#and imho indefinitely

[leandra-winchester]

On Oliver's social media behavior regarding Bucktommy vs. Buddie

Kind of in line with many of the good points raised by @bbbuckaroo in this ask response, but I wanted to make my own post about it.

I, too, have seen posts that prompted this ask - from more well-meaning people remarking that Oliver could/should maybe say something against the toxic Buddie shippers and promote Bucktommy more, to more critical voices saying he's essentially ship-baiting with Buddie because he keeps posting about them.

As the referenced post says, Oliver "knows how important and pivotal the Buddie FRIENDSHIP is".

So let's look at that from Oliver's (and in connection also Ryan's) point of view for a moment here.

You're an actor who's been playing one half of what is one of the most integral relationships on a very successful show. That relationship has textually always been a friendship, but with elements that make it richer and deeper than most regular friendships; it's a sort of family dynamic.

It could be read as having a potential for romance, and you're open to that, should the writers ever decide that's the direction they want to take it. You have said so multiple times, not just to appease a large group of fans, but because you genuinely mean it. You're open to it, but you don't know if it's ever going to happen, nor do you have any power over it.

You do love the way fans are celebrating this relationship though - whether they highlight the canonical platonic aspects or take it a step further. You "love the love" (as Ryan has put it). It's great, it's heartwarming, it's moving because the potential of that romance and your character figuring out he's bisexual means so much to queer fans who are looking for good queer representation (which your show already has, but there could always be a bit more, right?). You see and want to acknowledge all the creativity people pour into it.

But you're careful after a while, because, so far, that relationship has only textually been platonic, and some fans are accusing both the writers and you of queerbaiting.

So you take a step back, do less social media for a while. You don't want them to think you're confirming anything just because you see value in certain fictional interpretations of the text.

But then you are told that your character is supposed to come out as bisexual; he'll have a romance with a background character they're bringing back for a couple of episodes. While that's not exactly the relationship many of the fans hoped to get, it's still amazing. It's the right representation of bisexual characters that is very rarely done right, and it'll confirm that they always read your character correctly as bisexual. It'll be so validating to the fans to know they didn't misinterpret that, and you're very happy about that.

But you still love the family-like, platonic relationship you've built with the other character for 5 whole seasons before this. And you love the relationship your character has with his son, too. (In a way, Buck is to Christopher what Bobby is to Buck - a father figure).

You want to keep celebrating that because your new romantic relationship doesn't replace the year-long friendship with Eddie. You want to show fans that 'hey, even though this isn't exactly what you hoped for, it's still great; it's important. Eddie and Chris are still and always will be a huge part of Buck's life. Don't worry. Buck will not abandon them. I still see you and acknowledge you, but let's focus on the textual friendship and platonic love here. Which is also very, very important, and very dear to me personally."

And there isn't that much to share about a romantic relationship that's just begun yet anyway, especially with the season being so short and packed with multiple story arcs around the main characters. It's all still at the start, and while it's great, exciting and has the potential to become something lasting, nothing's set in stone yet. You probably also don't want to have people get their hopes up that Bucktommy is 'confirmed' as endgame; and you don't want to put a main character who has his own, very complex story arc going on this season on the backburner.

You've obviously 'done it wrong'. But no matter how else you could have done it, it would have been wrong as well. You probably know this by now, because no matter what you did in the past, there were always people who interpreted your actions and words in bad faith to confirm their own agenda.

So what the hell are you supposed to do other than what feels good to you while applying a little bit of caution?

---

Oliver CANNOT get it right. It's simply impossible. If he didn't post at all, some fans would be mad that he doesn't say anything. If he only or primarily promoted Bucktommy, they'd be mad that he ignores Eddie and Chris entirely. If he only promoted Buddie (platonic) and Chris, they'd be mad that he's ship baiting. And if he goes for the balance of putting his character's 6-year history with Eddie+Chris and the newly developing romance with Tommy in perspective, i.e. what he's doing right now, they're still mad.

In any potential scenario, the loud and obnoxiously entitled portion of the fandom would find a reason to criticize. It really does not matter what he does.

So, where does that leave us? Personally, I'd say leave the man alone. Let him post and say what he feels is best, and don't try to look at it under any 'bad faith' lens. He's probably given it sufficient thought and does what he thinks is best and feels right.

