#and the wesper stuff?? cute as FUCK

[piratespencil]

Finished watching Shadow & Bone s2 last night and my Six of Crows obsession has returned full force. Just catapulted me back to 2016-2017. I love those crows so much.

[its-tea-time-darling]

things i did NOT like about shadow and bone (netflix):

the darkling looks Old. he's supposed to look the same age as all the other main protagonists. this highlights alina's future of staying the same & young where everyone around her dies. it also blurs the line between good and evil more bc 'oh he's the older bad guy' is just such an easy solve. also while ben barnes is a snack imo the darkling was supposed to have a more alluring, youthful magnetism.

making genya's scars barely a few scratches. she's supposed to objectively have lost her former self perfected beauty!!! this is a thing!!! she doesn't just have some deep scars, she's supposed to look hideous at first sight, where is show adaptation teams' courage to show characters that are supposed to be mutilated as just that???? i promise audiences can survive on literally everyone else on the cast being very stereotypically pretty/handsome 🙄🙄🙄🙄

changing wesper's storyline so that they had a one night stand before canon sets in??? what kind of bullshit is that??? fucking robbing me of the "just girls?" -"not just girls" gay ANgST will they won't they, does jesper like him too, will they ever - BAM. KISS. !!!!!!! succession??? making wylan cute and awkward does NOT compensate their book storyline At All what were those show writers thinking??? 😭😭

this one i will forgive but i still rly liked it in the books so im a tad sad they didn't manage to include it: that alina has a time where she thinks she is morozova's second daughter's descendant. in many respects she has learned she is Special, and the shame she feels when she realizes this isn't another one of these cases, this isn't a way to finally show her A Path, that in this respect she is ordinary and mal is tied to fate that way, that's just such a good touch.

malina going seperate ways. what happened to "they had an ordinary life full of ordinary things--if love can ever be called that."????? "choice is true north" my ASS 😤😤😤😤 malina have always been in love and will always be in love idc abt the firebird amplifier thing that was just sth they had to do they've always been people and they've always loved each other there is no way around it

things i DID like about shadow and bone (netflix)

david and genya. specifically the delivery of the lines "I … I don’t understand half of what goes on around me. I don’t get jokes or sunsets or poetry, but I know metal. Beauty was your armor. Fragile stuff, all show. But what’s inside you? That’s steel. It’s brave and unbreakable. And it doesn’t need fixing. You don't need fixing."

genya telling the queen how she poisoned the king, and genya spitting at nikolai how his apologies are of no use and that he needs to prove a better king. generally just genya. 💞

nikolai sending his mother away + what he says to her.

all the malina flashbacks to the meadow <33

malina last night together 😳😳 they love each other sm!!!!!

the scene at morozova's home. baghra sharing her past, all the reveals happening there, and of course the darkling weeping over his mother's body. "know that i loved you. know that it wasn't enough." like OkAY.

sankta neyar's speech. so deeply touching, and doesn't just apply to immortals but to all of us who have been hurt and suffered loss before.

the darkling begging alina to let him be her monster. A+ delivery.

"How will you have me? Fully clothed, gloves on, your head turned away so our lips can never touch? I will have you without armour, Kaz Brekker. Or I will not have you at all." generally the entirety of kanej in this show. inej's hallucination. the mirroring to the last scene. breathtaking showstopping flawless.

little rabbit.

[corvuserpens]

Okay. I’ve given it some thought, so here’s my two cents for the fandom:

Overall, I enjoyed season 2. I did. I binged the whole thing in less than two days, it was THAT good. And I’m rewatching it while I still can bc I won’t have Netflix anymore at the end of the month (thanks for ending the password sharing bullshit Netflix, y’all are losing five clients in a single go, congratulations). So just listen.

I had so much fun watching this, through and through. I laughed, I mourned, I aww’d, I nearly ripped my hair out at the character shenanigans (looking at you, Kaz). It was GOOD, it was cool. The changes, though... I’m not entirely sure I’m all about them. I’ll speak for the Six of Crows and King of Scars duologies because I’ve read those, I haven’t picked up the Shadow & Bone trilogy so I won’t touch up on those plots much because I have nothing to compare them to. I thought they were fine, it was fun watching it all play out and how it ended.

