PEN!!!! ITS LITERALLY A GODSEND!!!!!

some days, you just need to write different things. what i mean by this is there are days when i can absorb information and give instructions, and then there are days when i can follow the instructions. i say "im going to take notes on how to use passive vs active voice", and thats what i wrote for the day. other days, i look back at my notes and i say, "yes im going to put this into practice", and then i DO. writing is writing man. learn as you go. no matter what, youre writing. some days its a notes day. some days its a letter to your best friend. some days its a poem. some days you actually sit down and write the fucking shit you wanted to write (finally). also remember that you dont need to write the same amount of words every time, too. i wrote 18 pages by hand all in one day. the next day? i barely wrote 3. the day after that, i didnt write at all. THAT IS PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE.

find your system. no im not talking about this writing routine im informing you of right now, im talking do you plot or do you have vibes? are you a very weird, confusing, and inconvenient mix of both? lol. me too. you CAN plot. you CAN just have vibes. but which one actually gets you to start writing? figure out which one you are. think on it rq, cuz it leads to the next one.

timelines can suck it. for me, if i figure out a consecutive timeline, my motivation goes out the fucking door. this is because i FUCKING HATE HATE HATE HATE time crunches. EVEN THOUGH IT'S NOT MY TIME CRUNCH????? ITS THE CHARACTERS?????? basically, for the first draft, i cannot have any concept of time in my story, otherwise i will feel trapped, like i HAVE to do it in the way i originally planned, and then I'll never write it. so how i solve this, is i get an idea. just one. one idea, for one scene. i write that idea down as a little summary (and i really mean little, guys) and add a couple notes to give it vague vibes (moonlight shining through branches, water droplets on skin, laughter, etc), and THEN i write that scene down from memory. this is because i primarily write based on vibes, even though in my head i know exactly how this scene is going to serve the plot, and where exactly this bad boy will fit in my plot. but i know i might change my mind later, so i dont write that down. i recommend doing this if you have adhd, because if youre only writing down ideas one right after the other, chances are, you are not elaborating on them enough for your future self to go back and fall in love with the little note you made. we are just too forgetful. so you write down one idea, add little notes on the vibes you want to incorporate in your idea, and then you go and write the scene. thats it. one at a time. if you come up with another idea as you go, write it at the top of the page where the title goes and pray to god it sticks in your brain when you find it again.

i hope this helps a little in a very adhd way? this is my process (its not really process, more like a rulebook). i hope it inspires you guys to find the things that work for you, or at least opens your mind to the more chaotic organization your brain might need. i know i really struggled with the advice that suggested i do things neurotypically???? like no thanks. nuh uh.

[rowanthestrange]

Poppy was always Real theory:

So there’s someone here with a theory that Belinda ALWAYS had a child to go back to. We do primary investigation in this house, so while it sounds like there might be an associated video, I’m not watching it, barely read the post, because if this holds water we should be able to get to it from that concept alone.

Hypothesis: Belinda ALWAYS was supposed to have a child to go back to, and we STARTED in a wonky reality where she didn’t.

Starting with the obvious: If so, that would be poorly signposted. Agree. However would fit with my reasoning as to why the additional pickups were needed: that it was simply that because of the delays, which would end up with future filming being potentially two years later than planned, the actress for Poppy was now going to age out of the role, and they had to hastily wrap up her story instead of following the original plan. And in my opinion it’s notable that they chose to rush add an ending for her with Belinda, where the obvious answer is…she just disappeared. That’s fine. So therefore it was theme relevant enough to go and film a whole thing for it in light of being unable to have the extra episodes to resolve it otherwise. Poppy being with Belinda at the end mattered more to the Themes than just leaving her as a thing that vanished.

With that being said, I think it would make sense to analyse this through the lens of an intention of a two series plot, where the result of an entire second series plot/subplot would have to be crushed into whatever pickup shots you could do to fit in whatever ending space you had available. (Which is why if he did do this, that was obviously going to be stupid and risky — no matter how much he loves a risk — without a greenlight. Though of course I blame the BBC entirely for its decision to remove our funding and so leave us to the Disney wolves in the first place. Personally? If I had to, I think I’d take the risk of audience confusion (and potential allegations of racism) and found a similar enough looking kid to recast. Okay she’s had closeups but certainly it’ll be fuzzy for any casual viewer in a year or so, and anyone catching up later all in one go could probably make the logical leap. But I’m not in TV and I’d trust a more experienced person to their call.