[diicktective]

valentine’s day icon courtesy of @venuscommissions psd ! he’s covered in blood for sexy reasons also he got stabbed <3

[brawltogethernow]

I don't know if you're the best person to ask this but you're the only person on my dash who reblogs Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya shit in 2023. I have to know, did Haruhi... finish? I know it was a light novel series (tho I've only seen the anime) but like did the story arcs conclude? Are they translated?

You've lucked out: I am. It did not finish, but it got a lot further than the anime took you. Everything is translated.

The anime adapts light novel volumes 1-3 and some of 5 (short story collection partially set before 4). The movie adapts 4. I've heard "Endless Eight" is the way it is because they were set on doing 4 as a film, and...didn't just use their episode slots to adapt achronologically despite their existing reputation for doing that for some reason? Incomprehensible. Anyway.

If you haven't seen the movie because it came out after the moment was already dead, you should, even if you were just kind of neutral-positive on the show, because from a purely objective perspective it's a contender for the best quality movie following an anime show that exists. Also that installment is just a much better stopping point than where the TV part left things. Like the ~entire concept~ remains open, but some arcs actually evolve or wrap in a way where you can be satisfied with the story you've gotten.

So 4 1/2 volumes have been animated. There are 13 light novels. 4 is a stronger book than the preceding volumes, and the quality continues to wobble irregularly upwards from there. It pulls off another unprecedentedly good entry that isn't an ending but is a pretty acceptable place to put it down in 11 and 12 (which are functionally one two part book). 13 came out a literal decade later in 2020 and is another short story collection; nice to have but doesn't change the metrics much except to make the indefinite hiatus look slimmer on camera.

All of the books have been officially translated by Yen Press. (They recently did some sort of rerelease that didn't fix any of their typos but removed the slurs they added in the first place? So that's...nice ? ?) Everything they've covered except a chunk of 13 has also been unofficially translated, which I like to keep on hand because while the YP translation is very readable, it...requires a second opinion sometimes. There are also still some loose short stories that only have fan translations, and apparently there's about to be an official release of some nonessential short story collection from twenty years ago I heard about for the first time in my life a month ago. (Also there's a like, officially licensed Koizumi POV fanfiction short, fanlation only.)

Will Tanigawa ever put an actual cap on the series? Idk it's not technically impossible. It seems more likely to me that he'll pull off one more absolutely batshit installment that resolves nothing and then vanish forever except to write a new short story every eight years. It's worth catching up though imho. The later books do a lot to pull the earlier ones up behind them retroactively. Themes solidify, elements that were wavering between parody and deconstruction collapse into sincere reconstruction, the characters actually like each other, that sort of thing.

[tweedledumandtweedlebum]

Could be reaching but…

Didn’t one of the articles quote from an inside source that Max was leaving indefinitely? Indefinitely meaning for an unspecified amount of time. Could be slightly Linda Henryesque where he will be coming back but they just don’t know when yet. I’d they did axe him because of his mh, behaviour, whatever (I really don’t like to speculate) they could be giving him time to ‘sort himself out’ before returning?

I haven't got the foggiest idea, darling. I don't like to speculate either, but I just can't help it after all that's happened. I, too, would like to believe that this is a twisted way to give Max an extended leave, but I very much doubt it for two main reasons:

1 - the way EE handled the news was disgusting, what with them blaming it all on Max and his behaviour OFF SET (when other actors are still employed after much worse offences). If the break were consensual and the plan was for him to return at some point, I'm quite sure the PR team would have come up with a less hurtful explanation (I know, it was The Sun, but I'm convinced they were fed by somebody inside EE with CC's permission). So... no, I reckon this isn't them being nice to Max giving him time to sort himself out. He isn't coming back (*cries like a baby*).

2 - Ben and Callum have had an incredibile growth both individually and as a couple. They are in a good place right now, meaning soap producers and writers simply don't know what to do with them plot-wise. The depiction of the rest of their life together I have described in a previous post can't happen in a soap IMHO, because - let's be honest - we're not talking about Dickens here, those writers don't have the skills or the time to write them in a way that is wholesome, true to character AND interesting for the general audience. It's always about the drama - violence, dirty secrets, cheating, crime, fighting, teenage pregnancies, conspiracies... the unhealthier the better. The only unhealthy thing in Ballum's life at the moment is Jay with PR. Callum and Ben are learning how to deal with their issues instead of reacting impulsively and their connection is the strongest it's ever been. See? Nothing juicy to narrate here...

