#and i love the Trio i wish this ship was more popular

[demigodpolls]

Why do you think Frank gets so little attention from the fandom at large?

although I don't fault anyone individually for not having interest in a given character, I do think it's pretty sad that not much mind is paid to frank. it's not the best metric to measure things by, but on AO3, frank has the fewest fanfics of the prophecy 7 by a pretty wide margin.

there's no point in comparing him to the likes of percy, annabeth, and nico, who have existed for way longer, but the lost hero trio have well over 10k works for all three individually, while hazel has 8.7k (her popularity is surely bolstered by her relation to nico, the second most popular pjo character on ao3) and frank has about 7k. interestingly, will solace has over 15k fics--and that of course has to do with the popularity of solangelo (the second most popular pjo ship on ao3, as you see above), but considering how recently tsats came out (and how little material/information about him existed before that), I still think that number is pretty remarkable.

with all of this in mind, here are some of the reasons why I think frank doesn't get a ton of attention from the fandom below the cut.

- part of it probably has to do with shipping. while frazel is a well-accepted canon ship, I don't think it actually garners a ton of real interest. when a pairing is very popular, its individual parties will inevitably share that popularity; i.e., will solace, as observed previously. furthermore, frank doesn't really have any popular non-canon ships. online fandoms heavily favor mlm pairings over any other kind of pairing (this is just a very neutral, well-observed fact, so I hope no one is bothered by this acknowledgement), but if a male character is not popularly shipped with other men, they tend to fall to the wayside. to be honest, I think it's a little surprising that frank/leo doesn't get more favor; maybe it's because people just don't like to acknowledge the love triangle they were in, but the enemies-to-lovers material that people usually enjoy is right there, you know? jason/leo is fairly popular on tumblr at least, but no one really ships its SoN counterpart percy/frank either, which is interesting.

- part of it probably has to do with the fact that, compared to others, frank does not appear to be a very angsty character. fandoms tend to prefer characters who have tragic backstories and/or highly-animated personalities, and while frank undeniably has his individual struggles, they probably seem quite small compared to the bulk of the principal cast. for reasons like this, a lot of people will likely tell you that they don't find frank (or his powers) very interesting, and prefer to devote their attention to other characters.

- part of it probably has to do with frank (in my opinion) being neglected by HoO books. I wish he had gotten to do so much more! but of the things that he did do, I don't think many people consider them to be very memorable.

- I think there's also no point in ignoring the fact that frank is a chubby POC, and well, these types just aren't often so beloved by fandoms. that his only popular ship is with another POC probably doesn't help matters, to be honest...! it's just a well-documented phenomenon that, unless they're anime characters, POC characters and POC x POC ships tend to be much less popular in online fandoms than their white counterparts (i.e., 2010s star wars comes to mind). of all 10 percy jackson POV characters on ao3 (I'm including will in this figure and excluding apollo, who I consider an outlier), piper, leo, hazel, frank, and reyna make up the bottom 5 in that order in terms of popularity. this page is a great resource for more data on race, queerness, gender, etc on ao3. (unrelated - fascinatingly, percabeth is the 8th most popular m/f ship on ao3 of all time, and jiper is 96th!)

that's just my two cents as to why I think frank doesn't get a ton of attention. I hope no one is upset by my observations, I mean all of them in a pretty neutral, analytical way. to anyone else reading this, here is a reminder that character hate and ship hate is not tolerated on this blog. if you post unkind things, your comments will be deleted and your account will be blocked. we don't need to bash other characters or ships in order to uplift others. save it for your own blogs, please!

thank you for asking and engaging with this blog!

-demigodpolls

[orchidego]

ao3 has taken me places I wouldn't even go to with a g*n

smoking on that dramione pack

( @ailenach asked me for a dramione rec list so that's what this post is, anyone else read at your own risk )

Compiler’s note - skip down to the list if you don’t need to know why/what exactly I like in fic!

aka my dramione ethos: The most compelling dynamic in a ship, for me, is when it comprises of two people giving each other the strength to be the people they need to be.

Before he can be loved, Draco must be redeemed. In a way, he’s awfully bad at being a blood supremacist (lacking real conviction). Draco’s Slytherin morality, at least as a teen, compels him only in the direction of protecting and preserving himself and his own; he doesn’t seem to have a morality outside of this. Everything else is borrowed from his fear and desire to conform to his loved ones’s expectations. Contrast with Hermione, who has an outsized sense of morality—she knows exactly what is good and right, and she throws herself into her causes with self-righteous conviction, headstrong and beautifully off-putting.

Draco, the boy who belonged everywhere, watched his fragile worldview turn to ash and became unmoored. Hermione, the girl who belonged nowhere, bent the world towards her through obstinate radiant willpower, and established herself. Two people who could, maybe, find a home in each other.

A Draco in love with Hermione might wrap his morality around her courage, might steady himself while in the service of her. A Hermione in love with Draco might be preserved by him, may be bolstered against burning out or being misunderstood or unseen. They’re both industrious with their respective tasks (she researches! he toils!), which lends itself to them having intellectual parity. They’re both kind of intense. Then there’s the general enemies to lovers appeal, the idea that at no point in time were these two characters ever indifferent towards each other. The banter potential alone…!

So this is some of the kind of exploration I like in fic, pressed in many different tones; ff is especially unique in that we can play around with the elements (AUs, contrived circumstances, tonal shifts, narrative beats) and be more experimental because the weight of canon grounds it.

My rec list:

Before I truly begin, I feel like I have to comment on it: I did ultimately enjoy Manacled. A "Voldemort wins" fic with a Handsmaid Tale twist; it has compelling structure, with a D/Hr dynamic suited to my tastes and what I find interesting about the characters. However, it's dark (mind the tags) and I’m still not certain if the content was handled as effectively as the author meant it to be, and so I don't think it's a universal recommendation despite its staggering popularity. If you do want to read this I would recommend downloading it because she's going to delete it off ao3 once the novelization of it comes out next year.

My quintessential dramione recommendation is, of course, The Disappearances of Draco Malfoy. It's a full Deathly Hallows rewrite where Draco goes Horcrux hunting with the trio and as far as I'm concerned, it's canon. Unlike every other fic on my list, I would recommend this to everyone. Written very closely in style to the books, I think it has universal appeal and it’s the perfect jumping off point for the pairing while being convincing. Sometimes I would find myself wishing that this was the direction the books had taken. PG-13, in terms of violence and sexual content, which I find significant enough to bring up since there’s usually a lot of sex in popular ff.

My favorite humor-based rec: Bad Omens. Written in the vein of Terry Pratchett. I would describe this as a "star-crossed morons" kind of story. It's literally perfect.

Remain Nameless. Caveat that this sort of trailed off for me once the central tension with the relationship was resolved but I think in terms of an adult redemption arc it was very sweetly done. Sometimes achingly tender.

The Fallout is probably my favorite “extended wartime” fic of all time. The intimacy in this makes me want to kms, in a good way. I'm linking to a downloadable pdf here since it's been removed off other sites.

Love in The Time of Zombie Apocalypse. Zombie outbreak AU. Strays from canon characterization but. Plot goes crazy. Complex character work. Hooked me all the way through.