My points are in a non-specific order, just labelling them for ease of discussion/rebuttal.

a) Mundy does end up looking after a child. However, that child is also not her own, which feels more fitting with ‘reality rewritten for Poppy rather than her always being the case. Both Mundy and Poppy have Same Face Syndrome (though Poppy going all the way to her name - also significant as it does mean remembrance.)

b) What would have made the reality wonky? The Doctor mentions there was already a Time Schism (Edit: Fracture) that he’d “closed”. We did note this as weird. We know something glitchy went on.

c) While we get no talk of children, in Robot Revolution, we do have the Weird Schrödinger’s Baby-Cat. 

d) Lux does have a key plot point of a woman whose child has gone missing. Who also in a fake reality shopped the Doctor to the police. Mirroring works.

e) The Well. We have a woman alleging she desperately needs to go home to get back to her child.

f) In the Story And The Engine we get a glimpse of Poppy herself. Perhaps the glitch could also be from the reality where Poppy existed.

g) Wish World and The Reality War give us Poppy there. And the Doctor is suddenly very convinced that Poppy is REAL. We don’t really understand what that meant beyond him wishing really hard.

h) Hypothetically then, the original Reality War final ~15 minutes, would have been them going back to what we think was reality, Belinda maybe thinking something’s missing, maybe we get some Poppy glitches noticed by her or Ruby. We are left with the characters uncertain but the audience more sure that actually we’re still in a rewritten reality: hence the teal etc, this reality is still wrong. But it’s ultimately for a future episode that we dig into the fact that reality wasn’t right even from the beginning.

Is this enough?

I think it’s possible. However, if true, I think you could have done better with the introduction. A sign she’s already feeling like she’s missing something in her life, maybe she interacts with a kid patient in the hospital, maybe she gets a bit babytalky with people and she catches herself and apologises etc.

There are also some counters which aren’t just handwaveable by saying they’re trying to make the reveal not too signposted (which is stupid to do btw). Like we see Belinda’s descendant. Now you could argue that maybe that’s a ‘for’ because it happened last series if you believe the shift came after that, but then we still have the scene of the Doctor genetically compare them in what should presumably be the Poppyless world. Would it be possible she just has a kid later, sure, but why would you include a thing that confirms she has a descendant in a story that’s about how her child disappeared? The natural way to write it would be that he goes to compare and then can’t find Mundy’s information anymore. Which would serve the double feature of ‘is she literally Mundy and has lost her memories’, but also by logical conclusion deletes ANOTHER child from the story.

And I stand by my reasoning paragraphs of why you might change the story because you literally have to due to actor age, but…assuming we all understand how this is supposed to more or less mirror the Doctor’s child in future… I think it would be just as valid to show us the option where she is written out of reality. An ending where Belinda does feel that something’s wrong and missing, but in the end just goes about her life as a doctor nurse. I don’t think she needs to have the opposite ‘good’ ending, it can be a straight mirror. Obviously I can’t truly know cus I haven’t seen his future plans, but I think I’d prioritise ultimate coherence over original intention, even if it leaves with the opposite end. Polar Opposite and Same endings both work meta-thematically.

(Though to note, he clearly does work with the darkness that this ending adds - you needn’t have Belinda’s last words be saying she feels like she’s missing something otherwise. So if this theory is the case, it wasn’t just taking an ending from series ‘3’ and just slotting it in. It knows what it looks like and is willing to work with it.)

I suppose the only difference that this might make would be saying that we’ve been operating in Reality2 all along rather than Reality1, but this change now puts us in Reality1. But…I just don’t think it’s that necessary? Especially if there’s going to be 4th wall breaks and all sorts. I can’t imagine that difference can be too stark story-wise if it hasn’t caused us major problems til now. Unless it /has/ and Ruby now doesn’t exist or something, but honestly, I feel like you could handwave that. Cus as it stands the audience interprets us as being in a new rewritten reality, not reality prime anyway, even if that was the intention, so you’re not getting what you want either way.

I understand the belief you could maybe wrap this up in some reshoots before she gets too old, but I think that was the devil talking. That was the peril of going for subtlety and believing you had time to delicately build up the layers, nope, needed to go in with more coverage from the start cus it turns out you only have a few hours to paint this room, not days. And you could have forseen that because you know the owner of the house is fickle and refused to pay you for your work before. Now the wall’s all patchy. Poorly executed.

I think at the moment, without some more meta behind it (that is an invitation by the way), that I come down as saying that is a Valid interpretation. However it isn’t enough to say that the main interpretation that Poppy is just created wholesale and slotted into a new reality with Belinda is Wrong. As the story currently stands, I think both reads are acceptable.

Schrödinger’s reality.