You know, after the rape, it was clear they were planning a "reset" for Ben, and I was thrilled to see where it was going. I was silly enough to think it would be something entertaining and educational to watch at the same time. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved bad boy Ben Mitchell, he is a splendid specimen of Byronic hero. I was just curious to find out how they would shape a reformed, healing troubled soul. Max would have rocked that as usual. How naive of me!

So, in my head, the meeting went like this. The bosses discussed the future of Ben with Max, informing him that Ballum would take seveal steps back, with either him or possibly Callum cheating, or Ben going back to being an unreliable dad to Lexi, or resorting to crime again, or some other nonsense utterly inconsistent with their recent development. Max protested just like John Krasinski did when "The Office" producers wanted Jim to cheat on Pam (which he would never do) because Max cares about Ballum. And the rest is history.

I am ROMANTICISING this, obviously. We'll never know what actually happened. But you'll see a devastating, hastily written exit story soon enough.

I won't be there.

[soundwavereporting]

In Optimus Prime #16, it's shown that Soundwave has somehow* gotten the job of being a supervisor in a mine. This is never mentioned prior to the issue (even in his origin story in issue #22 of exrid), nor is it referenced again after #16 ends. However, in issue #22, Soundwave and the cassettes are shown to be homeless when Ratbat finds them--Ratbat, who would later go on to say he'd played a part in automating the mining jobs that triggered the events of the Megatron: Origin comic, mining jobs that Soundwave been overseeing elsewhere on Cybertron.

I'm not saying that Ratbat inadvertently got Soundwave laid off long before** he got Megatron laid off, but I'm not not saying that would be a delicious piece of irony that may have contributed to Soundwave hating Ratbat enough to keep him alive and as a cassette

*In #16, Prowl does say Soundwave went to 'a school in the north' which is generally accepted to mean the JAAT, but again, this is never remarked upon earlier in the series, and issues #21-22 pretty explicitly state that Soundwave met Shockwave post-shadowplay. One could make the Watsonian argument that at that point, Soundwave's outlier ability had disjointed him to the point where he genuinely believed Senator Shockwave of the JAAT and Senator Shockwave of the Decepticon movement were two different people, one he could hear like a 'normal' Cybertronian, and one he could not), but that's stretching things, imho. I think the Doylist explanation of Barber forgetting what he'd written ~5 years prior and/or wanting a nice lead in to the issue is far more likely. Personally, I tend to leave the JAAT/mining thing out when writing fic

**again, assuming this is true, the timeline gets a little silly here; regardless, it tends to seriously compress the amount of time Soundwave spent with Ratbat from 'indefinitely' to 'prewar, but post-people are shooting neutral ships down', and might not even fit with what Megatron was doing in canon, per the Elegant Chaos arc in MTMTE.

[sotwk]

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the ask box for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you. get to know your mutuals and followers! ✨🍄✨

Thank you for the Ask, dear @blueberryrock! I hope you are enjoying your vacation trip so far!

Five Things That Make Me Happy:

Watching my 2-year old son dance (so ridiculously cute and hilarious). If grown-ups could only learn to keep the shameless confidence they had as kids, we could live in a world with spontaneous musical numbers.

2. Pop music from the late 1990s and 2000s. I've never had the coolest or edgiest taste in music, but I have very happy, energy-boosting playlists from the best decades!

3. Henry Cavill. Just looking at him. Have you seen him? It's like looking at the human personification of the sun, moon, AND stars, and how can that not make you happy? My list of celeb crushes is a mile long, and he remains the undisputed prettiest one, imho. He is just DIVINE.

4. A nice bowl of hot soup. I love soups so much, it's my ultimate comfort food. Anything from simple broths to thick stews. I could probably live off them indefinitely.

5. The feeling of a nice, clean, freshly vacuumed carpet on my toes. Can only be topped by the feeling of brand new carpeting. Umph.