Thirteenth Night. Post-war, Hermione assigned to monitor a memory-charmed Draco. Less epic than a lot of the other recs on this list because the scope of the world is small, but it’s quietly good.

This is just my plug for anything PacificRimbaud has ever written, but particularly the historical rom com Love and Other Historical Accidents, the raunchy and funny One and Done, and the tender romantic one-shot Les Pelerins.

BLOODY, SLUTTY, AND PATHETIC. Listen to me. Listen to me. The title sort of explains the tone and it carries entirely throughout. I am obsessed with this version of Draco. All men should be bloody slutty and pathetic. Post-war, ministry employee Hermione, marriage law AU (which tbh I don't tend to love usually, so this really is exceptional).

She Whom He Harbors. Ok before you read the summary/tags and judge me, yes, this is basically a "fuck or die" fic. I figured I needed to make the rec in case this is a vibe anyone is interested in pursuing. But it's not just gratuitous smut, I swear, there's a compelling plot here. Lot of orgasms. But there is a plot.

Brand New World. Epic in scope. Diverges in plot while they're still at Hogwarts. Great Draco redemption arc (which is important to me!)

The Gloriana Set. ThebeMoon is my personal queen of Hogwarts Eighth Year fics. I would also rec The Darkwood Wand, by the same author. Both very fun reads.

Things Without Remedy. Time travel! Adore the serious relationship build in this one.

Tea & Necromancy. Sort of an experimental tone. Equal parts funny and morbid.

Sucker Punch. Also would classify this as experimental; you'll know if you jive with the writing within a few paragraphs.

Choice and Chance. Absolutely delicious plot divergence at the point of Hermione's torture at Malfoy Manor. Involves multiverse elements.

Beyond Recall or Desire. If you like soulmate bonds!

Malfoy Shrugged. On the shorter side; just a great two-shot.

Tromp as Writ. While I'm recommending perfect one-shots.

Mindbound. This author has a series of very short works based on fairy tales. This one is my favorite but I'd recommend the others too.

Past / Present / Future. Barbara Kruger AND a perfect adult Draco characterization? J’adore.

My very last recommendation is something that is so important to me, but I'm separating it like this because it's a WIP whereas all the others are completed fics. Please don't let that deter you, if at all interested.

Lionheart. !!!!

What can I say about Lionheart, except that its author somehow resides in my brain and created something for me, specifically? I've really so rarely read fic that is so perfectly balanced in dialogue, character understanding, narrative arc, plotting, action—when I read this, I feel like how I felt at 11, reading Harry Potter. For real. It's a whole series rewrite, truly epic in scope, asking the question: what if Draco had been sorted into Gryffindor? Currently the storyline is complete as to book four, partially through book five, and being updated. The character work is especially stunning to me. This is the sweetest slowburn friendship-to-lovers of my dreams; obviously heavy on the friendship arc since we're not all the way through, and yet I find that my emotional investment in this is so heightened it doesn't even matter to me. I want to read thousands of words of this (luckily, it's already got 600k+ of those). Thank you greenTeacup, for my life.

I obviously have read more than this so if there are any specific tropes/interests/limitations you want a rec for, I'm open to give an opinion. Also I have my eye on a few fics that I just haven't read yet, so alas, this list is not perfectly complete. The next thing I want to read....Détraquée....

[lilyginnyblackv2]

A Japanese video talking about Riku - Mentions the "Love Triangle."

I just found a video talking about Riku (in a sort of "10 Things You Didn't Know About This Character" kinda way). The creator of the video is Japanese and the video itself is in Japanese. Here is the full video:

They talk about 10 different things in regards to Riku, the full list of things they talk about can be seen in this image:

But the point I'm mostly going to be focusing on is #4 - 恋愛事情 or "The Romance Situation."

When the creator gets to point #4, they call it "The Sora and Kairi Love Triangle" (三角関係).

Then bring up the whole "eating (sharing) a paopu fruit with Kairi" stuff. But before jumping right into that, the creator compares Sora, Riku, and Kairi to other popular shonen trios of the time:

First mentioning Naruto with Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura.

Then Ash, Misty, and Brock. The creator notes that this kind group setup (a trio with two guys and one girl) was really popular around this time.

And that such a dynamic (two guys and one girl) has a lot of potential interest for a romance/romantic situation to come about. Which then brings up back to the whole "sharing a paopu fruit" with Kairi situation.

Specifically the scene in KH1 when Riku races Sora and says:

That whoever wins gets to eat (share) a paopu fruit with Kairi. But, then the creator of this video notes that the reading of this scene isn't necessarily clean cut:

Rather that it is unclear if this moment is just a moment meant to tease and embarrass Sora or if Riku was speaking honestly. Then they mention what Nomura says about Riku and his motives in KH1:

"Riku trying to return Kairi's heart to her wasn't about his feelings for her [Kairi], but rather his strong need to repent for the sins he committed." The Japanese word 罪 (tsumi) can also mean "wrongdoing," but I feel like Nomura is talking specifically about "sin" here, since he used the word 懴悔 (sange) as well. That word is shown to have strong connections to Christianity and Christ. The Japanese Wikipedia page for the word is specifically talking about the idea of repentance and sin in regards to Christ and the like.

(Personal little sidenote here, but this bit of info adds an extra layer to the conversation between Riku and Esmerelda in DDD, since that movie is steeped in Christianity).

Bringing this back to the video and what the creator had to say about this quote:

First, they note how there was no reference to Riku having romantic feelings for Kairi.

So, while knowing about Sora's feelings for Kairi,

It's reasonable to assume that Riku was simply teasing Sora in that scene.

Now, for most Soriku fans, this is old news. Many Soriku fans are aware of this quote in some way, shape, or form, and that interpretation is how we've viewed that scene for ages. But, I think it is important to have someone who is Japanese, speaking in Japanese, and talking about Nomura's quote in Japanese actually bringing up this line as well.

This is even more important, because this Japanese creator doesn't appear to be a Soriku shipper (he might agree with the idea of Riku having feelings for Sora, but he doesn't seem to ship Sora x Riku). After all, he does specifically note that, in KH3, Sora and Kairi are "completely in love with each other" (完全に両想い). So, to this Japanese individual, that paopu sharing scene is meant to be romantic.

The creator of this video also points out that "Riku picks up on that" with the "that" being "Sora and Kairi are completely in love with each other," and shows the scene of Riku on the beach not looking bothered by this. (In Japanese, they state that Riku is 空気が読む - reading the room).

Then they end the video by stating that they "wish people would stop saying that Riku might like Kairi."

I wanted to share this video, because while I do think that there are a number of poorly translated moments in KH (especially in KH3), which either just do the character dirty or causes certain parallels and context to be missed or miss placed in the English version...I don't necessarily agree that the Japanese text makes Soriku or Riku having romantic feelings for Sora more obvious nor do I think that it makes Sokai come off as less romantic than it is intended to be.

When I first played KH3, it was in Japanese when I was living in Japan. The Sokai stuff came off as romantic, poorly written and on the same level as the usual battle shonen stuff (of which this creator made a parallel/connection to with the trio dynamic in a way), but still meant to be read as romantic. Riku and Sora moments still made my eyebrows rise though, as per usual. (Edit: Also, to clarify, I do still think that there were aspects of drifting apart or feeling left behind, especially on Kairi's end, and there was still a lot of queer subtext in KH3, but whether Nomura actually ever does anything with that...).

