#and it really is weirdly a lot for this ship

[steddieunderdogfics]

Today is all about @verdantcactus! In today’s Mod Spotlight, we’re highlighting Shane and all they bring to this space!!

Shane is the mod behind our Writer's Spotlights! Each week, she reaches out to authors, creates the recs, and coordinates the schedule! She also handles the questions and getting everything queued up to share with you.

Shane (She/They) has been in fandom for over 20 years and currently splits time between bandom and the Stranger Things fandom (with a strong Steddie focus). She doesn’t publish fic at the moment (but always has things vaguely in progress and at various stages of completion). Instead, she spends all of her time reading at least 100k words of fic a week on average (but frequently more honestly). She is fairly new at participating in the Stranger Things fandom and modding for Steddie Underdog Fics is her first step at participating more!

Shane has been a delight to have on the team! The spark they've shared with us has renewed the energy behind the scenes, inspiring all of us to come up with new ideas! It's been a pleasure to get to work with them. - @oh-stars

As a part of our mod spotlight, Shane answered some questions from you all and our team! You can read them below.

Be sure to stay tuned for more recs and future mod spotlights in the future!

What drew you to Steddie?

Watching their interactions in gifs to be honest. Their energy transcended needing audio for me I guess, I was just so sold. I really like the dynamic of the jock that fell from grace and the kinda awkward nerd. The fact that Eddie is into music and is kind of a wet and pathetic mess throughout the show is just icing on the cake for me. I find that I really get into ships where one of the characters is putting on a facade so to speak about who they are for the public and then in fic you get to see the takedown of that and realize who the character really is. Steddie fics seem to have a TON of that, because Steve is the popular jock who seems to be very bad at being popular and Eddie is the metalhead nerd who isn’t actually as tough as he projects and I will eat that up over and over and over.

What is your favorite thing about modding this page?

Seeing author reactions for sure! I thought coming into it that my favorite part would be seeing fics that are recced and adding to my own rec list, but honestly it’s seeing people be happy.

What are your favorite tropes to read?

SO MANY. Happy ending required but the ones I come to most often are Hurt/Comfort bc I like a little angst to drive a story forward I think. I also have been reading a lot of Fake Dating and weirdly enough Sports AU’s recently? Which is only funny bc I do not do sports IRL at all. I truly do not even know which sports go to which seasons of the year other than football and that is only because I worked retail and saw superbowl displays every year. A sports AU though? Eat that shit up.

What’s your guilty pleasure trope?

Ooooooh I don’t know that I really have a guilty pleasure trope to be honest! I will read most any trope, and also tell you about it if you ask and keep my AO3 bookmarks public too so it’s just… all out there to see if you look haha. I maybe talk less about reading like monsterfucker stuff or A/B/O stuff but that’s less bc it’s a guilty pleasure and more I have less people to rec those fics to haha. Basically cringe is dead and I’m happy that way! (:

What is your preferred way to read and find fics?

Always rec lists! I love to know that someone else was passionate enough about the fic to rec it going in. I follow a lot of people in fandom, and always make sure to follow people who post rec lists and I pillage those like it's my job for things to read. Very rarely if I want a SUPER specific trope, I will go to AO3 and filter to find a fic, but I have to really have a super specific craving for that. As for reading, I have kind of built reading fic into my daily routine. I wake up every morning and read specifically fic for at least an hour before I get up and feed my cat and get ready for the day. If I skip it because I overslept or something it feels like my whole day is off.

What makes a fic an instant yes for you to read?

A real good and unique premise! If the fic sounds like it is going to be a good time, I want to inhale it instantly.

Anonymous - Is there any older or lesser-known Steddie event from the past few years that you particularly love (if ongoing or recurring) or loved? Did you participate in any?

I really love the @subeddieweek event that happened this past summer, bc I think those fics are less common in the fandom and they were all great. I read through that event posting extensively. As for participating in events I actually haven’t. I write a little bit, but my problem is that I NEVER FINISH ANYTHING so I feel irresponsible joining an event knowing that my likelihood of finishing is so low…. I always say I want to join with the intent of finishing a WIP but either miss the sign up period or feel like I don’t have a solid enough draft to join with. Basically I and my anxiety are my own worst enemy. Maybe someday though!