The good stuff first, then. The characters are all PERFECT. In fact, I think what held this show together so well was the characters themselves and seeing them all interact. WhiCH MEANS I NEED MORE TOLYA AND NINA BONDING OVER FOOD AND NIKOLAI AND KAZ TRYING TO OUTSMART EACH OTHER AND INEJ AND JESPER DYNAMICS AND-- You get it. 

I guess I’m just... disappointed that it was all so rushed. Like, when I realized we were watching basically the whole plotline for Crooked Kingdom BEFORE Six of Crows, my whole heart dropped to my feet. It was like “woah, what?” What does this mean for the Crows’ future, then? And the reason why I’m disappointed is because I was expecting it all to come MUCH LATER when we have Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom as it’s own show, just like the books.

This feels like... ew, it feels like fanservice. Like they didn’t know what to do with the Crows until they became relevant for the Shadow & Bone plot so they shoe-horned CK into it to play for time, and it made all those delicious scenes that were carefully built up in the story fall flat due to lack of context. Examples:

They killed Heleen off-screen so Inej won’t get to screw her over and get much deserved payback for being trafficked into sexual slavery; 

We don’t get ANY Helnik development that culminates into that heartbreaking last scene, and in fact we don’t even get to see Nina and Matthias interact except for a couple of scenes from a distance and Matthias’ horny daydreaming;

We don’t get to see how Wylan not being able to read affected HIS ENTIRE LIFE until he ends up with the Crows;

We get a snippet of Jesper’s backstory but THAT’S IT; 

Wesper was CUTE AS HELL I LOVE MY TWO LITTLE GAYS SO MUCH AAAAAA but again, I was looking forward to the slow burn;

Matthias allying with Pekka Rowlins in prison is kinda cool actually, I’m interested to see where that’s going plus the fact we’re not done with Rowlins yet, but I swear if they butcher Matthias’ arch for something more action packed and exciting, I am going to physically vomit;

Kaz breaking into the Slat to beat up Per Haskell’s gang as a one man army running on THE POWER OF TEENAGE HORNINESS, one of my most favorite scenes in the book that I was looking forward to, makes no sense because we never see the Dregs in the show again (that I remember, we’ll get back on that after a rewatch) so what was the point?? 

We got Kaz’s backstory, but it was spedrun through so it ends up not having much of an impact. I know if I had gone in blind without all I know from reading the Six of Crows duology, it wouldn’t have mattered much to me no matter how much I loved the character. We don’t even get to know Jordie much, and knowing a little about him is what makes his demise and Kaz’s story so crushing and compelling. This is one of the core rules of character writing, for fuck’s sake! I’m no professional but even I know this! If you don’t get to know the character, you can’t connect with that character and so anything that happens to them is just “oh that’s sad. ANYWAY.” Without having read the books, the whole thing falls apart! Can you tell how much I detest fanservice? I went into this show knowing basically nothing about it and I loved it because the story’s pace and the character moments and the twists were SO WELL CRAFTED AND PUT TOGETHER. Hell, this show is what got me running to the store to buy Six of Crows and devouring it all the way to Rule of Wolves, so again, and I cannot stress this enough, what the fuck is going on here??

Individually, the scenes related to Crooked Kingdom were great. Pretty decently adapted, and like I said, perfect character emulation. The only one I didn’t enjoy as much was Kaz helping Inej with her arm because the baggage that was supposed to build it up is missing, so it got watered down to him just cleaning that cut instead of battling through his touch aversion and winning just long enough for him to actually bandage her and treat her wounds and even managing to kiss her neck! It feels like such a victory in the book before it all comes crashing down because we got A BOOK AND A HALF worth of mutual pinning and learning how crippling it is for Kaz to even think about skin-to-skin contact. The scene I read over and over again for days, cut down to a couple of minutes of basically not much. Sad.

Also they’re setting up for Tolya to fall in love with Inej (which I can’t blame him for, I mean, it’s Inej) and I’m like “uh, NO?” Not just because Kanej is THE SHIP for me, but because... Okay, no, I admit it’s just because Kanej is THE SHIP for me, but that’s my fault. Who knows, maybe they’ll make something interesting with this. I mean, they wouldn’t permanently break up one of the most iconic couples in literature just for the giggles or (dreaded) subversion of expectations, right?... Right..........?

