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dojae-huh · 3 years

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This is going to be long again…

The article of LSM going to be a professor doesn’t surprise me. He’s a workaholic just like Do. No wonder Do admire him. Just to add more about SM. Being in SM ensures you will have a long career outside its company as well. When I mentioned H.O.T yes Kangta are the most noticeable, but Tony An and Moon Heejun are as well. They make a lot of variety show appearances. Woohyuk is the 4th noticeable member for his early time on variety and dance skills. Jaewon is the most forgettable member, but because of the reunion on Infinity Challenge he shined on the show and got to be remembered again. If an idol leaves the company, most will still be known because how influential SM idols are. Not to be rude and since they just debuted, but JYP new GP was a failed attempt at what SM does well of doing concepts outside the box.

Now back to JaeDo. You know I didn't notice Jae's wavering voice during the hug. I look at actions more. As they say actions are louder than words. The hugs of each member are pretty telling. I can tell that Mark, Haechan, Taeyong, and Jungwoo hugs were all cheeky/dramatic. As for Johnny it looks like how you hug a kid and twirl them in the air. Yuta and Taeil hugs were a quick bro hug. When Do came up he was ready for that hug, like he's been waiting for Do's hug all day. Jae looked most content with Do's hug lol

What made me think Do liked men was his attitude towards shippy actions. When he did shippy actions with the members you would see it as shy, but his reactions never seemed shy. For me it was more apprehension. He was more anxious if someone would notice his preference through shippy actions. Which is why he would become frazzled. Another telling sign for me was Do kind of always seemed on alert after the shippy action. Also, he flirted back easily with Jae. As you said Jae was never subtle. Do had to know that Jae was shamelessly flirting with him at some point, and he enjoyed it. Do isn’t frazzled anymore and I believe it’s because he doesn’t have to hide anything with his members. If anything, he’s become better with handling the situation. Plus, most people know they are gay by the ages of high school years. Do was right around that age when he got into SM.

I want to back track a bit from my earlier post and elaborate on how I saw the year 2017. Do was set on no more touching Jae because of wanting to hide. You said Do did not try to become more manlier and this is true. Do is manly, but with Jae he becomes softer. Instead of trying to be more manly to hide he was gay, stopping himself from touching Jae was more logical. If Jae had noticed his feelings for him and confessed. Then someone could have noticed Do's feelings for him as well or thought something was fishy about them. That's why Do needed to stop touching Jae. If people questioned the sudden stop, it could have been written off as growing apart. Do also took the time to figure out what he wanted. Of course, we wanted to be a good friend and hyung to Jae, but he also did not want to give faith to Jae if Do decides not to go through with coming out and pursuing a relationship.

*sigh* oh the food truck. Jae my sappy hopeless romantic puppy never fails me to put a smile on my face of how gooey he is.

I don’t know if you read this or not, but it is interesting read. Most of the reading is pretty telling. It still helped me better understand how being queer is viewed in Korea and the history. https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/10161/13472/Queer%20Korea%20Final%20Thesis_Arnoldpdf.pdf?sequence=3

Link

I'm rather amazed LSM cameback full force. Not only to work to forget his grief over the passed wife, but to life as well (he has a "girlfriend"). And this teacher position is a sign of it as well. One needs to have some energy and vitality to want to teach, to transfer knowledge and experience. LSM isn't lacking in money, he can spend his last years on a tropical island and doing yoga. And seeing how long he takes to find the best deal with selling his shares, he really wants to give SM some factor of safety.

Speaking of Doyoung and LSM, I really want to know how Do was chosen as the one giving LSM a flick of the finger on the forehead. Was it circumstantional, or LSM offered Do himself? heh. I want Do to get into the "chosen by LSM" circle.

A lot of JYP, YG and other companies' current idols trained in SM. The rotation is huge, the selection is severe. I don't think that all SM idols are somehow exceptional, but even the weakest are good in some way (even if it's just a visual). WW isn't strong as a k-pop dancer and can't sing, but he has a nice personality in addition to his face that attracts people to him, so he is liked not only by other members but collects fans easily, for example.

SM has some self-imposed limitations though. Rowdy, outgoing groups are popular nowadays (fans see the idols via socmed, get to know their personalities), while SM is very much about the perfect image. I'm curious if the new bg (that is not the new NCT unit) will be different from the norm in this regard.

I wouldn't call NMIXX a failure just yet. I actually found its first MV rather smart. It was called "a preview" in the lyrics, I think. I even wonder if the controversy with Ateez was intentional as black PR. The group is just directed at teens. Korean teens to be precise.

I have a post on all the hugs. So I know what you are talking about. What I meant is that the JaeDo hug wouldn't have attracted my attention if I saw them for the first time.

Yes, Do had all those reactions, but they are possible without being conscious of them (their true reason). And it's not logical to assume that Do enjoyed being courted but stopped everything the moment the words "I like you" were uttered instead of asking for keeping it a secret. And Do does keep secrets from his best friends, and thinks it's a normal thing to do. Tae complained about it.

People do the weirdest things without knowing why. A simple example. Many people feel stomach ache or nausea before exams. They are afraid of an exam, so the brain weakens the body for the action of taking the exam to be impossible. It's the brain's solution to the problem - avoidance of "the threat".

Do got frazzled from being put in an uneasy for him situation. Especially if he was made to dance, was laughed at, needed to make a quick choice. Doyoung was the one who "did shippery things" like calling Jaehyun "the love" and answering instead of him during sns. He showered Jae with love like he does Jeno and thought nothing of it. I personally see no awareness of Jae's flirting from ShowChamp or in general. Jae was constantly in Do's personal space and the latter spaced out, thinking about MCing or how to instruct Jae what to do.

"Most people" care about romantic partners in high school, puberty and all that. Do cared about his singing career, he had another focus. He was busy attending singing competitions. He himself says he has a one-track mind. If he puts his mind to something, he can think only about it. Also the reason why I think 2017 was how it was, Jae was too much on his mind. Plus I agree with Nouratan that Do "wanted to be normal".

My opposition to your view of 2017 would be the fact that Do: 1) increased his clinginess to others (which really vexed Jae), 2) Jae's behaviour. Do and Jae were known for arguing with each other. Do favoured him but his babies, with whom he was the softest, were Mark, Jeno and others.

Doyoung instigates this moment, it's not "avoidance of questionable behaviour".

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weasleypogues · 4 years

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written in the starts (f.w. soulmate au) pt. 1

hii this is a fred soulmate au and in this cedric didnt die lol hope u enjoy. i also dont think i got the ages right with any of this but play along hehe

masterlist. part 2. part 3.

you sat in the hufflepuff common room as you had finished settling into your dorm and wanted to give your roommates space to do the same. cedric was to your right and you were catching up on each other’s summers. the ending summer and upcoming fall sun was shining through the large windows and cast in the lightly colored and calming room. your fingers fiddled with the soft white blanket you sat with as you listened to cedric’s summer and laughed at the jokes he told in between. he was a year older than you and felt like an older brother as well.

“it’s crazy that this is your last year, right?” you asked, and let your head settle on your closed fist as your eyes felt dreamy. you gave cedric a sympathetic smile which he returned with a bigger one.

“no no no, you don’t get to get all sentimental on me just yet. i still have a year.” cedric responded, slightly chuckling. “i should be the one getting sentimental. you’ll finally get your pen tomorrow!”

you laughed and blushed at the topic of conversation. cedric was referring to the pen you get when you turn seventeen which you can use to communicate with your soulmate. it was sort of a disappearing ink that if you wrote on any surface, it would disappear as it waited for your soulmate with the same connecting pen to respond. you could write on skin, table tops, papers, and really anything. in order for the pen to be activated, both sides of the soulmates have to be seventeen. that meant, if you turned seventeen first, you would have to wait for however long for their birthday to start communicating.

“gotta say, i’m a little nervous. i really hope im the younger one. i don’t know what i’ll do if i have the pen but can’t even use it for a good amount of time.” you said, overwhelmingly, but in a good way. cedric jokingly slapped you on the arm with a pretend insulted face.

“not cool! you know i had to wait seven months until malia got hers!” cedric said, looking back at the struggling months of the useless pen and waiting for answers. you laughed and rubbed the spot where he hit you.

“yeah yeah yeah, whatever.” you answered, blushing madly and failing to hide the widest smile ever.

“cedric!” you heard someone call from behind you. you investigated to see who it was, realizing it could virtually be anyone in the house. cedric was pretty popular in your hufflepuff house as all the girls thought he was a dreamy looking guy but also had no bad blood with the guys as well. your eyes followed the source of the noise and saw malia, his soulmate, happily walking towards cedric. cedric got up instantly and wrapped his arms around her.

“sorry i haven’t been around too much. julia is getting a little freaked out and wants to know exactly where her classes are so she isn’t late. my little ravenclaw, aw.” malia spoke with her hand on her chest, referring to her eleven year old sister that was just sorted into ravenclaw last night. you got up and peered behind cedric with a giant smile on your face. malia caught your eye instantly and pulled away from her boyfriend and embraced you.

“(y/n)! ugh, i missed you so so much! how was your summer?” she asked. she sat down on the third cushion on the sofa and joined the conversation you and cedric were having, happily.

next day.

you woke up to the sun shining in through your window and the smell of breakast filled your room. a subtle smile ran across your face and your eyes fluttered open, revealing one of your best friends jada just waking up as well in the bed over from yours. you and the rest of your roommmates had stayed up to see past midnight to wish you a happy birthday. a minute after the clock had struck 12 an envelope slid under the door which had your name printed on the front in cursive.

(y/f/n) (y/l/n) professor sprout’s office. ten in the morning. happy birthday.

you checked your watch on the nightstand next to you and read the time. it was 9:32 am. you and jada didn’t even have to speak before giving each other beaming smiles and you basically sprinted out of bed to head for the bathroom to get ready.

you styled your hair, put on sublte makeup, and dressed in an outfit you had planned for your birthday, seeing as you didn’t have to wear your school uniforms just yet. all you needed was shoes now. you ran back to your nightstand to check the watch again, 9:54.

“good luck.” jada said, smiling, clearly vibrating with as much excitement as you were. “happy birthday, (y/n/n)!”

you sent her a thank you, hugged her, and tugged on your shoes before practically booking it out the door, trying not to be too loud in consideration of your other roommates. you were basically skipping to professor sprouts office who’s room was not too far from the hufflepuff common room.

you gave a quiet knock to professor sprout’s door and heard a faint “come in” from the inside. you opened the door politely and slowly, showing your face to her before walking in completely and shutting the door behind you. you were faced with professor sprout, professor mcgonagall, and professor dumbledore having an innocent morning conversation.

“ah, ms. (y/l/n). happy birthday! i see you must have gotten professor sprout’s letter!” dumbledore spoke in his deeper but oddly soothing voice.

“thank you so much, professor. and yes, i did.” you responded with a slightly giggle. nothing was holding back the giant smile that was etched across your face.

“i remember when i got my pen on my birthday. i ran right outside professor beery’s office and wrote on the wall, itching to see if there would be a response. oh to be young.” professor sprout said dreamily, opening a chest under a table of green plants. you blushed.

“professor, you don’t look a day over twenty five.” you responded, jokingly but not in a malicious way. this earned a chorus of laughs from the three professors.

“always so charming, you. here you are.” professor sprout said, handing you and box that was a few inches long, and silver with a sage green bow on the top. “they don’t usually come with bows, but i wanted to add a sweet little touch for a student like you.”

before even opening the box, you smiled at her greatly and gave her a quick hug which she didn’t oblige. you took a deep breath before opening up the box, your heart racing at the speed of light. there, sat a marble white pen that glittered in the sunlight from the office. it was not too heavy and you picked it up slowly, admiring it.

“happy birthday, ms. (y/l/n).” professor mcgonagall said sweetly, failing to hide her own small smile while watching your life basically change for the better.

“thank you, professor mcgonagall! and thank you again professor sprout and professor dumbledore! i gotta go.” you responded, your cheeks hurting and your fingers itching to write something down. all the teachers shared your happiness as you practically ran out of the room and towards the kitchen.

you grabbed the closest napkin, right after saying a good morning to the kitchen elves, and clicked the pen, nervously.

before you could write anything down, your forearm felt tickled and you glanced down to see writing that left a glittery after effect before the black words became clear.

balderdash.

#fred weasley imagines #fred weasley #fred weasley x #fred weasley x reader #fred weasley x hufflepuff!reader #hp imagines #fred weasely writings #george weasley imagines #soulmate au #harry potter imagines #weasley twins

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katherinewilliams221b · 4 years

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For A Greater Good Fun Facts and Self Assesment (spoilers)

Long Post

What worked and what didn’t:

I think the overall structure worked pretty well. The most difficult part was, with the plot and subplot already created, scattering all those ideas throughout the text in such a way that at least made some sense. I regret not writing more about Mer Yankelevich, I feel like the crumbs I left on the way were not enough; in my attempt to make it subtle it lacked information about her. The key piece was of course her sister, and I should have introduced her sooner.

MC’s evolution. I feel like Kate’s learnt a lot with this experience (I’m not only referring to the Deathly Hallows or Grindelwald) When it started, she was very discreet and kept a low profile, not knowing what to do really, not taking more risks than necessary. And then she ended poisoned and splinching just to protect a document she thought was important. I hope her evolution is noticeable for the reader.

Worldbuilding. Grabbing HP concepts that were forgotten and full of potential, plus a dash of original ideas from me and blending them with muggle features was my absolute favourite part of the process.

On that note, I dont own these concepts: Durmstrang, Igor Karkarov, Nerida Vulchanova, umbrella flowers, fanged geraniums, billywigs, Appare Vestigium, glow-worms, trick wand, chamaleon ghouls,

If you’ve read the fic and thought: “everything happened so fast” or got a general odd feeling about the timeline it's because I made a series of monumental mistakes: setting a chapter limit, telling you about it and then tried to stick to it. At first the idea sounded nice: this is my first “big” story with complicated components. I should (and I did) do an outline of what I want to happen in each chapter and stick to it methodically so I don't forget what's happening or lose track of the plot. Well...it kind of backfired. So I wrote the first 3 chapters and at that point I thought “okay everything is going as planned, I’m going to put it out there”, bam, instantly cursed. After that it got ridiculously difficult to make the story that I wanted. Why? I needed chapter space that I convinced myself I couldn’t add. Dumb.

The major consequence of this was the lack of character backgrounds. It started out good, but as I kept writing and publishing I realised that I missed some great opportunities to make amazing ocs. That’s Corentin’s fault in a way: he wasn't going to be a major character, really, just a piece to help Kate a bit. But we all fell in love with him so what was I supposed to do? Also, Sheyi Mawut owns my heart and he got just a bit of spotlight. A shame.

I wish I had written more about them, but I think I wasn’t ready just yet to make it even more complicated.I just wanted to prove I could concoct a mystery plot and now that I know I can manage a fair amount of information I think I can take it a step further and deepen new ocs a little bit more.