@sidekick-hero - What makes a fanfic stand out for you?

I will read very nearly anything as long as it has a happy ending, but if someone has a snappy summary that is like an excerpt of the fic and then “OR Steve has X job and Y happens! The fic!” or whatever I will tend to be like hell yeah I wanna read that idea, you’ve sold me! And tend to move things up the endless TBR

@worldswcollide - What advice would you give to someone who is interested in becoming a mod in the future?

I think primarily just getting up the nerve to volunteer to do it! Fandom really is driven by the people in it, and cool things can only exist because people volunteer for them. Other than that once you start the best advice is to create some kinda routine around checking things which will help you with communicating effectively and getting things done. For me, I use a lot of phone alarms and reminders in the Finch app to make sure tasks get done when they need to lol.

Anonymous - Do you participate in any other fannish activities, like making playlists, gif edits, fanart, podcasts, Pinterest boards, etc?

Not much honestly! I wish I was more creative in those ways, but honestly I MOSTLY read. I write a tiny bit but never post anything bc I get nervous. I do bind fics into books sometimes and do it a lot for friends, but I don't really share them online. It’s just a quiet little hobby for me that makes birthday gifts for fandom people really easy.

@sidekick-hero - What motivates you to mod for steddieunderdogfics?

I really believe in the idea behind the blog. Author’s are so important and engagement really drives authors. I think it’s sad that so many really great fics get a little buried just because of the nature of the fast past of this fandom so to be able to shine a light on fics is just really great to me!

@worldswcollide -  Are there skills you’ve learned as a mod that have helped you in your everyday life?

Honestly? Formatting google sheets is the legit answer hahaha. I have been keeping track of fics I read on a massive google spreadsheet since like 2020 (because I love to reread fics and nothing bothers me more than being unable to find this one random fic that I remember a single scene from or just the vibe of) and when I became a mod I saw that big spreadsheet we have of all the recc’d fics and was like wait we can do dropdowns in google sheets?? Life changing. Currently I am in the process of sloooooowly redoing my own tracking sheet.

Anonymous - Have you had a particular favorite Challenge Monday or weekend theme so far (maybe because of the theme, the recs, or the engagement, or for some other reason)?

Oooh one that I was really excited for was the Prominent Pets challenge, that was one that I had suggested as a challenge bc I read Looks like we're in for nasty weather by prufrocks and loved Steve hanging out with Bruce so much I was like yes I want a hundred more fics with one of them hanging out with pets. And all the fics from that challenge I have either read or they are on my TBR waiting to be read now haha. I also am really excited for RomCom au’s coming up in Sept bc they are my fave to read, they are just so fun and that was a challenge I recommended!

@sidekick-hero - What do you like best about fandom?

My favorite part about fandom has always been reading fic. I CONSUME fic like nobody's business and honestly if a fandom doesn’t have fun and engaging fic for it, I probably will not stay active in that fandom for very long even if I LOVE the media property.

@worldswcollide - If you absolutely HAD to choose—enemies to lovers or friends to lovers? (At least when it comes to Steddie)

Oooh Friends to lovers every time. Enemies to lovers can be great, and I certainly read a ton of it! But also I love that kind of awkward shifting from becoming friends and really getting to know a person and then it's like oh shit actually I feel really intense about that person?? I will eat that up every single time.

Anonymous - Was there a specific moment or fandom interaction or show event that drew you into the ST fandom?

Really it was seeing all of the gifs on tumblr of Eddie. I had been meaning to watch Stranger Things for YEARS because my friend was like “this show is made for you” knowing that I love horror tv shows with really good cast dynamics but I hadn’t made the jump bc as soon as you tell me to watch something….. I suddenly am unable to watch it! Until I saw gif makers getting to work during volume 1 of season 4 and I was like look at this guy, I am obsessed. And then I was like “I want to read fic about this guy” and then I binged all of Stranger Things in like 2-3 days whoops. And now here I am probably forever!

@sidekick-hero - What makes you happy about modding?