For the rest of it, because I read the King of Scars duology, I’m kinda mad at some of the things they changed because I was expecting Alina and Mal to have a happily ever after taking care of their 500 orphans in Keramzin? I was expecting Genya to have SOME happiness before David is killed, just cut this girl some slack, would ya??? And Mal becoming Sturmhond?? Where did THAT come from??????? WHAT ABOUT INEJ GETTING HER OWN SHIP FROM KAZ AND FOLLOWING HER NEW-FOUND DREAM OF BECOMING THE SCURGE OF ALL SLAVERS?? Sure, she’s gotta find her brother first and then they gotta find their family and all, that’s fine I guess?? At least were giving THAT some room to breathe!!

*Sigh* Look. I got a couple of theories for why this is happening.

One: as previously mentioned, Leigh Bardugo and the rest of the team didn’t know what to do with the Crows so they put in the plot of Crooked Kingdom to buy time for them. I believe it’s well understood within fandom that Shadow & Bone couldn’t have gotten as big of a deal as it did if it weren’t for the Crows, but the Crows would have stood on their own easily enough without Shadow & Bone, so they needed to give them screen time from episode one forward to keep the audience, like they did with season 1. 

Two: Leigh Bardugo and the rest of the team don’t trust Netflix to renew the show to conclusion OR green-light the Six of Crows show (which, y’know, fair), and their faith is so shaky they decided it was best to have Siege & Storm and Ruin & Rising put into a single season (heard book readers say this is what happened), plus bring in the Crooked Kingdom plot to at least give the book fans a consolation treat while still leaving enough loose ends to continue the story IF they do in fact get good news. And since I trust Leigh Bardugo to write a good story because she can, I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt and willing to believe the second case is true, because that at least makes SOME sense. If the show gets cancelled and Six of Crows never comes to life, I can live with that.

All in all, it was a hell of a ride and I enjoyed myself. It’s not what I wanted, but I had fun and that’s all that matters in the end. I give Shadow & Bone season 2 a solid 7/10. Yup.

Crow out, or... something.

[owlbeers]

Shadow and Bone season two thoughts

I tweeted a little as I watched, but I realised I wanted to put together my thoughts more longform, so here we go. In general: I liked it still but not as much as S1, I had Thoughts.

Spoilers for all of the season after the read more.

Idk maybe its the fact that they started referencing events from Crooked Kingdom - a source I care about a lot and um more than some of the other books - that I started to get pickier but I did.

To quickly get the Mal, Alina, Darkling, Nikolai plot of it all. I liked all the new casting (Nikolai took a little to grow on me, but Tolya and Tamar were great the whole way through). Generally I was fairly unmoved by it all, but this plot really isn't why I am watching the show. Genya gave me some feelings. Zoe Wannamaker is great. I preferred Ben Barnes' villain moments more in S1 but the end in the desert did make me feel a little bit.

I'll deal with the !!! end separately.

So, the Crows. I wasn't sure what I expected them to do - knowing that they wouldn't do The Ice Court - but idk I was a little surprised they mined Crooked Kingdom the way they did because in my mind it so clearly needs the events of SOC for emotional reasons for CK events to work, but I think they ... sort of pulled it off. Sort of.

I mean, they rushed the fuck out of it. I know they wanted to reunite the plots but I wanted more out of Kaz's revenge and yes we got a lot of investigation of Kaz's trauma but I wanted a bit more set-up for all the Crows. The cane fight was very good though. Freddy was great in the confrontation scene - so good - but I admit I missed the quiet of the book church scene and that only Inej saw it. Inej not being there, it being surrounded by lots of people ... it felt different.

The Kanej: they hinted at book stuff but it all just felt a little watered down. Yes we got the bandages scene but only nods to it because they're not really there yet emotionally, and yes he tried to get her out and got her freedom but I didn't really see the point in having that weird fight in the middle. Yes, he is pushing her away but it just seemed odd. The hallucination scene was feelings-y but kinda confusing in why they had that for Inej, but the recovery form it was nicely done with the softness in Kaz's eyes before the !!! sets in. However the final ep "I will have you without armour" scene was pretty great. And his looks when he saw her walk back with Alina and the sword! I love them.

Wesper: I liked Jack's Wylan from the get go and I thought him and Kit had good chemistry. Even with the plot changes I found them very cute and charming.

Also the bit where Jesper lists off how Kaz couldn't imagine doing this without him, and Kaz said yes all of that - but not the unlimited tab. I love me some Kaz and Jesper friendship.