[hostilemuppet]

We need to see bubbles with Lou Gubrious (from that one post where you mentioned him in the tags) pls

my interpretation of bubbles is that her greatest strength is communication. she is the people person of the three, to the extent she isnt even limited to people; her special power is that she can speak to animals! i personally hc that shes actually omnilingual, not just animals and spanish+japanese. she can speak every single language so she can speak to everyone, no matter what, they can talk it out. throughout the series shes usually the one willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt, whether its her talking down the kaiju from "three girls and a monster" by politely asking it to leave her town alone, or being the only one who doesnt think mike believe is a weirdo for taking to himself. while she is by no means a pushover, and is just as willing (sometimes eager, even!) as her sisters to beat up on anyone who has it coming to them, her role as the sweet one is her biggest weapon. if its an option, shed rather talk it through with the other party instead of using her fists, and if theyre willing to listen they can solve it with no blood being spilled

so i think that when she gets a bit older, and she realises that lou committed his crimes out of desperation, a last resort because he thought hed never be happy, shed be distraught. that is a citizen of townsville, who she has sworn to protect, and he has been failed. his cry for help ignored. sure, hes not an innocent angel, but neither is bubbles, when you think about it. theyve all done bad things when in a tough spot, weve all done bad things. why should he have to be exiled for being sick?

bubbles is no therapist by any means, but she knows how to be someones friend. she cant fix him on her own, he can probably never be fixed, but she can try to make his dark days a little less dark, and help him get out of the rain

[pureshadough]

beast yeast 10 liveblog

Heard there's women in this one!

okayyyyy the beast raid being explicit canon is. innnnnteresting. Wonder if this suggests anything for the previous ones or no

light of passion voice HOLLYBERRY THE SHIELD IS A METAPHOR HOLLYBERRY WATCH OUT FOR THAT TRUCK BEHIDN YOU. SHE HAS HER [NIHILISM] IN SHE CANT HEAR US

Alright.

DIED 2020 BORN 2025 WELCOME BACK COOKIES WARS

YOU.

her korean voice is gorgeous but she's also seemingly voiced by Erica Mendez (white lily & black pearl's VA) in english which is. fucking hilarious

it is embarrassing how excited i am to see her here right now. I missed shadow milk cookie.

whuo in the Fuck is this referring to

THEY FUCKING HATE EACH OTHER!! YES YEEEEEESSSS FUUUUCK YESSSSS

So he just called it obsessive love per personal experience. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

I'M *TELLING YOU* THEY'RE EXES

Girl we have a word for this and its called alcoholism

....oooooooooh that. Wow. Alright.

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME

okay the fact it looks like there's vanillian pilgrims here is Terrifying?

Condensing my thoughts over a few levels down a bit just to talk about sugarfly. She's so mippy. really adore how they've explored the idea of a beast's minion defecting here and sugarfly as the subject being a character arguably representative of stockholm syndrome is such an interesting lens to view it through. Even when acting on the hollyberrians side it never seems like she really knows exactly what she wants or needs and knowing how thats rooted in depression long before she fell to sloth is a heavy hitter too. I really really like her. I think she might even usurp black sapphire as being my favorite minion and im not even done with the chapter yet LOL

a nap like this would fix me i think

sugar having this argument with hb right now and thinking God damn it if I let that clown prove himself right.

....Oh! That's a fucking awesome use of the requirement mechanic actually. Hell yeah.

HOW INCREDIBLY INTERESTING FOR SHADOW MILK TO BRING UP AND BE LOOKING FOR THIS EFFECTIVE APPLE OF EDEN WHEN SHE SHOWED UP EARLIER.

Wow! This is fucking Horrific!!!

Sugar is EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE at what she does. Sinking her teeth STRAIGHT into hollyberry's war trauma and framing every single hardship and loss as being in HER HANDS if she tries to leave her side. Legitimate textbook domestic psychological abuse tactics. Holy shit.

PITAYA MENTION 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

holly thinking of/hallucinating(?) white lily in this context is Fascinating in a way we don't have time to dissect rn but by god will i be thinking about it

i ADORE how talkative hollyberry and passion are!!!! it is genuinely such a fun window into how much her bonds matter to her decision making and state of mind such that it extends to her very own virtue. they surely have to talk with each other more than any of the other ancients do with theirs and it is delightful to read

I love her so fucking much.

i think we have a new winner of Worst Possible Fumble And Ensuing Crashout

yknow oomf kye made comment earlier that this might very well be the most explicit romance in the entire game period and it was Sort of a joke at the time but i think any room for doubt is completely eliminated at this point.

heart genuinely clenched reading this

aauasdksjhcgahgufuffbghfguaghkfbjhfgjfghfbhjbdgfafsdfgbjashfgdjhcbnasdhjasfd,

????!?!?!??!?!?!? ALRIGHT MAN! PUBERTY SPEED RUN!