A bunch of different things! I like working with both of my fellow mods on this project that I think is really important in a fandom with so many active events. It’s so great to see all the notes on posts for authors seeing their fics get recommended. I also get to reach out to authors for the Writer’s Wednesday spotlights as it is the area of modding I spend most of my time on and so I get to talk to everyone who has been nominated and they are always so happy to see someone nominated them! (so please always nominate your fave authors! It makes their day all the time! (: )

@worldswcollide - What gave you the last little shove you needed to become a mod for this fandom?

In general I am such a shy person that I never really put myself out there in any way. BUT at the same time I am always trying to push myself further because I long for fandom friends despite the overwhelming shyness. So when I saw the call for more mods I thought I should prob try it because it seemed like a kind of small scale way to start to be more active in fandom since you are only working with a few people at a time! It’s less overwhelming than a massive discord server to me.

Anonymous - Do you feel like your participation in bandom bleeds over into your engagement with ST fandom? For instance, being drawn to fics with a focus on band/rockstar/musician themes, or some other example you'd be comfortable highlighting?

Oooh this is a really good question actually. I think yes, but not always in ways you expect? Like it mostly gave me a love for really really niche au’s hahaha. I LOVE a niche weird job kind of au, like give me all of the Steve is a park ranger AU’s. I will say though that I also have likeeee 13k of a fic written where Steve goes on tour with Corroded Coffin as a merch guy and they eat in a lot of diners that I will maybe finish up someday and post and that definitely has bandom energy from watching so many tour diaries over the years.

@sidekick-hero - Reading as much as you do (WOW!): When does a fanfic stay on your mind even after finishing it? (I would love to hear about the last one that did stay with you)

I think most commonly fics stay with me when there’s some detail that’s like really unique or specific to that fic (like I read so many post season 4 fics they have to do something really new for me to remember like ‘OH THAT FIC RIGHT’ off the top of my head.) or they have to have some vivid character details that made me really really obsessed with the fic. I do remember a shocking amount of fics considering the sheer volume of what I read though so it’s not like I just read and instantly forget haha. Some ones that I’ve read recently that are still kicking around in my head are: better by you, better than me by palmviolet which I read while it was posting so that fic lives rent free in my head forever now as thee fic where Eddie was there from the beginning and the level of historical and musical detail in that fic is beautiful, Of Paper Stars And Pudding Cups by SameShipDifferentFont which I read slowly over a week because I was busy but as soon as I started it I was like “oh I wanna INHALE this” bc I was obsessed with Steve and Eddie’s interactions in it, and blinking red light by cuips_not_cute which is my current in progress fic that I’ve been on my edge of my seat waiting for every chapter update bc I want to see them actually COMMUNICATE someday bc that tension makes me feral.

Anonymous - What kind of fic formats do you prefer: longfic, one-shots, short chapters, long chapters, series-as-chapters, etc? Do you find that you read faster or slower with particular formats?

So I will read mostly anything that’s at least 1000 words (anything shorter and my brain doesn’t QUITE kick into focus mode for me to even have a thought about what I read). Preference wise though I LOVE LOVE LOVE a mega long fic. On weekends when I don’t have a lot of commitments I will love to pick like a massive 200-300k or longer fic and just INHALE it for the entire weekend till I’m like “wow I wonder why I have a headache? -said in the tone of someone who has been staring at a screen in the dark for the past 13 hours-” As for formats.. I tend to read best and fastest when I send fics to my kindle. That little device is a fic machine for me and I love it dearly. A very common sight is me cooking or doing dishes in my apartment with the kindle propped in a cabinet or something. But I will sometimes randomly just swap formats for a week and read exclusively on my phone or on a tablet or print something out and be carrying around sheets so really I am a mood reader that way!

@sidekick-hero - How can we make participating in the steddie fandom even more fun for you?

Always feel free to reach out to me on tumblr (@verdantcactus)! I read so much and always want to talk about fics I’ve read. So if you ever want to just chat about fics or even have some kind of specific recs you wish someone could give you.. My inbox and messages are always open (:

Today, all of our recs are from @verdantcactus specifically! You can always see their recs on our Fic Fridays by checking our #mod shane rec tag.