[majorbitchi]

Hi!! I saw that you have a tama smart and I wanted to ask if its worthwhile having if you don't know japanese? Or just what your opinion is on it! I'm on the fence still about getting the sanrio smart because its adorable but like.. would it even be fun? :"] Maybe I should settle with a pix ya know :"DD

The Smart is simple enough to use that not knowing Japanese isn't an impediment to using it. It's made for small children so the interface is super simple. There's an English translated manual (by the bodacious @oldschoolvpq 🙏🏿) that is extremely helpful. Once you get the hang of where everything is, the only thing that you'll wish for is to know wtf they're saying 😂

I really like the Smart. It's the best modern color Tama out right now IMHO. The Pix is cute but gets old quickly. The camera is a power sucking gimmick, and there's only a set amount of Tamas you can potentially get. OTOH, the Smart also has a set number of base Tamas BUT the SmaCards more than make for that with additional Tamas, items, toys, food, etc. The games are better too. You can also keep your Tamas indefinitely on the Smart, whereas on the Pix you get max 7-9 days unless certain conditions are met.

One thing I don't like about the Smart is the rechargeable battery. I hate the built in obsolescence 😡 TBH, there are a few things that can be improved/added to both modern color Tamas, but that's a rant for another post...

I can't recommend the Sanrio Characters Smart enough! The character transformations are super cute, the transformed Tamas are super chill, and it's easily the cutest one to date. I love mine 😄

Hope that was helpful! 💜

[ilhoonftw]

i wasnt around for earlier groups so idk but i think you see idols become more replaceable(?) because of how fast companies drop idols now, even if it's a good reason or the idols wanted to leave, i feel like it happaned a lot less before, they would put idols and groups on indefinite hiatuses instead and keep fans guessing. so many fourth gen groups already had lineup changes while barely being around

sorry anon i forgot to answer (had a terrible day)

basically to me it also has to do with how due to kpop becoming more popular overseas plus the rise of "stan" twitter the fans have easier access to information. i wouldn't say it happens that more often, to me it's rather we hear about it / are able to figure out something is off. in early 2010s you had so many groups release just two singles/titles and disappear with 0 information, the companies just gave up and most of the idols involved wouldn't have the chance to re-debut. out of 2013 debuts alone how many groups are still around? the hiatus stuff you mentioned earlier was imho due to lack of communication, like the companies didn't felt like they had to tell anyone it's over. while now groups have official sns accounts and any lack of updates is seen as a warning sign so they gotta have to say what's up. i mean with cclown i remember very well how it went down, or the maaany line up changes nine muses endured. i would say this stuff was always going on, idols in the eyes of their companies' executives were always seen as disposable tools. just now in the post produce 101 world it's just as more apparent as it is jarring. like look at mnet, they gladly disbanded ioi bc they were never interested in keeping them successful. it's easier to keep debuting new acts and drop them before the successful ones decide to re-negotiate their unfair contracts 🤷‍♂️ it made more sense for them to pump out new groups, they didn't care how oversaturated the market already was

[cornus27florida]

Do you wonder if King Jack ever tried to bring Queen Lilyth out in public? Did she ever get judgey looks from other people besides Jack’s family?

Personally I never wonder about it before, maybe because I think Leelathae | Lilyth is totally like the typical housewife who never left her house to go to the public (that's actually pretty 'normal' occasion to some people in eastern, my country)

Before, I like to put this link right on! https://www.tumblr.com/screechingcheesecakecheesecake/737646419873300480/insane-to-me-that-the-pastel-kingdom-staffs-molly?source=share = in nutshell, all Pastel staffs that resides inside the palace consider Lilyth - Gwen looks as normal (contrast to most public view like CPC that thinks Gwen fellow cursed or Frederick that initially believes she's a witch + the actual witch thinks they are fellow witch)

I think it's depends on feelings, which famous for the example : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorschach_test

A SAME picture could gives variations of view and interpretation, so for Gwen and Lilyth - CPC thoughts Gwen as fellow cursed princess because they are cursed, meanwhile Frederick as resident booknerd associating green skin etc with the witch appearance. That's natural