But, yeah, I think there has been some misconceptions spread about Soriku and Japanese KH fans in general. There seems to be this feeling that like every KH fan in Japan ships Soriku or what have you...but that really is not the case. Soriku fans in Japan ship them, they likely also have queer readings of their bond and the text, but the regular, run-of-the-mill KH fan in Japan will see Sokai as romantic and the official/canon pairing, and view Sora and Riku's bond as friendship.

Though, Soriku is still an extremely popular pairing and I do think that, like in English speaking spaces of the fandom, there might be more of a general acceptance that Riku has feelings for Sora. But, not everyone in Japan holds these views, just like in English speaking KH spaces.

Let's just take a quick look at the comments:

One of the comments that has 14 upvotes notes the heartwarming nature of seeing Sora and Riku go from enemies in KH1 to fighting together "as friends" in KH2. Another comment notes how Sora and Riku are childhood friends. One commentator states that "Riku has Namine, so he'll be okay." Meanwhile, another comment talks about how they think that "Riku is definitely in love with Sora" they use 恋 (koi, which is used when talking about romantic love specifically). One of the replies to that comment notes how they find Soriku to be "hotter and more emotional" than Sokai. The creator responded with a laugh and a general sort of "no doubt (lol)" statement.

I'm going to check and see if there are any other Japanese videos talking about Riku in general. This video was a great little insight into a Japanese POV on Riku and general Japanese fandoms thoughts on Riku. Like with any fandom space, it's a mixed bag.

If you do decide to check out the video above or leave a comment, please be nice and kind. I just thought this was interesting and a good reference / source to point out when it comes to that Nomura comment about KH1 Riku and his motives and Riku's feelings (or lack there of) for Kairi.

[iamnmbr3]

For your ask game: Luna Lovegood

How I feel about this character

I have a huge soft spot for Luna and I really like her friendship with Harry.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I don't really have any ships for her. I know Luna/Ginny is super popular but personally it doesn't resonate with me and I much prefer Ginny paired with other people. Given that Luna is one of the few people Harry feels comfortable sharing his feelings with a ship between them could be interesting postwar during the period of canon when Luna (according to the supplementary material) started to question some of her father's most outlandish beliefs. Moments like her knowing him well enough to recognize him when he has taken polyjuice could be super sweet in a romantic context too. But honestly I like them more as friends.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

LUNA AND HARRY FRIENDSHIP FTW!!! I love them so much. I love how Luna is one of the only people Harry opens up to - how she's able to comfort him post book 5 and how at the end of book 7 he chooses to sit next to her and she immediately understands how he feels and creates a distraction. I also love that she knows him so well she is able to recognize him even when he is using polyjuice potion in book 7. Iconic. I love the bond they share over the losses they experienced early in life and the experience of having been seen as outsiders. And I love how Luna's temperament and affect balance out Harry's.

I really enjoyed them going to Slughorn's party as friends too and Harry being so entertained by Luna unintentionally trolling everyone. Give me a postwar AU where everyone's after 'The Boy Who Lived Twice' and Harry's sick of it so he takes Luna as his date to everything - just as friends despite what the tabloids say. They undoubtedly run into Draco eventually and Luna probably just blurts out what all their respective close friends were thinking about them seeming to kind of have a thing for each other. Ron & Hermione are horrified but also desperately want to know the answer (and are afraid to know).

My unpopular opinion about this character

I'm not a huge fan of Draco and Luna just instantly being besties in the postwar period without any reference to any of the events in book 7. I mean, I do think Luna would be more likely to forgive him than some people and he was probably the nicest of her captors. But he still did participate - however miserably and unwillingly - in holding her and others captive. So it's not that I don't think they could be friends, just that it's weird when what happened gets forgotten.

Draco at least would probably feel really guilty about it and not just instantly be chatting with her and acting like nothing happened. And it would be understandable if she had trauma from that too. Though I would see her as being pretty sanguine about it and having some very Luna things to say that Draco probably doesn't know what to do with.

During 8th year someone's probably all 'you two know each other?!' and Luna's probably all 'oh yes. I lived in his cellar for several months during the war. He was definitely my favorite Death Eater. He used to sneak us extra food and water sometimes which was very nice of him. Though of course letting us all go would have been a lot nicer' and Draco's probably just standing there not sure if he's being insulted or not while Harry tries not to lose it in the background.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

We hear in the supplemental material that she eventually started to question some of her dad's beliefs. It would have been interesting if we saw a bit of that in canon. Also I'm curious what her reaction was when she found out her father tried to betray that Golden Trio to Death Eaters. I think this would be super interesting especially since, in a very different way, it would echo Draco's arc of coming to question some of the things he was taught by his parents. Could be something interesting to explore in a sideplot to a drarry fic or as a main plot to a short fic.

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 1

Propaganda Under Cut

Han Sooyoung

han sooyoung is one of the main trio protagonists yet people constantly ignore her in order to ship the other two males despite the fact that they are all doomed by the narrative TOGETHER!!! fanon content is even worse because it either slaps a lesbian sticker onto her to shittily write her off in fanfic OR they make her so one dimensional its like a cardboard stand in. han sooyoung arguably has a more important/interesting dynamic with the main male protagonist yet everyone ignores her because they want their uwu gay babies IM SO SICK OF ORV FANS

Dokja and Joonghyuk are a very popular ship (rightfully so, i get it) but usually Sooyoung is seen as in the way of their relationship or not as valued as the other two even though her place in the story and relationship with the other characters is just as strong. Recently there was a post on twitter being rude about people who ship her and Joonghyuk (which is a super valid ship) and i saw a lot of hate that i believe just stems from her getting “in the way” of a yaoi ship. 

99% of that kind of symbolic fanart REFUSES. to acknowledge her existence man. even though she is part of the main TRIO man

Shinoa Hiiragi

The fandom hated her for getting in the way of Mika/Yuu (she had a crush on yuu). The rare times they didn’t hate her they made her into a fujoshi obsessed with shipping them which isn’t in character at all. In fact if you look at the owari no seraph specials she would ship yuu with kimizuki but no one even cares

One of my favorite characters ever forever and treated heinously by crazed fujoshis that hallucinated she was getting in the way of MikaYuu, which for the record she wasn’t! I mean even if she WAS getting between them it wouldn’t justify the crazy misogyny that got thrown at her but she had a ONE-SIDED CRUSH on Yuu. He didn’t even like her back. What was the issue, then? An unrequited crush is not going to prevent a relationship! Whatever I haven’t even told you about her. She’s Silly. She’s incredibly cunning and a great leader, in fact she is the leader of the anime’s main squad. She’s calculating. She’s a gossip and a prankster and a bit flirty and a bit mean-spirited and she presents herself in a Silly Goofy way, in part to cover up the amounts of angst in her backstory, like my girl has ISSUES. She even has an epic demon weapon that is better and cooler than most other demon weapons but if you ask any fangirl from way-back-when, she’s just a bitch and the personification of evil. and probably homophobic too, even though she has a girl rival-turned-friend which is the gayest trope out there. 