[thestagthatlovedthewolf]

Any fic, any time, I want more comments, but I have this particular fic that I wrote for one friend's birthday years back that still gets kudos and faves, and I wish someone commented on it, to maybe tell me if this in a rec list somewhere...

I'm super grateful for the support and super excited that people like it!!! But I’m just incredibly confused about why and how are people finding it, it's only tagged with a super rare ship... Did this ship start being a thing in recent years? (By ao3 numbers I wouldn't say so...) But just are more people into Jon Snow and Joy Hill?!!

[insufferablemod]

hmm realizing that the ship i like properly Ship the most is probably arasol...

[astromechs]

figuring out i have published nearly 60,000 words of rebelcaptain fic to ao3 in the past year, and that's just the stuff i've published

[aquilamage]

saw at least one other person doing this and decided to go crazy about it

[Image Description: a page displaying various bug fables lgbt+ headcanons. On the left are two columns of three individual character sprites each, with pride flags and pronouns to their right.

Vi: the sunset lesbian and genderqueer flags. a big scribble then “(it’s complicated).” Leif: the genderfluid and bi flags. “he/she/they but could be anything depending.” Kabbu: the trans and bear flags. “he/him”

Zasp: the bi and trans flags. “he/him.” Mothiva: the lesbian, grayromantic, and graysexual flags. “she/her.” Mothiva and Zasp have a line between them labeled “I’d have to write a paragraph but in summary: yikes.” There’s also a line going from Mothiva to a small sprite of Jaune with a heart and a question mark. Neo: the mlm flag. “he/him” There’s a line between Kabbu and Neo labeled with a heart.

On the right side of the page are a number of images. The top is a large lesbian flag with Carmina, Crow, Chubee, H.B., Bea, Jaune, Rebecca, Kina, Hawk, and Muze on it. On the bottom left Crow, Arie, Serena, Carmina, and Janet’s sprites are encircled with a dotted line labeled “spy cards yuri night.” On the right of that is text reading “everyone who shows up in the Underground Tavern: some flavor of queer (it’s also a gay bar)” next to the gilbert baker rainbow flag. Under that are Artia and Reed’s sprites with *bi flag* 4 *bi flag* above them. On Reed’s other side is a line connecting to a small sprite of Tennent labeled “exes >:3″. End ID.]

[bcbryar]

Self-shipping thoughts about Ren kinda night.

[sweetandglovelyart]

Instead of drawing some Metadede art or Taransusie art for Valentine’s Day I’m considering drawing some art for my Kirby crack ship instead, just because I think the concept of this particular ship is hilarious. It makes zero sense on the surface, but in a weird way I think that it could actually kind of work if certain things were addressed.

I won’t reveal what the ship is right now, but if I have time to draw something for it for Valentine’s Day then I’ll reveal it on Valentine’s Day. I don’t think that anyone will be able to guess what the ship is, but I’ll give you all a hint: both characters debuted in the same game. Not saying which game in the series, but they first appeared in the same game.

[volfoss]

as a guy that loves getting into obscure media that like. maybe 5 people talk about now. it is interesting the difference between consuming media that is SUPER popular and everyone loves your fave (a curse i would never wish upon anyone. the posts will never be good) and a media that like. there is NO ONE actively posting about. it has barely any fan presence online. and honestly its kind of peaceful

[stardustdiiving]

My friend today was like you know fern I think your genshin favs are really funny because to me they’re all very tame green flags that have good vibes and then there’s zhongxiao which everyone hates. And I was like. WELL…..YES….SNUCHFJFJCNC

[moe-broey]

Another one (also exploding it with my mind)

Honestly I would Not be surprised if the clothes change Again there are like. Some constants, and some evil-constants (unconstants) (always changing)

Core point though is the angel/demon imagery!

[grassbreads]

W and Y 💜

Thanks for the ask bestie! (context)

W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

Boo hiss pair the spares ships we hate you pair the spares ships.

Aside from that specific trope, there's this pervasive sentiment that pops up a lot in fandom and shipping that's like "these two characters are really passionate and insane about each other, therefore they must inherently be romantically/sexually attracted to one another." Boo hiss again. Personally sometimes I think it's way more fun if characters are absolutely batshit about each other without sharing any attraction. Not always, not necessarily often, but sometimes.