I’m thinking about the datura series and I know why I got blocked and tired of writing it; it wasnt going anywhere because I wasnt prepared, and I didn’t do the months of outlines and planning that I did with this one. I’ll come back to the datura story one day, subjecting it to a sever rewrite. The ideas are there, I just need to be organised.

Although the chapter limit was problematic it was also a good exercise of managing space and deciding which things were unnecessary for the story. I dont think there’s any filler chapters, perhaps the last ones, but there is important information there too so... However this sentence from the blog wordsandstuff reassured me (and I think I did a good job at that?)

If you set out to write 10 parts and you write a fantastic story in 8, you haven’t failed and it’s not too rushed. Concise writing is an underrated talent. Focus on how effectively you engage the reader, not for how long.

I spent more than year writing this! When I started, I had a lot of ideas, I wrote the last two chapters then the first 3 and I really thought it was going to be that way with the rest of the story... okay... lesson learnt. #humbled

Other thoughts:

I received a couple of comments on ao3 that said that they were pleasantly surprised. Maybe I should change the tags because they are misleading? Clearly this wasnt what people were looking for lol.

One particular comment stood out to me and quoting it said: “You did not choose the easy way with a fiction with so few characters from the fandom.” And I’ve been thinking about this since I read it. It didn’t occur to me that there were few mystery fics (maybe I should write more things like that? Maybe throwing some power couple detective work 👀 ) In any case, I’m glad I contributed with something different to the fandom, and the fact that the Charlie bits are very scarce but people who read it still liked it is really flattering.

I wanted to make sure that all the characters had strengths and flaws, I didnt want to severus-snape them so maybe I overdid it with that bit of introspection kate does at the end...

Also, I did the kiss and fade thing twice to mention sex. I know some people dont like that but since it wasnt the point of the story and I havent done research on how to write sex scenes I didnt include them. I have that on my “to learn” list.

Conclusions:

Writing the whole thing was incredible. It's my first ‘big’ project and its not a great work (there are some things I wish I did better, thats what you get when you are an agatha christie wannabe) and not writing more character backgrounds will haunt me to this day, but I think it's at least good for a first series and I’m proud of it. I loved spending hours doing research and trying to piece together this puzzle. And of course I’m not an expert and I dont want to sound pretentious (like this is my first story) but if you are planning to write this type of genre I can be another source of tips and tricks for you.

If I read the story after a while and I dont cringe, I would call that a success.

FUN? FACTS!

Bakunawa really belongs to Filippines mythology

Snapdragons have different meanings, one of them being: “grace under pressure or inner strength in trying circumstances”

The entrance to Grindelwald’s room was going to be in the duelling classroom, strangely shaped as a triangle. I had this system where one of the round candle lamps descended and lined up with a line on the floor (serving as separation for duels) it created the Deathly Hallows symbol. I couldn’t make that work because it wouldn't make any sense for Nerida Vulchanova to shape a room like that. Here are some sketches:

Lucius Malfoy was going to appear as the Ministry employee that goes to Durmstrang, but after revising the events of the OoP I realised it was impossible.

Kent Jorgensen was going to be around Kate’s age and the charms teacher and he would have a small crush on her. After seeing some pics of Pen Medina, I rewrote the character completely.

The series was going to be 6 chapters long (I’m glad I decided not to) one for each month. The chapter names were ridiculous: January of Beginnings, February of reputation, March of Students, April of Discoveries, May I? and June of Endings. #tragic

The Dolohov family was going to be a part of the plot but I had to erase that part because it was unlocking another layer of complexity that I just couldnt handle.

I dont remember exactly the chapter but I got really confused with the names Rhode and Hodges and there’s one chapter where I accidentally mixed them (I corrected it I think), but for a while I could stop calling Rhode, Hodges, and vice versa lmao

Here are some sketches that helped me describe and imagine things

Thank you for accompany me in this journey, especially if you endured the process with me lmao. You’ve been here for over A YEAR! <3 Mindblowing

Also I’d love to know your opinions about the way you read the story, I mean, I know some people read it as I published, and some other readers found the story already finished, what are the differences? Should I stop the updating system and drop a story all at once? I know it is difficult to keep up with a complex story if there’s a lot of weekly or monthly gaps between the chapters, so I wanted to know.

Sending you a virtual hug 💜💜

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connan-l · 3 years

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All right, so now that I finally digested the final a little I have some random messy thoughts about Fruits Basket 2019. It got really long lol, but this has been stuck in my head for a while so I needed to get it out!

Honestly, it was a very good adaptation and I’m still in awe I was able able to see the whole manga animated. Fruits Basket is pretty important to me, as I read it for the first time when I was around twelve and it was definitely one of the series that impacted me the most — the way it tackles themes of cycle of abuse, loneliness, grief and moving forward still feel very special to me even now (I briefly wrote a post about it months ago after rereading the manga), so of course I was delighted upon hearing the reboot announced and for the most part, it didn’t disappoint. I’d never truly thought I’d be able to see characters like Rin or Machi actually move on screen in my lifetime so in a way it still feel surreal lmao (RIP to Komaki though). It was really refreshing to revisit the story in that way, especially given amusingly enough I am myself in the middle of some big changes in my life where I have to leave things behind so it felt sort of... well, I won’t say empowering per se, but quite encouraging and satisfying to watch Furuba, and especially its final, at this timing, in a way. It wasn’t perfect, there are certainly a lot of flawed directive choices that I question and unfortunately quite some important cut contents — but even at its lowest it stayed all in all good. I’m genuinely a bit stunned there are people who thinks the entire thing is worthless or a failure, because man, I have seen what a bad anime adaptation looks like, and Fruits Basket 2019 definitely isn’t one. Natsuki Takaya herself was clearly very invested and satisfied in that adaptation — I mean, just the fact she drew arts for every single episodes or for the season 3 ending really shows that I think. And while there’s a part of me who will always have a soft spot for the 2001 anime, there’s no contest that the 2019 one is the superior one and more representative of the original manga as a whole.

I believe some people really don’t realize how... uncommon it is to get such a consistently good-looking and complete anime adaptation for a shojo manga? Shojo really aren’t lucky in that prospect usually; they rarely get animated, and when they do they’re usually very bland or outright bad, or they get one short season of like 13 episodes that never receive any follow-ups — even shojo considered like classics tend to get poor treatment, unless they’re Sailor Moon of course or a long-running magical girls franchise like Precure (and even then we could have a discussion about the way Sailor Moon’s treated compared to say Dragon Ball for example, but that’s another topic entirely). So yeah it is quite awesome we were able to get this kind of anime adaptation that covers the full manga with good quality from start to finish, and I am so, so glad it exists and that it managed to revive and makes the series so popular again. (Hopefully its success means we’ll be able to get more good anime adaptation of shojo manga from now on!)

But yeah, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t problems with it and I also understand why some of the manga fans had issues. We were kind of hyped with the fact this would be a complete adaptation and in the end we only got a... sort-of-complete one lol. The art and animation stayed fine during the run (there certainly were some episodes that were uhhh, lacking in that sense, but that’s just how it is sometimes with productions and budget), but I admit I was a bit letdown regarding the direction, where it often seemed… a bit uncreative or heavy-handed. There was some very beautiful and smart shots here and there, but on the whole I really had an issue with the adaptation failing to actually take more ambitious decisions on its visual aspect, especially compared to the pretty pannelling of the manga — and when it did take these decisions it just was… kind of obnoxious and in-your-face, like the show is trying to hold the watcher’s hand (with unnecessary things like Kyo’s father record player derailing or the whole big ropes symbolizing the curse that often slapped you all over the screen, which usually just made me want to roll my eyes because of how annoying it felt.) Multiple people also pointed out the overdramatization of some scenes like the Kyo and Tohru’s confrontation at the end of season 1 or Akito and Ren’s fight which was, indeed, not very good and a weird choice. Fruits Basket is already a pretty dramatic show and these scenes are already intense, there was no need for such over-the-top theatrical display of emotions that only made them comes off as comedic. I’m probably nitpicking here but it also bothered me some characters’ expressions didn’t feel properly retranscribed (Shigure especially, whose characterization depends a lot on that, really suffered from this), or that odd habit of making some big panorama plans instead of focusing on the faces and bodies, which particularly sucks during emotional scenes (like the backgrounds were pretty I guess, but that’s not what was important here lmao).

Also that might be just a personal thing, but can I point out that the openings were pretty disappointing to me... They're not bad, but they all looked so... bland. The songs are fine but the rest feel so uninspired and it's kind of sad... I dunno, I wasn't asking for much but I just think they could've done more than just scrolling each character looking vaguely melancholic or making them walk randomly one after another :/ The endings have at least pretty illustrations and I'm okay with them (I liked what they did with Kyoko’s photo in season 3 too), but the OPs kind of feel as if they ran out of budget and ideas for them or something. I kind of feel the same with the OST as well, where they’re generally fine but were a bit lackluster, and sometimes… they were kind of played at bad times? I remember the Rin episode in season 2 were the music felt a bit out of place and took me out of the immersion, which is a shame cause it was otherwise a pretty good episode. But that might just be a me-thing here lol. The voice actors were awesome though! (The Japanese ones, at least, I didn’t watch any other dubs). I’ve said it before but special kudos to Maaya Sakamoto cause damn she’s so perfect as Akito, and Shimazaki as Yuki and Toyosaki as Rin truly delivered too. I didn’t know Manaka Iwami at all but I was really impressed by her Tohru, especially in season 3 — she really was good at capturing her character’s subtle emotional turmoils (I think she makes a better Tohru than Yui Horie too, although I admit I missed Horie a little lol.)

Anyway, on the topic of lack of ambition, that might be an unpopular opinion but there’s also the fact that I’m sad they didn’t actually... try to change or add more original scenes. By which I mean, obviously we had some changes, but not ones that were really interesting (when they’re not actively detrimental to the story). For example, I was really hoping that we’d be able to get at least one original episode focused on Ritsu (and Mitsuru too why not) in season 2 or 3, or on Kagura or Kisa; I dunno, it would’ve been a good occasion to give something more to the characters that got sidelined in the original manga, or add some moments that would’ve been nice to develop like about Akito post-cliff confrontation, but we never got that. And well, that makes sense now that we know they seemingly had an episode restriction (at least on season 3), but, yeah, that’s still a shame. Honestly in the end Ritsu’s character made even less sense in the anime, because like, it was nice they tried to adapt his introduction episode so that it feels less “you have to adapt to gender norms to feel better about yourself,” (the gender non-confirmity is definitely one of the bits that aged the less well in FB) but then they still made him cut off his hair and give his feminine clothes to Kagura at the end so why lol. (And speaking of his episode introduction, I dislike that they cut off his conversation with Tohru after the suicide attempt, not only for Ritsu but also for Tohru cause it is one of the small instances bringing up her issues that is set up early on and that is crucial to her, but I’ll come back to this later.)

And now about the biggest problem to me being, the cut content and episodes rearangement. So, just so we’re clear, I definitely don’t think an anime adaptation needs to be a page-by-page adaptation of the manga to be good. Every decent adaptation needs to have changes, and the ones that tries to just follow the source material without any heart often tend to get pretty bad. So changes are good! Cut content are needed sometimes. But in Furuba 19, it really... wasn’t the case.

And the most unfortunate thing being that the one suffering the most from this is the show’s main character herself, Tohru.

So, obviously other characters also got done dirty by this; Yuki and Machi’s relationship was so incredibly shifted in the background and rushed it’s almost funny. I’m one of the people who thinks that, while I do think they’re cute, I definitely agree on the fact their relationship was a bit underdeveloped in the manga — and that Machi’s character especially suffered as a result by being a bit reduced to just "Yuki’s love interest" when she was a character with so much more to offer (and as a whole I also tend to agree with the fact that Yuki probably didn’t need a romance at all and that his arc is more meaningful while focusing on his platonic relationships, but that’s another topic entirely) — but man, if the manga already underdevelopped them, then ohhh boy, the anime just completely dropped the ball. It feels very odd because to me it seemed like season 2 was taking their time with setting them up, so if they knew they had only 13 episodes for season 3 then they should’ve started the changes there; instead we got 1 nice Yuki/Machi/Kakeru episode, and then it’s like "Yep, they’re in love, just trust me." (It does makes me wonder if season 3 wasn’t originally supposed to be longer but then got restrained because of budget or covid or something…) Kakeru also very much suffered because of them cutting off his girlfriend and his complicated relationship with Tohru… Now, to be honest, I’ve always found the Kakeru/Komaki/Tohru subplot pretty... contrived and useless, and Komaki’s not so much a character more than a device for Kakeru’s development, but it does have some good moments relevant to the story’s themes (I like the ‘‘you can’t play suffering olympics with people’s pain’’morale) and it is important to his character (and Komaki is cute, I admit), so it was still sad they shafted it entirely. (Also I kind of like the tense relationship between Tohru and Kakeru. The fact they both seem to not appreciate each other even afterwards feel sort of refreshing even if it’s never explored unfortunately orz.) I was still surprised they didn’t actually try to make a Komaki cameo at the end? Cause I think it would’ve fitted and Kakeru’s girlfriend had already been mentioned in season 2 but... for some reason they... didn’t. (Mayyybe we’ll get an OAV like with Kyoko and Katsuya? Who knows.)

One scene that was skipped/rearranged that I’m very bitter over is the whole Tohru/Kagura confrontation and Kagura/Rin scene — it might not seem like much, but the moment of Tohru refusing to forgive Kagura is very important, and I was pretty annoyed they turned Rin’s trauma response to Kagura’s violence and her subsequent apology/hug to a gag, it legit felt tasteless. The Tohrin scene they removed at the very end too was frustating; it was great they managed to fit in the "Rin doesn’t want to forgive Akito" bit at least (I was afraid they’d cut it off entirely), but it was so essential for her to say to Tohru, not to Haru and Momiji (plus the way they put it in felt very random and awkwardly placed there, when they were initially talking about Tohru before orz). OH AND the Akito/Hana friendship too! Yeah I know it’s not a Big deal but I absolutely love the little glimpses of their friendship and it’s very important to me so I’m disappointed over them not including the ‘Ah-chan’ scene… (It was kind of weird that the show sort-of implied Hana and Kazuma got together too cause that’s… not the vibe at all from the manga… oh well.)