She seems to be the (male) protagonist's love interest and appears to be canonically in love with him, but he is not interested in her whatsoever, often brushing her off and dismissing her in favor of thinking about his found family instead. I don't necessarily ship him romantically with any other male character (i hc him as aroace) but by god the anime was extremely charged with homoromantic subtext in every corner. One of those "holding each other's faces in the opening, spends the entire first season pining and wishing to be reunited" types. The fandom ships her love interest with another male character to the extent that I started watching the show in the first place because i kept seeing ship posts of the main character with that other guy thought they were cute. And also i cannot fucking stand her personality and want to light her on fire. I think the rest of the fandom agrees with me but I'm honestly not sure. I'm also a gay man so i think you could argue that I, the submitter, could play the role of the "yaoi" terrorising her as well

[thekitsune]

MarLuz Fics

So I love Lumity and I love Marcanne, but I also have a fondness for MarLuz. I want to write a fic with it as the main ship but I just wanted to say…I really wish there were more fics focusing on the ship. Even if it was a poly ship featuring Amity as well. I’m sad there’s so little for it. I understand how popular and loved Lumity and the Calamity Trio ships are but still…

Maybe one day more people will write MarLuz fics.

[iunpackmyadjectives]

A Ninjago Heathers AU Idea

I adore Heathers with my whole soul(candy store, meant to be yours, dead girl walking and seventeen all ended up on my top songs of 2023 playlist for context), and I love ninjago with my whole soul(70k words of fics in my Google docs, so many hours spent reading and drawing for it, and multiple cosplays), so naturally I want to combine them. But I(probably)don’t have the patience for writing all that, so the skeleton of it is landing here

Cast:

Veronica: Lloyd

JD: Harumi(but like she’s the perfect JD change my mind)

H. Chandler: Kai

H. Duke: Cole

H. McNamara: Jay

Kurt and Ram: Nya and Skylor

Martha: Brad Tudabone

Ms Fleming: Dareth(it just…I don’t think I need to explain it)

Notes:

If you can’t tell, the whole thing is gender bent. tinylifeboat123 has a lovely gender bent Heathers au I used for inspiration/reference 

And to clarify it’s still set in 1989

Okay but Kai definitely gives Heather Chandler. Like he would be popular, a mythic bitch, and sing lead in candy store

Similarly, I think Jay would make a great Heather MacNamera. Also, this would be a Gordon situation, as he is loaded because his dad’s an actor

Look, Llorumi isn’t a popular or generally liked ship(for good reason, I don’t ship them at all when it comes to canon), but idk to me they fit for Veronica and JD??? Like, especially Rumi being JD? She already blew up a building and murdered people in canon

Give me big fun at the Smith house please

Dead Girl Walking would play out differently specifically because I hc Lloyd as hella ace. It still ends in him and Rumi becoming official, but no sex

Blue would also play out differently since Nya is taken(yes by Jay) and Skylor just had her bf(?) die. They would try to convince him to do stuff with a girl(probably Akita but it doesn’t really matter), and when he refuses they spread a rumor that he said no because he’s gay. Cue Rumi using an uno reverse card in Our Love is God(idk maybe a mention about how they both are queer but the world doesn’t love them for who they are and people saying stuff like that are the problem?)

Dead Gay Son could go whatever way you want, but I would probably have it be about scruffshipping(Dareth/Ronin) because I hc Ronin as becoming Nya’s functional uncle post season 5

The dead trio would have a lot more dynamics with each other, considering there’s a pair of best friends, a couple(?), and a pair of siblings(something something Kai and Nya could have been the older siblings Lloyd never had something something)

I definitely could see Dareth leading shine a light. Seems like a very in-character thing for him to do.

Give me Jay having a breakdown over how he rides the bus because all his rides to school are dead. Give me Jay singing lifeboat. Give me Lloyd stopping Jay from doing that one thing in the bathroom. I need it. I NEED it.

The kindergarten boyfriend was Lloyd. He didn’t die, but he has so strongly left Brad behind that in his eyes he might as well have. This also makes the line “I’m so sorry” sooo much worse

Is 90% of this au just for the last 5 songs? Absolutely. They just fit the Llorumi dynamic. Like Lloyd realizes that she is crazy and her being stopped is far more than their relationship being saved. Does Lloyd wish they could have work out? Yes. Does he still try to save her until the very last second? Yes. Is there remorse from both parties? Yes. But in the end she's “beaten fair and square” and dies, and there isn’t a shoved in rushed redemption arc I’m looking at you Crystalized you butchered my girl.

Greenflower in beautiful(reprise)? Maybe a kiss???

[sage-nebula]

If you don't mind a couple more submissions for the character meme, I'd like to know your thoughts about Morrigan (Dragon Age) and Zinnia (Pokémon)!

Morrigan:

How I feel about this character:

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

My female warden Lyra Mahariel despite Bioware making that impossible. (I know that there are mods, but the mods make it so that he/him language is still used and it's just not the same . . .) But I also go feral for Morrigan/Leliana, specifically in the context of it happening during DA:I. Like they reconnect at the ball and then after Morrigan comes to Skyhold, that's when the romance happens, all those years later. Mmmm, delicious.

My non-romantic OTP with this character:

Aside from how I love how her mother-son relationship with Kieran was written, and how I love how she is consciously choosing to break the cycle of abuse that Flemeth put her through by refusing to do any of that shit to Kieran . . . I also love the trio of Morrigan, Alistair, and my warden lmao. Like, Morrigan and Alistair are constantly at each other's throats, but also there is still a sense of ride or die among the entire Stop the Blight Brigade by the end that began with that original trio (and their dog). The dark ritual (that created Kieran) is really just the icing on the cake.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

I don't think that I have one? But then again I've never been deep into the Dragon Age fandom so I don't know what opinions are popular or unpopular about Morrigan, lol.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

Apparently it was planned early in the development for the dark ritual to be able to be done with a female warden too, but then it was taken out for time constraints. Meaning that originally, Morrigan was going to be canonically bisexual, and we could have had Kieran having two mothers in canon.

REMEMBER WHAT THEY TOOK FROM US.

Zinnia:

How I feel about this character:

Zinnia is hands down my favorite character from the games. A lot of it is due to her story coming out at exactly the right time to have the most emotional impact possible; my platonic soulmate was in the last stages of stomach cancer at the time when I was playing through the Delta Episode, and everything that Zinnia said about her grief with regards to the original Aster rang exactly true to my feelings about my platonic soulmate. So that attached me to Zinnia more than I perhaps might have been otherwise.

But even outside of that, I just love everything about Zinnia's character. Her determination, her sass and her snark, how her cultural background plays both into her role in the story and how other characters interact with her, etc. Zinnia is multifaceted in a way that few characters in this franchise are, and I really just absolutely adore her.

Also, Lorekeeper is hands down the coolest Trainer Class in the entire franchise, bar none.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

None! I know there are people who insist that she must have been in romantic love with the original Aster, but again, given how true her words rang for me with regards to my platonic soulmate (who, I might add, was a dog), I really don't feel that's an irrefutable truth lmao. (And this is also coming from a lesbian.) There aren't any characters that I think Zinnia has any romantic chemistry with. And this is especially true for Steven fucking Stone, who microaggresses her during the Delta Episode by not bothering to remember her name, but instead tries to address her as "the Draconid" instead. Racist ass. (Game!Steven has zero rights on this blog.)