I also personally do not really enjoy fix-it fics, especially not time travel fix-it fics. And given that I adore tragedies, I'm big into multiple fandoms where time travel and/or fix-it fics are super popular.

Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (i.e., fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)?

The biggest one for me is Miraculous Ladybug lmao. I watched one (1) episode of that show because of the tumblr popularity, and it super wasn't for me, but for some reason every single ML fan comic I see on this website slaps. They're always so fun and good. I love seeing ML stuff on my dash. It's like the only thing I've ever read fic for without knowing the source material.

Lesser examples include Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and DC comics (esp Batman). I have read The Hobbit, seen Star Wars episodes 4 and 5 when I was like 10, and seen The Batman+a small amount of DC cartoons when I was a kid. Everything else I know about these things comes from cultural/fandom osmosis lmao.

[reachexceedinggrasp]

Omg, thank you for replying to my ask. (*/ω＼*) Yay so excited to hear about your Lokane fic! Such a Heraklean effort! I have a similar problem with a novel-length WIP, actually near the same emotional peak and I really think it must be that last final push that's almost harder than anything else - in a way I don't want to finish mine! I had a similar rule about not starting other WIP's so I have a document where I've amassed everything I'm not writing, and that's helped me a little because it feels like I've 'done' something so I can do other stuff haha.

Regarding Solas/Lavellan: don't worry about a disappointing response, to be totally honest I was a bit worried you already didn't like it (though wanted to know what emotional chord didn't work for you), but the fact you're not familiar with it is almost kind of better!! It's one of those pairings for me that manages to hit the epic romance notes and actually consummate the romance and then affirm the narrative importance, which is already pretty hard to do with a video game (and often times I'm left disappointed by pairings grounded primarily in potential). I can't really reveal too much about Solas because learning about him is the journey but if you like your trickster god/vulnerability/concealed pain/the dinan'shiral (the Journey of Death) that love endures against etc. it's all there. A non-spoilery detail I like about him is that sometimes when he talks he speaks in iambic pentametre or the musical notes of Hallelujah, so there's a poeticism to him and subtlety to his character execution that I just love.

I think the only drawback to Solas/Lavellan is that because it's a game it's more of a time investment and you also need the Trespasser DLC for full effect, but honestly you can watch it on YouTube lol. There's a lot of lore that enhances the pairing as well. I don't think you need to really play the first two games to 'get it', but I generally enjoy Bioware games and I think they're both fun experiences. The Solas/Lavellan romance also doesn't have an awkwardly animated sex scene, if that puts you off like it does me, though it's not entirely lacking eroticism.

wank magnet tragic murder boy

I love this thank you hahahaha.

If you ever get around to playing Dragon Age or watching the romance on YouTube, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it, though my curiosity is now successfully sated! Thank you! (Hopefully my ask doesn't come off as pressuring you to get into it... mostly I'm just surprised/happy you didn't know much about it hahah!)

Also, as one final departing remark, yes, I'm actually the same regarding genuinely Nice Guy/Ingenue/Bad Boy, but I don't really gravitate towards that dynamic because it can come off as a bit superficial to me and I cannot STANDDDD love triangles unless it was only ever a matter of who she 'should' be with versus whom she really wants, it has to be true love soulmatism or I cry!!!

Hope you have a lovely day and good luck with fic writing!

Yeah, I pretty much know some memes about Solas and that he apparently betrays the PC somehow. And people debate his motives and level of sincerity a lot. But I know so little about the plot that I've forgotten most of the details I ever came across. Poetry is a selling point! but I really can't say whether I will vibe with the ship or not based on what I know. The sad murder boy really has to hit a specific way for me.

Yes, exactly! I feel exactly the same way about love triangles. I talked about this before, but I hate them unless they're the forgone conclusion kind where it's not about who she actually loves (because this is never in doubt), it's about whether she's going to choose love over pragmatism or whether true love will conquer outside circumstances, etc. I think it was in my first ramble about Fated to Love You, which is a great example. All three characters know Mi Young is in love with Gun, the tension is always about whether they will overcome both the internal and external obstacles separating them and take the risk for true love or if she'll settle for playing it safe in a platonic pseudo-relationship with Daniel where her heart can't be broken.