"Judgey looks" is related to association of the said person. We're trying to gonna totally focus on the pastel queen. The Pastel Kingdom imho so mysterious in term of their relationship with their own citizens (see the comparison of Plaid kingdom-royals and citizens has such tight relationship at least if we see Blaine and Lance, Blaine has fanclub made by citizens of his kingdom, and Lance military buddies definitely civilians. Civilians and Royalty meets each other frequently, in nutshell for the Plaid daily lives). That's different with the Pastel. The only social event that I see the ruler let citizens come in is "the wake" - we never see civilians making audience with the rulers (even at Helena and Jesse era), there's no interpersonal relationship between royalty of pastel with it's citizens - especially as Jack often away for his job doing expeditions for indefinite time

I see the events where Lilyth comes out to the public (be it to go outside, or still stays - at the pastel palace) is close to "never happen" so why worry over hypothetical judgey looks? Also I remember the story where Gwen mistaken as Maria - all of street vendors didn't bat an eye to see Gwen as 'green' skinned girl. So in nutshell for Pastel citizens maybe they're never thinks Gwen-Lilyth looks to be odd, OR they're keep their own opinion for themselves as Gwen that accompanied with a guard = she's a higher up from family that influential enough to could get a guard to "bodyguard"ing a girl. Or again, when Gwen and Abbi do shopping at Pastel Plaza, no one comments anything about her look - which I think could means that people at Pastel Plaza totally OK as desensitized with 'weird looks' especially as the plaza is the favorite hangout place for the CPC as cursed princesses - with green cursed hand that often do obscure poses. Just saying of my example is Saffron. So we could assume that Pastel folks aren't judgemental BUT others folks are, for example the Plaids (which with how overprotective Jack is, I don't see him lets Lilyth away for interkingdoms + they're have 4 kids on for 3 labors so most of Lilyth time supposedlu is spent in the castle anyway embracing motherhood (and she die early 13 years ago) - she's the queen that didn't need to do trivial stuffs of buying groceries like us commoners, that's servants like maids written job) in general not looking over Gwen-Lilyth looks kindly, is not only Frederick initially. Blaine show that he genuinely thinks Gwen the uggliest daughter, while 2 women in bd party totes jerks:

At the end of the day, I think Gwen-Lilyth looks which is non public standard of pretty, different kind of beautiful - is perfect judgement over the goodness and feelings of person that interacted with them. If the person is jerks/damaged as cursed/traumatized etc - they will see the green ladies looks as "ugly" variations BUT if the person has nice/ kind/goodheart etc - they will see Gwen and Lilyth as "normal, or even beautiful". And don't forget that feelings is changes constantly, with Frederick as perfect example - once he let go of his fear associate Gwen-Lilyth looks with the witch, all witchy attributes are gone 'magically' in his perspective

Since balcony serenade, Frederick see Gwen normally and without witch attributes

[transienturl]

tbh

I bet some of the way I write (or don't write, as the case may be) fanfics is tied to my preferences in them

like, I think I personally enjoy extremely polished fics a lot more than e.g. "ah that had potential but the author clearly ran out of energy to give it 2/3 of the way through; it's still pretty good but doesn't have that je ne sais quoi"

and so, for me, if a hypothetical author was, like I am, sitting on a lot of half finished stuff that would (imho of course) potentially be great if finished properly, I would personally weight the possibility of someday finishing them to their full potential pretty highly. I think that goes counter to an argument many people could use on themselves that if they were their own reader they'd much rather have 80% of the potential of many pretty good fics relatively soon than, you know, maybe 90-95% of one of them indefinitely in the future maybe someday

[danoshanter]

Raw material for a series of digitally altered funny screenshots or memes?

So I saw this on Instacart, the funniest imho of several such incongruous search results I've captured, and its noodged me to think about getting serious about considering whether I should plan to maybe sometime in the autistically-indefinite future get more serious in a way that might actually produce some finished works in a series I've been mulling over that would take amusing screenshots or memes like this and work them over in GIMP/Krita (I tend to switch back and forth depending on what I want to do), FotoSketcher, and FastStone Image Viewer/XnView enhancements/tweaks. Wonder what u all think, both of the idea of this series and this image in particular? Depending how I'm feeling, I'm thinking of calling the subseries that this image will belong to "...: Instacart Oddities", or "...: Instacart Idiocies"

id meme

[tocontinue]

Start the new year off creative! Take this as a chance to ramble off some headcanons about your muse and their world!