So that was I think need a drink. Hollyberry needed a win for a LONG while now and this chapter has delivered in spades. This was so tightly packed and well executed that I think its usurped beast yeast 8 as being my favorite? No comments on that extra teaser scene with sugarfly here because I am straight up out of iamges and had to cut several joke comments from this post to keep it in limit as is but asauifgsdjhfSDFHJGSDFJKSDGSDGSFGB. FUCK. FUUUUUUCK. I am scared shitless of how this is all gonna wrap up and I WILL be seated.

[familyagrestefanblog]

The whole girlboss thing is interesting now because season 4 went above and beyond to double down on absolutely every problematic and bad writing decision to make absolutely EVERYTHING about girlbossing (and the show's writing has never recovered from that season)

And then season 5 came around and now the show is nonstop claiming that Marinette is too much of a little and sensitive flower that she'll break apart the second she isn't coddled.

Like, just go back to season 4 posts and read how Marinette stans are talking about her and the show's bad feminism. There is no trace of Marinette being a girlfailure.

Her fans treated the love square as "Greatest and most morally superior Girlboss in history & her pathetic boyfailure pet she loving abuses and degrades bc that's feminist".

Marinette being a small and fragile little girlfailure (though still wearing a queen's crown) who can't be asked of anything came with season 5 to make her seem more pitiful and sympathetic to the audience now that the show has to forever make up for that morally bankrupt season 4 writing where one of the core characterizations of her as well was that absolutely NOTHING can be asked of her in terms of morality in the love square.

That aspect is consistent for her character from season 4 onwards. The only change is that season 4 claimed Marinette is acting that way because that's the greatest display of girlboss feminism and entirely flawless and justified in terms of love, partnership, and equality.

And then s5 turned around and said that this eternal and self-service inconsideration is actually because Marinette is so small, inexperienced, and pitiful that Adrichat can't ask anything more than nothing because that would be the equivalent of kicking a little puppy who has never had any strength, privilege, and happiness in its little life.

The sudden change in how Marinette is supposed to be perceived between season 4 and season 5 & 6 is giving serious whiplash, and it's entirely rooted in Marinette's retooling writing insisting that her only true flaw is "that she simply wasn't coddled and catered to enough, so people need to learn their lesson and understand and empower HER more". No matter how much the episodes claim that she was wrong and learns her lesson, she never does. It's always everyone else who changes because Maribug is always catered to. That's why Maribug is not only showing pretty much no improvement from season 4 beyond surface level things

(like Maribug finally not being violent on main anymore towards Chat Noir and calling it flawless professionalism. Even though, lbr, they only had her stop because they send the message that everything bad being done to Chat Noir is entirely his fault for FORCING her or the other characters to do so. HE is the one who's behaviour had to entirely change because if he doesn't wanna be brutalized, it's his obligation to make sure that thought isn't put in especially Maribug's head. Cause she's not responsible for her own bad actions and treatment of him, it's all on him. So now after s4 they can't keep having him be brutalized because "he learned his lesson that he forced them to hurt him" so having them still do it casually now would mean the writing would have to acknowledge that Adrichat was in fact used as punching bag by other characters. And that's accountability the show's white ass feminism won't tolerate because where is the validation in that?)

But not just that, she's actually getting WORSE in so many was again. Cause of course she is. The writing stayed the same, it's just the framing that changed. That's how we get Marinette not giving a fuck about Chat Noir not showing up anymore in Kuro Neko and declaring it flawless professionalism she shouldn't be challenged for because flawless leaders don't owe you to care about your life and safety so her not reacting to ShadowMoth suppose knowing who Chat Noir is is not something she should be called out for,

and now Marinette risking to kill Adrien in Werepapas instead of having a conversation that could lead to people being upset with her.

That's how we get Illustrhater setting up an even worse Hack-San for Chat Noir by Marinette once again completely disregarding his existence when it comes to the decisions she takes as Guardian when it comes to Alya as her real partner behind his back. There is no growth here. Marinette is just as inconsidered and awful of a leader and guardian for Chat Noir to be stuck with because she'll never ever consider his existence enough to not put him through every wringer 500 times.