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

In my head I have this whole entire Delta Episode AU written out for the anime-verse in which she and Alan end up forming a brotp, so Alan would be my answer for this question. I wish I could say I've written it, but alas I've only written a couple little pieces here or there, and referenced their friendship once in an otherwise unrelated fic, rip. But it exists to me and so it's my non-romantic otp for Zinnia, which is the purpose of the question anyway.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

Oh boy. That she's a great character, that her plan to stop the meteor was the correct one and that Steven's was objectively wrong, that Steven was wrong to microaggress her and was racist in doing so and that the fact that all she did to call him out on it was finish his sentence in a mocking way was letting him off easy, that she's not a villain because her attempts to save the world by summoning Rayquaza included morally questionable actions, that people hold her to harsher standards than the male characters because she's a female character (seen most obviously in how they looooove Archie and Maxie, who LED Teams Aqua and Magma, but want to nail Zinnia to the wall for joining said teams because of her idea to summon Rayquaza by making Kyogre and Groudon fight), that she stole the key stones because she was on a time limit to save the world from a meteor, that her plan to summon Rayquaza would save more lives than Steven's plan to sacrifice 7 billion lives by chucking it into another world, and so on and so forth.

The bulk of the fandom hates Zinnia's guts and will take any opportunity to call her a villain, a psychopath, a sociopath, or whatever other name they can think of. They'll also make up blatantly untrue things about her to try to support their argument, such as claiming that Steven's plan would have worked and that we don't know that Zinnia was right about how his plan would have killed billions of people even though, again, we DO know that she IS correct about the multiple worlds existing because we have played the games where mega evolution does not exist. Trying to argue with these people is exhausting. If Zinnia was a male character she would still get hate because she's brown, but not as much as she currently does. If she was a WHITE male character, she wouldn't get hate at all. But as it stands she is a brown woman, and one who dares to disagree with a popular light-skinned male fave, so she's vilified in the fandom at large. It's infuriating.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

She shouldn't have had her destiny usurped by the MC. The MC could have caught Rayquaza after Zinnia mega evolved Ray-Ray to stop the meteor; a sort of, "I have fulfilled my role, and now Rayquaza is free to do as it wishes . . . and it seems interested in you!" or something like that. But Zinnia trained her entire life to fulfill her duty as Lorekeeper -- she was prepared to die doing it, seemed to expect to die doing it and you can tell that she's in pain while reciting the incantation, implying that it is taking something out of her to do so -- so to have it taken from her because the MC is Just That Special leaves an awful taste in my mouth. It shouldn't have gone down that way. It was wrong.

I also think that she should get to sink Steven Stone in a dunk tank about ten times in a row. Masters EX, make it happen.

[gaemms-chamois]

random unorganized darknights trio + paprika musings bc sometimes i'm hit with like a pang of Brief Worry that i'm completely misinterpreted blabla that usually doesn't last too long bc i then go back to my state of I'm Just Vibing but ig at some point i just gotta let it out publicly once and be done with it lol

this is messily written Please Understand this isn't meant to be a grand thought piece

fuuuck ok well this is like very specifically abt the w, ines & paprika part now

like don't get me wrong on this. i joke abt wines moms and stuff but i dont genuinely mean it in the way of wahh wow littol family for reals kinda deal?

less on wines 'adopting' paprika, moreso paprika imprinting on them like a duckling after she was saved by them. paprika adopted them lmao. i cannot possibly interpret either w or ines as Maternal in such a way.

it's moreso that i think it's nice that this little sarkaz merc became part of the story, a girl who all her life since she was infected at a young age, was presented with becoming a mercenary being basically the only option for her.

and then, as annoying as w can be, being shown that she does have different options.

i just think it's sweet that paprika, judging by her voicelines, clearly looks up to w and ines. which is just amplified by the fact that w and ines are notoriously not the most popular people on rhodes lol. and she calls w annoying but still keeps knitting stuff and wanting to gift food to her. like if she often seeks out w and ines to tell them how well she did on something, when they are on the ship, etc. that'd at least indicate that those two humor her.

ALSO IT'S UNOFFICIAL BUT SHOUTOUT TO THAT LITTLE CHUZENJI ART WITH PAPRIKA AND W, INES & TOTTER WEARING KNITTED HATS SO CUTE

OKAY WOO DARKNIGHTS MERCENARY TRIO AND STUFF

cool yeah obviously i fucking love them. i'm not very good at words though and i tend to keep my more elaborate thoughts to just discussions between friends who know how i tick djsfhdfs

just the other day i was smiling to myself during a walk bc holy shit all three are actually playable now and that's not just wishful thinking anymore. anyway chapter 13 also happened and more stuff with the trio happened and Cool Lots of things Happening and my brain is full

they're so found family to me, like in an utterly unconventional way. i mean c'mon with how they act sometimes like- ykno. but like have y'all seen the new furniture set and descriptions that came with hoederer's release it made me go insanse.

but i think especially in ines' case it just kinda highlights that best. considering ines' arts can figure people out (putting that in rather vague terms), it truly means something when someone with her capabilities and temperament has people she chooses to stick by and actually trust. even if she pretends she doesn't by verbally denying it.

like waugh Okay they have a lot to unpack and shit but with them being reunited (take that, W file that said W needs companionship but her friends aren't around anymore) and having a COMPARATIVELY more ""relaxed"" life than before (that one Hoederer file where he just has rather regular days on rhodes), it's just nice to imagine they can finally have something better and figure stuff out. as complicated as the three of them are.

with that said i think it's a given that i despise a nuclear family treatment of the three (aka mom ines, dad hoederer, daughter w).

for one with me being highly doubtful w was a kid/teen at the start of darknights (young? sure, but not that young), which just seems like such a...widespread belief that i really do not get? arknights always put a LOT of emphasis on when a character's story was about them being a kid, 0 of that with w. like something about her expression and big cloak just gave people some different impression, even though she literally keeps looking the same aside from a change of clothes. only instance of w being called a kid during that time i can think of is that one boiler worker in her files but that seems way more like any typical old guy calling anyone on the younger side a kid. hell, even hoederer was called young in darknights, like in a sarkaz's lifespan i can believe that.

and also...hoederer had somewhat of a mentor-like role for w, but if anyone tries to tell me ines ever acted maternal towards w i will chew through your walls. read through darknights memoir and actually pay attention to ines, both w AND ines were pettyass women and they made that so very clear. cannot fathom how anyone can see ines as having been motherly towards w

seriously just feels like a case of Well there is man and there is woman....and this other character so clearly these are mom, dad and kid.

that's not even me being biased towards w/ines, just how i objectively see it. hell, i even ENJOY ines/hoederer, but my enjoyment of it is limited bc for some reason ppl like to make it weird by shoving w in as some daughter. i promise it's completely possible to like ines/hoederer without trying to fit in w as a kid figure

anyways yeah like cool i like these characters I Guess. Look at them

[grungiiuvu]

heyo there

🛼,🪲, 🍄 ,🍦

feel free to pick and choose which ones to do :3

🛼 ⇢ describe your latest wip with five emojis

🎂😭🫂🤝❤️

🪲 ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here

He'd messed it all up. It was only one mistake but that was enough when it boiled down to the final round. Why did he have to char the steak now? When he was so close?! Why couldn't this mistake have happened earlier on? Why couldn't he have made this error when Xie Lian was still in the competition, so it would pale in comparison to whatever monstrous error the other guy had made?! Feng Xin groaned pitifully into his hands. Everything else had been great. The sauce was perfect, the vegetables were absolutely lavish... Even his dessert had been good! He's outdone that sour bastard in points when it came to the third course! But he'd just had to go and fuck up the piece-de-la-resistance of it all. And now he was going home in the final round unvictorious. A loser.