//-Was honestly wondering how to do this, cause honestly? I'm not a super headcanon-y writer. I really like working with established canon, and only really tend to deviate from it if I think it's, like, poorly written, which I don't think applies much to the Classic series, imho. Buuuuuut, lore is also super inconsistent, so... I'm taking this opportunity to ramble about where I pull specific ideas and concepts. Which I suppose is technically a headcanon. I'm rambling and I haven't even started yet AKJBCJKASX

//-There's a lot of noncanon Mega Man stuff. I haven't played most of them (I'm not playing Mega Man DOS, I'm sorry), but I've been on my wiki deep dives and read enough. While mostly inspired by what Flynn pulled from for Archie, there's a few games I consider canon to the Rock here, namely:

-Super Adventure Rockman -BOTH Mega Man & Bass titles (there's a surprisingly non-zero amount of references to MM&B2 in MMZXA, plus it was briefly alluded to in Archie, so I'm counting it. It's also a fun story) -MMV on the gameboy

//-That said, a lot of stuff like, say, Rockman Strategy isn't canon. Not yet, at least. The first 4 GB games (though Quint is. Don't ask, I still haven't figured out the specifics KASJBCJKSX). Both DOS games (the second of which is named Mega Man 3 for some reason). Not everything fits or is something I'm eager to work with. Strategy was weird, the GB games were kinda redundant until V, and DOS.

//-Powered Up isn't canon at all, Archie's take on that is the canon to this blog. I despise Powered Up's story AKSJBCKASX

//-I use Archie a lot to fill in the gaps; I think the Classic series has much richer lore than most give it credit for, but the games themselves are usually still pretty light on any fluff. Even the more story-driven ones, like 7, 8, and 11. THAT SAID, I tend to prioritize game canon over Archie canon, and they can conflict a lot more than you'd think.

//-The most glaring one is the backstory of Light and Wily (though that one wasn't Flynn's fault; the games didn't even touch on that until 11, well after Archie was cancelled "placed on indefinite hiatus"). I consider 11's backstory to be canon; the one where Wily walked out WELL before the construction of even Blues, much less Rock and Roll. Wily's involvement in (or overseeing of, since he'd lost his license by then) their construction didn't play much into anything that happened in Archie anyways, so it's not a huge loss.

//-And this one's petty, but it always bothered me that Rock has the charged shot from stage 1 in Archie. I maintain the canon that he didn't get that until MM4 on this blog, if that were to literally ever show up for whatever reason.

//-Flynn's weird obsession with having the Robot Masters date and have crushes on each other is largely disregarded to me as well. This one's a point of contention among the community at large, but I operate under the opinion that RMs under the same creator are related in some way. So does Archie, but only sometimes. It's confusing and genuinely the only real black mark on the comics.

//-That's all I can really think about at the moment, at least. I used to have a HC that Rock could only hold a certain amount of weapon data normally? But I've kinda disregarded that. I dunno.

//-I love talking Mega Man lore, so if there's any more questions, hit me up? Eyes emoji?

[meanwhileinstasiville]

What is the whitest white?

What I spent my 4th of July thinking about, because it’s always by contrast (good to not be a minority) and not so much as defined beyond that (and Roe vs Wade being overturned sucks). Cheech Marin says it’s “convenience” as a one-time costarring Mexican American actor with Don Johnson. We Americans don’t know.

Personally, I say for certain “cheese” is in there because it makes everyone else sick. “Whiter than white” music, too, is something I’m certain of. Add four on the floor to a melody in F-major pentatonic, bridge with some kind of keyboard solo arpeggiated over four measures. Shake well and loop indefinitely while the bassist (if you even have one) anchors on one note all day long. THAT is whiter than white. Drown out Manheim Steamroller with Barry Manilow and you’ll understand. Beyond that, I don’t know.

Archie with Betty and Veronica or Dagwood Bumstead with Blondie? Who is whitest?

Clint Eastwood in A Fist Full of Dollars or Clint Eastwood in Every Which Way But Loose?

Dynamite whiter than a monkey? Who knows.

A Texan says anything disparaging about someone; “tenderfoot!” “yellow belly!” “lilly livered!”?