That's how we get Marinette hurting Sublime because Marinette will take her insecurities out on any "perfect" girl that's near Adrien. Just like she did with Kagami. Just that she actually treated Kagami WORSE and now what she physically did to Sublime is what was worse. Funny, right? Her bullying Kagami is swept under the rug because there was no physical harm. And her physically harming Sublime is swept under the rug because at least it wasn't her actively being ill intended and bullying.

There is no growth. No change in writing beyond that surface level things they had to have her (and others) do differently to fit the new framing.

Now it isn't anymore "Marinette pulling the Hack-San nightmare is flawless professionalism because leaders owe you nothing, but I guess it was kinda mean that she didn't think about her special bond with her punching bag pet, she should give him an empty apology for that (hello Kwamis Choice)"

Now it's "Little Marinette's existence is so tortured, how can you possibly ask of her to remember anyone else when she can barely breath enough to entrust everything to Alya? Guys, her being in the leading role is literal TORTURE, of course she does everything wrong🥺"

Same core. Just that initially it was made out to be the greatest display of feminism and female empowerment, and now it's made out to be because Marinette is a fragile little flower who can barely manage facing the world she's up against all by herself and with no real power, support, and privileges to call her own. Despite being literally showered in it. But using it accordingly wouldn't be comfortable and beneficial.

Two sides of the same coin and that's passing me off because it's rooted in using feminism as excuse for causing harm and not growing, instead of using it for the good messages it's supposed to send.

I don't understand whenever people say, 'Marinette is such a girlboss, she's so strong and independent.' Like, sure, she made a decision for herself, she's confident and capable (I guess?), but independent? Strong? Yeah, I think we're talking about a different character here because Marinette is far from a girlboss character. But if what they mean is 'a girl who's so bossy,' despite her being a big loser, then yeah, that I can agree with.

They also say 'ML is a show with the principle of "showing, not telling"' and well… if they want me to apply that principle to the Sentimonster thing, then sure, it works (I guess??), but if they want me to apply the same principle to Marinette being a girlboss, then yeah… that doesn't work at all.

---

Miraculous is not a show don't tell show because what they consistently show us is a protagonist whose reaction to messing up is to whine, cry and throw up until someone comes along to tell her she didn't mess up she's perfect. And then she'll pretend she's never done anything wrong in her life until it happens again a few episodes later. She's not a girlboss, she isn't even a girlfailure. She's a spoiled brat dependent on everyone praising her for existing before she can do anything even remotely challenging.

Miraculous is a vibes only show because we can all tell what kind of character Marinette is supposed to be. She's supposed to be competent and independent and flawless and someone who's so inherently good that none of her mistakes or moral failures should define her even when she turns to abuse apologia. Anytime she isn't living up to the hype is just because she's the character with the hardest life and who suffers the most so we need to sympathize with her and no one else ever.

The show is putting so much weight on vibes alone and many people who don't pay attention to what actually happens in the show eat it up. It's just mindless entertainment for small kids, we don't need to think about it, we’re just meant to follow the emotional cues.

[fumifooms]

That. That screentone on Chilchuck’s chest in the low open collar. Is Chilchuck having chest hair canon Kui. Kui? Gripping my knee

[bookshelfpassageway]

yknow i dont go here but sometimes i gotta go: seriously respect clowns. they have the worst pop culture representation in the world and also the best most thorough honor code. they're just here to be silly little guys who bring joy and are very conscientious about doing so responsibly. let them to their merriment in peace you dont hafta take potshots. i dont go here but like maybe i should, you all seem super chill

[vryptidart]

tis been 36 hours since i slept because my brain is A Bastard and i wasnt playing all night but i did get back up around 7 am to play some more

im STILL apparently in act 1 because i play these games intolerably completionisty fghfhghf i must explore EVERYWHERE tattie is a PACKRAT HOARDER

caught gale looking at pics of his ex (not known at the time, I Have Since Gotten More Backstory). we did the pottery scene from ghost but with magic.

playing halfling is suffering i need five applecrates right now

that face and line paired with 'gale approves' is sooo funny to me somehow. tattie thought about Holding Hands and the two of them needed to go sit down on opposite sides of the camp to catch their breath. gay.

gale you're so lucky that tattie finds your confidence-bordering-on-arrogance cute gfhgfhhfg

huh guess so. yeah immediately i opened it and limerick'd it into annoyed submission

love waking up to find homoerotic borderline murderattempts. in related news, i think i may ship shadowheart/lae'zel now. this was hot.

cunt. bestie. love you.

related

also Tattie? apparently Actually gay. lae'zel asked to lick him and i had to take a moment to deeply consider before saying appreciated but no thanks ghfhgfhf im DEFINITELY coming back for her romance but Tattie just Aint It this time