If there's genuinely romantic feelings for more than one person and the middle point is not just in denial about where their heart lies, I'm out lol.

Ditto! ;)

[all-pacas]

I finished my Rome book and have now begun one about Pompeii. I’m 65 pages in and I already love it: yes, it covers the volcano, but most of the book is about “this is what the town and daily life of it would have been like, actually.” Fascinating stuff. Things I’ve learned so far:

- The streets in Pompeii have sidewalks sometimes a meter higher than the road, with stepping stones to hop across as “crosswalks.” I’d seen some photos before. The book points out that, duh, Pompeii had no underground drainage, was built on a fairly steep incline, and the roads were more or less drainage systems and water channels in the rain.

- Unlike today, where “dining out” is expensive and considered wasteful on a budget, most people in Pompeii straight up didn’t have kitchens. You had to eat out if you were poor; only the wealthy could afford to eat at home.

- Most importantly, and I can’t believe in all the pop culture of Pompeii this had never clicked for me: Pompeii had a population between 6-35,000 people. Perhaps 2,000 died in the volcano. Contemporary sources talk about the bay being full of fleeing ships. Most people got the hell out when the eruption started. The number who died are still a lot, and it’s still gruesome and morbid, but it’s not “an entire town and everyone in it.” This also makes it difficult for archeologists, apparently (and logically): those who remained weren’t acting “normally,” they were sheltering or fleeing a volcano. One famous example is a wealthy woman covered in jewelry found in the bedroom in the glaridator barracks. Scandal! She must have been having an affair and had it immortalized in ash! The book points out that 17 other people and several dogs were also crowded in that one small room: far more likely, they were all trying to shelter together. Another example: Houses are weirdly devoid of furniture, and archeologists find objects in odd places. (Gardening supplies in a formal dining room, for example.) But then you remember that there were several hours of people evacuating, packing their belongings, loading up carts and getting out… maybe the gardening supplies were brought to the dining room to be packed and abandoned, instead of some deeper esoteric meaning. The book argues that this all makes it much harder to get an accurate read on normal life in a Roman town, because while Pompeii is a brilliant snapshot, it’s actually a snapshot of a town undergoing major evacuation and disaster, not an average day.

- Oh, another great one. Outside of a random laundry place in Pompeii, someone painted a mural with two scenes. One of them referenced Virgil’s Aeneid. Underneath that scene, someone graffiti’d a reference to a famous line from that play, except tweaked it to be about laundry. This is really cool, the book points out, because it implies that a) literacy and education was high enough that one could paint a reference and have it recognized, and b) that someone else could recognize it and make a dumb play on words about it and c) the whole thing, again, means that there’s a certain amount of literacy and familiarity with “Roman pop culture” even among fairly normal people at the time.

[okwonyo]

when fans ship you together.

ᙏ̤̫ 엔하이픈 ♡ femreader & fluff established relationship + cw. not-proofread 0.4k | ( bookshelf )

heeseung would be beyond happy about it. to be completely frank, he has been waiting for this to happen for a while now— even a bit surprised it didn't happen any sooner, given the fact that he'd have never hide the fact he likes you a lot. enthusiasm, weirdly, would watch over him at the sight of the cute videos fans make about the two of you.

jongseong would be extremely proud. he is your boyfriend, for sure, but people thinking that a pretty girl like you would look good with him makes him extremely happy. a wave of pride and self-contentment would wash over him when you tell him about the situation, not even being able to hide his smile.. he'd watch videos about the two of you all day long, for sure.

jaeyun would start giggling in front of his phone every time he sees contents about you both together, twirling his hair as he reads comments about how good he would look with you and how much you were made to be his girlfriend, he'd send you every tiktok he comes across with the caption “do you agree?” — he'd send the ‘:0’ emoji when you reply with “no” ;D

sunghoon would think “it's about time” thinking his attempts of being next to you at any chances he gets and stealing glances over where you where made how he felt towards you obvious enough. he wouldn't be shocked to hear the news, more taken aback by how long it took for people to understand and see his actions towards you..