(America had made “white” synonymous with citizenship long ago)

Dipping saltine crackers in mayonnaise? Whiter than “mild” sauce that hurts your tummy? I don’t know. (But we expect something we’ve never defined from people America segregated on the basis of a *very elusive definition* and that’s a big problem, IMHO)

[cqlfeels]

Not to rant or anything but...

(Rebloggable - under the cut for length)

You know, I GET why this fandom thinks LXC should've suspected JGY sooner (especially if we're talking CQL rather than MDZS) but the hill I'll die on is that actually no, he shouldn't.

Based on the evidence he has access to, there's no strong reason to suspect JGY has done anything out of the ordinary for a man in his position - secrets are to be expected for a sect leader, as are frankly immoral compromises. Let's remember LXC - whose formative experience as a young man was to turn his back on children and elders burning to death so he alone could escape unharmed - knows better than anyone that powerful people literally cannot keep their hands clean indefinitely.

And of course, there's a long history of people being cruel to JGY for classism and other isms, so he's right to take rumors with several grains of salt, no matter how many people agree the rumors just have to be true.

Having said that, the instant LXC does come across an accusation that has any credibility, he actively encourages investigation even as he admits that he doesn't think it'll go anywhere, and also makes sure to help as much as he's able, even though it's pretty clear that it's not what he'd emotionally like to do.

By Guanyin Temple he definitely doesn't trust JGY unconditionally anymore, but he still gives him chances to explain himself because like... Putting aside all shipping. If your closest friend of 20 years turns out to be awful, the right thing to do isn't to say "oh okay, my bad, I think someone should kill you right now immediately without delay" but to ask questions to make sure that there's no misunderstanding, that there are no attenuating circumstances, etc. It demonstrates strength of conviction, not naivety. Especially because there's no such thing as due process in the CQL/MDZS world! JGY won't get another chance to explain himself if LXC doesn't give him the benefit of the doubt right then and there!

So like, it's not even that "Being Too Kind Is Better Than Being Too Cynical" - it's just that objectively, LXC isn't being too kind, he's being fair. He's assessing the situation based on the evidence he has while remaining open to new facts. It just so happens that the evidence he has access to is overwhelmingly favorable towards JGY 🤷‍♀️ (I suspect that's the part that trips people up.)

All of this doesn't mean that JGY is a little angel uwu, just that LXC's belief that he's largely good is pretty logical and justified. And that belief changes as he learns more! You can see LXC's trust wearing away as he gains access to new info! But you can't hold LXC accountable for not acting sooner on information he didn't have sooner!

Imho LXC, who's often accused of blind trust, might be one of the characters you could most easily make a case for attempting to be impartial. So like. Unless that sparks you lots and lots of joy, give the gullible cinnamon roll trope a break maybe? It's just fanon, it's not canon that has to be followed religiously!

[thyandrawrites]

What are you feelings on MHA starting its final arc? Do you feel the writing in this scenario can wrap up things in a satisfying way?

I’m cool with it. Things have been set up to be wrapped up soon ever since the middle point of the war arc so I have been expecting this.

When you think about it, there isn’t much that’s still left to be wrapped up since the pacing of the last arc was insane and covered a good majority of the loose ends. Hori even managed to fit in the prison break plot (that tbh could’ve required an arc of its own if it wasn’t so rushed). All that’s left right now is saving the League and defeating Afo. I know people are mentioning stuff like the UA traitor but I always felt like that one was a badly set up plot and even Horikoshi forgot about it till now so I doubt it’s that plot relevant, admitting there even is a traitor and the League didn’t simply sneak into the school to gather the info like they easily did before.

Being brutally honest here, stuff like the traitor plot or other regular school arcs seem kinda simplistic for the turn the story took now. We’re beyond simple slice of life, utopic conceptions of heroics right now, and we’re beyond a conflict between heroes and villains that’s just that black and white. Deku leaving the school marks a shift in themes here: this isn’t a world where everything is fine anymore. We can’t just go back to sport and culture festival arcs like the foundations of heroics themselves haven’t been dismantled. Deku becoming a vigilante that willingly left the system is a nod to how heroism as a profession came to be, and it’s a pretty neat way to wrap up the present conflict. Deku’s finally looking at heroes from the outside, not as a fanboy inside the system that is blind to its flaws. Presumably, now that he’s surviving on the outskirts of “civilized” society, he’ll finally be able to understand the point of view of the people who fell through the cracks of the hero system. Being on the run himself, he’ll finally know what it means to be hunted, to have to struggle to survive, to have to fight for your right to live.