Nina with the Crows was great. She doesn't take Kaz's bullshit and I loved the "there is five of us" moment at the end.

Matthias: welp sorry Calahan you had shit all to do. I did assume they were gonna get him out this season but uh guess that is for the Ice Court spinoff.

The end: haha they sure changed a lot there. A lot. Are they setting up something for S&B S3 and also SOC?? Now with Dark Alina in charge of Ravka and King of Scars Nikolai stuff?? Mal going away with Tolya, Tamar and Inej?? I liked that Inej is getting a pirate slave hunter moment (but I still need that Kanej boat scene. I need it). I guess they'll find a way to get her back? Will she get caught?? So many questions. So random.

I don't care about Mal x Alina really but uh if I did and that ending happened and I was expecting the R&R ending. Well.

Are they going to do a Tolya and Inej moment? I have mixed feelings.

Anyway in conclusion: I love the Crows! Some things were good! The actors were all great! But eh some choices I'm not sure about it. I need the Ice Court story though. Please Netflix.

Yes I have read book scenes and I might go hunt down some of my Kanej fic faves ...

[crowshoots]

some really quick & fast thoughts mostly related to jesper in s2

feel like it's a given but i am once again book compliant and not at all show compliant

wesper was cute but like... that wasn't book wesper LMFAOOOO that also isn't their dynamic at all. like literally their interactions were fun but i wasn't super on board w/ them and i more imagine these types of interactions post ck after they settle w their relationship. that being said, kit & jack >>>

aditi and jesper dream sequence fucking hurt me lmfao

i don't entirely think the plotline with the saint about being a durast is... it, really. jesper has a lot more complicated feelings about being grisha, and he's not going to get over it from one conversation, especially not one with a stranger. he has more to do. accepting that part of him takes time, and it takes even more time for her to apply herself in ways she'd like

that being said it has felt so GOOD for jesper to have space to exist besides one-liners

the fucking??? scene where he uses his buttons??? ggod that type of stuff ive always imagined jesper doing but not That Quickly

[jackwolfes]

hey nura! I have a huge question for you: so, I found your fics through firstprince and loved everything I read and so started reading your wesper stuff as well - I love love love those too but haven’t read SOC and so my question is should I read it. or will I be disappointed by canon having loved all your incredibly sweet thorough funny tender loving hot ass wesper moments…… we all know often fics do what canon can’t so wondering if that’s the case with soc or if it’s worth it?? love ya so much

(Mild soc spoilers below!)

I always end up so very surprised when people read my fics without having read canon, it’s a big compliment!

I will say - I’ve written nearly a hundred fics for this series so I clearly don’t hate it 😂 I do really love the series and think part of why I write so much is there’s a lot of malleability with canon, not things to fix so much as things to build on and do new fun stuff. However like. Part of what makes the book novel is the big fun reveals, which if you’ve read my fics may not hit the same bc a lot of them (which I won’t list) get woven in quite a lot

it’s worth being aware that wesper is a canon ship but of the “six” crows that’s obv only two of them, so a lot of space and time in the books is dedicated to characters I love!!! But don’t write as much 😂 so the wesper interactions in canon are flawless, 10/10, and the other characters are flawless, 10/10, but if you want a book that’s just idiot kids doing idiot things— tbh you’ll get that, but it’s not all wesper all the time

but otherwise, reasons to read soc: heists!!!, fun unique magic system, crime lords that are also stupid teens, fun foreshadowing and narrative tools, friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, “god you’re a fucker but you’re cute” to lovers (that’s wesper lol), LOML Inej Ghafa 💖💖💖💖💖, rat Bastard man, canon adhd protagonist (!!!), idiot rich kid builds bombs, very good discussion of addiction and recovery of all sorts, super intriguing look at radicalisation of young people in war, fuck I’ve 100% made myself want to reread SOC

[usmsgutterson]

Thoughts while rereading Crooked Kingdom

I have an account where I post stuff like this kind of regularly! I wanted to make a separate account for just rambling about bookish stuff, so I did, and if you want, you can follow me there! the user is cal-ore

Spoilers ahead!