Most people I’ve seen generally only bring up season 3 regarding the cuts/rearangement because it’s the most obvious and the biggest offender, but I personally think there were already problems with season 2 and 1. At first glance I didn’t have much issue with some of the rearrangement, because early Furuba can indeed be pretty episodic, but thinking back on it as a whole I think it might’ve been better to leave some stuff, like Hana and Uo’s episodes for example, to season 2 (I do wonder if they did this specifically so the reboot would offer original content and differ from 2001 early on...) and cut off other not-so-important things from S1 & S2 — because as a result season 2 kind of suffer a bit by being The Yuki Season, which, for as much as I love Yuki, did end up being a bit annoying and made his development feel less natural and gradual, as well as the fact it sidelined the other characters a little and left them with not much conclusion in its final. So this added to how much they ended up cutting in season 3, it makes the show as a whole feels really unequal. I think they did overall a good job in season 3 with what they had, and they really nailed some of the dramatic and Kyoru moments (the sheets scene, cliff confrontation and post-hospital confession were practically perfect), but it is a shame that it ended up as an extremely marathoned emotional roller-caster rather than a more well-paced watch that we would’ve had if it had been 20 or so episodes. (I know others argued that season 3 was what it was because there wasn’t enough content left to cover for 22 or 24 episodes, but I disagree and even if there weren’t, it would’ve been the perfect occasion to add original episodes then. But I think it was more of a budget and Covid issue personally.)

But anyway, all of this isn’t actually what I’m the most annoyed with (and YES that’s a already a lot lmao), those are stuff I can live with, but like I said earlier the most problematic is what they cut off from Tohru’s character. And that indeed includes her parents’ backstory.

So, just so I get this out of the way; yes, I do understand why people were relieved to not see Kyoko and Katsuya’s relationship play out on screen, and yes the age gap and teacher-student thing is creepy and I do kind of wish it hadn’t been written that way. (Though I was a bit amused by people who thought we didn’t get the backstory because of the questionable age gap when, uh... you know I very much doubt the anime industry has an issue with that. Like, to start with, we wouldn’t have had Uo and Kureno’s romance if that was the case (even if Uo and Kureno is less problematic, it’s still the same basis of a underage high school girl/20+ adult man relationship), and second there was a literal romcom anime about a high school girl and an adult man that was broadcasted at the same time as Furuba season 3 lmao. So nah, it wasn’t there the problem to them, it was just time and episode restriction, which was pretty much confirmed with the announcement of the OAV focused on them.)

So, Kyoko and Katsuya is definitely Problematic and I agree on their relationship being uncomfortable; however, I’m a bit baffled that people were literally cheering on not having that part in the show, because it is... it is not just like a small bit of family trivia, it is Extremely important and actively essential to Tohru’s character and Fruits Basket’s themes and narrative as a whole. It’s very important to understand Kyoko’s character, of course; to humanize her and finally present her as a very flawed person and not just the idealized mother that Tohru project upon her, and it is extremely important simply to understand Tohru herself as well; to understand where her way of thinking, her trauma and attitude stems from, and this in a way that just isn’t possible to see with the little fragments of that flashback we got or the bits of Kyo and Kyoko’s interactions.

See, Tohru’s character is principally constructed around two things; her grief over her mother and her almost-pathological selflesness and people-pleaser needs that comes from her abandonment issues and loneliness, and her arc is very much about letting go of both of these things and finally moving forward and letting her life change. There’s this perception of Tohru I see sometimes that she’s not a very interesting character especially compared to others like Yuki or Kyo, or that she ‘‘stays the same kindhearted, naive girl from start to finish,’’ and while I deeply disagree with this I know where it comes from. The thing with Tohru is that she is firstly an extremely emotionally repressed character, and so a lot of her depth and development is made through small, gradual details scattered throughout the manga. It’s done in such a way that except for some obvious scenes those small, apparently insignificant moments are easy to miss or disregarded, and unfortunately it is a lot of these details that the 2019 anime cut, or rearanged in a way that feel less impactful or makes less sense; such as, like I pointed out earlier, her conversation with Ritsu after his suicide attempt. As I’ve seen others point out, this result in altering Tohru’s portrayal and rendering her character mostly about her romance, undercutting and downplaying all of her small, subtle character moments and developments, and miss a bit the second part of the story where the narrative actively challenge the ‘savior/therapist/mom’ that other characters and Tohru herself projected upon her.

And as a result it also means undermining things like her parallel and relationship to Akito, which idealistically should’ve been slowly built up throughout the last season but because of how rushed season 3 was in the end felt a little flat. (Akito’s character in general had some issues also because of the unequal pacing and rearranged scenes, though admittedly I think this was also an issue present in the original manga.) Kyo’s character and his romance with Tohru is the one element that managed to get out of this mostly unscathed (although Kyo also does suffer a bit from it), but because of what was removed from Tohru’s character it still inevitably impacted them by making their characters as individuals lacking. It’s not like it is a complete failure, mind you; I think the anime at least did a decent job at showing Tohru is Not Okay even at the beginning in season 1 (they certainly did a better job at it than the 2001 one lol) and managed to roughly portray her issues well enough overall, but it is just… lacking in the subtlety and nuances that, to me, makes her character and writing really special and unique.

(This post explains what I’ve tried to say here in a much more eloquent and better way that I ever could, and this all put into perspective what I basically love so much about Tohru and Fruits Basket in general.)

And, you know, it would’ve been sad but comprehensible with any other character, but here we’re talking about the story’s literal protagonist, which is why it is the part of the adaptation that makes me feel the most bitter. Tohru and her story is truly amazing and well-written, the thing I was looking forward to the most with this reboot — and while I do understand the episode restriction and I do believe they still did their best with what they had — her arc still deserved to receive a full proper adaptation, not a kind-of-half one.

So, yes, I am at least glad they’ll adapt Kyoko and Katsuya’s story in OAV, but the fact that it will never be included in the actual main narrative is still actively detrimental to it, and it will never have the same effect that if it had been played out before the Kyoru sheets scene where it should’ve been. (I hope they also won’t cut the fact that their story is narrated by Kyo, because that is also a very important detail for both Kyo and the story, but I have the feeling they will…)

Welp, that was quite a long, messy rambling. Not sure if anyone will actually read all of it but if you did then congrats lol. I feel in the end I’ve been really harsh and negative with the reboot… I do love it a lot! If someone asked me I would wholeheartedly recommend it (though I guess I would still argue to read the manga first if you really want to experience the story in all its nuances). I think they truly did an impressive job — even with season 3, which a lot of its episodes were beautifully done and did make me tear up a few times lol. I’m just sad it couldn’t actually offer a better, more nuanced delivery of the story’s depths and of one of my favorite manga protagonists that means a lot to me. But that’s an adaptation that so many fans wanted for years and I’m happy and grateful it’s here cause Fruits Basket deserved at least that much!

#Fruits Basket #Fruits Basket (2019)#Long Post #Connan's Ramblings #Text #Fruits Basket Anime

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dillydedalus · 3 years

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april reading

oh yeah this is a thing. anyway in april i read about uhhh.... first contact (twice), murderers on skis & victorian church politics

the yield, tara june winch a novel about indigenous australian identity and history (now and throughout the 20th century) in three narrative strands. imo the narrative strand that consists of a grandfather writing a dictionary of his language (wiradjuri) in order to prove a claim to some land is by far the strongest, but overall i liked this quite a lot. 3/5

land of big numbers, te-ping chen a solid short story collection focused on modern china and young(ish) chinese people, both in china and the diaspora. i particularly liked the stories that had some slighty surreal or speculative elements, such as one about fruit that strongly evoke emotions when eaten and a group of people stuck in a train station for months as the train is delayed, which imo use their speculative aspects in effective (if not super subtle) ways to talk about society. 3/5

the pear field, nana ekvtimishvili (tr. from georgian by elizabeth heighway) international booker prize longlist! a short, fairly depressing read about a 18-year-old girl at a post-soviet school for developmentally disabled childred (but also orphans, abandoned children & other random kids) who is trying to get a younger boy adopted by an american couple. there seem to be a lot of novels set at post-soviet orphanages etc & imo this is a well-executed example of the microgenre, with the pear field full of pears that are never picked bc they don’t taste right as a strong central image. 3/5

the warden, anthony trollope (chronicles of barsetshire #1) ah yes, a 6-part victorian series about church politics in an english town, exactly the kind of thing i’m interested in. not sure why i committed to at least the first two entries of the series but here we are. despite this lack of interest (and disagreement with most of the politics on display here) i found this quite charming; trollope has a gift for an amusing turn of phrase & making fun of his characters in benevolent ways. 3/5

the lesson, cadwell turnbull first contact scifi novel set on the virgin islands, where an alien ship arrives one day. the aliens seem benevolent & share helpful technology, but also react with extreme violence to any aggression. they claim to be on earth to study.... something, but it’s never entirely clear what. the book makes some interesting choices (like immediately skipping over the actual first contact to a few years in the future, when the aliens are already established on the islands) but i thought much of it was kinda disjointed and confusing. 2/5

the heart is a lonely hunter, carson mccullers look, i get it, it’s all about the isolation & alienation (& dare i say loneliness) of 4 miserable characters projecting their issues on the central character singer, who is kind and patient and also deaf and mute, thus making him the perfect receptacle for their issues without really having to connect with him as a person and how that isolation hinders them socially, artistically, emotionally, politically, but like... i didn’t really like it. i didn’t hate it but i just felt very meh about it all. 2.5/5

acht tage im mai: die letzte woche des dritten reiches, volker ulrich fascinating history book about the last week(ish) of the third reich, starting with the day of hitler’s suicide and ending with the total surrender (but with plenty of flashbacks and forwards), and looking at military&political leadership (german and allied) as well as prisoners of war, forced laborers, concentration camp prisoners, and everyone else. very interesting look at what kästner described as the “gap between the not-anymore and the not-yet.” 3.5/5

firekeeper’s daughter, angeline boulley) i’ve been mostly off the YA train for the last few years, but this was a really good example of contemporary YA with a focus on ~social issues. ANYWAY. this is YA crime novel about daunis, a mixed-race unenrolled ojibwe girl close to finishing high school who is struggling with family problems, university plans, and feeling caught between her white and her native familiy when her best friend is shot in front of her and she decides to become a CI for an fbi investigation into meth production in the community. i really appreciated how hard this went both with the broader social issues (racism, addiction) and daunis’ personal struggles. there are a few bits that felt a bit didactic & on the nose (and the romance... oh well), but overall the themes of community, family, and the value of living indigenous culture are really well done & i teared up several times. 4/5

the magic toyshop, angela carter i love carter’s short stories but struggle with (while still liking) her novels so far. this one, a tale of melanie, suddenly orphaned after trying on her mother’s wedding dress in the garden, coming of age and awakening to womanhood or whatever. carter’s really into that. it’s well-written, sensual as carter always is, and the family melanie and her siblings are sent to, her tyrannical puppet-maker uncle, his mute wife and the wife’s two brothers, both fascinating and offputting (& dirty) make for an interesting cast of characters, but overall i just wish i was reading the bloody chamber again. 3/5

barchester towers, anthony trollope (chronicles of barsetshire #2) (audio) lol tbh i still don’t know why i am committing to this series about, again, church politics in 19th century rural england, but it’s just so chill & warm & funny (we love gently or not so gently - but always politely - mocking our characters) that i’m enjoying it as a nice little trip where people do some #crazyschemes to gain church positions or fight over whether there should be songs in church or whatever it is people in the 19th century fought about. it’s very relaxing. there also is a lot of love quadrangleyness going on and that’s also fun. trollope has weird ideas about women but like whatever, i for one wish mrs proudie much joy of her position as defacto bishop of barchester, she really girlbossed her way to the top. 3.5/5

semiosis, sue burke (semiosis #1) i love spinning the wheel on the “first contact with X weird alien species” & i guess this time we landed on plants! plant intelligence is interesting and the idea of plant warfare is really cool. i do like the structure, with different generations of human settlers on the planet pax providing a long-term view but this allows the author to skip over a lot of the development of the relationship between the settlers and the plant and locating the plot elsewhere, which i think is ultimately a mistake. i might continue w/ the series tho, depending on library availability. 2.5/5

one by one, ruth ware a bunch of start-up people go on a corporate retreat to a ski chalet in the alps, avalanche warning goes up, one of them disappears, presumably on a black piste, the rest get snowed in & completely cut off when the avalanche hits and then they get picked off *title drop* (altho really not that many of them). nice fluff when i had a miserable cold (not covid) but fails when it tries to go for deeper themes... like an attempt to address classism and entitlement sure... was made. also like what kind of luxury skiing chalet does not have emergency communication devices in case internet/phone lines are down... i’d have sued just for that. 2/5

fake accounts, lauren oyler the microgenre of ‘alienated intellectual(ish) probably anglophone person has some sort of crisis, goes to berlin about it’ is my ultimate literary weakness - i almost never really like them, they mostly irritate me & yet i can never resist their siren call. this one is p strong on the irritation, altho at least the narrator does not ascribe much meaning to her decision to go to berlin after she a) discovers her boyf is an online conspiracy theorist (probably not sincerely) and b) gets a call that said boyf has died, it’s really just something to do to avoid doing anything else. but other than that it’s so BerlinExpat by the numbers, like she lives in kreuzkölln! put her somewhere else at least! there is one scene that elevates the BerlinExpat-ness of it all (narrator asks expatfriend for advice on visa applications, expatfriend assures her that it’s really easy for americans to get visa, adds “especially now” while literally, as the narrator remarks, gesturing at the falafel she’s eating) other than that, the novel is.... fine. it’s smart, but not really as smart as it thinks it is, which is a problem bc it thinks it’s just sooo incisive. whatever. 2/5

the tenant of wildfell hall, anne bronte this is reductive but: jane eyre: i could fix him // wuthering heights: i could make him worse // wildfell hall: lmao i’m gonna leave his ass anyway i enjoyed the part that is actually narrated by the titular tenant of wildfell hall, helen (which thankfully, i think, is most of it) because the perspective of a woman who runs away from her abusive alcoholic of a husband is genuinely interesting and engaging, while gilbert, the frame story narrator who falls in love with helen, is.... the worst. i mean he’s not the worst bc the abusive husband arthur is there and hard to beat in terms of worseness, but he’s pretty fucking bad. imagine if helen had found out that gilbert attacked her secret brother over a misunderstanding, severely injured him & LEFT HIM TO DIE & then (when dude survived & the misunderstanding got cleared up) apologised like well i guess i didn’t treat you quite right! she’d have to run away from her second husband as well! poor girl. 3/5

#the books i read #long post #lol i keep forgetting to finish & post these #anyway gilbert fucking sucks! like his name is gilbert you can do better helen

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clarasimone · 5 years

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A perspective on the forewarning fascist iconography in GoT

Was it yesterday ? I reacted to a mind-provoking aesthetic analysis of GoT reblogged by @felixthemudnescat ... which basically no one reacted to (LOL) but... chatting with @scratchybeardsweetmouth and @ser-jorah-the-andal, I felt like revisiting it to add observations to my initial reaction. Even if it’s too heavy-meta for such a beautiful summer day. @felixthemudnescat pardon me for not using the reblog button cause I want to do this under the dot-dot-dot so as not to weigh down the usual degree of levity in our tumblr group ;-)

Also I only realized today that you actually reblogged without commenting and I assumed, maybe wrongly, that you adhered completely to what you reblogged. And that might not be the case, so I’ll alter my text accordingly...