...At least Mu Qing had lost too, though. That put a smile on his face, no matter how stupidly petty.

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

Mu Qing has had a crush on Feng Xin this whole time, he just has no idea that that's what a crush feels like. At least Feng Xin's aware he's interested in Mu Qing!

(This is NOT relevant to Cheap Villain and is about TGCF canon)

🍦 ⇢ name three good things about a character you hate

I dont really think there's any character I particularly hate? So I'm just going to add a general MXTX complaints

I wish Hua Cheng didn't hate Feng Xin and Mu Qing so much. It makes him seem petty and narrow-minded. I get that he does it because he's soooo in love with Xie Lian and that FengQing hurt him, but the trio's fallout is not their fault, it's everyone's fault and no one can carry the blame for it. Hua Cheng pinning it all on them and despising them for it just feels shallow af

Yue Qingyuan annoys me in the fact he didn't tell the truth and I don't really understand why he didn't, or why he's so popular of a character. If he had explained things to Shen Jiu honestly instead of being a coward, would that not have solved a lot of issues? (Yue Qingyuan fans, feel free to explain why you feel he did this/defend him, as long as you're respectful)

I think I'd have enjoyed WangXian as platonic more than as a ship, but that's just my ship dynamic biases :))

[gaffney]

totally stealing this from you but i am very curious: what are your top 3 julie rarepairs?

ok so after a lot of filtering (why is there fast and furious fic in the julie tag???), i've deduced that the top 3 most popular julie pairings on ao3 are adam/julie, connie/julie, and dean/julie, so i'm considering everything else is a rarepair!!

charlie/julie. i just love how comfortable these two are with each other ever!! like charlie was hanging off of her basically 5 seconds after they met, or him catching julie in a hug after she caught the puck. also this deleted scene in d3 where he's got an arm around her and fulton. she's very relaxed around him and is usually near his side in bg scenes. i also really like that moment in d3 where charlie ices the puck because he realizes julie's having a hard time, and then skates over to tell her 'way to hang tough'. RESPECT. VALIDATION. two things i really wish they'd given to julie more. i don't remember anyone else complimenting julie's skills and i love that charlie looks out for her. (i mean the writers even made her starting 1st all about goldberg's feelings. hell, julie ended up complimenting goldberg even though he basically poisoned her... blergh). we don't really get to see what type of people julie is attracted to aside from scooter who was kinda a snake, but i def think charlie has a thing for headstrong people who speak their minds (hi linda) and julie fits that description. and considering julie actually shares charlie's main interest with him (hockey), it's easy to imagine them together. anyway self-promo but read my charlie/julie fic rose-colored boy bc it is canon TO ME.

guy/julie. SO ADMITTEDLY, i do only ship this if they're poly with connie because i think they would work super well as a trio, but like, d3 made me go 👀 because it felt like (contrary to the popular belief of connie & julie being besties) guy got julie in the divorce. like they were constantly together?? but yeah, honestly, my reason for this is simply that i think guy is a sweet dude (who likes his partners to be able to destroy him) and julie deserves to be doted on and also they are both in love with connie so obviously they are also in love with each other.

julie/tammy. considering they haven't even met i literally have no reason other than tammy's "PEOPLE!" vs julie's "AND GIRLS!" lines. BUT LIKE IMAGINE. i think they would butt heads over how similar they are but then realize they'd work great together and kiss. that's it that's the fic. i will write it one day...

i think there's a case to be made for julie/russ but i mostly view them as gossip-y besties. i would however read it if anyone else wrote it...

[badtzbot]

I will get to your asks, I just got so much more of them than I expected, lol

Hina for the character ask?

take ur time !!!!

How I feel about this character

she's perfect. absolutely immaculate. best manicured nails in the marines. "cuntiest marine" award for the 5th year in a row. she's kept up in the wee hours of the morning because shanks and mihawk snuck into marine headquarters to fuck again and what is she even gonna do about it. she's #1 bully of smoker. she's ruffling his hair. she's exhaling heart shapes when she smokes. not a blorbo of mine but i do love her. fucking awesome devil fruit

All the people I ship romantically with this character

smoker drake and tashigi :) also doll....

My non-romantic OTP for this character

also smoker and drake. the smoker drake hina trio is good in both romantic and platonic ways. they grew up together as cadets !!!!

My unpopular opinion about this character

.... i don't know that there are any popular opinions about her? ummm idk. i think her outfit in stampede is so fucking cunty I aspire to be like her

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

i want more exposure on the drake hina smoker as cadets moments..... what shenanigans did they get up to.... oda Please

[aejiee]

hi! you asked for marauders fic recs so im here to give you some :)

idk if you’ve read these or any yet, so they might seem kinda basic. they’re just to introduce you to this world/the characters. i wish i had a list like this when i first got into the marauders fandom ngl

also these are only gonna be marauders era fics, if you want golden trio era fics as well, i can give you some!

anyway:

all the young dudes by mskingbean89 (completed, 527k words, wolfstar & jily): this is THE marauders fic for most ppl, and i just think of it as what happened canonically. no fic is perfect, but this should be every1’s first marauders era fic imo (you might’ve read this already cuz it’s SO popular). its from remus’ pov and it follows him throughout hogwarts and until (i think) poa or ootp

the wolf’s tail by myheadsgonenumb (wip, 457k words, no ships yet but prob wolfstar & jily): this one’s pretty underrated imo, and it’s SO WELL WRITTEN!!! this also follows remus throughout hogwarts. however id say the diff between this and atyd is that (so far at least) it focuses more on the war side of the marauders era, even when they are still young and at hogwarts. so if you’re interested in how actually dark and dangerous the times were back then, even for children, you will like this one! the only thing ill say for this is that its kinda very descriptive at points (ex. there’s a lot of newspaper clippings, book quotes, interview transcripts etc) but you can just gloss over them if you think they’re not that important. rn i think their 5th year just started, so keep that in mind (its gonna be a long one)!

the cadence of part-time poets by motswolo (completed, 980k words, wolfstar & jily): AAAAAAHHHH this one is my ALL TIME FAV (marauders era) FIC <33333 this is a muggle au, so no magic! this is also a remus pov (😭) and he goes to hawkings (which is basically hogwarts) in his (i think??) 4th year? or younger? smt like that :,). this fic also has my fav oc (tomny) hehe. as the tags say, its a band fic/au, but i’ll spoil no more!