Okay, cafe mocha bar has been eaten

Water is about to be drank

Water has been drank

Time to a c t u a l l y start reading

I need to update my goodreads

KNIVES DRAWN, PISTOLS BLAZING MOTHERFUCKERS

I LOVE KANEJ SO MUCH

NINA AND MATTHIAS ARE SO CUTE

ZOYAAAAAAAAA

Jan is making my blood BOIL. 

YOUR SON ISNT DEFECTIVE, SIR. HES DYSLEXIC. 

NINA AND MATTHIAS ARE SO CUTE 

I FORGOT TAMAR SHOWED UP IN THIS BOOK

I forgot Dunyasha existed

‘Wylan knew that even if he’d had his pick of a thousand companions, these would have been the people he chose.’ FOUND FAMILY IS MY WEAKNESS, Y’ALL. THE BOOKS WITH FOUND FAMILY ARE AUTOMATIC 5/5S

BETTER THAN WAFFLES

MATTHIAS DYING IS GONNA S U C K

KAZ JUST CALLED JESPER JORDIE AND MY ONLY REACTION WAS A VERY STARTLED ‘OH SHIT’

SCHEMING FACE

IM ON CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

I HADN’T REALIZED IT UNTIL KAZ WENT ‘I can help you’ LIKE AAAAAAA

KANEJ

WESPERRRRRRRRRR

STURMHOND

GENYAAAAAAAA

IVE MISSED THEM SO MUCH

WESPER IS SO FUCKING CUTE-

wesper is a comfort ship at this point

PAHAHAHAHAHAHA

KAZ FUCKING KNOWING THAT STURMHOND IS ACTUALLY NIKOLAI WILL NEVER CEASE TO CRACK ME UP

The amount of times Wylan has been like ‘what am I doing here’-

COLM GIVING WYLAN HIS FATHERLY SEAL OF APPROVAL

Dunyasha makes me unreasonably angry

HELL YEAH KAZ

GET YOUR REVENGE

Last Matthias chapter where he’s actually alive, besties

I forgot that Matthias’ last chapter where he’s actually alive ends in him getting shot-

‘He was dreaming again. Dreaming of her’ SPAIN WITHOUT THE S 

‘we were all supposed to make it’ o u c h 

‘Tell Jesper he’s missed. Around the Slat.’ AAAAAAAAAAA

KANEJ AND WESPER ARE MY COMFOR SHIPS

THEYRE HOLDING HANDSSSSSSSSSS

‘Is my tie straight’ EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

‘her heart was a river that carried her to the sea’ IM CRYING

DEADASS

TEARS IN MY EYES

I finished it...

Hurts as much as it did the first time

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

Zoya x Nikolai/ Zoyalai for ship ask thingy!

Oooh fun!

So I adore both of these characters but my feelings on this ship are pretty inextricable with my feelings about the King of Scars duology and how the characters are handled in it and well…

I did not like King of Scars!

It just felt half baked and weird and aimless to me? It seemed like she didn’t really know what to do with the external plot and just… dredged all the Darkling stuff back up again, while still trying to maintain the TGT ending, aka Alina being out of commission.

I looove Zoya but as the story progressed it just felt like it was constantly just trying to awkwardly shove her into Alina’s narrative function— that of the rags to riches chosen one.

I already liked Zoya for Zoya? I didn’t need this!

Idk I just really did not like the dragon stuff lol. I’ve never been a fan of kitchen sink world building or straying too far from the originally introduced concept and I think this did… a lot of that. And it marred a lot of the interesting dynamics in KoS for me.

Another thing I’ve realized with Bardugo’s writing is that her take on endgame ships never mesh with me. I think she’s just too heavy handed for me? My knee jerk reaction to when she tries to get the reader to root for a couple is to a pretty strong “don’t tell me what to do.” I can like the character’s together even, but the moment their relationship becomes a central thing, it just no longer works for me.

This happened for me with Malina and Wesper (I found myself shipping Jesper more with Kuwei or even Kaz) And I think that was also the case for me with Zoyalai.

Anyway, their interactions are really fun! But the narrative’s insistence on how awesome they both are and the constant focus on each other did not win me over. It just feels inorganic?

And it’s not the characters themselves, it’s definitely the handling. Like, this is silly, but as I’m working on my fanfic I find that I ship them a lot! I keep thinking about the pining and tension potential. But seeing it play out so strongly in the books, my main reaction is to roll my eyes rip.