So here we go... (my input comes at the end)

Anonymous asked:

Girl. Gurl. Who the fuck is Leni Riefenstahl? Y'all Sansa stans pulling the most elaborate nonsense out of your asses to justify shitty writing. Or you twist everything and make D&D sound as if they're the most brilliant minds the world has ever seen LOL

fedonciadale answered:

Hi there!

If you would have taken one moment to look up Leni Riefenstahl - and I assure you that it is not difficult to look her up - you would not have combined your question with a comment about the writing…. Look her up and learn a lesson about how tyrants manipulate.

The visuals of the show are alluding to famous/ notorious shots of Leni Riefenstahl. You would agree that the visuals are something that gives us hints? In addition to the dialogue?

Sansa stans have complained about the writing since season 5…. You all - I’m just assuming you are a Dany fan, correct me if I’m wrong - had no complaints about shitty writing in season 7?

Look I am not saying that the way D&D got to DarkDany this season was well executed, but the foreshadowing and the character development are there. And actually from all the things the show did Daenerys is one of the better from book to screen. The hiding of her path to ruthlessness by filming from her POV is well done in season 1 to 6, and the triumphant visuals are part of that.

Visuals are part of the foreshadowing. It did not come out of nowhere and it was always a major plot point - as has been argued by book readers for ages. That Dany blew up King’s Landing was always to be the culmination of her arc. And it was always meant to hit you in the gut. So, as you do nicely put it : get your head out of your ass as and realise that you have been duped. And ponder about why? Was it because Dany is beautiful? Was it because she had the occasional bouts of benevolence? Was it because you thought she was entitled to an ugly chair because she suffered? Was it because she was set up against people coded as villains, so that you don’t care about how she defeated them? Was it because she is a woman and woman can’t be evil?

Take your pick and learn something about yourself and your own bias, how we can be duped by a tyrant! If you do that you are doing exactly what GRRM intended his readers to do by writing Dany like he did.

une-nuit-pour-se-souvenir

(in fiction, all these logos meant to reference the nazi flag)

fedonciadale

Reblogging for @une-nuit-pour-se-souvenir ’s excellent additions. I could not have done that because that film is actually forbidden in Germany.

justacynicalromantic

Ohhhohohoho the last one - I am😏 at people who half a year ago threw stones at me when I argued that Dany has always had parallels with Hitler.

felixthemudnescat

Found this shared on Quora, had to re-blog!

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Hi @felixthemudnescat long time no see !

I had not seen the original posting of this. My first instinctual reaction to this iconographic/aesthetics research is to object to the simple equation of Daenerys with Hitler. No fiction character will ever match the scope of evil (for lack of a better word) this man and his ideology represented. By ricochet and association, it makes every fan who was moved by Daenerys a potential Nazi sympathizer and that makes no sense. It’s also unnecessarily hurtful and insulting both to these fans and the real World (those who suffered and still suffer from The Holocaust). This said, the iconographic evidence you provided through your reblog has weight and is exactly what I referred to in some of my posts as the visual clues given in the show as to Dany’s *possible* arc, its *possible* finality (more on the *possible* further down); clues which scream at you if you have the cultural baggage to recognize them, and when you binge-watch the series 3 times in one month instead of watching it an ep at the time over 8-9 years. The middle seasons are especially ripe with these visual signs because they’re tagged unto somewhat repetitious narrative (Dany freeing/conquering one city at a time with little intimate character dev scenes). And @fedonciadale is right in wanting fans to look more closely into themselves; we shouldn’t close ours eyes on the shady ideological and moral symbols casting shadows on Daenerys throughout the seasons. But they were shadows. I don’t think they were meant to be the beginning and end to all things explaining the character.

@felixthemudnescat or @fedonciadale don’t you think D&D were building something much more subtle than the end result they opted for and which gives weight to your comparative iconographic essay ? For many seasons, the fascist references or foreboding reminders of Targaryen madness never outweighed the characterizations of Daenerys as a young woman who, regardless (or because ?) of her thwarted and abusive upbringing was trying to conjugate her own suffering and road to affirmation with the conquerer’s path given her. She might not have questioned the necessity/validity for her to conquer her way back to Westeros, as the only way she could get home, but she didn’t do it through simple rampage either. She did care to free the people she needed to build her armies. She did have a heart. This she did spontaneously; it came from a deep source within her, not a calculated one. Even if, of course, it turned out to be an astute strategy. And that sets her apart from the Nazis and its leader. At their best, D&D conjugated the two: giving us a rounded character build-up and evolution with ominous symbolic shadows lurking about her. @scratchybeardsweetmouth also made me realize, I who have not read the novels, that this humane aspect of Daenerys is brought even more to the foreground in the books. I quote @scratchybeardsweetmouth: “In the books (...) she repeatedly communicates firsthand with her freed people. She hears their opinions, is not afraid to mingle with them, always finds a way to protect them, even went out of her way to help heal some when a disease was about...” Without getting as much detailed info on her compassionate stance and actions in the show, it’s certainly the impression she indeed left us with, and it’s what her most faithful and steadfast companion, ser Jorah, sees in her and repeatedly says out loud, lest we forget it ;-) (“You have a gentle heart,” etc.)

So I thought it was IMMENSELY daring of D&D (or the novelist I’ve not read yet) to give us that scene where Daenerys is called Mhysa/Mother by the slaves she freed because the scene was inhabited with so many conflictual signs: I was all at once moved and sooooo worried as to where this could lead. Moved because, bottom line, these slaves are freed, actually freed, it’s the start of something. Dany has always given those she freed a choice to leave if they so wished… Moved because it’s a woman effecting the freeing, not a man… Moved because it’s Dany, the girl who suffered, who was a slave of sorts, that does the freeing, not her mentors…. Moved to see a culture refer to their freer as “Mother” (what a great homage to mothers, to women in general) / buuuuut also worried to see a culture refer to their freer as “Mother” because it seems to infantilize them on screen.

Here we could also open up a whole debate about the malaise one can feel in seeing an Aristocratic White Woman free Third World People but I urge you to go read @khaleesirin‘s meta writings on the subject. She makes a great case for us NOT to see Daenerys in this fashion. Regardless of her looks and lineage, the novels (and GoT, I insist in my chats with @khaleesirin ;-) shows her to be like the people she frees: an Other. She like then is homeless, uprooted, migrant, disenfranchised. If we fail to see it in Essos, the show really drives this home once Daenerys sets foot in Westeros where NO ONE welcomes, understands or appreciates her. (Which suddenly complexifies our rapport to Sansa and the Northerners we grew to love and respect since they seem not to be above xenophobia, and racism.)

But to get back to the Mhysa scene. Once the worrying starts, I can’t seem to stop it, even as I am moved to tears. Literally. Because of the above-mentioned qualities of it, and also possibly because of the Christ-like iconography it uses to celebrate Dany (”Let the little children come unto me” - if I may paraphrase the New Testament -- and thanks to @ser-jorah-the-andal for the reminder). And I’m always partial to feminizations of Christ; I love it, I think it’s sublimely subversive :-) But I’m also kicking myself for liking this because I fundamentally don’t want a Messiah saving the Third World, I want the Third World to save itself... and I’m worried. I’m really worried as I watch Daenerys triumph in this scene because we know she’s lacking important elements in her “psycho-affective and socio-political tool kit” (regardless of the quality and loving care of advisers now on hand, *cough* Jorah -- in the books @scratchybeardsweetmouth tells me she needs no advisor to keep her moral compass straight) and, so, will this get to her head ? Will she get drunk on her Messiah complex (and of course she does at the end of season 8) ? And what will happen if those she freed disappoint her (again flashforward to the end of season 8) ? And how will she rule them exactly (ditto) ? And, finally, yes, worried because, the fascist iconography is there and I’m going: omg where are they going with this ?

Here I want to open another parenthesis, also brought on by something @ser-jorah-the-andal wrote me: “if this is what they meant in the first place, they sure as hell didn’t bother to tell anyone in the cast so they could act accordingly, tho a case could be made that Dany never saw herself as the villain so that’s why they didn’t tell Emilia.” Indeed I’m sure the cast, or at the very least Emilia Clarke, were never told about the endgame, or never cued to the quoting of fascist iconography in some of Daenerys’ triumphant scenes. Clarke’s shocked reaction upon reading the last screenplays is a testament to her profound surprise... and this raises ethical questions, doesn’t it ? I mean in the ethics of creative partnership. It’s a recent debate possibly because there are so many tales of directors manipulating actors into giving them the performance needed to embody and communicate the discourse they want to leave us with. But the professional in me cringes here a bit. You’d hope they would trust actors enough to let them into what it is exactly they’re supposed to be creating...

This said, up to the moment before “the bells” scene in season 8, I had nonetheless seen D+D and EC give us a woman struggling morally with her choices. That’s important to state. And to get back to the above demonstration of fascist parallels, well, please, let’s point out that the Nazis and their leader never did struggle morally with what they were doing (or if they did, History bears no markers -- I’m talking about the Nazis here, not the German people as a whole). And I was prepared to see Daenerys fail because she never healed, she never achieved psycho-affective soundness (shall we get into the chapter of her misconstruing what love is ? Her relationship arc with Jorah speaks volumes) but I was expecting her to feel remorse if she did succumb to true fascism; remorse to the point of self-execution if you will, because that’s the kind of moral person D+D had been building for 7 years. But after D&D sent her over the edge, they erased all the previous nuances they had built into her, and I believe, tried to explained it away with a broken heart, megalomania and madness….

So if their plan was truly to make us see her as a fascist leader of the scope we’re talking about here, the way the above visual essay seems to suggest, they would have fleshed out her character’s arc accordingly throughout the seasons, and they didn’t. There were clues as to the possibilities -- yes, Dany stepping out for her final speech is absolutely shot like Triumph of the Will by Riefenstahl… but it’s also infused with other iconographic references. That image of her merging with Drogon’s wings belongs to the fantastic, and makes her into a formidable and powerful Id, which can be construed as a positive subversive marker. And some of us do celebrate WrathfulDany for this reason....

The reality of GoT is that there were no actual scenes developing her fascist ideology. So let’s not confuse allusions to fascism with actual fascism. With all D+D’s failings towards the end, Daenerys remained a more nuanced and contradictory character than that. She is NOT Hitler, please......

The iconographic research you provided in your reblog @felixthemudnescat show us one important aspect of Dany’s subtextual arc but not the full picture. It’s missing the heart and the suffering behind the soul who fell from grace.

I hope you don’t construe this long winding reaction as a slam. I know you come from a very specific place in regards to Daenerys. I just thought the excellent research you provided deserved to be reblogged, but with an added perspective ;-)

#got meta #got analysis #daenerys targaryen #Ser Jorah Mormont #fascism

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elishebe · 6 years

Text

Sasuhina Secret Santa-Vampire AU

A/N: God I’m atrociously late, and excuses are trash, but I literally didn’t save my work when I damn near finished this last week, and I just...had to recover from that trauma and try to write it again lol. It’s honestly not as great as it would be if I weren’t so upset with myself for losing all the work and trying emulate it again, but I tried my best! Super sore again, Hope you like @fher43

-btw Hinata’s slighty ooc just because...i feel like six hundred plus years of vampirism does that to a person lol.

:: There’s something about the ripeness of age... ::

Unoriginal. Cheap. Cliche.

A birthday gift for his mother absolutely had to be authentic and well-thought out. She might appreciate anything she received, but she could smell things like cheap and overdone.

But Sasuke’d be lying if he said he didn’t feel any hope this antique shop he stumbled upon. It was dingy in all the right ways, and he was the only customer in. A turn around each corner and something ancient and beautiful would appear eclipising the last item he’d seen.

And then he turned another corner, the shopkeeper standing right before him.

Mismatched, Sasuke thought. Completely and utterly.

From the deep, velvet maroon of her lip, to the smokey obsidian modeling the edges of her eye with a blackish cardinal pigment dusting from eyelid to brow bone--well--Sasuke was no stranger to heuristics or falling prey to stereotypes himself. Thus he was good of watching himself, and looking at her darkly themed makeup, which he was indeed a fan of, decided it was just her interest and mood, not her personality entirely.

Even the hair he could reconcile as just...another thing, he supposed. Blue, though dark. Smalt, even. It fell down around her--bone straight, obedient--like a stream, and her long bangs acting as a curtain parted along the sides of her trim face for the main act as pearlescent orbs descended upon his shirt.

But that small bat tattoo right below the eye...well it was hard to think her anything other than what he believed upon seeing it.

So-

That angelically soft smile had caught him off his guard.

“Theatre of Tragedy?” She asked with a glance at his shirt, cup in hand, looking away as she pulled at spine backs of books.

Sasuke stared at the woman from down the aisle, mindlessly approaching her. She sorted through some large books, and with one hand, before picking one up with a graceful ease.

“Venus is my favorite song right now.” She remarked, pleasantry on her lips, as she turned to him; glassy lavender eyes were like white against her eyeshadow. “What about you?”

Sasuke blinked. “Uh...And When He Falleth.”

Her visage warped with a thoughtfulness, nodding. “Yeah, I like that one too.” Her eyes were trained on the book, trying to place it properly. “They’re a bit old school. I’m surprised to see such a young fan.”

He tilted his head slightly. Young? He wanted to ask. She didn’t look much older than him, if at all. He could pin her three years older than him at most, and the band would still be considered ahead of her time too.

Sasuke poked his head in an victorian-themed wardrobe. “Yeah I’m...into old shit...I guess.”

He didn’t miss the way her lips twitched at that. Without looking up the woman replied,”That explains why you’re here I guess.”

The raven haired man nodded. “That explains why I’m here-well, uh-”He paused. That wasn’t true, well it was true, but-

“I’m looking for a present.” He elaborated. She took a sip from her cup and gave him her full attention.

“You work here?” Sasuke asked, lamely, might he add as if it weren’t obvious.

The woman peaked at him through long bangs, a smile at her lips, and something wistful behind i

“I own here.” She answered, “But my apologies. I should’ve introduced myself. My name is Hinata. I’m the owner and dealer of this shop.”

She was sort of...very pretty, he quickly noted, maybe too quickly. But further than that, although she looked no older than him, something about her did rightfully belong in this small antiques store. He just...couldn’t name it.

“What’s the present for?” She asked.

After explaining his predicament, Sasuke found himself following behind a magical creature. The store was somewhat cramped, and he had to shift and duck a few times making for some disjointed steps, but the woman before him was like...a floating gothic sheet of clouds hung low to the ground. Her movements were subtle and graceful. Her black lace cover up flowed behind her in an intriguing and dramatic way.

As he trailed behind her, he put his hands on some knives for the sake of it, and called ahead of her, “How did you get into Theatre of Tragedy?”

“I’ve been around.” She answered.

Sasuke glanced down at her. “So what?”

She looked him up and down once before turning around a counter to open a cupboard. “Means I’m an old soul. So I guess I also...am into ‘old shit’.” She mocked.

Sasuke smirked at her mockery leaning against the counter. “Old soul...” He mumbled. “how old?”

She hefted a large box onto the counter. “686 years to be exact.”