the making of the map by fox_pitch (completed, 79k words, wolfstar & jily): this is a shorter one, but its also rlyyy good. pretty sure this starts and ends in their sixth year, but as the title suggests, its how the marauders map come to exist! its also how wolfstar gets together and its very cute and wholesome. the ending is kinda ambiguous in the sense that it doesn’t give any hints as to if anything changes in this fic’s universe’s future, but id assume not.

choices by messermoon (completed, 624k words, jegulus, wolfstar & jily): i kinda assumed you wanted the “canon” ships (aka jily and wolfstar) but if you’re interested in jegulus (james potter/regulus black) then this one is prob for you. i personally haven’t finished this fic, but ik its a jegulus classic/canon, just like atyd is for jily (& wolfstar). this one follows james, and it doesn’t start on his first year i think. it has alternating povs as well! however, as the tags warn, it is canon compliant, aka reg dies in the end, so do w that what you will :,)

only the brave by solmussa (completed, 646k words, jegulus, wolfstar, dorlene, rosekiller & pandalily): this is another jegulus fic! it has started being considered a classic and if you read it, you’ll understand why. this also does not start from their first year, and this one also has alternating povs! i love the writing and just general concept/plot of this one; i don’t love jegulus but i was still HOOKED w this fic, so yes. its rly good. and as you can see w the tags, this is a happy ending (aka, reg lives)!!!!! mwah love those.

art heist, baby! by otrbs (completed, 219k words, jegulus, wolfstar, dorlene, alice/frank longbottom - idk their ship name): i also have not read this fic, but ive only heard good things about it (and some sobs but that’s what you get for “major character death” : ) )! i know the ending of it tho, and it is kinda sad, so prepare yourself. it is a muggle au, and they basically wanna pull an art heist? yup lets go w that simple explanation.

that’s it for now bahhaha, and its a LOT, so enjoy! if you want shorter ones, i also have some i can show you, and if you’ve read these, lmk if you like them! <3

OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH 🙏🙏🙏 Ur my savior bro. I'm abt to finish ATYD and I started reading The Making of the Map per your suggestion because it was short enough to download a pdf to read in class 💀💀 I really like both of them!! I need to psych myself up to read some of the 500k+ fics tho bc atyd took me so long 😭😭😭 I'll let you know how I find the rest of them ^^ TYY!!!

[nadziejastar]

Absolutely love your akusai analysis stuff its so good omg.

Do you have any more thoughts on them?

Thank you for the kind words, I really appreciate it! As for my thoughts on Akusai, well, after beating Fire Emblem Three Houses recently, I do have a few thoughts. I know, I'm late to the party on 3H. (I actually loved 3H and would love to write metas about those ships lol). But anyways, regarding Akusai. It's a bit of a rant and there's minor spoilers for FE3H, so I'll put it under the cut.

Okay, so Sylvix felt like it was everything Akusai was supposed to be. It touched on all the same themes, too. In 3H, you've got a childhood friend trio. The standard two males and a female. On the surface it seems like the girl and the outgoing redhead goofball are a thing. But they treat each other more like bros. He and the quiet blue-haired sword guy had a much more intimate bond with each other, complete with a special promise™ to always be together and redhead being protective of blue. The redhead never wants to grow up and change because he doesn't wanna fulfill the heteronormative life script of getting married and having kids.

He is longing to go back to his childhood days but is sad at how much blue has changed since they were kids and has apparently outgrown their closeness. He hides his angst behind a smile and womanizing. Blue was once a meek clingy crybaby but now he is surly and obsessed with growing stronger. Deep down he is still an uke who secretly longs to be redhead's waifu. But he has a lot of shame related to his sensitivity and gender nonconformity. He distances himself from others, but boy does he get irritated if redhead flirts with anyone else.

I do wish the game would have just come right out and tell you that they're gay for each other (and so does this gaming site). I get why it didn't. Still, it didn't really hide it too much. They have a paired ending where they spend their whole lives playfully teasing each other like just when they were kids, never get married, and die together in each other's arms. It's the most romantic ending in the whole game, if you ask me. And Sylvix is SUPER popular and well received by the fandom. Both in Japan and the West. They have soooo much fan content. There are still some dudes who say they're just friends because ew icky gay. But most people in the fandom are able to tell they're queer-coded and are fine with it. In fact, the fandom was so fine with it that they released an overtly queer dude in the DLC, strictly due to popular demand.

3H is not a slam dunk with gay romance since much of it (particularly MLM) relies on subtext. But it still had more balls than most JRPG series and it definitely was a step in the right direction. We all know that Soriku is the most popular ship. The end of KH2 was total fujoshi fuel. But Soriku never had any chance in hell of being canon. KH is a video game shonen anime. Sora/Riku bromance is "safe". They can capitalize on shipteasing them to their female fans, but they won't alienate their male fans because Kairi is still very obviously the love interest for Sora. I found Akusai to be a lot more compelling because it was legitimately queer-coded.

Axel was queer-coded from the very beginning. His close friendship with Roxas in KH2 made people question his sexuality all the way back in 2006 and Akuroku rivaled Soriku for a time. And I do think that Axel always meant to be queer. Although personally, I did not get the impression that he was in love with Roxas. I got the sense that he probably had a best friend back when he was a human. And it was this dead best friend that he truly yearned for. The sweet and innocent Roxas reminded Axel of his human best friend and he latched onto him to help him forget the memories of days long past. That was my headcanon back in 2006 when KH2 first came out.

So, I was really happy when Days/BBS came out and it basically confirmed my theory that Axel was truly hung up on his human best friend and saw Roxas as a kind of replacement for him. And Isa was also very queer-coded. BBS!Isa has a more distinctly feminine design than any other boy in the series. He had very girlsh eyes and lips, small hands, long hair. And Saix's Mystery Gear is very cutesy-looking. Traditionally, the moon is viewed as a feminine symbol. And Saix's weapons in 358/2 Days were named after moon goddesses. They could have easily picked male moon gods, but they chose female goddesses like Selene and Artemis. It signifies to the player that, "Hey, this character does not follow the conventional gender stereotypes."

When you play 358/2 Days, and you get to the part where Axel is talking about love, you realize he's talking about his most precious memories from his human life, just like with all the other stuff like summer vacation and the red sunset. Akusai was not just superficial fujobait. Even if it was all subtext, it was a genuine depiction of two queer male characters who loved each other romantically. Axel is not straight. That’s a big reason why I was so mad that KH3 pushed their relationship off to the side and treated saving Isa as so much less important compared to saving Roxas. And it was so annoying how Saix had to mention Subject X whenever he might have seemed a little too obsessed with Axel otherwise.

Last year, Nomura said that he intended to show more of Lea and Isa's backstory in the future, so I've just been waiting for more content. I hope that we can get their story without Subject X overshadowing them like she did in KH3. I'm...cautiously optimistic. I expect this subplot to be included in Missing Link, since it is quite literally a missing link of the story. Axel is super popular and a queer-coded backstory with his childhood best friend would be very well received by the modern KH fandom, IMO. People are a LOT more accepting of gay content than they were in 2006. We've come a long way. And personally, I just love the idea that the tough cold asshole Saix's human self was actually a super sweet cutie who was in love with Lea. I really think the KH fandom would love that idea, too, if the writers were ever allowed to actually explore it. And a niche mobile game is probably a safer medium for that type of content than a mainline console game overseen by Disney, I guess. At the very least, if they ever put an Isa figurine into ML, I will whale for it if I have to. 