WAIT FOR ME LAE'ZEL-

supremely cunty, i do love this. also loved doing the roundtable with the boys (astarion, gale, wyll) and all of us going okay so he's definitely going to fuck us over. the fact that he's so eager to fuck us over makes us suspect we may be more fuckable than we thought. our metaphors are crossing the streams. anyway immediately after:

gale: you are coughing baby. i am hydrogen bomb. do you still want to do pottery classes together later

i Am going to need to cut this out as a reaction sticker for discord. its so fucking good. Tattie abt to lose their SHIT.

jk Tattie is just chill. like bruh i wouldnt go talking abt this shit First Thing with the randos also in Tadpole Trouble. like we needed the trust built so that we'd actually believe him. Gale's allowed to prioritise his own privacy- and when he deemed it unmanagable on his own then he spoke up! good!

meanwhile

tattie: uh huh. something something glass houses.

the gnollbirth scene was FUCKING INSANELY GOOD holy fucking shit i wont post screenies but know that i took them and i am ENAMOURED i love a bitta gore and viscera wheeee

the bestie is drunk on bear adrenaline we love to see it

then after backstory traumadumping in a taxman's cellar: Astarion....

while i wont be romancing him (cos a glance at the romance stuff seems to indicate Gale and him aren't polycompatible) i am definitely headcanoning that Tattie and Astarion have this Deeply Weird queerplatonic Something going on

she is JUST as cute as i was lead to believe. so glad you can resolve things with her and wyll p quickly

we all went to go murderhobo on the faux-tyr lads and while the fight itself was fine. when she started setting everything on fire- astarion and tattie both NEARLY DIED MULTIPLE TIMES TRYING TO GET OUT it was Abysmal and Hilarious

him face...... ugh WYLL IS SO ENDEARING THE MORE I GET TO KNOW HIM LOOK AT HIM REASSESSING ON THE SPOT...

havin a n sewell moment there hi gale

oop img limit

"hm.... sure...."

tragically im gonna need to remake and replay the first sections, because i fucked up and picked the wrong background and i dont kno if i will find that excellent stupid hat again but!

here is Tattie Fairsadh! (he/they) lightfoot halfling bard, probably gonna lean towards speccing as a healer. guild artisan (NOT ACOYLTE) who is a spinner, but has always had a fondness for music so picked that up as a suitable travelling job.

they're fairly friendly and compassionate, but have just enough wariness to not be entirely gullible. he likes giving people a chance... even if they're incredibly fucking sus (hi astarion... i have heard much of you from the tumblrs...)

tagging the people who were interested in seeing my tav!! @carriehobbs @wayhavenots @grapecaseschoices @serenpedac

[hauntingofhouses]

Very interesting to me that a certain subset of the BES fandom's favourite iterations of Mizu and Akemi are seemingly rooted in the facades they have projected towards the world, and are not accurate representations of their true selves.

And I see this is especially the case with Mizu, where fanon likes to paint her as this dominant, hyper-masculine, smirking Cool GuyTM who's going to give you her strap. And this idea of Mizu is often based on the image of her wearing her glasses, and optionally, with her cloak and big, wide-brimmed kasa.

And what's interesting about this, to me, is that fanon is seemingly falling for her deliberate disguise. Because the glasses (with the optional combination of cloak and hat) represent Mizu's suppression of her true self. She is playing a role.

Take this scene of Mizu in the brothel in Episode 4 for example. Here, not only is Mizu wearing her glasses to symbolise the mask she is wearing, but she is purposely acting like some suave and cocky gentleman, intimidating, calm, in control. Her voice is even deeper than usual, like what we hear in her first scene while facing off with Hachiman the Flesh-Trader in Episode 1.

This act that Mizu puts on is an embodiment of masculine showboating, which is highly effective against weak and insecure men like Hachi, but also against women like those who tried to seduce her at the Shindo House.

And that brings me to how Mizu's mask is actually a direct parallel to Akemi's mask in this very same scene.

Here, Akemi is also putting up an act, playing up her naivety and demure girlishness, using her high-pitched lilted voice, complimenting Mizu and trying to make small talk, all so she can seduce and lure Mizu in to drink the drugged cup of sake.

So what I find so interesting and funny about this scene, characters within it, and the subsequent fandom interpretations of both, is that everyone seems to literally be falling for the mask that Mizu and Akemi are putting up to conceal their identities, guard themselves from the world, and get what they want.