The dark haired male belted a low chuckle.

“Here,” She said to him opening the box with an assortment of jewelry. “It’s a 19th century French and Japanese collection. I especially like the brooches; they’re designs are more reflective of the era. See anything your mother might like?”

“You, probably.” He responded ignorant of the subtext behind it. Though it was very true his mother loved individuals with a fascination and knowledge of things she knew little about. And considering the expanse of this shop, there was much this woman could talk his mother’s ear off about.

He looked up at her to find her fighting a laugh, with a shake of the head. He felt a warmth rise to his face.

“Oh, I...I didn’t-I wasn’t trying to...”

“Flirt.” She finished for him, understanding look in her eyes, but teasing smile about her lips.

“Yeah...not that I wouldn’t. I mean-” He said opting to look at the brooches rather than her amused face. “I just, like...these are really nice.”

Hinata had surrendered to her giggles, and Sasuke tried to brush it off as he rubbed his neck, sighing at his own failing.

“I’m so sorry for laughing,” Hinata apologized holding her stomach in between fits of laughter.

Sasuke smirked. “It’s fine.” He peeled the black and red one from the box. “I think I’ll take this one.”

A Week Later

“Witch?”

“Nope.”

“Sorcerer, wizard, warlock?”

“Those aren’t all the same as witch?”

“I don’t know I’m asking you, Not-Witch.”

“I don’t know. But, still wrong.” Hinata replied dusting the wooden, creaky floor.

Sasuke sat in her chair at the counter, playing with an old toy staring at her all the while. He’d came back the day after he got the present. Though it was simply because he didn’t get a good look at the whole shop, and that was it, he supposed. While the shop itself was tiny, there was much to see, and in the meanwhile, he had a wildly likable and likely magical witch (or rather not-witch) for a personal tour guide. Extremely personal, he hardly ever saw anyone in here but himself.

In the midst of it their proximity, Sasuke had become more and more certain of her magical not-witchery. She moved like water, didn’t have a door bell to know when people come in, but somehow always knew he had arrived, and

she knew everything.

“Mmm, nymph? Fairy?”

She shook her head, but then wore a pondering look. “I do know a nymph actually. You have one more try. I’ll even give you a hint: remember how old I told you my soul is?” Hinata looked at him with amusement; she was sure he was being funny.

“No.” He deadpanned.

Hinata turned around chuckle jostling her shoulders.“Be careful with this next one or I win.”

Sasuke squinted at her, and leaned over the counter.

“Werewolf.”

Hinata cocked her head in laughter. “You must be teasing me now. I told you I have a cat, right?”

“Nah, I definitely told you I have a cat.” Sasuke retorted slumping his chin into his arms. “I’m a bad remembererrer-er.”

“Without a doubt.”

Sasuke folded his arms together. “So what are you, Hyuga?”

“An antiques dealer,” replied she. She stopped sweeping to look at him. “And what are you, Uchiha?”

He looked thoughtful a second.

“Charming.”

She leaned into her broomstick as she heaved an amused sigh. Sasuke stared intently. He liked making her smile.

“You sure you’re not a witch? Got the whole broom stick thing-”

“No.”

Two Weeks after first walk in

“So why do you persist to congest my store further?”

Sasuke scoffed lightly. “Congest?” He asked looking around the store, devoid of other customers. “I’m practically keeping you business.”

“I believe the key word is ‘practically’. In order for that to be remotely true, Sasuke, you’d have to buy something; not loiter all day. You must find me very entreating if you insist on continuing to come without purchasing a single thing,” She ended with a smirk.

Sasuke rejected the rather obvious notion. “It’s not because of you,” He grumbled, sliding a long spined book out of its place to open it. “I’m here for the books, I’m here for..” He squinted. “Paradise Lost.”He held up the book in hand at her. “A true classic,” He urged.

Hinata stood staring, unconvinced, but always in the mood to entertain him. “You sound very familiar.”

“That’s what happens when you read books, I guess. You know them...” He trailed off as his eyes caught sight of another title, one he actually knew.

Hinata huffed. “You’re starting to sound like....” She trailed off as she saw him towering over the glass encasement of another one of her rare editions of old literature.

“See a read you like? One you actually know?” She teased.

Sasuke crossed his arms. “In addition to, actually,” He said, evoking a defeated sigh from her.

“I know this one--The Witch’s Hammer. It was hard to get my hands on a hardcover copy of it. But this one looks...extremely old. Like something of a museum.”

“That’s because it’s a first edition. An original copy.”

She observed him quietly, watching as his eyes wanted over the glass, seemingly entranced by the ancientness about it. It was a grey brown old thing, but she learned how to preserve it, to a point that she could even pick it up to read herself from time to time.

“Hn,” He grunted before unlatching himself from the glass. “Guess you are a grandma.”

Hinata gave him a pointed look. “Nice,” She said, sardonic taste about her reply.

“How much?”

“Not for sale. You’re welcome to look always. That’s not a privilege I give to all customers.”

Sasuke looked around himself. “Do you have like...ghosts for customers? Because who...else..is here besides me.”

The pleasantry in her eyes didn’t fade. “That’s for me to know.”

Sasuke’s lips parted, and closed, as he struggled to decipher the seriousness of that statement. He settled with a defeated nod, and “Okay.”, before pressing on.

“But...can I look at it?”

Her eyebrows furrowed. “You are.”

“With my hands.”

“Didn’t know that was possible,” She admitted, as she rounded the corner to the encasement.

“You know what I mean.”

“Your faith in my understanding of you is impressive,” She remarked unlocking the glass door. She grabbed the book carefully from its closure. “I wouldn’t usually do this, but for such a loyal ‘customer’--and I use that term loosely-- I’ll make an exception.”

She laid it out in her arms for him to take. “It’s still pretty sturdy, I’ve done well to maintain it--it might even be in better condition than some of the non-encased books here; that’s how much I like it. But, I’ll lend it to you.”

Sasuke grabbed the large heavy book from her arms and examined its exterior before tucking it away under his arm.

“Thank you.”

She nodded to him. “Glad something here genuinely grabs your interest.”

Though of course, for him, something already had.

A month after first walk in

“Walk in front of it. I wanna see.”

She smirked. “See what?”

“Just...go. I wanna see.”

Hinata put down her coffee cup, and walked in front of the mirror.

“I can see you,” Sasuke noted.

Hint nodded slowly. “Nothing gets past you, Sasuke,” She said with a straight face walking back to her stool.

Sasuke scoffed. “You know what I meant. How come I can see a vampire in a mirror?”

“Because. This is a mirror. It reflects things. Images.”

Hinata smiled. He was all but pouting now-it was cute.

“So that old rumor is just wrong, plainly.” Sasuke said folding his arms.

Hinata smiled looking at him through the mirror. He was significantly taller, though somewhat lanky, and she did appear, at least, to be his age. His attire was black and ripped from the denim jacket to the jeans. The fine contrast of jet black hair to his skin was impossible to miss.

The young Uchiha might’ve caught her eye half a millennium ago, but the wafting charm that seemed irresistable to everyone around fell flat on the ageless woman. Though this did nothing to diminish her fondness for the boy; however,

to her, he was just that: a boy.

Crash!

She turned to find Sasuke quickly but gracelessly trying to pick up the metallic vase up off the floor, which he’d clearly dropped. She watched him with quiet humor about her eyes.

He must’ve been staring too hard again...

Three months After first walk in

“How much blood do you drink?”

Hinata paused at that question. She knew he’d come to ask about the blood eventually. Although, it was rarely how much, rather than what, how, or how often.

“Enough.” She answered.

“where do you get it from?”

Hinata flipped another page to her book. “I have a friend at the blood bank, but occasionally animals.”

“Can I see your fangs?”

“Absolutely not.”

Sasuke looked at her strangely. “Is it like...offensive?”

She looked over to him. “Imagine I asked you to pull your pants down.”

Sasuke blinked a moment, uncertain before looking back to her. “I mean...I’d do it.”

Oh brother.

Five years after first walk in

“So, how was she?”

Sasuke stretched himself out on the chair as Hinata paused her sweeping. She looked over at him excitedly.

“She’s nice. Cute too.”

Hinata turned to him with optimism glint about her eyes. “So your date was...”

“Insufferable,” He answered.

Hinata looked to him, pitiful smile. “How so?”

“i don’t like her.”

Hinata put her broom down to refill her tea. “You just met her. Never took you for a ‘love-at-first-sight type’.”

“Yeah, don’t have much patience for anything less I guess.”

He saw her shaking her head as she poured her tea. “I’m just kidding.”

“I’d hope.” She encouraged, a smile in her voice.

“...give me five years. I’ll know.”

Twenty years after first walk in

She heard the door open and close from the back of the store, pleasantly surprised at the smell of her “customer”, whom had bought only one thing in all these years of dropping by.

He’d been visiting a lot less frequently. In fact it’d been a handful of years, if not more, since he last had come, but before then, he’d come at least biweekly, and before then, multiple times a week, if not even everyday.

Maybe she was exaggerating.

She didn’t usually keep such close track of time.

Even still, he did visit less often these days, and by a sweet twist of irony, she wanted to see him more often these days, much more often.

Though, maybe she just missed him.

She figured maybe he’d grown busy, other parts of her even thought bored. The former would make more sense though, considering his current presence. Whatever the case, she thought, setting down her broomstick to twirl around to him, she was glad he found his way-

Well.

She cleared her throat, trying to rid of her face the contorted expression she knew she might be wearing.

But she just...forgot what time could do to a person.

When she thought or remembered Sasuke, she remembered him young. Not thirty-five. certainly not forty-some odd years either. She’d forgotten, that he was no longer twenty. That he’d grown in the span of their friendship, and that he was human, and that time was an arguably real thing for him.

His face was exactly the same, only, not quite. He wore a more...eloquent expression. Eyebrows just slightly pinched, that she remembered, but with an adult concern that she couldn’t. There, just the slightest wrinkle at the side of his pitiless black eyes and his mouth had creases beside it, and his cheeks were slightly sunken. His hair had grown, thrown back with a few black threads rebelling onto his face against the rest with whiskered greys at the side. His build had widened in muscle, but his posture carried that common burden of adulthood. And...gone was the rebellious aesthetic: he wore a black button down shirt with some grey office slacks and dress shoes.

He wasn’t so different from last she saw him, but twenty years prior kept breaking her thoughts, and she thought maybe this was a different person. It couldn’t be helped, a younger Sasuke had came around more, spoken to her more, annoyed her more, was more familiar.

This older Sasuke was infrequent and inconsistent...and adult.

Looking around playfully, the man then turned back to her,”I’m here for the books...’Lost in paradise’, in particular.”

Hinata smiled. “I have no books of that name here, but Paradise Lost, yes, that I can do.”

“Damn.” Sasuke’s lips had twitched. “It’s been a while since I’ve picked it up for a reread.”

“Maybe if you had bothered to buy it, you’d know its name.” She responded.

He chuckled with heaviness about his voice, she wasn’t familiar. “But then I’d have no excuse to come back here, and look at other things I won’t buy.”

She observed him quietly as he rounded the corners of the store, attention captured by the subtle differences that age had committed against his mannerisms.

“So that’s the reason.”

“Hn,” He huffed before returning his attention to her with a small smile. “It’s been some time.”

The vampire offered a light shrug. “It’s been about a month, on my timeline. No worries.”

Sasuke carefully pulled at the straight of his pant legs before settling himself slowly in his regular old stool. “It’s been too long on mine.”

How strange, a troublesome thought had perverted her mind. Her heart only beat a couple times per day, and when it did, rather mundanely so. This time, however...it was like a ricochet, and strong like...it was alive.

She inhaled deeply, sweeping her store as she routinely had been for the past century.

“I’ll assume I’m still welcome to overstay it.” His face was placid like usual, but that wink was new.

Hinata watched him with her back turned, more mindful of his movements, evaluating the similarity of then and now. even six years ago when he’d last been, Hinata had begun to take note of the waves of adulthood ushering over him. A little less awkward, slightly more tense, equally as charismatic, which netted to zero. Maybe even richer, too. Though, that she had no interest in.

“How old are you now?” she asked.

The raven haired male paused in between flipping through Paradise Lost--he picked up the same exact copy every time. Black orbs darted to her, they seemed more intense than before.

“That’s the first time you’ve asked me that,” He remarked.

“Now can be your first time to answer.”

“It’s offensive to ask we human adults things like that you know?” He said, a mischievous glint about his eyes.

“Really? I hear it’s only rude if you’re old.”

“I’m forty-two,” He replied, with a quickness about it that made her laugh. He went to looking back to the book. “For some reason I assumed you’d always known. But why do you ask?”

Hinata resumed her sweeping with a joke on her lips, “And you were a mere, what? Seventeen, sixteen--when you first walked in here?”

Sasuke’s eyes found her. “I was about to be twenty. Jesus. That’s how annoying I was?”

She laughed at his bewilderment. “It was endearing.”

“God, save your pity.”

Pausing her chore, she looked to him. “So how’s life? How is Sakura?”

A coldness befell him, that she wasn’t expecting.

“Our wedding was beautiful,” He started. She blinked; he’d gotten married to her? “But our divorce really takes the cake I’d say.”

Hinata dusted the inside of a wardrobe. “I...I’m sorry to hear that,” She was, but her mind was skidding a little. He’d gotten married? And she knew nothing of it? She was almost sure ten plus years of friendship just might earn one a wedding invitation. Though she withheld any selfish thoughts or ideas--they’d been estranged for some time, after all.

“I’m not. Christ, I’m never marrying anyone for my mother’s sake again.”

She chuckled lightly as she retreated to her side of the counter, to finish her cup of tea, and watched him quietly. She couldn’t help but study this new Sasuke. It really did feel like such short time ago when he was full faced and somewhat cheeky and quick to retort.

“You got married...when?”

He sighed. “About a year and half after I stopped coming here. Finalized that divorce a couple months ago.”

Sasuke never missed those eyes when they were trained on him. Mainly because it wasn’t often that she actually did look at him. She’d usually be in her duties or already know what he was doing without turning to him; he supposed he never had a good excuse to be seen by her. Though now, she was being rather overt.

“I must look extremely odd to you, if time flies the way it does for you.”

He watched her take a sip from her tea, lavender eyes--starkly illuminated by that dark eye makeup--still glued to him even from behind her cup, and an imperceivable emotion behind them.

“Mhm,” She agreed setting her mug down. “You’ve grown, Sasuke.”

He blinked slowly down at the counter, unsure of how to respond to that--he felt like it’s something his relatives would say to him twenty some odd years ago, not an antiques dealer he can’t seem to leave alone.

He huffed. “Tryna call me old now?”

She joked, “Aren’t you?”

“Nah.”

Her face was telling, and she was, in a word, unconvinced.

His eyes challenged hers, before moving his leg out from under the counter. “I’m gonna extend my knee. If you don’t hear anything, I’m young as can be.”

“Is that a fair risk for your joints?”