seonwoo would be so happy, oh my.. >< he'd have been interacting with you for a while now and have been waiting since the day fans would start to like the idea of you two in a relationship with one another, therefore is naturally happy when fans finally do. put all edits of you and him in his favorites; named ‘us’ folder.

jungwon would show you all the posts he'd come across, laying with you on bed as he scrolls through tiktok; “seriously, can't you be a little less obvious about your love for me.. fans are getting suspicious” he'd tell you, teasing grin creeping of his face, completely ignoring the fact he is the one the tiktok is mainly about.

riki would not bat an eye when you show him that one video of him following you around like a lost puppy. you'd think that he would be even a tad worried; but no! he'd know exactly how he acts when you are near, that it's in public or not, he can't control the way he acts around you.. “are you really finding out that i might have a tiny bitty crush on you?”

hold draft back from november..

nets @k-films @kflixnet @/k-labels taglist open! @manooffline @ibsysbsfsunsbs @oldjws @lilriswife4life @alaezasmystery235 @teddywonss @tyussday @cholexc @flickqr @yuviqik @wvnrqs @strawberrywonz @y-ves @isawritesss @filmofhybe @ikeucakes @gweoriz @yunabi436 @ashtxrie @soul-is-a-strange-kid @jaelaxies @jwonsluvr @lynniebearrr-blog @bobabunhee @sunghoonsarmpit @ynsvnte @wonifullove @luvieden @shalkeren @thesunoosshining @smouches @okwons @sulkygyu @the-swageyama-tobiyolo

[melrosing]

why do you ship Braime ? What attracts you to them ?

like a hundred reasons i like them!!! but shortlist off the top of my head:

I like that they're both fully realised characters who can be enjoyed individually as well as together. i always get bored quickly w a ship if one of them feels kind of under developed and it's only one half of the ship that i really care about, it's not fun

I like that there are themes within their relationship that go beyond the romance itself, or rather the romance also encompasses those themes, e.g. knighthood & honour, beauty, legacy, the romance of the forest, etc

they have everything like if you want to enjoy them as a more light-hearted romance you can bc they're both daft as hell in their own ways and there are plenty of things that are weirdly sweet about their relationship, but also they have plenty of heavier themes if you want to indulge in angst

so many fucking crowd pleasing scenes that u can't really go wrong with. bearpit? banger. white sword tower? banger. bathtub confessions? banger. red ronnet? banger!!! like in many ways they're wildly unconventional but in others it's like, they just have some classic romance tropes going on like i've always thought of the bearpit chapter as the westerosi equivalent of a romcom airport dash lol i just love it

grrm writing them as his own BATB!!! this was so so real of him and i will never shut up about it

literally just everything like the matching swords the weirwood dreams their genderbend grandparents there's just a lot going on here

also generally i love their particular ship dynamic, it's a commonality across a few others i've liked in the past and i think jb just happen to be the strongest case study of that particular dynamic. so like. ofc i like them

idk i just think they're neat they just don't get old for me. still staring into space sometimes like wao..... jb

[quasi-normalcy]

Every "Nu Trek" (2017- ) Series Ranked from Worst to Best:

Very Short Treks (2023): There's really no words for just how terrible this series is. I mean, I know that it only barely counts because it's explicitly not canon and has a total combined run time of about 15 minutes, but *my god* is it bad! Only one of its episodes is remotely funny, and even that manages to feel like it's driven its main joke into the ground by the end of its 2-minute runtime. The only thing that I can say for it is that is that it gives me an easy, uncontroversial choice for worst Star Trek series, not only of the last 7 years, but of all time.