Anyway an AU version where they’re not dealing with random story breaking magic? And are just two very tired people trying to keep the country from falling apart? Yes! I do ship that!

Like the idea of what their dynamic might be like and what they’d face, just gathering from the end of R&R or the brief cameos they have in the Crows duology. I enjoy that a great deal. But again the plot of KoS just didn’t agree with me.

Some of their scenes are still fun though. Like it’s so fucking funny to me how eager she is to marry him off. I absolutely love that 😂

And there’s a very cool fairytale quality to the entire section early in the first book where Nikolai was turning into a monster in his sleep, and she has to fucking chain him to his bed every night.

There’s so much bondage in these books??

Idk I guess TLDR: they’re pretty cute! I just wish it had gone down differently

Send me a ship and I’ll give you my (brutally) honest opinion on it!

[ghafaherondaleandmore]

Wesper, Tattoo and Flower Shop AU Headcanons

I want to be like a head canons and MAYBE fic person, but I guess the only way to do that is to start writing?????? Send me headcanon requests, if you’ve seen a post on my blog about any of these fandoms, I’ll do it. Ships, characters, history of a setting, you name it, I’ll do it. Unless it’s morally wrong or smut, cause I’m a minor and won’t write a sex scene, sorry not sorry. Anyway, maybe I’ll turn some of these into fanfics if I ever get the time. Anyway, these headcanons are for Wesper if they were in a flower and tattoo shop AU, duh.

Jesper is working for a flower shop run by his father

He’s best friends with the owner of the tattoo shop across the street, our very own Kaz Brekker (“you gotta stop coming over” “why?” “Your flowers are ruining my aesthetic”)

Jesper comes over more after that comment

Both Jesper and Kaz live in flats over their respective shops

Then one day, Jesper goes to Kaz’s (Crow Club) only to find the shop closed

But when he looks across the street he sees that an upper window was left open, and there’s a boy in there

And oh he’s cute

That boy is none other than Wylan Van Sunshine Eck

Wylan had run away from home after his father kicked him out. Why was he kicked out? Cause his father is a) homophobic and b) found out about the stick and poke music note Wylan gave himself on his collar bone (yes I know a stick and poke given by yourself on the collar bone is difficult, but if my friend can tattoo “fuck you” on her big toe using a mirror, it’s not a super big stretch)

Eventually he found himself at the Crow Club, where he Kaz offered him a job after seeing some of Wylan’s sketches

When Wylan ran away, he packed his flute, sketchbook, pencils, and a change of clothes

For the first few days, Wylan only meets the people who work at the shop, Inej, whose roommate, Nina, works across the street, and Matthias, a burly Russian man who learned the art of tattooing in his home country

At the end of his first week apprenticing for Kaz, Wylan has got a few things

Number one is a room facing the flower shop across the street, which from the window of he saw a boy with the prettiest mouth in all of human history ever period walking into the flower shop. Probably to buy flowers for whoever he was dating since there’s no way he could be single (or so Wylan thought)

Number two is a new tattoo done by the one and only Inej Ghafa, and it’s a flock of crows flying across his left shoulder blade to celebrate him being free

Number three is a new set of friends (or at least one since Kaz and Matthias are so cold all the time) and this friend invited him to go get waffles with them on Sunday, since they all had Sunday off

Anyway they go get waffles and Wylan is introduced to the friends from the flower shop, Nina, who gives Wylan a bear hug and has a bleeding heart (realistic) tattooed on her arm (done by Matthias), and the pretty boy from before

Jesper

The rest is history

Now when Jesper comes into the shop, he has a new way of annoying Kaz

“Jesper stop hitting on my apprentice and get back to work”

“Wylan, I expected better from you”

Jesper doesn’t want to admit it at first, but his hitting on Wylan is more than just an annoyance tactic against Kaz

He starts bringing Wylan flowers

It starts small, a single daffodil

A couple peonies

But as the months goes on it gets bigger

“Oh I swear the only reason I’m giving you roses is because a person cancels their order”

“Quite blushing so hard or someone will mistake you for your bouquet”

Wylan doesn’t want to admit that he’s absolutely in love with the man who brings him flowers

Eventually Wylan starts making flower related puns and pick up lines at Jesper

“Hey do do you have tulips? Well so do I, lets put ours together”

“Wow you really ROSE to the occasion with these flowers, huh Jes?”