She saw his leg twitch, but his eyes didn’t waiver.

He hesitated.“No,” He replied breaking into a smile. “Yeah it’s true. I’m old as shit.”

“Welcome to the club, my friend.”

A week later

Infatuated...She didn’t quite like that word. No, it wasn’t fitting. Maybe she was just being particular about the whole thing...she hadn’t felt like this for a long time. She’d never been so...

smitten--that’s the word.

She didn’t remember the last time she’d been so smitten on a human.

More conversely, she didn’t remember the last time she’d been this smitten without an ounce of reciprocation.

The new Sasuke had grown to be a stone wall, save for the occasional sarcastic comments; but with respect to her affection, everything seemed to be falling flat. He was ignorant of everything she threw to him.

She reached behind the counter, embarrassed almost, but mostly proud. Though still, she’s never had to...be so obvious.

She subtly turned from her book, to see his nose trapped in one as well--he was a bit quieter than he used to be.

“Sasuke, I have something for you.”

He looked away from his book to meet her gaze. Hinata plopped the plant on the counter.

“It’s a piece of my garden--my tomato garden. I remember you’ve always liked when I brought them, so you can have some of it for yourself. If you want, of course. I don’t mind taking it back home,” Hinata explained.

His smile was ear to ear. “I...thought I smelled something earthy, but I was not expecting this.” He got up out his chair. “This is kind of-wow. Thank you.”

She crossed her arms satisifed at his reaction. “So, do you think you’ll need any help planting it?”

He shook his head, looking it over. “Nah...but if worse comes to worse, I’ll look up a video. And if worse actually comes to worse, I’ll...probably call my mother for a tip or two.”

Hinata nodded at him. “Okay, well I’m free to help as well.”

Sasuke huffed, amused. “Even my back can handle a simple planting job like this one on my own.”

Smiling softly, she concede with a nod of the head, ignoring her growing plight. This may be more cause for trouble than she hoped.

Two weeks later

She had always seemed older to him. Even now, when she looked how she did, she gave off an air of wisdom and certainty that could rival the physical laws of nature. But it was extra weird now because he looked older than her, and sort of did feel like it, but things were still uncertain to him. He honestly just didn’t like how it felt being attracted to someone who looked, that young...maybe even just a couple years short of being his kid, but was simultaneously old enough to make his own intellect cower.

Sasuke glanced over at her, balancing his weight on the back legs of the chair.

“What is that?” He asked, referring to the book which seemingly captured all of her attention.

She hardly looked up. “Conjuring ways to seduce you.”

Shock. Then confusion, crashed onto his eyebrows.

And fixed his seat, slamming it to the floor. “Wh...I...that’s not even wha-”

“I know.” Hinata muttered. He might’ve thought she were kidding if not the dejected look she wore on her face as she browsed the contents of her book.

“Seduce me?”

“Mhm.”

He was silent a moment. “Hn...” He grunted, thoughtful, but then a thought came to mind. “Why are you....why am I suddenly something worth being ‘seduced’?”

Hinata removed her hand from under her chin, to turn a page in her book. “I do recall saying sometime ago...I’m into, well how you put it: ‘old shit’. But really, I’m just an antiques dealer. Things, to me, become more beautiful with time; when they have a nice layer of dust, or wrinkles coating them in life.”

Sasuke faced her from around the counter, looking seriously at her. “Is this you’re way...of calling my wrinkles sexy?”

Hinata shook her head, amused at his ability to make humor of anything. She also wanted to tell him, that he had hardly any wrinkles to look twice at. And also that forty-two, realistically, was somewhat far from old.

But she also watched the way he was watching her, and it was tentative but fond, but not akin to how it used to be. She released a low huff of dismay.

“What a pity,” She started with a sad smile. “You don’t like me anymore.” She said crossing her arms.

She wanted to roll her eyes at the onset of denseness as he looked at her confused. He was getting ready to dispute it, she knew, on the basis that her friendship meant a lot to him, and absolutely nothing meaningful to her in the moment.

Sasuke’s brows pinched. “That’s insane,” he said.

Hinata met his challenge. “Not entirely.”

“No. You’re-” His expression made a weird change she couldn’t pin point before relaxing.

“I more than liked you, Hinata,” he stated making an obvious face, like she were dense. “I didn’t come by because I more than liked you, and thought maybe I should give these emotions to someone else. I mean that didn’t...work, but-” He cleared his throat. “i’m here again. And I still...more than like you.”

A/N: Yeah that ending...will be edited lol, but hope you somewhat enjoyed. Through it all, I honestly enjoyed writing this AU and I absolutely loved exploring those little pieces of art and literature you threw to give the AU some more richness. It was extremely fun to do, and I added some books on my to-read list lol, anyway it’s super late but Happy Holidays ! @fher43

#sasuhina #shss2018 #the characterization: off #especially with Sasuke #idk its not as good as it could've been but i just felt bad about not having put it out yet ://#I'm probably coming back to edit for sure #bc this was such a cute concept

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danvssomethingorother · 6 years

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My Top Picks for VB fics

I didn’t want to put the fics in any order, they are all good and just as a warning, I mainly read Brusty fics but these are my personal favorites from the VB fandom. most VB fics are good though and I still have some not Brusty ones on my to read list later, so I will likely update again lol. Please feel free to reblog this and add more fics!

Hubris Makes the Heart Grow Strong -

Ship: Brusty eventually

Status: Ongoing.

Author: @the-monarch-is-a-venture here

Summary: An AU in which Rusty takes Brock's DNA while they're in college and ends up mixing it with his own later to create Hank and Dean.This will be Brock x Rusty further in to the story, but it's definitely gonna be a slow build, multi-chapter type thing.

My notes: I think this was one of the first VB fics I read way back in July after I finally got around to finishing up the series after years of never being able to keep up with it properly even though I have always liked the show and man this really helped me stick around and keep an eye on the fandom even when it was dead.

I just really like the premise of this fic, its a really creative and interesting origin story of where the twins came from and its just really soft. Its like a perfect fic to read when like you have had a long day and just need to relax with a cute fic.

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What’s Past Is A Prologue

Ships: Brusty

Status: Complete

Author: mirawonderfulstar

Summary: “How is the doc, anyway? Have you heard from him recently?”“Alas, no.” Orpheus said solemnly. “The last I saw of him was shortly after you and the boys left the compound. I went by to see if perhaps he needed some cheering up, poor fellow, all alone in that huge empty place, and he threw me out.” Orpheus’s tone grew colder. “I daresay that Killinger fellow brainwashed him, yes? Turned him away from the things and people he loved. I cannot think of any other reason he’d allow you and the children to be parted from him, he always seemed so devoted to you all.”Brock felt something cold slide down into his stomach, and he took a quick spoonful of his soup which did nothing to counter the effect. “You think?” He grunted after a moment.An AU following the divergence that Rusty took Killinger's offer at the end of The Doctor Is Sin.

My Notes: Rusty becomes a villain AUs are my jam. The Doctor Is Sin is definitely one of my favorite episodes!

I love how it keeps it a mystery what Rusty is up by keeping everything in Brock’s perspective and showing his slow transformation into a real villain and I don’t want to give it away but Rusty’s plan is freaking genius. Like that is super in character and its a really heart breaking ending. Just go read it, you won’t regret it.

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How you Feeling?

Ships: Brusty

Status: Complete

Author: NewAgeVintage

Summary: Taking place in a vague place in season 6/7.Rusty loses his secret stash of ‘emergency’ pills when he loses the compound. Thankfully money can buy dubiously prescribed medication. After a frustrating night in the lab he breaks into his stash and Brock needs to step in.

My Notes: I have been trying to just like keep it to like one story per author I like and since most of the fandom is like the same few people making tons of really good work, it sometimes got tricky.

Like I have really loved every single story this author has made but I settled on this one eventually because I just really love the idea that Brock is just used to Rusty’s bad habits and just knows how to handle the situation easily. Like he just knows him too well and I am just rambling without giving away the entire story but I just like the dynamic between Rusty and Brock and how its presented. Also read their other VB fics cause I love them lots too.

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Red and Blue

Ship: None, gen.

Status: Complete

Author: @paigek9

Summary: From a young age, Rusty knew that Malcom was treated differently.When they were four, their dad started color-coding all of their toys, mostly to keep Uncle Rodney from losing his mind because of the daily screaming matches and fights between the brothers. All of Rusty’s toys were red; his favorite color. Malcom’s were blue, even though he liked yellow. Red was a dominant color, according to his father. The mark of a strong leader (Definitely not because fans had the habit of sending Rusty red gifts to match his hair). Blue marked the color of his company, or at least that’s what he would say around Malcom. To Rusty, it meant Player 2, Option B, a backup plan. Malcom was born to play second fiddle to Rusty, and that’s how it was supposed to be…According to Jonas.

My Notes: Yes, I know she just wrote this for me for my silly AU but I just really love this fic ok? My friend is so talented and I love her. Look what she made.

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Private Growth in the Face of... Stuff

Ship: Brusty

Status: Complete

Author: @deliriumbubbles

Summary: After the party at Hatred’s and debriefing the boys, Brock and Rusty fight over what went down at the party. Or at least, what Rusty knows about. They send the boys to bed, and Brock sets to work relieving some tension.

My Notes: When I make lists like this I usually try to not give like smut recs but like this is just a really freaking good smut fic. Its not just smut, its a complex feels piece that just happens to have smut. Its just a really good fic guys, just read it.

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Into Safety? (Wear Some Kneepads)

Ship: Brusty

Status: Complete

Author: newyorktopaloalto

Summary: Brock coming back— free of pay and of his own volition— meant nothing more than he still loved the boys he had helped Rusty raise for almost twenty years. This was not a romcom (no matter the clichéd archetypes that set the stage for his life) and if it were, it would not be one starring him— it would be starring Meg Ryan because he had already thought about it for way longer than he would admit out loud. So he was living here, taking care of the boys, giving Rusty a long-suffering and amusingly indulgent look, existing (drinking coffee, making dinner, cracking terrible jokes and skulls) as though he had never left...And so, yeah, whatever, Brock coming back might have something (infinitesimal, really, but bordering on nigh) to do with him. It still didn't make his life a romcom.

My Notes: Did you really expect me not to rec the one and only successful Rusty fic on A03? Cause I have so many feels for this fic. It just takes the basic concept of a successful Rusty and it builds its own little world off it all the while very much keeping it in the Venture Bros universe. Its so good, it makes me cry. Please read it.

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Where are My Pills, Where is My Former Lover?

Ship: Brusty

Status: Ongoing

Author: hell0lust

Summary: He’d promised Brock, all those years ago, that he was through with the pills, for good. Who cares what Brock thinks? He’s not your... whatever he was, anymore. Brock doesn’t get to decide what you do or don’t do.Rusty Venture has never known a life outside of failure. With the sudden weight of keeping his late brother's company afloat on his shoulders, Rusty finds himself falling into old habits of prescription drug abuse, as a means to cope.

My Notes: Out of the genre of ‘Rusty picks up his old addictions again in New York’ fics (that are really all good) this one is my favorite. It sadly hasn’t been updated in awhile but I hold hope the author will come back eventually. I just love how everything is played off in this fic, the slow build to Rusty and Brock getting back together and Rusty’s addictions and his jealousy of Warriana, its all just good. Go read it, you won’t regret it.

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let me in the wall you've built around

Ship: Brusty

Status: Complete

Author: @ladyofdecember

Summary: Rusty has a hard time coming to grips with events after "The Unicorn In Captivity". His family is worried. Brock and Rusty struggle with communication.

My Notes: This was another case of damn, which fic of the authors should I choose for this? There are a ton of amazing stories she has written! I think I finally settled on this one because it gave a really beautiful conclusion to one of the darker episodes from this season and it brings me joy. The angst building up to a warm fluffy ending is really beautiful.

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Surrogate Fatherhood

Ship: None, Gen.

Status: Complete

Author: @tsv

Summary: "He tries to ignore the shortcomings in Doc's parenting, at first. In the beginning, he'd taken it as the understandable failings of a first-time father — an emotionally callous comment here, a forgotten promise there. But soon enough, they begin to pile up, piecing together like a quilt of subtle emotional neglect.And it's not his job. At all. It's not even remotely his job. Still, when Dean comes out of his room crying about a nightmare and Doc tells him he's busy without even looking up, it itches at him. Despite the distance he'd tried to maintain, Brock genuinely feels bad."A piece reflecting on Brock and his relationship with the boys over the years.

My Notes: It was really hard for me to choose one from this author. I think I am in love with all of their work. Every piece is a freaking masterpiece and well done and everything I wanted from this fandom. But I chose this one cause fluffy Brock and the boys stuff is pretty rare and this one always, always manages to hit me in the feels.

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That’s it for now, my favorite fics. If you want to add more, please do! Like everyone in this fandom is super talented!

#venture bros #the venture bros #brusty #rusty venture #brock samson #fanfic recs #fic recs

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bewarecreepercomics · 7 years

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Beware the Creeper #2

I’m into this cover. Our hero, front and center, bright against the muted colors of the background. Hostile gazes from all angles any or all of which might belong to the newly introduced Proteus. Heck yeah.

Little bit of a color whoopsie on the boots, but that wasn’t uncommon on older comics. Funnily enough, my copy of the Steve Ditko Creeper Collection doesn’t fix this, though it does fix some other color mistakes.

Our comic opens with a cute bit of meta: credits on the title card. Looks like the station is doing a little report on the Creeper. Jack seems pretty unconcerned by this, considering it could spell the end of yet another career, and his personal freedom.

You just keep living your life carefree and easy there Jack. It’s not going to come back to bite you in thirty seconds, I promise. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

I love the look on his face here. “Do I really sound like that?” Also, he’s doing the hand thing. Take a shot.

Geez dude, I know he was talking shit, but that newscaster does not deserve what is about to happen to him. By the way, all of you are standing way to close to this frankly gigantic grenade. Thing is about as big as a real pineapple.

I goddamn told you so. Also, that newscaster’s body must have been made of steel-he’s dead, sure, bit he’s still intact.

As you can imagine, this is a pretty bad turn for our Jack. Creeper is already wanted by the cops for the crimes of vigilantism, assault, and indecent exposure, now they’re just going to add murder to that rap sheet. And who would believe that this was a frame up? Certainly not Jacks boss, who is even more gung ho to get that guy than usual.

Even though that’s still not a part of his job. I can’t stress this enough.

The story on who the Creeper really is was dead wrong of course. Some simplistic but sensational tale of him being a shill for some illegal gambling mogul named ‘Legs’ Larson. What is it about gangsters being named after body parts?

It’s the part of the body they like to break most, isn’t it? Just call me ‘Hearts’ Mackenzie then.

Anyway, Jack has to rush off in search of evidence, because he’s somehow completely uninjured from the explosion mere hours ago, and he definitely doesn’t need to sleep or anything, ever. But before he can even make it out of the building, he is faced with yet another bombshell:

Ambushed! Turns out it’s just a publicity stunt though. Vera’s non-feelings for our hero haven’t changed in the least. In revenge for this, Jack locks her in a broom closet and goes on his way.