It's also a little frustrating because the fanon seems to twist what actually makes Mizu and Akemi's dynamic so interesting by flattening it completely. Because both here and throughout the story, Mizu and Akemi's entire relationship and treatment of each other is solely built off of masks, assumptions, and misconceptions.

Akemi believes Mizu is a selfish, cocky male samurai who destroyed her ex-fiance's career and life, and who abandoned her to let her get dragged away by her father's guards and forcibly married off to a man she didn't know. on the other hand, Mizu believes Akemi is bratty, naive princess who constantly needs saving and who can't make her own decisions.

These misconceptions are even evident in the framing of their first impressions of each other, both of which unfold in these slow-motion POV shots.

Mizu's first impression of Akemi is that of a beautiful, untouchable princess in a cage. Swirling string music in the background.

Akemi's first impression of Mizu is of a mysterious, stoic "demon" samurai who stole her fiance's scarf. Tense music and the sound of ocean waves in the background.

And then, going back to that scene of them together in Episode 4, both Mizu and Akemi continue to fool each other and hold these assumptions of each other, and they both feed into it, as both are purposely acting within the suppressive roles society binds them to in order to achieve their goals within the means they are allowed (Akemi playing the part of a subservient woman; Mizu playing the part of a dominant man).

But then, for once in both their lives, neither of their usual tactics work.

Akemi is trying to use flattery and seduction on Mizu, but Mizu sees right through it, knowing that Akemi is just trying to manipulate and harm her. Rather than give in to Akemi's tactics, Mizu plays with Akemi's emotions by alluding to Taigen's death, before pinning her down, and then when she starts crying, Mizu just rolls her eyes and tells her to shut up.

On the opposite end, when Mizu tries to use brute force and intimidation, Akemi also sees right through it, not falling for it, and instead says this:

"Under your mask, you're not the killer you pretend to be."

Nonetheless, despite the fact that they see a little bit through each other's masks, they both still hold their presumptions of each other until the very end of the season, with Akemi seeing Mizu as an obnoxious samurai swooping in to save the day, and Mizu seeing Akemi as a damsel in distress.

And what I find a bit irksome is that the fandom also resorts to flattening them to these tropes as well.

Because Mizu is not some cool, smooth-talking samurai with a big dick sword as Akemi (and the fandom) might believe. All of that is the facade she puts up and nothing more. In reality, Mizu is an angry, confused and lonely child, and a masterful artist, who is struggling against her own self-hatred. Master Eiji, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.

And Akemi, on the other hand, is not some girly, sweet, vain and spoiled princess as Mizu might believe. Instead she has never cared for frivolous things like fashion, love or looks, instead favouring poetry and strategy games instead, and has always only cared about her own independence. Seki, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.

But neither is she some authoritative dominatrix, though this is part of her new persona that she is trying to project to get what she wants. Because while Akemi is willful, outspoken, intelligent and authoritative, she can still be naive! She is still often unsure and needs to have her hand held through things, as she is still learning and growing into her full potential. Her new parental/guardian figure, Madame Kaji, knows this as well.

So with all that being said, now that we know that Mizu and Akemi are essentially wearing masks and putting up fronts throughout the show, what would a representation of Mizu's and Akemi's true selves actually look like? Easy. It's in their hair.

This shot on the left is the only time we see Mizu with her hair completely down. In this scene, she's being berated by Mama, and her guard is completely down, she has no weapon, and is no longer wearing any mask, as this is after she showed Mikio "all of herself" and tried to take off the mask of a subservient housewife. Thus, here, she is sad, vulnerable, and feeling small (emphasised further by the framing of the scene). This is a perfect encapsulation of what Mizu is on the inside, underneath all the layers of revenge-obsession and the walls she's put around herself.

In contrast, the only time we Akemi with her hair fully down, she is completely alone in the bath, and this scene takes place after being scorned by her father and left weeping at his feet. But despite all that, Akemi is headstrong, determined, taking the reigns of her life as she makes the choice to run away, but even that choice is reflective of her youthful naivety. She even gets scolded by Seki shortly after this in the next scene, because though she wants to be independent, she still hasn't completely learned to be. Not yet. Regardless, her decisiveness and moment of self-empowerment is emphasised by the framing of the scene, where her face takes up the majority of the shot, and she stares seriously into the middle distance.

To conclude, I wish popular fanon would stop mischaracterising these two, and flattening them into tropes and stereotypes (ie. masculine badass swordsman Mizu and feminine alluring queen but also girly swooning damsel Akemi), all of which just seems... reductive. It also irks me when Akemi is merely upheld as a love interest and romantic device for Mizu and nothing more, when she is literally Mizu's narrative foil (takes far more narrative precedence over romantic interest) and the deuteragonist of this show. She is her own person. That is literally the theme of her entire character and arc.