They’re awful

Jesper falls more in love with Wylan after each one

Then one day, Wylan is allowed to do his first tattoo on his own to get his license and stuff

Who does he tattoo? YOU GUESSED IT

ITS JESPER

What does he give Jesper????

A circle of daffodils on Jesper’s forearm

When Jesper started calling Wylan “Sunshine, he got the sun tattooed on the second knuckle of his left finger, so he could flip Jesper off when he called him that. You can’t say Wylan didn’t enjoy irony

By this point, Nina and Matthias have gotten together, they have a whole thing, but I can write about that later. Anyway, all Wylan and Jesper’s friends are pressuring them to get together, except Kaz whose acting like an asshole

“I dunno, Jes, Wylan seemed pretty interested in this guy who came in the other day...”

“Listen Wylan, you could do better, I say this as Jesper’s best friend, but he’s- NO THERES NOTHING GOING ON WITH ME AMD INEJ WHY WOYLD YOU THINK THAT, HMMM DO YOU LIKE INEJ, HA CHECK AND MATE!” (Obviously cold hearted Kaz doesn’t get that worked up, just read it without caps, but it would be so much funnier if he did)

Nina usually makes innuendos, but her go to is

“So you and Jesper/Wylan huh?”

Inej is straight forward

“Ask him out. You know he like you back”

“No he doesn’t,”

“Yes he does, have you sent the way he lights up when you do literally anything?”

Matthias just glared suspiciously at the two of them when they do anything together.

Jesper and Wylan: *talk about the weather*

Matthias: 👀

Alrighty, I’ll expand on this if you like it, Hell, I can even do other couples, just pop something into my inbox and I’ll try and get around to it,

[bramlouisgreenfeld]

how do i know im "fetishizing" lgbtq+ characters? idk if i identify as lgbtq+ bc im gray-a.... and most of my otps are mlm (altho i have a few wlw otps too). i dont think im fetishizing them i just think i enjoy their stories? like noah & brian from "I'll give u the sun" and ari& dante, and also andreil... and wesper and etc. i have so many mlm otps that i feel like maybe theres something wrong with me

it’s kind of a hard line to find tbqh. like, the fact is that a) while media is slowly creating more gay couples, it’s most often mlm and not wlw, so finding canon lgbt+ couples you like means you’re much more likely to find mlm couples; and b) there’s so few of them!! it’s so much easier to just like all gay lit because it’s new and something you can relate to. so the fact that you just like loads of gay ships on its own isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

there is a difference between enjoying them and fetishising relationships, though. for instance if you’re only into mlm ships then it can be a bit ehh, like you think gay boys are super cute but not lesbians because ???? whatever reason you can come up with is bad. this post kind of summarises for me what a big issue often is: the stereotyping. in a lot of media, they’ll include gay characters that are every inch the “gay best friend” stereotype (cough gl*e, riverd*le) and it’s quite frankly dehumanising. it leads to people doing this in the real world. the very idea of going up to someone and saying “you’re my new gay best friend!” is just so strange and like… the fact that someone is same gender attracted doesn’t determine any other part of their character, you know? that’s a big part of it in fandoms. so for men, it’s often making them out to be effeminate.

for women, it’s different. quite often it leads to hypersexualisation. (i know this isn’t really what you asked but i figured i’d briefly include it anyway, just for a more complete answer i guess) again, it’s reducing same gender attraction to a character trait, and often something to turn a guy on. which is. not cool. (examples here)

but to answer the question - i think if you enjoy the stories for what they are and don’t enjoy them in a different way you enjoy other ships, then it’s generally alright. it’s stuff like the people who still only focus on ev*k in sk*m and say that the actors must have practised kissing because it looks so real, for example, that’s where you’re crossing a line.

i don’t agree with all of this post necessarily, but there’s a paragraph i wanna pull out:

if a straight boy was constantly seeing “lesbians” everywhere, or talking about how those girls would look so good together, or making up headcanon about you and one of your platonic girlfriends, you would think he was creepy as fuck, sexist, and probably a pervert. Because he isn’t seeing you or other girls as people with real agency, he’s seeing you as an object to project onto. He’s invalidating your personhood and your sexuality and making your actual queer friends feel like their sexuality isn’t a real identity. That is what you’re doing to these boys; straight or gay, real or fictional, you are projecting onto them and invalidating them.

i hope this helps!!