True Love, everybody!

Once free of the dame, he heads straight to Larson’s place. You know, for the one not named ‘Legs’, Jack sure does a lot of legwork. Larson’s place is a huge mansion, with loads of people coming and going, and a whole group of bodyguards at the gate. How is it that the cops can’t get any evidence to put this guy away? He is not subtle.

I mean, this is all set up right in the freaking living room, has no one thought to sneak up to the window with a camera or something? Jack smoked all the guards by himself, and the cops can’t? No one in this joint is paying attention!

Case in point:

Lol.

Yeah, he just wanders through the whole mansion, wearing the brightest colors on the spectrum and absolutely everybody failed their perception check.

He doesn’t even try to sneak up on Larson, just busts into his office, a-punching away. Then this guy(?) shows up.

I’d like to point out that, up to this point, Larson had said nothing at all that could be counted as a betrayal, or even as a lead-up to a betrayal. This unfinished theater mask just really wanted to shoot somebody.

Proteus is both a really good shot, and a really bad shot. Like, he hit that guy, even though Creeper was standing in front of him, with his back to the gun. But then, he missed Creeper, who was standing in front of that guy, with his back to the gun!

To be fair though, Creeper flubs as well, allowing Proteus to escape.

Well, Larson initially wasn’t going to betray his boss, but in lieu of recent events: Fuck that guy.

Welp, a man has died. Let’s treat that with the respect that only Silver Age dialogue can give us!

I’m not kidding, this is the very next panel.

Continuing in true Creeper form, he busts out of there and breaks up the party, as conspicuously as possible, causing a panic at the party, and a rush into the streets. In order to blend in, Creeper switches himself back to Jack and leaves...

...Still as conspicuous as possible. Seriously Jack, try harder.

Back at the office, Jack gets some bad news:

Yup, his sweetheart is looking for him. Oh the romance.

Going through that file he was given (instead of, you know, turning it over to the cops, whose job this actually is) Jack finds dirt on most of the rackets in town, and plenty of people to ask about this Proteus fellow. Not bothering to rest again, Creeper scales a building, and gets spotted, because lemon yellow doesn’t blend with concrete, you guys.

But while Creeper is getting the cops called on his barely covered ass yet again, He ambushes a nameless fellow who does his level best not to become a stooly, but ultimately fails under the Creeper’s superior interrogation technique...

GEEZ DUDE, maybe chill with that just a little bit?

This is like the only person in these comics that the cops actually save, because Creeper tosses him back into the building when they show up, so that he can escape for himself. Which e does by turning back into Jack just before the police spot him, and playing dumb. Again.

Take another shot.

Jack finally gets back to his boss, who is more ornery than ever. Though he is always gung-ho where the Creeper is concerned Bill seems angrily unconcerned with the cliff notes version of the file Jack has left on his desk, and wants to know where the real files are, to avoid a libel case. Falling prey to the arrogance of the braggart, he goes ahead and tells Bill; the files are at his apartment.

It takes him a moment too long to realize that his boss was acting a bit out of sorts, and makes a dash for Bills apartment, where even now, there is a situation.

New boss, same as the old boss, right? Both of them talk to damn much.

Well, Jack may have been slow of thought, but his legs are fast, so he arrives before Bill can shoot Bill.

BILL!BILL!BILL!

Nevermind. Jack get’s his butt kicked. Who’s surprised? But during the fight we find out that Bad Bill has a face like clay; malleable, and difficult to harm. Jack does manage to cause Bad Bill enough trouble to force him to flee, but Jack is unable to follow. He instead stays behind, to free Less Bad Bill, and then goes on his to his own apartment.

While he does not find Bad Bill at his apartment, he does run across Vera, who he wastes no time insulting. But despite earlier reports of her wrath, Vera just brushes him off, citing a meeting with her mother, and carting a golfing bag along with her.

And then Jack goes and makes me very uncomfortable.

You better have a good explanation for this, Jack.

Turns out he does. The man did used to be a reporter after all, and he knows a thing or two about his coworkers. Vera is an orphan, and she doesn’t enjoy any sports.

Still uncomfortable.

This knocks the wig off Worse Vera, who is actually Bad Bill, who is actually Proteus, if this wasn’t clear yet. Also, that golfing bag is actually a flamethrower, which is a gimmick I absolutely must remember next time I play a tabletop RPG.

Jack dodges the flames, but the entire building itself fails its dexterity check, and goes right up.

Jack decides to go full Creeper to escape from the flames. Because the wool of a voluminous sheepskin rug is naturally fire resistant. And the chase is on!

Which brings us to the obligatory ass shot!

And eventually leads us to that great staple of comic books: The Rooftop Battle! It’s actually a rather fun sequence, with a bit of a tongue in cheek in-joke.

Cute.

But after a pitched Rooftop Battle, Proteus falls through the collapsing building, into the raging inferno below.

He is so dead, you guys. That is a thing that kills people. And even though Proteus was also a thing that killed people, Creeper is surprisingly sympathetic.

Cool story, hey remember that guy he murdered right in front of you? I sure do.

Also? Burning building. Better get off of there.

Hey, can anybody tell me if this actually works? This firemen’s net thing? You see it in all kinds of older media, but was it actually a thing?

Though his apartment, and the files are now gone, Jacks life hasn’t changed much. His boss still wants the Creeper’s head on a plate, Jack still climbs out windows to escape from Vera, and the bad guy still isn’t as dead as previously assumed.

Dun Dun Dunnnn!

And so our comic ends, with the Creeper having made a grand enemy. This is the beginning of the overarching story of the mini-series continued in Beware the Creeper # 3, coming soon!

#The Creeper #Jack Ryder #beware the creeper

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chiisaihiro · 7 years

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So you know it's always the summon anon sending these asks. And I have a cute hiro hc. Hiro totally gets clingy when he surrounded by people he doesn't know or is nervous. Cause he's shorter than everyone he usually catches the end of whoever he's with sleeve. The nerd gang quickly picks up on it so if they don't have things with long sleeves they were bracelets or anything that helps hiro have an anchor to hold on to. This is also why tadashi always wears his cardigans even in the summer.

I SMILED SO HARD READING THIS O H MY GOSHH THIS IS SO PURE

I have so many headcanons to add onto this omg omg

Hiro, at first doesn’t even realise he does it until one day he grabs onto Honey’s sweater when they’re all walking through an overly crowded park. She asks him about it later and he genuinely acts confused about it. She makes sure to always have something on her for Hiro to grab just in case.

Tadashi never brought it up with him because he just assumed it was a habit hiro grew up with and never really let go of, plus he didn’t want to make him embarrassed/awkward about it so he turned a blind eye whenever it happened. He definitely ran a thumb across hiros hand to reassure him at least once lets be real

Gogo has a watch that she wears extra loose so that hiro can loop his little fingers underneath and latch onto if he’s nervous that he’ll lose sight of her.

Hand holding is out of the question considering hiro is a teenager, but the fact that he’s much smaller and thinner than teens his age makes it easy for him to grab someones wrist from the nerd gang if he needs to, because lets all face it he looks like 10. (if it weren’t mentioned in the movie I’d automatically assume he was 10 or 11 ngl)

Freds sleeve has literally gotten so stretched because of all the times hiros pulled on it/grabbed it and he’d be lying if he said it bothered him because it really doesn’t

I kind of have a small inkling that hiro has accidentally grabbed wasabi’s hand maybe once or twice because wasabi’s hands are so much larger than hiro’s and it was temporary comfort until he realised.

instead, hiro grabs hold of wasabi’s wrist, and depending if hes really nervous, he’ll pull wasabi’s arm in front of him (if he’s literally terrified he hugs wasabi’s arm)

literally everyone used to question why Tadashi always wore his cardigans even in the goddamn summer, but that was before they met hiro

gogo spots hiro nervously clutching the sleeve of one of Tadashi’s longer cardigans when they’re in a huge carnival that is too crowded for him and then suddenly it all makes like, so much sense.

it takes only a little coaxing before hiro lets go and like rigs every freakin’ machine there.

im guessing this is an alive!tadashi au where tadashi survives the fire and wakes up from a coma or sum shit after the events of the movie, soooo Tadashi deliberately wears jeans that have belt loops (?) in them so if something triggers hiro’s nerves, he can easily hold onto them instead.

when it comes to meeting people he doesn’t know, hiro tries really hard not to cling to someone because he doesn’t wanna give himself a clingy image (yeah right hiro, we all saw you backing up to get closer to Tadashi when meeting the nerd gang) but almost always fails.

But, he’s actually learned to be subtle about it. He covers up being nervous by resting his elbow on gogos shoulder playing it off while he’s secretly holding the fabric of her jacket.

“this is wasabi!” hiro will say to a villain that makes him nervous, while wrapping his arm around the older males waist, playing it off as a this-is-my-friend gesture, while secretly holding onto wasabi’s shirt under his armour.

none of the gang ever comment on it, but hiro also has a habit of sticking close to baymax, because hes extremely dependant on him. He’ll hide behind his legs, stand side by side close with him, or just stay on Baymax’s back, gripping really tightly to the magnets.

If they’re somewhere dark where nobody can see, its only then will hiro grasp someones hand, mainly Tadashi’s. Tadashi’s can normally spot hiros hand waving around a little in the dark trying to grab onto something, and will, on instinct, just hold it and squeeze it gently.

At a sleepover at Freds, (Tadashi’s not alive in this part lol sorry) if Hiro has a nightmare about his brothers death, someone from the nerd gang will wake him up. He’ll hug them tightly and like fist their shirts so tightly depending on how bad the nightmare was.

Aunt Cass gets her fair share of hiro’s nervous clinginess too. She’s introducing an old friend to hiro? He’ll say a small hi while making sure he's sticking close to her.They’re both out in a crowded area? He’ll grab her wrist without thinking twice.

I ALSO HAVE A HUGE HEADCANON THAT HIRO WILL PLAY WITH ANYONE FROM THE NERD GANGS FINGERS I CANNOT STRESS HOW MUCH I NEED IT

Sitting down on the sofa after a rough mission? Hiro will, without thinking probs, grab the persons hand closest to him and start pulling gently/poking at and just playing around with their fingers. Everyone just blows it off and pretend that they dont notice when he does but secretly think its really cute.

Tadashi’s a huge victim of it. Hiro always grabs Tadashis hands, like, he doesn’t give a fuck who’s watching, if tadashi is sitting in front, beside, across or anywhere remotely close to him, he’ll grab his hand and play with his fingers during a full conversation. Tadashi doesn’t even blink he’s so used to it.

All of these habits developed from four year old hiro who was a big fan of thumb holding, and it just expanded over ten years lol.

Everyone finds it adorable.

Wellll that’s it!!

Omf I absolutely love the whole idea of hiro doing this i mean,,, how cute is he omg

Thanks anon! Feel free to send in more headcanons/au’s/fanfics if you like :))

#hiro hamada #tadashi hamada #wasabi no ginger #frezilla #honey lemon #Gogo tomago #aunt cass #baymax #big hero 6 #asks #anon #this is so cute omg #please send more #<333

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tdrcharmschool4 · 7 years

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Charm School Homework #5: Mama Always Said I was Original… - Critiques

Kushboo, Luna, Marina, Nikita, and Ophelia are nowhere to be found, but we’ve found some new characters asking for critiques. Let’s see how they did!

Kushboo

Hi! My name is Granny Panny and at 85 years, I’m Delhi’s oldest MILF. I think that means I am modern, incredible-looking & fabulous. I support LGBVAUD rights also. Now I want to share my beauty and happiness with the world so I’m looking for friends on The Facebook , Instant gram as well as Grinder. Please be my friend ? I will teach you how to do yoga and bake you cakes for being my friend. If you will be my friend we will be soo happy and I will never ever leave you. Il love you for ever and ever and ever don’t worry. Here are some photos of me to keep in your heart. I can send you many many more. Can I have your number ? I love you.

Analyse: KUSH. BOO. STOP SNATCHING ME BALD LIKE THIS. THIS is a character, and there are so many directions I can see this going for the test, so I really look forward to see what you do with that! The age makeup reads well, and I think the accessories really help to play up the “old person who thinks she’s cool” kind of vibe (aka Toni). I wouldn’t be mad at the hair being even rattier, but all in all, I really like what you have here. The fact that you’ve already got the humor of the character down in writing bodes well for the acting in the test. I can’t wait to see the full look and how this character is realized for the acting challenge!

Harper: I think you’ve got a really good start here! I got a sense of who your character was from your picture and bio, but I wish you had taken it to a draggier place. While I liked your aging effects, this is still a drag assignment! Sometimes you will be tasked with impersonating someone who doesn’t wear much makeup, and it’s important to adjust the drag makeup to fit the character (neutral shades, softer blends, etc) rather than to eliminate it entirely. So instead of doing regular old lady makeup, try using neutral colors, playing around with a more droopy cut crease, and adding sagging lashes to give off an older vibe while still maintaining a drag aesthetic. I would also like to see you refine the character a bit more, because right now there’s nothing separating her from a standard grandma stereotype. What makes her unique? You have all the materials you need here to put together a great character, and I’m looking forward to seeing your submission!

Luna

Latoya Toyota, formerly known as MariCruz Dominguez, is your every day girl from the hood. Her favorite activities include having herpes and being disowned by her mom. She’s single and is not ready to mingle because because “ese puto vato El Cris” cheated and she doesn’t fucking play all that, cris why’d you do that Rebeca is a worthless piece of shit I’m the better sister. But, the thing that makes Latoya different, isn’t her personality, or her good heart; it’s that she’s been dead for 15 years. She died in 2002 when she finally caught on with the whole chokers trend, expect she wasn’t the smartest so she didn’t really grasp the whole “it’s not supposed to choke you” thing. But this minor detail doesn’t stop Latoya; after Hell FINALLY got service, she now is a devoted YouTuber that focuses on vlogging, lifestyle, and creamy beauty. She says “ Ey putas we didn’t have no beauty shit in the 90’s I had my Tia Cruz teaching me how to do a smoky eye so don’t fuken come for me cause love trumps hate” hell doesn’t bother either, as she’s had “a burn” since 1996 from Raul so the burn doesn’t really matter at all. Her hobbies now include, cutting a bitch for fun, looking for famous people in hell to get a pic, and living in eternal damnation. You can find a link to her patron below because fuck dude like she JUST started YouTube and it’s already ad hell like what the fuck also lol ad hell get it cause she’s in um. Anyway SUSCRIBE and SMASH that like button down below putas

Analyse: The first few sentences of your description, I was like “OH NO DON’T PLAY THAT CARD,” but then we got to the “she’s been dead the whole time” twist, and I was drawn in. I think makeup-wise, you can do more to show that part of the character and make it ooky-spooky, but right now, if I didn’t have your description, the pictures would just read very “stereotypical chola character.” I think the YouTuber character is going to be great to take into the challenge, because it immediately conjures up a very specific kind of image and personality. Really my biggest critiques going forward for the acting are to make sure that the look itself reads what you want it to and to make sure the humor doesn’t rely solely on stereotypes. Latoya might be a character, but we want to see Luna’s sense of humor shine through. Good luck on the test!