I’ll admit, the way it happened was sudden, and Hori hasn’t given me any reasons to trust that he knows how to handle pacing of a story this complex. So I definitely expect more stuff to come up randomly without a proper set up because things have been like this for the past year tbh. But strictly talking about the things he has left to explore, realistically one long final arc might be sufficient imho. Bnha arcs can vary in length from 5 chapters to 5 volumes, so tbh I think there’s several months ahead of us still before the manga can end. Besides, Hori greatly misjudged how long some arcs would take to finish before (looking at you, sport festival), so... *shrug*

Personally, I’d much rather the story ended on Hori’s original terms than for bnha to be made into a moneygrabber manga that’s been extended indefinitely and gets cheaper and cheaper with every new filler addition to the plot

[not-poignant]

Hi! I’ve found your work about a month ago and I’m currently getting through your fae tales (I really enjoy it!). I’m very impressed by the amount of writing you’ve done in the past few years and I was wondering, how do you stay motivated to write so much? Do you have any tips? Another thing I admire about your writing is your ability to plan long term (like, hinting at things that will be revealed in different books). How do you plan your stories? I’m having a lot of fun reading your fics!!

I was wondering, how do you stay motivated to write so much? Do you have any tips? 

There’s a little bit of irony in getting asked that question right now, when I’ve had very little motivation to write anything except Falling Falling Stars since November 2020, which is why The Ice Plague is on indefinite hiatus, lol.

So it definitely doesn’t last (re: the motivation).

I have written some posts on how to stay motivated with writing. For me, one of the biggest is just...actually turning up to write when you’re not motivated. But that’s not very helpful for people who are doing it as a hobby.

But anyway, some links to posts I’ve written about these subjects before!

How to stay motivated (with another link to a post on how to deal with writer’s block).

How to plot and outline stories.

Tips on how to plot longer stories if you’re used to writing shorter ones.

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Re planning, I don’t actually plan a lot of my stories, I know what’s going to happen up in my head. The only story I (was) writing which is plotted is The Ice Plague 3, nothing else I’m writing has a chapter plan - not Falling Falling Stars, not The Nascent Diplomat etc. Most of my fic has never been planned, or has only been about 30 or 40% planned at the end. I’m much more likely to pants or half-wing a story, than to plan it in advance.

But I’m able to keep an awful lot of future story details in my head at any one time, which is generally how I hint at things. I’m not referring to a plan, I’m just...thinking about what I’ve already thought about.

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Re: Staying motivated, I don’t think... it is about staying motivated for me personally. And sometimes I do need to take lengthy physical and mental health breaks from writing because - and I can’t stress this enough - the way I write isn’t healthy for me or sustainable in the long-term without huge breaks.

After that, I will park my butt, sit down, and write. The characters and the story will keep me going, if they’re interesting enough to me, which is why I try and write stories that hold my interest. I’d say there’s a few days where I don’t feel like writing, but if I sit down and start doing it, I’ll still have enjoyed the fact that I’ve done it. Some of the chapters I’ve hated writing the most have ended up being my favourites to reread.

But also, a lot of it is just practice and habit! Could I have easily written 25-30,000 words a month when I started out? Hell no! That shit took nearly a decade of practice. Now I do it as easily as breathing, to the point where writing 25,000 words a month feels like a holiday from my higher wordcounts. But I can’t condense a year of practice and turning up to the habit of writing into some tips and tricks.

Some of it is just...turning up to the story, and eventually, writing will turn up for you. I don’t know that anyone can shortcut that process. Like some people can definitely get there faster, for sure, but imho when someone is starting out or just doing it for fun, writing 2,000 words in a month is a huge deal worth celebrating, and shouldn’t really be compared to what I’m doing after like around 9 years of writing fic (some of those years while treating this as a professional job, which changes things).

(ETA: Honestly and if you're someone who has been turning up for 10 years and still writes 2,000 words a month that's still great and deserves to be celebrated because all writing is awesome and high numbers does not = quality).