[sammisafetypin]

im enabling you rn. karin for the ask meme plssss

ollie please tell me what dis image is . anyways KARIN TIME💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛

Sexuality Headcanon: Karin has never thought about her sexuality once in her life. She has been MUCH too busy to think or care about it and if you asked her she’d interrogate you about why you care so much. Would call herself straight if you twisted her arm for an answer, but the gender section below kinda complicates that response.

Gender Headcanon: Deeply hard-boiled egg, would be a he/she trans man if there was, once again, any time to think about it. He goes on about how all of her issues with being a woman are because “men get so many more opportunities anyway”, and it’s “only natural to wish you were a man for strategic purposes”. He is not figuring this shit out without intervention, the denial goes to the ocean floor at this point.

A ship I have with said character: (RIPS MY SHIRT OFF TO REVEAL THAT I HAVE TATTOOED TEH WORDS ‘I 💛 DAARIN’ INTO MY CHEST)

No but seriously. I don’t care how much of a popular Reddit ship they are, their dynamic is literally perfect. Karin’s constant charging ahead VS Daan’s inherently passive nature and how they don’t understand the other person’s way of approaching life is already great, but the way they bicker is even better. It wouldn’t be nearly as interesting if Daan didn’t snap back, but he does and it makes them SO funny. I also think, despite their dynamic being predicated on being such opposites, they have the most potential to actually deeply understand each other — the less you get someone, the more you want to, and so they both kinda dig their heels into “why are you LIKE this” until it becomes “oh ok. I see. you’re still fucking annoying though >:/“. I have a hard time verbalizing why I like them so much but I just really do, they’re a bickering old married couple to me that has never actually dated, Daan just kind of became Karin’s “person” one day and he carries him around like a particularly mean purse dog.

A BROTP I have with said character: Her and Abella! In my first playthrough my party for most of the game was Karin, Daan, and Abella, so I got really attached to them as a trio. I think Abella is kind of immune to Karin’s bullshit and able to just thwack her on the head when she’s getting ass-deep in her stubbornness. Doesn’t always work, but Abella’s determined to try and get her to unwind a little bit.

A NOTP I have with said character: I don’t like Karin/Pav at all, though I’ve only seen a small handful of people ship it. I just don’t think Karin would ever feel anything but homicidal rage for Pav, much less romantic affection. I know I just went on about how much I like the conflict of Karin/Daan, but it’s different. Those two have banter, Karin and Pav is like, “I actively believe you to be a fucking pig”. Y’know? Also Pav pisses me off for literally no reason so that doesn’t help.

A random headcanon: She LOVES documentaries, and I mean love love LOVESSS documentaries. She’s such an old man about them she wants to sit down and watch his stories about World War 1 and loudly eviscerate every detail he disagrees with. Daan who would rather be watching the ‘40s equivalent of trash TV can’t stand this. When he has his shows on Karin complains but inevitably gets invested anyways. Her opinions on the Toddlers & Tiaras moms have to be known.

General Opinion over said character: KARINNNNNN MY SWEET BOY MY SUGAR PLUM!!!!!!! I loveeeeee Karin he was teh first character I beat teh game with which made me super attached to her already, but besides that shez just a great character that doesn’t get nearly enough respect in dis fandom. Do you know how many Karin centric fics dere are on Ao3?? Not enough, I’ll tell you! And itz bizarre to me bc she’z so interesting! I think she gets kinda discarded as th token bitch of th cast but if All Of That had happened to me I think I would be kind of a paranoid stubborn cunt too! Her backstory’s like actively horrifying to me it surprises me I don’t see it talked about more. But anyways Karin is my SPECIAL BOY WHO I LOVE SOOOOO MUCHES I MADE HER ATTACK GOD WITH A MEAT MALLET 

[chipmunkfanno1love]

Favourite Ship Tag Game

Since tag games are so popular around here, I thought I’d give it a go and make my own. :D

Choose 4 romantic ships (fictional couples and/or fictional characters you *wish* were couples) you love from any fictional source whether it be books, movies, TV shows, mobile/video games, etc. Please also reference the fictional source they come from. The list doesn’t have to be in any particular order.

Give your reasons why you love this couple and/or why you think they’d *make* a great couple. If you can, please include a picture or GIF of the couple.

Tag 5 of your followers to share this game with. You may choose to tag more or less if you wish, but I do recommend choosing 5. No pressure, just please share this game with others for the sake of spreading the word. 

Please be respectful of others and there opinions. No abuse please. :( Also, have fun. :D

*Warning*: Story spoilers ahead.

1. Rapunzel and Eugene Fitzherbert/”Flynn Rider” from the Tangled franchise.

I love these two because they are beautiful example of a healthy relationship. They love and support each other selflessly in their goals and dreams and never try to pressure the other into doing what they aren’t ready for. They are always there to support each other and build the other up to become the best versions of themselves.  

Rapunzel helped Eugene find the selfless, loving man underneath the selfish, vain thief, while Eugene gave Rapunzel the courage to live her dream and break herself free from the manipulative Mother Gothel’s control and find the truth about her real parents and her being the lost princess. They’re each others New Dream and I love that about them. :D

Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi did amazing in these roles. 

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2. Branch and Poppy from the “Trolls” franchise

I love these two because they are adorable examples of opposites-attract. Poppy is the bubbly, endlessly optimistic princess turned queen of the Pop Trolls, while Branch is the grumpy but realistic former hermit with a heart of gold.

Poppy helps Branch to see the bright side of things and helps him to find his true colours, while Branch keeps Poppy grounded and realistic when she takes her plans too far and is always there to help her out when she needs him. 

I hope these two marry some day and Branch becomes Poppy’s king consort. They make a great team - romantically, plantonically and just generally as trolls.

I also love Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick. Their singing voices are amazing. :D

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3. Callum and Rayla from “The Dragon Prince” 

A great example of the enemies to friends to lovers trope (though they’re currently on the outs romantically). These two have a beautiful bond that grows naturally over the course of 3 seasons. Despite being estranged due to 2 years apart in Season 4, the two are slowly and naturally repairing their broken bond and I hope in time these two will not only repair their friendship but eventually fall in love all over again and get back together as a stronger and much more mature couple. 

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4. Simon and Jeanette from the “Alvin and the Chipmunks” franchise

The adorkably nerdy pair and *Smart Ones* of their respective musical trios, The Chipmunks and The Chipettes. Despite being similar in their intelligence levels, the two are still different enough from each other that aren’t clones of the other. Jeanette is more shy and compassionate in temprament to Simon’s more snarky, deadpanned wit. He’s always there to catch her when she falls (most of the time literally, lol) and she’s always there to support him and cheer him up when his inventions are ruined (mostly by his irresponsible brother, Alvin).

Though they are still a bit young and shy to start a serious relationship with each other, it’s obvious this adorable pair were made for each other. They do and will make an adorable pair - romantically, platonically and acemedically. 

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I tag @16magnolias , @briarosabelle , @creativefictionlover , @psalm40speakstome and @travelinglighttoday . Though anyone can feel free to play if they wise to. Have fun! :D