Harper: Hi Adore Delano Latoya! So first off, I liked how much detail you put into your bio. Even though your slutty chola ghost character was a bit all over the place, I still understood who this character was and where she was coming from, and I think she’ll give you a lot of options to be entertaining in the test. I will encourage you to make sure that your jokes are not getting repetitive, though… try to find ways to make her funny on multiple levels. Being a ghost leaves a lot of room for real subtle humor (can’t pick stuff up, pop culture references from 2002, etc), and I hope you will capitalize on that! I would like you to kick the look up a few notches, including brow coverage. I think you were probably barely alive during 2002, and so I really hope you’ll do some research into the fashion trends because I am an old bitch who remembers Y2K! It’s such a fun era of horrible fashion so I really hope you will take advantage of that. Nice work!

Marina

This is Susan Johnson-Johnson. Her mother and father had the same last name, but her mother insisted on hyphenating it. She also claims that her father is related to Dwayne the Rock Johnson, which is a bald headed lie as her bloodline is whiter than cottage cheese. Susan claims a lot of outrageous things and most of these tall tales are meth and tobacco induced. Being an ex prostitute due to her failing business, she is no stranger to a good drug. However, she’s very connected to spirituality and has a dream of running a successful tarot card business, which is why she wears her headwraps. I hope you enjoy my original character!

Analyse: Hi, Marina! I see some of the makeup critiques you’ve gotten being applied here, so it’s great to see that growth. The headwrap and fan add to the look and give it a level of interest, but I think my main probably with this submission is that this story is just all over the place in no sort of cohesive way. I think part of your challenge going forward into the test for this week is to make sure that you have a fully thought out and realized character, because right now, I’m not entirely sure who she is. When you only have a few minutes of video for the challenge, you don’t have a lot of time to spend introducing the audience to your character, so we want to be able to get that right away from the look, mannerisms, and personality of the character. I think you’re headed in a good direction, but for the test, I want to see you kind of clean up those loose ends and really give us a fully thought-out character in your submission. Good luck!

Harper: Alright, so I really enjoyed your biography, but I think there was a bit of a mismatch between your character’s description and her appearance. Before I read your bio, I assume that you were a part of a royal Court or a princess or something. From your description I would almost imagine some kind of hippie druggie chic (side note: tobacco does not get you high so I don’t know if that part makes sense), an ornate fan and sequins doesn’t really read meth-head to me. I do like the headwrap, but I’d like to see you wear a wig with it rather than use it as a wig replacement. Lashes and nails always, even for homework assignments. I think you have a good head start for a character, but really make sure that you are putting the details in place. As always, the deans are here to give you feedback as your brainstorm if you need it.

Nikita

Ophelia

I may look scary but I’m really nice, I promise!!! Hi new friends, my name is Misery but everyone just calls me ‘Chip’! For the most part, I like to spend my time helping as many individuals as I possibly can and adventuring!! Believe it or not through, I wasn’t always the happy go-lucky creature you see today though :( My ancestors originally descended from a demon many eons ago. Based on this, for generations, my tribe was subject to ridicule and fear from people on the surface, just based on our appearance! Can you believe that?!?! Eventually, they took their society underground, taking to steal from and enslave denizens of the surface world. I grew up experiencing and witnessing so much pain and misery but I always thought 'things could be different than this!’ Eventually, because of the horrible atrocities they committed, I saw my friends and family BANISHED by an unforgiving god, while they gave me a second chance if you will at life by being made to live on the surface! I wandered for a years trying to fit in with society and find my purpose, until one day I encountered a group of adventurers said to have been passing from village to village, helping people wherever they went and from there, I knew that was my call-….. Whoops! Sorry, I saw a butterfly with a broken wing and I wanted to heal it!!! :D ANYWAY! From then on, I’ve just been travelling from town to town, spreading good cheer and helping people!!! Whenever, I get sad or upset, I just think of the second chance that my friends and family didn’t get… :) Byeeeeee!

Analyse: Remember when I said I was excited to see where your creativity led you in this week’s challenges??? Because THIS is why I was excited! I think you’ve got a super creative concept here with the demons-for-an-ancestor-but-I’m-not-mean-I’m-nice character, and there’s definitely some storyline and drama that can come from just that. I think part of the challenge for you will be making sure that the character doesn’t read as very one-note in the video challenge, and make sure that we’re not just getting the same joke or idea over and over. For the look, I would love to see it feminized a little more. I know your art is a lot more blurred in the expression of gender and you’re not going for female impersonation or hyperfemininity as much, but the issue I’m seeing with submissions is that they can often read more “man with face paint” than drag, and while TDR is very much a place to explore and grow in that, The Real World™ isn’t always so open, and so before you have people coming for you and saying “that’s not drag,” you want to shut their mouths with your polish, execution, and creativity. Good luck on the test, and I can’t wait to see what you do with this character!

Harper: I appreciate you for trying something ambitious, but I think you missed the mark of the assignment here. I warned you about relying too heavily on a visual character, and I think you feel into that trap this week. The look of the character is not the important part of this assignment, having a well developed character that you will be able to act with in the test is. Almost all of your biography is background information on your character’s family history rather than telling me who your character actually is. I think it’s great that you are putting thought into that stuff, but it’s all extraneous when I still don’t really get a sense of your character on a complex level. Since you decided to go down this road, I will really want you to drag it up and not rely on body paint to be your makeup. Right now the prosthetics are a bit sloppy, and if you are giong to wear them I’d really like to see them refined. You can use hot glue to change the texture, or even adding painted effects. You’ve got your work cutout for you this week, make it work!

#tdr #tumblrs drag race #tdrcs4 #charm school #drag #drag queen #baby queen #kushboo #luna #marina lumiere #nikita nox #ophelia waters

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buckleysims · 7 years

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Prom & Hospital Replies

Replies to my most recent comments. I’m going to write a Pixel Rust update now, but if I have time once I finish and post that then I will try to do some more. But in case I don’t get around to it, I just want to say thank you to everyone who has commented on (and liked!) my stuff, and I apologize for not being more consistent about responding. Your feedback means the world to me, and I sincerely feel so blessed by your support. <3

@belasims @plumb-barb @willky12 @mspoodle1 @ice-creamforbreakfast @goatkibble @gaiahypothesims @msmidnightblonde @soloriya @ninjaofthepurplethings @bubble-sims @doka-chan @simmingwiththetide @sims3hasstoppedworking @hyperkaos @desiree-uk @theothersim @heysimbutt @sims3medieval

belasims replied to your photoset “Madeleine’s prom night, complete with awkward smiles and ugly...”

Awww, so cute! Maddie is adorable!

Thank you! :D Also, I know I owe you a message, and it’s incoming shortly. I’ve just been trying to decide the best fit. Because I was (and am!) so excited, and I don’t want to waste this opportunity. <333

belasims replied to your photoset “I think I’m finally getting the hang of it!” Madeleine exclaims,...”

Tremors?? Oh no...with all the sweet baby things I blissfully forgot about Kit and Claudia's evil plan :O

Hehe! >:)

plumb-barb replied to your photoset “Madeleine’s prom night, complete with awkward smiles and ugly...”

omg so cuuteeee waaahhhh ;----;

Nuuuu, you are so cute. Thank you!

willky12 replied to your photoset “Madeleine’s prom night, complete with awkward smiles and ugly...”

Maddie is always gorgeous, I'm sorry I can't say the same about Kit haha! ;)

Haha, no worries! I have ALWAYS hated his face, but people keep talking me out of changing it. XD Thank you so much about Maddie, though. ♥

willky12 replied to your photoset “I finished retexturing the Midnight Hollow hospital rabbit hole this...”

The windows are the most obvious difference but the brick work also makes it look more tidy for sure, good work!

I’m so glad you think so! Tidier is exactly what I was going for, but I’m not very sure of myself (especially when it comes to anything texture related) so I really appreciate your feedback. :)

willky12 replied to your photoset “I think I’m finally getting the hang of it!” Madeleine exclaims,...”

Two words, blood and work! I'm worried already :'( I had to also have a laugh at West, not like he's never seen them before hehe!

I swear, you must be one of my most perceptive readers! You always pick up on the little things that I try to add without anyone noticing, haha! But I do appreciate how much attention you pay. Even when I make mistakes or am trying to be sneaky. XD <333

mspoodle1 replied to your photoset “Madeleine’s prom night, complete with awkward smiles and ugly...”

Nah girl! They look awesome!

:D :D :D Thank you! *happy dances*

mspoodle1 replied to your photoset “I finished retexturing the Midnight Hollow hospital rabbit hole this...”

Cool! ♥

Thank you again! You are such a great modder, not to mention terrific sims architect, that I can’t stop smiling right now thinking that you like my dumb rabbit hole retexture, lol. ♥

ice-creamforbreakfast replied to your photoset “Madeleine’s prom night, complete with awkward smiles and ugly...”

D'aaaww Madeleine looks adorable! I don't think Kit looks bad, but I'm so guilty of tweaking my sims haha!

Thanks, Alexandra! :D I am guilty of it too, haha. I try not to do it as much with my story sims, but I have tweaked all of them at some point. It’s just so hard to resist, especially when I look at them and see potato faces (i.e. Kit, haha).

goatkibble replied to your photoset “I think I’m finally getting the hang of it!” Madeleine exclaims,...”

And give the poor nurse a break guys, the lady is just doing her job and West IS both tall, dark and sinister as well as there out of hours, lurking around a new mother's room bahahahaha.

Yeah, I agree with you about the nurse. She didn’t have to be so grumpy about it, but at the same time I’m sure she knows what Maddie’s husband looks like and realizes that Westley is not him. And he IS a criminal after all. XD

goatkibble replied to your photoset “I think I’m finally getting the hang of it!” Madeleine exclaims,...”

Breastfeeding is a beautiful & natural act but unfortunately there are some people who have sexualised boobs so much that's all they think of when they see breasts instead of what they were intended for. And since you had no idea who may walk past and see this while someone is reading it at work or whatever the safest action was to tag is not safe for work just in case :3

Thank you. I sincerely appreciate it, gk. I know we discussed it earlier, but the idea that I might get someone in trouble (at work or school or wherever) is what really tipped the scales for me. Because even though I completely agree with you about breastfeeding, I'd just rather be on the safe side.

goatkibble replied to your photoset “I finished retexturing the Midnight Hollow hospital rabbit hole this...”

It looks great. Like everything you create :)

<333

goatkibble replied to your photoset “Madeleine’s prom night, complete with awkward smiles and ugly...”

NO TWEAKING! Stay consistent with your main sims :P

*grumbles and glares at you* :P

gaiahypothesims replied to your photoset “Madeleine’s prom night, complete with awkward smiles and ugly...”

No tweaking!!! I agree! Leave them alone!

Hahaha, but it’s so hard! I will try to resist, however. For now. XD Thank you (and goatkibble) for talking some sense into me. ♥

msmidnightblonde replied to your photoset “Madeleine’s prom night, complete with awkward smiles and ugly...”

she's so cute!!

Thanks so much! :D

msmidnightblonde replied to your photoset “I finished retexturing the Midnight Hollow hospital rabbit hole this...”

hey, subtle can make a big difference. It looks great.

You are too nice to me. ;-; Thank you. It means a lot to me that you like it. ♥

msmidnightblonde replied to your photoset “I think I’m finally getting the hang of it!” Madeleine exclaims,...”

breastfeeding is breastfeeding. If people are offended that's their problem. :) But I know what you mean. Also, that little nurse seemed so nice and now I'm not so sure. hah

Haha, yeah, I intended for the nurse to come across nice but protective? If that makes sense. XD And grumpy too, ahahaha. Thanks for commenting! :)

soloriya replied to your photoset “Madeleine’s prom night, complete with awkward smiles and ugly...”

sooo sweet! ♥

Aw, yay! :D I’m glad you think so, thank you!

ninjaofthepurplethings replied to your photoset “Madeleine’s prom night, complete with awkward smiles and ugly...”

Awwwww teen Maddie is soooo cute! XD

It took some tweaking to get her to look decent as a teenager, but I’m really happy that you think she’s cute. Thank you! ♥

bubble-sims replied to your photoset “Madeleine’s prom night, complete with awkward smiles and ugly...”

what an adorable princess

She is definitely a spoiled princess, especially at that age (as a teenager), but I’m flattered that you find her adorable. Thank you! :)

doka-chan replied to your photoset “Madeleine’s prom night, complete with awkward smiles and ugly...”

She is always so pretty and cute. :D

<333 That’s so sweet of you to say! Thank you very much!

simmingwiththetide replied to your photoset “I finished retexturing the Midnight Hollow hospital rabbit hole this...”

i love it ♡

Wow, I’m totally flattered. :) I adore your screenshots and I’m always admiring the detail in them (especially your landscapes and decorating pictures), so your feedback on this really means a lot to me. Thank you so much!

sims3hasstoppedworking replied to your photoset “I finished retexturing the Midnight Hollow hospital rabbit hole this...”

I'm in my phone so I can't see every small detail but I like windows and brick (at least I think it's brick haha) texture in your version!

You have a good eye! It is brick. :D And thank you! I really appreciate it. I am a perfectionist and never entirely happy with my creations, so hearing positive feedback never fails to make my day. ♥

sims3hasstoppedworking replied to your photoset “I think I’m finally getting the hang of it!” Madeleine exclaims,...”

I can't with West being all shy

Haha! Yeah, he is being unnecessarily bashful and awkward in that scene. XD However, my thoughts behind using that pose for him was that West would want to try to be respectful and not interfere, but of course him hiding his eyes was a teeny bit melodramatic. :P

hyperkaos replied to your photoset “I finished retexturing the Midnight Hollow hospital rabbit hole this...”

I like the uniformity of yours better. It looks like all the shades are pulled down. It brightens it up some. :)

*happy dances* Yes, I thought so too, but I wasn’t sure if it was too uniform. So YAY! I’m super excited that you noticed AND liked that aspect of it. Thank you!

hyperkaos replied to your photoset “I think I’m finally getting the hang of it!” Madeleine exclaims,...”

MPO is breastfeeding is a natural thing, no nsfw needed. That second pic is priceless. lol

I absolutely agree with you about breastfeeding being a natural thing, but I decided I’d rather be safe about it than risk it. I’m a wimp, lol. But anyway, yesssss, the second picture is one of my all time favorites. :D Westley is awkward sometimes, lol!

desiree-uk replied to your photoset “I finished retexturing the Midnight Hollow hospital rabbit hole this...”

Very nice :)+

Thanks so much! I’ve really been enjoying seeing your progress in Omara, by the way. :) You’re a fantastic sims builder! I’m jealous. ♥