Picard (2020-2023): Listen; I know that this series is unpopular with the Tumblr Trek fandom, but it actually breaks my heart to have to put it so low on the list. It has, in my own opinion, the best dramatic acting of any Trek series and among the best directing, and almost every individual scene, in isolation, is compellingly watchable. More than that, it has fascinating worldbuilding choices, you can really *see* the passion of the writers for what they're creating (at least in the first and third seasons), and Agnes in particular is among my favourite characters in anything ever. It's got a lot of great moments, too! Picard and Seven bonding over shared Borg trauma; Soji uncovering the truth of her identity; Jurati hacking the Borg Queen's brain; Picard's final farewell to Q; Shaw's Wolf 359 monologue; Geordi's reunion with Data...I could go on. And yet, it just feels like so much *less* than the sum of its parts! Incredible ideas are introduced and then just shrugged off to pursue much more boring ones. Story arcs feel pointless if not actively offensive. Absolutely baffling writing choices are made throughout, with no indication as to why. And the nostalgia baiting , particularly in the final season, becomes so intense that it just chokes the plot to death. One comes away haunted by the feeling that this series should be so much better than it is.

Discovery (2017-2024): Really, this is two separate series: a twisty, grimdark, sci-fi war drama and a gentle queer coffeeshop AU about scientists who talk about their feelings. Both of them have their moments, but they each fall down in the same way: a focus on epic, high-stakes mystery box storytelling that undermines one's ability to really get invested in the characters, or even know who they are when they aren't off saving the universe. Without that, while I liked many of the characters and loved seeing them science the shit out of things using teamwork and the power of math, it's kind of difficult to get invested in this series one way or another. In spite of its absolutely gorgeous visuals, it comes off feeling weirdly...flat.

Short Treks (2018-2020): Not a lot to talk about here; just kind of an anthology series of short films adjacent to Discovery, Picard, and Strange New Worlds. Mostly they're varying shades of mediocre, but a few of them are as brilliant as any episode of Star Trek ever made, so the series gets to be relatively high on the list.

Strange New Worlds (2022- ): This is the first entry on this list that, in my opinion, belongs on the top shelf with some of the best of the older series. And it achieves it basically by adopting the same formula as the original series or the next generation--socially conscious planet-of-the-week adventures with enough wit, cleverness and joie-de-vivre to keep it interesting. I remember in 2017, there was plenty of discussion of how it's possible to update Star Trek's formula for prestige television; how funny that the solution turned out to be "don't change it at all, just give it modern special effects and actual character arcs." That said, the series is a bit *too* beholden to the original, with focus primarily on a bunch of characters who aren't allowed to grow or change too much because we already know how they'll turn out. It would be even better if it were about a new ship and a new crew full of nobodies who we can come to love. Which brings us to...

Lower Decks (2020-2024): Above, I said that Picard felt like it should have been so much better than it was. Lower Decks, frankly, should have been so much worse. How is an adult animated sitcom with Rick and Morty style animation and constant memberberries this freaking good!?! Every episode is a master class in efficient storytelling, with 22 minute runtimes often feeling like they contain as much story and character work as episodes twice as long. And the characters are incredible--like TOS and TNG, they feel almost archetypal, and even though you've never seen them before, they slide so seamlessly into the Star Trek universe that it's hard to believe that they weren't just *always* there; that there was ever a time when you could imagine the Star Trek universe without just intrinsically knowing that Tendi and Shaxs and Mariner were off somewhere in the background. It's greatest success though, the reason why it's comedy works when it really shouldn't, is that it's only *slightly* sillier than the serious series. What we end up with a fantastic series with an ethos that is pure Star Trek, and in fact, if I had written this list a month ago, it would certainly be in the #1 spot. However...

Prodigy (2021-2024?): The first season of Prodigy is...charming. It's got some fun characters, some spectacular visuals, some interesting premises. And if the plots tend to be a little too simplistic to be engaging to an adult, hey, it's a kids' show. It's good. Solid. Above average. And if I had only the first season to go on, it would probably be in third position on this list. But then, a few weeks ago, it went ahead and dropped the best season of Star Trek in a quarter-century, and I really...I just cannot recommend this series highly enough. The sheer, ambitious scope of the narrative; the arcs it puts its character through; the cleverness of the writing; the fricking GORGEOUSNESS of it! And it does all this while redeeming deeply unpopular characters and plot points from other series, in a way that never feels forced or pandering. Not only is it the best Star Trek series of the 21st century, it's one of the best children's animated series since AtLA. Go. Go! Watch it! Watch it now!