[lizzybeeee]

DATV explaining the 'Regret Prison'

A REGRET PRISON IS STUPID AND I'M TIRED OF PRETENDING THAT ITS NOT

TL;DR: a prison can serve as a metaphor but it shouldn't be entirely comprised of a metaphor.

From what I understood from what the game gave us: Solas has made a new prison to move the God's too - since bringing down the veil would free them from the Black City. This new prison is separate(?) from the fade or so far removed/contained that bringing down the veil would not compromise it...apparently. We interrupt his ritual, Solas gets sucked into the new prison he made, and the elven gods are free.

When Rook gets kicked into the fade they're physically there - which means it's a physical place in the fade, like how it was a mixture of physical/thought when we entered it in DAI. Which makes sense - the gods are real and living beings, they need to be in a place, there must be some aspect of physicality to it.

Alright, cool, it's a Black City 2.0 - I assume it's better defended to prevent people breaking in/out again?

NOPE.

We get there and it's a 'regret prison'?? It's tied to the regrets of those within it? Composed of regrets??? Solas had to wait for the right moment for Rook to be sufficiently 'full of regret' that they could switch places?

So is the prison tied to Solas's regrets? If so, how can Rook escape? The prison seems to work around the idea that it relies on the regrets of the person it's holding to work - which is how/why Rook was able to be trapped and later free themselves (along with whatever remains of the team apparently being able to do something on their end, not that we hear about it).

WHICH IS STUPID!

Are you telling me the prison intended to hold to megalomaniac elven gods was going to imprison them based on their own regrets? Is Solas assuming that Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain are as self-pitying as he is? They'd break out quicker than Rook did! He made a time out corner for the elven gods to sit in and gave them an out if they reflected on their emotions/regrets or decided that they don't regret what they did. Elgar'nan, a spirit of tyranny, is not going to 'regret' his actions - he is going to justify them by telling himself and others that he knows what's best.

We can come across some of Solas's regrets in the prison if you run around a bit and explore:

Remnant of Failure - talking about the orb from Inquisition.

Remnant of Parting - talking about Mythal

Remnant of Reflection - more vague, talking about the Titans I believe.

So maybe he altered it - maybe he intended the prison to be 'locked' with his own regrets because after a millennia of having a pity party he still can't bring himself to self-reflect and look to the future. But what if Solas died? Or if his guilt lessened - would it diminish the strength of the regret prison?

We already have pre-established lore (though DATV has shown they don't really give a crap tbh) that once the being that has claimed/altered an area of the fade is slain, it's influence diminishes both in and outside of the fade. So if the prison was tied to his regrets then it would require Solas to basically live forever to keep it stable - especially if he brought down the veil and removed the one barrier that kept the world and the fade apart.

Rook and Solas needed some assistance to exit - but it doesn't seem like it was much! Solas used his dagger and Rook just...got out through a fade tear? This is Solas's 'more secure' second prison? It has a worse track record than the Black City! If Rook - who is not an elven god - managed to escape the regret prison what is to stop anyone else from breaking in and out of the prison?

And what did Solas intend to do with the blight - the bulk of which is apparently in the black city?? If bringing down the Veil would free the gods in the black city doesn't that mean that the blight would also be released?! Did he have a plan? Why does he go fully ahead with bringing down the veil at the end if the black city is still there and filled with blight?!

I get it: the 'regret prison' is a metaphor for how Solas holds onto the past and how Rook can move past their regrets and grow. He's trapped by the past - it's a prison. Cool. But this prison is supposed to by a physical place to contain the gods - not just to solely contain Solas. The mission is literally called 'A Cage for Gods'.

The Black City is an actual place that's so far out of reach of anywhere else in the fade that no mage can ever reach it while in dreams - let alone physically, which was only done once and took tremendous effort/blood sacrifices. It made sense - it was cool to see floating in the sky in DAO!

Though it's not said specifically, it's strongly implied that Arlathan is the Black City. You can see in the concept art that floating elven city is exactly the same as the black city in DAO! It's this foreboding thing just lurking in the sky - a constant reminder of the sin that led to the horrors of the blights and darkspawn. A real place with lore and history that also serves as a metaphor for the hubris and destruction of those who call themselves gods and act as tyrants -> for both the evanuris and the magisters.

I WANT TO UNDERSTAND THIS BIOWARE!

WHAT IS THIS KINGDOM HEARTS NONSENSE???!!